The latest patch for Halo Infinite has introduced an undesired side effect for a select portion of its PC platform playerbase. Changes to minimum system specification requirements were not clarified by 343 Industries in their patch notes, but it appears that the game now refuses to launch for owners of older GPU hardware. A limit of 4 GB of VRAM has been listed as the bare minimum since Halo Infinite's launch in late 2021, with the AMD Radeon RX 570 and Nvidia GTX GeForce 1050 Ti cards representing the entry level GPU tier, basic versions of both were fitted with 4 GB of VRAM as standard.

Apparently users running the GTX 1060 3 GB model were able to launch and play the game just fine prior to the latest patch, due to it being more powerful than the entry level cards, but now it seems that the advertised hard VRAM limit has finally gone into full effect. The weaker RX 570 and GTX 1050 Ti cards are still capable of running Halo Infinite after the introduction of season 3 content, but a technically superior piece of hardware cannot, which is unfortunate for owners of the GTX 1060 3 GB model who want to play Halo Infinite in its current state.

A Chinese OEM put a desktop Intel Arc "Alchemist" A380 GPU on an MXM board for notebooks and mobile workstations with upgradable graphics. This isn't the mobile A380M, but rather the desktop A380 that has been designed into an MXM 3.1 type-A board that's capable of PCIe Gen 4 x8. The 6 nm ACM-G11 ASIC is flanked by three GDDR6 memory chips that make the board's 6 GB of memory across its 96-bit memory bus. What's interesting about this board is its tight power limits, which are set at 50 W, that can draw up to 75 W. The card puts out three HDMI and one DP outputs. Its cooling solution mount-hole spacing appears to match that of the popular GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 is set to be officially unveiled tomorrow as a successor to the GTX 1050 Ti with Colorful already listing one such model on their website. The GTX 1630 will be an entry-level card featuring a TU117-150 GPU with 512 CUDA cores running at 1785 MHz paired with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit memory bus for a total bandwidth of 96 GB/s. The leaked Colorful GTX 1630 BattleAx features a dual-fan cooling solution, triple display connectors, and an additional 6-pin power input essentially copying the company's GTX 1650 model. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 will be available from multiple board partners when it launches tomorrow and could reportedly retail for ~150 USD according to some Chinese retailers.

Chinese news site MyDrivers have recently reported on increasing graphics card prices in China over the last month. These price increases come as a result of reduced GPU shipments especially of the NVIDIA RTX 3060 whose supply is down 50% with improvements not expected for several weeks. The site has tracked the prices for popular cards from ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI with increases across the board ranging from a 12 USD increase on the Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti up to a 92 USD increase on the ASUS RTX 3070 Ti. These supply impacts have impacted NVIDIA to a greater extent than AMD but the general price increases are likely indicative of the global trend over the coming weeks.

Chinese motherboard manufacturer Zeal-All has recently released a brand new LGA1151 Intel B150 motherboard with integrated GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. The bizarre motherboard supports 6th and 7th generation Intel core processors (Skylake and Kaby Lake chips). The unusual form factor of 235 x 197.5 mm is likely aimed at custom enterprise uses such as AI algorithms as noted on Zeal-All's site. Besides the uncommon form factor, the motherboard also uses laptop SODIMMs and features no typical power connections, only a barrel connector for an external 19 V power source.

In terms of I/O the motherboard comes with an interesting arrangement including HDMI, LAN, 4x USB 3.0, and Mic-in/Line-out. Internal connectors include 3x USB 2.0 Pin, 2x USB2.0 Pin, CPU Fan, System Fan, 2x LVDS Pin (support dual Channel 10 Bit), 4x SATA, Front panel Pin and Audio Pin Port. The motherboard is fitted with a Realtek 8111E LAN controller for gigabit Ethernet and a Mini-PCIe slot for a Wi-Fi expansion card.

HP has been trying to differentiate from its competitors in the laptop market for some time now. Certain features and design decisions could be considered not that new (or good at all), but results speak for themselves with the new HP Spectre x360. This year's 2 in 1 laptop features a new angular design that affects the borders of the laptop, but also two of its corners which are now chamfered. The effect is not only intriguing but has also a practical side: that chamfered corners have been used to put there the power button and a USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) connector.

Inside we can find the new Intel Whiskey Lake processors (Core i5-8265U and Core i7-8565U), up to 16 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB of storage on a M.2 NVMe SSD. Those CPUs allow to get more performance than previous models, but they also help on the battery life side: HP claims the 13.3-inch model can get up to 22.5 hours, a quite optimistic promise that we are anxious to prove right. The 15.6-inch model has the option to get a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max Q and there is also a LTE enabled variant of this laptop, but the interesting part comes on the privacy and security features.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information and diagnostics utility. Version 2.11.0 introduces support for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-series "Turing" graphics cards, including the RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, and RTX 2070. Support is also added for a few exotic OEM variants we discovered over the months, including GTX 750 Ti (GM107-A), GTX 1050 Ti Mobile 4 GB, Quadro P1000, Tesla P100 DGXS, GeForce 9200. From the AMD stable, we add support for "Vega 20," "Fenghuang" semi-custom SoC for Zhongshan Subor, Ryzen 5 Pro 2500U, 5 Pro 2400G, 3 Pro 2200G, 3 Pro 2300U, 3 2200GE, Athlon 200GE, and Embedded V1807B. Intel UHD 610, UHD P630 (Xeon), Coffee Lake GT3e (i5-8259U), are now supported.

Among the new features are system RAM usage sensors, temperature monitoring offsets for AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2000 series processors, and the ability to identify USB-C display output, GDDR6 memory standard, and 16 Gbit density memory chips. Several under-the-hood improvements were made, including WDDM-based memory monitoring for AMD GPUs, replacing ADL sensors that tend to be buggy. GPU-Z also cleans up QueryExternal files from your Temp folder. Grab GPU-Z from the link below.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.11.0

The change-log follows.

MSI, world's leading brand in gaming hardware, has lifted the curtain for its two brand new laptops at Computex 2018, the GF63 and the PS42. Respectively tailored for gamers and professionals, both models feature the ever-so-popular thin bezel design. The near edge-to-edge aesthetics are not only lighter in weight but also smaller in dimension. Together with the previously-announced GS65, MSI has set a new standard for portability with the "Thin Bezel Gaming" genre.

GF63: Bringing thin and light gaming to the mainstream.
The brand new GF63 debuts in Computex with its 15.6" ultra slim footprint and thin bezel with measuring less than 2 kg in weight. Continuing MSI's gaming DNA and powerful performance, the GF63 carries up to 8th Gen. Intel Core i7 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics, while lasting over 7 hours in battery life. The GF63 provides gamers a new choice of "portable gaming firepower!"

ASUS today announced the new ZenBook Pro 15 (UX550G), a high-performance 15.6-inch laptop that's now faster than ever. ZenBook Pro 15 offers discerning professional users the ultimate combination of serious performance and supremely elegant design, now harnessing the amazing power of up to an 8th Generation Intel Core i9 processor, up to gaming-grade NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics, the fastest PCI Express (PCIe ) 3.0 x4 SSDs, high-speed 2400MHz DDR4 RAM, 802.11ac gigabit-class Wi-Fi and Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C (USB-C) ports. An integrated fingerprint sensor allows fast and secure one-touch login with Windows Hello.

State-of-the-art visuals are provided by the 15.6-inch NanoEdge PANTONE Validated multitouch display, featuring up to a 4K UHD resolution, 100% Adobe RGB and 132% sRGB color gamut, a Delta-E (ΔE) color difference of less than 2.0 and an ultrathin 7.3mm bezel that gives ZenBook Pro 15 an 83% screen-to-body ratio. Powerful immersive sound is delivered by the Harman Kardon-certified audio system.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the graphics subsystem information, monitor, and diagnostic tool for PC enthusiasts and gamers. Version 2.5.0 introduces a slew of new features, support for new graphics cards, under the hood improvements, and bug fixes. To begin with, we've re-done the main tab to show graphics driver date and WHQL status in new fields. A refresh button is added, so you can manually refresh graphics card information, after a driver update for example. The BIOS string for NVIDIA BIOSes are now consistently cased, and driver version name titled "NVIDIA" instead of the retired "ForceWare" brand.

TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.5.0 adds support for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, with its new WDDM 2.3 driver model, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti, GTX 1050 Ti Mobile (GP106), Quadro GP100, and Quadro M620; from the AMD stable, support is added for Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Edition, and FirePro M4150; from Intel, support for Intel UHD 600-series "Coffee Lake" graphics was added. Among the new sensors added are Vega SOC Clock, VR SOC and VR Mem. The internal NVFlash module used to extract video BIOS, has been updated. A crash associated with failed BIOS uploads to our database, has been fixed. Grab TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.5.0 from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.5.0The change-log follows.

MSI had launched the MSI GP62M World of Tanks Edition not long ago and we are excited to share with you about this special edition, which became a hit in the market. Although, MSI feels a bit of sorry for whom are waiting for a shortfall of this attractive gaming laptop. We understand that you've been waiting and we're so glad to be able to announce that we've stepped up the production in the shortest possible time to supply the various regions and fulfill the demand of WOT gamers and military enthusiasts. Do you wanna know why this gorgeous model could be so popular? Let's unveil the success factors.

MSI spent a lot of time to study the various tanks in World of tanks and try to find out one could be the key that helps gamers win the battle. As a result, the rare tank IS-2 is gloriously embedded on the top-cover and the palm rest, forging an impregnable appeal with IS-2's commanding presence. For this reason, you will become the center of attention on certain occasions.