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HyperX Pulsefire FPS Pro Mouse Review

The HyperX Pulsefire FPS Pro is a sleek, simple gaming mouse coming in at Rs Rs4,500. So is this mouse for you? Let’s find out.

Tech Specs and Features

Mouse
Ergonomic:Ergonomic
Sensor:Pixart PMW3389
Resolution:Up to 16,000 DPI
DPI presets:800 / 1600 / 3200 DPI
Speed:450ips
Acceleration:50g
Buttons:6
Left / Right buttons switches:Omron
Left / Right button durability:20 million clicks
Backlight:RGB (16,777,216 colors)
Light effects:1 RGB lighting zone and 4 brightness levels1
On board memory:3 profiles
Connection type:USB 2.0
Polling rate:1000Hz
USB data format:16 bits/axis
Dynamic coefficient of friction:0.13µ2
Static coefficient of friction:0.20µ2
Cable type:Braided
Weight (without cable):95g
Weight (with cable):130g
Dimensions:Length: 127.60mm

Height: 41.90mm

Width: 71.10mm

Cable length: 1.8m

The mouse uses a really good 3389 sensor that is accurate. It’s not the lightest mouse out there with a lot of weight being brought in by the cable. It has Omron switches for the main Left Click and Right Click which are going to last you a long time and has a total of 6 buttons which is always great. It also comes with RGB for you RGB enthusiasts out there.

Design and Comfort

This mouse is fundamentally an upgraded version of the HyperX Pulsfire FPS with an upgraded sensor among other things. It has decent rubber grips at the side which I’ll get into a bit later, a good braided cable that comes in with a weight penalty.

As compared to my Razer DeathAdder Elite the HyperX Pulsefire FPS PRO has a slight latency of about 6-7ms. I mostly play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive so I tested the mouse’s performance on that game. The buttons were placed decently and never felt uncomfortable since I use the side buttons a lot as they’re bound to various grenades.

However, the problem I had was with the grip. While the grips as stated before are decent, I feel the shape didn’t help much with the grip. I felt it kept slipping out of my hand and had to use way more force than usual to just hold the mouse properly which led to a bit of finger fatigue after a couple of competitive matches.

This mouse isn’t suited or people with small hands because of the raised bump in the middle and the shape at the side as there’s no upper counter curve to help with grip.

There’s RGB lighting on the sides of the scroll wheel and the HyperX logo on the back of the mouse. It looks good with the simple black finish with the RGB that isn’t too gaudy or too simple.

Verdict

The mouse is pretty good for its price point and offers a lot of good stuff. If you have small hands or grip the mouse with a loose palm or fingertip grip then you might have issues. The shape is something that is based on preference and if it looks similar to a mouse that you’re already comfortable with, you shouldn’t have a problem at all.

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New Pokemon Game to be Revealed Today?

Way back at E3 2017, Nintendo teased the fact that a mainline Pokemon game was in the works for the Nintendo Switch with a release of 2018 or later. Well, that later might just be very soon.

Nintendo is hosting a Pokemon Direct today at 7:30PM IST/ 6AM PT which is going to be just 7 minutes long. It’s been a while since Pokemon: Lets Go Pikachu and Eevee have been out so our bet is on the fact that it is a small glimpse of the upcoming 8th Generation Pokemon game.

Earlier in 2018, The Pokemon Company had stated that “The next introduction for the popular core RPG series would arrive in late 2019 on the Nintendo Switch”.

There are multiple reasons to be excited about this upcoming title. First of all, it’s going to be a brand new generation of Pokemon which means more new Pokemon to fall in love with and also despise. The second reason is that they’re going to surprise us with new mechanics according to Nintendo Magazine.

Translated:
“After a lifetime associated with portable consoles, the canonical Pokémon will take the leap to a home console with its eighth generation. Game Freak and The Pokémon Company are rethinking the saga to surprise with new mechanics, either in 2018 or later.”

However, the main reason to be excited is because of this statement by
Pokémon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara:
“We want to make Pokémon fans say ‘this is what I’ve been waiting for’ by delivering a brand-new product packed with gameplay elements and plenty of new Pokémon to encounter.”

This also means that they will be pushing the visuals and the way the game is presented thanks to the move from weaker handheld devices to the Switch so maybe we could see an open world third person game like we always wanted similar to the style of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild.

“It is not an entry game, but a game that we want longtime fans of the Pokémon series to look forward to.”

As a long time fan of the series, its good to see that they’re acknowledging the players who have been playing since the days of Red and Blue and want to make a game that will appeal to them while also evolving the Pokemon formula.

Another thing to keep an out on is the addition of some sort of co-op play. Ishihara-san said “Until now, games were made as one for one person, but now you can go home and play with everyone — so how do we tackle these themes, and how do we make sure it’s not complicated?”

So maybe we could get a 2 player Pokemon game where you share the same world as your sibling/friend and they could replace your in-game rival. They might also bring the Pokemon Bank to the Switch so that you can transfer your Pokemon from the Sun and Moon and, Lets Go Pikachu and Eevee titles to the new game. At least this way your Pokemon won’t be lost to the sands of time.

Or maybe they’ll just announce an HD remake of Detective Pikachu with Ryan Reynolds voicing Pikachu as a tie-in with the film. Thankfully, it’s only a few hours away so Nintendo please, show us some of that Gen 8 goodness.

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More performance as AMD releases official drivers for mobile Ryzen chips

One common complaint of Ryzen powered laptop owners is ‘no official’ drivers from AMD. This issue was also addressed by AMD at the CES and the company seem determined to resolve the issue. Well, finally the mobile-Ryzen owners can enjoy the improved support they have been waiting for.

AMD has made the existing Adrenaline drivers compatible with it mobile Ryzen series. The ‘Adrenaline’ drivers were initially released for AMD’s desktop APUs, which are also based on the Raven Bridge architecture.

As per the new 19.2.3 driver’s release notes, it offers a significant increase in gaming performance. AMD claims a 10 percent performance boost on an average, with eSports titles enjoying 17 percent average performance increase.
All this performance optimisation could turn an unplayable game into a playable one.

AMD’s Release Notes.

AMD tested various popular games. The test result yielded varying results, with increase in performance across the board. Here is an interesting footnote that accompanied the release notes.

“Testing conducted by AMD Performance Labs as of February 19, 2019 on the AMD Ryzen 5 2500U comprising of 12GB DDR4-2400 and Windows 10×64.PC manufacturers may vary configurations, yielding different results. Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite, Player Unknown’s Battleground, and World of Warcraft when running Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.2.3 scored: 52, 30, 26, 43 FPS respectively. Radeon™ Software 17.40 scored 43,25,24,38 respectively. Therefore, in the above comparison, Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.2.3 shows 23%, 22%, 10%, 15% greater performance. For an average of 17% performance gains across the titles. All scores are an average of 3 runs with the same settings. Performance may vary based on use of latest drivers. RS-286″

Find the official release notes here. Happy gaming!

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GeForce GTX 1660 and GTX 1650 pricing and launch dates leaked, Nvidia to go down the price lane

Well, the launch of GTX 1660 Ti brought ‘some’ relief to the mid-tier gamers. Now, owners of low-end GPUs await some relief. For owners of GTX 1050/1050 Ti, the new $279 1660 Ti is surely not a viable upgrade for their ageing hardware.

According to a report by DigiTimes’, Nvidia will be launching GTX 1660 on 15th March, with GTX 1650 coming about a month and a half later, on 30th April. The report is in stark contrast to the earlier leak by VideoCardz which claimed that both cards would be launched in March, just 15 days apart.

Fortunately, we have a new lead on the pricing. However, it’s not from an official source and instead, comes from DigiTimes’ industry sources.

The GTX 1660 is alleged to retail for a minimum of $ 229, 50 bucks less than the GTX 1660 Ti and the GTX 1650 is priced at $ 179.
The practice of Nvidia pushing GPU prices up seems applicable to all series of GPUs. With no solid word on performance or what-so-ever, we cannot access how well priced these GPUs really are. However, with rumours of Navi coming soon, it seems that the ‘price-war’ we all have been waiting for, is on its way.

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Metro Exodus - Review

Metro Exodus is the third entry in the Metro series of games based on the books of Dimitri Glukhovsky. While the first two games are mostly linear shooters, set mostly underground inside Metro tunnels, Metro Exodus makes use of more open spaces outside of the tunnels. It’s not an open world game, but is has open areas with multiple missions and objectives.

Set shortly after the event of Metro: Last Light, Metro Exodus follows Artyom and a ragtag group of soldiers as they venture out of the Metro and Moscow to find out what’s been really going on all these years after the nuclear war. It’s a well told narrative with strong characters and really memorable moments. The story focuses on the group itself and how they manage to survive in some really harsh conditions.

Sights outside of the dark metro tunnels are not only refreshing, but also absolutely stunning. Metro Exodus of one of the best looking games on PC right now, and among the few to support Ray Tracing and DLSS. The amount of detail, both technical and artistic is really impressive, with excellent lighting, volumetric effects, and high-resolution textures really making he game shine.

The combat also sees some significant improvements. Both head on combat and stealth are valid options, and you now have a wider arsenal with deeper customization that ever before. You can modify a simple pistol to be a powerful SMG or even a sniper with the right components, and the upgrade system feels really meaningful. The shooting feels great, with strong recoil on automatic weapons, powerful impact of high caliber weapons, and the unique special weapons. Combat and stealth are both viable options, and accessing the encounter ahead, prepping for it, and executing on the play-style you desire is immensely satisfying.

With a strong narrative, enjoyable gameplay, and fantastic visuals, Metro Exodus is a really impressive package overall. This is easily among the best AAA game I have played in recent memory, and I would love to see what 4A Games does next.

Score - 9/10

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Intel’s response to AMD Athlon, Pentium Gold G5620 Coming Soon

Two European retailers have listed Intel’s dual-core budget flagship processor. As per of now, the new chip would be most probably based on the same 14nm++ architecture that Intel has been dragging for a while now.

The new Pentium processor will compete with AMD’s Athlon processors. Athlon processors are good all-rounders and come equipped with Vega Graphics. So, Intel will have a pretty tough time fighting for that budget ground.

The Intel chip would offer significantly improved single core speeds and performance. Given this, a lot of things would depend upon the integrated graphics that the processor will offer.
Not only this, there are a lot more processors on the list. As per Tom’s Hardware post, the list contains “G5420 (3.8 GHz, 2/4), G5600T (3.3 GHz, 2/4), G5420T (3.2 GHz, 2/4), the Celeron G4950 (3.3 GHz, 2/2), the Celeron G4930 (3.2 GHz, 2/2), and the Celeron G4930T (3.0 GHz, 2/2).”

All the processors on the list are alleged to hit the markets by mid to late March with no word on pricing.

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Intel to take down Geforce and Vega with 11 Gen i-GPUs

For quite a long time we have been hearing rumours about Intel working on its iGPUs, hoping to offer better gaming performance. Well, it seems like Intel is truly working to make its 11th Gen iGPU line shine up.

Benchmarks of new 11th Generation iGPU have popped up on the net.
And the results are, well…shocking. But, in a good way.
The benchmarks are of a ‘new’ processor powered by the ‘obscure’ Iris Plus Graphics 940 iGPU have popped up. And other 15 W mobile chips, AMD’s Ryzen 5 2400 G, Ryzen 7 2700U including the Core i5-8250U, are having a very hard time keeping up.

However, these are just leaks, real world performance could be shockingly different. Moreover, the benchmarks are unfortunately synthetic ones, so no FPS bragging. When compared to Intel’s own 9th Gen iGPUs, there is a whopping 77.4 per cent average increase.

Source- Tom’s Hardware

When compared to Vega 10, the new iGPU is about 63 per cent faster on an average. However, this would not be probably the real-life scenario as a 208.3 % more performance in the Manhattan test seems absurd.

Source- Tom’s Hardware

If Intel manages to convert these number into ‘real’ performance, it would redefine the way we game. The need for Nvidia’s MX line up would probably disappear, making laptops more budget friendly, given that prices are justified. Internal market sources indicate that the new Ice Lakes processors would come by late 2019.

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Nvidia to brush up the MX Series Lineup, MX 200 Series GPUs coming soon

Most of Nvidia’s non-GTX powered laptops are powered by MX series GPUs. These GPUs are a lot weaker than the Geforce GTX/RTX lineup but offer a significant edge over the ‘basic’ integrated graphics.

Specifications of Nvidia’s MX 200 series CPUs were ‘accidentally’ popped out on the net. According to Nvidia’s own specifications, the MX 200 series is Pascal based, which makes it a ‘generational refresh’ rather than a brand new GPU series. However, on a brighter side, MX 200 series support GPU Boost 3.0, OpenGL 4.6 and OpenCL 1.2.

However, these improvements do not translate very well when it comes to performance. The MX 230 is said to have a very minimal performance boost when compare to the older MX 130. Surprisingly, MX 150 beats MX 250 in performance, by only a bit though.
A possible scenario could be that Nvidia might be trying to make these card more power efficient with GPU Boost 3.0, which surely implies some trade off with the performance.

However, these specifications are based on leaks and might differ significantly from the official specifications. So, wait before you go on to forge a rock solid opinion.

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Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown sales top 500,000 in Asia

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown sold 500,000 units in its first month of release in Asia, Bandai Namco Southeast Asia announced.

While sales numbers for other regions have not been announced, the latest Media Create sales numbers place the physical PlayStation 4 version at 231,659 units sold in Japan. The game also had the biggest United Kingdom launch in series history.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

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Monster Rancher series official Twitter account opened

Koei Tecmo has opened an official Twitter account for the Monster Rancher series on the 20th anniversary of 1999-released PlayStation title Monster Rancher 2.

Monster Rancher, known as Monster Farm in Japan, is a monster raising simulation game series that has spawned 17 games and a television anime since it debuted in 1997. The latest release was a smartphone game called My Monster Rancher in 2011.

While it is unknown whether the launch of the Twitter account means something new is planned for the series, one of the tweets teases to, “Please give us your support in the future!”
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