Despite Nvidia keeping a tight lip about what it plans to reveal during the Game Developers Conference later in February, the company’s big surprise was spoiled by its own GeForce website. Right now, the site includes a new splash page sporting a countdown timer targeting its upcoming GeForce GTX Gaming Celebration event during GDC 2017. That event is sold out, but the company will likely stream whatever it plans to debut on the hardware front at 7 p.m. (PT) on Tuesday.
That said, previous reports assumed that the event would be Nvidia’s launchpad for the highly-anticipated GeForce GTX 1080 Ti card. However, thanks to the GeForce website, the card’s reveal is no longer a surprise. Embedded within the splash page’s source are two references to the currently unannounced card:
gdc-2017/GTX1080Ti_Countdown__Hero_1920x1080_h264_2mbps.mp4
gdc-2017/GTX1080Ti_Countdown_WebM_2kbps_variable_vp8.webm
As the file names show, Nvidia’s current countdown timer is unquestionably tied to the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti card reveal. Obviously, we have no official hardware specs or pricing, but the card will likely cost around $900 given that it will reside between the vanilla Buy Now ($600) and the Buy Now ($1,200) card. Here are the rumored details:
Recently, the GTX 1080 Ti card was unofficially confirmed by 343 Industries and Microsoft by way of the retail packaging for Halo Wars 2. The game’s “Ultra” requirements include Nvidia’s unannounced card or AMD’s R9 Fury X GPU. Other requirements include a 64-bit copy of Windows 10, an Intel Core i7-6700K processor, or AMD’s FX-9590 CPU.
Nvidia’s upcoming GTX 1080 Ti arrives just before AMD floods the high-end graphics market with its Vega-based graphics cards. Team Red is expected to reveal its new lineup during the upcoming Capsaicin and Cream event during GDC 2017. According to AMD, this event will provide a glimpse into the Summer of Radeon by highlighting “the hottest new graphics and VR technologies propelling the game industry forward.”
As for when Nvidia will actually launch the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, it is expected to hit store shelves between March 20 and March 23. After that, a version for notebooks will likely be next on Nvidia’s roadmap if it’s not already mentioned during the GTX 1080 Ti reveal. After that, Nvidia is expected to move on to the GTX 20-Series based on a refresh of the Pascal graphics chip design.
Here are the rumored GTX 20 Series cards slated for 2017:
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.