Epic Games kicked off the Unreal Fest in Seattle earlier this week with a keynote that revealed some interesting details about the company's marketing and publication strategies going forward. Also during that same keynote, Riot Games executive producer, Anna Donlon, teased that there will be more "playable experiences" coming to the "Valorant universe."

While Donlon was deliberately vague about any upcoming Valorant-adjacent games currently in development, she was a little more candid about Valorant's Unreal Engine 5 update, admitting that limitations in Unreal Engine 4.27—Valorant's current underpinnings—were what prompted the move to UE5 in the first place. However, a shift to Unreal Engine 5 will not immediately change how the game performs, feels, or looks.

iBUYPOWER, a leading manufacturer of high-performance pre-built gaming PCs and the official PC partner for the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) Americas, announced today its continuing to team up with Best Buy to debut two new pre-built systems featuring case colors and branding inspired by the popular esports competition. Both systems are now available exclusively at select Best Buy stores and on BestBuy.com.

Both systems are housed in the new iBUYPOWER Scale chassis and are part of the company's eighth generation of computer cases. This new case line is optimized for fast assembly, easy cable management, and high compatibility with a wide variety of PC parts. In addition to ample amounts of clearance to support the latest coolers (up to 360 mm) and graphics cards, VCT Americas fans can play in style as the Scale case features the official colors and branding of the VCT Americas.

Moore Threads latest driver update, 230.40.0.1, is a noteworthy advancement, bringing many improvements and new features, most significantly introducing OpenGL 3.3 support. This inclusion is crucial, as this API was previously incompatible with MTT S70 and S80 GPUs, highlighting MTT's commitment to broadening user experience across various platforms and games. Moreover, the update offers substantial performance enhancements, with notable increases in frame rates in popular games. Valorant supposedly gets a 40% FPS improvement at 1080p, while Project CARS brings a 10% increase. Game engines such as CryEngine v5.7 also receive a 40% performance uplift. However, the release of only percentage improvements without specific framerate values calls for measured optimism, as the tangible impact on playability is yet to be assessed.

Equally important in this update is the emphasis on stability, with many popular titles seeing enhancements for a smoother and more reliable gaming experience. This focus underscores MTT's dedication to maintaining a robust and stable gaming environment on the Windows 10 operating system. Integrating 20 fixes and ongoing resolutions to existing issues mark this update as crucial for users aiming for a refined and seamless experience in graphics-intensive applications and games. The amalgamation of enhanced compatibility, heightened performance, and bolstered stability in this update is pivotal for users looking to maximize graphic and gaming capabilities.

HyperX, the gaming peripherals team at HP Inc. and brand leader in gaming and esports, today announced the HyperX x VALORANT Champions Tour Spark Limited Edition Keycap. Specifically designed for VALORANT fans, the new tournament-exclusive keycap allows fans to personalize their desk setup. The keycap is uniquely crafted to showcase support for your favorite VALORANT Champions and competing teams.

HyperX and Riot Games collaborated to create a champion-tier keycap that boasts a gold color and showcases the VCT Spark logo and tournament year. Additionally, the keycap features the tagline "One More," symbolizing the endless competitive spirit of players and fans who constantly strive for victory. This collaboration with Riot Games has resulted in a fun, spirited, and memorable design that perfectly captures the essence of competitive gaming during this year's Champions tournament.

HyperX, the gaming peripherals team at HP Inc. and brand leader in gaming and esports, today announced the signing of Sean Gares as a HyperX ambassador. Joining the HyperX family, Gares brings extensive experience to the HyperX community as a professional player, caster and well-known content creator, making him an ideal candidate to collaborate with HyperX and provide unique content for gamers and fans alike.

Having previously played for renowned esports organizations such as Cloud 9 and Echo Fox, Gares' deep-rooted knowledge of competitive gaming enables him to create highly engaging and informative content. Gares' exceptional expertise in the popular first-person shooter game, Valorant, has earned him a reputation as one of the top content creators in the gaming industry.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of GeForce Game Ready drivers. Version 466.11 WHQL comes with optimization for "Mortal Shell," including support for raytracing and DLSS. The drivers also add NVIDIA Reflex support for "Valorant" with its latest patch. The drivers also integrate NVIDIA Broadcast noise reduction feature into OBS. The list of monitors with support for NVIDIA G-SYNC grows, with the addition of LG's 2021 G1, B1, C1, and Z1 series monitors; and the MSI MAG301RF.

Among the bugs fixed with GeForce 466.11 drivers are low frame-rates on "Supreme Commander/Supreme Commander 2," RAW files showing up black on Adobe Lightroom; "Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 VR" stuttering on machines with hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling disabled; and some displays showing incorrect color levels after booting into Windows. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 466.11 WHQL

LG UltraGear partners with TechPowerUp to present the LG UltraGear Face-Off, an online Valorant tournament roping in 20 big-ticket e-sports athletes such as xQcOW, ChicaLive, and Wardell, forming into four teams who will battle for glory on October 3, 16:00 Eastern, for the ultimate Valorant glory and hardware from LG UltraGear. Among the 20 athletes are stars from various popular FPS e-sports disciplines, including Overwatch, Apex Legends, Fortnite, and CS:GO. Find out which of these games are best suited to dominate Valorant. While they slug it out, TechPowerUp readers have a chance to win from a 100 Steam Gift Cards valued at $20 each. There are three ways to participate: by simply watching a tournament video, following LG UltraGear on Twitch so you can watch the tournament, or subscribing to the LG UltraGear channel on YouTube. Entries close 40 hours from now, and 100 lucky winners are randomly selected and announced on October 15.

The LG UltraGear 27GN950-B gaming monitor is the choice of e-sports champions. As the pioneer of IPS, the leading modern display technology, LG UltraGear designs some of the most advanced gaming monitors optimized not just for bleeding-edge, tournament-winning performance, but also top-notch display quality. LG Display has perfected a new generation of IPS panels, called Nano IPS, geared for gaming, with fast 1 ms response-time, and 144 Hz refresh-rates, making them perfect for e-sports. The LG UltraGear 27GN950-B is a 27-inch 16:9 flatscreen with 4K Ultra HD resolution, 144 Hz refresh-rate, 1 ms response time, meeting DisplayHDR 600 standards, and supporting both NVIDIA G-SYNC (compatibility) and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro.

To participate, visit this page.

Don't forget to follow LG UltraGear on Twitch, where the tournament will be streamed.

NVIDIA Reflex is a new innovation designed to minimize input latency with competitive e-sports games. When it comes out later this month with patches to popular e-sports titles such as Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Valorant, along with a GeForce driver update, the feature could improve input latencies even without any specialized hardware. Input latency is defined as the time it takes for a user input (such as a mouse click) in a game, to reflect as output on the screen, or the time it takes for your mouse click to register as a gunshot in an online shooter, and appear on-screen. The feature is compatible with any NVIDIA GeForce GPU, GTX 900 series or later.

NVIDIA briefly detailed how this works. On the software side, the NVIDIA driver co-operates with a compatible game engine to optimize the game's 3D rendering pipeline. This is accomplished by dynamically reducing the rendering queue, so fewer frames are queued up for the GPU to render. NVIDIA claims that the technology can also keep the GPU perfectly in sync with the CPU (1:1 render queue), reducing the "back-pressure" on the GPU, letting the game sample mouse input at the last possible moment. NVIDIA is releasing Reflex to gamers as GeForce driver updates, and to game developers as the Reflex SDK. This allows them to integrate the technology with their game engine, providing a toggle for the technology, and also put out in-game performance metrics.

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced the definitive esports headset with the Razer BlackShark V2. Featuring the all-new Razer TriForce Titanium 50 mm Drivers, Razer HyperClear Cardioid Mic with USB Sound Card, advanced passive noise cancellation, and with THX Spatial Audio's new Game Profiles feature making its debut, the BlackShark V2 is the new pinnacle of multi-platform, wired gaming headsets - designed and tested in conjunction with some of the world's top esports athletes.

In esports, clarity of sound and communications is everything. Being able to hear the slightest audio cue and communicate clearly with teammates makes the difference between the glory of the win or being a footnote on the tournament roster. For the Razer BlackShark V2, Razer has developed an entirely new 50 mm audio driver which, coupled with a new custom-tuned microphone and superior passive noise cancelling earcups, creates the ultimate triple threat in esports - clear sounds, clear communication, and minimal external noise - a deadly audio trinity.

AMD late-Tuesday released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin drivers. Version 20.7.2 beta adds optimization for "Death Stranding" (up to 8% performance uplift on offer as tested with an RX 5700 XT); "F1 2020" (up to 5% better performance in the ultra high preset, as tested with RX 5700 XT); and "Hyper Scape" Open Beta. The company also fixed a handful issues. To begin with, a display corruption or hang when launching VR applications with Occulus Rift headset has been fixed. A bug with AMD Bug Report Tool that caused list of application to fail to load, has been fixed. Netflix previews on Edge appearing black-screens has been fixed. Wallpaper Engine being detected as a game by Radeon Software has been fixed. Valorant failing to launch from Radeon Software or Gaming tab has been fixed. Hyper Scape experiencing a crash on Windows 7 systems has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.7.2 betaThe change log follows.

TechPowerUp today released ThrottleStop 9 by Kevin Glynn, a groundbreaking update to the popular app that lets you take greater control over the power management in your Intel-powered notebook or desktop system, unleashing more performance by overriding OEM-preset processor throttling. Version 9.0 of ThrottleStop comes with system-level improvements that ensure the app isn't blocked Valorant anti-cheat, or false-positives by similar mechanisms.

The app also adds awareness and optimization for Windows 10 May 2020 Update (version 2004). Support for Intel 10th Gen Intel Core processors has been added, including Limit Reasons access. PROCHOT Offset adjustment feature has been added. The C-states window has been redesigned to make it easier to work with 6-core and 8-core processors. The throttle on the main screen has been improved to now display the type of throttling. Consistency of temperature monitoring between the notification window and main window has been improved. Grab the app from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp ThrottleStop 9.0The change-log follows.

NVIDIA has today launched the latest version of its "Game Ready" graphics driver lineup with the 446.14 WHQL drivers. This release brings mostly performance optimizations and bug fixes for the video game Valorant. In addition to these performance optimizations and fixes, optimal support for Minecraft Dungeons, Disintegration, and Crucible is included. An important new feature update is the inclusion of Variable Rate Supersampling (VRSS) support for Onward. NVIDIA has also fixed driver installation issues on Colorful GeForce GTX 1650 that may have bugged some users of the cards. For the full list of fixes please check out the list below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 446.14 WHQL

Riot Games has come under fire recently for its "Vanguard" anti-cheat software found in their new game Valorant due to the use of kernel-mode drivers with Ring 0 privileges. This raised several important security and user concerns around system security and stability, while not solving the root problem Riot Games has in response released a new blog post detailing the workings of the "Vanguard" anti-cheat software. This blog post was paired with an announcement that Riot Games would be increasing the maximum payout available from their bug-bounty program and introduce a new "Vanguard" scope to help further improve security. Riot Games has also introduced new updates to Valorant which will allow users to disable "Vanguard" from the system tray when not in-game, however, this will lock the player out of Valorant until the computer is rebooted. In addition to the system tray changes is an option to fully uninstall the "Vanguard" software from the user's computer has been added at long last.