Hardware

By Tarinder Sandhu @ Hexus

MSI is a name whose absence has been conspicuous in the gaming monitor market. Others, notably Asus, have muscled in on this lucrative territory with a range of premium models accommodating stylish designs, both forms of adaptive sync technology, and high refresh rates.

Not to be outdone, MSI, in recent months, has begun shipping its own range of gaming monitors under the Optix line. Today’s review model is arguably the most interesting of the lot, fitting in a gaming-friendly 2,560×1,440 resolution, 144Hz maximum refresh rate, 1ms response time, a gentle curve, purportedly excellent colour gamut reproduction, FreeSync compatibility and RGB to boot. Yup, RGB. Quite a list of accomplishments, so let’s take a closer look at the Optix MPG27CQ.

Read the Review Here

By Matthew Hodgson @ Vortez

Raijintek are relatively new to the party, founded in 2013, but with their German design and Taiwanese manufacture, they promise quality at an affordable price. How does the Orcus 240 RGB CPU Cooler fare in our tests?

Read the Review Here

Check out these latest hardware announcements for today from around the web. Also included are some hardware news bits, and on some days, a few rumors tossed in for good measure. Click on the links below to read the official press release, visit the products web page, or to an independent news source.

• Scythe Presents the Choten Top-Flow CPU Cooler with 120 mm in Height
• Thermaltake Intros Versa H26 Tempered Glass Edition Chassis
• ASUS Announces the Lyra Trio Mesh Wi-Fi System
• G.SKILL Achieves Dual-Channel DDR4-5000MHz Memory Speed on Air-Cooling
• Phanteks Announces Range of Digital RGB Products
• Thermaltake Launches Pacific CL Series Copper Radiators
• ASRock Storms Into the Graphics Market with Phantom Gaming Series Graphics Cards
• ENERMAX Launches LIQFUSION Rainbow RGB Liquid Cooler
• The Razer Goliathus Soft Mouse Mat Is Now Powered By Razer Chroma
• CORSAIR Introduces Their iCUE Unified Software
• Raidmax Intros the Zeta Mid-tower Chassis
• Lian Li Launches Alpha 550 RGB Series Tempered Glass Chassis
• Roccat Horde Aimo Membranical Keyboard Now Available
• Koolance Intros CPU-400 series Water Blocks
• Mushkin Announces New “Source” SSD Product Line
• ASUS Intros VG258Q 24.5-inch Ultra Fast Gaming Monitor

Source: TechPowerUp!

NVIDIA today released the latest version of its GeForce software suite. Version 391.35 WHQL drivers are game-ready for “Far Cry 5,” the week’s biggest AAA game release. This includes game optimization, an SLI profile, and GeForce Experience optimal settings. The drivers also add SLI profiles for “WRC 7″ and GRIP.

The drivers also introduce security updates for a staggering seven CVEs, mostly relating vulnerabilities discovered in the kernel-mode layers of the driver, and user-mode drivers for DirectX and OpenGL. NVIDIA discovered that certain specially crafted pixel shaders can cause infinite loops and denial of service (system hang), or escalation of privileges. Besides these, the drivers patch a memory leak found in NVIDIA Freestyle (custom shader tool), bugs with 3D Profile Manager, and a game freeze noticed on “Diablo III” when rapidly switching tasks on SLI machines.

You can download the new GeForce 391.35 WHQL drivers from GeForce Experience and GeForce.com.

Source: TechPowerUp!

AMD has released the latest Beta version of their Radeon Software Adrenalin driver package. Currently in the 18.3.4 version, these drivers from AMD add support for Ubisoft’s Far Cry 5, ensuring the best possible experience and performance on the latest open-world title. Some graphical glitches on Final Fantasy XV – Windows Edition have also been fixed. As an added bonus for cryptocurrency miners, this latest driver revision also fixes some issues with lower performance on some blockchain workloads.

The new Radeon Software Adrenalin 18.3.4 Beta drivers are available online at the AMD driver download page.

By Lee Garbutt @ PC Perspective

Corsair is a well-respected name in the PC industry and they continue to offer a complete line of products for enthusiasts, gamers, and professionals alike. Today we are taking a detailed look at Corsair’s latest flagship power supply, the AX1600i Digital ATX power supply unit. This is the most technologically advanced power supply we have reviewed to date. Over time, we often grow numb to marketing terms like “most technologically advanced”, “state-of-the-art”, “ultra-stable”, “super-high efficiency”, etc., but in the case of the AX1600i Digital PSU, we have seen these claims come to life before our eyes.

Read the Review Here

By Thomas Soderstrom @ Tom’s Hardware

Intel refers to the X299 platform as “High-End Desktop” (HEDT), but the term “high-end” means different things to different people. A gamer might think the top mainstream parts are better because they support higher overclocks, while a power user would scoff at that platform’s lack of connectivity. The overlap continues as the cheapest HEDT components don’t even have any of the features called “high end” when placed on a mainstream platform.

Conversely, some boards far exceed “high-end” expectations. And the X299 Designare EX’s feature set places it among these elite parts. Is it worth the price?

Read the Review Here

Check out these latest hardware announcements for today from around the web. Also included are some hardware news bits, and on some days, a few rumors tossed in for good measure. Click on the links below to read the official press release, visit the products web page, or to an independent news source.

• PowerColor Announces the Red Dragon RX Vega 56
• NVIDIA Expects 4K 144 Hz G-Sync HDR Displays to Launch in April
• CORSAIR Launches New Hydro Series H60 Liquid CPU Cooler
• ADATA XPG launches the Gaming SX8200 PCIe M.2 2280 SSD
• GeIL Super Luce RGB SYNC Gaming Memory Now Supports Most Motherboard Lighting Control Apps
• Sennheiser Releases New GSP 500 Gaming Headphones
• Thermaltake Unveils View 37 RGB Edition and View 37 Riing Edition Mid-Tower Chassis
• Microsoft Releases DirectX Raytracing – NVIDIA Volta-based RTX Adds Real-Time Capability

By Richard Gouge @ HardOCP

The new Enermax LiqFusion is an All-in-One liquid CPU cooler packed with unique features and desirable options. It has an exclusive RGB-sync waterblock, flow indicator, ceramic bearing pump, as well as a serviceable design, but how well does it cool our highly overclocked Ryzen test system?

Read the Review Here

Source: TechPowerUp!

NVIDIA today released GeForce 391.24 WHQL software. The drivers add more optimization for “Sea of Thieves,” and two new NVIDIA Freestyle post-fx filters – “Old Film” and “Tilt-Shift.” The drivers address issues related to VR headsets from both HTC and Oculus, in which the headset would stop working after several application launches or resumption of system from hibernation. A bug that prevented Freestyle from being enabled on games that support it, is fixed. MPC-HC no longer stutters in the first couple of seconds of the video playback. A driver TDR error with Mozilla Firefox was fixed. A rare bug that caused stuttering on “Rise of Tomb Raider” when opening the in-game menu on GTX 1060, was fixed.

You can download the new GeForce 391.24 WHQL drivers from GeForce Experience and GeForce.com.