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Microsoft and AMD will give away a 'Halo Infinite' Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU
The companies are working together to eventually bring ray-tracing to the game too.
Engadget Podcast: NVIDIA, AMD and Intel sweep virtual Computex
This week, Cherlynn and Devindra chat about the big news from virtual Computex: NVIDIA’s RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti; AMD’s Radeon 6000M mobile graphics; and Intel's latest chips.
Acer reveals its first Chromebook with AMD's latest Ryzen CPUs
The 14-inch machine arrives in February and it starts at $480.
ICYMI: An in-depth look at Apple's MacBook Air M1
The new MacBook Air runs like similarly to an iPad Pro, which is to say that it’s speedy and smooth and now silent thanks to its new fanless design. Apple has been working towards the MacBook Air M1 for a while now; the company has spent a decade building its own mobile chips and the M1 is their first system-on-a-chip for their laptop line.
AMD is preparing to enter the SSD business
With all the computing components AMD makes already, it's still hard to believe the company has yet to explore the solid-state drive space. But that's about to change soon -- it looks like AMD's finally ready to get into the business of making SSDs. Not surprisingly, the chip maker is bringing its new SSD line to market under the renowned Radeon R7 brand, perhaps hoping that becomes an incentive for potential customers. These solid-state drives, which AMD says are geared toward PC gamers, will be available in 120GB, 240GB and 480GB flavors, while the advertised read and write speeds appear to be on par with similar offerings from competitors like Samsung. Unfortunately, it's not easy to compare any further, since AMD won't be announcing the price of its Radeon R7 SSDs until they launch "later this year." [Image credit: Associated Press]
Buy AMD Radeon HD 7900, get Far Cry 3, Hitman: Absolution and Sleeping Dogs free
AMD is doing something innovative with a graphics card bundle: including games we want to play. Engadget reports the company's new 'Never Settle' campaign gives away Far Cry 3, Hitman: Absolution, and Sleeping Dogs with any Radeon HD 7900 series purchase, along with 20 percent off Medal of Honor: Warfighter.The promotion extends across Radeon HD 7770 GHz cards and up. Single 7770 GHz and 7800 purchases get Far Cry 3 and 20 percent off MoH: Warfighter, while dual purchases get Hitman: Absolution thrown in too. AMD places the 7900 bundle's value at over $170, a meaty response to Nvidia's Borderlands 2 freebie with the GeForce GTX 660 Ti.
AMD Never Settle bundle gives Radeon HD 7000 buyers free games they'd actually care to play
Just about anyone who has bought more than one aftermarket graphics card knows that bundled games rarely matter. They're usually year-old titles or neutered editions built only to showcase the GPU's performance for a few hours. AMD thinks its Never Settle bundle might finally get us to notice. Buy any modern Radeon HD video card from the 7770 GHz Edition on up and you'll get a download code for at least one new game you'd genuinely want to try, ranging from Far Cry 3 on basic cards to a full three-game deal that supplies Far Cry 3, Hitman: Absolution and Sleeping Dogs to high rollers buying the 7900 series. There's likewise a discount for Medal of Honor: Warfighter and promises of bundles in 2013 for Bioshock Infinite and the reimagined Tomb Raider. As long as you're not dead set on springing for a GeForce board in the next few months, one of the qualifying cards might be worth a look to jumpstart your game collection.
BlueStacks teams with AMD to optimize Android App Player for Fusion, Radeon chips (video)
AMD has a disproportionately large $6.4 million investment in BlueStacks, and now we're seeing one clear reason why. The two companies have teamed up to create a special version of the BlueStacks App Player that's tuned for AMD's Fusion-based processors and Radeon graphics cards, running Android apps with the full help of the chip designer's hardware in Windows 7 and 8 PCs. Accordingly, over 500,000 Android apps are invading AMD's new AppZone portal without any needed tweaks of their own, giving the service a much larger catalog than if it had gone with Windows alone. Both companies have a clear incentive to this melding of desktop and mobile: BlueStacks suddenly gets exposure to as many as 100 million AMD-running users, while AMD can tout a giant app catalog that may be preloaded on future PCs using its components. We don't know if the world needs yet another avenue for playing Angry Birds, especially when many AMD-based PCs won't have touchscreens, but the BlueStacks partnership could be a strong lure for new PC buyers who'd like an instant software library.
AMD exec behind Wii and Xbox 360 graphics jumps the fence to NVIDIA
AMD has been suffering a conspicuous brain drain, with executives like ATI veteran Rick Bergman and CTO Eric Demers crossing over to tangentially or directly competitive companies like NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Chalk up another one for the list -- strategic development VP Bob Feldstein has bounded towards NVIDIA's (literally) greener pastures. The blow cuts deeper than usual through Feldstein's responsibility for graphics in most of the consoles from the past few years: he headed up work behind the Xenos chip in earlier Xbox 360s and the Hollywood core in the Wii, and he likely had some say in the Wii U's video hardware as well. While the staff shuffle won't directly affect AMD's Fusion processors or Radeon cards, it's hard to see much of a positive for AMD's future in video gaming, even in the light of rumors that the next PlayStation and Xbox might use some of Feldstein's work.
Winscape virtual window makes the leap to Kinect in 4K-capable, 6-screen glory (video)
RationalCraft brought its surreal Winscape virtual window to market when the Wii was virtually the only game in town for affordable motion tracking. Microsoft's Kinect has certainly changed the rules of the game since then, so it's almost natural that a fourth-generation Winscape has just launched to make use of the much more sophisticated sensor. For a start, there's no need to dress like Flavor Flav anymore: the camera can recognize anyone, even passers-by, without an oversized necklace. The larger-than-life footage used to generate the window effect has been given its own bump, too, and the app can now handle 4K video as long as the Mac underneath (sorry, Windows folks) is powerful enough to drive it. For those who truly want to be disconnected from reality, there's even six-display support provided it's all hooked up to a Mac Pro and a pair of three-output Radeon HD 5770 video cards. RationalCraft's software is free to try out now, although the requirement for at least two big TVs, a Kinect controller and a fast Mac should say all there is to know about the practical cost of pretending the Golden Gate Bridge is visible from inside a living room in Cleveland.
Switchable graphics solutions duel it out, AMD ends up looking like a chump
At this point, NVIDIA's Optimus switchable graphics are old hat, but AMD is relatively new to the game of packing dual GPUs in a single laptop. AnandTech decided to pit the two solutions against each other and, well, lets just say AMD doesn't come out looking so great. The biggest problem appears to be stability. While performance is acceptable (though, not quite as good as it should be) the site had trouble getting four of the supposedly 16 supported games to switch between the integrated and discrete GPUs as advertised. Regular driver updates, not to mention a bit more testing, could solve the issues, but for now NVIDIA's Optimus simply outclasses its AMD counterpart. Check out the video after the break and don't forget to hit up the source link for all the details.
AMD intros Radeon-branded RAM, gives gamers that coordinated component look
Have an inexplicable lust for all things AMD? Better sit down for this one folks, as your favorite chip company is back, this time peddling Radeon-branded RAM in exchange for your hard earned dough. Tested to the "highest industry" standards, the DDR3 modules will be available in three SKUs: the entry-level "Entertainment" sticks (clocked at 1333MHz), followed by speedier "Ultra Pro Gaming" (1600MHz) and an "Enterprise" RAM of an unknown speed. Akiba PC Online! spotted 2GB modules of the lowest tier chilling in Japan for a cool ¥1570 (around $20 stateside), as-well as a US product page (which we've kindly linked below). Small price to pay for memory to match your graphics card -- brand loyalty's a beautiful thing, right guys?
Wii U has last-gen Radeon inside, still more advanced than PS3 and Xbox 360
Slowly, but surely, we're starting to piece together what's going on inside that mysterious white box known as the Wii U. IBM was a little coy about the multi-core CPU it was providing, but did tantalize us by mentioning the name "Watson" in describing some of its underlying tech. Now details about the custom Radeon GPU are starting to surface and, while certainly capable, it's not exactly cutting edge. At its heart is a chip similar to the R770 found in AMD's last-gen cards like the 4890 and, before you dismiss it, remember the PS3 and Xbox 360 are still capable of pumping out impressive visuals while packing five-year-old silicon (The 360 is essentially running a souped up ATI X1900). The custom core also supports Direct X 10.1 (Microsoft runs out of steam with Direct X 9) and Eyefinity-like multi-display tech for up to four SD video streams -- though it'll be up to Nintendo and developers to put that to good use. In case you're still not convinced of the Wii U's graphical prowess, Crytek has said its advanced CryEngine is "pretty much" up and running on Nintendo's upcoming console -- and, if it's good enough for Crysis, it should be good enough for you.
Sony announces VAIO SA series ultraportable, puts VAIO F series up for pre-order
Having trouble keeping Sony's slim VAIO S series laptops straight? It's okay, we are, too, especially now that the company's officially unveiled the SA series, a 13.3-inch ultraportable that's poised to go toe to toe with the skinny Lenovo ThinkPad X1. Although it's got almost the same magnesium-and-alloy chassis as the VAIO SB series we saw at CES, the SA is a hair thinner, at 0.95 inches, and comes standard with AMD Radeon HD 6630 graphics and 1GB of video memory, 1600 x 900 resolution, a 500GB hard drive, fingerprint reader, and a Blu-ray drive. You can also trick it out with a dual channel solid-state drive, which promises to help let you work up to 16 hours unplugged if you combine it with a $100 sheet battery. If you fork out a minimum of $1,650, you can snag one with an SSD. If the SA's $1,350 starting price is more than you're willing to spend, there's still the SB series, though the $969 base model naturally has less impressive specs, including 512MB of video memory, 1366 x 768 resolution, a DVD player, and a Core i5 -- not Core i7 -- processor. For what its worth, its color options now include pink and navy, if that floats your boat more than the high-end SA's black, silver, and brown palette. In other news, Sony's also taking orders for the VAIO F Series, which comes in two flavors: one with a 16-inch 3D display with a 2D-to-3D conversion button, starting at $1,659, and a 16.4-inch 2D model with a more modest $1,100 base price. But if you want a 2D display with 1080p resolution and a Blu-ray drive, you can expect to pay at least $1,169. Both these and the SA series are up for pre-order today, with gussied-up photos below and full PR and past the break. %Gallery-124462% %Gallery-124461%
Powercolor expected to unveil double-barreled Radeon at Computex
An unnamed, undressed dual-GPU prototype of AMD's latest in southern-island graphics cards surfaced over the weekend. Flaunting twin Bart chips with 1,120 stream processors a pop, this card totals up at 2,240, with each GPU packing its own memory for a total of 2GB of GDDR5. Although PowerColor is staying tight lipped on specs and official name until Computex in June, two DVI ports, double mini DisplayPorts, and one HDMI-out paint obvious similarities to the existing Radeon HD 6870. One last notable difference? The unknown soldier is powered by two eight-pin PCIe connectors, as opposed to the HD 6870's six-pin variant. We're probably looking at the latest in the Radeon HD 6800 series, we'll know for sure in about a month.
Apple refreshes MacBook Pros with Sandy Bridge processors, AMD graphics, Thunderbolt I/O tech, and HD cameras
Come on, you knew this was coming! Oh yes, Apple's pulling the curtain off its new MacBook Pro family, and compared to the last refresh cycle, there are a serious amount of updates. Just as we had heard, all three will be getting new Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 processors, AMD Radeon HD 6000M graphics (bye bye, NVIDIA!), FaceTime HD cameras, and some super fast Thunderbolt I/O transfer speeds. There are two new 13-inchers, two 15.4-inch versions, and one lone 17-inch model. How much will they cost you and what are the exact specs? You'll want to hit the jump for all of that and the official press release. %Gallery-117499%
HP gets down to business with redesigned and refreshed EliteBook and ProBook laptops (hands-on)
Two weeks ago "consumers" got totally redesigned HP Pavilion dv and g-series laptops, leaving those poor guys in the conference room with nothing but their "old" Calpella-based machines and sad Excel spreadsheets. Well, it's their turn now alright -- HP's been stirring up brand new EliteBook and ProBooks for the guys and gals in suits (though, we're really of the mind that these laptops are for anyone looking for some tough and powerful hardware). All ten of the new machines (yep, 10!) have been given new metal designs, Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors, facial recognition software, and an easy-access latch to get to the hard drive and RAM. And there's more -- hit the jump for a break down and impressions of each of the models, and don't forget to check those galleries below for some shots of these rigs in the flesh. %Gallery-117316% %Gallery-117319%
Sony VAIO CA and CB pack the latest Core i5 power for those who can look past the neon
We're aware, the "exclusive" green and orange neon color of Sony's VAIO CB and CA laptops can make your eyes bleed, but Sony's pretty excited about the aesthetic and the way it radiates light around the edges of the laptop. Oh, and don't forget how the touchpad "emits a beautiful glow." It's true, the rigs do have an interesting glow stick-like look to them -- at least, we thought so when we saw them last month -- however, we found their innards and features to be more enlightening. Starting at $800, the 14-inch CA10 and 15.5-inch CB10 will both be available with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 processors, AMD Radeon HD 6630 graphics, and Blu-ray drives. Select models will also pack Intel's WiDi 2.0, which lets you stream 1080p video to your TV. And remember Sony's Remote Keyboard, which lets you navigate your PS3 or Bravia TV with the laptop? Yep, the CA and CB both have that functionality baked in as well. What's that? You'd be interested if they didn't blind you? What if we also told you they will come in black and white? We thought that might change your mind, and according to the official press release below there will indeed be alternative color versions. You'll be able to pre-order them both on March 13th, but until then you can always see if the neon grows on you with the photos below. %Gallery-117252%
HP's Pavilion dv6 and dv7 get Envy-like features, g-series loses the bargain basement looks
We know the story: all you want is an HP Envy 14 or 17, but you just don't have the cash. Well, as it turns out, HP's been thinking long and hard about your issue, and its new Pavilion dv6 and dv7 may very well be what the doctor ordered. Pulling out some of the higher-end Envy features, the new 15.6- and 17.3-inch laptops have been refreshed not only with Beats Audio speakers, HD webcams, and HP's CoolSense technology, but they've also been given "dark umber" metal lids / palm rests. Oh, and did we mention the light-up touchpads? Okay, so it's not the same as the Envy's etched-metal case, but they're certainly a step up in design from the previous glossy rigs, and for their respective $750 and $1,000 starting prices, there's no arguing that it's a pretty sweet deal. Spec-wise the machines are just as impressive -- they boast Intel's latest Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 processors, AMD Radeon 6000M graphics, and USB 3.0 ports. Additionally, both models will be available with Blu-ray drives and up to two terabytes of storage. Want it tomorrow? We don't blame you, but you'll have to wait until "sometime in March" to order these bad boys. On the lower end, HP's refreshed its Pavilion g-series, and you know what? For under $500, they don't look half bad. Yep, HP's gone ahead and given its budget mainstream line a total makeover with colorful lids (name a color, they've got it), a pseudo-chiclet keyboard, a touchpad that is totally flush with the palmrest, and Altec Lansing speakers. But while you may be able to take the bargain look out of the laptop, it's hard to remove those bargain specs -- the 14-inch g4, 15.4-inch g6, and 17.3-inch g7 get cut off at AMD's Athlon and Turion and Intel's Pentium and Core i3 processors. Still for the $450 to $600 price points, it's not too shabby. The g-series will be available on March 13th, but until then enjoy the hands-on shots below and the full press release after the break. %Gallery-115866% %Gallery-115873%
AMD Radeon HD 6870 and HD 6850 officially pictured, coming this Friday
AMD said it's bringing the new heat this week, but, in a classic act of showmanship, it's teasing out only imagery today and insisting on making us wait until Friday to truly learn what the next generation of Radeon graphics is made of. For now, we have the full titles of its leading lights, namely the Radeon HD 6870 and Radeon HD 6850, along with plenty of pictorial evidence of their existence in a lab somewhere. We note with glee that the default output arrangement includes no less than five ports, including two DVI, one HDMI (1.4a), and two Mini DisplayPorts. We'd rather the latter two were full-sized, but it doesn't look like ATI AMD had the room to fit them in. As to power requirements, the HD 6870 will need two 6-pin connectors to augment the juice it gets from the PCI Express port, while the HD 6850 will sate its needs with just the one. Anyhow, enjoy the gallery below and make sure to have your popcorn ready for the benchmark-heavy reviews coming up at the end of the week.%Gallery-105362%
