Jason

Hell Freezes Over: Microsoft Enables PS4, Xbox One Gamers To Play Together Online

Hell may have officially frozen over this morning, as Microsoft has announced support for not just native cross-platform play between Xbox Live-enabled games on Xbox One and Windows 10 systems (ala <i>Rocket League</i>), but cross-<i>network</i> play too. PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live gamers playing together in …

New 'Rise Of The Tomb Raider' PC Patch Sneaks In DX12, Unannounced Nvidia GameWorks Feature

<b>Rise of the Tomb Raider</b> received a new patch today, activating its dormant <b>DirectX 12</b> option and sneaking in a previously unannounced <b>Nvidia GameWorks</b> feature called VXAO into the latest Lara Croft outing from Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix.<p>The addition of DirectX 12 support to <i>Rise of the Tomb</i> …

Nvidia GameWorks HBAO+ Behind Visual Corruption In Gears Of War Ultimate Edition

Earlier this week Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was exclusively released on the Windows 10 Store as the world’s first DirectX 12 game. An event that …

ExtremeTalk: Let's talk about the 'PC Master Race' - ExtremeTech

ExtremeTalk: Let’s talk about the ‘PC Master Race’<p>By on March 5, 2016 at 8:00 am<p>This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. …

Introducing The People's Bench: Intel Edition -- GPU Benchmarking For Normal PC Gamers

You may have noticed a distinct absence of tech coverage in this space lately, and it’s time to remedy that. I’ve spent some time rethinking my approach, specifically in the graphics card department. Yes, the allure of testing the latest AMD and Nvidia GPUs and framing the resulting conversations …

AMD Teases External GPU Announcement, Hinting At Universal Laptop Support

Is AMD working on an external graphics card solution for amplifying your gaming notebook’s capabilities? If the tease AMD’s Robert Hallock just dropped on Facebook is any indication, the answer is a confident yes.<p>External GPU docks like Alienware’s Graphics Amplifier and MSI’s Gaming Dock solve a …

Rise of the Tomb Raider first-month PC sales almost triple Xbox One debut, report says

Research group Superdata today released its digital sales report for January 2016, and among other things, it was revealed that Square Enix's Rise of the Tomb Raider sold nearly three times more copies on PC in its first month than the Xbox One version over the same period of time in …

Microsoft's killing Skylake support early for Windows 7 PCs, but not Windows Server

Microsoft disappointed many Windows users when it announced in January that it was yanking support early for Skylake PCs running older versions of Windows, including Windows 7. But recent news might give those users some hope: Microsoft’s not applying those rules to Windows Server—meaning …

Valve Releases Free SteamVR PC Performance Test -- No VR Headset Required

We already have a barebones tool for testing our PC’s VR readiness from Oculus, but Valve is upping the ante a bit, releasing a <b>SteamVR Performance Test</b> to the masses. It’s free, and you don’t need an HTC Vive VR headset (or any VR headset) to run the benchmark, though you will need to have Steam …

I have been billed the "Bernie of Tech" by one of my readers and I have a YUUUUGE smile on my face. https://t.co/rcajBRvzD6

No, A $799 HTC Vive Is Not Going To Kill VR

In partnership with Valve, HTC has announced the price of its complete <b>Vive virtual reality system</b> at Mobile World Congress: <b>$799</b>. Right on cue, the internet started proclaiming the death of VR due to exorbitant, consumer-unfriendly costs.<p>“Odd that they would spend so many millions on development and …

[UPDATED] These Are The CPUs AMD Suggests For Building VR Ready PCs -- Including 2 Unreleased Parts

<b>[UPDATE 2/12/2016 11:00am</b> -- <i>AMD reached out with an update this morning, indicating that contrary to our original conversation yesterday, currently only FX parts have been tested to run VR at this time, while the Athlon and APUs listed in the chart below have not been "qualified." AMD will be</i> …

How To Build An Oculus Rift Gaming PC For $300 Less Than Off-The-Shelf Systems

Oculus has revealed the initial batch of <b>Oculus Rift Ready PCs</b> from Dell, Asus, and Alienware, all of which are available to pre-order on February 16. But you can <b>build your own for about $300 less</b> than even the <i>cheapest</i> pre-built system from ASUS.<p>I’m going to show you two part lists. The first will …

Iron Maiden: The Book of Souls

Metal's most fanciful band has gilded its 16th LP with the usual tales of kings, battles and foolhardy missions to the sky — but while those topics …

Chris Cornell: Higher Truth

Soundgarden's Chris Cornell has always had a quiet side, even when the iconic grunge band he fronted was raging like a punk-rock Zeppelin. Here, he …

Watch the Dramatic New Trailer for Steve Jobs

A new trailer for Danny Boyle's upcoming biopic <i>Steve Jobs</i> has ben released. Starring Michael Fassbender as the legendary tech pioneer, the film charts Jobs' relationship with his company, his inventions, and his family, structured around three of Apple's key product launches.<p>Check out the trailer …

AMD Forms Radeon Technologies Group, Taps Raja Koduri To Lead Team Dedicated To Graphics Growth

AMD’s Raja Koduri is kind of a big deal. In ATI’s glory days, he was the principle architect of the R300 GPU — the world’s first DirectX 9-capable graphics card — which put the company on a path to be extremely competitive against Nvidia. Under Steve Jobs as Apple's director of graphics …

Re: new liquid cooled laptop from @ASUS: 1: It's the Kim Kardashian of laptops 2: Is that a George Foreman grill? http://t.co/ezjdZASabB

On Launch Day, Gamers Are Increasingly Asking 'Is It Playable' Instead Of 'Is It Worth Playing?'

Warner Bros. Interactive released a new video game on PC today called <i>Mad Max</i>. You’ve probably heard of it, even if it was inexplicably sent to die against the 500 pound gorilla that is <i>Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain</i>. I woke up this morning not necessarily eager to read reviews of the latest …

With Media Center DOA In Windows 10, Microsoft Adds $15 DVD App To Windows Store

When Microsoft first laid out all of the changes that were coming to Windows 10, one that didn't seem too surprising was the removal of Windows Media …

Fight! Custom Radeon Fury, GTX 980 graphics cards brawl for PC gaming supremacy

Why didn’t you test the powerful Asus Strix Fury against a custom-designed GeForce GTX 980 graphics card?<p>That was the question droves of commenters posed after the first round of reviews for AMD’s air-cooled beast hit the Interwebs. The vast majority of the initial comparisons pitted a reference …

Overclocking Retail Intel Core i7-5960X CPUs

We sit down with Intel's Paul Zagacki to talk Devil's Canyon, Haswell-E and overclocking. Then, we overclock five retail Core i7-5960X CPUs to their …

Best Cooling

Lower CPU temperatures provide improved stability, efficiency and reliability. This benefits everyone, from overclockers seeking the highest work …

OCZ Trion 100 review: An affordable SSD with a problem

OCZ’s new Trion SATA 6Mbps SSD is the NAND equivalent of a combo drive: It uses slow but dense 19nm TLC (Triple Level Cell) for the majority of its storage, and a cache of much faster SLC NAND to increase performance. It’s not the only drive on the market that uses the fast/slower NAND model, but …

Nvidia tosses a free copy of Metal Gear Solid V in with GeForce graphics cards

It’s official: Nvidia confirmed today that most of its 900-series graphics cards will now be bundled with <i>Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain</i> after the deal started showing up on Newegg earlier this week. And I find that sentence pretty amazing, considering <i>Metal Gear Solid</i> took a decade-long hiatus …

AMD launches affordable A8-7670K APU for gaming PCs built on a budget

After a long period of status quo, AMD is showing signs of life on the graphics side with the kick-ass Radeon R9 Fury and Fury X and the new Radeon R300-series. The company's still in comeback mode when it comes to computer processors, however, after a recently sluggish PC market resulted in lower …

Celebrate the Windows 10 'ninjacat' meme with new Microsoft desktop wallpapers

Inexplicably, a ninja cat riding a unicorn became the symbol of Windows 10. So now you can download your own custom wallpaper to get ready for the release of Microsoft’s new operating system. Naturally.<p>As Windows Insider Gabe Aul explained, the ninjacat is now riding three custom steeds: the …

WASD Warriors Rejoice, Xbox One Getting Keyboard And Mouse Support

In his tweets, Spencer also alluded to liking the concept of PC to Xbox One streaming. "I like the idea of Win10->Xbox One streaming but don't have a …