Apple executives said Wednesday that roughly 50% of the Mac and iPad sales in the second quarter of 2021 were to people who’d never owned those devices before. Much of that growth has been attributed to the M1 system-on-a-chip, the release of which led the Mac to enjoy the best financial quarter in its decades-long history.
Apple CFO Luca Maestri revealed the stat during an earnings call, 9to5Mac reported, and was followed by Apple CEO Tim Cook announcing that 66% of Mac and iPad sales in China were to new customers during that same time period. Both figures show that Apple’s products have started to appeal to new customers.
It’s not hard to guess why that would be the case for the Mac. Apple released new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini models featuring its custom silicon in November 2020. Those models were all well-reviewed and—to some enthusiasts’ surprise—actually flipped the price-to-performance ratio in Apple’s favor.
The M1 chip outperforms much of its x86 competition in various benchmarks even though it’s more power-efficient and, in the MacBook Air’s case, might be throttled if it starts to get too hot. But in many types of workloads, that combination of performance and power efficiency is essentially unrivaled in notebooks equipped with x86 processors.
The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro also feature high-resolution displays and longer-than-expected battery life. They don’t beat every notebook in every benchmark—especially when it comes to gaming—but we noted in our review of the MacBook Pro that it was “putting every other laptop on notice.” And, well, people noticed.
Even more people might consider a Mac or iPad now that the M1 is available in the latest iMac and iPad Pro models. Apple’s planning to bring the rest of the Mac line into the fold by the end of 2022 as well. Those devices are expected to offer better I/O, support for additional memory, and other power user features.
Here’s the bad news: Maestri and Cook said the global chip shortage is likely to affect the supply of its Macs and iPads in the second half of 2021. Cook said that “We expect to be supply-gated, not demand-gated,” when it comes to sales of those products later this year. That’s a testament to these products’ newfound popularity.
Intel can have Justin Long. Apple has the satisfaction of watching its longest-running product line surge in popularity—even among people who’ve never purchased it before—practically the moment it switched from x86 processors to custom silicon. And that’s all with the first chip it designed for something other than mobile devices.
When Apple introduced its all-new iMac 24-inch all-in-one desktop and iPad Pro tablet based on its M1 system-on-chip earlier this month, it said that the new products would be available in the second half of May, but never revealed when exactly they were set to hit the shelves. On Thursday Apple finally unwrapped details about availability of its new devices.
Apple and its partners will start to take pre-orders on the latest 24-inch iMac, iPad Pro, and Apple TV 4K starting April 30, 2021. Meanwhile, the new AIO desktop, professional tablet, and set-top-box will be available starting May 21, 2020, reports MacRumors citing UK retailer John Lewis. Since the date comes from an unofficial source, it should be taken with a grain of salt. Meanwhile, Jon Prosser, a tech analyst and a leaker, also states that the 21st of May as the launch date for Apple’s latest products.
Apple’s new M1-based iMac comes in seven colors and is equipped with a 23.5-inch display featuring a 4480 × 2520 resolution and a 500 nits brightness, a major upgrade for entry-level AIOs that previously featured a 21-inch LCD panel. The system can be equipped with up to 16GB of LPDDR4 memory and up to 2TB of solid-state storage. Pricing starts at $1,299.
Apple’s upcoming iPad Pro also represent a huge advancement when compared to predecessors as they are powered by PC-class M1 SoC and can be equipped with up to 16GB of memory. Meanwhile, the new iPad Pro 12.9-inch is the world’s first tablet to use a Mini LED display. The new iPad Pros start at $799 for 11-inch SKU and $1,099 for a 12.9-incher.
(Pocket-lint) – As the world continues to be gripped by a pandemic not seen in generations, it comes as no shock that gaming has been affected like just about everything else. Games release schedules have been adversely hit in particular, with fewer releases, especially of a triple-A standard.
Thank the heavens for Returnal, then. Not previously considered in top tier terms, the PlayStation 5 exclusive has however earned its stripes and could be one of the few titles to conversely benefit from global woes, with a greater number of eyes on it now than perhaps in more normal times.
It’s obvious why it could have been previously overlooked and underappreciated. Developer Housemarque is hardly known for its action-adventure titles, for starters, having largely made its name with indie retro-inspired shooters. Early trailers and marketing fanfare were uninspiring too, making it seem more like an Alien-esque shoot-’em-up than the deeply layered, third-person shooter-platformer-survival-horror roguelike it has turned out to be.
Back once again
That’s not to say it isn’t heavily inspired by Alien and the works of HR Giger – the art style seems so influenced, you could swear it had been directed by Ridley Scott. But originality seeps from every pore, and it is as far removed from other Sony exclusive in recent memory.
Take the plot, for example. It is far more involving than “travel to a planet, shoot everything and leave”. It is structured, subtle (at least initially), and is eminently playable. That’s to say, it intertwines with the gameplay. There are few cut scenes and, indeed, little preamble. Instead, you discover the story as you play, whereby you feel like you are driving it rather than the other way around.
Best PS5 games: Amazing PlayStation 5 titles to pick up
All you know at the beginning is that you are a pilot, Selene, who has crash landed on an alien planet. The planet, Atropos, turns out to be aptly named after the Greek goddess in charge of every mortal’s thread of life, and that sets up a cycle of life and death that runs throughout.
Atropos is ever changing, largely deadly, and often mysterious. It is also, for a reason that may become clearer as you progress, locked in some form of time loop – each time you die, you reappear at the crash site and must start your progress almost afresh.
Sony Interactive Entertainment / Housemarque
Now, this might sound like it could get repetitive or frustrating, but Housemarque beautifully balances the concept with clever gameplay decisions. First up, Returnal is a roguelike in order to keep things fresh each time you die and restart. There are six biomes to explore throughout the game, each with increasingly harder-to-tackle enemies. Each biome is also made up of differently sized rooms that shift around to present a different maze each life cycle.
The second example of ingenuity by the developer is that some power-ups and abilities remain with you once found the first time, making it easier to progress each time. Enhanced weapons you come across will disappear – leaving you with the same starter pistol – but you will be guided to a pick-up point earlier in your subsequent progress, in order to re-equip you for the perils you already know lie ahead.
In addition, the game tends to bring forward more advanced rooms to get you closer to your goal more quickly. This allows you to avoid having to tread the same areas over-and-over again – and helps stave off frustration as you essentially want to just get back to the part where you died before.
Sony Interactive Entertainment / Housemarque
This is vital, really, as Returnal is one of the hardest games around right now. Up there with the toughest Souls games for sure (pay attention Demon’s Souls fans).
Ah, shoot
For its cunning complexity and mysterious, unravelling plot, Returnal is surprisingly simple to just pick up and play.
Sony Interactive Entertainment / Housemarque
It’s a third-person shooter at its heart, with enemy battles largely taking place over a distance as you blast away with whatever gun you have chosen to carry (you can only use one at a time). Each gun has a primary and secondary firing modes, with the latter particularly damaging but needing a cooldown after each shot.
This offers the first instance of the game’s cunning use of the PS5’s DualSense controller. To fire the primary shot – which is endless but can overheat – you just need to either pull the right trigger or slightly press the left trigger too for aiming. Pressing harder on the left trigger will activate the alternative firing mode. Haptic feedback is also used throughout the game, with every tiny droplet of rain or other special effect offering minute rumbles that ripple around the pad. This is what Sony clearly expected when it first announced the DualSense’s unique properties. It is immersion on another level, that’s for sure.
Best PS5 accessories: Get key extra gear for your PlayStation 5
Rooms in Returnal can be empty – save for an item chest or object to interact with – or they can be filled with horrors. Alien creatures on Atropos seemingly only want to send you to oblivion, and that’s where the fun starts. If you have the weaponry and skillset, you can have some glorious battles, even with the most basic of baddies. The studio’s undoubted experience with top-down shooters comes to the fore, with shooting patterns and styles seeming more in tune with 2D shoot-’em-ups. It makes for a decent challenge each time.
Sony Interactive Entertainment / Housemarque
More challenging still are the end-of-biome bosses, who each take so much punishment before yielding. Whereas, you can take only a little before you die and have to repeat the process again. Still, the power-ups found along the way each time can help, while early battles prepare you well for later, much harder foes.
Pretty deadly
We’ve touched upon the interesting uses of the DualSense controller, but they aren’t the only examples of why this is a next-gen title only. Returnal uses just about every trick in the book, visually, including ray tracing and 60 frames-per-second. You couldn’t have a fast-paced shooter without the latter, to be fair.
It is also stunning looking. Yes, it invokes the spirit of Scott’s original Alien and, even more so, Prometheus, but there are neon flourishes throughout that make scenery and enemies pop. When played on a decent HDR TV, it is a true feast for your eyes.
Sony Interactive Entertainment / Housemarque
Our first couple of runs were mainly spent looking around, to be honest. Not just for clues or ways to navigate the maze, but to soak in the majesty. The game runs in dynamic 4K, which must dip at times in order to maintain high frame rates, but we didn’t really notice.
Steelseries celebrates its 20th anniversary, a legacy of glory
By Pocket-lint Promotion
·
Best upcoming PS5 games: PlayStation titles to anticipate
There are some grainier sections and some less detailed textures – such as the house (you’ll know what we mean when you see it) – but nothing too overt and certainly nothing to spoil the enjoyment.
Verdict
Returnal is a superb game that is well timed and gratefully received. It’s not the first game to use the eat, sleep, rinse and repeat concept. It won’t be the last either, with Deathloop coming later this year. However, it does it in a clever, interesting way that never tires.
There is also a great fog of mystery that permeates the game that has you wanting to progress, even when the action is sometimes unrelentingly difficult. It reminds us of Control in that way. Indeed, it too has a strong lead female character and overarching sense of something that’s not quite right with the world.
But, at the same time, it is very much its own beast and Sony will be cock-a-hoop that it has a truly original exclusive on its hands. One that will surely become a new, valuable IP.
It could also help Housemarque become more of a household name. It’ll certainly be less pigeonholed in future, that’s for sure.
Zotac has introduced its new GeForce RTX 3090 ArcticStorm graphics card that features an advanced 20-phase voltage regulating module (VRM) and comes equipped with a stylish waterblock with built-in addressable RGB LEDs. There is a catch about this board though: it is not factory overclocked.
Image 1 of 6
(Image credit: Zotac)
Image 2 of 6
(Image credit: Zotac)
Image 3 of 6
(Image credit: Zotac)
Image 4 of 6
(Image credit: Zotac)
Image 5 of 6
(Image credit: Zotac)
Image 6 of 6
(Image credit: Zotac)
The Zotac Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 ArcticStorm features a 16+4-phase power delivery enhanced with the company’s proprietary PowerBoost capacitor that reduces ripple noise and power fluctuations. The board has three eight-pin power connectors which can deliver up to 450W of power to the GPU and memory.
Perhaps, the oddest ‘features’ of Zotac’s GeForce RTX 3090 ArticStorm are its GPU frequencies. For some reason, Zotac decided not to factory overclock one of its flagship graphics cards and left GPU clocks at 1395 MHz base and 1695 MHz boost, exactly what is recommended by Nvidia.
The card comes equipped with a specially designed translucent water block that has a copper contact plate to maximize heat transfer, and 0.3 mm micro-channels to increase surface area and cooling performance. The contact plate covers Nvidia’s GA102 GPU, GDDR6X memory, and VRM, the components that tend to get hot. The water block has standard G 1/4 threaded fittings to make it compatible with the majority of third-party liquid cooling solutions. Zotac also includes a couple of barbs supporting 10mm ID tubing. The front of the water block has laser etched inscriptions as well as addressable RGB LEDs to make the card an eye catcher. For aesthetic and durability reasons, the card also comes with a backplate.
Obviously, an advanced power delivery as well as a sophisticated water block that covers GPU, memory, and VRM almost guarantee high overclocking potential amid relatively quiet operation. Zotac has not disclosed MSRP for its GeForce RTX 3090 ArticStorm, but expect it to be higher than reference boards with air coolers.
The best graphics cards should let you play your favorite games with stunning visual effects, including life-like reflections and shadows. Sure, ray tracing may not radically improve the look of some games, but you should be the one to decide whether or not to enable it. Getting locked out just because it doesn’t run well is no fun. But which graphics cards perform best in ray tracing, and what sort of performance should you expect from Nvidia and AMD? To find out, we tested all the ray-tracing capable GPUs from the two major graphics brands.
Ray Tracing Test Hardware
We’ve gathered all of the latest AMD RDNA2 and Nvidia Ampere GPUs into one place and commenced benchmarking. We’ve also included the fastest and slowest Nvidia Turing RTX GPUs from the previous generation, to show the full spectrum of performance. You can see the complete list of GPUs we’ve benchmarked along with specs for our test PC, which uses a Core i9-9900K paired with 32GB of DDR4-3600 memory. All of the graphics cards are reference models from AMD and Nvidia, with the exception of the RTX 3060 12GB — Nvidia doesn’t make a reference card, but the EVGA card we used does run reference clocks.
The premise sounds simple enough: Run a bunch of ray tracing benchmarks on all the GPUs. Things aren’t quite so simple, however, as not every ray tracing enabled game will run on every GPU. Most will, but Wolfenstein Youngblood unfortunately uses pre-VulkanRT extensions to the Vulkan API and thus requires an Nvidia RTX card. Maybe the game will get a patch to VulkanRT at some point, but probably not. There are likely other pre-existing games that supported RTX cards back before AMD’s RX 6000 series launched that don’t properly work, but most of the games we’ve tried are now working okay.
We’ve selected ten of the current DirectX Raytracing (DXR) games that work on both AMD and Nvidia GPUs for these ray tracing benchmarks. Given Nvidia’s pole position in the RT hardware world — its RTX 20-series cards launched in the fall of 2018, over two years before AMD’s RX 6000-series parts — it’s no surprise that most DXR games were focused on Nvidia hardware. However, we did select two of the current four AMD-promoted games with DXR, just to see how things might change. Targeted developer optimizations are certainly possible.
The ten games are: Bright Memory Infinite, Control, Cyberpunk 2077, Dirt 5, Fortnite, Godfall, Metro Exodus, Minecraft, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Watch Dogs Legion. Dirt 5 and Godfall are the AMD-promoted games, while most of the others are Nvidia-promoted, the exception being Bright Memory Infinite — it’s currently a standalone benchmark of the upcoming expanded version of Bright Memory. We’ve tested at ‘reasonable’ quality levels for ray tracing, which mostly means maxed out settings, though we did step down a notch or two in Cyberpunk 2077 and Fortnite.
Besides DXR, eight of the games also support Nvidia’s DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology, which uses an AI trained network to upscale and anti-alias frames in order to boost performance while delivering similar image quality. DLSS has proven to be a critical factor in Nvidia’s ray tracing push, as rendering at a lower resolution and then upscaling can result in far better framerates. Metro Exodus and Shadow of the Tomb Raider currently use DLSS 1.0, which wasn’t quite as nice looking and had some other oddities (Metro is slated to get a DLSS 2.0 update in the near future), so we’ve confined our DLSS testing to the six remaining games that implement DLSS 2.0/2.1, and we’ve tested all of these with DLSS in Quality mode — the best image quality mode with 2X resolution upscaling, which tends to result in similar image fidelity as native rendering with temporal AA.
Because ray tracing tends to be extremely demanding, we’ve opted to stick with testing at only 1080p and 1440p. Nvidia’s cards may be able to manage playable framerates at 4K with DLSS in some cases, but most of the cards simply aren’t cut out to handle games at 4K native with DXR. We’ll start with the native benchmarks at each resolution and then move on to DLSS 2.0 Quality testing.
Ray Tracing Benchmarks at 1080p
Image 1 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 3 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 4 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 5 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 6 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 7 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 8 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 9 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 10 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 11 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Running 1080p ultra with DXR enabled already pushes several of the cards well below a steady 60 fps. Only the RTX 3060 Ti (which is about the same performance as an RTX 2080 Super) and the RX 6800 and above average more than 60 fps across our test suite. Even then, there are games where performance dips well below that mark.
Fortnite ends up as the most demanding ray tracing game right now, followed closely by Cyberpunk 2077 and Bright Memory Infinite. All of those use DXR for multiple effects, including shadows, lighting, reflections, and more, which is why they’re so demanding. Control and Minecraft also use plenty of ray tracing effects, and Minecraft actually implements what Nvidia calls “full path tracing” — the simple block graphics make it easier to do more ray tracing calculations.
Most of the games that only implement one ray tracing effect — Dirt 5, Godfall, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider only use RT for shadows, while Metro uses it for global illumination and Watch Dogs Legion uses it for reflections — perform better, though the RTX 2060 still struggles to hit 30 fps in several games. Godfall is an interesting case as well, as not only is it AMD promoted, but it appears to use more VRAM, which can tank performance on cards with less than 12GB VRAM at times.
Overall, the 3090 and 3080 take top honors, followed by the RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 XT. The RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 3070 are effectively tied, as are the RX 6800 and RTX 3060 Ti, with the RX 6700 XT and RTX 3060 12GB also landing close together. Only the RTX 2060 really falls off the pace set by the other cards. Without the two AMD-promoted games, the RX 6900 XT would have ended up closer to the RTX 3070, though it’s still interesting to see how performance varies by game — AMD’s GPUs did reasonably well in Dirt 5, Fortnite, Godfall, Metro Exodus, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Image 1 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 3 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 4 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 5 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 6 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 7 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
As you’d expect, enabling DLSS 2x upscaling via the Quality mode changes the rankings a lot. By restricting the benchmarks to the six games with DLSS 2.0 support, suddenly AMD’s best only manages to rank at about the same level as the RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3070 — and that’s before turning on DLSS! With DLSS Quality mode enabled, only the RTX 2060 falls behind AMD’s 6900 XT and 6800 XT in the overall rankings. Of course, as noted earlier, all of these games are inherently more Nvidia-promoted, though the level of promotion varies quite a bit.
It’s also interesting to see that the RTX 2080 Ti falls a bit further behind the RTX 3070 now. That makes sense, as Ampere’s Tensor cores have up to four times the throughput as the Turing Tensor cores (2X for raw throughput, and another 2X for sparsity). Even with more memory and memory bandwidth, the 2080 Ti is only moderately faster than the RTX 3060 Ti.
Looking at the individual charts, even at 1080p — a resolution that tends to be more CPU limited — there’s still plenty of differentiation between the various GPUs. Enabling DLSS also results in impressive performance improvements even at the top of the product stack with the RTX 3090 and 3080. Cyberpunk 2077 looks to be the most CPU-limited, topping out at just under 80 fps regardless of settings on our test system, and Watch Dogs Legion also appears to encounter a bit of CPU bottlenecking. Both have lots of NPC characters roaming around, which helps explain why they hit the CPU harder.
Bright Memory Infinite and Fortnite end up as the two biggest beneficiaries of DLSS Quality mode. The 3060 Ti with DLSS nearly matches the RTX 3090 at native in BMI, while in Fortnite the 3060 Ti and above with DLSS all beat the 3090 at native. Control also shows some significant performance gains, and even the RTX 2060 manages to clear 60 fps now.
Despite the lack of VRAM, the RTX 2060 with DLSS actually turns in better overall performance than the RX 6700 XT and RX 6800. It may not be significantly faster than the 6800, but that it’s even mentioned in the same breath shows just how much DLSS 2.0 helps, and how badly AMD needs to get its FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) into the hands of game developers.
There are now over 30 shipping games with DLSS 2.0 support, and you don’t need to have ray tracing enabled to see performance benefits from DLSS — there are significantly more games with DLSS support than there are games with ray tracing support right now. Sixteen shipping games have DLSS 2.0/2.1 support that don’t utilize ray tracing, for example. Plus, Unreal Engine and Unity both have built-in DLSS 2.0 support, meaning developers using either of those engines can easily enable DLSS in their games.
Ray Tracing Benchmarks at 1440p
Image 1 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 3 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 4 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 5 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 6 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 7 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 8 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 9 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 10 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 11 of 11
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Bumping the resolution up to 1440p doesn’t change the overall rankings at all at native resolution, though the margin of victory does increase quite a bit in some cases. The RTX 3080 and 3090 are the main beneficiaries of the higher resolution, while the RTX 2060 takes a pretty hard hit to performance — it’s the only GPU that couldn’t average 30 fps or more across our test suite.
Not surprisingly, multiple games do fall below 30 fps on multiple GPUs at 1440p. Only the 3080 and 3090 break 30 fps in Bright Memory Infinite and Cyberpunk 2077, and only the 3090 manages to do so in Fortnite. Godfall meanwhile clearly punishes the 2060’s lack of VRAM, where it’s about one third the performance of the RTX 3060. Several GPUs also struggled in Control, Minecraft, and Watch Dogs Legion.
It should be pretty obvious that, of the potential ray tracing effects, reflections tend to be the most demanding, with shadows being the least demanding. Not coincidentally, RT reflections often have the most noticeable effect on image fidelity. Ray traced shadows can be nice, but the various shadow mapping techniques have gotten quite good at ‘faking’ it.
Image 1 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 2 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 3 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 4 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 5 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 6 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Image 7 of 7
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Where DLSS was a potential nice extra at 1080p, it’s almost required to get good performance on most GPUs at 1440p. Without DLSS, none of the GPUs we tested can break 60 fps in the overall average performance chart, but with DLSS even the RTX 3070 (barely) gets there. Memory bandwidth clearly becomes a differentiating factor as well, with the 3080 and 3090 really pulling ahead in the most demanding titles — which is actually all six games in our DLSS test suite.
Again, Nvidia dominates the performance charts once DLSS Quality mode gets turned on. Only the RTX 2060 fails to beat the RX 6900 XT in our overall results, and it’s basically tied with the RX 6800 XT. That applies to the individual results as well, though the RX 6900 XT does tie the RTX 3060 in Fortnite. In Minecraft, meanwhile, even the RTX 2060 comes out ahead of the RX 6900 XT — along with the non-DLSS 3070 and below.
There’s only so much DLSS can accomplish, of course. Bright Memory Infinite, Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite, and Watch Dogs Legion still fail to break 30 fps with the RTX 2060. That’s probably the main reason why we’re not seeing an RTX 3060 6GB card — though it exists on laptops and may eventually show up on desktops. (Sigh.) If you care about image quality enough to want ray tracing, you’d be well advised to get a card with more VRAM rather than less. It’s too bad that Nvidia’s cards (outside of the 3060 and 3090) generally aren’t as generous with VRAM as AMD’s cards.
Ray Tracing Winner: Nvidia, by a lot
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Considering Nvidia was the first company to begin shipping ray tracing capable GPUs, over two years ago, it’s not too surprising that it comes out ahead in the ray tracing benchmarks. Technologies like DLSS prove Nvidia wasn’t just whipping something up as quickly as possible, either. It knew how demanding ray tracing would be, and looked at how movie studios were optimizing performance for inspiration. Denoising of path traced images, which is at least somewhat similar to upscaling via DLSS, can dramatically improve performance.
Today, Nvidia has second-generation ray tracing hardware and third-generation Tensor cores in the RTX 30-series GPUs. AMD meanwhile has first-generation ray accelerators, and no direct equivalent of Nvidia’s Tensor cores or DLSS. Perhaps AMD’s FSR will eventually show up and prove that the Tensor cores aren’t strictly necessary, but after nearly six months since first hearing about FidelityFX Super Resolution, we’re becoming increasingly skeptical.
As it stands now, even without DLSS, Nvidia clearly leads in the majority of games that use DirectX Raytracing. Look at our rasterization-only GPU benchmarks and you’ll find the RX 6900 XT and RX 6800 XT in spots two and three, with the RX 6800 in fifth place. With DXR, the 3080 goes from being just barely behind the 6800 XT to leading by over 30%. The same goes for the RTX 3070 and RX 6800: Without DXR, the 6800 is about 12% faster than the 3070; with DXR, the 3070 turns the tables and leads by 15%.
Turn on DLSS Quality mode and things go from bad to worse for Team Red. The RTX 3080 more than doubles the performance of the RX 6900 XT, never mind the 6800 XT. The RTX 3070 also more than doubles the performance of the RX 6800. Heck, even the RTX 3060 12GB beats the 6900 XT by 16% at 1080p and 23% at 1440p. Bottom line: AMD needs FSR, and it really should have had a working solution before the RDNA2 GPUs and consoles even launched. Better late than never, hopefully.
Of course there’s still a bigger question of how much ray tracing really benefits the player in most games. The best ray tracing games like Control, Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite, and Minecraft show substantial visual improvements with ray tracing, to the point where we’d much rather have it on than off. (Okay, not in Fortnite where fps matters more than visuals, though it can be nice in creative mode.) But for each of those games, there are at least five other games where ray tracing merely tanks performance without a major visual benefit.
It took half a decade or more for programmable shaders to really make a difference in the way games looked, and games of the future will eventually reach that point with ray tracing. But we’re not there yet. Bottom line: Nvidia reigns as the king of ray tracing GPUs for games. Now we just need more games where the visual benefits are worth the performance hit.
It looks like DDR5 RAM is almost ready for purchase. Chinese news outlet XFastest this week shared photographs of the first retail DDR5 memory modules from Crucial, showing the components in retail packaging, just aching to hit shelves.
As seen in the images, the publication blocked out the information on the modules’ sticker, reportedly so Crucial can’t trace the modules.
Crucial’s memory modules check in at DDR5-4800, but that’s just the start. DDR5 is projected to hit 6,400 MHz, with some vendors already aiming for 10,000 MHz. Preliminary RAM benchmarks show DDR5 with massive uplifts in synthetic workloads, so it’ll be interesting to evaluate DDR5’s real-world benefits and how it stacks up to the best RAM kits on the market today.
The DDR5 sticks in question sport a CAS Latency (CL) value of 40 and a DRAM voltage requirement of 1.1V. The UDIMM has a capacity of 8GB, while the SO-DIMM sports a whopping 32GB.
As you can see in the pictures, Crucial DDR5 memory modules comes with a boring, green PCB. So we expect these to be budget offerings for value-conscious shoppers and OEMs. Don’t worry though: High-end memory modules will likely arrive with fancy heat spreaders and tacky RGB illumination.
Crucial DDR5 (Image credit: XFastest)
Crucial’s memory modules utilize integrated circuits (ICs) from Micron. The UDIMM module features a one-side design with four 2GB memory ICs, while the SO-DIMM module sticks to a dual-sided design with up to 16 memory ICs of the same size. According to JEDEC’s specification, DDR5 is expected to push the envelop in terms of capacity. The expected ceiling is 128GB per module.
Currently, we know about two processor families that will potentially support DDR5. On the Blue Team, we have Intel’s upcoming 12th Generation Alder Lake hybrid desktop processors that are scheduled to hit the market in the second half of this year. For the Red Team, Zen 4 has been rumored to support DDR5 memory, which would make sense, since Zen 3 will be the last microarchitecture to go through the AM4 CPU socket. It wouldn’t be surprising to see AMD use the new AM5 socket to exploit DDR5.
AMD’s Zen 4 isn’t expected until next year, so Intel might beat AMD to DDR5 adoption as revenge for the latter embracing PCIe 4.0 first on a mainstream platform.
Samsung is announcing its new Galaxy Book Odyssey gaming laptop today, complete with Nvidia’s unannounced GeForce RTX 3050 Ti and 3050 graphics cards. The 15.6-inch (1080p) gaming laptop starts at $1,399 and will ship with Intel’s 11th Gen Core H i5 or i7 processors, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of SSD storage. The big new addition is a choice between Nvidia’s RTX 3050 or RTX 3050 Ti GPU.
Samsung hasn’t provided many details on the RTX 3050 or RTX 3050 Ti, and Nvidia hasn’t even announced the GPU yet, so details are slim. The RTX 3050 Ti name appeared in March on an Asus website that mentioned it would have 4GB of memory. Combined with the numbering scheme and 135-watt charger, this suggests this is more of an entry-level gaming laptop.
This Galaxy Book Odyssey also includes a 720p webcam, a fingerprint reader on the power key, and microSD expandable storage. There are two USB-C ports, three USB 3.2 ports, an HDMI port, and a network port. Samsung says this new gaming laptop also ships with a mysterious “enhanced cooling system,” which will presumably help keep things cool when you’re gaming.
Samsung’s Galaxy Book Odyssey will be available in “mystic black” in August, starting at $1,399. Samsung also announced new Galaxy Book Pro and Galaxy Book Pro 360 lightweight laptops today, complete with OLED screens.
Caviar has designed an ultra-luxurious gold Tesla Model S (Plaid) concept car, with two perfectly matching iPhone 12 Pro Limited Edition smartphones.
Caviar Luxury Atelier is known for manufacturing luxury and exclusive smartphones and accessories. The latest Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy models are usually used as a basis for their exclusive creations. This time Caviar has designed two new iPhone 12 Pro Limited Edition models, which are inspired by the Tesla Model S electric car. To further enhance the feeling of luxury and exclusivity, Caviar has also created a golden Tesla Model S concept. It is the first car that the brand redesigns.
To start with the iPhone 12 Pro. The new Caviar collection consists of two models, a black and a gold model. The back of the smartphones are made of hardened titanium, which is used in the aerospace industry. The design is further enriched with a black and gold PVD coating, whereby the contours of the Tesla Model S are clearly reflected in the design.
Naturally, the characteristic Caviar crown has also been incorporated into the design. Both iPhone 12 Pro models come in a limited edition of 99 pieces. The costs for this exclusive smartphone start at $ 6,150 USD, for which you will receive the black iPhone 12 Pro 128GB. For the gold model, prices start at $ 6,600 USD. Customers can also opt for the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Both variants are offered in three memory configurations: 128GB, 256GB and 512GB.
Tesla Model S Limited Edition electric car
Caviar’s specially designed smartphones can already count on a lot of attention, but with the Tesla Model S concept car, the company is taking it a step further. The luxurious high-tech car that Caviar has designed has a black glossy appearance, combined with rich gold accents. It is a particularly striking appearance – a beautiful show car for The Walk boulevard in Dubai Marine.
The radiator grille, elements of the rear and front bumpers, side skirts, discs and rear-view mirrors are covered with 24k gold of the highest standard in the Double Electroplated technique. A striking design detail is the eye-catching Caviar gold crown located on the bonnet and rear bumper. Under the right rear light there is a sign showing the number pieces in the limited edition – 01/99.
The gold Tesla Model S (Plaid) comes in a limited edition of 99 pieces. This uniquely pimped electric car can be ordered for $ 299,000 USD. By comparison, Elon Musk’s model costs about $ 140,000 USD.
Tesla Limited Edition concept car by Caviar
Ilse is a Dutch journalist and joined LetsGoDigital more than 15 years ago. She is highly educated and speaks four languages. Ilse is a true tech-girl and loves to write about the future of consumer electronics. She has a special interest for smartphones, digital cameras, gaming and VR.
Acer announced in a blog post that it’s getting into the flash storage and memory business with help from a Chinese manufacturer called Biwin. Acer’s brand will be slapped onto each of these SSDs, but it’ll be another company that’s responsible for building them. Even though you’ll see an Acer logo on this storage, it’s Biwin that’ll handle the warranty for these products.
Acer isn’t the only major company utilizing Biwin’s hardware. This storage and memory manufacturer also puts out HP-branded products, including portable SSDs, NVMe SSDs, 2.5-inch SATA SSDs, and RAM.
The latest partnership aims to release Acer-branded products first in the US, China, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and in the UK. Release dates and prices weren’t shared, but The Verge contacted Biwin for more information.
Acer and Biwin are kicking things off with a 2.5-inch SATA SSD called the SA100 with up to a 1.92TB version available, which has up to a 560MB/s read speed. Its RE100 comes in a 2.5-inch form factor, or as an M.2 SATA SSD, and either will have configurations of up to 4TB, and its read and write speeds top out at 560MB/s and 520MB/s, respectively. Lastly, a much faster M.2 PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD called the FA100 will come in capacities up to 2TB, with read and write speeds of up to 3,300MB/s and 2,700MB/s, respectively.
The partnership will also yield an assortment of laptop and desktop RAM, ranging in capacities from 4GB to 32GB per stick, with up to 3,600MHz in speed. All of these RAM products are listed as “coming soon” on Acer’s storage site.
Now that the Pro moniker has gone mainstream, it’s Ultra that has come to represent the cream of the crop, and the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra can wear that badge proudly. Limited to its home market last year, the ultimate Mi has gone global this time around, and we’re happy to have it for review today.
We’re torn whether it’s the camera system’s physical appearance that is more striking or the hardware inside. A simply massive raised area on the back looks bolted on, almost after the fact, it’s hard to miss, and it’s a great conversation starter even if it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
But its size is warranted – the main camera packs the largest sensor used on a modern-day smartphone, and next to it – two more modules unmatched in their own fields, in one way or another. Oh, and yes, there’s also a display here – because why not, but also because it can be useful.
There’s a lot more than 1.1 inches of OLED on the front. The 6.81-inch Super AMOLED is all kinds of great – high resolution, high refresh rate, high brightness, HDR, a billion colors, you name it. Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 888 underneath is second to none as chipsets go this year and with 256GB of base storage, should we even mention the lack of expansion capability as a con?
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra specs at a glance:
Body: 164.3×74.6×8.4mm, 234g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus), ceramic back, aluminum frame; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins).
Display: 6.81″ AMOLED, 1B colors, 120Hz, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, 900 nits, 1700 nits (peak), 1440x3200px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 515ppi.
Chipset: Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G (5 nm): Octa-core (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 680 & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 680 & 4×1.80 GHz Kryo 680); Adreno 660.
Memory: 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
OS/Software: Android 11, MIUI 12.5.
Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/2.0, 24mm, 1/1.12″, 1.4µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, Laser AF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 48 MP, f/2.2, 12mm, 128˚, 1/2.0″, 0.8µm, PDAF; Telephoto: 48 MP, f/4.1, 120mm, 1/2.0″, 0.8µm, PDAF, OIS, 5x optical zoom.
Front camera: 20 MP, f/2.2, 27mm (wide), 1/3.4″, 0.8µm.
Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@24fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS, HDR10+ rec; Front camera: 1080p@30/60fps, 720p@120fps, gyro-EIS.
Battery: 5000mAh; Fast charging 67W, 100% in 36 min (advertised), Fast wireless charging 67W, 100% in 39 min (advertised), Reverse wireless charging 10W, Quick Charge 4+, Power Delivery 3.0.
Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, optical); NFC; Infrared port.Xiaomis don’t normally have dust and water protection, but that’s changed this year with the Mi 11s – both the Pro and the Ultra have an IP68 rating, and that’s a most welcome development. Conversely, a staple of the brand’s handsets, both affordable and expensive, the IR emitter remains. Stereo speakers have been making their way to the Xiaomi midrange, so it’s only natural that the high-end models have them, and these have been tuned by Harman/Kardon, that couldn’t hurt.
An increase in battery capacity compared to last year’s model is another upgrade we can appreciate. On the other hand, they did downgrade the charging – instead of the Mi 10 Ultra’s 120W, you only get 67W here. Tsk-tsk.
Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra unboxing
The packaging has lost the flair of the Mi 10 Ultra’s presentation, and the Mi 11 Ultra showed up in a standard black box with copper lettering (or is it rose gold?). What’s inside that?
Our EU-bound retail bundle includes the 67W charger – that’s not the case in all markets with chargers coming as a free-of-charge option in some places (China, maybe other parts of Asia). It’s a proprietary adapter with a USB-A output, so it won’t please USB PowerDelivery die-hards. There is a USB cable included too.
A headset may be missing, but there is a USB-C-to-3.5mm dongle included so you can use your own. Also inside the box is a transparent soft silicone back cover. While the (free) protection is appreciated, the look and feel of the thing is no match for the phone itself.
The Oppo A53s 5G was teased recently on Flipkart, and today the phone makes its official debut. It comes with a Dimensity 700 chipset, two RAM options, a big battery and three cameras on the back.
The front of the Oppo A53s 5G is a 6.52” screen with HD+ resolution and a waterdrop notch. Since the panel is LCD, the fingerprint scanner made its way on the side, acting as a power key as well. RAM is either 6 GB or 8 GB, with internal storage being 128 gigs in both cases.
Oppo has provided room for a micro SD in a long tray that can host two SIM cards and a memory card up to 2 TB.
The trio of cameras on the back consists of a 13MP main shooter, 2 MP depth sensor for portrait shots and 2MP macro cam. The selfie camera has an 8MP senosr.
The phone runs Android 11, topped with Color OS 11.1. The battery on the inside is 5,000 mAh, but the listing does not say anything about fast-charging.
The specs sheet does give us some insight on connectivity like dual 5G standby (even if India has zero actual working networks) Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 5.0.
Oppo A53s 5G
The Oppo A53s 5G is offered in Crystal Blue or Ink Black colors. Prices are INR14,990 or INR16,990, depending on the memory combination. Flipkart is yet to reveal a date for pre-order or market launch.
Redmi’s first foray into gaming phones is here and it’s called the Redmi K40 Gaming Edition (or Gaming Enhanced Edition, depending on which version of the machine translation you want to believe).
The K40 Gaming Edition covers all the basics to be considered a serious gaming smartphone – you have a 120Hz display with 480Hz touch sampling rate, physical shoulder triggers to enhance control and a 5,000mAh battery that can go all day and recharge in 42 minutes with the supplied 67W charging.
The Redmi K40 Gaming Edition uses a 6nm Dimensity 1200 chipset, paired with 6GB, 8GB or 12GB of RAM – storage options are 6/128GB, 8/128GB, 8/256GB, 12/128GB and 12/256GB.
Cooling is achieved through a combination of graphene, graphite and a vapor chamber. There are no built-in fans, nor a fan accessory here.
Visuals are handled by the 6.67-inch 2400x1080px AMOLED panel, which packs impressive specs – 10-bit (1.067 billion) colors, HDR10+ support, DCI-P3 coverage and the aforementioned 120Hz refresh rate.
The triple camera is flanked by accent lighting and an LED flash shaped like, well a flash. You get a 64MP 1/2.0-inch Quad-Bayer main camera, an 8MP ultrawide unit and a 2MP macro camera.
Sound is delivered by JBL-tuned stereo speakers on the top and bottom of the Redmi K40 Gaming Edition. Additionally you get Hi-Res Audio and Dolby Atmos support.
The Redmi K40 Gaming Edition is launching on April 30, priced from CNY 1,999 ($310) for the base 6/128GB version to , CNY 2,199 ($340), CNY 2,399 and CNY 2,699 ($420) for the top 12/256GB edition. The other available configurations are 8/128GB, 8/256GB and 12/128GB.
There’s also an exclusive Bruce Lee special edition is coming with a yellow rear panel, yellow accessories and maxed-out 12/256GB memory.
Oppo will introduce the K9 5G on May 6 in China, and the company has already confirmed the smartphone will come with a Snapdragon 768G SoC, 64MP triple camera, and 65W charging. Now we learn more about the K9 5G as the smartphone has been listed on Oppo’s Chinese website.
The Oppo K9 5G will sport a 6.43″ Samsung-made OLED having a 90Hz refresh rate and 180Hz touch sampling rate. The screen will also have a sixth-gen fingerprint scanner underneath for biometric authentication, with the punch hole in the upper-left corner housing a 32MP selfie camera.
The 64MP primary camera on the rear will be joined by an 8MP ultrawide module, with the third camera likely being a depth or macro unit.
Fueling the entire package will be a 4,300 mAh battery, which will go from flat to 100% in 35 minutes when charged with the 65W bundled adapter.
The Oppo K9 5G will have two color options, and JD.com revealed it will come in two memory configurations – 8GB/128GB and 8GB/256GB. The K9 5G’s pricing is unknown, but we’ll learn more about it and the availability next Thursday.
Home/Component/APU/AMD 4700S appears to be the Xbox Series X|S CPU but for PC
João Silva 2 hours ago APU, Featured Tech News
An unknown AMD processor has appeared online, known as the ‘4700S’. The specifications of this processor don’t line up with any of AMD’s announced CPUs or APUs, but based on some of the details, this could be a reused Xbox Series X|S APU with the graphics cores disabled.
As per the retailer (via @9550pro), the AMD 4700S APU is being sold inside a mini-ITX system. Like the Xbox Series X|S APU, this one is based on the 7nm process node and features 8x Zen 2 cores and 16x threads. The naming lacks the “Ryzen” of other AMD APUs and is apparently based on the ‘Cardinal’ platform.
The boost clock is set at 4.0GHz, which is slightly above the Xbox Series X|S consoles. This might be due to the iGPU being disabled, allowing for more power to be delivered to the CPU, therefore allowing higher clock speeds.
Another similarity with the Xbox Series consoles is the 16GB of GDDR6 memory and the lack of DIMM slots. The reseller even added marketing material featuring the Xbox Series X|S APU, implying that this APU is also used on the consoles. Although we can’t confirm it, it’s possible that these APUs have not passed the tests to be equipped on Xbox Series consoles, so AMD resells them with the iGPU disabled.
The reseller also included some benchmark results, showing the AMD 4700S APU is slower than both the Core i7-9700 processor and the Ryzen 7 4750G Pro, but faster than the Core i7-9750H laptop processor.
KitGuru says: If AMD were to sell the Xbox Series console processor as its own product for the DIY PC market, would you buy one?
Become a Patron!
Check Also
Razer’s Orochi V2 is a compact wireless mouse with up to 900 hours of battery life
Razer is back with another gaming mouse this week. This time around, the Razer Orochi …
Matthew Wilson 8 hours ago Featured Announcement, Memory
Earlier this month, HyperX and MSI were able to set a new DDR4 memory overclocking world record, reaching speeds of 7156MHz. Now, just a few weeks later, this record has been broken, with MSI and HyperX hitting 7.2GHz speeds.
HyperX is of course the gaming division of Kingston (soon to be acquired by HP) and has served the memory market for decades now. This particular record-breaking overclock was achieved by the MSI OC team in Taiwan, using an 8GB HyperX 4600MHz Predator memory stick, an MSI MEG Z590 UNIFY-X motherboard and an 11th Gen Intel Core i9-11900KF running at 3.5GHz.
The hardware setup is similar to what was used to set the 7156MHz record a few weeks ago, but the motherboard has been swapped out for a different one. This paved the way for the MSI OC team to reach 7200MHz this time around.
As you would expect, HyperX is very pleased with the result, with the company’s DRAM business manager, Kristy Ernt, saying: “HyperX is thrilled to be part of this breakthrough in DDR4 overclocking history, with HyperX Predator memory used to set two world records within the past month. Our HyperX engineers continue to focus on improving high-speed yields to get faster products in the hands of our customers and push previously unattainable performance records.”
While you are unlikely to achieve an overclock this high at home using standard cooling methods, HyperX does sell a number of validated high-speed memory kits. The HyperX Predator DDR4 kit used here is available in speeds up to 4800MHz with latencies between CL12 and CL19. Single-dimm kits can be found in capacities of up to 32GB, if you get a kit with multiple dimms, you could install as much as 256GB of memory on a system.
KitGuru Says: HyperX is leading the overclocking race at this point and with DDR5 on the way, we have to wonder if this record will be broken again before we shift away from DDR4.
Become a Patron!
Check Also
Vote in the KitGuru Reader Survey and win a Zotac ZBox Magnus One w/ RTX 3070
Once a year, we ask you, our readers, to tell us what’s hot and what’s not in our unique KitGuru Reader Survey. This year, Zotac has offered up a stunning prize for one lucky participant to win: a very special ‘barebones’ PC that comes complete with an Intel Core i7-10700 processor and an Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics card!
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
