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As a part of its Chinese New Year celebrations, Ubisoft is giving away Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China for free on UPlay. One can redeem the game between now and February 15. Ubisoft is also offering attractive discounts on several other Assassin's Creed and Tom Clancy titles.

Rumours have been circulating about Apple releasing a redesigned iMac with a high-end ARM-based processor that has at least 12 cores. While past rumours have suggested that the 2021 iMac will arrive as early as March, a new report claims that Apple has scheduled the device's release for October 2021, instead.

Incredible rumors concerning AMD’s Zen 4 and Zen 5 microarchitectures have been shared that suggest impressive generational gains. Zen 4 will apparently offer +25% IPC gains, +40% overall performance, and it may also bring all-core processing at 5 GHz. If that’s not enough to erase memories of the Bulldozer family, then Zen 5 is allegedly set to amaze.

AMD seems to be internally looking at a 2.5x performance increase for RDNA 3 compared to RDNA 2, flagship-to-flagship. RDNA 3 Navi 31 with 160 CUs is expected to be a multi-chip module while Navi 33 will continue to be monolithic. With Intel Xe also pegged to offer good ray tracing performance, NVIDIA Lovelace will have both Intel and AMD in its sights.

Intel has officially confirmed that the upcoming 11th Gen Rocket Lake-S desktop processors will not be supported by either the H410 or B460 chipsets. These chipsets utilize the LGA 1200 socket and are based on the 22nm manufacturing process. Gigabyte has provided a way for buyers of its H410M boards to select a revised variant that does support Rocket Lake chips.

Acer has released its latest consolidated financial report, which covers January 2021. It includes revenues that are its highest "for the same period" since 2013. This performance is based on solid year-on-year (YoY) growth for the OEM's gaming, creator-PC and Chromebook sectors.

A new report from Wccftech speculates that the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 will be launched in February 26. Some of its key features include a GA-106-200 GPU, 12GB of GDDR6 VRAM, and 3,584 CUDA cores. Prices are expected to start at US$329.

The upcoming Intel Core i9-11900K managed to best the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X on Geekbench's single-core benchmark. The 14nm Rocket Lake processor managed to net single-core scores of 1,905, 1,902 and 1,895. Its clock speed hovered around 5.3GHz at all times.

Nioh 2: Complete Edition recently launched on PC. While the package is decent value, including all DLC released so far, the port is in a rough state. Nioh 2 doesn't currently feature NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 option, as promised. Worse yet, keyboard and mouse button prompts don't show up, making for a confusing experience.

The latest hotfix for Cyberpunk 2077 has arrived, hot on the heels of Hotfix 1.11. The latest hotfix fixes a critical vulnerability for Cyberpunk 2077 that could have been used to execute remote code on your PC.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is now speculated to come with 12GB of GDDR6X VRAM and 10,240 CUDA cores. Its 320-bit memory interface will allow for 730Gb/s of memory bandwidth, identical to that of the GeForce RTX 3080.

Microsoft is moving to uninstall its Edge Legacy browser from Windows 10 PCs with April’s Windows 10 Update Tuesday release. For users that haven’t already updated to the new Chromium-based version of the Edge browser, the same update will automatically install it.

Razer has launched one of the first docks to support Intel’s new Thunderbolt 4 high-speed data transfer standard. As you might expect from the gaming-focused company, the new dock also includes support for its Chroma lighting effects system in addition to its wide array of connectivity options.

The cancelled HD remaster of GoldenEye 007 has leaked online, offering a fresh take on the Nintendo 64 classic. Briefly uploaded to XePartnerNet over a decade ago, the leaked build is a closed beta of GoldenEye 007 but one that features the whole campaign and a working multiplayer mode. The GoldenEye 007 remaster can be run in the Xenia emulator.

The EEC files reveal the existence of several RX 6600 XT models from ASRock, all of them coming with 12 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, This suggests that these versions may still be based on the Navi 22 SKU with 192-bit bus, but probably have low clocks that only require a single-fan cooler.

It may not be an UltraSharp, but we're not complaining for $199. This is a deal worth considering as the monitor checks off a lot features not found on most other displays in this price range.

The list of products that IKEA designed in collaboration with Republic of Gamers, the well-known Asus sub-brand, includes over 30 products, including gaming desks and chairs, a drawer unit, as well as various small accessories such a mug holder, a mouse bungee, a ring light, and so on. Global sales will start later this year.

More details about the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT have surfaced, courtesy of KOMACHI ENSAKA. This time, Gigabyte has registered multiple RX 6700 XT SKUs with the EEC, seemingly confirming the company's intent to sell AORUS, Eagle, Gaming and OC versions of the card. The listing suggests that Gigabyte plans to sell a reference model too, all of which will have 12 GB of VRAM.

AMD has promised to release more Navi 21-based reference cards throughout Q1 2021, according to a Senior Director of the company. It remains to be seen how many reference cards will hit the market though, but AMD feels that stock difficulties will stay until at least the second half of 2021. Hence, any reference cards sold this quarter will probably be resold almost instantly at a hefty premium.

Big memory producers are freeing up capacity for the upcoming DDR5 modules, but some smaller companies from Taiwan will continue to produce DDR3 chips. Unfortunately, these companies cannot really meet the sudden demand of DDR3 chips and prices are expected to spike by 50%.

Thanks to liquid nitrogen cooling, the GALAX GeForce RTX 3090 HOF was pushed from 1.8 GHz to over 3 GHz and it broke multiple benchmark records, including 3DMark Vantage Extreme, Port Royal, Fire Strike, Superposition, and other tests. Gamers on a (very!) generous budget can choose one of the six RTX 3090 HOF variants released by GALAX.

Nvidia looks impressively strong in the PC video card usage chart in Steam’s latest monthly Hardware & Software survey. There are new entries for both the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3090, while the RTX 3080 enjoys a third month of popularity. In terms of overall percentage share, Nvidia has no real rival in the GPU space yet.

Steam has published its hardware and software survey for January 2021 and there are certainly some differences in comparison to the previous month in terms of processor usage and share. AMD has achieved its highest share against Intel, likely aided by the uptake of fast Ryzen 5000 processors among the gaming community.

The RTX 3060 is said to launch soon based on an Ampere chip variant called the GA106-300. A GPU leaks site claims to confirm its existence with a new live image showing this silicon, alongside the latest news on its supposed specs. They are said to include 12GB of RAM and fewer CUDA cores than it conceivably could.

The latest Helix and Karbon fanless mini PC models from OnLogic are designed for the IoT and industrial markets. Equipped with the more powerful Celeron and Pentium processors, the Helix series comes in a more compact case, but it also offers fewer expansion options. The Karbon models, on the other hand, offer a more robust connectivity and expansion package, yet they only feature the slower Atom CPUs.

The NZXT H1 case has come under very close scrutiny from the team at Gamers Nexus in two recent videos. It appears a fault with the PCIe riser involving conductive metal screws, an unplated PCB through hole, and an exposed 12 V plane has caused some units to catch on fire. NZXT has issued a workaround with nylon screws, but this still leaves faulty boards in place.
Update: NZXT has taken greater and more positive steps to address the issue.

A Gigabyte G5 KC gaming laptop with an Intel Core i7-10870H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU has been spotted on Geekbench turning out a terrific OpenCL score that would place it roughly between the RTX 2070 and RTX 2070 Super desktop cards in the benchmark chart. Unfortunately, the TGP of the RTX 3060 is not mentioned.

Control: Ultimate Edition recently launched on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Remedy's latest game has evidently joined the ranks of ninth-gen titles running at 30 FPS with a sub-native resolution, thanks in large part to its hardware ray-tracing implementation. Could ray-tracing hold back progress in other aspects of scene complexity and visuals this generation?

More details about the Radeon RX 6700 XT have appeared online, with the latest leak seemingly confirming several aspects about AMD's upcoming RDNA 2 cards. Not only does the leak provide images of the Radeon RX 6700 branding, but it provides details about the card's VRAM capacity, its marketed gaming resolution and its expected release dates.

PassMark has recently updated its CPU Mark single-thread performance chart and two Rocket Lake chips in the forms of the Intel Core i9-11900K and i7-11700K occupy the top two positions. There was some resistance from Vermeer, especially from the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, but the i9-11900K looks to be immovable for the time being.

Reputed benchmarks of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti have surfaced, showcasing the upcoming card against the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. It is unclear why NVIDIA would choose to release the RTX 3080 Ti on these benchmarks, though.

The Wi-Fi Alliance has only just begun to validate hardware with the newest 6E wireless-data standard. This is good news for MediaTek, which has had its latest access point and client-side wireless solutions picked up for use in this official body's new test bed. Therefore, the company might now find it easier to pitch these components to OEMs who make routers, broadband equipment or PCs.

According to an unverified rumour from a South Korean tech forum, AMD could shift some of its GPU/APU production to Samsung. AMD wants to ramp up production, but TSMC is unable to keep up due to prior commitments.

The latest market research report from Canalys shows that the PC market enjoyed success not seen in years during 2020. It posted shipment volumes not seen since 2015, hitting 143.7 million units (a 35% year-on-year (YoY) increase) in the last quarter (4Q2020). Tablet and Chromebook shipments also saw record increases, with the latter doubling in number compared to 2019.

Intel is riding the "work from home" wave by literally turning the retail box for its latest NUC into the shape of a house. The NUC 11 mini PC introduces PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD support and Qi wireless charging for the first time in the series.

We already know that the Apple M1 SoC offers substantial performance and battery life improvements compared to Intel-powered MacBooks. However, Apple has shared the rated-power consumption of the M1 in the Mac mini, providing comparisons between the ARM chipset and chipsets back to the PowerPC G4.

Intel has unveiled the Iris Xe desktop graphics card, better known by its codename of DG1. The Iris Xe Graphics has a 30 W TDP, 4 GB of VRAM and will only be available via OEMs. The Iris Xe DG1 will probably compete against NVIDIA's budget cards, such as the Pascal-based GeForce GT 1010.
Updated: VRAM details and Colorful statement added.

With a tempting price tag of less than US$70, the new mechanical keyboard from Sharkoon comes with two switch choices - red or blue. The SKILLER SGK30 sports a classic design and its list of features includes n-key rollover, support for saving up to 20 game profiles via the companion software, 15 lighting presets, and more.

A new report suggests that Intel has outsourced a good chunk of its future manufacturing to TSMC. Production is expected to kick off when TSMC's 3nm node is fully operational, which is expected to happen sometime in H2 2022. Intel is reportedly assisting TSMC in its 2nm R&D too.

An internal MSI document has spilled the beans about three Intel Rocket Lake-S processors, the Core i9-11900K, Core i7-11700K and Core i5-11600K. It reconfirms reports from earlier, stating that the Core i9-11900K and Core i7-11700K would come with eight cores and sixteen threads, while the Core i5-11600K will serve as six-core, twelve thread CPU. It also sheds some light on the processor's base clock, boost clock, L3 cache, etc.

Micron has launched its latest form of DRAM, which is also now in volume production. It is based on the company's 1-alpha (1α, or fourth-generation) 10 nanometer (nm) node, and also incorporates 176-layer NAND for the first time. Micron asserts that has up to 40% more memory cells, and is up to 15% more power-efficient, than its predecessor.

Intel's Xe DG1 dGPU will only work with select CPU and chipset combinations and will require a BIOS update in order to be recognized. Intel said that Coffee Lake-S and Comet Lake-S CPUs are supported on specific midrange and budget 300 and 400-series chipsets. This rules out any possibility of the GPU being compatible with AMD systems.

The Intel Core i7-11700 has been spotted producing an enormous single-core score on a synthetic benchmark site. The Rocket Lake-S chip outpaced the i7-10700K by quite a margin and even scored higher than the maximum result for the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X. However, this strong i7-11700 mark was recorded on the contentious UserBenchmark site.

Apple has done nothing to the iMac design since 2012, and its huge bezels have not aged well. However, a new report claims that Apple is finally on the verge of unveiling a complete redesign. The new-look iMacs will launch alongside a cheaper alternative to the Pro Display XDR, too.