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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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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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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Tamasi pulls no punches when it comes to PS4′s ‘outdated’ specs The PlayStation 4 announcement last month immediately led to a PS4 vs Xbox 720 debate, but perhaps Sony and Microsoft’s next-generation consoles are competing for second place. “Compared to gaming PCs, the PS4 specs are in the neighborhood of a low-end CPU, and a low- to mid-range GPU side,” said Nvidia’s Tony Tamasi to TechRadar. As Nvidia’s senior vice president of content and development, he sees the PS4′s specs as outdated, even today. “If the PS4 ships in December [...]

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    Our continually updated list of all the best laptops available today. Now that Windows 8 has arrived, Ultrabooks are taking off in popularity and laptop-tablet hybrids are beginning to be released more and more, choosing the right laptop for you can be even more confusing than ever. Cheap laptops are more powerful and capable than before, while high-end devices are often perfectly good replacements for your desktop computer, able to cope with more intensive programs. Those after a fast boot up time and a lightweight machine to carry might drool over an Ultrabook. Serious gamers [...]

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  ImageWould you look at that? NVIDIA hinted it would be coming today, and it looks like the tease is living up to the hype. The company stormed into the weekend at its Shanghai Game Festival by unleashing its latest offering, the GeForce GTX 690 — and oh yeah, it’s packing two 28nm Kepler GPUs! Trumping the recently released GTX 680 as the “worlds fastest graphics card,” it’s loaded with a whopping 3,072 Cuda cores. The outer frame is made from trivalent chromium-plated aluminum, while you’ll find thixomolded magnesium alloy around the fan for vibration [...]

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Retailer Game, owner of the Game and Gamestation chains has entered administration. The chain has 1,270 outlets in Europe and Australia and rumors have circulated for months concerning unrest at the highest levels of the business. It was unable to agree deals with publishers Capcom and Electronic Arts for the latest titles, meaning it had to turn away customers looking to buy Mass Effect 3 during its blockbuster opening weekend. After the board informed shareholders that “it’s uncertain any of the solutions [...] being explored by the board will be successful,” the company’s [...]

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