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PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, or PUBG for short, is one of the Korean studio Bluehole's biggest success stories. However, some state regulators seem not to like it as much as its millions of players do. Nepal is the latest country to ban the game, citing detrimental effects on children and teenagers.

The extreme edition Intel Core i9-9990XE is now available for direct sale, but it doesn’t come cheaply. German computer hardware specialist CaseKing.de has decided to make the powerful chip available to customers for a starting price of €2,999 (~US$3,384). If you want to buy a system that already has the chip installed, there is one currently available for €12,999.90 (~US$14,671).

The latest GeForce Game Ready Driver from Nvidia enables a limited set of ray tracing features for the GTX 1000-series. Compared to the new RTX 2000 cards, the Pascal ones are clearly slower and Nvidia provides a set of graphs to reflect the performance gap. The green team also provides three tech demos where Pascal users can play around with the settings.

The new Disney+ streaming service will entail a mixture of old and new shows from all of the studios under its umbrella. This, therefore, includes Lucasfilm, 21st Century Fox, Pixar and Marvel. Therefore, Netflix may indeed forfeit several lucrative series-length titles as Disney parts company with it in 2019. This year should also see much more granular detail on what this new subscription has to offer.

iTunes, the unified account by which Apple apps and services are accessed on devices such as Macs, seems to have been around forever. However, it also appears that this is no longer the case. A 9to5Mac contributor has confirmed rumors that the new protocol Marzipan is being used to make new apps (e.g. Apple TV) that do not require this old system on macOS.

YouTube has amassed a 265 million-stong user based in the Indian market. Speaking at a recent Google conference, the service's CEO, Susan Wojcicki, projected that this number would grow further to 500 million by next year. The executive attributed this to the availability of 4G in this country.

Canon has launched the EOS Rebel SL3, the latest in this line of compact DLSRs. This model is capable of 4K reconding, a first for the EOS Rebel series. It does so with its 24.1 megapixel (MP) APS-C sensor, which is compatible with EF and EF-S lenses. The EOS Rebel is capable of various autofocus settings, and has a completely adjustable LCD touchscreen.

The upcoming 9th Gen Coffee Lake Intel Core desktop processor i7-9700T has appeared in the UserBenchmark database. The chip seemed to perform very well in the tests, achieving a reasonably high place in the overall ranking. The “T” variants in the Coffee Lake lineup are distinguished by their lower TDP levels and therefore lower clock rates.

A few images of the upcoming Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 desktop graphics card have found their way online. The models from ZOTAC, Palit, and Gainward are all single-fan cards with some slight differences in connectivity. Nvidia hasn’t officially announced the latest entry to the GeForce GTX 16 series, which is expected to be released in a couple of weeks.

2019 is already shaping up to be a good year for AMD. The 7 nm chips are currently manufactured by TSMC on the new EUV lithography, and the red team has considerably increased its chip orders, as the launch dates are looming. Intel, on the other hand, is faced with weakened investor confidence and could lose important market share in the mainstream CPU and server sectors.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is known for his usually accurate predictions surrounding the notoriously secretive company’s plans. After initially hinting that an all-new MacBook Pro design with a 16-inch display could arrive this year, he has now pushed the estimated arrival of this device back to the first half of 2021.

An Nvidia graphics card has turned up on UserBenchmark with the prosaic name “graphics device”. The results in the benchmarks for the hardware are somewhat surprising, as the GPU seems to land somewhere between the GeForce RTX 2070 and RTX 2080 in terms of performance average. There was mention of a GeForce RTX 2070 Ti once before, but this was eventually explained away as a typo.

According to a new report by DigiTimes, the uptake of 7nm chips from TSMC was at its lowest 2019 ebb in the first quarter of this year (1Q2019). However, the company expects its orders to push its relevant processes to their full capacity in 3Q2019. The firm has also started using the improved EUV method for the production of 7nm dies.

Initially scheduled for mid-2019, risk production for the upcoming 5 nm manufacturing process was already initiated at the end of March. TSMC also finalized the 5 nm design infrastructure and it is currently testing this process through multiple silicon test vehicles. Improvements over the current 7 nm process include 1.8X increased logic density and a 15% performance boost.

A new HWBOT World Record has just been set in 3DMark’s popular Time Spy benchmark. The score of 37,697 points was achieved with a system that featured four Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards operating in an SLI configuration. An Intel Core i9-9980XE processor was also used in the record-breaking system.

TrendForce was predicting back in early 2019 that DDR4 RAM prices would see up to 35% cuts by Q2 2019, and this now appears to be indeed the case judging by the price trend data provided by CamelCamelCamel. These graphs also show that the DDR4 prices got halved compared to the peak prices of late 2017.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG349Q is a 34-inch, 21:9 Ultra-wide monitor with a resolution of 3440x1440. The OEM claims that these specs give 35% more desktop space compared to a WQHD panel. More to the point, however, this new monitor can be clocked between 100 and 120 hertz.

Beats has unveiled its new Powerbeats Pro on its website. These new earbuds are of the 'sports' variety, and thus have over-the-ear loops built into a completely wireless design. Like the new AirPods, they can activate Siri hands-free and have the new H1 chip for wearables.

A clock rate of 2,940.0 MHz has been recorded for a customized GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card. The hardware was specially prepared as part of the Galax OC Gathering 2019. The incredible clock rate was measured as part of a GPUPI 1B benchmark test, which also resulted in the system achieving a very credible mark of 2 s 691 ms.

A new high score for 3DMark’s Fire Strike Extreme test (single GPU) has been achieved by a system featuring a customized variant of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card. The hardware in question was a Galax GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Hall of Fame OC Lab WC Edition board. A score of 23,998 points was publicly shared, although an even higher score was recorded.

SPURV is a new project by Collabora, an open source software development and integration company. SPURV can run a full instance of Android in a container, allowing the mobile OS to directly access system hardware and run apps natively on a Linux system. The process essentially runs two operating systems on a machine at the same time and can be quite resource intensive.

AMD is threatening to consolidate its position on the server market with the latest 7 nm EPYC 64-core CPUs, forcing Intel's hand to launch the Xeon Platinum 9200-series CPUs with up to 56 cores and 112 threads. These top-of-the-line chips feature a dual-die design wrapped in a BGA package, TDPs of up to 400 W, support for 1.5 TB of DDR4-2933 RAM and 4.5 TB Optane storage per chip, plus hardware-level fixes for the most Meltdown/Spectre vulnerabilities.

The new GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Gaming X 6G video card from MSI comes with the brand's Twin Frozr 7 thermal design that provides a semi-passive, dual-fan cooling solution for a noise-free environment in low-load situations. With a boost clock speed of 1,875 MHz, the Gaming X 6G also features customizable RGB LED lighting.

The codename given to an AMD engineering sample processor has been leaked online and has already sparked considerable speculation as to what it could be. A breakdown of the name seems to point at the chip being a desktop APU from the Picasso range based on the Zen+ microarchitecture. This series currently consists of just mobile processors.

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) has announced that AMD’s CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, will be delivering the opening keynote at Computex 2019. The keynote has been scheduled for May 27, and it seems like this could be the ideal setting for Su to show off AMD’s anticipated Radeon Navi GPU series. It’s also been speculated that she could launch the Ryzen 3000 series at the same time.

A record in SiSoftware’s Sandra benchmark database has offered up two new pieces of information in regard to AMD’s upcoming Zen 2-based products. Firstly, the entry shows that MSI is developing hardware in the form of an X570 motherboard to support the expected Ryzen desktop processors, and secondly a mysterious AMD processor was involved in the test.

The names of three new Gigabyte motherboards have been revealed bearing the “X499” designation. It’s believed at least one of the boards will be capable of offering 10 GbE network data rates. AMD is expected to introduce the X499 chipset specifically for the 3rd Gen HEDT Ryzen Threadripper processors.

A list of X570 motherboards from Gigabyte has been leaked thanks to data published online by the Eurasian Economic Committee (EEC). Various OEMs are gearing up for the upcoming release of AMD’s 3rd Generation of Ryzen desktop processors, which are based on the power-efficient Zen 2 microarchitecture.

It may be called the GeForce RTX 2060, but it may as well be the GeForce GTX 1070 in the laptop world. We compare the desktop RTX 2060, RTX 2070, and RTX 2080 to their laptop counterparts to find surprisingly wide performance differences between them.

A new rumored release date for the upcoming Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 desktop graphics card has been offered: April 22. A previous report had suggested a launch date of April 30 for the latest entry to the GeForce 16 series, but apparently the new date has been provided by AIBs. A Ti variant of the GTX 1650 is also expected at some point.

A new Final Fantasy XV benchmark has been shared online that shows the upcoming Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 performing reasonably well in the 1920x1080 High Quality test. The graphics card manages a score of 3803, which puts it firmly in the middle of the points range for a standard level of performance.

Apple puts the maximum RAM of its new 27-inch iMac at 64GB. However, the memory kit-maker OWC has confirmed that the PC is indeed compatible with twice this value. Therefore, it now sells upgrade kits for this PC that may allow a user to add 120GB of RAM to an iMac base model.

TCO Certified is a body that assesses the durability, recyclability and upgradability of desktops and laptops. The goal of this process is to improve sustainability in the IT industry. TCO claims that its 8th-generation criteria are the most stringent yet, and that 3 OEMs in particular have beaten them.

Jabra has released its latest generation of neckbuds, the Evolve 65e. The audio company claims that this wireless set of earphones has consumer-grade comfort with professional levels of audio. This product has attained Skype for Business and UC certification, which may appeal to the business customer in need of mobile connectivity.

The new, ultra-compact Vnopn K1 does without a fan and has no moving parts, which helps keep its form factor down. Vnopn has equipped the K1 with an AMD processor too unlike many other PCs of its size.

Even though Intel warned that the 14 nm CPU shortage could continue until the end of the first half of 2019, the company appears to be ready to launch a new stepping for the gen 9 Core processors in just a few weeks. This information is confirmed by ASUS and Gigabyte, which already updated their BIOS for the 300-series motherboards. Gigabyte even leaked the full list of R0 CPUs.

Apple's latest release event debuted Arcade, a new elaboration on the App Store's gaming experience. The company claims that over 100 new and original games have been developed for this new subscription-based service. It is also ad-free and allows offline play.

The blog TechPowerUp claims to have accessed the new Intel Graphics Command Center's INF file. It apparently lists the various sub-types of the new, particularly powerful Gen11 integrated GPUs. They may also pertain to Ice Lake and Lakefield CPUs.

Google’s Stadia cloud-powered streaming gaming service looks to be a technological marvel. However, in order to deliver its full potential gamers will need a robust internet connection.

Prices for second-generation AMD Ryzen CPUs have dropped, with US$50 being shaved off a performance-level Ryzen 7 2700 CPU on Newegg. A number of CPUs based on the Zen+ microarchitecture have been discounted, leading to speculation that AMD is making space in its inventory for the upcoming Zen 2-based Ryzen chips.

Intel has confirmed that it is killing off further development of its Compute Card platform. Similar in size to a credit card, Compute Card was teased at CES 2017 and first unveiled at Computex 2017 and promised modular upgrades for computers, smart TVs and other devices.

The new AMD X570 chipset is expected to be launched soon and a list of motherboards produced by Asus for this particular generation has been leaked. The products being prepared cover a number of well-known Asus lines, including ROG and TUF. ASRock’s upcoming line-up of X570 boards has also been published online.

Set to become the entry-level model of the Turing generation, the upcoming GTX 1650 appears to be almost as fast as the GTX 1050 Ti from the previous gen in the latest Final Fantasy XV benchmarks. This model is scheduled to launch in April for around US$179 with no RT or Tensor cores and only 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM.

15 years after the release of the original Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Paradox is finally announcing a sequel to the "cult" RPG game. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is set in modern-day Seattle, and the gameplay will include brutal first person melee fights, strong language, and hub-like levels with non-linear progression.

Razer has released its financial report for 2018. It shows that the gaming company's revenues are now stands at US$274.2 million. The firm made $79.5 million in terms of gross profit last year, and also cut its losses by 4.3% compared to 2017.

The 1st-Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X CPU is currently priced at US$299.99 on Newegg. This Zen-based high-end desktop processor (HEDT) was originally released in August 2017 and cost US$549 at the time of launch. The chip has eight cores and 16 threads, and it can offer a boost clock of up to 4 GHz.

The AMD 'Matisse' Ryzen 3000 CPUs are still a couple of months away from launch but motherboards OEMs have started prepping for it by offering new AGESA updates that support the new processors. MSI, Asus, and BioStar have started rolling out AGESA v0.0.7.x that includes support for Zen 2 Ryzen 3000 CPUs. Other OEMs are expected to follow suit as we head closer to launch.