Game Tech News

Apple’s path from licensing standard ARM cores to building its own CPU design was well-documented, starting with the company’s decision to purchase PA Semi in April 2008. Its GPU cores, in contrast, have been broadly assumed to be licensed from Imagination Technologies. According to a new report, however, Apple has been building its own GPU cores for years — it’s just that no one noticed.

David Kanter at RealWorldTech spotted the differences by digging into the available architectural manuals for both Apple’s Metal API and Imagination Technologies’ GPU products. There are significant, non-trivial differences between the two. Apple’s hardware is apparently built around 16-bit half-precision registers, while the PowerVR architectures support half-precision, but do not require its use.


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Ever since news of the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro leaked, gamers have wanted to hear more about what the system could do and what kind of benefits it would offer over and above the standard PlayStation 4. Sony has shared some of those details and been shy on others. But with the launch fast approaching (and the need to build hype around the system), the chief architect of the PS4 and PS4 Pro, Mark Cerny, has been more willing to share details on the platform’s capabilities.

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I just spotted this latest game tech news about Sony Playstation 4. According to the news, Sony has to announce brand new games that will launch with PlayStation 4 Pro support. PlayStation 4 games sold from October onwards will support both the new PS4 Pro console and the standard PS4 and PS4 Slim models. Below are some games included on the lists with PlayStation 4 Pro's "Pro Mode" support:

Battlezone (New!)
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
Battlefield 1
FIFA 17

Now that Skyrim: Enhanced Edition has hit shelves, plenty of people are going to be checking to see whether a five-year-old game is worth playing for the first time or generally good enough to justify a second playthrough. Special Edition is free if you own all of the Skyrim DLC and $39.99 if you don’t (the new game contains all previous DLC). If you already own the game, you can grab a pretty sweet upgrade for free. If you don’t, the $39.99 price tag isn’t terrible, but it’s a good idea to know what you’re getting when you buy a new version of a five-year-old title.

As we expected, the upgrades here only upgrade the lighting model and create some additional ground clutter. Texture models aren’t updated at all, and the extent of the lighting modifications varies on the scene. In some cases, the two versions of the game look nearly identical; in others there’s a substantial difference. In the slideshow below we’ve included screenshots from both PCGamer and PCGamesN.

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Microsoft announced it has made some significant backend improvements to the Windows 10 Store that technically allow for offline play — but the number of hoops you’ll need to jump through to enable this feature remains significant. Offline play is one aspect*of the Windows Store that’s lagged well behind competitors like Steam or even services like Origin, so it’s good to see Microsoft making an effort to offer this feature.

There are more details on how to enable this capability over at the Xbox support site, and you’ll want to read about the capabilities and restrictions of the mode before you start fussing with it. The first thing to know is that unlike Steam, which allows offline play from any device associated with your account, the Windows 10 Store only allows you to have one designated offline device — and you can only change which device is designated three times a year. To set an account to offline, perform the following steps:

• Make sure that you’re online.
• Check that your device has the latest Windows updates: Go to Start > Settings > Update & security > Windows Update and see if any relevant updates are available.
• Open the Store. You’ll be prompted to sign in if you haven’t already.
• Select the Me icon (this is your profile picture).
• Select Settings, and then under Offline Permissions, make sure that the toggle is set to On.

Once you’ve completed this step, you’ll need to launch each title individually that you want to play in offline mode.

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Few games in recent memory have been as hyped up as No Man’s Sky, which captured the imagination of gamers with a flashy 2014 E3 teaser trailer. When the game finally came out a few months ago, the response from players was negative. It only got worse as the previously very chatty Hello Games founder Sean Murray went dark. Then on Friday, Hello Games tweeted, “No Man’s Sky was a mistake.” The tweet was quickly deleted, but the damage was done.

Fans—or should I say former fans—pounced on the tweet as evidence that even the developer had to admit that No Man’s Sky was a disaster. The game has received almost no updates since launch, and none of them have added any of the promised features. In particular, players have expressed annoyance at the lack of multiplayer elements, large-scale combat, and ship customization.



The problems run deeper than missing features, though. No Man’s Sky was supposed to be a game that generates unique and interesting planets as you played. Paradoxically, after playing the game for more than a few hours, you’ve seen all it has to offer. All the planets and creatures generated in the game are technically unique, but they’re made of the same small number of parts. There are hills, but no mountain ranges; lakes, but no oceans; trees, but no forests. The game looks nothing like the trailers and screenshots Hello Games uses to promote it. In fact, that original E3 trailer is still the first thing you see on the Steam page.

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Most of the time, which OEM you choose to buy a GPU from isn’t seen as having a huge impact on the performance of the card, though added value and included goodies often vary between manufacturers. Every now and then, however, design differences between companies do play out in a more significant way, and that may be what has happened to EVGA and its GTX 1080 and 1070 lineups. Reports from Reddit and the EVGA forums suggest that a number of cards have failed catastrophically and in high-profile fashion.

Hot Hardware reported on one Reddit user, Mydst, who saw his card flame out while he was using it, and he’s not alone. Sharp-eyed readers on the EVGA forums have pointed to a Tom’s Hardware Guide review, which picked up VRM (voltage regulator modules) temperatures exceeding 106C during stress loading. That’s significantly hotter than the GPU itself.



Note that the VRMs are significantly hotter than the GPU.

Photographs of the damaged cards also points to the VRMs, as shown in this image from Crazy6a3er on Reddit.

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Yesterday, we discussed a problem with EVGA’s GTX 1070 and 1080 cards where at least some GPUs had failed unexpectedly and in fairly high-profile ways. In response, EVGA said it would ship thermal pads to any customer who requested them. The company has made a follow-up announcement to the community in which it discusses the problem and promises a new set of BIOS updates for its GPUs that should bring the cards back into thermal trim, whether you apply the supplemental pads or not.

On ACX 3.0, EVGA focused on GPU temperature and the lowest acoustic levels possible. Running Furmark, the GPU is around 70C +/- and the fan speed is running approximately 30% duty cycle or lower. However, during recent testing, the thermal temperature of the PWM and memory, in extreme circumstances, was marginally within spec and needed to be addressed. Conclusion: EVGA offers full warranty support on its products, with cross-ship RMA, and stands behind its products and commitment to our customers.
To resolve this, EVGA will be offering a VBIOS update, which adjusts the fan-speed curve to ensure sufficient cooling of all components across all operating temperatures. This VBIOS will be released in the next few days and users can download it and update their cards directly. This update resolves the potential thermal issues that have been reported, and ensures the card maintains safe operating temperatures.

EVGA will still offer its thermal pads for free to anyone who wants them; interested users can request a set of these pads here. (Scroll to the bottom). EVGA has also stated that any customer who is uncomfortable performing the update themselves may request a warranty cross-shipped product with a new VBIOS. All EVGA cards will also use the new BIOS that ship after 11/1/2016. From the EVGA website:
The EVGA EAR(Advanced RMA Program) and Cross Shipping options are available in the Continental United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, EU, UK, Norway, and Switzerland. EVGA offers Standard RMA replacement options in the Middle East, Africa, India or outside of the before mentioned supported areas.
In either case, customers who have damaged cards will be taken care of.

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I spend a great deal of time pecking away at a keyboard — it’s an occupational hazard. I’ve gotten quite into the custom mechanical keyboard scene as a result. A few months ago, I talked about building a WhiteFox keyboard in an attempt to attain my perfect typing experience. That board continues to be great, but it’s geared so aggressively toward typing that I felt I needed something separate for gaming. Thus, I embarked on a quest for the perfect gaming keyboard. I think I’ve gotten there.

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For years, it’s been nearly a given that the Xbox, Sony, and PC versions of a game all use separate servers, with their own playerbases. While there have been a handful of exceptions, most games segment each console and PCs into their own sandboxes. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare takes things one step further, locking Steam players and Windows 10 players into separate servers as well — and Microsoft isn’t going out of its way to tell people.

Right now, Call of Duty: Infinite Remake Warfare is significantly discounted on the Windows Store compared with the Steam version. Even the Digital Deluxe version, which comes with a copy of the remade Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, is cheaper than on Steam. Activision’s FAQ, however, confirms that neither of the titles is an Xbox Play Anywhere title — and the servers for Windows Store are completely separate from the Steam version.

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