PUBG: New State is bricking Android devices, some users have reported on social media. The issue seems to have impacted especially those users who are using Android 12. However, it is also allegedly affecting devices running on some earlier Android versions. The bricking issue has emerged just hours after PUBG: New State was released in more than 200 countries, including India. The new game is touted to deliver a “next-generation battle royale” experience to gamers. It was announced in February and is available for download on Android, iPhone, and iPad devices.

Among other affected users, tipster Mukul Sharma tweeted to report the bricking issue after installing PUBG: New State. Sharma said that while he was able to recover his Oppo Find X2 Pro, the game hard bricked his device — running on Android 12 — which was not booting up.

He noted on his report, via 91Mobiles, that the problem surfaces when PUBG: New State prompts users to sign in either as a guest or using a social account.

“Tapping on any of the three buttons turned out to be a nightmare and the device entered [the] boot loop for a couple of minutes. Post that, things became worse, as the device completely froze and is, well, a brick for now,” Sharma said.

The bricking issue is, however, not all pervasive at this moment — thankfully. We were able to load the game fully and play it on an Android 12-running Pixel 4a.

Gadgets 360 has reached out to publisher Krafton for a comment on the PUBG: New State bricking problem. This report will be updated when we hear back.

Ahead of its launch earlier on Thursday, PUBG: New State also saw an initial hiccup due to technical issues impacting its server access that resulted in a delay of a couple of hours in its arrival. The game is also not fully free of bugs as Krafton has mentioned some known issues on its official website.

The post PUBG: New State Bricking Android Devices, Some Users Report appeared first on Technology News.

Fast forward to June 2021 when we were greeted with an “Indian” version of PUBG Mobile, under the name of Battlegrounds Mobile India. Owing to the ban, Krafton chose to hide the PUBG moniker, it was nowhere to be seen. BGMI, as they call it, was similar to PUBG but with “Indian” elements. More importantly, it only allowed players to connect to the Indian server which meant that they couldn’t play on global servers. But now, it seems like Krafton is ready to re-introduce India to the good old name of PUBG. Except it’s got a new avatar in PUBG: New State. We’ve played a couple of games and here’s what we make of it.

PUBG: New State first impressions

Announced back in February 2021, PUBG: New State officially launched this Thursday — for both Android and iOS devices. The Android package that we downloaded from the Google Play Store clocked in at 1.4GB, whereas the iOS version weighed in at 1.5GB. Initially, the game had a couple of server issues. Players were not able to get past the loading screen. Although, after a 200MB update was pushed out, we were able to log in and hop into the game.

This time around, PUBG: New State allows you to log in using a Google or Facebook account. The first thing that comes up is the character model and column to register your name. You can customize them according to your liking, just like what we’ve seen in the previous PUBG and BGMI variants.

Visuals in PUBG New State look refined
Photo Credit: Robin John/Gadgets360

PUBG: New State then asks you whether you are a novice, intermediate or expert in battle royale games. Besides this, I noticed another prompt that shows you three different templates of playing style: two fingers, three fingers and the one that most of the professional players use, four fingers. The UI of the game feels refreshing and less congested compared to that of BGMI, the lobby looks cleaner, and it feels a lot like the PC version of PUBG that was launched back in 2017.

The settings panel is almost the same with a couple of new options in the graphics menu. Under performance, you get to choose between Low, Medium, High, Very High, Ultra, Max and Extreme for frame rates. As for graphics, you get to choose between Lite, Medium, High, Ultra and Extreme. You still get to choose a Screen Filter, although the Colorblind Mode is nowhere to be seen. The game allows you to choose a Graphics API: OpenGL ES or Vulkan. There are a couple of additions in the Gameplay section as well in PUBG: New State.

Overall, the visuals look good, especially in the Ultra + Max settings. We tried the game on Realme 6 Pro which could only go up to Lite + Max. However, on the iPhone 12, we were able to achieve Max + Ultra.

PUBG New State map: hello Troi

With PUBG: New State, Krafton has introduced us to a bunch of new maps. You get a new field that goes by the name of Troi and the age-old Erangel. However, there’s a twist, this time around Erangel is based in the year 2051. You also get a Team Deathmatch (TDM) map that goes by the name of Station — this map is currently under beta.

We quickly jumped into a game on the new map, Troi. The usual lobby of players looks the same with everyone throwing fists around. In PUBG: New State, you can switch between your outfits using the portable closet, something similar to PUBG Mobile.

Bird’s eye view from the plane now shows you the name of cities
Photo Credit: Robin John/Gadgets360

The plane graphics look a bit refined and as the plane enters the map, we can see that the names of all the cities are etched and tracked live with the map. It’s a beautiful view. There’s no way you can confuse two cities now. The new map in PUBG: New State has different cities such as Loganville, Mid Town, Cornwall, Graveyard, and etc.

Erangel 2051 in PUBG: New State does not have any new cities but just a few additions to some places. Jumping off the plane has the same animations — though while landing, unlike BGMI or the first edition of PUBG, the parachute stays on your back and lands along with you which feels more realistic.

PUBG: New State — this feels different

The main theme of PUBG: New State is to show off the futuristic view of the game. And what better tool to showcase this with besides cars and bikes. They have deployed a couple of new rides in the game which includes a bike that looks sporty and a bunch of cars that seem otherworldly.

They have also added trams to the map, which is crazy. These trams move along the map and can also be used as shelter. And if you think this was surprising, wait till you find out that the cars in this game have auto-pilot. These all seem a bit overkill for a battle royale game on mobile, but since the theme of PUBG: New State is to keep things futuristic, we’ll play along.

Besides that, you can now unload your ammo and weapons in the car’s trunk if your bag gets too heavy. Vehicles now also have a start engine/stop engine toggle to save fuel in the game. All the cars in PUBG: New State allow you to open the door and take cover behind it whenever you are under threat, a real lifesaver in some situations.

You can now take cover behind a car’s door when under enemy attack
Photo Credit: Robin John/Gadgets360

That said, the weapons are all the same as BGMI and PUBG, except for a few additions such as a new bolt-action rifle called DSR-I. The sniper uses 7.62mm, much like the M24. Alongside, you will also see deployable shields that can be used as cover, and a couple of new entrants in the melee section in PUBG: New State.

The player movements and game mechanism still feel the same in PUBG: New State, save for some minor tweaks for hip-fire which has now been switched to shoulder fire. Krafton has also introduced a roll move in combat which might help you get away from your enemy in close battles. To activate this, you can double-tap the crouch button in quick succession.

PUBG: New State also brings in a heads-up display (HUD) that helps you see the amount of ammo right next to the player’s character. This is really helpful during battles as you do not have to peek at the bottom of your screen to keep the ammo in check. You can toggle it on or off in the settings.

Apart from all of these new inclusions, we also get to see a Drone Store. Yes, you can go for a quick shopping session amidst all the chaos. Picture yourself in a situation wherein you are cornered in a shack without enough ammo and no medical supplies. Well, what do you do? Just open up the drone store, and order some medical kits and ammo for yourself. A drone will deliver everything needed to your doorstep. You need “drone credits” to be able to buy items from the store. These credits can be found all along the map, similar to normal loot.

You can also buy a flare gun from the drone store
Photo Credit: Robin John/Gadgets360

You can also buy a flare gun from the store — and this time around, they have brought in a new flare gun which is green in colour. This flare gun will allow you to respawn a dead team member so that you can continue the battle with some support alongside. The green flare gun costs 1,200 drone credits in the store.

Unlike with BGMI, you can switch between servers in PUBG: New State since the game is the same for the world. The options are South Asia, Europe, MENA, Asia and America. Yes, PUBG is back in India for real. We’re not playing by ourselves anymore. How do you feel about the launch of PUBG: New State? Tell us in the comments below.

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Chinese games and messaging colossus Tencent has acquired the Japanese creative studio behind several hit Nintendo Switch titles, a report Friday said, as it seeks to recover from a government crackdown on the gaming sector.

Tencent has taken about a 90 percent stake in Wake Up Interactive for more than JPY 5 billion yen (roughly Rs. 326 crore), Bloomberg News reported, quoting unidentified people with knowledge of the deal.

Wake Up owns Tokyo-based Soleil, which helped develop Nintendo Switch hits Ninjala and Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, Bloomberg said.

Tencent’s lucrative gaming empire has been battered by a state regulatory crackdown that has cut the amount of time school children are allowed to spend playing games.

Players under 12 are now restricted from making in-game purchases, and under-18s are locked out of games after two hours during holidays and after one hour on school nights.

Regulators have also slowed approvals for publishing new games as part of a broader crackdown on tech giants.

The Wake Up purchase, transacted in September, is one of several deals that Tencent has struck with privately-held game makers in Japan this year, Bloomberg said.

Tencent said earlier this week that its revenues in the third quarter of this year rose 13 percent, the slowest pace since the company went public in 2004, according to Bloomberg.

In September, scores of Chinese video game makers including Tencent vowed to better police their products for “politically harmful” content and enforce the curbs on underage players.

Tencent was also told earlier this year to relinquish its exclusive music label rights by the market regulator, which said it had violated antitrust laws.

The post Tencent Acquires Japanese Gaming Studio ‘Wake Up’ Behind Nintendo Switch Titles in $44 Million Deal appeared first on Technology News.

In a statement emailed to Gadgets 360, Krafton responded to the bricking issue that was raised on Twitter by some users shortly after PUBG: New State’s release.

“We had sufficient testing on mobile devices with similar spec to Galaxy S7 or models with 2GB RAM and have confirmed smooth functionality of the game,” the company said.

However, Krafton has not talked anything about whether it is addressing the bricking issue or is aware of any such cases.

Many users complained that PUBG: New State bricked their devices after it prompted them to sign in either as a guest or using a social media account. Some user reports suggested that the problem was largely on devices running Android 12, though Gadgets 360 wasn’t able to independently verify the issue.

Rocky launch for PUBG follow-up

PUBG: New State had a rocky launch on Thursday as its release got delayed by a couple of hours due to technical issues. Krafton also mentioned some issues with the game on its official website.

Alongside the problems that users initially faced, PUBG: New State offers a lenient age verification feature that can easily be bypassed, as noted by India Today. The game shows a prompt where users need to confirm whether they are 18 or above, but if you tap No, it proceeds without asking any further details. This is unlike Krafton’s Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) where gamers need to give their parent or guardian’s phone number to proceed if they are under 18.

PUBG: New State doesn’t ask for any details even if you press ‘No’ on the age verification prompt

Krafton introduced the parental consent requirement with the launch of BGMI earlier this year to address concerns over allowing minors to play the game. It was added as one of the features to differentiate the game with its original version — PUBG Mobile — that got banned last year.

BGMI asks users to enter their parent or guardian’s phone number if they are under 18

Gadgets 360 has reached out to Krafton for a comment on the age verification flaw on PUBG: New State and will update readers when the company responds.

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Intel is kicking off the 12^th Gen product roadmap with flagship desktop CPUs for gamers and enthusiasts – a big departure from the company’s focus on thin-and-light laptops for the past several years. All the CPUs that have launched so far are unlocked and overclockable, which tells you who they’re aimed at. More mainstream options for everyday work will be announced early next year.

We’ve come a long way from quad-core CPUs at the top end just a few years ago, and it’s all thanks to competition. With up to 16 cores (and 24 threads), Intel might now seem to be competitive with AMD’s 16-core desktop flagship, the Ryzen 9 5950X. Things aren’t quite that simple though, since heterogenous cores can’t really be compared. Still, Intel is promising an impressive 19 percent performance gain compared to the previous generation and there are benefits with regard to power efficiency to be explored as well.

Here’s an in-depth look at the 12^th Gen Core ‘Alder Lake‘ CPU architecture as well as our benchmark test results and analysis of Intel’s new push into the performance and gaming enthusiast PC market.

12th Gen Intel Core CPUs are physically larger than their predecessors, requiring a new LGA1700 socket

Intel 12^th Gen Core ‘Alder Lake’ architecture and specifications

The 14nm node saga, which has stretched on since the introduction of the Broadwell (5^th Gen Core) die shrink in 2014, is finally over and done with, at least as far as Intel’s desktop CPUs go. The 11^th Gen ‘Rocket Lake’ family was a 10nm design backported to 14nm in order to get it into customers’ hands amid ongoing 10nm production constraints, and now hopefully those have been solved for good.

Intel calls its current 10nm process implementation ‘Intel 7‘, which is a pretty blunt attempt to position it as technologically on par with competitors’ mature 7nm efforts. At this scale, the sizes of individual transistors aren’t necessarily reflected by such names, and with a move to modular tile-based CPU designs, they don’t all have to be the same size anyway. Nevertheless, ‘Intel 7′ tells us that the company has renewed confidence in its own fabs and foundries, even as we see news that the next-generation node will also be delayed.

The bigger news is that Intel has now separated its architecture and manufacturing efforts to the point that it can mix and match different bits of a CPU’s components such as cores, the integrated GPU, cache memory, IO logic, security subsystems, and more. Different implementations of ‘Alder Lake’ for different target markets, ie desktop PCs, laptops, and ultra-mobile devices, will have different combinations of these components.

All six 12th Gen Core CPUs launched so far are unlocked and overclockable

For now, we have the top-of-the-line Core i9-12900K desktop CPU with eight “Performance” cores (with their own codename, ‘Golden Cove’) and eight “Efficient” cores (‘Gracemont’). The P-cores, in Intel’s shorthand, are what we’re familiar with – Golden Cove is the successor to ‘Willow Cove’ which all 11^th Gen 10nm CPUs were based on. Gracemont is the current derivative of the former Intel Atom CPU lineup – although the Atom name has been retired, ‘-mont’ cores have been the basis of many of Intel’s embedded CPU offerings as well as low-end Pentium Silver and Celeron CPUs over the years. Most recently, Intel’s first hybrid offering, ‘Lakefield‘, also combined previous-gen ‘-cove’ and ‘-mont’ cores.

That’s a lot of codenames, and Intel is studiously avoiding the term ‘big.LITTLE’ which is rival Arm’s trademark, and goes back at least a decade. This of course refers to exactly the same concept – dividing work between a group of high-performance but power-hungry cores as well as low-power cores based on which are more suitable, in order to maximise power as well as efficiency. Intel itself had rejected the idea of doing so on several occasions in the past, saying that it’s possible to design one type of core that can scale adequately in terms of power consumption as well as performance. Clearly, though, the company has changed its mind.

In order for an operating system to know which cores to target and when to migrate threads from one type of core to another, Intel says it has developed a more robust and responsive real-time scheduler, called Thread Director. As of now, this works only with Windows 11, and neither Intel nor Microsoft have plans to bring it to Windows 10. A solution for Linux is currently in development. According to Intel, you should expect a slight performance drop with Windows 10, but Alder Lake CPUs will still be perfectly usable.

One huge change with Alder Lake hybrid CPUs is that only the P-cores support Hyper-Threading, which is the ability to run a second simultaneous thread when resources allow for it. Therefore, the 16-core Core i9-12900K is capable of executing 24 threads, not 32. Interestingly, while the the P-cores get top priority, the E-cores come next, and only if they are saturated will a P-core be assigned a second thread. Windows 11 can leverage Thread Director to decide what gets priority where – for example you could be encoding media in the background while getting on with other tasks.

It doesn’t seem as though users will be able to override this and manually specify whether any particular program or task should be given preference for each core type. It will be interesting to see how upcoming 12^th Gen laptop CPUs add battery life to the list of variables that are being juggled by Windows 11. What’s also odd is that Intel says heavily multi-threaded workflows such as video encoding will prefer E-cores, though conventional logic suggests that P-cores should be able to muscle through such tasks quicker.

There’s one more issue at play here – some older software doesn’t recognise the heterogenous cores as all belonging to the same CPU. You might encounter some compatibility issues – the Denuvo game DRM scheme has recently been flagged as incompatible, locking people out of at least 50 older games because it thinks system specs have changed due to piracy. In such cases, you can lock the E-cores out completely through your motherboard BIOS (and Intel says you can even assign the Scroll Lock key on your keyboard to toggle this).

Intel has also maintained that the AVX-512 instruction set, a feature heavily touted since Ice Lake for its use in accelerating AI workloads, has been disabled. This was purportedly because only the P-cores can support it and there needs to be instruction parity between core types. However, it now seems that disabling E-cores in your motherboard BIOS will allow AVX-512 to be enabled – so there’s a tradeoff there too.

Platform-level connectivity gets a boost with the Z690 chipset

While each P-core has 1.25MB of L2 cache memory, the E-cores are arranged in clusters of four, each with a shared 2MB L2 cache. These feed into a common L3 cache. Intel also publishes different base and turbo speeds for each core type, and higher-tier CPU models additionally support Intel’s Turbo Boost Max feature that assigns “favoured cores” which can be boosted even higher. That means clock speed is now extremely muddled and not necessarily a useful metric when it comes to comparing specifications. We have a 125W base TDP, and for the first time Intel is also publishing power target figures for sustained load, which can go up to 241W for the Core i9. If you have a capable enough thermal solution, you’ll be able to run at Turbo speeds indefinitely – not just in bursts.

On the Core i9-12900K, the eight E-cores run between 2.4GHz and 3.9GHz, while the eight P-cores run between 3.2GHz and 5.1GHz (all cores) or 5.2GHz (favoured cores). There’s 14MB of L2 cache and 30MB of L3 cache memory.

The Core i7-12700K loses four E-cores so you get eight P-cores and four E-cores (totalling 20 threads). Peak power usage is rated at 190W. The Core i5-12600K has six P-cores and four E-cores, with a 150W peak power draw rating.

All three CPU models feature integrated Intel UHD Graphics 770 integrated GPUs, based on the Xe-LP architecture. Nothing is new compared to the 11^th Gen’s integrated UHD 750 GPU, except for lower base and higher boost clocks. All three CPUs also have -F suffix variants which lack integrated graphics and are priced a little lower on paper.

Many cooler manufacturers offer retrofit kits for the LGA1700 socket so you can reuse existing ones

Intel 12^th Gen Core ‘Alder Lake’ Z690 platform

Considering how much has changed with Alder Lake, it’s no surprise that a new socket and new motherboards will be required. These CPUs are physically larger than most previous mainstream Intel desktop CPUs, and are now rectangular rather than square. The pad count has jumped to 1700 (from 1200) and so there’s a new LGA1700 socket. Hopefully, this should last for at least one more generation. Most coolers designed for previous-gen motherboards should work, but you will most likely need a retrofit kit – most brands will update their offerings or offer a simple adapter kit. It would be best to check with your cooler’s manufacturer, since there could be rare exceptions due to differences in the contact surface area.

The biggest news for most users will be the introduction of DDR5 RAM. This promises significant jumps in bandwidth, maximum capacity, and power efficiency. DDR4 has been entrenched for a very long time but also isn’t likely to disappear anytime soon – DDR5 RAM kits are currently hard to find and quite expensive, especially in India. You’ll be able to buy Z690 motherboards with either DDR4 or DDR5 slots (dual-channel in either case) – no manufacturer has shown off a hybrid board yet. That means you’ll have to commit to one standard or the other upfront.

Intel has also managed to be the first to introduce PCIe 5.0, which doubles internal IO bandwidth compared to PCIe 4.0. There aren’t any components such as SSDs that can take advantage of this yet, but at least you get to share that bandwidth between devices so more can operate at high speed. Motherboards can have one PCIe 5.0 x16 slot or route that bandwidth to two PCIe 5.0 x8 slots, and these connect directly to the CPU. That’s in addition to four PCIe 4.0 lanes that can now be dedicated to an SSD, plus the Z690 controller itself hosts 12 PCIe 4.0 lanes and another 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes for various components. Bandwidth between the CPU and the Z690 has doubled as well.

Also on the connectivity front, there’s now support for up to four USB 3.2 Gen2x2 (20Gbps) – this shouldn’t be confused with USB4 Gen3 which can also achieve 20Gbps with the same Type-C connector. You can have up to 10 USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps) ports as well, between the rear panel and additional headers. PCIe and M.2 slot configurations will depend on motherboard manufacturers. Intel has implemented a Wi-Fi 6E controller, which is a step up from Wi-Fi 6, and there’s still integrated Gigabit Ethernet. Of course things like Intel Optane are supported, and all Z-series motherboards are overclocking-friendly.

Lower-end platforms will be introduced when Intel launches non-K 12^th Gen CPUs, and we don’t yet know how they will be differentiated and whether certain features will be exclusive to the top-tier Z690. Obviously with the split between DDR4 and DDR5, there will be a huge variety of Z690 motherboards to choose from. Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, ASRock, and some smaller brands have already introduced a variety in the Indian market.

Components used for the review of the Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K

Asus TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WiFi D4 motherboard and Strix LC II 360 ARGB AIO cooler

For this review, Asus sent across one of its more affordable Z690 motherboards, the TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WiFi D4, as well as a Strix LC II 360 ARGB AIO cooler with an LGA1700 adapter. The D4 suffix indicates that this board will only work with DDR4 RAM, which is fitting given the segment it targets. While not quite as tricked-out as flagship models that sell for as much as Rs. 65,000, this motherboard should be able to take care of most of what enthusiasts need, at a far more approachable price of Rs. 25,000.

The board layout has no big surprises. It has four slots for a maximum of 128GB of RAM with overclocking support going up to DDR4-5333. There are chunky VRM heatsinks around the CPU socket, which might interfere with extremely large air coolers, and you’ll want to be careful of a few sharp corners.

I did note a lack of little conveniences like an LED diagnostic display and surface-mount power and reset buttons, which make initial assembly and working on an open bench easier. You also don’t get a secondary BIOS as a failsafe. On the plus side, Asus has developed an M.2 latch system that dispenses with the usual tiny screws, and you get heatsinks on all four M.2 slots.

The integrated rear IO shield is much appreciated and will make installation easier. There’s one USB 3.2 Gen2x2 (20Gbps) Type-C port, two USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps) Type-A ports, and five USB 3.2 Gen1 (5Gbps) ports, one of which is Type-C and four Type-A. This board also has HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 video outputs, 2.5Gbps Ethernet, two terminals for the included Wi-Fi 6 antenna, optical S/PDIF audio output, and the standard five analogue 3.5mm audio jacks. Unfortunately you don’t get Thunderbolt at this price point, or external BIOS reset and update buttons. Bluetooth 5.2 is an invisible bonus.

The rear IO panel of the TUF Gaming Z690-Plus Wifi D4 offers a lot of connectivity

Internal headers will allow for up to four USB 2.0 ports plus high-speed front panel Type-A and Type-C ports. There are multiple ARGB control headers and four chassis fan connection points in addition to independent CPU fan and AIO pump headers. You do get RGB lighting but the tiny accents on one edge of the board and under the Z690 heatsink are actually quite easy to miss. There are only four SATA ports; two facing upwards and two facing sideways off the board’s edge.

There are four M.2 slots, all but one of which have heatsinks. The primary slot is fed by the CPU directly. Only one slot can work with an M.2 SATA SSD; the other three including the primary one are NVMe-only. The first PCIe slot is also wired to the CPU, and gets a full 16 lanes of PCIe 5.0 bandwidth. The second x16 slot as well as the one x4 and two x1 slots might have to share bandwidth with the M.2 slots depending on which ones you populate. 

The UEFI BIOS is quite easy to navigate. You can see an overview in “easy mode” or dig deep into the menus, where you’ll find an array of options for controlling onboard features and considerable manual overclocking controls. Overall, the Asus TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WiFi D4 does lack some conveniences, but delivers plenty considering its price. If you aren’t an avid overclocker with an elaborate liquid cooling setup, and are planning to stick with DDR4 RAM, this could be a solid base to build upon.

Asus says that the Strix LC II 360 ARGB cooler (priced at Rs. 18,950 in India) will work with LGA1700 processors just fine as they are. Even so, new units will ship with a redesigned bracket, so you might want to make sure of this if you’re buying a new one. Everything comes neatly packaged in the box, and it’s easy to put the parts together. The instruction leaflet doesn’t cover things like push/pull orientation for the fans, or which way the radiator should be oriented depending on where you want to place it in your cabinet. Asus also could have used resealable bags with clearer labels for all the brackets, screws, and washers since several are included for both AMD and Intel mounts. On the bright side, there’s no separate controller unit for fan or RGB control and the wiring to your motherboard headers is straightforward.

You’ll need an adequate cooler if you want the Core i9-12900K to run at its highest speeds for sustained periods

Intel Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K performance

Both CPUs were tested with the same set of components, starting with the Asus TUF Gaming Z690-Plus WiFi D4 motherboard and Strix LC II 360 ARGB AIO cooler. The rest of the rig was comprised of a 2x16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4-3600 RAM kit, a Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 graphics card (removed when testing the CPUs’ integrated GPUs), a 2TB Kingston KC3000 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD and a 1TB Samsung SSD 860 EVO SSD, a Corsair RM850 power supply, and an Asus PB287Q 4K monitor.

All tests were run using a fresh installation of Windows 11, with all available patches installed and all drivers updated. This, plus the use of DDR4 RAM, and the fact that not all tests might be updated to recognise and exploit heterogenous cores, might reflect in some benchmark results. We have the previous-gen Core i9-11900K and Core i5-11600K to compare test results with, as well as some previous-gen and HEDT Intel and AMD CPUs (lockdown-related restrictions mean we don’t have Ryzen 5000 series scores to compare against yet). Click through to our previous reviews to see even more points of reference.

The thing that jumps out first and foremost is how much of a jump there is in tests that can scale to any number of cores and threads. While the previous generation Core i9 flagship topped out at 8 cores and 16 threads, there’s obviously a lot to be gained just by having those counts go up to 16 and 24 respectively, irrespective of architecture. We see significant scaling in 3D rendering and ray tracing benchmarks, and although the Windows 11 Task Manager doesn’t distinguish between core types, it did show all 24 threads on the Core i9-12900K fully saturated during such tests.

Single-threaded performance also benefits tremendously, which means games will get a nice boost if you aren’t bottlenecked by your GPU. The Core i5-12600K strikes an interesting balance here – lots of cores, plus the architectural advantages that benefit lightly-threaded tasks. It’s expensive, by mid-range CPU standards, but could even be an upgrade over Core i7 and Core i9 models from the past few generations. This model is likely to be a hit with gamers.

One thing that does have to be noted is power consumption. Intel’s TDP rating system has changed to acknowledge that power draw is far higher than the rated level under stress, and now a CPU can run at turbo speed virtually unrestricted as long as your cooling solution is adequate. If you stress these CPUs for extended periods, you’ll be pulling a lot of power from your PSU (but also getting a lot done).

Automatic overclocking with the Asus TUF Gaming Z690-Plus Wifi D4 motherboard is as easy as selecting a few options in the BIOS and letting the system test its own limits. You could also use Intel’s Extreme Tuning Utility or Asus’ AI Suite 3 utilities through Windows. I was able to push the Core i9-12900K up to 5.3GHz on the P-cores and 4GHz on the E-cores in under a minute. The system ran perfectly stable and benchmarks ran fine, though the Strix cooler did run noticeably louder and ramp up to full speed much quicker.

After this minor overclock, CineBench R20’s single-core score rose from 760 to 791, and the multi-core score from 10,324 to 10,795. POVRay’s render time was cut from 29 seconds to 27 seconds, and the Corona rendering benchmark ran in 57 seconds, down from 1 minute, 18 seconds. An additional benchmark, NeroScore, which measures AI-powered photo tagging, produced a score of 2,584 before the overclock and 3,284 after. If you get into manual tweaking on a top-tier motherboard with DDR5 RAM, there’s sure to be more headroom to exploit.

There isn’t much to be said about Intel’s UHD 770 integrated GPU – performance gains over the previous generation are marginal. Even if you won’t get much use out of it, an integrated GPU is nice to have for troubleshooting and assembling. It could even be a lifesaver, considering the consumer-unfriendly GPU market we’re dealing with right now. For that reason, I’d always prefer a CPU with an iGPU over an -F variant – unless there’s a huge price difference.

The 12th Gen Core i9-12900K and Core i5-12600K excel when faced with a variety of workloads

Verdict

When the 11^th Gen ‘Rocket Lake’ Core CPU family was launched in March this year, I called it a placeholder, since we already had a good idea of what Alder Lake was shaping up to be and when it would launch. Intel strongly refuted that characterisation, and the company’s logic was that those were the best CPUs for certain workloads available at the time – which, to be fair, was true. Ultimately, I advised people to hold off on a purchase if they could, since a lot was about to change.

If you have waited this long, you’ll be very glad. The 12^th Gen is a considerable improvement in nearly all aspects of performance. This is the launch that will convince many people to upgrade from their current setups. It’s a roaring success for Intel after years of lacklustre updates, first because of a lack of competition and later because of its own internal problems. The advent of DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Windows 11, and heterogenous-core CPUs have injected new life into the PC market.

As far as content creation and multitasking go, you can’t go wrong with the new Alder Lake generation. The best news for buyers is that these unlocked 12^th Gen Core CPUs aren’t priced out of reach – performance at mainstream prices in many cases exceeds that of the 18-core Core i9-10980XE, which was at one point considered a bargain at around Rs. 70,000, and that too was half the price of its predecessor. The Core i9-12900K puts Intel’s X-series out of commission, and it’s no surprise that a refresh hasn’t happened for the HEDT segment this year. If you want to do better, you’ll want to look at something like the Ryzen Threadripper series for massive brute-force all-core performance – but that’s a whole different market segment and pricing reflects that.

Intel hasn’t quite pulled off a decisive victory over AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series though – there are workloads that will still favour the Zen architecture with lots of cores, and we’ll have a new generation from the green team soon enough. Also keep in mind that you’ll need an expensive Z690 motherboard and DDR5 RAM to get the most out of the unlocked enthusiast SKUs released so far – when you add up all these prices, AMD could easily come out ahead for many people.

Intel Core i9-12900K
Price (approximate MOP): Rs. 60,000

Pros

• Excellent single- and multi-threaded performance
• DDR5, PCIe 5.0, fast platform-level IO
• Overclockable

Cons

• High platform cost
• Basic integrated graphics
• Power-hungry
• Potential compatibility issues

Ratings (out of 5)

• Performance: 4.5
• Value for Money: 4
• Overall: 4.5

Intel Core i5-12600K
Price (MOP): Rs. 31,500

Pros

• Excellent single- and multi-threaded performance
• DDR5, PCIe 5.0, fast platform-level IO
• Overclockable

Cons

• Expensive, high platform cost
• Basic integrated graphics
• Potential compatibility issues

Ratings (out of 5)

• Performance: 4
• Value for Money: 3.5
• Overall: 4

Asus TUF Gaming Z690-Plus Wifi D4
Price (MOP): Rs. 25,000

Pros

• Simple design, integrated IO shield, M.2 clamps
• Four M.2 slots, PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, USB 3.2×2 (20Gbps)
• Stable performance, easy auto overclocking
• Well-designed UEFI BIOS

Cons

• No BIOS failsafe or diagnostic display

Ratings (out of 5)

• Features: 4
• Performance: 4.5
• Value for Money: 4
• Overall: 4

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PUBG: New State has been officially launched for Android, iOS, and iPadOS devices in more than 200 countries including India. The new battle royale game was announced in February as the latest title in the PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) franchise. It is claimed to bring a next-generation battle royale experience where 100 players will fight using different weapons and strategies. Developed by PUBG Studios, PUBG: New State brings an open-world battleground where players fight in a universe that is set in 2051. It also brings new vehicles and consumables that are aimed to deliver a fresh experience.

You can get PUBG: New State on devices that are running on at least Android 6.0, iOS 13, or iPadOS 13. The game is available for download through both Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

Late last month, publisher Krafton announced that PUBG: New State will be available in 17 different languages globally. The game is developed by PUBG Studios — the company that has also developed the original PUBG: Battlegrounds for PC and consoles. It has integrated an all-new “global illumination” graphics rendering technology and a gunplay system that is claimed to be on par with what’s available on the existing PUBG version for PCs. The new game is also based on Vulkan API to provide a stable experience.

For delivering a fresh experience over PUBG Mobile and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), PUBG: New State is touted to have new mechanics including dodging, drop calls, and support requests. It also brings new vehicles that are exclusive to the PUBG: New State players.

Krafton said that to provide a stable gameplay experience to users, it has established nine global service hubs. The new game is also claimed to limit cheats by banning the use of unauthorised programs, emulators, keyboard, and mouse, and actively detecting and restricting hacks.

PUBG: New State launch was delayed by two hours due to technical issues. Ahead of its debut, the game was available for pre-registrations in India and other markets. Those who pre-registered for the game are rewarded with a Takion TR1 (Vehicle Skin) that will be available through an in-game mail until January 5, 2022.

There are also launch-day rewards including New State Profile icon and frame as well as 10 Chicken Medals. Additionally, players will stand a chance to win rewards such as New State t-shirts, pants, and parachutes that will be available for winning the global launch event. There are also some known issues that you can check from the PUBG: New State website.

In addition to the known issues, the official PUBG: New State account on Twitter has announced that due to a large inflow of users in a short time period, some users may experience log-in issues on a temporary basis. The team is working on resolving the issue, the tweet said.

The post PUBG: New State With ‘Next-Generation’ Battle Royale Experience Launched in India and Other Markets appeared first on Technology News.

Chinese gaming and social media giant Tencent posted its slowest quarterly profit growth in two years on Wednesday, hurt by a gaming crackdown, and said the outlook for the advertising sector would remain weak into next year.

Net profit for the three months through September rose 3 percent to CNY 39.5 billion (roughly Rs. 45,962 crore), the company said in a statement. This beat analyst expectations who were predicting a decline, according to Refinitiv data.

Revenue climbed 13 percent to CNY 142.4 billion (roughly Rs. 1,65,715 crore), slightly below expectations, and was the slowest quarterly growth since the company went public in 2004, Refinitiv data showed.

China’s largest company by market value was hit by new limits on the amount of time minors can spend playing video games. The government has not approved any new games since August.

Beijing’s year-long crackdown on its once-freewheeling internet industry has punished well-known companies for engaging in what were previously considered regular market practices, wiping billions of dollars off their market values.

“During the third quarter, the internet industry, including the domestic games industry, and certain advertiser categories, adapted to new regulatory and macroeconomic developments,” Tencent’s chairman and CEO, Pony Ma, said in a statement.

“We are proactively embracing the new regulatory environment which we believe should contribute to a more sustainable development path for the industry,” he said.

Sales from mobile games rose 9 percent, the owner of games such as Honor of Kings and PUBG mobile said in a statement.

Tencent said minors accounted for 0.7 percent of domestic games time in September this year, down from 6.4 percent in September 2020, after the government’s new limits came into force at the beginning of that month.

The regulatory crackdown has also hit tutoring centres and the medical beauty industry and curbed appetite from such industries for advertising.

Tencent said its advertising revenue growth rate slowed in the period, citing such regulatory factors as well as macro challenges. It expected advertising pricing industry-wide to remain soft for several quarters but said the industry should adjust next year, it said.

Tencent has shed nearly 18 percent of its market value this year versus a 9 percent decline in the broader market.

© Thomson Reuters 2021

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Battlegrounds Mobile India, aka BGMI, players in India will be able to qualify for the e-sports medal events in the Asian Games 2022, developer Krafton has announced. It is one of the games selected for the Asian Games 2022 that will run from September 10 to September 25 in Hangzhou, China. The company says that it has invested a total of $70 million this year in the Indian IT sector, including in an Indian e-sports company called Nodwin Gaming, a game streaming platform Loco, and a web novel platform Pratilipi.

Apart from Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), which is the Asian version of the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), the players from various regions will be able to compete in other games such as League of Legends, Arena of Valor, EA Sports FIFA, DOTA 2, Hearthstone, Street Fighter V, and Dream Three Kingdoms 2, Krafton says in a blog post. It also said that further details such as the release schedule will be announced at a later date.

BGMI and PUBG are similar games, and the Asian version of the game has allowed players to carry over their progress and data from PUBG Mobile following its ban in India. Krafton is also bringing India-specific updates that are similar to PUBG and rewards in line with Indian festivals.

Recently, BGMI received Payload 2.0 mode, which appears to be a tweaked version of the original Payload 2.0 mode available on PUBG Mobile. In this mode, players can use armoured cars and helicopters equipped with ‘Super Weapons’. The mode also introduces new equipment types including radar, bomb suit, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control terminal. There is also a new Virus Infection mode where players survive against zombies.

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Forza Horizon 5, the critically acclaimed open-world racing game developed by Playground Games and published by Xbox Game Studios, is adding American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) support to make itself more accessible. The Microsoft-owned studio said there were about 400 million gamers with disabilities worldwide and it was important to enable everyone to play the game in a way that suited them best. The exciting new features have been developed in consultation with players from the gaming and disability community.

Players can turn on and off the features as per their wishes. When enabled, an interpreter will appear picture-in-picture at the bottom right of the screen during cinematics to explain the nuances. Xbox explained the accessibility features of Forza Horizon 5 via a blog post last week.

A video was also shared where the studio offers an in-depth look at the new accessibility settings.

“We partnered closely with both the disability community and Xbox and used the Xbox Accessibility Guidelines to implement the accessibility features in Forza Horizon 5,” said the studio.

Forza Horizon 5 is launching today, November 9, for all. Here’s everything you need to know about the latest Forza Horizon title.

You can also check out our review of the game. Here’s our final verdict on Forza Horizon 5:

Forza Horizon 5 is a game made for everyone — but annoyingly, there’s not many games like it. Need for Speed is the only other franchise I can think of that bothers with open worlds, but NFS ran itself into the ground a long while ago. Its new cousin, Dirt, has never ventured into that domain. Could that change with EA’s ownership of Codemasters? It’s sticking to the whole route-based thing with its next game Grid Legends, though it will offer more of a narrative. Essentially, there’s a lack of competition — which inevitably results in a lack of innovation. Playground Games can offer up an iterative experience and rake in the money, because Forza Horizon 5 is in a world of its own. It’s wonderful, but it’s also sad.

The post Forza Horizon 5 Accessibility Features to Include Sign Language Support During Cutscenes appeared first on Technology News.

Forza Horizon 5, the latest open world racing game from Playground Games, was released for premium customers last week and everyone else will get the game this week. The open world arcade-sim racing game is now set in Mexico and returns to North America for the first time in 9 years — since the original game that was based in Colorado. One of the things Playground Games and Turn 10 have mentioned is that Mexico is the biggest map they have developed for any Forza Horizon franchise till date.

The newly-launched Forza Horizon 5, developed by Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios, is available to play on Xbox Series S/ Series X, Xbox One, and Windows 10 and 11. Here’s everything you need to know about the latest Forza Horizon title.

Forza Horizon 5 release date

The long awaited Forza Horizon 5 has already been released for Premium customers on Friday, November 5. Everyone else will be getting the game on Tuesday, November 9.

Usually, the games from the Forza franchise follow a schedule where Xbox Game Studios unveils new Horizon and Motorsport titles every alternate year. However, due the COVID-19 pandemic, the release of Forza Motorsport 8 has been pushed back to an unspecified date.

Is Forza Horizon 5 on Steam? The latest Forza Horizon title is available to pre-order on Steam and all three editions are listed on Steam’s website.

Is Forza Horizon 5 on Xbox Game Pass? Yes, Xbox Game Pass subscribers will be able to play the game for free with their monthly subscription. However, Microsoft has only made the Standard version of the game available for subscribers.

Forza Horizon 5 PC system requirements

Playground Games has announced the minimum, recommended, and ideal specifications requirements for PC players.

Forza Horizon 5 minimum PC requirements

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 3 1200/ Intel Core i5-4460
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX470/ Nvidia GTX 970
• RAM: 8GB
• VRAM: 4GB

Forza Horizon 5 recommended PC requirements

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 1500X/ Intel Core i5-8400
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 590/ Nvidia GTX 1070
• RAM: 16GB
• VRAM: 8GB

Forza Horizon 5 ideal PC requirements

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT/ Intel Core 17- 10700K
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX6800XT/ Nvidia RTX 3080
• RAM: 16GB
• VRAM: 16GB (AMD)/ 10GB (Intel)

Furthermore, players would also need a minimum of 110GB of onboard storage free on their PCs that run Windows 10 with the November 2019 update.

Forza Horizon 5 price

Forza Horizon 5’s price starts at Rs. 3,999 for the Standard Edition on Microsoft Store. The Deluxe Edition is priced at Rs. 5,399, while the top-of-the-line Premium Edition is priced at Rs. 6,599. The prices on Steam for the Standard, Deluxe, and Premium Editions are Rs. 3,499, Rs. 4,499, and Rs. 5,499, respectively.

On Games The Shop, the physical copy of Forza Horizon 5’s Standard Edition is available for Rs. 4,299 and the rest of the editions are not listed as of now.

Forza Horizon 5 editions

The latest Horizon title, as mentioned earlier, is available in three editions — Standard, Deluxe, and Premium. Over the Standard Edition, the Deluxe Edition buyers will get access to Forza Horizon 5 Car Pass, while Premium Edition buyers will get Forza Horizon Expansion One and Two, Forza Horizon 5 Car Pass, Forza Horizon 5 Welcome Pack, and Forza Horizon 5 VIP Membership packs.

Forza Horizon 5 download size

The pre-load for Forza Horizon 5 is already live and last month, Playground Games announced the size requirements for the various platforms the game is available in. Xbox Series S/X players would need at least 103GB free on their hard drives, while Xbox One players would need 116GB of free memory. Windows and Steam players would require a minimum of 103GB to load their game on their PCs.

Forza Horizon 5 gameplay

For the fifth iteration of the Forza Horizon franchise, Playground Games is taking players to Mexico. Players will now be driving on the right-hand-side of the road, where the previous two games were based on left-hand-side driving countries in Australia and the UK.

One of the major additions to the game is the Horizon Arcade, which is essentially a rebranded Forzathon Live. However, it offers 12 co-op minigames that include smashing piñatas, doing super jumps, breaking speed records and more.

Forza Horizon 5 review

We were able to get our hands on the Premium Edition of Forza Horizon 5 and you can read about our thoughts to see if it’s worth investing.

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