When testing with Just Cause 2 at 1920x1200, the GeForce GTX 560 Ti averaged 36fps, making it 20% slower than the GTX 570. However, it offered 6% better performance than the GeForce GTX 470 and 9% more than the Radeon HD 6950. Even more impressive was its 16% advantage over the Radeon HD 6870. Mass Effect 2 We relied on Fraps to measure performance on Mass Effect 2. We recorded 60 seconds of gameplay from the level “Lazarus Research Station” and used maximum visual quality settings with 4xAA/16xAF....

Ultimately what all this means is that I able to squeeze 9% more frames out of the 2080 and 5% more out of the 2080 Ti when testing with Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Not mind-blowing but it’s extra performance. The 2080 Ti again saw a 5% boost from the overclock, this time when testing with Strange Brigade. Meanwhile the 2080 saw a similar 7% boost to performance. Again not amazing but it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye....

Although finding a sanely-priced GPU hasn’t been an easy task for a long time now, the situation seems to be improving. Pricing has been steadily declining for the past few months — a trend that will hopefully continue. Nvidia has just announced their “Restocked and Reloaded” campaign with some great bargains on RTX 30 GPUs. At the time of writing, EVGA seems to have some of the best deals on its online store....

May saw RTX 3080 users increase 0.24% among Steam survey participants. It was followed by the RTX 3070 (+0.19%), while the RTX 3060 was fourth (+0.18%). Joining the green team in the top-ten performers’ list was the Radeon RX 6800 XT, which entered with a 0.15% share. It now sits alongside the other RDNA 2 cards—the Radeon RX 6600, Radeon RX 6600 XT, Radeon RX 6700 XT, and Radeon RX 6900 XT—in the main chart, all of which experienced user increases last month....

The Vector 150 scored better than any other SSD in PCMark 7’s importing images test, but as we’ve seen before, it only has a slight edge over the competition with 0.1MB/s over the Vertex 450 and Samsung SSD 840 Pro, and 0.2MB/s over the Vector. The Vector 150 topped the original Vector in the video editing test with a throughput of 22.7MB/s versus 21.9MB/s, and while it was still slower than seven other SSDs tested, the fastest SSD only managed 23....

As you likely know, while manufacturers claim impressive peak I/O performance out of the box, this performance can diminish over time. Unlike a conventional hard drive, any write operation made to an SSD is a two-step process: a data block must be erased and then written to. Obviously if the drive is new and unused there will be nothing to erase and therefore the first step can be bypassed, but this only happens once unless the drive is trimmed....

Intel’s 510 Series (Elm Crest) is also on our to-do list. This will be the next SSD we review, it’s coming very soon, we promise. At least on paper it appears the Intel 510 is in direct competition with the Vertex 3 as 120GB versions of both products are currently retailing for ~$300, while the 240GB Vertex 3 is about $50 cheaper. OCZ is reportedly shipping the final Vertex 3 drives to retailers as we publish this, though most stores appear to be out of stock....

As you likely know, while manufacturers claim impressive peak I/O performance out of the box, this performance can diminish over time. Unlike a conventional hard drive, any write operation made to an SSD is a two-step process: a data block must be erased and then written to. Obviously if the drive is new and unused there will be nothing to erase and therefore the first step can be bypassed, but this only happens once unless the drive is trimmed....

Lanning, speaking on the Xbox Expansion Pass podcast this week (via VGC), said that studio Oddworld Inhabitants had expected Oddworld: Soulstorm to be downloaded around 50,000 to 100,000 times during its run as a PS Plus Free Bundle game, but it was actually downloaded 4 million times. Attracting millions of downloads might be good for a game’s popularity, but it’s always going to have an impact on full-price sales. A “double-edged sword,” as Lanning calls it....

As always, 4K puts forward a more serious challenge for GPUs. Here the R9 380 and GTX 960 averaged around 30fps, which I would call unplayable in this title. Even the GTX 970 provides a bit of a rough experience here at 45fps while the R9 390 was slightly better at 50fps. The cheapest way for gamers to reach that magic 60fps is the R9 Nano. The new $600 GTX 1080 (from board partners) performed admirably with an average of 91fps and this means the card will still be able to deliver over 60fps using the epic quality setting....

During its initial launch the Pyro undercut the Agility 3 by a few bucks ($205 versus $210), but OCZ has since responded by reducing its price to $170 (or $140 after a rebate). Patriot hasn’t answered that move yet and we’re not sure how to read that decision because it puts the Pyro in a tight position between competing drives. Despite costing more, the Pyro claims to offer slightly more speed, citing blazingly fast 550MB/s sequential reads and up to 515MB/s sequential writes using SATA 6....

I ask because over the course of the past six days with the PlayStation TV, I’ve run into several people who had absolutely no idea. My wife, for starters, thought the PlayStation TV was an actual TV, and expressed surprise when I arrived home from Fedex with a package the size of a small shoebox. Later my nephew, who often watches my children for me while I work, asked why I didn’t test the system out with them....

Like most products today, Factorio’s price is increasing—from $30 to $35—due to inflation. Game prices are going up as more titles adopt the new $70 base price, but it’s strange to see one released in 2016 get a hike, especially as it has never been reduced in one of Steam’s many annual sales events. Factorio had a $20 base price during its time in early access, which went up to $30 in 2020 when version 1....

Premium Android smartphones based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform will gain access to a satellite-based two-way messaging system in certain regions starting in the second half of this year. The company made the announcement this week at CES 2023. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Satellite is a response to the Emergency SOS system Apple launched last year for the iPhone 14. Through a network of satellites and ground relay stations Apple helped fund, iPhone 14 users traveling outside traditional wireless network range can transmit their locations if they become lost....

Enough_Dance_956’s ‘Razed saved my life…..’ post includes several images of what appears to be a bullet hole in his window and a damaged Razer headset. According to the 18-year-old, who lives in Torrance, California, a stray bullet came through the glass last Wednesday and ricocheted off the headset they were wearing at the time. The projectile was deflected into a wall before it landed on the bed. The headset in question was the original Razer Kraken....

Mercer knows what he’s talking about having been an auto industry analyst for as long as we have been semis analysts. He has a substack, you should subscribe to. Editor’s Note: Guest author Jonathan Goldberg is the founder of D2D Advisory, a multi-functional consulting firm. Jonathan has developed growth strategies and alliances for companies in the mobile, networking, gaming, and software industries. He did not exactly disagree with everything we wrote, but he added a lot of important nuance....

By now, you should already know AMD plans to release the first Zen 4-based processors during the second half of 2022. We suspect these will include the Ryzen 7000 desktop series chips, said to feature RDNA2 iGPUs, but up until now, AMD hasn’t yet confirmed that. However, there have been rumors about the specifications of these iGPUs. The latest one claims they will feature 2x workgroup processors (WGPs)/4x computation units (CUs) clocked at 1100MHz, but the leaker, Komachi Ensaka, points out this is just a guess....

Insider writes that Benioff repeated claims he made last month about new and remote Salesforce staff falling short of expectations when it comes to productivity. “We don’t have the same level of performance and productivity that we had in 2020 before the pandemic. We do not,” Benioff said. “When we look at some percentage of the employees, especially some of the folks that are new employees [hired during the pandemic], are just not as productive....

Rather than completely dropping the Galaxy Alpha design, Samsung reworked it for a new and much more compelling product. Instead of gunning for the high-end market, this new handset would slot into the mid-range, featuring decent specifications inside the metal body for a reduced price. Enter the Samsung Galaxy A5. In the market for a new smartphone unlocked and off contract? Check out our friends at Expansys, who will sell you the Galaxy A5 and ship it anywhere in the world for a fantastic price....

As NotebookCheck reports, war correspondent @Osinttechnical tweeted a video of a Ukrainian soldier showing his smartphone with the bullet embedded in the case. We can’t see the phone in the video, but the case is believed to be the S-View Flip Cover Case for the Galaxy S20 Ultra. A Twitter user translated the video, revealing that the soldier said his phone cost around $675, further suggesting it is an S20 Ultra....