Gatita Yan Allegedly Gets Invited To DJ at Jackson Wang’s Party, Later Rejects to Keep BF Happy

By now, most Malaysians are familiar with this Insta famous influencer/YouTuber Gatita Yan. Not long ago, she announced that just like Ms. Pui Yi, she will also start a new career path which is being a DJ.

Just yesterday, Gatita announced on her Instagram story that she will be attending Jackson Wang’s after party at a club in Solaris. In her story, she mentioned that she was “invited” to be the DJ for his after party.

“I’ve been practicing for so long. I’ve never practiced this long for a show before, I’m so grateful that I was invited to be a part of Jackson Wang’s after party DJ. I have so much gratitude”, she said.

Hours after she posted the story, she then posted another story saying that she’s getting a lot of hate for the announcement she made.

“Since there are so many people who have been commenting on this issue and making it a big deal, the hate has spread to the point where even my Middle Eastern boyfriend has heard about it”, she added.

She then revealed that her Middle Eastern boyfriend is not in the entertainment/media industry and couldn’t stand the fact that she is receiving this much hate and backlash from netizens.

She then ended her Instagram story saying,

“I don’t want my boyfriend to be upset over this matter and I’ve decided to cancel the DJ show.”

Following that, many netizens were quick to call her out and speculated that this was all a “one-woman show”.

“It’s so sad to see you become someone so desperate and sad. There’s nothing real about you or this matter.”

“She’s so good at putting up a show.”

“I believe a lot of DJs out there are treating as a joke and laughing about it.”

What do you think of this issue? Let us know in the comments below.

Full NVIDIA AD102 GPU Allegedly Runs Control At Over 160 FPS In 4K

A recent leak about a full-fat NVIDIA AD102 Ada Lovelace GPU suggests that the top-tier GPU can and will run rings around the current king-of-the-hill, the GeForce RTX 3090. How fast is the card, you ask? Apparently, it can run Remedy’s Control at 4K resolution and above the 100 fps mark.

Now, to be clear, this rumour about the AD102 isn’t to be confused with the non-Ti variant of the supposed RTX 4090 that has been making its rounds online. By comparison, the full-fat AD102 GPU ships out with as many as 18432 CUDA cores, which is approximately 12% more CUDA cores than what the RTX 4090 is expected to ship out with.

Getting back on point, and according to a Twitter user that goes by the handle AGF (@XpeaGPU), the AD102 GPU was able to run the game Control at 4K resolution, with the framerates sustaining themselves beyond the 160 fps mark. Further, those framerates were also achieved with ray-tracing and DLSS enabled, but not without its own set of drawbacks. In order to achieves those numbers, the GPU was also reported to have pulled more than 800W off the wall.

By comparison, the RTX 3090 at the same resolution and ray-tracing parametres turned on would yield approximately half the number of frames. With our RTX 3090 Founders Edition, our framerate in-game hovered between 60 and 74 fps.

The arrival of this AD102 rumour is interesting, given that just yesterday, we posted a report about another rumour regarding the RTX 4090 and how it is expected to be nearly 70% faster than the RTX 3090. However, those performance numbers were supposedly pulled off an as-of-yet unconfirmed 3DMark Time Spy Extreme benchmark and as such, should be treated with the usual consumption of salt.

For another matter, there are other missing variable that can render claims about the AD102’s prowess unreliable at this point. For starters, the source doesn’t specify the exact game settings the GPU was running Control with, nor did they say if the Lovelace GPU is actually using a new generation of Tensor Cores. Much like Ampere and its 2nd generation Tensor Cores.

Second, there aren’t any additional details about the AD102’s specs, not even its TDP or clockspeeds.

Next-Gen PCIe Power Connector For GPUs Allegedly Capable Of Handling Up To 600W

While graphics cards from both team NVIDIA and AMD have become more powerful over each generation, their cards have been fettered by one factor: the aging 8-pin PCIe power connector that connects the GPU to the PSU. NVIDIA tried to move on from the medium with its 12-pin MOLEX with its Founders Editions RTX 30 series cards but sadly, not all of its AiB partners have been willing to switch.

However, that could all evolve soon, especially if reports of NVIDIA’s RTX 3090 Ti are to be believed. According to a report by the German tech site, Igor’s Lab, AiB partners for NVIDIA may finally ditch the current 8-pin PCIe connector, in favour of a new 12-pin connector. Officially, the new MOLEX port is known as 12VHPWR and it is reportedly set to be part of the upcoming PCIe 5.0 interface and standard that will be introduced with the launch of Intel’s 12th generation Alder Lake later this month.

Specs-wise, the 12VHPWR connector is 3mm wide, making it slightly smaller than even the standard 8-pin connector. Further, it has four contact plugs on the underside, designed to carry sideband signals, as well as to latch on to the PCB securely, ensuring that the connector doesn’t shake loose.

The main takeaway from the report, however, is that the new connector could channel up to 600W of power in a single cable, which is a lot. In contrast, even the most power-hungry graphics card on the current market, the RTX 3090 pulls 350W off the wall, while even the unconfirmed RTX 3090 Ti is expected to have a TDP of 450W. To that end, it can be said that the arrival of the 12VHPWR connector heralds the likelihood of more power-consuming, yet powerful in the near and immediate future.

On that note, there’s still no news as to which graphics cards will be the first to use the 12VHPWR connector, and even if there was, it’s unlikely that the GPU itself will be pulling the full 600W directly from the PSU. Given the required 10% redundancy protocol.

TSMC Allegedly Increasing Chip Prices By 20 Percent Amidst Ongoing Shortage

TSMC is reportedly increasing the prices of its chips, the company told its clients earlier in the week. According to a report by WSJ (paywall), the semiconductor manufacturer plans on raising its prices by as much as 10% for its advanced chips and 20% for less advanced components.

The announcement clearly isn’t happy or welcoming news, given that the world is still suffering from an ongoing chip shortage that many experts and industry leaders say could last well into 2022 and the early months of 2023. On top of that, TSMC’s price hike will most definitely be reflected within the final bill of finished products that use its components.

That list, by the way, unsurprisingly includes electronic goods like laptops, phones, PC components, and game consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Product that, by the way, are made by equally big name brands like Apple, AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm, to name a few.

There is, of course, a silver lining of sorts in TSMC’s announcements. Raising the prices means that, for the first time since the pandemic began, demand for its chips could ultimately reduce and, in turn, take some pressure off already constricted supplies. At least, until its new factories in the US and Taiwan become operational.

Intel 12th Generation Alder Lake CPU Samples Allegedly Being Sold Early In China

It seems that the wait for Intel’s 12th generation Alder Lake-S desktop CPUs may not be as long as we initially expected. According to prominent hardware blogger and leakster, YuuKi_AnS, early samples of the unreleased CPU lineup are currently being sold in China.

According to their sources, samples of the top-of-the-line Core i9-12900K were being sold between 6900 Yuan (~RM4516) and 7500 Yuan (~RM4909). Bear in mind, these prices are not reflective of the product’s final SRP, which we’re certain will be different once the lineup officially launches.

That said, the early sales of qualification samples also point towards Intel’s progression with the chips; if samples are already out this early on the market, it’s clear that the chipmaker’s development of its 12th generation desktop CPUs is ahead of schedule.

As pointed out by PCGamer, one of the more interesting aspect of Alder Lake-S is its unique and uneven core-to-thread ratio, brought about through the “big.LITTLE” combination of Golden Cove and Gracemont cores. For example, the Core i9-12900K is expected to feature 16-cores, 24-threads, while the Core i7-12700K will reportedly have a 12-cores, 20-threads layout.

It’s also been somewhat confirmed the upcoming 12th generation CPU lineup will support next-generation features, such as PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 memory, all through a new 600 series chipset that, surprisingly, will also be backwards compatible with the following 13th generation Raptor Lake-S CPU lineup.

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE Leaks; Allegedly Features Same Design But Different Specs

It’s been rumoured that Samsung may launch a Fan Edition (FE) of the Galaxy S21 later this year – much like its 2020 Galaxy S20 flagship, which saw the release of its FE variant back in October. Although the company has yet to confirm the phone’s existence, a recent leak by renown insider Steve Hemmerstoffer (aka OnLeaks) may have given us a first look at its design and specifications.

According to the leakster, not much has changed in terms of design for the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE. It is suggested that the variant majorly retains the look of the original model, but with some minor differences in size – making it larger than the standard Galaxy S21, but still smaller than the Plus version. Hemmerstoffer noted that the allegedly upcoming smartphone measures at 155.7 x 74.5 x 7.9mm, which is 4mm taller and 3.3mm wider than the base model. 

In terms of display, it is said that the FE will feature a larger 6.4-inch display, along with a single top-centered camera cutout. Similar to its predecessor, the Galaxy S20 FE, the new phone is suggested to come with only a flat panel.

As for its rear design, the leakster says its rear camera housing has received a slight redesign, where it is integrated and protrudes directly from the back panel. The same bump on the original models, on the other hand, is built together with the surrounding frame. The Galaxy S21 FE’s rear panel will likely feature a frosted glass/plastic finishing and surrounding it will be a shiny metal frame, Hemmerstoffer added.

Not much has been revealed regarding the allegedly upcoming phone’s specifications, unfortunately. The only information shared by the leakster is its rear triple camera setup, which is suggested to come with the same 12MP wide, 64MP telephoto and 12MP ultra-wide sensors as the original model, but is said to feature downgraded lenses for cost reduction.

Chances are, it is possible that the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE could come packaged with a Snapdragon chipset like its predecessor. While the preferred choice is obviously a Snapdragon 888, the likeliness of it featuring a Snapdragon 870 SoC for the sake of a more affordable price tag is also plausible. That, or it could instead come with the same Samsung Exynos 2100 processor featured in the original models, or maybe a tweaked version of it.

As usual, we highly advise to take this new leak with a pinch of salt. Hopefully, Samsung would reveal more details regarding this variant of its 2021 flagship sometime soon – provided that this rumour is accurate, of course.

Google Allegedly Boosted Its Own Ads System Over The Competition

The advertising space is a very competitive one among the big names in tech. Among them is the internet search giant Google. The company is allegedly gaming the ad market to give its own an advantage.

The Wall Street Journal reports that this program, known as Project Bernanke was revealed via court documents filed in an antitrust lawsuit in Texas. Under the project, Google makes use of historical data from publishers’ ad servers to undercut the competition. The internet search giant claims that this is comparable to data maintained by other buying tools.

That being said, the potential problem lies with the fact that Google is both the operator of a major ad exchange as well as a representative of buyers and sellers in the very same exchange. The company itself is also an ad buyer in the space. The combination of all these leads to the allegations that it can game the system to its advantage. More specifically, this allows it to not only undercut the competition, but also pay publishers less on winning bids. This amounts to insider trading, as the Texas court claims.

Incidentally, documents submitted to the Texas court were also unredacted. This may reveal the more secretive elements of the Google ad business. The company has been given the chance to refile a more “properly-redacted” version.

AnTuTu Bans Realme GT For Allegedly Cheating Its Benchmark

AnTuTu has called out Realme for cheating on its benchmarking platform. It alleged that the brand had used deceptive measures during testing in order to rake in a high score for its latest Snapdragon 888-equipped flagship smartphone, the Realme GT.

In late February, brand vice president Xu Qi Chase shared a screenshot of the GT’s AnTuTu benchmark results on Weibo, revealing an impressive score of around 770,000 points. This placed it ahead of another Snapdragon 888 device, Xiaomi’s recently launched Mi 11 flagship, which scored around 708,000 points.

However, AnTuTu themselves were skeptical of the Realme GT’s overachieving score and decided to conduct the test on their own. The platform then took to Weibo to announce that the phone scored only 688,602 points – around 80,000 points less than what was claimed by the smartphone brand.

The platform explained the Realme GT used thread delay tactics during the multi-core test, which enabled it to hold back some threads that were meant to run on the smaller CPU cores and rerouted them to run on the larger and powerful cores instead. In the UX test, the smartphone was discovered to have skipped much of the processing involved with JPG decompression by relying on mosaic colour blocks to reduce the quality of an image. Both of these methods allowed for faster processing times, which in turn rewarded the GT with more points from the benchmark.

Consequently, AnTuTu has banned the Realme flagship from its platform for a period of three months due to cheating – removing its listing and score, as well as preventing any future tests involving the GT from taking place. It also issued an ultimatum to the brand, demanding Realme to address the issue within the given time frame or risk having the phone permanently banned.

Responding to the allegation, Xu Qi Chase issued a statement on Weibo saying that no tampering has been done to the particular Realme GT unit that was used for the benchmark. In the meantime, brand correspondents also told several outlets that it is currently communicating with AnTuTu in order to resolve the problem.

Cheating on mobile benchmarks is nothing new. Smartphone brands such as OnePlus and even chip manufacturers such as MediaTek have been previously caught tweaking their products in order to get higher scores. These numbers play an important role in terms of marketing and  bragging rights, especially when comparing performance results with the competition.

CDPR Hackers Allegedly Auctioning Hacked Files

It’s been well over 48 hours since CD Projekt got hacked. And it looks like the hackers are making good on their threat of selling the codes and documents they stole. In fact, they’ve already started taking bids for the source codes.

Twitter user @vxunderground tweeted images showing the ransomed data appearing online. In the tweet thread, they also mentioned that the hackers are auctioning the source codes of Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, among other CDPR games, with a starting bid of US$1 million (~RM4.045 million). They’re also selling them outright for US$7 million (~RM28.315 million).

According to Tom’s Hardware, leaked Gwent files have also appeared on forums like 4Chan, with the main download hosted on Mega. They have since been removed, which should limit the spread of the leak somewhat.

So far, it looks like the trickling of leaked data from CDPR are in the form of games source codes. It means that, for now at least, company documents are still safe. But it wouldn’t be long before it’s the documents’ turn to trickle out of the leaks pipeline. CD Projekt previously said that no personal information of users have been leaked, which is at least a silver lining for the company’s fans.

Valve Gets Sued For Allegedly Using Steam To Keep Game Prices High

Valve seems to be wearing a big, fat bullseye on its back. The company is once again on the receiving end of a lawsuit – this time alleging that it’s abusing Steam’s dominance in the PC gaming market to keep game prices high.

Valve is already being sued for allegedly stealing a design feature to make its now-discontinued Steam Controller but this lawsuit seems a lot more consequential though. The plaintiffs highlighted the fact that Steam forces all game developers on the platform to sell their games at the same price as they sell on other platforms.

This so-called “Most Favored Nations” (MFN) clause means that developers can’t offer lower game prices on rival platforms in the fear of losing access to Steam which generally the biggest online distributor of PC games.

Because of this MFN clause, the lawsuit (first reported by The Hollywood Reporter) said, “other platforms are unable to compete on price, thereby insulating the Steam platform from competition. The MFN has the effect of keeping prices to consumers high, as price competition by platforms would cause the prices of PC games sold to consumers to decrease.”

The lawsuit added, “The MFN also hinders innovation and suppresses output, as it acts as an artificial barrier to entry by potential rival platforms and as higher prices lead to less sales of PC Games.”

These claims and criticisms against Steam certainly aren’t new. In fact, PC Gamer has  noted that the lawsuit cited a 2019 tweet from Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, who claimed Steam has “veto power over prices.”

It’ll be interesting to see if this lawsuit goes anywhere because it could potentially affect how much we as average consumers pay for our PC games. On a related note, Epic’s monthly active users climbed to 56 million in December 2020 – up from 32 million a year before.

That’s still a far cry from Steam’s 120 million, but maybe the “barrier to entry” bit is a little overstated? Well, guess it depends on who you asked.