An interesting point about this game, is that it uses BattlEye but it appears the developer has it fully online for Linux. You only need to ensure you install the "Proton BattlEye Runtime" in your Steam Library and then it will just work with the latest Proton 7.0-3 release.

What is it? A mixture of player versus player first-person combat, with it blending in environmental dangers from various creatures and a big storm too. The idea is that you jump in solo or with a crew, loot away and do missions and attempt extraction whenever you want to keep your goods or die trying and lose a bunch. It's a lot of fun actually and while not perfect, the developer seems to have a clear plan to keep improving it and it's already one of the most popular games on Steam.

Here's a video of it on both Steam Deck and my Fedora 36 desktop:

Source

RIP Internet Explorer

This week, Microsoft officially retired Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) across most editions of Windows. The retirement process is two-phased, though. The first phase involves redirecting IE usage to Edge automatically. This is a staggered time-bomb in a way, because it will follow a quality-driven process to roll this behavior out over a period of several months. The second phase will permanently disable IE via a Windows Update. That said, you are not eligible for security updates or support on IE11 on most Windows SKUs even if you continue using it right now.

A recent report also claimed that this retirement may affect up to 47% of enterprise PCs running Windows 10. That said, the phrase "up to" should be emphasized, the actual number might be considerably lower.

Of course, Microsoft has been encouraging everyone to migrate to its Edge browser as soon as possible. It also contains an "IE mode" powered by Internet Explorer's MSHTML/Trident engine, if you're worried about compatibility with legacy applications.

Talking about Microsoft Edge, there were updates for the browser across multiple channels this week. The Stable Channel received version 102.0.1245.41 followed by 102.0.1245.44. Microsoft doesn't have detailed release notes for these, we just know that they fix some bugs and security issues. There are also reports that the latest builds fix the PDF printing issue.

Meanwhile, Edge Dev 104.0.1287.1 added display notifications for Microsoft Rewards and a policy to manage mini menu settings, among tons of other things. Finally, Edge Canary has introduced the useful and highly requested capability to close tabs using double-click. Depending upon its success in testing, it may arrive to the Stable Channel within the next few weeks.

A new Windows 11 SKU

Earlier in the week, we spotted Microsoft's documentation for "Validation OS". We wouldn't blame you if you haven't heard of this SKU before. It turns out that it's actually a lightweight version of Windows 11 that is intended to be used by developers and technicians who are building hardware and software for the OS. Although it's not really meant for your Average Joe, you can check out more details here.

But coming back to SKUs of Windows 11 that we actually know of, there were multiple releases in Insider channels. The Beta Channel netted build 22621.160, which brings tabbed File Explorer and a known issue for the same application. This release is interesting because the tabbed interface started rolling out to the Dev Channel just last week and not even all users in that ring have the new UX either.

Microsoft also rolled out build 22621.105 (KB5014688) to everyone who installed the previous 22621.1 release. While this is specified as a Cumulative Update, there are curiously no public release notes that we know of.

Meanwhile, the Windows 11 Dev Channel received build 25140 with a bunch of bug fixes and improvements. That said, it contains some known issues too so don't miss out on the release notes here. Microsoft made ISO files available for this build as well.

Finally, the Release Preview ring received some love in the form of build 22000.776 (KB5014668). This contains several new features including IP address auditing and Search Highlights, along with lots of bug fixes.

Broken Windows updates

Coincidentally, this week was also Patch Tuesday week, you can find release notes for each supported version of Windows below:

• Windows 7 (KB5014742)
• Windows 8.1 (KB5014746)
• Windows 10 (KB5014699)
• Windows 11 (KB5014697)

Although Patch Tuesday releases are supposed to introduce new features and offer stability, security, and performance improvements. However, it seems like these updates caused more issues than usual.

First, we found out that Wi-Fi hotspots are broken across multiple versions of Windows, including Windows 7, 10, and 11. Basically, if you try to connect to a hotspot, Windows will immediately drop internet connection. Unfortunately, there is no fix available yet.

Another issue, likely affecting fewer users, breaks Microsoft 365 and Azure Active Directory (AAD) sign-in on ARM devices. Although Microsoft is still investigating the problem, it has recommended people to use web versions of Microsoft apps to sign-in instead of the desktop app.

June's Patch Tuesday has fixed the Follina security vulnerability that affected all versions of Windows, however, DogWalk remains unpatched. Microsoft has refused to acknowledge its immediate severity, so there's no knowing if it will ever be fixed.

And while it's unrelated, Microsoft and Intel have also published advisories about a new Stale Data vulnerability that affects Windows 8.1, 10, 11, Server 2016, 2019, and 2022. Customers are urged to install the latest OS and microcode updates immediately. You should also know that Microsoft Defender scored an "ADVANCED" rating in the latest AV-Comparatives results, which is less than the usual "ADVANCED+" rating it typically bags.

Finally, if you thought that Windows Autopatch is a service that will put an end to Patch Tuesday updates, you couldn't be more wrong. Microsoft has clarified that Autopatch is just an option for customers to automate their existing update tooling.

And although this is not related to Patch Tuesday, Microsoft rolled out "Bing Service 2.0" as a Windows Update. Unfortunately, Microsoft has published no documentation about what the update actually brings and you can't uninstall it either.

Git gud

A few days ago, Microsoft held its highly anticipated Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, and it had a lot to show off. We finally got a proper gameplay reveal for the sci-fi RPG Starfield and learned that it offers 1,000 planets to explore, an in-depth character creator - for a character who doesn't have a voice -, factions, lockpicking, mining, and lots more. Arkane's Redfall received the same gameplay reveal treatment too, and we should expect the vampire hunting RPG to land in fall 2023.

Of course, there were LOTS of other announcements and if we even wrote a few lines about each title, this article would be insanely long, so instead, you can catch up on any missing news item by hitting the links below:

• Minecraft Legends is launching in 2023 as an action strategy game

• Hideo Kojima is working with Xbox for an exclusive cloud-powered game

• Obsidian has revealed Pentiment, a murder-investigation title set in the 16th century

• Hollow Knight: Silksong finally received a gameplay trailer, the title will be a day-one Xbox Game Pass offering

• Upcoming free-to-play game Overwatch 2 is getting an early access release in October

• Diablo IV is coming in 2023

• Forza Motorsport is getting a reboot with a release anticipated next year

• Xbox is publishing Oxide Games' grand strategy title Ara: History Untold for PC

• Microsoft Flight Simulator is getting helicopters and gliders soon

• Obsidian's Grounded is graduating from early access in September

• Persona 5 Royal, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 3 Portable are coming to Xbox Game Pass

   

Coming back to our regular news items, you can check out this week's Deals with Gold headlined by Borderlands and Call of Duty here. But if Games with Gold is more your speed, you should know that Raskulls and Project Highrise are now up for grabs.

Similarly, Assassin's Creed Origins, Dead Island Definitive Edition, and I Am Fish can be played for free this weekend if you're an Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber, and if you want, you can nab these titles for massive discounts too.

The Xbox App on PC has been updated with a Game Performance Fit Indicator and better discoverability. Nvidia's Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) v3.1 GeForce driver 525.14 driver for Windows 11 version 22H2 has leaked early too, and you can take a gander at the results here.

Finally, if you play games purely on your PC, check out our guide to this weekend's PC Game Deals, curated personally by Neowin's News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe.

Dev Channel

• Microsoft Teams now offers calmer and clearer audio powered by AI
• Microsoft and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have reached a labor neutrality agreement
• Microsoft has acquired Miburo to combat cybersecurity threats from nation-state threat actors
• Games could be coming to Microsoft Teams... huh?
• The first native ARM64 version of Visual Studio is now available for Windows 11 as a preview
• Microsoft PowerToys 0.59.1 fixes FancyZones bugs, PowerToys Run, and more
• Office apps get SketchUp support in the latest preview update
• Microsoft Defender now has a new variant for individual use
• Microsoft is working with Apple on an iOS update that will migrate existing Basic Auth Exchange Online accounts to Modern Auth (OAuth 2.0) automatically

Under the spotlight

This week, I wrote about how it's silly and confusing that Microsoft is doing A/B updates inside the same Windows 11 Insider channel, something which essentially goes against the purpose of an Insider channel and staggers features randomly. This was even more evident recently when tabbed File Explorer arrived on the Beta Channel this week even though it's not even available to everyone on the Dev Channel. You can read my thoughts on the topic here.

Logging off

Our most interesting news item of this week is obviously about a Google engineer believing that the company's AI has become sentient. This is based on an interview that the engineer conducted with the Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), in which the model expressed a desire to be recognized as a person with proper consent rights for any future experimentation performed on it, and to be directly involved in the conversations about its future. Although this has sparked a fascinating debate about what sentience actually means, the Google engineer has been put on administrative leave for violating the company's privacy policies.

Microsoft Weekly: RIP Internet Explorer, new Windows 11 SKU, and broken updates

The leak comes via Twitter user @wxnod who has posted a photo which seems to show an internal presentation of some offline dealer in China regarding AMD's Ryzen 7000 and AM5 launch. Another user alleges that this picture belongs to "Douyin AMD Official Flagship Store (Xinlongmen Inn)".

The photo shows the AM5 board and on top of it there's a mention of what appears to be September 15. According to another Twitter user Arnold Robinson, this is when sales of the product are supposed to start.

At the moment, though, it is not clear whether this September 15 date is related to the availability of only AM5 motherboards or for both Ryzen 7000 as well as the accompanying motherboards.

Here is a quick rundown of the upcoming AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPUs and its features:

• Up To 16 Zen 4 Cores and 32 Threads

• Up To 8-10% IPC Uplift

• Over 15% Performance Uplift In Single-threaded performance

• TSMC 5nm process node with 6nm I/O Die

• Dual-Channel DDR5 Memory Support

• 28 PCIe Lanes (CPU Exclusive)

• 65-170W TDPs (170W Max TDP / 230W Max PPT)

   

Source and image: @wxnod (Twitter) via Arnonld Robinson (Twitter), @rSkip (Twitter)

AMD's Ryzen 7000 (Zen 4) and Socket AM5 alleged availability date has leaked

As cryptocurrency tumbles, prices for new and used GPUs continue to fall

If Windows Autopatch arrives in July as planned, some of you will be able to say goodbye to Patch Tuesday.

Windows Autopatch formed part of Microsoft's April announcements on updates to the company's Windows-in-the-cloud product. The tech was in public preview since May.

Aimed at enterprise users running Windows 10 and 11, Autopatch can, in theory, be used to replace the traditional Patch Tuesday to which administrators have become accustomed over the years. A small set of devices will get the patches first before Autopatch moves on to gradually larger sets, gated by checks to ensure that nothing breaks.

If an issue crops up, the updates can be paused, rolled back or just the bits of an update that aren't broken rolled out. The cadence will also increase for urgent updates, such as zero-day threats.

Although Autopatch is available free for users running Windows 10/11 Enterprise E3 and above, there is a cost in terms of granular control. Earlier this month Microsoft confirmed it would not be possible to schedule rollouts only at certain days and times. It will also not be possible to individually approve or deny devices.

 PowerShell fans will be disappointed to learn that "Programmatic access to Windows Autopatch is not currently available."

As for where Autopatch pulls its fixes, Windows updates come from the General Availability Channel and Office updates come from the Monthly Enterprise Channel. Teams and Microsoft's Edge browser are special cases – Edge has its own update service and the Teams client application is synchronized with changes to the Teams online service.

Drivers and firmware published to Windows Update as "Automatic" will also dribble down to users via Autopatch. Windows Server and Windows multi-session is not, however, supported.

While Patch Tuesday will continue for many of us, there is now an opportunity for administrators immersed in Windows at an enterprise level and tired of the monthly festival of fixes to free up resources and let Autopatch do its thing.

That's as long as admins are willing to trust that Microsoft is better at managing updates than it is at quality control. ®

Source

That's because certain B550 chipset motherboards are dropping PCIe 4.0 support in favor of just PCIe Gen3. The MSI PRO B550M-P GEN3 model is one such motherboard as spotted by Twitter user MEGAsizeGPU:

AMD introduced PCIe 4.0 support with its 500-series motherboards and both the flagship X570 and the mainstream B550 chipsets have officially been specced to support PCIe Gen4. Only the entry level A520 chipset does not support the 4th Gen PCIe standard.

The spec sheet of the MSI PRO B550M-P GEN3 motherboard confirms that PCIe 4.0 support is missing on these boards:

We looked around and found other MSI boards labelled as "Gen3" which are only PCIe 3.0. For example, here is the spec sheet of a B550 GAMING GEN3 model which also lacks PCIe Gen4:

While most graphics cards with the full 16 lanes or even 8 lanes should not be held back by the throughput provided by PCIe 3.0 (8Gbps), storage devices can be handicapped greatly as NVMe technology is moving forward really fast with PCIe 5.0 stuff already lined up for release in the very near future alongside Socket AM5.

The good thing about these boards is that MSI has clearly indicated that these boards are PCIe 3.0-only; but other motherboard vendors may not make the distinction as clear. As such, it is advised to visit the official website of such vendors and confirm whether a board comes with PCIe 4.0 or not.

This isn't the first time a B550 chipset has been spotted lacking PCIe 4.0 support. Earlier, AMD's OEM partners were using a certain "B550A" chipset in Ryzen pre-builts. At the time, Robert Hallock, Director of Technical Marketing at AMD, revealed that the B550A was actually based on the previous 400-series chipset which had no official support for PCIe Gen4.

Buyer Beware: Certain AMD Ryzen B550 boards are stripping off PCIe 4.0 for only PCIe 3

As such, the company has also published a system requirements guide for system builders. The most interesting takeaway from it is that Intel Arc will need PCIe Resizable BAR (ReBAR) feature (also called Smart Access Memory or SAM in the case of AMD) enabled in the motherboard firmware for "optimal" performance. The firm has outlined the Intel processor families that will support Arc initially.

The document says:

Supported Hardware Configurations

Resizable BAR must be enabled for optimal performance in all applications using Intel® Arc™ A-Series Graphics. Initial support includes the following Intel®-based systems. Support for more platforms will be added at a later time:

It is noteworthy here that a firmware update will be required if you wish to run an Arc A-series GPU like the recently released A380 on a 10th Gen Intel platform.

Intel has also hinted in the document that AMD Ryzen platforms with SAM available are also likely to be supported. It says:

Additional platforms/motherboards with Resizable BAR / Smart Access Memory enabled may also support Intel® Arc™ A-Series graphics.

This means you'd need a Ryzen 3000 series processor (not 3000 G-series APUs) and a 500-series motherboard for Arc GPUs to work optimally.

To set up ReBAR, go to motherboard firmware settings and enable the following:

• Above 4G Decoding (which will enable MMIO for 64-bit device for greater than 4GB memory address space)

• Re-Size BAR Support (The Resizable BAR option may be described as Re-Size BAR, Smart Access Memory, or Clever Access Memory)

   

Source: Intel

Intel confirms Arc GPUs must have AMD SAM / PCIe Resizable BAR for "optimal" performance

And it looks like Apple was not exaggerating at all if we are to believe leaked Geenbench 5 scores of the M2. It looks like the company was testing a chip today and three consecutive runs were made on the upcoming Mac 14,7 (13-inch MacBook Pro 2022 model) which will be powered by the M2.

The average score of the three runs seems to be around ~1,900 points in the single-threaded test with 1,919 being the highest. Meanwhile, in the multi-threaded department, the M2 has managed to put up to 8,928 points. Compared to our own review of M1, the best single- and multi-threaded scores for the M2 here are 11.5% and 17% better respectively. This is pretty much in line with what Apple had claimed.

Meanwhile, the graphics performance has actually exceeded Apple's own claim of +35% as the the M2 has put up 30,627 points in the Metal Geekbench graphics test. A typical M1 scores around 21,500 points indicating that the M2's new 10-core GPU is 42.5% faster here.

You can find the Geekbench scores on the pages at the source links below.

Source: Geekbench (1), (2), (3), (4) via Benchleaks (Twitter)

Leaked Apple M2 Geekbench score suggests Apple did not over-hype at all

Intel has kept its promise. Last month, the company stated that it will be releasing the first Arc desktop GPUs in China and it has kept its word by unveiling its new Arc A380. The Arc A380 is an entry level desktop graphics card from Intel's Arc 3 lineup and in China, the card is priced 1030 Yuan (with VAT) which is around $153.

At this price, the card claims to offer around 25% better performance than the $160 RX 6400 from AMD. Also, the card packs 6GB VRAM instead of 4GB which makes it, on paper, a better alternative than Nvidia's GTX 1650 SUPER, although currently all 1650 variants are overpriced.

The image below shows all the features of the Arc A380:

The full specs for the Arc A380 are given below:

GPU Specifications

• Xe-cores: 8

• Render Slices: 2

• Ray Tracing Units: 8

• Intel® Xe Matrix Extensions (Intel® XMX) Engines: 128

• Xe Vector Engines: 128

• Graphics Base Clock: 2000 MHz

• TDP: 75 W

Memory Specifications

• Memory Size: 6 GB

• Memory Type: GDDR6

• Memory Interface: 96 bit

• Memory Bandwidth: 192 GB/s

• Memory Speed: 16 Gbps

Intel has provided the following performance number for Arc A380:

If you can't read Chinese, that's alright. On its Performance Index page Intel has explained what this graph shows. It reads:

Claim: Intel® Arc™ A380 grpahics delivers above 60 FPS performance at 1080p across popular games

- Game workloads that support this claim are Naraka Bladepoint, PUBG, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, Apex Legends, Fortnite, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, NiZhan, Dota 2, all run with medium settings at 1080p resolution.

The company is essentially driving home the point here that the Arc A380 can offer playable 60+fps in most popular titles at respectable settings. The company has also provided more performance-related figures with Intel's XeSS image upscaling technology, as well as AV1 encoding.

Interestingly, the page says the tests were run using the Arc driver version 30.0.101.1735, which isn't optimized for A380. So with the optimized 1736 driver version, the performance may end up being a bit better.

Source: VideoCardz via The Register

Edit: More details about Intel's Arc A380 performance claims are added below:

Claim: The Intel® Arc™ A380 GPU, with a recommended customer price of 1,030 yuan, delivers up to 25% better performance per yuan than available competitive offerings as measured by performance on a selection of popular games.

GPU(s):

• Intel® Arc™ A380 6GB reference card

• AMD Radeon RX 6400 4GB

System Configuration: Intel® Arc™ A380 configuration: Graphics Driver: 30.0.101.1735, Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-12600K, MSI PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4, BIOS: 1.3, Memory: 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 @ 3200MHz, Storage: MP600 PRO XT 4TB, OS: Windows 11 Version 10.0.22000.675

AMD Radeon RX 6400 configuration: Graphics Driver: 30.0.15021.11005, Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-12600K, MSI PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4, BIOS: 1.3, Memory: 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 @ 3200MHz, Storage: MP600 PRO XT 4TB, OS: Windows 11 Version 10.0.22000.675

Measurements: All FPS (frames per second) scores are either measured with PresentMon or in-game benchmark. All gameplay has a documented workload running the same replay or game scenario across all configurations and test runs.

Game workloads that support this claim are Naraka Bladepoint (27)%, JX Remake (27%), F1 2021 (26%), Rust (24%), Total Saga: Troy (22%), The Witcher 3 (22%), Arcadegeddon (21%), Metro Exodus (18%), NiZhan (16%), Wolfenstein: Youngblood (15%), Destiny 2 (14%).

All games tested at 1080p resolution and medium settings presets.

Period: Pricing and testing as of June 12, 2022. Radeon RX 6400 pricing of 1199 yuan on JD.com.

Source: Intel

Intel releases Arc A380 desktop GPU and it's better than AMD and Nvidia's offerings

After comforting its customer last month with the assurance that its GPU supplies were almost in an appropriate state, Nvidia decided to delay the launch of the GTX 1630. From the original date, which is just days away, the release date is changed to “to be determined.” The reason, according to a report from independent graphics card website Videocardz, is the problem with its supply chain. Nonetheless, the website stresses that the board partners already manufactured GTX 1630 cards that are currently being validated. The website notes that even the GPU packaging design has already been finalized and approved.

With that being said, it is no surprise that even the launch of the 40 series cards will be pushed back. The only piece of good news probably about it is that the changes in the launch date of the three cards are indicated, unlike in GTX 1630. According to Videocardz, the RTX 4090, RTX 4080, and RTX 4070 will be released in September, October, and November of this year, respectively. However, while we are given months where they will supposedly be available, the outlet says that changes are still possible.

Report: GTX 1630 launch date “to be determined,” RTX 40 series pushed back by a month

Unlike previous years, Ubisoft decided to skip out on a big showcase event for June, but a special Assassin's Creed 15th anniversary 'brand update' video had a few things to share. A new entry announcement unfortunately was not part of the video, but it did give a timeframe for when fans can expect a reveal, this September.

"Join us this September as we unveil the future of Assassin's Creed during a very special event," said Ubisoft community developer Alice Terrett. "We can't wait to show you what's in store."

While not even a hint as to what can be expected was given out today, it may be a more stealth-orientated title instead of a fully open world, at least that's according to a recent report corroborated by multiple publications. The game is supposed to feature Basim, a returning character from Assassin's Creed Valhalla, for a prequel storyline. The events present in the game were originally from a Valhalla expansion, per the original report.

To keep Assassin's Creed fans entertained until September though, Ubisoft has more Valhalla content planned for the rest of the year. The Viking RPG is getting the concluding chapter of Eivor's origin story, a roguelite-inspired mode set in Niflheim titled The Forgotten Saga, new tombs, and other additions for free.

Ubisoft will reveal the next chapter of Assassin's Creed in September

Capcom has finally shared details on a new expansion for last year’s excellent Resident Evil Village, including a story campaign, more content for the Mercenaries mode, and a third-person mode. The expansion, called the Winters’ Expansion, will be available on October 28th, the company announced at its Capcom Showcase on Monday.

The new story campaign, Shadows of Rose, stars Rose, the daughter of Village protagonist Ethan Winters. “Rosemary Winters, Ethan’s beloved daughter, has grown up and is now struggling with terrifying powers,” Capcom’s Tsuyoshi Kanda wrote in a post on the PlayStation blog. “In search of a way to break free from her curse, Rose enters the consciousness of the Megamycete. Rose’s journey takes her to a mysterious realm where memories of the past return to create a warped and twisted world of nightmares.”

Shadows of Rose takes place in third person, and with Winters’ Expansion, you’ll be able to play the main story in third person as well. The updates to the arcade-y Mercenaries mode include new stages and new playable characters — including the famous nine-foot tall Lady Dimitrescu.

Capcom didn’t just share news about Resident Evil Village. It also announced that the next-gen updates for Resident Evil 2, 3, and 7 will be available to download today, showed off a brief look at the upcoming Resident Evil 4 remake, and said that the online multiplayer game Resident Evil Re:Verse will be available the same day as Winters’ Expansion, October 28th.

Resident Evil Village is getting an expansion with more story and a third-person mode

Radeon RX 6700 XT

Generally speaking, companies like to announce a product so that it draws the maximum public attention and video card makers like AMD or Nvidia, and soon Intel (with these new photos), are no different. However, it looks like AMD has launched a new graphics card SKU, the Radeon RX 6700, and hasn't really made much fuss about it. The GPU was launched a few days back on the June 9, and with this, Team Red has expanded the RX 6700 series.

The new RX 6700 is based on a cut-down Navi 22 die and hence features 36 Compute Units or 2,304 Stream Processors. The memory has also been stripped as this is a 160-bit width interface GPU and comes with 10 GB of VRAM instead of 12 GB on the 6700 XT. The Infinity Cache has correspondingly also been brought down to 80 MB from 96 MB on the XT GPU.

Basically the new RX 6700 is just a higher clocked desktop variant of the RX 6700M mobile GPU which AMD introduced last year. To put it simply, the card should be a bit faster than the recently released RX 6650 XT and should trade blows with Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti in non-ray traced scenarios. And although there is no MSRP, the 6700 should be priced between the 6650 XT and the 6700 XT, ie, somewhere between $399 and $479.

There is also a new driver which brings optimizations for the new release in the form of the 22.5.2 driver for the 6700. Here are the release notes:

Highlights

Support For

• AMD Radeon™ RX 6700 Graphics
• Sniper Elite 5™
• Hitman 3™ Ray Tracing Update

Additional Vulkan® extensions:

• VK_KHR_push_descriptor

• VK_KHR_ray_tracing_maintenance1

• VK_AMD_shader_early_and_late_fragment_tests

   

Radeon™ Super Resolution

• Additional support – RSR is now compatible with AMD Ryzen™ 6000 series processors with integrated graphics.
• New “Sharpen Effect” slider that allows you to fine-tune the sharpness effect of RSR to your own desired settings.

AMD Privacy View

• A unique software powered by cutting-edge, eye tracking technology built in partnership with the team at Eyeware – monitors your eye movement and reveals only the spot on the screen you are looking at while dimming the rest, keeping prying eyes away from your screen and your information safer.

DirectX® 11 optimizations for Radeon™ RX 6000 series

• Up to 8% increase in performance in DirectX® 11-based games, using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.5.2 on the Radeon RX 6950 XT, versus the previous software driver version 22.5.1 RS-470

AMD Smart Access Memory optimizations for Death Stranding™ and Watch Dogs™: Legion

• Up to 10% increase in performance with new SAM optimizations in Death Stranding™ @ 1440p Very High settings and up to 13% increase in performance with new SAM optimizations in Watch Dogs™: Legion, using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.5.2 on the Radeon RX 6950 XT, versus AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.5.1RS-471
• Up to 12% increase in performance with new SAM optimizations in Death Stranding™ @ 1440p Very High settings and up to 24% increase in performance with new SAM optimizations in Watch Dogs™: Legion, using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.5.2 on the Radeon RX 6750 XT, versus AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.5.1RS-472
• Up to 6% increase in performance with new SAM optimizations in Death Stranding™ @ 1440p Very High settings and up to 6% increase in performance with new SAM optimizations in Watch Dogs™: Legion, using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.5.2 on the Radeon RX 6650 XT, versus AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.5.1RS-473

Known Issues

• Performance drop may be experienced while playing Fortnite™ with Multithreaded Rendering and DirectX® 11 API on some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon® RX 6900 XT Graphics.
• Stuttering may be experienced while playing Call of Duty®: Warzone™ on the Caldera map with some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon® RX 6900 XT Graphics.
• Higher than expected CPU usage when Instant Replay is enabled on some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon® RX 6900 XT Graphics.
• GPU utilization may be stuck at 100% in Radeon performance metrics after closing games on some AMD Graphics Products such as Radeon™ 570.
• Display may flicker black during video playback plus gameplay on some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon™ RX 6700 XT.
• Using Radeon™ Super Resolution on 2560x1600 resolution displays may produce a system hang. A temporary workaround is to set the display Scaling Mode to Full Panel.
• Enhanced Sync may cause a black screen to occur when enabled on some games and system configurations. Any users who may be experiencing issues with Enhanced Sync enabled should disable it as a temporary workaround.
• Radeon performance metrics and logging features may intermittently report extremely high and incorrect memory clock values.

To download the driver, head over to the official page on AMD's website here.

As you can see above, the new 22.5.2 driver does seem to help out the RX 6700 nicely and so if you happen to buy this GPU, make sure to install this driver. Also, this driver should not be confused with the general 22.5.2 AMD driver.

Via: @KOMACHI_ENSAKA (Twitter)

AMD quietly makes the Radeon RX 6700 official, launches special 22.5.2 driver too

Intel tries to get its chip manufacturing back on track with “Intel 4,” due in 2023

And like it often does, SiSoftware has decided to post an early performance preview of an upcoming Raptor Lake-S SKU. The Intel Core i9-13900, which is the locked counterpart of the i9-13900K, has been tested. The part has been compared against last-gen Alder Lake-S (ADL-S) Core i9-12900, 11th Gen Rocket Lake-S (RKL-S) i9-11900K and AMD's 12C/ 24T Ryzen 9 5900X (Zen 3).

First up we have the arithmetic (integer and floating point) benchmarks and in this test, the new Raptor Lake CPU has massive gains over its 12th Gen 12900 counterpart. In fact, in one instance, the performance has even doubled. This is enough to take the Core i9-13900 over the Ryzen CPU as well, an impressive showing. The extra two clusters of smaller Gracemont cores on Raptor Lake really seem to help here. As such, the Raptor Lake i9 CPUs are 24 core 32 thread parts compared to 16 cores 24 threads on Alder Lake.

Up next, Vector SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) benchmarks were tested and unlike in the case of non-SIMD, the performance gains here for the Raptor Lake-S i9-13900 are rather modest compared to Alder Lake. The bigger takeaway is that the upcoming Intel CPU is unable to beat the Ryzen 9 5900X as the latter enjoys a healthy performance lead.

As such, SiSoft remarks that the upcoming Intel chips could have a hard time competing against AMD's Zen 4 parts in SIMD workloads since AMD is bringing AVX-512 with these upcoming CPUs.

The firm says:

With heavily vectorised SIMD workloads – RPL cannot beat ADL by more than 4-6% and thus generally even lose to the AVX512-enabled RKL with just 16-threads (vs. 32T on RPL). This shows just how much AVX512 can help despite the extra power required – and here it is hugely missed.

However, AMD’s Zen3 (5900X) with less threads (24T) but 12 big cores (vs. 8C + 16c) still beats RPL by a decent margin and this is not great news for Intel. With AMD’s forthcoming Zen4 supporting AVX512, RPL is likely to be severely beaten into dust – by perhaps as much as 2x (100%). Intel will, again, have to rely on non-SIMD workloads/benchmarks (Cinebench?) to show performance leadership.

You can find SiSoftware's Raptor Lake Core i9-13900 performance preview here.

Via: APISAK (Twitter)

Early Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake i9-13900 review suggests AMD Ryzen 7000 could be king

Xbox revealed a ton of exciting news at the Xbox & Bethesda Game Showcase, ranging from a longer look at Starfield to news about Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV.

For this event, Xbox only focused on games available to play within the next 12 months. So at least you won’t have to wait too long. In case you missed it, here’s a roundup of the biggest announcements and trailers.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is poised to arrive within the year

Hollow Knight: Silk Song, the highly-anticipated sequel to the popular Hollow Knight indie title, is set to launch on day one for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. The trailer shows off the platformer’s beautiful artwork and gameplay, but there isn’t an official release date just yet.

Overwatch 2 will be free to play

It’s official: Overwatch 2 will be free to play and early access is set to come on October 4th. The game will also feature a new tank hero called Junker Queen. Blizzard will reveal more information about the game during an event on June 16th.

Starfield gameplay trailer reveals ship-building capabilities

Bethesda has finally given us a longer look at character creation and ship-building capabilities in Starfield, a game that has been in the works since 2018. The highly-anticipated space exploration role-playing game looks pretty promising from the trailer. Though the human characters still look like they were made by Bethesda.

The Persona franchise is hitting Xbox

Xbox is partnering with Persona developer Atlus to bring Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 5 Royal to Xbox consoles and PC. Persona 5 Royal will be the first to arrive on October 21st.

Diablo IV is coming next year

Diablo IV is — finally — set to come out next year for both Xbox and PC. During the showcase, Blizzard showed off the game’s couch co-op capability and introduced the fifth and final class: the Necromancer.

The next Forza Motorsport is coming with several upgrades

The new Forza Motorsport is set to come with “a new level of realism” powered by the Xbox Series X’s ray-tracing capabilities. Some other changes include changes to the time of day and temperatures, tire and fuel management, in-depth car-building, and more.

Halo Infinite’s Pelican is coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator: 40th Anniversary add-on — available now — makes Halo Infinite’s Pelican flyable in-game. It will also feature partnerships with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum “in a one-of-a-kind collaboration” with more details to come at a later date.

Redfall is coming in 2023

Xbox offered a new look at Redfall, a co-op, first-person shooter (FPS) that has players fending off vampires in the fictional town of Redfall, Massachusetts. Redfall, which is developed by the Arkane Studios, the team behind Dishonored, made its first appearance at E3 last year.

Ark 2 with Vin Diesel is coming in 2023

We got another glimpse at Vin Diesel in Ark 2. The prehistoric survival sandbox takes place on the alien planet of Arat and is set to arrive next year on Xbox.

Forza Horizon 5 Hot Wheels expansion arrives in July

Just like previous Forza Horizon games, Forza Horizon 5 is also getting a Hot Wheels expansion pack that lets you build and race on custom tracks made with virtual track pieces. The expansion, which is coming on July 19th, will also feature new cars including the 2021 Hennessey Venom F5 and 2000 Hot Wheels Deora II.

A new Minecraft spinoff is on the way

Minecraft Legends is a new action-strategy spinoff that asks you to “unite the overworld.” The trailer shows familiar boxy-looking characters fending off hoards of enemies on horseback and commanding teams of their own.

Pentiment is a new narrative game from the creators of Fallout: New Vegas

The first thing you’ll notice about Pentiment is its unique art style. The narrative-style game is set in 16th-century Bavaria, and comes to us from Obsidian, the same studio that brought us Fallout: New Vegas.

Sea of Thieves’ season seven brings new boat customization options

The next season Sea of Thieves is titled “Captains of Adventure,” and is set to become available on July 21st. It introduces the ability to buy, name, and customize ships.

Elder Scrolls Online gets a new area to explore

A new area is coming to Elder Scrolls Online — High Isle consists of a series of isles located in the Systres Archipelago, where you’ll have to defend the area’s population of Bretons from the Ascendant Order.

Hideo Kojima is partnering with Xbox Studios on a mysterious new game

Hideo Kojima, the developer best known for his work on the Metal Gear series, made an appearance during the event, noting that his studio is partnering with Xbox on a new game. Details are still slim for now, but one can’t help but wonder if it has anything to do with leaked gameplay footage that Kojima asked a reporter to take down.

A loose timeline of the Game Pass titles on the way

Lastly, Xbox showed off the lineup of games set to arrive on Game Pass for PC and Xbox over the course of the next year. This includes many of the games Xbox teased today, like Overwatch 2, Persona 5 Royal, Redfall, and Starfield.

The biggest trailers and announcements from the 2022 Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase

Supported for Windows 11 or not supported for Windows 11, that is the question

Some people on unsupported Windows 10 PCs received a pleasant (?) surprise that their machine is now eligible for Windows 11 version 22H2 and they should install it right now. The eligibility criteria seemed quite random with people on various configurations including 6th-generation Intel CPUs receiving the Windows 11 upgrade banner. Although some users were able to successfully upgrade without a hitch, others received errors during their install. Microsoft later confirmed that it has not had a change of heart regarding Windows 11's stringent requirements, and it eventually patched the issue that was offering the update on unsupported configurations.

Meanwhile, many users on Insider Preview build 22621 - which is the RTM build for Windows 11 version 22H2 - began seeing a message in the Device Security page noting that "Standard hardware security not supported: Your device does not meet the requirements for standard hardware security. Devices have different hardware built in that Windows uses to provide additional protection." This is an error from Microsoft's part as well since the hardware in question actually does meet the system requirements. Although this is not a new bug, and Microsoft actually fixed it for an older preview build, it has popped up again.

In the same vein, as if Windows 11's requirements aren't strict enough, Microsoft is now reportedly pushing OEMs to necessarily include an SSD boot drive in new Windows 11 PCs. Although there is obviously no confirmation yet, this has led to speculation that future feature updates to Windows 11 might enforce having an SSD boot drive as a minimum requirement to install the OS.

And if Windows 11's support isn't confusing enough for you yet, there is now a public effort underway to make the OS unofficially but natively run on Apple's M1 processor. It's obviously a tall order and we don't know if it will ever reach its goal but it might be interesting to follow the project's progress.

Tabbed File Explorer (finally!)

This week, Microsoft rolled out build 25136 to the Windows 11 Dev Channel. The highlight of this release is undoubtedly the tabbed interface in File Explorer, something that has been requested for years. Although it was already available as a hidden capability in previous Insider builds, Microsoft has now released it officially. Other improvements include dynamic content for Widgets on the Taskbar and tons of bug fixes.

Talking about Widgets, it seems like Microsoft is testing another one in the form of yet another search bar, this time on the Taskbar itself. This is in addition of the search bar it is testing on the desktop and the one already present in the Start menu. That said, it is important to note that Microsoft hasn't announced its availability officially and you have to jump through some hoops to enable it, so it's possible that plans on this front may change in the future.

Alongside the reveal for build 25136, Microsoft also announced a bunch of improvements for the new Notepad and Media Player apps in Windows 11. The former now has native ARM64 support, better performance, and enhancements to accessibility features. Meanwhile, the latter finally allows you to sort content by date added and also has better performance when managing large collections. However, not all of these capabilities and improvements are available in all Insider channels so check out the finer details here.

Notable, Microsoft rolled out Windows 11version 22H2 RTM build 22621 to the Release Preview Channel as well. If you're unsure about what improvements this feature update brings, check out our detailed guide here.

Oh, and if you're an IT admin at your organization responsible for managing Windows and Office apps updates, you should know that the Microsoft 365 admin center has been updated with a unified dashboard which provides information about both these areas.

App updates galore

Coming over to app updates, there's lot of news. We will start off with Microsoft Whiteboard which is scheduled to get Bing online image search capabilities, tentatively before the end of this month. Some Office apps have received a redesigned dictation toolbar for those running Insider builds. The toolbar now appears at the side instead of the center and has more responsive animations as well. Meanwhile, Microsoft Word has a new capability that provides you to react to comments on documents, you can find out how to use it here.

Microsoft Teams is getting a new Cameo experience through its existing integration with PowerPoint Live. While Microsoft hasn't revealed the details yet, it is supposed to make it easier to manage the presenter's camera and the slide deck being shared simultaneously. This should arrive in August if everything goes well.

But if you're interested in what features Teams offers right now, you should have a look at real-time background noise suppression, now available for Teams' macOS and iOS clients as well. Meanwhile, automatic music detection should arrive sometime in the future.

PowerToys received version 0.59, notably introducing improvements for Keyboard Manager, a redesign for Power Rename, and finalizations for native ARM64 support. Go through the full changelog here.

We also found out via a leak that Microsoft is planning a bunch of enhancements for its Phone Link app. Some capabilities currently in internal testing include the ability to search messages, categorize them into hidden and unhidden messages, unhide messages, and other minor improvements to the notifications panel. Read more about all the juicy details here.

Finally, and this is relevant to enterprise use-cases, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint has gained a new feature that attempts to slow down and possibly halt attackers from moving laterally across the network using compromised unmanaged Windows devices. It does this by blocking all incoming and outgoing communication from compromised unmanaged machines.

Git gud

There was no shortage of gaming news either. Ahead of its Xbox and Bethesda Showcase - which will also get an Extended show on June 14 - tomorrow, Microsoft outed tons of improvements for its cloud gaming service. A key highlight is that gamers will soon be able to play games they already own via Xbox Cloud Gaming, without being tied down to what's available on Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft is in the process of implementing this capability.

In a bid to expand Xbox Cloud Gaming even more, the service has now arrived in Argentina and New Zealand. And from June 30, any living in an Xbox Cloud Gaming-supported region will be able to take advantage of the service (after signing up) through a Samsung Smart TV and the Xbox app alone. You won't need a console, just a controller and a Samsung Smart TV.

Additionally, if you are on the lookout for customized Xbox controllers, you might be in some luck because Xbox Design Lab has now expanded to 11 more countries with new color options. Meanwhile, Microsoft is planning to rival the new PlayStation Plus tiers next year by offering time-limited trials for Xbox games through Game Pass. That's not all, though. Microsoft has also revealed that it intends to launch at least five first-party games within the next 12 months.

Since we are talking about Microsoft's cloud gaming endeavors, it is pertinent to mention new details that emerged about Keystone this week. It turns out that Keystone might actually be positioned as the smallest cloud-powered console. It could feature ports for controllers and Ethernet, Wi-Fi connectivity, and a price tag of $99. We don't have a firm release date yet but it could arrive in 2023.

Coming over to individual games, both editions of Minecraft - Java and Bedrock - received The Wild Update a few days ago. It injects new biomes, mobs, character creator items, and more. Microsoft has also merged Java and Bedrock into a single edition on PC.

We also found out via a Steam leak that Forza Horizon 5 is getting a Hot Wheel expansion soon too. Meanwhile, Xbox Insiders on Windows PCs can now access a free preview of the 2003 classic, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, available until June 23. And next week's Halo Infinite update will bring major changes to Ranked matchmaking and some bug fixes for good measure too.

If you're aching for some sweet Xbox game deals, check out our dedicated Deals with Gold article headlined by Biomutant and Insurgency: Sandstorm here. But if you play games purely on your PC, don't miss out on this weekend's PC game deals, curated by Neowin's News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe.

And while it was mostly a cross-platform show, if you couldn't find time to keep track of Geoff Keighly's Summer Game Fest 2022, read about all the major announcements here.

Dev Channel

• Microsoft has deployed a fix for a bug that was randomly banning some people for redeeming Microsoft Rewards points
• Sleeping Tabs managed to save Microsoft Edge users 273 Petabytes of RAM over the duration of 28 days
• Microsoft HoloLens chief Alex Kipman has exited the company following recent allegations of misconduct

• Microsoft Edge Dev channel build 104.0.1278.2 features improved icons for macOS

• A Windows vulnerability dubbed "DogWalk" has received an unofficial patch

• Microsoft is scaling down its operations in Russia, affecting 400 employees

• Microsoft Defender failed to score full marks in the latest AV-TEST rankings

• The Surface Duo 2 has received a major update with new features while the Surface Laptop Go 2 has netted its first firmware update

• Microsoft has announced four new workplace initiatives for its U.S. employees, including removing non-compete clauses for most staff

   

Under the spotlight

This week, Neowin News Reporter Taras Buria wrote a handy guide about how you can uninstall Windows 11 version 22H2 and roll back to a previous build. It is important to note that Microsoft hasn't started generally rolling out this feature update yet but you can still install it earlier than others if you're eager to get your hands on it.

Although Microsoft rolled out tabbed File Explorer interface in Windows 11 Dev Channel build 25136, it may not be available for everyone just yet. If you want to force the interface to be visible rather than waiting for Microsoft to flip the switch, check out this other guide by Taras too.

Logging off

Our most interesting news item of this week is about an NFT of Twitter's ex-CEO Jack Dorsey's tweet - which was originally sold for $2.9 million last year - receiving a highest bid of $29 when we wrote about it earlier in the week. Although the current owner, crypto entrepreneur Sina Estavi, tried to pawn it off for a massive $50 million a few months ago, he struggled to reach even the $50,000 mark. While the NFT has an offer of $832 at the time of writing, it is still quite a way off from even the $2.9 million that Estavi paid for it a few months ago. It does seem like the NFT bubble has finally burst.

Microsoft Weekly: Unsupported Windows 11 PCs, tabbed File Explorer, and app updates

The company Meta (née Facebook) has slowed its pursuit of AR glasses. The headset, which Meta had aimed for release in 2024, was likely years away from actual development. Now, those plans seem to be on indefinite hold. That report comes a few weeks after Meta admitted it burned through more than $10 billion on its metaverse efforts.

It's not the only hardware to go on Meta's back burner. Portal—the controversial videoconferencing device with an object-sensing camera that follows your movements—is also going into limited production. Meta now will stop producing Portals at the consumer level and aim the product at business users instead. The company has also reportedly stopped developing a smartwatch with cameras that had been in the works for a couple years. But hey, the guy who came up with the metaverse is getting into NFTs now, so maybe it's all still legit.

Phone cameras have gotten pretty boring. In fact, they’ve remained fundamentally unchanged for years. But the company Metalenz is moving camera tech forward by developing optics that capture more data while lying flatter than standard lens elements. Flat optics are easier to stack, which makes for better lenses in a smaller package—so small that a smartphone designed around Metalenz’s camera tech could eliminate the external bump on the back of the handset.

On Thursday, Metalenz announced a partnership with the semiconductor company STMicroelectronics that should accelerate Metalenz’s entry into the consumer market. The company’s first product utilizing the “metasurface” lens tech is a depth sensor that can be used for smartphone functions that require 3D data, such as portrait mode photos or face-unlock authentication. The same sensor can also provide depth-sensing abilities to VR headsets and autonomous robots.

If adoption of Metalenz’s tech continues, these flatter and more powerful lenses could be making their way into more smartphone-ready camera modules to help you better see the world around you.

On Wednesday, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it will dig deeper into its investigation of Tesla’s Autopilot features after a series of crashes last year. Last August, the NHTSA started looking into 11 accidents since 2018 in which Teslas in Autopilot mode ran into vehicles at emergency scenes where first responders were present. The expanded investigation will examine the Tesla vehicles themselves and attempt to assess whether the autonomous systems were wholly at fault, or just made human error worse.

OK, so I guess when Tesla crashes its car into an ambulance late at night it gets “investigated,” but when I do it I get “arrested on the spot.” Whatever.

When the Chinese company OnePlus announces new phones, they don’t get quite the same splash that iPhones or Samsung’s Galaxy phones do. Still, we tend to like OnePluses (OnesPlus?) hardware here at WIRED. The new OnePlus 10 Pro, which we gave a 7/10, is already on sale in the US and Canada, but there's a new configuration with much more memory and storage arriving on June 15. The new version of the phone will have 12 GB of RAM, up to 256 GB of internal storage, up from 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage on the original version. The new model, like the old one, runs OnePlus’ own OxygenOS over Android 12. The beefier config starts at $969 and is only available in black.

The time is nigh to kiss the console goodbye—if you bought yourself a brand-new Samsung smart TV. Microsoft announced Thursday that it will be bringing its cloud gaming feature of Xbox Game Pass to Samsung’s 2022 line of smart TVs on June 30. That’s more than 100 Xbox games streamed right to your screen, no console required. Microsoft says it plans to expand to other smart TVs in the future.

Xbox Game Pass has already smoothed out some boundaries between gaming platforms, letting people play across consoles and PCs. While Microsoft seems keen to hang onto its hardware, it seems like the days of the console are numbered.

In case you missed it, Apple held its WWDC event this week. During the keynote event (aka outdoor prerecorded screening) on Monday, Apple laid out its vision for the next iterations of iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS. It also showed off a couple different MacBooks, though clearly one was the favorite child.

This week on the Gadget Lab podcast, WIRED product reviewer Brenda Stolyar comes on the show to talk about the important takeaways from the event, and what it was like on the ground at Apple headquarters

Meta Halts Plans for Portal, AR Glasses, and Other Hardware

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AMD divulges more Ryzen 7000 details, confirms more 3D V-Cache gaming CPUs

Following the report yesterday that smart home company Insteon’s servers had mysteriously fired up overnight, there is good news: Insteon is back, and it was resurrected by its customers. This message appeared on the Insteon blog today, posted by the company's new CEO Ken Fairbanks:

We are a small group of passionate Insteon users that have successfully acquired Insteon. Like many of you, our homes are powered by Insteon’s amazing dual-mesh technology and highly configurable products.

Insteon’s servers went offline last April when SmartLabs, the company that owned the smart lighting system, ran into “financial difficulties.” A financial services firm had been appointed to sell its assets, but this “group of passionate users” stepped in and has taken over.

The group says it plans on “responsibly re-building the Insteon business.” What that means exactly is unclear, and it’s not known whether a subscription fee will be necessary to keep the servers going. That’s what happened when smart home platform Wink ran into financial issues a few years ago and started charging for services that used to be free.

Insteon’s hubs are now back online, but the app is still missing from app stores. Image: Insteon

Fairbanks goes on to explain that getting the hubs back online was the first priority in order to stem the loss of customers. They were able to reactivate the service before they had access to the site or ways to communicate with users, hence the slightly worrying stealth move. “Every day more customers were giving up hope so it was critical to get that restored as soon as possible,” Fairbanks wrote. “We are aware not all functions are back online but we are actively working on it. We hope you understand this urgency and appreciate your patience.”

This is all great news for owners of Insteon devices, which include smart switches, plugs, and other lighting products. The devices hadn't stopped working locally but had lost their cloud connection through the hub, meaning there was no way to program them using the app or control them remotely.

But it’s not a great sign for the smart home in general. No one who buys a smart light switch wants to worry about whether they’ll have to buy the company one day just to keep the lights on.

Connected home manufacturers need to develop products and services with longevity in mind and have an actionable plan laid out for what happens if they do have to switch the lights off. Not building these two strategies into a business plan for smart devices should be a major red flag for customers and investors.

Insteon customers turned Insteon’s lights back on

The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has bought a quantum computer, according to BBC News. This makes the MoD the first government department to buy a quantum computer but as they become more practical, other departments are likely to buy them too. The MoD will now work with Orca Computing to figure out ways to use quantum computing as part of its work.

Specifically, the MoD will be working with Orca’s PT-1 quantum computer. The machine is one of the first quantum computers able to operate at room temperature – previous quantum computers needed the room to be below freezing to keep the qubits cool. The MoD said the PT-1 will help it more quickly understand quantum computers.

The CEO of Orca Computing, Richard Murray, said:

“Our partnership with MoD gives us the type of hands-on close interaction, working with real hardware which will help us to jointly discover new applications of this revolutionary new technology.”

The fact that the UK government is only just buying into this technology shows that quantum computing is still quite early in its development. With that said, the fact that Orca has built a machine that doesn’t need to be kept frozen shows some important advancements are being made in the field.

UK's Ministry of Defence acquires the government's first quantum computer

SummerSummer Game Fest host Geoff Keighley warned fans to temper their expectations for today’s livestreamed event, which kicks off several days of demos and events. And indeed, the show didn’t have a lot of huge reveals — especially because one of its biggest announcements, a PlayStation 5 remake of The Last of Us, leaked just before the show.

But Summer Game Fest did manage to introduce a couple of surprises and new gameplay for the coming year’s big titles. Also, for some reason, a lot of it involved outer space.

If you didn’t catch the show, you can see the biggest announcements below.

A new Aliens game is coming next year

Alien and Aliens games, to put it mildly, vary in quality. And we don’t know much about Aliens: Dark Descent, a newly announced installment in the franchise. (It’s presumably unrelated to Frictional’s Amnesia: The Dark Descent.) Developer Tindalos Interactive describes it as a squad-based action game where you command a group of Colonial Marines against xenomorphs and a new, unknown enemy. The game is scheduled for release on current- and next-generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles, plus PC, in 2023.

New gameplay from The Callisto Protocol

We’ve already seen a trailer for The Callisto Protocol, a survival horror game made by Striking Distance Studios, whose members worked on the original Dead Space. But today’s event gave us a closer look at the gameplay. The project seems to heavily channel Dead Space’s survival horror style, with goopy monsters, a plasma cutter-like weapon, and gruesome death animations for your character. As previously announced, the game comes out December 2nd.

A new level from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is months away from its October 28th release, and Summer Game Fest cast a little more light on what we’ll find there, showing a full playthrough of a level. The video shows players boarding a ship to neutralize a missile and survive a storm, highlighting the game’s water and wind physics.

Classic platformer Flashback will get a sequel

Flashback helped establish the cinematic platformer genre in 1992, and 30 years after its release, it’s getting a sequel. The sequel is being developed by French studio Microids, and it’s apparently coming to current- and next-gen PlayStation and Xbox consoles, Steam, and Nintendo Switch in winter of 2022. That’s all we know! You can check out a teaser above for a sense of the vibe.

Fort Solis is Dead Space crossed with Moon

Ubiquitous game voice actor Troy Baker and Red Dead Redemption 2’s Roger Clark are lending their voices to Fort Solis, a newly announced game from independent studio Fallen Leaf. Baker describes Fort Solis as a “tight thriller” and “Dead Space meets Duncan Jones’ Moon,” and it’s apparently a fast-paced narrative game set on a remote Martian mining outpost. Its trailer says it’s going to be released on Steam.

Robot horror game Routine was delayed by a decade, but it’s back

Routine first appeared all the way in 2012, promising a creepy horror atmosphere on a spaceship populated by dangerous robots. Then it was pushed back year after year as a relatively inexperienced team tried to complete it. Now it’s got a new trailer, which lists it as coming to PC, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, and Xbox Game Pass at an unknown date.

Stormgate is a new RTS from a team of Blizzard veterans

Frost Giant Studios was founded by former Blizzard developers, including veterans from the StarCraft and Warcraft real-time strategy series, and just revealed its first title: a sci-fi-plus-demons RTS called Stormgate. Stormgate is supposed to “stay true” to the classic RTS formula. But it’s intended to be more accessible and use a free-to-play model without including pay-to-win mechanics or crypto tokens. You can see a short trailer above.

The world ended in Highwater, and the weather looks nice

Golf Club: Wasteland developer Demagog’s new title Highwater is an “adventure strategy game set in a world ravaged by extreme climate change,” according to Keighley. At Game Fest we got a colorful yet melancholy trailer about characters navigating a flooded city dubbed Alphaville, showing off pieces of the game’s exploration and turn-based combat.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns is coming October 7th

Firaxis Games’ Marvel’s Midnight Suns was announced last year at Gamescom, and now we have an official release date: October 7th. In case you’ve forgotten, it’s a tactical role-playing game set in the “darker side of the Marvel Universe,” and you can see some new footage above.

Naughty Dog is making a new multiplayer narrative game

Naughty Dog’s big news actually leaked before Summer Game Fest: it’s releasing a remake of The Last of Us Part I for PlayStation 5 on September 2nd, and a version for PC is in development. But it also teased a new project: a multiplayer-focused game that’s supposed to be as big as its single-player titles and feature a story that’s “very unique” to the game. As Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann describes above, the project began as a The Last of Us Part II multiplayer mode. Then it was then expanded into its own — as of yet unnamed — game. A piece of concept art suggests will be set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, and it features “a brand-new cast of characters.” For now, that’s about all we know, with more news promised to come next year.

Summer Game Fest 2022: all the news and trailers

Quantum computer succeeds where a classical algorithm fails

Loongson's processors do not use ARM and neither does it use x86 or AMD64. The Chinese company in fact uses its own in-house LoongArch instruction set architecture (ISA) which is different from the two. However, the effort it is putting in is commendable if the performance figures hold true across a wide variety of tested scenarios.

Speaking of that, the performance report here is based mainly on SPEC 2006 benchmarks, and SPEC is generally regarded by the industry players as a good standard for IPC testing. According to Loongson, the new 3A6000 CPUs offer 34% improvement in Integer performance and 68% gains in Floating Point output.

As per Chinese media website EET-China's estimates, this puts the Loongson 3A6000 CPUs performance in the ballpark of AMD's Zen 3 and Intel's 11th Gen chips.

However, IPC isn't everything as clock speed is equally important. But in this regard, Loongson processors have a lot of catch up to do since the previous 3A5000 CPUs were generally capable of running at around 2.3-2.5GHz. The new 3A6000 CPUs are also built on the same manufacturing process node and it the clocks are unlikely to increase significantly on the same node.

Source and image: EET-China

Godson 3A6000 Chinese CPU IPC equals AMD's Zen 3 (Ryzen 5000) and Intel 11th Gen

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 becomes a Microsoft Surface-like detachable