Metro 2033 is a newly released game that we did use to test the GeForce GTX 480 in our original review. However, our test settings upset Nvidia as we disabled tessellation. Our reason for this was simple, we found enabling it would degrade performance to a point where the game became unplayable. Even with tessellation disabled, frame rates were still in the lower ranges. The GeForce GTX 480 delivered 35fps on average, making it 5fps faster than the Radeon HD 5870....

As we understand it, Nvidia will already be selling the GeForce GTX 480 well below its intended price at $499. At this price point the card will be some ~$100 more expensive than most Radeon HD 5870s. On average when Nvidia’s new flagship managed to outperform the Radeon HD 5870 it was around 16% faster, yet we are not sure gamers will want to pay a 20% premium for this....

The GTX 650 Ti managed just over 30fps in Crysis 2 at 1680x1050, matching the HD 6970 and beating the 6870 by 13%. Moreover, it was able to outperform the HD 7770 by 19% while beating the GTX 560 Ti by 29%. The GTX 650 Ti produced 41fps at 1680x1050 in Dragon Age II, making it 71% faster than the HD 7770 and 37% faster than the 6870, while also being 5% faster than the GTX 560 Ti and 21% slower than the GTX 660....

The R7 265 regained control in Max Payne 3 as it crushed the GTX 750 Ti by a 31% margin with 59fps versus 45fps. The R7 265 was also 64% faster than the GTX 650 Ti and 9% faster than the 7850, while the GTX 750 Ti was 25% faster than the GTX 650 Ti and 8% slower than the GTX 660. The GTX 750 Ti delivered 24fps in Sleeping Dogs at 1920x1200, 20% slower than the R7 265’s smoother 30fps....

The RTX 2060 matched the GTX 1080 again, this time on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. It was 7% faster than the GTX 1070 Ti and ~10% slower than the RTX 2070. We should note it was also 17% faster than Vega 56. Performance in Hitman 2 will likely be improved. There were a few titles where frame time performance was down for the RTX 2060 from where it normally should be and we don’t believe this to be VRAM capacity related....

Nvidia said it’s investigating at least two cases of burning and melting power adaptors for its new flagship RTX 4090 graphics card. The requirement of a new power connector standard to use with the GPU has caused some controversy. Two Reddit users shared photos of burnt and melted RTX 4090 power connectors on the end of the cable and on the card itself. Nvidia contacted one of the owners in hopes of diagnosing the problem....

You might be wondering, why then are we looking at it given our focus is on gaming hardware? Recently we got some inquiries about this graphics card along the lines of “would you consider buying an RTX A4000 over the RTX 3070 for gaming, and if so how much extra would you spend on the A4000?” Interesting point, since you can actually buy the RTX A4000 on retail. As of writing, you can buy an RTX 3070 over at Newegg and a few other places for around $1,000, while the RTX 3070 Ti version starts at $1,200....

This is the first rumor we’ve seen about AI-driven driver development although we know chip makers already use AI to enhance chip research and development, this could bring tangible performance improvements to GPU hardware. According to another tweet by CapFrameX, the AI “bot” coding these optimizations effectively has complete access over the driver, including access to instructions, throughput, hardware utilization, threading, driver settings and more. This suggests the AI can optimize more than just GPU performance in games, with the potential to improve driver stability as well....

There’s no nice way to say it: the RevoDrive X2 drives are expensive. Our 240GB review sample carries a retail tag of $680, enough to buy you two netbooks or a budget laptop with more storage capacity. Of course, for this price you are getting four SandForce SF-1200 controllers in RAID0. By comparison four Vertex 2 60GB drives would cost at least $550 making the RevoDrive X2 240GB considerably more expensive....

It’s not just the hardware that impresses: OnePlus has finally ditched their ludicrous invite system, so anyone should be able to purchase the OnePlus 3 with relative ease. For a phone that’s sure to be popular over the next twelve months, availability is key. Priced at $400, the OnePlus 3 does not compromise on hardware. This 5.5-inch handset is powered by a modern Snapdragon 820 SoC, and there’s a huge 6 GB of RAM complemented by 64 GB of storage as standard....

1080p on a 5.5-inch display is still a little disappointing considering 1440p displays at this size are the norm, while entry-level phones now offer 1080p. I get that 1080p screens are still nice and sharp, and do present some performance and battery life advantages, however 1440p is just that little bit better and something you’d expect from a flagship. 1440p delivers a far better experience in mobile virtual reality too; perhaps the lower resolution display here is stopping the OnePlus 5 from supporting Google Daydream....

The OnePlus 5 specifically is equipped with up to Category 12/13 LTE, so it’s not utilizing the full capabilities of the integrated Snapdragon X16 modem, which supports up to Cat. 16. With 3CA, 256QAM support in the downstream, you can still achieve up to 600 Mbps depending on your carrier. There’s also Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac support with 2x2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, the usual array of GPS and NFC. There are two RAM and storage configurations for the OnePlus 5: 6GB of RAM with 64GB of NAND, and 8GB of RAM with 128GB of NAND....

World of Tanks is geared toward single-thread performance, so higher clock speeds rule here and this is why the Ryzen 3 1300X is able to outpace the Ryzen 5 1400. The 7700K’s high out of the box operating frequency also gives it an advantage here though with something like the GTX 1060 you won’t see any real difference. As we move to the GTX 1070, the Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs pull ahead and they now offer around 10% more frames than the R3 1300X....

The Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) delivered an official response to the press this week concerning the melting power cables for Nvidia’s latest GPUs. The group’s boilerplate safety reminder suggests it thinks the problem lies not with it or the end users but with manufacturers. The PCI-SIG publishes and manages specifications for many aspects of PCs, including the 12HPWR power cables at the center of the recent controversy....

Update: DuckDuckGo reached out to us for some clarification although our original story was accurate. Then again, we understand there might be some confusion between DuckDuckGo, the search engine, and DuckDuckGo’s browser apps. CEO Gabriel Weinberg published a long post on Reddit which explains in better detail what’s going on if you’re interested. The DuckDuckGo browser is supposed to block trackers from advertisers that sell and trade user data. However, earlier this week, security researcher Zack Edwards discovered that it allows Microsoft to track data through LinkedIn and Bing ad domains....

Verizon announced multiple promotions for the handheld, including a $10 per month financing option spread over 36 months for a total of $360 when you add a new line. Qualifying customers buying a new 5G phone may be able to score the Razer Edge 5G for just $179.99. Announced at RazerCon 2022, the handheld features a 6.8-inch AMOLED display operating at a resolution of 2,400 x 1,080 and a 144Hz refresh rate that’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 Gaming Platform....

Chetu said the employee was required to attend a virtual classroom, which involved leaving their webcam turned on all day and having their screen remotely monitored. The unnamed person said being monitored for “9 hours per day” was an invasion of his privacy and made him feel uncomfortable, so he refused to turn the camera on. Software development company Chetu promptly fired the employee over his “refusal to work” and “insubordination....

Infrared cooking could become a new way to pop popcorn, according to a paper in ACS Food Science & Technology. The study proves that the technology can produce good-tasting popcorn with less energy than a typical microwave oven or air popper. The method has been used to heat other food by directly beaming infrared radiation into it with heated objects like glass or ceramic. Infrared grills use this process to cook meat much quicker than ordinary grills that heat the air around the meat....

Watch Dogs 2 is a heavily CPU bound game and here we see the stock R5 2600 and i5-8400 delivering basically the same performance out of the box. Ignoring the overclocked 2600 for a moment it’s pretty clear the games CPU bound as both processors provide basically the same results across the three resolutions. Overclocked the 2600 is still the performance limiting component at 720p and 1080p but it is up to 22% faster than the 8400....

The 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) video recorded with the camera was not as impressive as the stills captured. The video camera does not have continuous autofocus or zoom controls, and the microphones captured a bit too much background noise. For the price, we would expect a bit better HD video performance than it currently offers. The front-facing camera can be used for self-portraits and video within the camera app, or used for video calls with a third-party app such as Tango....