Gaming

Sony has recently applied to register a trademark for “PS5” with the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property. This may not be a huge deal in itself, but the fact that the application has now been made points to the impending arrival of a PlayStation 5 reveal event. There is some evidence this could take place in New York on February 29.

Corsair has revealed a couple of new AMD-powered gaming PCs to its lineup. The Vengeance 6180 and Vengeance 6182 both feature a Ryzen 3000 series CPU in the form of the 8-core Ryzen 7 3700X while graphics processing is carried out by the Navi-based Radeon RX 5700 XT GPU. Naturally, there are more RGB lighting options than you could shake a stick at.

In the wake of AMD’s RTX 5600 XT launch, Nvidia instituted a heavy RTX 2060 price-cut, bringing 2060 prices down to $299. The RTX 2060, the cheapest RTX part, now offers viable competition to the 5600 XT. How exactly did Nvidia manage this? Reports indicate that TU104 GPUs are being repurposed in heavily cut-down form in some of the new RTX 2060s.

NVIDIA is fleshing out its mid-range laptop GPU offerings this quarter, with the GeForce GTX 1650 and GTX 1650 Ti set to take on the AMD Radeon RX 5500M and RX 5300M. The GTX 1650 refreshes will both sport 4 GB of GDDR6 VRAM running at 12 Gbps along with up to 50 W TGP. NVIDIA looks to be basing the two cards on different GPUs, though.

Known as Torchlight Frontiers during its Alpha stage, the successor of Torchlight and Torchlight II is now on its way to being launched as — obviously — Torchlight III. Even more, the game will drop the free-to-play business model and will be available at launch via Steam instead of Arc.

Today, (January 28, 2020) Eve has finally launched the Spectrum, its crowd-developed 27-inch monitor which, as it turns out, has a 240Hz/QHD option. The company has also announced that its current pricing online applies to the first 500 units only. Therefore, it starts at US$349, but only perhaps for a limited time.

Eve, the company behind the Eve V 2-in-1, has just announced a crowd-sourced gaming monitor. The 27-inch display will come in three variants: a 1440p display with a 144 Hz refresh rate, a 4K model with a 144 Hz refresh rate, and the world's first 1440p IPS panel with a 240 Hz refresh rate.

POCO is continuing to pull out the surprises, this time by revealing that the POCO X2 smartphone will be launched at 12 PM on February 4. POCO India has used the light-hearted slogan “Bruh, it’s #SmoothAF” to announce the upcoming unveiling of its new device on the company’s official Twitter account.

Some news about Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has leaked on Reddit, including a possible release date, cast of characters, and even a morsel of information about the tech behind its development. Some may have been expecting the superhero title to launch at the same time as the PlayStation 5 for Holiday 2020, but it appears fans will likely have to wait quite a bit longer.

Gamers who have dual or triple monitor gaming rigs will be keen to check out the latest accessory from the Asus ROG gaming team. The new ROG Bezel-Free Kit (ABF01) is designed to be placed at the corners of one of more monitors to create an optical illusion to make it seem as though the bezels disappear as if by magic.

Capcom will apparently be developing more remakes of some of its classic franchises, possibly with the upcoming releases of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in mind. Although no specific title has been revealed yet, fans have already started speculating, with plenty of comments being made in favor of the classic survival horror game Dino Crisis.

A short video has been uploaded to YouTube that appears to show the boot screen for the PlayStation 5 and maybe even a good glimpse at the console itself in its final design format. The console looks completely different, as is expected, from the now familiar PS5 devkits. However, there is plenty of argument that this clip has been faked.

Fresh evidence for hardware-accelerated ray tracing in what is purported to be Intel GPU driver code has surfaced. The driver references several ray tracing features of the DXR API. Although speculation about ray tracing support in Intel Xe is not new, the company did not officially confirm any of those rumors but only indicated that ray tracing is on the roadmap for datacenter Xe GPUs.

An interesting survey released by the Game Developer Conference has shown which platforms are the most interesting to developers at the moment. In the console wars, the PlayStation 5 just pips the Nintendo Switch for being the device that sparks the most interest, but it is the good old PC that remains the favorite.

8K is the next up-and-coming thing in display-tech standards. However, devices that support it may only be so effective at showing it without compatible, high-quality cables. The company Austere has put just such a product on the market.

Paraphrasing Radeon VP Scott Herkelman, has AMD jebaited NVIDIA again, or has it pulled one on itself this time? The Radeon RX 5600 XT may be an excellent mid-tier desktop GPU, but the manner in which AMD has released it is nothing short of laughable.

While talk of the Nintendo Switch lately has been about a Pro version of the console, Nintendo may have an accessory or two up its sleeve too. A new patent publication demonstrates how the company could bring stylus functionality to the Joy-Cons, but would you buy it?

ASUS ROG is bringing a Ryzen 5 4600HS version of the Zephyrus G14 to market, the company has confirmed. The hexacore Renoir chip will come with up to 16 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, an RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU and a 1 TB PCIe SSD. ASUS ROG will offer 120 Hz and 1080p or 60 Hz and 1440p panels with the device, too.

Rumour has it that Nintendo and NVIDIA are working to bring a Volta-powered Switch to market, and possibly as a Pro SKU of the console. It may not arrive before the end of the year though, and it may not live up to expectations anyway.

The console prototype pictures appear to be legitimate, as the serial number on the back of the console was already claimed by a twitter user. Apart from the usual connectors, there also is a debug slot for gaming developers. As for the PCIe 4.0 SSD, it looks like Microsoft opted for the E19T controller that is just a bit faster than the current top PCIe 3.0 models.

The RX 5600 XT has been well received so far, but a new rumour claims that AMD has 80 CU and beyond GPUs planned for this year. The lower-end model in what will supposedly be called the RX 6000 series will target the RTX 2080 Ti too, as AMD attempts to regain ground on NVIDIA's stranglehold of the high-end consumer GPU market.

A picture of what is claimed to be the first look at the PlayStation 5’s user interface has been posted on a well-known imageboard. The poster of the image states that they work at a game studio that is currently utilizing PS5 devkits. Comments in regard to the possible PS5 UI have focused on its similarity to the PS4’s revamped UI.

To help drum up the hype ahead of the launch of Half-Life: Alyx in March, Valve is offering gamers an unbeatabale deal. For the next two months, anyone with a Steam account can download and play each of all previous Half-Life titles for free to help refamiliarize gamers with the franchise or attract new fans.

Some new concept renders of the PlayStation 5 based on a recent alleged leak have started appearing online. The console in the renders features the questionable X-shaped design that has led to growing concern over potential overheating issues. However, it shouldn’t be too long before the world gets a look at the final consumer model design.

A Geekbench result showing the NVIDIA RTX 2080 Super Max-Q's OpenCL score has surfaced confirming our earlier exclusive report about NVIDIA's plans of bringing the new RTX 20-series Super GPUS in Max-Q versions for laptops. We also see the upcoming 10th generation Intel Core i9-10980HK in this listing showing a maximum boost frequency of 4.92 GHz.

According to a new leak, Intel has a replacement for the NUC 10 Performance mini-PCs in the works. It apparently goes under the heretofore-unknown code-name Panther Canyon, and will be powered by Tiger Lake-U processors with Xe graphics. This new rumor also covers the "NUC 11 Extreme" line, also known as Phantom Canyon.

Details about NVIDIA's upcoming Ampere GPUs have leaked online, and it looks like we may in for a treat this year. We are getting to know a few hardware specs about two Ampere GPUs — GA103 and GA104, which could eventually be designated the RTX 3080 and RTX 3070, respectively. GA103 seems to offer a significantly higher CUDA core count and memory bandwidth compared to the RTX 2080 Super. The leak also seems to indicate that there is ample room for a GA102 RTX 3080 Ti, which could turn out to be a monster of a card.

NVIDIA may be moving onto 7 nm GPUs this year, but there is still life in its old 14 nm architecture yet. The GeForce MX330 and MX350 were teased at CES 2020, and now a new driver release has unveiled their hardware IDs.

AMD and NVIDIA are locked in a battle for the midrange currently, with both manufacturers pulling moves to make their cards look more attractive. First we had NVIDIA, which cut the RTX 2060 by US$50, and now AMD has reportedly pushed out new firmware to AIBs to tweak their editions of the RX 5600 XT. The enhancements promise to bring up to 15% better performance and put the RX 5600 XT within spitting distance of the RX 5700.

The AMD Ryzen 4000 Renoir APUs have a reduced number of compute units (CUs) compared to Raven Ridge, but improvements to the architecture means that they can offer higher clocks and a 59% higher performance per CU. AMD plans to eventually transition these improvements into upcoming Navi generations for laptops.

PUBG is getting a new Season 6 update next week. Season 6 offers a new 64-player map, Karakin, which is designed to offer a challenging gameplay and a new hazard called Black Zone in which the map layout changes with every match. Also available is a new Motor Glider vehicle, Survivor Pass, and a host of other enhancements that will go live on January 25 for PC and console players.

Google is working on bringing support for Steam to its Chrome OS, reports Android Police. The platform would run on inside Linux on Chrome, which is already backed into Google’s lightweight browser-based operating system.

Amazing price-to-performance ratio? Affordable gaming laptops are in demand, which is why almost every manufacturer has devices available for around $1000. One particularly interesting model is the GF63 9SC from MSI, which is equipped with a Core i5-9300H and a GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q.

Three new rumours have appeared about the PlayStation 5, of which two are verifiable. Apparently, the DualShock 5 will not only have context-adaptive triggers but will also be backwards compatible with the PS4. The DualShock 4 will supposedly be forwards compatible with the PlayStation 5, which would probably make more sense.

If you thought that 2019 was good for graphics cards and gamers, then think again. 2020 is already shaping up to be even better than last year, with not only new consoles and RTX 3000 around the corner, but also RDNA 2. AMD's next GPU architecture will sport huge improvements over the likes of the RX 5700 series, while the work that has gone into may help the PlayStation 5 too.

After announcing that Cyberpunk 2077 would be delayed until September, CD Projekt Red later disclosed on an investment call that the multiplayer component of the game likely won't be ready until after 2021. While the wait is disappointing, CDPR should be lauded for its transparency about the game's development.

Is NVIDIA worried about AMD's RX product stack? Well, its latest round of price cuts would suggest so. The company has unexpectedly dropped the RTX 2060 Founders Edition from US$349, conveniently just ahead of the release of the RX 5600 XT.

PlayStation 4 exclusive Horizon: Zero Dawn is reportedly coming to PC sometime in 2020, according to a report by Kotaku. The title will be available on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

There has been no shortage of speculation in regard to the actual release date of the PlayStation 5 and its final recommended retail price. The latest suggestion has come up with a slightly earlier date than many believe, while the worldwide market prices listed on this occasion for the PS5 seem to be in line with what is already generally expected.

A couple of so-called patent designs for the consumer model of the PlayStation 5 have been shared on the well-known imageboard 4channel. Along with those, an even more unlikely image, claiming to be a real-world shot of the PS5, has also been uploaded to the same site. The overall look of the next-gen console in the purported designs and blurry image is surprising.

A Google Stadia spokesperson stated that the platform will be getting over 120 games in 2020, of which 10 will be exclusives. The company also promised some QoL upgrades such as 4K gaming on the web, better Google Assistant functionality, and more. These features will make their way to Stadia subscribers in the coming months.

Ever fancied a wireless and a detachable set of GameCube controllers for the Nintendo Switch? Well, one modder did and they have posted their results online. An incredible amount of attention to detail has been paid to creating the GameCube Joy-Cons, with the results being an exquisite blend of the original GameCube controller and Joy-Cons.

Mobius Final Fantasy, a popular mobile spin-off of the Final Fantasy franchise, will end services in the United States on June 30. The game garnered fairly positive reviews over its 4-year tenure on iOS, Android, and Steam.

AMD has just announced the release of the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition (20.1.2). It confers support for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, as well as Vulkan 1.2. It also fixes a problem for some UE4-based games in which they could not load under its predecessor.

So, the Xiaomi Black Shark 3 will not only have 5G capabilities and 16 GB of RAM, but also a 120 Hz and 2K display? Well, that is the latest rumor about the Chinese company's next gaming smartphone, at any rate. Would 120 Hz and 2K gaming be enough to tempt you to pick up the Black Shark 3, though?

CES 2020 marked the arrival of the PlayStation 5, in logo form at least. Unsurprisingly, it looks like the one that the company used for the PS4, and the internet has reacted in particularly humourus fashion.

Excited by the prospect of a high-end Navi GPU or two? Well, AMD's partners are seemingly prepping themselves for some new product releases too, with one filing trademarks for four unreleased Navi SKUs at the EEC. We discuss whether this new finding means anything or not, as the case may be.

Asus goes over core details on the upcoming VivoBook S series, Chromebook Flip C436, TUF Gaming A15/A17, G-Sync-enabled TUF Gaming VG27AQL1A monitor, ROG Strix GA35 gaming desktop, and the Zephyrus G14 laptop equipped with 4th gen AMD Ryzen H series CPUs.