Slot-loading Blu-ray drive? Check. HDMI in and out? Absolutely, considering the Xbox One is meant to play a central role in the living room. There’s an octa-core processor based on AMD’s Jaguar design and 8GB of RAM to go up against the Sony PlayStation 4, plus USB 3.0 ports, 500GB of hard drive storage, WiFi Direct for communicating with the new controller and other devices, and a humungous amount of silicon to drive it all: no fewer than five billion transistors, which compares to 1.4 billion in your average Intel or AMD chip (although Microsoft may be included other processors and [...]

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Microsoft debuted the Xbox One this afternoon live from a tent on its Redmond, Wash., campus, putting to end months of speculation about the company’s next-generation video game console. The console will be available “later this year.” Microsoft exec Don Mattrick called it out as an “all-in-one” box. The core strategy is “simple, instant and complete.” It was debuted alongside a new gamepad as well as a new Kinect motion camera. The system itself is all black and features a two-tone finish with both matte and gloss in equal measure; a slot-loading Blu-ray [...]

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  So, here we are. The big phones of 2013 (well, the first half of it at least – we’ve still got the iPhone 5S / iPhone 6 to land at some point) have all landed and you’re probably wondering which is best. Well, it’s not as easy as usual, as we have three stand-out contenders for the throne of best smartphone. Luckily for you fancy people we’ve spent weeks with all three and have put together this in-depth test to show where the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z have strength and weakness. So, onto the battle… it’s not going to be pretty, but at the [...]

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Picking some of our benchmarks is easy enough. The x264 HD test is a great guide to video encode performance. It’s straight in. Cinebench gives a glimpse of how CPUs perform in professional applications which major on threading. Stick that on the list. Memory bandwidth is interesting in terms of the insight it gives to platform scalability and, therefore, makes the grade. Then there’s power consumption, which will split opinion in terms of its relevance on the desktop. At the very least, it reveals the underlying efficiency of a CPU architecture. Of course, we’re big fans of overclocking [...]

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  AMD came roaring into GDC 2013 with a vengeance. Not only did the chipmaker introduce its first branded line of dedicated cloud gaming graphics cards – the Radeon Sky Series – we got a taste of what it claims is the world’s fastest GPU. Attendees of a Tuesday night press conference saw the GPU, the Radeon HD 7990, make its first public appearance. Later, a set of 7990s powered EA’s 17-minute introductory Battlefield 4 demo on the big screen. And though Sony spent more time talking about the PS4′s DualShock controller than AMD’s chippy contributions at the [...]

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AMD did not went into specifics of the GPU but it has been known for a while that the Radeon HD 7990 from AMD would be codenamed Malta and feature Dual Tahiti GPU cores clocked around 1000 – 1100 MHz and would feature a 6 GB (3 GB per GPU) VRAM running across a 384 bit x2 interface. You may notice how AMD has labeled the slide as a preview of the upcoming product which means that its launch (previously reported around Q2 2013) might not be far away. AMD is also said to be preparing a new tech demo based on CryEngine 3 which would be showcased on the Radeon HD 7990 launch. The card is powered [...]

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AMD announced this morning that last nights demonstration of Battlefield 4 was powered by the AMD Radeon HD 7990 ‘Malta’ video card! AMD also goes on to say that the AMD Radeon HD 7990 is the worlds fastest video card, which might get some people over at NVIDIA upset as the card isn’t for sale just yet! Based on this news we can assume safely that Battlefield 4 will be an AMD game title! This is bad news for NVIDIA GeForce fans, but good news for AMD Radeon fans. Will this mean that Battlefield will soon be part of an AMD gaming bundle later this year? Only time will tell, [...]

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The Samsung Galaxy S4 brings a huge Full HD screen, an improved camera and faster innards, and fits it all in a chassis the same size as the Galaxy S3. However, many will struggle to tell the difference between the S4 and its predecessor, as the polycarbonate chassis is still in use; although the metallic banding around the side, while still plastic, is much sturdier and feels more premium. We’ve already seen a lot of the Samsung Galaxy S4 features, as it’s been snapped multiple times in leaks – some more accurate than others, it has to be said – and the specs mooted have turned [...]

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We were half expecting AMD’s next graphics card to be some sort of supercomputing colossus, given all the buzz around NVIDIA’s GTX Titan. As it turns out, though, we’re looking at something more subtle and just slightly more affordable: the new Radeon HD 7790. It slots into a cosy niche between the 7770 and the 7850, targeting gamers who want a good helping of 28nm silicon and potential for CrossFire expansion but who don’t want to stretch beyond $149. Efficiency tweaks allow the 7790 to offer almost 50 percent more processing power than the 7770 while only demanding a [...]

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  The Samsung Galaxy S4 is here. One of the most anticipated handsets in a while, Samsung took the wraps off the device at a glittering event at New York’s famous Radio City Music Hall. Check out our full Hands on: Galaxy S4 review for our first impressions of the device. For those who weren’t lucky enough to get into Radio City Music Hall, Samsung also gave fans a chance to join the live stream from Times Square. Needless to say the likes of the HTC One, Sony Xperia Z and the now aging iPhone 5 have some pretty meaty competition, so here’s our complete lowdown on the new [...]

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