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It’s starting to feel like VRR support on PS5 will never arrive, but the HDMI 2.1 display feature will continue to be top of many PlayStation users’ wishlists as it can have a substantial impact on a game's performance. 

Ghostwire: Tokyo is a prime example of a game that would benefit immensely from VRR support, as it offers six graphical modes for players to choose from. The game provides two primary modes: Quality Mode, which is a high-fidelity rendering mode with ray tracing and a 30fps cap; and Performance Mode, a high-framerate mode designed for smoother gameplay with a frame rate cap of 60fps. 

However, Ghostwire: Tokyo also includes four additional modes that are prone to visual issues, all of which would be far more pleasing if PS5 had VRR support. High Framerate Quality Mode and High Framerate Performance Mode remove the 30fps and 60fps frame caps but are prone to unsightly screen tearing and visible judder as a result of the wildly fluctuating frame rates. 

High Framerate Quality (VSync) Mode and High Framerate Performance (VSync) Mode are the same as the previous two graphic modes but the implementation of VSync helps keep screen tearing in check. Unfortunately, though, the addition of VSync adds a noticeable amount of input lag and generally results in a lower frame rate overall than the uncapped options as it’s another overhead for the game’s engine to deal with. 

The wonder of VRR 

(Image credit: Future)

Annoyingly, as it stands there’s no “ideal” graphical mode to choose from in Ghostwire: Tokyo, as they all have their pros and cons. VRR support would help smooth over these visual issues, however, and would particularly benefit the game’s Performance Mode, High Framerate Quality Mode, and High Framerate Performance Mode. The display feature, which has been present on Xbox consoles since 2018, can eliminate screen tearing and reduce the visible impact of frame drops as VRR syncs the refresh rate to that of the console’s output, not your display. 

As we point out in our VRR explainer, screen tearing and judder occurs when your TV’s refresh of its image is out-of-sync with the rate at which your console or PC graphics card delivers frames. You end up with an on-screen image that sees, for example, the top half of the screen display one frame and the bottom the next. Thus, a visible tear appears across the image, which can be incredibly distracting when gaming.

The main limitation of VRR depends on the variable refresh rate range of your display. The popular LG OLED CX has a VRR range of 40 - 120Hz, which means anytime your console is outputting a game between those frame rates, VRR will be in effect. Most PS5 games now support 60fps, and VRR can work wonders at smoothing out any little dips to a game’s frame rate that would usually be noticeable when not in use.

The wait for VRR on PS5 continues 

(Image credit: 3DGuru)

While Sony continues to make the wait for PS5 VRR support an arduous affair, the fact that PS5 console exclusive Ghostwire: Tokyo has so many graphical options to choose from could be a subtle indication that VRR support will eventually arrive on PlayStation 5. Sony has also recently updated a number of its flagship TVs to include VRR support, so it makes sense that the company would want its console to utilize all the best display features available. 

But what of the lack of 1440p support, another thorn in the PS5’s side? Those who use a monitor, many of which support VRR, are still stuck with the PlayStation 5 defaulting to 1080p, albeit downscaled. Like VRR, the Xbox One actually added 1440p support in 2018, but the feature never came to PS4 or PS4 Pro. 

It remains to be seen if Sony will ever implement VRR support for PS5 in the near future, but we wouldn’t get our hopes up for 1440p output. Sony’s PlayStation hardware boss Masayasu Ito and PlayStation platform boss Hideaki Nishino have said 1440p isn’t a priority because the company wants to “prioritize support for TVs” (thanks, Eurogamer).

For now, then, we'd recommend picking the High Framerate Performance (VSync) Mode in Ghostwire: Tokyo as it gets you the best overall performance without any nasty screen tear. If you'd prefer a more consistent frame rate or only have a 60Hz display, stick with Performance Mode. 

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Ever since the first AMD Ryzen processors hit the market all the way back in 2017, Intel has kind of been on the defensive. It was stuck on a 14nm process for so long, and while it was able to keep up in single-core performance, it quickly lost the lead in multi-core performance - something that is getting more important every single year. 

However, with its 12th-generation Alder Lake processors, led by the Intel Core i9-12900K, Intel finally gained a fighting chance against the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X - a processor that was untouchable when it came out in late 2020.

And because both processors are trying to do pretty much the same thing, albeit in very different ways, we thought it was about time to take a closer look at these two processors. After all, picking out the best processor isn't just about the numbers on the box or the color theme of the brand. 

(Image credit: Future)

Intel Core i9-12900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X: price

There's no way of getting around the fact that both the Intel Core i9-12900K and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X are expensive processors. Looking to build or buy a system with either of these chips likely means you're going for a high-end device. So, it shouldn't be too surprising that they have high price tags. 

The Intel Core i9-12900K is the most recently released one, and it is still at full price pretty much everywhere. You'll find this 16-core processor at around $612 / £559 / AU$949. This is a bit higher than Intel's recommended price of $589-$599, but not by much. We imagine that prices will start to go down as the processor ages, and you should be able to find good deals on it soon. 

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, however, has been out for about a year and a half, and as such is starting to see lower prices. You can find it starting at $499 / £409 / AU$739, which is much more affordable than the Intel Core i9 at the moment. It does have fewer cores, though. But if you want an AMD 16-core chip, you could fork over around $599 / £548 / AU$919 for the Ryzen 9 5950X, instead. 

(Image credit: Future)

Intel Core i9-12900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X: specs

Both the Intel Core i9-12900K and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X are high-end CPUs, but they're quite different from one another. 

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X will look pretty familiar to anyone with passing knowledge of desktop PC CPUs. It's a 12-core, 24-thread processor with a max boost of 4.8GHz. It also comes with a whopping 70MB of Cache, split between L2 and L3, and a TDP (thermal design power) of 105W. 

The Intel Core i9-12900K is a 16-core processor, but the way those cores are laid out is quite a bit different than the AMD chip. Unlike the Ryzen processor - and Intel's previous CPUs, no less - the 12900K is using a hybrid chip design. Specifically, it follows the big.LITTLE design philosophy popularized by Arm. 

Basically, it has 8 Performance cores and 8 Efficient cores. The Performance cores are dual-threaded, just like the Ryzen Threads, but the Efficient cores are not. So, while this chip has more cores altogether, it has the same amount of threads, 24, as the Ryzen 9 5900X. 

Both Intel and Apple have moved to a hybrid chip design like this, and AMD is the only CPU manufacturer that is still using a monolithic chip layout. We're not sure how much longer AMD will stick with this design philosophy, but it seems to be working for the company for now.

(Image credit: Future)

Intel Core i9-12900K vs AMD Ryzen 9 5900X: performance

While AMD and Intel have been trading blows for the last few years, the release of the Intel Core i9-12900K sees Team Blue pulling ahead again - but this time the difference is pretty significant. 

In our review, we found that the Intel Core i9-12900K is about 21% faster than the Ryzen 9 5900X in single core workloads, particularly Cinebench. It's odd, because Cinebench has been the workload that has seen the most success on AMD processors, but Intel really pulled away this time. 

And it's not just single-core. In the Cinebench multi-core test, Intel is 23% faster, ending AMD's reign as the multi-threaded champ. This is repeated in pretty much every benchmark we ran in our review, with the 5900X not gaining a lead in any of our creative workloads. 

The closest it got was in Blender where the Ryzen 9 5900X was just 10% slower than the Core i9-12900K. But even then, that's still a pretty major loss. 

In gaming, Intel is still winning, especially in the CPU-intensive Total War: Three Kingdoms. We ran the game on low settings, to make sure it was leaning as much on the CPU as possible, and the Core i9-12900K got 480 fps to the Ryzen 9 5900X's 380 fps. 

However the tables turned in Metro: Exodus where the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X beat Intel with 251 fps to Team Blue's 246 fps. That's a small victory, but it's still a victory. 

Either way you slice it, the Intel Core i9-12900K is faster than the Ryzen 9 5900X. Whether that makes up for the price difference is up to you, though. However, Intel's support of DDR5, PCIe 5.0 and Thunderbolt may make up the difference to you. 

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Google’s Equiano subsea cable which will run from Portugal to the West Coast of Africa has finally arrived to the continent after first being introduced back in 2019.

The company’s latest subsea cable will connect Europe to Togo, Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa and St. Helena to provide Africa with faster and more reliable internet.

People around the world depend on Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Maps and other Google products to stay connected with friends and family, find directions, reach new customers and more. Over the next five years, 300m people will come online in Africa and the Equiano cable is part of the search giant’s ongoing commitment to improve connectivity and bring the benefits of technology to more Africans.

In its original blog post announcing Equiano, Google Cloud explained that it is the “first subsea cable to incorporate optical switching at the fiber-pair level” as opposed to the traditional approach of wavelength-level switching. Not only does this greatly simplify the allocation of cable capacity but it also gives the company the flexibility to add and relocate it in different locations as needed. One of the reasons the company was able to build and deploy its latest subsea cable so quickly is due to the fact that Equiano is fully funded by Google.

Boosting Togo’s digital economy

Although the Equiano subsea cable has now made it along the west coast of Africa to reach Togo, it still has a bit to go to make it all the way to Cape Town, South Africa at the bottom of the continent. Still though, the arrival of Equiano in Togo is a key step in the country’s continued development.

According to a recent economic impact assessment conducted by Africa Practice and Genesis Analytics, Equiano is expected to result in faster internet speeds, improved user experience and lower internet prices in Togo. In fact, internet speeds in the country are expected to more than double from 10 Mbps in 2021 to reach 21 Mbps in 2025 while retail internet prices are forecast to decline by 14 percent over the same period.

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More connectivity and faster internet will also create jobs and the economic assessment predicts that Equiano should indirectly create 37k new jobs in Togo due to the growth of its digital economy. 

In addition to improving the resilience of Google’s network, the company’s other partners will be able to use and benefit from Equiano’s capacity. The search giant is partnering with multiple telecoms in Togo including Société d’infrastructures numériques (SIN) and CSquared to ensure that the cable can reach more businesses and end users across the country and the continent more broadly.

Equiano is expected to be ready for service later this year and the new subsea cable will carry approximately 20 times more network capacity than the last cable Google built to serve the region.

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