General Gaming Article

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• AMD's Mantle vs DirectX: The Benchmarks
• Newegg Daily Deals: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti, Intel Core i5 4590 Haswell, and More!
• Android Climbs Over Peak, Nabs 84 Percent Share of Smartphone Market
• Internet Archive Plugs 900 Classic Arcade Games into Your Browser
• Google's Nexus 9 Tablet is Now Available to Pre-Order
• Acer Expands V Nitro Black Edition Laptop Series to Include a 4K Model
• Patriot's Supersonic Bolt XT Flash Drive Line is Super Secure
• Dell Begins Selling $200 Venue 8 Pro 3000 Windows 8.1 Tablet
• Microsoft Now Offering $50 Discount on Xbox One

AMD's Mantle vs DirectX: The Benchmarks Posted: 03 Nov 2014 03:38 PM PST How does Mantle stack up against DirectX in certain games? Find out here! AMD has been partnering up with as many video game developers as it can to incorporate its Mantle API. From Crytek to Robert Space Industries, AMD is slowly making the rounds. Games such as Battlefield 4 and Thief allow users to switch from DirectX to Mantle while other games are expected to incorporate the API at some point. With Mantle, AMD claims that it boosts a game's performance for both low and high-end GPUs. Albeit, when it comes to high-end GPUs, the boost isn't as big. Curious, we decided to see how well Mantle stacks up to DirectX by playing games that support it. For now, there is only a small selection of games: Battlefield 4, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, Thief, and the latest Mantle introduction, Sniper Elite 3.  In order to get the best results, we made sure, when possible, to benchmark the same section of each game with the same graphics settings. For the testing we used a PC with an AMD Phenom II X4 965 processer, 8GB of RAM, and an AMD Radeon R9 280 graphics card.  To help us record our results, we had to rely on benchmark demos or in-game benchmarking tools. Normally, we would use FRAPs, which would record real-time FPS and then provide us with the minimum, maximum, and average numbers, but the problem is that FRAPs is programmed for DirectX 11 and does not support Mantle just yet. The only software that will show FPS numbers is D3DGear. Unfortunately, it doesn't record results like FRAPs does.  Luckily, most of the games that support Mantle come equipped with either their own benchmarking demo or benchmarking tools. With that said, let's take a look at the benchmarks! Battlefield 4 DirectX 11 vs Mantle First up was Electronic Arts' Battlefield 4. We cranked the graphics settings up to High at 1920x1080 resolution, and then ran the same section of the game across both APIs. We decided to compare the first 30 minutes of the singleplayer campaign to use as our test scenario. We felt that Chapter 1 of BF4's singleplayer campaign was a good test as it went from an urban setting to more wide open vistas filled with gunfire, explosions, and fire to put both APIs through their paces. Looking at the graph, you can see that there was a difference between both playthroughs. For the most part, both tests went smoothly though, with Mantle, we experienced some brief stutter in the gameplay. Despite that, Mantle still pulled ahead with an 11.8FPS advantage between it and DirectX 11.  Sniper Elite 3 DirectX 11 vs Mantle Sniper Elite 3 was recently updated to support Mantle and with it came a new benchmark demo. With settings on Ultra at 1920x1080 resolution, we launched the demo. The demo is set up to showcase many of the game's various scenes. It was replete with long distance views, lighting and shadows, close-up views of objects and terrain, a truck full of enemy NPCs with the wheels kicking up dirt, capped off with an exploding vehicle blowing up in slow motion. But as we saw with Battlefield 4, Mantle had a slighter higher average FPS than DirectX 11 with a 13.6 FPS advantage. Thief DirectX 11 vs Mantle Unlike the previous games we have tested, which all took place in broad daylight, Thief's game features a lot of nighttime excursions. We set the graphics to Ultra High at 1920x1080 resolution and took to the rooftops, An interesting thing about this game is that it comes with its own benchmarking system designed to compare both APIs. So we ran the benchmark for DirectX 11 and Mantle. the demo is a sequence that runs through the town at night, while it is raining, with various NPCs walking around and interacting with each other. It is a simple enough sequence that was able to put both APIs through their paces. And, just like the previous two games, Mantle scored higher than DirectX 11 with an 11.5 FPS advantage. Star Swarm DirectX 11 vs Mantle Now if you want to really stress test both APIs, then definitely take advantage of the Star Swarm Stress Test. It is a free, real-time demo from Oxide Games that showcases the developer's Nitrous engine. Set in space, Star Swarm pitches thousands of fighters and ships into constant combat. For the demo, there were around 4,000 ships constantly firing lasers, exploding, and more. The demo itself lasts for six minutes and we made sure to have the resolution set to 1920x1080 and the graphics on its highest setting which was labeled Extreme. And it certainly lived up to that name. Star Swarm made both APIs struggle and have convulsions. When the camera panned around to show thousands of ships fighting simultaneously, the FPS dropped into the single digits and the game slowed to an unbearable crawl.  But as you can see from the results, Mantle was able to handle the stress test better than DirectX 11 with a 16.3fps advantage.  Now we come to Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. Unfortunately, while the rest of the games include their own in-game benchmarking tools, PvZ does not. So there is no way to accurately gain any results when we run it with Mantle. Until PopCap Games adds in some benchmarking tools, or software like FRAPs finally supports Mantle, we will have to skip it for now and come back to it later. The same goes for future games that will support Mantle. We'll be testing them and updating our story here so stay tuned for more games and more results! Follow Sean on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti, Intel Core i5 4590 Haswell, and More! Posted: 03 Nov 2014 02:44 PM PST Top Deal: You could spend an entire work week wasting time playing 900 classic arcade games in your browser and no one would blame you for it (well, your boss might), but once you get home, that's when the real gaming begins. That is, if you own the right hardware. Need to give your system a GPU boost? Check out today's top deal for an Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti Graphics Card for $120 with free shipping (normally $150 - use coupon code: [EMCWPGW39]). It's factory overclocked, custom cooled, and ready to take you to places that a fistful of quarters never could! Other Deals: Acer H6 27-inch 5ms HDMI IPS panel Widescreen LED Backlight Monitor for $195 with free shipping (normally $210 - use coupon code: [EMCWPGW53]) Intel Core i5-4590 Haswell Quad-Core 3.3GHz LGA 1150 84W Desktop Processor for $190 with free shipping (normally $200 - use coupon code: [EMCWPGW26]) Thermaltake Level 10 GT Black Steel SECC / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case for $130 with free shipping (normally $170 - use coupon code: [EMCWPGW42]; Additional $30 Mail-in Rebate) AMD A10-5800K Trinity Quad-Core 3.8GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 100W Desktop APU for $100 with free shipping (normally $110 - use coupon code: [EMCWPGW25])

Android Climbs Over Peak, Nabs 84 Percent Share of Smartphone Market Posted: 03 Nov 2014 12:31 PM PST Where's the ceiling for Android? Just when you thought Android might have peaked in terms of market share, BAM, it rises again. According to the latest data from Strategy Analytics, Android climbed to an 83.6 percent share of the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2014, up from 81.4 percent during the same quarter a year ago. The continued rise leads one to wonder exactly where the ceiling is for Google's mobile OS. Android's market share gain came at the expense of every other mobile OS. Here's how it shook out: iOS: 12.3 percent, down from 13.4 percent Microsoft: 3.3 percent, down from 4.1 percent BlackBerry: 0.7 percent, down from 1.0 percent Others: 0.1 percent, down from 0.2 percent "Android's leadership of the global smartphone market looks unbeatable at the moment. Its low-cost services and user-friendly software remain attractive to hardware makers, operators and consumers worldwide," Strategy Analystics said. "However, challenges are emerging for Google. The Android platform is getting overcrowded with hundreds of hardware brands, Android smartphone prices are falling worldwide, and few Android device vendors make profits." The recent launch of Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices might prevent Android from repeating a 2.2 percent year-on-year rise, though that remains to be seen. Either way, Android isn't in any danger of losing its market share dominance in the near future. Image Credit: Flickr (samthor) Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Internet Archive Plugs 900 Classic Arcade Games into Your Browser Posted: 03 Nov 2014 11:52 AM PST No quarters required It used to be that if you wanted to waste some time at work, you fired up Minesweeper, Solitaire, or my personal favorite, SkiFree. Boy have times changed. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet and the efforts of the Internet Archive, time wasting just got a whole hell of a lot more fun. Now when you have some spare time to kill -- or even when you don't -- you can head over to the Internet Arcade and relive 900 classic arcade games right within your browser. Feel free to offer up excuses in the comments that I can use to explain why I'm suddenly late turning in assignments. Even typing this short article is taking way longer than it should, and it's because I'm getting lost in a sea of nostalgia replaying arcade hits that stole my youth and my quarter collection. The Internet Arcade is a logical fork of the Console Living Room, which itself is a collection of old school console games broken up by console, like the infamous Atari 2600 and lesser known gaming machines like the Amstrad GX-4000. In both instances, the Internet Archive has done a marvelous job backing up all that classic gaming goodness through JSMESS, or the JavaScript MESS project, which emulates all those titles through JavaScript. It took a bit of work, but it's working well now, and working in your browser -- it doesn't get much more convenient than that. "Of the roughly 900 arcade games (yes, nine hundred arcade games) up there, some are in pretty weird shape – vector games are an issue, scaling is broken for some, and some have control mechanisms that are just not going to translate to a keyboard or even a joypad. But damn if so many are good enough. More than good enough. In the right browser, on a speedy machine, it almost feels perfect. The usual debates about the 'realness' of emulation come into play, but it works," said Jason Scott, who's leading the online project. The occasional quirk aside, this is an awesome thing Jason has done. There are so many titles to revisit, like Birdie King, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Street Fighter II, Zaxxon, and the list goes on. Clear your schedule for the rest of the day and then check 'em out here. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Google's Nexus 9 Tablet is Now Available to Pre-Order Posted: 03 Nov 2014 11:17 AM PST Meet the iPad's nemesis Tis the season of new tablet launches. First Apple rolled out its iPad Air 2, then Amazon announced a new line of Fire HD slates, and now Google is getting in the game with the Nexus 9, it's new line of Android 5.0 Lollipop tablets that are now available to pre-order from Google Play, Amazon, and Best Buy. Pricing starts at $399, which gets you the 16GB model with Wi-Fi. There's also a 32GB model for $479. Both are offered in "Indigo Black" and "Lunar White" color options, and coming soon with be a "Sand" color option in 32GB. The Nexus 9 sports a brushed metal frame and soft grip back. According to Google, the 8.9-inch form factor makes it easy to carry the Nexus 9 with one hand while still being big enough to watch movies on the 2048x1536 IPS display. Other features include an Nvidia Tegra K1 2.3GHz processor (Denver), 2GB of RAM, 8MP rear camera, 1.6MP front camera, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and front-firing stereo speakers, a welcome trait though not unsurprising since HTC was put in charge of manufacturing the Nexus 9. At the time of this writing, Google Play is showing that in-stock tablets will leave the warehouse in 1-2 business days. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Acer Expands V Nitro Black Edition Laptop Series to Include a 4K Model Posted: 03 Nov 2014 09:20 AM PST Hello Acer, have we met? We don't typically associate Acer with premium level gear, though the company's new V Nitro Black Edition laptop line may change that perception. First introduced in late September, Acer is now offering a V Nitro Black Edition laptop with a 4K Ultra HD (2840x2160) IPS display, upgraded from the Full HD 1080p panels found on the initial launch models. That's a lot of pixels, though it's not the only high-end trait. The new 15.6-inch V Nitro Black Edition is powered by an Intel Core i7 4710HQ quad-core processor, 16GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M graphics with 2GB of GDDR5 RAM, and 256GB solid state drive + 1TB hard drive. Other features include a full-size backlit keyboard with dedicated numpad, three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI output, GbE LAN port, headphone/speaker/line-out jack, Kensington lock slot, 802.11n dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, SD card reader, four built-in speakers (8W total), and Windows 8.1. Of course, there are disadvantages to sticking a 4K panel on a 15.6-inch laptop, one of those being scaling issues in Windows along with third-party programs that have yet to get up to speed with the 4K movement. There's also the issue of gaming at the native res -- you need some serious GPU horsepower to play games at 4K. Nevertheless, it's nice to see Acer dipping its toes into the premium sector. It's not just the feature-set, but the design of the V Nitro Black -- from the pictures we've seen, it's a sleek looking machine. Comparatively affordable too, at $1,500 MSRP. And while supplies last, Acer's including a code for Assassin's Creed Unity. If the 4K resolution is a deal killer, note that Acer also offers 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch models with 1080p panels starting at $1,100. In addition, Acer has parterned with Ubisoft to offer game codes for Assassin's Creed Unity with purchase from a participating vendor (Amazon, Newegg, and TigerDirect), while supplies last. Not that this only applies to qualifying Full HD 1080p models, and not the 4K version. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Patriot's Supersonic Bolt XT Flash Drive Line is Super Secure Posted: 03 Nov 2014 06:18 AM PST Rugged and secure storage Security's become a sensitive subject ever since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the U.S. government's spying shenanigans, and if you don't fancy wearing a tinfoil hat, you might be interested in Patriot Memory's latest storage device. To begin with, Patriot's new Supersonic Bolt XT flash drive family boasts built-in FIPS 197 compliant hardware-based 256-bit AES data encryption. Should the drive fall into the wrong hands, it's been trained to swallow a virtual poison pill after multiple failed attempts to guess the password -- 10 consecutive failed attempts, to be exact, after which point it locks down and reformats itself. Of course, that can work against you if you have trouble remembering passwords, but hey, we suppose that's price of privacy these days. The Supersonic Bolt XT also offers a bit of physical protection for your data by way of a ruggedized, rubber housing. We doubt you could run one of these over with a tank and expect it to work, but for "common day drops and bumps," it should be just fine, Patriot says. It's also water resistant. In terms of performance, these are USB 3.0 drives, though not the fastest around. Patriot rates the drives at up to 150MB/s read and up to 30MB/s write performance. The Supersonic Bolt XT is available now in 16GB ($50), 32GB ($70), and 64GB ($130) capacities. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Dell Begins Selling $200 Venue 8 Pro 3000 Windows 8.1 Tablet Posted: 02 Nov 2014 11:29 PM PST Not the cheapest entry-level Windows device Dell has quietly begun selling a new 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet. Part of the Venue 8 Pro family the company introduced last year, this latest 8-incher from Dell is not unlike other 8- and 7-inch Windows tablets currently on the market. For instance, it packs the same Intel Bay Trail Atom processor as the dirt-cheap, 7-inch likes of the HP Stream 7 ($100) and the Toshiba Encore Mini ($120). Where the new Dell Venue 8 Pro 3000 and Stream 7 are concerned, the similarities don't end with the the quad-core Atom Z3735G processor. They include a 1280x800 resolution display, 1GB of RAM and 32GB eMMC storage. But with the Venue 8 Pro being priced at $200 — twice as much as the Stream 7 — the similarities have got to end somewhere. Both the front and rear shooters on the Venue 8 Pro have higher megapixel counts compared to their Stream 7 counterparts (2MP and 5MP versus 0.3MP and 2MP, respectively). It also appears to have a better display than most other tablets in this category; it has an IPS display whereas most other cheap Windows 8.1 tablets have TN displays. Follow Pulkit on Google+

Microsoft Now Offering $50 Discount on Xbox One Posted: 02 Nov 2014 09:10 PM PST Holiday season offer applies to both console and bundles Sony's Playstation 4 has been continuously outselling Microsoft's Xbox One ever since the two eighth generation consoles first went on sale in November 2013. Even Microsoft's decision to offer the Xbox One sans the Kinect has been largely ineffective in reversing this trend. Things are so bad for Microsoft that during the latest quarter the PS4 comfortably outsold both the Xbox One and Xbox 360. Under the circumstances, it is going to take something special from Microsoft to turn the corner during the holiday season. Microsoft's idea of special is a $50 holiday discount — at least in the United States. As it announced last month, the company has now begun offering a $50 discount on the Xbox One, whether sold alone or as part of a bundle. This means that the cheapest Xbox One SKU is now just $350. According to Major Nelson, the special pricing, scheduled to run through January 3, 2015, is now available from Amazon, BestBuy, Walmart, Microsoft Store and Gamestop. Follow Pulkit on Google+

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