General Gaming Article |
- Newegg Daily Deals: LG 29-Inch UltraWide Monitor, AMD FX-8350, and More!
- AMD Reveals $1,500 Dual-GPU Radeon Pro Duo for VR Content Creators
- Razer Sharpens 14-Inch Blade with Upgraded CPU and GPU
- Xbox One Now Supports Cross-Platform Play with PlayStation 4 and PC
- Maximum PC to Power PC Gamer's Hardware Coverage
- Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum Review
| Newegg Daily Deals: LG 29-Inch UltraWide Monitor, AMD FX-8350, and More! Posted: 15 Mar 2016 11:47 AM PDT Top Deal: It's time to put that big, bulky CRT monitor out of its misery. You hear it wheezing when you turn it on, and you also see it struggling to hold a steady picture. Hey, it was a fantastic monitor back in the day, but that was forever ago. And now? Well, now it's time for something new, something modern, something different. Today's top deal is just the ticket—it's for a LG 29UB55-B Black 29-inch 5ms HDMI UltraWide LED Backlight LCD Monitor IPS for $260 with $1 shipping (normally $309). It's big, super wide, and sports a high-quality IPS panel. R.I.P. CRT. Other Deals: Acer Laptop Intel Core i7 6500U (2.50 GHz) 8 GB Memory 1 TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce 940M 15.6-inch Windows 10 Home for $620 with free shipping (normally $700) AMD FX-8350 Black Edition Vishera 8-Core 4.0 GHz (4.2 GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Processor for $159 with free shipping (normally $164 - use coupon code: [EMCEHFJ23]) Mushkin Enhanced ECO2 2.5-inch 512GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive for $110 with free shipping (normally $120 - use coupon code: [EMCEHFJ65]) Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials 64B 1-2CPU - OEM for $348 with free shipping (normally $500 - use coupon code: [EMCEHFJ63]) |
| AMD Reveals $1,500 Dual-GPU Radeon Pro Duo for VR Content Creators Posted: 15 Mar 2016 11:36 AM PDT Twice the Fury AMD has answered the call for a graphics card with two GPUs based on its Fiji architecture, but the new Radeon Duo Pro isn't really intended for the home consumer market. Instead, AMD is taking aim at content creators focused on virtual reality games and applications. This is a two-headed beast that many thought AMD would release by the end of 2015 as the gaming card to beat. AMD later changed its mind, deciding instead to push back the launch to coincide with VR headset releases like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Well here we are and so is our first real look at the Radeon Pro Duo. It's basically two Radeon R9 Fury X GPUs sharing real estate with one another on the same card. To that end, each of the two GPUs is independently rocking 4,096 stream processor, 256 texture units, and 64 ROPs. There's also 4GB of HBM on a 4,096-bit bus per GPU. It's actually kind of a bummer that a card of this magnitude isn't sporting 8GB of memory per GPU, but that's where HBM technology is stuck at for the moment. In any event, this is still a monster card we're talking about, one that AMD claims is capable of 16 TFLOPS of performance. That suggests the Fiji GPUs are clocked in the neighborhood of 1GHz, though AMD hasn't said anything about clockspeeds yet. The Radeon Pro Duo is also a power hungry card. It requires four 8-pin PCI-E power connectors. That translates into 450W, plus there's 75W available from the PCI-E slot. Unofficially, the Radeon Pro Duo could consume up to 525W. This will depend on clockspeeds and how aggressively AMD chooses to throttle the GPUs. Finally from a hardware standpoint, the Radeon Duo Pro utilizes a closed loop liquid cooling solution with a 120mm radiator. AMD says "there is more than sufficient cooling for maximum performance all while staying quiet." This is the first solution in what AMD is now calling its VR Ready Creator line. Combined with its LiquidVR SDK, AMD envisions developers running with this dual-GPU solution to create high-end VR solutions. The Radeon Pro Duo will be available early in the second quarter for $1,500. |
| Razer Sharpens 14-Inch Blade with Upgraded CPU and GPU Posted: 15 Mar 2016 10:32 AM PDT Hardware refresh Razer today announced that it upgraded its thin and light 14-inch Blade laptop. The improvements extend "across the board from its predecessor," and there's a new, more affordable price tag to boot. To start with, Razer brought its Blade current by going with a Skylake foundation. Specifically, the Blade now features a 6th generation Intel Core i7-6700HQ quad core processor clocked at 2.6GHz (3.5GHz Turbo). This is flanked by 16GB of DDR4-2133 memory and a GeForce GTX 970M GPU with 6GB of GDDR4 memory, all of which are tasked with driving the Blade's IGZO QHD+ (3200x1800) multi-touch display. Razer also dropped a fast 256GB PCI-E M.2 solid state drive into the blade to prevent storage from being a bottleneck. If you need more storage, Razer also offers a 512GB model, for an up-charge of course. Other features include Killer Wireless-AC 1535 (802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.1) connectivity, three USB 3.0 ports, Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C), HDMI 1.4b output, 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo, 2MP webcam, and a few other odds and ends. "We are getting much more aggressive as far as price point, but that hasn't come at a cost to the performance or design of the Razer Blade," says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. "We've improved nearly every aspect of the 14-inch laptop, from CPU and GPU performance to system memory and port selection. Chroma technology unlocks an unprecedented, immersive experience on a gaming laptop." The Blade's chassis is made of CNC-milled aircraft aluminum. It still measures 0.7 inches, but now weighs 4.25 pounds, down a quarter of a pound compared to the previous generation. For more graphics power, Razer says its new Blade will soon be compatible with the Razer Core external graphics enclosure. The external box connects to the laptop via Thunderbolt 3 and allows gamers to run desktop-class graphics cards. The new Razer Blade is available to pre-order today and will ship in April. Pricing is set at $1,999 for the 256GB model and $2,199 for the 512GB model. |
| Xbox One Now Supports Cross-Platform Play with PlayStation 4 and PC Posted: 15 Mar 2016 09:54 AM PDT Uniting gamers in glorious warfare You've undoubtedly heard the term PC master race, a designation some PC players throw around to declare their dominance over their console brethren. But are PC players really better at games than console gamers? Cross-platform play between the Xbox One and both PC and PlayStation 4 may answer that question. Here's the deal—Microsoft already natively supports cross-platform play between Xbox One and Windows 10 games that use Xbox Live. But what's new is that Microsoft is enabling developers to support cross-network play. "This means players on Xbox One and and Windows 10 using Xbox Live will be able to play with players on different online multiplayer networks, including other console and PC networks," Chris Charla, Directoc of ID@Xbox, stated in a blog post. In short, Microsoft is opening up Xbox Live to gamers on other platforms. This sets the stage for Xbox One gamers to compete against PlayStation 4 and PC gamers in multiplayer titles that support the functionality. This is a big move by Microsoft. For the most part (there are exceptions), cross-platform play between PC and console hasn't been available, or certainly not the norm. Now it could be, provided developers take advantage of the opportunity. "Of course, it's up to game developers to support this feature, and Xbox Live players will always have the option of choosing to play only with other Xbox Live players," Charla added. The first title to take advantage of the new capability is Psyonix's Rocket League, a popular vehicle-soccer game. It will allow Xbox One and PC players to square off against one another sometime later this spring. |
| Maximum PC to Power PC Gamer's Hardware Coverage Posted: 15 Mar 2016 05:00 AM PDT Dream Machine meets Large Pixel Collider Maximum PC has been around for over 20 years now. Starting out as the ground-breaking boot magazine, we've been covering PC tech and culture with an attitude ever since. With the launch of the Maximum PC website several years ago, we were able to expand our coverage of hardware significantly, and our remit now is broader than ever. From a purely numbers point of view, the hottest topics we've covered in those years have been graphics cards, CPUs, and other gaming-related components. Graphics hardware remains key to pushing the PC platform forward. When Nvidia introduced the world's first graphics chip with programmable shaders—the original GeForce—the world took notice. When AMD (ATI at the time) responded with its uber-fast R300 GPU, it was clear that graphics for gaming was going to spearhead PC evolution. Fundamentally, games have always been the driving force behind new hardware development on the PC. In other words, enthusiasts and gamers push the envelope forward together. And as we've seen over the past two decades, building rigs and playing games go hand in hand. So it is with great enthusiasm that today I'm thrilled to announce that the web version of Maximum PC will join forces with PC Gamer to create a unified global powerhouse in one place.  What does it mean for you?If you're a gamer, this merger will be a natural step. All the best gaming and hardware content will exist on one site. For those of you less interested in games, it will still be easy to just get your hardware fix. When the marriage is complete, going to maximumpc.com will take you directly to the Maximum PC-powered hardware channel on PC Gamer. Our output will remain largely the same—except, there will be even more of the good stuff. What does it mean for us?The two sites joining forces is a very powerful thing. Our overall team becomes larger, and our available resources for covering hardware will be greater. We've already begun working together, and that process is about to accelerate. Writers from Maximum PC and PC Gamer will combine their expertise to feed the insatiable hardware appetite of our readers. What about existing content?We're hard at work moving over all relevant content to PCGamer.com. Anything that's truly outdated will be left behind, like a graphics card review from five years ago. Guides, how-to articles, and other key features will remain available. What about the Kick-Ass Dream Machine?Dream Machine is not going away. If anything it'll probably get even crazier this year. In fact, we're already working on the concept. What about comments?Since you're using Disqus now, you'll be able to continue commenting using your current account. When does the change happen?The two sites will merge at the end of March, 2016. What about the magazines?Maximum PC Magazine and PC Gamer Magazine will still exist as two independent publications. Subscribers aren't impacted in any way. What's the catch?No catch. The Maximum PC team gets cozy with the PC Gamer hardware team, and the world is a better place. Actually, we already sit beside each other in the same office space. Think of it as a beautiful friendship finally being consummated, in a strictly PG-13 sort of fashion. Strength in numbersHow about a quick word from PC Gamer's US Editor-in-Chief, Evan Lahti: "We're so fortunate to be working more closely with Maximum PC to deliver even more in-depth hardware coverage for our readers. I've long admired the rigorous testing that goes into Maximum PC's component reviews, and the quality of analysis when it comes to the hardware trends that affect all PC owners. It's a golden age for PC gaming, and we couldn't have picked a better time to team up." So, there we go. Change is not to be feared. In fact, it's a key part of the PC platform. Gaming and enthusiast hardware are on the rise, and evolving faster than ever before. The advent of VR is nearly upon us, real 3D audio is coming back, and there's an ever-greater demand for high-quality components. There's no better time to be a PC owner, and that makes this the perfect moment for Maximum PC and PC Gamer to become one. We hope you'll join us. |
| Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum Review Posted: 15 Mar 2016 12:00 AM PDT Sea god 2.0, now with more lighting optionsAt a Glance(+) Finding Nemo: Futuristic design; thumb rest; dual-mode scroll wheel. The Logitech Proteus Spectrum is arguably one of the most anticipated peripherals from Logitech. Building on the success of the Logitech G502 Proteus Core, the Spectrum version has been updated to glow in 16.8 million different colors. In time, the G502 Proteus Spectrum will replace the G502 Proteus Core as Logitech's flagship wired gaming mouse. The G502 Proteus Spectrum still has the aggressive angles and sharp lines reminiscent of a jet fighter from 2070. Its surface texture smoothly transitions from matte plastic into the hard rubber side grips. The numerous side buttons inconspicuously blend into the chassis for a seamless look. This design is as functional as it is cool. The thumb rest on the right side does a good job of keeping your thumb off of the mousepad. The rubber grips on the left and right flanks feel exceptionally comfortable as well. The G502 Proteus Spectrum also has mouse feet for days—there are Teflon gliders in the front, back, middle, and sides of the base. Being Logitech's flagship mouse, it's no surprise that the G502 Spectrum has fantastic build quality. With details like the metal scroll wheel, thick braided cable, and a polished chassis, the mouse is built to last. The buttons feel tactile and responsive and equally resilient with a life cycle of up to 20 million clicks. Despite being 2.95 inches in length, the G502 Proteus Spectrum is friendlier to claw grip and fingertip grip users. The reason being that in palm grip, the user's thumb rests right over the thumb button, which make it prone to misclicks. The mouse weighs in at 4.3 ounces, but this is configurable by the user. The G502 Proteus Spectrum comes with a set of extra weights that can be inserted to its base once its magnetic cover is removed. The weights are 36g apiece and V-shaped (for victory!). Users can use them to increase the weight of the mouse as well as to shift the balance point by distributing them unevenly to the front or rear. We chose to add two pieces to the center of the mouse for a heavier, but still balanced feel. While we're glad to see both infinity scrolling and notched scrolling on the scroll wheel, its notched mode is incredibly loud. If you're going to be gaming when your roommate is studying, this could technically constitute as a noise complaint. In the infinity mode the scrolling is virtually silent, but is also more difficult to control. We initially had some concerns over whether the metallic wheel would become too slippery for sweaty fingers, but that concern was quickly laid to rest as the ridges on the wheel kept it very grippy. Logitech installed the most bad-ass sensor it could find into the G502 Proteus Spectrum—its Pixart PMW3366 optical sensor is hailed by many as one of the best currently on the market. Logitech also flashed it with its G Delta Zero image correction algorithm to minimize acceleration. The result is a buttery-smooth tracking experience. We didn't feel any acceleration or angle snapping. Movement was responsive and accurate. There were some small but noticeable jitters in small movements at DPI settings beyond 9,000, but I highly doubt that anyone would be playing at that range. While there's no setting to change it, lift distance is very low. The G502 Proteus Spectrum features a condensed yet organized button layout optimized for lightning-quick access. The two buttons next to the left mouse button add extra functionality without being intrusive. There's also a thumb button in front of the thumb rest that's set to temporarily decrease the DPI by default. We find this to be a great asset when sniping in first-person shooters and making small adjustments in Photoshop. As useful as it is, gamers with larger hands may accidentally hit it if they slide their hand forward. The Logitech Gaming Software is Logitech's "install once, work for all" driver suite, and has every setting a gamer would want to configure. Users can store up to three different profiles either on the mouse itself or on their PC. Other neat features include programmable macros, heat analysis map, and a fluid user interface with plenty of pretty animations. Because it has "spectrum" in its name, we'd imagined that the RGB lighting would play a bigger role. Unfortunately, the programmable RGB lighting is only regionalized to the logo and the DPI indicator lights. The color of the logo can be set to change when the profile changes. The other, more critical indication is the three LEDs next to the side buttons that let the user know the current DPI setting. We prefer on-screen indicators, but installing custom drivers may not always be an option at LAN tournaments. Retailing for $80, the Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum sits in the middle-high tier price spectrum. It's also $15 more than the Logitech G502 Proteus Core. Until the G502 Proteus Spectrum completely replaces the G502 Proteus Core, there's very little incentive to invest in the G502 Proteus Spectrum when the only difference between it and the original is the RGB lighting. But giving credit where credit is due, the G502 Proteus Spectrum has got every aspect covered to a T, and doesn't bust your wallet doing it. |
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