Gaming

Upgraded with a Snapdragon 855+ SoC, improved liquid cooling solution and USF 3.0 storage, the Red Magic 3S from Nubia is scheduled to begin shipping on September 9 in China. As per usual, Nubia is looking to maintain aggressive prices, and the latest model is no exception, as the flagship variant costs ~US$531.

Nintendo announced today that 20 SNES games would be making their way to the Nintendo Switch Online service tomorrow, September 5th. The bundle, available only to NSO subscribers, includes classics like Super Mario World, Star Fox, Super Metroid, and Super Mario Kart.

A new graphics driver from AMD will optimize performance in Gears 5 for those users lucky enough to have an RX 5700 XT graphics card in their system. The red team has made the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.9.1 available for optional download, although ironically it could also cause a minor issue with the new title from Xbox Game Studios.

Acer's new series of XV3 gaming monitors offer modern refresh rates of up to 240Hz and response times of as low as 1 millisecond. They are also G-SYNC ready with the variable refresh rate (VRR) necessary to handle either the RTX or GTX 10-series of graphic cards. These new IPS panels come in either 24.5- or 27-inch variants, and will start at €249 (about US$275).

Asus is known for making technological leaps forward in regard to gaming-laptop displays, and now it seems the Taiwanese manufacturer is ready to make another spectacular bound. Asus has revealed that the Zephyrus S GX701 will be the world’s first notebook to offer a display capable of a 300 Hz refresh rate, ideal for esports and gaming professionals. Update: It looks like Acer beat Asus to the punch for this "world's first" claim.

Acer has pipped their competition at the post by announcing an update to the Predator Triton 500, making it the first laptop revealed with a 300 Hz display. Acer is also showing off the Predator Triton 300, which aims to provide a balanced laptop for those who still want to game in their downtime.

The Nubia Red Magic 3 is a gaming phone set to gain a new variant with the updated Snapdragon 855 Plus processor. Its first AnTuTu benchmark has reportedly been posted, and may have attained the highest score in these tests to date. This device may also come with a 90Hz display.

Thanks to a full-magnesium chassis, the Mag-15 gaming laptop developed by Intel in collaboration with Eluktronics is the lightest and thinnest on the market right now. It also comes with one of the largest 94 Whr batteries and the cooling system ensures the best thermal performance to date. Powered by the i7-9750H CPU, the Mag-15 also integrates up to 64 GB of DDR4-2666 RAM, up to 2 TB NVMe SSD storage and up to an RTX 2070 Max-Q GPU, all for considerably lower prices compared to established brands.

Razer is teasing another Blade laptop set to be unveiled on September 4th. Could this be the redesigned Blade Stealth powered by 25 W Intel Ice Lake-U Iris graphics?

If your PC or monitor is in need of an upgrade, you may as well browse Acer's catalog of electronics for a decent discount ending in just a few days.

Conquering outer space one turn at a time? Many a strategy game player's dream. With Interstellar Space: Genesis a new contender has entered the scene. Let's find out whether or not it is a true insiders' tip.

Sand and water, physical and spiritual, duality; Areia is a spiritual adventure filled with riddles in a non-stop hunt to advance towards an unknown objective. It does remind us of The Journey at first, but in time it develops its own unique gaming style. One question remains, though: How much fun does this ostensibly meditative gaming experience offer?

AMD seems to be taking aim at the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 16xx series, with the company potentially bringing a fourth Navi 14 GPU to market. The information comes courtesy of another Compubench listing, with the 3 GB SKU possibly sitting somewhere between the GeForce GTX 1650 and the older GeForce GTX 1050.

The Blade Stealth is the fastest laptop we've tested with GeForce MX150 graphics and now it costs about the same as most other Ultrabooks with no dedicated graphics at all. If you're in the market for an Ultrabook with more graphical oomph, then it may be worth considering the Razer.

TSMC claims that the GlobalFoundries allegations are baseless and it will do everything in its power to protect its IPs and technologies. The Taiwanese foundries currently hold a portfolio of 37,000 patents and expressed disappointment towards the monopolistic insinuations.

Some consumers may have found that having a 4K display does not always result in pin-sharp content. This is because 1080p image data is not always scaled effectively to match the more up-to-date resolution. NVIDIA has addressed this by introducing integer scaling in its latest Game Ready Drivers update.

Morphies Law not only brings unusual gameplay but also a weird, yet fresh and refreshing comic-style design. Read on to find our thoughts about this first-person shooter multiplayer in this short review.

WoW Classic is finally available globally and, although it is supposed to recreate the state of the game after patch 1.12.1, this title comes with a few new bugs as well. However, WoW Classic is very popular right now and Blizzard had to open quite a few new Normal and PvP realms due to the unexpected popularity shown by gamers across the Oceanic, EU, and US regions.

With a gaming performance comparable to the more affordable RX 5700 XT, the Radeon VII GPU is already put on EOL status after a short-lived 6 months. Still, the high-end GPU is a solid option for heavy compute tasks and demanding renderings, so the remaining stocks may eventually end up in select workstations.

AMD has released Radeon Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.8.2, an update that adds compatibility with HDCP 2.3 on the RX 5700 series of graphics cards. It also boosts performance while playing Control using DirectX 11 compared to the previous version of this driver. 19.8.2 may also address a range of glitches associated with this version.

The most notable infringements are related to the use of FinFET structures in 28 nm, 16 nm, 12 nm, 10 nm and 7 nm chips. Many products powered by TSMC's chips including, iPhones, GeForce GPUs, Lenovo and Asus laptops, handhelds from Google and Motorola, plus networking equipment from Broadcom and Cisco could end up being banned from the U.S. and Germany.

The RTX T10-8, which recently appeared in AIDA64 changelogs, is a new RTX GPU but not as we thought. A recent NVIDIA press-release hinted at what the intended purpose of the T10-8 would be, and it is not an RTX 2080 Ti SUPER. You can still take advantage of the new GPU though if you know where to look.

The Navi 14 leaks keep on coming, with a new set of benchmark listings revealing more information about the upcoming 8 GB SKU. Early indications are that the 8 GB Navi 14 GPU, codenamed the GFX1012, will have a 1.9 GHz boost clock and 24 CUs like its 4 GB sibling, but that it will have significantly better performance than previous benchmark listings suggested. The GPU may still nestle between the GeForce GTX 1650 and GeForce GTX 1660 though, with the latter having a significant edge over the Navi 14 in Compubench.

The OEM is claiming it to be world's first laptop with OMRON mechanical key switches. The new Aorus 17 will contrast the last generation Aorus X7 series by being thicker in order to incorporate additional features and performance options.

Next year's Consumer Electronics Show just got a bit more interesting.

Discord is now available on Samsung's proprietary mobile app store. It is intended to allow for video chats while gaming, and has been introduced as a novel feature on the new Galaxy Note 10 line. It requires that your Discord and Samsung accounts are linked on these devices.

Lava is an Indian smartphone OEM that has just released a new gaming phone. Called the Z93, it has 3GB of RAM and 32GB in internal storage, whereas many other companies in this space seem compelled to go for more in both respects. It also boasts the Helio P22 SoC, Android 9 and dual rear "depth-sensing" cameras.

Redmi has announced that its upcoming Note 8 Pro will rock the new, gaming-focused MediaTek Helio G90T SoC. The company asserts that this processor is more powerful than the comparable Snapdragon 710, albeit not the Kirin 810. The Note 8 Pro's AnTuTu scores appear to bear this out.

The recent discovery of patent drawings for a potential PlayStation 5 console, or at least a devkit of the next-gen device, created considerable excitement in the gaming community as many fans are eager to see what Sony will come up with for the PS5. However, new concept renders based on the patent show a rather clunky-looking and somewhat unappealing device.

Chinese GPU maker Jingia Micro is developing a new GPU that comes close to rivaling the NVIDIA GTX 1080, at least on paper. The JM9271 offers fast clocks, PCIe 4.0, HBM memory, and a 200W TDP. Jingjia's focus seems to be on the specialized military applications market at the moment, but support for DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs could make it potentially suitable for gaming.

Patented in Brazil earlier this month by Sony and designed by its Technical Director Yusuhiro Ootori, the designs have all the hallmarks of a games console. What do you think? The PlayStation 5, a Dev Kit or a design that will never see the light of the day?
Update: A Senior Artist at Codemasters confirms what Sony has patented.

AMD chief Dr. Lisa Su delivered a keynote at the Hot Chips conference earlier this week and spoke about the company's plans for HPC and exascale computing. Dr. Su also reiterated that CrossFire multi-GPU support is no longer a focus and that more information about Threadripper 3000 will be available later this year.

Valve-organized Dota 2 mega-tournament "The International" is well-underway, with the best players and teams in the world competing this year in Shanghai, China for the chance to win the trophy and over 30 million USD in prize-money.

The Genki Covert Dock has taken Kickstarter by storm, with it reaching its US$50,000 funding goal in just 40 minutes. The crowdfunding campaign has since received over US$1,000,000 from backers with 23 days to go. The Genki Covert Dock is designed as a portable dock for the Nintendo Switch but will charge other devices too thanks to its USB Type-C PD support. The Genki Covert Dock costs US$59, with the device shipping to backers in December.

After spending no less than 25 years in the gaming industry, Insomniac Games — the developer behind titles such as Ratchet & Clank and the critically acclaimed Marvel's Spider-Man — is joining PlayStation’s Worldwide Studios. Just as expected, the financial terms of the deal have not been revealed to the public.

Dell had taken the covers off its Alienware 55-inch 4K OLED display. Designed for serious gamers who want to set up a gaming loungeroom it boasts a 120 Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync helping to set it apart from OLED TVs on the market.

Headlining Dell’s announcements at Gamescom is an all-new G series gaming desktop. The new Dell G5 Desktop is designed to be an attractive but affordable and upgradeable gaming machine with up to Intel Core i9 CPUs and either Nvidia (GTX/RTX) or AMD Radeon RX GPUs.

The upcoming late 2019 model will be 4 percent thinner (23.5 mm vs. 24.5 mm) with 28 percent larger heat pipes than the 2018 model. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 5 3550H and Ryzen 7 3750H should offer a performance level similar to the Core i5-9300H but for hopefully much less.

If you're a League of Legends player and have been curious about Mobalytics, then you can give it a shot free-of-charge for one year by downloading an upcoming version of Omen Command Center.

Mojang, the makers of Minecraft, has announced that its hit game will become able to use real-time ray tracing in early 2020. Furthermore, NVIDIA has broken the news that a number of other titles will get these features. They include upcoming Metro Exodus DLC, Control and Dying Light 2.

Latest PlayStation 5 news is that the console's GPU could have a 2 GHz clock speed and feature 40 CUs. This puts the GPU almost on par with the NVIDIA RTX 2080 in terms of raw performance. Also, Sony is reportedly preparing for a PlayStation Meeting 2020 in which details about the PlayStation 5 would be revealed along with a few game demos.