As usual, we are here to recap the most interesting news from the past week in terms of computers, hardware and gaming. Getting into the subject, we recently witnessed the presentation of the Samsung Galaxy Book4 laptops, with which the South Korean company seeks to evolve the PC category. Likewise, last night the Steam winter sales season began, so if you are looking to get one or another game at a reduced price, this is the perfect opportunity.
In other news, details of AMD’s upcoming Ryzen 8000G desktop chips have been leaked. Speaking of video games and AMD, a community mod recently came out that is causing a stir among PC gamers, as it allows you to activate AMD FSR 3 Fluid Motion Frames in any game with DLSS 3 to improve the frame rate.
Serie Samsung Galaxy Book4
The new Intel Core Ultra chips are already on the market and manufacturers do not plan to overlook them, and what better example than the avant-garde Korean company Samsung, which has presented not one or two laptops, but 4 notebooks equipped with these processors. For those interested, these are the Galaxy Book4 Ultra, Galaxy Book4 Pro 16″ and 14″ and the Book4 Pro 360°. With that in mind, the Ultra model boasts an Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU and an RTX 4070, all while maintaining a slim and light profile (no more than 2 kilos).
Mentioning things without going into details is definitely not our style, so it’s time to see what each of them brings to the table.
Samsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra
We start with the main course with the Galaxy Book4 Ultra, which outlines a 16-inch screen with AMOLED touch technology, resolution of 2,880 x 1,800 pixels, variable refresh rate from 48-120Hz and other benefits. The processor depends on the buyer’s choice. In this sense, we can opt for the aforementioned Intel Core Ultra 9 or the Intel Core Ultra 7. Likewise, the choice of GPU is affected by the latter and we may have a Nvidia RTX 4070 or an RTX 4050 for the most basic model.
When it comes to storage and RAM it is a similar situation, when checking out you can choose any of these amounts:
- Memoria: 16 / 32 / 64GB LPDDR5X
- Storage: 512GB / 1 / 2 TB
With all that in mind, the Galaxy Book4 Ultra is powered by a 76Wh battery and supports 140W fast charging.
It is important to note that absolutely all models of the Samsung Galaxy Book4 outline the following features: professional backlit keyboard, dual microphones with studio quality, AKG quad speakers with Dolby Atmos, Windows 11 Home as operating system, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 and the following wired connectivity options:
- Thunderbolt™ 4 (2)
- USB type A
- Puerto HDMI 2.1
- Micro SD
- Headphone/microphone
Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro
The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro comes in two versions, one 14 inches and another 16 inches, although in both cases they are an AMOLED touch panel with WQXGA+ resolution (2880×1800) and variable refresh rate from 48 to 120Hz. When it comes to the processor and graphics, we can choose between an Intel® Core™ Ultra 5 or an Intel® Core™ Ultra 7, both with Intel Arc graphics integrated. For its part, the storage and RAM memory options are as follows:
- Memoria: 16 / 32GB LPDDR5X
- Storage: 512 GB / 1 / 2 TB
With that in mind, the 14-inch version is powered by a 63Wh battery, while the 16-inch makes use of a 76Wh unit.
Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro 360
The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro 360 is a little different from its brothers in the sense that it has a screen that can rotate 180° and is compatible with the S-Pen, therefore, it is a convertible PC, although it retains practically the same specifications of the 16-inch Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro, just with a different design.
In this order of ideas, it also has an AMOLED screen with WQXGA+ resolution and the same benefits that we already mentioned previously. The same can be said about the possible choices of processor, RAM and storage, so there is no point in repeating the information.
Samsung Galaxy Book4 series availability and price
The Galaxy Book4 series will be progressively available in select markets, starting with South Korea in January 2024, but we do not yet know the prices. What we do know are the color presentations available: Moonstone Gray and Platinum Silver. For more information visit samsung.com/galaxy-book.
4 Ryzen 8000G desktop processors come to light
If in November AMD launched its new chips for laptop series Ryzen 8040, now it seems that the semiconductor designer company is preparing to launch the Ryzen 8000G series for desktop computers in the near future. This information first surfaced on the Asus website, but was later deleted from the web. Likewise, some screenshots in CPU-Z corroborate the information of at least one of the listed chips. Either way, here’s what the lineup looks like:
| Ryzen 8000G | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Cores/threads | Frequency | TDP | Hidden L3 |
| Ryzen 7 8700G | 8/16 | 4.2GHz | 65W | 16MB |
| Ryzen 5 8600G | 8/16 | 4.35GHz | 65W | 16MB |
| Ryzen 5 8500G | 6/12 | 3.35GHz | 65W | 16MB |
| Ryzen 3 8300G | 4/8 | 3,45GHz | 65W | 8MB |
| Ryzen 5 PRO 8500G | 6/12 | 3,55GHz | 65W | 16MB |
The series is led by the Ryzen 7 8700G, a direct successor to the Ryzen 7 5700G “Cezanne”. This chip has the “Zen 4” CPU with 8 cores, 16 threads, 16 MB shared L3 cache and the full-featured Radeon 780M iGPU with its 12 compute units.
The Steam Winter Sale 2023 has already started
Christmas Eve is just around the corner, but it’s not necessary to wait until then to give yourself a gift (or perhaps to give something to your gamer friends). In this sense, Steam’s winter mega sales have already begun and practically the entire store catalog enjoys great discounts. It is very important to note that the winter sales end on Thursday, January 4, 2024, so, if you are reading this in 2023, you still have time.
There are too many games on sale to cover in a single note, but in the Steam event trailer the following titles were highlighted with a discounted price:
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Atomic Heart
- theHunter: Call of the Wild
- New World
- Satisfactory
- The Front
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
- Pummel Party
- Dwarf Fortress
- BattleBit Remastered
- AEW: Fight Forever
- Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
AMD FSR 3 with frame generation is now available through a mod
AMD’s FSR 3 is a very promising technology that substantially improves gaming performance without sacrificing much visual quality, and its secret weapon for this task is < a i=2>Fluid Motion Frames. However, the problem is that it is not yet available for many games, we know of 2 in which it is officially supported (Forspoken and Inmorals of Aveum), the rest of the titles in which this technology was promised are still awaiting its arrival.
However, the release of the source code of this technology has allowed the community to get its hands on the matter and develop a mod that basically implements it –unofficially- in games that support DLSS 3 (replaces this graphic option in games).
At the moment this mod is only compatible with GeForce RTX graphics cards and has one or another problem that requires a solution, but we cannot deny that the initial results are impressive.
Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, ultraportable and ultrapowerful
From the hand of Asus, the Zenbook 14 OLED 14 (UX3405) comes to the market, an extremely portable device equipped with the shiny new high-end Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 chip. This device measures 312.42 × 220.05 × 14.9 mm and weighs only 1.2 kilograms, but it manages to mount an ASUS Lumina OLED touch screen with a 14-inch diagonal , 3K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, not to mention the high-power superlinear speakers that elevate the multimedia experience.
At the hardware level it can be equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H or the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H with up to 16GB of RAM LPDDR5X and 512GB/1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD storage. This set is powered by a 75Wh battery with 65W charging and the integrated graphics are Intel Arc.
At the wired connectivity level, it consists of two Thunderbolt 4 ports, USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI 2.1 (TMDS) output and a classic 3.5mm audio jack. At the wireless level it has WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. To no one’s surprise, the current operating system is Windows 11. And to our surprise, it has an FHD infrared camera.
With all that said, the recommended price is 1,499 euros and shipments begin in January 2024. It is available through the manufacturer’s official website, in case anyone is wondering.
Acer Predator Triton Neo 16
As you will see, now all laptops are making use of the Intel® Core™ Ultra and its AI acceleration capabilities, and as an example, the Acer Predator Triton Neo 16 is another laptop that bets on them, And not only that, but it uses them to offer optimal performance in games, since this model is dedicated to gaming. Likewise, it consists of a Nvidia Geforce RTX 4070 GPU that we should not underestimate, and the same can be said of the latest generation cooling system with AeroBlade™ fan from 5th generation that incorporates this equipment.
Likewise, the Acer Predator Triton Neo 16 features a 16-inch screen with 3.2K resolution, 165 Hz refresh rate and is verified by Calman to offer photorealistic images. In addition, it has a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and support for NVIDIA Advanced Optimus function and NVIDIA G-SYNC technology.
Finally, the Acer Predator Triton Neo 16 (PTN16-51) will be available from March 2024 for a starting price of €1,799. We must note that the exact specifications, prices and availability will vary by region, for this reason we still do not know the exact processor it will have.
Turtle Beach VelocityOne Flightdeck
Turtle Beach has introduced an innovative flight simulator controller, the VelocityOne FlightDeck, which is designed to offer a full spectrum of control in air and space combat games.
It incorporates a flight touch screen that also offers customizable input buttons with up to 39 additional functions. Additionally, it provides a HUD that provides access to real-time diagnostics and performance adjustments, such as axis response curves and rudder lock.
That said, the VelocityOne Flightdeck has a full set of controls made up of two individual devices connected by USB, and to this we must add controls hall effect and a modular stick, which is adjustable. Oh, we almost forgot the 139 programmable buttons for total customization of the controls. Speaking of customization, you can adjust the haptic feedback of the throttle detent and make even more adjustments from the Flight Hangar app available for Windows PC. a>
For those interested, the price is 399.99 euros and it goes on sale on February 13, 2024. You can now reserve from turtlebeach.com.
Acer Swift Go 14 (SFG14-72)
And we continue again with Acer laptops that incorporate Intel Core Ultra chips. This particular one is equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and is also verified as an Intel Evo Edition platform laptop. The accompanying GPU is an Intel Arc, so it looks like a laptop for more conventional use, although its new integrated neural processing unit (NPU) can drive AI-based functions. If we talk about memory and storage, the device has a respectable 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage (M.2 PCI.e 3.0 x 4)
Changing the subject a little, the Acer Swift Go 14 has a 14-inch OLED screen with 2.8K resolution, 100% coverage % DCI-P3 color space and 90Hz refresh rate. Like any self-respecting modern laptop, it is extremely light and thin (1.32kg and 14.9mm thick).
The manufacturer in turn promises us 12.5 hours of autonomy courtesy of a 65Wh battery, as well as the Windows 11 operating system with Intel Unison, a QHD webcam and backlit keyboard.
The price and availability? Starting in December of this year for an initial price of 1,199 euros.
