Gaming

Apple is throwing US $500 million behind its upcoming Arcade gaming subscription service, according to a report by Financial Times. The service could be a big payoff for Apple; devs that release games via Arcade will be bound to a period of exclusivity before they can release their game on other non-mobile platforms. That means Arcade may be the only place gamers can access certain Indie titles, some of which may provide unique and fun experiences.

Alleged specifications for “AMD Navi” have been posted online. The new information offered seems to correspond with existing rumors about the Radeon RX 3080 Navi 10 graphics solution. Apparently, the performance of the Navi GPU places it between AMD’s Vega 56 and Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080, but the supposed price is much cheaper than Nvidia’s product.

AMD will soon be celebrating its 50th anniversary in business, and it seems Sapphire Technology wants to highlight the achievement by releasing a gold-colored Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 desktop graphics card. The special edition card has a boost clock rate of 1560 MHz and is fitted with 8 GB GDDR5 memory (2100 MHz clock that utilizes a 256-bit interface).

A piece of leaked marketing material purportedly from Gigabyte has led to considerable speculation about what could occur on the date mentioned on it. The image pertains to the gaming-related Aorus sub-brand, with some believing it will lead to an announcement of the X570 motherboards and possibly even a reveal of AMD’s Ryzen 3000 series.

The next generation of AMD cards based on the Navi architecture could be unveiled at Computex this year. However, according to some other rumors, they could also have their own dedicated release event on July 7 this year. It would be a good choice of date, as the potential success of Navi hangs on its state-of-the-art 7nm nature.

White label designs from Tongfang and Clevo have been undercutting the likes of MSI, Asus, Acer, Alienware, and HP by several hundred dollars for this latest generation of Turing gaming laptops. Major OEMs have been responding with price cuts across the board.

Xiaomi's Black Shark 2 is a powerful gaming phone that can be spec'd out to as much as 12GB in RAM. However, it does have one drawback: no 3.5mm jack. However, a brand spokesperson has indicated that this discrepancy will be rectified in its successor.

Codenamed 'Maverick', the Xbox One S All Digital will be Microsoft's first disc-less console. The Redmond-based company will officially unveil the console on April 16, but its launch date has been leaked too along with what games will be included.

Acer has just revealed its brand-new Predator Helios 300. The laptop sports thin bezels, an RGB-illuminated keyboard, and it will feature top-of-the-range goods from both Intel and Nvidia. But we already expected this thanks to a retailer posting information about the device on its website just days before the computer was officially announced.

Several sources have seemingly confirmed the release date of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One hours before its official unveiling at the Star Wars Celebration in Chicago. Respawn Entertainment will give an hour-long showcase of the game later today.

Dell's full-frontal refresh of its popular Alienware 17 series is significantly leaner and more portable. It does, however, sacrifice some features along the way that Alienware purists may miss. We list the major changes here based on our hands-on review of the newer model.

It’s a big day for Star Wars fans. The first trailer for the Episode IX, officially titled “The Rise of Skywalker,” has landed, along with the first game-play trailer for the new “Vader Immortal” VR game and leaked artwork from Respawn’s “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.”

A newly released patent filing has revealed details about the VR headset that will accompany the PlayStation 5. If Sony can translate the patent into reality, then it could be a game changer for AR and VR gaming.

Xbox's Chief Marketing Officer Mike Nichols felt that Microsoft is in a better position than Google in the race for cloud gaming given the vast library of games and other content that Xbox provides, echoing the sentiments of Xbox Chief Phil Spencer. Microsoft is also optimistic about a great show for Project xCloud at E3 2019.

The Snapdragon processors 665, 730 and 730G are Qualcomm's latest mid-range SoCs. The 730G is particularly interesting as it is a specifically gaming-focused chipset. AnTuTu was able to test these new products and compare them to their predecessors. The results are unexpected in parts.

The extreme edition Intel Core i9-9990XE is now available for direct sale, but it doesn’t come cheaply. German computer hardware specialist CaseKing.de has decided to make the powerful chip available to customers for a starting price of €2,999 (~US$3,384). If you want to buy a system that already has the chip installed, there is one currently available for €12,999.90 (~US$14,671).

A short video uploaded by UDOO on YouTube has shown that the UDOO BOLT single-board computer is now being shipped to early-bird backers. The little board made some waves with claims that it was faster than a MacBook Pro 13 and Microsoft Surface Pro 2017 m3. Apparently, it can even work well when connected to a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.

The latest GeForce Game Ready Driver from Nvidia enables a limited set of ray tracing features for the GTX 1000-series. Compared to the new RTX 2000 cards, the Pascal ones are clearly slower and Nvidia provides a set of graphs to reflect the performance gap. The green team also provides three tech demos where Pascal users can play around with the settings.

Acer is kicking off its New York event this week with a gaming laptop that integrates a forward-sliding RGB keyboard launching later this month. The unique design promises better airflow in a similar manner to the Asus Zephyrus and Samsung Odyssey laptops.

Acer's mid-range gaming laptop is launching later this month with unannounced Intel 9th gen CPUs, up to GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics, and a 144 Hz FHD IPS display for a starting price of $1200 USD.

Acer is staying silent on the exact Nvidia GPU options for the entry-level Nitro 7. It will very likely carry the GTX 1660 as the pricier Helios 300 will carry the RTX 2060 and higher. The official reveals of both the mobile Intel 9th gen Core H series and the inevitable Nvidia GTX 1660/1650 look closer than ever.

AnTuTu has taken to Weibo to present the first benchmark score derived from the newly-released OPPO Reno line. It is associated with the '10X Zoom' variant, which has a Snapdragon 855 processor and 6GB of RAM. This alleged super-camera-phone has returned a result of 369254, which is just about what is expected of its flagship SoC.

After years of pleading, PlayStation users can now change their PSN IDs, a useful feature considering most users registered during their more juvenile ages and may have opted for obnoxious IDs. Like with all things Sony, however, the new feature comes with a few caveats.

Set to hit the market on April 16, Anno 1800 will enter a short Open Beta stage that is scheduled to be held this weekend. However, those interested in taking this business management/city building hybrid title for a spin can already preload the game — a process that involves downloading over 18 GB of data.

An interesting lineup of purported games for the PlayStation 5 has been shared online. The titles mentioned include exclusives and non-exclusives for the next-generation console. Among the exclusive games listed are Gran Turismo 7 and a supposed remastered version of The Last of Us Part II. Tucked in with the non-exclusives title is Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6).

Leaked promotional material for a new MSI GL63 laptop sporting an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU and an Intel Core i7-9750H has provided numerous performance details. The images show scores for benchmarks that put the 9th Gen Intel CPU way ahead of the i7-8750H and i7-7700HQ, while the purported mobile GTX 1650 outpaces both the GTX 1050 Ti and the GTX 1050.

Alleged details of the PlayStation 5 console have been posted online. The incredible claimed specifications include 8K upscaling, 2 TB storage utilizing NAND, 24 GB GDDR6 RAM, VR, ray tracing, backwards compatibility and more. There’s also mention of the widely believed custom AMD Ryzen CPU and the Navi GPU – that apparently offers 14 teraflops of compute performance.

With gross sales on PC and Xbox One of over US$1 billion, Black Desert can be definitely considered a successful MMORPG. Since other titles made the same move in the last years, it is not surprising that this game will launch for both iOS and Android devices later this year as Black Desert Mobile.

An engineering sample processor has turned up on Twitter with the codename “ZG16702AE8JB2_32/10/18_13F8”. Fortunately, a little bit of light has been shed on what this mystery processor could be, and it is claimed that it is actually AMD’s custom chip Gonzalo, which is expected to appear in the next-generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony.

A few images of the upcoming Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 desktop graphics card have found their way online. The models from ZOTAC, Palit, and Gainward are all single-fan cards with some slight differences in connectivity. Nvidia hasn’t officially announced the latest entry to the GeForce GTX 16 series, which is expected to be released in a couple of weeks.

Digital pre-orders are already live for 10 percent off, so those who want to enjoy Sniper Elite V2 in 4K with enhanced graphics, new playable characters, a frame-by-frame photo mode, and more, can go ahead and pay up. The remastered edition will hit Windows PCs, as well as PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch consoles on May 14.

Remember the Pixel 3 XL that surfaced on Twitter while booting Windows? Well, its owner is back and has turned the same skills on the OnePlus 6T. The phone reportedly booted the OS, then proceeded to successfully run it and start a number of apps, including a game.

AMD has taken a bite out of Intel’s overall share in Steam’s monthly survey in the PC processor usage category. The red team was up to 18.1% for March, rising 0.5% from 17.6% for February. AMD took share away from Intel for systems running Windows, but the latter chipmaker gained a little for computers operating on Linux.

The March 2019 Steam Hardware & Software Survey has been posted by the software distribution platform, and as usual things look rosy for Nvidia in the video card usage category. Three of the top six places in terms of percentage increase over the month are occupied by GeForce RTX 20 series products, with last month’s missing RTX 2060 now taking the top spot.

For better gaming performance, the Asus Zephyrus S GX701 should be your top option over the MSI GS75. For everything else outside of gaming, however, the MSI has a fairly long list of advantages that shouldn't be ignored.

The second iteration of the ROG Phone by Asus will come out in the third quarter of the year with the support of Chinese game publisher Tencent. Its specs are expected to include the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, multiple memory/storage combinations, as well as a premium build that would integrate an advanced cooling solution.

Previously known internally as "Project Cognac," Snapchat's in-app gaming platform is now live as "Snap Games." The six launch titles are Bitmoji Party, Tiny Royale, Snake Squad, C.A.T.S. Drift Race, Zombie Rescue Squad, and Alphabear Hustle. There is no install required, as all these titles can be launched from the Chat bar.

A picture of two MECHREVO Z2 laptops that apparently sport an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 and GTX 1660 Ti, respectively, has been leaked. Not only do the gaming notebooks allegedly come with these often-rumored mobile GPUs, but it is claimed they also feature a brand-new 9th Gen Coffee Lake H Refresh CPU, in this case the i7-9750H.

In addition to the over 100 titles already available — including Ori and the Blind Forest, Forza Horizon 4, and Sea of Thieves — the Xbox Game Pass membership is now including full access to Minecraft Bedrock. This version of the game features cross-play with Windows 10, Android, Gear VR, and Nintendo Switch.

An Nvidia graphics card has turned up on UserBenchmark with the prosaic name “graphics device”. The results in the benchmarks for the hardware are somewhat surprising, as the GPU seems to land somewhere between the GeForce RTX 2070 and RTX 2080 in terms of performance average. There was mention of a GeForce RTX 2070 Ti once before, but this was eventually explained away as a typo.

Numerous online retailers have started updating their product lists to include laptops from manufacturers like Lenovo and Asus that will feature the 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H processor. The i7-9750H is a member of the second tier of Coffee-Lake-H mobile processors that will be aimed at usage in high-performance laptops.

A new HWBOT World Record has just been set in 3DMark’s popular Time Spy benchmark. The score of 37,697 points was achieved with a system that featured four Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards operating in an SLI configuration. An Intel Core i9-9980XE processor was also used in the record-breaking system.

It seems Intel’s Coffee Lake CPU, the i5-9300H, has made an appearance on Geekbench. The chip was part of a listing for a model mysteriously titled “Acer ConceptD CN715-71”. The upcoming 9th Gen processor achieved a single-core score of 5,091 and a multi-core score of 16,145 points. This particular CPU has four cores and eight threads.

Acer is planning on fitting some of its upcoming Nitro laptops with GPUs from Nvidia’s Turing-based GeForce 16 series and 9th Gen Coffee Lake Intel Core processors. A leaked slide names the Acer Nitro AN515-54 and Acer Nitro AN517-51 models, with various display and GPU options for each one. The leak has seemingly confirmed mobile versions of the GTX 1660 Ti and GTX 1650.

The WIN 2 Max is rumored to get a few improved specs, including a higher-resolution 1280 x 800 screen, a new AMD APU with integrated Radeon graphics that can be overclocked for improved performance or underclocked for extended battery life, and a keyboard with bigger keys. The model is expected to launch in late 2019.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG349Q is a 34-inch, 21:9 Ultra-wide monitor with a resolution of 3440x1440. The OEM claims that these specs give 35% more desktop space compared to a WQHD panel. More to the point, however, this new monitor can be clocked between 100 and 120 hertz.

A clock rate of 2,940.0 MHz has been recorded for a customized GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card. The hardware was specially prepared as part of the Galax OC Gathering 2019. The incredible clock rate was measured as part of a GPUPI 1B benchmark test, which also resulted in the system achieving a very credible mark of 2 s 691 ms.