Gaming

As we inch closer to the launch of NVIDIA's next generation GPUs, fresh rumors and leaks have started cropping up on the web. New info points to a possibility of a dual-fan Founders Edition and ray tracing capabilities in the top-tier SKIs. The company has also registered the Turing, Quadro RTX, and GeForce RTX trademarks. Here's a roundup of such rumors and more.

Epic Games is now accepting invitation requests for installing Fortnite Mobile on non-Samsung devices. Once signed up, users have to wait for a confirmation email before Epic activates the account for playing Fortnite. However, developers have found a way to modify the APK so that any phone can be spoofed to be the Galaxy Note 9 in order to instantly play the game.

AdoredTV, a PC analyst and reviewer, has claimed to have obtained information on Turing from an Nvidia employee. The reviewer previously railed against the idea Nvidia would call their new series 2000 instead of 1000 and was initially skeptical of the employee's credibility. In his latest video, AdoredTV examines these supposed leaked documents, saying "For me, the first believable Turing leak." Disclaimer: this rumor does not necessarily reflect Notebookcheck's opinions or views and that until it is confirmed or disproven that this information is speculative.

Preorders for the Galaxy Note 9 have already started. The prices associated with this event confirm what has been suspected for months: the new Samsung phablet will set you back considerably. The prices also compare well with those of the iPhone X.

This light version of the PUBG Mobile game received an update to version 0.5.0 and now features a new sniper rifle, clans, and a new War Mode. Sadly, this title is still not available in many markets, although it made its debut on Google Play back in March. PUBG Mobile Lite uses Unreal Engine 4 and can run on devices with rather low specs.

Sony managed to sell more than 500 million PlayStation consoles since the launch of the PSOne in 1994, and, to celebrate this monumental achievement, it is launching a special Limited Edition PS4 Pro that comes with a dark blue translucent casing, a 2 TB HDD, a PS Camera, and a translucent controller. The console itself has bronze-gold insignia and a special plaque that lets the owner know which of the 50,000 units is in his possession.

A bevy of new NVIDIA GeForce and Quadro cards were spotted on the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) website. While the certification entries themselves do not reveal much about the cards, this is one of the last stages before the cards are released into the wild.

The Fortnite beta is coming to Android after all. However, it is invite-only, and those who own the Galaxy Note 9 will be the first to have access to these invites. On the other hand, the other restrictions on the game's availability have not been confirmed - yet.

Diablo III is arguably the weakest link in Blizzard's current portfolio, and, although the company is not really pressured by upcoming Korean MMOARPGs, it at least owes it to the fans to hype things up for the Diablo franchise once again. Blizzard acknowledged the existence of multiple Diablo-inspired projects already in development, some of these being scheduled for a reveal at Blizz Con this year.

The new JN-35VCG200UWHD gaming monitor is among the first to support 200 Hz refresh rates for ultra-wide resolutions. It might not be 4K and HDR-capable, but its AMVA panel with 180R curvature provides 3 ms response times, 300 nits peak brightness and stunning clarity via AMD's FreeSync dynamic refresh technology.

The Razer Phone 2 might be launching sometime in December 2018 according to Razer Vice President Chen Xiaoping who revealed this information during the just concluded ChinaJoy entertainment expo. Given the launch timeframe, it is being speculated that the Razer Phone 2 might feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC.

Kaby Lake-R has proven to be much more capable than the 7th gen Kaby Lake U-series to the point where performance can rival a Core i5-7300HQ. If Whiskey Lake-U will be similar, then it would be the perfect candidate for entry-level gaming laptops like the Asus ROG GL series.

Recently AMD designed an SoC for ZhongShan Subor's new console the Z+. While previous console SoCs used Jaguar CPU cores which were based on AMD's previous generation of architectures and mid range Polaris GPU cores, this new SoC uses Zen and Vega cores and is the latest console SoC from AMD. Now more details are available about the console and the processor itself.

God of War was released back in April and it has recorded some fantastic sales numbers on its way to becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation release ever.

The Asus ROG gaming smartphone has gone up for pre-order in Finland giving us a first look at its pricing. The powerhouse device packs a vapor cooled Snapdragon 845 and 8GB of RAM and will retail for an eye-watering 999 EUR.

Showtime's President of Programming Gary Levine confirmed that Master Chief would be a 'lead character' in the Halo TV series. Showtime is taking all care to protect the mystery behind Master Chief's face and is working with Microsoft's 343 Industries to do justice to the project, which also features Hollywood biggies like Steven Spielberg, Kyle Killen, and Rupert Wyatt.

Even though the first custom AIB models for the next gen Nvidia GeForce GTX GPUs are supposed to be announced in early September, MAXSUN - a relatively new Nvidia AIB partner - teased what seems to be like a next generation flagship card that comes with triple-fan custom cooling, RGB lighting and dual slot design.

The gen 9 Core CPUs from Intel were rumored to be launched this October, but it was not clear if they will only work on the new Z390 motherboards. A recent Gigabyte clarification post revealed that the upcoming CPUs will also be supported by the current gen 8 Z370 / H370 / B360 / H310 motherboards, which will get BIOS updates as soon as Intel launches the new processors.

AMD has announced that its latest HEDT CPUs, the Ryzen Threadripper 2, are available for pre-order starting today for a retail launch on August 13. The second generation Ryzen Threadrippers come in multiple SKUs targeting different segments of the enthusiast gaming and content creation market with prices starting from US$649 for the Threadripper 2920X and going all the way up to US$1,799 for the Threadripper 2990WX.

Ryzen is possibly the most prominent form of competition for the Coffee Lake family of chipsets. However, the Intel CPUs have dominated the market since the release of both lines. Now, however, Ryzen appears to have opened a lead on them (if a very slim one) in these terms.

Alleged pictures of what is likely to be the PCB of the upcoming NVIDIA GTX 1180/2080 GPU have cropped up online and reveal quite a few interesting details. The new GPU will feature either 8 GB or 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, an 8+2-phase VRM, an NVLink connector, and a USB-C out.

Sony has released its sales numbers for the first quarter of its fiscal year. According to the report, the company's PlayStation division saw sizeable rises in income and profit but the reverse was the case for the floundering mobile division.

The much anticipated Fornite Mobile for Android will require a fairly powerful smartphone to run. The minimum requirements to run the game were found by XDA Developers while querying the entitlement API. Based on the resulting JSON output, an Adreno 530, Mali-G71 MP20, or a Mali G-72 MP12 or higher GPU is needed.

The Razer Phone 2 has not been officially confirmed yet. However, speculations about the second generation of this gaming phone already abound. They include hints at a late Q3 release for the device.

Fortnite for Android is coming (eventually), but when it does, you won't be able to find it on the Google Play Store. Instead, Epic (the developer of the game) will distribute the APK on their own website in an effort to both re-establish a direct relationship with gamers and retain more revenue.

Initially rumored to be called GTX 20xxx, the next gen Nvidia GPU series seemed like it could actually use the 11xx suffix in the past few months. However, a new Russian ECC certificate for Manli's upcoming Nvidia GPUs informs that the series could use the 20xx denomination after all. Additionally, it mentions that the GPUs use the Ampere architecture.

Laptops with the GeForce GTX 1060 will always be more expensive than the same model with the slower GeForce GTX 1050. Price mistake or not, the Dell G7 15 with the GTX 1060 Max-Q is suddenly cheaper than the GTX 1050 Ti option. The sale extends across the entire G5 lineup, but the price cut is steeper on the GTX 1060 Max-Q SKU for one reason or another.

The first Artifact public demo will be held at PAX West 2018 in early September, and participants at that event will be able to get beta keys to spread around. Artifact will launch on November 28 for US$19.99 on Steam and will feature two 54-card pre-constructed decks plus 10 sealed card packs with 1 guaranteed rare card.

Almost three years since its launch as a closed beta game for Windows PCs, Armored Warfare is finally available for Xbox consoles. The Xbox One version succeeds the PlayStation 4 variant by only a few months and joins World of Tanks and War Thunder, both already available on Microsoft's game console.

Although World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is not going to bring any major changes in the graphics department, NVIDA recommends a GeForce GTX 1060 to fully enjoy the game in high detail and 60 frames per second at 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. The GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 are required to properly run the game at 2,560 x 1,440 and 3,840 x 2,160.

AMD will be supplying new Wraith Ripper coolers designed by Coolermaster that will allow the Threadripper 2990X to hit 4 GHz on all 32 cores on air. This was demonstrated during an AMD event recently held in Maranello, Italy. Getting all 32-cores to boost to 4 GHz on air is a commendable feat, which implies much higher boosts on single and fewer cores.

Origin's new EVO17-S is the thinnest and lightest 17-inch laptop from the custom retailer. That said, the device is still comparatively hefty at 0.98-inches thick and 6.6. lbs. However, crammed into the case are an Intel Core i9-8950HK, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Max-P, and up to 6 TB of NVMe and SATA storage. Expect to pay out the nose for all that tech, though.

Turing is back with a futuristic concept that might get launched in 2020, but most likely will not because the company has already filed for bankruptcy. The new HubblePhone would integrate all sorts of advanced technologies, including dual flexible OLED displays, one of which can swivel around to facilitate shooting videos and pictures.

Turns out that the recent XFastest leak about the 9th generation Intel 'Coffee Lake-S Refresh' was a bit outdated. New slides have emerged that confirm the 9th gen CPU launch in Q3 2018 itself. Adding credence to this is another roadmap via HKEPC that confirms an October 2018 launch window. This will also be the time when the Basin Falls Refresh is expected to launch.

Logitech and Blue Microphones have both announced the collective agreement for Logitech to purchase Blue and add them to their family of companies. Logitech's wider portfolio already includes Ultimate Ears, Jaybird, and Astro Gaming so Blue's range of microphones will complement existing audio products.

AMD, today, unveiled the B450 chipset aimed at mainstream Ryzen customers. The B450 offers good value for money while also offering some of the features of the more expensive X470 chipset. The B450 chipset is compatible with all Ryzen CPUs and even supports overclocking with low-end motherboards.

First announced in 2014, the crowdfunded Dragonbox Pyra handheld mini PC is finally close to commercial release. The German developers released the final specs, which now include a 5-inch 720p screen, a TI OMAP 5 dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 CPU, 2 or 4 GB RAM and 32 GB eMMC storage. What sets apart this model is the ability to upgrade each hardware component.

Leaked slides have revealed that Intel's 9th generation 'Coffee Lake-S Refresh' CPUs such as the Core i9-9900K will be available from Q1 2019. This comes as a surprise as we've been expecting a September 2018 launch so far. The slides also indicate that new 'Cascade Lake X' CPUs will debut by Q4 2018 as anticipated.

Although Fortnite Mobile is still available only for iOS-powered devices, it looks like the launch of the Android variant is near. For now, we know that the list of supported handsets does not include quite a few popular brands, such as HTC and Xiaomi, while some popular Nokia smartphones are not supported, either.

The 32-core 64-thread AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990X gets a listing on CanadaComputers for CA$2,399 or around US$1,835. This is in line with the Cyberport listing last month that showed the price at €1,509. The listing also shows that the new Threadrippers will sport the same retail packaging as the previous generation.

The 8-core Intel Core i9-9900K has made its way to the 3DMark database and has scored an impressive 10,719 in the CPU only test and 9,862 when paired with the GeForce GTX 1080Ti. This score is comparatively higher than that of the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, which posted a CPU-only score of 9,428 and a combined score of 7,570 under overclock.

A list of Asus motherboards that will sport the upcoming Intel Z390 chipset were revealed in an Asus support document. The Z390 is spread across the Maximus XI, Strix, Prime, TUF, and Dragon brands.

A Reddit user has managed to get his or her hands on the upcoming Galaxy Note 9 and has detailed some of the features of the smartphone that mostly corroborates to what we've known so far. What is interesting is that Samsung is looking to project the Note 9 as a capable gaming device as well and will have support for AAA Vulkan titles.

What better way to show off the power of the Exynos 9820 by letting gamers stream and play Fortnite on the Galaxy Note 9? Samsung wants to associate its upcoming flagship smartphone with the most popular multi-player game on Twitch.