CD PROJEKT RED's Cyberpunk 2077 is already one of the most technologically advanced games available, using several ray tracing techniques to render its neon-illuminated environments and vast Night City visuals at incredible levels of detail. Now, a new Cyberpunk 2077 update has hit the streets, featuring the technology preview of the Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode, which enhances the game's already-amazing visuals with full ray tracing, otherwise known as path tracing.

Full ray tracing accurately simulates light throughout an entire scene. It is used by visual effects artists to create film and TV graphics that are indistinguishable from reality, but until the arrival of GeForce RTX GPUs with RT Cores, and the AI-powered acceleration of NVIDIA DLSS, real-time video game full ray tracing was impossible because it's extremely GPU intensive. Previous techniques separately addressed ray-traced shadows, reflections and global illumination for a small number of light sources. Full ray tracing models the properties of light from a virtually unlimited number of emissive sources, delivering physically correct shadows, reflections and global illumination on all objects. The technology preview for Cyberpunk 2077's Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode is a sneak peek into the future of full ray tracing, and we are working with CD PROJEKT RED on further full ray tracing enhancements, bug fixes, and performance optimizations.

Each week we're bringing you the latest news on games launching with NVIDIA DLSS and advanced ray tracing. Last week, Sackboy: A Big Adventure multiplied performance with DLSS 3; this week we're celebrating the launch of the technology preview of Cyberpunk 2077's Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode. Additionally, High On Life and Like a Dragon: Ishin! have recently added DLSS 2 support, and there are even more games on the horizon with support for RTX technologies, so keep reading for all the details.

In 2018, we began a gaming revolution with the launch of 1st generation GeForce RTX graphics cards. Since the release of the very first games decades ago, lighting had been faked, and various hacks employed to approximate shadows, reflections, and other real-world properties. GeForce RTX made real-time ray tracing a reality, enabling developers to realistically render reflections and lighting, making their games more immersive and enjoyable. And with DLSS 1.0, we invented a game-changing way for players to accelerate frame rates. Back in 2018 there were 4 RTX games, 37% of GeForce RTX gamers enabled ray tracing, and 26% activated DLSS 1.0.

Just a few days before the official launch scheduled for April 13th, the first official performance figures for the RTX 4070 have found their way online. As expected, NVIDIA is showing the performance with DLSS 3 and Frame Generation, comparing it to three graphics cards in the RTX 30 series, the RTX 3080, the RTX 3070 Ti, and the RTX 3070.

According to NVIDIA, the GeForce RTX 4070 is targeting 1440p performance at above 100 FPS, with ray tracing and DLSS 3 enabled, of course. NVIDIA officially did not reveal any performance numbers without DLSS 3, but earlier rumors puts the RTX 4070 at around the same performance as the RTX 3080. With DLSS 3 and according to NVIDIA, the RTX 4070 is 1.4x, 1.7x, and 1.8x times faster, compared to the aforementioned RTX 30 series graphics cards.

AMD issued briefing material earlier this month, teasing an upcoming reveal of its next generation FidelityFX at GDC 2023. True to form, today the hardware specialist has announced that FidelityFX Super Resolution 3.0 is incoming. The company is playing catch up with rival NVIDIA, who have already issued version 3.0 of its DLSS graphics enhancer/upscaler for a small number of games. AMD says that FSR 3.0 is in an early stage of development, but it is hoped that its work on temporal upscaling will result in a number of improvements over the previous generation.

The engineering team is aiming for a 2x frame performance improvement over the existing FSR 2.0 technique, which it claims is already capable of: "computing more pixels than we have samples in the current frame." This will be achieved by generating a greater number of pixels in a current frame, via the addition of interpolated frames. It is highly likely that the team will reach a point in development where one sample, at least, will be created for every interpolated pixel. The team wants to prevent feedback loops from occurring - an interpolated frame will only be shown once, and any interpolation artifact would only remain for one frame.

FromSoftware and Bandai Namco have released a new major patch for Elden Ring, implementing ray tracing on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X, as well as adding some gameplay improvements and fixing some bugs. Unfortunately, the game still does not support any upscaling technologies, so there is no support for DLSS or FSR, meaning that those ray tracing effects will have a rather high impact on frame rates.

The ray tracing patch for Elden Ring was announced back in November last year, and it certainly took a while before it was implemented. As detailed earlier, the ray tracing update for Elden Ring adds ambient occlusion and ray traced shadows, but does not include ray traced reflections.

NVIDIA has released the latest version of its GeForce Game Ready drivers, the version 531.41 WHQL. The new release provides the best day-0 gaming experience for Diablo IV beta phase, including support for DLSS 2, as well as the same DLSS 2 support for The Last of Us Part I, Smalland: Survive the Wild, and Deceive Inc. The new NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready Drivers 531.41 WHQL is also the Game Ready driver for Resident Evil 4 and it adds DLSS 3 support for Forza Horizon 5. Most importantly, it also adds support for the technology preview of Cyberpunk 2077's Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode. The new NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready Drivers 531.41 WHQL also adds several GeForce Experience Profiles, as well as fixes several issues.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 531.41 WHQL

Update: Added Open Issues to the release highlights.

NVIDIA today announced six new NVIDIA RTX Ada Lovelace architecture GPUs for laptops and desktops, which enable creators, engineers and data scientists to meet the demands of the new era of AI, design and the metaverse. Using the new NVIDIA RTX GPUs with NVIDIA Omniverse, a platform for building and operating metaverse applications, designers can simulate a concept before making it a reality, planners can visualize an entire factory before it is built and engineers can evaluate their designs in real time.

The NVIDIA RTX 5000, RTX 4000, RTX 3500, RTX 3000 and RTX 2000 Ada Generation laptop GPUs deliver breakthrough performance and up to 2x the efficiency of the previous generation to tackle the most demanding workflows. For the desktop, the NVIDIA RTX 4000 Small Form Factor (SFF) Ada Generation GPU features new RT Cores, Tensor Cores and CUDA cores with 20 GB of graphics memory to deliver incredible performance in a compact card.

Blizzard has released a new gameplay footage from Diablo IV beta as a part of its "adventure with a dev", hosted by Lead Game Designer, Zaven Haroutunian. In the meantime, and as it was expected, another 36 minutes long video from a Chinese player has also leaked online, showing a lot more gameplay.

Blizzard's own video shows the Lead Game Designer, Zaven Haroutunian, slashing his way through a dungeon and talking about what players can expect to see in the beta phase. It is a rather short video from Kor Dragan Barracks, but gives you a nice idea on what went into designing this game and what to generally expect from it.

NVIDIA DLSS has revolutionized graphics rendering, using AI to boost frame rates while delivering crisp, high quality images. GeForce RTX gamers can accelerate performance with DLSS in over 270 games and apps, with another 7 games adding support in March, and today, we are announcing that Diablo IV and Redfall will both launch with DLSS 3.

DLSS 3's Frame Generation multiplies performance in 28 released games and has been adopted 7X faster than DLSS 2 in the first 6 months. DLSS' groundbreaking features, exceptional performance, and ease of integration are key to its rapid adoption by developers. With the DLSS 3 Frame Generation plugin becoming publicly available at GDC for developers, and a DLSS 3 plugin coming soon for Unreal Engine 5.2, it will be even easier for developers to enhance the next generation of games. Keep reading for further details about the addition of NVIDIA DLSS to Deceive Inc., Diablo IV, Forza Horizon 5, Gripper, Redfall, Smalland: Survive the Wilds, and THE FINALS Closed Beta.

Ahead of next week's Game Developers Conference (GDC), NVIDIA announced an expanded game roster and new developer plug-ins for NVIDIA DLSS 3. The latest version of NVIDIA's AI-powered Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology is now supported in an assortment of blockbuster games and franchises, and being integrated into Unreal Engine, one of the world's most popular game engines. The company is also publicly releasing the DLSS Frame Generation plug-in to further ease developer adoption of the technology.

"Neural graphics has revolutionized gaming since its introduction with NVIDIA DLSS, and we're now taking it to new heights," said Matt Wuebbling, vice president of global GeForce marketing at NVIDIA. "PC gaming super-franchises such as Diablo and Forza Horizon and Bethesda's new Redfall are raising the bar for image quality with stunning graphics while using DLSS to keep gameplay smooth as silk." Since its launch in 2018, NVIDIA DLSS has driven a neural graphics revolution in PC gaming. Neural graphics intertwines AI and graphics to create an accelerated rendering pipeline that continuously learns and improves. Instead of natively rendering every pixel in a frame, DLSS allows the game to render 1/8th of the pixels then uses AI and GeForce RTX Tensor Cores to reconstruct the rest of the pixels, dramatically multiplying frame rates, while delivering crisp, high-quality images that rival native resolution.

With the new PRO and the FOCUS (E23), XMG introduces two laptop series on a similar hardware basis: Both feature Intel's Core i9-13900HX and NVIDIA graphics cards up to the GeForce RTX 4070. While the PRO 15 and PRO 17 are slightly thinner as gaming workstations and boast more extensive connectivity, the FOCUS scores at a more affordable price and is not only available in 15.6 and 17.3-inch versions, but also in a 16-inch format. For the laptops originally designed as an entry-level series, the hardware upgrades mean a significant upgrade: the FOCUS series moves closer to the PRO laptops.

The key components found in the new XMG PRO 15 and PRO 17 as well as the XMG FOCUS 15, FOCUS 16 and FOCUS 17 are almost identical. All laptops employ Intel's Core i9-13900HX with 24 cores (8 P-cores, 16 E-cores) and 32 threads. The freely configurable graphics card options each include NVIDIA's new, DLSS-3-capable GeForce RTX 4050 (FOCUS only) as well as 4060 and 4070 (FOCUS and PRO) with a maximum graphics power rating of up to 140 watts (115 watts TGP plus 25 watts Dynamic Boost 2.0). However, since the clock behaviour and the actual power consumption of the GPUs in the new generation are subject to much more restrictive, application-specific specifications from NVIDIA, the maximum values are only achieved in synthetic stress tests such as Furmark - according to the official requirements of the graphics chip manufacturer.

NVIDIA today kicks off the 2023 International CES with a special event for the PC community, particularly gamers. As part of the CES 2023 GeForce Beyond presentation, NVIDIA is expected to introduce additions to the desktop GeForce RTX 40-series "Ada" series, such as the RTX 4070 Ti, and also debut the RTX 40-series Laptop GPU series, powering the next-generation of gaming notebooks through this year.16:01 UTC: The show is about to begin, with Jeff Fisher taking centerstage.

16:02 UTC: 20 million NVIDIA GeForce GPUs sold in 2022.

CD Projekt RED announced an unexpected content update for the now-7 year old "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt," an immensely popular AAA game that continues to be a favorite among GPU reviewers and PC enthusiasts. The content update, dubbed simply "Next Gen Update," is expected to go live on December 14, 2022. The free update adds several visual enhancements that would normally be marketed as a "Remastered" title, and sold separately.

To begin with, CDPR has increased texture resolutions, and redesigned the foliage to be more realistic. It gets new real-time ray traced global illumination (RT-GI), which should significantly improve the lighting throughout the game. The game also gets super-sampling performance enhancements, namely NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR 2. Thanks to the higher-resolution assets and RT-GI, the graphics settings now include a new preset called "Ultra+," which maxes out everything, including the new assets. The game's UI now offers more camera perspectives. For next-generation consoles, the update adds a new "Performance" mode that runs it at 60 FPS, and a new "Quality" mode that enables RT-GI along with FSR 2.The trailer for the new content update follows.

ASUS, a global technology leader renowned for continuously reimagining today's technologies for tomorrow, today announced ExpertBook B6 Flip (B6602F)—the first Expert-series flippable mobile workstation.

This high-performance mobile workstation with its versatile 360° hinge is designed specifically to help architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) companies running industry-leading software solutions like 3ds Max, MicroStation, and Vectorworks. With immense power packed in a slim and flippable form, ExpertBook B6 Flip handles complex workloads seamlessly across AEC disciplines. It helps users bring design concepts to life through BIM software like ArchiCAD, effortlessly transition from 2D sketches to 3D modelling and printing via tools like Creo and Solidworks, and handle data-intensive applications for deeper insights and better decision-making—delivering the edge that AEC companies need in today's competitive market.

During its GTC 2022 session, NVIDIA introduced its new generation of gaming graphics cards based on the novel Ada Lovelace architecture. Dubbed NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series, it brings various updates like more CUDA cores, a new DLSS 3 version, 4th generation Tensor cores, 3rd generation Ray Tracing cores, and much more, which you can read about here. However, today, we also got a new Ada Lovelace card intended for the data center. Called the L40, NVIDIA updated its previous Ampere-based A40 design. While the NVIDIA website provides sparse, the new L40 GPU uses 48 GB GDDR6 memory with ECC error correction. Using NVLink, you can get 96GBs of VRAM. Paired with an unknown SKU, we assume that it uses AD102 with adjusted frequencies to lower the TDP and allow for passive cooling.

NVIDIA is calling this their Omniverse GPU, as it is a part of the push to separate its GPUs used for graphics and AI/HPC models. The "L" model in the current product stack is used to accelerate graphics, with display ports installed on the GPU, while the "H" models (H100) are there to accelerate HPC/AI installments where visual elements are a secondary task. This is a further separation of the entire GPU market, where the HPC/AI SKUs get their own architecture, and GPUs for graphics processing are built on a new architecture as well. You can see the specifications provided by NVIDIA below.

The pirate sea-battle online multiplayer, "Skull and Bones" by Ubisoft, is on its way to become the first PC game to feature performance enhancements from all three GPU brands—NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS. Ubisoft also put out the system requirements for the four main quality-levels of the game—1080p Low, 1080p High, 1440p High, and 4K. The GPU requirements are fairly steep for 1080p High and 1440p High; and you'll need at least an RTX 3080 or RX 6800 XT for 4K premium experience. The only available Arc GPU you can buy right now is the A380, and this probably meets the 1080p Low requirements. The PC version of Skull and Bones includes ray-traced global illumination, HDR, uncapped FPS, support for ultra-widescreens, and an in-game benchmark.

Intel earlier this week released its own performance numbers for as many as 50 benchmarks spanning the DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs. From our testing, the Arc A380 performs sub-par with its rivals in games based on the DirectX 11 API. Intel tested the A750 in the 1080p and 1440p resolutions, and compared performance numbers with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060. Broadly, the testing reveals the A750 to be 3% faster than the RTX 3060 in DirectX 12 titles at 1080p; about 5% faster at 1440p; about 4% faster in Vulkan titles at 1080p, and about 5% faster at 1440p.

All testing was done without ray tracing, performance enhancements such as XeSS or DLSS weren't used. The small set of 6 Vulkan API titles show a more consistent performance lead for the A750 over the RTX 3060, whereas the DirectX 12 API titles sees the two trade blows, with a diversity of results varying among game engines. In "Dolmen," for example, the RTX 3060 scores 347 FPS compared to the Arc's 263. In "Resident Evil VIII," the Arc scores 160 FPS compared to 133 FPS of the GeForce. Such variations among the titles pulls up the average in favor of the Intel card. Intel stated that the A750 is on-course to launch "later this year," but without being any more specific than that. The individual test results can be seen below.The testing notes and configuration follows.

ZOTAC Technology, a global manufacturer of innovation, joins COMPUTEX 2022 with exclusive unveilings at our Virtual Booth for you to discover. From the Metaverse ready wearable PC and professional mini workstation, to the smallest full featured system and ultimate graphics cards, our strong line up of innovative products invites all visitors to re imagine how we create, play and work in the new digital universe.

The next generation ZOTAC VR GO 4.0 brings unprecedented freedom of movement and the most reliable connectivity that no wireless VR device can provide. The all-new VR GO 4.0 Backpack PC is now equipped with more advanced technologies, enabling individual developers and 3D designers to visualize and realize all things creative in Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), or Mixed Reality (MR) for VR content development, virtual entertainment, and more technical scenarios. While for everyone else, the addition of more powerful hardware allows for more visual fidelity and immersive VR experiences.

In January, we introduced the ROG Strix SCAR 2022, an ultra-powerful esports gaming machine designed to blow away any and all competition. But we couldn't leave well enough alone, so we decided to make it even better. We're proud to announce the ROG Strix SCAR 17 Special Edition, the ultimate laptop for competitive gaming.

For most gamers, the regular 2022 Strix SCAR is the perfect companion, since it's lighter and more affordable than the new Special Edition, while offering exceptional gaming performance. But for gamers who need the absolute best of the best, cutting-edge technology paired with a bold cyberpunk design, the Strix SCAR 17 SE has arrived.

The ambitious performance enhancement by Intel Graphics rivaling NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR, the Intel XeSS (Xe Super Sampling,) will debut on May 20, 2022, with a patch for "Dolmen," developer Massive Work Studio announced. This matches our report from March 2022 that referenced an "early Summer" debut. This would mean Intel Graphics has a driver release planned very soon, for its Xe LP-based iGPUs and Iris Xe MAX discrete GPU; as well as the first round of Arc 3 "Alchemist" mobile graphics, which will launch with XeSS support.

Much like FSR and DLSS, XeSS works with a supported game to render raster 3D scenes at a lower resolution than the display resolution, and upscales them using a sophisticated algorithm that minimizes image quality loss, with a net gain in frame-rates. XeSS will play a particularly big role in Intel's plans to grab a slice of the gaming graphics market with its Arc "Alchemist" discrete GPUs. XeSS appears to work similar to AMD FSR 2.0, with its upscaler using motion-vectors and temporal data from the game engine to reconstruct details in the outbound frames. Also, much like FSR, XeSS will be open to GPUs from other brands.Update May 17th: The Dolmen Twitter handle just put out an update that XeSS support is coming "this Summer," implying that it will not release on May 20 as earlier reported.

PNY announced today the expansion of NVIDIA GeForce RTX XLR8 Gaming family of GPUs with the latest PNY XLR8 Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card and PNY XLR8 Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti Overclocked graphics card. Designed for the most demanding gamers, content creators and data scientists, the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti features a record-breaking 10,752 CUDA cores, and boasts 78 RT-TFLOPs, 40 Shader-TFLOPs and 320 Tensor-TFLOPs of power. And it's packed with 24 GB of the fastest 21 Gbps GDDR6X memory, providing 1 TB/s of memory bandwidth.

The GeForce RTX 3090 Ti overclocked and standard models deliver the ultimate performance craved by gamers, powered by the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, to rip through 4K gaming and AI tasks. Built with 24 GB of super-fast GDDR6X memory, enhanced RT Cores and Tensor Cores, and new streaming multiprocessors for an incredible gaming experience. With faster memory and more CUDA cores than the non-Ti GPU, the RTX 3090 Ti is a powerhouse offering more performance without compromise for gamers and content creators to get the most out of their system.

NVIDIA has recently released their latest GeForce 512.15 Game Ready drivers adding optimizations for Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Shadow Warrior 3 in addition to bringing DLAA to three new titles and supporting 11 new G-SYNC Compatible Displays. This Game Ready Driver adds day-0 support for Ghostwire: Tokyo featuring ray-traced reflections and NVIDIA DLSS support for up to a 2x performance boost. The drivers also see the introduction of NVIDIA DLAA support for Chorus, Jurassic World Evolution 2, and No Man's Sky which can improve image quality at native resolution.

The list of G-SYNC Compatible Displays has been extended with the addition of 11 new models from Acer, ASUS, AOC, I-O DATA,MSI, Phillips, and ViewSonic. NVIDIA has also added GeForce Experience's Optimal Settings support to six new games including Elden Ring, Expeditions: Rome, Mortal Online 2, Shadow Warrior 3, Sifu, and Total War: Warhammer III. The complete changelog and driver download link can be found below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 512.15 WHQL

In 2022, the world's leading PC gaming hardware brand MSI joins forces again with the international publisher of interactive entertainment and services Ubisoft to draw gamers deeper into another best-selling video game Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok with a world's innovative in-game voice control.

The brightly-coloured danger-filled world of ASSASSIN'S CREED VALHALLA DAWN OF RAGNARÖK is brought to life in full 4K resolution using the latest RTX Graphics technology via MSI products. Ray Tracing, DLSS, Quantum Dot and MSI Night Vision technologies will enable gamers to get through the Norse myth with enhanced gameplay immersion, stability and, outstanding gaming performance using MSI products. Not only with our stunning monitor but you can bring up to our extraordinary Z690 motherboard and S series Liquid Cooling. Our high-performance motherboards are loaded with advanced features and the latest technology to overwhelm any challenge at hand. Besides, our S series Liquid Cooling offers you a silent world so you can immerse yourself in the game.

The recently leaked NVIDIA DLSS source code appears to contain several references to an upcoming Nintendo Switch product with files such as "nvndlss.cpp", "nvn_dlss.cpp", and "nvn_dlss_backend.h" listed which reputable leaker @kopite7kimi believes belongs to an upcoming Nintendo Switch model with a new SoC. The files are all found within a folder titled NVN2 which is likely referring to the successor of the NVN graphics API written by NVIDIA for the original Nintendo Switch.

These files allegedly contain references to an 8 nm T239 chip that looks extremely likely to be designated for the Nintendo Switch Pro based on Ampere with ray tracing support and DLSS 2.2 according to @NWPlayer123. This supports previous rumors that pointed to a Nintendo Switch Pro featuring a new NVIDIA processor with DLSS 2.0 support.

The mother of all cyberattacks hit NVIDIA over the weekend, putting out critical driver source-code, the ability to disable LHR for mining, and even insights into future NVIDIA hardware, such as the Blackwell architecture. An anonymous tipster sent us this screenshot showing a list of files they claim are the source-code of DLSS.

The list, which looks credible enough, includes C++ files, headers, and assets that make up DLSS. There is also a super-convenient "Programming Guide" document to help developers make sense of the code and build correctly. Our tipsters who sent this screenshot are examining the code to see the inner workings of DLSS, and whether there's any secret sauce. Do note that this is DLSS version 2.2, so a reasonably recent version including the latest DLSS 2.2 changes. This code leak could hold the key for the open-source Linux driver community to bring DLSS to the platform, or even AMD and Intel learning from its design. Stealing Intellectual Property is a big deal of course and NVIDIA's lawyers will probably be busy picking apart every new innovation from their competitors, but ultimately it'll be hard to prove in a court of law.