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MSI is releasing some interesting new models for the GeForce RTX 4090 - the GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X CLASSIC 24G and the GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM CLASSIC 24G. So then, what makes these cards different from the existing GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM models? Well, the 'Classic' here looks to be about using a previous-gen SUPRIM (GeForce RTX 3090 Ti) shroud and cooling.

This isn't bad, as you've got an impressive TRI FROZR 2S Thermal Design with TORX Fan 4.0, a copper baseplate, and decent airflow. Plus, dual BIOS support pushes NVIDIA's flagship Ada card to its limits - thanks to the 480W gaming mode in the SUPRIM X version. The non-X SUPRIM CLASSIC features a lower boost clock of 2535 MHz compared to 2640 MHz of the X.

We reviewed the current SUPRIM X RTX 4090 back when the GPU launched last year, alongside the cooling and build of the GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X CLASSIC 24G in GeForce RTX 3090 Ti form.

When we think about product endorsements, it's easy to go the cynical route and think about the monetary and advertisement side - like product placement in movies. When it comes to the sporting world, though, it's pretty much the opposite, where an endorsement is often a sign of quality.

Competitive League of Legends is one of the most watched and celebrated esports, and when it comes to fast-paced gaming played at the level, displays need to be exceptional in the critical areas of refresh rate, response times, and support for VRR technology like NVIDIA GSYNC.

So, when LG lets us know that its UltraGear gaming monitor, the 25GR75FG, has been named as the official display of the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) in 2023, that means it's an excellent esports display.

Silicon Power's new UD85 PCIe Gen 4 M2 SSD is designed to deliver performance, speed, and reliability as an entry-level and budget-friendly choice for those looking to expand their storage.

With read speeds of up to 3,600MB/s and write speeds of up to 2,800MB/s, plus support for NVMe 1.4 and Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology, you're looking at something perfect for upgrading and expanding laptop or desktop storage capacities. "The UD85 is all about value," writes Silicon Power in its announcement - which is good to see as PCIe Gen 4 M2 SSD speeds have recently made them the drive option of choice for gamers everywhere.

And with most desktop motherboards shipping with multiple M2 slots, it makes sense to pack in as many PCIe Gen 4 drives as possible.

We can't help but think of USB Docking Stations as toasters for all your hard-drive swapping action, pop a new drive in, grab or copy over the data you need, and then pop in the next one. More than a simple comparison, if you've had multiple PCs and gone through several HDDs over the years, a Docking Station is as essential for a home office/gaming den as a toaster is in a kitchen.

With support for M.2 PCIe/NVMe, SATA 2.5/3.5-Inch SSD and HDD, and offline cloning (DS-UNHC), the latest USB-C Docking Station from Sabrent might be the last one you'll ever need. It's packed with features, but the dual SATA and M.2 SSD support make it a winner.

Simultaneous SATA and PCIe access is very cool to see, as are several USB cables packed in to support any PC USB interface. This means you've got up to 10Gbps transfer speeds over USB 3.2 Gen 2 or slower when connected to an older USB interface. There are also some great features to support extended usage, with a built-in M.2 heatsink and dust guard. The visual look is striking too, and it won't look out of place sitting next to an RGB-lit gaming rig.

MSI is set to release a follow-up to one of its most popular and celebrated 1440p displays, the MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD. A wordy product name, sure, but its crisp 165Hz IPS panel, excellent performance, and spot-on color accuracy made it a go-to for a premium 1440p gaming experience.

And now, with the newly announced MSI G274QPF-QD, we've got an affordable follow-up with a few extra features, including HDR support, USB Type-C display and charging, and a modest refresh rate bump to 170Hz. With AUD (Australian) pricing in hand, we can confirm that the new MSI G274QPF-QD is launching at AUD 469 - a price point that's 60% of the popular MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD. And with that, this will most likely be one of the most sought-after 1440p displays for 2023. It's set to launch in late January in Australia, with a wider global launch in February 2023.

In terms of its physical design, it carries the same borderless build of its predecessor, alongside the rectangular and solid base. This is fine because there's no need to mess with what works - and the MSI Optix MAG274QRF-QD is still sleek and stylish.

If you grew up in the 90s then you're probably asking one question: How do I play PS1-style games in the modern age? There's emulators and subscriptions...and then there's Dread Delusion.

While AAA games are raking in billions of dollars, there's lots of little indie gems that fall through the cracks. A lot of the time it's the indie games that carry players through large years-long lapses between big gale launches, and for this reason they've become more and more special to gamers who probably wouldn't have seen or tried them otherwise.

One such game is Dread Delusion, an interesting indie from DreadXP and developer Peter Wragg. The project is a first-person fantasy game in the vein of Daggerfall and the early first-person FromSoftware titles. It's a bizarre open-world game with trappings from familiar old-school RPGs with the basics intact; there's stats, skills, spells, gear, and exploration. It's kind of like if Daggerfall or another Elder Scrolls game would look if it released on the original PlayStation.

Microsoft has announced a new Developer Direct showcase for January 25 that will focus on developers instead of fancy marketing tactics.

The new Developer Direct show isn't what everyone was hoping for, but it should still deliver interesting tidbits about upcoming games and updates. The stream won't include heavy-hitters like Starfield--Bethesda plans to hold its own special event exclusively for the anticipated galactic space sim shooter--or other projects in the works like the new Indiana Jones game from Machine Games, the next Doom title, Halo Infinite content. Neither Fable nor Perfect Dark will be at the show, either.

So what will be at the show? The Developer Direct will highlight new content and reveal more details on the next Forza Motorsport game, which is exclusive to the Xbox Series X/S consoles. We'll also get a full 2023 roadmap of Elder Scrolls Online's content as well as a full-on chapter announcement.

Lies of P is the latest game to benefit from AMD's new RDNA 3.0 graphics cards, hitting 8K resolution on the Radeon RX 7900 XTX at Ultra preset settings.

The steampunk Soulsborne game Lies of P turned heads when it was revealed in August 2022, being praised for its visuals, interesting gameplay, and weird storyline that puts a new spin on the tale of Pinocchio. Now gamers get an even better look at the action RPG thanks to AMD, who has teamed up with developer Round8 to deliver some impressive-looking footage.

The latest gameplay trailer is display at 8K resolution on Ultra settings and is running on AMD's latest Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU. Of course you'll need an 8K resolution monitor or TV to see the footage in true 7680 x 4320 but it still looks pretty epic on my 1440p monitor. Back in September, AMD confirmed that Lies of P would be optimized with its Fidelity FX Super Resolution 2 (FSR 2.0) temporal upscaling tech so that's worth remembering when watching the footage.

Konami and Sony have reportedly teamed up on a Metal Gear Solid remake on PlayStation 5, and it might be revealed during a State of Play stream in Q1.

Rumors indicate that the original Metal Gear Solid is getting a remake on PS5, but nothing has been announced so far. Unverified sources tell outlets like Spanish games site AreaJugones that the purported MGS1 remake would be a PS5 exclusive and that it's been in development for many years.

Oddly enough, this project seems entirely separate from the rumored Metal Gear Solid 3 remake that Bluepoint Games is reportedly working on. It's also possible the MGS1 project could be a remaster.

With Starfield on the way and Elder Scrolls VI in pre-production, Bethesda apparently has no plans to remaster The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion any time soon. Thankfully modders have stepped in to save the day.

Skyblivion, the massively ambitious user-created mod that aims to recreate the entirety of Oblivion in Skyrim's upgraded engine, now has a release window. After 13 years of development, Skyblivion's launch is nearing completion. The devs are set to release Skyblivion 2025 in on PC and essentially resurrect one of the most enchanting RPGs ever made.

The project is made possible by a dedicated team of talented volunteers who have spent over a decade transforming and adapting Cyrodiil and its denizens, monsters, and locales into the Skyrim games engine.

YouTuber MickyD finally solves the mystery that has plagued Morrowind players for over 20 years.

Tarhiel. Every Morrowind player knows the tragic fate of this cursed wizard. He's one of the most hilarious, compelling, and interesting parts of Morrowind's early game experiences, and his brief but extremely memorable encounter really underlines the humor and whimsy that counterbalances the game's grim storyline.

The sorcerer falls from the sky in the Seyda Neen starting area, screaming along the way. On his remains players find a journal and curious magical scrolls that let them leap in the air and experience the full majesty of The Elder Scrolls' best alternation magic. Up until now, Tarhiel's fate had always been set in stone. But the question remains: Can you save Tarhiel?

Elon Musk's upcoming civil trial will take place in San Francisco after a judge denied Musk's request to move it to Texas.

A new report from Bloomberg states that a federal judge has denied the request from Elon Musk's legal team to move the billionaire's upcoming civil trial to Texas on the grounds that a "substantial portion" of the jury pool is likely to hold a bias towards Musk due to the ongoing layoffs at the newly acquired Twitter.

The class action lawsuit accuses Musk of manipulating Tesla stock with his infamous 2018 tweet where he wrote that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private, resulting in Tesla's stock price increasing dramatically and then eventually recorrecting in the same fashion.

A new artificial intelligence system developed by Microsoft is slated to have the capability of cloning anyone's voice by just listening to a three-second audio example.

The new AI is called VALL-E, and according to a newly released paper, the system is a neural codec language model that is a text-to-speech synthesizer. According to the report, VALL-E is capable of learning a specific voice and then synthesizing it to be able to say whatever is desired. Additionally, the report claims that VALL-E will be able to produce a voice identical to the example it was given while also retaining the same or a similar level of emotional tone that is heard in speech - something other AI synthesizers struggle to do successfully.

The creators of the AI system believe it will be used to power text-to-speech applications, speech editing, and audio content creation when combined with other generative language models, such as Open AI's immensely popular ChapGPT. Notably, the creators believe that VALL-E would be used for speech editing that would include taking a three-second audio example of an individual's voice and making them say something they didn't. Listen to examples of VALL-E here.

Norton LifeLock, a very well-known provider of identity protection and cybersecurity services, recently revealed in an announcement that thousands of its customers had their accounts compromised.

The parent company of Norton LifeLock, Gen Digital, states that the likely cause of the hack was a "credential stuffing" attack, which is when previously exposed or breached credentials of accounts are used to break into other accounts on different sites and services that have the same passwords. The company notes that it detected a "large volume" of failed logins to customer accounts on December 12, which led them to discover that the intruders had compromised accounts dating back to December 1.

The company sent notices to about 6,450 Norton customers whose accounts were affected by the breach. In the data breach notice, Gen Digital states that the unauthorized third party may have viewed customers' first names, last names, phone numbers, and mailing addresses. The company also said that it could not rule out that the intruders also accessed some customers' saved passwords.

A group of researchers has tested the effects of robotic AI-powered fluffy seals on astronauts as part of an overarching effort to eventually send the sophisticated toys into space.

A new article in the South China Morning Post details a group of researchers that created fluffy robotic baby seals called Paros. These machines are designed to alleviate the stress and loneliness experienced by astronauts living on Mars throughout the early stages of the colonization process. The robotic seals have already been tested in a simulation where a crew of six spent two weeks in a simulated Mars environment operated by the Mars Society in Utah.

The simulation required the crew to perform first-aid drills, grow their own food, and take rock and soil from Mars. Additionally, the crew tested a Paro that was given to half of the crew for the first week and the other half of the crew the following week. Notably, the robotic seal is equipped with a dual 32-bit processor, three microphones, 12 tactile sensors, touch-sensitive capabilities via its whiskers, and several motors and actuators that give it its limited movement. The stress-relieving robot measures in at 22 inches from head to tail and weigh 5.7 pounds.

Elon Musk has shared a video to his Twitter account showing what he believes will be how humans land on the Red Planet in the future.

The Twitter, Tesla, and SpaceX CEO shared a video posted on the SpaceX Twitter account, which showcased the Falcon Heavy rocket safely landing back on the launch pad after completing its mission from the U.S. Space Force. Elon Musk's company launched the Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on January 15 at 5:56 p.m.

The mission titled USSF-67 was to geostationary orbit and carried a payload that featured the U.S. Space Force's Continuous Broadcast Augmenting SATCOM (CBAS)-2 communications satellite, a satellite designed to relay data from existing satellites and the Long Duration Propulsive ESPA (LDPE)-3A, a 6-slot payload adapter made by Northrop Grumman that had five slots taken up by military satellites.

A team of researchers has examined a meteorite that crashed into a family's driveway only a few years ago and found that it contains organic matter.

A new study published in the journal Science Advances details the discovery of organic matter that contains a selection of the building blocks of life or the molecules/compounds required for carbon-based life to exist. Scientists examined the composition of the meteorite and found traces of soluble protein amino acids that they believe formed much earlier in the meteorite's life. Researchers explain that the organic matter likely formed when the meteorite was attached to its much larger parent asteroid that harbored liquid water.

It should be noted that this isn't the very first-time researchers have discovered organic matter inside of a space rock that has fallen to Earth, but considering the results from the examination and the way the meteorite was discovered (in a driveway), this particular meteorite has entered into the "rare" category, according to study lead author Queenie Chan, a planetary scientist at the University of London. Chan explains that the Winchcombe meteorite "belongs to a rare type of carbonaceous meteorite which typically contains a rich inventory of organic compounds and water".

The GeForce RTX 4080, like the RTX 4090, is a powerful GPU capable of delivering triple-digit 4K performance with ray-tracing and in-game detail settings cranked up. Like its beefier sibling, the main issue for many is the cost of entry, with pricing for the GeForce RTX 4080 starting at around USD 1200.

Reports show that the upcoming silicon for the still-to-be-announced GeForce RTX 4070 (the non-Ti version) uses two variants - AD104-250 and AD104-251. The latter is built without a "comparator circuit" and fewer components. And with that, we've now got word that the RTX 4080 is following suit. Cards with the brand-new AD103-301 GPU silicon are starting to ship - with Gainward being the first to do so.

The new chip and the current RTX 4080 chips feature the same specs and performance, with the changes and reduction in components looking to reduce the cost of producing a new GeForce RTX 4080. The TDP, frequency, and Cuda core count of 9728 remain the same.

A few days ago, on the popular PCMR subreddit, a user warned others that when he searched for "amd driver" the top result was an advertisement for a malicious website claiming to offer precisely that.

Of course, this wasn't a legitimate search result, but appearing above their search results, it was an ad made to look like the real thing. In our testing, it seems like the search result and site have both been removed, which is good to see.

Still, according to multiple sources, it was host to a dubious .exe download titled "Auto-Detect and Install Driver Updates for AMD Radeon Series Graphics and Ryzen Chipsets", which sounds legitimate. Until you take a closer look at the URL and realize it would definitely not do that. The site even featured AMD branding and AMD IP, a tactic that isn't new in the world of malware.

GALAX is prepping to launch two variants of its Hall of Fame (HOF) GPU range covering the most recent addition to the GeForce RTX 40 Series line-up - the RTX 4070 Ti.

The HOF OC Lab PLUS will include a Performance mode with a boost clock speed of up to 2760 MHz, with the HOF OC Lab (no PLUS) going up to 2715 MHz. What's most interesting about the HOF range and these models is the increase in power draw, which can go up to 366W - a massive increase over the 285W found in stock models. They do so via three PCIe 8-pin power connectors and a single 16-pin power adapter. Most RTX 3070 Ti GPUs on the market only support two PCIe 8-pin connectors.

This means that out-of-the-box, they won't be the fasted clocked OC models for the RTX 3070 Ti. Instead, they represent versions of NVIDIA's GPU with the most overclocking potential. There's a special Hyper Boost button on the I/O bracket that will "'improve overclocking capabilities", which we assume increases the max power limit of the card.