Desktop

The developer studio Bungie has announced that it will publish its flagship series, Destiny, independently, thus ending its partnership with Activision. This eventuality has been anticipated by industry insiders and observers for some time. However, this is the first time that Bungie has made an official statement on the subject.

The MXM form factor preceding DGFF never took off even though it was marketed for its versatility and ability to support future GPUs. If Dell isn't careful, they may repeat the same mistakes and run into a wall with DGFF once Nvidia launches a Turing successor.

The AMD keynote for this year mainly revolved around the announcement of the Radeon VII GPUs. However, the company's CEO also revealed that the third generation of Ryzen desktop processors would become available soon. There was not much additional detail given on this new CPU line, besides that it is definitely of a 7-nanometer architecture.

As a direct competitor to Nvidia's RTX 2080 GPU, the Radeon VII will target gamers as well as content creators. AMD is citing more than 30% average performance gains for content creators and more than 25% improved performance in games over the Vega 64 GPUs. Also, it looks like the Radeon VII can beat the RTX 2080 in certain scenarios, but costs US$50 less.

Lenovo has introduced the Yoga A920 — a venerable alternative to the Microsoft Surface Studio lineup featuring some nifty enhancements that cater to the creative professional crowd. The Yoga A920 offers very good specs and most of the functionality of the Surface Studio 2 for a whole US$1,000 less.

The upcoming Optane products will get a considerable speed boost, as Intel will switch from the PCIe Gen X2 interface to the Gen 3 X4 one. There will be a new M15 caching module, a new stand-alone 815P SSD and a new H10 combo module that will feature caching and QLC NAND storage. All these new products should be launched in Q2 2019.

Dell is pulling a Clevo by offering a laptop with desktop CPU options and an upgradeable GPU. Instead of adopting the MXM GPU form factor like MSI and Clevo, however, Dell has created its own proprietary DGFF GPU form factor that promises better support and easier serviceability.

Intel has announced expansion of its lineup of 9th generation desktop CPUs by introducing six new CPUs with F and KF monikers. While both F and KF series have their iGPUs disabled, the KF series is overclockable. These new CPUs include the Core i3-9350KF, Core i5-9400F, Core i5-9400, Core i5-9600KF, Core i7-9700KF, and the Core i9-9900KF. Intel also announced that mobile versions of these CPUs will be coming in Q2 2019.

ZOTAC has announced two new GPUs based on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 at CES 2019. The RTX 2060 Twin Fan and RTX 2060 AMP feature the company's IceStorm 2.0 cooling mechanism and FireStorm fine tuning utility. The latest ZOTAC Magnus E series Mini PC now comes with the mobile GeForce RTX 2070 GPU and an 8th generation Intel Core i5 CPU in a compact footprint.

Initially believed to be stripped of the whistles and bells brought by the RTX features on the high-end desktop GPUs, the RTX 2060 is now confirmed to be a powered-down version of the RTX 2080 SKU. Nvidia claims it is 40-60% faster than the GTX 1060 and it even occasionally beats the GTX 1070 Ti. It should be able to provide 60 fps with RTX features enabled on low details in Battlefield V.

The Razer Raptor 27 is the gaming company's entry into the gaming laptop market. The 27-inch 1440p monitor boasts a quick 144 Hz refresh rate, response times as low as 1 ms, and a bright (420 nit) HDR400 certified IPS panel. The monitor will ship with flat acid green cables tailor-made for the display's cable management system.

Popular hardware review channel Hardware Unboxed is "fairly confident" that AMD's upcoming Ryzen 3000 series for the desktop will not be using AMD's chiplet design. Instead, AMD has allegedly opted for another traditional monolithic design, similar to last generation's Ryzen 2000 and 1000 series.

Twitter user APISAK, a prolific leaker and data miner, has leaked an alleged codename for a Ryzen 3000 series engineering sample. According to speculation, this CPU will have 12 cores and a TDP of 105 watts, meaning the previously rumored 12 core 3700X could be real.

Right now, the only way to benefit from OLED displays as a gamer is to buy a TV that has at least a 55-inch diagonal. This could prove to be quite the investment, and gamers have been looking forward to OLED monitors in the 20/30-inch range for several years now. 2019 might just be the year for such monitors, as Sony and Panasonic recently showcased 21.6-inch FHD and 4K OLEDs plus a 27-inch display for smart home applications.

Despite the steep losses in the GPU sector suffered by both AMD and Nvidia, the red team managed to see stock appreciation thanks to the CPU division. Nvidia was not that fortunate and took a hard dive in Q3 and Q4, but things should get better once the RTX 2000 GPUs see more adoption in 2019. Last, but not least, Intel virtually flat-lined throughout the entire 2018 because of the 14 nm CPU shortages.

Bethesda has announced that it will push another new updated to Fallout 76 in order to fix the numerous issues players have highlighted in the past. This new patch also apparently includes new features for the game itself, which include the ability to set up a player-run store. Fallout 76 will also gain new PvP functions and vaults.

E-Katalog, a Russian retailer, has put the entire line of Ryzen 3000 desktop CPUs (the 'Matisse' series) on its website. These listings may indeed just be placeholders; on the other hand, they contain detailed information on processors such as the Ryzen 9 3800X. It suggests that the new generation has seriously outpaced its predecessor, especially at the higher end.

Do you still enjoy Steam on your Windows XP machine? Seems that's just too bad for you, then. Valve's prior announcement that it will cease support for Windows XP and Vista comes into effect today. Users still on these platforms were still able to play games, but lost access to all other Steam features, in 2018; now, they are losing access to the client as a whole.

Under normal circumstances, the most up-to-date version of Windows begins to drag in a majority of market share (defined as the percentage of PCs that run it) in the year of its release. Windows 10 1809 has not enjoyed this level of success so far. In fact, according to a new report by AdDuplex, it has only attained 6.6% of the total market share from 2016 to 2018.

Listings on Newegg, Data-Systems.fi, and Synnex (now taken down) detailed new Coffee Lake Refresh CPUs. Intel has yet to officially announce any new 9th-gen CPUs, but these listings give a good idea of what to expect from the Core i9-9900KF, Core i7-9700KF, Core i5-9600KF, and Core i5-9400F.

The RTX 2060's previously rumored specs are now confirmed, as well as pricing. Starting January 15th, the RTX 2060 can be purchased for $350 and offers 1070 like performance as well as support for ray tracing.

Microsoft has reportedly begun to induce PCs to download and install the latest Windows 10 update, whether the user seeks for it or not. The company claims that this is necessary to protect devices against security threats. However, there are a number of workarounds for this situation.

A new variant of the AMD Radeon RX 590 has been spotted by HEXUS. The Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 8GD5 OC has been listed on the Sapphire Technologies website. However, it seems the only difference between the latest addition and the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 8GD5 Special Edition is the color. The new version of the GPU comes in a black shroud.

Epic Games is now sitting on US$3 billion in gross profits this year. According to a new article in TechCrunch based on the claims of a 'knowledgeable' source. This level of success is (somewhat obviously) made off the back of Epic's flagship, Fortnite. It is a particularly impressive claim, considering that this title's revenue is largely derived from in-game purchases.

Apparently the 11 series of GeForce GPUs actually do exist, with the 1160 coming soon to a Lenovo laptop. These GPUs will allegedly be based on the current Turing architecture but without RTX support, meaning prices should be much lower than the RTX series.

A Twitter-based leaker claims to have found a Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) certification for the full list of Gigabyte/AORUS graphics cards to incorporate the RTX 2060 GPU. According to this extensive listing, the two brands are making no less than 40 separate SKUs of this line. They range from 3 to 6GB in capacity, are either GDDR5 or GDDR6 and cover many form-factors and editions, from Mini ITX to AORUS Extreme.

Fallout 76 has been lambasted by users and critics over its significant bugs and lack of playability at launch. Its developers, Bethesda, has attempted to make restitution for these shortcomings through an offer of free access to older Fallout titles on PC to all who logged into '76, regardless of platform.

Microsoft is now rumored to be working on 4K webcams. These accessories, which are likely to go under the Surface brand, will be compatible with Windows 10-powered devices and the Xbox One. The new webcams, which may also support Windows Hello, may be available next year.

The RTX 2070 with Max-Q design is NVIDIA's upcoming mid-range laptop card. It has been spotted in leaked Final Fantasy XV benchmarks. The results (assuming they are genuine) put the new mobile GPU at the top of a list that also includes the GTX 1080 (desktop and Max-Q versions) and the Radeon RX Vega.

AMD has launched two more entries to its Athlon range: the 220GE and the 240GE. Both processors come with Radeon Vega 3 graphics and offer base clocks of 3.4 GHz (220GE) and 3.5 GHz (240GE), respectively. The 220GE has been priced at US$65 and the 240GE has a price of US$75. The California-based company already announced the 200GE CPU back in September.

Microsoft has been fitting out its London flagship store for several months now, and it does not look like the store is close to opening. The store will remain under construction until at least the end of April 2019, according to planning notices recently placed around the storefront.

A Videocardz correspondent claims to have received tips to the effect that NVIDIA will be bringing out a Turing-based card without ray-tracing capabilities next year. It may be called either the GTX 1160 or GTX 1660 Ti, and may be launched alongside the RTX 2060. This putative card is rumored to incorporate the TU116 GPU.

The current Windows Insider Preview build (or Windows 10 19H1) has been updated to include support for the 'shruggie' and other emojis of its types in the OS' hotkeys. This may finally bring a welcome end to workarounds with keyboard shortcuts and so on. 19H1 should be available in early 2019.

NVIDIA's Titan RTX, the best-spec'd (and most expensive) iteration of Turing architecture out there, has been reportedly overclocked and benchmarked. A Twitter enthusiast has claimed that it achieved just over 41,000 in the graphics portion of 3DMark Fire Strike. However, JayzTwoCents asserts that his own Titan RTX did not break 37,000 in the same sub-test, and that it was not much faster overall than an overclocked RTX 2080 Ti.

A simplified Start menu, Windows Sandbox, Kaomoji and more are rolling out to the Insider Preview Fast ring in the latest 19H1 build. Build 18305 is available to download now from Windows Update.

Tencent Games has asserted that it has drawn level with Epic Games' Fortnite in terms of mobile user numbers for its own game, PUBG. This means that PUBG has made it to about 200 million users. It is estimated that both games also have the same approximate number of users who play at least once a day (30 million).

Are you tired of using Photoshop to clear the background from your photos so you can replace it? The makers of remove.bg clearly thinks you are. It offers a service in which its AI identifies the main subject matter of any image, then makes the background around it transparent.

It's no secret that Cortana is losing favor with the PC-using public, and possibly also with Microsoft developers in some departments. A well-regarded Windows-focused leaker claims to have found evidence that the digital assistant may be replaceable in future versions of the OS. This is also somewhat corroborated by the fact Amazon's Alexa is now available in Windows' Store.

Apple users trying to get their NVIDIA GPUs to work on macOS Mojave 10.14 may be out of luck as Apple has not approved any NVIDIA drivers for the OS yet, even months after release. The only NVIDIA GPUs supported are the Quadro K5000 and the GTX 680. This leaves out those wishing to use the improved CUDA acceleration and other proprietary NVIDIA development tools on macOS Mojave out of luck.

The most recent versions of Windows 10 has an option in settings that apparently prevent the OS sending your activity history to Microsoft. However, HowToGeek has reported that these options may be insufficient in the case of app-history tracking. This information may still be collected unless every relevant privacy setting possible is modified.

While there has been controversy over Intel's soon to launch 28 core CPU, many have been eager to see it in action at least out of sheer curiosity. For anyone that was thinking about buying it, Threadripper might look like a more appealing option since the Xeon W-3175X is over $4000.

The second half of 2018 has not been kind to Nvidia at all. The crypto craze is gone and AIB partners are still overstocked with pascal GPUs, the trade wars in China are creating economic instabilities and the launch of the RTX 2000-series was not really what the green team hoped for. This series of unfortunate events lead to falling share prices and investors are on the edge now.

The developer of a new home-made app claims that it allows for the streaming of PC games to the Nintendo Switch. Unlike many other similar attempts in the past, this version apparently has reduced latency and allows for the full control of said games. It is currently available for Windows only, however.

Facebook has informed its developers of "a photo API bug" that allowed third-party apps to access photos uploaded to the social media's servers, regardless of whether the user then chose to share these images on their timelines or not. The company has admitted that this new flaw had been in effect for eight days in September 2018 and may have affected as many as 6.8 million users who logged in on those dates.

During Intel's Architecture Day earlier this week, SVP Core and Visual Computing Raja Koduri and other key Intel executives gave an overview of upcoming Intel technologies including Foveros, a new 3D packaging system and Sunny Cove, a new microarchitecture based on the 10nm process that is slated to debut in both server and client CPUs in late 2019.

NVIDIA has released a new Game Ready driver that is available to download for RTX and GeForce GPUs. The new driver adds Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) beta to Final Fantasy XV and brings updates to GeForce Experience too.

Chrome 73 is now rumored to add a feature that can organize tabs into certain sets to the browser. This may be most reminiscent of the similar function that Microsoft is reportedly set to bring to Windows File Explorer in the future. In addition, it is now alleged that Google will add a dark mode to Chrome 73 for Macs.