I've already been corrected, but thanks.

But, and this is my personal opinion, I wouldn't go with less than a 7970/280X for a gaming PC/Steam Machine right now. I know that the 270 is faster and more powerful than the chips found in consoles, but even without Windows and with Mantle devs will still get more juice from those console chips, so I'm affraid a 270 won't be enough to keep pushing 1080p without lowering details in 3 or 4 years, whereas with a 280 that won't happen until much, much later. Maybe when talk about new consoles start again.

These boxes will be using a light weight Linux OS, probably lighter than the ones in the consoles in terms of memory usage.
Plus, Mantle will provide low overheads.

If you were talking strictly Windows+Direct X that would be true due to the Draw Cells limiting performance greatly.

What can I say. I'm not sold on the promise of Mantle, mostly because right now it's only that, a promise.

Also, having a bit of overhead is always a good thing in my book.

Btw, anyone knows when will the Steam Machines will launch? Have Valve send the 300 prototypes already?

Why aren't you sold on Mantle? All the major game engines will be supporting it.

Because as of now it's only talk. I'll believe it when I see it, not before.

Well, talking  about Mantle. Another article about it:

http://techreport.com/review/25683/delving-deeper-into-amd-mantle-api

Perhaps. But I was a PC gamer back in the 3dfx days and used Glide with a couple of Voodoo 2's in SLI (I still have those cards too!).
So I *know* what the potential is like.

This time around though, more developers, more game engines and thus games will support mantle than Glide.

I'm excited for it, like a little kid in a candy shop excited, the frustrating part is I want more information!

Jane Jensen’s Moebius nearing completion, new trailer, screens & comic released

Diplopia: Oculus Rift game designed to treat eye conditions, currently funding on IndieGoGo

Oculus Rift developer James Blaha has taken to crowd-funding site IndieGoGo to raise funds for his VR project Diplopia, which aims to alleviate various eye conditions through visual techniques.

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Eve Fanfest 2014 tickets on sale now, CCP dates & details the show

Eve Online developer CCP Games has dated and detailed Eve Fanfest 2014 in Reykjavik, Iceland.

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Infinite Crisis champion spotlight video focuses on Mecha Wonder Woman

The latest champion spotlight for Infinite Crisis focuses on Mecha Wonder Woman, who began life as D1A-NA: a diplomatic robot in service to Queen Hippolyta, ruler of the Amazon nation of Themyscira. Check her out below.

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SMITE will launch in Europe and North America on March 25

Hi-Rez Studios has announced its MOBA game, SMITE, will officially launch in Europe and North America on March 25. In addition, a $100,000 LAN Tournament to celebrate the release will be held the following weekend.

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Borderlands 2: The Horrible Hunger of the Ravenous Wattle Gobbler releases today

Borderlands 2: The Horrible Hunger of the Ravenous Wattle Gobbler, the second Headhunter add-on for the game, is available on Steam for Mac and PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 today. It will run you $2.99 or your country’s equivalent. In The Horrible Hunger of the Ravenous Wattle Gobbler, players will meet up with Mr. Torgue’s “super buff grandmother” while he hosts a hunger-themed competition to hunt down a giant turkey, the Wattle Gobbler, and selects sacrificial recruits from all of the districts of Pandora to participate. Two new screenshots are below.

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EverQuest Next: three more classes announced – Beast Lord, Cleric and Necromancer

Three new classes for EverQuest Next have been announced: the Beast Lord, Cleric and Necromancer. This bring the class total to eight when you include: Blademaster, Rogue, Tempest, Warrior and Wizard. In all there will be 40 classes. The news was announced as part of a feature in the latest issue of PC Gamer, which details each of the three aforementioned newcomers along with the Tempest. EQN will be free-to-play and ties into EverQuest Next Landmark. Neither have been dated. Thanks, Massively.

Wasteland 2 backers should be able to try the beta “within two and a half weeks,” according to Fargo

Wasteland 2 should go into beta within the next two and a half weeks, according to tweets from inXile boss Brian Fargo.

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Nordic Games hands back rights to Costume Quest and Stacking to Double Fine

Nordic Games has announced Double Fine has acquire the publishing and distribution rights for Costume Quest and Stacking after the former picked them up in the THQ sale.

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World of Tanks version 8.10 marks the debut of Japanese tanks

World of Tanks’ next update will see the debut of Japanese tanks once version 8.10 is released. The tanks come with two tech tree branches extending out to a roster of 14 vehicles total. Four light tanks include the Type 5 He-Ko, nine medium tanks include the STB-1, and the Type 3 Chi-Nu Kai as a Premium medium tank. Version 8.10 will also introduce a major overhaul to the game’s lighting system, with a new approach to how light and shadow works in the game world to improve the level of realism within. The full list of changes and additions will be revealed soon, according to Wargaming.

Battle.net Winter Sale has kicked off in Europe

The Winter Sale on Battle.net has kicked off in Europe and for a limited time, you can save up to 65% on digital copies of select Blizzard games.

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Guild Wars 2 Fractured update arrives today

Guild Wars 2 fans benefit from a stack of new content today with the arrival of the Fractured update, which includes time travel and challenges for the most daring of combatants.

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WildStar’s latest DevSpeak video focuses on the Stalker Class

WildStar’s latest DevSpeak video focuses on the Stalker Class, which Carbine Studios describes as “appearing from the shadows with a Tactical Strike ready.” The developer is “just about ready to start,” a round of beta testing and you can sign up here. Videos and screens below.

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Starbound beta expected in early December

Starbound’s first beta is expected to begin on December 4, according to Rock, Paper, Shotgun – presumably on PC. The procedurally-generated Terraria-like sci fi sandbox is also headed to Vita. It pulled in over $1 million in pre-orders.

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor will make loot drops more exciting with randomized stats and buffs

26 November 2013 • 4 hours 16 min ago • Story by Julian Benson

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With Blizzcon over and the announcement of World of Warcraft’s next expansion, Warlords of Draenor, behind them, Blizzard are beginning to detail the nitty gritty of the changes coming. In particular, something the team want to do is make loot drops exciting again.

Often you’ll find the armour pieces and weapons that drop in raids are specific to certain classes or not actually an improvement on your current gear, even if the item dropped is a higher level. The effect is that you stop expecting loot to be relevant to you and so lose that anticipation that should come with a raid.

Blizzard are working hard to change all that by dipping their toe in the procedural generation pond. In this case adding randomised stats to gear.

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Watch this: Microsoft’s Surface Pro 2 tablet modded into a handheld PC

26 November 2013 • 8 hours 7 min ago • Story by Jeremy Peel

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A Surface Pro 2, two Xbox 360 controllers, a portable hard drive, and (possibly) a saw. Those are the elements combined to bring you this lengthy, very unofficial demonstration of Microsoft’s actually-rather-capable new tablet.

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To low Earth orbit and beyond in Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager

26 November 2013 • 8 hours 55 min ago • Story by Richie Shoemaker

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Space gaming in the 1990s wasn’t all Wing Commander sequels and pestering David Braben on alt.fan.elite you know. Well, it was mostly that, but in amongst the Chris Roberts razzmatazz and newsgroup sniping some delightful space oddities were thrown up into the exosphere; games such as Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space, that served to remind us just how tricky it was for humans to get up there in the first place.

With Braben and Roberts preparing their triumphant returns to the space genre, it seems entirely natural to welcome back Mr. Aldrin after all these years, especially after hearing that Buzz Aldrin's Space Program Manager won't conclude with the Moon landings as Race Into Space had done, but aims to incorporate shuttle development, space station construction, Curiosity-style planetary excursions and even the distant possibility of setting up permanent bases on the Moon and Mars.

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CCP lead PLEX drive for Typhoon Haiyan victims

26 November 2013 • 14 hours 48 min ago • Story by Jeremy Peel

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The Eve community have spent a decade betraying each others’ socks off, but their charitable work has been going on nearly as long. They’re raised more than $150,000 USD in donations since their first collection tin was rattled in the wake of 2004’s Indian Ocean tsunami. And the PLEX for GOOD initiative begun three years ago, in which CCP donate $15 for every PLEX pledged, has accounted for two-thirds of that total.

The latest beneficiaries of PLEX for GOOD are the Icelandic Red Cross, for their continuing efforts in alleviating the aftermath of November 8’s typhoon in the Philippines.

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Anyone else find this interesting?

NZXT G10 adapts all-in-one liquid coolers for GPU duty

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2013/11/27/nzxt-kraken-g10

...

At its heart, the device is pretty simple: a bracket replaces the stock cooler, featuring a 92mm fan to air-cool the voltage regulator modules (VRM) portion of the card while a circular cut-out hovers over the GPU itself. It's this cut-out that provides the compatibility: simply poke one of a range of sealed-loop all-in-one coolers through the hole provided and it will make contact with the chip, turning a stock CPU cooler into a GPU cooler with no modification.

Available in white, black and red finishes, the bracket is claimed to be compatible with a wide range of graphics cards from the Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 right up to the GTX 780 and Titan and AMD's Radeon HD 5830 to the R9 290X - where it could see considerable interest from those curious as to how well the card can perform when separated from the somewhat inadequate stock cooler. Compatible sealed-loop water-coolers include NZXT's own Kraken X60 and Kraken X40 as well as the Corsair H50, H55, H90, H110, Antec Kuhler H20 series, Thermaltake Water 2.0 and Water 3.0 families, and Zalman's LQ-320, LQ-315 and LQ-310 coolers.

...

From NZXT's website there are pics (bigger in the site) that show how it works:

The bracket that holds everything in place, the other bracket that holds the CPU/GPU cooler

and how it looks once assembled

Actually, that's not even close to a bad idea!

Because there's never enough power:

Tweaktown.com

AMD is working on "Vesuvius", a dual-GPU card based on Hawaii XT

If you were holding off on pulling the trigger on that fancy new Mantle-capable AMD Radeon R9 290X, this news is just for you. According to "reliable sources" of VR-Zone, AMD is planning on releasing a new dual-GPU based on two Hawaii XT cores - the same core used in the R9 290X.

The dual-GPU has a unique codename: "Vesuvius", which is the only active volcano in Europe, and is located in the east coast of the Bay of Naples, in southern Italy. There's not much known about the card, but there are some questions: the R9 290X has had power issues, and gets pretty hot as it is, so what would AMD do with two of these cores on the single PCB?

We're talking about some serious horsepower here, which is going to generate lots of heat, which will require a more than formidable cooling setup. Exciting times ahead, I'm looking forward to what AMD can show us in the coming months.

Knowing how hot Hawaii GPUs are, more than "Vesuvius", they should call this card "Molten Lava".