TweakTown
Here you'll find news updates related to yours truly, TweakTown.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle's big DLSS 4 and RTX Blackwell update arrives in February
At CES, we got to go hands-on with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle with Full Ray Tracing running in 5K on the new GeForce RTX 50 Series. From developer
MachineGames, the immersive first-person stealth, exploration, and adventure game, is not only one of the best-looking games for a high-end PC but also one of the best games of 2024.
Launching in December, it still feels new, and the build we played at CES 2025 implemented several DLSS 4 features, including the new Transformer model for Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction, and Multi Frame Generation. The current build of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PC doesn't include Ray Reconstruction for its ray tracing options, so the jump to DLSS 4 is pretty mind-blowing in what it brings to the overall image quality.
All major CES 2025 keynotes from NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and others can be watched here
From Jan 7th to 10th, the Consumer Electronics Show will showcase the tech industry's sharpest minds and cutting edge breakthroughs. Featuring industry giants including NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and Sony - the schedule will be jam packed with exciting new advancements in tech.
The TweakTown team will be on-site to bring you all the latest direct from the show. So you can follow along from home, this guide will provide you with everything you need to know. From the schedule, to details on how to live-stream, and what to look out for.
CES 2025 is about to kick off, and this year is undoubtedly going to be a massive one with companies such as NVIDIA preparing to unveil its latest generated of GPUs powered by the company's impressive Blackwell architecture, along with AMD unveiling its new line of Ryzen CPUs, and Intel showcasing its competing Core Ultra chips.
TT Show Episode 61 - Sony's new PlayStation Portable, OLED levels up
This week on the TT Show, Jak and Kosta dive into the news surrounding Sony's plans to create a new PlayStation portable gaming handheld that will be powerful enough to run PS5 games natively. It's exciting if true, but it could be a few years off. Such a device has a good chance of hitting the same heights as the company's first handheld, the iconic Sony PSP.
In other handheld news, the duo briefly examines what the upcoming Xbox handheld might look like while discussing the eventual Steam Deck 2 - it's an exciting future for portable gaming. Moving over to the world of OLED displays, rumors point to Samsung unveiling a world first at CES 2025 - a 500 Hz OLED gaming monitor.
This week, Jak and Kosta also discuss some recent hardware they've reviewed. Kosta discusses his recent review of the RGB-lit Razer Barracuda X Chroma Wireless Gaming Headset. Jak goes deep into the massive curved 39-inch OLED panel that powers the new Acer Predator X39 Gaming Monitor.
Continue reading: TT Show Episode 61 - Sony's new PlayStation Portable, OLED levels up (full post)
TT Show Episode 60 - Sony acquiring Elden Ring studio, Half-Life 3, and New Reviews!
This week on the TT Show, Jak and Kosta discuss some of the biggest stories in the world of games, hardware, and technology while also reviewing the new SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds and the (takes a deep breath) Corsair Xeneon 34WQHD240-C 34-inch Ultrawide OLED Gaming Monitor.
Two fantastic products that are worth checking out. The week's headline story comes from the gaming world, with Sony officially moving to buy the parent company of FromSoftware - the talented and award-winning studio behind Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and many more fan favorites. What would this mean for PlayStation going forward? Jak and Kosta get into it.
Keeping things in the gaming realm, with Half-Life 2 celebrating its 20th anniversary, a new two-hour documentary into the game's development provides glimpses of the canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 3 while also hinting at what a potential Half-Life 3 might look like.
TT Show Episode 59 - AMD Ryzen 9800X3D Review, the new gaming CPU champ
This week on the TT Show, Jak and Kosta discuss and review the latest PC hardware, including the new Ryzen 7 9800X3D. With Chris's in-depth TweakTown review live, the good news is that Zen 5's 3D V-Cache enhanced chip is an absolute beast for PC gaming while providing a substantial boost to productivity performance for creators.
In a review-stacked episode, Jak reviews some of the best 27-inch 1440p and 32-inch 4K OLED gaming displays currently available - spoiler alert, stylish, and feature-packed Alienware models. However, with ASUS, MSI, and Samsung all releasing OLED displays with third-generation QD-OLED panels, you'd be hard-pressed to find a bad OLED in 2024.
Switching gears to the world of peripherals, Kosta reviews the Meletrix Zoom75 TIGA mechanical keyboard kit, the first mechanical keyboard he built from scratch. The result was not only a fantastic new keyboard, but the whole process gave him a greater appreciation for modern custom keyboards' modular, layered, and logical design.
TT Show Episode 58 - Apple Intelligence, AMD confirms RDNA 4 details, and Russia fines Google
This week on the TT Show, Jak goes through Apple's long-awaited AI upgrade with the arrival of Apple Intelligence. From writing tools to an overhauled Siri to being able to edit and search through your photos with powerful new tools, Jak goes through all of the features iPhone users can look forward to as long as they have at least an iPhone 15 Pro.
Also, this week, AMD CEO Lisa Su drops a few tasty details about its next-gen Radeon graphics cards powered by its next-gen RDNA 4 architecture. In addition to the usual generation performance increase, RDNA 4 ray-tracing performance will be 'significantly' better than previous generations, and Radeon is going all in on AI.
Yes, FSR is set to become more like NVIDIA's DLSS, with AI Super Resolution, Frame Generation, and its version of DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction - a game changer for ray-tracing. So then, why is AMD talking up RDNA 4? Because the company's Gaming business is not doing great.
TT Show Episode 57 - AMD's next-gen Ryzen X3D chips, the PS5 Pro's secret weapon, and more
This week on The TT Show, Jak and Kosta discuss the latest in PC and gaming hardware, science, and more. The discussion begins with a look at Apple's new MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Mini models powered by the latest M4 chip and how it might only present an incremental update instead of a generational leap forward.
Switching gears to the incremental update that is the PlayStation 5 Pro, it sounds like the console has a secret weapon in the form of the AI-powered PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), which brings a little bit of that NVIDIA DLSS magic to the world of console gaming. Compared to AMD's FSR 3.1, which is available for consoles, there's a night and day difference in image quality - with PSSR making everything it touches look better. And it's exclusive to the PS5 Pro.
Next, the discussion shifts to the world of handhelds, with everything from Valve providing an update on the Steam Deck 2 to leaks for Nintendo's new online Pokemon game. Plus, an in-depth look at the surprise playtest for a Minecraft and Roblox-style massive MMO for the Switch developed by Nintendo.
TT Show Episode 56 - PAX Australia Round-Up, NVIDIA's PC Gaming Handheld, and more
This week, on another stacked episode of The TT Show, Kosta talks about all of the cool PC hardware he saw at PAX Australia - from custom builds to rigs to new gaming handhelds. There are a few not-as-new ones as Valve officially brings the Steam Deck to Australia.
On the topic of handhelds, Kosta and Jak discuss the possibility of NVIDIA releasing a PC gaming handheld with GeForce RTX hardware in the near future. This looks to be happening thanks to the recent partnership with MediaTek to develop chips specifically for portable AI devices like laptops. For Kosta, it seems inevitable because it's a growing segment and a corner of PC gaming where NVIDIA has zero presence.
Of course, NVIDIA dominates in the desktop space, and with the imminent arrival of the GeForce RTX 50 Series - there's been a lot of discussion surrounding how much the new flagship GeForce RTX 5090 will cost. Its MSRP will be higher than the GeForce RTX 4090's $1599 USD, but how much higher?
In loving memory of Tyler Bernath, TweakTown Hardware Editor
Yesterday, October 17, 2024, we lost a great man and friend. Tyler Bernath, TweakTown Hardware Editor, lost his battle with cancer at age 41 years old at his home in Montpelier, Ohio. After going through several rounds of chemotherapy and treatment over several years, sadly, the cancer took over. He fought against the terrible disease for as long as he could with huge courage. In the end, he went peacefully at his home.
Tyler started with us in 2013 and was with TweakTown for almost 12 years and published 1452 content items - most of which were reviews. That's an amazing average of 2.5 reviews every week over 12 years - an incredible effort that will be hard for anyone to reproduce again. His first review was of the SanDisk Extreme 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive, and his final was of the Acer Predator Triton Neo 16 Gaming Laptop.
In fact, till the end, when he knew his time was near, he was still trying to complete reviews. That's sad, but it also makes me happy in a way, knowing that his work kept him busy and occupied. Tyler informed hundreds of thousands of consumers on which products to buy or avoid in the storage, networking, NAS, Mini PC, CPU, and motherboard fields.
Continue reading: In loving memory of Tyler Bernath, TweakTown Hardware Editor (full post)
TT Show Episode 55 - Arrow Lake, GeForce RTX 5070, and Google's Pixel smartphone tracking
This week on the TT Show, Jak and Kosta finally discuss their recent trip to MSI's factory in Shenzhen, China. There, they saw MSI's new Z890 boards up close, Intel's latest Core Ultra 200 Series CPUs, and even watched as thousands of MAG Z890 TOMAHAWK WIFI boards were being made.
With new motherboards and chipset technology, a lot of cool new tech will make you want to upgrade - especially when it comes to flagship motherboards like the new MSI MEG Z890 ACE. With Arrow Lake and Intel Core Ultra 200 Series CPU benchmarks starting to show up and full reviews and availability coming later this month, it won't be long before the complete picture is known.
With the new Z890 motherboards also ready for the next generation of graphics cards, this week we learned that NVIDIA could be announcing three GeForce RTX 50 desktop graphics cards at CES 2025: the GeForce RTX 5090, GeForce RTX 5080, and GeForce RTX 5070.