Razer, a world leader in connected devices and software for gamers, today announced pricing, availability and compatibility of its 2016 "Best of CES" award-winning Razer Core. The device is the world's first plug-and-play Thunderbolt 3 external graphics enclosure that debuted earlier this year in tandem with the Razer Blade Stealth Ultrabook, itself an official "Best PC" and "People's Choice" CES winner.

"Razer continues to innovate in the laptops category where big systems brands either cannot or will not," says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. "This time, in collaboration with industry leaders, we've created the world's first external graphics card solution of its kind, bringing the GPU power of a desktop PC to the latest Razer laptops, such as the Razer Blade Stealth Ultrabook, through a single Thunderbolt 3 connection with plug-and-play convenience."

ASUS rolled out a gaming-grade - although not ROG-branded - 24-inch Ultra HD monitor, the MG24UQ. This display features a 23.6-inch 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) IPS panel, with 4 ms response time, a wide color gamut with 100% sRGB coverage, 300 cd/m² maximum brightness, dynamic mega-contrast ratio, and a maximum color depth of 16.7 million. The monitor takes input from HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.2. Gamer-friendly features include ASUS GamePlus - a set of six display presets that suit different game genres, and ASUS GameVisual, a feature which works to reduce LED flicker and blue light, over extended periods of gameplay. ASUS didn't reveal pricing.

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading provider of commercial LCD display and projector solutions, announced today the PA322UHD-2 display, which includes all the features of the existing PA322UHD model and now updates the option slot with support for 4K UHD inputs, including an installed, switchable DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0 option. The Open Pluggable Specification (OPS)-compliant option slot gives videographers, photographers, print production specialists and others added flexibility to use the PA322UHD-2 in an even wider range of existing workflows.

The display uses a wide gamut white LED backlight and an IGZO technology IPS-type LCD panel that delivers excellent image quality with lower power consumption than comparable LCD displays while delivering 99.2 percent coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. "Pros in color-critical fields now have more options for 4K UHD over a single cable, including the latest HDMI 2.0 standard," said Art Marshall, Senior Product Manager of Professional and Medical Displays at NEC Display. "The 4K UHD-enhanced OPS connects to more devices for greater productivity and creativity."

The star attraction at Dell's CES booth was undoubtedly its stunning new 30-inch monitor, the Ultrasharp 30. Featuring an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panel, which offers the darkest blacks, and the brightest whites to get you contrast no LCD panel can ever come close to; this monitor also puts out Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) resolution. Dell is asking US $5,000 for the Ultrasharp 30, which is reasonable, if you consider a similar spec'ed display from Sony going for $18,000. Dell plans to release the Ultrasharp 30 to the market by March 31, 2016.

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.

MSI proudly announces an upgrade of its smallest mini-PC to date: the MSI Cubi N. This tiny desktop is built on a concept of nifty technology and a brilliant design to suit the needs of both consumers and businesses. Thanks to the implementation of a wide range of the Braswell Intel processors, users can benefit from a palm-size PC that is now more powerful than ever! It is capable of carrying multiple modular hard disks drives that provide a large base for data storage and has a new fanless design to insure ultra-silent operation.

MSI Cubi N is mountable to a wall by VESA standards or can be combined with an Ultra-HDTV, so the user can enjoy Ultra High-Definition and high quality media entertainment at home. For commercial applications, Cubi N comes with plenty of ports to connect external devices, and is the essence of small, smart computing. The MSI Cubi N is globally available by end of October 2015.

In this episode of TechPowerUp News, NVIDIA's driver update distribution change, and how it could affect you; Apple's new 5K 27-inch and 4K 21-inch iMacs; and dat a...I mean ASUS ROG G752 gaming notebook.

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."

Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced the Satellite Radius 12, a compact 2-in-1 laptop designed with expert technologies to best meet the performance demands of today and tomorrow. The world's first 12.5-inch convertible laptop with a 4K Ultra HD display, the Satellite Radius 12 features top-of-the-line screen and sound quality, a sleek, lightweight design and 6th Gen Intel Core processors that deliver maximum mobile performance and excellent battery life.

"Through our deep relationships with our partners at Microsoft, Intel and Technicolor we have designed a top-of-line compact PC that delivers the new gold standard in screen, sound and performance for an unmatched computing experience on Windows 10," said Philip Osako, senior director of product marketing, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. "The Satellite Radius 12 expertly blends the latest technology into an extremely powerful, yet compact and easy-to-carry PC that is not only versatile, but durable enough to handle a highly mobile lifestyle."

Apple is readying a new generation of iMac desktops, which it plans to launch in Q3-2015, likely at its September press event. The new Macs are expected to come with faster processors (likely Intel "Skylake,") faster DDR4 memory, and an increase in display resolutions across the board, including a 21.5-inch model with 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) resolution, besides its 27-inch 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels) model. The display panels in these macs will feature a new LED phosphor material called KSF (K2SiF6:Mn), which improves color saturation. The displays will offer 30-bit (10 bpc) color depth, with the ability to produce 1.07 billion colors.

AOC unveiled the U3277PQU and the Q3277PQU 32-inch monitors. Both models look identical, but differ with resolutions. The U3277PQU offers 4K Ultra (3840 x 2160 pixels), whereas the Q3277PQU offers WQHD (2560 x 1440 pixels). The Q3277PQU features an AMVA display panel, with 178°/178° viewing angles, 4 ms (GTG) response time, 300 cd/m² maximum brightness, dynamic mega-contrast ratio, 30-bit color (1.07 billion colors), and inputs that include dual-link DVI, DisplayPort 1.2, and HDMI 1.4 with MHL support.

The U3277PQU, on the other hand, features an IPS display panel, with 178°/178° viewing angles, 30-bit color (1.07 billion colors), 4 ms (GTG) response time, 350 cd/m² maximum brightness, and dynamic mega-contrast ratio. Display inputs include HDMI with MHL support (30 Hz), and DisplayPort 1.2 (needed for 60 Hz). Both models are backed by 3-year warranties. The U3277PQU is expected to be priced around US $800, and the Q3277PQU around $500.

AOC introduced the U2870VQE, a 28-inch monitor that offers 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) native resolution. It embeds a non-glare TN-film panel, with 1 ms response time, 30-bit color (1.07 billion colors), 300 cd/m² maximum brightness, and dynamic mega-contrast ratio. Inputs include DisplayPort 1.2, mini-DisplayPort 1.2, and HDMI 1.4 with MHL support. Its stand offers basic tilt adjustments. Expect this monitor to be priced around the $450 mark.

Philips introduced the BDM3275UP 32-inch monitor, offering 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) resolution. It embeds an IPS-AHVA panel, with 178°/178° viewing angles, 350 cd/m² maximum brightness, dynamic mega-contrast ratio, and 30-bit color (1.07 billion colors). The display takes input from HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2, and dual-link DVI. A headphones output (putting out audio from the HDMI/DP audio channels), and a 4-port USB 3.0 hub make for the rest of its feature-set. The company didn't reveal pricing or availability.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., announced the introduction of the U24E590D and U28E590D, the first Samsung UHD monitors with AMD's FreeSync technology. These UHD monitors offer unprecedented picture quality for gaming, entertainment and multi-tasking activities.

The U24E590D and U28E590D are the first UHD Samsung monitors with AMD FreeSync capabilities. FreeSync synchronizes the monitors' refresh rates to eliminate large jumps in frame time for noticeably smoother multimedia use. The integration of AMD FreeSync is especially beneficial for gamers, who will notice an immediate increase in responsiveness and the elimination of screen tearing and shuttering.

AMD, in its press documents, claimed that its upcoming flagship single-GPU graphics card, the Radeon R9 Fury X, will be faster than NVIDIA's recently launched GeForce GTX 980 Ti, at 4K Ultra HD resolution. This puts to rest speculation that its 4 GB of video memory hampers performance against its competitor with 6 GB of memory. From the graph below, which was extracted from AMD's press material, the R9 Fury X will be faster than the GTX 980 Ti, in even the most memory-intensive games at 4K, including Far Cry 4, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Crysis 3, Assassins Creed: Unity, and Battlefield 4. Bigger gains are shown in other games. In every single game tested, the R9 Fury X is offering frame-rates of at least 35 fps. The Radeon R9 Fury X will launch at $649.99 (the same price as the GTX 980 Ti), next week, with market availability within the following 3 weeks.

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.

NEC Display Solutions of America, a leading provider of commercial LCD display and projector solutions, announced today the MultiSync EA275UHD display, the latest addition to its 4K Ultra High-Definition product portfolio.

The monitor's UHD resolution (four times full HD), business-class features and factory calibration are ideal for high-end corporate users, CAD/CAM engineers, Command & Control personnel and entry-level graphics users as well as anyone desiring more desktop space. The 27-inch display has flexible input configurations, allowing one or two inputs on screen simultaneously.

Palit Microsystems Ltd, the leading graphics card manufacturer, releases the latest GTX 900 series in Palit GeForce product line-up, GeForce GTX 980 Ti Super JetStream. The revolutionary Palit JetStream series of graphics cards features advanced innovative cooling and an optimized product design to deliver gamers the ultimate gaming experience. As the latest and the next generation NVIDIA Maxwell architecture, the Palit GeForce GTX 980 Ti Super JetStream guarantees gamers cutting-edge performance and an explosive new gaming experience.

Palit GeForce GTX 980 Ti Super JetStream has 2816 Maxwell cores clocked at 1152MHz (base clock) and 6144MB with 384 bits 7GHz memory, making it much faster than the stock1000MHz of NVIDIA's reference design. Equipped with the modified JetStream cooler and optimized product design, Palit GeForce GTX980 Ti Super JetStream provides gaming benchmark up to 11%+ compare with GTX 980 Ti reference board. With the new JetStream thermal design for the factory over-clocked board, the GPU temperature is 12°C cooler and the noise level is 8dB quieter under the heavy game loading. With the new 0-dB Tech features, there is zero noise while you are at general workload, such as internet or multi-media application. Stay Quiet, Stay Cool and Enjoy the High gaming performance with Palit JetStream.

LG Electronics will help gamers take their experience to a new level with the new LG 4K ULTRA HD monitor (model 27MU67) which will be available for the first time in the United States later this month. The 27-inch class monitor (26.3-inches diagonally), which is specifically designed to provide a premium gaming experience, boasts a large viewing area and a 3840 x 2160 screen resolution for an eye-popping level of 4K visual detail.

LG's newest monitor is intended for graphics-intensive gaming and the fast-paced action of the latest first person shooter (FPS) games and Real-Time Strategy (RTS) war games. The monitor supports AMD's FreeSync technology with a refresh range of 40 - 60Hz. FreeSync eliminates image-tearing and stuttering, which occurs when the monitor and graphics card are out of sync. The result is a smooth and seamless gaming experience, with fluid motion and no loss of frame rate.

NVIDIA announced the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, its latest high-end graphics processor. Positioned a notch below the GTX Titan X, and above the GTX 980, it is designed to offer playable frame-rates at 4K Ultra HD resolution, with high-levels of visual details. Based on the same 28 nm GM200 silicon as the GTX Titan X, the chip features 2,816 CUDA cores, carved out by disabling 2 of the 24 streaming multiprocessor units on the silicon; 176 TMUs, 96 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 6 GB of memory.

The GeForce GTX 980 Ti features nearly identical clock speeds to the GTX Titan X, with 1000 MHz core, 1076 MHz GPU Boost, and 7012 MHz (GDDR5-effective) memory. The TDP is rated at 250W. The reference design card draws power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.2, and one each of HDMI 2.0 and DVI connectors. The card is capable of 4-way SLI. NVIDIA board partners will launch custom-design variants of this card, with factory-overclocked speeds, and custom air- and liquid-cooled designs. It starts at US $649.99. With this launch, NVIDIA cut prices of the GeForce GTX 980 to $499.99.

At its ongoing Investor Day presentation, AMD announced that will continue to make GPUs for every segment of the market. The company is planning to leverage improvements to its Graphics CoreNext architecture for the foreseeable future, but is betting on a huge performance/Watt increase with its 2016 GPUs. The secret sauce here will be the shift to 14 nm FinFET process. It's important to note here, that AMD refrained from mentioning "14 nm," but the mention of FinFET is a reliable giveaway. AMD is expecting a 2x (100%) gain in performance/Watt over its current generation of GPUs, with the shift.

AMD's future GPUs will focus on several market inflection points, such as the arrival of CPU-efficient graphics APIs such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan, Windows 10 pulling users from Windows 7, 4K Ultra HD displays getting more affordable (perhaps even mainstream), which it believes will help it sell enough GPUs to return to profitability. The company also announced an unnamed major design win, which will take shape in this quarter, and which will hit the markets in 2016.

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. today introduced its latest memory card lineups, PRO Plus and EVO Plus. The two latest product lineups add to Samsung's SD and microSD card portfolio to now consist of the PRO Plus, PRO, EVO Plus and EVO families, to address the rapidly growing consumer need for advanced multimedia memory solutions.

"Samsung is following through on our promise to deliver next-generation memory cards that have even faster speeds and higher memory storage volume that will enhance consumer satisfaction level and solidify Samsung's branded memory business leadership," said Un-Soo Kim, Senior Vice President of Branded Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. "With the increase of 4K UHD enabled devices and market needs for memory capacity, the PRO Plus and EVO Plus lineups are optimized solutions that will meet today's user expectations."

HP today announced a new family of all-in-one desktop and tower PCs designed to fit beautifully in the home for back to school. The new desktop lineup offers customers power and flexibility to scale for next-level productivity and entertainment.

"The desktop PC continues to be an important form factor for customers who want to get things done and be entertained, but lack style and as a result are often hidden in basements and dens," said Kevin Frost, vice president and general manager, Consumer Personal Systems, HP. "With our 2015 desktop family, we are breathing new life into the category by giving customers more capabilities wrapped in colorful and premium designs that they will be proud to place in kitchens, living rooms and other public spaces in their homes."

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solution products, introduces its new line of Ultra HD monitors. The VP2780-4K is ViewSonic's flagship Ultra HD monitor designed with a professional grade panel and connectivity; the VG2860mhl-4K is designed for commercial and enterprise applications featuring a flexible ergonomic stand; and the VX2475Smhl-4K brings multimedia to life from video games to action-packed movies. Building upon its award-winning display heritage, ViewSonic's new Ultra HD monitors meet the needs of demanding gaming enthusiasts to color-critical design professionals.

"With more UHD content now available and consumers showing increased interest of using Ultra HD displays at work and at home, ViewSonic is harnessing two decades as a leader and innovator in displays to deliver a complete portfolio of Ultra HD monitors," said Kenneth Mau, senior product marketing manager at ViewSonic Corp.