Agent47

Name of the game: MONSTER HUNTER RISE Price: 39,59$ Link Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1446780/MONSTER_HUNTER_RISE/ Offer ends up after X hours: 21 March Requirements: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 （64-bit） Processor: Intel® Core™ i3-4130 or Core™ i5-3470 or AMD FX™-6100 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 1030 (DDR4) or AMD Radeon™ RX 550 DirectX: Version 12 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 36 GB available space Additional Notes: 1080p/30fps when graphics settings are set to "Low". System requirements subject to change during game development. RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 （64-bit） Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4460 or AMD FX™-8300 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 (VRAM 3GB) or AMD Radeon™ RX 570 (VRAM 4GB) DirectX: Version 12 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 36 GB available space Additional Notes: 1080p/30fps when graphics settings are set to "Average". System requirements subject to change during game development.

You will either get accepted or rejected, depending on how you answer on this question!

The ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 is a compact Mini-ITX board that’s priced below most other Z690-based ITX offerings, at $349.99. But don’t let the price fool you. This little board packs almost the same punch as the higher-priced MSI MEG Z690I Unify we reviewed recently. The PG-ITX/TB4 comes with capable 10-phase power delivery, Thunderbolt 4, two M.2 sockets, three SATA ports and a last-generation flagship audio codec. Is the lower price worth having less of some items but full Thunderbolt 4 support? That’s up to you to decide, but we’ll help you get there. If we take a moment to compare the previous-gen Z590 PG-ITX/TB4, we don’t see too many hardware changes outside of supporting the latest Alder Lake processors, along with PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 RAM. M.2 socket count remained the same (two), and SATA port count (three). Killer-based networking, integrated Thunderbolt 4 and even the last-gen flagship audio codec are all carryovers from the previous ITX Phantom. ASRock did improve upon the power delivery and tweaked the appearance, though the former was more of a necessity than an option. Performance on the ASRock Z690 ITX/TB4 was all over the place. Some results were good and faster much of the competition, while others were slower. We saw above-average results in the Office tests within UL’s Procyon Office benchmark and in gaming, but Cinebench and memory bandwidth testing, among others, were on the slower side of the Z690 spectrum. Memory bandwidth in particular can certainly affect other results, especially in memory-sensitive applications. While not much has changed on this generation’s Phantom Gaming ITX/TB4, not much has to. It’s a Mini-ITX size board, so there are inevitably some limitations. Whether or not you can live with them, is up to each person and use case. But since you’re paying a premium to use a small form factor, be sure it can support your needs, as expansion is limited. We’ll dig into the details shortly, but before we do, here are the full list of specifications from ASRock. Inside the Box of the ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 Advertisement While the accessory stack below the box’s cardboard partition doesn’t include much, it should have what you need to get started without a trip to the store. Quick Installation Guide Software Setup Guide Wi-Fi Antenna DVD driver disk PG keycap Case badge (2) SATA Data Cables (2) M.2 screws Design of the ASRock Z690 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB4 Since this is a Mini-ITX motherboard, we’ll start the board tour with the left side and work our way around clockwise. One of the first things I see is the large VRM heatsink that covers a portion of the 10-layer PCB and keeps the VRMs underneath cool, with the help of a tiny fan hiding below. The large black heatsink sports the Phantom gaming branding, with its black and red theme and the name of the board on top as the only color contrast. A heatpipe connects this part to the tall top VRM heatsink. Overall, the appearance won’t win any awards, but it certainly won’t detract from most build themes. Hidden below towards the bottom of the board are the Realtek ALC1220 codec and a couple of Nichicon Gold audio capacitors. While this audio solution will undoubtedly be fine for most users, I would like to see the latest audio codec used since other Z690 Mini-ITX options, including the less–expensive model, all have newer audio options. Along the top, we spy an 8-pin EPS connector to power the CPU. Above the top VRM heatsink, we run into a 3-pin ARGB header. Since the board doesn’t include any LEDs, this is the only way to add RGB bling to your system. You can control these attached elements through ASRock’s Polychrome Sync software. Next, we run into three 4-pin fan headers. CPU_Fan1/2 supports up to 1A/12W output, while the CPU/Water Pump header supports up to 2A/24W. CPU_FAN2/WP can also auto-detect if a 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use. Otherwise, you’ll have to configure the header in the BIOS manually.

Name of the game: Airborne Kingdom Price: 16,79$ Link Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/982290/Airborne_Kingdom/ Offer ends up after X hours: 14 March Requirements: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Microsoft Windows 7/8/10 Processor: Intel Core i7-3770 or AMD FX-8350 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, 2 GB or AMD Radeon HD 7870, 2 GB Storage: 2 GB available space RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i7-8700 or AMD Ryzen 7 1800x Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, 3 GB or AMD Radeon RX 580, 4 GB Storage: 2 GB available space

Elden Ring is a stunningly beautiful game composed of wide vistas that look ripped from the romantic period of art. It also has a lot of cute dogs and terrifying enemies. By default, you have to use the Telescope item and disable the UI to take photos, but now you can install a mod that puts a proper photo mode into the game. Frans "Otis_Inf" Bouma has released unofficial photo mode tools for Elden Ring, which will be free until March 10. Like with the mod that lets you pause the game and the cheats you can use, you have to play the game offline to avoid getting banned while using it. But if you can deal without player messages and co-op, you can boot up the mod to move the camera freely around the environment, make yourself invisible to enemies (like Margit, the Fell Omen), change the FoV, hide the UI, and pause the game. Be sure to follow the instructions in the mod folder to run it. It requires you to drag a file into your Elden Ring install directory that renames a file to disable Easy Anti-Cheat and forces the game into offline mode. It's reversible by dragging the file back out, but mandatory before you boot the game up so you don't get banned from playing online in the future. It's a risk worth taking, because Elden Ring deserves to be captured via a photo mode. Our own Fraser Brown argued for this earlier this week: "The lack of a photo mode is so much more noticeable and regrettable in Elden Ring not just because it's so damn striking—it also gives you the space and time to explore its sights without risking death with every screenshot." It's worth making an offline-only character to run through the game and snapshot all the beautiful trees and ruins. And with the pause feature, you might be able to capture your imminent death to all of the horrifying monsters in it too. Elden Ring was meant to be gawked at, and I'm glad we can finally do that—even if it means breaking the rules a little bit. I just hope Bandai Namco doesn't make Bouma take the tools down when they eventually require a subscription to their Patreon, which Crytek did earlier this year.

AMD announced today that the 'Chagall' Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-series processors will be available to OEM and system integrator partners on March 21, 2022. AMD's new 5000 WX-Series models bring higher clock speeds up to 4.5 GHz, the Zen 3 microarchitecture with a 19% IPC improvement, eight channels of DDR4 memory, 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0, and unified L3 cache to AMD's workstation lineup that spans from 12 cores up to the halo 64-core 128-thread Threadripper Pro 5995WX model. These new chips bring a slightly modified EPYC Milan design to workstations, serving as an update for the Zen 2-powered Threadripper Pro 3000 series that has dominated the workstation segment since its release in mid-2020. In fact, AMD claims to have captured 60% of the North American workstation market (IDC). The new chips also carry all of the same Pro features as their predecessors, like AMD's Pro Security, Manageability, and Business Ready suites (18-month software stability, 2-year chip availability), an area where Intel's competing chips are lacking. The new Threadripper Pro chips will grapple with Intel's Ice Lake Xeon W-3300 series, which tops out at 38 cores, for a spot on our list of best CPUs for workstations. That list is currently dominated by the Threadripper Pro 3995WX we recently reviewed. As we saw with AMD's prior-gen Pro release, the Threadripper Pro 5000 chips will come to market first in a refreshed lineup of Lenovo's ThinkStation P620 workstations. Lenovo also has a lineup of Ryzen 6000-based mobile workstations in development, but the company hasn't shared specifics for either platform yet. As before, the Threadripper Pro chips drop into the AMD sWRX80 socket and work with the WRX80 chipset, so they are backward compatible with previous-gen systems and motherboards after a BIOS update. Lenovo again has an undisclosed period of exclusivity with Threadripper Pro, but AMD expects to announce more OEM/SI partners during the second half of 2022. There's no word on when (or if) we will see these models come to retail channels, as we saw with Threadripper Pro 3000. As such, AMD hasn't announced pricing for the new Pro models, either. We also don't know if non-Pro Threadripper 5000 models will come to the HEDT segment, a market that AMD currently rules uncontested. However, Intel purportedly has its Sapphire Rapids HEDT lineup coming to market later this year with up to 56 cores and PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 support, so we expect that AMD will have its own lineup ready to cement its HEDT leadership. Whether or not that consists of Zen 4 Threadripper models with expanded connectivity options remains to be seen. Here we can see the five new Zen 3-powered Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-series chips, all with a top dual-core clock speed of 4.5 GHz — a generational increase of 200 to 300 MHz, depending on the model. We also see a 100 MHz improvement to the base clock speed on all models except the 64-core 128-thread Threadripper Pro 5995WX. These slight clock speeds denote that AMD has extracted more frequency (not to mention IPC) out of the same 280W TDP envelope that applies to both the current and previous-gen chips. Notably, the 280W limit is likely imposed by the sWRX80 socket design, so AMD doesn't have much room to increase frequencies here. As noted, these chips are based on the EPYC Milan data center chips. Except for the quad-channel Ryzen Threadripper 3990X we left in as the consumer HEDT comparison point, all of the above models (Intel included) support eight channels of DDR4-3200 ECC memory. Threadripper Pro still tops out at an incredible 256MB of L3 cache on the highest-end models, but the cache is now a contiguous 32MB block for each eight-core cluster, improving performance over the prior gen. AMD's lineup has some stark contrasts to the Ice Lake Xeon W-3300 lineup, especially with the maximum core/thread count weighing in at 64/128 compared to Intel's 38/76 and the maximum cache capacity of 256MB over Intel's 57MB. Additionally, AMD serves up 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes compared to Intel's 64 lanes, a critical advantage for AMD in this segment, as most workstations come kitted with plenty of additives, like GPU accelerators, NVMe storage, and high-speed NICs. AMD's Pro Security suite includes the same Secure Architecture, Memory Guard, and Secure Processor features as the prior-gen Threadripper Pro models and adds Shadow Stack, a mechanism to counter control flow attacks. Unfortunately, Intel's Xeon W-3300 series is woefully inadequate here, with no enterprise-class feature set. AMD also added a 24-core, 48-thread 5965WX model that wasn't present with the previous gen. We expect the Threadripper Pro lineup to come to the retail market in due course, but AMD hasn't shared pricing yet. As with the last-gen, we also expect that AMD will only release a subset of these models for retail, as there is some overlap with the lower-end 16- and 12-core models with its capable client family. AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-Series vs Intel Xeon W Benchmarks AMD says it had 300 design wins with its previous-gen Threadripper Pro lineup, and it expects that number to grow with the 5000 WX-series. Those systems target an incredibly diverse section of the professional market that includes oil and gas applications, media and entertainment (like DreamWorks), design and manufacturing workloads, cloud computing customers that use Threadripper Pro for local workstations, and even 12 auto manufacturers, with 12 more in the pipeline. AMD shared some of its internally-derived benchmarks to back up its performance claims, but as with all vendor-provided benchmarks, take these with a grain of salt. We've included AMD's test notes at the end of the album. AMD touts the performance advantages of its higher clock frequencies and Zen 3 architecture relative to competing Intel chips in a broad spate of different workloads and against various Intel chips. We won't go through the above album of benchmarks in detail, they speak for themselves, but there are more important broader considerations at play. AMD's continued work with software developers is of particular importance here. Certified software solutions are imperative in the workstation space, and AMD's inaugural Threadripper solution could suffer at the hands of untuned software. Simply put, the combination of a never-before-seen number of cores and a unique architecture hamstrung performance in some applications due to unoptimized code. Still, as our testing back in 2020 showed, AMD had already made impressive strides in fostering ecosystem support for some industry-standard benchmarks and applications. AMD's work continues, and the company highlighted a 2.3X improvement in the ANSYS mechanical simulation software after code tuning and a 200X improvement in the Autodesk Arnold rendering software. These projects continue with other software providers, which isn't surprising given AMD's continuing market share gains in the workstation market. Workstations also need to extract the utmost performance from GPU-accelerated workloads, like those we've tested here. AMD's first-gen Threadripper processors really suffered in this category, but the second-gen Zen 2-powered models marked a significant improvement in pushing GPUs. Given that these types of GPU-accelerated software are often reliant upon single-threaded performance and hefty L3 cache allocations, we expect AMD's claims of continued advances in GPU accelerated workloads to be accurate. We already know that Zen 3 brought big performance improvements to single-threaded performance. That's crucial in a market where GPUs are a common accessory, and a single professional Quadro card can weigh in around $5,500. This same theory also applies to storage; given Threadripper's support for 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0, speedy performance with NVMe SSDs is essential. AMD claims the Threadripper 5000 WX-series also offers superior performance in storage-bound workloads, thus maximizing the investment in costly storage arrays. And all of this isn't to mention the sheer computational heft afforded by beefy core counts and generous slabs of L3 cache. With access to plenty of memory and storage throughput, we expect that AMD will carve out substantial wins in many categories, especially relative to Intel's Xeon W series that already struggles against the previous-gen Threadripper lineup. Lenovo will be the lead partner with its ThinkStation P620 again, and those models will be available on March 21. AMD says the Threadripper Pro 5000 WX-Series also begins shipping to other OEMs/SIs in March.

Name of the game: Core Keeper Price: 11,69$ Link Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1621690/Core_Keeper/ Offer ends up after X hours: 15 march Requirements: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 x64 Processor: Intel Core i3-6100 3.70GHz / AMD A4-4020 APU with Radeon 3.2 GHz Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GTX950 RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 x64 Processor: Intel Core i5-11th Ci5-11300H 3Ghz / AMD Ryzen 5 Ci5-4600H 3Ghz Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1650

In this week's episode of the Coin Concede podcast, Hearthstone game director Ben Lee announced he is leaving the team to work on a different, unannounced project within Blizzard. Lee also outlined a host of changes players can expect to see from Hearthstone in 2022. Lee has been Hearthstone's game director since the end of 2018, during which time he has overseen a slew of major changes to the long-running CCG, including the implementation of Hearthstone's "Rewards Track" season pass system. While initially met with fury over perceived reductions in player rewards, following some tweaking the Rewards Track is now a broadly-accepted part of Hearthstone. Lee's tenure as director also included the introduction of the Demon Hunter class, and his time leading the team was characterized by a more regular pace of balance updates and increased responsiveness to player feedback. Less successfully, following its troubled announcement, the Mercenaries mode has widely been deemed a whiff. On the business side, new forms of monetization have also ramped up substantially, with cosmetics being added to the main modes—Standard and Battlegrounds—at a bewildering rate. While not certain, many in the Hearthstone community believe that Lee has joined the same unannounced project as fellow Hearthstone vets Mike Donais and Peter Whalen. Given these developers' expertise, it would be reasonable to assume that this upcoming game will offer hybrid CCG-RPG gameplay akin to Hearthstone. Hearthstone content creator, RegisChillbin, speculates that it may even be a CCG-roguelike, a Blizzard take on Slay the Spire. As an aside, Blizzard has a different 'unannounced' game in the works, except that it actually has been announced: The studio is working on a survival game currently only known as "Unannounced Survival Game." Those working on the survival project have identified themselves, though, so if Lee were making a leap to a new genre, he probably would've just said so. The interview also contained quite a few tidbits about Hearthstone's past and future, including the tantalizing reveal that this year's expansion was almost cooking show-themed. That didn't happen, but Lee did mention that Hearthstone will receive multiple new card types in the coming year, stating: "One of the most exciting things about the coming, unnamed year, is that there's actually a bunch of new card types that we've been experimenting with that are really interesting and fun." Unsurprisingly, he didn't offer any detail beyond that, but Lee did expand a bit on the team's thinking: "We wanted to try some really interesting stuff to push Standard in a little bit of a different direction with some new interesting takes on card types, so hopefully players enjoy those and we look forward to hearing what they think." Until now, Hearthstone has only had four card types, with the newest, heroes, having been introduced all the way back in 2017. The introduction of multiple new types in the same year would likely have a substantial effect on the way the game is played. Despite its age, Lee also noted that Hearthstone continues to maintain a huge player base and makes more money than many AAA games, despite a backdrop of serious and shocking allegations concerning endemic workplace harassment at Blizzard that surfaced last year.

I kinda doubt in you, but im gonna be fair this time. Pro for pending.

The WD Red SN700 promises up to 3400 MBps of bandwidth and peaks at 550,000 IOPS over a PCIe 3.0 interface. This isn't particularly exceptional in any way compared to general-use SSDs, but reflects its intended role as a drive for network-attached storage devices, or NAS. In addition, the drive is backed by a solid warranty, including up to 5100 TBW over five years (or 0.7 drive writes per day) and has an affordable 4TB option. An SSD designed for NAS has different requirements than typical consumer drives because they are commonly used for caching. NAS data caching can encompass read or write data, or both, depending on the implementation. Naturally, some redundancy and preferably power loss protection are ideal if the drive is used for critical write data. WD also targets the Red SN700 at small- and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs, expanding its usage to application hosting, virtualization, and databases. WD has a whole lineup of drives under the SN branding, borne from client and OEM drives, focusing on consistency and comprehensible market segmentation. We’ve reviewed their Blue and Black NVMe drives for entry-level and higher-end consumer markets, respectively, while Red is used for NAS drives. We’ve seen this also with their SATA SSD offerings - including Green for OEM and low-cost solutions, so this branding reflects WD's segmentation in the HDD market as well. The WD Red SN700 is very similar to the older WD Black SN750 and its lineage of drives, utilizing a proprietary and powerful controller known for its consistency and efficiency. WD updated the flash to 96-Layer as found on the SN850 which, while not as new or robust as the 112-Layer BiCS5 on the Black SN770, is quite competitive. In addition, the Black SN750 was known for its consistent post-cache performance, a desirable attribute for many NAS workloads. That makes the Red SN700’s design a logical choice for use in a NAS. The Red SN700 is rated for sequential speeds of up to 3.4/3.1 GBps read/write and up to 550,000/520,000 random read/write IOPS. The drive is available in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities ranging from $0.12-$0.26 per gigabyte. Being a NAS drive, it’s oriented at larger capacities where the price per gigabyte is quite competitive, especially at 4TB — a capacity that can be difficult to find with affordable pricing and TLC flash. This makes it even more of a compelling choice for consumer use if someone needs this combination of price, performance and endurance. The five-year warranty comes with 1PBW per TB of capacity up to and including the 1TB SKU, with 2.5PBW and 5.1PBW total for the 2TB and 4TB SKUs, respectively. This is more endurance than WD's consumer variants, but otherwise, the drive has normal operating conditions and features (for example, a 70C maximum operating temperature). Unfortunately, the SN700 lacks power loss protection which, while not surprising, reduces its effectiveness in scenarios requiring absolute reliability. Software and Accessories The Red SN700 supports the Western Digital Dashboard utility that allows for analysis and updates through a user-friendly GUI. The software gives you a full look at the drive’s status, lets you test performance, and has other tools and settings. For example, you can do firmware updates, run S.M.A.R.T. tests, TRIM optimization, and secure erase the drive. While these are standard features, many third-party drive manufacturers lack such support. The Red SN700 comes in the M.2 2280 form factor and is necessarily double-sided at the 4TB capacity with four flash packages. The front side has a longer label with drive details, such as the date of manufacture and the serial number. The labeled side has two of the four flash packages but not a second DRAM module. We can also see what appears to be a power management integrated circuit (PMIC). PMICs and other integrated circuits are currently in short supply and are used on other items like DDR5 modules to regulate voltage. The controller appears to be a newer revision of the model used for the Black SN750. This likely reflects the update to 96-Layer BiCS4 flash. In fact, the SN730, an OEM variant of the Black with 96-Layer flash for use in WD’s AN1500, has this controller. The single DRAM module on the drive, utilized for metadata, is 16Gb or 2GB in capacity. This is half the normal ratio but should be more than ample even for heavier workloads. DRAM is predominately used for metadata and mapping on consumer drives with a maximum requirement of 1GB per 1TB of flash to reflect the nature of 32-bit addressing for 4KB logical pages. It’s possible to compress this addressing for consecutive pages, for example, and it’s unlikely the drive will face a workload that would exhaust what’s available here.

Name of the game: Risk of Rain 2 Price: 12,49$ Link Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/632360/Risk_of_Rain_2/ Offer ends up after X hours: 8 March Requirements: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 or newer, 64-bit Processor: Intel Core i3-6100 / AMD FX-8350 Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: GTX 580 / AMD HD 7870 DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 4 GB available space Recommended : RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 or newer, 64-bit Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: GTX 680 / AMD HD 7970 DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 4 GB available space

Twitch has updated its community guidelines to reflect a new policy aimed at curtailing "harmful misinformation actors." Twitch's statement on the matter makes clear that the company will be approaching the issue with a relatively light touch, claiming that "this update will likely not impact you or the streamers you love on Twitch." It continues: "Our goal is to prohibit individuals whose online presence is dedicated to spreading harmful, false information from using Twitch." The company's anti-misinformation enforcement is targeting accounts that "persistently share" information that is not only "widely disproven and broadly shared" but also violent or harmful. Twitch clarified that its new moderation will only target accounts that match all three of those criteria: the focus or persistence on misinformation, the widespread nature of the hoax, and its potential harmful effects. Phew! Looks like my Flat Earth Gaming channel is safe for the time being. In its community guidelines, Twitch provided several examples of the misleading information it will be targeting in the future: Misinformation that targets protected groups, which is already prohibited under our Hateful Conduct & Harassment Policy Harmful health misinformation and wide-spread conspiracy theories related to dangerous treatments, COVID-19, and COVID-19 vaccine misinformation Discussions of treatments that are known to be harmful without noting the dangers of such treatments For COVID-19—and any other WHO-declared Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)—misinformation that causes imminent physical harm or is part of a broad conspiracy Misinformation promoted by conspiracy networks tied to violence and/or promoting violence Civic misinformation that undermines the integrity of a civic or political process Promotion of verifiably false claims related to the outcome of a fully vetted political process, including election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying, or election fraud In instances of public emergencies (e.g., wildfires, earthquakes, active shootings), we may also act on misinformation that may impact public safety These points all touch on po[CENSORED]r conspiracy theories that have proven contentious on other social platforms like YouTube and Facebook, so it's encouraging to see Twitch outlining a clear policy on the matter before such a problem could develop to such a degree on the platform. This rule change has already led to the ban of two high-profile QAnon influencers on Twitch. It's the latest of several steps Twitch has taken to beef up its rules and enforcement, including updating its username policy and introducing an automated ban evasion detector. These changes come after the platform's long-standing issues dealing with harassment and safety came to a head late last year.

LAPSU$, the South American hacker group that made away with over 1TB of Nvidia's information, managed to strike gold with its latest heist. A VideoCardz reader reportedly sent the media outlet information extracted from the hack that allegedly talks about Nvidia's next-generation graphics cards, codenamed Ada, Hopper, and Blackwell. Unfortunately, it's unknown how the VideoCardz reader obtained the information, and we obviously can't confirm it. Therefore, we recommend you take the news with a truckload of salt. It recently came to light that LAPSU$ had hacked into Nvidia's server and stole some pretty valuable data. While Nvidia has returned the favor, the hacker group presumably had the last laugh because it had a backup of the stolen data. The groups of bandits even asked Nvidia to remove the LHR (Lite Hash Rate) mining performance limiter from its GeForce RTX 30-series (Ampere) graphics cards, or the group will release the bypass itself. The leaked information seemingly confirms that Ada (named after Ada Lovelace) is the next gaming architecture to replace Ampere. It's not exactly breaking news since we've suspected that Ada was the codename for Nvidia's forthcoming GeForce RTX 40-series for some time now. The specifications are unknown, but the leaked material speaks of AD102, AD103, AD104, AD106, AD107, and AD10B silicon. Meanwhile, the data center may see the arrival of Hopper (named after Grace Hopper) very soon. The leaked files confirm that Hopper still appears to be the codename for Nvidia's next data center graphics card. Nvidia filed for the Hopper trademark in 2019 but has been in a legal dispute with Dish Network over the trademark. So who knows if Nvidia will have to change the codename down the line. At any rate, Hopper may father two silicons: the GH100 and GH202. Blackwell should be the architecture to succeed Hopper. It's plausible that Nvidia wanted to pay tribute to David Harold Blackwell, a famous American statistician, and mathematician. It's not the first time we've heard the name since respected Nvidia leaker kopite7kimi had tweeted about Blackwell in April of last year, although we weren't sure if it was the successor then to Ada or Hopper. Blackwell should be Hopper's direct replacement if the hacked files are accurate and arrive in both the GB100 and GB102 silicons.

Name of the game: Euro Truck Simulator 2 Price: 4,99$ Link Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/227300/Euro_Truck_Simulator_2/ Offer ends up after X hours: 7 March Requirements: MINIMUM: OS: Windows 7 Processor: Dual core CPU 2.4 GHz Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTS 450-class (Intel HD 4000) Hard Drive: 12 GB available space RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows 7/8.1/10 64-bit Processor: Quad core CPU 3.0 GHz Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 760-class (2 GB) Hard Drive: 12 GB available space

Update: while today is the Samsung Galaxy S22 launch day, at least in certain countries around the world, we've been hearing reports that not everyone is receiving their devices on time. In our full report on the matter, we've detailed many different reports of people having their estimated shipping dates pushed back, including on many different devices (including the Tab S8 range) and to various different dates. So, if you've pre-ordered your device, it might not arrive today. Our original story follows below. Or at least it is in the US, and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is also out now in the UK, but that phone isn’t coming to Australia until March 3. Both the UK and Australia have to wait a bit for the other models, with the standard Samsung Galaxy S22 and the Galaxy S22 Plus both hitting Australia on March 3 and the UK on March 11. So if you’re in the US and you’ve pre-ordered any of these phones then they should be turning up on your doorstep today, with UK orders of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra doing likewise. If you haven’t ordered yet though then there may still be a bit of a wait, as demand for these handsets is high, so you might find there’s a wait to receive them depending on the configuration you choose. That’s no surprise, as the Samsung Galaxy S22 range are the most high-profile phones so far this year, and are likely to remain so until the iPhone 14 range arrives in September. They arguably deserve to be that high-profile too, especially the S22 Ultra, which we awarded 4.5 stars to in our review, praising its incredible cameras and zoom, its excellent S Pen, and its silky-smooth screen. Analysis: other phones on the horizon While the Samsung Galaxy S22 range look to be the flagships to beat right now, they’ve got plenty of competition on the way. That includes the OnePlus 10 Pro, which has actually already been unveiled, but so far only for China. This has a top-end chipset, a 6.7-inch QHD+ screen, a triple-lens camera tuned by Hasselblad, and more, and it’s likely to be joined by a standard OnePlus 10 when it gets its global launch. Then there’s the Xiaomi 12 and the Xiaomi 12 Pro, which include similarly high-end specs. Plus there’s the Oppo Find X5 range, with numerous other upcoming phones on the horizon as well.

Intel’s Alder Lake has retaken the performance crown from AMD, but in some cases, chip bowing issues have resulted in sub-par cooling. I took a hacksaw to a motherboard to help fix the issue, resulting in an extra 50 MHz of clock speed that put me over the top, winning a world record with the Core i9-12900K in Cinebench R23 at 6.95 GHz. It has been a couple of weeks now since we got the first wind about Intel’s Alder Lake chip bowing problems, which is the result of Intel’s Z690 socket hold-down mechanism (ILM) having issues that can cause the chips to bend. The dust has seemingly settled on this topic, as news cycles tend to do, and the YouTubers are already taking facepalm photos for the next outrage that they come across (we can only guess what it will be). But, I am not finished, and neither is famous overclocker and entrepreneur Der8auer. Intel’s Z690 is here, and there will be refreshes (we already know the 12900KS is coming), and then Z790 will arrive and I’m almost certain we will see the same type of speed bumps. Therefore it is worth the time to investigate this as an extreme overclocker looking for an advantage to improve performance and to cover why I wouldn't recommend some of the mods you might have read about. Intel has used a lever-action hold-down mechanism, known as an Independent Loading Mechanism (ILM), on LGA mainstream motherboards for seemingly ever. The single-sided dual-point-of-contact mechanism holds the chip snug in the socket, and it can even cause scratches that you see left behind on your heat spreader when you disengage the ILM to remove your CPU for the socket (that’s actually a good way to tell if a chip is used or not). Intel’s ILM is simple, has always done the job fairly well, and seems to hold up great over time. In fact, you could demonstrate the mechanism to a six-year-old, and after a couple of seconds, they would get the idea of how it works. I have an LGA775 motherboard that has had chips inserted and removed over a thousand times, and it's still just like new. So why are there issues now with the new LGA1700 sockets for Alder Lake? I want to start by saying there is nothing technically wrong with the mechanism. Intel designs it and conducts numerous safety and reliability assessments during the design process. If you take a look at the socket blueprint and read the specs, it is mind-blowing — Intel specs a myriad of factors, including the required pin contact pressure and torque specifications for the screws. If anything, Intel’s socket designs tend to be over-engineered. As such, if you put a Core i9-12900K on a motherboard, it will perform to its rated specification, but overclockability is not guaranteed. Much like with tuning a car engine, I could produce 50 horsepower more by flashing the ECU in my car to increase the boost pressure. Does that mean my stock car is trash because the manufacturer did not give me that horsepower from the factory? No, it doesn't. It has the horsepower it is designed to have, much like a 12900K runs the frequency it's rated for. But due to human nature, I want to go faster, and we can, so let’s find a way to add more horsepower to Alder Lake CPUs. Now, time to make some suggestions for improvements. This project started off with my frustration with the poor contact between the chip and my liquid nitrogen CPU container. Knowing that I had already flattened my CPU heat spreader by lapping it, which means I sanded the surface down to be completely flat, and that the bottom of my CPU container was also machined and lapped flat, I was confused why the thermal paste in the middle of the chip was so thick. Make no mistake, thermal paste can be the weakest link in the cooling system. Thermal paste is a gap filler, and while we want it as thin as possible, we also want enough that we have complete contact across the entire top of the chip. Here are six different Core i9-12900KFs that I binned, showing the possible variation from chip to chip. This is why extreme overlockers lap their CPU — we want the best possible contact with a very thin layer of paste. The thick paste we see here robs me of precious extra CPU megahertz during extreme overclocking because it reduces cooling capabilities. However, after studying the CPU’s integrated heat spreader (IHS) more, you begin to notice that the top and bottom edges of the heat spreader are holding the cooler up like it's on stilts. In some cases, the edges are so high there isn’t even any thermal paste spread there, causing the IHS to scratch your cooler when you twist it off. I lapped my best CPU (see below) as I usually do, but it didn’t help my mounts look any better. The paste was still thick in the middle, and there wasn’t any paste on the top and bottom quadrants. How is this possible if I lapped the CPU and the cooler on calibrated flat glass?

Name of the game: This War of Mine Price: 4,74$ Link Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/282070/This_War_of_Mine/ Offer ends up after X hours: in 27 hours Requirements: MINIMUM: OS: Windows 7/8/10 Processor: 2.4 GHz Dual Core Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 260, Radeon HD 5770, 1024 MB, Shader Model 3.0 Sound Card: DirectX compatible RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows 7/8/10 Processor: 2.5+ GHz Quad Core Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 660 or better, Radeon HD 7950 or better, Shader Model 3.0 DirectX: Version 9.0c Sound Card: DirectX compatible

Discord is updating its community guidelines with a clause that bans sharing information it deems "false or misleading" and "likely to cause physical or societal harm" if acted upon. The rule could apply to lots of information, but Covid-19 rhetoric is the primary example given. The chat service doesn't want to be a source for "anti-vaccination content" or advice not accepted by the medical community, such as the use of unproven home remedies. Put briefly, Discord will not allow individuals to "post, promote, or organize communities around false or misleading health information that is likely to result in harm," wrote Discord senior platform policy specialist Alex Anderson in a blog post explaining the update. Discord defines false or misleading health information as being any health information which "directly and unequivocally contradicts the most recent consensus reached by the medical community," and it offers a surprising amount of detail on what it means by that. the safety, side effects, or efficacy of vaccines; the ingredients, development, or approval of vaccines; alternative, unapproved treatments for disease (including claims that promote harmful forms of self-medication, as well as claims advocating vaccine refusal or alternatives); the existence or prevalence of a disease; the transmission or symptoms of a disease; health guidance, advisories, or mandates (including false claims about preventative measures and actions that could hinder the resolution of a public health emergency); the availability or eligibility for health services; and, content that implies a health conspiracy by malicious forces (including claims that could cause social unrest or prompt the destruction of critical infrastructure). On its own, the list could be construed as a blanket prohibition on expressing distrust in any local health mandate or even recommending "alternative" traditional medicines. However, Anderson says that Discord will consider context like intent, and won't take action unless it believes messages are "likely to cause some form of harm." "This policy is not intended to be punitive of polarizing or controversial viewpoints," he writes. "We allow the sharing of personal health experiences; opinions and commentary (so long as such views are based in fact and will not lead to harm); good-faith discussions about medical science and research; content intended to condemn or debunk health misinformation; and satire and humor that obviously and deliberately intends to mock false or misleading health claims." People who hold polarizing or controversial viewpoints will probably disagree with the claim that they're not being targeted, although it bears mentioning that Discord users who mainly stick to smaller groups may not notice any change, regardless of what they say on the platform. When I spoke to Discord about privacy in 2019, it told me that it doesn't proactively monitor the text and voice chat of any given server—with over 150 million monthly active users, how could it? Instead, moderators largely respond to user reports, which are most likely to come from big public servers. I think it remains unlikely that Discord is scanning the chat logs of every 20-person server looking for narratives related to Covid-19 vaccines and microchips, although there is some precedent for proactive moderation on Discord. In 2018, after a few publications reported that the relative privacy offered by Discord was turning it into a white supremacist hideout, the company made a publicized effort to rid itself of hate group servers. Following that example, it's possible that Discord will seek out and shut down servers that openly advertise themselves as anti-vax hubs, if any such servers exist. (If I had to guess, I'd say they do.) The new Discord policies go into effect on March 28. "Malicious impersonation" is also forbidden by the new guidelines, with the note that "satire and parody are okay," and Discord has given itself permission to consider "relevant off-platform behaviors" when acting on user reports, such as "membership or association with a hate group, illegal activities, and hateful, sexual or other types of violent acts." Discord also says it will be cracking down on "false, malicious, or spammy" reports. "If you are found to be reporting in bad faith, we may take action against your account," the company says. There are a number of other changes to the user guidelines, terms of service, and privacy policy. You can read more about all of them here. As someone who doesn't use Discord as a soapbox for vaccine-related commentary one way or another, the news mostly serves as a reminder that conversations which happen on the platform aren't entirely private, even on so-called private servers. It's a moderated social network, so if someone files a report, it is possible for Discord mods to look at your chat logs and issue warnings, suspensions, or bans. For those who want Discord-like features without joining a social network, companies like TeamSpeak still offer paid, private VOIP servers. (For the moment, I'm not too worried about the encryption of my D&D group's endless scheduling conversations.)