General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Graphics Porn (June 2014): Skyrim, Legendary, Terasology, and More

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 01:18 PM PDT

Skyrim Dragon FlameShowcasing the sexiest, most photogenic game screenshots this side of the Internet

For this month's Graphics Porn round-up, we've got submissions from games that range from Legend to the ever-popular Skyrim. These screenshots are submitted by you, the reader. So we'd like to thank everyone who submitted.

Whether you've been using Steam's nifty screenshots feature or simply print screening some beautiful wallpaper-worthy game moments, we want to be able to share your captured works of art with the world. If you think you can do better than the pictures submitted below, please email your screenshots to  mpcgraphicsporn@gmail.com so we can show them off. Make sure to include the name of the game, a title for the screenshot, and a description of what's happening on-screen.

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Intel Haswell-E Rumored to Hit Retail in September

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 12:43 PM PDT

Intel X99Along with Haswell-E comes Intel's X99 chipset and DDR4 memory

Supposing the latest rumor regarding Intel's Haswell-E processor family comes true, you'll have all summer to save up to build a system around a next-generation platform. A leaked document points to September 14, 2014 as the day Intel plans to launch Haswell-E to retail, which could coincide with an announcement at Intel's upcoming IDF 14 in San Francisco -- this year's IDF runs September 9-11.

An excerpt from the leaked document was posted by VR-Zone's Chinese-language portal. According to the excerpt, at least three Core i7 chips based on Haswell-E will debut on September 14, along with Intel's upcoming X99 chipset. One thing to keep in mind if you're planning a next generation build is that X99 boards will require DDR4 memory.

The three Core i7 parts mentioned include the Core i7 5960X (8-core, 20MB L3 cache, 3GHz-3.5GHz), Core i7 5930K (6-core, 15MB L3 cache, 3.5GHz-3.7GHz), and the Core i7 5820K (6-core, 15MB cache, 3.3GHz-3.6GHz). All three reportedly carry a TDP of 140W and support Hyper-Threading.

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Microsoft Declares Cloud Warfare, Bumps OneDrive Storage to 15GB and 1TB for Office 365

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 12:01 PM PDT

OneDrive TabletBig price reductions accompany increases in cloud storage capacity

Microsoft is doing its present and future customers a solid by offering more OneDrive storage space for less money. We're not talking about small increases simply to make headlines, either -- Microsoft today announced that OneDrive will come with 15GB for free, up from 7GB, while all versions of Office 365 will come with 1TB of OneDrive storage. That sound you just heard was the gauntlet being dropped on the competition.

According to Microsoft, three out of four people have less than 15GB of files stored on their PC. Combined with what people have stored on other devices, Microsoft made the decision to more than double up on free storage out of the gate with no hoops to jump through.

If you're an Office 365 Home subscriber, your $9.99/month plan will soon get you 1TB of storage per person (up to five people), while Office 365 Personal ($6.99/month) and University ($79.99/4 years) both qualify for 1TB per subscription.

"Of course, we also want to give you as much flexibility as possible, so if you need more storage, but don't need an Office 365 subscription, we will also still provide monthly subscription storage options – at dramatically reduced rates," Microsoft announced in a blog post.

That's not lip service -- Microsoft dropped storage prices by over 70 percent. You can score 100GB for $1.99/month, down from $7.49, and 200GB for $3.99, down from $11.49 previously.

All of these changes take effect next month.

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Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Bombs iFixIt's Teardown Test

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 09:16 AM PDT

Surface Pro 3 CrackThis tablet's locked down tighter than Fort Knox

If you're at all concerned about a part going bad in Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 tablet, you may want to consider an extended warranty. The alternative is to try and fix or replace a faulty component yourself, but unlike a traditional laptop, Microsoft's laptop replacement isn't all that easy to service. Straight to the point, the Surface Pro 3 scored a miserable 1 out of 10 in iFixIt's teardown analysis.

Higher scores are better, so a score of 1 out of 10 essentially means you're very likely to do more harm than good if you attempt to crack open the Surface Pro 3. And that's exactly what the expert electronic surgeons at iFixIt did from the get-go.

"Our teardown engineer carefully heated and pried up the glass at the edge of this device, but the cooling adhesive alone was enough to crack the glass on our photo table," iFixIt notes in Step 5 of its teardown analysis. "Microsoft went to great lengths to make the Surface Pro 3 super portable, thinning it down from the Pro 2's 0.53 inches to a mere 0.35 inches thick -- but it seems the thinner glass does not bode well for ruggedness or repair."

Several obstacles stand in the way of DIY repair, some big and some small. For example, there's a springy metal bracket pinning the display connector in place that needs coaxing from a spudger to let it free, and the battery connector requires a somewhat uncommon T3 Torx bit.

 

Surface Pro 3 Tape

Other factors leading to a 1 out of 10 score were the "tons of adhesive" Microsoft used, the display assembly consisting of a fused glass panel and LCD (making it difficult to remove), and non-standard connectors. Summed up, disassembly "leaves no room for mistakes."

Microsoft isn't alone in this regard -- most tablets score low in teardown tests, and so some Ultrabooks and ultra-thins. Reduced DIY repairability is one of the tradeoffs in the pursuit for increasingly thin and light form factors.

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Biostar Pushes TB85 Motherboard at Gamers and Bitcoin Miners

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 08:50 AM PDT

Biostar TB85A motherboard with half a dozen PCI-E slots

Biostar wants gamers and Bitcoin miners to take notice of its new TB85 motherboard. This slice of silicon supports up to Intel's 4th Generation Core i7 processor line in the 1150 package and has six PCI-E slots, though all but one are of the PCI-E x1 variety. Nevertheless, if you want to load up this board with six graphics cards for a dedicated (and value oriented) mining machine, the option is there.

This is a board in search of an audience, and from reading over the press release, it seems Biostar isn't entirely sure which one is the most appropriate. In nearly the same breath it mentions gamers and Bitcoin miners, Biostar points out "features that are useful for IT departments in larger companies as well as small firms." We suspect Biostar is referring to things like Intel Rapid Storage Technology and Intel Small Business Advantage, the latter of which offers after-hours virus scans and data backups, and blocks recognition of unwanted USB drives.

The TB85 offers up two DDR3-1600 DIMM slots with support for up to 16GB of RAM, four SATA 3 ports, two SATA 2 connectors, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a single USB 3.0 header, two USB 2.0 headers, audio ports, 100 percent solid capacitors, and a few other amenities.

No word on how much the TB85 costs or when it will be available to purchase.

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Origin PC Offers Free Shipping and Choice of Razer Peripherals for 4th of July Promotion

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 08:24 AM PDT

Origin PC 4th of July PromotionCelebrate with savings

Boutique builder Origin PC is hoping to attract a bit of extra business this summer by kicking off its 4th of July promotion. In short, if you purchase a Genesis, Millennium, or Chronos desktop or EON laptop, you'll receive free U.S. ground shipping, plus the choice of a single peripheral from Razer. You can choose between an Origin PC Edition Razer BlackWidow keyboard, Origin PC Edition Razer Taipan Mouse with a Goliathus mousemat, or a Razer Kraken Pro headset.

According to Origin PC, there's a potential to save up to $250, though a large portion of that goes towards shipping. Razer's peripherals each hover around $80, with the mouse and mousemat combo offering the best value (the Taipan goes for $80 MSRP and the Goliathus sells for $15 MSRP).

Pricing starts at just over $1,600 for the Chronos, $1,658 for the Millennium, $1,729 for the Genesis, and $1,283 for an EON laptop. To take advantage of the 4th of July promotion, enter code FREEDOM at checkout.

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Newegg Daily Deals: Antec Nine Hundred Case, Asus Maximus VII Hero Motherboard, and More!

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 08:03 AM PDT

Antec Nine Hundred Casenewegg logo

Top Deal:

If Razer gets its way, modular PCs will be the way of the future. We'll admit, we're intrigued, but who knows if or when modular computers will rule the day? In the here and now, we still use traditional cases for our PC parts, and if you're need of a new one, then check out today's top deal. It's for an Antec Nine Hundred Mid Tower for $70 with free shipping (normally $95 - use coupon code: [EMCPDHP28]; additional $20 mail-in-rebate). Not only is it affordable, this version has been upgraded with SuperSpeed USB 3.0 support.

Other Deals:

Intel Core i5-4570 Haswell Quad-Core 3.2GHz LGA 1150 84W Desktop Processor for $190 with free shipping (normally $200 - use coupon code: [EMCPDHP22])

Asus Maximus VII Hero LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard for $215 with free shipping (normally $220 - use coupon code: [EMCPDHP23])

G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory for $75 with free shipping (normally $85 - use coupon code: [EMCPDHP37])

AMD FX-6350 Vishera 6-Core 3.9GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Desktop Processor for $130 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [EMCPDHP24])

HTC Reportedly Readying 8.9-inch Nexus Tablet

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 12:05 AM PDT

HTC Nexus 9 'Volantis' Tablet

Rumored for release in Q4 2014

Rumors of an HTC-made Nexus tablet are nothing new. Back in May, there was speculation that the device referred to by the codename "Volantis/Flounder" in a Chromium bug report and an Android Open Source Project (AOSP) changelog was in fact an upcoming Nexus tablet from the Taiwanese company's stable. Even though the long-term future of the whole Nexus initiative has become unclear amid all the Android Silver rumors that are currently doing the rounds, there's every chance we might see another Nexus tablet.

The latest HTC Nexus tablet rumor comes from popular Android site Android Police. So confident in its information is the site, in fact, that it says it "won't be treated as a rumor." The site has not only published the specs of the tablet, which is allegedly called "Nexus 9" inside HTC, but it also shared an image it believes shows "an early draft of the hardware's industrial design."

According to the report, the tablet has an 8.9-inch display (2048x1440), NVIDIA Logan 64-bit processor (Tegra K1), 2GB of RAM, 16/32GB internal storage, 8MP rear camera, 3MP front camera and stereo front-facing speakers. The tablet, which reportedly measures 8.91"x5.98"x0.31" and tips the scales at 418g (427g with LTE), is said to have an aluminum "zero-gap" chassis.

The report mentions $399 and $499 as likely starting price points for the 16GB and 32GB versions, respectively.

Image Credit: Android Police

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AMD Aims to Boost APU Power Efficiency 25x by 2020

Posted: 22 Jun 2014 11:39 PM PDT

Sees Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) improvements as key to achieving target "25x20"

Advanced Micro Devices earlier this year got slapped with a shareholder class action lawsuit for allegedly overstating the sales prospects of its first generation Llano APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) — chips that house the GPU and CPU on the same die —between October 27, 2011 and October 18, 2012. However, the company, which is confident that it did not commit any violations of Federal Securities Laws in making those statements, does not plan to abandon the practice of making positive statements about the future of its APUs anytime soon. The company is now saying its APUs could end up becoming 25x more power efficient than they currently are by 2020.

During a keynote at the China International Software and Information Service Fair (CISIS) conference in Dalian, China on Thursday, AMD's Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster told those in attendance that the chip maker has set before itself the goal of delivering a 25x improvement in the energy efficiency of its APUs by 2020. The company is calling it target "25x20".

It expects to achieve this feat through a combination of heterogeneous-computing, improved power management and future innovations in the field of power efficiency, the company said in a press release Thursday.

"AMD has steadily improved the energy efficiency of its mobile processors, having achieved greater than a 10-fold improvement over the last six years in typical-use energy efficiency," Dr. Jonathan Koomey, research fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, was quoted as saying in the press release. "AMD's focus on improving typical power efficiency will likely yield significant consumer benefits substantially improving real-world battery life and performance for mobile devices.  AMD's technology plans show every promise of yielding about a 25-fold improvement in typical-use energy efficiency for mobile devices over the next six years, a pace that substantially exceeds historical rates of growth in peak output energy efficiency."

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