AMD Announces New $200 Low-End GPU At CES, RX 6500

Expanding its GPU offerings, AMD announced a new graphics card today, although not one that anyone with a 4K monitor will be interested in. The AMD Radeon RX 6500, a new addition to the company’s RX 6000 Series, was shown off at CES 2022 today, with the tech company positioning the new card as yet another solution for 1080p gaming.

According to AMD, the small GPU can sustain a boost clock of 2.6GHz and comes with 16 compute units and ray accelerators, as well as 16MB of infinity cache. However, that doesn’t all translate into high-end performance.

The GPU is aimed squarely at the 1080p gaming market, with AMD claiming the 6500 XT, which comes with just 4GB of GDDR6 memory, can beat out Nvidia’s GTX 1650 in most scenarios by 35%. However, it’s not clear what testing conditions that statistic comes from, including whether or not the GPU is benefitting from AMD’s Smart Access Memory technology.

Introducing the new @AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT graphics card, featuring the breakthrough AMD #RDNA2 architecture and engineered to deliver great gaming performance and remarkable efficiency. #AMD2022
Learn more: https://t.co/Ugtcqe0wRP pic.twitter.com/Hv46sPkCtS

— Radeon RX (@Radeon) January 4, 2022

On the 6500 XT’s product page, AMD boasts that the tiny GPU can make modern games run at over 60fps on high settings. Without any other details, the company claims that Halo Infinite can run at up to 78fps, Resident Evil Village can hit 108fps, and Call of Duty: Vanguard can reach up to 61fps.

What leaves the 6500 XT as a great competitor for AMD in the 1080p gaming market is the card’s extremely low MSRP. Costing just $200, the card is remarkably cheap, although it’s unlikely to stay that way. Customers will already have to pay a small markup from OEM manufacturers, and that’s before prices rise further due to overwhelming demand. The RX 6500 XT is set to launch on January 19.

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Sony Reveals The First Quantum Dot OLED 4K TV

Sony has announced a slew of new TVs for 2022 at CES 2022, including the first Quantum Dot OLED panel to hit the market.

Quantum Dot OLED panels are potentially a big step forward for traditional OLED panels, using a blue light panel that is fed through a Quantum Dot layer to produce its colors. This differs from OLED panels made by LG Display, all of which use a mixture of blue and yellow light that is first filtered into white light before being converted into standard RGB.

Sony’s Bravia XR A95K QD-OLED TV

The benefit of Quantum Dot OLEDs, in theory, is the potential for a much brighter image with the added benefit of the more vivid colors that Quantum Dot layers provide. Brightness has been a weak point for LG Display’s OLED panels, with each new iteration specifically targeting new ways to increase it. Despite efforts, it’s still far off Quantum Dot display made by Samsung, who will also be producing the panel that Sony is using in its new flagship Bravia XR A95K TV.

The TV will ship in 55 and 65-inch sizes, with 4K support and all of the important HDMI 2.1 features. These include auto low-latency mode, 120Hz support, and variable refresh rate, which will ship with the TV on day one.

Pricing for this new flagship and a specific release date will be shared in the coming months. If you’re looking for the great TVs today, check out our guide to the best TVs for Xbox Series X and PS5.

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Gordon Ramsay Doesn’t Know What Twitch Is, But Streamers Are More Than Willing To Show Him

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay may know all about cooking (and hosting cooking shows), but he doesn’t know what Twitch is. That’s probably about to change.

In the premiere episode of Ramsay’s new cooking show on Fox, Next Level Chef, Ramsay encountered contestant Tricia Wang, who said she streams her cooking on Twitch when asked what she does for a living. That, somewhat predictably, led to Ramsay asking a question that may have been on the mind of more than a few unfamiliar viewers.

“What the Fuck is Twitch” -Gordon Ramsay @GordonRamsay @Twitch
Everyone watching from twitch: ☹️ pic.twitter.com/aELiN8Ixrv

— triciaisabirdy (@triciaisabirdy) January 3, 2022

Now, Ramsay is embracing his ignorance as streamers reach out on social media to collaborate with the chef, even as he wears his confusion in regards to the streaming platform as a badge of honor. His Twitter profile currently reads “Always near food…doesn’t know what Twitch is.”

Omg what timeline am I living in right now@Twitch @GordonRamsay pic.twitter.com/Vm9XUWeDGh

— triciaisabirdy (@triciaisabirdy) January 3, 2022

Twitch got in on the fun too. The official Twitch Twitter briefly changed its bio to reference the chef, and Ramsay later tweeted at the official Twitch account asking if they could explain what their platform is all about. Twitch responded by writing it would teach the chef to stream if he could teach them “how to make a proper wellington.”

Of course, but let’s go big. We’ll teach you how to live stream if you teach us how to cook a proper wellington.

— Twitch (@Twitch) January 3, 2022

It’s all equaling some great free publicity for Next Level Chef, which is likely all part of Ramsay’s plan. But that’s not to say he isn’t being sincere when he admits he doesn’t know what Twitch is. Though Twitch users number in the millions, it still pales in comparison to the number of people actively using YouTube or Netflix, for example, with the latter having more than 200 million paid subscribers.

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Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker 6.05 Patch Notes Revealed, See What’s New

The newest patch for Final Fantasy XIV is out now, and it’s a big one. The big update, version 6.05, adds a “multitude of additions and refinements to the realm,” Square Enix said in a blog post.

This includes a new “Savage” version of the Pandæmonium raid, a new Excitatron 6000 treasure dungeon, and Allagan tomestones of astronomy, among other things.

For the raid, players need to speak with Nemjiji in Labyrinthos (X:8.4 Y:27.4) and have a level 90 Disciple of War or Magic; players must also complete the “Who Wards the Warders” quest before they get started.

Those who complete the raid will be rewarded with special gear and weapons.

“The Excitatron 6000, a special instance similar to the Dungeons of Lyhe Ghiah, can be accessed after finding and opening treasure coffers obtained from kumbhiraskin treasure maps. Here, players will have the chance to test their luck and obtain priceless treasures,” Square Enix said.

Elsewhere, the 6.05 patch makes a series of changes to the battle system, with actions and traits adjusted for a series of jobs and classes, including Dragoon, Pugilist/Monk, and Ninja, among others.

There are also new furnishings available from a community design contest, one of which is a zen-looking garden frog, while more recipes and a new minion are now available in the game.

The blog post also runs through the bugs and other issues addressed in this update and lists off some of the known issues that players should expect to encounter. You can see the full patch notes here.

Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker expansion, which released in December, was so popular that Square Enix temporarily suspended sales of the game.

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What’s In The Fortnite Item Shop Today – January 4, 2022: Last Chance For Winterfest Skins

With Winterfest ending later this week, Epic is giving players one last chance to grab any Winterfest skins in the Fortnite Item Shop. If you’ve had your eye on any festive characters, this will be your last opportunity to get them before next December, so consider yourself warned. Here’s everything in the oversized Fortnite Item Shop for January 4, 2022.

The complete run of Fortnite Winterfest characters brings over a dozen heroes to the store for one last hurrah before they’re shelved (presumably in Santa’s Workshop) for nearly the whole calendar year. That means characters like Reina, Snowbell, Red-Nosed Ranger, and many more are all on their last gingerbread limbs.

Last chance to jingle your bells

If you’re already over the holiday season yourself, you can ring in the new year with characters such as Boba Fett and the Cobra Kai collection, as well as long-absent Epic originals in the Permafrost set. The eight-hero set has been missing in action for nearly 300 days, but it’s back now and includes the following heroes, each of them clad in wintry camo and each of them going for 800 V-Bucks:

Chill CountIce InterceptHailstormSnow SniperChillout Arctic IntelIce StalkerSnow Striker

For a full view of the inventory today, check out iFireMonkey’s tweet.

🛒 #Fortnite Item Shop
⏰ Tuesday, January 4, 2022

💚 Use code ‘FireMonkey’ to support me! #EpicPartner pic.twitter.com/26RjmCwXsD

— iFireMonkey (@iFireMonkey) January 4, 2022

Given that this is Fortnite, we’re likely only days away from the next major collaboration. We’ll be back tomorrow with another Fortnite Item Shop update.

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Fortnite: Best Landing Spots In Chapter 3 Season 1

The Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 1 map is home to dozens of new landmarks and NPCs, and brings a brand-new loot pool featuring never-before-seen weapons and healing items. Learning the lay of the land and knowing where to enter the fray is one of the most important parts of any battle royale, and that remains true on the new Fortnite map. After dozens of hours, here are our picks for the best landing spots in Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 1.

Fortnite: best landing spots for Chapter 3

Greasy Grove

Come for the tacos, stay for the loot.

This fast food hub is surrounded by several residences, which reminds us of Retail Row, but its more thickly-settled houses are akin to Holly Hedges. Put that together and you’ve got a place rich with loot without the need to trek very far to collect it all. We recommend dropping right into the gas station for its chests and a parked car (probably with off-road tires too). Or, you could try the taco restaurant, in which you’ll find plenty of weapons and food items in the basement. Then loot all the residences nearby like The Grinch.

Rocky Reels

If the Storm wasn’t moving in, you could maybe catch a movie.

The drive-in theater is back for Chapter 3, but apparently under new management given its revised name. At Rocky Reels, you’ll still find a giant projection screen loaded with loot in its hidden stairwell, but around the open area beneath it, you’ll find a ton of healing items inside coolers. Oftentimes, these coolers are full of Chug Splash, which makes landing at this location the fastest way to get shields to 100 in the game. You can also explore nearby snack shacks for an absurdly high number of ammo chests–so many, in fact, that it can feel like a bug.

Chonker’s Speedway

Start your engines!

Chonker’s Speedway features the unmissable dirt racetrack, and it always keeps you ready for a quick getaway thanks to the fleet of Whiplashes pre-loaded with off-road tires. This makes it a wise landing spot for the indecisive players of the Fortnite world. While its two central buildings on either side of the starting line have plenty of loot to go around, the cars make for an easy getaway should you realize halfway down your descent that the drop is too spicy for your tastes.

Camp Cuddle

Sure, they call it Camp Cuddle, but enemies rarely care to embrace.

Every Fortnite island needs a sizable lake, and for Chapter 3, it’s found at Camp Cuddle. This location has several NPCs in close proximity to one another, meaning you can buy special loot or take on gold-rewarding quests in a flash. If you’re not one to take up shop at its central island featuring the watchtower as seen above, you can explore the many wood cabins around the area, complete with lots of foraged items and plenty of loot for a full squad. The water and ziplines help make for a fast exit once the Storm closes in too.

Sleepy Sound

Sleepy Sound is ironically quite lively.

The fan-favorite landing spot of Chapter 3 so far is Sleepy Sound. This riverside boating community offers many tightly-packed buildings side by side, making it easy for you to start at one end and clear it out room by room as you run the length of the region. The combination of several boats, a gas station, and the Sticks Restaurant all being right there completes the all-in-one appeal of Sleepy Sound. It has something for all types of players, so long as you’re ready for a fight from the drop.

Daily Bugle

Listen closely and you can hear demands for pictures of Spider-Man.

There’s maybe never been a location with as much loot per room as you’ll find in the Daily Bugle’s central skyscraper. The multiple floors offer loads of chests, floor loot, and ammo boxes, in a way that’s more reminiscent of PUBG: Battlegrounds than anything Fortnite has done before. Surrounded by ziplines and Spider-Man’s bouncy webs outside for added fun, the only downside is that it’s such a popular landing spot. Like Sleepy Sound, you’ll probably never get the place to yourself, but if you survive the initial onslaught, you’ll clean up better here than anywhere else.

For more on Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 1, don’t miss our breakdown on all the Exotic and Mythic weapons, including Spider-Man’s Web Shooters, as well as an introduction to this season’s secret skin, The Foundation.

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Call of Duty: Warzone – Best Caldera Landing Spots For Season 1

Call of Duty: Warzone‘s new Caldera map is a lush island with waterfalls, a lagoon, and even a massive volcano, so it’s easy to get distracted by all the beautiful scenery, but it’s important to know where to drop to get decent loot. Here we list some of the best locations to land on Caldera, which can depend on your preferred playlist, whether you’re going for high kills, or just looking for somewhere quiet to get started.

Call Of Duty: Warzone – Best Places To Land On Caldera

Airfield

Caldera’s Airfield

Caldera’s Airfield is a solid choice if you’re looking to get into the action right away, as this is a popular location with plenty of buildings and vehicles. Loot up at one of the airfield’s many hangars, grab a Contract, then use a plane or vehicle when it’s time to head out. This is a great place to drop when playing Plunder mode, trios, or quads, especially if you’re looking to rack up plenty of kills and cash.

Mines

Caldera’s Mines

Mines is another popular choice to drop for trios or quads playlists, especially if you’re looking to go for high-kill games. There is a lot of dangerously open ground here with just a few clusters of buildings to choose from, so pick an area to land close together as a team to start looting. With some decent gear, Caldera’s phosphate mine can be an exciting location to rack up kills. It’s a central area on the map with plenty of open sightlines, allowing you to control the location and easily pick off any opponents that try to push through. This also means it’s a great drop location if you or your teammates like to do a little sniping.

Peak

Caldera’s Peak

The top of Caldera’s volcano is often a pretty congested drop, but with luck or skill in your favor, you can score decent kills and get looted up quickly. With Peak being an elevated location near the center of the map, it’s a great starting point to get those quick kills and then easily glide down to almost any other part of the map.

Capital

The Capital

Caldera’s Capital is a large location that is absolutely filled with loot. It’s often a busy drop, so you can get into early gunfights for those high-kill game opportunities. However, the city area is also big enough that you can usually veer off and slip away from your opponents to loot up and play a bit slower. This is a great drop for playing Plunder and scoring a ton of cash, but it can also work for solos, duos, trios, and quads.

Ruins

The Ruins

If you’re a solos and duos player looking to take a less aggressive approach and not go for those high-kill games, Ruins should be a bit quieter for you. There is also enough loot in the Ruins to get you geared up before moving someplace more chaotic. However, it’s near the western coast of the island and often falls victim to one of the early circle collapses, so you’ll want to loot quickly and be ready to move.

Lagoon

The Lagoon

Caldera’s Lagoon looks like a tropical paradise best suited for swimming or working on your tan, but it’s also another great place for you to have a quieter drop location for solos or duos. This almost never seems to be a highly-contested area, and it’s open enough that you’ll likely see any threats that do come your way. Grab whatever gear you can here, and then you can rotate to a busier area like Village or Airfield to get into the action.

These map locations should help you get looted up for success on Warzone’s Caldera. Make sure to check out our Caldera bunker guide, if you’re looking for areas to explore and Easter eggs to hunt. And here we recommend the best Warzone loadouts for Season 1.

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Steam Breaks Record For Most Concurrent Users With Nearly 28 Million Players Online

While we might only be mere days into 2022, it looks like Steam is already crushing its New Year’s resolutions. Less than two months after the platform shattered its previous record of concurrent users back in November, Steam has once again achieved an all-time high number of active users, coming in just short of 28 million people logged on to the service as of 10 AM ET on January 2. Of these 27.9 million users, just over 8.2 million were actively playing a game via the PC gaming client, according to SteamDB.

As for which games were the among the most played when the new record was set, Valve’s own free-to-play shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, unsurprisingly topped the list, maxing out with a whopping 867,000 players online. Another Valve original, Dota 2, trailed just behind at 761,000 players. In addition, PUBG, Apex Legends, and Grand Theft Auto V also all made their way into the service’s most-played games list, making the day’s top games list a nearly perfect replica of Steam’s most played games of 2021.

The news comes in the midst of Steam’s annual winter sale, which began on December 22 and runs until January 5. This might explain why games such as Yakuza: Like a Dragon, It Takes Two, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and several other games currently on sale have seen an influx in players, likely contributing to Steam’s new record.

Of course it’s also worth mentioning Final Fantasy XIV also ranked quite high on the service’s most played game list, even with Square Enix trying its hardest to keep folks away from the servers due to some pretty intense congestion by suspending sales. However, if you’re looking to pick up some games that aren’t Final Fantasy XIV, several other fantastic Steam games are still heavily discounted over on the client until January 5, and naturally we have plenty of recommendations for you.

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Nvidia CES 2022 Special Address: How To Watch, Start Times, And What To Expect

The 2022 Consumer Electronics Show begins this week, and despite many major companies pulling their booths from the show floor–thanks Omicron–the online showcases are still moving forward as scheduled.

Among them is Nvidia, coming off of a 2021 filled with continued supply issues surrounding its 30-series graphics cards. The company’s 2022 CES showcase will highlight these cards–Nvidia’s official website mentions “the latest breakthroughs in accelerated computing from design and simulation to gaming and autonomous vehicles” among what to expect–but specific products have not been named.

Join us on Jan. 4 at 8 a.m. PT for our virtual special address during #CES2022 to see the latest breakthroughs in accelerated computing—from design and simulation to gaming and autonomous vehicles. https://t.co/01wprkXzdE

— NVIDIA (@nvidia) December 16, 2021

Nvidia CES 2022 Special Address Start Time

The Nvidia CES 2022 Special Address kicks off January 4 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. Multiple Nvidia accounts have posted teasers for the event–including Nvidia Creators and Nvidia GeForce–indicating a few areas that will be featured.

8 AM PT10 AM CT11 AM ET4 PM GMT3 AM AET (January 5)

How To Watch The Nvidia CES 2022 Special Address

Nvidia has confirmed via its website that the CES 2022 Special Address will be available for viewing on the official Nvidia Facebook, Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube pages, as well as on IBM Video. The presentation is not listed on the CES 2022 website’s schedule, however, so be sure to use one of Nvidia’s official sources.

Considering what’s been teased by Nvidia, we’re expecting a major focus on creators and gamers, the latter specifically through GeForce Now. While we don’t expect to hear about a new line of graphics cards, an update on the 30-series’s stock issues would make sense.

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PS Plus Games For January 2022 Coming Tuesday, Including Persona 5 Strikers And More

Sony has announced January 2022’s free PlayStation Plus games, and there are three titles in all coming to the service this week to kick off the new year.

Available with the PlayStation Store refresh on Tuesday, January 4 will be the racing game Dirt 5 (PS4, PS5), the co-op FPS Deep Rock Galactic (PS4, PS5), and the action-RPG Persona 5 Strikers (PS4). All of these games will be available until February 1.

These titles leaked earlier in December, but this is the first time Sony is officially confirming them. Also of note, Persona 5 Strikers can be played on PS5.

With January’s PS Plus games coming soon, now is a good time to grab December’s PS Plus games before they go away. These include Godfall: Challenger Edition, Lego DC Super Villains, and Mortal Shell, as well as three PlayStation VR games: The Persistence, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, and Until You Fall.

January 4 is also when January’s new PlayStation Now games join the catalog, including Mortal Kombat 11.

January 2022 PlayStation Plus Games

Available until Tuesday, February 4

Dirt 5 — PS4, PS5Deep Rock Galactic — PS4, PS5Persona 5 Strikers — PS4Read MoreGameSpot – Game News