Xbox and Fallout fans, rejoice! Today, we are thrilled to announce a striking collaboration between Xbox and new series on Prime Video "Fallout", premiering on April 11. Introducing the Xbox and Fallout Vault Box—a custom collaboration that combines the rugged essence of the Fallout universe with the unparalleled security of a Fort Knox vault. Based on one of the greatest video game series of all time, "Fallout" is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there's almost nothing left to have. Two-hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind—and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.

The series comes from Kilter Films and executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. Nolan directed the first three episodes. Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner serve as executive producers, writers and co-showrunners. The series stars Ella Purnell (Yellowjackets), Aaron Moten (Emancipation) and Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight). Athena Wickham of Kilter Films also executive produces along with Todd Howard for Bethesda Game Studios and James Altman for Bethesda Softworks. Amazon MGM Studios and Kilter Films produce in association with Bethesda Game Studios and Bethesda Softworks.

Chinese custom chassis specialist, Xikii, has opened pre-orders for a new FF04 model—this classy ￥3599 (~$500) box has been designed to match the aesthetic theme of ASUS ProArt graphics cards. 3DCenter.org was impressed with the company's premium-priced work, following a discovery by Western readers (on Reddit). The site's social media account expressed some appreciation—the Xikii FF04 chassis set is a "9.8 liter case built around a single GPU; ASUS ProArt RTX 4070 Ti. Even the contour of the case matches the curve of the GPU shroud."

Xikii's product page includes a bunch of slick marketing shots and a promo video—all showing off a sample unit. Redditors noticed that the first batch of FF04 cases has already sold out—the company anticipates a shipping out date somewhere within an April 15 to 30 window. VideoCardz has eyeballed all available data, and surmised that several "RTX 40 ProArt models (4080, 4070 and 4060 series)" are suitably proportioned to fit in Xikii's purpose-built chassis—these: "have the same dimensions of 300x120x50 mm. This may explain why this design made any sense, you can certainly fit more than one model into this case, just keep in mind that a suitable power supply is needed for higher-end models." Xikii will offer an "external split water-cooling adapter module" as an optional item in the near future—they predict a price of 180 yuan (~$25).

The ecosystem around NVIDIA's technologies has always been verdant—but this is absurd. After a stunning premiere at the World Economic Forum in Davos, immersive artworks based on Refit Anadol Studio's Large Nature Model will come to the U.S. for the first time at NVIDIA GTC. Offering a deep dive into the synergy between AI and the natural world, Anadol's multisensory work, "Large Nature Model: A Living Archive," will be situated prominently on the main concourse of the San Jose Convention Center, where the global AI event is taking place, from March 18-21.

Fueled by NVIDIA's advanced AI technology, including powerful DGX A100 stations and high-performance GPUs, the exhibit offers a captivating journey through our planet's ecosystems with stunning visuals, sounds and scents. These scenes are rendered in breathtaking clarity across screens with a total output of 12.5 million pixels, immersing attendees in an unprecedented digital portrayal of Earth's ecosystems. Refik Anadol, recognized by The Economist as "the artist of the moment," has emerged as a key figure in AI art. His work, notable for its use of data and machine learning, places him at the forefront of a generation pushing the boundaries between technology, interdisciplinary research and aesthetics. Anadol's influence reflects a wider movement in the art world towards embracing digital innovation, setting new precedents in how art is created and experienced.

Intel has been hyping up their artificial intelligence-augmented processor products since late last year—their "AI Everywhere" marketing push started with the official launch of Intel Core Ultra mobile CPUs, AKA the much-delayed Meteor Lake processor family. CEO, Pat Gelsinger stated (mid-December 2023): "AI innovation is poised to raise the digital economy's impact up to as much as one-third of global gross domestic product...Intel is developing the technologies and solutions that empower customers to seamlessly integrate and effectively run AI in all their applications—in the cloud and, increasingly, locally at the PC and edge, where data is generated and used." Team Blue's presence at this week's MWC Barcelona 2024 event introduced "AI Everywhere Across Network, Edge, Enterprise."

Nikkei Asia sat down with Intel's David Feng—Vice President of Client Computing Group and General Manager of Client Segments. The impressively job-titled executive discussed the "future of AI PCs," and set some lofty sales goals for his firm. According to the Nikkei report, Intel leadership expects to "deliver 40 million AI PCs" this year and a further 60 million units next year—representing "more than 20% of the projected total global PC market in 2025." Feng and his colleagues predict that mainstream customers will prefer to use local "on-device" AI solutions (equipped with NPUs), rather than rely on remote cloud services. Significant Edge AI improvements are expected to arrive with next generation Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake processor families, the latter will be bringing Team Blue NPU technologies to desktop platforms—AMD's Ryzen 8000G series of AM5 APUs launched with XDNA engines last month.

MSI is preparing to launch its new generation of MPG and MAG series QD-OLED gaming monitors—early 2024 promotional activity included a couple of pre-launch initiatives. The company's marketing division is attempting to get into good graces with the gaming community—we have already witnessed the introduction of a 3-year warranty for OLED panel product, and permanent price cuts planned for launch day. It is highly probable that MSI is trying to attract customers away from ASUS ROG—the MPG 321URX ($949.99, formerly $1199) will be going up against the Swift OLED PG32UCDM ($1299).

The "MSI_Darutohne" Reddit account reached out to potential (and well heeled) customers on a popular premium gaming monitor discussion community: "Hello r/OLED_Gaming! Our QD-OLED monitors are finally rolling out, and we'd love to clarify any misconceptions and make sure everyone here is making an informed purchase! Let's get started with the Six NEW QD-OLED monitors. You may find them all listed here." Many members thanked MSI for the comprehensive product rundowns and answering of questions/queries, but one participant—Mars0813—took issue with the MAG 321UPX model's apparent inability to receive software/firmware updates. MSI_Darutohne responded and confirmed: "You are correct. The MAG 321UPX QD-OLED will NOT support software updates." Subsequent repliers stated that they would cancel their pre-orders, or request refunds. Jamartty45 stated: "Appreciate you for clarifying, but I purchased this yesterday and it will be returned as soon as it gets to my door. A $900 monitor that doesn't support software updates is absurd." The more expensive MPG tier appears to be the best route for gamers who enjoy a little bit of future-proofing and bug fixing.

SK Hynix Vice President Kitae Kim presides over the company's HBM Sales & Marketing (S&M) department—an official leadership blog profile reveals that the executive played a key role in making the South Korean supplier's high bandwidth memory (HBM) product line "a superstar of the semiconductor memory industry in 2023." Growing demand for powerful AI processors has placed SK Hynix in a more comfortable position, following recessive spells—including a major sales downturn in 2022. NVIDIA is the market leader in AI processing chips, and many of its flagship enterprise designs are fitted with cutting-edge SK Hynix memory modules. Kim noted that his firm has many notable international clients: "HBM is a revolutionary product which has challenged the notion that semiconductor memory is only one part of an overall system...in particular, SK Hynix's HBM has outstanding competitiveness. Our advanced technology is highly sought after by global tech companies."

The VP outlined how artificial intelligence industries are fuelling innovations: "With the diversification and advancement of generative AI services, demand for HBM, an AI memory solution, has also exploded. HBM, with its high-performance and high-capacity characteristics, is a monumental product that shakes the conventional wisdom that memory semiconductors are only a part of the overall system. In particular, SK Hynix HBM's competitiveness is outstanding." Business is booming, so much so that nothing can be added to this year's HBM order books: "Proactively securing customer purchase volumes and negotiating more favorable conditions for our high-quality products are the basics of semiconductor sales operations. With excellent products in hand, it's a matter of speed. Our planned production volume of HBM this year has already sold out. Although 2024 has just begun, we've already started preparing for 2025 to stay ahead of the market."

A curious piece of marketing material on the Chiphell forum has sent ripples through the tech community, featuring what appears to be an Alienware desktop equipped with an unannounced AMD Ryzen 9000-series processor. The authenticity of this flyer is up for debate, with possibilities ranging from a simple typo by Alienware to a fabricated image, or it could even suggest that AMD is on the cusp of unveiling its next-generation Ryzen CPUs for desktop PCs. While intrigue is high, it's important to approach such revelations cautiously, with a big grain of salt. AMD's existing roadmap points toward a 2024 release for its Zen 5-based Ryzen desktop processors and EPYC server CPUs, which casts further doubt on the Ryzen 9000 series appearing ahead of schedule.

We have to wait for AMD's major upcoming events, including the "Advancing AI" event on December 6, where the company will showcase how its partners and AMD use AI for applications. Next, we hope to hear from AMD about upcoming events such as CES in January and Computex in May, but we don't have any official information on product launches in the near term. If the company is preparing anything, the Alienware flyer pictured below should indicate it, if the source is confirmed. However, the doubt remains, and we should be skeptical of its truthfulness.

Retailers in East Asia have reportedly chosen to go live with marketing imagery depicting Intel's initial batch of 14th Gen Core SKUs—this is roughly two weeks ahead of an official October 17 "Raptor Lake Refresh" product launch. A couple of "official" slides have been forwarded to VideoCardz—the information on display provides a quick overview of basic specifications for Core i9, Core i7 and Core i5 models. The 6 GHz clock and 24 core configuration is believed to be the upcoming flagship Core i9-14900K SKU. The Core i7-14700K would fit the bill of sporting a 5.6 GHz and 20-core setup—leaked marketing info confirms that this new model has been bolstered with an additional four Gracemont E-cores. The Core i5-14600K seems to align with the 5.3 GHz and 14-core spec. A premature publication of information is not all that surprising—a couple of marketing slides breaking embargo is relatively minor when compared to actual working hardware getting demoed during summertime. ITHome reported on Raptor Lake Refresh and Meteor Lake appearing on the showroom floor at July's Bilibili World.

The North American branch of ASUS has unveiled its NUC product lineup—this announcement arrives only a month and a half after making an agreement with Intel to transfer rights for the sales and manufacturing of NUC products to their Business Unit (NUC BU). Their X account tweeted out late last week: "Exciting News! 🚀 Starting September 1st, NUC becomes a proud member of the ASUS product lineup, setting off on an exhilarating journey ahead 🎉 Delve into NUC product specifics on the official ASUS website."

ASUS seems to have absorbed the current crop of 10th to 13th NUC series systems into its portfolio, although the emphasis appears to be placed on Raptor Lake-based units. Other news outlets anticipate that ASUS NUC 13 Extreme products (minus ROG livery) could hit the market soon. The ASUS marketing blurb outlines their ambitions going forward: "NUC-Powerful experiences in small packages. NUC-rhymes with luck-is the Next Unit of Computing that delivers incredible performance, rich l/O, high-end graphics capabilities, and sleek designs for everyone and every situation, including gaming and business." ASUS NUC BU will likely adopt upcoming Raptor Lake Refresh and Meteor Lake CPUs.

Technology is creating amazing opportunities for our industry and the world, and Windows 11 is at the center of innovation with new experiences that transform how we interact with the Windows PC and each other. With Windows 11, we're seeing record engagement, our highest customer satisfaction over any previous version of Windows in the U.S., and accelerated growth in commercial deployments. In fact, we recently shared as part of our latest earnings report that over 90% of Fortune 500 companies are currently trialing or have already deployed Windows 11.

In February, we brought the new AI-powered Bing to the taskbar and other features to improve the way people get things done on their PCs. Today, we are providing a look at new features and enhancements for Windows 11 that will start to become available tomorrow, May 24, that focus on business needs, such as security and IT management, and new benefits that enhance professional and personal usability. For developers building on Windows, this week we are announcing new innovation at Microsoft Build.

Respawn Entertainment boss Vince Zampella has been engaged in press duties for the Star Wars Jedi: Survivor marketing cycle this week, and is likely having to field questions about the sci-fi action adventure's poor technical performance on PC and consoles alike. In an interview conducted by Barron's Magazine a few days ago, Zampella was probably relieved to have the focus shift to a happier topic - the Titanfall franchise. He seemed to be quite open to the prospect of making a third game: "I hate to say yes, then people latch onto that, and then skewer you when it doesn't come. But I would love to see it happen is the real answer." His studio was founded in order to develop the (multiplayer only) first-person shooter Titanfall (2014), a platform exclusive on PC/Origin and Xbox One. Prior to starting Respawn Entertainment in 2010, Zampella and colleague Jason West were lead designers on the mainline Call of Duty series at Infinity Ward/Activision.

A sequel to the original Titanfall arrived in late 2016 to rave reviews from the press and hardcore fans of the series - the inclusion of a single player campaign was considered to be a highlight - this story campaign borrowed gameplay ideas (to the surprise of many) from Valve's Half Life series, and added time traveling elements to an already mind-bending mobility system. In an unfortunate move for Zampella and Respawn, publisher Electronic Arts decided to launch Titanfall 2 during a very busy release window - the main competition at the time being Activision's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and (EA's own) Battlefield 1. A mainstream crowd proceeded to ignore the Titanfall sequel thanks to poor marketing on EA's part and a crowded games market - sales figures were underwhelming, even with a PS4 version, and the game was heavily discounted within a couple of months of release. Respawn moved on to create a spin-off multiplayer shooter - the smash hit free-to-play battle royale Apex Legends, and the Star Wars Jedi series.

AMD's marketing department this week continued its battle to outwit arch rival NVIDIA in GPU VRAM pricing wars - Sasa Marinkovic, a senior director at Team Red's gaming promotion department, tweeted out a simple and concise statement yesterday: "Our @amdradeon 16 GB gaming experience starts at $499." He included a helpful chart that lines up part of the AMD Radeon GPU range against a couple of hand-picked NVIDIA GeForce RTX cards, with emphasis on comparing pricing and respective allotments of VRAM. The infographic indicates AMD's first official declaration of the (last generation "Big Navi" architecture) RX 6800 GPU bottoming out at $499, an all time low, as well as hefty cut affecting the old range topping RX 6950 XT - now available for $649 (an ASRock version is going for $599 at the moment). The RX 6800 XT sits in-between at $579, but it is curious that the RX 6900 XT did not get a slot on the chart.

AMD's latest play against NVIDIA in the video memory size stake is nothing really new - earlier this month it encouraged potential customers to select one of its pricey current generation RX 7900 XT or XTX GPUs. The main reason being that the hefty Radeon cards pack more onboard VRAM than equivalent GeForce RTX models - namely the 4070 Ti and 4080 - therefore future-proofed for increasingly memory hungry games. The latest batch of marketing did not account for board partner variants of the (RDNA3-based) RX 7900 XT GPU selling for as low as $762 this week.

According to HKEPC, AMD is set to introduce two versions of the A620 chipset for its lower-end motherboards, providing a lower barrier of AM5 entry for users on a smaller budget. As the new source notes, AMD is going to use its Promontory 21 (PROM21) module for A620 motherboards, the same one used on B650 and X670 models. However, for the first time, we are hearing about Promontory 22 (PROM22), a module that will allow A620-based motherboards to start at 125 US dollars—a promise made by AMD in its marketing slides (which you can see below). Two A620 chipsets will enable users to choose basic functionality or some additional features on a reasonable budget.

With PROM21 going inside all chipset SKUs, it carries silicon functionality disabled by AMD to create different categories. However, the PROM22 is a new silicon that doesn't need bells and whistles of the high-end boards inside a feature-deprived chipset like A620. This drives down AMD's costs, making it easier for vendors to adjust pricing. We have to wait for the launch and see how much of this will be fulfilled, so stay tuned for further updates.

Frank Azor, Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions & Marketing at AMD, has posted an interesting slide on Twitter, claiming that AMD Radeon products possess higher FPS/$ value than NVIDIA's graphics offerings. According to the slide, AMD Radeon graphics cards are the best solutions for gamers looking at performance per dollar ratings and performance per watt. This means that AMD claims that Radeon products are inherently higher-value products than NVIDIA's offerings while also more efficient. As the chart shows, which you can see below, some AMD Radeon cards are offering up to 89% better FPS/$ value with up to 123% better FPS/Watt metric. This highest rating is dedicated to Radeon RX 6400 GPU; however, there are all GPUs included in comparison with up to the latest Radeon RX 6950 XT SKU.

Compared to TechPowerUp's own testing of AMD's Radeon cards and multiple reviews calculating the performance per dollar metric, we could not see numbers as high as AMD's. This means that AMD's marketing department probably uses a different selection of games that may perform better on AMD Radeon cards than NVIDIA GeForce RTX. Of course, as with any company marketing material, you should take it with a grain of salt, so please check some of our reviews for a non-biased comparison.

Since the launch of AMD's Ryzen processors, the CPU market share has been reshaped in AMD's favor. Intel's offerings were matched by team red, and AMD quickly broke into the consumer market. However, according to the latest round of reports, it seems like that is no longer the case. As per the Japanese DIY market analysis from BCNR, sales of Intel processors started rising in mid-2021, and the company is managing to grab some market share from AMD. After nearly two years of dominance in the Japanese market, AMD is now behind Intel in sales, and team blue is getting back to its older setting.

Another source that is generally a pretty good indicator of the market share of Intel and AMD processor is PassMark. As users submit their benchmark runs, the PassMark software developer has updated the CPU market share statistics chart, mainly showing the desktop segment. It also concludes the same thing as BCRN: Intel is again gaining share in the CPU market. As it always goes hand-in-hand, AMD is losing the CPU marker share naturally. This is due to many reasons, and it seems like Intel's marketing and supply tactics are paying off. Intel now sits at 60% share, while AMD is set at 40%.

Kyle Bennett, head of HardOCP, and part of this Industry for several decades has posted an interesting editorial yesterday. While I don't agree with everything, he's making great points that are worth considering. The editorial begins with how and why GPU vendors will abolish the MSRP, because it's bringing nothing but bad press to them. No MSRP would also mean additional flexibility in pricing things—just set the price dynamically—no doubt that also helps to maximize profits.

I am sure both AMD and NVIDIA have marketing managers sitting around watching reviewer after reviewer slamming its company for "fake MSRP" and are now thinking about a solution to that.

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solutions, announces that it has started shipping the new 27-inch VP2756-2K and VP2756-4K ColorPro monitors. The latest additions to the company's award-winning ColorPro monitor series, the VP2756-2K and VP2756-4K monitors are Pantone Validated and feature native QHD (2560x1440) and Ultra HD (3840x2160) resolutions, respectively, and are engineered to deliver amazing color accuracy and performance.

For professionals who depend on color reliability and fidelity in every pixel on the screen, the VP2756-2K and VP2756-4K monitors provide incredible color accuracy. These monitors have been rigorously tested and deemed capable of reproducing the Pantone Matching System (PMS) Colors. The monitors also come with vDisplayManager software that puts the on-screen display (OSD) menu controls on the monitor's screen so users can quickly and easily adjust the settings as needed. A Color Sensitivity Mode simulates various color deficiencies, while a Designer Mode calibrates the monitor to the sRGB color gamut and makes it easy for the user to change between color profiles.

HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., today unveiled new additions to its award-winning product line at CES 2021. Participating in the digital version of CES this year, HyperX continues to support the gaming community by expanding its professional-grade products used by gaming pros and HyperX fans. The new products revealed during the virtual show include the company's first 60 percent keyboard, the HyperX Alloy Origins 60 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard; a new charging accessory, the ChargePlay Duo Controller Charging Station for Xbox Series X/S and global availability1 of the Pulsefire Haste Gaming Mouse, Cloud II Wireless Gaming Headset and Cloud Revolver Gaming Headset + 7.1.

"Gaming became an even more go-to activity this year as people searched for safe, entertaining ways to stay connected with friends and family," said Daniel Kelley, director of corporate marketing, HyperX. "HyperX's new product lineup reflects our ongoing commitment to the ever growing gaming community to deliver best in class products for whenever or however one plays."

Activision-Blizzard is one of the largest companies involved in the making of video games and they are accountable for many popular game franchises known to every gamer. Today, according to a report from Bloomberg, we have found out that Activision-Blizzard holding company will close the doors of its office located in Versailles, France. This move puts an end to company operations in that country. The company has informed its employees on Tuesday regarding the office closure, and thus has laid-off about 400 people the office accounted for. Generally speaking, there were no developer roles involved here.

The France office specialized in marketing, localization, and customer support, so no game developers were fired. At the beginning of this year, 1/4 of all France office employees were laid-off already and got their severance packages, while the rest of the employees affected by this move are expecting relocation somewhere else in Europe. A company spokesman corresponding with Bloomberg has said that "Over the past year we have been exploring how we might best integrate our capabilities across the business, enabling us to better leverage talent, expertise and scale as we adapt to the needs of a fast-paced, highly-competitive, digitally focused industry". This is quite a vague answer the spokesman gave; however, it is the only information we have.

HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., today announced the HyperX Spectre Gaming Eyewear collection now includes three new families of glasses - Stealth, React and Scout. The HyperX Spectre Eyewear collection features exclusive HyperX gaming-grade, impact-resistant lenses that offer superior blue light and UV protection for gamers and individuals while viewing digital devices. Designed to meet a variety of style and screen viewing needs, the new gaming eyewear families offer a range of lens technology options, designs, colors, and sizes. The Spectre Scout family offers several youth options, designed for kids who game, as well as learn and study at home.

With 80 percent of people using digital devices more than two hours a day and nearly 67 percent using two or more devices simultaneously, research has shown that exposure to high energy blue light rays can cause eye fatigue, blurry vision and lack of sleep.1 The blue-light-blocking Spectre Eyewear is designed to help protect eyes from the short- and long-term effects of digital eyestrain and keep gamers' eyes comfortable during longer gaming sessions, or while working and learning on a computer, or scrolling on a phone.

In signs of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce Ampere graphics cards getting a brisk market launch across several SKUs, a Tweaktown report predicts that custom-design graphics cards based on the chips will launch alongside Founders Edition (de facto reference-design) cards. NVIDIA's add-in card partners are believed to be ready with their next-generation original designs that will debut with the new chips, with renders of the ASUS ROG Strix 3000-series cards having leaked in early June. Tweaktown predicts series reveal by September 9, followed by SKU announcements on September 17. AIC partners tell them that custom-design products can be expected within the month. The first major teaser could come out by August 31.

NVIDIA on Monday tweeted its very first web teaser of the new series, under the hashtag #UltimateCountdown. We predict DirectX 12 Ultimate to be central to NVIDIA's marketing, especially a play on the word "ultimate," (eg: the "ultimate ray-tracing performance"). It wouldn't surprise us if "Ultimate" is somehow integrated into the product branding itself (à la "RTX").

NVIDIA today shared the first real teaser in what seems to be the start of the Ampere marketing push. A post via Twitter shared an image showing an explosion of cosmic proportions, with a "#theultimatecountdown" tag alongside the "21 days. 21 years" tagline. This is a likely throwback to August 31st 1999, when NVIDIA launched its first GeForce branded graphics card - the GeForce 256 - setting it on its journey to become today's most successful dedicated graphics card maker.

Following the teasers' logic, we should expect some very interesting announcements from NVIDIA come August 31st, 2020 - and with Ampere around the corner, it's highly unlikely we'll be hearing about anything other than that.