Gaming

Ampere was initially rumored to launch as the RTX 2000-series in early 2018, but sources now confirm that this new architecture will be featured in Nvidia's 2020 GPUs. No details regarding differences between Turing and Ampere for now. Interestingly enough, the Ampere GPUs will be manufactured by Samsung on the 7 nm EUV node, as TSMCs 7 nm foundries appear to have been overbooked by Apple and AMD.

Dragon Quest Walk, an adventure AR game in the same vein as Pokemon Go, was announced earlier this week. Though details are sparse, the game seems to have players travel to real-world locations to battle monsters from the Dragon Quest universe. The title is set to release only in Japan for iOS and Android.

Noctua, often a go-to brand for PC fans, is at Computex to highlight its new and updated products. They include the NF-A12x25, which gained the European Hardware Association's best case-fan of 2019 award. The company has also made new ultra-thin fans, improved CPU coolers and fanless coolers.

These 15.6-inch gaming systems - and potentially more - are based on a white-label Tongfang design. You can purchase the cheapest option and still end up with the exact same laptop at the end of the day.

As 2019 sees the more widespread adoption of OLED panels in notebooks and other portable technology, reports from Digitimes suggests that some LED-panel manufacturers in China may be in trouble.

During Computex 2019 we had a chance to take a look at two new barebones from Clevo that may end up at resellers like Schenker or Eurocom. The Clevo NB60TA is a brand-new 16.1-inch Full HD multimedia laptop with a desktop CPU and a mobile GTX 1650, while the existing PB50RD is now also available with a new 4K OLED panel from Samsung.

Rumours about the possibility of NVIDIA releasing an RTX 2070 Ti have appeared again online. This time, alleged CUDA core specifications, VRAM speed and more have been "confirmed".

It has been a long time coming, but a final version of the Smach Z will apparently be at E3 2019. The conference, hosted at the LA Convention Center between June 11 and 13, will be the first opportunity to see the much delayed handheld console in the flesh. The Smach Z is still available to pre-order with prices currently starting at US$629.10.

Two Pro 5G variants of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 10 have apparently been spotted on Geekbench. The benchmark results have revealed some supposed hardware specifications about the phablets. There is a rumor the Note 10 could be gaming-oriented and a concept render of the much-anticipated device has been given a seal of approval from Ice universe.

An AMD Ryzen 5 3600 was shown to beat the Intel Core i7-8700 in a leaked PUBG benchmark over at the Chiphell forum. The Ryzen 5 3600 was shown to average about 6.3% higher than the 8700 when both of them were paired with DDR4-3000 RAM and a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. The larger cache size on Ryzen could work well for gamers, but further data and testing are needed for an absolute conclusion.

Some people might look at the death of Moore's Law, Intel's 10nm troubles, and Nvidia's highly resistible 2019 mobile-RTX lineup and think that the notebook business is in trouble. I think it might be the best thing that's happened to the industry in years.

It’s possible to save almost US$900 on a Dell XPS 15 (9570) Touch laptop with i9-8950HK processor and GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card at the moment. The top-end device in the lineup usually costs US$2,978.99, but this can be knocked down to US$2,082.49 with Dell’s discount and a special coupon code. There are also savings to be had on non-touch XPS 15 laptops.

The upcoming AMD Navi GPUs such as the Radeon RX 5700 will use a hybrid GCN-RDNA architecture according to information obtained from AMD by Swedish outlet, SweClockers. Apparently, AMD feels that GCN is a mature architecture that has been optimized well for modern games and therefore, will find place alongside RDNA in Navi 10 GPUs. AMD is expected to completely transition to RDNA with Navi 20 sometime in 2020.

The video-game industry could accrue as much as US$179.1 billion by 2024. This is in line with a new market-research report on the subject. This valuation may be driven by conventional platforms such as mobile devices, PCs and consoles; however, VR and AR are also likely to have an increasingly large influence on the space.

Nvidia recently teased the word “Super” in a very brief promotional video that created speculation that the graphics card specialist had some new products coming. A new leak has suggested that the green team is preparing two new graphics cards for release that will feature Turing technology and will be positioned at the premium end of the market.

Today, (May 31, 2019) Creative unveils a new partnership with the Taiwanese PC-smiths Clevo. It will involve the integration of Super X-Fi technology into this manufacturer's notebooks in the future. Therefore, this platform will focus on headphone audio in Clevo machines.

An unknown system incorporating an Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus motherboard and an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU has been tested on Geekbench. The device with the brand-new board and just-announced Ryzen 3000 processor managed a surprising score in the single-core test, where it managed to beat out every other Ryzen-based system that has appeared on Geekbench so far.

The creator and executive director of the famed Yakuza series of games has been singing the praises of the PlayStation 5 and its performance capabilities. While discussing the latest entry to the action-adventure franchise, Toshihiro Nagoshi offered up some interesting comments about Sony’s next-generation console.

Zotac released the MEK MINI, an appreciably compact high-powered gaming PC, some months ago. However, that has not stopped it from re-appearing as part of the OEM's showcase at Computex 2019. The unit in question has an Intel Core i7-9700 CPU, which is an improvement on the models on zotac.com.

Viveport Infinity is a service that pulls together VR experiences from numerous different publishers for a single monthly fee. To this end, "Beyond the Wall", an HBO/Game of Thrones product, launches on this platform tomorrow (May 31, 2019). It may offer customers the opportunity to explore Westerosi vistas in a virtual manner.

AMD's Ryzen 3000 launch has been the talking point at Computex 2019 and all eyes were on the plethora of X570 motherboards unveiled by various OEMs. The excitement with this new chipset generation is largely due to the transition to PCIe Gen4 and the fact that these chipsets have higher power draws, requiring active cooling. This article presents all the information about AMD's new flagship chipset that we are hearing from the event and from other publications so far

Intel has been entertaining visitors at Computex 2019 with some images of graphics cards that could make their way into desktops by 2035. The concept designs, which were created by Cristiano Siqueira, were displayed during the recent Intel Odyssey event. The Prometheus concept graphics card has been particularly well-received.

A couple of photos of an AMD Navi chip and a Ryzen 3000 series processor have been published by a Japanese website. After months of rumors and leaks, the physical products are finally available to see. The Ryzen 9 3900X is easily distinguishable with its chiplet design. The rear sides of the processors show Navi’s smaller ball grid array.

A Geekbench OpenCL benchmark score for Intel’s Iris Plus Graphics has been unearthed, and it seems the Ice Lake variant of the iGPU has performed very well. The system in the test was a Dell XPS 13 convertible powered by a 10th Gen i7-1065 G7 processor. The recorded OpenCL score ended up being 61,949 points.

War Thunder 1.89 "Imperial Navy" comes with a full naval tech tree for Japan, a first — premium, as usual — helicopter for the same nation, a few new ground vehicles — the long-awaited French Leclerc tank is one of them — and planes for most nations, two new locations, reworked clouds, and more.

Qualcomm is at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) to launch its new Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design. It is a reference VR headset based on the XR1 Platform. This device has a DJI display, up-to-date controllers, interfaces and a Standalone Mode.

Asus is ready to ship laptops with liquid metal thermal paste and the initial results have us excited. The cooler temperatures will lead directly to quieter, lighter, or thinner laptop designs from future ROG laptops.

After catering to gaming enthusiasts almost exclusively for years, the Aorus brand is now ready to dabble in more affordable mid-range offerings. The 17.3-inch Aorus 7 tops out at the GTX 1660 Ti and RTX 2060 while keeping many flagship features intact including the Core i7-9750H CPU, 144 Hz display, and triple internal storage bays.

The Gigabyte Sabre-inspired Aorus 5 series will come standard with 9th gen Core i7 CPUs, LG 144 Hz IPS panels, Killer 1550 wireless, Samsung RAM, and Intel 760p SSDs at more affordable starting prices for the mainstream gamer.

The MSI GT76 Titan houses powerful desktop-class components including a Core i9-9900K that is overclocked to 5 GHz on all cores and an NVIDIA RTX 2080 GPU. The GT76 offers a 17.3-inch 4K panel that covers 100% Adobe RGB and comes with all the connectivity options one expects in a laptop this size. The powerful internals are provided with improved Cooler Boost Titan features for sustained peak performance and the suave exterior modeled after exotic cars further adds to the visual appeal.

Flagship features are beginning to waterfall to entry-level models. MSI's budget-friendly GP series will be getting an overhaul both inside and out for a leaner look and a more advanced set of options.

ASRock has been displaying quite a few of its new products at the Computex 2019 trade event in Taiwan. Two especially interesting items from the Taiwanese manufacturer have already sparked speculation online as to what they could be. Although they are labeled as concept cards, it has been reported they could be Navi Radeon RX 5700 graphics cards.

Asus has revealed its new ROG Strix XG17 portable monitor that has been specifically designed for gaming on the go. The 17.3-inch display offers a maximum refresh rate of 240 Hz and can be powered either through AC power in the wall or via its two USB Type-C ports. The XG17 is less than half-an-inch thick.

The technology adjusts the wavelength of blue light at the source and then performs the necessary color correction to reach the original gamut of the panel. The end result is a display that automatically reduces "harmful" blue light without impacting colors or requiring special filters or glasses from the end user.

It hasn't even been a year since the 2018 Alienware m15 and now a redesigned Alienware m15 R2 is ready to hit the market. The new chassis sports a similar honeycomb-inspired ventilation design as the Area-51m but in a smaller and tighter package that we've come to expect from an ultra-thin gaming laptop.

The 2019 redesign introduces Intel 9th CPUs, GeForce GTX 16 GPUs, RGB keyboard backlight, and 144 Hz display options targeted at gamers on a budget. Single and dual storage options include Intel Optane or secondary HDDs.

The higher-end SKUs will utilize 8-phase and 6-phase graphics and processor regulators, respectively, with the promise of better performance sustainability. The new chassis is 11 percent thinner than the Alienware m17 R1 while weighing about the same. Optional Tobii eye-tracking returns alongside a narrower "chin" bezel.

Much like Nvidia and its G-Sync technology, Intel will integrate its own adaptive sync technology to its upcoming Ice Lake Iris SKUs. The chipmaker says we can expect Ice Lake laptops with adaptive sync displays to be available within the next year. Such models would not require an Nvidia GPU.

The TUF sub-division of Asus has released new gaming monitors at Computex this year. There are 3 of these devices, 1 of which is a vertically-aligned panel. All 3 support HDR, Adaptive-Sync and HDMI v2.0.

Asus has a lot of new high-powered hardware to show off at Computex this year. But what is all that without the display tech to match? The 240Hz ROG Strix Scar III and Hero III are on show at the conference, as are some of the OEM's even newer, faster notebook displays.

Video game addition was defined by the World Health Organisation as a disorder in late 2017, and now it has been finally recognized as a disease that will be placed in line with gambling addition starting in 2022. However, it will take at least a few more years until this definition will start to have effects in real life.

Available in 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities, the Kingston KC2000 NVMe PCIe SSD can hit read and write speeds of up to 3,200 and 2,200 MB/s. In terms of security, this new storage solution comes with 256-bit AES hardware encryption and support for TCG Opal 2.0 security management.

During AMD's Computex keynote, Lisa Su introduced the upcoming Navi architecture that integrates the new RDNA microarchitecture. The AMD CEO also showed off a first benchmark and announced products that will be coming in July.