Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is the latest AAA title to support DirectX 12, with its developer Eidos deploying a DirectX 12 renderer weeks after its release, through a patch. Guru3D put the DirectX 12 version of the game through five GPU architectures, AMD "Polaris," GCN 1.1, GCN 1.2, NVIDIA "Pascal," and NVIDIA "Maxwell," through Radeon RX 480, Radeon R9 Fury X, Radeon R9 390X, GeForce GTX 1080, GeForce GTX 1060, and GeForce GTX 980. The AMD GPUs were driven by RSCE 16.9.1 drivers, and NVIDIA by GeForce 372.70.

Looking at the graphs, switching from DirectX 11 to DirectX 12 mode, AMD GPUs not only don't lose frame-rates, but in some cases, even gain frame-rates. NVIDIA GPUs, on the other hand, significantly lose frame-rates. AMD GPUs tend to hold on to their frame-rates at 4K Ultra HD, marginally gain frame-rates at 2560 x 1440, and further gain frame-rates at 1080p. NVIDIA GPUs either barely hold on to their frame-rates, or significantly lose them. AMD has on multiple occasions claimed that its Graphics CoreNext architecture, combined with its purist approach to asynchronous compute make Radeon GPUs a better choice for DirectX 12 and Vulkan. Find more fascinating findings by Guru3D here.More graphs follow.

A leaked slide from NVIDIA press-deck for the imminent launch of the GeForce GTX 1060 confirmed the reference board design, which first surfaced in Hong Kong. The slide also reveals clock speeds, and other key specs of the card. While it doesn't reveal the GPU nominal clocks, it mentions that the GPU Boost frequency will be set as high as 1.70 GHz. The memory is clocked at 8 Gbps, which over the GPU's 192-bit GDDR5 interface, puts out 192 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

The chip features 1,280 CUDA cores based on the "Pascal" architecture. The card draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, its TDP is rated even lower than that of the AMD Radeon RX 480, at 120W (vs. 150W of the RX 480). NVIDIA has been making huge (and successful) performance claims for its "Pascal" GPUs so far. The GTX 1060 is claimed to be faster than the GeForce GTX 980 from the previous generation, and "much faster" than the RX 480, which means that NVIDIA intends to price this card competitively to the RX 480.

In the wake of its GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 graphics card launches, NVIDIA decided to cut prices of its previous-generation GeForce GTX 980 Ti, GeForce GTX 980, and GeForce GTX 970 graphics cards, in a bid to clear inventories. The $379 and 150W GTX 1070 is faster than the GTX 980 Ti and the GTX Titan X, rendering them obsolete. The price of the $620 GTX 980 Ti has been cut by $125, and is now down to $495~499. The GTX 980, on the other hand, sees its price cut by $75, bringing its price down from $399 to $324, less than the launch-price of the GTX 970. The smash-hit GTX 970, at the dusk of its market life, sees its price cut by $25, bringing it down from $289 to $265.

Get this - a portable gaming PC that's battery-powered, to which you plug in your VR headset, strap around your arms like a backpack, and walk around in an open space. MSI is tinkering with that concept, with its new untitled backpack gaming PC. The PC will be powered by cutting-edge desktop-grade Core i7 processors and GeForce GTX 980 graphics (likely GTX 1080M when it comes out?). It lets you plug in your VR gear with minimal cable clutter, and walk around without being confined to a static gaming PC. The company will detail this product further at its 2016 Computex booth.

At Acer's next@acer Global Press Conference in New York today, the company announced new notebooks, desktops and monitors in its powerful and award-winning Predator gaming line. The new Predator 17 X notebook and compact Predator G1 desktop include top-of-the line computing technology and are NVIDIA GeForce VR-Ready, as well as ready for virtual reality (VR) devices from Oculus, HTC Vive, OSVR and StarVR.

"The new Acer Predator gaming systems are designed to deliver the ultimate gaming and virtual reality experiences for our customers," said James Lin, general manager, Consumer Notebooks, IT Products Business, Acer Inc. "Virtual reality offers unlimited new possibilities, not just in gaming, but across a wide variety of industries and applications in professional environments. As we showed today in our VR partner demos, Acer intends to give our customers the tools they need for both playing and working in this new digital world."

Paving the way for its next-generation "Pascal" architecture-based performance-thru-enthusiast GPUs, NVIDIA reportedly halted further production of certain current-generation "Maxwell" GPUs. HWBattle reports that production of the GM204-based GeForce GTX 980, the popular GTX 970, and GM200-based GTX 980 Ti have seen production halts, to let the market digest existing inventories of the three cards; and letting NVIDIA's add-in card (AIC) partners prepare to stock up next-generation graphics cards, beginning with at least three SKUs based on the GP104 silicon, in June 2016.

MSI Computer Corp, a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions, announces the availability of the Vortex, a VR-ready, high-performance miniature tower that redefines compact gaming desktops.

The world smallest gaming cylinder, the Vortex measures only 10.5 inches tall but can blast away bigger systems with an unlocked Intel Core i7 6700K processor, up to 64 GB of DDR4 memory, SSDs in Super RAID 4, and dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 GPUs in SLI. MSI's newest tower is also engineered for superior upgradability, expandability, and compatibility with a variety of connectors, including Thunderbolt 3 that supports up to 40 GBs of data transfer rate.

Eurocom is launching the Sky X9E Extreme Edition unlocked, high performance "desktop Laptop" with Intel Core i7-6700K, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, 64 GB DDR4 memory and a beautiful 4K 17.3" display. Eurocom customers now have an ultra-high performance, fully upgradeable mobile platform that they have utmost freedom to control and to push it to the limits.

Equipped with the most powerful components ever assembled in a laptop form factor and now with the unlocked capability to push the performance to otherworldly levels. Eurocom provides an unlocked BIOS along with an Overclocking Seminar with overclocking expert Mr. Fox so users have a quick rundown on how to best push their new EUROCOM Sky X9E to the limits as well as setting limitations and safe guards for safe operation.

NVIDIA is preparing its next GeForce GTX bundle for performance-thru-enthusiast segment graphics cards. The company is currently giving away copies of "Rise of the Tomb Raider." It's reported that soon, select NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970, GeForce GTX 980, GeForce GTX 980 Ti graphics cards, and notebooks with GeForce GTX 970M and GTX 980M, will be bundled with copies of "Tom Clancy's The Division." The bundle will only be applicable in select regions, and through participating retailers.

MSI unveiled its latest desktop under its coveted MSI Gaming logo - the Vortex. This compact gaming desktop features a design that's heavily inspired by the Mac Pro - a cylindrical case with three planes, and key components arranged along those planes, with a common air channel running through the bore of the cylinder. Much like the Mac Pro, the MSI Vortex packs a wallop.

In its base configuration, the MSI Vortex comes with an Intel Core i5 "Skylake" desktop quad-core processor, and two GeForce GTX 960 (desktop) graphics cards in SLI. The top variant gives you a Core i7-6700K quad-core chip, and two GeForce GTX 980 (desktop) cards in SLI, making it capable of 4K Ultra HD gaming. Sharp edges aside, the Vortex comes with RGB LED lighting. Not just design, MSI appears to have taken cues from Apple on even pricing - the base model is expected to be priced around US $2,000.

AMD gave its premium small-factor gaming graphics card, the Radeon R9 Nano, its first major price cut. The card now starts at US $499, down from its launch price of $649. At $499, the R9 Nano is priced on par with its similar-performing albeit bigger and noisier sibling based on the "Fiji" silicon, the Radeon R9 Fury. The company's flagship single-GPU card, the R9 Fury X, remains at $599, its price was gradually reduced from its launch price of $649.

The three SKUs appear to be positioned to compete with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980, and offer cost-effective alternatives to the $629 GTX 980 Ti. Elsewhere in the lineup, the Radeon R9 390X starts at $379, and has its guns trained on the GTX 980 and GTX 970. Its smaller sibling, the Radeon R9 390 starts at $299.

The turnaround in developer relations for NVIDIA, propelled by its GameWorks software and a refreshed "The Way It's Meant to be Played" (TWIMTBP) program is best exemplified with the upcoming "Rise of the Tomb Raider." A sequel to the 2013 franchise reboot by Square Enix, which brandished the "AMD Game!" logo, and even bundled with certain AMD Radeon graphics cards; the new Tomb Raider not only features the NVIDIA logo, but will also be bundled with select GeForce graphics cards under the new "Discover the Legend Within" bundle.

NVIDIA is giving away "Rise of the Tomb Raider" with GeForce GTX 980 Ti, GTX 980, and GTX 970 graphics cards. This includes cards sold in the retail channel, as well as gaming desktops that come with those cards pre-installed. On the notebook front, select notebooks running the GTX 980, GTX 980M, and GTX 970M will also give you a key to the game. The bundle extends to participating retailers and OEMs only.

AMD has reportedly been issued a "cease-and-desist" notice by liquid cooling components major Asetek over sale of its flagship Radeon R9 Fury X graphics card. A similar C&D notice was sent to GIGABYTE, to stop sales of its GeForce GTX 980 Water Force graphics card. The two cards ship with a factory-fitted, closed-loop liquid cooling solution by Cooler Master, a company with which Asetek is locked in a patent infringement lawsuit, over its pump-block and movable fittings designs.

The Radeon R9 Fury X and GIGABYTE GTX 980 Water Force feature a derivative of Cooler Master's Seidon 120M closed-loop cooler, a product red-flagged by U.S. courts over patent infringement. Asetek has already succeeded in getting Cooler Master to withdraw similar aftermarket cooling solutions from the U.S. market, such as the Seidon, Nepton, and Glacier. The courts have ordered Cooler Master to pay 14.5 percent royalties from revenues on each infringing product sold in the market, to Asetek.

Corsair, a world leader in high-performance PC hardware, today announced the immediate availability of its new Hydro Series HG10 GPU N980 and HG10 N970 cooling brackets for NVIDIA GeForce GTX GTX 980 Ti, Titan X, GTX 980 and GTX 970 graphics cards. Easy to install and compatible with any Corsair Hydro Series liquid CPU cooler (sold separately), the HG10 N970 and N980 help to substantially reduce your GPU's temperature, allowing for greatly increased overclocking headroom and providing as much as a 25% clock speed increase.

Designed to work with any stock PCB layout NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, Titan X, GTX 980 or GTX 9701, the HG10 N970 and HG10 N980 replace the existing air cooling of the graphics card with a precision engineered aluminium bracket, allowing users to them fit a Corsair Hydro Series liquid CPU cooler directly to the GPU. With modern graphics cards outputting over 250W of heat, a liquid cooling system is a more efficient and powerful way to keep your graphics card cool. Lower temperatures mean users can overclock their GPU with fewer thermal limitations, allowing for improved performance and higher frame rates, all while running quieter than a standard air-cooler.

GIGABYTE, the world's leading premium gaming hardware manufacturer, today announced the GeForce GTX 980 WATERFORCE (GV-N980WAOC-4GD) that comes with an all-In-one, closed-loop liquid cooler. Built on the performance-proven GTX 980 Maxwell GPU, the GTX 980 WATERFORCE combines GIGABYTE exclusive technologies, high-quality components, and innovations to deliver the smooth gaming at ultimate 4K resolutions in a virtually silent operation compared to conventional air cooling. Through GPU Gauntlet Sorting, the graphics card is forged with only the top-notch GPU cores to bring out the maximum processing power for going super overclock.

With the pre-installed water cooling unit and radiator connected with a pair of SFP tubes, the GTX 980 WATERFORCE can be easily fitted in most chassis without the hassle of complicated installation or maintenance. The full-coverage cooling module covers not only the GPU, but also the VRAM and MOSFET to actively dissipate all the heat in an efficient manner, while requiring no additional fan like other competitions for a much enhanced acoustic performance.

As the leading gaming hardware brand, MSI is excited to launch a new generation of gaming desktop PC's: the MSI Nightblade X2 and MI2. The Nightblade series embody what every gamer craves for: victory. The MSI Nightblade PCs stand out - or better said; do not stand out - because of their size. The Nightblade X2 has a volume of only 16 liters and its smaller brother, the Nightblade MI, comes in an astonishing 10 liter sized shell. Despite their nifty dimensions, the Nightblade X2 & MI2 both house a full sized MSI graphics card. Coupled with Intel Core technology and smart cooling solutions, the MSI Nightblade series are an excellent choice for gaming enthusiasts around the world.

With a full sized graphics card, the Nightblade X2 & MI2 both bring grand graphics for gamers in a small case. While the MI2 equips a GTX 970 with 4GB GDDR5 memory the X2 even comes with the powerful GeForce GTX 980 TI. These graphics cards provide plenty of FPS while playing games in Full HD and in high settings. To top it off, the Nightblade series come with more features such as Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU, the latest Nahimic Sound Technology, M.2 SSD and Super RAID compatibility and MSI Gaming Center software. The next generation MSI Nightblade series are complete and ready-to-go gaming systems and will be available worldwide from the middle of October.

Eurocom has launched the Sky X9 super high performance, fully upgradeable gaming laptop with desktop NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 graphics, Desktop Skylake Intel Core i7 6700K CPU and 64 GB of DDR4 memory. "We have put a desktop graphics card into a laptop, giving our customers amazing desktop 980 performance in a laptop. Users now have 980 desktop graphics performance combined with Intel Skylake desktop CPU performance." Mark Bialic, Eurocom President.

EUROCOM Sky X9 is powered by desktop NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 graphics, a fully unlocked GM204 core with 2048 CUDA cores. 8 GB memory with 7 Gbps memory clock and GDDR5 memory interface is supported. The EUROCOM Sky X9 is the first laptop with upgradeable desktop graphics supported inside, another amazing innovation from Eurocom. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 is overclockable for maximum control and performance.

The EVGA Hybrid Face Off program is here! Now for a limited time ALL EVGA customers who own any EVGA Hybrid product qualifies for a free* new shroud! This shroud gives the card an updated look, complete with an LED. If you are an owner of one of the below Hybrid products, you qualify! Just fill out the form, and we will contact you on further steps.

Qualifying Products:

• EVGA GeForce TITAN X HYBRID
• EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti HYBRID
• EVGA GeForce GTX 980 HYBRID

MSI, the leading gaming notebook manufacturer and innovator, is the first in the gaming market to launch a gaming notebook with true desktop level performance.

To celebrate its 29th anniversary, MSI presents hardcore gamers GT72 Dominator Pro G limited edition gaming notebook powered by NVIDIA GTX980 graphics and the latest Intel 6th generation Core i7-6820HK processor. 3D Mark 11 performance, when over-clocking, is expected to reach over P14,500 points, which is as powerful as that of desktops with GTX980 graphics. MSI fans may experience smoother DirectX 12 extreme gaming effects on Windows 10 for enhanced image quality and details with 3K or even 4K resolutions.

NVIDIA released a reference board for a full-featured GeForce GTX 980 GPU for the notebook platform. This is different from the GeForce GTX 980M launched last October, which features just 1,536 of the 2,048 CUDA cores physically present on the GM204 silicon. The new GTX 980 for notebooks is targeted at large desktop-replacement gaming notebooks, and features all components present on the silicon.

The GeForce GTX 980 for Notebooks reference board features 4-8 GB of GDDR5 memory across the chip's 256-bit wide memory bus, a 4-8 phase VRM, and clock speeds which are close to the desktop reference board. The GPU is clocked around 1175 MHz, and the memory ticks at 7.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective). It's primed for overclocking beyond 1400 MHz core, and 7.50 GHz memory. It also offers fan-control for users, that adjusts clock speeds according to the fan-curve. Various gaming notebook makers are announcing variants of their premium notebooks featuring this board.

ASUS today announced G11, a high-performance gaming desktop aimed at casual gamers. G11 is powered by a 6th-generation Intel Core i7 processor and up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 graphics for unstoppable gaming performance. It also features an M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 solid-state drive (SSD), DDR4 memory, and 10Gbit/s USB 3.1 Gen 2 for high speed data access. G11 has a futuristic chassis design, and features Mayan-inspired markings and 8-million-color LED effects. The exclusive ASUS Aegis II gaming utility even allows for easy gameplay recording and sharing.

ASUS G11 features the latest 6th-generation Intel Core i7 processor to give users the performance to take on the most demanding of tasks, allowing them to play games at the highest quality settings, watch stutter-free 4K/UHD videos, or create websites and 3D models for work. The latest processor is 23% more powerful and 22% more energy-efficient than the previous generation.

AMD's upcoming super-compact graphics card, the Radeon R9 Nano, will be faster than NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980, and a whopping 30% faster than the GTX 970, according to the company. At its size, it will offer the fastest pixel-crunching solution for compact ITX/SFF gaming PC builders, and that is something AMD want to capitalize on. If what we're hearing is true, then not only will the R9 Nano have the same core-config as the R9 Fury X, but also its price - US $649.99. At this price, the R9 Nano definitely isn't going to affect sales of the GTX 970 or GTX 980, which are currently going for as low as $299 and $465, respectively; but serve as a "halo product," targeted at SFF gaming PC builders.

Stardock's "Ashes of the Singularity" may not be particularly pathbreaking as an RTS, in the Starcraft era, but has the distinction of being the first game to the market with a DirectX 12 renderer, in addition to its default DirectX 11 one. This gave gamers the first peak at API to API comparisons, to test the tall bare-metal optimizations of DirectX 12, and as it turns out, AMD GPUs do seem to benefit big.

In a GeForce GTX 980 vs. Radeon R9 390X comparison by PC Perspective, the game seems to perform rather poorly on its default DirectX 11 renderer for the R9 390X, which when switched to DirectX 12, not only takes a big leap (in excess of 30%) in frame-rates, but also outperforms the GTX 980. A skeptical way of looking at these results would be that the R9 390X isn't optimized for the D3D 11 renderer to begin with, and merely returns to its expected performance vs. the GTX 980, with the D3D 12 renderer.

We are bang in the middle of an inflection point where the latest generation of CPUs, GPUs, motherboards, memory, displays, and software (Windows 10) just launched. To help our readers wanting to save big on their first gaming PC builds [and because the news is slow these days], TechPowerUp brings to you its Builder's Digest series of guides, on which components we would choose, to build a gaming or media PC from the ground up, at a given price-point.

In this episode, we're trying to build the best gaming PC possible, under $1,700. Our definition of "best" includes not just performance, but also energy-efficiency and noise. $1,700 is a great budget to get building your first serious gaming PC from scratch. Your only semblance of a PC right now is probably a notebook you take to school, and so you need to buy everything that makes up a desktop. Here's how TechPowerUp will spend that money.

NVIDIA, which recently withdrew its Batman: Arkham Knight GeForce Bundle following the game's spectacular failure that forced its publishers to pull it off the shelves; announced a new game bundle. The company will be giving away "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain" with GeForce GTX 980 Ti, GTX 980, GTX 970, GTX 960, and notebooks with GTX 980M and GTX 970M. There's no info on whether the game got the company's GameWorks varnish (GeForce-exclusive effects), but NVIDIA will give it a proper support package (Game Ready driver with SLI profiles and GeForce Experience settings). As one of the comments to the press-release suggest, it would be nice if the people who fell for the Batman: Arkham Knight bundle could be compensated with keys to this game.