SPARKLE unveiled its low-profile series around mid-January—this lineup included an Intel Arc A380 GENIE dual-fan/dual-slot model and an Arc A310 ECO (single-slot, single-fan config) card. Compact device expert/YouTuber, ETA Prime, has uploaded a fascinating video that covers a modification project that involved a hybridization of SPARKLE's latest low-profile graphics cards and a Minisforum MS-01 test system. SPARKLE has released various models based on Intel's "Alchemist" Arc A380 6 GB GPU, but their PCB design is shared across a range of cooling options. ETA Prime could not source an aftermarket lower-profile cooler for his SPARKLE A380 GENIE, so he resorted to cannibalizing the A310 ECO model for relevant parts.

The ECO's single-slot cooling solution was not well proportioned enough to make contact with the SPARKLE A380 GENIE's VRM, so ETA Prime had to "add an aftermarket heatsink." He sold the remaining unneeded pieces—A310 board and GENIE cooler—to a friend for $60. The resultant hybrid—the "world's first-ever single-slot Intel Arc A380"—was bunged into the SFF Minisforum MS-01 test system. Notable specs included the Intel Core i9-13900H CPU and 32 GB of DDR5-5200 RAM. ETA Prime utilized Acer's Predator BiFrost graphics card utility to "trick" in a stable 54 W power limit. 60-ish FPS performance results—with low-to-medium settings at 1080p across a selection of games—were promising, especially for a restrictive small form factor build. ETA Prime hopes that SPARKLE will launch a smaller A380 model in the future—alternatively a specialist firm could produce a nice aftermarket copper part.

With Mods (short for modifications), you can tailor your gaming experience to your unique preferences. Uploaded by creators all over the world, you can pick between anything to create the city of your dreams. Along with Beach Properties, the first wave of Cities: Skylines II Modding will be available. The Beta release of Modding will initially support Map and Code mods. With the Map Editor, you can make maps with the Terraforming Tools you're used to, import hightmaps to create highly accurate depictions of your hometown, and upload your creations to Paradox Mods.

With the Code Tools, you can show off your coding skills and create Code Mods to meet your heart's desire! Future updates will improve on these tools and come to include support for Asset Mods. As we've talked about before, there will be updates to these tools that we are currently working on, and we will see some updates before the 1.0 release. We will be taking your opinion into consideration when we continue to work on the editor and are looking forward to seeing the feedback that you might have. If you're curious on what the process of Modding will look like you can already check it out on the Cities: Skylines II Wiki here.

Mr Matt Lee (a filmmaker and YouTuber) enjoys the powerful yet quiet performance of ASUS and Noctua collaborative graphics cards, but (like many enthusiasts) is not fully appreciative of the latter's default choice of oddball brown and beige color schemes. A weekend social media post highlighted an alternative reality with a slickly produced mockup and an accompanying message: "What if ASUS x Noctua made a 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘅 GPU? 👀 Here's something I've been working on to give you an idea of how it could look! Two Chromax NF-A12x25 fans with matching mono accents… it's certainly a vibe 🖤 Would you have this in your rig?" Mister Lee made sure to tag the ASUS UK office and Noctua accounts—we are fairly certain that both manufacturers have received plenty of feedback over the years since beginning their custom design partnership a few years ago. The latest collaborative fruit of their combined labors is the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16 GB Noctua OC Edition, so the brown tradition looks to continue in 2024.

An AMD Navi 32 die was belatedly observed in a Forbes video feature on the company's CEO and President Lisa Su—this small tidbit fired up the PC hardware community once again with speculation about why Team Red has not yet released proper mid-range RDNA 3 game-oriented models. A handful of news sites have recently reported that a Navi 32 GPU sits at the heart of AMD's fairly new workstation-grade AMD Radeon Pro W7800 32 GB GDDR6 graphics card, but fact checkers have quickly pointed out that the $2499 (MSRP) product is actually based on Navi 31. Sites have theorized about the makeup of a possible "Radeon RX 7800" GPU and assumed that a similarly named/numbered workstation model would offer a preview of things to come.

Igor Wallossek (of Igor's Lab fame) has conducted an interesting investigation into this matter. He has put a Radeon Pro W7800 test unit through its paces as a gaming card, but the high-end nature of the Navi 31 GPU leads him to believe that the performance level on tap would be roughly equivalent to a hypothetical "RX 7800 XT." Igor assumes that his simulated gaming card will have access to a smaller pool of VRAM (16 GB instead of 32 GB)—he achieves this via the memtestcl program, since "RDNA 3 no longer allows us to emulate the cards directly." He also sets provisions for differing power consumption due to the workstation card being an efficiency-focused product: "The Radeon Pro W7800 has a TBP of 260 watts, my own extrapolation results in a TBP of around 270 watts for the RTX 7800XT based on the efficiency values of the other two Navi 31 cards."

Popular gaming hardware content creator, ETA PRIME, yesterday teased that his ASUS ROG Ally preview unit was seemingly running Valve's Steam Deck operating system - the short YouTube video provided a glimpse of basic UI functionality as well as in-game performance (Forza Horizon 5). He promised that a full video was incoming, thus providing a full explanation of his modification process and a more in-depth exploration of more games running on the formerly Windows 11-based example. ETA PRIME has delivered on his earlier pledge - the first look/early impressions video was released only a few hours ago (at the time of writing). He reveals that his test platform ROG Ally is not running on Valve's Steam OS.

He has resorted to installing a gaming-focused Linux distro called Chimera OS - he notes that the similar HoloISO platform was not booting up on his handheld unit. On-board audio is reported to be non-functional - the Ally is connected to an external USB-C hub that outputs sound via the in-built 3.5 mm jack. Wi-Fi performance is reported to be inconsistent, ETA PRIME says that he has to reset the system in order to re-establish online connectivity. He was largely impressed with the Ally's gaming performance in a Linux-based environment, but prefers the Steam Deck's power efficiency. He will look into lowering the Ally's TDP, but there is no sure-fire way of making optimizations within the Chimera OS test build.

The PC port of The Last of Us Part I has gained a lot of attention for its shoddy technical performance at launch, with a flurry of patches issued by developer Naughty Dog to calm down matters following barbed community feedback. An unofficial modification project has been ticking along behind the scenes, with team members and contributors content to tinker with the game, rather than engage in arguments about poor optimization and crashes to desktop. The Voyagers Revenge project has this week revealed footage of a first person perspective mode implemented into the Windows version of The Last of Us Part I.

The mod is still a work in progress, so demonstrations have been captured in the form of gameplay footage and uploaded to YouTube - actual playable code is not available to the public. The modders have implemented a feature that Naughty Dog had previously abandoned, with vice president Neil Druckmann confirming that the development team had experimented with a first person perspective mode in the early days of production, but they ultimately decided to drop it in favor of sticking to an over-the-shoulder viewpoint.

Gaming communities have been engaged in discussions about Half-Life: Alyx being partly playable without a VR headset for the past month or two. The team behind the NoVR modification project has, as of late week, announced that the game's story experience - from start to finish - is totally VR free. This news should satisfy many excited fans who have been anticipating Half-Life: Alyx's campaign being displayed on the small/medium screen. Previous entries in the long running Half Life series have always been two-dimensional traditional monitor affairs.

The GB_2 Development Team cheerfully introduces its latest iteration of NoVR: "This is our biggest update yet and we have no plans on slowing down! With thousands playing Half-Life: Alyx NoVR we are happy to announce our largest update yet! As the titles state the entire game can now be played from start to finish, with the Gravity Gloves fully implemented along with combine fabricators providing weapon upgrades. Also since we are now updating the final parts of the game there may be spoilers! We will do our best to not spoil anything while ensuring we communicate these late game areas have been updated along with their gameplay mechanics."