Gaming

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 was unveiled by Nvidia at CES 2022. It features 8GB of 16Gbps VRAM, 2,560 CUDA cores, a boost clock of 1.8GHz and a 130W TGP. It will hit shelves on January 27 for US$249.

While laptops with 120Hz 4K displays may be few and far between, the CES 2022 expo is showing that this year may turn the tide on high refresh rate 4K monitors, notebooks and TVs. The latest entrants in that trend come in the form of 4K TVs with mini-LED panels by TCL that sport the whopping 144Hz refresh rate.

The Lenovo Legion Y700 gaming tablet has appeared in a bunch of live images being thoroughly compared with the Apple iPad Mini 6 for size and appearance. The larger Android slate holds up well against the svelte iPadOS-driven machine, and Lenovo has acknowledged that the Y700 is geared toward landscape-mode gaming.

Dell has retrofitted the Alienware m17 R5 with AMD's newest Ryzen 6980Hx processor, Radeon RX6850MXT graphics card, a 17-inch 4K 120Hz screen and more. It will hit shelves in spring 2022, starting at US$1,599.

Dell has launched the Alienware Tri-Mode Wireless Gaming Headset to supplement its gaming laptops at CES 2022. It can interface with a device over Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 2.4GHz and a 3.5mm audio jack. The headset costs US$199 and will go on sale in certain regions on February 9.

The Alienware Tri-Mode Wireless Gaming Mouse is now official with a 26,000 DPI sensor, 1,000Hz polling rate, and an ambidextrous design with eight programmable buttons. It costs US$149 and will be released to the public on February 9, 2022.

Dell has unveiled its newest high-end gaming monitor at CES 2022. The Alienware 34 QD OLED has a 175Hz QHD panel, 1800R curvature, Nvidia G-Sync compatibility, and more. Its price will be announced once its launch date approaches in late March 2022.

Sharkoon's latest headsets come with different treats for gaming fans, so while the first one sports stylish 3D-like RGB illumination, the second comes with a subtle black design that features modular cables and a detachable microphone. Their suggested prices are 31.90 Euros (RUSH ER40) and 49.90 Euros (B2).

Scheduled to hit the market later this year alongside the existing Gold P31 and Gold S31 series, the Platinum P41 will be the first Gen 4.0 SSD with a 176-NAND layer by SK hynix. Designed to fulfill the needs of gamers and content creators, it will be available in 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB versions.

A real-world image of the upcoming Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Ti has turned up, confirming the top-end card’s existence. The RTX 3090 Ti is expected to offer 1,008 GB/s bandwidth and a peak clock rate of 1,860 MHz. While the MSRP of the RTX 3090 Ti has not yet been revealed, it could end up going for close to US$4,000 when third-party resellers get hold of it.

OPPO's first-gen foldable phone, the Find N, has rocketed to 5th place on the AnTuTu benchmark's final ranking of Android flagships for 2021. However, Xiaomi's latest Black Shark gaming flagship was not to be knocked from its #1 spot with its Snapdragon 888+ platform. Then again, their time at the top may shortly be at an end.

The so-called Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 has looked incredibly strong in a theoretical comparison video with the Lovelace GPU demolishing the RTX 3090 and AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT. The RTX 4090 hits an estimated 400 FPS average rate in Doom Eternal at 4K ultra settings and even manages to top 100 FPS in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

Samsung will almost certainly have a bevy of new monitors to debut at CES 2022; however, it seems the OEM just couldn't wait to show some of them off ahead of time. They include the latest addition to the Odyssey gaming line, with a "world's-first" 4K/240Hz specs profile. The new S8 and Smart M8 monitors are UHD and come with specific adaptations for their productive use-cases.

The Asus Zenfone 9 and Asus Rog Phone 6 series are surely months away from release but a new leak purports to provide a first look yet at the next-gen devices from Asus. The leak reveals what appear to be 2D renders of the three devices, with all three seemingly featuring secondary displays.

Elden Ring has been given a Mature 17+ rating by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). Some teasers for the game have been offered up in the rating summary, with mention of coarse words and a partially clothed monster being present in the eagerly awaited RPG. Elden Ring should be released on February 25, 2022.

The Legion Y90 will be Lenovo's freshly-renamed Android gaming flagship for 2022. Now, the OEM has hyped this device again, this time with a shot of its rear panel. It hints at an even bigger RGB logo than that of its predecessor, inviting speculation that it may move away from that phone's fragile build.

A potential graphics card customer has been confronted by a provocative comment from a cashier that has summed up the year perfectly for gamers who have tried desperately to get hold of a high-end Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series card at anything remotely close to launch price. The person was checking out RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 boards at the time.

Asus' ROG Global Twitter account has just released a CES 2022 teaser for what looks very like the long-awaited Flow Z13. This new device is touted to put a gaming twist on the convertible tablet form-factor. Judging by the design newly teased in its launch announcement, it seems this is very much the case for the first-gen device.

Lenovo has posted a few real-life images of its upcoming Legion Y700 gaming tablet, with the device looking striking in each picture. Speculation over the specs and price for the Lenovo Legion Y700 has already started and there is even suggestion there may be a higher-specced Y900 variant.

The Realme GT2 Pro is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered flagship phone set to launch early in January 2022. However, the OEM seems not to have been able to wait until this date to announce that the device has attained an A+ rating from DisplayMate. It has also disclosed some of the specs that have helped win this accolade.

The latest official leaks indicate that Lenovo will debut its next-gen Android gaming flagship smartphone as the Legion Y90. Despite this, it seems it will launch with the exact same display specs as its predecessor. Nevertheless, it is allegedly as capable of smart refresh-rate switching as a cutting-edge display with the newest LTPO tech.

Company president Shuntaro Furukawa has stated that the Nintendo Switch could be short in supply in 2022. He added that the looming semiconductor crisis could affect the production of the handheld console, prompting Nintendo to cut down on its sales forecast for the year.

Videocardz has heard from its sources that the laptop GeForce RTX 3080 Ti will have a max TGP of 175W and run 16GB of VRAM clocked at 16Gbps. Nvidia is expected to unveil the graphics card alongside the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti mobile at CES 2022.

Lenovo is currently hyping its Legion Yxxxx for the Chinese market via Weibo. The latest posters from this campaign teases one of these laptops - also likely to re-brand for international markets - in terms of its design. It suggests that the Y7000P will be a particularly light and thin 2022 gaming laptop - although the look might come at a price.

The alleged free games coming to PlayStation Plus (PS+) subscribers in January 2022 have been leaked. The shortlist of three titles is headed by Persona 5 Strikers, which was first released in Japan by publisher Sega in 2020. A racing game and a first-person shooter join Persona 5 Strikers as free games coming to PS4 and PS5 owners.

Lenovo's contenders in the Android gaming flagships have been known as the Legion Phones or Legion Phone Duel devices, depending on their market. Now, however, the company has hinted that it is arranging a new name for the next installment in this series. It may continue to uphold its series' reputation for innovative cooling solutions and speed-focused display tech.

The Steam Deck handheld console has turned up in an unboxing, setup, and gameplay video posted on YouTube. In addition, more game-makers have been sharing clips and images of their Steam Deck dev kits, which includes a size comparison photo with a MacBook Air. Valve’s handheld gaming computer should be released in February 2022.

Lenovo has announced that it has a new Legion Y9000P in the works for 2022. It is now touted to have a QHD display with a 165Hz refresh rate and HDR400. The OEM has yet to mention further specs for this upcoing gaming machine, although it is possible that a 16-inch form factor and Ryzen 5000 silicon is in the offing here.

First official details of the upcoming Lenovo Legion Y700 gaming tablet have been shared on Chinese social media. The 8.8-inch tablet could be an ideal Android alternative to the iPad Mini in a form factor that makes it easy to wield during intense gaming sessions. The Legion Y700 tablet may sport a Snapdragon 8 series SoC.

Asus has issued its invitations to its upcoming CES showcase, to start from January 4, 2022. It starts with the "Rise of Gamers" livestream direct from Las Vegas to introduce the new ROG line-up, and goes on with the productivity-focused presentation the following day.

AYA has started teasing its next device, currently referred to as the AYA NEO NEXT. The AYA NEO NEXT will arrive on December 28 with a newer AMD Ryzen APU than the current AYA NEO family of devices.

In addition to ensuring "the best gaming experience in GTFO and Horizon Zero Dawn," the NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready Driver 497.29 also comes with support for 10 new GeForce Experience Optimal Playable Settings profiles. The list includes popular titles such as Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, EVE Online, and more.

The Ryzen 9 5900HS CPU and GeForce RTX 3060 GPU is a combination you're not going to find on 99 percent of other 14-inch laptops out there. The competing Razer Blade 14 costs several hundred dollars more with the same CPU and GPU options.

Russian outlet Gecid.com recently ran 2021 gaming benchmarks on an overclocked Core i7-2600K. They aimed to see how the legendary Sandy Bridge chip holds up when paired with the Radeon RX 6900XT. Despite being 10 generations older than Alder Lake parts, the i5-2600K seemingly had no problem handing in 60 FPS or more in punishing titles like Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.

The LG Ultragear 17G90Q gaming laptop packs some serious firepower, such as an 11th-generation Intel Tiger Lake processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, and a 17.1-inch 300Hz screen. It will tell us more about its price and availability at CES 2022.

One-netbook has finally announced the ONEXPLAYER mini, a smaller alternative to the ONEXPLAYER. The ONEXPLAYER mini has a 1200p and 7-inch display powered by an Intel Core i7-1195G7 processor, 16 GB of RAM and up to 2 TB of storage.

A crypto mining farm has seen an untimely end thanks to a fire in a town in northern Thailand. A report claims that “72 servers” were destroyed, although images issued by local emergency services make it difficult to work out whether the burned-out bitcoin farm was utilizing much-wanted GPUs or ASIC miners.

The seemingly never ending shortage of game consoles looks to have hit Microsoft too. The company has had to resort to using Xbox Series X dev kits to power its first Halo Championship Series for Halo Infinite, its subsidiary 343 Industries has revealed.

Names of upcoming Intel Arc Alchemist GPUs seem to have been confirmed in system files from a test Intel driver. The driver lists names such as Arc A380, Arc A350, Arc A370M, Arc A350M, and Xe A200M, which are likely to be low-end parts. We are also getting to hear that the upcoming DG3 Elasti Battlemage lineup will transition to a multi-GPU architecture in 2023 similar to AMD's RDNA 3.

Nvidia surprised everyone by announcing the GeForce RTX 2050 via a press release. Its specifications are quite puzzling, especially for a graphics card that will hit shelves in early 2022, making it Nvidia's most questionable launch so far

Eurocom has launched another superlaptop onto the market in the form of the Nightsky ARX315. For US$2,099, buyers can expect a laptop with a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU, RTX 3070 GPU, and 16 GB RAM. However, it’s possible to configure the Eurocom Nightsky ARX315 to become a +US$15,000 powerhouse.

CD Projekt recently announced that it was settling a class-action lawsuit over Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous launch out of court. However, the paltry US$1.85 million settlement raises questions considering how the game has earned CD Projekt over US$500 million since 2020.

Some of the trends that could define 2022 in terms of blockchain tech include NFT 2.0 along with music NFTs, the expansion of the crypto gaming metaverse, Ethereum 2.0 and its layer 2 zk rollups, DAOs and the evolution of DeFi, Web 3.0 and the decentralization of the very infrastructure of the Internet.

Nvidia has officially announced the GeForce RTX 2050, MX550 and MX570 mobile graphics cards. The RTX 2050 will feature 4GB of VRAM and a 45W TDP. Nvidia has not divulged the MX550 and MX570's specifications and stated that all three cards will be available for purchase in early 2022.

Crypto fans among gamers who like the STALKER franchise might be disappointed to hear that the developer studio behind the upcoming STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl edition has ditched the plans to introduce an NFT-driven "STALKER metaverse." Citing a backlash against the environmental impact of the blockchain technology, and accusations of profiteering from a fad, the Game World studio said it is abandoning the NFT plans, even though they considered them just a way for an independent game shop to stay afloat.

MSI recently announced the Optix MAG281URF, a 4K high-refresh monitor with HDR400, GSync, and a low response time. The Optix MAG281URF is targeted towards eSports players who are looking for a viable 4K option without sacrificing input lag or framerate.

Dying Light 2 developer Techland recently outed specs for the upcoming survival horror game. While min specs call for a palatable hardware spec, the high ray-tracing preset demands the GeForce RTX 3080, even for a 1080p/60 FPS experience.

Apart from two "Elasti" dGPU models that may be released in 2023, the NUC driver also mentions iGPU models for quite a few Alder Lake successors, including Raptor Lake-S, Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake. Rumor has it that the "Elasti" family will feature high-end GPUs that could match AMD's RDNA3 and even RDNA4 models.

Twitter stalwart @kopite7kimi has just revealed that the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti will feature a GA106-150 GPU with 2560 CUDA cores and 8GB of VRAM, while the RTX 3050 will use a GA106-140 GPU with 2304 CUDA cores and 4GB of VRAM. Nvidia is expected to unveil both graphics cards at CES 2022.