Gaming

According to a new report from a previously reliable source, Sony is developing the PlayStation 5 Pro under the codename Trinity with considerably faster RAM and an overhauled GPU. Likely featuring as many Compute Units as an AMD Radeon RX 6800, the same source has also outlined a release window for Sony's next Pro console, among other details.

Sony and Insomniac Games have collaborated on a new Limited Edition Bundle of the PlayStation 5 (PS5) based on the next blockbuster from the latter: Marvel's Spider-Man 2. This version of the console comes with an exclusive new paint-job for the console and DualSense wireless controller that highlights the game's main "threat" as well as its main characters. However, those with an existing PS5 can still get the same effect thanks to new first-party replacement covers.

One-netbook continues to tease the ONEXFLY, its 7-inch and AMD Ryzen 7 7840U-powered gaming handheld. Purportedly, the ONEXFLY will cost slightly more than the ASUS ROG Ally, a gaming handheld to which One-netbook also compares the ONEXFLY.

Intel designed the NUC Extreme mini PCs to accommodate high-end desktop-grade processors, but this might not be the case anymore, as the Meteor Lake models equipping the rumored Asus NUC Extreme only include laptop-grade cores.

With an average rating of 4.4/5 at Best Buy, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 is a pretty well-reviewed mid-range gaming laptop. The SKU with an 8-core Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and an RTX 3060 is now going for only US$999.99, the lowest price to date. For the price, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G15 is worth taking a look at as it is plenty powerful for FHD gaming and offers excellent battery life.

AMD is expected to release the RX 7800 and RX 7700 in September. The cards which could possibly be the last RDNA 3 offerings allegedly feature the mid-range Navi 32 GPU. According to recent 3DMark Time Spy Graphics figures reported by leaker All_The_Watts, the RX 7800 and RX 7700 could outpace the RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 Ti respectively.

Blizzard has announced that Overwatch 2 will be playable via Steam on August 10, the same day as Overwatch 2: Invasion's launch. A Battle.net account will still be required to play the game.

A known tipster has seemingly sparked huge speculation on social media that Sony is just about ready to spring the PlayStation 5 Slim (PS5 Slim) on its legions of fans. While a few details had already been shared about a new PlayStation 5 model, the launch schedule of the console was still somewhat clouded.

Unleashed yesterday and labeled 536.67, the latest driver package from Nvidia comes with support for Portal: Prelude RTX, as well as the upcoming Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Remnant II. A few G-Sync Compatible gaming monitors and GeForce Experience Optimal Settings presets are also present.

The RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB is the latest GPU to come out of NVIDIA’s camp. The card features the same 4,352 CUDA cores, 2.5 GHz boost frequency, and 288 GB/s memory bandwidth as the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB but doubles the VRAM buffer. NVIDIA has priced the board at US$499 in the US and €549 in Europe. However, the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB has been listed for more than some RTX 4070 models in Germany.

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5 (Gen 8) can now be had for only US$1,336.49 straight from Lenovo thanks to stackable coupon codes. The laptop comes with an 8-core Ryzen 7 7745HX CPU, a next-gen RTX 4070 GPU, 16 GB of memory, and 1 TB of storage. Although the RAM and storage are respectable, they can be further expanded thanks to two SO-DIMM and two M.2 slots.

Designed with next-generation systems that could hit the market later this year, the industry's first GDDR7 DRAM has now completed the development stage. According to Samsung, the new GDDR7 design sports a 32 Gbps boosted speed per pin while being 20% more efficient and having 1.4 times the bandwidth of its predecessor.

The Framework Laptop 16, a modular gaming notebook Framework announced in March, is now available for pre-order. While the price for a DIY version starts at US$1399, adding a discrete GPU module bumps the price by $400 to $1799. A fully assembled model starts at $1699 without the dGPU and $2099 with one.

Game Pass Core has been announced as a new way to access Microsoft's Xbox multi-player network for less than US$10 a month. The new Pass is only compatible with a limited and specific range of games, however. It will become active later in 2023, and will also supplant the Xbox Live Gold account type from day one.

It appears that the Navi 32-based RX 7800 and the RX 7700 might be on the horizon as new information from Moore’s Law Is Dead suggests that AMD is getting ready to release the cards in a couple of months. The leaker has also claimed that the RX 7900 based on the cut-down Navi 31 GPU could see an unusual launch with constrained supply.

A Nintendo Switch 2 user interface (UI) has appeared in a new clip posted by a fan seemingly dedicated to creating next-generation Switch concepts. While there are a few clues to show that this is not the real deal, it has still impressed some because of its fluidity and overall design. Nintendo has yet to confirm any physical details about a Switch 2 or NG Switch console.

RedMagic has invited its fans who live outside China to join the "Winners' Circle" with the 8S Pro. It is touted as the ultimate form of the OEM's Android gaming flagship smartphone with the "strongest" version of the top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC to drive its "most advanced" 6.8-inch, 93.7% screen-to-body ratio AMOLED display. However, not all of its most ground-breaking specs have found their way to new markets.

The new Thunderobot MIX mini PCs will launch later this week with up to an i9 Raptor Lake-HX and an RTX 4060 GPU. Exact specs will be released on July 21, and the starting price is set to be around US$840.

A supposed manual related to the Nintendo Switch 2 has turned up on Twitter, although it is almost certainly a fan mock-up. The information in the mocked-up manual, which is in Italian, pertains to the so-called Joy-Con 2. There have been multiple pointers suggesting an early 2024 release for the next-generation (NG) Switch.

There are new rumors popping up on social media that point in the direction of possible Pokémon Black 3 and White 3 games being in development. A series of Pokémon-related leaks and riddles have hinted at this, with mention of an upcoming title being potentially set in Unova. Another theory has suggested a new Pokémon Legends game could be on the cards.

Although its processor and graphics adapter no longer belong to the latest generations, the 17.3-inch MSI Creator 17 with model number B11UE-471 remains a decent professional laptop for the second half of 2023. Thanks to a 38% discount, those interested can get it for US$1,460.88 for the time being.

Available since late 2022, when it launched with a US$1,499.99 price tag, the Samsung Odyssey G85SB (model LS34BG850SNXZA) is a 34-inch curved gaming monitor with a QD-OLED panel that has finally dropped below the US$1,000 threshold less than a week ago. Thanks to a generous 33% discount, its price fell to US$999.99.

Marketed as a compact gaming laptop, the new MSI Stealth 14 Studio promises to deliver great performance with the Intel Core i7-13700H and the GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop. Unfortunately, the device struggles with a few issues, including its annoying fans and missing features such as Advanced Optimus.

The 16-inch gaming machine also sports the high-end Core i7-13700HX Raptor Lake CPU, 32GB of DDR5 memory as well as a 1TB SSD, while the RTX 4060 dGPU inside the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i Gen 8 has the highest possible TGP of 140 watts.

The latest iteration of Dell's affordable gaming laptop series is slowly approaching a more reasonable price window as the RTX 4060-powered configuration of the G15 can now be ordered with a decent discount of 25 percent relative to its MSRP.

Microsoft has had some things to say about the so-called Nintendo Switch 2 in recent Federal Trade Commission vs. Microsoft and Activision Blizzard court filings. There have been at least two intriguing references made to the next-generation Nintendo console, which appear to offer some credibility to the latest Switch 2 rumors.

MSI revealed the Cyborg 15 at CES 2023. The entry-level edition which comes with a Core i5-12450H and RTX 4050 alongside a 15.6-inch FHD+ IPS display that boasts a 144 Hz refresh rate is now discounted by a massive 30%. The discount makes the MSI Cyborg 15 quite a compelling option partly because of the laptop’s good battery life and light weight.

Just like LG with the CX WOLED debacle back in 2020, Samsung sneaked 40 Gbps HDMI 2.1 connectors on the S95C QD-OLED, yet it actually advertised 48 Gbps connectors. This limitation comes from the One Connect box and is not present on the more affordable S90C models that are missing the external box.

Lenovo continues to tease the Legion Y700 2023 refresh online. The new gaming-focused tablet will combine a Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset with 16 GB of RAM, among other features.

Nixxes and Insomniac games have revealed the PC system requirements for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. The game can run on mechanical hard drives thanks to DirectStorage 1.2 support, although one needs reasonably beefy hardware to play the game at 4K with raytracing.

The AOC Q27G3XMN is a new 27-inch gaming monitor that combines a native 1440p resolution with a 180 Hz refresh rate. AOC has also included Mini LED backlights to achieve up to 1,000 nits peak brightness and 450 nits when viewing SDR content.

A new unofficial Nintendo Switch 2 concept render has been shared online, offering a taste of what some fans think the NG Switch may look like. While there are enough clues to mark the design as fake, it appears the looks of the Switch 2 and, in this case, the Nintendo Switch 2 Max have been inspired by recent rumors.

The Radeon RX 6650M dGPU is up to 10% faster than an RTX 3060 in raster performance and also offers 2 more GB of VRAM. Complementing the APU and dGPU are 16 GB of DDR5-4800 RAM plus the storage side comes with a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.

NVIDIA launched the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB on May 24 for US$399. The company is getting ready to release the 16 GB version for US$499 reportedly on July 18. Disappointingly, Hardware Unboxed suggests on Twitter that the GPU may not be covered extensively by the press as there is “no official review program” and AIBs have reportedly refused to send review samples to the outlet.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been denied an injunction against Microsoft’s proposed US$68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The district judge dealing with the case appeared to be satisfied with the commitments offered especially in regard to the Call of Duty franchise. The UK’s Competition and Markets Agency (CMA) has now made a new agreement with Microsoft.

The sleek 16-inch gaming convertible from Asus, which has been put on sale for 37 off its official list price, is further equipped with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS Rembrandt CPU with 16GB of memory as well as a spacious 1TB SSD.

AYA NEO is now selling the AIR 1S, a compact gaming handheld with a 5.5-inch OLED display. The AYA NEO AIR 1S also features the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, a Zen 4 and RDNA 3 APU that can be configured with up to 32 GB of RAM and 4 TB of storage.

GPD has revealed pricing and a release date for the Win 4 2023, its Ryzen 7040U and Oculink refresh of the Win 4. Available from next week, the Win 4 2023 will start at US$699, US$100 less than the Win 4. GPD will charge at least US$839 for Ryzen 7 7840U configurations, though.

Some power draw gap is within reason since Nvidia uses 4 nm tech, while AMD employs a combo of 5 and 6 nm. Yet a 150 W difference seems a bit ridiculous. AMD has been working on driver fixes since December last year, but the abnormal power issues are still there.

Down to US$289.99 from a list price of US$369.99, the Gigabyte G32QC A-SA curved gaming monitor uses a 32-inch VA panel with 1500R curvature, 165 Hz refresh rate, 1 ms response time, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support, and 93% DCI-P3 color gamut. This VESA Display HDR400-compliant monitor also comes with VESA wall mounting support.

Diablo IV will finally get a remedy for the annoying memory leak on PC. A Blizzard employee has acknowledged the issue and says a fix will be included in the June 18 gameplay patch.

CheckList The Medion Erazer Major X20, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 16 G8 and the Lenovo Legion Slim 7i 16 G8 all sport the 140 W GeForce RTX 4070 (Laptop) graphics card to deliver great gaming experience at 1080p. Those three are the fastest RTX 4070-toting laptops out of the 19 such systems tested by Notebookcheck thus far.

RedMagic has confirmed that its Android gaming flagship smartphone refresh is headed to the international market, and sooner rather than later. The 8S Pro will bring "sleek design" powered by the "Leading Version" of the latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC to regions such as Europe soon. It will also boast a particularly large battery and class-leading display specs on its July 2023 launch.

The AYANEO AIR 1S is almost here, with AYANEO set to launch its compact gaming handheld tomorrow. The company has confirmed pricing, specifications and details about a lightweight edition that barely exceeds 400 g and is a mere 18 mm thick.