Streacom; known for its untraditional case designs, has teased an all-new project involving a brand new PC chassis with an insane amount of cooling capability, all without the need for case fans. The passive cooler is capable of handling up to 420W GPUs and 195W CPUs; combined that is over 600W of cooling power.
Designed to compete with the best PC cases, the chassis itself is wrapped by four tempered glass panels, two for the sides and two for the front and rear. On the top is where all the magic happens, a massive (albeit heavy) metal block that cools both the CPU and the GPU.
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As noted on the GoFundMe page, the cooler uses a dielectric fluid that works similarly to a vapor chamber cooler. The heat pipes are all sealed shut from the factory, so the ‘loop’ is maintenance-free.
That is all we have to go on, for now. Hopefully, Streacom will get all the resources it needs to finally build this product and ship it to consumers. A computer chassis with a 600W passive cooler is something that doesn’t exist on the market today but would be very handy in a world where CPUs and GPUs are getting more and power-hungry.
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.
G-Technology’s ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD is ready for almost any condition or abuse and comes with secure, always-on 256-bit AES-XTS hardware encryption.
For
+ Competitive 10 Gbps performance
+ AES-XTS 256-bit hardware encryption
+ Rugged design
+ 5-year warranty
Against
– Single 2TB capacity
– Bulky size
– Costly
Features and Specifications
By leveraging your phone’s biometrics, such as touch or FaceID, G-Technology’s ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD makes passwords a thing of the past in an attempt to remove the most common inconvenience when it comes to data security — entering a password. The ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD is a secure portable storage solution with fast, consistent performance of up to 1 GBps of sequential read/write throughput that keeps your data safe with always-on 256-bit AES-XTS hardware encryption. Plus, it carries robust abuse ratings that ensure it will maintain reliability in the toughest conditions, perfect for those adventurous types.
Data security is becoming more important for a large swath of users, from creators in the media and entertainment industry to professionals in finance, government, healthcare, IT enterprise, and legal fields. Password protection backed by AES 256-bit encryption is the norm for those who need to ensure the data they have remains locked down and secure. Ranging from a simple password manager launching within the host OS to alphanumeric keypads with PIN protection and even fingerprint scanners, we have seen quite a few ways of unlocking password-protected storage devices over the years. Unlocking your secure storage with only a phone app seems convenient; let’s put it to the test.
Specifications
Product
ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD 2TB
Pricing
$499.99
Capacity (User / Raw)
Interface / Protocol
USB-C / USB 3.2 Gen 2
Included
USB Type-C & USB Type-C to USB Type-A
Sequential Read
1,000 MBps
Sequential Write
1,000 MBps
Interface Controller
ASMedia ASM2362
NAND Controller
WD Architecture
DRAM
DDR4
Storage Media
WD 96L TLC
Power
Bus-powered
Endurance
IP55 water-dust resistant
2-meter drop protection
1,000 lbs. crush resistant
Security
AES-XTS 256-bit hardware encryption
Dimensions (L x W x H)
134 x 82 x 19 mm
Weight
200 g
Part Number
0G10484-1
Warranty
5-Years
G-Technology’s ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD is available in just one 2TB model priced at $400. The SSD delivers up to 1,000 MBps of sequential throughput. Unlike most consumer-grade SSDs, the ArmorLock NVMe SSD’s write performance won’t significantly degrade below its rated performance under high abuse. Of course, that is assuming that it is connected to a compliant USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. The company backs it with a long five-year warranty for peace of mind, too.
Software & Accessories
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G-Technology includes two twelve-inch USB cables, one Type-C, and one Type-A to Type-C, with the ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD.
ArmorLock App
You configure and manage the device through the company’s ArmorLock app, available on both the App Store and Google Play Store. Not only does the app enable firmware updates, formatting, and even secure erasing the device, but it can also track the last known location of the SSD and simplifies multi-user and multi-drive management. You cannot unlock the ArmorLock drive by connecting it directly to a PC — you have to use the app. As such, at installation, the app creates a recovery key that you store separately. This key allows you to install the app onto another phone if you lose your phone or uninstall the application, thus enabling you to unlock your storage device.
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A Closer Look
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G-Technology’s ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD features a fairly rugged design and an activity indicator light. It carries an IP67 dust and water resistance rating and can handle a three-meter drop, and the company states that it boasts 1000-pound crush resistance. Its thick finned aluminum core aids with heat dissipation, but it comes at the expense of size.
While the device is pocketable, it is very large at 134 x 82 x 19 mm, and the plastic casing gives it a clunky and toy-like feel in the hand. We were even able to twist the casing, which ironically helped during our disassembly process. It is also fairly heavy, weighing roughly 200 grams, which is two to three times heavier than many portable SSDs.
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G-Technology’s ArmorLock uses a Bluetooth low energy module by Raytac that’s based on a Nordic nRF52840 SoC solution that allows communication between your drive and the app. When plugged in, the ArmorLock Encrypted NVMe SSD’s LED indicator light will show it is locked until you unlock the device with the app.
The ArmorLock uses 256-bit AES-XTS hardware encryption, which provides stronger data protection by taking advantage of two AES keys instead of just one, and NIST P-256 elliptic curve-based key management to eliminate side-channel attacks, ensuring data stored on the devices remains secure.
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An ASMedia ASM2362 USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 GBps to PCIe 3.0 x2 bridge chip manages host-to-SSD communication. G-Technology outfitted the ArmorLock with WD SN730 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe 1.3-compliant SSD. This SSD is similar to the SN750 but comes as a client solution that uses BiCS4 96-Layer TLC flash. It features a multi-core, DRAM-based architecture and offers plenty of speed to saturate the bridge chip’s capability.
Microsoft is announcing today that Halo Infinite will support crossplay and cross-progression when it launches later this year. This will allow PC and Xbox players to match together and play the Halo Infinite campaign, and the support also extends to multiplayer. Any multiplayer customization and progress will sync across both PC and Xbox.
Halo Infinite’s multiplayer mode will also be free to play when it launches later this year, with support for up to 120fps in the arena mode on Xbox Series X. Microsoft is also ensuring all of the customizations PC players expect are available inside Halo Infinite. This includes support for ultrawide monitors, triple keybinds, advanced graphics options, and other customizations.
We’re now waiting to hear more about Halo Infinite and when the beta will be available across PC and Xbox ahead of the game’s debut this fall. Developer 343 Industries is still working on improving the visuals in Halo Infinite, after the game was delayed following criticisms over a gameplay demo last summer. Halo Infinite certainly looks a lot better in recent 4K PC screenshots released by Microsoft, but we haven’t seen any updated gameplay in almost a year.
Halo Infinite is a “spiritual reboot” of the original Halo,making it easy for new players to immediately jump into the story. It includes an open-world environment that’s very similar to Halo: Combat Evolved,with the original Warthog vehicle and the Banished enemies. 343 Industries has also added new mechanics like Master Chief’s new grappling hook and a “Drop Wall” cover.
The PS5 will be available to buy in China on May 15th, a little over six months after its original release in the US last year, Sony announced today. The disc version of the console will retail for 3,899 yuan (around $600), while the cheaper disc-free model will cost 3,099 yuan (around $479). Preorders open today. The launch means Sony’s next-gen console will beat Microsoft’s to release in the country, although CBNC notes that Microsoft received safety approvals to release the Xbox Series X and Series S there at the end of last year.
Relative to its size and population, China isn’t considered a huge market for console gaming. Game consoles were technically illegal in the country until 2014, which meant PC and mobile gaming has become dominant. Even now, strict laws make it hard to release consoles in China simultaneously with other countries. The PS4, Xbox One, and Switch have all released in China, with Nintendo’s console reportedly being the most successful.
The PS5’s Chinese launch comes as the console faces stock issues around the world. A combination of unexpectedly high demand as well as supply chain issues including a global chip shortage, have been blamed for the problems. However, Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan recently said he expects the stock situation to improve in the second half of the year.
No matter how much web browsers improve, it feels like they can’t keep pace with everything we want to do. Open one too many tabs on a few-year-old laptop, and your fan starts spinning, your battery life dips, your system starts to slow. A faster or cleaner PC might fix it, but a startup called Mighty has a different idea: a $30-a-month web browser that lives in the cloud.
Instead of your own physical computer interacting with each website, you stream a remote web browser instead, one that lives on a powerful computer many miles away with its own 1,000Mbps connection to the internet.
Suddenly, your decent internet connection would feel like one of the fastest internet connections in the world, with websites loading nigh-instantly and intensive web apps running smoothly without monopolizing your RAM, CPU, GPU and battery, no matter how many tabs you’ve got open — because the only thing your computer is doing is effectively streaming a video of that remote computer (much like Netflix, YouTube, Google Stadia, etc.) while sending your keyboard and mouse commands to the cloud.
Skeptical? I definitely am, but perhaps not for the reason you’d think — because I tried this exact idea nearly a decade ago, and it absolutely works in practice. In 2012, cloud gaming pioneer OnLive introduced a virtual desktop web browser that would let you load full websites on an iPad in the blink of an eye and stream 4K video from YouTube. (Quite the feat in 2012!) I called it the fastest web browser you’ve ever used, and OnLive’s asking price was just $5 a month.
Cloud desktop providers like Shadow have also offered similar capabilities; when you rent their gaming-PCs-in-the-cloud ($12-15 a month), you can use those virtual PCs’ built-in web browsers to get similar speeds, thanks to the fact they typically live in data centers with very few hops to (and possibly direct peering arrangements with) major content delivery networks.
Mighty argues that by focusing on the browser (rather than recreating a whole Windows PC), it can give more people what they actually want. “Most people want an experience where the underlying OS and the application (the browser) interoperate seamlessly versus having to tame two desktop experiences,” founder Suhail Doshi commented at Hacker News. Mighty claims it’ll eliminate distracting cookies and ads, automatically notify you about Zoom meetings, quick search Google Docs and presumably other integrations to come. Mighty also says it encrypts your data and keystrokes, among other security promises.
But it’s not entirely clear why it costs so much more, or who would be willing to pay $30 a month for such a subscription — you’d think the kinds of people who can afford a monthly browser bill on top of their monthly internet bill would be the same kinds of people who can afford a faster PC and faster internet to begin with. Gigabit fiber is already a reality for some homes, and it’s not like Mighty will turn your iffy 25/3 connection into a gigabit one; while Doshi tells me it’ll technically work with a 20Mbps connection, he says he’s targeting 80+Mbps households right now.
Then again, it’s not like everyone has a real choice of internet service provider, no matter how much money they make. As Jürgen Geuter (aka tante) points out below, this feels more like an indictment than innovation. It’s been a decade, and we still haven’t solved these problems.
“Streaming your browser to you because rendering the HTML is too slow on your machine” is not innovation but a mark of shame on everyone building websites and browsers.
Tech failed as an industry. https://t.co/JJC0WomArb
— tante (@tante) April 28, 2021
I agree with my colleague Tom: I genuinely want to know who’d actually pay for this and why. Would you?
I want to meet whoever is going to spend $30 a month to stream a Chromium browser from the cloud just to avoid RAM hungry Chrome https://t.co/4pl6jL2zUV
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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
Epic Games is holding back Fortnite from being available on Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) service, according to a new deposition made public as part of the Epic case against Apple. The Fortnite developer views Microsoft’s xCloud service as competition to its PC offerings, and the company is deliberately not offering Fortnite on xCloud as a result.
Joe Kreiner, Epic’s vice president of business development, was questioned over why Fortnite isn’t available on xCloud, and confirmed it was a deliberate choice. “We viewed Microsoft’s efforts with xCloud to be competitive with our PC offerings,” says Kreiner in the deposition. The court document makes it appear like Kreiner may go on to explain why, but the next part of the questioning has been redacted.
Fortnite is a free-to-play game on Xbox, and the only way to currently access the game on an iPhone is through Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service. Epic Games partnered with Nvidia last year to launch Fortnite on GeForce Now and has helped Nvidia offer a number of other games from its PC game store on the Nvidia cloud gaming service, where all of the revenue from the original game’s purchase or any in-app purchases goes back to Epic rather than Nvidia. As far as Epic is concerned, the game is simply running on a PC.
That is likely a key reason why Epic has favored Nvidia over Microsoft to host Fortnite in the cloud. Microsoft doesn’t currently allow rival game stores on Xbox or xCloud in any form, and all transactions go through Microsoft there. In fact, Kreiner even admits that Epic Games hasn’t tried to negotiate with Microsoft over the requirement to have to use the Xbox maker’s store and commerce engine.
Epic’s entire case against Apple is centered on the App Store, and the company believes Apple should allow rival app stores on iOS devices or rival payment processing platforms. Epic is trying to fight Apple’s App Store policies, a 30 percent (15 percent for some) cut for subscriptions and in-app purchases, and the removal of Fortnite from the App Store. Kreiner’s questioning is part of this ongoing lawsuit, and it’s a huge case that’s already shining a light on the practices throughout the mobile and game industry that result in consumers being able to access games and apps across devices beyond just the iPhone.
The popularity of its cloud computing services, as well as the small matter of its software output, sent Microsoft profits soaring in the first three months of 2021 to $14.8 billion. This represents a 38% rise over the same period in 2020 according to a Microsoft press release and the Associated Press.
The company’s total revenue in the period was $41.7 billion, of which $13 billion came from what MS refers to as ‘personal computing,’ which grew thanks to increased demand for gaming and strong PC sales, which Microsoft receives licensing revenue for. The star of the show was clearly Xbox, which contributed to a 34% increase in sales following the launch of the Series S and X consoles at the end of last year, and the rush by many gamers to secure one ready for the holiday season. Surface hardware managed a 12% increase in revenue.
It’s the cloud, however, which accounts for the largest rise of 23% to revenue of $15.1 billion as more and more individuals, companies, and even governments switch to working online. Of this, the largest growth came from Azure, which saw its revenue grow by 50%. “Over a year into the pandemic, digital adoption curves aren’t slowing down. They’re accelerating, and it’s just the beginning,” CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement.
The first quarter of 2021 was unusually strong for PC sales, in part due to unfulfilled demand following the components backlog. The rise in sales across the industry was also due to a weak first quarter in 2020, as the Coronavirus pandemic disrupted Asian supply chains. As Microsoft earns licensing fees for every PC sold with Windows installed, it benefits greatly from increased sales across the industry.
AMD crushed expectations with its first quarter 2021 financial results today with a record quarterly revenue of $3.45B, an increase of 93% year over year (YoY). AMD grew in every segment of its businesses despite constant product shortages for its consumer CPUs and GPUs at retail, a byproduct of record demand and pandemic-spurred supply chain disruptions.
It’s no secret that AMD has been plagued by shortages of consumer CPUs and GPUs, but the company is obviously selling every piece of silicon it can punch out. AMD raked in $2.1 billion for the computing and graphics segment (Consumer CPUs and GPUs), a 46% improvement over the prior year, driven by Ryzen and Radeon sales.
AMD’s Ryzen processors set records for revenue and average selling prices (ASPs), and AMD says it has increased its desktop PC market share again, an encouraging sign for the company after Intel stole back some desktop PC market share last quarter. However, Intel reported last week that it suffered a sharp decline in ASPs for both its notebook and desktop PC chips due to a shift in its sales mix to lower-end processors. That shift is likely due to AMD’s continued performance lead with its Ryzen 5000 processors and strong sales of its higher-end models. AMD CEO Lisa Su remarked that AMD remains firmly focused on its high-end products.
AMD is also doing well in the notebook segment, with Su remarking, “We delivered our sixth straight quarter of record mobile processor revenue based on sustained demand for Ryzen 4000 series processors and the launch of our new Ryzen 5000 series processors.” Notably, Intel also sold a record number of notebook PC chips last quarter, but it suffered a sharp 43% decline in average selling prices.
Su also said that the company had doubled sales of its Radeon 6000 GPUs over the prior quarter and that GPU supply will improve in the next quarter.
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AMD’s Enterprise, Embedded, and Semi-Custom (EESC) group, which covers data center chips and game consoles, was up an incredible 286% over last year as it raked in $1.35 billion, largely driven by strong EPYC processor sales that more than doubled (consoles declined slightly during the quarter).
Notably, during its last earnings report, Intel claimed that its data center processor business suffered from the second quarter in a row of cloud “digestion,” meaning customers were still working through their existing inventory of chips, leading to a massive drop in its own revenue for this important high-margin segment. On the surface, it appears that some of that drubbing took place at the hands of AMD’s EPYC Rome and Milan chips. AMD’s data center revenue accounted for a ‘high-teens’ percentage of the company’s revenue.
AMD reported gross margins of 46%, which is flat for the year. The company has also raised its guidance for the year by $1.3 billion dollars, indicating that it expects the impressive performance will continue throughout the end of the year. That’s an increase from the previously-projected 37% annual growth to a projection for 50% annual growth. Su commented that this increased projection is due to increased demand in both the data center and consumer markets.
Overall, AMD posted an almost flawless quarter, especially in light of the current state of the global market. AMD also guides for an impressive $3.6 billion next quarter, an impressive 86% YoY gain during what is historically a slower quarter.
Microsoft posted the third quarter of its 2021 financial results today, reporting revenue of $41.7 billion and a net income of $15.5 billion. Revenue is up 19 percent, and net income has increased by 44 percent. Once again, Microsoft has seen strong growth for Surface, Xbox, and cloud-related services.
The PC market isn’t slowing down, despite a global chip shortage, and Microsoft is benefiting from this once again. Windows OEM revenue has grown by 10 percent, reflecting the strong consumer PC demand. Windows non-pro OEM revenue also grew 44 percent, and only Windows OEM Pro revenue declined by 2 percent.
Surface Laptop 4.Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge
Surface hit a $2 billion business milestone in the previous quarter, and Microsoft has recorded $1.5 billion of revenue in Q3. That may look like a dip, but it’s actually up 12 percent year over year during what’s usually a more quiet quarter for Surface sales.
While Microsoft just unveiled its new Surface Laptop 4 and accessories earlier this month, the Surface Pro 7 Plus also debuted for businesses and schools during this recent quarter. The Surface Pro is Microsoft’s most popular Surface device, and this latest model includes a bigger battery, Intel’s 11th Gen processors, a removable SSD, and LTE.
Xbox Series X.
Microsoft is also home to Xbox hardware and games, and once again revenue has grown across gaming. This is the second quarter of sales of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, and hardware revenue has grown by a massive 232 percent thanks to these next-gen consoles.
Xbox content and services revenue has also increased by 34 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Gaming became a key hobby for many during 2020, and that trend has remained throughout 2021. Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue is up 50 percent, after reaching $5 billion for the first quarter ever last quarter.
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?
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The Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 consoles have been out for quite some time now, each with a new controller. Back in November, Apple confirmed it would be bringing support for these new gamepads to iOS, now six months later, that support has finally arrived.
As part of the iOS 14.5 update, Apple has also introduced support for additional game controllers on iOS, including the Xbox Series X/S controller and the PS5’s DualSense.
Apple began expanding gamepad support on iOS in recent years in preparation for its own gaming service – Apple Arcade. These controllers can also be used for cloud gaming services, which are finally starting to open up to iOS.
Currently, Microsoft is testing Xbox Cloud Gaming on iOS via browsers on the iPhone and iPad. GeForce Now is available on iOS with a similar web-based solution and soon, Amazon Luna and Google Stadia will be joining the ranks.
KitGuru Says: Do any of you use a controller with your phone for gaming, whether it be mobile games or console/PC titles streamed via the cloud?
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Mustafa Mahmoud 4 hours ago Console, Featured Tech News, Software & Gaming
Godfall was the first game to be announced exclusively for the PlayStation 5. Positioned as the first true next-gen game, the ‘looter-slasher’ received a lukewarm reception – though it was technically impressive in a number of ways. Despite its marketing, it would appear that the game can run well enough on older systems, as Godfall has now been rated for the PS4.
A recent rating on the PEGI ratings board has suggested that Godfall may be coming to the PlayStation 4. The game was a launch title for the PS5 and also came to PC. It was the first game to be officially announced as a PS5 exclusive, making its appearance at the December 2019 Game Awards.
Despite its marketing push, Godfall received mixed reviews from critics with user reviews faring even worse. The game was criticised for its repetitive nature, as well as its general forgetability. This was made worse by the launch price, which was set at $70.
Since its release, Godfall has improved somewhat thanks to a number of major updates. Furthermore, the game has been promised to be getting DLC over the course of 2021, hopefully helping with the game’s repetitive nature. With the developers not giving up on Godfall, it is understandable that they would want to push the game to greater sales success on a platform with over 100 million players.
Of course, with Godfall marketed as a PS5 console exclusive title, it will be interesting to see what sacrifices had to be made to get the game to run on PS4. Hopefully Godfall’s PS4 launch fares better than its PS5 one.
KitGuru says: What do you think of Godfall? Did you play it? Are you surprised to see it supposedly coming to PS4? Let us know down below.
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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.
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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!
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