AOC has partnered up with cr-designer extraordinaire Porsche to come up with sleek designs for two new monitors on its range. The PDS241 and PDS217 monitors both feature a (slightly yawn-inducing) 1080p AH-IPS panel, at 24 and 27" respectively. These come in thin as razors at 5.2mm, sporting a three-way-frameless design.

Apart from the sleek design and the stand (which is a hit-or-miss aesthetic choice from my perspective), there is nothing groundbreaking on offer here. You get technologies such as AOC's SuperColor WCG (100% sRGB coverage, and 90% coverage of the NTSC color space), flicker-free operation and low blue-light technology to help combat eyestrain. And these monitors won't set you back that much, at around $240 for the 24", and $330 for the 27", though you really are paying a pretty penny for that Porsche-christened design pedigree.

Some outlets are reporting that Stardock's Ashes of the Singularity is about to receive the much-referred-to patch that allows for improved performance on AMD's Ryzen line of processors. If you remember, rivers of ink flowed regarding AMD's Ryzen performance in gaming, with its monstrous, high-performance 8-core, 16-threaded design sometimes delivering performance below expectations. At the time, AMD clarified how Ryzen is a distinctive CPU architecture, similar yet fundamentally different from Intel's x86 implementation, promising upcoming patches from game developers that would allow Ryzen's architecture to truly deliver.

After Creative Assembly and Oxide Games vouched to improve Ryzen support, Oxide seems to be the first developer with a patch available (from version 25624 to 26118) that improves performance by up to 30%. Reportedly, it took the developers around 400 work-hours to improve the game code in respect to its execution on AMD hardware.

The folks at PC Perspective have shared a statement from AMD in response to their question as to why AMD's Ryzen processors show lower than expected performance at 1080p resolution (despite posting good high-resolution, high-detail frame rates). Essentially, AMD is reinforcing the need for developers to optimize their games' performance to AMD's CPUs (claiming that these have only been properly tuned to Intel's architecture). AMD also puts weight behind the fact they have sent about 300 developer kits already, so that content creators can get accustomed to AMD's Ryzen, and expect this number to increase to about a thousand developers in the 2017 time-frame. AMD is expecting gaming performance to only increase from its launch-day level. Read AMD's statement after the break.

At CES 2017, ASRock showcased one of the most interesting PCs in attendance - particularly if you think interest is inversely affected by size. The name they gave it was DeskMini, and it ushers in a Micro-STX form factor, measuring only 210 mm x 157.5 mm x 81.9 mm. But mini-PCs are many these days. What makes this one so interesting?

Well, it's the fact that this seems to embody the perfect proportions - and compromise - between a high-powered PC and a puny NUC or Mini-PC. For one, it carries any choice of a Celeron/Pentium/i3/i5/i7 Intel processor on the socket 1151 (up to a i7 7700K); supports up to a max of 32 GB DDR4 at 2400 MHz on 2x SO-DIMM slots; features 2x SATA III ports (with power connectors) and 3x M.2 ports (two of which support Type 2280/2260 M.2 PCIe Gen 3x4 or a SATA SSD, while the other supports only a PCIe Gen3x4-based SSD); and your choice of either an NVIDIA GTX 1060 (on the GTX series) or an AMD RX 460/470/480 on the (aptly named) RX series.

According to TweakTown, AMD may be preparing to bring the fight to the as-of-yet unannounced GTX 1050 Ti with a $10 price-drop on their 1080p price-performance king RX 470 from the current $179, bringing the price down to $169. NVIDIA is purportedly planning to bring the GTX 1050 Ti to market at the $149 price point, with a rated TDP of only 75 W and apparently no need for additional power connectors (at least on reference designs). However, faced with a measly $20 difference from the supposedly higher-performing RX 470 - which could sometimes be up to 30% faster - the battle for the $150 bracket might prove to be an uphill battle for the green camp.

Add to that the latest updates unveiled by Oculus on Oculus Connect 3, with the RX 470 being stamped with the VR-ready approval, as well as the greater availability and lower price of FreeSync monitors (sometimes with as much as four times the number of FreeSync offers versus G-Sync ones), and it really does seem that AMD is poised to offer the best value in its price bracket. Of course, things get muddier if you take into account the current pricing landscape for graphics cards from either manufacturer (where most models are selling upwards of their MSRP).

Sony today announced an addition to its PlayStation family of entertainment systems, with the new PlayStation 4 Pro (PS4 Pro). The PS4 Pro isn't meant to succeed the PS4, and is still a "current generation" console, in that all of its games are compatible with the PS4, and there won't be PS4 Pro-exclusive games. What sets it apart is higher-resolution game rendering that looks best on 4K Ultra HD TVs. This doesn't necessarily mean that the games are being rendered at 3840 x 2160 pixels. They could be rendered at resolutions higher than 1080p, and using just the right upscaling algorithms, made to look significantly better than 1080p. Another key visual component is hardware HDR. The PS4 Pro falls in line with Sony's big push for 4K HDR TVs this holiday shopping season.

Under the hood, the PlayStation 4 Pro features an all new semi-custom SoC designed by Sony and AMD. The CPU component sticks to the "Jaguar/Puma" architecture, with 8 cores, but features higher CPU clock speeds. The 8 GB GDDR5 memory is said to run at higher clocks, too, and is bolstered by new lossless memory compression tech by AMD. The GPU component is where the action is. The GPU features over double the shading power of the PS4, and is based on the "Polaris" GPU architecture. The PS4 Pro also ships with a bigger 1 TB hard drive. There is seamless interplayability between PS4 and PS4 Pro. PS4 games you already own are being added with higher-resolution content meant for PS4 Pro. The console also has the muscle for PS-VR. For those still holding on to 1080p HDTVs, the PS4 Pro rewards with higher visual detail, more geometric complexity, and better effects, at that resolution. The PS4 Pro starts at $399.

Microsoft's new slim Xbox One S console achieves its slimness - including its inbuilt power-supply, by significantly reducing thermal load of its key components. This begins at the heart of the console, its SoC. A semi-custom chip by Microsoft and AMD, the SoC powering the Xbox One S is built on the 16 nm FinFET process at TSMC. The chip powering the original Xbox One was built on the same foundry's 28 nm node.

The new SoC isn't merely an optical shrink of the original 28 nm chip down to 16 nm FinFET, Microsoft added a few components to the chip, including an HEVC hardware decoder, hardware CODECs for Blu-ray UHD with HDR; and a revamped display controller with HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2. The chip also performs 1080p to 4K UHD upscaling, with a native upscaling algorithm. The eSRAM memory bandwidth is increased slightly from 204 GB/s from 219 GB/s.

At its pre-Dreamhack launch show for the GeForce GTX 1080, NVIDIA treated the audience with a fairly long gameplay segment from the "relentless" campaign of Doom (2016). The big takeaway from that reveal is that Doom will support the Vulkan API. Projected on a large-format screen at 1080p, with its details maxed out, Doom was shown running at upwards of 110 frames per second (fps), never dropping below 60 fps. The brief gameplay reveals that Doom could feature a pretty fun single-player campaign for fast-paced, almost Serious Sam-like, rapid monster-bash. You use unique new weaponry to take on hordes of monsters that come out of nowhere. We were at the event, and took a brief video.

Ahead of its launch, performance numbers of AMD Radeon Pro Duo were leaked to the web by Expreview. Pitted against the $620 GeForce GTX 980 Ti, the $1,499 dual-GPU monstrosity is about 32 percent faster at 1080p (which sees CPU saturation), and on average 59.4 percent faster at 4K Ultra HD. The card is noted to conjure up more than playable frame-rates for all the games Expreview tested at 4K. Frame-rates were as low as 46 fps, and as high as 61 fps, indicating that the Pro Duo is the go-to single-card solution for Ultra HD. Find the review in the link below.

Patriot, a leading manufacturer of consumer flash storage solutions, computer memory, SSDs, gaming peripherals and mobile accessories, today announced the release of the 200GB LX Series and 200GB Instamobile microSDXC. A natural evolution fueled by the ever growing and dynamic storage needs of today's mobile device users, these new high capacity cards offer an almost limitless storage solution for large HD movies, pictures, music, and productivity files.

Consumers will never miss a moment while on the go. These large capacity cards enable Android smart phone and tablet users to capture life's precious moments in stunning high definition while expanding the storage space of their device. Capable of recording over 18 hours of 1080p HD video and capturing up to 36,000, 3MB photos, users will never have to worry about running out of storage space on their action camera or mobile device.

The new AMD Radeon Pro Duo, announced earlier today, takes the crown for being the world's fastest graphics card. According to the company's internal testing, in which it compared the card to its previous-generation flagship Radeon R9 295X2, and NVIDIA's fastest card, the GeForce GTX TITAN Z, on 3DMark FireStrike, at resolutions of 1080p, 1440p, and 2160p; the Pro Duo was found to be as much as 51 percent faster than the GTX TITAN Z. The three cards were tested on a machine with a Core i7-5960X processor, 16 GB of quad-channel DDR4 memory, Windows 10, v15.301 driver for the AMD cards, and GeForce 361.91 drivers for the NVIDIA card.

At 1080p, the Radeon Pro Duo scores 20150 points, compared to 16717 points of the R9 295X2, and 14945 points of the GTX TITAN Z, the Radeon Pro Duo leads the GTX TITAN Z by 34.8 percent in this resolution. At 1440p, the Radeon Pro Duo scores 11466 points, compared to 9250 points for the R9 295X2, and 7740 points of the GTX TITAN Z; the Pro Duo leads the GTX TITAN Z by 48.13 percent. Finally, at the resolution which really matters for this product, 4K Ultra HD, the Radeon Pro Duo scores 6211 points, compared to the 5121 points of the R9 295X2, and 4099 points of the GTX TITAN Z.

At a media event held in China, graphics card maker GALAX revealed Futuremark's next big 3D graphics benchmark. The unnamed next-gen 3DMark suite will include DirectX 12 game tests, including one titled "Time Spy." This game test (GT) features a museum-like 3D scene, rich in eye-popping lighting effects, and GT scenes from previous-generation 3DMarks serving as miniature exhibits within the test.

From the looks of it, your DirectX 12 compatible GPU is in for a trial by fire, in what promises to be an exciting next-gen 3D benchmark. The benchmark renders at 1080p, 1440p, or 4K, and is said to be "5 times" heavier on your GPU than "Fire Strike," Futuremark's DirectX 11 test that featured in the 2013 release of the suite. What's more, the benchmark will explicitly require Windows 10 64-bit, since it requires Direct3D 12 API support, and needs >2 GB of memory. Futuremark mentioned an "early" Q1-2016 launch for this benchmark.A video presentation follows.

AOC is giving final touches to a trio of high-end PC monitors, which it plans to unveil at the 2016 CES. These include the 35-inch curved C3583FQ, the 28-inch 4K U2879VF, and the stylish 27-inch I2781FH, pictured in that order. AOC teased the three without putting out too many specs. The I2781FH is likely a 1080p or 1440p display, with a stylish, single-piece metal stand, and HDMI inputs. The U2879VF features a 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) panel, DisplayPort 1.2a (supports AMD FreeSync), and HDMI 2.0. The C3583FQ is a bit of an enigma, this 35-incher features a curved panel of a yet unknown resolution, but which supports 160 Hz refresh-rates.

AMD is readying a slew of feature-set additions to its Radeon GPUs, in 2016, targeted at display technology. To begin with, AMD is redesigning FreeSync, its adaptive-sync technology, to work over HDMI. The tech currently requires DisplayPort 1.2a. For this to work, the display should support FreeSync over HDMI on its end, as well. It's not as if every current HDMI display gets adaptive sync. AMD posted a partial list of upcoming displays that support FreeSync over HDMI. With this, AMD is pushing for a new generation of notebooks and convertibles that feature FreeSync displays.

Next up, AMD is implementing high dynamic range (HDR) display support on next-generation Radeon GPUs. Current Radeon GPUs already support 10-bit (30-bit color or 1.07 billion colors, compared to 16.7 million colors on 32-bit); on desktop, Direct3D, and OpenGL apps. HDR will make images look more life-like. AMD claims that 1080p HDR content will look better than 4K SDR (standard dynamic range) content. AMD will also work with game developers to get HDR content on upcoming games.

NVIDIA added five new features to its GeForce Experience suite, that helps PC gamers get the most out of their GeForce hardware. It begins with a new in-game overlay, which works much like the Steam overlay, giving you access to cool new streaming, recording, and screengrabbing features. Next up, is the new Broadcast feature, which lets you instantly stream your gameplay to Twitch and YouTube, at 1080p 60 FPS. Recording gameplay is as easy as bringing up the overlay and clicking a button.

GameStream co-op, which was teased recently, lets you stream your game across to a buddy over the Internet, who can take over your game in their web-browser, and get you through the level you're stuck in (you need at least a 7 Mbps Internet connection on both ends for this to work). Lastly, in-home GameStream (which lets you stream your game to your living room TV), can now stream in glorious 4K Ultra HD, at 60 FPS, and with 5.1-channel audio. The "instant replay" feature lets you play back the past defined time period of gameplay as video. The new features go live with the GeForce 358.50 drivers, if you don't see them, make GeForce Experience "check for updates."

Shuttle Computer Group, Inc., one of the world's leading designers of small form factor (SFF) computers, announced its XS35V5 and XS36V5 with improved graphics performance. A host of features make them perfect for commercial applications including digital signage, kiosks, menu boards, and more.

"The latest 4K monitors need higher performance graphics, and our XS35V5 and XS36V5 make images and text pop out loud," said Marty Lash, director sales and marketing, Shuttle Computer Group. "They're easy to configure, have great connectivity, and provide cool-running, non-stop operation. They have everything an integrator needs for any display application."

Manli Technology Group Limited, the major Graphics Cards, Mini-PCs and other components manufacturer, today announced the latest mid range of 9 series graphics solution, Manli GeForce GTX 950. MOBA games have been increasingly popular recently, and some gamers may concern to upgrade their PC in limited budget, to unleash true gaming potential. Manli GeForce GTX950 will be the best choice.

Powered by second-generation Maxwell architecture, with 768 CUDA cores enabled and running at 1038-1216MHz, to provide 3x performance than previous generation GTX650. With the support of 2GB GDDR5 and running at 6610MHz, Manli GeForce GTX950 enhances the competitive edge in MOBA games, and provides more OC headroom for users to overclock in Manli TurboEngine software.

With its 6th generation Core "Skylake" processors, Intel is throwing in everything it's got, into increasing performance of the integrated graphics. This is necessitated not by some newfound urge to compete with entry-discrete GPUs from NVIDIA or AMD, but a rather sudden increase in display resolutions, after nearly a decade of stagnation. Notebook and tablet designers are wanting to cram in higher resolution displays, such as WQHD (2560 x 1440), 4K (3840 x 2160), and beyond, and are finding it impossible to achieve them without discrete graphics. This is what Intel is likely after. The aftereffect of this effort would be that the iGPU will be finally capable of playing some games at 720p or 900p resolutions, with moderate eye-candy. Games such as League of Legends should be fairly playable, even at 1080p. Intel claims that its 9th generation integrated graphics will over a 50% performance increment over the previous generation.

Moving on to CPU, and the performance-increase is a predictable 10-20% single/multi-thread CPU performance, over "Broadwell." This is roughly similar to how "Haswell" bettered "Ivy Bridge," and how "Sandy Bridge" bettered "Lynnfield." Intel will provide platform support on some of its "Skylake-U" ultraportable variants, for much of the modern I/O used by today's tablets and notebooks, which required third-party controllers, and which competing semi-custom SoCs natively offer, such as eMMC 5.0, SDIO 3.0, SATA 6 Gb/s, PCIe gen 3.0, and USB 3.0. Communications are also improved, with 2x 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 4.1, and WiDi 6.0.

It turns out that AMD's new "Fiji" silicon lacks HDMI 2.0 support, after all. Commenting on OCUK Forums, an AMD representative confirmed that the chip lacks support for the connector standard, implying that it's limited to HDMI 1.4a. HDMI 2.0 offers sufficient bandwidth for 4K Ultra HD resolution at 60 Hz. While the chip's other connectivity option, DisplayPort 1.2a supports 4K at 60 Hz - as do every 4K Ultra HD monitor ever launched - the lack of HDMI 2.0 support hurts the chip's living room ambitions, particularly with products such as the Radeon R9 Nano, which AMD CEO Lisa Su, stated that is being designed for the living room. You wouldn't need a GPU this powerful for 1080p TVs (a GTX 960 or R9 270X ITX card will do just fine), and if it's being designed for 4K UHD TVs, then its HDMI interface will cap visuals at a console-rivaling 30 Hz.

In all the buzz surrounding the five products based on its Fiji silicon, AMD also announced five other mid-thru-performance segment graphics cards, the Radeon R7 360, the Radeon R7 370, the Radeon R9 380, the Radeon R9 390, and Radeon R9 390X. Aimed at competitive online MOBA gaming the Radeon R7 360 is good enough to play MOBAs such as "League of Legends," at 1080p, and most other modern games at 900p and 720p.

Based on the "Bonaire" silicon, the Radeon R7 360 features 768 stream processors, 48 TMUs, 16 ROPs, and a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 2 GB of memory. The core is clocked at 1050 MHz, and the memory at 6.50 GHz (GDDR5-effective), translating into 104 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The card draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, and has a typical board power rating of 100W.

The Radeon R7 370 is designed for MOBA, FPS, and MMORPGs at 1080p resolution. It is expected to feature 1,024 stream processors, 64 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 2 GB or 4 GB of memory. The core is clocked at 975 MHz, and the memory at 5.40 GHz (GDDR5-effective), belting out 179 GB/s of memory bandwidth. AMD has given this chip some energy optimizations, which lends it a typical board power of just 110W. The card draws power from a single 6-pin power connector.

AMD today introduced the latest addition to its line of desktop A-Series processors, the A10-7870K APU, a refresh to the existing line of processors codenamed "Kaveri". The A10-7870K delivers a best-in-class experience for eSports and online gaming with superior performance, best-in-class efficiency in DirectX 12, and unique features. The new processor also delivers exceptional performance in modern workloads and is designed for the future with Microsoft Windows 10.

The latest iteration of the popular and powerful AMD A-Series APU family provides premium performance and multitasking powered by up to 12 compute cores (4 CPU + 8 GPU). The responsiveness and processing power of the A10-7870K APU enables an immersive user experience on Windows 10 PCs while offering an easy path for PC builders looking to upgrade to discrete-level graphics and faster processing at an afforadable price. The A10-7870K APU is available at e-tail now at a suggested price (SEP) of US $137, and through participating system builders.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today released the quad-core TS-453mini, a 4-bay vertical NAS that suits non-spacious office environments. Featuring a stylish glossy look, easy tool-less hard drive installation, simple RAM upgrade design, a quiet exhaust for heat dissipation and LED indicators with adjustable brightness controls, the elegant TS-453mini is packed full of cutting-edge features and apps to provide day-to-day file storage, backup, sharing, synchronization and entertainment needs.

"The space-efficient vertical design and streamlined architecture with HDMI installation for easier NAS setup demonstrates our attention to deliver a better user experience for the desktop environment," said Jason Hsu, product manager of QNAP. The TS-453mini includes numerous innovative designs in its hardware architecture, including a quiet internal compact exhaust that helps dissipate heat and reduce dust buildup, a tool-less design allowing users to easily remove the magnetic top cover to add/replace hot-swappable 3.5" hard drives, and a conveniently accessible cover at the bottom for upgrading the RAM with minimal effort. Users can easily install their NAS over HDMI, allowing for a NAS to be installed without a network connection, and free from complicated procedures and the need for network expertise.

MSI, world leading manufacturer of gaming hardware, launches a whole pack of new Gaming All-in-One PCs, featuring the latest Intel Core i7 and i5 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX960M and GTX970M graphics. The MSI AG270 3K, MSI Gaming 24GE IPS and MSI Gaming 24GE 4K are loaded with a rich array of gaming features, specifically developed to deliver the best experience when playing games.

MSI understands that gamers need the best possible audio output quality when competing online. Therefore MSI integrated Nahimic Audio Enhancer into its newest AG270 3K and Gaming 24GE models, benefitting gaming not only with virtual surround, frequency leveler and bass boost, but also with noise reduction and voice leveler when gaming with a headphone. The MSI Gaming 24GE with IPS technology offers staggering gameplay in combination with the GTX960M GPU. The Gaming 24GE with 4K panel (3840x2160p) additionally makes for a complete PC solution for 4K video editing and encoding.

The EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN X combines the technologies and performance of the new NVIDIA Maxwell architecture in the fastest and most advanced graphics card on the planet. This incredible GPU delivers unrivaled graphics, acoustic, thermal and power-efficient performance. The most demanding enthusiast can now experience extreme resolutions up to 4K-and beyond. Enjoy hyper-realistic, real-time lighting with advanced NVIDIA VXGI, as well as NVIDIA G-SYNC display technology for smooth, tear-free gaming. Plus you get DSR technology that delivers a brilliant 4K experience, even on a 1080p display.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today announced the release of the TS-251C Turbo NAS, a 2-bay compact NAS that offers the power of an Intel Celeron dual-core CPU at a budget-friendly price tag. Users can easily build a personal cloud and media center to enjoy a rich digital life using the TS-251C and benefit from other features including unrivaled real-time/offline Full HD video transcoding; video streaming via DLNA, AirPlay, Chromecast and Plex Media Server; HDMI-out with XBMC media player; and various apps for file & multimedia storage, backup and sharing.

"The TS-251C is the ideal choice for users to quickly create a secure personal space for file storage, backup, synchronization and multimedia," said Jason Hsu, product manager of QNAP. "It comes with a surprising price tag that offers an incredible choice for budget-concerned users that want the best possible performance." Coupled with flexible storage expansion support, the TS-251C excels in the same price class with its powerful and versatile x86 architecture, and is the perfect solution for the growing needs of digital content storage in modern small offices and home environments.