One of the most anticipated releases of 2022, Steam Deck allows you to play all of your favorite PC games right in your hands. It combines the portability of a Nintendo Switch with the power of a gaming PC. The significant difference between the two systems? The Switch is a closed system, while the Steam Deck is an open PC connecting any hardware type. So, technically you could use a VR device with it. The challenge is whether or not you’ll get the whole experience. Are VR Devices Compatible With the Steam Deck? As an open PC, you have a lot of flexibility when using
Stories You Might’ve Missed: Microsoft CLAW VR, AMDFLAWS and more
In the second week of March, from the 9th to the 16th, more stories broke. Microsoft, AMD and Bose were all in the news for vastly different reasons, but all of these reasons were relevant to the world of VR. Or, in Bose’s case, AR. This segment, Stories You Might’ve Missed, is for news stories that broke but weren’t given articles on our site. Let’s see what we missed. Microsoft shows off prototype CLAW VR controller One of the most interesting stories to break in March was the debut of the CLAW VR controller from Microsoft. In their blog post and YouTube video (embedded above),
AMD: We are ramping our GPU production
Because of the increasing market demand, AMD said that they are planning to increase production of graphics cards which are currently in short supply. Recently they launched RX Vega GPU that you simply can not buy anymore because of the raising popularity inside of the crypto mining community. AMD admitted that their Radeon cards were also in short supply and said that the “guilty ones” were exactly the mining applications. Therefore, the company promised to increase production and said that they are hoping to satisfy the growing demand without disappointing any of its customers. “The graphics channel is very low, and we are certainly working
VRWorld: Our Most Popular Stories of 2017
While we have recently covered our choices for the Top 10 VR/AR Stories of 2017, and while some of those stories happened to also be among the most popular amongst our readers last year, there were also a number of additional stories that proved popular. In this piece, we take at the top ten stories — based on reader popularity — in 2017. #10: Bethesda’s VR World: DOOM VFR, Fallout 4 VR and Skyrim PSVR This summertime article addressed how AAA game developer Bethesda was poised to bring a dramatic improvement to VR gaming with the then-pending releases of Doom VFR, Fallout 4 VR and
Intel’s Greatest Mistake: Meltdown, Spectre and Why Your CPU Is In Danger
To start the New Year, two major new hardware exploits have been publicized. And people are going nuts. Since the news of these exploits has come out, AMD stock has skyrocketed while Intel’s has dipped significantly. PC hardware enthusiasts everywhere are running around screaming, and if you aren’t hyper-tuned into the world of hardware you may not understand why. Let us break it down for you. What’s happening? Two new hardware-based exploits have been publicized: Meltdown and Spectre. While both issues can be mitigated, it may be impossible to fix them outright without fundamental changes in hardware architecture from manufacturers. What is Meltdown? Meltdown is an attack
AMD Releases Blockchain-Only Driver to Help You Make Money
There’s no denying that blockchain technology is taking a strong foothold in the market, and that it can no longer considered a fad. Using a graphics card to mine cryptocurrencies is somewhat a controversial topic, as gamers complain about the inability to acquire graphics cards to be gaming cards. However, financial results from AMD and NVIDIA are showing that a double digit revenue improvement, and profits associated with it will enable both companies to invest more in R&D. We are not far off from companies offering dedicated mining cards which might even split from the brands of today. After all, NVIDIA Tesla used to be
Microsoft Launches Windows 10 Pro for Workstations
Microsoft demonstrated today that the company is keeping its flagship product in touch with the advances in computer hardware. The company announced new version of Windows 10 Pro, named Windows 10 Pro for Workstations. This OS is slated to arrive with the Fall edition of Windows Creators Update. With AMD and Intel releasing 32- and 28-core processors, reporting as much as 128 cores/threads in a 2P (dual socket) configuration, the question how will Microsoft follow the breakneck pace of CPU and GPU wars. New Windows 10 Pro represents a highly tuned version of operating system, focusing on reducing system latency and increasing responsiveness as much
AMD’s CEO Lisa Su: Virtual Reality Could Grow to 100 million Users in 5 Years
AMD is focused. Those three words best describe AMD’s quarterly results, growing in revenue from $1.03 to 1.22 billion (YoY). Biggest gain was recorded in the Radeon and Ryzen business, i.e. Computing and Graphics. That business segment grew 51%, recording full quarter of RYZEN revenue, and of course, growth in eSports and surprisingly to Wall Street, cryptocurrency demand. In an recorded interview with Sushie Gharib from Fortune, AMD CEO Lisa Su stated that “there is no one thing in magic, when it comes to turning around large corporations, but it is all about focus.” Gong back to the drawing board with CPU and GPU roadmaps
New Mining-Oriented GPUs from AMD, NVIDIA Launching Soon
As new cryptocurrencies become available, as is the case of Ethereum and Zcash, more and more people try their luck in mining. Even the difficulties increased in BitCoin (BTC), the record growth over the past 12 months (365 days ago, BTC traded at $579.35. Today it trades at $2783.43) got people investing in purchasing mining computers. This increased interest in mineable cryptocurrency has led to a virtual lack of availability in shops of high performance video cards, and specifically all AMD-based GPUs since 2009, from 7000-series until today’s RX580 videocards from AMD. These cards are basically nowhere to be found. We received comments from some of
Rivet Networks Launches Networking Software, Wi-Fi and 10 Gbps
AMD and Intel both came out with guns blazing at this year’s Computex Taipei. Core i9 and the X299 chipset is a reaction to AMD’s RYZEN THREADRIPPER (yes, it’s not written in all caps, but it looks better) and their X399 chipset. Yet, perhaps the most important thing for the PC of 2017/2018 isn’t the processor, but the fact that we’re finally getting Wi-Fi as a standard on PC motherboards (yes, only 14 years after Intel launched Centrino) and the proliferation of 5 and 10 Gigabit networking for the enthusiast and gaming market. Let’s face it, if you have a fast NVMe SSD storage, the best
News Roundup
In today’s roundup, we look at the most interesting news around the world. AMD’s Financial Analyst Day PDFs Available for Download http://ir.amd.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=74093&p=irol-analystday AMD’s Financial Analyst Day was marked with the stock shooting for the stars one day, and then crashing down the other, as investors didn’t got the expected Intel announcement. Intel is currently operating in dangerous territory with a month-to-month agreement with NVIDIA, after the original contract expired on March 31st, 2017. Intel has to sign either with AMD or NVIDIA, or face the (legal) music again. But forgetting about the legal wranglings, if you’re an enthusiast or want to see what AMD is cooking for
Can Baahubali and its VR Experience Break Bollywood into Mainstream?
There’s no denying that the Indian movie industry is one of world’s leading cinemas, and one of most productive industries in the world. The amount of Bollywood movies that are coming out is just staggering, and easily beats Chinese or the American production capabilities. However, the need to support multiple languages (Hindu, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu – barely any English) caused strain on the budgets, limiting the directors vision. Enter Baahubali Series, with the second movie breaking all the domestic and global records for an Indian-made movie. Baahubali 2: The Conclusion opened on a record number of theaters in India, numbering more than 7,000 screens. That is
AMD’s Next Generation GPU to Feature 384-bit GDDR6 Memory?
Last year, Micron collaborated with NVIDIA and brought forward GDDR5X memory, with 2.5 GHz QDR clock i.e. “10Gbps per pin” achieving record bandwidth per pin. With GTX 1080 Ti and TITAN Xp, Micron and NVIDIA went 10% up and reached 11Gbps, with some lucky owners able to reach 3GHz QDR i.e. “12Gbps per pin”. That all is set to change with SK Hynix launching the GDDR6 memory. Debuting on AMD (and NVIDIA) graphics cards in about six-to-eight months from now, GDDR6 replaces GDDR5 and GDDR5X, bringing great times for improvments for GPUs and FPGAs. SK Hynix introduced the world’s fastest 8Gb (i.e. 1GB) Graphics DDR6 DRAM chip. Its operating
Intel Reacts to AMD, Accelerates New Processors and Platforms
Following what was expected, yet still surprising launch of AMD RYZEN, and lackluster performance from its broken “Tick-Tock-Tock-Tock…” cadence refresh called “Kaby Lake”, Intel started to pull multiple moves in the background to react to the threats to their core business. Just like the rise of GPU was met with a multi-billion acquisition of Altera, whose combined x86-FPGA processors are still nowhere near the market launch, upcoming End of Life / Termination notice for Xeon Phi and rushed multi-billion acquisition of Mobileye… the reactions are starting to look chaotic and unplanned. Reliable sources report that Intel brought forward the launch of their 2017/18 platforms: two month
Top 10 Stories to Read on April 20th
Starting today, on April 20th we’re launching a new daily section covering the latest news from the world of technology. Every day we’ll try to bring Top 10 stories for you to read and eny. We hope you’ll enjoy them. Hold on, memory will be cheaper (soon?) http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20170418PD203.html “Major NAND flash suppliers including Samsung Electronics, Micron Technology and Toshiba have rolled out 64-layer 3D NAND flash products, said the sources. SK Hynix has even introduced what the company claims is the industry’s first 72-layer 3D NAND flash chips.” Microsoft explains why the company opted against combining Polaris GPU with RYZEN CPU architecture http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2017-the-scorpio-engine-in-depth “There are
AMD Launches Polaris Refresh, Wants to Make World VR Ready
After a series of leaks, AMD finally launched a refresh – or a rebrand – or their Polaris GPU product family. Some minor tweaks enabled Polaris 10 became Polaris 20, and so on, and so forth. The products launching today are Radeon RX 550, 560, 570 and 580. As AMD states, the new line-up is designed to further reduce the barrier of entry to VR capable i.e. “VR Ready” hardware, enable performance at higher resolutions such as 2560×1440 or 3440×1440 etc. Gamers should be able to stream their titles, and achieve great frame rate in the most played titles of today and hopefully tomorrow. According to AMD,
Two New X86 CPU Vendors coming to Market in 2018, 2020
One of everlasting legacies from former President of The United States (POTUS) Mr. Barrack Obama will be the creation of Chinese semiconductor industry. Following the ban on completion of Tianhe-2 supercomputer in 2014, Chinese government did not double down, but decided to put semiconductor industry as one of top 3 national priorities, and started to infuse over a quarter of trillion U.S. dollars, i.e. 2 trillion RMB (Yuan) into the domestic semiconductor industry, creating not a train, but a “Hyperloop Express” that is changing the semiconductor industry landscape. First, we’re starting to see the power of homegrown computers with ShenWei 260-core CPU processors powering the
AMD Previews Next Gen Opteron, Naples Server Processor
After a big interest and success with the launch of Ryzen family of processors for consumers, AMD formally announced its new Naples server CPU today, featuring up to 32 cores, eight memory channels, and new, 128-lane Infinity Fabric. Codenamed “Naples”, the new server chip targets one and two-socket servers, aimed squarely at Intel’s Broadwell-EP-based Xeon E3/E5 V4 range, and the upcoming Skylake-EP-based Xeon E3/E5 “V5”. The overall theme of AMD’s chip is “have more of everything.” Naples has 32 cores, capable of 64 simultaneous threads, eight memory channels, supporting up to 2TB RAM and 128 PCIe 3.0 lanes. The PCIe pins are multiplexed and can
AMD Ships One Million Ryzen Processors for the Launch
During the official launch event in San Francisco, AMD revealed / confirmed rumors about their upcoming Ryzen family of processors. Focus seems to be on what seems to be “Intel-beating” Ryzen 7, their new top of the line processors. Ryzen 7 line-up consists solely out of 8 cores, 16 threads processors. A trio of fastest Ryzen models will launch globally on March 2, and according to Digitimes, the company prepared no less than one million processors for the launch itself. That one million is essentially consisted out of three models, plus the upcoming Ryzen 3 and 5 Series. In all fairness, it is weird to
Intel Can’t Hide Strategical Mistakes, AMD to Pounce?
If you would align your wristwatch to the sound of Intel’s tick tock, you would miss your important meeting. The launch of a new generation of processors represents a symbolic beginning of a new cycle and for Intel, “Kaby Lake” launch was everything but normal. First launching the Ultra-low Voltage parts (the U series), then the Desktop line-up and finally the mainstream notebook designs, with troublesome rumors about its enterprise, Xeon-branded counterpart. Kaby Lake is perhaps too focused on the processor power task rather than processor performance. A lullaby. The same story for the last six years continues. Admittedly, for the past 18 months there were whispers