Asus announced first AMD based PCI Express 3.0 motherboard

PCI Express 3.0 technology was originally released a few years ago, but until now, it was only supported by Intel based motherboards. All the AMD based motherboards were using the reliable PCI Express 2.0 architecture for their dedicated video card needs, which wasn't as powerful as the newer PCIE 3.0.

The popular electronics provider Asus has recently announced the world's first AMD based motherboard that supports PCI Express 3.0 technology...


The Asus Sabertooth 990FX/Gen3 R2 is based on the AMD's 990FX chipset. It supports latest AMD's AM3+ processors which includes latest AMD FX series CPUs up to 8 Cores. It includes three PCI Express 3.0 slots allowing you to use multiple next generation video cards at their fully potential using Nvidia's SLI technology or AMD's CrossFireX technology. Asus has also equipped this motherboard with six SATA3 HDD ports, six USB 3.0 ports, twelve USB 2.0 ports, along with two E-SATA3 ports.

There have been no announcements yet about price or release dates.

AMD have traditionally been slightly cheaper than Intel; so this new motherboard will please longstanding fans who prefer their AMD products.

Nvidia Releases "Getforce GTX Titan" - Hardware Analysis

Numerous were the rumours about a Kepler GK110 GPU joining the GeForce Family. It first started with GeForce GTX 685 - later forgotten since it seemed NVIDIA was done with the 600 Series. After that, speculation turned towards a possible GeForce GTX Titan which was allegedly GeForce GTX 780 Ti, to go with NVIDIA's naming convention. Now the speculation is done and this is it folks - I present to you GeForce GTX Titan!

AMD claims to be happy with their Radeon HD 7000 Series GPU and showed a roadmap claiming that the HD 7000 Series GPUs are to be stable throughout 2013 and that they would be focusing on improving driver support. However, that doesn't mean there won't be new Radeon HD 8000 GPUs in 2013.

Now, NVIDIA is not holding back the big guns and has released what, as of February 2013, we call: the fastest single GPU available.

GeForce GTX Titan is based on the Kepler GK110 Core used on the Tesla K20 Workstation, but with only 14 SMX activated and so it offers 2688 Shader Processing Units, 48 ROPs and 224 TMUs on a 384-bit interface of fast GDDR5. The central clock runs at 837MHz and goes up to 876MHz in Turbo Mode, while the memory clock operates at 1502MHz. GeForce GTX Titan draws no more than 250 Watts. Early GeForce GTX Titan benchmarks indicate its performance is up to 85% of GeForce GTX 690!

Looking at the specifications on paper and what seems to be expected from GeForce GTX Titan, I would say this GPU has many major pros but an enormous major con, as well.

If it really does offer 85% of GeForce GTX 690's performance, while consuming only 250 Watt (exactly what Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition consumes), it's clear to say it's an extremely energy efficient GPU - well we didn't expect less from a Kepler based GPU. Adding to that, it's expected to heat much less than GeForce GTX 690 and to rely less on driver support.

With Titan comes a new technology called Kepler Boost 2.0.



Instead of just the regular Boost in which the GPU's central unit and Shaders speeds automatically raise themselves to a certain frequency (known as Engine Clock), GeForce GTX Titan features an upgraded version in which the GPU dynamically adjusts voltage based on its temperature and allows for an even higher frequency than Engine Clock known as Max Clock. This means that the lower the temperature, the higher the voltage and the higher the Max Clock.

Everything looks good but we have noticed that GeForce GTX Titan is priced around 900 American Dollars. This makes GeForce GTX Titan extremely uncompetitive. It's obvious a GPU of this magnitude, with over 7000 million transistors, has an extremely high manufacturing cost. However, such a high price will make it obsolete in the market. It's much more worthy getting a solution of Radeon HD 7970 Crossfire, which ends up costing less than 800 USD and performs better.

GeForce GTX Titan's price might not be final yet. In our opinion, if it remains that high, GeForce GTX Titan might end up only being bought by extremely rich gaming enthusiasts or benchmarking fanatics with a pretty penny. Unfortunately, that's less than 1% of the GPU market.

Needless to say, if playing Crysis 3, on the Ultra Preset, with 8xMSAA, on a 2560x1600 monitor, is your dream, GeForce GTX Titan is your "girl". The 288 GB/sec of memory bandwidth plus the 2688 Shader Processing Units, ought to do the job well. Adding to that, Crysis 3 is optimized for NVIDIA GPUs.

Now, the big question is: is this trouble for AMD?

Considering all this true, here's the relative performance of the top high end solutions:



Yeah, GeForce GTX 690 still takes the lead...

Here is their price:



As usual, AMD's top high end GPU costs less than NVIDIA's top high end GPU.

Let's not forget about a performance to watt ratio:



As mentioned, GeForce GTX Titan offers the best power consumption/Performance. Almost all NVIDIA GPUs are more energy efficient than AMD's.

and last, but certainly not least, a price to performance ratio:



Radeon HD 7970 has a clear win on this one while GeForce GTX Titan is smashed - even by NVIDIA's own GeForce GTX 690.

AMD: HD 8000 videocards coming on late 2013

As opposed to earlier rumours, AMD has stated they will be releasing their new videocard-series at the end of 2013, which will be based upon new GPU-architecture.

The previous rumours indicted that AMD would not release new cards with their new architecture until 2014. But AMD have gone to press stating Radeon HD 8000 will be with us by the end of 2013...

Computerworld states that AMD is sure to release a whole new Radeon HD-8000 series based upon new architecture. This means AMD will be rolling out their new high-end graphics cards later this year.

Vice-president of AMD: "Let me be clear: the new products will be based on a new architecture." This means their new high-end GPU's will be rolling out at the end of 2013.

One of their current most powerful cards, the HD 7970, was released at the end of 2011. Due to this, a release of a new series was already expected to take place early 2013, whereas in reality this will be at the end of 2013.

AMD already said to be focusing on improving and optimizing their 7000-series before releasing their new series of GPU's. They will continue working on new driver updates which should improve the overall performance of their current GPU's.

Sony Xperia Z used as an underwater cam, makes a cool 3 minute video

Most smartphones don’t usually fancy dipping their toes in swimming pools, but not the Sony Xperia Z. The flagship smartphone was taken for some underwater action by an early adopter.

With its IP57 certification, the Xperia Z doesn’t even break a sweat shooting the 3-minute underwater video.

The video looks pretty remarkable, and as an added bonus the microphone manages to capture some pretty clear underwater sounds as well.

The owner of Sony’s latest flagship advises that if you take your Xperia Z on such an adventure, just hit the video recording button prior to jumping in the water, as the touchscreen, understandably, doesn’t work underwater.

Anyhow, here’s the video itself.

Opera acquires Skyfire Labs for $155 million

Opera has announced that it has acquired Skyfire Labs, the company that made the Skyfire browser for mobile, for $155 million. The acquisition will allow Opera access to Skyfire’s Rocket Optimizer Software.

Rocket Optimizer works by compressing multimedia content such as images and videos on web pages on Skyfire’s servers and then sending them to the device, thus considerably reducing the bandwidth requirement on your device and the strain on mobile networks. This is similar to the way Opera Mini browser works, but Rocket Optimizer can also work with videos, something no other browser can.

This, coupled with Opera’s already excellent cloud compression, means you can expect even better performance and functionality from Opera’s mobile browsers in future. The company also recently announced that they will be slowly moving towards the WebKit engine for their desktop and mobile browsers, so things are certainly looking up for the company.

ASUS unveils 10-inch MeMo Pad Smart in Thailand

Asus has officially unveiled the rumored 10″ Memo Pad Smart ME301T at the Thailand Mobile Expo. Asus also is expected to showcase the tablet at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.

Asus Memo Pad Smart comes out with a 10.1″ WXGA display, 1.2 GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor along with 1 GB RAM, 16 GB inbuilt memory and microSD card support. The tablet has a 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.2-megapixel front camera and runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

A review of the Asus Memo Pad Smart is already available on YouTube.




The 9mm thick tablet is priced at THB10,900 (about $360) and will be available in white, blue and pink color variants.

Game of the year announced by Dice Submit

The D.I.C.E. Summit; a large annual event where all the big names in gaming gather to discuss the industry, the games, the successes and failures.

Last night was all about the successes though, as the D.I.C.E. Award winners were announced...



The full list of award winners:

Action Game of the Year - Borderlands 2 (Gearbox Software)

Mobile Game of the Year - Hero Academy (Robot Entertainment)

Handheld Game of the Year - Paper Mario Sticker Star (Intelligent Systems)

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Story - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)

Outstanding Character Performance - The Walking Dead: Lee Everett (Telltale Games)

Downloadable Game of the Year - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)

Casual Game of the Year - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Web Based Game of the Year - SimCity Social (Maxis, Playfish)

Family Game of the Year - Skylanders Giants (Toys for Bob)

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year - Mass Effect 3 (Bioware)

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year - XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games)

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Sports Game of the Year - FIFA Soccer 13 (EA Canada)

Racing Game of the Year - Need for Speed Most Wanted (Criterion Games)

Fighting Game of the Year - PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (SuperBot Entertainment)

Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity - Halo 4 (343 Industries)

Outstanding Achievement in Animation - Assassin's Creed III (Ubisoft)

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering - Halo 4 (343 Industries)

Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering - XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games)

Adventure Game of the Year - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Game of the Year - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Many games were nominated, and there were some expected winners, such as Borderlands 2 for Action Game of the Year, and Mass Effect 3 as best RolePlaying/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year. However, the real surprise is Journey - winning 8 awards and taking Game of the Year.

The Journey studio, ThatGameCompany, actually went bankrupt before releasing the game, but these awards prove that the game was a fantastic success for the developers.

Launch new version of the console every year by Ouya

The Kickstarter funded Android gaming console OUYA is finally set to go out in the hands of anxious Kickstarer backers and eventually, regular customers. But turns out, a newer version of the console isn’t too far away from now.

Talking to Engadget, CEO of OUYA Julie Uhrman said that “There will be a new OUYA every year. There will be an OUYA 2 and an OUYA 3.” What OUYA is aiming for is a smartphone-like update strategy, where they will update the console every year with newer processors and more memory.

While a yearly update cycle might not seem too different than what phone and tablet companies do, it’s way too fast when compared to traditional game consoles that have a life of 6-7 years. Although it won’t be a major issue with OUYA since the games will be backward compatible, something that is often not possible with traditional consoles and your older games will carry forward since they are associated with your account. Also, with just $99 for the console, there won’t be too much of a buyer’s remorse even if your console becomes outdated a year later.

Still, it would be hard for the makers of OUYA to convince buyers to purchase the current console a few months down the line with the new model just around the corner. Especially since the NVIDIA Tegra 3 in the current OUYA is already pretty outdated.

via

A New CALL OF DUTY title gets schedules for Q4 2013

Only weeks after the release of Call of Duty - Black Ops 2: Revolution, we have the announcement that another COD game is on the way.

In a Conference Call, CFO Dennis Durkin mentioned that the next title should land this year...

During the conference call Durkin said, "The Call of Duty franchise continues to set the bar for innovation and we expect a new Call of Duty game in development for 2013 to raise that bar even higher".

We don't think the game mentioned is Call of Duty: Online, since the talk of innovation doesn't sound like it will be multiplayer centric. After all, the current multiplayer seems to work well, and why fix what isn't broken?

We can however guess that the mysterious title will be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, given how Activision normally rotate their title releases. There isn't any firm information however, and probably won't be until we hear about it at E3 or the like.

New Xbox to be always online

NEW XBOX TO BE ALWAYS ONLINE, NO SECOND-HAND GAMES PLAYABLE

Rumours about the new Xbox have struck the Internet once again, and this time they reveal some less appealing news.

The rumours state that the Xbox 720 will be required to be online at all times, and does not support second-hand games..

Sources who are said to be working on the console revealed the features stated above to Edge. According to the sources even physical copies of games will require an Internet connection in order to be played.

Another thing to note is that gamers who buy physical copies will receive an activation code that will only work on their account. Due to this, trading and lending games will be impossible.

Hardware

The new Xbox is also said to support Blu-ray, something that was bound to happen, due to the increased and still increasing size of games, that comes with improved graphical detail and game complexity. Furthermore the new Xbox is said to have an AMD x64 CPU with eight cores at 1.6 GHz clock speed, a D3D11.x 800MHz graphics card and 8 GB DDR3 RAM. It is also said that Kinect is built in the new Xbox, and that the system is improved overall.

More and more information is starting to leak about the next-gen consoles, as we presumably approach their reveal. Sony might reveal their console on a pres conference on February 20th, whereas Microsoft is most likely to reveal their new Xbox around E3.

PS4 COMING TO EUROPE IN 2014

According to the newest but solid rumours, the PlayStation 4 should hit stores in 2014 in Europe. Japan and the United States should get access a little earlier.

Some fresh details about the specifications have also come out, which also states the specs compared to that of the new Xbox. Enough reason to take a look...

Sources from both Edge and Polygon state that the new PlayStation 4 will launch at the start of 2014 in Europe, whereas it will launch at the end of 2013 in the USA and Japan. The reason for the earlier release in the United States and Japan is to be able to compete with the new Xbox.


New controller and additional features

Sources also claim that the PlayStation 4 would have a new controller, which would have a touchpad instead of the start, select and PS-buttons. In addition to that, the controller would have an added 'share' button, with which people can put in-game screenshots and videos online. The PlayStation 4 would also record the last fifteen minutes of gameplay, without having to use any extra processing-power.

Hardware

It is said that Sony will be launching an improved PlayStation Eye (camera present in the PlayStation 3), which would work together with the PlayStation Move, just like the case is now. The hardware would look a lot more like that of the PC than the case is now. Due to this, it's easier for developers to develop games that can easily work on all platforms, and PC-ports will most likely be better due to this.

Also, the PlayStation is said to be slightly more powerful than the new Xbox. The Xbox currently has more RAM (8 GB) than the PlayStation 4 (4 GB), but Sony is aiming to reconcile this, according to the sources. Also, both consoles are said to have 8-core CPU's, with low clock rates.


Revealing the PlayStation

We've been saying that the consoles will be revealed for a couple of years now. This seems now to be closer than ever, as the parties themselves (Sony and Microsoft) have announced to be revealing their new console soon. Sony announced to be holding an event on February 20, in which the 'future of the PlayStation' would be revealed, as we said earlier today. One and one makes two, and it is likely the new PlayStation will be revealed at this event, which would confirm earlier rumours claiming the new consoles would not be revealed at E3, but on an own event of both parties.