TweakTown - Page 2

This week on the TT Show, Jak and Kosta go through a range of tech, gaming, science, and AI-related stories - including an AI chatbot 'Skeleton Key,' that lets users bypass any security checks and measures in place. Plus, Nintendo's stance on the generative AI boom equates to "our games are way better than anything AI could come up with, so no thanks."

On the GPU front, the duo discusses Micron's comments on next-gen GDDR7 memory that will be used in the GeForce RTX 50 Series and how the speed increase alone will lead to a 30% increase in gaming performance. Very cool.

Also, this past week saw the arrival of AMD's FSR 3.1 in several first-party PlayStation Studios games on PC. The latest version of AMD's DLSS competitor is a little hit-and-miss. There are a lot of game-related stories, too, including Ubisoft's plan to remake classic games in the Assassin's Creed franchise, Valve's impressive new Steam Game Recording Feature, and the original Splinter Cell getting the RTX Remix treatment. Kosta weirdly sides with Ubisoft, while Jak doesn't. It gets heated, so be sure to tune in.

This week on The TT Show, after the tech explosion of Computex 2024 and the new game explosion of Summer Game Fest, the latest news from the world of tech, gaming, and science returns to its regular broadcasting.

Jak and Kosta open the episode by discussing the notoriously litigious record industry's new lawsuit against AI music generators and what this could mean for generative AI and media going forward. They also discuss the future of VR gaming as Sony seemingly pulls the plug on PlayStation VR 2. Is VR destined to remain a niche corner of the gaming industry?

Then there's the return of overclocker Vince 'Kingpin' Lucido and a new partnership with PNY that will see the return of high-end flagship GeForce 'Kingpin Edition' graphics cards. In the aftermath of EVGA's exit from the GPU business, this is great news for enthusiasts looking to pick up the best GeForce RTX 5090 when it launches later this year. Or early 2025, or whenever.

After the explosion of new tech from Computex 2024 last week, Jak and Kosta take a quick hardware break to review some of the most exciting game announcements from the recent summer showcase events. From the fantastic and totally metal DOOM: The Dark Ages to the surprise gameplay reveal for Metroid Prime 4 and the Unreal Engine 5 brilliance of the new Gears of War prequel.

The duo also discusses the recent news that NVIDIA has become more valuable than Microsoft and Apple. Although this is the direct result of the current AI gold rush and boom - it also translates to PC gaming. According to the latest Steam data and GPU shipment information, GeForce RTX is currently experiencing a monopoly-like grip on the PC gaming market.

In AI, Jak and Kosta look at the Copilot+ PC launch, which is missing Microsoft's controversial screenshotting 'Recall' feature (probably for the best). With Apple Intelligence, Apple's big AI push is finally given the spotlight, and the company will be leaving behind hundreds of millions of customers.

Computex 2024 took place in Taipei last week, and once again, it was the place to be for all things tech and PC gaming hardware - with the added spin of 'everything AI.' Jak and Kosta were there for the entire week catching up with all the latest from AMD, NVIDIA, ASUS, MSI, Zotac, ASRock, Ducky, Aero Cool, Thermal Grizzly, Phison, Phanteks, and more.

For this week's jam-packed Computex 2024 wrap-up, the duo reviews all 15 TweakTown's Best Tech of Computex 2024 winners, covering everything from impressive new cases to high-end GPUs, Copilot+ PCs, OLED displays, memory tech demos, and even some impressive AI demonstrations from NVIDIA.

Jak and Kosta also discuss all of the big AMD announcements from the show, including the new Zen 5 power Ryzen 9000 Series desktop CPUs and the impressive Ryzen AI 300 Series for laptops, which feature the most powerful NPUs to date for Microsoft's new Copilot+ PC line-up.

Recorded just before they headed off to Taipei for the tech oasis that is Computex 2024, this week's episode of the TT Show sees Jak and Kosta discuss the latest news in gaming, tech, and science. Kicking off with Jak's impressions of Hellblade 2 (which he calls the best-looking game he's ever seen), the duo digs into Valve's next game - Deadlock.

Although it hasn't been officially announced, the next major release from the company behind Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Steam is significant news - even in leaked screenshot form. The game is described as a mix between the hero shooting of Overwatch and the MOBA lane-based gameplay of DOTA 2.

In the world of GPUs, AMD Anti-Lag 2 sees Team Red's latency reduction tech finally return after it was controversially disabled last year. This time, the tech requires game-specific integration, debuting in Counter-Strike 2 in Technical Preview form. In other Radeon news, FSR 3 Frame Generation makes its PS5 and Xbox Series X, bringing triple-digit performance to consoles.

This week on the TT Show, Jak and Kosta examine Microsoft's new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop devices running on the Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite chipset and the beginning of the Copilot+ AI PC era. Hardware-wise, it all sounds impressive, with Windows on Arm coming along nicely, but the Copilot+ AI side is a different story.

Microsoft's latest AI tool for Windows users is called Recall. It apparently takes screenshots and snapshots of your PC at regular intervals to build up a searchable database of everything you've seen or done. It sounds like the most invasive piece of software ever created, and Jak and Kosta discuss how it might work and whether there's even a use case for such a feature.

This week, the duo also discuss NVIDIA getting in on the Arm-based CPU business and pairing it with GeForce hardware for a potential gaming handheld to rival the ROG Ally and Steam Deck.

This week on the TT Show, Lord of the Rings superfan (and also superfan) Jak and Kosta discuss Peter Jackson returning to The Lord of the Rings franchise with the new movie 'The Hunt for Gollum.' They discuss the potential story, timeline, and their hopes for a return to the magic of the original trilogy. And not, you know, The Hobbit.

Another big story this week is Apple's apologizing for its seemingly tone-deaf iPad Pro advertisement that quickly caused a massive wave of negative backlash. Is it as bad as some of the comments? As a fan of retro hardware who doesn't like seeing it get destroyed, Kosta thinks so, while Jak is more on the fence and 'meh.'

And it wouldn't be an episode of The TT Show without GPU news, with all of the latest GeForce RTX 50 Series, Radeon, and Intel graphics talk bundled into a new section of the podcast called 'GPU Corner.' Speaking of new sections, Jak and Kosta play a round of Guess the Headline for some fun.

This week, on a more focused episode of The TT Show, Jak and Kosta break down and go through the crazy Helldivers 2 controversy on PC. If you were offline for a few days (and this all played out throughout a single weekend), the decision to force the Helddivers 2's PC players to link their Steam Account to a PlayStation Network (PSN) account caused a veritable backlash storm.

From the review bombing to developers being grilled to Sony and developer Arrowhead's damage control to the surprisingly swift happy ending, Jak and Kosta discuss the implications and consider what might happen in the aftermath.

This week's other big story comes from the world of Apple, with the company lifting the lid on its new iPad Pro lineup powered by the new AI-powered 3 nanometer M4 chip. The big thing here is that it represents Apple's first dip into the world of OLED displays, with a groundbreaking 1000-nit SDR and HDR screen that has two OLED panels in one!

This week on The TT Show, Kosta spends an entire day with the flagship 85-inch Samsung QN900D Neo QLED 8K Smart TV in Sydney, testing how its new impressive NQ8 AI Gen3 Processor handles upscaling and gaming. Kosta also discusses his latest month-long home project: building the Ultimate Home Entertainment Server with an ASUSTOR NAS and Viper Gaming NVMe SSDs.

Moving on from thousands of movies, games, and music on a server, Jak and Kosta also discuss the latest controversy surrounding Intel's high-end 13th and 14th Gen Cire i9 CPU. With widespread reports of instability and motherboard makers issuing BIOS updates, Intel seemingly passes the blame while confirming it's still 'looking into the issue.'

The duo also talks about the recent decline in console sales and AMD's gaming revenue and what this means, as well as new reports seemingly confirming that AMD's upcoming RDNA 4 GPUs could feature a massive upgrade to ray-tracing performance, which will probably make its way into the PlayStation 5 Pro.

Things get political this week on The TT Show when Jak and Kosta dig into the recent controversy surrounding Elon Musk, X, and the Australian government's attempt to censor specific content. Then, it gets even more political when the topic switches to the US government deeming Microsoft a security risk because all agencies depend on its software.

Plus, Intel partners with the Pentagon to develop microchips for what we can only assume is stuff you'd consider "not good." But hey, that's just the show's second half, as the first half is full of in-depth impressions for No Rest From the Wicked. Thel attest game from the studio behind the excellent Ori series blends Diablo with Dark Souls to deliver something special.

Jak and Kosta also talk about the upcoming rumors surrounding Ubisoft's Far Cry 7, which will feature Mr. Oppenheimer himself, Cillian Murphy, as the villain. Plus, Sony has announced a new PlayStation overlay with PSN Friends and Trophies for its PC games.

This week, on a special AI-powered edition of The TT Show, Jak and Kosta examine the latest happenings in tech, gaming, and science - and AI is everywhere. Apple uses AI to give Siri vision and will integrate AI into many aspects of the upcoming iOS 18 update.

Also, with the PlayStation 5 Pro specs confirmed by multiple sources, AI could play a significant role in delivering the reported 4K 60 FPS gameplay target and boost to ray-tracing performance. In the world of Generative AI and LLMs, companies have pressure to disclose what data is being used (or is that harvested) for training.

And speaking of generative AI, TCL is creating the world's first AI-generated romantic comedy set to debut this summer on the company's TCLtv+ streaming service. How does it look? Well, be sure to tune into this week's episode of The TT Show to watch Jak's reaction in real-time.

This week on The TT Show, Jak and Kosta talk about their recent trip to Sydney, where they attended a special launch event for Samsung's impressive TV line-up for 2024. The line-up includes Samsung's new flagship 85-inch 8K display, which features the latest in AI technology, and the company's new OLEDs, which ditch the reflective finish for a more matte Glare-Free look better suited to bright rooms.

It's a lengthy discussion covering everything from TV tech for sports, games, and movies to Samsung's interesting new wall-hanging speaker. In the world of impressive displays, the duo also looks at the new Razer Blade 18 gaming laptop for 2024, which features the world's first 4K+ 200 Hz display for a portable device.

In gaming, AMD's FSR 3.1 update means that Frame Generation is finally coming to the world of consoles - with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S gamers set to get their first taste of the groundbreaking tech with Immortals of Aveum. Also, Kosta talks about how the next-gen Xbox's giant technical leap could come from AI - with Microsoft touting a suite of next-gen 'Gaming AI' technologies coming.

This week on The TT Show, Jak and Kosta examine the latest performance target rumors for AMD and Intel's next-gen RDNA 4 and Battlemage graphics cards and discuss how they might leave the enthusiast market entirely to NVIDIA. This could mean no direct competition for the GeForce RTX 5070, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090.

For corporations, GPUs are all about AI. With hundreds of thousands of GPUs used by big tech to create AI data centers, the U.S. Government is stepping in to sort through the sheer energy costs of countless graphics cards running complex AI workloads. The solution? Nuclear power, specifically microreactors, installed next to each major data center.

Jak and Kosta also discuss the latest gaming news, including Steam and Epic Games Store potentially coming to Xbox consoles, the awesome-sounding massively multiplayer Dune Awakening currently in development, and speculation that Grand Theft Auto VI will be limited to 30 FPS at launch - even on the upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro.

This week on The TT Show, Jak and Kosta discuss everything Neuralink, from the first brain implant patient telepathically playing games like Mario Kart and Civilization to how it might cure blindness.

In the world of generative AI, NVIDIA's LATTE3D to create 3D models sounds like a great idea for game development, but OpenAI's video-generation AI being used to create Hollywood films doesn't. Jak and Kosta also look at the new $5,000 AI benchmark tool built on Stable Diffusion's image generator from 3DMark creators UL Solutions.

Plus, Grand Theft Auto 6's potential delay to 2026 and what that means (basically, we'll have to wait longer to play it), PSVR 2 comes to PC, Meta Quest 3 Lite is coming soon, scientists discover an OLED breakthrough that could eliminate burn-in, and more.

This week on The TT Show, Jak and Kosta discuss all of the PlayStation 5 Pro news, the leaked specs, Sony's answer to DLSS, the big bump to ray-tracing performance, and more. The duo also examines NVIDIA's next-gen AI Blackwell announcement and what the new architecture means for the GeForce RTX 5090 and the new RTX 50 Series.

During its big AI GTC conference, NVIDIA once again showcased how generative AI can be used to create realistic "digital humans" for games, with the tech already in the hands of developers worldwide. And with that, they go through two big 2024 games that could become killer apps for the next-gen GeForce GPUs

In the world of esports and competitive gaming, Apex Legends was hacked during a live tournament - a first. With competition paused and postponed, it sets a new precedent for competitive tournaments.

The TT show is back, and this week, Jak and Kosta take a closer look at several cool-looking games on the horizon. With the smash hit Dune Part Two now in cinemas, the sci-fi franchise is getting a massive open-world survival MMO called Dune Awakening from the creators of Conan Exiles. With new info and gameplay, the Arrakis-set title is looking very spicy.

The duo also looks at PlayStation classic Ghost of Tsushima, finally coming to PC (Assassin's Creed meets Shogun), and the breathtaking indie action RPG No Rest for the Wicked.

In the world of science and space, Jak brings up Samsung's recent (and super fun) marketing stunt, which sent Galaxy phones into the lower atmosphere to take a few snaps of planet Earth. Plus, new solar-powered implants that can restore someone's vision are paving the way for a Cyberpunk future.

The TT Show is back, and this week, Jak and Kosta examine all the current rumors swirling about next-gen gaming hardware and discuss what they mean for the Nintendo Switch 2, GeForce RTX 5090, and the RDNA 4 flagship Radeon RX 8800 XT (or 8900 XT). All three are coming either late 2024 or early 2025 and will represent a big across-the-board shake-up - from handheld gaming to mid-range PC gaming to enthusiast high-end flagship PC gaming.

And when it comes to PC gaming, Microsoft is set to bring some major updates to its DirectX 12 Ultimate platform - one that will make it easier for developers to insert all upscaling tech into their games (including DLSS, FSR, and XeSS), and another that will be a game change for PC game optimization. No more crappy PC ports? Fingers crossed.

In other gaming news, the duo talks about the recent Nintendo lawsuit against Switch emulator Yuzu, which in a week saw the popular app shut down and pay Nintendo millions of dollars in damages. In the world of Apple, Jak and Kosta discuss Apple's canceled electric car, new MacBook Air laptops, and why it was fined $2 billion in the EU over its music streaming and storefront practices.

The TT Show is back with another week of looking at some of the top stories in tech, gaming, and science, with this week kicking off with yet another GPU launch - this time from AMD. The 'new' Radeon RX 7900 GRE or Golden Rabbit Edition sees the former China exclusive get a global release with a competitive price point. Performance-wise, it goes toe-to-toe with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER.

Kosta and Jak also look into some of the hot stories surrounding AI, from Reddit selling all its user data to Google for AI training to Microsoft putting AI in charge of rolling out major Windows updates.

Plus, some fun stuff, including one of the rarest games from the 8-bit era, 'The Legend of Zelda' going up for auction with the seller not knowing how much it was worth, and NASA and the U.S. successfully landed a vehicle on the moon's surface. Something it hasn't done since the 1970s!

It's another big week for The TT Show, with plenty of stories from the world of console hardware, games, GPUs, AI, science, and space discussed. This week's episode begins with a lengthy discussion about the future of Xbox, its games coming to PlayStation and Switch, and what's in store for the next-gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Will AI be the key to delivering the technical leap people expect?

Alongside the next-gen gaming talk, which includes what's coming from NVIDIA and AMD, Jak and Kosta take a detour into the world of 8K gaming and whether it should happen anytime soon. The TT Show hosts believe the performance hit isn't worth it, so watch or listen to the latest episode and let us know your thoughts.

Also, Kosta goes through the new NVIDIA App, which presents a significant software update for GeForce RTX owners, combining Control Panel with GeForce Experience in a fast, minimal, and sleek new package. It's a fantastic update from the overhauled overlay to the expanded system monitoring tools to the new RTX HDR and RTX Dynamic Vibrance tools for PC games.

Another big for The TT Show, with Jak and Kosta going through a wide range of tech and science topics this week, kicking off with a look at the world's first AI desktop workstations with NIVIDA's Grace Hopper CPU and GPU Superchips. What does close to $50,000 get you? Basically, a supercomputer that can fit on a desk.

The duo also looked at fresh RDNA 4 specs and what to expect with the next-generation flagship Radeon GPU. It is a card that won't match the current Radeon RX 7900 XTX in performance but gets close enough on a more efficient and cost-effective node.

There's also a deep dive into Apple's plans to release foldable devices, what's inside an ancient intact chicken egg discovered by scientists, Windows 11's new DLSS-like AI features, and a recent experiment that put AI in war game scenarios. Yes, a few LLMs - including GPT - went nuclear.