NVIDIA today released its latest GeForce Drivers. Version 375.70 WHQL Game Ready drivers come just in time for the week's big AAA game releases, "Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare," the hotly anticipated "Dishonored 2," and "Titanfall 2." These include driver optimization, SLI support (provided the game engine supports multi-GPU), and GeForce Experience optimal settings. The drivers also include optimization for "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition" and "Obduction VR." Grab the drivers from the links below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 375.70 WHQL for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8/7/Vista 64-bit | Windows 8/7/Vista 32-bit

Not every tech company achieves a ten-year lifespan, and Macau-based ZOTAC is sure celebrating that milestone - though with hardware, not fireworks. All in all, five new products were announced in the company's Hong Kong celebration. These range from a liquid-cooled, GTX 1080 graphics card in partnership with Thermaltake; a limited edition HB SLI bridge; a special edition PCIe SSD; a water-cooled Mini PC; and finally, an upgraded VR Go backpack.

AMD is making inroads to the world's second largest film industry, the Indian film industry. Speaking at the 2016 Mumbai Film Festival held last week, the company announced that it is working with Arka Mediaworks, a big-budget production house, to shoot its next blockbuster movie, "Baahubali 2: The Conclusion" in 360-degree VR. Although the primary version of the film is shot in some of the largest 2D production formats, each scene in the film is additionally produced in 360° VR. AMD is separately pushing for VR in Indian cinemas, so the VR experience of "Baahubali 2: The Conclusion" could be exhibited to the masses.

At the heart of this endeavor is a 360° camera rig custom-built by AMD, called the BB360. The rig combines two dozen ultra high-resolution cameras feeding to a workstation with production hardware and VR mastering software made by AMD. The company claims that the BB360 is the most advanced VR camera rig ever built, and makes its production debut with "Baahubali 2: The Conclusion," due for spring 2017.

Razer, the leading lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced the new 17-inch Razer Blade Pro. Completely redesigned from ground up, the system is made specifically for enthusiasts and power users who want desktop performance but don't want to sacrifice portability. Packed with more power than ever before possible in a notebook under an inch thick, Razer's latest system is capable of handling virtually any task, anytime, anywhere.

The new Razer Blade Pro features the latest Intel Core i7 quad-core processor and next-generation NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU. It is the most powerful system ever built by Razer and the thinnest notebook available with a GTX 1080. Other highlights on the new Razer Blade Pro include Thunderbolt 3 for advanced connectivity options, 32 GB of DDR4 dual-channel memory, up to 2 TB of PCI M.2 SSD in RAID 0 storage and a built-in SD card reader.

AMD today released a new beta update to their Radeon Software Crimson Edition. Version 16.10.2 Beta features driver support for upcoming games like "Battlefield 1", "Sid Meier's Civilization VI", "Titanfall 2", "Serious Sam VR Early Access", as well as "Eagle Flight VR". Also included is a new AMD CrossFire profile for "Sid Meyer's Civilization VI" under DX11, and Battlefield 1 AMD CrossFire profile updates for the game's launch.

The release notes also list some fixed issues, namely:

• Fan speed may sometimes remain elevated on select Radeon RX 400 series graphics products even when an application has been exited;
• Eyefinity group settings may not be retained after driver upgrade when using AMD CrssFire configurations;
• Gears of War 4 may experience an application hang when using select high resolution and quality configurations i some specific game maps;
• DirectX 12 content may be unable to launch on some older CPUs that do not support "popcnt" instruction.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.10.2 Beta for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit

AMD today outlined powerful new solutions to two of the largest issues facing professional VR content creators today: how to create compelling VR content that approaches cinematic fidelity, and how to maximize that content's viewership. In the opening keynote at VR on the Lot, a two-day summit bringing together the top players in media, entertainment and technology, AMD detailed innovative Radeon Pro technologies designed to fuel the creation of real-time photorealistic VR content, and announced collaborations to facilitate the distribution of premium VR content to out-of-home experiences around the world.

"In creating Radeon Pro, we sought to address the industry's biggest problems, and for many creators, there's none bigger than cinematic VR content," said Roy Taylor, corporate VP and head of alliances, content and VR, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD. "Bringing your creative vision to life can be a demanding and laborious process and working in VR, those demands are exponentially multiplied. Through extraordinary Radeon Pro hardware and software, we're helping alleviate the technical burdens of creativity, empowering artists to focus on telling their story, and through our efforts in location-based entertainment, giving them new opportunities to share their work with the world."

According to TweakTown, AMD may be preparing to bring the fight to the as-of-yet unannounced GTX 1050 Ti with a $10 price-drop on their 1080p price-performance king RX 470 from the current $179, bringing the price down to $169. NVIDIA is purportedly planning to bring the GTX 1050 Ti to market at the $149 price point, with a rated TDP of only 75 W and apparently no need for additional power connectors (at least on reference designs). However, faced with a measly $20 difference from the supposedly higher-performing RX 470 - which could sometimes be up to 30% faster - the battle for the $150 bracket might prove to be an uphill battle for the green camp.

Add to that the latest updates unveiled by Oculus on Oculus Connect 3, with the RX 470 being stamped with the VR-ready approval, as well as the greater availability and lower price of FreeSync monitors (sometimes with as much as four times the number of FreeSync offers versus G-Sync ones), and it really does seem that AMD is poised to offer the best value in its price bracket. Of course, things get muddier if you take into account the current pricing landscape for graphics cards from either manufacturer (where most models are selling upwards of their MSRP).

Peripherals major Logitech announced that it has acquired gaming peripherals maker Saitek from MadCatz. Logitech paid MadCatz USD $13 million in cash for the acquisition. Ujesh Desai, head of Logitech's gaming peripherals brand Logitech G, said that the acquisition should augment the kind of gaming peripherals Saitek specializes in - joysticks for flight-simulators, and customized racing wheels for motorsport sims.

Desai also hinted that Logitech G could make a big move in the VR gaming space, not necessarily with HMDs, but with other related input devices. Over the past few years, Saitek's product line has been increasingly game title-specific, by tapping into specific markets (eg: the Flight Simulator community). Logitech G, on the other hand, makes gaming input devices for the masses. Logitech could tap into Saitek to create input devices for VR games that are highly game-specific.

Sony today announced an addition to its PlayStation family of entertainment systems, with the new PlayStation 4 Pro (PS4 Pro). The PS4 Pro isn't meant to succeed the PS4, and is still a "current generation" console, in that all of its games are compatible with the PS4, and there won't be PS4 Pro-exclusive games. What sets it apart is higher-resolution game rendering that looks best on 4K Ultra HD TVs. This doesn't necessarily mean that the games are being rendered at 3840 x 2160 pixels. They could be rendered at resolutions higher than 1080p, and using just the right upscaling algorithms, made to look significantly better than 1080p. Another key visual component is hardware HDR. The PS4 Pro falls in line with Sony's big push for 4K HDR TVs this holiday shopping season.

Under the hood, the PlayStation 4 Pro features an all new semi-custom SoC designed by Sony and AMD. The CPU component sticks to the "Jaguar/Puma" architecture, with 8 cores, but features higher CPU clock speeds. The 8 GB GDDR5 memory is said to run at higher clocks, too, and is bolstered by new lossless memory compression tech by AMD. The GPU component is where the action is. The GPU features over double the shading power of the PS4, and is based on the "Polaris" GPU architecture. The PS4 Pro also ships with a bigger 1 TB hard drive. There is seamless interplayability between PS4 and PS4 Pro. PS4 games you already own are being added with higher-resolution content meant for PS4 Pro. The console also has the muscle for PS-VR. For those still holding on to 1080p HDTVs, the PS4 Pro rewards with higher visual detail, more geometric complexity, and better effects, at that resolution. The PS4 Pro starts at $399.

Acer today unveiled its new Predator 21 X gaming laptop, the world's first curved screen notebook, a series of monitors with the latest eye-tracking technology and GPU updates to the Predator 15/17 series notebooks. This announcement at IFA 2016 reinforces Acer's commitment to premium gaming with a focus on expanding the number of high-performance Predator devices available to discerning enthusiasts around the world.

The Predator 21 X takes the flagship spot in Acer's gaming notebook series and is advanced beyond anything on the market today. It's the world's first notebook to offer a curved 21-inch IPS display (2560 x 1080), and when combined with wide-angle viewing, it delivers a truly immersive gaming experience. To bring gameplay immersion to the next level, the notebook also integrates Tobii eye-tracking technology for a new method of control that's more intuitive and natural. Built-in eye-tracking hardware (infrared sensors and software) unlocks a completely new facet in gaming. By tracking a gamer's eye with software, the notebook introduces new interactions like aiming, identifying enemies and taking cover simply by gazing at objects on the screen. Eye tracking also enhances the experience by providing infinite views whilst navigating treacherous paths and roads in a game.

Earlier this week, it was reported that game modder Marty McFly Modding accused NVIDIA of stealing their post-processing code for Ansel, NVIDIA's in-game photography tool, which lets you freeze your gameplay to take 2D or VR stills, with added post-processing. Late Wednesday, the Marty McFly Modding posted an update on their Facebook page, clarifying that the discrepancy has been "sorted out."

Marty McFly Modding states that they had a word with NVIDIA, including the lead developer of Ansel, who explained that the MasterEffect ReShade.fx was part of some "leftover code" that NVIDIA was testing as part of Ansel's development, and vestiges of which made it to the production version of Ansel. NVIDIA assured Marty McFly Modding that with the next version of Ansel (likely shipped with a future version of the GeForce drivers), it will remove this leftover code, and add Marty McFly Modding to the roll of credits.

AMD is developing a new GPU-accelerated audio pipeline to rival NVIDIA VRWorks Audio, the TrueAudio Next. The company will take this technology to the developers through its GPUOpen initiative. TrueAudio Next will bolster AMD's VR technologies portfolio, with a hardware-accelerated real-time "audio ray-tracing" pipeline that adds realism to sound in a 3D scene by computing how sound waves interact with the various objects in it. This is essentially what NVIDIA's VRWorks Audio does.

At the silicon level, processing the interaction between sound and surfaces in a 3D scene takes significant amount of compute power. On AMD "Polaris" architecture GPUs, such as the Radeon RX 480, TrueAudio Next will take advantage of Compute Unit Reservation, a feature which allows apps to temporarily reserve a portion of the GPU's CUs. Real-time positional audio DSPs such as TrueAudio Next and VRWorks Audio are expected to gain prominence with VR games, as CPU-based procedural audio-pipelines can't keep up with the faster inputs of a VR HMD to changing the 3D scene, than conventional input devices. Accelerated audio pipelines are needed to ensure that the audio output is fluidly in-sync with the video output, to avoid affecting realism.

NVIDIA today shipped out the GeForce 368.81 WHQL drivers, which are optimized for a suite of VR-Ready games. To begin with, the drivers come with optimization for NVIDIA's VR Funhouse (a tech demonstrator that takes advantage of Simultaneous Multi-Projection); "Everest VR," "Raw Data," a hotly anticipated AAA VR title that made waves at E3, "Obduction," and "The Assembly."DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 368.81 WHQL for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8/7/Vista 64-bit | Windows 8/7/Vista 32-bit

As the world's most popular GAMING hardware vendor, MSI is proud to unleash the ultimate premium Pascal-powered graphics cards. The highly exclusive MSI GeForce GTX 1080 GAMING Z 8G and MSI GeForce GTX 1070 GAMING Z 8G cards represent the absolute Zenith in custom GeForce GTX 10 Series graphics cards. As the last character of the alphabet, Z also represents the final form of MSI GAMING graphics cards.

Rocking the award-winning TWIN FROZR VI thermal design with supreme cooling power allows the GAMING Z cards to have extreme core and memory clock speeds out of the box. The renowned shapes of the eye-catching TWIN FROZR cooler are intensified by a fiery red GAMING glow piercing through the cover. A completely new custom 10-phase PCB design using Military Class 4 components with an 8+ 6-pin power connectors enables higher overclocking performance to push your graphics card to the max.

As the technology of CPU and GPU keeps evolving, it is no doubt that Virtual Reality has explored itself in mainstream lately. Games and apps applied to VR devices have already grabbed gamers' attention worldwide and everyone just can't wait to jump into the bandwagon of games. However, it actually takes more than VR device to experience the alternative reality. HyperX, a division of Kingston Technology, the independent world leader in memory products, provides a total solution for gamers to upgrade the system and make sure it keeps up with the suggested requirements.

To have nice and smooth VR gaming experience, it's recommended to have at least 8GB modules within the system, and 16 GB if you need to work on 3D rendering or video editing. For gamers who want to upgrade the RAMs, the upcoming Predator DDR4 at Kingston will end the wait. The aggressive design offers greater heat dissipation to optimize reliability while the black aluminum heat spreader and black PCB complements the look of the latest PC hardware. With fast frequencies up to 3333 MHz and total capacities up to 64GB, Predator DDR4 will make sure you feel no stutter in virtual reality.

NVIDIA today released a major update to its VRWorks SDK that enables game developers to implement new VR features features introduced by the GeForce "Pascal" graphics processors, taking advantage of the new Simultaneous Multi-projection Engine (SMP). The two major features introduced are Lens-Matched Shading and Single-Pass Stereo.

Lens-Matched Shading uses SMP to provide substantial performance improvements in pixel shading. The feature improves upon Multi-res Shading by rendering to a surface that more closely approximates the lens corrected image that is output to the headset display. This avoids the performance cost of rendering many pixels that are discarded during the VR lens warp post-process. Single-Pass Stereo, on the other hand, removes the need for a GPU to render the geometry and tessellation of a 3D scene twice (one for each eye/viewport), and lets both viewports share one pass of geometry and tessellation, thereby halving the the tessellation and vertex-shading workload.

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.

AMD posted its second Radeon Software Crimson Edition release for this month, version 16.5.2 Beta. The drivers add optimization for "DOOM" (2016), the season's hottest shooter and a revival of the epic FPS franchise. The drivers also add CrossFire profiles for "Battleborn," letting it take advantage of multiple GPUs, and dual-GPU graphics cards, such as the Radeon Pro Duo. The drivers also fix texture corruption issues in "Star Wars: Battlefront," and "League of Legends" in CrossFire mode. Grab the drivers from the links below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.5.2 for Windows 10/8.1/7 64-bit | Windows 10/8.1/7 32-bit

MSI Computer Corp, a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions, today announced the availability of the WT72, the world's first professional NVIDIA VR Ready mobile workstation equipped with NVIDIA's newest mobile GPU, the Quadro M5500.

Designed for maximum performance, MSI's WT72 is powered by NVIDIA's Quadro M5500 GPU, Intel's 6th generation Core-i7 and Xeon processors, and up to 64 GB of DDR4 memory. The latest in professional graphics design technology, the Quadro M5500 is the world's fastest mobile GPU, delivering up to 35% performance increase over previous models, with 2,048 cores for optimum speed and power.

HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) today announced it is collaborating with NVIDIA to deliver workstations for 3D content creators, media professionals, game and application developers, and others to create visually engaging and immersive virtual reality experiences. New HP Z Workstation configurations are NVIDIA VR Ready systems, equipped with NVIDIA Quadro professional GPUs. The new configurations provide the performance necessary for content creators to deliver a seamless and accurate VR experience. Each configuration is tested with optional HTC Vive head mounted displays to ensure a smooth path to the creation of inspiring, immersive content. The companies announced the systems at NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference, running April 4-7 at the San Jose Convention Center. The ultimate content creation configuration features dual NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24GB cards with availability planned this quarter.

"We are embarking on a new frontier that will change how content producers and artists develop the most immersive, visually stimulating content available," said Jeff Wood, vice president, Worldwide Product Management, Workstations and Thin Clients, HP Inc. "HP Z desktop workstations with NVIDIA graphics are the ideal combination for this new content creation era."

Dell today announced new Virtual Reality-ready solutions that feature refined criteria for optimal VR experience, whether consuming or creating VR content. Dell has defined VR-ready solutions by three criteria:

• Minimum CPU, memory, and graphics requirements to support optimal VR viewing experiences;
• Graphics drivers that are qualified to work reliably with these solutions; and,
• Passing performance tests conducted by Dell using test criteria based on HMD (head-mounted display) suppliers, ISVs or 3rd party benchmarks where available.

Working closely with its hardware and software partners, Dell is formalizing its commitment to the future of VR by delivering solutions that are optimized for VR consumption and creation alongside ISV applications for professional customers.

AMD announced today at the 2016 Game Developer Conference that the company will underscore its dominance of the global virtual reality systems market. It revealed new advances in hardware and software to further the reach of VR, and unveiled its new GPU certified program that simplifies adoption of VR technology for consumers and content creators.

"AMD continues to be a driving force in virtual reality," said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD. "We're bringing the technology to more people around the world through our efforts to expand the VR ecosystem with VR i-Cafés in China, new Oculus Rift and HTC Vive headsets, and a wide variety of content partners in gaming, entertainment, education, science, medicine, journalism and several other exciting fields."

AMD is also making VR more easily accessible to consumers and content creators with its GPU certified program featuring the new "Radeon VR Ready Premium" and "Radeon VR Ready Creator" tiers. Its forthcoming Polaris GPUs and award-winning AMD LiquidVR technology will simultaneously advance groundbreaking VR-optimized graphics.

AMD today announced it is helping colleges and universities create dedicated virtual reality (VR) labs as Crytek's exclusive technology partner in their VR First initiative. The VR First initiative provides colleges and universities a ready-made VR solution for developers, students and researchers. AMD will equip the labs with its new Radeon Pro Duo graphics cards featuring LiquidVR SDK, the world's fastest and most powerful VR creator platform, capable of both creating and consuming VR content. AMD will provide its LiquidVR Software Developer Kit (SDK) as part of the GPUOpen initiative.

Virtual reality has the potential to revolutionize how people experience the digital world with implications for gaming, entertainment, education, medicine, journalism and numerous other fields. The ultimate goal is to equip a new generation of developers who will create amazing and compelling experiences for users worldwide. AMD and Crytek share a commitment to seeding grassroots VR development.

"We're on the cusp of an immersive computing era enabled by GPUs and game engines," said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD. "We need a new generation of developers whose educational foundation includes mastery of game engines and GPU programming. We're dedicated to nurturing that future, and see the collaboration with Crytek and the VR First initiative as a key step in realizing the goal of expanding immersive experiences outlined in our VR Ready Programs."

As the 2016 Game Developer Conference kicks off, virtual and augmented reality continues to be top of mind for today's developers and consumers. And it should be. It represents the future of communication and computing, and the promise virtual reality has held for so long finally seems within grasp of today's technologies. Today, Sulon Technologies gets one step closer to that promise, unveiling a neak peek of the Sulon Q, the world's first and only all-in-one, tether-free, "wear and play" headset for virtual reality, augmented reality, and spatial computing.

On stage in front of more than 650 press and developers at the inaugural AMD Radeon "Capsaicin" event, I took the stage to give the world a glimpse of what we've been working on, showing off the forthcoming Sulon Q headset, and the intuitive experiences you can expect, including seamlessly transitioning from the real world to virtual worlds.

HTC and Valve today announced their 2016 CES Best of Show winning VR system is available now for pre order with first shipments targeted to begin on Tuesday, April 5th. A complete VR solution, Vive includes two wireless VR controllers, room scale movement, a full 360° of tracking, and an HMD featuring a built-in camera to create what many critics are calling the most convincing VR experience launching this year.

In addition to the VR system, and for a limited time, those who pre order will also receive a free copy of three new VR titles: Tilt Brush from Google, Fantastic Contraption from Northway and Radial Games, and Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives from Owlchemy Labs. "We are delighted to help usher in the next generation of virtual reality," said Cher Wang of HTC. "Launching Vive with Valve has helped us ignite the creativity of thousands of content developers around the world." Vive is the first SteamVR system, giving it the backing of full integration with the leading online platform for PC games.