Earlier this week, news broke Microsoft's plan to acquire Activision Blizzard for a significant amount of money for $68.7 billion. Potentially this will turn Microsoft into a worldwide gaming conglomerate. Additionally, this deal will give Microsoft the sole rights to some of the most popular gaming franchises of all time, Call of Duty, Warcraft, Overmatch, and much more.
Samsung has been making headlines for the past 24 hours, with good reason. The company has just announced its new in-house mobile processor, the Exynos 2200. Not a big deal, right? Every year Samsung is continuously implementing improvements to their chipset. But there's something special about this particular mobile processor. It's the first mobile system on a chip that will include a GPU with AMD's RDNA 2 graphics architecture, including accelerated ray tracing features.
I've gone on the record and said Apple's iPad is the champion of all tablets. It's an iPad, then everyone else. But Asus has created what's believed to be the most powerful tablet on the market, the ROG Flow Z13. Big claims from the company from Taiwan. But does the hardware support such a claim? Let's find out in this hardware breakdown and examine critical components. In this post, we'll profile the top-end model, the GZ301ZE.
CES has come up is gone, and despite fewer than average attendees due to the Covid-19, the trade show pressed on and displayed some interesting tech, with companies such as Asus and Razer host of others making a big splash at the event with their products. Some of these gadgets or devices won't have a set launch date and will likely not hit the market for several years. Still, there were some impressive tech gadgets at CES 2022.
The current global chip shortage has had a profound effect on tech regarding PC hardware. Since the onset of the pandemic, there has been a limited supply of graphics cards. As a result, the demand for graphics cards is high, and of course, as a result, vendors have inflated prices.
At CES 2022, Samsung has unveiled the next-generation curved 55-inch 16.9 gaming monitor, the Odyssey Ark, the largest of its kind. The monitor's immense size and sleek design are ideal for gaming enthusiasts and productivity applications. However, the curvature design that wraps around the entire field of view stands out the most, giving users access to what's ahead and beside you while gaming.
Alienware has just announced its new m17 R5, calling it the world's most powerful laptop, with AMD Ryzen 6000 APUs. Users have the option to configure the laptop with a combination of NVIDIA GPUs or go with all AMD tech, featuring AMD Ryzen processor, AMD Radeon Graphics options, and AMD's Smart Technologies Smartshift MAX, Smart Access Memory. In addition, this first laptop now features Smart Access Graphics. Allowing the laptop to intelligently switch between the RDNA 2 iGPU on Ryzen APUs and RDNA discrete graphics based on the device's workload.
Like the previous Eco Remote, the new version can be charged via solar energy. Still, Samsung adds a new RF feature capable of persevering its charge by "collecting routes" radio waves and converting their energy." Clever on behalf of Samsung. Low-powered devices such as TV remotes certainly can benefit from this new innovation from Samsung. Notably, no more AA batteries.
The most dominant gift for Xmas still is the PC. So it's only right I recommend three software I can't do without and you should install them on your new computer. I've listed three in no particular order.
For the past couple of days, I've read reports entailing Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboards encountering several 53 code issues, even some motherboards engulfing in flames. Various social media outlets displayed pictures of the damaged motherboards, causing widespread concerns from the PC enthusiasts community. Upon further investigation from the Taiwanese company, they have confirmed that the core issue is the incorrect placement of a memory capacitor. Simply put, the capacitor is in backward.
Anyone who's purchased or built a gaming system knows that XPG is a reputable company that manufactures a bevy of devices that internally and externally connects to a computer, from computer hardware to gaming peripherals. I'm betting someone out there currently has an XPG DRAM stick or a storage drive in their gaming system. This leads us to the topic at hand; XPG has just announced an interesting concept prototype, a gaming mouse that embeds an SSD. Yes, you read correctly, a hybrid gaming/ storage mouse.
We're just one week away from CES 2022, and several companies have already revealed their new products. The latest is Samsung announcing their new PM1743 SSD promising astronomical speeds for consumers and enterprise-based clients.
LG has officially announced its first gaming laptop, the Ultra Gear 17G90Q. The laptop measures 17-inches with top-notch hardware, including an 11th Gen Intel Tiger Lake H CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q graphics chip, configurable memory up to 32GB, and 1TB of storage.
This past Black Friday, which occurred almost a month ago, has yielded great deals on tech gadgets and hardware. So the tech enthusiasts in me had to take full advantage of the great discounts offered by various vendors. My Black Friday purchase, you ask? Razer's Basilisk X HyperSpeed wireless gaming mouse. Since my purchase, the mouse has endured the rigors of daily computer tasks and gaming. Oh, if you're interested, the mouse still retails for just $34.99 on Amazon. Here's a fun fact about Razer's Basilisk mouse product line made its debut in 2017. The primary target, of course, is the casual or staunch gamer.
NVIDIA has just announced a significant software update to GeForce NOW that will enable Mac users to engage in high-end gaming across the entire Apple ecosystem.
Finally, we have new custom covers for the PS5 from Sony. The console covers will come in various colors, black, red, pink, blue, and purple, fitted for regular PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition. Sony will be releasing the black and red console covers starting in January in most markets where the PS5 is sold. In addition, Sony will release other color options first half of 2022.
I'm betting the most sort after device for this Xmas shopping season will be the gaming monitor. But finding one that is reasonable in price yet loaded with features will be a daunting task. So finally, here's a monitor that may fit that budget gaming monitor criteria, AOC G2490VX 24-inch frame-less gaming monitor. Frameless monitors give the illusion of immense size. Just observe this monitor; it does appear to be bigger than 24-inch.
For months, there have been speculations, leaks, and rumors of an upgraded GeForce RTX 2060, including increased memory and other critical upgrades. However, Nvidia's latest GeForce driver update on their website has pretty much confirmed a new graphics card will hit the consumer market.
Each year a manufacturer is pushing the frequency boundaries on their memory modules—the latest is Neo Forza, with their new 16GB memory kit running at 5000MHz CL19 1.6V. The caveat to a memory module with a high-frequency speed is limited DIMMs of 8GB storage capacity. Also, there is currently a limited selection of motherboards that support it.
PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD'sare no longer a dime a dozen; they're now plentiful as many SSD's make the transition to the new-gen interface. The latest PCIe 4.0 NVMe that has gained traction is Kinston KC3000 1.3 SSD, storage capacities available from 512GB to 4GB having a decent amount of RAM cache.
