General Gaming Article

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• No BS Podcast #227: Haswell-E Rumors, Windows 9 Speculation, and More
• Micron Adds Industry's First Monolithic 8Gb DDR3 SDRAM to Product Portfolio
• Watch Dogs Graphical Analysis: Stock vs Mod
• AMD Catalyst 14.7 Release Candidate Drivers Now Available
• Amazon Faces FTC Lawsuit After Rejecting In-App Purchases Settlement
• Acer Waves Industry's First Chromebook Toting an Intel Core i3 Haswell Chip
• Newegg Daily Deals: Seagate NAS 2TB HDD, Intel 530 Series 240GB SSD, and More!

No BS Podcast #227: Haswell-E Rumors, Windows 9 Speculation, and More Posted: 11 Jul 2014 03:53 PM PDT Plus, a Raspberry Pi competitor, Alienware's $3600 Titan-Z system, reader questions, and more!  This week on episode 227 of the No BS Podcast, the Maximum PC crew came together to chat about a supposed leak of Haswell-E specs and weigh the likelihood of a Windows 9 release this year.  We also debate whether or not we'd buy Alienware's newest made-to-order system (is it a deal, or is the Titan-Z still not worth it?), and the potential of a souped-up competitor to the Raspberry Pi board, called the HummingBoard, for pet projects.  All this plus staff picks, questions from readers, and a particularly spirited rant from Gordon.    Editors' Picks Tom McNamara: Divinity: Original Sin Jimmy Thang: Steam In-Home Streaming Alaina Yee: Valiant Hearts Gordon Ung: Software by "Ungsoft" (…still in development…) Stalk us on the following networks: Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes Become a fan on Facebook Tweet us on Twitter Subscribe to us on Youtube Check out our Windows 8 app in Microsoft's app store Subscribe to our RSS feed If you have any feedback or questions feel free to: Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or Leave us a voicemail at 877-404-1337 x1337 Subscribe to Maximum PC in print or on Google Play, iTunes, Kindle, Nook and Zinio. Thanks for listening!

Micron Adds Industry's First Monolithic 8Gb DDR3 SDRAM to Product Portfolio Posted: 11 Jul 2014 03:29 PM PDT A treat for enterprise customers It's easy to get lazy towards the end of the work week as we look forward to the weekend, but not so at Micron. Rather than check out early, Micron today announced the introduction of a monolithic 8Gb DDR3 SDRAM component based on the company's latest-generation 25nm DRAM manufacturing process. According to Micron, the addition of an 8Gb monolithic component will enable cost-effective, high-capacity solutions optimized for large-scale, data-intensive workloads. "The ability to scale with our customers' accelerating memory demand was a key driver in developing this 8Gb DDR3 design," said Robert Feurle, vice president of compute and networking marketing at Micron. "We are committed to working together with our partners to minimize risk, maximize flexibility and optimize total cost of ownership." Micron says the availability of 8Gb-based solutions, including the mainstream 32GB RDIMM, will enable long-term, economically configured systems across the data center. Some prime applications that will benefit from this development include in-memory data analytics, search, and social networking. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Watch Dogs Graphical Analysis: Stock vs Mod Posted: 11 Jul 2014 11:38 AM PDT We mod Watch Dogs and compare its visuals against the vanilla stock version! While our Graphics Analysis feature normally compares a game's various graphical settings, with the recent controversy surrounding the hidden "E3 2012" files that supposedly make the PC version of Watch Dogs look better without much of a performance hit, we thought we would dedicate this particular graphics analysis around comparing the "modded" version of Watch Dogs vs. it's vanilla stock incarnation.  To do this, we've enabled The Worse Mod 0.7 and SweetFX to showcase what the game looks like with mods enabled. Below you'll find a smattering of comparison pictures and video. Which version do you prefer? Let us know in the comments. Watchdogs running in 1080p comparing the stock game against the modded version with SweetFX and The Worse Mod 0.7.  Testing Methodology: We used The Worse Mod 0.7 and SweetFX to mod Watchdogs. We then captured our video in 1080p using Nvidia's Shadow Play software suite. Click here to find out how to enable SweetFX and The Worse Mod 0.7. We used a SweetFX mod made by Piterrrxd, but there are many other fan-made SweetFX mods, which are also good.  We captured our screenshots and video with a modest gaming rig, sporting an Intel Core i7-4770K CPU, 8GB of 1600MHz G.Skill RAM, and a GTX 780 video card. The settings we used for each test are shown in the screenshots below:  Note: We set Anti-Aliasing to FXAA, as many modders on forums say that this type of AA works best with a modded Watch Dogs game. Video Scene Analysis: Note: You can click on the images below to see an animated GIF comparing the scene running stock vs modded. Click on the image above to get an animated GIF comparison. Indoor apartment scene Our first scene features Aiden Pearce, the main character in Watchdogs, inside his rundown inner-city apartment. Here on the left side of the screen we have the stock version of the game. As you can see, it looks quite yellow and bright compared to the modded version on the right. The modded version, on the other hand, looks much more brown. In this scene, we also noticed the stock game has tons of light flooding the room, while the modded game features less lighting and more shadows to give the game a more realistic, brooding aesthetic.  Click on the image above to get an animated GIF comparison. Parking lot scene In this parking lot outside Aiden's apartment, we see the mod features more pronounced textures and shadows on the asphalt. The colors again look much more realistic when you compare the stock game to the modded version. The planter box in the modded version features bricks which are more noticeable and pronounced than its stock counterpart.  Click on the image above to get an animated GIF comparison. Downtown street scene The stock game's road in this scene looks a lot less gritty and realistic. We prefer the modded version of the game when roaming around the city, as the concrete and asphalt look more realistic compared to the comparitively bright and washed-out stock version of the game.  Click on the image above to get an animated GIF comparison. Baseball stadium scene This was the only scene where we thought the modded version performed poorly. The stock version is brighter and that's a good thing in this case. The modded version dims the lamp lighting a little too much. In the modded version we only see Aiden's silhouette, and it hides the textures on his nice, brown leather coat. Click on the image above to get an animated GIF comparison. Night time scene In this scene we see Aiden Pearce outside of the baseball stadium. The light reflections of the billboard advertisement are more intense in the modded version of the game. The colors and textures look darker making it look later in the evening. We see again that the color accuracy is improved in the version of the game over its stock counterpart.  Conclusion: After doing our graphical analysis, we have to say we prefer the modded version of Watch Dogs over stock. It's not perfect by any means, and tends to make dark areas too dark, but it makes the textures pop out more and gives the game a more realistic, gritty feel. Still, it is a matter of preference and we're not sure we'd declare one is definitively better than the other.  Now perhaps the bigger question is, does the game run any worse with the tweaks? In our experience, performance with the mod ran on par with the stock version on our gaming rig. We'll tell you this much, the game runs like crap on Ultra settings, regardless of whether you've got the mod running or not.  Regardless, which graphical setting do you prefer? Let us know in the comments below.

AMD Catalyst 14.7 Release Candidate Drivers Now Available Posted: 11 Jul 2014 08:12 AM PDT Starting with AMD Catalyst 14.6 Beta, AMD is no longer support Windows 8 AMD has made available to download its new Catalyst 14.7 drivers in Release Candidate form. Be advised that if you're rocking Windows 8.0 instead of Windows 8.1, you can't use these drivers -- AMD stopped supporting Windows 8 as of its Catalyst 14.6 Beta release. For everyone else, you're good to go with this latest release, provided you're interested in RC drivers. The Catalyst 14.7 RC includes everything in the 14.6 RC plus a few extra goodies. There's an update to AMD CrossFire and Radeon Dual Graphics profile for Plants vs. Zombies. You can also expect up to a massive 93 percent boost in CrossFire scaling in Assassin's Creed IV at 3840x2160 with High settings. In addition to performance boosts, AMD said it worked with AOC to address an issue affecting its U2868PQU panel on certain Radeon graphics card that would cause 60Hz SST flickering. The new drivers contain a software workaround. You can read more here and download the drivers here. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Amazon Faces FTC Lawsuit After Rejecting In-App Purchases Settlement Posted: 11 Jul 2014 06:09 AM PDT A dispute over unauthorized in-app purchases made by children Amazon had a chance to settle with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission out of court over allegations that it let children make millions of dollars worth of unauthorized in-app purchases, but apparently the offer wasn't too good to refuse. Having rejected the settlement, the FTC is now suing Amazon for an undisclosed sum of money, and also to force the e-commerce giant to make some changes to such purchases. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the FTC wants Amazon to do a better job notifying customers of in-app purchases. It also wants Amazon to require passwords for in-app purchases, and to make refunds easier to obtain. The FTC says Amazon didn't start requiring informed consent for such purchases until June. "We are seeking refunds for affected parents and a court order to ensure that Amazon gets parents' conset for in-app purchases," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. Amazon has so far resisted the FTC's demand, telling the agency on July 1 that it wouldn't make the requested changes. According to Amazon, its practices are lawflul and "already meet or exceed the requirements of the Apple consent order." Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Acer Waves Industry's First Chromebook Toting an Intel Core i3 Haswell Chip Posted: 11 Jul 2014 04:48 AM PDT Haswell-powered Chromebook starting at $350 Sorry kids, but what you see on the horizon is the back-to-school shopping season -- always a buzz kill when you're knee deep in summer activities you wish would last forever. And with the back-to-school shopping season comes new laptop announcements. Case in point, Acer today is thumping its chest over having launched the first Chromebook to sport a 4th Generation Intel Core i3 processor inside its belly. There are two SKUs available, the C720-3871 with 2GB of RAM and C720-3404 with 4GB of RAM. Outside of price, everything else remains the same -- both feature an 11.6-inch HD (1366x768) widescreen display, Intel Core i3 4005U processor, Intel HD Graphics 4400, stereo speakers, webcam, USB 3.0 port, USB 2.0 port, memory card reader, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 3-cell battery that's good for up to 8.5 hours. "Acer has been a leader in the Chromebook space and the new C720 based on 4th generation Intel Core i3 processors marks a new class of Chromebook with enhanced performance and battery life," said Navin Shenoy, vice president and general manager of Intel Mobile Client Platforms Group. "As one of the most powerful Chromebooks on the market, the additional performance of Core i3 enables an extremely responsive experience while surfing multiple tabs of web pages. Students, families and business users will recognize the difference in how snappy the new Acer C720 is with Intel Core i3." The C720-3404 ($380) and C720-3871 ($350) will be available this month. It will be interesting to see how the market reacts, as those price points start encroach on entry-level Windows laptop territory. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: Seagate NAS 2TB HDD, Intel 530 Series 240GB SSD, and More! Posted: 11 Jul 2014 04:28 AM PDT Top Deal: So, you have some NASty storage habits, is that right? Or maybe you'd like to get NASty with your storage chores. We feel you, which is why today's top deal is for a Seagate NAS 2TB Internal Hard Drive for $80 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [EMCPCWP29]). This utterly NASty storage device boasts a SATA 6Gbps interface, 64MB of cache, error recovery controls, and other goodies. Other Deals: Intel Core i5-4590 Haswell Quad-Core 3.3GHz LGA 1150 84W Desktop Processor for $185 with free shipping (normally $200 - use coupon code: [EMCPCWP22]) Intel 530 Series SSDSC2BW240A4K5 2.5-inch 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive for $142 (normally $150 - use coupon code: [EMCPCWP27]) G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory for $149 with free shipping (normally $165 - use coupon code: [EMCPCWP35]) Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard for $135 with free shipping (normally $145 - use coupon code: [EMCPCWP37])

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