Nvidia had a pretty good CES 2022 , all things considered. While its keynote presentation on January 4 was a bit hit and miss (we could have done with fewer game trailers and more detailed looks at Nvidia’s hardware), the products that Team Green showed off were warmly received.
As soon as Nvidia announced its RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 3080 Ti laptop graphics cards , a slew of powerful new gaming laptops was announced by all the big names. If Nvidia can deliver on its promises, it looks like 2022 is going to be a great year for gaming on a laptop.
For many of us, though, the highlight of Nvidia’s show was the reveal of two desktop graphics cards: the affordable RTX 3050 and the ultra-high-end RTX 3090 Ti . But, while most of the excitement was around the (very) brief glimpse we got of the RTX 3090 Ti, I firmly believe the RTX 3050 will prove to be the more important release.
Filling a gap
From what little we know about the RTX 3090 Ti, it will undoubtedly be a very powerful GPU. The current RTX 3090 is the king of gaming GPUs, offering a level of performance that allows it to handle any modern game with all graphical settings whacked up to their fullest, even at 4K.
The even more powerful RTX 3090 Ti will only be of interest, then, to people who want the most cutting-edge technology or to push ultra-high resolutions of 8K. With most PC gamers playing at 1080p or 1440p, that kind of power is just not needed.
Don’t get me wrong; I love that Nvidia is still pushing the envelope in this regard and I definitely can’t wait to plug an RTX 3090 Ti into my 8K monitor. However, Nvidia’s high-end range of GPUs is now looking pretty crowded, with not just the RTX 3090 Ti and RTX 3090, but also the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3080 .
Meanwhile, gamers who don’t need, or can’t afford, a high-end GPU may be feeling a bit neglected by Nvidia. So, the RTX 3050 is very welcome.
A larger audience
As Nvidia itself points out in its RTX 3050 announcement , three of the top five GPUs used by PC gamers on Steam are GTX 50 models: the GTX 1050 , GTX 1050 Ti and GTX 1650. It’s clear that more affordable GPUs that also offer some of the features and tech found in more expensive graphics cards are way more popular than the ultra-powerful, ultra-expensive high-end cards, which remain resolutely niche.
There are many people out there that have been eying up Nvidia’s latest RTX 3000 series GPUs and the advances they bring, including improved ray tracing and DLSS support but have been put off by the high prices. (And that’s before we even get into the whole nightmare that is the current GPU market with stock shortages and inflated prices.)
The RTX 3050 should give budget-conscious gamers a chance of getting those RTX 3000 series features, for a much more affordable price of $249 / £239 (around AU$350). It comes with 8GB GDDR6 memory, 2nd generation RT Cores for ray tracing, and 3rd gen Tensor Cores for DLSS and AI. Nvidia claims you’ll be able to play games with ray tracing on at 60 fps. You’ll also be able to use Nvidia Reflex features to reduce latency.
Suddenly, these new features will be opened up to a lot more people. PC gaming should be as accessible as possible, and that’s where the RTX 3050 could play a big part.
DLSS FTW
Of the new gaming features the RTX 3050 packs, it’s Nvidia’s DLSS tech that’s going to be the real star. I’ve waxed lyrical before about DLSS, which stands for Deep Learning Super Sampling. It allows compatible GPUs to cleverly upscale game graphics, giving an impressively noticeable boost to performance.
In the past, I’ve used DLSS to get the RTX 3090 to play graphically intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Watch Dogs: Legion at huge 8K resolutions and near 60 frames per second. That would have been unimaginable even a few years ago.
While that’s impressive, the real magic of DLSS is when it’s used with lower-powered GPUs to allow them to hit higher resolutions and frame rates, while also including graphical effects that the GPU wouldn’t normally be able to.
The Nvidia RTX 3050 will support DLSS 2.0 and it’s the perfect candidate for it. Thanks to DLSS, this $250 GPU should be able to hit 1080p resolutions with a decent level of graphical effects, including ray tracing in some titles.
If it manages this, then the Nvidia RTX 3050 will be a literal game-changer for a lot of people. Hopefully, we’ll get our hands on it soon to really test it out.
How to watch The Amazing Race season 33 online from anywhere
Having had production shut down by the pandemic in 2020, the great news is that madcap adventure game show The Amazing Race is back up and running for 2022 for an incredible 33rd run. Read on to find out how you can watch The Amazing Race season 33 online and stream the new season no matter where you are in the world right now.
As ever, the reality show has teams competing in a race around the world for a million-dollar grand prize. The route takes the competitors on a journey through countries with low Covid-19 case rates and also sees the racers traveling via a chartered 757 jet as part of a bubble rather than on commercial airliners
While that does mean we sadly won't be seeing those hallmark frantic scenes as the players rush for tickets at departure desks, it has at least keep the show on the road.
This year's teams include a father-daughter duo from Detroit, two teams of YouTube influencers, a pair of police officers with a penchant for singing, as well as identical twin radio presenters from New Jersey.
Follow our guide below to watch The Amazing Race 2022 online - streaming TAR season 33 is easier than you might think, so start your own adventure today!
How to watch The Amazing Race season 33 online from outside your country
If you're abroad today but still want to get your Amazing Race fix just as you would if you were at home, you'll need a VPN to do so. This is because of the pesky digital phenomenon known as geo-blocking, which results in most The Amazing Race live streams, rather ironically, being restricted to specific parts of the world.
However, a Virtual Private Network offers a legal solution to this common internet woe and is remarkably easy to set up and operate. Here's how it works and where to get started.
Use a VPN to watch The Amazing Race online from anywhere
How to watch The Amazing Race online: stream TAR season 33 online in the US
How to watch The Amazing Race 33 online in Canada
How to watch The Amazing Race in the UK, Australia and beyond
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 photos show the whole range in the flesh
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 range is expected to launch very soon, and there's now more evidence of that, as it's appeared on the SafetyKorea certification website, complete with actual photos of the range.
The listing was spotted by MySmartPrice and leaker @Sudhanshu1414 , and includes model numbers that seemingly correspond to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 (SM-X706N), Galaxy Tab S8 Plus (SM-X806N), and the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra (SM-X906N). There's also mention of a SM-T270, which might be the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 Lite.
You can see images of all four of these below. They don't reveal much and aren't great quality, but they do include some measurements, showing that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra for example is almost 13 inches tall.
Screen measurements use the diagonal, which we don't have here, but previous leaks suggest it will be 14.6 inches .
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus and Tab S8 meanwhile are shown as being a little smaller, as expected, with their screens rumored to be 12.4 inches and 11 inches across respectively. Finally, the slate believed to be the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 Lite (the one that you can see from both the front and back) is smaller still.
The attached images also reveal that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 has thick bezels around the screen, with a front camera positioned to the right edge of the tablet, when held vertically.
The Galaxy Tab S8 Plus has the front camera in the same position, as seemingly does the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra (though it's not very clear in this image). However, previous leaks indicate that its selfie camera is housed in a notch, rather than the bezel.
While we'd take these images with a slight side of salt, they come from a fairly official source, so there's a good chance they're accurate. It's just a shame they don't show us more.
Analysis: what else we know
Leaked information indicates that the base model of the Galaxy Tab S8 comes with an 11-inch LCD screen and packs either a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or a Snapdragon 888 chipset, with a dual camera setup at the back. It apparently has a 13MP primary camera and a 5MP secondary sensor.
There's said to be a 5MP selfie camera on the device, and it's apparently powered by an 8,000mAh battery with 45W fast charging.
The Galaxy Tab S8 Plus could feature the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset with at least 8GB of RAM, according to listings on Geekbench. The tablet could have a larger 12.4-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a big 10,090mAh battery, plus the same cameras as the standard model.
Finally, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is thought to have a 14.6-inch 2960 x 1848 screen, either an Exynos 2200 or Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset (both of which are top end), a 12,000mAh battery, and up to 16GB of RAM, along with a similar camera setup to the other two.
We expect at least the two top-end tablets here to compete with Apple's top iPad Pro slates, given their rumored large screens, top-notch processors and massive batteries.