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Microsoft is continuing to turn its partnership with OpenAI into “live” commercial services with new and improved features for the Azure cloud platform. Large language models and generative AI are quickly becoming an essential platform for innovation, problem solving and for imagining “what’s possible,” the Redmond corporation said, and Azure is clearly trying to become one of the most important players in this new, promising market of AI-based services and products....

But testing 20+ configurations for comparing a wide range of CPUs is a massive undertaking, and long story short it’s taken me 7 straight days of doing nothing but trying to load into a 128-player conquest match on the same map (and succeeded!). For testing we’ve used the Orbital map, and of course that map wasn’t always available in the rotation, so we had to wait for it to cycle into use....

Processors that only support 2 threads will take a hit as our Phenom II X2 560 delivered 42fps, almost 20% slower than a similarly clocked Phenom II X4 processor. However we were surprised by how well dual-cores performed when compared to other recently tested games. Games such as Hard Rest, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and Crysis 2 saw a massive difference in performance between dual and quad-core processors....

Research by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance last year showed that Kazakhstan had become the second-largest center for Bitcoin mining after China clamped down hard on the industry. The country was responsible for 18% of all Bitcoin mining as of August—that figure stood at 8% before China started hammering down on crypto. The scale of Kazakhstan Bitcoin mining operations was made apparent this week when, after protests over sharply rising fuel prices led to widespread unrest, “a nation-scale internet blackout” was put in place to disrupt protestors’ communications....

Google has long been accused of using AMP to further its dominance on the web. Pitched as a way to enable faster load times on mobile along with increased exposure in search results for businesses and publications, the tech ultimately gives Google more control over how web pages are rendered, including their ad/monetization systems. Meanwhile on the user end, AMP serves as another way for Google to track visitors, which Brave says is harmful for them and the Web at large....

The Celeron J1900 and Athlon 5350 both completed the Excel 2013 workload in around 29 seconds. When compared to the Celeron G1820’s 18.5 seconds or the A8-7600’s and Pentium G3220’s took 16.5 seconds, the Celeron J1900 and Athlon 5350 were quite slow. Still the AMD A4-4000 took 35.1 seconds, a fraction faster than the Sempron 3850’s 37 seconds. Despite matching the Athlon 5350 in Excel the Celeron J1900 is crushed in PowerPoint 2013, taking 13 seconds to complete the workload opposed to the 8 seconds it took the Athlon APU....

With the A720 completely flat it provides the perfect interface for multiple users to use the computer at the same time. Lenovo used a game to demo the 10-point multi-touch technology. The game was quick and responsive to the touch commands of both users and left the door wide open to future applications that could be developed for or improved by this tech. Ultrabooks are the hot ticket at CES this year and we got some hands-on time with two of HP’s new units, the Folio 13 and the Envy 14 Spectre....

Clearview AI received yet another fine for its biometric profiling activities in Europe, this time for illegally collecting and using data belonging to French citizens without their knowledge. The Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL), France’s data protection authority, imposed a 20 million euros penalty against the American company after a lengthy investigation and an unfruitful cooperation attempt. Clearview markets facial recognition tools to companies, individuals, and law enforcement, boasting its algorithm can detect any individual with “99% accuracy” in a database with 30+ billion images of faces....

There was a lot to like about the Cooler Master HAF 932 with a comprehensive feature set that included quick release drive bays, rear CPU socket access, tidy cable management, and massive airflow – not to mention a solid build quality. However, at a time when so-called luxury full ATX cases began to make an appearance at over $500, what really made this case special for us was its price....

The reason for the unconventional design is because the Air 540 employs dual chambers. It’s a bit like stacking two normal tower cases side-by-side. What Corsair has done is dedicate the left side of the case to the motherboard and all its components such as CPU and GPU. Meanwhile the backside which is typically just used for cable management has also been used to house the power supply and storage devices....

For the better part of a decade, Cyrix brought the world of personal computing to millions in the form of attainable budget PCs, only to be killed by its best product and its inability to run a popular game, followed by a bad merger with a larger partner. The early 1990s were a strange time for the desktop computing industry. It looked like Intel was winning despite fierce competition in the microprocessor space; Apple switched to IBM’s PowerPC architecture, while Motorola’s 68K chips were slowly dragging Commodore’s Amiga PC to the grave....

Those wanting to game at 1440p while maintaining 60fps will require some serious firepower with the GTX 980 or R9 Fury. For a minimum of 40fps or greater, the R9 290X/390X or GTX 970 is required but it was still encouraging to see older generation graphics cards such as the HD 7970 keeping a minimum frame rate above 30fps.

According to Cherry MX’s website, the low profile red is 35 percent shallower than the original MX red. It has a pre-travel of 1.2mm, a total travel of 3.2mm and required 45 cN of activation force, and uses aluminum springs with gold alloy contacts. Its linear feel is described as soft, smooth and silent. The keyboard also includes a USB-C hub with two ports for fast data transfer and charging, dedicated media controls, a volume control dial and a sleep button....

This definitive version of the game will feature extra game modes, a new infiltration mission and additional content, and will be optimized for Intel 12th generation CPUs. Death Stranding arrived on the PlayStation 4 in late 2019 before being ported to the PC the following July. An expanded director’s cut found its way to the PlayStation 5 on September 24, 2021. Kojima Productions said the game will launch simultaneously on Steam and the Epic Games Store this spring....

GPU fervor spilled into forums, with PC enthusiasts amazed and aghast in equal measure, as to what had become of the graphics card market. So, it’s easy to forget that the latest products are housing the most complex and powerful chips that have ever graced a home computer. Let’s bring all the vendors to the table, and dive deep into their architectures, peeling away the layers to see what’s new, what they have in common, and just what any of this means to the average user....

Discord describes its latest feature called AutoMod as a tool to help moderators screen content when there’s too much server traffic to monitor alone, filtering out certain words and phrases. AutoMod will complement human mod teams and mod bots, not replace them. By default, AutoMod will check text against one of Discord’s multiple pre-set keyword lists and block messages containing the usual inappropriate content like slurs or NSFW material. Discord will update these lists over time, but for now it won’t publish their contents so users can’t counteract them....

In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt we see once again that the RX 480 is limiting the performance of the CPUs, so we’ll have to compare the minimum frame rates. Doing so, we see that the 7700K is 8% faster using either the GTX 1060 or RX 480. Back to some more interesting results (Mafia III always seems to deliver those), as we have seen in the past with Titan XP testing, the 1800X is able to best the 7700K in this title, even with a maximum overclock on the Kaby Lake CPU....

Those rocking a $200 GTX 960 or R9 380 won’t have anything to worry about and these cards are even playable at 1440p, which was a real surprise. Those that have taken the step to the ever popular 1440p resolution can achieve very smooth lag free performance with a Radeon R9 290 or GTX 780 Ti. For ultimate performance the GTX 970 is the weapon of choice, as it never dipped below 60fps....

While high-end speakers may not be practical or worthwhile for everyone, for those with a discerning ear and deep pockets, they can make all the difference in the world. A while back we reviewed the AudioEngine A5+ Wireless and while they were a great set of speakers, as with all audiophile gear, you can always spend more and move up in quality. Today I’ll be testing out the AirPulse A300 by Edifier....

This week, Frontier confirmed that those who own Elite Dangerous for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One could receive a free PC copy. It hasn’t revealed how or when this will happen other than it will be a limited-time offer. Last week, the developer explained which items players can transfer to PC. Players will retain all their ships, land vehicles, avatars, inventories, reputation, ranks, permits, codex discoveries, engineering progress, guardian tech broker progress, crew progress, and cosmetics....