Month: November 2020

Intel has launched its first WiFi 6E-capable M.2 wireless card, the Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210. As of writing, we’re only seeing it shipping from China. It comes in a M.2 2230 form factor and supports both the 802.11ac and 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6 & Wi-Fi 6E) protocols. If you have a laptop or desktop motherboard with an M.2 WiFi module, this M.2 card will fit right in.

Of course, the real beauty of this card is its ability to run the new WiFi 6E standard. The Federal Communications Commission passed this upgrade to WiFi 6 just this year. WiFi 6E devices to operate on the 6 GHz band, rather than just the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. This will provide users a massive boost in bandwidth and speed. 

Beware though, you need to have a WiFi 6E-capable router, such as the new Asus ROG Rapture, said to be the world’s first Wi-Fi 6E-capable router.

The market for faster solid state drives is ripe for expansion with next-gen game consoles and PCs alike sporting storage architectures that can help developers tap into the speed potential of PCIe 4.0 models. And right on cue, Kioxia, formerly known as Toshiba Memory, has come out with a new line of PCIe 4.0 SSDs.

Kioxia’s new XG7 and XG7-P represent the company’s first-ever client (read: not datacenter) PCIe 4.0 models. Compared to the previous generation XG6 series, which are PCIe 3.0 drives, Kioxia says its latest offerings deliver twice the sequential read performance and 1.6x faster sequential writes.

I’d prefer if Kioxia would just provide some concrete speed ratings, but in lieu of those, my math works things out to reads being 6.3GB/s or faster, and writes checking in at 4.6GB/s or higher. These values will probably vary a bit by capacity, with the XG7 being offer offered in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB, and the XG7-P debuting with 2TB and 4TB models.

There are faster PCIe 4.0 SSDs out there, like Samsung’s 980 Pro. Likewise, Phison this week introduced its PS5018-E18 controller, which supports read and write speeds of up to 7,400MB/s and 7,000MB/s, respectively.

Nevertheless a 6.3GB/s (or higher) read speed is incredibly fast. The highest performing SATA models top out at around 580MB/s and, at the moment, are still plenty fast for gaming. But things could change in a hurry, depending on how developers take advantage of Microsoft’s DirectStorage API in Windows, which is based on same Velocity storage architecture in the Xbox Series X/S. That’s a discussion for another day.

There is no mention of price, as Kioxia is taking aim squarely at OEM system builders and laptop makers. That means upcoming gaming laptops and prebuilt desktops could sport faster storage than what we are accustomed to, provided OEMs bite.

Next gen consoles aren’t just kickstarting a new interest in solid state storage, they’re also responsible for a new wave of affordable, high-spec gaming monitors. That’s great news if you want high-refresh 4K action, but don’t fancy paying an absolute fortune. 

Monitors from Viewsonic, Acer, and Philips are among a new generation of displays to bring 4K high refresh to the 32-inch form factor. The really exciting bit is that the new models, including the Philips Momentum 328M1R, Acer Predator XB323QK, and Viewsonic Elite XG320U, are expected to be very competitively priced compared to existing 27-inch 4K high refresh monitors.

Until recently, the high-refresh 4K monitor market was populated largely by 27-inch models, such as the LG UltraGear 27GN950. So far, prices have tended to be pretty painful, especially given the relatively modest overall proportions of a 27-inch monitor. £1,000 / $1,000 for a 27-inch monitor, even a really nice one, is hard to stomach. However, the arrival of the Xbox Series X and Sony PS5, complete with support for 4K and 120Hz refresh, is driving the introduction of a new wave of 32-inch 4K monitors with high refresh support.

What’s more, because the console gaming market is generally less lofty when it comes to pricing than gaming PCs, we’re expecting these screens to be relatively affordable. That said, it’s the console connection that has slowed the arrival of these screens and indeed pushed their retail availability out to early next year. That’s because 4K@120Hz support for consoles requires the very latest HDMI 2.1 interface. For PC, you also have the option of DisplayPort 1.4.

With none of these screens available to buy quite yet, some of the details remain sketchy. But here’s what we know so far. We’ll kick off with the Philips Momentum 328M1R because that’s the screen with the clearest indication of pricing. It’s due out early next year with an anticipated price of €599, likely to translate into similar figures in $ and £. It’s a 32-inch 4K model aimed squarely at the new consoles. It runs a native 4K resolution and tops out at 120Hz. 

The better to hook up to those new consoles, the 328M1R comes complete with three HDMI 2.1 ports. But a DisplayPort 1.4 socket is also included, which widens the range of compatible GPUs for running at 4K and 120Hz. Currently, only Nvidia’s new RTX 30 series and AMD’s RX 6000 series graphics cards support HDMI 2.1. However, DisplayPort 1.4 is supported by older generation GPUs, including the Nvidia GTX 10 series.

Other highlights for the Philips Momentum 328M1R include VESA DisplayHDR 600 certification, so colour fidelity should be good and at least an element of local dimming will be included, plus a claimed latency of just 4ms. The one possible snag? It runs a VA panel, which can be problematical when it comes to pixel response. That’s not always the case, as the Samsung G7 proves. It’s VA but very quick indeed.

As for the Acer Predator XB323QK and Viewsonic Elite XG320U, they take the 4K 32-inch formula and bump it up slightly to 144Hz while using an IPS panel. That’s a very exciting combination. Currently, we don’t have pricing for those models, which are slightly more PC centric and so may well be more expensive than the impressively affordable Philips.

But both are expected to support HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4, so offer full flexibility when it comes to PC or console connectivity. The Viewsonic is DisplayHDR 600 certified, while the Acer is limited to DisplayHDR 400 certification. That more limited HDR support should translate into lower pricing, however, so the Acer may turn out to be the pick of this trio.

Again, we’re expecting to see both of these screens early next year and indeed a number of similar models from other brands, the arrival of which should make for a competitive market place and hopefully lower pricing. Whatever, larger and more affordable 4K displays with high refresh support have been a long time coming. But as is often the case, the PC looks likely to benefit from the arrival of a new generation of consoles.

With the consoles themselves coming in around the $500 / £500, spending double that on a 4K monitor won’t be a goer for most gamers. So we’re expecting the consoles to drive lower prices generally, starting with these 32-inch beasts. Granted, these aren’t going to be properly cheap monitors, but they should push pricing below what we’ve seen for similar 27-inch screens. Here’s hoping!

Microsoft is working on a Windows 10 update that will introduce a range of new font management facilities and further expand customization options.

Windows 10 users can already select a default font from a long list of pre-sets and install new ones via a simple drag-and-drop mechanism, but the upgrade is set to introduce further granularity.

The new features, which include the ability to fiddle with the way fonts render on-screen, are expected to arrive via open source application PowerToys, built by a small group of Microsoft developers.

According to the product roadmap, an upcoming build of the freeware – designed to give Windows 10 “power users” a greater pool of settings to play with – will allow users to optimize text rendering and force symmetric smoothing, which could be especially useful for owners of high resolution monitors.

Windows 10 customization

With previous builds, PowerToys has allowed Windows 10 users to make tweaks that further personalize their operating system, including building new layouts for multi-monitor rigs, modifying keyboard shortcuts and remapping keys.

Now, the tool’s designers have turned their attention to addressing choppy text rendering – a problem that arises as a result of the way the OS translates font design into pixels. With the upcoming font rendering feature, text should appear smooth in all sizes and on monitors of varying resolutions.

On top of the new font rendering options, PowerToys is also set to introduce the second generation of its Color Picker tool, which allows users to identify the hexadecimal value of any color that appears on screen.

The second iteration will let users refine their color selection more easily, and will also align with Windows 10 theme selection.

Although no definitive release date has been set for the arrival of the new font rendering system and Color Picker, the features are expected to land as part of a sizable PowerToys update next year. 

AMD’s Big Navi Big Boi, the 6800XT, will eventually hail from third-party manufacturers, but that’s a little way away yet. That hasn’t stopped Sapphire from revealing its plans for such boards, and they’re looking good, with the GPU manufacturer getting to flex its high-end muscles for the first time in an age.

There are actually two in fact: Sapphire’s RX 6800-series line is split into PULSE (why the caps?) and Nitro+. Those PULSE boards (honestly, it makes it sound like a backwater nightclub) fill 2.7 slots and are a classy black and red, with a heartbeat motif on the back. Its three fans have nine blades each, and there’s a dual eight-pin power connector. Output is handled by three HDMIs and a DisplayPort, all capable of 8K.

The Nitro+ version, however, gets the full treatment, with 12-blade fans, possibly an extra heatpipe or two, and a walled-in 2.5-slot design that looks much neater than its PULSATING brother.

Again, there are two eight-pin power sockets, and the same HDMI/DP arrangement. You get a little RGB too, but not nearly as much as the Nitro+ SE variant, which slaps swirling yellow and green all over its fans, and shakes things up at the back with one HDMI, two DisplayPort, and a USB-C—AMD clearly having not received the memo about VirtualLink’s death—all rocking 8K output.

You’ll need a 750-watt power supply to handle these cards, says Sapphire, and they’re both PCIe 4.0, with 16GB GDDR6 on board. Final clock and memory speeds haven’t been released yet.

Sapphire is the world’s largest supplier of AMD video cards, and it’s been at it since 2001. It’s produced some fine-looking cards in its time—as well as some boxart horrors—but with AMD GPUs being slightly off the boil recently it hasn’t been able to shine in the way it deserves. 

AMD has touted Big Navi performance besting Nvidia’s already impressive RTX 3080, so perhaps the RX 6800-series launch will be its chance for glory.