Gaming

GeForce Now gets a boost this week with new games including Watch Dogs: Legion and Ghostrunner, as well as free subscriptions for RTX 3070 and eligible Chromebook owners. The service now has over 650 games available and has new titles added every week.

Intel has offered a high-level overview of the architectural changes coming to Rocket Lake-S next year. Rocket Lake-S will be based on a Cypress Cove architecture, which is a combination of an Ice Lake CPU and an Xe iGPU. Rocket Lake-S will offer PCIe Gen4 support and offer enhanced overclocking and double-digit percentage IPC benefits over Comet Lake-S.

The rumor mill has been pointing to an upgraded Nintendo Switch coming in 2021 for some time now. The latest detail to emerge about the purported handheld console is that it will sport mini-LED technology which should deliver improved contrast ratios and deeper blacks for more engaging gameplay.

NVIDIA apparently has an RTX 3080 Ti with 9,984 CUDA cores in development and is likely to position it between the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. Details of the rumored RTX 3080 Ti are not fully available except for the fact that it uses a GA102-250 GPU with a 384-bit memory bus and possibly feature either 12 GB or 24 GB of GDDR6X VRAM.

For the first time in over a decade, AMD has reclaimed the performance crown on both the graphics and CPU fronts with the launch of its Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 CPUs and its RDNA2 Radeon RX 6000 GPUs. What does this mean for the market and for competitors NVIDIA and Intel?

Noctua has announced new additions to its chromax.black line-up. For the uninitiated, they are versions of this Austrian OEM's PC coolers or fans in an all-matte black finish. These latest examples are new versions of the award-winning NH-D15 asymmetric cooler and the NH-U9S compact fan.

AMD introduced the RX 6800 as the most vanilla of its all-new RDNA 2-based line-up today (October 28, 2020). However, based on its specs, it may pack a punch of its own. It offers the same GDDR6 memory and Infinity Cache as its higher-end siblings, albeit with fewer compute units (CUs) and the series' lowest base clock thus far.

Gigabyte and MSI have filed multiple Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT with the EEC, following their launch by AMD. Gigabyte has certified another RTX 3060 Ti SKU with the regulator too, following the ones that it registered earlier this month.

The RX 6900 XT is here, and AMD claims that it takes on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 for just US$999. AMD's most-powered RDNA 2 GPU will debut in December, albeit only as a reference card initially.

Initial benchmark leaks of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X show excellent leads in single-core performance over the Intel Core i9-10900K in PassMark and Geekbench 5. The scores seem to indicate anywhere between 16 to 20% benefits in single-core applications for the Ryzen 9 5950X. Even the Ryzen 5 5600X seems to have managed quite a decent lead over Intel's flagship offering.

Seems like AMD is winning in so many markets now. Desktop CPUs, server CPUs, AI soon (with the Xilinx acquisition?) and now it finally reclaims the GPU crown with the announcement of the RX 6000 series. The RX 6800 XT model is beating the RTX 3080 in raster performance, gets 6 more GB VRAM, and costs $50 less, but we are hearing the ray tracing performance is not quite there yet.

NVIDIA has based the RTX 3070 Max-P and Max-Q on the GA104M GPU, according to a list of PCI IDs. Assigned the IDs 249c and 249d, the RTX 3070 mobile cards will undoubtedly offer pared-back performance compared to the desktop RTX 3070. It seems that NVIDIA has been testing tonnes of other GA104 and GA102-based cards, too.

The RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti should be arriving before the end of November, according to multiple pre-order listings on Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao. The RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti may cost upwards of US$450 too, which would make them around US$50 cheaper than the RTX 3070.

The PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has been discussing the phenomenal reception of the upcoming PlayStation 5 in an interview. Pre-orders for the next-gen console in the US have gone way beyond what the PlayStation 4 could manage, and a noted analyst has suggested that over one million PS5 pre-orders may have already been made worldwide.

A PS5 SSD price tag that purportedly comes from Walmart has appeared online, and if it is accurate then the practically must-have PlayStation 5 accessory seems like a steal. Little further information can be gleaned from the tag, although US$115 for a 500 GB SSD that operates at the PS5’s next-gen standards is a bargain.
Update: The drive has been revealed to be a simple Seagate Game Drive external SSD.

An astonishing claim has been made by a self-proclaimed “Xbox insider” in regard to the performance abilities of the upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S, with the latter apparently beating the PS5 in terms of frame rate and ray tracing. Elsewhere, Ubisoft and Capcom have been updating gamers with news about expected next-gen console titles.
Update: A change by Ubisoft has cast further doubt on the frame rate claim.

Rockstar Games has given an insight into what improvements it plans to bring to the next-generation version of GTA V. Specifically, how its triple-A game will differ on the PS5. The game will benefit from improved rendering distance and a higher resolution, among other changes.

Acclaimed battle royale PUBG will deliver enhanced performance on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. According to the PUBG Corporation, both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will deliver a 60 FPS experience when running under the "Framerate Priority Mode."

Here we go again. CD Projekt Red has delayed the release of Cyberpunk 2077 for the third time; this time re-scheduled for December 10. Apparently, the company is guilty of its own ambition this time.

Razer's freshly-announced Hallowe'en 2020 sale is good news for those in need of an older mobile gaming controller from this brand. There is also up to 23% off Black Widow keyboards and Mamba mice. Certain Blade laptops are US$100 less their usual price-tags.

NVIDIA is rushing to release an RTX 3070 Ti after all, keen to take on AMD's impending 'Big Navi' cards. The card will be based on the company's GA102 GPU and will feature a 320 W TGP, along with 10 GB of GDDR6X VRAM. 7,424 CUDAs will be present too, as will 232 Tensor cores and 58 RT cores.

Info regarding the official Navi 21 presentation tomorrow has been leaked and things are not looking good for the RTX 3080 GPUs from Nvidia. Sources close to RedGamingTech claim that the RX 6800 XT cards will show better raster performance in significantly more 1440p and 4K titles. Once again, the ray tracing performance of the AMD cards is said to lag behind, still, at least it is on par with the RTX 2080 Ti in this regard. We could expect something similar to DLSS by early 2021.

An infographic depicting the alleged noise development of various consoles has been posted online showing the Xbox Series X to be apparently quieter than a whisper during operation. While the PlayStation 5 is not present, the divisive graph has the PS4 Pro at the wrong end of the scale closing in on the noise level of a hair dryer.

The official unboxing embargo of the PlayStation 5 lifts today, but YouTuber Austin Evans got an early feel for the console's DualSense controller. While the actual PS5 demo is still some time away, Evans could pair the DualSense controller to a Surface Laptop Go and a Pixel 5. He could also game on the Pixel 5 using this controller via Microsoft xCloud. Teardown of the DualSense controller revealed a 1,560 mAh battery among other cool hardware.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti's specs are all but confirmed, thanks to a new GPU-Z listing. It will feature a GA104-200 GPU, 4,864 CUDA cores, and 8GB of VRAM with a memory bandwidth of 448GB/s. NVIDIA is expected to launch the card sometime in November for around US$400.

Initially announced as one of the Sony-published launch titles for the upcoming PlayStation 5 console, the vehicular combat game Destruction AllStars has had its launch date pushed to early 2021. The good part is that the game will come (almost) for free with a PlayStation Plus membership.

Looking through images that compare PlayStation devkits with the final products reveals a couple of things: Both the PlayStation 5 devkit and final design PS5 console are revolutionary in comparison to their predecessors, and a lot can be expected from the PS6 devkit now Sony has raised this particular bar.

The now — unofficially, of course — declassified achievement list for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War contains no less than 44 items that cover various milestones that players need to reach in the campaign, multiplayer, and zombie modes. The platinum trophy gets awarded to those who hit 1,000 points.

Tipster @patrickschur_ reports that an AIB Radeon RX 6800 XT part boosts to 2.5 GHz and beyond when running 3DMark 11. The sample was listed as an engineering sample, indicating that retail clocks could go even higher.

According to a recent leak, NVIDIA is prepping multiple mobility-focused Ampere graphics cards. These include, among others, the GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q, GeForce RTX 3070 Max-Q, and GeForce 3060 Max-Q. Questions remain, though, about performance and power consumption.

Eve Devices is adamant that it should not ship its upcoming Spectrum monitor "until it is ready". To this end, it has revealed that the shipping date for its QHD/240Hz and 4K/144Hz SKUs has been pushed back to February 2021. This, apparently, will give it time to iron issues with its production out.

A Sony executive's latest blog post has revealed that 6 different major content-streaming platforms will be compatible with the PlayStation 5 from day 1. They include Spotify, YouTube, Disney Plus and Netflix, which will get their own dedicated buttons on the console's also newly-announced Media Remote. Other apps may become available thereafter.

Fancy some origami while you wait for your Xbox Series X to arrive? Well, Microsoft is offering Papercraft Kits with some Xbox Series X pre-orders, albeit only Germany. You can print out your own Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S 'Papercraft Kit' worldwide, though.

Intel CEO Bob Swan has confirmed that the first dedicated Xe graphics chip is now shipping and should be delivered before the end of the year. Its gaming desktop counterpart, the DG2, will not follow for a few months, though.

Gaming peripheral maker Genesis recently announced the Krypton 550 ultra-light gaming mouse. The Krypton 550 features RGB lighting, Huon switches, and an 8000 DPI sensor in a diminutive 70-gram package. The mouse is expected to hit the market by the end of October

Four independent sources reveal that that the RX 6800 XT cards perform up to 19% better in the Firestrike tests, and up to 3% faster in the Time Spy tests, but still trail behind the RTX 3080 in the Port Royal tests that focus on ray tracing performance. One of the sources claims that the AMD cards can even beat the RTX 3090 in the Firestrike tests, but we are suspecting the source is actually confusing RX 6800 XT with the more potent RX 6900 XT in this case.

Lenovo is now introducing Ryzen 4000H APU options for the world's lightest gaming laptops featuring RTX 2000 GPUs. The new Legion Slim 7 models can be equipped with up to a Ryzen 4900H APU coupled with up to 32 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, up to 2 TB of NVMe SSD storage and up to an RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU. Users can also choose between 60 Hz / 144 Hz FHD displays and even a 60 Hz 4K HDR screen.

NVIDIA may be planning another raid on the upper-midrange desktop graphics card market, according to a new leak. Apparently, the green team has a third GA102-based card in development, which would sit between the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 in its Ampere product stack with 7,424 CUDA cores, GDDR6X VRAM and possibly up to 232 Tensor cores.

The release of Halo Infinite may be a while off yet, but The Master Chief Collection is coming to the Xbox Series X and S on November 17. The re-release will run at up to 120 FPS on Microsoft's new consoles and will feature a host of improvement, such as a refined split-screen mode. Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be free for those who already the collection and also for those who subscribe to Xbox Game Pass.

The Xiaomi Fast LCD 24.5-inch Monitor has been launched in China with a regular price tag of 1,499 yuan (US$224), although it is on sale to early-bird purchasers. The gaming-friendly external Fast LCD Monitor promises 144 Hz refresh rate, Full HD resolution, 2 ms GTG response time, HDR400 display, and Adaptive-Sync for reduced tearing and stuttering.

Nintendo Switch gamers can enjoy the third Torchlight game starting today just as promised. The new adventure "filled with hordes of goblins, undead and other dangerous Netherim creatures" is now live and early adopters also get the exclusive Ashen Glittersprite pet.

Initial benchmark data for the GeForce RTX 3070 is here, and the US$499 card can hold its own against the RTX 3080 and RTX 2080 Ti in 3DMark, Ashes of the Singularity and Geekbench. The RTX 3070 will arrive on October 29 after a two-week delay.

Apparently, AMD did not show off its flagship Navi 21 XTX version with the Ryzen 5000 CPUs earlier this month. Rumor has it that the performance metrics presented back then come from the Navi 21 SKU powering the RX 6800 XT cards and these can match the RTX 3080, but they also feature a lower price point closer to the RTX 3070.

The cancellation of these two Nvidia models that pack more than 10 GB of VRAM might allow AMD to increase its sales, since the Navi 21 SKUs are expected to get 16 GB of VRAM. Nvidia is currently stuck with terrible yields on the Samsung 8 nm nodes, and, once it switches to TSMC next year, maybe it could consider relaunching the 16 GB and 20 GB models.

The RX 6900 XT will deliver clock speeds over 2,300 MHz with 80 CUs and 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, according to a new leak. Four other cards will make up AMD's 'Big Navi' lineup, as will AIB cards that will venture to an eye-watering 2,577 MHz.

Despite the hardware from the gaming entry-level, you don't have to worry about the performance. The Legion 5 brings all the current computer games smoothly to the matte screen (Full HD, IPS). However, the highlight of the laptop is the excellent battery life.

It turns out that Ice Lake laptops are better for eGPU gaming than their more powerful Comet Lake-H counterparts, Jarrod's Tech has discovered. Thunderbolt 3 controller placement seems to be at the heart of the difference in performance, which can be nearly 50% in some modern triple-A games. Seemingly, Thunderbolt 3 latency matters more in eGPU gaming than high clock speeds or a superior TDP.

Today (October 21, 2020), Acer has unveiled its latest gaming monitors. The Predator X34 GS is the likely headline here, as it combines a 34-inch 1900R panel, a UWQHD resolution and a new stand type in one. Then again, the 24.5-inch XB253Q GW is the one with the highest (280Hz) refresh rate here. There is also a new Nitro XV272U KV which offers some attractive specs for a decent price.

With just a week to go before AMD's Big Navi reveal, NVIDIA announced 12 DLSS and RTX-enabled games, including sandbox epic Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord. The timing is interesting, considering the concerns about AMD's hardware ray-tracing capabilities.