Gaming

In a new video posted earlier today, Eve claims that HDMI 2.1 on its Spectrum gaming monitor is now working. The video shows Spectrum connected to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 via an HDMI cable and running at 3840x2160 at 144 Hz, which is only possible on HDMI 2.1. The video noticeably does not show content or gaming at this resolution on Spectrum, and it should be noted that the video is limited to 1920x1080 at 30 Hz, making verification impossible. While many are skeptical of this achievement, it may be that Spectrum now supports HDMI 2.1.

The Alienware m17 R4 is a high-end gaming laptop in a class of its own. The 17-incher achieves top rates in terms of graphics performance in the test, but it also has to struggle with extremely high temperatures.

The Gigabyte G24F and M28U are two new high-refresh-rate gaming monitors. The pair have low response times and USB hubs too, although only the M28U possesses HDMI 2.1 ports and a KVM switch.

Xiaomi has confirmed that the Redmi K40 Gaming Edition will feature a MediaTek Dimensity 1200, an SoC that should compete with the Snapdragon 870 in the Redmi K40. The Redmi K40 Gaming Edition will have some exclusive features though, including several shoulder buttons and a lighting array on its camera housing.

The impending spectre of a Discord that had merged with Microsoft is now off the table, as the chat-service company has now reportedly lost interest in striking such a deal with the Redmond giant. According to the latest rumors, it has now re-visited the prospect of an initial public offering (IPO) instead.

The Legion Phone Duel 2 (or 2 Pro) launched with one of the most innovative and landscape-oriented designs of any Android device in 2021 thus far. Unfortunately, this also made it one of the most fragile phones this year. The OEM has started to respond to customer concerns with extended warranties.

Game developers can now add image quality and graphics performance enhancing features like Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS), Variable Shading, and ray-traced shadow Denoising for the Xbox Series X/S. AMD's plan to transform the entire FidelityFX suite into a cross-platform standard seems to be working well, although there is no word yet for any PS5 support.

AMD has updated its Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition to version 21.4.1 bringing a host of new features and enhancements. The new version offers an updated AMD Link service that can now stream to Windows 10 PCs in addition to mobile devices, ability to customize the install type, Ryzen CPU stats, color deficiency correction, Microsoft PlayReady AV1 decode, and Crash Defender.

It is now clear that the PlayStation 4 will become e-waste if its CMOS battery dies and Sony disables PSN access. However, a new analysis shows that the same applies to the PlayStation 5, for some inexplicable reason.

To the surprise of no one, going for the thinner and lighter GS66 with GeForce RTX 3070 graphics will mean accepting a cut in performance when compared to the thicker GP66 equipped with the same GPU.

Despite an announcement last month that commerce functions would cease on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and PS Vita this summer, Sony has reversed course and will keep the PS3 and PS Vita's respective PlayStation Stores open for the time being.

Described as "the best all-round quality gaming headset," the new EPOS H3 is a closed acoustic gaming headset that targets PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox gamers. Its highlights include a sound pressure level value of 124 dB, 10 to 30,000 Hz frequency response, as well as 20 Ohm impedance.

With Intel 11th gen right around the corner, these 10th gen models will need to go. MSI is cutting 12 percent to 27 percent off MSRP depending on the model all equipped with Comet Lake Core U-series or H-series CPUs.

The multi-platform Recon 70 is the best headset option available for around US$40, according to its maker Turtle Beach at least. The company also offers a steadily-growing range of different colors and styles for the 70, the latest of which is a pale silver with camo earcups. This new Arctic Camo SKU is available from now.

The ASUS TUF Dash F15 has been listed on Amazon Italy with an Nvidia RTX 3050 mobile graphics card with 4GB of VRAM. It is coupled with an Intel Core i5-10300H processor, a 15.6-inch FHD 1080p 144Hz screen, 8GB RAM and 512GB storage.

The Sony PS5 may still be hard to find, but apparently enough people managed to buy one over the first five months it has been on sale. According to market research firm NPD, Sony now holds the record as the fasting selling console platform ever in the US.

Sony has launched its latest 4K projectors aimed at the home cinema market. The two new SXRD units are rated for native 4K resolutions and have the same X1 processor found in many high-end BRAVIA TVs. The higher-end model has an ARC-F lens for image quality that goes right to the edge of the window it throws.

The iQOO 7 was the cheapest phone to launch with the top-end Snapdragon 888 SoC on its Chinese-market launch. Now, the OEM has announced that it will venture into its first international market soon. It will be joined by a "new" vanilla variant with a different processor in India later in April 2021.

Popular YouTube tech channel ZONEofTECH has produced great-looking renders of how the Nintendo Switch 2 (Pro) could end up looking. Utilizing the numerous rumors that have already appeared in regard to the widely expected Switch sequel, the content creators came up with a device that is instantly recognizable as a Switch but with Pro modifications.

The Legion C7 can run all current titles smoothly at 1080p. It comes with the Core i7-10875H, RTX 2070 Max-Q, 32 GB of dual-channel RAM, 1 TB NVMe SSD, and a Thunderbolt 3 port. What is so special about it is that it never becomes too hot or too loud.

HP's latest gaming laptop is a significant improvement over the older Omen 15 model. For just over $1000 USD, this is a well-rounded deal save for the measly 8 GB of system RAM that's thankfully user upgradeable.

An eagle-eyed Facebook user has photographed what appears to be a mother lode of MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Ventus 3X OC graphics cards. An entire pallet of said hardware is en route to the U.S., where it is expected to hit shelves after its tentative launch sometime in mid-May.

Not only does Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 have a reputation for being extremely fast, but also for being very hot. Asus has already demonstrated that it can cool its smartphones excellently in the past, but the new chip poses a challenge even for the gaming king.

A rumored Ubisoft roadmap has appeared on social media apparently revealing some game release dates, schedules, and IP details. It seems both Far Cry 6 and Skull & Bones could be arriving sooner than expected, while Avatar joins a new Assassin’s Creed game in 2022. The most believable aspect is that Splinter Cell is still being swept under the carpet.

Redmi has affirmed that it will launch its first "gaming phone" in 2021 - perhaps even this month, should the latest rumors prove true. As if to give this idea more weight, a device with its alleged model number is now approved for sale by the Chinese regulator 3C. Its new certificate also suggests it might launch with the same charging tech as the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra flagship.

A new blog post from Sony has spilt the beans about what Days Gone has in store for us on PC. It will support ultrawide monitors, third-party controllers, unlocked framerates, and more. It retails for US$49.99 and is up for pre-order on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Sony has released a new update for the PlayStation 5, its ninth-generation games console. The latest update is a big one and contains numerous fixes and improvements. Some of these include the ability to game at 1080p and 120 Hz, extended HDMI-CEC support and the option of disabling HDR, among others.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 will certainly pack a punch, what with its choice of Tiger Lake-H45 processors and NVIDIA Ampere GPUs. Amazon China has now shown what the upcoming 16:10 laptop looks like from multiple angles and has confirmed almost every specification about the flagship model.

NVIDIA's CFO Colette Kress has spoken out about the ongoing graphics card shortage again. Apparently, demand is expected to outstrip supply for 'most of the year', which is another way of saying that there will be no GPUs at MSRP until next year.

The brand-new G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Elite DDR4 memory kits come with a multi-faceted crystalline design across the heat spreader and feature CL16 to CL22 timings, stock frequencies between 3600 MHz and 5333 MHz, and come in capacities between 16 GB and 64 GB. Shipments should begin next month.

The new JiangXing X15 budget gaming laptop from Colorful comes with i5-10300H and i7-10870H processor options, which can be coupled with 8 or 16 GB of RAM (upgradable to 32 GB) and 512 GB SSD storage, plus an Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti dGPU. Even though these are sub-$1,000 models, Colorful still included high-quality 15.6-inch 1080p IPS displays with 144 Hz refresh rate and 100% sRGB coverage.

The same 12-liter chassis from previous Corsair One mini ITX models can now be equipped with up to an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X or Intel Core i9-11900K, plus a desktop-grade RTX 3080 GPU. The systems also include 32 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, 1 TB NVMe + 2 TB HDD storage combo and quad video outputs. The Intel models come with a Thunderbolt 3 port.

Gigabyte has released a trio of AORUS gaming monitors, the AORUS FI32U, AORUS FV43U and the AORUS FO48U. All are 4K monitors with HDMI 2.1 ports, but only the flagship 48-inch model has an OLED panel. The three monitors should deliver excellent colour accuracy though, and can output at up to 144 Hz in most cases.

AMD has released its Ryzen 5000G and Ryzen 5000GE-series of desktop processors with integrated graphics. There are currently three SKUs in each series, with the Ryzen 7 5700G being the top-end model. AMD claims the new OEM-only Cezanne Zen 3 desktop APUs have “the world’s fastest graphics in a desktop processor” with the presence of up to a Radeon Vega 8 iGPU.

Acer is now offering select configurations of its refreshed Nitro 5 lineup in India. The Nitro 5 will be available in both Intel and AMD flavors. The Intel SKUs feature a Core i5-11300H with GTX 1650 graphics while the AMD variants are powered by a Ryzen 5 5600H with a choice of either the RTX 3060 or the GTX 1650. Unfortunately, the higher spec options in the global variants are not yet available for the Indian market.

The newest installment in the Pokemon Snap franchise, titled New Pokemon Snap, is set to hit the Nintendo Switch on April 30. The game is essentially a carbon copy of the 1999 original; players travel through a preset path and snap photos of Pokemon that pop up. The title is available for preorder now.

Alternatively, users can spend $50 more for the GeForce GTX 1650 Ti version for roughly 10 percent faster graphics performance. The IdeaPad 3 is one of the least expensive gaming laptops you can get with a 120 Hz display.

Square Enix launched a public beta of Final Fantasy XIV (14) for the PlayStation 5 today. The public beta is open to all and free of charge. The PlayStation 5 version of the popular MMORPG will include new features like support for 4K/60 fps gameplay, 3D audio, and more.

The PS5 is all set to receive its newest software update, which contains a mix of major and minor QoL updates. One can now move PS5 games to an external hard drive, fine-tune their game library, pre-download game updates, and more. However, users still cannot expand the console's internal storage via the included NVMe SSD slot.

The highly regarded RPG Persona 5 Royal is allegedly coming to Xbox, Xbox Game Pass, and PC soon. The game, which was released in 2019 as an enhanced version of 2016’s Persona 5, is currently a PlayStation exclusive. The purportedly leaked Persona 5 Royal information has been met by a reasonable amount of skepticism.

A CD Projekt Red executive has confirmed that the company plans on supporting Cyberpunk 2077 for quite some time, as it wants the game to 'sell for years'. We're probably looking at a mix of free and paid DLC expansions, timely QoL improvements and patches to top up the game with fresh content.

MediaTek and Nvidia have announced a new partnership that will see the former’s Arm-based CPUs married with the latter’s GPUs. It will see Nvidia’s RTX graphics joined with Arm-based PCs and laptops, including Chromebooks, for the first time, substantially increasing their graphics performance.

Philips has introduced the 275M8RZ, a new gaming monitor from its Momentum series. The Momentum 275M8RZ has a peak 165 Hz refresh rate, DisplayHDR 400 certification and a native 1440p resolution.