Battlefield 5 Reveal To Come Next Week During Special Event

It’s been some time since the release of Battlefield 4 and the world is definitely ready for another entry of the first person shooter series created by DICE. A couple of months back, it’s been confirmed that Battlefield 5 is indeed going to be released this year, and next week we will finally hear more about it.

The big Battlefield 5 reveal will be coming next week, May 6th, during a world premiere event.
Following the event, a global livestream starting at 1pm PT / 4pm ET / 9pm BST will show off the first details of the game. Considering how big the Battlefield series has become, this reveal will definitely be big.

Very little is currently known about Battlefield 5. Around one year ago, EA’s CFO Blake Jorgensen has hinted that the serieswill be going back to its military origins. According to other reports, the game will be set during World War I. All these details have yet to be confirmed, but it won’t take much longer to finally learn more about the next DICE developed first person shooter.

The latest entry of the Battlefield series released on consoles and PC is Battlefield Hardline.
The game, developed by Visceral, comes with a rather unusual setting for the series, focused on the war on crime, mechanics such as the Levolution mechanic taken from Battlefield 4, and some brand new play modes inspired by the new setting such as Heist, Rescue, Hotwire and Blood Money. The game’s campaign has been criticized for a variety of reasons, with many finding the whole experience forgettable, especially when compared to Battlefield 4.

Xiaomi Max Will Feature A Hexa-core Processor And 3GB RAM

It appears that we have the complete specifications list for Xiaomi Max courtesy of GFXBench. The latest specifications show that a hexa-core processor and 3GB of RAM are going to be part of the hardware of the gargantuan sized smartphone.

Xiaomi Max Features A Whopping 4,500mAh Battery In Addition To Its Impressive Hardware

While GFXBench has listed Xiaomi Max as sporting 2GB of RAM, GizmoChina has reported that the upcoming device will be coming with 3GB of RAM and a hexa-core processor. The processor’s makeup is going to be as follows:

• Two 1.8GHz Cortex-A72 cores
• Four 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 cores

While the SoC produced on the 28nm process will come nowhere close to the performance of Snapdragon 820 and Exynos 8890, it will still give the mid-ranged chipsets something to think about thanks to the inclusion of Cortex-A72 present in the SoC. What’s more is that the primary selling point of Xiaomi Max is not only going to be its affordable price tag, which is a business model that has long been the success of the company, but its 6.4-inch screen size as well.

The resolution being rendered on the device will be 1080p, and the natural benefits of having a massive phone in your hands will not just be having more room to play games and enjoy high-definition content, but Xiaomi will have ample room to place a massive battery capacity too. According to the source, thanks to the 6.4-inch screen, Max will feature a whopping 4,500mAh cell underneath its chassis. That aforementioned amount is larger than what we see on modern tablets, and that 6.4-inch screen will be the contributing factor to that.

The release date of the massive phablet is going to be May 10, and for its specifications, we believe that it is going to be priced right around the same range as a Redmi Note 3. It is possible that thanks to the larger screen size and battery capacity, the final retail price could go up, but just by a smaller margin, so that the company is able to cater to a larger audience.

Are you guys excited for the imminent arrival of Xiaomi Max? Let us know your thoughts right away.

Geforce GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X and GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5 (Paper) Launching On 6th May at Nvidia Editor’s Event – Market Availability by Computex 2016 in June

The exact date of Nvidia Editor’s Event has finally leaked out. The event will be held on the 6th of May 2016 and will be closed to the public eye, with a vetted list of editors invited. This appears to be a good time to round up everything we know about the next generation lineup so far. Pretty much everything has leaked out and only a few bits and pieces remain to be seen.One of the major things, that is still not confirmed at this point is the public nomenclature Nvidia will be using for its new lineup. Whether it adopts a new nomenclature or christens the new lineup, the Geforce GTX 1000 series, remains to be seen.

Nvidia’s next generation Pascal lineup launching on 6th May, will hit the shelves in June – beats AMD to market

Nvidia will be following an interesting release schedule for the information this time around. The Editor’s Event that Nvidia is hosting will be closed to the public eye and will basically be a briefing about the upcoming Nvidia lineup. The time line, according to the information we currently have, is as follows:

• Our sources tell us that the Editor’s Event will only be for information dissemination. Nvidia has at least two SKUs ready for the event (Source) .

• Reviews are expected to go live within a few weeks after that (Mid-May)

• The cards will have a hard launch at Computex 2016 (Market Availability in June).

The new lineup of Nvidia GPUs will feature a mix of GDDR5X and GDDR5 memory (HBM2 yields are still not ideal and will debut with the full powered GP100 chip in Q1 2017 next year). All cards presented at this event are expected to exceed the minimum VR spec. We have also seen the reference and cooler shroud design that might end up being on the actual cards part of the GTX 1000 series. Without any further ado, here is what we have learned about the lineup so far:

The Geforce GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X Graphics Card with the GP104-400-A1 GPU

Status: Confirmed
Reveal: Editor’s Event 6th May
Paper Launch: Computex 2016
Availability: June 2016

The flagship graphic card of this year, and the first GPU to utilize the brand new GDDR5X standard from Micron, the Nvidia GTX 1080 will be one impressive card. Rocking the GP104-400-A1 GPU flavor the card is expected to feature 2560 CUDA Cores (given a few assumptions about GPCs and the brand new Pascal Architecture). Given that the die size is around the 300mm² mark, we are looking at performance levels roughly faster than the GTX 980 Ti (depending on how it is clocked).

Although there have been multiple leaks about the Geforce GTX 1080 in the last few weeks, this close to the reveal, its pointless to speculate further regarding the specifications of Nvidia’s upcoming GPU. Here is what we do know for sure: Nvidia’s Pascal architecture will be manufactured on the 16nm FinFET process (which inherently brings a 2x Perf/Watt increase).GP100 focused on increasing gimped FP64 performance (that Maxwell suffered from) so the GP104 is expected to focus primarily on single precision performance (good news for games).

The price range of the cards depends entirely on how Nvidia is positioning its lineup. If the GTX 1080 is officially positioned (performance wise) to replace the GTX 980 and not the GTX 980 Ti, then it should be priced somewhere around its $549 price point. On the other hand, if it is positioned (officially) to replace the 980 Ti, the price range can be similar to the MSRP of the Ti: $649 (or even above). In my opinion however, it is more likely that Nvidia will officially position the card against the GTX 980.

The Geforce GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5with the GP104-200-A1 GPU

Status: Confirmed
Reveal: Editor’s Event 6th May
Paper Launch: Computex 2016
Availability: June 2016

This particular piece of graphics technology will feature a cut down GP104 chip. Depending on the amount of Streaming Multiprocessors axed (SMs) you are looking at CUDA Cores in the range of 2048. Considering that the GTX 980 itself had 2048 CUDA Cores, you are looking at a beast of a graphics card (and probably an insane overclocker). Depending on how Nvidia plays the pricing game, this could constitute the sweet spot for value seekers in Nvidia’s 16nm FinFET lineup. We got some beautiful die shots already so we will definitely be seeing this card soon. In my opinion it will probably be priced around the $449 to $549 mark.

The Geforce GTX 1060 (Ti) 6GB GDDR5 with the GP104-150-A1 GPU

Status: Rumored
Reveal: Editor’s Event 6th May (TBC)
Availability: Fall 2016 (TBC)

Various entries for potential Pascal based graphic cards were spotted at 3D Mark a while ago. And if they are anything to go by, Pascal architecture has incredible potential. Which means the GTX 1060 Ti will be nothing to sneeze at. If clocked high enough, the card could even be powerful enough to near the VR minimum spec (GTX 970 performance levels) which will allow Nvidia to market an additional VR ready GPU. The fact that the card has 6GB worth of GDDR5 means that it features a 192 bit bus.

There has existed a gap in Nvidia’s lineup of GPUs which this card could very well fill. VR is the next frontier for GPU manufacturers to concur. With a high attach rate, and a relatively small Total Addressable Market, the race is on to see who can put the most VR capable GPUs out there. The Total Available Market for VR is currently limited by the amount of high end cards on the market right now (GTX 970/R9 290 and above).

If entry-level graphic cards like the GTX 1060 (Ti) can reach the VR minimum spec (roughly 3.5 TFLOPS) then it will expand the market potential by several factors – driving the growth of VR on PC and matching the value proposition of products like the PSVR. AMD has recently vowed to lower the price of the “minimum VR spec” and this could be Nvidia’s attempt to do the same, which would put the price point anywhere between $249 to $329.

The Geforce GTX 1060 4GB GDDR5 with the GP106 GPU

Status: Rumored
Reveal: Editor’s Event 6th May (TBC)
Availability: Fall 2016 (TBC)

Image courtesy of VideoCardz.com

We learned about the GP106 powered GTX 1060 a few weeks ago and according to the rumor mill, the card will be launching in the fall.. The die size appears to be around 200mm² and if the GPU has two Global Processing Clusters then we can expect around 1280 CUDA cores (256 CUDA Cores per Streaming Multi Processor and 5 SMPs per GPC). The Nvidia GTX 1060 should work only on power provided by the PCIe by design but will probably have an optional 6 pin connector added by AIBs to ensure overclocking headroom. Even though the GP106 is near the bottom of the barrel of the Pascal lineup, depending on the clocks, it could still pack a lot of punch thanks to the use of 16nm FinFETs. The time has come when entry level actually means entry level and not a downright horrible gaming experience.

The product placement of this particular GPU is for budget gamers (as opposed to HTPC builds). Keep in mind that there is a further cut down version of the chip, known as the GP107/GP108. These are the variants which will only be useful for HTPC purposes and not any real gaming. Because of this, we can consider the GP106 the last piece of the Pascal lineup that is of any interest to the gaming public. While we don’t know the exact price of this particular GPU, since we are looking at the general price range of GTX 960, the GTX 1060 should be priced anywhere between $179 to $229. 

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 "Rumored" Specs:

Graphics Card Name	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Ti
Graphics Core	GP104	GM200	GP104	GM204	GP104/106
Process Node	16nm FinFET	28nm	16nm FinFET	28nm	16nm FinFET
Transistors	~8 Billion	8 Billion	~6.4 Billion (TBC)	5.2 Billion	~4.8 Billion (TBC)
CUDA Cores	2560 CUDA Cores (TBC)	2816 CUDA Cores	2048 CUDA Cores (TBC)	2048 CUDA Cores	1536 CUDA Cores(TBC)
VRAM	8 GB GDDR5X	6 GB GDDR5	8 GB GDDR5	4 GB GDDR5	6 GB GDDR5
Bus Interface	256-bit bus	384-bit bus	256-bit bus	256-bit bus	192-bit bus
Power Connector	Single 8-Pin Power?	8+6 Pin Power	Single 8-Pin Power?	6+6 Pin Power	Single 8-Pin Power?
TDP	TBC	250W	TBC	165W	TBC
Display Outputs	3x Display Port 1x HDMI 2.0 1x DVI	3x Display Port 1x HDMI 2.0 1x DVI	3x Display Port 1x HDMI 2.0 1x DVI	3x Display Port 1x HDMI 2.0 1x DVI	3x Display Port 1x HDMI 2.0 1x DVI
Launch Date	June 2016	May 2015	June 2016	September 2014	June 2016/Fall 2016 (TBC)

EVGA Teases X99 FTW K Motherboard For Broadwell-E Family – Feature Loaded and Geared For HEDT Enthusiasts

EVGA has teased their latest X99 motherboard designed to support the next generation Broadwell-E processors. While the upcoming Broadwell-E processors are compatible on existing X99 products, AIBs are introducing more powerful motherboards for the upcoming lineup which will be loaded with features and allow compatibility for the Extreme Edition processors in the Haswell-E and Broadwell-E families.

EVGA’s In-house overclocker KINGPIN playing with a X99 FTW K board (Image Credits: KINGPIN Cooling)

EVGA’s X99 FTW K Motherboard Teased – Updated Design For Broadwell-E Family

The X99 FTW K motherboard was teased by EVGA’s product manager, Jacob Freeman. The motherboard looks similar to the X99 FTW which was released back in 2014 but comes with a updated design and a range of new features. The X99 FTW K goes with a complete black color scheme which EVGA is known for and has a neater layout compared to the previous design. Aside from the updated design, the motherboard will support Intel’s Broadwell-E chips from the start without the need to update BIOS which is a must for existing products.

Talking about the motherboard and its technical specifications, we are looking at a product that features the LGA 2011-3 socket. The standard socket is designed to support Haswell-E and Broadwell-E processors. Board comes with eight DDR4 DIMM slots which support high frequency memory sticks that can be overclocked to higher frequencies. Since the design is similar to the previous product, we believe that the CPU socket will be powered by a 8-Pin power connector.

EVGA’s X99 FTW K Motherboard Is Launching For Broadwell-E.

Expansion slots include five, full length PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots and a single PCI-e 3.0 x1 slot. The addition we noticed is that the X99 FTW K removes the PCI-e 3.0 x4 slot in place of a M.2 slot which can be used to house a fast SSD for storage. Storage options include 10 SATA III 6 GB/s ports which means that EVGA hasn’t went with either SATA Express or U.2 ports. An auxiliary 6-Pin power connector is placed on the bottom of the board that provides additional power to the expansion slots and the board when running multi-GPU setups and overclock.

EVGA is known for right angled connectors and they have a range of those on the board. The 24-Pin connector, the dual USB 3.0 ports, several system fan connectors and voltage check points. There’s also switches to disable PCI-Express slots which come in handy when you want to put use of those extra PCI-e lanes elsewhere. The X99 FTW K has a vast array of I/O parts which are similar to its older sibling along with a fully tuned audio panel that is found on the motherboard.

The existing EVGA X99 family is also fully geared with features and overclocking support. (Image Credits: NCIX)

EVGA and other manufacturers are getting ready for Intel’s Broadwell-E launch at Computex 2016. The CPU line comes with four new processors including the first 10 core processor (Core i7-6950X). The X99 platform will be designed for HEDT enthusiasts and gamers who want the best performance available and that is what X99 aims to be

Call of Duty Infinite Warfare Trademarked In The US

Earlier this week, it’s been revealed that the next entry of the Call of Duty is apparently going to be named Call of Duty Infinite Warfare. The game’s name emerged following a listing on the PlayStation Store, and it’s been confirmed by some promotional material that has emerged online following the original reveal. Today, something else confirming the game’s name has emerged online.

Earlier this week, Activision has filed a trademark for Call of Duty Infinite Warfare and Infinite Warfare in the US, making the name pretty much the official name of the next entry of the Call of Duty series. Both trademarks have been filed on April 26th.

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Yesterday, another leaked Call of Duty Infinite Warfare image has surfaced online, confirming some additional details on the already revealed remaster of Call of Duty 4: Moder Warfare. According to the image, the remastered version of one of the more popular entries of the series will include both the main campaign and 10 multiplayer maps. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered is apparently only going to be included in the game’s Legacy Edition. All the details on Call of Duty Infinite Warfare are still unconfirmed, so we must take this with a grain of salt until an official confirmation comes in.

Call of Duty Infinite Warfare has yet to be confirmed officially, but it should be released on November 4th, according to the leaked images. Formats have still to be confirmed, but it shouldn’t take much longer for an official announcement. We will keep you updated on the matter as soon as more comes in on it, so stay tuned for all the latest news.

Quantum Break PC New Title Update Now Out, Includes Frame Pacing Fix, Upscaling Option And More

Earlier this week, a new title update has been released for the Xbox One version of Quantum Break, the new third person game developed by Remedy Entertainment. The same title update for the Windows 10 version of the game was still in certification, but today it’s been confirmed that the update is now out.

Remedy’s head of PR Thomas Puha has confirmed on Twitter that Title Update 2 for Quantum Break Windows 10 is now available for download. The update fixes frame pacing issues and includes the option to turn on and off the film grain and upscaling. The new title update is around 27 GB, so it may take some time to complete the download for some.

These are only some of the many fixes included in the Quantum Break Title Update 2. You can find the full patch notes below.

Act Fixes/Updates:

• Act 1 Part 1: Fixed a rare instance of taxi being missing from the intro cinematic
• Act 1 Part 2: Fixed assets disappearing if players backtrack
• Act 1 Part 2: Fixed an issue where players could not kill the guard in the parking lot
• Act 1 Part 3: Fixed backtracking issues where some parts could unload
• Act 1: Fixed overlapping audio in opening cinematic
• Act 2 Part 1: Fixed Nick pathing issues
• Act 2 Part 1: You can no longer get underneath the puzzle at the security station
• Act 2 Part 2: First Chronon source renders properly
• Act 2 Part 3: Added collision on time machine corridor to prevent player’s accidentally falling to their death
• Act 2 Part 3: Fixed backtracking issues where some parts could unload
• Act 2 Part 3: Fixed rare NPC issues where Amy or Nick could be killed or block the door
• Junction 3: Fixed Hatch being hidden if the user skips a future vision too quickly
• Junction 4: Fixed flickering environment outside office building
• Act 5: Fixed last subtitle going by too quickly to read
• Act 5: Fixed missing line in Portuguese audio in a cinematic

General Fixes/Updates:

• Fixed issue where ambient sounds disappeared when mashing buttons during a cinematic
• Removed unnecessary loading screens showing up
• Updated credits
• World no longer visibly unloads after Jack lets Beth and NPC into the Swimming Pool front door
• Amy no longer remains still and without pathing towards gate in train yard
• Fixed Jack’s subtitles not showing in somecinematics
• Unlock descriptions for Will Diary 1 and Will Diary 2 are no longer reversed
• Fix for blinking lights, where flares would blink excessively bright after resuming from suspend mode
• Fixes for making Xbox Live integration more fault-tolerant
• Remedy logo fix*
• Fix for a rare bug that accidentally wiped progress after completing the game
• Fix for some TV screens sometimes showing a really grainy image
• Fixed circular progress bar alpha in the junction stats screen
• Fixed video playback not always ending if the video was synced to audio
• Fixed two rare instances of stalls when loading
• Fixed a rare crash with the video texture system
• Fixed crash in download menu when switching profiles
• Fixed “Waiting for install to complete” text not being localized when changing the language
• Game/story/collectible progress hero stats no longer display incorrectly when player has less than a percent of progress
• Fixed rare instances of cloud saves failing and causing loss of progress

Apple Watch Running Windows 95 Is The Most Amazing Thing You’ll See Today – Video

Since the launch of Apple’s wearable, we have seen a lot of tricks put up in front. However, one unsatisfied hacker summoned the ages old desktop operating system on the Apple Watch. On the other hand, Windows 95 itself has not seen any attention for years now, so feast your eyes on the ghost of the ancient Windows 95 running on the Apple Watch.

Apple Watch Running Windows 95 Through Modifying Apple’s Development Software

Developer, Nick Lee has taken the challenge to put the dusty old operating system in a brand new Apple Watch. As pleasing it may sound, the developer succeeded in doing so. As you can see in the video embedded below, the time required to boot up is immense. Lee explains, “Due to the fact that it is emulated (not virtualized), it takes about an hour to boot.” Once the Apple Watch boots up Windows 95 after an hour long wait, you can see that the overall experience is pretty slow. Nonetheless, the video shows that it is functional, irrespective of the hardship that the developer had to endure in terms of navigation.

Despite of the sluggish results, Lee points out on his own blog that the Apple Watch is a more powerful device than the original computers in which the Windows 95 operating system was installed. Henceforth, the Apple Watch is a capable device that can run the ancient software. See the video shared below for more details.

Even though the hack justifies the Apple Watch’s capability, Apple would have been very disappointed on the scenario. If you’re a little tech savvy on the inside, you must know that Lee had to modify Apple development software in “rather unorthodox ways.” Once the developer did that, it made the Apple Watch recognize Windows 95 as a Watch app. Moreover, the modification also acted as an emulator that provided necessary conditions for Windows 95 to run and function on.

Apart from the technical modification that the Apple Watch went through, there’s another step to it that was necessary. As we know the Apple Watch’s display shuts down after a specific period of time when it’s not in use, the developer had to keep rotating the Digital Crown through a motorized tube, as you can see in the video.

It’s definitely good to see what creative people can do with their devices, but having Windows 95 running on Apple’s wearable is really something to admire. What do you guys think about this hack? How nostalgic is it for you to see an Apple Watch running Windows 95? Let us know in the comments.