Zak Killian

Texas

Technical Editor at HotHardware

News writer for the Tech Report, general nerdery and weebness.

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Articles

Here's Intel's New Firmware Fix For 14th/13th Gen Raptor Lake Instability

4 days ago | hothardware.com | Zak Killian

Almost two years ago, people were already complaining of stability problems in Unreal Engine games played on Intel CPUs, but the issue really came to light when huge numbers of customers trying to play Tekken 8 in Korea started returning their Raptor Lake chips in droves. Intel responded by launching a comprehensive investigation and found that the issue was multivariate and pretty complicated.
Space Jaws: NASA Spots A Sneaky Black Hole Feasting On Hapless Stars

5 days ago | hothardware.com | Zak Killian

Somewhere out in the cosmic deep—about 600 million light-years away—a wayward monster has been caught in the act. Using a combo of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Hubble, and the NRAO Very Large Array, NASA has identified a 'wandering' supermassive black hole snacking on an unlucky star.
ASUS ROG Ally 2 And Xbox Handheld Specs And Photos Leak At FCC

6 days ago | hothardware.com | Zak Killian

We're going to cover several separate stories all in this one post, so buckle up kids, because there's a whole bunch of news here. Microsoft's Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, has spoken on record several times about his intent to create an Xbox handheld. More recently, rumors flew that Microsoft was collaborating with ASUS on an Xbox-branded handheld.
Mysterious AMD GPU Leak Hints At A Surprise Plot Twist For Budget Gaming

1 week ago | hothardware.com | Zak Killian

Just last night, I was looking for a single-slot graphics card to upgrade an older machine. The options in the market are dire, with the GeForce GT 1030 retaining a triple-digit price some eight years on from its 2017 launch, simply because it remains one of the best choices. We desperately need new low-power GPUs, and it may be that AMD is our salvation from this wasteland of old products.
ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18 Review: An Impressive Gaming Laptop

1 week ago | hothardware.com | Zak Killian

ASUS ROG Strix Scar 18 RTX 5090 Gaming Laptop: Starting at $2699, $4999 as tested The newest flagship gaming laptop from ASUS packs in Intel's latest CPU technology, NVIDIA's fastest GPU, and an absolutely brilliant screen—and it does it all in an attractive chassis.
Grand Theft Auto VI's Long-Awaited 2nd Trailer Confirms Character Details

1 week ago | hothardware.com | Zak Killian

Way back in September of 2022—over two and a half years ago—an early leak gave us the names of the GTA VI protagonists: a young guy named Jason and his paramour, a woman named Lucia. The first trailer showed us these characters and their close, obviously romantic relationship, but it didn't actually give us their names. Now, Rockstar Games just stealth-dropped trailer 2 for the most anticipated video game of all time, and along with it, confirmed that the leakers were correct all along.
Sparkle's Intel Arc B580 ROC Luna GPU Breaks Cover And It Looks Stunning

1 week ago | hothardware.com | Zak Killian

Sparkle is a company that has been around since 1982, yet the vendor has only recently started selling products for the consumer PC market. Its most visible offerings are graphics cards, which it bases exclusively on Intel's Arc GPUs. Sparkle favors mythical creatures for its GPU lineups, like "Orc" and "Titan"; today's card is part of the company's Roc series, named after a giant bird from Persian folklore.
Intel Arc Celestial Xe3 GPUs Confirmed Ready For Tape-Out Soon

1 week ago | hothardware.com | Zak Killian

Doubters be damned, Intel's third-generation Arc Celestial GPUs are absolutely on the way. Not any time soon, mind you, but they're coming for sure. Intel Fellow and friend of the site Tom "TAP" Petersen told PC World back in December that design work for the Xe3-based third-generation Arc discrete GPU was done and that the design team had moved on to Xe4 and "Druid".
Intel's Mysterious Battlemage G31 GPU Gets Spotted In Shipping Manifest

1 week ago | hothardware.com | Zak Killian

Rumors of a bigger Battlemage GPU's demise may have been greatly exaggerated. Tech sleuth Haze spotted something interesting in the public shipping database over at NBD DATA: multiple entries for things like "SOCKET STIFFENER (STF), DESIGNED FOR BATTLEMAGE-G31." The listings are dated late March and were destined for Intel Vietnam, which handles processor assembly and Intel's own "Limited Edition" graphics cards.
Microsoft Jacks Up Pricing On All Xbox Products But Will Gamers Care?

1 week ago | hothardware.com | Zak Killian

In a move announced with all the fanfare of a tax audit, Microsoft has quietly hiked prices on every piece of Xbox hardware it sells—consoles, controllers, and headsets alike. The news was buried in a support article on the official Xbox website, which is kind of like hiding a price hike in the fine print of a dentist's bill.