Microsoft launched two flavors of its Xbox Series console back in November of 2020 - a more expensive and powerful "X" model appealing to hardcore enthusiasts arrived alongside an entry-level/budget friendly "S" system that featured lesser hardware specifications. The current generation Xbox consoles share the same custom AMD 8-core Zen 2 processor, albeit with different clock configurations, but the key divergence lies in Microsoft's choice of graphical hardware. The Series X packs an AMD "Scarlett" graphics processor with access to 16 GB of VRAM, while the Series S makes do with only 8 GB of high speed video memory with its "Lockhart" GPU.

Games studios have historically struggled to optimize their projects for the step down Xbox model - with software engineers complaining about memory allocation issues thanks to a smaller pool of VRAM - the Series S CPU and GPU have to fight over a total of 10 GB GDDR6 system memory. Microsoft listened to this feedback and made necessary changes last year - an updated SDK was released and a video briefing explained: "Hundreds of additional megabytes of memory are now available to Xbox Series S developers...This gives developers more control over memory, which can improve graphics performance in memory-constrained conditions."

AMD today released its first driver update in more than two months for Radeon RX 6000 series and RX 5000 series, the Adrenalin 23.2.1 WHQL. The drivers introduce optimization for "Forspoken," with up to 7% performance improvement on offer at 4K with an RX 6950 XT GPU; and optimization for "Dead Space" (2023). The drivers also introduce IREE compiler using MLIR interface on Vulkan, and a handful of new Vulkan API extensions. The drivers also catch up on the past two months of optimizations that were only released for the RX 7000 series, covering Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, Hogwarts Legacy, and some performance improvements to games released in the past six months.

Among the issues fixed with this release include the "Delayed Write Failed" error noticed in Windows 11 22H2, SpaceEngine lower-than-expected performance, display corruption in the Points Shop section of Steam; YouTube playback with Enhanced Sync on some RX 6000 series GPUs; game crashes noticed with Door Kickers 2, Baldur's Gate (Vulkan), Emergency 4, and Sea of Thieves. These drivers unify the driver release trunk, spanning RX 400 series, RX 500 series, RX Vega series, RX 5000 series, RX 6000 series, and RX 7000 series.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.2.1 WHQL

AMD released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin drivers. Version 22.1.2 beta comes with optimization for "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction," and support for new graphics cards launching today, including the Radeon RX 6500 XT, RX 6400, RX 6500M, and RX 6300M. The only issue fixed with this release addresses longer-than-expected load times for "Borderlands 3" in DirectX 12 mode with Radeon Boost enabled, on certain RDNA2-series GPUs. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.1.2

2K and Gearbox Entertainment today re-launched their critically acclaimed looter-shooter, Borderlands 3, releasing new content, cosmetics, and retail editions, as well as an upgrade that optimizes the experience for next-generation consoles. Borderlands 3's next-gen upgrade is now available on the Xbox Series X|S. It will also be available on the PlayStation 5 when the console launches on November 12 in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea and on November 19, 2020 in the rest of the world.

Borderlands 3 has been fully optimized to take advantage of the next-gen consoles' processing power, bringing a new level of graphical fidelity to the Borderlands universe. The Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 display Borderlands 3 at up to 60 frames per second in 4K resolution during single-player and online co-op, and all next-gen consoles support three- and four-player split-screen for local multiplayer. In addition, vertical split-screen for two-player local co-op is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S and will be available on PlayStation 5 as soon as the console launches.

AMD sent ripples in its late-October even launching the Radeon RX 6000 series RDNA2 "Big Navi" graphics cards, when it claimed that the top RX 6000 series parts compete with the very fastest GeForce "Ampere" RTX 30-series graphics cards, marking the company's return to the high-end graphics market. In its announcement press-deck, AMD had shown the $579 RX 6800 beating the RTX 2080 Ti (essentially the RTX 3070), the $649 RX 6800 XT trading blows with the $699 RTX 3080, and the top $999 RX 6900 XT performing in the same league as the $1,499 RTX 3090. Over the weekend, the company released even more benchmarks, with the RX 6000 series GPUs and their competition from NVIDIA being tested by AMD on a platform powered by the Ryzen 9 5900X "Zen 3" 12-core processor.

AMD released its benchmark numbers as interactive bar graphs, on its website. You can select from ten real-world games, two resolutions (1440p and 4K UHD), and even game settings presets, and 3D API for certain tests. Among the games are Battlefield V, Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019), Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Borderlands 3, DOOM Eternal, Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Resident Evil 3, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Wolfenstein Youngblood. In several of these tests, the RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT are shown taking the fight to NVIDIA's high-end RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, while the RX 6800 is being shown significantly faster than the RTX 2080 Ti (roughly RTX 3070 scores). The Ryzen 9 5900X itself is claimed to be a faster gaming processor than Intel's Core i9-10900K, and features PCI-Express 4.0 interface for these next-gen GPUs. Find more results and the interactive graphs in the source link below.

AMD in its October 8 online launch event for the Ryzen 5000 "Zen 3" processors, provided a teaser of the company's next flagship graphics card slotted in the Radeon RX 6000 series. This particular SKU has been referred to by company CEO Lisa Su as "Big Navi," meaning it could be the top part from AMD's upcoming client GPU lineup. As part of the teaser, Su held up the reference design card, and provided three performance numbers of the card as tested on a machine powered by a Ryzen 9 5900X "Zen 3" processor. We compared these performance numbers, obtained at 4K UHD, with our own testing data for the games, to see how the card compares to other current-gen cards in its class. Our testing data for one of the games is from the latest RTX 30-series reviews, find details of our test bed here. We obviously have a different CPU since the 5900X is unreleased, but use the highest presets in our testing.

With "Borderlands 3" at 4K, with "badass" performance preset and DirectX 12 renderer, AMD claims a frame-rate of 61 FPS. We tested the game with its DirectX 12 renderer in our dedicated performance review (test bed details here). AMD's claimed performance ends up 45.9 percent higher than that of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti as tested by us, which yields 41.8 FPS on our test bed. The RTX 3080 ends up 15.24 percent faster than Big Navi, with 70.3 FPS. It's important to note here that AMD may be using a different/lighter test scene than us, since we don't use internal benchmark tools of games, and design our own test scenes. It's also important to note that we tested Borderlands 3 with DirectX 12 only in the game's launch-day review, and use the DirectX 11 renderer in our regular VGA reviews.

Intel today unleashed a new era of laptop performance with the launch of its next-generation mobile PC processors and the evolution of its broad ecosystem partnerships that are propelling the mobile PC industry forward. New 11th Gen Intel Core processors with Intel Iris Xe graphics (code-named "Tiger Lake") are the world's best processors for thin-and-light laptops with unmatched capabilities for real-world productivity, collaboration, creation, gaming and entertainment across Windows and ChromeOS-based laptops.

Leveraging Intel's new SuperFin process technology, 11th Gen Intel Core processors optimize power efficiency with leading performance and responsiveness while running at significantly higher frequencies versus prior generations. More than 150 designs based on 11th Gen Intel Core processors are expected from partners including Acer, ASUS, Dell, Dynabook, HP, Lenovo, LG, MSI, Razer, Samsung and others.

NVIDIA today released GeForce Software version 441.12 WHQL. These drivers come game-ready for "Red Dead Redemption 2," which is going live tomorrow (November 5th). The drivers add or improve optimization for "Need for Speed Heat" and "Borderlands 3." The drivers fix a white-screen game crash associated with "Super Robot Wars V." With these drivers, NVIDIA is also addressing a security vulnerability, which isn't documented publicly yet, but will be released on Nov 6th, as "Security Bulletin 4907". Right now it is only briefly described as "Added security updates for driver components". Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce Software 441.12 WHQLThe change-log follows.

AMD has released the Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.10.2 beta drivers. These drivers bring improved support for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare," which sees up to 18% better performance on the Ultra preset when using a Radeon RX 5700 XT. "The Outer Worlds" also sees improved support and sees 8% better performance at the Very High preset again on the Radeon RX 5700 XT. Improved support and better performance are always welcome; however, this release also offers some much-needed fixes, including application hang in Borderlands 3, which will likely make quite a few gamers happy. For a full list of fixes and known issues, check the full change-log below. Otherwise, you can grab the new driver from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.10.2 Beta
The change-log for 19.10.2 follows.

AMD late Thursday released the Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.10.1 WHQL. These drivers are identical to the Adrenalin 19.10.1 Beta drivers released earlier this month, with the only difference being WHQL certification. AMD is picking up the pace with WHQL releases of Radeon Software, as more OEMs are implementing Radeon RX 5700-series and upcoming RX 5500-series GPUs, and prefer WHQL-signed drivers. The 19.10.1 drivers introduce support for AMD's new Radeon RX 5500 series graphics cards based on its new 7 nm "Navi 11" silicon, along with fixes for "Borderlands 3" running in DirectX 12 mode, optimization for "GRID," and fixes certain display problems with high refresh-rate settings.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.10.1 WHQLChange-log for 19.10.1 follows.

Today, AMD announced the Radeon RX 5500 series graphics products, harnessing groundbreaking RDNA gaming architecture to deliver the ultimate in high-performance, high-fidelity 1080p gaming. The AMD Radeon RX 5500 series includes the Radeon RX 5500 graphics card that will be available in desktop PCs from leading manufacturers and graphics cards from board partners, as well as the Radeon RX 5500M GPU for notebook PCs. Top system providers worldwide are embracing the new products, with HP and Lenovo planning to offer Radeon RX 5500 graphics cards in their high performance desktop gaming PCs beginning this November, and Acer planning to offer systems with the cards beginning this December. In addition, later this month MSI is expected to launch the world's first gaming notebook powered by AMD Ryzen processors and Radeon RX 5500M GPUs.

"Based on feedback and insights from global gaming communities, gamers rank graphics as the most critical component for speed and performance," said Johnson Jia, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Business of Intelligent Devices Group, Lenovo. "That's why the Lenovo Legion T730 and T530 gaming towers and the IdeaCentre T540 Gaming desktop pack in AMD's latest Radeon RX graphics - satisfying players' need for high-fidelity visuals and lightning-fast frame-rates to fully immerse into their gameplay." "MSI Alpha 15 is a new chapter for us, and we're excited to partner with AMD to combine the latest 7 nm technology found in the Radeon RX 5500M GPU and MSI's gaming DNA for our gamers," said Charles Chiang, CEO of MSI.

AMD announced the 2019 edition of its "Raise the Game" game-bundle offer that goes with purchase of its Ryzen desktop processors and Radeon RX graphics cards. The bundle extends the 3-month Xbox Game Pass to a much larger part of AMD's product lineup, and not just the Radeon RX 5700-series. The bundle introduces three new AAA games to the mix - Tom Clancy's "Ghost Recon: Breakpoint," "The Outer Worlds," and "Borderlands 3," including AMD-exclusive in-game content. Depending on what AMD product you buy, you either get both games, or get to choose between the two. The 3-month Xbox Game Pass stays included.

AMD's flagship Ryzen 9 series and Ryzen 7 3800X includes both games - "The Outer Worlds" and "Borderlands 3," - and the 3-month Xbox Game Pass. The Ryzen 7 3700X, 3600X, 2700X, and 2700 include one of the two games - "The Outer Worlds" or "Borderlands 3," and the 3-month Xbox Game Pass. The Ryzen 5 3600, 3400G, and Ryzen 5 2000-series include just the 3-month Xbox Game Pass. Over in the GPU front, buyers of Radeon RX 5700-series, RX 590, RX 580, and RX 570, get to choose one of the two games - Tom Clancy's "Ghost Recon: Breakpoint" or "Borderlands 3," and also receive the 3-month Xbox Game Pass. The Radeon VII, Radeon RX Vega series, and Radeon RX 560 stocks include 3-month Xbox Game Pass. You also get to choose either of the two games when you buy a qualifying pre-built desktop or notebook powered by AMD Ryzen or Radeon products.

AMD late Thursday released the Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.9.2 beta drivers. These drivers add optimization for "Borderlands 3," with up to 16 percent improvement in frame-rates compared to the older 19.9.1 drivers, as tested with a Radeon RX 5700. The drivers also introduce support for Radeon Image Sharpening on graphics cards based on the "Polaris" architecture (such as RX 580, RX 480, etc), for DirectX 12 and Vulkan games. Among the issues fixed with 19.9.2 are frame-rates getting locked to 30 with V-sync enabled on some displays with 75 Hz refresh-rate set; system instability when watching videos in a web-browser on some machines with RX 5700 series graphics cards; audio in ReLive desktop capture being corrupted; and problems with Enhanced Sync. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.9.2The change-log follows.

Gearbox today revealed the minimum and recommended specs for their upcoming Borderlands 3, to be distributed digitally as an EPIC Games Store exclusive. Developed in close partnership with AMD, Borderlands 3 is being pitched by the company as playing best on AMD-based CPUs and GPUs. There's support for AMD's FidelityFX Sharpening, and graphics settings can be finely tuned for your desired level of performance and IQ, with plenty of options for users to play with - including resolution scale, where you can set your render resolution lower than your display resolution, or higher (with the resulting increase in IQ).

These are relatively standard requirements, as you can see in the image below. Nothing jumps to mind as being out of place: we've already seen 16 GB and a midrange RX 590 as the recommended specs before. Keep in mind Minimum Requirements are listed for 1080p resolution, whereas the Recommended specs are geared for a 1440p presentation. Borderlands 3 releases on September 13.

Well, that tweet that fans of the Borderlands seriesfeared meant platform exclusivity on PC actually manifested itself. Gearbox today announced that Borderlands 3, the hit sequel to one of the first loot-shooters, will indeed be releasing on September 13th for all platforms - but will be distributed exclusively on the PC digital platform via the EPIC Games Store. Other storefronts will have to wait until April 2020 to sell copies of the game.

The game will also feature optimized performance for AMD's CPU and GPU portfolio, with AMD aiding in performance optimizations for its Ryzen CPUs, current GPUs and, expectedly, next-generation Navi. The announcement trailer and 2K's press release points to a story-driven shooter, that Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford pitched (ahem) as "a love letter to fans of the series, but also as an ideal entry point for new players to jump-in alone or cooperatively, on or off-line, in the latest and greatest installment of the definitive best-in-class benchmark shooter-looter." The announcement trailer follows.

Randy Pitchford is an interesting character even as game company CEOs go, with a.. checkered history in the last few months that go from funny all the way to controversial at minimum. As the head of Gearbox, he holds a lot of power when it comes to the Borderlands franchise, which itself teased a third numbered entry to be revealed at PAX East later this month. His social media activity has been a prime example of what not to do as a CEO owing to some personal and professional issues alike, which meant that this latest tease not only got people looking at more about the Borderlands franchise, but also his twitter account.

Users dug up an old tweet from December 2018 wherein he claimed he was "excited to support the Epic Games Store", and this was enough to initiate concerns that Borderlands 3 might be an exclusive to the Epic Games Store on the PC platform. Subsequent replies did nothing to quell these concerns, although there was nothing to confirm anything either. This may all be making a mountain out of an imaginary molehill, but it makes sense for Epic Games to go after Borderlands 3 to get more customers on their side- especially knowing that such exclusivity deals could be in the millions of US dollars. We will know more when the game is officially announced, so keep an eye out for that.