Nvidia

Launched back in September of 2023, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 received its biggest discount on Amazon. The configuration with 16 GB of RAM, Intel Core i7-13700H, and RTX 4050 is currently sitting at $1,799.97, which is down from $2,399.99.

CheckMag NVIDIA showed off a lot at their CES keynote back on the 8th of January. They showed off their Super series of GPUs. They showed off their renewed belief in saying "AI" a lot to boost their stock market performance. But they also showed off the fact that their vaunted performance-boosting frame generation technology is pretty performance-hungry, too.

In addition to zero-day support for the new GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, the first Game Ready driver package of the year also comes with DLSS 2 optimizations for Palworld alongside GeForce Experience optimal settings for five titles, namely Apocalypse Party, Ash Echoes, Escape from Tarkov: Arena, House Flipper 2, and Pioneers of Pagonia.

The Nvidia RTX 4070 Super review embargo is about to end soon. But hours before the end of the embargo, the performance measures of the new GeForce GPU have surfaced. Its leaked 3DMark scores point to a good performance improvement over the non-Super GeForce RTX 4070.

Nvidia RTX 40 Super series cards are over the horizon. The earliest launch, which is for the GeForce RTX 4070 Super, is set for January 17. But Newegg and BestBuy have already listed the factory-overclocked models, revealing the pricing information of custom GPUs.

The MSI Creator M16 HX is the first in the M-series lineup to feature Intel 14th gen Raptor Lake-HX Refresh processors. The Creator M16 HX boasts configurations up to the Core i9-14900HX and RTX 4070 Laptop GPU but is content with a 65 WHr battery compared to the 90 WHr capacity in the Creator Z17 HX.

MSI has launched the Creator M14 with Intel 13th gen Raptor Lake-H and up to an RTX 4060 at CES 2024. The Creator M14 is geared towards budding content creators as evidenced by offering of the RTX 2050 Mobile as one of the GPU options, although it can still be configured with up to an RTX 4060 Laptop GPU.

MSI is refreshing the upper mid-range Crosshair lineup at CES 2024 with a regular gaming laptop design without using any game-specific themes. The new Crosshair 16 HX and Crosshair 17 HX are pretty much similar to their Sword counterparts including the use of Core i7-14700HX and up to an RTX 4070 Laptop GPU but with higher battery capacities.

MSI's Titan 18 HX is now official with top-of-the-line that is typical of the Titan lineup. The Titan 18 HX boasts the world's first 18-inch 4K 120 Hz mini-LED display, the Core i9-14900HX, which MSI says can sustain at 5.2 GHz all P-core, and a choice of 175 W RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 Laptop GPUs.

Acer is refreshing the Nitro 17 at CES 2024 with Intel Raptor Lake-HX options up to the Core i7-14700HX. Other aspects including the 17.3-inch QHD 165 Hz display, liquid metal TIM for the CPU, RTX 4060, and 90 WHr battery remain unchanged from last year.

The new Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super offers the complete AD103 die at 10,240 CUDA cores compared to 9,728 cores in the original RTX 4080. The RTX 4080 Super offers a slightly faster 16 GB GDDR6X VRAM and operates at the same 320 W TGP as the RTX 4080 while costing US$200 less.

The Alienware x16 R2 is now official with a 16-inch QHD+ 240 Hz screen, 32 GB of LPDDR5X RAM, 4 TB storage and a 90 Wh battery. Unfortunately, there is no word about when it goes on sale.

The Studio and Evo variants share the same chassis and most of the features. However, the Studio variant is slightly heavier as it can be equipped with up to an RTX 4070 dGPu from Nvidia, while the Evo one only relies on the integrated Intel Arc from the Meteor Lake processors.

18-inch laptops are seeing increased adoption and MSI is now adding such a model to the Creator lineup among others. Along with the Tiatn 18HX, the CreatorPro X18 HX is said to be the world's first to feature the new 18-inch 3840 x 2400 MiniLED display with 120 Hz refresh rate. It also supports up to 128 GB DDR5 RAM and comes with Nvidia RTX 3500 / 5000 Ada generation professional GPUs.

Nvidia is introducing the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super that supersedes the RTX 4070 Ti at a US$799 MSRP. The RTX 4070 Ti Super offers a 10% increase in shader counts over the non-Super variant but now transitions to the AD103 GPU with a 256-bit 16 GB GDDR6X memory interface.

Nvidia has unveiled the GeForce RTX 4070 Super at CES 2024. The RTX 4070 Super supplants the regular RTX 4070 at the same US$599 price point while offering ~22% more CUDA, Tensor, and RT cores at a 220 W TGP. Nvidia claims that the RTX 4070 Super can beat a 350 W RTX 3090 when DLSS 3 is enabled.

Alongside the Omen Transcend 14, HP is also offering a refreshed Omen Transcend 16 with Intel Raptor Lake-HX Refresh processors including the Core i7-14700HX and Core i9-14900HX. This year's Omen Transcend 16 drops the mini-LED option and instead offers a QHD+ 240 Hz OLED as the top configuration.

HP is introducing the Omen Transcend 14 at CES 2024, pitching it as the world's coolest and lightest 14-inch gaming laptop. The Omen Transcend 14 features an IMAX-enhanced 2.8K 120 Hz OLED display and offers up to Core Ultra 9 185H and RTX 4070 options. Buyers can also optionally configure the Transcend 14 with Wi-Fi 7 networking.

Dell is once again re-introducing the XPS 14, this time sporting the same design language as the new XPS 13. The XPS 14 9440 offers up to a 3.2K OLED display, Core Ultra 7 processors, and an optional RTX 4050 configuration. Compared to the XPS 13 9340, the XPS 14 9440 offers an additional Thunderbolt 4, microSD card slot, and a larger battery but forgoes Wi-Fi 7 for Wi-Fi 6E.

Dell is bidding goodbye to the iconic XPS 15 lineup, making way for the new XPS 16 9640. The XPS 16 9640 continues the same design language as the newly launched XPS 13 and XPS 14. Buyers can customize the XPS 16 with 45 W Intel Meteor Lake CPUs, up to a 60 W Nvidia RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, an optional 4K+ OLED panel, and reap benefits of Wi-Fi 7 connectivity.

Reports revolving around Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB have been circulating for quite a while now. Well, the GPU has just made its silent debut. It has been spotted on a Russian retail website, which gave away some key details of the graphics card. Reportedly, there will also be fanless models available from Palit.

Nvidia has formally launched the RTX 4090D made specifically for the Chinese market. The card appears to be a slightly cut down variant of the regular RTX 4090 the company was forced to pull from sale in China due to U.S. government restrictions.

PELADN has previewed three new gaming mini PCs. Part of a new series named PELADN YO, the new mini PC models aim to bring high performance in a small, eye-catching package. They are set to pack Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen CPUs with RTX 40 mobile and RX7000M discrete GPUs.

Many users of RTX 40 series GPUs, especially the RTX 4090, are still reporting the power cables burning and melting problem. This issue can be avoided with a secure connection, which requires a minimum space of 35 mm between the connector and the first bend. To make it easier to ensure this, Seasonic has recommended using a hair dryer to pre-bend the cables before installing the card.

Xinjuneng has announced a one-of-a-kind laptop. It comes with the AMD EPYC lineup of CPUs, which, as you may know, are made for servers. But it’s not just the CPU that makes the laptop unique. The Yunguai REV-9 also has NVIDIA RTX 4080 and built-in split liquid cooling.

CheckMag As DX12 Ultimate becomes more ubiquitous, with even integrated GPUs featuring RT support now, it's time to wave goodbye to the trusty old GTX/GT/GS/GTS series and embrace the new era.

After the official announcement happening at CES '24 on January 8, Nvidia is rumored to spread the release schedule for the RTX 4000 Super cards throughout the remainder of January.

Released yesterday with full support for The Finals, Squad, The Day Before, as well as Fortnite Chapter 5, the GeForce Game Ready Driver 546.33 also comes with one-click optimal settings support for six titles, including the recently released Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Sadly, there are no new G-Sync Compatible displays this time.

The ZimaCube Kickstarter campaign has just come to a close, having successfully raised close to $1.2 million.

Performance-wise, the G4 Edge is even faster than similar laptop configurations thanks to the beefier cooling system. However, the port side is missing TB4 / USB4 connectivity and, despite the improved cooling solution, the CPU can get a bit hot.

Vietnam might develop into a hub for Nvidia's chip research and manufacturing. The local media reports that the company intends to establish a legal entity in the country.

Sold for as high as $2,198.99 in early August, the Asus ROG Strix G16 (2023) with Intel Core i9-13980HX processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics is now available for $1,699.99. This price is $50 higher than the all-time low, but quite attractive given the $1,826.44 average Amazon price (according to Camelcamelcamel).

Unlike other budget models that sacrifice build and screen quality, the Nitro 16 offers a good display plus features that are rarely seen at such low prices, such as a USB4 connector and a microSD card reader. The RTX 4070 is also maxed out at 140 W.

NVIDIA is reportedly gearing up to release a cut-back version of the RTX 4090 exclusively for China next month. Termed the RTX 4090D or “Dragon”, the GPU allegedly employs an AD102-250 chip, a lower power limit than the RTX 4090, and fewer CUDA cores.

Nvidia is partnering with Japanese companies to establish a chain of semiconductor plants in Japan to meet the growing demand for AI graphics chips. Simultaneously, China is investing heavily in transforming Hong Kong into a new hub for semiconductor manufacturing.

Varjo has released the XR-4 mixed reality headsets with 4K displays for each eye that produce a combined 28 million pixel display resolution. This exceeds the resolution of all consumer VR/XR headsets on the market today including the upcoming Apple Vision Pro. Three models are available – the XR-4, XR-4 Focal Edition, and XR-4 Secure Edition.

Industry sources close to The Elec claim that Samsung is acquiring packaging equipment from Japanese company Shinkawa in order to produce HBM3 RAM and interposers for the upcoming Blackwell AI accelerators. TSMC is still producing the GPU chips, however.

Nvidia has announced that the availability of RTX technology has reached a total of 500 games and applications. To mark this milestone, Nvidia is planning on some special giveaways, which include a $500 gift card and other freebies.

Letting the Nvidia card do the rendering with Frame Gen and passing the resulting output through AFMF on the AMD card that is connected to the display, the average fps in Cyberpunk can be boosted by 290%. However, in some games, the 1% lows show dramatic drops due to AFMF not working properly.

Other specs include 16 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, 512 GB PCIe 4.0 SSD storage, 15.6-inch 1080p 144 Hz IPS display and a full-size SD card reader. Walmart also throws in a free 1-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

CheckMag The Steam Deck and Proton have done a lot for gaming on Linux. Users that were once tied to Windows for gaming now have multiple options for breaking free. Here are some of the best Linux distributions for getting your Windows-free game on.