Gaming

ASUS is now shipping the ROG Ally, for which it has also released a new BIOS update. BIOS 319 appears to reduce in-game performance by up to 20%, with even ASUS advising fans that they can skip updating for now.

The 17-inch Alienware m17 R5 is now on sale for 40% off the list price. The discounted SKU features starkly mid-range hardware in the Ryzen 7 6800H CPU and the RTX 3060 GPU alongside a bonkers 480 Hz refresh rate display. Furthermore, the laptop can be upgraded thanks to two SO-DIMM and M.2 slots for memory and storage expansion.

Although the first dropped by 0.19% and the latter faced a 0.7% descent compared to April, the 1080p primary display resolution and Windows 10 64-bit reign supreme in last month's Steam hardware and software survey. No less than 60.51% of Steam users use Microsoft's previous operating system, while 64.33% play their games in FHD.

The RX 7800 XT is rumored to be using a fully-enabled Navi 32 GPU that potentially allows the GPU to perform better than the RTX 4070. Igor’s Lab has tested a Radeon Pro W7800 under certain conditions to simulate the RX 7800 XT. The results depict the RX 7800 XT to be 14% faster on average vs the RTX 4070 at 4K.

Retroid has confirmed the launch date of the Pocket 3 Plus Metal Edition, a revised gaming handheld with a new metal shell. Retroid has also added hall effect joysticks, which were missing from the original Pocket 3 Plus.

The AOC AGON AG405UXC is a new 40-inch ultra-wide gaming monitor. Equipped with an IPS panel, the AGON AG405UXC operates at 1440p and 144 Hz with 400 nits peak brightness. AOC has included five USB ports too, among other features.

Unisoc has reportedly broken into the 5G mobile processor market with the T820, a new 6 nanometer chipset with a 1+3+4 core configuration. The chip-maker has partnered with Nubia to debut its new SoC in the Neo, a gaming smartphone with a "futuristic aesthetic design" and at least two cameras. It will go to pre-order later in June 2023.

One-netbook has revealed various details about the ONEXFLY, nine months after it shared initial teasers. The company has now torn up plans to release a 6-inch and AMD Mendocino gaming handheld, with the ONEXFLY an exact replica of the AOKZOE A2 instead.

NVIDIA has brought forward the launch of the GeForce RTX 4060, which it originally scheduled for a July release. Instead, the GeForce RTX 4060 will be coming in two weeks' time. The GeForce RTX 4060 will start at US$299, making it the cheapest way to obtain a desktop RTX 40 series graphics card.

The second major update to War Thunder, dubbed "La Royale" and released yesterday, comes with more than 50 new/updated vehicles, including 14 new ships for the French naval tree (in Closed Beta stage for now). There is also a first Indian tank (Vijayanta), two new locations, and much more.

The Blade 14 2023 is Razer's most powerful 14-inch laptop yet, with promised gains of around 20% in modern triple-A titles. The Blade 14 2023 comes packed with AMD's most powerful Ryzen 7040HS APU, plus a choice between 140 W variants of the GeForce RTX 4060 and GeForce RTX 4070. Razer has included various other quality-of-life changes from last year's model too, such as a bigger battery, a larger trackpad and various upgrade options.

AMD sneakily included this easter egg in an interview from 2 weeks ago, but no one noticed it until yesterday. It looks like this chip is going to power the upcoming RX 7800 / XT cards, which could launch in just a few months to compete with Nvidia's RTX 4070 GPUs.

The 2023 Lenovo Legion Pro 5 Gen 8 with an 8-core Ryzen 7 7745HX processor, a 140 W RTX 4070 board, and 16 GB of DDR5 5200 MHz memory is now enjoying a generous 27% off at Lenovo’s official store. For the price, the Legion Pro 5 is a stellar option as it has excellent performance, a good display, and upgradeable RAM/storage.

Priced over US$170 in late 2022, the 23.6-inch Acer Nitro ED240Q Sbiip curved gaming monitor now carries an attractive US$109.99 price tag thanks to a generous 39% discount. This FHD monitor has a VA panel with 165 Hz refresh and 1 ms minimum response time, as well as AMD FreeSync Premium support and DP/HDMI connectivity.

Microsoft has unveiled a new version of its Xbox Series S. The console is still "all-digital" - however, this variant comes in black, to denote internal storage specs that have doubled in size compared to the original model. For Series X fans, the Redmond giant has partnered with Bethesda to hype Starfield with limited editions and themed versions of its first-party peripherals.

ASUS has revealed more specifications about the ROG Swift PG38UQ, one of several new gaming monitors it recently showcased at Computex 2023. The ROG Swift PG38UQ will be available later this year as the world's first 38-inch gaming monitor with HDMI 2.1 ports.

Anbernic has launched the RG Nano, a compact gaming handheld that weighs just 75 g. Built around an aluminium housing, the RG Nano has a 1.5-inch display, will emulate numerous game libraries and starts at just US$59.99.

AOKZOE is preparing to launch its second gaming handheld of the year, following the release of the A1 Pro in May. The AOKZOE A2 will be noticeably smaller than its counterpart but will still pack a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 7840U APU and Radeon 780M iGPU.

Good sub-US$200 GPUs seem to be more and more rare in the post-pandemic era. With the launch of Nvidia's and AMD's subpar lower-mid-range solutions like the RTX 4060 Ti and RX 7600, previous gen GPUs like the RX 6600 appear to offer the best bang for the buck, especially when they go on sale for only US$180.

The Odyssey OLED G9 is now orderable in the US, five months after its debut at CES 2023. Samsung is also offering a US$250 gift card with pre-orders before shipping the 49-inch QD-OLED gaming monitor later this month.

Dell has now slashed US$1,750 off the list price of the 2022 Alienware x17 R2. The notebook comes with a Core i9-12900H processor, an RTX 3080 laptop GPU, 16 GB of DDR5 memory, and a 512 GB PCIe SSD. Aside from strong performance and a speedy 480 Hz display, the Alienware x17 R2 also features upgradable RAM and storage thanks to two SO-DIMM and M.2 slots.

Starfield is Bethesda Game Studio’s first new IP in 25 years. The game is releasing on September 6 on both the Xbox Series S|X and PC. According to the title's Steam listing, Starfield requires, at a minimum, an RX 5700/GTX 1070 Ti GPU and a Ryzen 5 2600X/Intel Core i7-6800K CPU.

NVIDIA confirmed last month that the RTX 4060, the cheapest RTX 40 board, will be available to buy in July. However, according to a new report from Paul of RedGamingTech which was later supported by MEGAsizeGPU on Twitter, the RTX 4060 will release later this month. Additionally, Paul has confirmed that the RTX 50 Blackwell GPUs will follow the release pattern of previous GeForce launches.

CrossCheck In this article, we'll be comparing two great Razer Blade gaming laptops to explore how small gen-to-gen leaps band together to become unbelievable gains in a matter of just a few years. While this is predictably a numbers game, some of the changes improve user experience much more than one could possibly expect.

The RX 7800 XT is rumored to feature the fully-enabled Navi 32 RDNA 3 GPU. Reportedly equipped with 60 Compute Units, 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, and 64 MB of Infinity Cache, the card could be a direct competitor to the RTX 4070 if the latest report from RedGamingTech about the price and performance of the board is accurate.

A modder has released an unofficial patch for the popular Ubisoft game, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. The game suffered from nagging bugs, mouse deadzones, and all sorts of haphazard camera movements that Ubisoft hasn't fixed at all. The new patch fixes most of these issues and also enables DirectX 11, 4x MSAA, and support for 4K monitors.

An RTX 3080 Ti-powered configuration of the unique but usually quite pricy Alienware m15 R7 has received an intriguing discount as Dell has almost slashed the original list price of its high-end 15-inch gaming laptop in half.

Minisforum's first ever mini PC model with a laptop-grade Intel Arc dGPU is now available for pre-orders starting at $649 for US customers (late July shipping) or €759 for EU customers (late June shipping).

This model has not seen these low prices since last November. With the RTX 4060 models not impressing too much, heavily discounted RTX 3060 laptops like the Zephyrus G14 from 2 years ago seem to be a better deal right now.

LG has started selling the UltraGear 25GR75FG, an IPS monitor that combines a 1080p resolution with a 360 Hz refresh rate. The monitor also has three video inputs and a USB 3.0 hub, among other features.

A Porsche 963-themed Xbox Series X was shown off at Summer Games Fest. However, it is not up for sale and can only be obtained via a raffle. Furthermore, only residents of the US, UK and Germany are allowed to participate.

Insomniac has announced Marvel's Spider-Man 2 will hit the PlayStation 5 on October 20. Pre-order bonuses and the contents of the Digital Deluxe and Collectors Editions have also been confirmed.

Acer has started selling the Nitro XV272URV in Europe, where it is available for €399. The Nitro XV2 series monitor is VESA DisplayHDR 400 certified, offers 400 nits peak brightness and combines a 1440p resolution with a 170 Hz overclocked refresh rate.

The RX 7800M XT performs identically to the desktop RTX 4070 if the latest leaked 3DMark TimeSpy Graphics score of the GPU is any indication. Based on the score, the mobile RDNA 3 GPU matches the RTX 3080 desktop card while leaving the mobile RTX 3080 in the dust.

MSI has unveiled the MAG 275CQRF-QD, a 27-inch Fast VA monitor with a 170 Hz refresh rate. The MAG 275CQRF-QD also combines a 1440p resolution with 1 ms response times and a 4,000:1 contrast ratio, among other features.

Fnatic has secured a long-term development partnership with Sony to provide input on next-gen INZONE products. The new collaboration is slated to result in new content from the brand as well as follow-ups to PlayStation-themed monitors such as the M9. Sony asserts that the e-sports team members' experience and feedback will lead to a revolution in its own-brand gaming gear in the near future.

MacOS Sonoma beta appears to be running DX12 games with relative ease on the M1 and M2 processors via the Wine emulator included with the Game Porting Toolkit. Cyberpunk 2077 struggles on the M1 with Ultra settings, but the M2 processors can run Diablo IV, Hogwarts Legacy and Spider-Man at more than 30 fps.

The new DLAA performance Quality mode would make it easier for game devs to integrate the AI-powered anti-aliasing algorithm as a selectable mode along with the various DLSS performance and quality modes.

Leaker All_The_Watts has revealed specifications of five upcoming RDNA 3 mobile GPUs. The RX 7800M XT occupies the top of the leaked lineup with bring 60 Compute Units, 16 GB of RAM, and a 165 W TDP, while the bottom is served by the RX 7800S with 48 CU, 12 GB of memory, and a 120 W TDP.

One-netbook has revealed the ONEXPLAYER 2 Pro, the third version of the ONEXPLAYER 2, after it released AMD Ryzen 7 6800U and Intel Core i7-1370P versions. Now, the company has brought the Ryzen 7 7840U to the ONEXPLAYER 2 platform, which brings Zen 4 cores and the RDNA 3 architecture via the Radeon 780M.

Blizzard wants to celebrate Diablo IV's launch by giving away two GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards with a custom backplate. Gamers can try their luck via the social media platform of choice. Entries are valid till June 20, and Nvidia will announce the winner on June 31.

LG has presented two new UltraGear gaming monitors. Launching later this year as the UltraGear 27GR93U and UltraGear 32GR93U, the pair both feature 4K IPS panels with 144 Hz refresh rates. LG markets the pair as being VESA DisplayHDR 400 certified with 500 nits peak brightness too.

For decades, macOS has been regarded as the pariah of operating systems when it comes to gaming. Things are about to get a lot better for macOS as the upcoming Sonoma update is bringing a dedicated Game Mode along with a Game Porting Toolkit which should greatly streamline game coding on Apple's operating system.

Sony has now outright confirmed that it has partnered with Square Enix to bring Final Fantasy XVI (FFXVI) to the PlayStation 5 (PS5). The latest instalment of the iconic game can be pre-ordered for that console (and only that console) through a number of channels from now. Sony has taken this opportunity to strongly hint that it is best played on a BRAVIA TV or INZONE monitor.

The mid-range gaming laptop further sports 16GB of DDR5 memory, a 1TB SSD as well as a fairly basic 144Hz FHD display. On sale for US$1,149, the 15-inch Lenovo LOQ is arguably one of the better bargains in the RTX 4060 gaming laptop segment.

AYA NEO continues to provide more details about the NEXT II, the company's future premier gaming handheld. Likely drawing comparisons with the Steam Deck because of its design, the NEXT II is slated to arrive before the end of the year with an 8-inch IPS display, an AMD Ryzen 7000 series APU and discrete graphics. AYA NEO has designed the NEXT II to be capable of cooling an APU and GPU combination that draws up to 100 W too.