General Gaming Article |
- Sager NP9870-S Review
- Newegg Daily Deals: Super Combo Upgrade Pack, HP Laptop, and More!
- FCC Proposes $9.25 Per Month Broadband Subsidy for Low Income Families
- Origin PC Unveils Compact Chronos SFF Gaming Desktop
- Corsair Takes Aim at Small Size Builds with SF600 and SF450 Power Supplies
- New Developments in AI
| Posted: 08 Mar 2016 01:28 PM PST An engineering marvelWhen Nvidia told us that it managed to shrink its desktop GTX 980 GPU to fit inside notebooks, we went through two stages of denial. The first stage was disbelief. "The 980 is a huge and powerful card," we thought to ourselves. The second stage was dismissiveness. "It's got to throttle tremendously." To prove us wrong and to fan the flames of hardware absurdity, Sager armed its sexily named NP9870-S gaming notebook (seriously, who names these things?) with both a desktop 980 and a high-end 6700K Skylake desktop CPU. On paper, it's an abomination of a laptop, but crazily enough, it actually friggin' works! Of course, if you're going to squeeze desktop components into a laptop chassis, you shouldn't expect an ultra-portable package. The Sager here is of the big, bulky 17-inch variety, and it has a hefty 14-pound carry weight to match its size. If there's one criticism we could levy against Sager in the past, is that its gaming notebooks were very bland looking. There are a few aesthetic bells and whistles this time around. In addition to the nice silver Sager logo on the back, there are some pulsating LEDs, which add a little bling to the look (if you're into that). The chassis also has some sharp lines and edges, which give it a slightly futuristic look. Surprisingly, 980 GPU performance wasn't throttled. More exciting is the 1080p display. While we would have preferred a 1440p screen, the monitor here uses a 75Hz IPS panel that supports G-Sync. That's a lot of cool display tech in one sentence. The rest of the design is good. The speakers by Sound Blaster are competent, the LED-backlit keyboard offers some nice travel, and the trackpad is solid and has two discrete click buttons and a fingerprint reader. The notebook also sports enough ports to warrant its desktop-replacement label, which include: two Ethernet, five USB 3.0, one USB type C, two DisplayPort, an SD card reader, and an HDMI port. But you probably aren't reading this review to hear about the laptop's ports. "How well does it perform?!," you're probably screaming. Cool your jets, we're getting there. The 980 outfitted here has the same 256-bit memory interface width and 224GB/sec memory bandwidth as its desktop sibling. One advantage that this 980 has over Nvidia's discrete card is double the VRAM. Your reference 980 has 4GB VRAM, whereas this card rocks 8GB. Considering that the notebook is relegated to a 1080p panel, you'd be hard pressed to actually use up all that VRAM (or anything near it), but it's still nice to have. Compared to our Alienware 14 ZP laptop, which is getting long in the tooth with its GTX 765M GPU, we saw a 106–234 percent performance delta in our graphics benchmarks. It's really not a fair comparison at this point, so we decided to see how it stacks up against the 3D Mark 11 Extreme numbers we ran on CyberPower's Syber Vapor system we reviewed last year. If you'll recall, the Vapor rocked a 4790K and GTX 980 desktop card in a small Mini ITX chassis, which makes it a fair comparison point for the Sager. The results? The Sager not only performed on par with the desktop PC, but actually ran three percent better! Older drivers on the Vapor could explain some of this delta, but still, getting anywhere near close to the desktop card in this form factor is insane. Consider us believers in this Nvidia voodoo. CPU performance was also great. We saw up to an 11 percent increase in single-threaded CPU tests compared to our ZP laptop's Core i7-4700MQ laptop proc. In multithreaded tests, we saw a huge 43 percent difference. Yes, it did get a little loud under load, but it's running top-tier desktop parts in a laptop chassis, so what do you expect? One performance hurdle that we ran into pertained to boot times. It took roughly 25 seconds to reach Windows, despite the notebook using a premium Samsung 850 Evo SSD. Sager tells us that this is because the gaming notebook has so many built-in peripherals for the drive to check, so it takes a little longer. That seems fair. At $2,850, you'll be paying a high price for this kind of performance, but at the same time, it's kind of an engineering marvel. To fit this much power out of a chassis of this size boggles the mind. You can max out pretty much any game at 75fps here. Whether you're looking for a high-end gaming system, editing rig, or VR machine on the go, the Sager NP9870-S has you covered. It might not be cheap, but it's still pretty Kick-Ass. BENCHMARKS
Our zero-point notebook is an Alienware 14 with a 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-4700MQ, 16GB DDR3/1600, 256GB mSATA SSD, 750GB 5,400rpm HDD, a GeForce GTX 765M, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. BioShock Infinite tested at 1920x1080 at Ultra DX11 settings; Metro: Last Light tested at 1920x1080 at DX11 medium quality settings with PhysX disabled. SPECIFICATIONS
$2,850, www.sagernotebook.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: Super Combo Upgrade Pack, HP Laptop, and More! Posted: 08 Mar 2016 12:29 PM PST Top Deal: Building a PC isn't rocket science. Heck, it's not even regular science. If you can use a screwdriver without poking your eye out, you can build a PC. Need a place to start? Check out today's top deal for a SuperCombo Upgrade Pack: AMD FX 8300 3.3GHZ 8-Core CPU + GIGABYTE990FXA-UD3 MOBO + G.Skill Ripjaws X 8GB Memory for $230 with free shipping (normally $275; additional $20 Mail-in rebate). BAM! With that one purchase, you have a solid foundation to build upon. Other Deals: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8G) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3L 1600 (PC3L 12800) Laptop Memory for $55 with free shipping (normally $62 - use coupon code: [EMCEHEM25]) Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 2.5-inch 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive for $40 with free shipping (normally $44 - use coupon code: [EMCEHEM24]) Adata UV128 64 GB High-Speed USB 3.0 Capless USB Flash Drive for $12 with $1 shipping (normally $16 - use coupon code: [EMCEHEM33]) HP Pavilion Laptop AMD A6-6310 Quad Core 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 17.3-inch Radeon R4 Graphics Windows 10 for $250 with free shipping (normally $284) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FCC Proposes $9.25 Per Month Broadband Subsidy for Low Income Families Posted: 08 Mar 2016 10:19 AM PST Closing the gap It's not unusual for grade school teachers to assign their students homework that requires Internet access. The problem is that more than half of all households making under $25,000 don't have broadband Internet service, versus a 95 percent broadband penetration rate among households with incomes over $150,000 per year. To help close the gap, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is circulating a proposal to FCC members to approve a broadband subsidy of $9.25 per month for low income homes, according to The New York Times. "When we talk about digital equity, we need to remember that we're talking a key part of the answer to many of our nation's greatest challenges — issues like income inequality, job creation, economic growth, U.S. competitiveness," Wheeler said last month when talking about the plan. Wheeler's proposal is the latest version of the FCC's Lifeline program created in 1985 to bring landline phone services to low income households. The FCC added mobile phone service to the subsidy in 2008, and now it wants to add broadband service. If the proposal goes through, those receiving the subsidy would have the choice of using it for phone service, broadband Internet, or both, according to Reuters. The budget for the program would be $2.25 billion a year, up from $1.5 billion currently. With those additional funds, around 5 million more households would be able to take advantage of the program, though the FCC doesn't anticipate using the entirety of the budget right away. "Five million American families with students at home go without regular broadband access," said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "We need to bridge this gap and fix this problem because our shared economic future depends on it." Wheeler's proposal also attempts to address the problem of fraud. Critics of the program point to a history of abuse with many participants double billing for landline phone and wireless services. Wheeler's solution is to appoint a third-party to determine eligibility for the program and to make sure companies are abiding by the rules. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Origin PC Unveils Compact Chronos SFF Gaming Desktop Posted: 08 Mar 2016 09:39 AM PST Packing a big punch in a small footprint Boutique system builder Origin PC decided to literally downsize things with its new Chronos small form factor desktop for gamers. What makes this particular iteration special for Origin PC is that it uses the smallest SFF case it's ever offered. The new Chronos SFF desktop measures just 11.75 inches (H) by 4 inches (W) by 13.75 inches (D). It's a custom case that Origin designed and built exclusively for itself, and no, you can't purchase just the case itself. Cost of entry is fairly reasonable for a gaming rig—$1,440 for a Z170 setup. The default configuration is pretty tame, though. Here's what it comes with:
Of course, the Chronos SFF is customizable and if you have a bigger budget, Origin PC will happily oblige. You can deck the Chronos SFF out with up to an Intel Core i7-5960X or Xeon processor paired with up to a GeForce GTX Titan Z graphics card, up to 32GB of RAM, and lots of storage options (up to four drives). Cooling is obviously a concern when dealing with SFF systems. Origin PC uses a Frostbyte 120 sealed liquid-cooling setup to keep the CPU chilly and backs the Chronos SFF with a 1 year part replacement warranty. Longer warranties are available, up to three years with free shipping and lifetime 24/7 support and labor for a $249 up charge. You can configure and order a Chronos SFF gaming desktop now. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Corsair Takes Aim at Small Size Builds with SF600 and SF450 Power Supplies Posted: 08 Mar 2016 09:01 AM PST Think small You may have noticed an increase in the number of small form factor computer cases to choose from these days. That's because SFF builds are suddenly vogue, and to assist with builders looking to piece together a compact system, Corsair today announced the release of its first ever SFX form factor PSUs. Don't let the size of these new PSUs fool you into thinking Corsair skimped on quality. Just the opposite, Corsair's new SF600 (600W) and SF450 (450W) PSUs are both 80 Plus Gold certified, meaning they're highly efficient. They also use 100 percent 105C rated Japanese capacitors, Corsair says. Working in small size cases presents some unique challenges. To help ease the frustration, both of Corsair's new PSUs are fully modular. Depending on the case, particularly some mini-iTX enclosures, a fully modular PSU can be a huge help in fitting things into tight confines. The SF450 sports an ATX connector, EPS connector, four 4-pin peripheral connectors, two PCI-E connectors, and four SATA connectors. It's rated to deliver up to 37.5A over a single +12V rail. Interestingly, the beefier SF600 model only offers a single 4-pin peripheral connector instead of four like the SF450 model, according to the tech specs section of its product page. The rest of the connectors are the same. The SF600 also utilizes a single +12V rail design, but ups the ante by making up to 50A available to power hungry components. Both models use Corsair's "Zero RPM Fan Mode," which means the cooling fan only kicks on when the PSU is under load. That's supposed to make them run virtually silent at low and medium loads. Corsair says you should be able to find the SF450 and SF600 today for $90 and $120, respectively. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 08 Mar 2016 12:00 AM PST  What's in your pocket?Most of us move through our daily lives with a rudimentary form of AI in our pockets or purses. We tend to think of them as apps rather than intelligent software that learn from our questions and evolve to anticipate what we're asking for. I'm, of course, talking about Apple's Siri, Google's Now, and Microsoft's Cortana, all of which are considered intelligent personal assistants. Considering there weren't any consumer-grade AI assistants for our smart devices just a scant ten years ago, this virtual glut proves that intelligent hardware and software is evolving at a rapid pace. So, what's on tap in the near future when it comes to AI, and will the coming changes make us look back on these electronic personal assistants as rudimentary at best? To gain insight into what's to come, we'll take a look at what industry leaders are currently working on in efforts to make artificial intelligence, well, more intelligent.  Considering Google acquired a mass of robotics companies (eight in total) back in 2013, it makes sense they would need to outfit their mechanical army with a brain, which is what another Google-acquired company, DeepMind, is developing. The British AI developer has been busy designing a complex neural net that learns by playing games. In fact, the company's first iteration—AlphaGo—recently beat a human opponent in the board game Go. DeepMind designed its AI platform using what's known as "deep learning" processed by a convolutional neural network using a form of "Q-learning"—otherwise known as "model-free reinforcement learning." In other words, it learns by taking actions through trial and error in a given environment, in this case a Doom-like maze it can successfully navigate by "looking for" apples and portals. What's incredible is that the AI learns how to navigate and play games without having access to the game's software code and after a few runs through the game, is more efficient than humans are.  While it may seem like a novel gimmick, Microsoft Garage recently released a new app for the iPhone that identifies dog breeds and matches them with humans based on personality traits. If that sounded a bit goofy, it will also try to identify which breeds users most look like. Goofiness aside, the app's identifying skills are done using an AI system that learns in similar fashion as Google's DeepMind—through deep neural networks. Instead of learning by playing video games, Microsoft's AI focuses on object recognition using numerous images; the more pictures it sees, the more accurate it becomes. In this case, dog breeds were the subject. Microsoft actually employed a team of dog experts and kennel club members to make sure they had accurate images of various breeds as well as data for each including disposition, size, and coat, allowing the AI to correctly identify numerous breeds in different images. The cognitive learning is accurate enough that when images of objects other than dogs are introduced, it specifies that no dogs are present.  When it comes to socially acceptable behavior, murder isn't ethical. While most of us accept this notion out of hand, a team from the Georgia Institute of Technology is making sure robots know it as well. Researchers Mark Reidl and Brent Harrison are developing AI, dubbed Quixote, to learn acceptable social behavior and ethics by reading children's stories. To put it more accurately, the AI learns the acceptable sequence of events outlined in the stories, and applies it to tasks in social settings. In the case of software, this is known as "value alignment." The researchers are developing Quixote using their Scheherazade system as a base platform, which is another AI platform that is capable of acquiring the correct sequence of actions through crowd-sourcing story plots found on the Internet. Essentially, Scheherazade identifies what a normal plot sequence and outcome is and passes that data structure to Quixote, which in turn converts it to an award signal for expectable behaviors while punishing other outcomes based on trial-and-error learning. It's easy to see why children's stories are preferred, as most have good-natured protagonists as opposed to those found in adult books, who might very well be murderous anti-heroes depending on the story.  Most AI platforms are developed making use of neural networks, which are virtual networks of simple processing units that are modeled somewhat after the human brain. Most of those implemented use GPUs such as those from Nvidia (CUDA) as they're more efficient over CPU cluster—notably, communication latencies are reduced and power consumption is significantly decreased. Considering mobile GPUs are becoming more powerful and are able to render 3D graphics, why not use them for mobile AI applications? That's what researchers from MIT asked themselves, and their answer was to design their own mobile GPU to implement neural networks for mobile applications. Their chip, dubbed Eyeriss, is optimized for deep learning and can crunch data locally rather than being processed remotely using servers, like that of Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana. The researchers claim the chip is 10 times more power efficient than those found in smartphones such as ARM's Mali series GPUs, and could even be implemented with IoT-connected devices, making them much more intelligent by being able to learn as a way of interactive programming.  At one point or another, we've all wondered what would happen if our favorite video game characters became intelligent and were able to think for themselves. Would they be able to overcome obstacles on their own, would they collaborate with one another, would they switch from being good to being evil? Scientists from Germany's University of Tübingen decided to find out by giving Mario and his friends social AI based on human behavior and thinking. The university's Modeling Group outfitted Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Yoshi with their Social Intelligence AI platform, which uses a motivational system that generates "drives" or goals–including want of wealth (coins), curiosity (hitting power-up boxes), going forward in the level (self-explanatory), and staying healthy (getting power-ups, etc.). Those drives in turn trigger specific game events; for example, Mario may gain a strong desire for wealth, his reasoning then transitions to planning on how best to gain that wealth, and then he will enlist another character, based on the abilities needed, for help in attaining coins. It gets better—characters can also exchange information about what they've learned. For instance, some blocks in Super Mario can't be destroyed while others can. A character, say Luigi, figures this out through verbal commands from a human player. He can then tell another character that those blocks are indestructible and that character learns it as well. They can also form allegiances with one another, working or fighting against others to achieve a goal. It will be interesting to see how this evolves in the future and how difficult it will be to "out-think" computer opponents. What comes next?No matter how you feel about advancements in AI, one thing is certain, it will continue to evolve in one form or another—be it is cognitive learning and adapting, becoming more proficient in an assigned task, or becoming socially aware, or perhaps all three! Will it become a detriment to society or a benefit is still too far away to tell at this point, and perhaps best answered by those developing their respective platforms. Still, what's on the drawing board today will make the big three (Siri, Cortana, and Now) look like old Speak & Spell toys from the early '80s by comparison. |
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