General Gaming Article

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• The Humble Bundle Returns with 7 DRM-Free Games
• Sony Vaio Tap 20 Review
• Asus DirectCU II Top Reviews: GeForce GTX 680 vs Radeon HD 7970
• AMD Lays Out Server Strategy and Processor Roadmap
• EVGA Announces Supernova 1300 G2 Power Supply with 10 Year Warranty
• Next Generation Consoles Needed to Save Slumping Game Sales
• Acer's Upgraded C7 Chromebook Revs Into Retail, Available at Walmart for $199
• Newegg Daily Deals: LG 27-inch Monitor, Corsair Builder Series 430W PSU, and More!
• Google Expanding Retail Availability of Chromebooks

The Humble Bundle Returns with 7 DRM-Free Games Posted: 18 Jun 2013 03:35 PM PDT Donate what want you want for six cross-platform games This week's Humble Bundle features games that are compatible with Android, Windows, Linux, and OSX. If you're unfamiliar with Humble Bundles, they essentially ask you what you'd like to pay for the package. Games included in the Humble Bundle this week are Aquaria, Fractal, Organ Trail: Director's Cut, Stealth Bastard Deluxe, and Pulse* (Android Exclusive) which you can all get for as little as one dollar, though you can of course donate more. If you donate above the current average ($4.75 at the time of this writing) then you'll receive Frozen Synapse and Broken Sword Director's Cut. You can select where your donation to the Humble Bundle goes to, be it to the developers who put their games on the service or to charity (Child's Play Charity and the Electronic).

Sony Vaio Tap 20 Review Posted: 18 Jun 2013 12:51 PM PDT Meet the laptablet Sony markets its Vaio Tap 20 as a mobile desktop, but you could say that about any portable computer. We think "laptablet" is closer to the mark. With its 20-inch display, the Tap 20 is both a big laptop and a gargantuan tablet. And it wouldn't make any sense at all without Windows 8. Sony gives you a wireless mouse and keyboard, but who needs them? Yes, Windows 8 is the operating system PC enthusiasts love to hate, but this machine is proof that Microsoft's strategy of melding the desktop and mobile experiences can work. The Tap 20 isn't perfect by a long shot, but it's pretty darn cool. We challenge you to spend a few minutes with it and not find yourself grinning like a fool in love. And if you pass that test, fire up one of the free pinball games Sony throws in, orient the device in portrait mode, and stroke the screen to pull back the plunger. The model we tested was outfitted with a 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U mobile processor, but only 4GB of DDR3/1600 memory. Considering the price of memory, and this machine's occasionally sluggish performance, we think Sony should have doubled it. If you decide to buy one, we'd recommend spending the extra $200 to buy the next model up, which does just that. That model also has a 1.9GHz Intel Core i7 proc and a larger hard drive (1TB versus the 750GB in the model sent for this review; both drives are 5,400rpm spinners). The Tap 20 features a 20-inch LED-backlit IPS display—with 10 touch points, natch—which is essential when you consider all the angles at which you might end up using it. The 1600x900 touchscreen is very responsive, as we discovered when playing the aforementioned pinball games. And while the integrated graphics aren't strong enough for playing A-level games, they did a fine job with the more casual variety. We were particularly impressed with the speed at which we were able to operate the flippers. We were thinking it would be even more fun if the games' physics responded to tilting, but that might have resulted in a little too much reality: It would require holding the device stock still and perfectly level. You can use the folding stand on the back of the display to position it at an infinite number of angles for reading, or you can fold it completely flat and use the tablet horizontally. The stand does double-duty as a handle when you want to take the device into another room (did we mention it can run on battery power? It lasted three hours in our test). But we wish the handle was a wee bit thicker, had more-rounded edges, or was padded, because we could feel every ounce of the Tap 20's 11.46-pounds digging into the backs of our fingers as we lugged it around. It's also a little awkward to set up, because natural movement would have you lay it down flat on its screen—and if you have kids, you know they're going to do just that. It takes two hands to flip it around and stand it up on its easel. The speakers mounted on the back of the display are borderline terrible, but that's typical of even all-in-one desktop PCs. Do yourself a favor and plug in headphones. Speaking of all-in-ones, the Tap 20 could fill that role, too. Its biggest shortcoming is the lack of an HDMI input—although that's really more of a missed opportunity than a deal-breaker. There's nothing else remotely like the Vaio Tap 20, and we applaud Sony's audacity for bringing it to market. Priced at a cool grand, this machine is hardly an impulse buy; but it reminds us why we love computers so much.  $1,000, www.sony.com

Asus DirectCU II Top Reviews: GeForce GTX 680 vs Radeon HD 7970 Posted: 18 Jun 2013 12:11 PM PDT Two overclocked flagship video cards go head to head one last time Over the past year, the GeForce GTX 680 and the Radeon HD 7970 have served as the respective flagship GPUs for each of their camps, and even though both cards seem a bit like well-aged cheese by now, they are still fast. There have also been quite a few driver updates since these cards were released, so we've decided to pit two of the overclocked versions against one another in a battle royale to settle this feud once and for all. Fighters, touch circuit boards and come out of your PCI Express corners. It's time to get it on! Asus GeForce GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP There are many flavors of GeForce GTX 680 out in the wild, from cards that have only modified the reference design with pretty stickers to this heavily mutated bad boy from Asus. For those not familiar with Asus nomenclature, this is the DirectCU II version of the GTX 680, meaning it features a heat pipe and fan-based cooler approximately the size of mainland China. The cooler utilizes five copper heat pipes that make direct contact with the GK104 Kepler GPU. The heat pipes fan out above the GPU and to the edge of the card, sending the heat they've collected into two separate heatsinks. Twin 100mm fans then blow into the heatsinks, exhausting the warm air outside of the chassis. It's a superb design that we've lavished praise on before because, even though it's a bit large, it works extremely well, and keeps the GPU just the way we like it—cool and quiet. Asus claims a noise reduction of 14dB compared to the reference design prepared by Nvidia, and we believe it even though we don't specifically measure sound output. All this cooling takes up a bit of space, though, and this card's triple-slot design makes it the biggest GTX 680 ever to grace our test bench. The Asus GeForce GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP's name is almost as long as the 11-inch card. Some of you might be asking, "But wait, the GTX 680 already runs cool and quiet, so why is a cooler the size of Gordon Mah Ung's anger management therapy bill required in this situation?" That's a good question, and the answer is in the second part of our nomenclature lesson, which is the word TOP in the card's name, which means it's overclocked like a son-of-a-gun to the tune of 112MHz over stock speeds at 1,137MHz. Its Boost Clock gets a gentle massage all the way up to 1,201MHz, as well. Memory is not overclocked, however. The card also comes with Asus's GPU Tweak software that lets you not only monitor the card's temps, fan speeds, voltages, and clock speeds, but also manually adjust all those values. The card even supports an Asus-exclusive feature called VGA Hotwire that's also supported on several Asus motherboards (it has to be supported on both to work). It lets you adjust the GPU's voltage once you've soldered several wires that run from the motherboard to the video card's PCB. This allows for control at a hardware level instead of using software, and is designed for extreme overclocking enthusiasts, to put it mildly. During testing, the overclocked Asus GTX 680 held a crystal-clear advantage over the overclocked Radeon HD 7970, which might not be too surprising to you, but it was a surprise to us. When we tested these same video cards (not these exact cards, but reference models at stock clock speeds) just a few months ago using the latest beta drivers from each manufacturer, it was a photo finish in practically every test, with AMD holding a very slight advantage. This was a distinct coup for AMD, which had always trailed Nvidia in these comparisons previously, and it all came down to drivers, essentially. AMD had released its beta 12.11 drivers, claiming they made a significant impact on performance, and they were right. Perhaps it's fitting then, that this time around it is most likely drivers that have put Nvidia ahead, as we tested this card with the 310.70 version of the drivers, which were released about a month after the 12.10 drivers we used to test the Radeon card. As we were going to press, Nvidia released another version of its drivers numbered 310.90, claiming even further improvements, but they arrived too close to deadline for us to test them. However, the advantage Nvidia holds is clear, both in the benchmark numbers and frequency of driver updates. Drivers are clearly a weak point for AMD, and in this face-off it most likely made all the difference. We should point out that the Asus card was totally silent at all times during testing, a remarkable feat given its overclocked status and its superb performance. It beat the AMD card in every test except Metro, where it lost by one frame per second, so not much of a loss, really. The numbers don't lie, though, and as we close the book on this era of GPUs, the crown goes to the green camp, and we'll award a crown to Asus too, for making the fastest, and most silent, GTX 680 we've ever tested. Asus GeForce GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP A Huge Board Fast; totally silent at all times; GPU Tweak software. Being Bored Massively huge and heavy, skimpy bundle. $540, www.asus.com Asus Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP In the game of high-stakes poker known as the GPU industry, once a manufacturer reveals its hand, it then waits for the competition to do the same. If the competing manufacturer reveals a more powerful or desirable alternative, due to a combination of price, performance, noise, or all three, the other manufacturer will oftentimes update its lineup with a new Extreme Titanium Platinum FTW Balls-to-the-Wall Edition, which is usually mildly overclocked. We've seen both Nvidia and AMD do this in the past, but in this particular round it's been AMD pulling this maneuver with its GHz edition of the HD 7970. The original HD 7970 shipped with a 925MHz core clock speed, and in order to gain a bit of an edge on the suddenly dominant GeForce GTX 680, or at least attempt to match its performance, AMD overclocked its flagship board to 1GHz and released the Radeon-based Kraken. It achieved its goal, too, as the GHz edition of the card was, for the most part, as fast as the GTX 680, or at least the two were close enough to move the argument away from performance to price and other considerations. Unfortunately for AMD, once people began to consider other factors, such as noise and heat, Nvidia still held the edge with its power-sipping Kepler architecture. While third-party manufacturers can't do much about the card's power output, they could certainly change its noise profile, and that's exactly what Asus has done by adding its sizable DirectCU II cooler to this card. The Asus HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP's triple-slot design is an amazing thing to not hear at all. In the game of high-stakes poker known as the GPU industry, once a manufacturer reveals its hand, it then waits for the competition to do the same. If the competing manufacturer reveals a more powerful or desirable alternative, due to a combination of price, performance, noise, or all three, the other manufacturer will oftentimes update its lineup with a new Extreme Titanium Platinum FTW Balls-to-the-Wall Edition, which is usually mildly overclocked. We've seen both Nvidia and AMD do this in the past, but in this particular round it's been AMD pulling this maneuver with its GHz edition of the HD 7970. The original HD 7970 shipped with a 925MHz core clock speed, and in order to gain a bit of an edge on the suddenly dominant GeForce GTX 680, or at least attempt to match its performance, AMD overclocked its flagship board to 1GHz and released the Radeon-based Kraken. It achieved its goal, too, as the GHz edition of the card was, for the most part, as fast as the GTX 680, or at least the two were close enough to move the argument away from performance to price and other considerations. Unfortunately for AMD, once people began to consider other factors, such as noise and heat, Nvidia still held the edge with its power-sipping Kepler architecture. While third-party manufacturers can't do much about the card's power output, they could certainly change its noise profile, and that's exactly what Asus has done by adding its sizable DirectCU II cooler to this card. Like the GTX 680, this card is also overclocked a bit and runs at 1,000MHz, which is 75MHz over its stock speeds. Its memory also has a teeny, tiny overclock up to 1,400MHz from 1,375MHz. The card includes four Display Port connectors along with one single-link DVI port and one dual-link DVI port, giving it a distinct advantage in the multiple-displays department, and allowing you to run all six displays using AMD's Eyefinity setup for multi-monitor gaming. During testing, the Asus card showed a mild advantage over the reference design, pulling a few frames per second out of its red-and-black hat in each test. In two games in particular, though—Dirt 3 and Far Cry 2— we saw the most improvement, though in Metro we're still stuck in the sub-20fps region, which is simply ridiculous but not the fault of the cards, obviously. Given its overclocked nature, it's not too surprising that it's faster than the reference design, but what's most impressive is how utterly silent the card is at all times; a marked improvement over the reference design, and all other HD 7970s we've ever tested. Sadly, the Radeon card still gets its lunch eaten by the GTX 680 in almost every benchmark, and not just by one or two frames but by enough to make it clear which card is faster. As we stated in the GTX review, it could be down to drivers, as we used the 12.10 drivers for these tests, which are the latest "official" drivers. The 12.11 drivers have been in beta for a while now and might have turned the tide had they been released, but we don't test with beta drivers, so for now the crown goes to the green camp. To be clear, this is the best version of the HD 7970 we've tested in this generation of cards, but given its performance deficit to the GTX 680, we're forced to withhold a Kick Ass award for now. Let's hope the company can reclaim one very soon with its HD 8000 series GPUs. Asus Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Heat Pipe Whisper quiet; as fast as GHz edition; GPU Tweak software; runs six displays. Crack Pipe Expensive; not as fast as the GTX 680 in our tests. $490, www.asus.com Specifications Asus GTX 680 DirectCU II TOP Asus Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Reference Radeon HD 7970 Reference GTX 680 3DMark 2011 Performance 10,886 8,700 8,337 9,555 Unigine Heaven 2.5 (fps) 33.1 28.9 28.7 31.2 Shogun 2 (fps) 37.8 29.6 25.7 29.8 Far Cry 2 / Long (fps) 118.6 97.4 91.6 107.3 Dirt 3 (fps) 79.3 75.2 70.5 72.9 Metro 2033 (fps) 17 18.6 18.6 16.3 STALKER: CoP SunShade (fps) 41.5 40.2 38.7 34.3 Just Cause 2 (fps) 57.71 53.1 51 54.7 Batman: Arkham City (fps) 66 62 60 58 Catzilla 5,690 4,427 4,218 4,880 Base Clock 1,137MHz 1,000MHz 925MHz 925MHz Boost Clock 1,201MHz N/A N/A 1,000MHz Memory Clock 6,008MHz 5,600MHz 5,500MHz 6,000MHz Best scores are bolded. Our test bed is a 3.33GHz Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition in an Asus P9X79 motherboard with 16GB of DDR3/1600 and a Thermaltake ToughPower 1,050w PSU. The OS is 64-bit Windows Ultimate. All games are run at 2560x1600 with 4xAA except for the 3DMark tests.

AMD Lays Out Server Strategy and Processor Roadmap Posted: 18 Jun 2013 09:25 AM PDT AMD is intent on recapturing the enterprise market. Roadmaps have a way of leaking onto the web, so rather than fight the inevitable, AMD this week decided to publicly disclose its server strategy and related processor roadmap as it attempts to gain back market share in enterprise and data center server markets. The chip designer also disclosed details of its 2014 server portfolio, including "Warsaw," "Berlin," and "Seattle" parts due out next year. "Our strategy is to differentiate ourselves by using our unique IP to build server processors that are particularly well matched to a target workload and thereby drive down the total cost of owning servers. This strategy unfolds across both the enterprise and data centers and includes leveraging our graphics processing capabilities and embracing both x86 and ARM instruction sets," said Andrew Feldman, general manager of the Server Business Unit, AMD. "AMD led the world in the transition to multicore processors and 64-bit computing, and we intend to do it again with our next-generation AMD Opteron families." AMD's Seattle architecture will rank as the industry's only 64-bit ARM-based server System-on-Chip (SoC) "from a proven server processor supplier," the Sunnyvale chip designer said. It's an 8- and then 16-core CPU based on the ARM Cortex-A57 architecture and is expected to run faster than 2GHz. AMD plans to sample Seattle in the first quarter of 2014 with production to follow in the second half of the year. Berlin is an x86 part that will be available both as a CPU and APU. It has four next-generation Steamroller cores and will offer nearly 8X the gigaflops per watt of AMD's current Opteron 6386SE processors. The chip will be available in the first half of 2014. Finally, AMD talked a little about Warsaw, an enterprise server CPU designed to reduce the total cost of ownership for two-and four-socket servers. Like Berlin, Warsaw is expected to be available in the first half of 2014. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

EVGA Announces Supernova 1300 G2 Power Supply with 10 Year Warranty Posted: 18 Jun 2013 09:05 AM PDT EVGA goes for the gold. Could you take full advantage of a 1,300 watt power supply (PSU)? Talk about making others totally envious! Assuming you need a herculean PSU, EVGA aims to deliver with its new Supernova 1300 G2, a monster unit that's 80 Plus Gold certified to deliver up to 90 efficiency under "typical loads" and backed by a generous 10 year warranty to boot. This could be the last PSU you buy for a long, long time. Most of the available power is piped through a single +12V rail capable of carrying up to 108.3 amps. This is in contrast to some power supply makers who choose to break up the +12V rail into multiple lines. It's a fully modular unit with a vertical double layer main transformer (increases power output), "highest quality" Japanese solid state capacitors, and a quiet 14cm double ball bearing fan. No word yet on price or availability. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Next Generation Consoles Needed to Save Slumping Game Sales Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:49 AM PDT Decline In game sales just par for course. Another month is in the books, and yet again, NPD Group noted a drop in overall game sales compared to the same period a year ago. No minor decline, total game related sales dropped 25 percent to $386.3 million from May of last year when hardwre, software, and accessories totaled $517 million, according to NPD Group's data. Breaking it down by category, software sales fell 31 percent to $175.1 million and system sales declined by the same percentage, raking in just $96 million. "Softness in new physical entertainment software sales stemmed from a decline in the number of new launches, with over 30 percent fewer new SKUs, as well as poor performance of the new SKUs that were released," said NPD analyst Liam Callahan, according to USA Today. The numbers were somehwat bolstered by consumer spending on digital sales, micro-transactions, and used game sales and rentals, all of which combined to drive total spending to around $787 million, but as impressive as that sounds, it too was the lowest of 2013. Both Microsoft (Xbox One) and Sony (PlayStation 4) plan to launch new consoles in time for the holiday shopping season, and it's likely the new hardware, along with developer and consumer excitement, will reverse the recent trend in consumer game spending. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Acer's Upgraded C7 Chromebook Revs Into Retail, Available at Walmart for $199 Posted: 18 Jun 2013 08:30 AM PDT Faster and more widely available. Acer clearly got the memo indicating that the best way to sell a Chromebook is to undercut the competition with the lowest price, and then hammer out a deal with Walmart to carry the cloud-based laptop. Enter Acer's C710-2856, the latest version of the company's C7 Chromebook line that's available at 2,800 Walmart stores for just $199. Not only is it cheaper than other Chromebooks and widely available, it's also faster than Acer's previous SKU. That's because Acer dumped the 320GB mechanical hard drive in favor of a 16GB solid state drive (SSD). Obviously there's a huge storage discrepancy there, but since Google's Chrome OS -- the heart and soul of any Chromebook -- is largely based on cloud computing, Acer figured users would prefer to have faster boot times and quick access to apps versus more local storage. "The expansion of our Acer C7 Chromebook line to Walmart is a clear indication of its growing popularity for anyone who wants a new or second mobile PC for web-based computing," said Sumit Agnihotry, vice president of product marketing, Acer America. "The new configuration with a speedy and responsive SSD at only $199 is an especially notable value." According to Acer, the upgraded C7 boots in just 8 seconds and resumes from sleep almost instantly. Other features include an 11.6-inch HD display, Intel Celeron 847 processor, 2GB of DDR3 memory, and a 1.3MP webcam. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: LG 27-inch Monitor, Corsair Builder Series 430W PSU, and More! Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:15 AM PDT Top Deal: Find yourself squinting at the small icons on your desktop? You can resolve that easily with today's top deal for a LG 27EN43V-B 27-inch 5ms HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor for $230 with free shipping (normally $300 - use coupon code HPNMQSV51). It has a 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio and a stylish design. Other Deals: Corsair Builder Series CX430 430W 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply for $40 with free shipping (normally $50; additional $20 mail-in rebate) Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0 for $100 with free shipping (normally $110) Logitech K100 Spill-Resistant Wired Slim Keyboard for $10 with free shipping (normally $20) Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 4GB  DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (with Orange/Blue Light) Model BLT4G3D1608DT2TXOB for $30 with free shipping (normally $44)

Google Expanding Retail Availability of Chromebooks Posted: 18 Jun 2013 07:05 AM PDT Walmart, Staples and many other retailers jump on the Chromebook bandwagon In a major shot in the arm for Google's cloud OS ambitions, Walmart and Staples have agreed to carry laptops running Chrome OS. What's more, they aren't the only ones, as several other retailers around the U.S. and 10 other countries where Chromebooks are already available will also be part of this massive retail push. Beginning with Walmart on Monday and Staples over the coming weekend, Chromebooks will now be available in "over 3 times more stores than before, or more than 6,600 stores around the world," the search engine giant has announced. For good measure, select Office Depot, OfficeMax, Fry's and TigerDirect outlets will also be jumping on the Chromebook bandwagon over the next few months. Retail availability is also set to expand in the 10 other international markets where Chromebooks are currently sold. "In addition to Dixons in the UK, now 116 Tesco stores are selling Chromebooks, as well as all Mediamarket and Saturn stores in the Netherlands, FNAC stores in France and Elgiganten stores in Sweden," David Shapiro, director of Chromebook marketing, wrote in a blog post Monday  "In Australia, all JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman stores will be carrying Chromebooks for their customers as well. We're working hard to bring Chromebooks to even more countries later this year." While the increase in retail availability is definitely great news for Chrome OS, the platform has a long way to go before its market share statistics are respectable enough to warrant a mention. Follow Pulkit on Google+

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