Gaming

The Legion 7 16ACHg6 brings all the latest computer games smoothly onto the matte 16-inch screen (2560x1600 pixels, 165 Hz, IPS) in the 16:10 format. Furthermore, its equipment is good: The Ryzen 9 5900HX APU, the GeForce RTX 3080 laptop GPU, 32 GB of RAM, and 2x 1 TB NVMe SSDs.

Cyberpunk 2077 has made the briefest of returns to the PlayStation Store following its removal last year. For some reason, Sony allowed people to wishlist the AAA game, despite CDPR's support drying up for it in the last few months.

The Radeon RX 6600M is actually faster than the RTX 3060 in raster-heavy tests, but overall, it is as fast as the Nvidia card in 3DMark. It also falls behind by up to 13% in 1440p games and is significantly slower in ray tracing games. This SKU will no doubt be ignored by crypto miners as it is slower than the previous gen RX 5600M model.

GPD has got into a spot of bother regarding the Win 3, its latest handheld system. Not only has the company shipped some Win 3 units with the wrong Bluetooth and Wi-Fi module, but it has leaked hundreds of customers' data.

NVIDIA announced a host of new titles set to feature RTX techniques like DLSS and ray-tracing. Doom Eternal, teased alongside the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti launch, will get a ray-tracing patch on June 29th, while Rainbow Six: Siege's DLSS update is already out.

After 6 years in hibernation, the 3.92 lbs Razer Blade 14 is returning with brand new tricks up its sleeves. Unsurprisingly, Razer has already crowned it the fastest 14-inch gaming laptop in the market.

Dell has acted quickly in rectifying the issue of missing CUDA cores on the Alienware m15 R5. The machine should now have all its full complement of CUDA cores on its NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU. But, erroneously, Windows and Microsoft Edge warn that Dell's vBIOS update could be harmful to your computer.

Lenovo US now offers the new Legion 5 with AMD silicon via its webstore. The 165Hz 15-inch PC is available with the Ryzen 7 5800H processor and either RTX 3060 or 3070 graphics. The OEM touts it as "battle ready" for the thin and light gaming laptop arena.

Microsoft has unveiled a new entry in its Xbox series, the Xbox Mini Fridge. According to the company, the Xbox Mini Fridge keeps drinks cooler than all its competitors thanks to Xbox Velocity Cooling Architecture. The Xbox Mini Fridge should hold up to 10 cans, too.

A report out of China has stated that Nvidia will drastically cut the supply of GeForce RTX 2060 cards to bolster production efforts in regard to the Ampere-based GeForce RTX 30 series of boards. Gamers around the world have struggled to get their hands on Nvidia’s latest and greatest, so this purported plan will be welcomed by many.

AYA has just proven all the naysayers wrong by shipping its first batch of NEO units earlier this month to initial backers. A second round of shipments is expected early July with an official online storefront to come at a later date.

NVIDIA released a low-key update on its plans for end-of-lifing cards based on the Kepler architecture. According to a new post on NVIDIA's support site, Kepler cards like the GeForce GTX 780 Ti will no longer receive driver updates from August 2021 onwards.

Razer has launched the new Opus X headphones via its own website. These new wireless accessories have emerged as a new mid-range variant of their series, compared to the original Opus cans. They support active noise cancellation (ANC) and a low-latency connection, yet lack the THX certification of their predecessors, not to mention a 3.5mm port for a wired mode.

After months of radio silence, From Software finally offered a solid update on the state of Elden Ring. A new trailer showcased gameplay and art design that hew closely to Dark Souls. From also announced a release timeframe, with Elden Ring expected to drop in January 2022.

Following the security incident at CD Projekt Red, it appears that Electronic Arts is dealing with the aftermath of a data breach. Hackers have reportedly made away with nearly 1 Terabyte of sensitive data, including the source code for the Frostbite engine.

Information about Age of Empires IV has been shared after details and screenshots of the upcoming RTS game were seemingly accidentally posted on Steam. The file size for Age of Empires IV, which will apparently be released on October 28, has also purportedly been leaked.

The model number for the Nintendo Switch Pro’s SoC has been shared by a noted leaker. The tipster states that the Big N will use a customized processor for its future Switch console, utilizing Ampere architecture from Nvidia and Hercules microarchitecture from ARM. The apparent Switch Pro SoC model number associates it with the Tegra Orin chip.

Rumors are flying that Microsoft has acquired no less than three more studios to join its growing list of game developers that make up the Xbox Game Studios. While no names have yet been confirmed, it’s widely believed that the makers of Crysis, Crytek, will be one of the companies focusing their future output on the Xbox Series X|S and Windows.
Update: New rumors suggest Microsoft has acquired five studios.

OtterBox has unveiled a new product aimed at the problem of controller drain while gaming on the Xbox Series X, S or One. It consists of the new Power Swap Controller Batteries, along with a charging cradle for the same. The OEM asserts that it is optimally designed to enable one-handed battery reloads without a break in play.

Games could see up to 28% fps improvements with faster RAM kits, but the average is around 10% at 1080p max settings or 15% for 1080p low settings. The absence of a MUX switch raises the performance gap to 33% in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, so we might want to wait for the more expensive versions that allow us to disable the iGPU.

Nostalgic about GPUs from the past few decades? This museum has everything from the console and arcade boards of the '80s, ISA cards, 3DFX SLI setups, the first true GPU - the GeForce 256 from Nvidia, pre-AMD ATI dual-GPU beasts and even separate sections dedicated to the Chinese e-sport scene sponsored by Colorful iGame or VR and high-end racing simulators.

CD Projekt Red may have released Cyberpunk 2077 last year, but Seagate has decided to release a limited edition as a tie-in. The Cyberpunk 2077 Limited Edition SSD comes with a large yellow heat sink, the Cyberpunk logo and RGB lighting.

Four months ago, CD Projekt Red revealed that it had become the victim of a ransomware attack. Initially, the company brushed off the attack, but it has now confirmed that people are sharing sensitive information online.

Tom from Moore's Law Is Dead reveals the hybrid core configurations for the upcoming Alder Lake S1, S2, P1, P2, M and N lineups and also shares a few more details about the 2022 Raptor Lake generation, plus other successive generations. No pricing info, though.

Opinion The Alienware m15 R4 we just reviewed offers gamers a strong performance, an RTX 3080, and a mechanical keyboard. But its battery life is downright abysmal. Is this an acceptable inconvenience for gaming laptops? Do gaming laptops even need good battery life? Yes!

Remedy Entertainment's surreal third-person shooter Control is now free on the Epic Games Store. All you need to grab your copy is an Epic Games account. It will remain free till June 17 on the platform.

Dell may be up to its CUDA core cannibalizing shenanigans again. A cursory glance at the Dell G15 listing tells us that its CUDA core count is set at 3,584 instead of 3,840. One could have dismissed it as an error had it not been for Dell's recent Alienware m15 R5 debacle. Update: The GeForce 3060 on the Dell G15 has the correct number of CUDA cores

Acer has announced that its latest round of consolidated revenue (for May 2021) was its best for 7 seven years. These earnings, which totaled about US$895 million, grew by nearly 23% year-on-year (YoY). The OEM's gaming arm grew by 15.3% YoY, whereas its Chromebooks brought in 30.1% more revenue compared to May 2020.

Razer has launched its latest Hammerhead True Wireless earbuds. The new Hammerhead TWS X earbuds are targeted at mobile gamers and feature the latest connectivity for quick pairing and low latency.

It has been a while coming, but Panic has finally set the pre-order date and launch price of the Playdate, its unique handheld games console. The Playdate will also support an ingenious dock and will come with 24 games.

Dell has confirmed that it intentionally disabled CUDA cores on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 in the Alienware m15 R5. The company has pledged to return all missing CUDA cores to the gaming laptop by the middle of this month, which should give it a noticeable performance boost compared to what it currently offers.
Update: Dell has enabled all the RTX 3070's CUDA cores with a vBIOS update.

Realme has officially announced that its flagship GT smartphone will finally get a global launch later in June 2021. However, the "price" section of this show may have been spoiled already thanks to an accidental leak of the OEM's EU product page for the device, showing that the phone will start at ~US$668 in the region.

New rumors about a potential Nintendo Switch Pro console have come to light, and they include mention of AMD involvement, 5 nm manufacturing process, a faster GPU, possible DLSS limitations, Xbox Game Pass, and even 120 fps at 720p theoretical capability. Apparently, Switch Pro devkits have already been sent out to Nintendo’s third-party game makers.

Lenovo will be offering new Legion 5 models with Ryzen 5 5600H and Radeon RX 6600M in Germany at prices starting from €1,299. However, this pricing is significantly higher than a Ryzen 7 5800H and RTX 3060 Laptop GPU configuration at €1,249 indicating that Legion 5 models with NVIDIA GPUs could offer a better price-to-performance ratio.

The RedMagic 6R offers the top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor in a more mid range-looking chassis than is usual from this gaming-focused smartphone brand. The 6.67-inch display device will be released via its global website on June 24, 2021, starting at just under US$500.

AMD's Zen 4-based future processors are currently thought to have the code-name Raphael. It is also rumored to move on to a new LGA-based socket called AM5. Now, a new leak purports to show what one of them will look like from the other side, strange indented integrated heat spreader and all.

Popular YouTube tech commenter Dave2D has offered up some astounding estimates for the potential of the Apple M1X processor that could turn up inside the upcoming MacBook Pro 14 and MacBook Pro 16. It is suggested that an M1X Apple Silicon with a 32-core GPU could keep up with a GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU while consuming less than half the power.

Days Gone was launched to mixed reactions back in 2019, and its recently released PC port has mirrored that for the most part. Over a hundred thousand fans may have banded together to demand a sequel from Sony but even that looks to have been inadequate, with new information essentially confirming that Days Gone 2 is dead in the water.

A cryptocurrency miner has confirmed that Nvidia's hash rate limiter works as intended on the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. Hash rates for Altcoins such as Ethereum Classic, Ergo, and RavenCoin appear to be significantly lower, too.

Screen captures from Godfall - one of the first games to support FSR - suggest that image quality with AMD's new upscaling technique might not be substantially better than conventional resolution scaling, while offering worse performance, bringing back memories of DLSS 1.0

The slower RAM gimps the gaming performance by up to 20% on the Asus model, while the missing MUX switch is further limiting the potential that should match models equipped with RTX 3080 mobile dGPUs. Similar RAM problems can also be encountered on the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. However, the Lenovo Legion 7 AMD features faster RAM, so this is not really just another conspiracy against AMD.

New concept renders of a Nintendo Switch Pro console have been shared online that have convinced some fans they could be looking at the real deal. However, while gamers wait for the Big N to officially announce the Switch Pro or Super Nintendo Switch, the truth behind the alleged “first leaked images” has surfaced.

The Eyesafe display specialists have confirmed that Gigabyte monitors have achieved its TÜV Rheinland certification for user health and comfort. Four of these Aorus-brand models are on the market, whereas one still awaits a launch. Therefore, the OEM can say the displays are as low on blue-light emissions as they are high on gaming performance.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti has made its debut on benchmarking websites. The RTX 3070 Ti competes with the RTX 2080 Ti and Radeon RX 6800 XT, which are more expensive than NVIDIA's latest effort. The RTX 3070 Ti appears to be worse value for money than the RTX 3070, though.

Several Alienware m15 R5 laptops are apparently reporting just 4,608 CUDA cores for the RTX 3070 Laptop GPU instead of 5,120. Apart from the CUDA cores, even the clocks, TMUs, and pixel fillrates are being reported to be lower than normal leading to performance loss. Currently, a possible workaround is to flash the VBIOS from an m15 R4 that seems to restore the correct values and performance.