Gears of War Ultimate Edition PC System Requirements Revealed

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Gareth Andrews

Gears of War is one of Epic Games’ largest franchises, getting players to fight in a world with anything from a revolver or chainsaw to a satellite laser (yes, we liked that one too). After the franchise was sold to Microsoft though it became clear that the series was all but over, now it would seem that it only works if you are looking at a rather large computer thanks to the specs that were revealed by a windows 10 store page. The page is now offline but dsogaming were quick enough to capture the information before it was gone.

The specification for the Gears of War remake, Gears Of War: Ultimate edition are as followed:

Minimum System Requirements:

Processor: Intel Core i5 @ 2.7Ghz or AMD FX 6-core
Memory: 8GB RAM (2 GB VRAM)
Graphics: Geforce GTX 650 Ti or Radeon R7 260x
Hard Drive: 60GB available space

Recommended System Requirements for 1920x1080p

Processor: Intel Core i5 @ 3.5Ghz or AMD FX 8-core
Memory: 16GB RAM (4 GB VRAM)
Graphics: Geforce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 290X
Hard Drive: 60GB available space

Recommended System Requirements for 4k

Processor: Intel Core i7 @ 4Ghz or AMD FX 8-core
Memory: 8GB RAM (6+ GB VRAM)
Graphics: Geforce GTX 980 Ti or Radeon R9 390X
Hard Drive: SSD + 60GB available space

While it’s nice to see some variety in the specs, the first thing people might notice is that it goes all the way up to 4k. Why not though when the game also requires you to have Windows 10 (version 1511 minimum) and Direct X 12. Using their latest library Direct X has certainly appealed to a wide audience with its graphics, but with the recommended specs being on the upper end for modern releases, is your PC ready to run the game and save the world?

Garmin Unveils The “Quatix 3” Luxury Watch

Posted on January 24, 2016 by Christopher Files

The humble watch is seen as somewhat old-fashioned compared to the digital life that nearly all consumers live these days, tech companies on the other hand, have been looking to integrate various digital features within so-called smart watches with the aim of marketing the product for the 21st century. Global GPS brand Garmin who are synonymous with Sat Navs have unveiled a new watch by the name of the Quatix 3.

Below is a quick rundown of the announced specifications.

Physical dimensions – 2.0” x 2.0” x 0.6” (51.5 x 51.5 x 16.0 mm)
Display Size – 1.2” (30.4 mm) diameter
Display resolution – WxH – 218 x 218 pixels; transflective MIP colour; sapphire lens
Weight – 3.0 oz (85 g)
Battery life – Up to 50 hours in UltraTrac mode; up to 20 hours in GPS training mode; up to 6 weeks in watch mode

The watch also comes equipped with a “protective stainless steel EXO bezel and buttons”.

If you happen to be a fisherman or an avid race boat enthusiast, the Quatix 3 has you covered, below is a quick summary of these targeted features.

Saltwater fishermen – Will have features available to them that include navigational as well as NMEA 2000 data including depth, speed, water temperature etc.
Sailors – Will have the option to receive data that includes a virtual starting line feature that lets you set up a starting line between 2 marked GPS waypoints, e.g., a buoy and the committee boat
The watch also contains an Altimeter, Barometer and Compass.

The watch is expected to be released within the first quarter of April 2016, prices are expected to be $599.99 (£420.54).

It will be interesting to see if this watch has a great appeal within the general consumer market when you consider many of the features are targeted at a specific audience. Garmin will hope this watch will be able to hold its own, it makes sense for Garmin to implement its knowledge within a new smartwatch.

Rise of the Tomb Raider PC Release Date Announced

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Christopher Files

The Tomb Raider series is one of those classic gaming franchises which has a huge consumer following, titles ranging from the early days of both The Sega Saturn and also the PS1 all the way through to the latest incarnation of the series “Rise of the Tomb Raider on the Xbox One next-gen console. Talking of the aforementioned “Rise” title, new details have been announced for this version of the game for the PC Platform.

So, what are the details? Rise of the Tomb Raider will be officially released on PC on January 28^th 2016 and has been announced by Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics. The game will support 4K resolution and will be able to provide players with a stunning experience.

Rise of The Tomb raider will also be available through both physical and also online retailers which include Steam etc. There will also be various editions of the game and this will include a standard edition that will be priced at $59.99 dollars (£40.91), a Digital Deluxe Edition that will feature the game and its DLC pass for $89.99 dollars (£61.37) and a collector’s edition.

On the subject of the collector’s edition, below is an image to illustrate this, it will feature a Digital Deluxe version and a 12-inch Lara Croft statue, replicas of Lara’s journal and jade necklace and a steel case. It will be priced at $149.99 dollars (£102.28) and It will be also available at Square Enix’s online store, and yes I understand the irony of an image stating January 29th.

Other information includes the notion that it will be fully compatible with Windows 10 and the US edition has also been given an “M” rating, this means that the game might include elements such as intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language. The minimum specs which have been confirmed by Square Enix for the PC version are as follows,

Rise of the Tomb Raider PC Minimum Specifications:

OS: Windows 7 64bit
Processor: Intel Core i3-2100 or AMD equivalent
GPU: NVIDIA GTX 650 2 GB or AMD HD7770 2 GB
RAM: 6 GB
HD Space: 25 GB
DirectX: DirectX 11
Input: Mouse + Keyboard

Image courtesy of gearnuke

Rolls Royce SUV Anyone?

Posted on January 3, 2016 by Christopher Files

Well, I did not expect to see this in 2016, Rolls Royce are known for the final word in automotive luxury and this is perfectly conveyed by the companies expensive fleet of vehicles that are transported to international clients. Rolls Royce is synonymous for innovation and if these reports come to fruition, consumers could be feasting their eyes on an SUV edition.

Below is an image to convey this potential vehicle, it’s not exactly subtle, various reports state that it will be named “Cullinan” after a non-carbonado gem-quality diamond and will be limited to 1000 units worldwide.

As for specs, reports suggest it may be “equipped with the Rolls-Royce Phantom V12 engine with the same specifications” as well as a four-wheel drive system which will bring benefits to the overall travel of the vehicle. As for the design, it will be compelling to note both the weight and also handling of this potential saloon considering it will have all the bells and whistles for comfort, I also wonder what the Miles to gallon ratio of fuel will be?

If this vehicle comes to pass then it will be interesting to see both how fast the clientele snaps up this new design and also the types of luxurious locations where they will in doubt be shipped to, you can just imagine someone wrecking it after crashing that front end.

image courtesy of autocarsconcept

Japan Display Conveys Prototype 8K Screen Within a 17-inch LCD

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Christopher Files

Recent years have seen a substantial improvement of resolution within screens at a price point which has dropped significantly, from average consumer availability of 1080p Televisions to the new breed of 4K sets which are pushed to market at a decent price compared to previous developments. But as we all know, 4k is not good enough, we want even higher res, well some of us, for me, computer games and films benefit from the increased detail level, but I am sceptical when the time comes to implement a higher detail level for day-to-day TV.

Another disadvantage is in the form of a gigantic screen which is needed for 4K or even 8k viewing, well, maybe not considering a company by the name of “Japan Display” have announced plans for a 17.3 inch 8K screen. According to the prototype specs, this innovation runs at a smooth yet fast response rate of 120Hz with resolution stats of 7,680(W) x RGB x 4,320(H) pixels. The display itself is a familiar Liquid Crystal Display (LCS) module and is “based on low temperature poly silicon (LTPS) technology with true 8K pixels (RGB stripe arrangement), thus realizing high-definition (510ppi) images”

The compact yet powerful nature of the screen holds potential uses which include implementations within the medical environment and also fun aspects that include game and video image production. Below is a display image of the likely vision of the product and also full details of the prototype specs.

Display Mode	LTPS TFT, transmissive IPS mode
Screen size (diagonal)	17.3-inch (43.9cm)
Resolution format	7,680(W) x RGB x 4,320(H)
Pixel density	510ppi
Luminance	500cd/m²
Contrast ratio	2000:1
Viewing angle	>176degree（CR>100:1）
Frame rate	120Hz

The display will be exhibited at the “NHK/JEITA booth on October 7 – 10, 2015 during CEATEC JAPAN 2015 held at Makuhari Messe, Japan, in collaboration with NHK”.

One can only wait for further details of this exciting innovation in display technology, although, god only knows as to the price point which JDI have in mind, hopefully it will be reasonable, wait!, who am I kidding, you would probably need to sell a kidney for one of those. Sounds funny now, but remember those reports which circulated in 2012 which stated that a Chinese student sold an organ for an iPad, so no one do that.

Thank you j-display for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of sunetfon

Mad Max System Requirements Revealed

Posted on August 8, 2015 by Gabriel Roşu

Warner Bros. really did a number with its recent titles. Mortal Kombat was a disaster due to its console porting to PC and let’s not get started on Batman: Arkham Knight. I mean, when you are forced to suspend all sales of a title after it gets launched, you know it’s bad.

Nevertheless, Mad Max is almost here, and we can just hope that this one will actually be optimized. However, Warner Bros. seems to have covered their backs a bit here, asking for a 6GB minimum RAM. I know games are becoming more demanding, but upping it to 6GB as a minimum is kind of scary. Though, looking at some pics and the trailer, the time may have come to up the requirements a notch; either way, if it runs good (this time), it’s fine by me!

Minimum:

OS: 64-bit Windows Vista, 7, or 8
CPU: Intel Core i5-650, 3.2 GHz or AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.4 Ghz
RAM: 6 GB
Video: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660ti (2 GB Memory or higher) or AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2 GB Memory or higher)
DirectX: DX11
HDD: 32 GB available space

F1 2015 PC Requirements Revealed

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Bohs Hansen

There have been quite a few delays and postponed release dates from Codemasters new racing game, F1 2015. The last two possible release dates revealed were the 21st of July and 10th of July. It looks like the last one, the 10th, could stick as the system requirements for the PC version have been published. That points towards a finished game where the devs know what they’re dealing with.

The specs are a little bit surprising as you’ll need a pretty decent CPU for it while the GPU requirements are more mid-level. You’ll need at least a quad-core CPU, either a Core 2 or newer or a Phenom II X4 and at least 4GB RAM. The minimum graphics card is either an HD5770 or a GTS450. If you want to play at recommended specs you’ll need a Core i7-4770 or FX 9370 CPU, 8GB RAM, and an R290 or GTX970 graphics card.

You’ll also need 20GB storage space and an internet connection to play it. It runs purely on DX11 from the looks of it and also requires your operating system to be a 64bit Windows 7 or newer.

Minimum System Requirements:

OS: Windows 7 64 bit or Windows 8 64 bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad @ 3.0GHz or AMD Phenom II X4 @ 3.2GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Intel 4th Gen Iris Graphics or AMD HD5770 or NVIDIA GTS450
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 20 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible soundcard

Recommended System Requirements:

OS: Windows 7 64 bit or Windows 8 64 bit
Processor: Intel Core i7 4770 or AMD FX 9370
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Intel 5th Gen Iris Pro or AMD R9 290 or Nvidia GTX970
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Hard Drive: 20 GB available space
Sound Card: Direct X compatible soundcard

It might also be worth mentioning that Steam currently runs with a 10% discount on the game in anticipation of the launch. Other online vendors are also running offers, so browser around before you purchase.

AMD R9 Nano Performance Indirectly Revealed

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Robert Ainsworth

The AMD R9 Nano, a dinky little card that still packs a massive punch. It is said to pack 2x the performance per watt and 2x the performance density of AMD’s previous flagship card, the result being a 175 watt six-inch long beast of a graphics card.

We’re referring to Teraflops here when describing the “computer power” and how many this card achieves. It doesn’t always translate into gaming performance, but will give you a good idea.

How do we know the performance? Wccftech managed to apply some maths to the little amounts of data that AMD revealed to us. They used that cards TDP and performance per watt to work it out:

Since we know that performance per watt is FP32/TDP, we can go ahead and extrapolate the power efficiency of the R9 290X.
R9 290X’s peak FP32 = 5.6 TFLOPs, in other words, 5600 GFLOPs, and its TDP is 250W.
Perf/W = 5600 GFLOPs/250W = 22.4 GFLOPs/W

We also know that the R9 Nano has 2X the perf/watt of the R9 290X.
Which means it’s 2X (5.6TFLOP/250W)
= 2X 22.4 GFLOPs/W
= 44.8 GFLOPs/W.
Thus the perf/watt rating of the R9 Nano is 44.8GFLOPs/W.

Incidentally, we also have the TDP for the Nano, and that’s the last missing piece in the puzzle.

R9 Nano
Perf/watt = FP32 in GFLOPs (unknown) / TDP (175)
44.8 = FP32 (unknown) / 175
44.8 x 175 = FP32 (unknown)
44.8 x 175 = 7840 GFLOPs or 7.84 TFLOPs.
In summary, this means that the R9 Nano could pack a crazy 7.84 Teraflops in compute power. That’s more than a Titan X can give. If bitcoin mining was still financially feasible with graphics cards, this one would by far be the most popular. It will give out nearly twice the amount of gigaflops per second than the Titan X.

For a definite verdict on if this card will be good at gaming, we will have to wait for it to be released into general population. AMD’s power and performance claims will need testing by an independent organisation, that won’t happen until near the launch date.

Thank you to Wccftech for providing us with this information

AMD Showcase Fury Graphics Card Specifications @ E3

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Rikki Wright

This is what we’ve all be waiting for; the Fury graphics cards are here. AMD have been at the forefront of technology for years, first to introduce 256-bit interfaces, first to introduce GDDR5 graphics memory and now the first to showcase HBM.

We will update you as we get the information.

AMD Fury X Confirmed as New Flagship!

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Bohs Hansen

We have long heard rumours and seen leaks about AMD’s upcoming graphics cards. Some have filled us with excitement while other ones were bitter disappointments. We already know that the AMD Radeon R9 390 and 390X cards will be slightly optimized rebrands with more VRAM and we also knew that there was a new flagship on the way outside of the normal number system, much like Nvidia does with their Titan.

We’ve heard the name Fury, but it wasn’t hundred percent clear whether this was a codename or the actual product name. New slides leaked by HWBattle and brought to us by WCCFtech now confirm this. the AMD Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card is a thing and it “is revolutionary inside – and out.” [sic].

The Fiji GPU core which is the first to utilize high-bandwidth memory and is the physically biggest chip AMD has produced. It does however already pack the memory onboard, eliminating the need for extra space on the PCB . The Fiji GPU core has 64 Compute Units, each featuring 64 stream processors for 4096 stream cores, 128 raster operation units, and 256 texture mapping units.

The card only comes with 4 GB memory, but it is HBM memory that operates on the 4096-bit interface, is clocked at 500 MHz, and pumps out 512 GB/s bandwidth. The core clock is 1050 MHz on the reference design and the card can perform a total of 8.6 TFlops of FP32 compute performance.

A good 4K experience should be guaranteed with that and VR fans get an added bonus in the form of AMD LiquidVR that is said to give the best VR experience.

Most of this was already leaked before, but now we have it from official slides. It’s always great with confirmation and now we just need to wait for the release in a couple of days.

Thank you WCCFTech for providing us with this information

More AMD Radeon R9 390X Specifications Leaked

Posted on May 7, 2015 by Rikki Wright

Following on from earlier rumoured leak of the R9 300 series cooling and card length, it seems the specification of the highly anticipated R9 390x has slipped as well.

From earlier, we know that the R9 390x is rumoured to ship with two options of cooling, the first a typical air cooling design similar to what AMD currently produce; however, the second appears to be no longer than the NVIDIA GTX 970 reference design PCB and will include a similar cooling feature to the current R9 295×2. The new High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) has been integrated onto the GPU core, which is how AMD has managed to squeeze all of the features onto such a small PCB design.

Now onto the specification:

“The Fiji XT-enabled R9 390X is said to feature 8GB video memory, GCN 1.2 architecture, 4,096 stream processors, 256 TMUs, 128 ROPs, and a 4096-bit wide interface resulting in a total bandwidth of 640GB/s.”

If these specifications are true, it will be based on a very similar architecture to the R9 285 and aims to be more powerful than the R9 295×2; very impressive for a single GPU, short PCB card.

Are you looking forward to the launch in approximately a month time? I personally can’t wait to get my hands on the R9 390x, especially if the specs and water cooling is as rumoured. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Thank you to VRworld for providing us with this information.

Grand Theft Auto 5 on PC Uses 14GB VRAM on 4K and Ultra High Settings?

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Gabriel Roşu

There has been a lot of hype with Rockstar’s latest Grand Theft Auto 5 title for the PC. Not to mention the debate on how the graphics will be and the AMD vs NVIDIA fan war. But nobody was looking at what the title eats up in terms of performance on 4K resolution and ultra high settings… until now!

Have you tried playing the title on a 4K monitor and all settings taken to the highest level? If you did, then you probably know that it eats up an unbelievable 14GB VRAM! Yes, you read it right… 14 GigaBytes of Video RAM is needed to keep GTA 5 running on a 4K monitor and ultra-high anti-aliasing enabled configuration.

It seems that even Titan X falls short at this one with its 12GB VRAM. It’s insane! Here’s a pic to prove it all.

I still can’t believe my eyes! I mean, what is going on here? Is Rockstar challenging Nvidia to roll out more powerful Titans in the future or what? Let’s review the titles specs:

Minimum specifications:
OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1, Windows Vista 64 Bit Service Pack 2* (*NVIDIA video card recommended if running Vista OS)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs) / AMD Phenom 9850 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs) @ 2.5GHz
Memory: 4GB
Video Card: NVIDIA 9800 GT 1GB / AMD HD 4870 1GB (DX 10, 10.1, 11)
Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
HDD Space: 65GB
DVD Drive

Recommended specifications:
OS: Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Windows 8 64 Bit, Windows 7 64 Bit Service Pack 1
Processor: Intel Core i5 3470 @ 3.2GHZ (4 CPUs) / AMD X8 FX-8350 @ 4GHZ (8 CPUs)
Memory: 8GB
Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB / AMD HD7870 2GB
Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible
HDD Space: 65GB
DVD Drive

Anything missing from the above? I think so! They should add an “Insane specification”, right? Oddly enough, a triple 4K configuration, as TweakTown seems to have stated in their post, does not affect the VRAM requirements at all. At least that’s a relief, huh? If it requires more, then a quad Titan X could have been the case to handle this beast!

What do you guys think? Is you gear ready for Grand Theft Auto 5 in 4K at ultra-high settings? Let us know!

Image courtesy of Hard Forum

Colorful Announces Their iGame GeForce GTX 960 KUDAN Mini-ITX Graphics Card

Posted on April 4, 2015 by Gabriel Roşu

Colorful has revealed their iGame GeForce GTX 960 KUDAN Mini-ITX graphics solution, featuring a custom PCB design and factory overclock frequencies.

The GeForce GTX 960 KUDAN is said to be one of the very few Mini-ITX designs with a GM206 chip, making it very popular in the $200 range market. The graphics solution is said to have a low-wattage percentage and provide great 1080p performance.

In terms of specs, the graphics card comes with 1024 CUDA cores, 64 texture mapping units, 32 raster operation units and a 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM with a 128-bit memory interface. While the memory is clocked at 7010 MHz, the GPU clock comes in two blocks.

The factory overclocked specs that come with the card are set at 1127 MHz base and 1178 MHz boost, but a second OC BIOS is said to be available that can ramp up the card to 1152 MHz and 1216 MHz respectively at the push of the button.

Looking at the aesthetics of the card, we see that it features the same design as the iGame GeForce GTX 980 KUDAN, only a bit smaller. It boasts only one fan, but given its low-budget design, it is enough to keep the Mini-ITX card cool.

Power is said to be provided via a 6-pin connector, having the card coming with a 120W TDP. There is also a single SLI connector present on the card and comes with a single DVI, HDMI and three DisplayPort connectors.

Colorful has already listed the card on its website, but details regarding its availability and pricing have yet to be made available.

Thank you WCCF for providing us with this information

First Alpha for Eve Valkyrie Requires a Powerhouse PC to Test Out

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Gabriel Roşu

Fans of Eve Valkyrie with lower PC specs will be extremely disappointed with the news that the first Alpha for the title will require a powerhouse PC to be able to run it. CCP is reaching out to users with PC that are able to run the title at ultra settings, so if your PC doesn’t meet the required specs, bad luck.

“I can tell you for the first alpha test, it’s going to be quite high,” Sigurdur ‘Siggi’ Gunnarsson, Valkyrie’s lead programmer stated. “We’ve already had to do a lot of optimisation to get the game running, what you see today. But we need to do a lot more before we launch the game. The alpha test’s going to be pretty high spec.”

It isn’t quite clear what type of PCs CCP is targeting, but Gunnarsson stated that users with one of the latest NVIDIA 900 series or AMD 200 series graphics cards will be “pretty safe”. The trailer also provides a bit of a tease for players to go out and spend their money on a new graphics card.

Thank you PCGamesN for providing us with this information

AMD A10-8850K Specifications Leaked

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Bohs Hansen

The Swedish Sweclockers website leaked more AMD information, this time about the Kaveri refresh APU codenamed Godavari.

The turbo frequency gets a 100MHz bump up to 4.1GHz, which is about 2.5% so not that bad. The base frequency stays the same at 3.7GHz when compared to the A10-7850K. The real improvement lies within the GPU upgrade where we see the GPU clock jump from 720 MHz to 856Mhz, a 19% improvement.

In addition to the A10-8850K, AMD will release other Kaveri refresh such as A10-8750, A8-8650K, A8-8650, A8-8550K, A8-8550, Athlon X4 870K, A10 Pro-8850B, A10 Pro-8750B, A8 Pro -8650B, A6 Pro-8550B, A4 Pro-8350B, etc.

Needless to say, they also get slightly elevated frequency treatments and should be compatible with all current FM2+ motherboards, though a BIOS upgrade might be needed.expected to be released in June or July this year. AMD is expected to release the processors in June or July this year.

Thanks to SweClockers for providing us with this information

Saygus V2 ‘Super Smartphone’ Announced

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Ryan Simmons

Imagine a smartphone with all the boxes ticked. A smartphone with every single most wanted feature in one device. That’s what the Saygus V2 is supposed to be.

This “super smartphone” comes with a maximum of 320GB of storage (64GB onboard alongside 2 MicroSDXC slots), a 21-megapixel rear camera, 13-megapixel front facing camera, wireless charging, fingerprint scanner, Harman Kardon speakers and root access to the Android 4.4.4 KitKat OS. Alongside all of that, this beast has a 2.5GHz quad core Snapdragon processor with 3GB RAM underneath a 5-inch, 1080p display.

It’s not necessarily a looker though, its design is pretty clunky-looking. Having said that as with many top spec PCs, buyers don’t always necessarily look for design – is this the mobile equivalent of a massive gaming rig?

One killer feature they haven’t announced at CES is the price – they’re currently keeping it quiet and only suggesting that it will be “competitive with other 5-inch devices”. That leaves a lot to be answered.

Source: The Verge

Raspberry Pi Model A+ Details Leaked

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Bohs Hansen

The Raspberry Pi foundation released the B+ model this summer and since then we’ve expected a new A+ model to appear as well. We got the first teaser during this years TechCrunch Disrupt in London where Upton confirmed that the A+ would be arriving to replace the current A model that didn’t sell too good.

We finally got some details about the upcoming model-refresh when the website Element14 briefly listed the A+ model over the weekend before quickly taking the link down again. But not before a couple of people got the images and relevant facts from the site.

The new Raspberry Pi A+ is basically a shrunk down version of the old B model but with the improvements made on the B+ model. The old 26-pin GPIO connector will be replaced by a 40-pin connector instead, the SD card slot will be replaced by a micro SD slot instead while the overall power consumption has been optimized and reduced. The new A+ model will also support power-hungry USB devices better than the current A model.

Thanks to CNXsoftware for providing us with this information

Images courtesy of CNXsoftware

Assassin’s Creed Asks for Minimum GTX 680 or HD 7970

Posted on October 26, 2014 by Chris Smith

Ubisoft has been in the headlines a bit recently, unfortunately not for the positive side of things. We’ve firstly covered how their developers believe that 60FPS “looks weird” and then pinning the blame on Microsoft saying that 30 FPS gaming is being pressured to be transferred over to PC’s by the console manufacturers.

In the latest of gaming news, Assassin’s Creed: Unity technical requirements have been released. The image above, said to be locked at 900p and 30 FPS, shows the graphical prowess of the game on release. Interested in giving it a crack? Unity will require you (at a minimum) to be running a GTX 680 or HD 7970 graphics card coupled with at least a Core i7-2500K or and AMD FX-8350. The stats you’re looking at aren’t a figment of your imagination – they’re actually from Ubisoft’s official blog which also mentions a minimum 6GB of RAM is needed.

Here’s hoping that the full PC game release won’t require a $2,000 computer to run at a measly 30 FPS. In what can be only described as outage from PC gaming scene, we’re all waiting with bated breath to see what Ubisoft will deliver next.

For the full technical specs, take a look below.

Apple Vs Android -iPhone 6 is Just an Old Nexus 4?

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Chris Smith

The Apple Vs Android argument will be ongoing until the end of time – Apple fans often claiming that the iPhone ‘just works’ and Android fans claiming of the latest technology and lowest prices. Both parties have good points, but are you paying way too much for your iPhone with possibly outdated technology?

The comparison shot above has been circulating around popular image boards and social media websites as of late, showcasing how Apple’s brand new iPhone 6’s premium features match that of something released almost two years ago by Google.

One thing this image doesn’t list however is the backend specifications of the phone, meaning there is no RAM or CPU model or speed noted, without taking this into account however this begs the question – is the iPhone really worth the price tag? But to put it into context, Googles Nexus 4 contains a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro and 2GB of internal RAM compared to Apple’s iPhone 6 with a faster 64-bit, A8 CPU but smaller 1GB of RAM.

As a whole – you’ll be paying $199 for the Nexus 4 8GB, compared to a much larger $869 for the iPhone 6.

Personally, I’m not a fanboy either way – but it does make you stop and think. Are you upgrading to the new iPhone 6? We want to know why you prefer Apple’s product over its competitors – is it the interface, are you happier with their design? Or maybe something else has got you hooked.

Image courtesy of CNet

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Spec List Is the Same as Ghosts

Posted on August 9, 2014 by Kyle Williams

Hmm now correct me if I’m wrong but the term ‘Next Generation’ means better all-round quality games, am I right? So with the developers of Advanced Warfare saying “Next Generation” about every 4 seconds in every trailer why hasn’t the spec list changed from that of Ghosts? Surely with a “new Next Generation engine” they would be able to push higher res textures, more particles, models on screen etc which would make the game more demanding and require more powerful hardware to run it smoothly. Not according to the spec lists, they are identical, nothing has changed, so it makes you wonder, how “Next Gen” is it really?

The same thing happened with Ghosts, all this talk about a “Next Gen engine and active fish AI” and then when it came out it looked like every other Call of Duty. So what could they have done to actually improve this years CoD? I for one hope they have actually tried and stopped reusing models from 5 year old games, I saw the digger from Modern Warfare 1 in Ghosts and just sighed. From what I’ve seen about Advanced Warfare is that it does look better and the animation looks better too, this is by watching some of the campaign footage they released. Going by this I would advise people to just hold back on the pre-order until launch or the multiplayer reveal, which is getting close now.

Thanks to Tweaktown for supplying us with this information.

Images courtesy of Tweaktown.

New Xperia Tablet Hinted through Certification Listing

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Chris Smith

A certification listing on Sony’s Indonesia Postel website has given away the possible near-release of a new Xperia Tablet. The device is listed as SGP621 and contains a similar naming convention to it’s older tablet brothers in the Xperia series – The Xperia Tablet Z (SGP321) and the Xperia Tablet Z2 (SGP521). Oddly with no “SCP421” in the naming fashion.

Android Central speculates:

“The number “2” in the model number suggests that the upcoming tablet will feature LTE connectivity. For instance, the Wi-Fi only edition of the Xperia Z2 Tablet has a model number SGP511.”

This new tablet will possibly be revealed this year at IFA in Berlin, Germany.

We’ve learned it’s unlikely that this new model will be smaller in size as rumors indicate that Sony is considering production of an 8-inch form factor. We have no further information on hand in regards to the specifications, price or release date – unfortunately, all we have is the above model number.

We do know however, that Sony’s last few tablets have all been of high-end quality and specification, so this new edition could very likely follow the same trend.

Here’s hoping all will be revealed in Berlin next month at IFA. When it does, we’ll let you all know.

Cover image courtesy of O2

Inset image courtesy of Android Central

AOC Reveals First Affordable High-End 4K Resolution 28″ Display In London

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Gabriel Roşu

The display industry has been cooking up new ways to improve our visual experience for some time now, from 3D features to Virtual Reality gear which isn’t quite ready just yet. However, the latter is not always useful in all areas, therefore the focus has been shifted to 4K technology it seems.

Whether designing, gaming or entertainment activities is in order, 4K technology will always do the trick. This might have sounded appealing to most in the past, but actually acquiring one meant selling an arm and a leg, since the prices were well into the thousands and even more in some cases. No, the price has drastically dropped to around £600 or less for most 4K displays which also meant a drop in specs, but not for AOC and their new 28″ display it seems.

AOC has revealed this first affordable gaming high-spec 28″ display, the U2868Pqu, at the PC Retail Bootcamp event in London. It features a 1ms response timing, which means users do not have to worry about ghosting problems at all, a 300 cd/m brightness rate for high contrast and a 60 Hz refresh rate. These features can be found on its 3840 x 2160 pixels resolution, making it a must-have item when it comes to enthusiastic gamers or even designers.

In terms of connectivity, the U2868Pqu comes with Dual-Link DVI, HDMI and Display Port support, having additional built-in speakers. However, gaming enthusiast will not be quite fond of the speakers, but nonetheless it comes as an additional support when in need of an output device.

In terms of a specific price, Amazon.co.uk has listed the display at a price of £537.60, giving it a release date set for the 1st of June.

Thank you KitGuru for providing us with this information
Images courtesy of KitGuru

Nokia Rumored To Have Two More Android Smartphones In The Works

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Gabriel Roşu

While we wait for the Mobile World Congress to commence in Barcelona, one of the most anticipated announcements comes from Nokia and its Android handset. The signs have been numerous and nobody can deny the fact that Nokia will release an Android version flashgrip this year.

However, recent rumors tells of not one, but three Nokia devices running the Android OS will hit the market this year, having the first flashgrip rolling out as early as May. Is Nokia looking to expand its empire having two major mobile operating systems running alongside each other, namely Windows Phone and Android?

The first flashgrip to make its way on the consumer market is the so-called “Nokia X” which should be revealed during MWC next week. The handset is said not to be something that extraordinary in terms of performance, having its rumored specs describing it as a Dual-Core 512 MB RAM smartphone. Though, it might be just the ‘appetizer’ of what’s to come next, having rumored a ‘XX’ and ‘XXX’ handsets which will follow later on this year.

Both handsets are said to be something on the higher market, with the ‘XX’ having slightly improved specs than the ‘Nokia X’, while the ‘XXX’ is rumored to be the ultimate high-end Nokia handset everyone is looking forward to. The names however are most likely to change, especially for the ‘XXX’ handset, where the name might inspire something else rather than a handset.

The question here will be if the previously mentioned flashgrips will be on display at the MWC event. The answer will most probably be no, as Nokia is not ready to reveal the two neither to select partners nor the public before the final product is ready. Though, if the rumors are true, we might expect to see the first pictures and specs as early as Q2 or as late as the end of Q3 this year.

Thank you Android Community for providing us with this information

HP To Announce Its First Chromebox Desktops, Release Date Said To Be This Spring

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Gabriel Roşu

After Asus and Samsung revealed their version of Chromebox Desktops, it seems that HP is plunging into the game as well with the announcement that they will release their first Chromebox desktops this spring.

HP as stated that the Chromeboxes will come in four different colors: white black, turquoise and silver. They have not specified any dimensions for the ‘box’, however they said that “the box is small enough to place in a travel bag and can be mounted to the wall or the back of your monitor”.

In terms of specs, the HP Chromebox will have a 4th generation Intel Core i7 CPU, a HDMI and Display Port, and four USB 3.0 ports. Nothing more has been confirmed about its specs at this point, though HP is bound to give more details later on.

HP is known to be selling Windows computers and Android devices. Google’s Chrome OS is just an addition to its variety of products. What is interesting though is the price of HP’s Chromebox devices. Looking at Asus, it has tagged its Chromebox with a price of $179. Since HP is just releasing its first Chrome-based desktops, it will surely bring a competitive price to keep up with competition.

Thank you Gigaom for providing us with this information
Image courtesy of Endgadget

Alienware Announces Steam Machine Release Date And “Some” Specs

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Gabriel Roşu

Alienware has announced that their Steam Machines will be available only from September 2014 at Valve’s Steam Dev Days conference in Seattle. In addition to the release date, we get more insight on what specs we are looking to find under the hood.

Alienware’s Steam Machine is Intel and NVIDIA based, with a Haswell-generation processor. Although Alienware did not get into more details about the Intel and NVIDIA chips, other companies were more opened about their specs. For example Origin and their dual-Titan Steam Machine had revealed that it will operate on up to two GeForce GTX Titan GPUs, while having 14 Terra-bytes of hard drive space available. Therefore, Alienware’s Steam Machine should be in the same performance spec as well.

Also, September is known as the start of the newer tech release every year, from consoles, to games and other components and gadgets. It also gives Alienware and others a nine month deadline to get all the bugs out and prepare it for consumers, and then try to perfect it for the upcoming Christmas sales and game releases. In addition to that, Valve needs to get things right from the very start with the Steam Machine releases or else users will just ignore them and stick to the normal Xbox and Playstation consoles, having the Steam Machines trend burn out in an instant.

Having spec details scarce, the price cannot be known as well. That depends on the actual Steam Machine configuration and brand (of course). What we do know is that given the current information, they will not come cheap at all.

Thank you PC World for providing us with this information
Image courtesy of PC World

Rumour: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 790 Specs Reveal 4992 CUDA Cores

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Gabriel Roşu

The graphics industry is moving at a faster pace than ever. The latest flagship GPUs have yet to make an impact on the market and dual-GPU cards are already in the talks. First it was AMD’s dual Hawaii XT based Vesuvius which made the news and now NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 790 featuring dual GK110 chips with a total of 4992 CUDA cores, 10 GB of memory and 640-bit memory interface.

NVIDIA holds the crown of the fastest single GPU in the world and is now looking forward to become the ultimate king with GeForce GTX 790. The specifications are rather surprising since GTX TITAN features 2688 CUDA cores and the newly launched GTX 780 Ti features 2880 cores while GeForce GTX 780 comes with 2304 cores but the GPUs in GTX 790 are rumoured to feature 2496 CUDA cores. With two GPUs on a single PCB you do have to make compromises but if this is true then its a disappointing news.

Other specifications include a massive 10 GB memory split in to two 5 GB dedicated to each GPU along with a 640-bit memory interface also split between the two dies. On the other hand, AMD’s Vesuvius will feature fully unlocked Hawaii XT silicons and 12 GB of memory. This might be troublesome for NVIDIA in terms of performance but we do know that GeForce GPUs run relatively cooler compared to Radeon chips.

Secondly, a GTX 790 doesn’t makes sense when Maxwell is on the verge of launch. Maxwell is going to be an upgrade over Kepler and surely outperform GK110 so why not make a GTX 890?. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 790 is expected to launch in February which has put a question mark on the 6 GB variant of GTX 780 Ti.

Thank you Chip Loco for providing us with this information

GeForce GTX 780 Ti Specifications Have Been Leaked

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Gabriel Roşu

NVIDIA introduced a new card called the GeForce GTX 780 Ti during last week’s announcements, but at the time we were left with little more than a mid-November release time frame. It seems that now we may have a peak inside the new card.

Some forum members at Chip Hell have leaked an image that may show specs for the Titanium 780 variant. If accurate, they’re really amazing and according to the slide, the 780 Ti is equipped with a GK110 Kepler GPU with 2,496 CUDA cores, 208 texture units, 48 ROPs, and 3GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6008MHz. This all gives it a base core clock speed ticking in around 902MHz and 954MHz when boosted.

Given the above specs, the card should run at more frames per second, have better shaders, and bigger explosions from a lower-end card. In terms of price, there are also unconfirmed rumors that the GTX 780 Ti will end up selling around the $650 / £401 / $641 price range. This means that it puts the GeForce 780 Ti above the rumored price of AMD’s Radeon R9 290X, which is said to be priced around the $549 / £339 / $541 range.

Thank you Tech Radar for providing us with this information.
Images courtesy of Tech Radar

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