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NVIDIA's DLSS 3 and Frame Generation technology has been one of the most talked about features of the new GeForce RTX 40 Series line-up. The technology uses AI hardware to generate new frames to boost the performance of visually intensive games.

And it looks like two of the most visually intensive DLSS 3-enabled PC games feature stuttering issues on systems with AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPUs. Stuttering when playing PC games is never ideal and can ruin the experience due to inconsistent performance.

The stuttering looks limited to DLSS 3 in CD Projekt RED's The Witcher 3 remaster and Cyberpunk 2077, titles that feature real-time ray-tracing and run on the studio's internal RED Engine.

Google Authenticator is a popular app that gives your accounts an additional layer of two-step authentication security and is widely used by millions. But, it's the sort of app that is limited to a single Android or iOS device, which puts a lot of pressure on people to ensure that they don't lose their smartphone where Authenticator is installed.

It's a potential issue that Google is well aware of, and it is looking to remedy it by making the one-time passwords backup and sync to your Google Account.

"One major piece of feedback we've heard from users over the years was the complexity in dealing with lost or stolen devices that had Google Authenticator installed," writes Christiaan Brand, Google's Group Product Manager, in a new blog post. "Since one-time codes in Authenticator were only stored on a single device, a loss of that device meant that users lost their ability to sign in to any service on which they'd set up 2FA using Authenticator."

The current hot topic in the GPU and PC gaming hardware space is all about VRAM and the question of capacity. Is 8GB of VRAM enough in 2023? The consensus is no, thanks to recent high-profile releases like The Last of Us Part I, Resident Evil 4 Remake, and Hogwarts Legacy, all featuring high-end settings that require more than 8GB of GPU memory to ensure smooth performance.

This is a question mark on the longevity of the most popular gaming GPUs, as all five of the top graphics cards (all from NVIDIA) in the latest Steam Hardware Survey for March 2023 feature 8GB of VRAM. The survey notes that 32.16% of Steam gamers are rocking GPU hardware with 8 GB of VRAM, including the GeForce RTX 3070.

YouTuber Paulo Gomes recently published a fascinating video highlighting the issue at the heart of the debate. It aims to discover what a GeForce RTX 4070 with 16 GB of VRAM can bring to in-game performance. This differs from a mod that anyone can whip up, as it requires significant PCB work to get the new Samsung 2GB memory configuration working. But work it does, with the GPU being treated as a regular GeForce RTX 3070, albeit with double the VRAM.

Many have been wondering when Apple might go all in on OLED displays for its devices, and based on word from well-known leakers, it looks like 2024 will be the year. And with that, next year will see the first iPad and MacBook models launch with OLED displays - though the adoption won't be universal.

Reports, including a new one from Twitter leaker @Tech_Reve, point to the iPad Pro for 2024 featuring an OLED panel though the Mini 7 will continue to use LCD technology for its display. It makes sense, as OLED displays do command a premium price.

OLED displays benefit from richer colors and near-infinite contrast thanks to self-lit pixels - where the whole "deeper black levels" reputation comes from. OLED is generally considered the ideal choice for designers and enthusiasts who want the best image clarity. Undoubtedly, this would make the new iPad Pro models (11-inch and 12.9-inch models will sport the new OLED display) a great choice for on-the-go video editors and photographers.

MSI has deployed a new BIOS release in which the motherboard manufacturer has implemented restrictions to stop Ryzen 7000X3D processors from having their voltage juiced up.

As you may have seen, this follows reports at the weekend on Reddit where some owners of Ryzen 7000 CPUs with 3D V-Cache posted about their chip dying (and motherboard, for that matter).

The original report was from a system with a Ryzen 7800X3D and an ASUS motherboard. The owner noted that a bulge was observed in the pad of the dead CPU, speculating that this was the result of too much heat causing the pad to expand.

The clash of the more affordable Lovelace and RDNA 3 GPUs - though we use the term 'affordable' with some caution - might just happen at the end of next month, if a fresh rumor is right.

This comes from Igor's Lab, with the first claim being that NVIDIA's RTX 4060 Ti is inbound for the end of May or the start of June, which is when the Computex show is happening (apply liberal seasoning as ever with this kind of pre-release speculation).

Igor theorizes that the RTX 4060 Ti might even be on shelves immediately after its reveal, although the quantity of graphics cards produced is likely to be fewer than the RTX 4070. The sources the leaker spoke to aren't sure on that last point, mind you, so be particularly skeptical there.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) is calling for consumer protection bodies in Europe to investigate ChatGPT and similar chatbot technologies to ascertain how much risk they might represent to the public.

Reuters reports that the BEUC - an umbrella group covering consumer protection organizations across 32 countries - is stepping up to challenge whether such chatbots could be problematic in terms of their influence on youngsters in particular.

The worry is that the responses of the AI to queries may appear authoritative and true - particularly to younger consumers and children - but cannot be relied upon, and indeed are often factually incorrect to some degree (perhaps even a large one).

NASA's newest Mars rover, Perseverance, has turned its instruments on its scout helicopter Ingenuity, capturing an awesome close-up photograph of the first aircraft to fly on the surface of another planet.

Perseverance and Ingenuity touched down on the Red Planet in February 2021 and, since then, have been exploring the Jezero Crater in search of any signs of ancient microbial life. Perseverance, along with Ingenuity, make a tag team partnership that involves Ingenuity scouting ahead of the Mars rover to observe any viable locations for scientific operations, upcoming terrain, potential hazards, and strategic travel planning. With Ingenuity's reconnaissance data, NASA engineers are able to plan an optimized travel route for Perseverance.

Throughout its two-year stay on the Red Planet, Ingenuity has conducted 50 flights, which has completely blown past its primary mission objective of attempting just one flight. On April 16, 2023, Perseverance came within only 75 feet of Ingenuity, marking the closest meeting between the two explorers in nearly two years, according to NASA JPL. Perseverance pointed its Mastcam-Z at Ingenuity and snapped some photographs that were then color-corrected.

Last week SpaceX conducted its first orbital test flight of Starship, the rocket slated to be the transportation humans will take to walk on Mars.

After a very long road of development, SpaceX launched Starship on April 20 from SpaceX's seaside Starbase facility at Boca Chica Beach, South Texas. The 394-foot-tall rocket shocked onlookers as it engaged its thrusters and began climbing in altitude.

The rocket consists of two stages. The first stage is called Super Heavy and stands at 165-feet-tall, and features 33 Raptor engines that generate a staggering 16.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, which is twice NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the previous record holder for the most powerful rocket ever launched. Stacked atop Super Heavy is the second stage called Starship, which is where the rocket's payload will be stored along with any future astronauts.

China revealed more details about its Tianwen-3 mission at the International Conference of Deep Space Sciences in Hefei, Anhui province, on April 22, where it will send two rockets around 2030 and bring back 500 grams of Mars samples.

The mission will include launching two Long March 5 rockets at the end of the decade that will each be carrying a lander, ascent vehicle, orbiter, and return module. Spacenews reports that China will be leveraging the same technology that enabled the space agency to pull off the impressive entry, descent, and landing of the Zhurong rover on July 12, 2021. As for collecting Mars samples, China will be using the same robotic arm design as what was used in China's Chang'e-5 lunar sample return mission.

The robotic arm will be able to drill into the surface of Mars and collect samples from as far as two meters (6.5 feet) below the surface. The space agency expects to bring back approximately 500 grams of Martian samples that will be analyzed for the presence of ancient microbial life. As for the landing part of the mission, China unveiled plans to develop either a six-legged crawling robot or an Ingenuity-inspired helicopter that will transport the samples to the two-stage ascent vehicle.

A team of researchers has analyzed the behavior of parrots that engaged in numerous video calls with other parrots.

The team published the new paper in the scientific journal Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems and detailed a three-month-long experiment that involved eighteen parrots and many video call sessions. Each of the eighteen parrots were taught how to request and engage in video calls with other parrots in an effort to see if the parrot's quality of life would improve. The birds were first taught how to request a video call with another parrot by the ringing of a special bell.

The owner of the parrot would then present the bird with a tablet that showed images of other parrots involved in the experiment. The bird was then taught to select the friend it wished to talk to, and then the owner would engage the call. The team then watched the behavior of all the birds and found that despite the physical limitation of not being next to each other, the birds showed a significant improvement in their quality of life through singing together, showing each other items they had found, mirroring movements, attempting to groom each other, and even sleeping trying to sleep next to each other.

Anime Tokyo is a new art project by Yan Ru created in Unreal Engine 5 that lets you explore and wander around in a 3D Tokyo. With several city blocks of the iconic Shibuya district recreated using an anime style, it's a visually impressive tech demo with an avatar that offers different visual filters ranging from cherry-blossom pink to sunny and overcast.

The city itself isn't exactly bustling with people or vehicles though it is realistic because it features several known brands and storefronts like Starbucks Coffee.

It's an impressive slice of virtual tourism and captures Tokyo in a way reminiscent of games like the Yakuza series from SEGA and Tango Gameworks' Ghostwire: Tokyo.

The recent surge in awareness around renewable energy through the abundant climate change concerns has led a startup company to put forward a very simple, yet nonetheless impressive, solution to one of renewable energy's biggest problems.

A new report from CNET has highlighted Switzerland-based startup Energy Vault and the two facilities its constructing. Above is an image of Energy Vault's very first large-scale building that's located in Rudong, China, just north of Shanghai. So, what are these buildings? Below is an image of a 24-ton brick that is made of compressed dirt. That block is then brought to the top of the building by an elevator powered by solar panels or wind turbines.

The heavy dirt brick will be approximately 300 feet up the side of the building, where it will then be slowly lowered by an automated system. As the brick is returning back down to the surface, it's spinning electrical power generators. Now picture this process on repeat with hundreds of 24-ton bricks, each generating an entire megawatt every six feet it's lowered. Essentially, Energy Vault has created a building that contains gravity batteries that are able to store 100 megawatt-hours of electricity, or at least the building near Shanghai can.

The Acer Predator X34 was one of the first high-end gaming monitors to put ultrawide gaming on the map, with an IPS panel and a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440. The latest model due for release in November 2023, the Acer Predator X34 V, will see the premium gaming monitor from Acer embrace OLED.

The rise of OLED has been a long time in the gaming monitor space, with high-refresh-rate models from several display makers leaning into the unmatched contrast and image clarity the display tech can deliver. 2023 will see several OLED releases explicitly built for gaming from ASUS, LG, Alienware, MSI, and more - and it's not hard to see why.

Acer Predator X34 V sports a 10-bit 344-inch OLED panel with a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 pixels and a curvature of 1800R. Acer notes that the typical peak brightness is 250 nits, with the HDR peak brightness reaching 1,000 nits.

The consensus is that the launch of the GeForce RTX 4070 has been a disappointment in terms of sales; where although most models are available with ap rice close to the MSRP of USD 599 - they're not exactly flying off the shelves.

Even though the GPU has yet to crack into the best-selling GPU list over at Newegg, the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ventus 3X 12G (which we reviewed here) has hit the number five position on Amazon's best-selling graphics cards list. It sits behind MSI's RTX 3060 Ventus 2X, RTX 3060, and RTX 3060 Ti models from Zotac, and surprisingly the Radeon RX 580 graphics card.

An entry that points to the current trend of most gamers buying older graphics cards sold at a discount. Interestingly with so many GeForce RTX 4070 models from partners, the MSI model is the only variant in the list, followed much later (at number 36) by the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming X Trio 12G - which we also reviewed.

According to a new report via MyDrivers, NVIDIA is considering releasing the upcoming GeForce RTX 4060 Ti at a price point that will appeal to PC gamers - USD 399.

This would mean the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti would release with the same MSRP as the previous generation's GeForce RTX 3060 Ti.

And with that, it would be an unprecedented move from NVIDIA regarding new GeForce RTX 40 series launches, which have all seen price increases over the 30 Series. From the GeForce RTX 4090 to the recently released RTX 4070, each card in the line-up has launched with a price point higher than the previous generation.

Nintendo is unlikely to receive even a portion of the court-ordered $10 million restitution award that it received in a recent piracy lawsuit.

Back in 2021, Nintendo sued key members of Team Xecuter, a collective that sold "circumvention" hardware that allowed consumers to jailbreak Nintendo hardware and load pirated games onto the devices for free. Part of Team Xecuter included 53-year-old Gary Bowser, a Canadian citizen who was extradited to the United States to face the charges. Courts found Bowser guilty and ordered that Bowser pay Nintendo damages in the tune of $10 million.

Two years later, Bowser has spoken on the matter with YouTuber NickMoses05, who called the incarcerated Bowser for a video talk. In the interview, Bowser reveals that he signed an agreement with Nintendo that would allow the company to garnish his monthly wages by 25-30%.

The Federal Trade Commission has taken interest in the 10-year licensing deals that Microsoft signed with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to the Switch, but Nintendo may not have to provide specific details.

Nintendo is fast becoming more involved with the FTC's antitrust lawsuit against the Microsoft-Activision merger. A bit ago we reported that Nintendo has asked an FTC law judge to toss out a subpoena summoning a very particular Nintendo of America executive to deliver sworn testimony before the FTC's team of lawyers.

Now we have a better idea on the FTC's overall aim with this subpoena. Closer investigation of the motion to quash the subpoena indicates that the Federal Trade Commission wants more information on the 10-year Call of Duty licensing deal that Microsoft and Nintendo have signed, however there isn't much detail on the scope of these interests.

South Africa may soon become the sixth worldwide regulator to approve the Microsoft-Activision merger, but the country apparently has yet to do so.

Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion merger with Activision Blizzard King has been cleared in five countries, and South Africa may soon be the sixth. On April 17, the South Africa Competition Commission (SACC) published a list of mergers that it recommends for approval, and the Microsoft-Activision was one of these recommended mergers.

In the announcement, the SACC recommends approval of the merger without conditions and notes that the combination of Microsoft and Activision "is unlikely to result in a substantial prevention or lessening of competition in any relevant market." You'll recognize this vernacular if you've been paying close attention to merger talks; it's the kind of terminology that's used by other worldwide regulators like the European Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK. The FTC has also defined its own relevant market with the controversial "High-Performance Console" market, a designation that has confused key members of Congress.

Nintendo wants to avoid testifying in the Microsoft-Activision merger case, and has asked FTC law judge to dismiss a subpoena that would require a Nintendo executive to testify before the FTC.

While the CMA prepares its final decision on the Microsoft-Activision merger, FTC regulators in the United States are still collecting information in an attempt to sue to block the $68.7 billion merger. The FTC's antitrust lawsuit is currently still in discovery phases and regulators are looking to major players in the video games industry to provide documents, data, and testimony in regards to pertinent areas of interest, including Sony Interactive Entertainment, Take-Two Interactive, Valve, and Nintendo of America.

However, the FTC may not get its way in regards to Nintendo. Legal counsel for Nintendo of America has submitted a motion to quash--or cancel--the FTC's "untimely" subpoena that would have required Nintendo of America's Steve Singer, who serves as senior vice president for publisher and developer relations, to deliver sworn testimony before the FTC's Complaint Counsel (a group of lawyers representing the FTC that bring forth the anti-competition charges against the merger).