Gaming is at an all time high in terms of popularity right now with gaming hardware becoming increasingly hard to find. Today for just $1,999 you can buy one of Dell’s new Alienware M15 R4 that has all the hardware you need to run games with blistering speed and with high quality graphics settings. Intel Core i7-10870H 15.6-Inch 1080p 300Hz Gaming Laptop w/ Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, 16GB DDR4 RAM and 256GB M.2 PCI-E SSD for $1,999.99 from Dell (List price $2,149.99) 1TB PCI-E 4.0 NVMe SSD for $199.99 from Amazon (List price $229.99) 2K 75Hz 27-Inch IPS Monitor for $239.99 from Dell (List price $319.99) VR Gaming Headset for $299.00 from Amazon (List price $399.00) 64GB 10.9-Inch Wi-Fi Tablet for $549.00 from Amazon (List price $599.00) (PS4) for $30.00 from Amazon (List price $59.99)
One question that’s come up from time to time in gaming is whether older GPUs get slower over time. ExtremeTech this question before with respect to software updates, meaning we checked whether older GPUs lost performance as a result of later driver updates that were not as well optimized for older GPU architectures. While our driver tests found no evidence of software-driven slowdowns, we didn’t check the impact of whether aging GPU hardware could impact performance. A new investigation of an 18 month-old RTX 2080 Ti claims to have uncovered evidence that an old GPU will run more slowly than a newer card, based on a comparison of two (we think) MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming X Trio GPUs.
User-expandable, customizable laptops have been a holy grail of computing for a long time, but they’ve remained more fiction than reality. Intel’s NUC laptop line offers some limited customization, but concepts like I/O flexibility have remained just that — concepts. A new startup named Framework argues it can change the entire playing field for mobile computing and launch an entirely new port ecosystem with its new Framework Laptop. The is a 13.5-inch machine with a 3:2 2256×1504 resolution and a chassis weighing just 2.86 pounds. The webcam is supposedly a “fantastic” 1080p60 model and offers hardware privacy switches. The battery offers 55Whr and the system will support 11th Gen Core CPUs with support for WiFi 6E, 64GB of RAM, and 4TB or more of PCIe Gen 4 storage.
Cryptocurrency is a mysterious new world. And just because you , doesn’t meant you can’t have some fun and get involved! If you’ve been hoping to make some crypto-cash in Bitcoin and Ethereum, we have a way that’s as easy as doing a good deed thanks to the . You have the opportunity to not only win cryptocurrency, but also snag a cool gadget and online courses schooling you in the world of crypto, simply by making a charitable donation. By donating to the Complete Bitcoin (BTC) Investment Giveaway you’re entered to win $8,000 worth of Bitcoin, $2,000 worth of Ethereum on Coinbase, a Ledger Nano x Hardware Wallet to keep your crypto assets secure (worth $119), The Complete Stock and Cryptocurrency Investment Toolkit Bundle (worth $1,815), The Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Mastery Bundle (worth $99), and The Complete Cryptocurrency Investment Bundle (worth $479), all coming in at a massive total value of $12,512.
Sony will allow PlayStation 5’s to finally use their M.2 slots by the summer. The new updates will also unlock support for higher fan speeds, which probably isn’t great news to everyone who likes the current noise profile on the Xbox Series S|X or PlayStation 5, but it may be necessary given what we’ve heard about the current power consumption on both consoles. The storage announcement is straightforward: Sony will finally players to expand past the default storage capacity in their systems, provided you buy a PCIe 4.0 drive that meets system requirements. These drives have never been named or announced, however, and the base PS5 is more capacity-constrained than the Xbox Series X.
Google launched its Stadia cloud gaming service in late 2019, but already the bloom is off the rose. A series of increasingly concerning tales from Google’s game division has come to light in the weeks since Google killed its internal studio, and the latest tidbits are perhaps the most damning. According to , Google blew millions of dollars to get games like Red Dead Redemption 2, but it still missed active user targets by hundreds of thousands of units. is similar to platforms like Amazon Luna and Microsoft xCloud, but both of those services have rolled out more gradually.
The is Samsung’s official new flagship smartphone with performance that rivals the best phones money can buy. The phone has only been out for a short time, but you can now buy one with a $125 discount. Samsung’s Galaxy S21 5G smartphone features top-tier performance that rivals the best phones currently on the market. It comes equipped with a trio of cameras including one that can record video in 8K, and it also has a 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED display as well as a long lasting 4,000mAh battery. This phone sells regularly for $799.99 but you can buy one today from Amazon for just $674.99.
NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe in 2018, but the spacecraft from its most recent flyby. According to NASA, Parker spotted a previously unseen glow that could be a product of oxygen in the inhospitable planet’s atmosphere. The unexpected clarity of surface features also has scientists reassessing how sensitive Parker’s cameras are. Parker is designed to study the sun, but it also spends a lot of time near Venus. To analyze the sun’s corona without getting fried, Parker moves at incredible speeds. It’s currently the fastest human-made object, moving at almost 300,000 miles per hour (466,000 kph) relative to the sun.
Earlier this week, news broke that saddened the hearts of at least a few dozen people: The moderately-awaited overhaul to BioWare’s Anthem, dubbed Anthem Next, will not be released. Now, we’ve got fresh BioWare news that manages to be both positive and somewhat alarming. EA will “allow” the Dragon Age 4 development team to remove multiplayer from the game. If you’re scratching your head trying to remember all those delightful online adventures you had in Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, and Dragon Age Inquisition, it’s not just you. Dragon Age has historically been a single-player series, though Inquisition did feature a small multiplayer co-operative campaign.
