Samsung Launches Odyssey OLED G8 Gaming Monitor, Begins Preorder

Samsung has opened preorders for its latest Odyssey gaming monitor lineup – the 34″ Odyssey OLED G8.

The OLED G8 marks Samsung’s first ever gaming monitor to come with latest Quantum Dot OLED (QD-OLED) panel which is capable of delivering higher brightness compared to traditional OLED panels. As with OLED panels, it enjoys the advantages such as 175Hz refresh rate and extremely low 0.1ms response time. The monitor size scales 34 inches with 21:9, ultrawide QHD resolution (3440 x 1440), covers 100% DCI-P3 with 1800R display curvature. It is also certified by VESA with DisplayHDR 400 True Black certification; as well as AMD FreeSync Premium support.

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Samsung has added a bit of flair to the OLED G8 in the form of Samsung Smart Hub – which functions similarly to their Smart Monitor lineup, providing content streaming from services such as Netflix, YouTube and other OTT providers without the need of a PC or mobile device. Samsung TV Plus provides free live content – no download or signups required, the company stated. Another feature carried from the Smart Monitor lineup is the integrated IoT hub – which can be paired with SmartThings to monitor all the connected devices and adjust settings from the app as needed.

The stand provides height and tilt adjustments; attaching to the center of the monitor with a big RGB ring surrounding the mounting position. I/O options are, coincidentally, similar to that of Smart Monitor M8 – with Micro HDMI (supports HDMI 2.1), Mini DisplayPort 1.4 and a pair of USB-C ports (upstream and downstream). A pair of stereo 5W speakers are also featured in this model.
Available in Silver color, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (model code LS34BG850SEXXS) is set to be priced at RM7,599 – those who pre-order starting 10 Nov to 20 Nov 2022 will receive a Soundbar HW-B450 (worth RM799) as a bonus. You can pre-order and purchase the monitor here: Lazada | Shopee
Alternatively, more details can be read on Samsung Online Store.
Pokdepinion: Interesting choice of ports… maybe a full-size port would be better?
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You Can Soon Watch Netflix On Astro

Today marks the partner-ship between Astro and Netflix where they will be bringing Netflix’s streaming service to the former’s platform.
Astro partners with Netflix
The collaboration between the two means that Astro customers will soon be able to access Netflix on their connected Ultra Boxes, first at launch, and on connected Ulti Boxes in the coming months.
In addition to that, Astro and Netflix customers can enjoy having Netflix with their Astro subscription, providing easier access for payment in a single bill.

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If you are interested in registering, you may head to the link right here. Stay tuned to Pokde.net for the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews.
Pokdepinion: I’m not really sure if it’s something that’s worth it since it’s been a long time since I’ve watched Astro. Even if I did, it’s only to watch football..
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Malaysia Ranked 3rd Best for ASEAN Fixed Broadband Average Download Speeds

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) have recently made their Monthly Bulletin July 2020 report available for the public. In the report, we get to see market capitalization and internet download speeds in Malaysia compared to other countries. It appears that our country is now the 3rd best in ASEAN for fixed broadband average download speed.
Malaysia 3rd Best in ASEAN for Fixed Broadband Average Download Speeds

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The data is obtained from Speedtest Global Index, which sees Malaysia having an average download speed of 81.46Mbps in June 2020. In the ASEAN region, it is only behind Singapore and Thailand, with fixed broadband average download speeds of 208.16Mbps and 171.36Mbps respectively. On a global scale, Malaysia is ranked 40, dropping down by one spot compared to the previous month despite a small increase of 0.37Mbps in average speed.

They have also listed the ASEAN mobile broadband average download speed, where our country holds the 5th rank with a speed of 24.32Mbps. In this particular case, our country is behind Singapore, Vietname, Thailand, and Myanmar with speeds of 55.28Mbps, 33.12Mbps, 33.04Mbps, and 25.47Mbps. It’s also worth noting that Malaysia has improved in terms of average speed and global ranking, with an increase of 2.15Mbps on average and going up in ranks by 7 spots.
As such, MCMC will ensure that Malaysia will continue to improve internet connectivity in the country, with fibre optic and 4G being the main focus until the year 2025. They are still looking to make sure that everyone in the country will be able to easily access high speed internet regardless of where they are.
Source
Pokdepinion: Well, I honestly expected it to be lower but this is definitely a good sign. There’s only room to go up so hopefully it keeps going that way.
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NVIDIA Turing’s Tensor cores can be a bottleneck at higher framerates

When NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Supersampling (DLSS) was announced, it was almost as if it was a godsent. NVIDIA promised higher frame rates by harnessing the Tensor cores in the Turing GPUs. We are all for higher frame rates, so why not, right?

Well it seems that there are a number of limitations to the technology. As TechPowerUp found out, NVIDIA is not allowing certain cards from turning DLSS on at certain resolutions. It appears that NVIDIA wants your frame rates be below a certain threshold before you can enable DLSS to boost your FPS. For example, you can’t enable DLSS at 1440p or even at 4K sans DXR if you are running a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in Battlefield V.

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In our testing, a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti delivers an average of 83 fps at 4K without DXR, and around 75 fps at 1440p with DXR enabled. That’s pretty good, but if we could tap into the 40% performance boost that DLSS promises, it would be great for high refresh rate gameplay. It seems that it wasn’t to be, as the Tensor cores would have a problem keeping up at those frame rates.

TechPowerUp’s testing also included Metro Exodus, which confirms the idea that the Tensor cores can be a bottleneck, and the number of Tensor cores will also be a factor in that. For example we see that DLSS is not offered in Metro Exodus for the GeForce RTX 2060 at 4K, but is available at 1440p with DXR on.
As resolution goes up, the amount of data that the Tensor cores will have to process will increase significantly as well. At 4K, the Tensor cores will be handling higher resolution visuals than it would at say 1440p or 1080p. More pixels means more data, and more data would naturally take longer to process.
When your card is able to push out a higher framerate at a respective resolution, it also means that you will have shorter frametimes. That would leave very little time for the Tensor cores in your GPU to process DLSS. In those situations, NVIDIA would rather you not be able to use DLSS instead of you complaining that DLSS causes you to experience worse framerates.

So I guess a single GeForce RTX 2080 Ti will still be unable to properly push the ROG Swift PG27UQ at 4K 144 Hz…
Pokdepinion: Perhaps updates to the drivers and games would enable DLSS at higher framerates, just like how an update to BFV made DXR much more playable…
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Redmi Gaming Phone Is Coming And Here’s 6 Things You Need To Know

These days, we see tough competition in the gaming smartphone market. Well now it seems that Redmi will be joining the bandwagon with their very own device. Without wasting any more time, here are some facts about the device that we think you should know about.
Redmi gaming phone

Gaming phone is the next battle ground
Redmi’s current president Lu Weibing has said the next battleground for Redmi is the gaming smartphone market. Adding to that, he reveals on his official Weibo account that 70% of Redmi users are of the younger generation, where they spend more time on gaming and there’s a strong demand for it.

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The Redmi gaming phone is more compact than any other
According to Weibing, the Redmi gaming phone will be more compact than mainstream gaming phones that’s available in the market. In contrast of mainstream gaming phones that are usually big and bulky, Redmi foresees that their device would be more compact and better to fit both the roles of a “phone” and “gaming” at the same time.
Performance, display, and handling

The company has said that while designing the device, the 3 major design focus would be “Performance, Display, and Handling”, where the latter is said to be exceedingly good and it would most likely be the market’s thinnest gaming phone.
It will be affordable
As we all know, Redmi has always provided affordable and value for money products. With that said, gaming smartphones usually don’t come cheap, but you can probably rest assured that the Redmi gaming phone will still be more affordable compared to the competition out there.
MediaTek Dimensity 1200 to power it up

Rumor has it that they will be utilizing a MediaTek Dimensity 1200 chipset, which boasts of clocks up to 3GHz and it’s an upgrade from the currently available Dimensity 1100 chip and yesteryear’s Dimensity 1000. This will be quite interesting as it will be the first gaming phone to tout a MediaTek chip under the hood.
MIUI 12.5 to be available on launch

As you might have noticed from our recent articles, MIUI 12.5 is rolling out soon and it appears that they’ve confirmed that the Redmi gaming phone will be running the updated version at launch.
Pokdepinion: There will be some drawbacks into making an affordable gaming smartphone but hey, if the price to performance ratio is good, I don’t think I would mind spending money on it. We’ve yet to see a Dimensity powered flagship here in Malaysia just yet… let’s hope that changes soon.
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[CES 2022] More 12th Gen Intel Core processors, new Intel Laminar Coolers and Intel H670, B660 and H610 motherboards

One rather odd move from Intel with the 12th Gen Intel Core processors was that they announced the unlocked options two months before they announced the locked offerings. I guess they wanted people to really see what Alder Lake can do when pushed to its absolute limits? In any case, Intel has finally announced the full 12th Gen Intel Core processors lineup which come with all-new stock coolers, along with the more wallet-friendly Intel H670, Intel B660 and Intel H610 platforms.
12th Gen Intel Core series from as low as $97

As with the unlocked 12th Gen Intel Core offerings, the Intel Core i9-12900 promises an appreciable gaming performance uplift from the last-gen Intel Core i9-11900 as well. On the productivity end, the Intel Core i5-12600 is what Intel pits against the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G, which is really interesting, as the Core i5-12600 is actually quite a bit cheaper than the Ryzen 7 5700G, MSRP vs MSRP.

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Speaking of the Core i5-12600, it is worth mentioning that starting from the Core i5-12600, all the lower-end 12th Gen Intel Core desktop processors do not feature the ground-breaking hybrid architecture. The 12th Gen Intel Core i5 and Core i3 options, as well as the Alder Lake-based Pentium and Celeron offerings only pack P-cores. While I do believe that having more E-cores might help with background tasks, as we saw in the benchmarks above, we probably don’t need the E-cores in the more value-oriented offerings.

Along with the new processors, Intel also designed the new Intel Laminar Coolers that will be bundled with the locked 12th Gen Intel Core desktop processors. They are still top-down designs, but you can see that Intel put a bit of effort into it, especially with the Intel Laminar RH1 Cooler that even has controllable aRGB lighting.
Locked 12th Gen Intel Core Desktop Processors Specs and Prices

Cores / Threads
P-core / E-core Base Clock (GHz)
Max Turbo (GHz)
Single P-core / Single E-core Turbo (GHz)
Intel Smart Cache (L3)
TDP
Max Turbo Power
Graphics
Price

12th Gen Intel Core (65W)

Intel Core i9-12900
16C (8P + 8E) / 24T
2.4 / 1.8
5.1
5.0 / 3.8
30MB
65W
202W
Intel UHD Graphics 770
$489

Intel Core i9-12900F
16C (8P + 8E) / 24T
2.4 / 1.8
5.1
5.0 / 3.8
30MB
65W
202W
N/A
$464

Intel Core i7-12700
12C (8P + 4E) / 20T
2.1 / 1.6
4.9
4.8 / 3.6
25MB
65W
180W
Intel UHD Graphics 770
$339

Intel Core i7-12700F
12C (8P + 4E) / 20T
2.1 / 1.6
4.9
4.8 / 3.6
25MB
65W
180W
N/A
$314

Intel Core i5-12600
6C (6P + 0E) / 12T
3.3
N/A
4.8
18MB
65W
117W
Intel UHD Graphics 770
$223

Intel Core i5-12500
6C (6P + 0E) / 12T
3.0
N/A
4.6
18MB
65W
117W
Intel UHD Graphics 770
$202

Intel Core i5-12400
6C (6P + 0E) / 12T
2.5
N/A
4.4
18MB
65W
117W
Intel UHD Graphics 730
$192

Intel Core i5-12400F
6C (6P + 0E) / 12T
2.5
N/A
4.4
18MB
65W
117W
N/A
$167

Intel Core i3-12300
4C (4P + 0E) / 8T
3.5
N/A
4.4
12MB
60W
89W
Intel UHD Graphics 730
$143

Intel Core i3-12100
4C (4P + 0E) / 8T
3.3
N/A
4.3
12MB
60W
89W
Intel UHD Graphics 730
$122

Intel Core i3-12100F
4C (4P + 0E) / 8T
3.3
N/A
4.3
12MB
58W
89W
N/A
$97

12th Gen Intel Core T-series (35W)

Intel Core i9-12900T
16C (8P + 8E) / 24T
1.4 / 1.0
4.9
4.8 / 3.6
30MB
35W
106W
Intel UHD Graphics 770
$489

Intel Core i7-12700T
12C (8P + 4E) / 20T
1.4 / 1.0
4.7
4.6 / 3.4
25MB
35W
99W
Intel UHD Graphics 770
$339

Intel Core i5-12600T
6C (6P + 0E) / 12T
2.1
N/A
4.6
18MB
35W
74W
Intel UHD Graphics 770
$223

Intel Core i5-12500T
6C (6P + 0E) / 12T
2.0
N/A
4.4
18MB
35W
74W
Intel UHD Graphics 770
$202

Intel Core i5-12400T
6C (6P + 0E) / 12T
1.8
N/A
4.2
12MB
35W
74W
Intel UHD Graphics 730
$192

Intel Core i3-12300T
4C (4P + 0E) / 8T
2.3
N/A
4.2
12MB
35W
69W
Intel UHD Graphics 730
$143

Intel Core i3-12100T
4C (4P + 0E) / 8T
2.2
N/A
4.1
12MB
35W
69W
Intel UHD Graphics 730
$122

Pentium & Celeron

Intel Pentium Gold G7400
2C (2P + 0E) / 4T
3.7
N/A
N/A
6MB
46W
N/A
Intel UHD Graphics 710
$64

Intel Pentium Gold G7400T
2C (2P + 0E) / 4T
3.1
N/A
N/A
4MB
35W
N/A
Intel UHD Graphics 710
$64

Intel Celeron G6900
2C (2P + 0E) / 2T
3.4
N/A
N/A
6MB
46W
N/A
Intel UHD Graphics 710
$42

Intel Celeron G6900T
2C (2P + 0E) / 2T
2.8
N/A
N/A
4MB
35W
N/A
Intel UHD Graphics 710
$42

Intel H670, B660 and H610 platforms now available

As it makes little sense to pair the locked 12th Gen Intel Core processors with the premium Intel Z690 motherboards, the new Intel H670, Intel B660 and Intel H610 serve as a more affordable entry point into the world of 12th Gen Intel Core processors. There are some features cut off here and there, but Intel is apparently leaving the decision to support the new PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 features on Alder Lake up to board vendors. With that said, they do expect to see more PCIe 4.0 and DDR4 boards featuring these new chipsets, as they are targeted towards a more budget-conscious demographic anyway.

If you are interested, you can check out the review of the MSI MAG B660M Mortar WiFi, which is a solid example of a value-oriented Intel B660 motherboard.
Project Athena on desktops?

Intel will also be bringing the promise of a great user experience to the desktop scene, with Project Athena-based Desktop Designs. Similar to their laptop counterparts, the key experience includes performance, responsiveness, security and immersion. On top of that, privacy is also expected to improve, with the Project Athena-based Desktop Designs slated to bring features like presence detection to quickly lock and unlock depending on whether you are in front of your machine.
Pokdepinion: 12th Gen Intel Core definitely looks a lot more enticing now, especially for those who are more concerned about bang for buck than flat out performance!
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“No One Enjoys Playing FIFA 2020” Says World’s Best FIFA Player

Fnatic Tekkz is one of the world’s best player in FIFA. This is the case as he’s won 5 times in the FUT Champs Cup tournament. One might be forgiven for thinking that he’s a big fan of the sports franchise but that doesn’t seem to be the case with FIFA 20.

NAAAAAAAHHH @Tekkz I'M FINISHED 😂😂😂😂😂😭😭😭 #FIFA20 #FGS20 #FutChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/Gm3ELBrQwq— Felix – Tantei7 (@Tantei_7) February 22, 2020

During an interview session after he reached the Xbox semi-finals of the FGS Masters in France, Tekkz, or his real name Donovan Hunt, has said that FIFA 20 is “unrewarding” and claims that “anyone can win”.
You’d think that the folks at EA won’t be too happy in seeing his interview. One may wonder if he will get a response from the company.

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Source
Pokdepinion: I don’t know what to comment on this. There’s those types that say EA just copy paste their FIFA franchise every year… I would say however there’s a difference though not by much. At the end of the day, it’s still a football game. What else do you expect? The same thing can be said about other genres too..
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Square Enix is Giving Up on Dissidia Final Fantasy

Square Enix recently held a livestream event for their Dissidia Final Fantasy game for the PC, PlayStation 4, and arcade systems. However, there’s some grim news for fans of the series as they are about to call it quits with the game.
According to the livestream, they will be stopping updates for the PC, PlayStation 4, and arcade versions of the game. There will also be no plans for a Dissidia Final Fantasy sequel game. The next big update coming to the game will actually be the last one.
While this appears to be the direction that Square Enix is taking, online multiplayer will still be available. However, there is no telling as to how long it will be up. If the player base continues to shrink, we expect it to be taken down rather soon.

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The big update in question will be available today onwards for the arcade version whereas the PC and PlayStation 4 versions will receive it on 5th March 2020. Some of the new things coming in the update include costumes and weapons for Emperor Mateus (Final Fantasy II) and Cloud of Darkness (Final Fantasy III).
If you want to check out our review of Dissidia Final Fantasy, click right here.
Source: YouTube
Pokdepinion: If they just replicated the same Dissidia game from the PSP to current generation hardware, it would’ve been perfect. Instead, we got what feels like a barebones fighting game experience. I myself was disappointed by this, especially with the lack of flashy limit breaks in the game.
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ASUS GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua may be in the works

As usual, take this with a dose of salt. ASUS has apparently registered an RTX3070-8G-NOCTUA in a filing to the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), although we have seen graphics cards vendors register an absolute slew of cards, only to release several of them, so we might not actually see an ASUS GeForce RTX 3070 NOCTUA come to market.

With that said, there’s actually a pretty good chance that ASUS is actually working with Noctua. They have released both the ROG Ryujin and ROG Ryujin II with Noctua PPC fans, so at least there’s a working relationship in place. However how will they take advantage of Noctua’s know-how for GPU cooling remains to be seen.

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Noctua is very experienced at making excellent fans and CPU coolers, but they don’t have any GPU cooling solutions in their lineup. Rumors of the ASUS x Noctua partnership has reportedly been around since late-July, so we might see something pop up soon enough.

The response that Hwcooling got when reaching out to ASUS and Noctua also seems to hint towards that direction, so for those who are looking forward to a silent and cool graphics card, keep your eyes open and ears perked up.
Source, Featured Image
Pokdepinion: If it’s brown, that’s a very good reason to get Noctua’s CPU coolers. But I doubt that ASUS would want that since they have fancy AIOs to sell you.
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Call of Duty Vanguard X Attack on Titan Collaboration Leaked

Call of Duty Vanguard recently launched and we’re already getting leaks for an upcoming collaboration with the popular anime series, Attack on Titan. Here’s what we know thus far.
Call of Duty Vanguard X Attack on Titan Collaboration

Also, it looks like we are getting some sort of ‘Sword’ melee weapon that isn’t the Katana.
It is codenamed ‘aot_swords’/’s4_me_swordtitan’ and when I read ‘AOT’ I just think of ‘Attack on Titan’…just a tinfoil hat theory though
Property of Activision Publising Inc.
— Zesty (@ZestyCODLeaks) November 5, 2021

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According to popular data leaker and miner Zesty, new game files were discovered within Call of Duty Vanguard which indicates new weapons coming to the game. The list of potential new weapons include:

Marksman Rifles

Lee Enfield
PTRS-41

Melee

Barong
Champagne Bottle
Latama
Leiomano
Rindingo

After discovering the potential weapons, Zesty mentioned that there will be a Sword-type melee weapon that isn’t a katana. The codename in the files for it is listed as “aot_swords/s4_me_swordtitan”. Unsurprisingly, this led to many pointing the discovery towards Attack on Titan / Shingeki no Kyojin.
For those of you who aren’t aware, Attack on Titan is a popular Japanese anime / manage series by Hajime Isayama that was first published in 2009 and ended in April 2021. It’s grown massively in popularity partly due to its gory scenes and deaths.
While this may still be a relatively wild speculation, another prominent Call of Duty leaker, Earthbound, also chimed in and mentioned how it certainly does “look like an AoT collab.” For now however, take this information with a grain of salt. We will report more on this as soon as information becomes available so stay tuned.
Call of Duty Vanguard is currently available for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC.
Source
Pokdepinion: This is certainly an interesting collaboration if it is indeed true. In my head however, I would wish this for the Titanfall series so we can see Titans vs Titans but hey, it’s still something.
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Firewalls need to be more integrated — insight on firewalls by Sophos’ Sumit Bansal

Firewalls are known to be pretty much the first line defense between your system and the dangerous world out there. Firewalls are supposed to block unknown threats and automatically prevent untoward incidents from causing downtime. The enterprise firewall market is valued at USD 3.1 billion (~RM 12.2 billion) last year here in the Asia Pacific region. But are they effective?
Despite firewalls designed to prevent global outbreaks such as WannaCry and NotPetya, these threats still hit and spread through corporate networks like wildfire. Why so? Sumit Bansal, the Managing Director of ASEAN and Korea, Sophos, puts it down to the fact that a lot of firewalls are like a blackbox and hold “dirty secrets” within which doesn’t allow IT managers to monitor their network traffic properly.
Firewall systems must be integrated and have the ability to work with other systems – Sumit Bansal
He believes that next-generation firewalls should work together with other security measures to ensure the security of a network, and not try to do a one-man show. An integrated firewall, with simple and actionable insights provided into the network security is important. Then there is the selection of your network protection solution, as not all solutions provide the same level of defense. Some Intrustion Prevention System (IPS) engines can block up to 90% of threats, while others are only capable of stopping around 25%.

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He strongly hammers the point home that you need a an agile, adaptive system that can be controlled when necessary for better protection. The solution must also be able to work in unison with other security measures for a well-protected system. With this, IT professionals can see through the firewall fog.
Pokdepinion: Security is important for every organization, and the ever-evolving threats need equally adaptive protection measures.
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ROG Phone 5 With Free ROG Kunai 3 Exclusively Available On Shopee

As you might have known already, the ROG Phone 5 series will be coming soon to Malaysia. Should you want a free ROG Kunai to go along with the phone, ASUS Malaysia has revealed that you will be getting exactly that on Shopee.
ROG Phone 5 with free ROG Kunai exclusively on Shopee

As you can see, the deal is exclusively available on Shopee where you can get a free ROG Kunai 3 Gamepad when you pre-order the ROG Phone 5 on the platform. The deal starts on the 19th of March and lasts till the 2nd of April 2021 or while stocks lasts.

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Talking about stocks, the company has revealed that they have 400 units in total, where they’ve split 200 for the 8GB+128GB version and 200 for the 16GB+256GB variant.
The 8GB version can be purchased at the price of RM2,999 and RM3,799 for the 16GB model. In case you’ve missed it, you can check out our unboxing and first thoughts on the ROG Phone 5 right here. We are in the midst of reviewing the phone so you can expect it to be live real soon.
Till then, stay tuned to Pokde.net for the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews.
Pokdepinion: You definitely wouldn’t want to miss out on this offer if you’re planning to get your hands on the ROG Phone 5!
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Acer Predator Triton 500 RTX Price and Specifications for Malaysian Market

Acer Predator Triton 500 RTX Specifications for Malaysian Market
Acer Predator Triton 500 @ Malaysian launch event

This is the official specifications for the Acer Predator Triton 500 RTX for the Malaysian market based on information obtained during the official launch event.

CPU
Intel Core i5-8300H (4C / 8T @ up to 4 GHz), 8M Cache, 45W TDP, 14nm
Intel Core i7-8750H (6C / 12T @ up to 4.1 GHz), 9M Cache, 45W TDP, 14nm

RAM
16GB Dual-channel DDR4

GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q 8GB GDDR6

Storage
512GB NVMe SSD

Display
15.6″ FHD (1920 X 1080) 144Hz IPS Acer ComfyView display (3ms response, 100% sRGB)

Keyboard
Desktop-style 3-Zone RGB keyboard

Connectivity
Wireless:
802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi (Dual Band 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz)
Killer DoubleShot Pro Wireless-AC 1550 / 1550i
2 x 2 MU-MIMO
Bluetooth 5.0
I/O:
3 x USB 3.1 Gen2
1 x Thunderbolt 3
1 x RJ45 LAN
1 x HDMI 2.0 with HDCP support
1 x DisplayPort 1.4
1 x Kensington Lock
1 x Proprietary Charging Port

Audio
2 x Speakers with Waves MaxxAudio featuring MaxxBass, MaxxVolume, MaxxDialog, and Waves Nx
1 x Headphone Jack
1 x Mic Jack
Array Microphones

Power
84 Wh, 4-cell Li-Polymer Battery

Dimensions
358.5 x 255 x 17.9 mm (W x D x H)

Weight
2.1 kg

Acer Predator Triton 500 Max-Q Price for Malaysian Market
Key features of the laptop
The Acer Predator Triton 500 RTX is now available in Malaysia and can be purchased at Acer official stores and authorized dealers in Malaysia. As for the price, we’ve listed it right below here:

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Intel Core i5-8300H + RTX 2060 = RM6,799
Intel Core i7-8750H + RTX 2060 = RM7,599
Intel Core i7-8750H + RTX 2070 Max-Q = RM8,699

Anyone who purchases this gaming laptop from now until 4th April 2019 will be able to get either Battlefield V, Anthem, or Metro Exodus for free. Also, stay tuned for our full in-depth review of the Acer Predator Triton 500 Max-Q gaming laptop. It’s certainly not one to be missed.
If you missed out on the official launch event for the laptop, click right here.
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Telltale’s Batman: The Enemy Within Episode 4; Story Trailer Is Out

The trailer for the 4th episode of Telltale’s Batman: The Enemy Within is out. In the trailer, it gives everyone a glimpse of a major plot that will unravel in the episode.
Telltale’s Batman: The Enemy Within Episode 4

While Telltale Games revealed the title and release date of the 4th episode of Batman: The Enemy Within earlier this month, we did not receive a trailer for the episode, titled What Ails You, at the time. Fortunately, that has changed today as the developers put out a trailer teasing what will happen in What Ails You ahead of its release next week.
Being the penultimate episode of this season, a lot of things seem to be coming to a head in What Ails You. Batman’s cover has been blown, so he’ll have to fight The Pact, an evil group of Batman villains like Harley Quinn, The Joker (called John Doe currently in the series), Bane, and Mister Freeze. Meanwhile, he also has to deal with Amanda Waller, the leader of a mysterious organization whose motives are unclear.

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While players can purchase this episode on its own, What Ails You is also available via a Season Pass Disc released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While the 1st season of Batman: The Telltale Series came to Nintendo Switch, there is still no word on whether or not this second season will come to the platform at the moment.
You can check out the trailer for this new episode at the top of this post. Batman: The Enemy Within is currently available to purchase on PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iOS, and Android, with Episode 4: What Ails You being released on January 23rd 2018.

Pokdepinion: Are you all excited for the final episode? I know I am. I’m actually very curious to see how it ends, and I’m also a bit worried it might end up being a flop. Oh well, we’ll see.
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Hands on with the ROG Zephyrus S and ROG Strix SCAR II (GL704) — slim bezels are a must-have feature in gaming laptop!

ASUS actually flew us to Taiwan to show us their latest laptops in the ROG lineup. The laptops include the ROG Zephyrus S and ROG Strix SCAR II (GL704). These laptops are alike in the way they cram bigger screens into smaller bodies than previously possible, thanks to slim bezel displays. But there’s where the similarities end.
ROG Zephyrus S (GX531)
ROG’s latest “daughter”, as an ROG representative put it, is one cool looking laptop. It’s slimmer, has a smaller footprint, yet packs a powerful six-core CPU and a GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q inside. And we are in love with it (her?) already.

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For starters, ASUS used the 1080p 144 Hz 3ms IPS-level display first found in the ROG Strix SCAR/HERO II. This is apparently a screen that ASUS worked closely with AUO to bring better screen-to-body ratio without sacrificing on what gamers need. There is also 100% sRGB coverage so you can enjoy vivid, vibrant colors. Thanks to the slimmer bezels, the ROG Zephyrus S is smaller. Way smaller than a conventional 15.6″ laptop.
But what’s even more interesting was that now the ROG Zephyrus S can actually take advantage of the Intel integrated GPU when it’s running on battery power. Along with that, the screen will also automatically run at a more sedentary 60 Hz to conserve more power. This will help a lot when it comes to battery life, as the ROG Zephyrus and ROG Zephyrus M that came before did not have the ability to do this. Unfortunately this is a feature that will be limited to the newer models with the Armoury Crate software.

The fans been upgraded, with 83 blades per fan. While we didn’t see the fans directly, we saw that the laptop actually raises off the surface less than the original ROG Zephyrus did. 0.2mm less, to be exact. That, coupled with the smaller footprint and reduced height may have caused ASUS’ engineers to decide not to toss in a GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q here like what we saw in the Zephyrus. The ROG Zephyrus S does come with more heatsinks than the ROG Zephyrus does, four heatsinks instead of three in the latter. The keyboard is positioned right at the edge of the body, to allow for intake vents above the keyboard. We didn’t get the opportunity to fire up any games to test its performance though.

Now whether you are comfortable using the keyboard like this is quite subjective, but the keyboard here feels decent. The travel is slightly shorter than your usual gaming keyboard, and for those who want to use the numpad, the trackpad beside it can change into a touch-sensitive numpad. There is Aura Sync here, so you can synchronize the RGB across the range of ROG peripherals in the market.

Speaking of peripherals, there are enough ports to connect them to. You get three USB Type-A ports, two USB Type-C ports and also a rear HDMI 2.0 port. There is no LAN port for wired network connections, but the WiFi 802.11ac 2×2 Wave 2 capabilities of the ROG Zephyrus S should keep even the most demanding users happy.

The ROG Zephyrus S is milled out of a single block of aluminium for better chassis rigidity and durability. We actually got to play with the unpainted lids and they were pretty sturdy. The entire laptop weighs in at just 2.1 kg, pretty light for the performance it packs.
ROG Strix SCAR II (GL704)

When the SCAR II/HERO II laptops were introduced, we were somewhat curious about the missing GL7xx this generation. Well, now it’s here. This laptop might seem very familiar. That’s because it is actually very similar to the ROG Strix SCAR II (GL504GS) that we just recently reviewed and took apart. The main difference is the larger 17.3″ screen crammed into a 15.7″ body. The ROG Strix SCAR II features the same 144 Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, just like the rest of ROG’s slim bezel lineup right now.

While the ROG Strix SCAR II (GL504) with the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB came with only four heatpipes while the GeForce 1070 8GB variant comes with five, the bigger model here actually has five heatpipes to cool down the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, power delivery system and the Intel Core i7 8750H. That should stand to improve thermals. The larger model also comes with more USB Type-A ports to facilitate more peripherals.

The rest of the features we have already seen on the ROG Strix SCAR II (GL504) is the lightbar at the front edge of the laptop, 4-zone RGB backlighting on the keyboard and also the camera which is located on the lower bezel. Not exactly a smart place to put it. When we asked some ASUS representatives at the venue, they told us that the focus on the ROG Strix HERO II/SCAR II laptops were sleek bezels on three edges: the top and sides. Thus sacrifices like the camera had to be made. Curiously enough, they decided against that for the ROG Zephyrus S we saw today.
We didn’t get to test WiFi performance at ASUS’ office, but this laptop features the RangeBoost feature for a more consistent WiFi experience. One thing we are pretty sure about though. While the size may be quite deceiving for a 17.3″ laptop, the weight surely isn’t. It weighs a whole 0.5 kg more than the ROG Strix SCAR II (GL504GS) we tested, and the weight is really quite noticeable.
That ends our quick preview and hands-on session of the ROG Zephyrus S and ROG Strix SCAR II (GL704). We will definitely be taking a closer look at the ROG Zephyrus S when it comes to Malaysia, so stay tuned!
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AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Review — Ryzen’s gaming disadvantage is no more

Previous generations of AMD Ryzen processors offered immense performance on tap, but they still lagged behind in gaming, simply due to their lower single core performance. It’s not to say that IPC isn’t great with Zen 2, it’s just that the limited clock speeds weren’t exactly ideal when going up against Intel’s 5GHz+ parts.
AMD did show off a bit of what they were now capable of with the AMD Ryzen 3000XT series, but the AMD Ryzen 5000 series is definitely the culmination of AMD’s experience with 7nm, allowing them to push for higher clocks and the improved IPC thanks to the new Zen 3 architecture. One of the main claims was significantly improved gaming performance, which we will definitely be testing out with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X we have here.
Packaging

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So as you might have known from the launch of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, AMD will not be including a cooler with the AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors, aside from the 65W TDP AMD Ryzen 5 5600X. Our unit here comes in what appears to be the retail packaging, and you can see that it is substantially smaller than what even my retail sample of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 came in. This is a pretty good move, as I does reduce wastage, when most gamers who will opt for the AMD Ryzen 7 3800X and up will most probably opt to use a liquid AIO to get the most performance out of their processors anyway.

With that said, the processor still comes well protected in a harder plastic tray, and you still get a case sticker. I do wish AMD went with hard case badges instead though…
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Specifications

Cores / Threads
16C/32T

Base Clock / Max Boost
3.4 / 4.9 GHz

Cache
64MB L3 cache

Memory
Up to 128GB, 2-channel, DDR4-3200

Integrated Graphics
No

PCIe
16+4 lanes, PCIe 4.0

TDP
105W

Process
TSMC 7nm

Socket
AM4

Test System

CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X

Cooler
Cooler Master ML240R

Motherboard
ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi) (BIOS ver. 2311)

GPU
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 OC Edition

Memory
2 x 8GB T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB DDR4-3600 CL14

Storage
Kingston UV400 120GB
Kingston UV500 1TB
Seagate FireCuda SSHD 1TB

Power Supply
Cooler Master V1200 Platinum

Performance
Overclocking
While the unified architecture does bring about impressive performance gains out of the box, it also takes away some overclocking potential. The AMD Ryzen 3000 series’ CCXes can be individually overclocked, and that allows you to work around the limitations of the weaker CCXes to get the most out of the stronger ones.

For AMD Ryzen 5000 series, you only get one CCX with the Ryzen 7 5800X and the Ryzen 5 5600X, while the Ryzen 9 5900X and the Ryzen 9 5950X options each get two. Also, it is probably safe to say that you can go to sleep soundly without ever touching the manual overclocking settings.
AMD Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) consistently provides up to 10% better all-core boost, while also keeping single-core performance pretty similar. The PBO settings we used were 300W PPT, 230W EDC and 230W TDC, with the rest of the PBO settings left auto.
While more multi-core performance can be gleaned by putting in a bit of time to tune a manual overclock, you do lose out on top-end boost in lightly-threaded applications. Our sample of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X managed to achieve 4.675GHz on CCX1 and 4.65GHz on CCX2 at 1.325V, while we managed to see boost clocks of up to 5.05GHz even with the stock settings.
Yes, interestingly enough, the Ryzen 9 5950X actually boosts over its rated boost clocks at stock, instead of coming up just short like with the AMD Ryzen 3000 series. With that said, the results are quite a bit exciting, as you will see in the following benchmark charts.
AMD did mention to us that the FCLK on the Ryzen 5000 series will see a better chance of hitting 2000MHz, although the specific sample of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X I received didn’t wasn’t even stable at 1900MHz with 1.1V on the VDDG voltages. As such, I decided to keep it at 1800MHz for a 1:1 sync with the 3600MHz CL14 T-FORCE Xtreem ARGB RAM we are using for all the testing conducted for this review.
CPU Performance
Across the board, we do see some major upgrades in terms of CPU performance, even when compared against an overclocked Intel Core i9-10900K, in stock state. Compared against an AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT, it absolutely blows the Zen 2 processors away with its single-threaded performance.

Cinebench sees us break 641 points in the single core benchmark, which is a pretty significant leap up from their previous gen parts, and an even bigger step up when compared against the competition. In multi-core, well, we have never tested a 16-core CPU before, so this absolutely blows everything out of the water.
The interesting thing is how a manual overclock gives you 17% higher multi-core score, but you lose 6% in the precious single-core performance. With that said, PBO provides a good middle ground with a 13% bump up in multi-core performance without losing much single-core boost.

Realbench sees the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X just annihilate everything, although the image editing benchmark probably does not extract the best out of it. The H.264 video encoding benchmark absolutely sees it pull astonishing results, thanks to the high core count as well as the significantly increased IPC. Multitasking is also a breeze for the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X.
While the Image Editing section is a test for single-core performance, it seems like we can’t get to see the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X flex its full boost in single-threaded applications here. As such, we see that the manual overclock provides better performance across the board in Realbench. This is the only area that sees the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X being bested by the overclocked Intel Core i9-10900K.

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X rips through 7-zip too, with it posting chart-topping results in both single-threaded and the multi-core tests. In the single-threaded run, you are looking at a rather significant leap forward over previous generations, and we can see that it beats the overclocked Intel Core i9-10900K quite soundly here, with PBO further widening the gap. The manual OC doesn’t do well here, because of the way that this is a single-threaded test.

Once we get to the multi-threaded test, we see the manual overclock shining. It seems that the compression half of the test does still give the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X’s boost algorithm an advantage, but it dissipates once you get to decompression.

And last but not least, 3DMark sees the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X just blow everything out of the water. Here, PBO provides the best performance gains, probably due to the fact 3DMark Time Spy’s CPU test section requires a balance between boost and multi-threaded performance, which the manual overclock doesn’t offer. Well, we will see the performance gains in games next.
Gaming
For gaming, we will only be comparing the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X against an overclocked Intel Core i9-10900K @ 5.1GHz and a stock Ryzen 7 3800XT. Due to the time constraints, I didn’t have time to retest on the GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER I previously used for the other CPU reviews. Besides, I believe most of you considering the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X will probably be looking at a GeForce RTX 3080 or better anyways.

We can see that the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X doesn’t actually score a win in every game in our small benchmark which involves just six games, which does look exactly like the picture AMD was painting when they announced the Ryzen 5000 series. You get better performance in most games, and you lose in some, but once you have the Ryzen 7 3800XT in the picture as a reference point, you can clearly see just how big are AMD’s strides with this generation.

Intel Core i9-10900K
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (PBO)
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (OC)

Breakpoint
Tie
+2%
+3%
+3%

Rainbow Six Siege
+21%
+26%
+28%
+28%

The Division 2
+5%
+8%
+9%
+9%

Far Cry 5
+25%
+20%
+24%
+27%

For Honor
+3%
+1%
+1%
+2%

AC Odyssey
+2%
+3%
+4%
Tie

Average
+9%
+10%
+11%
+11%

Normalized to the AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT’s gaming performance

Depending on how much your performance is bottlenecked by your CPU, you can expect to see virtually no gains to up to 26% in games like Rainbow Six Siege, which is severely CPU bottlenecked when you are playing at 1080p on a GeForce RTX 3080. Here we see that the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X outperform the overclocked Intel Core i9-10900K by 5%, while PBO takes that figure closer to 6%. Pretty impressive, when you consider the Ryzen 7 3800XT is significantly slower than the Core i9-10900K at 5.1GHz in this game.
Clocks, Thermals, Power

As you would expect, the default settings only sees the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X pull 142W tops. Temperatures were also kept well under control by our MasterLiquid ML240R, with the peak temperature observed being 66.8°C. This is to be expected, as the average voltage was 1.11V with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X boosting to just around 4.15GHz on average. Once we play around with manual settings, we begin to see more interesting results.

Pardon the spikier mess, but with PBO enabled, we see power draw average 198W, with a peak of 237W. The average voltage observed was also significantly higher at 1.31V. We see suitably higher average clocks of 4.37GHz, and as a result, the peak temperatures observed were also much higher at 88.4°C. The reason for the spikier-looking graph is due to the higher power limit allowing the CPU to finish faster before the next batch kicks in.
Manual overclocking removes the PPT monitoring, and it also negates the need for a graph because you won’t be seeing any fluctuations in voltage nor clocks, so for this table we will be calculating the power draw with the same CPU voltage*CPU current + SOC current*SOC voltage formula for all three modes.

Average Clocks [GHz]
Average voltage [V]
Average CPU+SOC power [W]
Average Temps [°C]

Stock
4.15
1.11V
127.54
59

Precision Boost Overdrive
4.37
1.31V
186.37
78

Manual OC
4.65
1.228V
180.09
75

Overall, manual overclocking on the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X does seem more rewarding than it was on the Ryzen 3000 series processors I had experience with. Single core performance barely dropped, but you do get nice gains in multi-threaded workloads. Even in games you don’t lose as much as what you would see with the AMD Ryzen 3000, which is probably the most exciting thing to take away from all this. Power draw is very well managed for such a powerful processor too, which is something that SFF PC enthusiasts can really appreciate, due to the premiums imposed on higher wattage SFX PSUs and the limited room for cooling solutions in SFF PCs.

Conclusion
While I was expecting AMD to literally squeeze out every drop of performance they can out of the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and make manual overclocking just irrelevant this generation, it seems that this wasn’t the case. We might be looking at a more relaxed binning process for now, as this is probably one the first batches of Ryzen 5000 processors, but it does seem pretty promising for those who want to do a bit of manual finetuning themselves.

With that said, PBO is probably the way to go for most people. You get a good performance boost and yet retain all the sweet single-threaded performance brought about by the higher boost clocks that AMD is able to achieve with Zen 3. And best of all, you don’t even need to put in any trial-and-error effort. Just dial in the settings and off you go.
Now, onto the value. RM3699 might seem pretty pricey for many of us. And it is, there’s no denying it. But this is a sixteen-core CPU, which is not something that everyone needs. For those who do, it is an absolute bargain. It is probably worth mentioning that it wasn’t even possible to get sixteen cores on a mainstream platform until last year. Going with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X saves you the costs of going down the HEDT route, which necessitates pricier motherboards and quad-channel memory kits to extract the most performance out of it. Of course, there are perks to that, but that’s not the story for today.

Compared against the Ryzen 9 3950X, you are looking at around a 16% price hike for 19% IPC gains, and that’s before you take into account the higher boost clocks that you will see with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. I probably wouldn’t upgrade from the Ryzen 9 3950X to the Ryzen 9 5950X, but if you are on a lesser CPU and you realize that you need an upgrade to better make use of your spanking new GPU, or to get a nice boost in your content creation speeds, just get the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X.
Regardless of your usage, I really can’t see myself complaining about the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, aside from the fact that I don’t have a particular need for it. While previously AMD Ryzen processors led in multithreaded workloads like productivity and content creation while lagging behind in gaming, Ryzen 5000 proves that you can really have your cake and eat it too.

Our thanks to AMD Malaysia for sending us the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X for review.

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MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio Review — a sexy, silent and cool dragon!

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is pretty much the sweet spot in the GeForce RTX 30 series lineup for now, bringing performance that’s pretty close to the GeForce RTX 3070 at a nice discount. But the difference in cost does shrink with the more premium GeForce RTX 3060 Ti cards, and today we will be taking a look at one of them, the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio. Let’s go.
Unboxing

The packaging of the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio is decidedly more premium than the other AIB cards we have checked out from ASUS and GIGABYTE. Instead of a hard paper sleeve, we actually have a printed cardboard box that protects yet another cardboard box inside. The front here offers very little info, instead allowing you to feast your eyes on the beauty that is the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio.

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Over on the back, MSI decided to highlight a few of their key features. While the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio may slot in rather low in hierarchy of GeForce RTX 30 series cards, the Gaming X Trio lineup is one of MSI’s premium lineups, slotting in just below the new SUPRIM and flagship Lightning series from previous generations.

In the box you get quite a bit of documentation, including two guides on how to install the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio into your rig. One of them is cartoonish with Lucky guiding you along, while the other is more conventional with diagrams showing you how to put the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio into your build. Differentiating the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio from the rest of the cards out there is an included graphics card support, to prevent any sag from marring the sleek appearance of the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio.
Appearance
MSI went with a very nice design this generation. Gone is the weird asymmetrical fan setup of the previous generations of Gaming X Trio cards, and we now have three 90mm fans. We will talk more about them in a bit. This design is shared with the higher-end cards in the Gaming X Trio family as well, and I am not complaining one bit. The shroud sports a nice mix of angles and a mild dual-tone finish that adds a touch of aggressiveness to the card, without making it look like they are trying too hard like the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 30 series cards.

The backplate here is pretty contentious: instead of going with an aluminium backplate, this here is a composite graphene backplate. It is quite a bit thicker than the average aluminium backplates, but this feels like plastic, which is not what you want on a card with premium ambitions like the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio.
It does seem to conduct heat better than your average plastic backplate, but I do think that a regular aluminium backplate would still outperform this when it comes to sheer heat dissipation. With that said, backplates are generally there to provide structural support rather than provide cooling outright.

At the rear end of the backplate, MSI incorporated a few slits to allow air to flow directly through the heatsink. Given the small slits, I kinda doubt a lot of air will flow through these holes here, but I guess some is better than none.

The side of the card is pretty exposed, which allows the chunky fin array to peek out. There’s plenty of area for exhausting hot air, which is what you want. You can also spot the anti-sag brace near the I/O bracket of the card, which also serves to help cool the power delivery system near the I/O bracket.

Dual 8-pin power connectors feed the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio, which might seem unnecessary, but this card does tout a 240W TGP that is just slightly above the combined 225W that the PCIe slot and a single 8-pin PCIe power connector can supply within spec. I am glad that MSI didn’t go with a 6-pin though, as two 8-pins definitely look better than a 8 + 6-pin arrangement.

MSI emphasized the design of their heatsink quite a bit. While most brands will just slap flat fins onto heatpipes and call it a day, MSI created airflow guides to increase the surface area of the fins to improve heat dissipation. The overall thickness of the card already allows for more surface area than what’s necessary to cool the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, so it’s interesting that MSI saw it fit to add an extra step to the design of the heatsinks on the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio.

The top edge of the heatsinks are also quite unique, with a wavy pattern to it. This is supposed to disrupt unwanted harmonics to reduce noise. You might also notice that the fan blades are linked, but only on every other blade. This is what MSI calls their TORX FAN 4.0, which should offer increased static pressure. This is an interesting difference in design, with semi-linked blades instead of the full ring around the fans like seen with the ASUS Axial-tech fans and also the fans on the Ampere Founders Edition cards.

For I/O, you get the NVIDIA reference three DisplayPort 1.4a and one HDMI 2.1 output. The bracket appears to be nickel plated to better endure the elements, with a generous amount of perforation. Given the design of the heatsink, you probably won’t get much hot air out of the card this way, but as with the backplate cutout, some is better than none.

MSI applies RGB very liberally on this card, unlike their peers. There’s a huge RGB strip along the side of the backplate, and the MSI logo is also illuminated. The lighting is not really diffuse, which is a slight bummer to me, as you can visibly spot where the LEDs are under that white plastic strip.

The fan shroud also gets three “claw marks” along the diagonal of the center fan. It looks very aggressive and I absolutely dig it, but if you prefer a more understated look in your build, you can always turn them off.
Specifications
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition

GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (GA104)
Samsung 8N

Clocks
Base Clock: 1410MHz
Boost Clock: 1830MHz (+165MHz over FE)

Cores
4864 CUDA Cores
152 Tensor Cores
38 RT Cores

Memory
8GB GDDR6

Memory Speed
14Gbps

Memory Interface
256-bit

Display outputs
3 x DisplayPort 1.4a
1 x HDMI 2.1

Power connector(s)
2 x 8-pin

Recommended PSU
650W

Interface
PCIe 4.0 x16

Multi-GPU support
No

Dimensions
32.3 x 14.0 x 5.6 cm

Test System

CPU
Intel Core i9-10900K @ 5.1GHz

Motherboard
GIGABYTE Z490 AORUS MASTER

Memory
2 x 8GB T-Force Xtreem ARGB 3600MHz CL14

Storage
120GB Kingston UV400 SATA SSD
960GB Kingston UV500 SATA SSD
1TB Kingston KC2500 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD
1TB Seagate FireCuda SSHD

Power Supply
Cooler Master V1200 Platinum

Monitor
BenQ EL2870U

GPU Driver
NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Drivers 461.09

Performance
Synthetic

The MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio outperforms the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition in Superposition, although not by a huge margin. While it does tout a relatively large difference in boost clocks in the specifications, the final effective boost isn’t that far off thanks to NVIDIA’s boost algorithms at play.

For some reason it slots itself below the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition in 3DMark Time Spy. Once again, not by a huge margin anyway, so it is almost negligible.

3DMark Port Royal sees it deliver a slightly higher score than the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Founders Edition. Of course, when compared against the higher-tier GeForce RTX 3070 Founders Edition, it doesn’t stand a chance in every benchmark.
Gaming

At 4K, the only games I would consider playable on the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio is Death Stranding and Far Cry 5. Even with the help of DLSS, the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio is clearly not suitable for 4K gaming, especially if you want to add raytracing into the equation.

Things begin to look up at 1440p, with the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio capable of really playable frame rates in a number of titles. Turning on DLSS improves the situation significantly, especially in titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Control which tout very complex raytracing effects. If the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti didn’t tout DLSS, the situation would have been quite dire at this resolution with all the intense raytracing effects that the latest titles sport.

Finally, at 1080p, the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio is capable of delivering well above 60FPS in most titles. Of course, DLSS is still quite necessary if you really want to enjoy raytraced effects in your games. Otherwise, you are set for a really great experience at this resolution.

Pitted against the Founders Edition card, we see differences ranging from -2% to +20% at 1080p. I must mention that Godfall‘s improvement is definitely well above what you would expect from a small boost in clocks, with a possibility of the gains being attributed to game and driver updates as well.

Meanwhile at 1440p, the gap shrinks across most games, with both cards offering the same frame rates in most games. For some reason, the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio underwhelms in Dirt 5 at 1440p. Once again, Godfall posts the biggest difference at 19%.
Thermals

As you would expect, the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio is capable of much cooler temperatures, delivering all that great performance you saw earlier while also running cooler than the Founders Edition card. With it coming with a triple fan cooler which means it is not only longer, but also thicker than the Founders Edition, this is definitely expected.

What makes it all the more impressive is that the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio posted those cool temperatures without breaking a sweat at all. The fans spin at a leisurely 1158RPM on average, which is absolutely inaudible over the noise of the CPU cooler. Put it in a case, and you won’t hear anything from the card under load.
Even with these slow fan speeds, the GPU stayed below 68°C throughout our test, despite a rather lofty 240W TGP limit. The low temperatures and high TGP allowed the GPU to boost up to 1965MHz, with average clocks of around 1920MHz. Notably, it is only around 40MHz faster than the Founders Edition, but that’s still a nice uplift, with real-world results as seen above.
Conclusion

I must admit, I was already sold on the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio by its design. But putting that aside, the attention MSI paid to improve cooling and reduce noise levels is very commendable, especially in a lower-end card like the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio. Now, what about the pricing? Well, MSI asks for RM2699 for the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio, which is still pretty reasonable, because I really like what I am seeing on this card, both in terms of aesthetics and performance.
MSI probably over-engineered the cooling for the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti which contributed to the increased cost, but cooling is something that’s usually worth paying more for. For a card that runs this quietly, I am quite impressed by the relatively low temperatures. My only concern with this card is with its non-metal backplate, but given that the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti doesn’t have memory modules on the back of its PCB, I guess it is not too much of an issue.

Our thanks to MSI Malaysia for sending us the MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio for review.
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The Pirate Bay is Testing an HD Video Streaming Service

I’m sure many you out there are familiar with The Pirate Bay. Whether you’ve used it personally or you’ve read some of the controversial matters related to it, it’s definitely a name that rings a bell. It looks like they’re gearing up for something big as an HD video streaming service is currently being tested.
The Pirate Bay HD video streaming service is called BayStream, and is currently available to use via internet browsers. It may or may not have an app in the future, due to legal, or rather illegal, circumstances surrounding the platform.
This isn’t the first dive into video streaming as they’ve done something similar in 2016 with the “Stream It!” service. Prior to that, there was also Bayfiles in 2011. What makes BayStream different is that you can stream without downloading the content. It’s worth noting that most of the content is through proxy sites rather than The Pirate Bay itself.

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Given the increasing number of video streaming services as of late, with the likes of Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and more, they’ve started to offer original content exclusive to their platform. This is done to reel in more subscribers. It’s interesting to think that this may be the first “unified” service, albeit one that hinges on legality.
Let’s see if this service will be able to last or if it will be taken down very soon.
Source: Knowtechie
Pokdepinion: I feel like saying anything feels like I’m promoting piracy but don’t get me wrong. We at Pokde.net do not support it in any way.
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Check out the TEEC 2019 Grand Finale at Berjaya Times Square

After the successful Taiwan Excellence Esports Cup tournaments, it is now time for the Grand Finale. 283 teams and 1415 participants has duked out among themselves to qualify themselves for the event happening this weekend at Berjaya Times Square.
The three day event will see the best Malaysian esports athletes compete in CS:GO, DotA 2 and League of Legends, with the winning teams taking home RM10 000 each. The winning team for CS:GO will also get a golden invitation ticket to Taiwan to fight against the crème de la crème from Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and India. The winners will win an additional US$2000 Grand Prize.

While the public cannot play against the elite esports players, everyone can go to the showcase at Berjaya Times Square to stand a chance to win some amazing prizes. You can compete in Tekken 7, Super Smash Bros, PES 2019 and Mobile Legends: Bang bang to take home a slice of the RM9000 total cash prize. There are also various activities like Quick DotA 2, Hardware Assemble Challenge, product auctions and more to keep things interesting.

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In addition to that, you can also take the opportunity to experience the RM40 000 Predator Thronos as well as the ROG Phone II. You will be among the first to try out the ROG Phone II as has yet to be officially introduced here in Malaysia.

You can also check out the latest and greatest from top-tier Taiwan tech companies like Cooler Master, InWin, TEAMGroup, Thermaltake, Transcend, XPG, ZADAK and ZOWIE.
For those of you who want to watch the games without heading down to Berjaya Times Square, you can watch the livestream of the games happening over at the Taiwan Excellence Esports Cup FB page.

Pokdepinion: Definitely go there to try out the ROG Phone II if you are in the area!
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Edifier TWS NB2 Pro Review — a few small but significant upgrades

The Edifier TWS NB2 came with pretty much everything you can ask for from a pair of TWS earphones. There’s ANC, there’s a game mode to lower the latency and also excellent battery life to keep good tunes in your ears all day. But what if you want something even better? That’s what the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro is here for.
Unboxing

The packaging of the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro is very similar to the Edifier TWS NB2, except that there are now more features mentioned, including Quick Charge and AAC codec support. More specifications and features are detailed on the back of the box. Oh and as we got the Black version, the packaging also showcases the black color option instead of the beige-ish white we got with our Edifier TWS NB2.

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We also get the same faux leather finish here, but it’s black here. It’s a really cool touch for Edifier to go with a more unique unboxing experience, versus the standard hardpaper boxes you usually get your earphones in. This here really drives the premium ambitions of the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro home.

The Edifier TWS NB2 Pro is coddled by a foam block to prevent any damage during shipping, while the upper half of the box houses a little folder for the other accessories that comes with the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro.

A nice fabric pouch, two pairs of replacement tips, a USB-C charging cable and some of the usual documentation arrive in the box along with the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro. As I found with the Edifier TWS NB2, the pouch here is a bit too big for the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro. Many more premium earphones don’t even come with pouches so this is still better than nothing.
Appearance

If you have seen our review of the Edifier TWS NB2, you will probably notice that the design of the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro is exactly the same. And you wouldn’t be wrong. As you have seen with the packaging, we received the black version of the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro, and the case touts a similar black leather-like finish. It’s not a soft finish, as it is just hard plastic with the leather-like pattern imprinted into it.

The case opens up like a clamshell with minimal effort, thanks to a little lip on the front edge of the case. Inside, there’s a single button here as well as a tiny LED that indicates the pairing status as well as whether the earbuds are properly positioned for charging. There isn’t much issue with getting them to charge properly though, as there’s a magnet that holds them just in the right position for the pogo pins to make contact.

It might just be me, but the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro’s black and silver earpieces do look better than the beige and silver gray finish of the Edifier TWS NB2 we previously reviewed. The same bulbous golf-tee design is carried over to the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro, and I guess that’s fine because it’s really quite comfy for me.
Edifier TWS NB2 Pro Specifications

Drivers
10mm dynamic drivers, composite diaphragm

Frequency Response
20 Hz – 20,000 Hz

Sensitivity:
94dB

Impedance:
24Ω

Headphone Type
True wireless, in-ear

Connection
Bluetooth 5.0, AAC

Wireless Range
10m

Noise-cancelling
Hybrid ANC for playback
Noise reduction for calls

Battery
Earphones
Up to 7 hours playback (ANC on)
Up to 9 hours playback (ANC off)
Charging Case
3x Full Charge (Up to 32 hours total)

Weight
Earphones
5.5g x 2
Charging Case
41g (without earpieces)

Colour
Black

User Experience
Pairing
First time pairing is easy, with it immediately looking for a device to pair with as soon as you open it up. If you need to pair with another device, all you need to do is press the button on the case to start up the pairing mode.

The nice thing about the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro is that you can use either side individually after you have paired them, without having to pair them separately. Once again, I don’t enjoy it, but if you want to use the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro as a Bluetooth handsfree of sorts, it can do just that.
Everything that was present in the Edifier TWS NB2 is present here, and that includes the gaming mode. The gaming mode is supposed to reduce latency but it doesn’t exactly lower it far enough to match a wired experience. It does exhibit less latency than most regular wireless TWS earphones though, so I guess Edifier still deserves kudos for that.

Unlike their more affordable offerings, the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro supports the Edifier Connect app. You can play around with quite a few settings here, and one addition I noticed was the new Spatial Audio mode that is actually quite nice. More on that later.
Sound

The Edifier TWS NB2 Pro’s sound profile is quite similar to the Edifier TWS NB2, but I did note that there’s a bit more clarity above the punchy bass that was a bit overbearing on the non-Pro model. Switching over to the Game mode does further amps up the boominess of the lower frequencies for more impactful gaming experience, and it seems that the loss of clarity by switching to the Game Mode isn’t as noticeable here with the Pro version.
It seems that Edifier’s addition of the Spatial Audio mode is for more than just a more enjoyable movie-watching experience too. This mode amps up the mids that are quite laidback in the standard mode, making for a more balanced sound and a wider-feeling soundstage. The actual soundstage isn’t particularly wide though. It is still very bass-centric, but now the mids are more present for better representation of vocals.
Overall, it is a noticeably better sounding pair of earphones as compared to its non-Pro sibling. I am not sure if this is down to the AAC support or the newer 10mm composite drivers, but I do enjoy the sound of the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro more than the non-Pro version.

Onto the noise cancellation. Similar to the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro, the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro goes for a hybrid ANC approach that involves microphones under the ear tips as well to monitor how well of a job it is doing. The Edifier TWS NB2 Pro is supposed to be slightly more effective than its non-Pro brethren at blocking out noise, but in practice the difference is quite unnoticeable, as I found the Edifier TWS NB2 to do a good enough job already.
The Ambient Mode also provides for an adjustable level depending on how much of the outside noise you want to let in. For some reason, raising the volume of the ambient feedback doesn’t exactly amplify the sounds around you, but rather seems to only increase the amount of white noise that gets picked up. It also doesn’t exactly scale with the volume of your audio, which means that you can’t exactly hear that well, unless you lower the volume of your music, for better or worse.
Comfort

The Edifier TWS NB2 Pro’s design will work well with just about anyone who has average ears. After you stuff the eartips into your ear canals, the bulbous portion will rest in your ears, which allows them to be quite stable in your ears. I didn’t feel the need to frequently readjust the earphones’ position in my ears even when moving around, so that’s nice.
For controls, the single button in the case allows you to pair the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro with a long press, which will cause the LED indicator to flash green and white rapidly. This is only necessary if you have previously paired the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro to a device. Meanwhile the earpieces have different controls for each side, so here goes:

Left
Right

2x tap: Switch Normal Mode / ANC Mode / Ambient Mode
3x tap: Switch Standard/Spatial Audio/Gaming Mode
2x tap: Pause / Play / answer & end calls
3x tap: Next song

The Edifier Connect app also gives you the option to change the options in the event you forget. The tap sensitivity settings can also be adjusted so that you can have less erroneous touches. The default was working fine for me though, which isn’t particularly unexpected as Edifier only assigned double taps instead of single taps.
Battery life
The Edifier TWS NB2 Pro’s battery life is surprisingly better than its non-Pro brethren, despite both being rated the same by Edifier. I managed eight hours with ANC on which is pretty amazing. That’s really plenty for most flights, unless you include the time that you are stuck at the airport. Turning on ambient mode drops the battery life to 7 hours, while turning off ANC entirely extends the battery life to 10 hours.

The earpieces have their battery life indicated in the Edifier Connect app and also in Android’s Bluetooth settings, while for the case you will have to check out the little LED beside the USB-C charging port. It is quite easily missed, and I wish Edifier had put the battery status LED in the case rather than behind it. I have ended up with insufficient charge on the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro a few times by now, because I didn’t know that the case was out of juice.
There’s also fast charging now, that will allow you to use the earphones for two hours with just 15 minutes of charging, but I never found the need to use it.
Conclusion
While I have been comparing the two, it seems that the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro replaces the non-Pro version in Edifier Malaysia’s lineup. The Edifier TWS NB2 Pro is available at the same RM339 too, which means it is essentially a free upgrade, as long as you haven’t bought the Edifier TWS NB2. Even if you already have the Edifier TWS NB2, the TWS NB2 Pro might be worth considering if you think you will appreciate the improved sound quality.
I would definitely suggest the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro for users who are getting their first pair of ANC earphones. Or for those who plan on some casual mobile gaming wirelessly. I do like it more than the non-Pro version, and I think it will finally replace my Edifier TWS5, something which I felt the Edifier TWS NB2 was not up to task for.

Our thanks to Edifier Malaysia for sending us the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro for review. You can check out the Edifier TWS NB2 Pro on Shopee via this affiliate link to help support what we do here on Pokde.net.
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Super Robot Wars X Review – Not Much New But Entertaining Nonetheless

We take a look at the latest mothership entry into the Super Robot Wars series by Bandai Namco, Super Robot Wars X. Is it worth your money?
Super Robot Wars X Review
Umm, phrasing?
Japanese pop culture has taken the world by storm and evolved into a global phenomenon. A major component of that pop culture is robots such as the iconic Gundam. While most of these robots belong in their own fictional world, there are some occasions when all of these come together for a unified objective. That is the Super Robot Wars series and today, we are going to take a look into the latest entry in the series, Super Robot Wars X.
What’s Super Robot Wars X About?

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The game is set in a fictional world known as Al-Warth, which is being governed by a reiligious organization known as the Keepers of Order. Heroes from multiple universes have found themselves mysteriously transported from their own home world to Al-Warth in the middle of a crisis. It has been engulfed in war and is currently facing the possibility of complete annihilation for seemingly no reason. The only information they have is a prophecy which speaks of a saviour that will rid Al-Warth of evil.
Players take control of either one of two protagonists who has fled from the Keepers of Order; the ‘Iolite Sorcerer’ Iori Iolite, or the ‘Aquamarine Sorcerer’ Amari Aquamarine. The protagonist is being chased by members of the Keepers or Order for fleeing from their teachings as well as taking two of their prized possessions; the autowarlock Xelguard and a mysterious bird known as Spero.

The protagonist is on a journey to discover themselves as well as the truth behind Al-Warth. Throughout their journey, they meet up with heroes from other universes and slowly gather together to form the X-Cross, with the sole intent of saving Al-Warth from evil. Little did they however, there is a reason why those people were brought into Al-Warth and that their existence alone plays a huge part in sustaining the universe itself.
It Is Largely Similar to The Previous Game

Super Robot Wars X has 3 difficulty options to choose from; Beginner, Standard, and Expert. Generally speaking, the enemies are lesser and weaker in the lower difficulties whereas for Expert mode, not only are the enemies more resilient, they also have a better chance of hitting you with their attacks.
However, there are major benefits to playing in Expert mode. The first notable one is the SR point objectives, which are automatically achieved as long as you complete each mission without retrying. This will give you additional 10,000 funds for you to use. Speaking of funds, you’ll also tend to gain more of it from each mission due to facing stronger enemies in higher quantities.

Each mission will have their own set of objectives as well as narratives that will be used to further the game’s storyline. However, most of them generally involve the same thing, which is for you to use your group of robots to take down the enemies and not be subdued in the process. You do so by moving your robots around the map via square grids, and attacking enemies when they are in range.

However, not every attack is a guaranteed hit as there will be a probability factor. If the attack is listed as 100% hit, then it is guaranteed but anything lesser means there is a chance it will miss. This is not including certain robots with evasion-type skills that will always have a chance of evading regardless of the situation.

An additional strategy factor comes in the form of Spirit commands. Everyone will have SP (Spirit Points) which can be used to activate skills such as guaranteed evasion, increased damage, and more. However, you have a limited number of SP and each turn will only regenerate 5 SP so you will have to plan wisely. It can be frustrating to have only half of your maximum SP when the game starts, unlike older entries in the series, but it does provide the game with additional challenges.
This Is What’s New in The Game

With the protagonists and the Keepers of Order taking centre stage in the game’s plot, magic has become the running theme for Super Robot Wars X. As such, they have introduced a brand new command that is only accessible by the protagonist and it’s called ‘Dogma’. It grants the protagonist 6 unique skills that can be used anytime in any mission, but only once per mission. This could range from strengthening your allies with stat buffs or weakening your enemies.

However, you will need to unlock the Dogma skills in order to use them. To do that, you will have to buy Magic Customization upgrades via the Vault menu of the Intermission screen after each mission. For this, you will be using ‘TacP’ points instead of funds. The upgrades in itself is worth investing in as early as possible as they give useful perks for everyone on your team, such as additional firepower or extra movement. In fact, these upgrades can even turn a hard mission into a piece of cake.

In case you’re wondering, the Vault menu is this game’s equivalent of the Factory menu that was available in Super Robot Wars V. There will be additional scenes that can be accessed just by entering the Vault menu, where characters will converse with each other and especially with Spero, which will award you with bonus TacP points from time to time. Aside from the aforementioned Magic Customization upgrades, you can use the Vault to buy parts to strengthen your team.

As usual, there will be plenty of micromanagement needed for budgeting and strategically planning ahead of battles. You don’t want to needlessly spend your funds and TacP on robots / pilots that you won’t be using much except early on in the game or during route splits. In Expert Mode, it is easy to max out the upgrades for a decent number of robots but only if you spend carefully. To that end, this game certainly does keep you on your toes and make you feel like a master strategist.
Super Robot Wars X Verdict

Super Robot Wars X is largely similar to its previous game, Super Robot Wars V, which was released in February of last year. Even the intermission menu where you upgrade your robots and pilots is largely unchanged. While a game normally like this would likely take years to develop, reusing assets and the core system itself shaves a lot of time off of the development process. You are expected to see mostly the exact same gameplay with the same visuals, even for attack animations.
However, it’s not necessarily a bad thing as the storyline itself makes it worth playing if you’re a fan of the series. If you’re in it to enjoy a brand new story as well as seeing some new robots as well as some old ones returning to the series, you will not be disappointed. With that in mind, I give Super Robot Wars X with our Silver Pokdeward.

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Cooler Master Announces the ‘Mini Mod Invitational’

Cooler Master, a leading manufacturer of desktop components and peripherals, today announced the Mini Mod Invitational. This global modding competition invites 15 modders from 12 different countries around the world to challenge themselves by modding possibly the world’s smallest PC case.

The Mini Mod is a miniature recreation of the MasterCase 5 by Cooler Master, the first of their new flagship line of PC cases. This model is made out of wood and cardboard, but can be assembled and taken apart like a 3D puzzle. Like the MasterCase 5, the Mini Mod has multiple forms in one. It can take the shape of any of the three MasterCase 5 types: Basic, Pro, and Maker. The model also includes additional parts not included with the MasterCase 5 such as the MasterWatt Maker 1200 power supply, the MasterAir Maker 8 CPU air cooler, a motherboard, and a hard drive cage with five HDDs. The Mini Mod also has the various removable panels, fans, and airflow openings that you would find on an actual MasterCase 5.

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The Mini Mod was created as a simple and entertaining way to educate novices about PC building in a much more accessible and non-intimidating way. The idea was to recreate the PC building experience while removing the fear and risk of damaging expensive components when you’re first trying to learn how to build one. While obviously a simple wooden puzzle could never fully emulate the level of knowledge and attention to detail required to build an actual PC, Cooler Master believes that projects like this are an effective way to motivate potential makers of all ages to take an interest in building their own PC.

As a part of this awareness campaign, Cooler Master has decided to host an international modding competition by invitation. 15 modders from around the world including countries such as the Malaysia, USA, Japan, Brazil, and the UK have been invited to participate in a no holds barred modding contest. Modders are not only free, but encouraged to use whatever skills and ideas they have to create the most impressive Mini Mods possible. While this is meant to be a friendly and very casual event, it is still a competition and there is an actual trophy for the modder who wins first place.
Cooler Master has opted to make this a people’s choice competition. In one week’s time, the modders will submit their final designs and the public will be able to vote on Cooler Master’s modding website. The Mini Mod with the most votes will win the trophy and the pride. Users who vote will be entered into a raffle to win a free mouse from Cooler Master. Voting and the raffle prize is open to the public worldwide. Cooler Master will cover all shipping costs for raffle winners.

To get involved and find updates as the competition unfolds, please visit:
http://makerhub.coolermaster.com/modding
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New cryptocurrency targets AMD Ryzen CPUs and their generous caches

With most of the latest graphics cards going to cryptominers instead of actual gamers now, it is quite worrying that they might have a new target now: AMD Ryzen CPUs. The AMD Ryzen CPUs which are already in short supply, might see even worse availability if Raptoreum mining takes off.
Raptoreum really likes AMD Ryzen CPUs and their big caches

AMD’s move to include larger L3 caches starting with the AMD Ryzen 3000 series have allowed them to make huge leaps in gaming performance, with the AMD Ryzen 5000 series catching up to their Intel contemporaries. Aside from improving gaming performance, it is also apparently very beneficial for mining Raptoreum.

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This new cryptocurrency is based on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) model and the GhostRider algorithm, which prefers CPUs, and especially those with large L3 caches. While Intel has added quite a bit more cache to the 12th Gen Intel Core processors, AMD is still king, with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X offering 64MB of L3 cache. According to the Raptoreum Mining Profitability Calculator, a single AMD Ryzen 9 5950X can churn out 4247h/s, earning you 191 Raptoreum or approximately $4.32 a day, at the current price of $0.02262373 per Raptoreum.
With an energy cost of $0.12/kWh, you will be looking at a daily profit of $3.96 per day. According to Tom’s Hardware’s estimations, an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X will pay for itself in 153 days, while the Ryzen 9 5950X will practically be free in 178 days. Those are some pretty good returns!

But those are just rookie numbers. Serious cryptominers will probably look towards the Ryzen Threadripper processors that offer even more CPU horsepower and L3 cache. According to the calculator, the Threadripper 3970X is able to mine 387 Raptoreum a day, more than double that the Ryzen 9 5950X is capable of. It will also be very interesting to see what happens when AMD finally drops their Ryzen processors enhanced with 3D V-Cache that will bring up to 192MB of L3 cache. Hopefully those won’t go all to Raptoreum miners, because that will suck.
Source
Pokdepinion: I think most gamers would already have gone or will be going with Intel for their gaming systems, with the shortage of AMD Ryzen 5000 processors, so I guess this won’t change the status quo much.
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Acer Predator Helios 300 and Acer Nitro 5 Refresh Launched in Malaysia

Aside from the beginning of the Asia Pacific Predator League 2020/21 Grand Finals, Acer Malaysia has officially unveiled the newly refreshed Acer Predator Helios 300 and Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptops. Let’s see what’s new this time around.
Acer Predator Helios 300 Refresh

The newly refreshed Acer Predator Helios 300 is the first Predator gaming laptop in Malaysia to come with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GPU. It’s also powered by the Intel Core i7-10870H and features dual PCIe NVMe SSD storage with an additional M.2 slot and HDD slot. As for RAM, the 8GB DDR4 RAM can be upgraded up to 32GB. You get a 4-zone RGB keyboard with concave-shaped see-through keycaps for WASD and arrow keys.

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It utilizes a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display with slim bezels and 144Hz refresh rate. To further enhance the immersion factor, you get DTS:X Ultra Audio and 3D simulated surround sound. Apart from that, you have dedicated Turbo and PredatorSense keys for easy overclocking and one-click turbo boost for enhanced performance. To ensure that the system runs cool, you have the dual AeroBlade 3D fans for maximum efficiency.
The Acer Predator Helios 300 comes in 2 variants with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 and retails for RM5,999 for the Intel Core i7-10870H but is also available at RM5,299 for the Intel i5-10500H variant. It’s currently available at all Acer official online stores and authorized resellers nationwide.

If you buy it before 30th June 2021, you will be able to redeem free gifts such as RM100 worth of TnG / Boost eWallet credits. Moreover, if you purchase this via the official Shopee store during the Asia Pacific Predator League period, you will also get 3 years McAfee Live Safe and Acer Supercare 2.
To redeem the eWallet credits, click right here. Each entry will also get you a chance to win the #CreateYourDreamSpace makeover by Woody Lab worth RM21,000 for 3 categories; Productivity, Learning, and Gaming.
Acer Nitro 5 Refresh

The Acer Nitro 5 is the more affordable gaming laptop with a focus on value. The refresh brings the 11th Gen Intel Core CPU and a revamped cooling system to the table. You also get up to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 GPU, 8GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM (upgradable to 32GB), and 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD with an additional M.2 slot for storage upgrade flexibility.
It utilizes a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display with 144Hz refresh rate. For those looking to tweak its performance and cooling system, you can make use of the NitroSense app for your needs.

The newly refreshed Acer Nitro 5 will retail for RM4,399 for the Intel Core i7-11370H variant while the Intel Core i5-11300H variant will be retailing for the more affordable price of RM3,799. It’s currently available at all Acer official online stores and authorized resellers nationwide. If you buy it before 30th June 2021, you will be able to redeem free gifts such as RM100 worth of TnG / Boost eWallet credits. Moreover, if you purchase this via the official Shopee store during the Asia Pacific Predator League period, you will also get 3 years McAfee Live Safe and Acer Supercare 2.
To redeem the eWallet credits, click right here. Each entry will also get you a chance to win the #CreateYourDreamSpace makeover by Woody Lab worth RM21,000 for 3 categories; Productivity, Learning, and Gaming.
Pokdepinion: Personally interested to try to the Acer Predator Helios 300 just to see how much of a difference the new GPU makes. Hopefully, we will be able to get our hands on it soon so stay tuned for that.
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Windows 11 May Soon Let You Control RGB Without Third-Party Apps

Say goodbye to resource-hogging from the RGB apps of many manufacturers.
Image: Albacore (Twitter)
In the latest public test build (build number 25295) user Albacore spotted a section under Settings which enables basic RGB controls over the PC’s peripherals. Apparently the code was traced all the way back in 2018 – so it’s almost certain that this may have been a feature intended for Windows 10 from the beginning.

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New settings for device lighting make an appearance in build 25295. Is this the beginning of the end for low quality RGB gamer gear apps? 🎮 The spec for this is from 2018 and references to the feature have been around for years. Not cancelled after all 🥳https://t.co/oG4JbKsoeB pic.twitter.com/bMtxCH8REo
— Albacore (@thebookisclosed) February 10, 2023

In the settings, there’s a few options available ranging from brightness, lighting presets, effect speed, color and even color-matching to Windows accent colors. Most users may not need customizations beyond that, so a feature like this built-in can save many hassles of dealing with resource-heavy apps that peripheral vendors have gained notoriety for.
That being said, it’s possible that some of the more advanced features (such as per-key RGB customization) may still be limited to the device’s app of choice. We can’t say for sure – but if Microsoft chose to greenlit this feature into future feature updates, it’d be very much welcomed by gamers.
Source: The Verge
Pokdepinion: I can attest, some peripheral management software just feels clunky and drags performance – so at least I hope this would make manufacturers to pay attention in their app’s usability.
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After reports of Instagram being unhealthy for the mental health of teenagers, Facebook has shot back at Wall Street Journal on the matter.
Facebook Shot Back at Wall Street Journal over Mental Health Reports

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Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported on the effects on Instagram having a negative effect on the mental health of teenagers, especially girls. Interestingly, there were claims that Facebook is aware of it.
As a result, Facebook has shot back at them with a new blog post by Vice President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, disputing claims of Facebook ignoring research as “just plain false”. Furthermore, it was added that the news outlet are “cherry-picking” quotes and research.
Relating to the matter, Facebook also addressed on the large amount of COVID-19 misinformation by noting that relevance is being purposely omitted. While Nick Clegg admitted that it is a problem, he believes that Wall Street Journal left out that vaccine hesitancy on the platform has dropped by nearly 50% since the beginning of 2021.
These issues may be too large for one person to handle. Social media has vastly changed how people see the world, and it still requires many years of research before people can truly understand the full effects it has on society. Perhaps then, companies can truly change to bring a much more positive effect for the masses.
Source
Pokdepinion: One thing that I’ve learned after using social media for years is to not take everything you see at face value,, Behind it, there may be some hidden meaning or context that you’re missing in order to understand the full story.
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