The creator of the Defense Grid series, as well as co-developer of CS:GO and Age of Empires 2 HD, posted a series of job listings, saying, "We are in development on a AAA, third-person, open-world fantasy RPG that will be taking place inside the Dungeons & Dragons franchise." This was backed up by its project narrative director Whitney Beltrán, who has written for games like State of Decay 2 and Beyond Blue.
Hidden Path is hiring! We are in development on a AAA, third-person, open-world fantasy RPG that will be taking place inside the Dungeons & Dragons franchise.- Graphics Programmer- Lead Graphics Programmer- Senior Technical Artist- WriterMore info:https://t.co/gs8ld6AJL3March 2, 2021
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As for what kind of RPG it's going to be, the job listings mention Unreal Engine 4 and the writer position calls for "voiced dialogue writing skills" and "narrative branching skills" as well as experience with "strong ensemble casts". Sure sounds like stuff you'd expect in a big-budget RPG with a party of companions.
The phrase "taking place inside the Dungeons & Dragons franchise", while a horrible mangling of the English language, also suggests it will use one of the existing D&D settings. Both Baldur's Gate 3 and Dark Alliance are set in the Forgotten Realms, but Whitney Beltrán has a writing credit on Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, a forthcoming supplement for the actual tabletop version of D&D describing D&D's underused gothic horror world, which would make a killer backdrop for a videogame. That's not proof Hidden Path is making a Ravenloft videogame, of course. I'm just putting it out there.
Along with our friends at Laptop, TechRadar, and Tom's Hardware, we're coming together to share quick reviews of games and hardware in a new weekly video series. It's a chance to get a quick overview of the latest in tech, and see some of our faces while you're at it.
In this, the first episode of Totally Rated, you'll hear what TechRadar, Laptop, and Tom's Hardware thought of a new monitor and laptop designed by Porsche (yes, the car manufacturer), one of which they were much more impressed by than the other. "You're paying for the nice design, but it doesn't actually look good," they said. Ouch.
Meanwhile, TechRadar have a quick look at the Xiaomi Mi 11, a smartphone with a camera they call "the best macro snapper we've seen on a smartphone to date", and we review classic-style isometric citybuilder Nebuchadnezzar, so if you want to find out how to pronounce it, now's your chance to find out.
New episodes of Totally Rated will appear across Future Publishing's websites each Wednesday.
Architecture: Cypress Cove (based on Ice Lake core)
Max core count: 8 cores | 16 threads
Raw performance: 19 percent IPC increase over last gen CPUs
Gaming performance: Higher than AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
(Image credit: Intel)
The official release date for the new Intel Rocket Lake CPUs has been unveiled, with the new processors going on sale on March 30, 2021 at 6am PT / 9am ET (2pm GMT). This announcement comes on the tail of German retailer, Mindfactory, deciding to sell Rocket Lake processors a month early amid claims that it was allowed to do so.
You might be forgiven for thinking Intel Rocket Lake CPUs were released over at CES 2021 given all the talk of performance, specs, and the release of Z590 motherboards just after the digital tech show, but we're actually looking at late chips landing late this month.
These 11th Generation chips, known by their codename Rocket Lake to most, mark a departure from the DNA of the past five generations of Core CPUs. Whereas we're used to the same Skylake derivative architecture within even the most recent 10-core/20-thread processor, the Intel Core i9 10900K, the 11th Gen will house the Cypress Cove architecture.
Cypress Cove is something of a blended architecture: a little bit of the Ice Lake, a pinch of Intel Xe, and served chilled over the 14nm process node. Essentially, it uses the CPU architecture from 10th Gen mobile chips, called Sunny Cove, alongside 11th Gen Tiger Lake's Intel Xe iGPU. While those two processors were built using Intel's 10nm process node, that's not quite ready for general desktop consumption yet, and instead Intel's sticking with the 14nm node we've come to know well within our gaming PCs over the past half-decade.
We know that high clock speeds upwards of 5GHz will be attainable on that process node, though, and Intel's proven itself capable of drawing every last bit of performance out of 14nm. To the point where it's still pretty competitive with AMD's Ryzen processors on TSMC's 7nm node.
But while that's all shaping up to be relatively rosy for single-core performance, Intel is shaving two cores off its top chip with Rocket Lake. From the 10-core Comet Lake 10th Gen processors, Intel will offer a maximum of eight cores with the 11th Gen CPUs. That also puts it on an off footing versus AMD, who's top Ryzen desktop chip comes in with a grand total of 16 cores.
Can Intel Rocket Lake make up for lost cores? That's the question on everybody's lips as we head closer to these chips' release date. Here's everything we know so far.
Release date
(Image credit: Intel)
Intel Rocket Lake release date
The Intel Rocket Lake release date is March 30, 2021. That is now an official date from Intel itself after Mindfactory decided it was well within its rights to sell the processors a month ahead of a full release.
The German company shipped chips out to customers in its native country and performance figures almost immediately appeared on German tech forums. Intel responded to HardwareLUXX's Andreas Schilling about the issue with a statement that read:
"We take our embargo agreements seriously. We are aware of a retailer selling unreleased products and are following up as appropriate.
"We cannot comment on particular actions taken by retailers. We have ongoing discussions with partners which are confidential as part of our policy. We take our embargo agreements seriously and are following up as appropriate."
Statement by Intel on why a German e-tailer sold the Core i7-11700K:„We take our embargo agreements seriously. We are aware of a retailer selling unreleased products and are following up as appropriate.“March 2, 2021
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Naughty Mindfactory, then.
Eventual availability will still play an important role in Rocket Lake's success, that's for sure. AMD Ryzen 5000 processors have been in high demand since launch late last year, and we're yet to see buoyant stock at most major retailers. If Intel can meet demand, and then some, it'll surely win favour with gamers desperate for available tech right now. Yet Intel's not been without its own supply constraints over the past few years.
The Intel Rocket Lake ecosystem—compatible motherboard chipsets, mostly—have been gearing up in preparation ahead of time, however, and we have our fingers crossed for availability despite recent reports of component shortages.
The Z590 chipset is public knowledge already and we've witnessed waves of motherboards from most motherboard manufacturers since CES 2021 at the start of January, some more attention-grabbing than others (read: expensive).
Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock, Colorful, and more have announced Z590 motherboard lineups, some with availability ahead of time, and most promising further boards built around cheaper H570, B560, and H510 chipsets, too.
Specifications
(Image credit: Intel)
Intel Rocket Lake specs
With Intel's Rocket Lake CPUs tentatively announced over at CES 2021, we're now privy to some of the upcoming specifications for its 11th Gen desktop processors.
One thing to note is that we're likely looking at a split approach on the desktop with the 11th Gen chips. Core i9, i7, and i5 processors are reportedly using the latest Rocket Lake architecture (Cypress Cove), while Core i3, Pentium, and any Celeron chips on the way are said to be sticking with Comet Lake (Skylake).
As I mentioned before, Intel Rocket Lake processors will be built with that shiny new Cypress Cove architecture, itself a medley of Sunny Cove and Intel Xe Gen12 architectures, for CPU and GPU respectively.
On the CPU side of things, Intel's promising "IPC gains upwards of 19 percent gen on gen", courtesy of that newly-minted architecture on desktop. That should make for some healthy improvements in the gaming benchmarks, considering the eventual clock speeds and core counts of any given chip in the series. Intel will undoubtedly be aiming at gaming performance to topple AMD's Ryzen processors, which also recently received a heady IPC increase courtesy of the Zen 3 architecture—enough to put Intel under pressure in gaming.
Sticking with the 14nm process node might look symptomatic of greater woes in process at Intel, and you'd be right in thinking so, but we're still looking at clock speeds up to 5.3GHz single-core boost with the Core i9 11900K, matching the max Turbo clock of the Core i9 10900K. All-core boost sits at 4.8GHz.
Intel's not quite revealed the full extent of the lineup yet, but as ever a variety of benchmarks, slides, and retailer listings tell all. Oops. All the better for us enthusiasts, however.
Intel Rocket Lake/Comet Lake refresh specs - 11th Gen Core processors
Cores/threads
Base/boost (GHz)
Graphics
TDP (Watt)
i9 11900K
8/16
3.5/5.3 (Thermal Velocity Boost)
Intel Xe – 32 EU
125
i9 11900
8/16
-
Intel Xe – 32 EU
65
i7 11700K
8/16
3.6/5.0
Intel Xe – 32 EU
125
i7 11700
8/16
-
Intel Xe – 32 EU
65
i5 11600K
6/12
3.9/4.9
Intel Xe – 32 EU
125
i5 11600
6/12
-
Intel Xe – 32 EU
65
i5 11500
6/12
-
Intel Xe – 32 EU
65
i5 11400
6/12
-
Intel Xe – 24 EU
65
i3 11320
4/8
-
UHD 630
65
i3 11300
4/8
-
UHD 630
65
i3 11100
4/8
-
UHD 630
65
Full Intel Rocket Lake specifications remain unconfirmed. Credit to Twitter user @harukaze5719 and VideoCardz. Unlisted are T-series low-power variants and dual-core Pentiums, which have also been alluded to in leaks.
And of course, we're looking at a reduction in core count for the top chip from 10 to eight, although if you were eyeing up a Core i7 or Core i5 then you're still looking at the same eight-core or six-core configuration as the 10th Gen. It's perhaps worth noting that initial leaks pegged Rocket Lake with 10-core processors, leaving a little glimmer of hope for the top capacity down the line, but we've seen little to back those claims up since.
Also included for the first time on an Intel desktop lineup is PCIe 4.0 capabilities, now coming direct from the CPU—20 lanes of the stuff. That's enough for a PCIe port and an SSD or two to connect at greater bandwidth than currently available on Intel's existing platforms, and brings Intel up to speed, for the most part, with AMD. Chipset notwithstanding.
As for the chipset, Intel's rolling out the brand new 500-series chipsets. There's quite a bit of overlap with the 400-series, however, it must be said. So much so, in fact, some Z490 motherboards will support the 11th Gen Rocket Lake chips when they arrive. That's partially made possible by the shared socket between the two: LGA 1200.
You can check out all the differences between the new 500-series chipsets in the table below or over on Intel's ARK database. But essentially it boils down to the usual suspects: PCIe lanes, ports, and overclocking support.
Intel 500-series chipsets
Z590
B560
H570
H510
Overclocking
Yes
No
No
No
Max no. PCIe lanes
24
20
12
6
USB ports
14
14
12
10
No. of DIMMS per channel
2
2
2
1
Max no. SATA ports
6
6
6
4
Integrated Wireless
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201
Optane support
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Processor PCIe configurations supported
1x16+1x4 or 2x8+1x4 or 1x8+3x4
1x16+1x4
1x16+1x4
1x16
RAID
0,1,5,10(SATA)
0,1,5,10(SATA)
-
-
The Z590 chipset remains the only one to offer overclocking for the CPU. Though, you will be able to run memory at greater than stock speeds on B560 and H570 motherboards.
Intel Rocket Lake will be rather swiftly replaced, or met in the field, by Intel Alder Lake chips—a big leap for Intel's desktop architectures.
Performance
(Image credit: Intel)
Intel Rocket Lake performance
Intel would love to retake ground recently lost to AMD with its Rocket Lake CPUs, and it's hoping that 19 percent instructions per clock (IPC) upgrade will be able to do just that.
That's nothing to be sniffed at, either. A 19 percent improvement is an impressive lead that isn't often brought to bear without a significant shift in architecture. We know that the Sunny Cove architecture can deliver, too, and perhaps increasingly so with fewer constraints on power and clock speed as those we've found in thin-and-light laptops and across 10th Gen Ice Lake processors bearing the same microarchitecture.
There are two sides to this coin, however. On the one side, single-threaded performance is sure to be up, at least in synthetic benchmarks, due to the IPC increase and matching clock speeds between the top two Intel chips of the 10th and 11th generations. That should put the Core i9 11900K ahead of AMD's Ryzen 9 5900X or 5950X by a hair, although it'll likely be a close-run affair.
Where Rocket Lake will lag behind both is in multithreaded applications and benchmarks—that we can be sure about. No amount of realistic technical tinkering will supersede the requirement for m0ar cores in our processors in these workloads—just look at Threadripper's mighty 64 core count—and that leaves the resolutely eight-core/16-thread Core i9 11900K behind the Core i9 10900K and most of AMD's Ryzen high-end in well-distributed workloads.
We've heard reports of early benchmarking results indicating a real mixed bag when it comes to gaming, which is slightly off-putting news, to say the least. With a new architecture combo on desktop, we're not ruling anything out, but it certainly sounds a little odd for a chip with a greater IPC, even an eight-core one, to fall behind one with notably slower IPC.
The difference in gaming performance between an eight-core and 10-core processor is limited at best between the Core i9 10900K and Core i7 10700K, at 10 and eight cores, respectively. Only a few games truly making better use of those two extra cores on the top chip, yet even that's to say it's not entirely useless having more cores for gaming.
The first bout of benchmarks are going to answer a lot of these questions we've got ahead of time, and it's an exciting prospect. Especially off the back of five CPU generations with which it was clear enough roughly where they would land in terms of performance.
Price
(Image credit: Intel)
Intel Rocket Lake price
As ever, the success of all of the above relies on one thing: price. Intel Rocket Lake pricing has not yet been confirmed by the CPU maker, but we're not entirely devoid of information on the matter.
For one, we'd expect an eight-core processor, even one of say the Core i9 11900K's enthusiast credentials, to fall cheaper than the 10-core Core i9 11900K. Even with pricing in relation to performance, the downturn in core count will leave that chip slightly worse for wear in multithreaded performance and we're hoping for pricing that reflects that.
Further down the stack, starting with the Core i7 11700K and furthermore towards the affordable Core i5 processors, core counts are largely on par with Comet Lake (eight-core i7s, six-core i5s) and therefore there's less impetus for Intel to price down from the existing recommended customer pricing for Comet Lake.
There still AMD to factor in to Intel's pricing. Though, with the Ryzen 5000-series the company increased pricing unilaterally by $50, which certainly takes the pressure off Intel to slash prices.
Similarly, we're looking at a general trend of shortages, component price hikes, and tariffs that are increasing tech costs across the board. These are pretty difficult to ignore when looking to Intel's next-gen chip pricing, and while we'd very much like to exclude Intel from all of these factors (in some ways it is less impacted than others), there's undoubtedly going to be pressure to push prices up.
Early retailer reports suggest a confusing picture of pricing, too. Perhaps placeholders, perhaps not, some European retailers have already begun listing Intel Rocket Lake processors and pricing on their sites.
Belgian retailer 2Compute puts the Core i9 11900K at €499.70 excluding VAT (which will be applied to all EU purchases to the tune of at least 15% but can vary between region). That's cheaper than it's offering the Core i9 10900K, which is listed for €549.00 excluding VAT (via Videocardz).
However, the exact mirror of that takes place elsewhere. Retailer LAFI (via Twitter leaker @harukaze5719) has the 11900K price at €545.40, while the 10900K is listed at €505.30—VAT notwithstanding.
Further down the stack, most retailers appear in agreement that the newer Rocket Lake processors will cost more than their Comet Lake counterparts. Again, we're still not sure whether these are placeholders or not, but we wouldn't be surprised if the Core i7s, i5s, and i3s retained similar, if not likely more expensive, price tags.
Australia's NBN providers are locked in a price war of sorts at the moment, with a handful offering discounts on the highest speed plans. It's presumably to accelerate adoption of NBN 250 and 1000 plans, which are still relatively new. In addition to its previous discounts to its NBN 250 plan, Superloop has another tempting offer: 250Mbps speeds for people who sign up for NBN 100.
Basically, if you sign up for the provider's NBN 100 plan right now, you'll get an automatic upgrade to NBN 250 (providing your connection can handle it). That will last for three months, and it coincides with a current six month discount on the NBN 100 plan, which is AU$74.95, down from AU$89.95.
So in a nutshell: for three months you can get NBN 250 for AU$74.95 a month, which is pretty sweet: that would normally cost you AU$119.95 without any discounts. After three months your connection will automatically downgrade to 100Mbps speeds.
If you want NBN 250, Superloop is currently offering its plan for AU$99.95 a month for the first six months, after which you'll get it for AU$119.95. Whether you're keen for a 250Mbps connection or don't think you need it, you can sign up temporarily and, I dunno, download your entire Steam backlog while the going is good. There's no fixed term contracts, after all. For more price war shenanigans, here's the best NBN plans for gaming in 2021.
A contractual dispute between The Sinking City developer Frogwares and publisher Nacon led to the game's removal from most digital storefronts last year. At the start of 2021, a French court determined that Frogwares had terminated the contract unlawfully, and thus ordered its terms restored until a final ruling was in place. That saw the game returned to Steam and elsewhere, although sales on Steam were unexpectedly halted soon after.
It reappeared on Steam last week, but in an unexpected twist Frogwares warned against purchasing it, saying rather cryptically that it was not a build the studio had released. The story got even weirder today when Frogwares expanded on that claim with the allegation that Nacon "cracked and pirated The Sinking City" in order to re-release it on Steam without its knowledge.
The lengthy post begins with a rundown of the dispute between Frogwares and Nacon, which led the studio to repeatedly refuse to deliver an updated master version of The Sinking City for release on Steam. That matter is currently before the courts, and a decision may not be made for quite some time. On February 26, a new version of the game appeared on Steam, which led to this escalation in the dispute.
Frogwares claims that the version of The Sinking City that Nacon has put on Steam is actually a build it had "specifically prepared" for release on Gamesplanet, cracked and slightly modified to remove logos and other related content. The studio alleges that Nacon decompiled the game using a key to get around the Unreal Engine encryption system, which Frogwares said "is not DIY work by inexperienced people, this is done by programmers who know Unreal well." After that, it was apparently a matter of modifying some config files, making a few other changes, and then recompiling the game for release on Steam.
The studio says it can prove this happened because it downloaded the Steam version released by Nacon and tried its existing encryption key on the archive—and it worked. "The hackers didn’t even care to use a different encryption key than the one we created when recompiling," the studio wrote.
(It also claimed to know how Nacon acquired the key, but said that information will be submitted to the courts.)
From there, the update moves into a relatively complex explanation of what was changed and how, along with further allegations of steps Nacon took "to hide the fraudulent exploitation of the game on Steam," and possibly other platforms. It also also claims that developer credentials on the account indicate that the files were uploaded by a Nacon employee.
Frogwares emphasized that it holds neither Steam nor Gamesplanet responsible for its allegations, saying that it fully believes the Gamesplanet version was legally purchased, and that Steam had no reasonable way to know the build's true origins. It doesn't mince words about Nacon, though.
"Nacon has proved they are willing to do anything possible to serve their interest, including illegal actions," Frogwares said. "They ignored the decision of the Justice and bypassed them, pirating The Sinking City in order to deceive their partners, Steam in the first place.
"There are long term damages we need to take care of, Nacon unpacked our data, stole our source code and used it. Nacon can create a new version of The Sinking City using our assets; they can resell, reuse, recycle our content and our tools etc. We have to take the measure of what happened now and follow the best path on the legal side to prevent anything like this happening again."
The dispute between the two companies has also continued to unfold on the new Sinking City Steam page, which both still appear to have access to.
(Image credit: Frogwares)
"We regret that Frogwares persists in disrupting the release of the Sinking City," Nacon said in an update posted at 1:02 pm ET today. "It's easy to play the victim, but all we seek is that Frogwares respect its commitments both in the contract and as demanded by the courts.
"In regards to feedback on the release of the Sinking City on Steam, this is an official and complete version. However, due to a lack of cooperation with Frogwares, we are unable to integrate Steam-specific features (cloud saving/achievements). Thus, this version contains only the base game, without any additional content. Despite this, we have organized the release so that fans on Steam can enjoy the game."
In an update posted to the page a few hours later, Frogwares said that the version of The Sinking City now on Steam "is a pirated one," and links to the video embeded above.
All of the claims against Nacon are unproven, but the fact that Frogwares is willing to make them so openly is remarkable in its own right. I've reached out to the company for comment and will update if I receive a reply.
Grand Theft Auto 5's loading times have been the butt of many a joke over the last seven years—even the beefiest of PCs will leave players twiddling their thumbs while that blonde lady throws a peace sign at her phone for the millionth time. The agonising wait has led one savvy player to delve into the game's code, and with some tweaking has managed to reduce the loading times by almost 70%.
The lengthy loading times—tostercx experienced a six minute wait for GTA Online to boot up—are, in part, attributed to some terribly optimised code and a 10MB JSON file containing 63,000 item entries. Every time an item is found, the check then runs again… and again. tostercx estimated that this leads to around 1,984,531,500 checks.
This, along with the fact the game was only loading from a single core on tostercx's CPU, appear to be the biggest bottlenecks. But after a couple of fixes that optimised the code, tostercx was able to reduce the loading time to a much more digestible one minute and 50 seconds, a 69.4% improvement on the original time.
It's a huge reduction, and tostercx claims it shouldn't take "more than a day for a single dev to solve." tostercx even leaves a couple of suggestions for Rockstar, ones which hopefully will be acted on—though it's doubtful given how long players have put up with long load times already.
If you're still diving into Los Santos, why not use those impossibly long loading times to check out some of our GTA Online guides, like how to make money quickly or the speediest cars that deserve a place in your virtual garage?
A couple of times a week, we trawl through the deepest, darkest corners of the world wide web in order to unearth some of the best PC gaming deals in Australia. This story will largely focus on highlighting PC hardware and peripherals discounts, but if there are any appealing AU-exclusive games bargains, we'll include them too.
Without further ado, here's our current selection of deals — as always, if you spot anything else good, let us know in the comments section below. This round-up will be updated weekly... or just whenever there's an especially good bargain to be had. As bargains expire, we'll remove them from the page.
New Alienware M15 R4 | i7-10870H | RTX 3070 | 32GB RAM | 1TB SSD - AU$3,824 (usually AU$4,499) This is the first time we've seen this 3070-wielding M15 discounted from its rather prohibitive RRP. In addition to the specs above it features eye tracking, and a 1080p display with a 300Hz refresh rate. Via Dell.View Deal
Alienware Aurora gaming desktop | i9-10900KF | RTX 3080 | 32GB RAM | 1TB SSD - AU$5,480.43 (usually AU$7,199) It may be pricier than building your own, but if you like the cut of the Aurora's jib this is very well specced and will work straight out of the box. AU$1,719 off the usual price is definitely very tempting. Via Dell.View Deal
Razer Blade 15 Advanced | i7-10875H | RTX 2070 Super | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD | AU$2,999 (usually AU$4,899) A very good deal on this extremely well-endowed Blade: in addition to the specs above you're getting a 300Hz refresh rate on that screen, and all the usual RGB adornments. This is a very classy device and a steal at this price. Via Microsoft.View Deal
HP Omen 15 | i7-9750H | RTX 2080 | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD | AU$2,999 (usually AU$3,799) Microsoft is flogging a bunch of high-spec laptops at the moment and this is among the best. Comes with a full HD LED display, "advanced cooling" and a fancy-as-always form factor. Via Microsoft.View Deal
Razer Blade 15 | i7-10750H | RTX 2070 | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD - AU$2,299 (usually AU$3,599) This is a bloody good price for one of Razer's very classy (and very versatile) Blade laptops. These excel at doubling as work laptops, while secretly harbouring the grunt to run games at high settings. Via Mwave.View Deal
Alienware M17 R3 | i7-10750H | RTX 2070 Super | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD - AU$2,924 (usually AU$4,499) This model has been on sale at various prices over the past few weeks but this is a good price. In addition to the above specs, boasts a 17.3 inch 1080p monitor with a 144Hz refresh rate and G-Sync. There's also a higher-specced version of the M17 R3 going, with an RTX 2080 Super, 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD for AU$4,159 (usually AU$6,399). Via Dell.View Deal
Cheap gaming monitors in Australia
Alienware 25 AW2521H | AU$839.30 (usually AU$1,199) A nice AU$359.70 off this 25 inch 1080p gaming monitor with a refresh rate that hits 360Hz at its highest end (240Hz if you're using HDMI instead of DisplayPort). Features FreeSync and G-Sync and a Fast IPS panel. Via Dell.View Deal
Alienware 38 curved | AU$1,686.73 (usually AU$2,249) Save AU$562.25 on this bent 38 inch gaming monitor. Features G-Sync and a 3840x1600 resolution, and a 144Hz refresh rate on DisplayPort (85Hz with HDMI). You're coming here for size and HDR. Via Dell.View Deal
Acer XZ272P curved gaming monitor | AU$329 (usually AU$479) If you want a screen with a bend in it, this 1080p monitor could do the trick, and a 165Hz refresh rate is pretty good at this reduced price. Boasts FreeSync tech and HDR 400. Via Scorptec.View Deal
Gigabyte G27QC 27 inch | AU$399 (usually AU$499) A 27 inch QHD monitor with 165Hz was a bit of a steal when it was AU$379 last week, but this slightly higher (but still AU$100 off RRP) price is still ok, though it depends whether you're into the whole curved thing or not. Via Scorptec.View Deal
Cheap gaming headsets in Australia
SteelSeries Arctis 1 wireless | AU$148.56 (usually AU$199) This wireless 4-in-1 wireless gaming headset is "4-in-1" because it comes with a USB-C dongle that adds compatibility with consoles. If you have, say, a Nintendo Switch and want one headset for both, this is worth investigation. Usually goes for around AU$175 in Australia. Via Amazon.
Cheap gaming keyboards in Australia
SteelSeries Apex 5 Hybrid | AU$147 (usually ~AU$180) Some retailers sell this for up to AU$229, but usually it can be had for around AU$170. So this current Amazon price is good if you're in the market for this model, which boasts hybrid mechanical switches, an OLED smart display and the usual smattering of fancy shiny colours. Via Amazon.View Deal
Razer BlackWidow Chroma | AU$157.53 (usually AU$219.95) The price on this green switch mechanical keyboard generally hits between AU$170 and AU$200 in Australia, so this current Amazon deal is quite good, albeit a bit priceier than it was a week ago (AU$120). It has an advertised 80 million keystroke lifespan and all the colours you could possibly want, unless 16.8 million isn't enough for you. Via Amazon.View Deal
Cheap gaming mice in Australia
Razer Naga Trinity | AU$139 (usually AU$169.95) If you need a gaming mouse with a crapload of buttons, the Naga Trinity is probably already on your radar. There are up to 19 programmable buttons and interchangeable side panels, so you can choose whether to go button mad or not, depending on what you're playing. Via Amazon.View Deal
A note on affiliates: some of our stories, like this one, include affiliate links to online stores. These online stores share a small amount of revenue with us if you buy something through one of these links, which help support our work evaluating components and games.
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