Computers

Water-cooled ROG GX800 is ASUS’ latest mobile gaming behemoth

Published

May 31, 2016

Marvin Velasco

Just as you thought water-cooling in a gaming notebook was overkill with last year’s ROG GX700, ASUS has upped the ante once again with its successor, the ROG GX800. Built with the same monstrous cooling system, the latest gaming laptop is now equipped with Intel’s most powerful Core i7 mobile processor and a pair of graphics cards that work together.

ASUS hasn’t specified which NVIDIA cards are being offered, but it’s safe to assume they’ll come from the recently launched GeForce GTX 1080 series. With the ability to overclock the notebook’s components using the bundled water-cooling unit, this would make the GX800 the most powerful gaming notebook on the market by several miles.

ASUS’ GX800 has two graphics cards inside and one clever way to cool them off.

The Taipei-based company already claims the GX800’s dual-GPU setup is 236 percent more powerful than a single GTX 980 graphics card. We’ll have to see how real-world tests hold up to the benchmarks, but it’ll most likely blow away whatever you’re playing on right now.

What makes the ASUS notebook extra tempting – and a lot more expensive – is the inclusion of a full-fledged mechanical keyboard complete with colorful LED lighting. It’s quite a rare feature to have in any kind of laptop, and will provide much more responsive inputs while gaming, bringing the experience closer to an actual PC gaming setup.

Oh, and it comes with two 330W adapters, meaning it’ll draw more power than most desktop computers. Don’t think for a second that such a setup would consume only as much juice as your everyday notebook.

The ROG G31 resembles the insides of an alien mothership.

Speaking of dual graphics card setups, ASUS also unveiled its latest gaming desktop PC, the ROG G31 Edition 10.

Like the GX800, the tenth-anniversary edition G31 follows up on last year’s similarly compact ROG G20 gaming PC by adding another graphics card to the setup. You now get the newest Intel Core i7 processor and two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics cards in a space-efficient 20-liter case.

You’ll have to hook up the G31 to a separate keyboard, mouse, and monitor like any other desktop computer, but once everything is in place, you’ll be treated to competitively smooth gaming in resolutions up to 4K.

Full specifications and pricing are still out of reach for both gaming devices. If they’re anything like their predecessors, expect the ROG GX800 to go beyond P250,000 and the G31 Edition 10 to cost way more than the G20’s average price of P65,000.

[irp posts=”10865″ name=”The ROG GX800 sets new bar for gaming laptops”]

Related Topics:ASUS PC gaming ROG G31 ROG GX800

Computers

Apple will finally introduce Face ID for MacBooks

According to macOS source code

Published

July 25, 2020

Luigi Leonardo

Because the technology is already ubiquitous today, you might not remember the big facial recognition battle from a few years ago. Back then, tech companies came up with their own variations of facial recognition, including 3D mapping and iris scanning. However, despite their ubiquity today, facial recognition has suddenly stopped at the smartphone level, leaving other devices without the technology. Well, that will soon change. According to official source codes, Apple will finally introduce Face ID for MacBooks.

Spotted by 9to5Mac, the latest macOS Big Sur contains code which references a “PearlCamera.” The strange codename first debuted in 2017 for the iPhone X. It’s an internal codename specifically pertaining to the True Depth and Face ID camera technologies. This was back when the features were still brand new. The codename’s inclusion in the new code means support for the technology going forward.

However, the report believes that the development is still in its early stages. A Face ID-compatible device, Mac or MacBook, might not come in the near future yet. Still, it’s a welcome addition to the notebook and desktop segment. Finally, Apple will introduce its Face ID technology for MacBooks.

Apple’s Mac and MacBook lineups are currently exciting times. Recently, Apple has also announced ARM-based Macs, straying from its traditional Intel-based lineups.

Computers

Intel’s 7nm processors won’t arrive till 2022

Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm have a significant lead

Published

July 24, 2020

Shivam Vahia

In its quarterly earnings call, Intel revealed that it’ll have to adjust its future product lineup. The company further said its 7nm (nanometers) processors will be six months behind schedule. This means they won’t be ready until the end of 2022 or even the first half of 2023.

The yield of its 7nm process is now 12 months behind schedule. In turn, Intel said it’s “accelerating its transition to 10nm products” in 2020, due to an increase in demand.

What’s even more surprising is, Intel is considering contingencies that could see its chips fabricated by third parties if it can’t get its own foundries. Rival AMD is already making 7nm chips and this is exerting further pressure on Intel to progress. Apple and Qualcomm are leveraging 7nm technology for a couple of years now.

7nm chips are more efficient and best suitable for portable gadgets like laptops and smartphones. The delay could put Intel in serious danger because Arm has managed to attract Apple as well. The giant shall be shifting its Mac lineup to an Arm-based architecture within two years, ditching Intel’s decades of partnership.

Intel is a very experienced player and designs as well as produces its own chipsets. On the other hand, companies like TSMC have mastered the production and make chips for other companies under a contract.

Intel’s current best offering, popularly called 10nm in the industry, was ideally scheduled to appear in 2017. But it’s making high-volume sales now. Thankfully not everything is going south for the chipmaker and its Tiger Lake CPUs are still on track for launch later this year. Its first 10nm Alder Lake-based desktop and server CPUs will be ready by the second half of 2021.

Computers

Lenovo Legion lineup gets an upgrade with new AMD Ryzen chipsets

They pretty much cover all price segments

Published

July 16, 2020

Shivam Vahia

Lenovo’s Legion lineup is known for its gaming capabilities and has garnered a fan following of its own. In the last handful of years, Intel has powered most of the computers ever built, but it always seemed to lag behind in the gaming department. With AMD’s Ryzen series, things are rapidly changing and Lenovo has accordingly updated their product offering.

Lenovo Legion 5

Starting with the Lenovo Legion 5, it comes in two display size options — 15.6-inches and 17.-3-inches. Both the screens have a 144Hz refresh rate and Full HD resolution. It is available in multiple configurations, with the top variant sporting Ryzen 7 4800 H-series processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU.

It can house up to 16GB DDR4 RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. On the cooling front, it has Lenovo Legion Coldfront 2.0 thermals along with a TrueStrike keyboard that offers more keyboard travel.

Lastly, the company claims it can provide 7.5 hours of run time on a single charge. The base variant (17-inch) shall cost US$ 1089 and start shipping from September 2020. The 15-inch option will start atUS$ 1019 and ship from August 2020.

Lenovo Legion 5P

The Lenovo Legion 5P, on the other hand, gets a 15.6-inch display and sports the same CPU and GPU as the Legion 5. However, it runs Dual Burn support that leverages the CPU and GPU simultaneously to improve framerates. With Lenovo Q-Control 3.0, the user can quickly switch between performance modes.

It can sport up to 32GB DDR4 RAM and 1TB of SSD internal storage. Lastly, Lenovo claims it can deliver up to eight hours of usage on a single charge. However, it won’t be going on sale in North America.

Ideapad Gaming 3

IdeaPad Gaming 3 is an affordable gaming laptop has a 15.6-inch display, can support up to AMD Ryzen 7 4800 H-series processor, and optional 120Hz display. The GPU is bumped down to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti, but it can house up to 32GB DDR4 RAM and 1GB of SSD storage. It’ll start at US$ 659 and start shipping from July 2020.

Lenovo Legion Tower 5

If you’re looking for a more powerful gig, the Lenovo Legion Tower 5 can get up to AMD Ryzen 93950X desktop processor with 16 cores. Coupled along is an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 GPU that can churn out 4K framerates. It can support 2x 1TB SSDs along with 2x 2TB hard drives and 128GB DDR4 RAM.

The side panels are transparent and LED lighting within the cabinet offers more customization options to the user. For cooling, a 150W CPU cooling fan is attached and one can opt for an optional 200W liquid cooling system. The base option shall cost US$ 829 and availability starts from October 2020.

IdeaCenter Gaming 5

Lastly, the IdeaCentre Gaming 5 desktop can offer up to AMD Ryzen 7 3700X processor along with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU. It has Dolby Audio support and can sport up to 32GB RAM. However, it won’t be going on sale in North America.