A brand-new Razer Blade 15—continuing its storied legacy of pushing the boundaries of thin and light 15" gaming laptops—is now available. This ultra-portable gaming machine is powered by the latest 13th generation Intel Core i7 13800H processor and NVIDIA's newest GeForce RTX 40-series GPUs, up to the RTX 4070. Enhanced vapor chamber cooling and thinner 0.05 mm exhaust fins provide the exceptional thermal control needed to pack this level of performance in a laptop that is 25% smaller than the Blade 16.



The Blade 15 places portability at the forefront. As the thinnest Blade in the 2023 line, it weighs less than four and a half pounds and delivers up to over six hours of battery life from its 80 Wh battery. The 16:9 QHD 240 Hz display provides smooth, sharp visuals with a 2.5 ms response time and 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The Blade 15 is easily upgradeable, accommodating up to 4 TB of storage using an extra M.2 slot and up to 64 GB DDR5-5200 MHz memory, allowing users to keep pace with even the most demanding games and tasks.
Read full story

More...

ASUS Launches 300 Hz 27-inch WQHD ROG Strix Gaming Monitor with DisplayHDR 600
For those that find a 270 Hz refresh rate a bit on the laggy side when gaming at 2560 x 1440, ASUS has updated its ROG Strix series of monitors with the XG27AQMR model. The R on the end of the model name denotes the higher refresh rate, as well as support for DisplayHDR 600 over the previous model in the series. Although the two monitors are said to be using a Fast IPS panel, the new model has a 1 ms Grey to Grey response time, whereas the older model is rated at 0.5 ms.



All the gaming features you'd expect to find are of course included, such are FreeSync Premium Pro and G-Sync compatibility, ELMB which can be combined with FreeSync and various other ASUS specific features such as GameFast Input technology and GameVisual. The inputs haven't changed from the previous model in the series either, which means there's one DP 1.4 port and two HDMI 2.0 ports, as well as a USB-B input and two USB-A ports, all supporting USB 3.2 Gen 1 speeds, or 5 Gbps. The stand supports tilt, swivel, pivot and height adjustment. No word on pricing, but the previous model retails for around US$650, so we'd expect a small price premium on top of that for the higher refresh rate and improved HDR support.

More...

(PR) Marvell and AWS Collaborate to Enable Cloud-First Silicon Design
Marvell Technology, Inc., a leader in data infrastructure semiconductor solutions, announced today that it has selected Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) as its cloud provider for electronic design automation (EDA). A cloud-first approach helps Marvell to rapidly and securely scale its service on the world's leading cloud, rise to the challenges brought by increasingly complex chip design processes, and deliver continuous innovation for the expanding needs across the automotive, carrier, data center, and enterprise infrastructure markets it serves. The work extends the longstanding relationship between the two companies—Marvell is also a key semiconductor supplier for AWS, helping the company support the design and rapid delivery of cloud services that best meet customers' demanding requirements.



EDA refers to the specialized and compute-intensive processes used in chip making and is a critical piece of Marvell's R&D. Over the years, the number of transistors on an integrated chip has increased exponentially. Each advance in chip design calls for a calculated application of software modules overseeing logic design, debugging, component placement, wire routing, optimization of time and power consumption, and verification. Due to the computationally intensive nature of EDA workloads, it is no longer cost-effective or timely to run EDA on premises. By powering its EDA with AWS, Marvell leverages an unmatched portfolio of services including secure, elastic, high-performance compute capacity in the cloud to solve challenges around speed, latency, security of IP, and data transfer.
Read full story

More...

(PR) Kontron Presents Compact Motherboards for 13th Generation Intel Processors
Kontron, a leading global provider of IoT/Embedded Computer Technology (ECT), announces that all ATX, µATX and Mini-ITX motherboards supporting the 12th generation Intel Core i processor series will soon receive a comprehensive BIOS update to 13th generation. Equipped with Intel's Performance Hybrid Architecture, they offer a significant increase in performance with lower energy consumption. All boards belong to a product family with synergetic BIOS, uniform drivers and comprehensive tool set for customer-specific settings (default settings, thermal management, boot logo, etc.) and are "designed and made in Germany". They are suitable for IoT applications in the fields of industry, medicine, kiosk, digital signage, POS/POI, video surveillance and casino gaming. They will be available from Q2/2023.



The compact Mini-ITX motherboards K3833-Q and K3832-Q are equipped with the powerful Intel Q670E chipset, which offers extensive features such as vPro Manageability, Stable Image (SIPP) or RAID. They have Dual Intel LAN interfaces incl. teaming as well as TSN and real-time support (TCC), a PCIe x16 Gen 5 expansion slot, USB 3.2 Gen 2 interfaces, an M.2 Key-M and Key-E slot as well as two DIMM sockets for DDR5 memory.
Read full story

More...

(PR) PlayStation VR2 Launches Globally With Dozens of Stunning Virtual Reality Games Available
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) announced today the global launch of its next generation virtual reality headset, PlayStation VR2. Featuring high fidelity visuals, new sensory features and enhanced tracking, PlayStation VR2 takes virtual reality gaming to a whole new level, enabling players to feel a heightened range of sensations unlike any other. The PlayStation VR2 headset and included PlayStation VR2 Sense controller is available at the recommended retail price of $549.99 / €599.99 / £529.99 / ¥74,980



"Providing extraordinary experiences to gamers is what we strive for at PlayStation, and today we are thrilled to start this new chapter in virtual reality gaming with PlayStation VR2," said Jim Ryan, President and CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment. "PlayStation VR2's innovative technology has helped unlock the creativity of the industry's finest developers, who have designed outstanding games that deliver a greater sense of presence for players. I can't wait for fans around the world to experience PlayStation VR2 for themselves."
Read full story

More...

Gigabyte's Aorus Gen5 10000 2TB PCIe 5.0 SSD Pricing Appears Online
It looks like Gigabyte might be the first company to offer a PCIe 5.0 SSD for sale to major markets outside of Japan, since no other brand appears to have launched such a product at the time of this news post. The Aorus Gen5 10000 was launched around two weeks ago, but is currently listed as being on backorder at both Newegg and Amazon in the US. Currently only the 2 TB version is listed and it's coming in at about the same cost as two equivalent PCIe 4.0 drives.



We're not sure if the backorder price of US$339.99 on Newegg is the actual retail price, but considering a 2 TB version of WD's Black SN850X costs US$159.99, it doesn't seems like the very slight performance increase the Aorus Gen5 10000 will bring to the table is going to be worth the asking price. Then again, Gigabyte's SSDs are overpriced on Newegg compared to competing products and the Aorus Gen4 7000s Premium, which features the same heatsink as the Aorus Gen5 10000, retails for US$281.99 on Newegg. Amazon didn't list any pricing as yet.

More...

(PR) XMG Introduces PRO and FOCUS Laptops with i9-13900HX and RTX 4070
With the new PRO and the FOCUS (E23), XMG introduces two laptop series on a similar hardware basis: Both feature Intel's Core i9-13900HX and NVIDIA graphics cards up to the GeForce RTX 4070. While the PRO 15 and PRO 17 are slightly thinner as gaming workstations and boast more extensive connectivity, the FOCUS scores at a more affordable price and is not only available in 15.6 and 17.3-inch versions, but also in a 16-inch format. For the laptops originally designed as an entry-level series, the hardware upgrades mean a significant upgrade: the FOCUS series moves closer to the PRO laptops.



The key components found in the new XMG PRO 15 and PRO 17 as well as the XMG FOCUS 15, FOCUS 16 and FOCUS 17 are almost identical. All laptops employ Intel's Core i9-13900HX with 24 cores (8 P-cores, 16 E-cores) and 32 threads. The freely configurable graphics card options each include NVIDIA's new, DLSS-3-capable GeForce RTX 4050 (FOCUS only) as well as 4060 and 4070 (FOCUS and PRO) with a maximum graphics power rating of up to 140 watts (115 watts TGP plus 25 watts Dynamic Boost 2.0). However, since the clock behaviour and the actual power consumption of the GPUs in the new generation are subject to much more restrictive, application-specific specifications from NVIDIA, the maximum values are only achieved in synthetic stress tests such as Furmark - according to the official requirements of the graphics chip manufacturer.
Read full story

More...

(PR) Intel Slashes Dividend By Two-Thirds, Updates Capital Allocation
Intel Corporation today announced that its board of directors has reset its dividend policy, reducing the quarterly dividend to $0.125 per share (or $0.50 annually) on the company's common stock. The dividend will be payable on June 1, 2023, to stockholders of record on May 7, 2023. Intel also reaffirmed its first-quarter 2023 business outlook provided at its most recent earnings call, including revenue of between $10.5 billion and $11.5 billion; gross margin of 34.1% on a GAAP basis and 39% on a non-GAAP basis; tax rate of (84%) on a GAAP basis and 13% on a non-GAAP basis; and earnings per share of $(0.80) on a GAAP basis and $(0.15) on a non-GAAP basis.



The decision to decrease the quarterly dividend reflects the board's deliberate approach to capital allocation and is designed to best position the company to create long-term value. The improved financial flexibility will support the critical investments needed to execute Intel's transformation during this period of macroeconomic uncertainty. Since first initiated in 1992, Intel's dividend has delivered more than $80 billion in cash returns to the company's stockholders, and the board is committed to maintaining a competitive dividend.
Read full story

More...

AMD Ryzen 9 7900 iGPU Overclocking Pushes Performance Up to 42%
According to SkatterBench, a website known for incredible overclocking attempts, we get to see AMD's Ryzen 7000 series integrated GPU get up to 42% performance improvement from overclocking. Specifically, the SKU used in the attempt was the Ryzen 9 7900 non-X model with 12 cores and 24 threads, clocked at 3.7 GHz base frequency and 5.4 GHz boost speed. The SKU contains a basic AMD GPU integrated into the package; however, not meant for any serious gaming tasks. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see what a two-core RDNA2 GPU clocked at 2.2 GHz managed to achieve once overclocked. The memory clock of the GPU is set to 2.4 GHz at stock.



Running at the base voltage of 0.997 volts under Furmark workload, the iGPU consumes around 38.5 Watts. However, the overclocking attempt pushed the voltage to 1.395 Volts, resulting in a 3.1 GHz iGPU frequency. The GPU Memory clock is now set to 3200 MHz, and the GPU+SOC power is 60.689 Watts, almost double compared to the stock settings. The overclocker used a GFX curve optimizer with various system tweaks to achieve these numbers. While the OC attempt was successful, the most significant performance improvement was a 42% increase, with some game titles averaging less. Below, the blue bar indicates stock, while the green bar indicates OC'd performance. You can check out the YouTube video as well to see more details.
Read full story

More...