David Hayward checks out what gaming hardware we can expect for the remainder of the year
When 2015 started, we were tantalised with some pretty impressive-looking gaming hardware. Devices and technologies were promised, and we lapped up every word while eagerly awaiting the arrival of the return of virtual reality and the much talked about Steam Machines.
We’re now halfway through the year, which gives a pretty clear view as to what to expect for the remaining half. What gaming hardware can we expect to have in our possession by the end of 2015?
We pondered this question for a while, because the two big consoles are pretty much static for the time being, unless Microsoft sneakily releases a slimmed down Xbox One before the Christmas rush, so there’s not a lot of room for core console gaming hardware – although peripherals are still in with a chance. The big money, it seems, is on PC gaming hardware, with plenty of exciting new products heading our way in 2015.
Nvidia
The big name on the graphics card front is undoubtedly the behemoth known as the Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X.
The Titan range of extreme graphics cards have been shown off at various technology shows since 2013, but they’ve so far failed to gain a significant foothold in the general consumer market. This is mostly because they cost an arm and leg and were overshadowed by the more consumer-friendly GTX 9 cards, which were only slightly behind in terms of performance.
The Titan X, though, is a different beast altogether. It’s the most powerful single GPU card on the market at the moment, with a whopping 3072 CUDA cores, 12GB of memory, 7GHz GDDR5 memory clock and a boost core clock of 1075MHz. It has a new Maxwell 2 GPU, the GM200, and you’ll need a small nuclear reactor to power the 250W TDP required to keep this thing ticking over.
The cost, as you would expect, is pretty high. Overclockers has its version available for £869.99, and you can expect to see more tweaked versions fetching well over the thousand pound mark.
Nevertheless, if it’s the ultimate gaming PC you’re building, and you also happen to be an investment banker with near unlimited funds at hand, then by equipping your machine with one of these, you’ll be able to shift the pixels around at 4K without any performance problems.
AMD
AMD is naturally hot on the heels of Nvidia, and sometime in late June it’ll be showcasing the much anticipated Radeon R9 380X to the gaming collective.
The specifications are sketchy at the moment, with various websites listing different specs to each other. What we can determine at best is that the 380x will have a Fiji-based GPU with 4096MB of GDDR5 memory and a boost clock speed of 1050MHz.
It’s a hungry card as well, with a TDP of 300W, but there are rumours that AMD will be using its new High Bandwidth Memory technology to push the bandwidth to an almost unbelievable 640GB/s.
When the R9 380X will be available to buy is not known at the time of writing, but most pundits have an October date in mind. There’s no word on the pricing yet either. One thing’s for certain, though: the gaming PC of 2016 will have some pretty impressive visuals.
Steam Machines
The Steam Machine from Valve has been a long time coming, almost to the point of it being declared vapourware. However, you can lay your hands on the Alienware Alpha now, but you’ll have to wait for November until you can get your hands on the Steam Controller.
A handful of Steam Machines began to appear in April, and they’re gathering pace as the November launch date rapidly approaches. However, the main draw isn’t so much the machine itself, but rather a companion box called the Steam Link.
The Steam Link will allow you to bring your existing Steam library to your living room by streaming the content from your gaming PC across your home network. It has been designed for simplicity, in that you plug it in and it’ll scour your network for any PC running the Steam client. All you’ll need to do then is connect your Steam Controller and away you go.
The Steam Link is set to cost around £35, which doesn’t seem too bad. There are already home-made solutions available, and there’s even a way to stream games from your PC to a TV through a Raspberry Pi 2, using the Nvidia Command Centre. Still, having an official Steam Link could fix some of the glitches and bottlenecks you’re likely to come across with a DIY solution.
Steam Controller
The aforementioned Steam Controller is fast becoming the holy grail of the gaming world. It has been delayed numerous times, redesigned and hidden behind a veil of secrecy but, as we mentioned, November will see gamers scrambling to get their mitts on this long-awaited piece of technology.
It’s hard to believe that the Steam Controller was announced just over two years ago. It’s been a long time coming, and from what we’ve seen so far, it looks like it was well worth the wait.
The controller features a single stick with a pair of haptic feedback enabled touchpads. There’s also a classic four-button array and a Steam logo centre button with an extra two, smaller buttons either side.
In addition to that, there are also a pair of triggers, bumper buttons and another set of buttons located in the extended hand grips – or wings, if you prefer.
The performance of the controller is said to be magnificent and an extremely fluid way of playing. You can increase the sensitivity to a high degree and, according to rumours, create a set of custom macros for the buttons depending on the game being played.
Of course, we’ll have to wait and see if all this is true or not. As for pricing, most experts put the final cost at around £50, but again this is purely guesswork, as everything may change when the release date nears.
Virtual Reality
Like it or not, VR is back, and this time it means business. We’ve already had a look at an early Oculus Rift design in Micro Mart, and we were suitably impressed with what the world of VR has to offer. But it would seem that the Oculus Rift isn’t the only headset on the cards for a 2015 release. In fact, the OR may not even make it for a 2015 release.
The HTC Vive is the new kid on the block. This joint venture between Valve and HTC could very well put the OR in its place when the two are finally put head to head. SteamVR, which is the virtual reality system that the Vive is part of, has been designed to allow the user to move around in their current surroundings free from wires – or at least it’s intended to be; for the time being, it’s still physically wired up to a PC.
There are a total of 37 sensors implanted into the headset that are interconnected to a pair of wireless sensors, which will be located in the corners of the room the user is standing in. This creates a virtual space for the user, so any games and so on can take advantage of the interior of the room to best effect. In theory, this could lead to the user hiding behind their sofa, which in their view could be a burnt-out car, and popping up to return fire to a virtual nemesis on the other side of the room.
According to Valve, the SteamVR package will also come with a pair of wireless controllers that feature trigger touchpads and various buttons, which can relate to the VR world as guns and so on. All of these interact with the headset and the sensors in the corners of the rooms, so you’ll be able to look down and ‘see’ your hands and where they are in relation to the real world and the computer-generated world.
The realism produced by the SteamVR is said to be incredible, enough to draw gasps from the users who have already tested the set in closed door sessions. This is thanks to the two screens that are powering the SteamVR, with each producing a 1200 x 1080 resolution image for each eye and a 90Hz refresh rate. This eliminates one of the most common issues with the current development VR headsets: nausea or sea sickness.
The price of the entire package is speculative at present, but it’s certainly not going to be cheap considering the headset, wireless controllers and wireless sensors that come with it. Expect something in the region of £300 to £400.
Nvidia Shield
We already have the Nvidia Shield in the form of the tablet and controller that can hook up to your TV or be used on the go together, but this year we should be getting the missing piece of the jigsaw in the form of a new Shield console.
The new Shield has been designed to be the entertainment hub of your living room. This is an Android-driven box that’s pretty similar in design to a PS4, only thinner. Inside there’s an Nvidia Tegra X1 processor, a 256-core Maxwell GPU (the younger sibling of the GPU found in the Titan X), 3GB of RAM and 16GB of flash storage, which can be boosted by inserting a micro-SD card. Connectivity is good too, with a pair of USB 3.0 ports, micro-USB 2.0, Ethernet, HDMI, 802.11 a/c dual band wi-fi, Bluetooth and the micro-SD card port.
This all sounds rather interesting, and to cap it all, there’s support for 4K content playback, Dolby 7.1 and a ton of games that will be available via Steam upon the Shield’s release. Furthermore, the Shield comes with a Bluetooth remote, which has voice search and a headphone socket, and you can also control everything from the Shield controller, should you wish.
The Nvidia Shield looks great and should be available to buy for Christmas for the predicted price of around £130.
More Gaming Potential
Needless to say, these are just a handful of snippets. There are countless other examples of intriguing gaming technology just around the corner, but we just don’t have the space to fit them all in here.
Rest assured, though, if you’re a gamer, then 2015 is looking to be a very good year for you.
Other Mentions
There are plenty of other gaming technologies coming throughout 2015, so here are a few more to keep an eye out for in the months ahead.
Project Morpheus
Sony has put quite a lot of folding stuff into its VR project. The design has been spruced up, apparently, and every aspect of the headset has had many improvements and enhancements. We’ll have to wait for early 2016, though, to see exactly how it will fare, but we’re optimistic.
Oculus Rift
The Oculus Rift has gone through the rumour mill and back out the other side in recent months, but we’re assured that the final version will make an appearance by early 2016, with a much beefed-up resolution and a lack of motion sickness.
4K Monitors
Philips, LG, Dell, Asus and BenQ all have some spectacular 4K panels in their arsenal, but Samsung is showcasing the first curved 4K monitor and expects it to be available to buy for Christmas.
Mind you, unless you own an oil well or two, then like most consumers, you won’t be able to afford the £8,000 it costs.