Notebooks are even more powerful!

True desktop performance in a laptop with GeForce GTX 980

 

 

Nvidia said Tuesday that it has hit a true milestone for portable gaming with its new GeForce GTX 980 laptop GPU—true 1:1 performance with its desktop counterpart.

 

That’s right, there’s no ‘m.’ The new GPU is essentially the same as putting a desktop GeForce GTX 980 into a laptop. In fact, Nvidia said, the new laptop GPU is the exact same desktop chip. It has the same 2,048 CUDA cores, the same memory bandwidth, and the same 256-bit memory bus. With the laptop GeForce GTX 980, it says, a consumer can now buy a single-GPU laptop or desktop and get the same graphics performance.

 

How Nvidia did it

So how do you take a ginormous GPU like the desktop GeForce GTX 980 with its 165-watt thermals and power requirements and jam it into a laptop? Very carefully.
Kaustubh Sanghani, a general manager with Nvidia, said to pull off such a feat, the chips are first sorted for power requirements. Known as “binning,” chips can be sorted like diamonds for certain characteristics. Sanghani said the chips with the best power characteristics make the GeForce GTX 980 what it is.
You might think this approach means it’s a limited-edition vapor part that vanishes once the cream of the crop is exhausted, but Nvidia said it’s not. The company, in fact, is going out the gate with no fewer than six laptop models from partners including MSI, Clevo, Gigabyte and Asus



Star Wars Battlefront beta out now!

Star Wars Battlefront is a scant month away from release, which means it’s time for everyone’s favourite DICE tradition: The “beta test” that’s part server stress-test and part HYPE. BUILDING. MACHINE!

If you haven't checked the game out already, I would get downloading now!
It is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC from now (07/10/2015)

My favourite thing in the game is when an enemy is in a jetpack— If you kill them, they will start to spin completely out of control! Things like this make the game much more enjoyable.

Overall, the game is a LOT of fun - I will be spending most of my week playing it!

ESL Dubai invitational 2015: Counter Strike Global Offensive!

The ESL Dubai invitational for CS:GO has started!

 

It is a HUGE tournament with some of the biggest teams in the world competing!

 

 

The tournament is played with 2 groups, compiling of 4 teams.

You can see the teams participating in group A above, from all different countries; France, Poland, Sweden and USA!

 

Group B is shown here:

 

 

Group B has teams from Sweden, Denmark, Ukraine and France!

 

The first place prize is $100,000, insane!

 

One of the best things about these tournaments for me is the fact it brings all of these country's together in game and all watching (if they are a fan of CS:GO!)

 

My prediction is that Fnatic will win the tournament, but who knows!

 



MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 4K - Hardware Inside

Today I have with me - The GS60 2QE Ghost Pro 4K Edition!

 

I took a look at the slimmest and lightest 15.6" Gaming Notebook on the market today, at only 19.9mm thin and 1.9kg light!

 

The main surprise for me was the actual power inside, when something is this slim and light you do not expect it to have some of the most powerful mobile components available.. 

 

Powered by an Intel i7 Quad Core 4720HQ Processor at heart with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M powering the graphics, it rips through any game at ease.

Here I was playing Dying Light, BioShock Infinite & Dirt 3 on very high settings. Considering these 3 games are very demanding on hardware, the GS60 ran the games exquisitely even while in 4K resolution!

 

 

GTA V on PC

GTA V just came out on PC!

I was really excited for this as I completed the game on Xbox 360, but on the PC there are some great improvements!!

Here is my copy which I pre-ordered:

When I started playing the game, I could already tell the difference in graphics and gameplay..

Everything ran VERY smooth and lived up to the expectation of the best GTA yet.

Here are some detailed images comparing the PC version to PS4:

PC Version

PS4 Version

PC Version

PS4 Version


As you can tell the PC version is superior in quality!
It also plays much better as I can get around 100 FPS on PC compared to the capped 30 FPS on the Xbox 360 version which I last played.

MSI GE62 Apache Gaming Notebook - Unboxing!

MSI GE62 Apache Gaming Notebook unboxing!

I have something very cool to show today! It's a brand new Gaming Notebook from MSI!!

The GE62 Apache.

This is positioned in there mid-range, but still packs a LOT of high performance power and features for the money!

Let's take a closer look -

Here is the box of the GE62 Apache - look's good!

This is the feature list on the box. SteelSeries Engine, XSplit Gamecaster, Killer LAN, Matrix Display, Super RAID, Keyboard by SteelSeries, Audio Boost and Sound by Dynaudio!
A huge amount of features included on the notebook, with brands like this used it really gives me massive confidence that the notebook is of the highest quality!

Recommended by Fnatic! MSI is highly involved in eSports which is very good, and they also host there own tournament named 'Beat IT'!

Opening the box we find the Notebook packed nice and safe,the Power brick and all documents.

The Power brick is very slim and should be easy to travel with to and from work!

Wow.
Taking the GE62 Apache out the packaging, it is stunning!
It has a Magnesium-Lithium Chassis, this is the first notebook to use this material; compared to the usual Aluminum Chassis, it is 44% stiffer and 23% lighter!
Using the Notebook, you get a very premium feel.

Here is the MSI Gaming Badge, giving it that Gaming look!

On the right side of the Notebook we have the DVD Super Multi Drive, USB 2.0 port, SD Card Reader and the power port.
It may seem like a simple thing, but the position of the power port is very useful; being at the back it wont get in the way of any other ports.

On the left side we have the Killer Gb LAN port, USB 3.0 port, HDMI 1.4, Mini-Display port, 2 more USB 3.0 ports and the Mic in/Headphone out jack.

At the front we have the LED indicators. WLAN, Battery and the Harddrive indicator

At the back of the notebook there is the dual exhaust system used, MSI have improved the cooling massively compared to the previous generation!

Here is the bottom of the notebook where you can see both fans on each side.

Here is the Dynaudio subwoofer on the bottom of the notebook

Opening the notebook... It is VERY nice to look at!
With the brushed finish and SteelSeries backlit keyboard - it's hard to stop looking!

Above the right side of the keyboard there is the power button, SteelSeries engine button to change between profiles and the Cooler Boost button to put the fans up to 100%

The trackpad is nicely sized and has a good feel, with good responsive buttons

Intel i7 sticker to show that it has the Intel Core i7 4720HQ Processor

Keyboard by SteelSeries! The backlighting can be changed by 3 zones, with over 1000 different colour combinations.

Sound by Dynaudio - The notebook's speakers are provided by the Danish sound specialist who also provide speakers for the likes of Bugatti!

Overall I am impressed with the whole notebook, huge amount of features and the build quality is amazing. Now to play some CS:GO!

My choice of gaming mouse

My choice of gaming mouse

Choosing the right mouse to use with your computer is an important decision, especially if you use it ALOT (like myself)

On my desk in the office I have 3 mice that I use, 1 more than the rest - I will go through them with my opinions on each!

Here are the 3 that I use at this moment -

1. Cooler Master Reaper
2. Cooler Master Recon
3. Razer DeathAdder 

The Cooler Master Reaper is the latest addition to the mouses that I use, and is my least favourite! The position that my hand sits on the mouse is very uncomfortable as it is too large for me, because of this the side buttons are not in a good position for me to press while using it.

The positive's of this mouse is the build quality and features it has!

• The DPI of the mouse is very high and is very accurate, and easily adjusted with the 2 buttons located on the top of the mouse.
• It features a side button which I have not seen on any other gaming mouse and is VERY useful when playing FPS type games. (See image below) Once pressed, the speed of the mouse is dramatically decreased which is VERY useful when you are trying to aim with great precision. This is also useful when designing/editing on Photoshop (or anything similar) if you need to be accurate.

The second mouse I have displayed is the Cooler Master Recon, this for me is the best feeling mouse.

The slim profile suits my hands and all buttons are easily accessible for me!

The main positive's of this mouse for me are -

• The design of the mouse, it is perfect for my hands and feels extremely comfortable! This mouse is also my favourite in terms of looks.
• There are more side buttons than the others, with 2 on each side. This is a big bonus for me when playing games, especially when I can set each button for a different use. For example on Call of Duty, I have crouch, prone, grenade and special grenade all set to the side buttons!

The last mouse I use, is the Razer DeathAdder.

It is my most used mouse (as you can see by the picture...)

There is nothing that stands out about this mouse, but for some reason I very much like using it.

It only has 2 side buttons, no buttons on the top for changing DPI unlike the other 2 mouses and the build quality is average.. but for games such as CS:GO it works very well!

It may be the simplicity combined with the good shape, but anyhow - it is my second favourite mouse to use after the Cooler Master Recon!

Special KitKat from Japan!!

I am a huge fan of the chocolate KitKat..

When my friend said she was going to Japan, one of the things I thought of was the special flavours that they don't have in the UK..

So she brought me this straight from Japan!!

The special flavoured KitKat from Japan

It is Matcha green tea flavour, and it is amazing!

Matcha is fine powder green tea, and I have seen more use of this recently - also having Matcha cake at a local market, which was also very nice!

The Matcha cake was similar to this, although I had a nicer cake!

Unfortunately.. I don't have many left...