Gaming

A PlayStation 5 Black Edition concept design video has been posted on YouTube by Snoreyn (Giuseppe Spinelli), and it shows exactly what many fans would like Sony to deliver in time for Christmas this year. It’s already been mentioned that there will be custom PS5 consoles, but Sony could do little wrong by also mass-producing a black edition.

The hopeful PlayStation 4 homebrew scene has waited a long while for a new kernel exploit, after the release of the firmware 5.05 jailbreak back in 2018. That wait is unlikely to end anytime soon, in light of recent developments.

Ubisoft's highly-anticipated Battle Royale title Hyper Scape is finally available for Twitch streamers. The game pits 100 players against each other in a futuristic urban map. Players can obtain a key for the game by watching it live on Twitch.

The HBM2E memory chips offer up to 460 GB/s bandwidth, plus they are 50% more energy efficient and come in a 30% smaller package compared to the HBM2 models. With such an improved bandwidth, the HBM2E chips are expected to significantly improve performance for Exascale computers and high-end GPUs.

Rumour has it that the Xbox Series S will not be sporting the Gamecube-esque design when Microsoft releases it later this year. Instead, it may be closer to the shape of the Xbox One. Both the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X are now slated for a Christmas 2020 release, although the Series X was originally planned for August 2020, instead.

The alleged 3080 Ti ROG STRIX features a triple-fan cooler with aggressive silver accents that remind of the ROG MATRIX series, plus an RGB strip at the top, suggesting that the series could potentially go into premium-grade territory.

Tipster @kopite7kimi recently stated that NVIDIA’s upcoming Ampere RTX 3000 series cards will be manufactured on Samsung’s 8nm process, not TSMC’s 7nm node. While this is unlikely to have performance implications this far down the line, it does mean that AMD will retain process leadership for another generation.

Further details have emerged about the Xbox Series S’s purported GPU. A tweet by The Verge’s Tom Warren claims that “Lockhart” will have a 20 CU GPU, marginally slower than the Xbox One X and the Radeon RX 5500 XT. This raises a key question: will Lockhart truly be fast enough to power 9th-gen experiences, even at a lowly 1080p?

Xiaomi has officially launched its first OLED TV in the form of the 65-inch Mi TV Master Series set, which will be sold at a price of 12,999 yuan (US$1,840) in the company’s domestic market. The smart TV is bursting with gaming-friendly features and offers a 120 Hz panel with a 1 ms response time. MIUI for TV and a MediaTek processor are also onboard.

There could be a very big day coming soon for PS5 fans according to a source on Twitter. It is alleged that Sony will reveal the price, release date, and pre-order information for the next-gen console all on the same day in July. The PlayStation 5 is currently scheduled to launch in holiday 2020.

Nintendo had been promoting the security of its 3DS and Switch devices by soliciting bug reports through HackerOne's bounty initiative. Here, users are incentivized to find such discrepancies with financial rewards. However, the hand-held gaming system is no longer signed up for the service.

Vizio has unveiled its 2021 TV Collection that includes two OLED 4K TVs that should appeal to future owners of next-gen consoles. The 55-inch and 65-inch Vizio OLED 4K TVs feature the company’s ProGaming Engine and HDMI 2.1 support, which is ideal for the PS5 and Xbox Series X. The pricing should help Vizio stay competitive in the crowded marketplace.

Philips has brought two new Ambiglow monitors to market. Called the Momentum 278M1R and Momentum 556M1RY, Philips claims that the two monitors can "take console gaming to the next level". Both support low input lag, while the 556M1RY can operate at up to 120 Hz and 4K.

Want to move 1 GB of files from your SD card? Be prepared to wait 40 seconds on the MSI compared to just 8 seconds on the Gigabyte Aero 15 or Aero 17. Perhaps it's time for MSI to integrate faster SD card readers onto its GE series. The slow transfer rates on the MSI stick out like a sore thumb on an otherwise high-end gaming laptop.

It has been rumored that third-party accessories for the PS5 could start being released as early as November 3. The supposed PS5 accessories include a magnetic controller dock, magnetic play and charge cable, and a system stand. A new placeholder price estimate by a Finnish retailer has been published at €599 (US$673).

The Xiaomi TV Master Series has only just been announced, with a 65-inch 120 Hz OLED making up the range so far. Now some specs for the upcoming smart TV have been leaked by a Xiaomi manager on Weibo. The Xiaomi TV Master will apparently offer users HDMI 2.1, MEMC image-smoothing technology, variable refresh rate (VRR), and much more.

A Sony spokesperson has made a somewhat cryptic comment about PS5 backwards compatibility that already has fans interpreting it from positive and negative viewpoints. Sony is focused on PS4 games, while there is no answer in regard to PlayStation 5 backwards compatibility for PS1, PS2, and PS3 games.

With minimal price differences between the 15.6-inch and the 17.3-inch models, the Tracer IV R series offers affordable configurations featuring the Ryzen 5 4600H APU coupled with the GTX 1650 Ti GPU or the Ryzen 7 4800H APU in conjunction with the RTX 2600 Max-P, plus up to 32 GB of RAM and up to 4 TB NVMe SSD storage and even Wi-Fi 6.

Facebook’s Reality Labs has teased a working prototype of a VR ‘headset’ that shrinks the technology down into something akin to a pair of sunglasses. To make this possible, Facebook’s researchers have combined holographic optics and polarization-based optical folding which would replace the traditional refractive lens approach.

The Xbox Series S codenamed Lockhart will have the same CPU specs as that of the Xbox Series S but with reduced GPU horsepower with game devs being able to target 1080/60 and 1440p/30 performance levels. Microsoft is expected to unveil Lockhart some time in August.

Hot on NVIDIA’s heels, AMD released its first beta driver enabling support for Windows 10’s hardware accelerated GPU scheduling feature. The new technology, allowing for fine-grained VRAM management, appears to have a small but noticeable impact on performance according to benchmarks.

The gaming component and peripherals company GALAX has launched a new product called the GTX 1650 Ultra. However, its GPU is not that of the original non-ray-tracing Turing variant, but of underpowered chips left out of other cards such as the RTX 2070. Then again, its TDP is higher than some others of its name.

Xiaomi's recent 98-inch Redmi Smart TV Max seems to have been a commercial success, and the company is set to follow it up with yet another TV. This TV, branded as the "Xiaomi TV Master Series" will sit at the very top of Xiaomi's TV hierarchy, and will take on the rest of the world with a 65-inch OLED 120 Hz display.

Back in 2018, screenshots of what appeared to be a Harry Potter-themed RPG emerged online. Some more information has emerged about the yet-to-be-released title. According to Jason Schreier, it is billed to be announced in August 2020 and will hit the shelves in 'late' 2021.

Modder sw3dg1n recently released True Fires, a graphics mod that overhauls fire light sources in The Witcher 3. With Cyberpunk 2077 just months away, True Fires might give CD Projekt fans a way to appreciate next-gen graphics in 2015’s RPG classic. You will need a meaty graphics card, though, as double-digit performance drops are to be expected.

The first indications of an RDNA3-based Navi 31 GPU have surfaced in the macOS 11 Big Sur Developer Beta 1 driver code. The driver also contains references to upcoming AMD APUs such as Van Gogh and Cezanne along with HPC accelerators such as the MI100 and M200. With the MI200, AMD could be looking at a multi-chip module (MCM) approach and that could trickle down to Navi 31 as well.

More compact than the GPD Win Max, One-Notebook's OneGx1 is now up for pre-order in both 4G and 5G variants, but it doesn't come cheap: the US$839 model only sports WiFi, 8 GB of memory, and 256 GB of internal storage, and the price goes as high as US$1,318 for the 5G + 16 GB + 512 GB model.

It may look super smooth and sleek in pictures, but it houses an older Zen+ Ryzen 7 3750H processor that is tough to recommend at this price range. The latest Zen 2 gaming laptops cost around the same price and are able to offer significantly faster CPU performance to essentially render the Ryzen 7 3750H here obsolete.

The laptop will cost the same as a similarly-configured MSI GS66 while undercutting the Razer Blade 15 by $200. However, it will come with a slower 6-core Core i7-10750H CPU compared to the 8-core Core i7-10875H in the Razer.

The latest Mindfactory CPU retail sales report has been shared online, and although it’s business as usual for AMD in terms of share dominance, there has been some positive movement for the Intel Core i7-10700K. The 8-core Comet Lake processor is a good choice for gamers and offers a potential maximum boost clock of 5.10 GHz.

These latest GeForce Super Max-Q laptops offer just marginal advantages over regular Max-Q laptops at best or they can even perform slower at worst.

The Nintendo Switch may be the console for the Covid-19 era; however, a start-up has decided that it also needs the edge conferred by the nostalgia for retro arcade gaming. To this end, it has created the Switch Fighter, a dock-like device that turns the tablet into a portable version of the same when slotted into it.

Acer's 17.3-inch gaming laptop brings all the latest computer games smoothly onto the screen. The configuration is pleasing: A Comet Lake hexa-core processor, a GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, a 1 TB NVMe SSD and 16 GB of RAM (dual-channel) are on board.

The European Hardware Association (EHA) has announced the devices or components that have won its organization's awards for 2020. This list contains some potentially easy predictions, such as the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 for the Best Gaming Notebook. However, it is the Ryzen 3000 platform that has really cleaned up.

Vive X is a group set up by HTC's Vive in order to invest in augmented (AR) or virtual (VR) reality-based products and services. It has announced that it has achieved a return of nearly twice the funding it has awarded since its inception in 2016. It has mostly been conferred on commercial-grade VR/AR companies.

New research of broadband internet provision and its adoption in the US found that consumers spend about US$60 on them per month at the end of 2019, compared to about $44 in 2012. This new study also concluded that these customers prioritize speed over any other aspect of the service in question. However, following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemics, this may change somewhat.

Pseudo price rumors concerning both variants of the PS5 console and all of the related accessories, including the Pulse 3D wireless headset and HD camera, have been posted on Twitter. The same highly spurious source claims the PlayStation 5 will be first launched in Japan on November 14 and will cost ¥49,980 (US$466) for the Blu-ray model.

A design patent for a Realme Gamepad has been leaked. The patent reveals four images of the gamepad in different colors. Although Realme has the gaming-centric X50 Pro Player Edition smartphone in its lineup, it’s expected the OEM will soon release a pure gaming smartphone. The Realme Gamepad looks just like the OPPO C1 Gamepad.

While The Last of Us 2 has earned mixed opinions from the gaming public, the game had an extremely positive critical reception. That appears to have carried over to sales, too, as the Naughty Dog game sold four million copies over its first weekend on the market, making it the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 exclusive yet.

The latest Diablo IV quarterly update reveals that the development process was not really affected by the pandemic and also details key game aspects like storytelling, open world, multiplayer and itemization. No ETA for the Alpha and Beta tests as of yet, but there will be another update around BlizzCon.

Sony has now opened up its Bug Bounty program to the public, offering a whopping US$50,000 to anyone able to find a critical PlayStation 4 vulnerability. This deals a heavy blow to the hopeful PS4 homebrew scene, and further places the chances of a future jailbreak release in doubt.

AMD has shown strong monthly growth in the Steam hardware and software survey for May. Team Red managed to snag another 0.74% of the processor usage share from Intel, and this is likely to repeat over the next months thanks to the upcoming Matisse Refresh. But Tiger Lake might still make an impression for Team Blue.

The 2019 Blade 15 Base Model is now the cheapest it's ever been. You might want to have a secondary 2.5-inch SATA III drive or external drive ready though because the primary 256 GB SSD is going to fill up fast.

Bethesda has announced that this year's QuakeCon will be streamed live. We can expect the company to tell us more about the upcoming Doom: Eternal DLC, Starfield, and more. We should know more about the event's specifics in the coming days.

Intel's graphics head Raja Koduri teased new Xe dGPUs being currently tested at the company's Folsom labs. Raja's tweets showed off three GPUs — one of which was referred to as a Big Fabulous Package (BFP) — a prototype cooling system, and the test platform. The BFP is a 4-tile Xe dGPU aimed at HPC workloads.