Image: NintendoOver the weekend a post on Famiboards with images supposedly showing placeholder listings on Costco Canada's internal system has a Switch model listed for $499.99 CAD.The post from ProteusRidley (Note: content hidden for non-registered Famiboards users) includes two images supposedly showing the backend product listing and a printed point-of-sale sign misspelt as "NINTENDO SWITCH PALCE HOLDER". (Thanks, Notebookcheck.)The poster doesn't claim that this is definitely Switch 2-related, "but it may be. The price could also be a placeholder as well." They also say that in "five years of working here, I have never seen a place holder for anything."499 Canadian dollars converts to around 350 USD / 280 GBP at the time of writing, which would be on the lower end of analyst pricing predictions for Nintendo's upcoming hardware.However, various global factors at the moment mean that a direct exchange rate comparison isn't terribly helpful for determining the Switch 2 MSRP Nintendo might land on in different territories. For reference, the Switch OLED model currently retails for $449.99 CAD / $348.99 USD / 309.99 GBP respectively.Nintendo has made no official announcement regarding Switch 2 pricing, although following the publication of its quarterly financial reports last week, Nintendo president Shuntaru Furukawa stated in an investor Q&A that the firm was carefully considering consumer expectations with its Switch 2 pricing.Let us know below if this 500 CAD figure is in the ballpark you'd expect for the next Nintendo console. Though no official price will be revealed for nowMoney where your Meowth is$699 is the new $599[source famiboards.com, via notebookcheck.net]See AlsoShare:00 Gavin first wrote for Nintendo Life in 2018 before joining the site full-time the following year, rising through the ranks to become Editor. He can currently be found squashed beneath a Switch backlog the size of Normandy. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related ArticlesEx-PlayStation Boss On Switch 2's Name: Nintendo Created So Much "Brand Value""Why would you mess with that?"Nintendo Talks About Future Switch Support Ahead Of Switch 2 Launch"We would like to continue releasing new titles"Mysterious Patent Hints At "Predictive Input" For Nintendo Switch 2Rollback netcode, but at a hardware level?Nintendo Is Developing New Mobile Game Apps, Unsurprisingly"Even as we transition to Nintendo Switch 2"

Sweet!We knew that some Splatfest themes would make a comeback once Nintendo announced that Splatoon 3's "regular updates" would come to an end, and next month we'll see just that!The 2023 chocolate-themed Splatfest will be the first theme returning to the Splatlands next month, with the battle of "What's your favourite chocolate?" getting underway from 8th to 9th February. Once again, Team Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate are all up for grabs, so expect to make your vote in the coming days.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

French President Emmanuel Macron announced a total of 109 billion in private investments in the AI ecosystem (around $112 billion at current exchange rates) on Sunday evening. This week, Paris is hosting the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit the third international summit focused on AI after the one in Bletchley Park in the U.K., and Seoul, South Korea.I can tell you this evening, Europe is going to speed up, France is going to speed up. And for us, France, were announcing at tomorrows summit 109 billion of investment in artificial intelligence over the next few years, President Macron said in a TV interview on France 2 and Indias First Post.Whats that? Its exactly the equivalent for France of what the United States announced with Stargate $500 billion its the same ratio. With 68 million inhabitants, France has five times fewer people than the U.S.On Sunday, TechCrunch started counting all the investment pledges from foreign and local players that have been rolling in over the past few days. With 30 to 50 billion coming from the United Arab Emirates (and MGX), 20 billion coming from Canadian investment firm Brookfield, 10 billion coming from Bpifrance and 3 billion coming from French telecom company Iliad, we reached a total of up to 83 billion ($85 billion).So a few companies havent announced their plans just yet. During the interview, Macron mentioned Orange and Thales as other investors in the program. Most of the investments will go toward new AI-focused data centers. Hence, the comparison with Stargate.Macron also shed a light on French AI startups, such as Mistral, Wandercraft and Owkin, which has moved its headquarters to the U.S. He believes Europe is still competitive when it comes to artificial intelligence startups and even said that DeepSeek represented an opportunity to catch up.There was a race to scale up. Everybody thought you always had to be bigger and stronger. What did DeepSeek do with its open models? They have taken all accessible innovations from the latest OpenAI model and adapted them to their own model, using a more frugal approach, he said. Everyone will continue to do this. And thats why you have to be in this race.Mistrals own data center projectArthur Mensch, co-founder and CEO of Mistral, also announced plans to invest billions in an AI cluster. The Paris-based company is arguably the only European company working on foundation models that can compete with models from Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Alibaba and others.Were going to do our bit and invest several billion euros in a cluster, which will be set up in Essonne, so that we can train even more efficient systems in just a few months time, Mensch said on French TV TF1.Those announcements could be considered as a reaction to the Stargate Project, a $500 billion investment program led by OpenAI and SoftBank to build multiple data centers for AI in the United States.As a reminder, the majority of Frances electricity production comes from nuclear power plants. France also produces more electricity than it needs. As tech companies are looking at new locations for power-hungry data centers ideally powered by carbon-free electricity France appears as an ideal location in Europe for these new projects.In France, we have an extraordinary lead. We produce some of the most decarbonized, controllable and safe electricity in the world. We have the safest and most stable grid. And we export this low-carbon electricity, Macron said.According to him, France exported 90TWh of electricity to neighbor countries in 2024. And France now plans to use that headroom to attract foreign investments.

Data has always been regarded as an organisations crown jewels, but due to the explosion of data sources, making sense of the structured and unstructured information contained within an enterprises different data stores is an increasingly complex task. Pulling everything together to provide a homogenous view of business activity may seem like a project that will never end, which is why there is now interest in data engineering.According to analyst Gartner, data engineers play a key role in enabling organisations to unlock the value of data. This involves designing and building systems to collect, store, transform, operationalise and deliver data at scale. The analyst firm says data engineering involves collaboration between the business and IT to make the appropriate data accessible and available to various data users such as data scientists or data analysts at the right time.Gartners Essential skills for data engineers to succeed report identifies a range of skills required in data engineering. Report authors Mayank Talwar, Zain Khan and Shubhankar Nandi describe structured query language (SQL) as being pervasive across a wide range of tools and platforms, making it a critical and extensible skill. As an example of SQLs pervasiveness, they note that dbt, a data transformation tool, enables data engineers to transform data in their warehouses by simply writing select SQL statements.The second core skill identified in the report is data processing, which is described as a foundational skill that every data engineer must possess. This is because data in its raw format is not usually useful for analytics. Data processing covers batch and real-time processing; storage covers technologies like data lakes, data warehouses, graph and document databases, and object stores. Common programming languages used by data engineering teams include Python, Java and Scala.Other core skills listed by Gartner include data storage, data orchestration, programming and collaboration. With regards to data orchestration, the analysts note that data engineering pipelines are slowly moving from tools that support task-driven architectures, such as Apache Airflow and Luigi, towards tools that offer a data-driven approach, such as Dagster, Flyte from Lyft and reflow.Gartner recommends IT leaders prioritise development of the core data engineering skills since they are widely adopted, heavily used and have proven to provide significant benefits.There is a case for assessing a simpler approach to achieving the goal of providing timely enterprise data to the business in a format users can make use of for planning and analysis. This is where providers of traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems see an opportunity to build a business around the need for organisations to have a single version of the truth. From an ERP perspective, this single version of the truth resides in the systems of record that make up an ERP system.Read more about data engineeringAn explanation of data architects versus data engineers: Data architects and data engineers are both necessary for effective data management teams.The importance of building a data foundation: Terren Peterson, Capital Ones vice-president of engineering, discusses how data pipelines and platforms are essential for artificial intelligence success.SAP, for instance, delivers an entire systems and application stack as a cloud-centric offering on a subscription basis, together with process mining and other tools, plus bundled support, maintenance and other services.Dale Vile, co-founder of analyst firm Freeform Dynamics, notes that SAPs Business Technology Platform (BTP) can be considered an integral part of the suppliers cloud offering. BTP is essentially a platform as a service (PaaS) that allows customers to extend SAP applications and/or build custom applications.For some customers, this kind of all-encompassing service is truly attractive as it means they no longer have to worry as much about systems-level operations, monitoring, security and so on, says Vile. A lot of the stuff that makes SAP landscapes so challenging to run and change over time is taken care of once you sign the contract.The contract effectively ties an organisation into SAP. While there is a case to build in flexibility, for some organisations it is far more important to have a single version of the truth and have all data in one place. This is the case at Irish manufacturing firm WaterWipes, as data manager Liz Cotter explains. You can have your advanced analytics automation, but if your master data isnt accurate, then your transactional data is worthless Liz Cotter, WaterWipesPreviously, she says, software as a service (SaaS) systems sat alongside SAP and may have been integrated with SAP, but were not fully harmonised. In other words, the organisation selected best-of-breed SaaS products to support certain business processes, such as human resources or customer service. Cotter says this meant SAP was not the system of record for some of the newer datasets being used by the business.She says SAP Datasphere enables the business to run a standard platform as a system of record for transactional data, which provides a master copy of the organisations data. I feel that SAP has transitioned and is offering more tools to keep up with the demand for enriched data, she says.Cotter joined WaterWipes in January 2024 with a remit to put in place data management and data governance. She says the company was not making the best use of the data it had available, which could be used to gain insights and help to align with strategic key performance indicators (KPIs).When we assessed our data maturity, there was no data governance and data security. We needed a tool to help mitigate that risk quickly, she says.As Cotter points out, successful IT-driven business initiatives require a solid data foundation. You can have your advanced analytics automation, but if your master data isnt accurate, then your transactional data is worthless, she says. For Cotter, there is little point in investing in new technology unless the data is as accurate as possible.The company began working with Bluestonex on implementing its Maextro master data management tool. This is developed on SAP BTP and provides data governance and data management for WaterWipes.Its basically an application to manage data, workflows and data reporting, says Cotter.This avoids SAP developers having to run queries directly on the companys S/4Hana system. In terms of data maturity, Cotter says: Were not going to get to expert level, but we want to align with our 2027 strategy, which is very ambitious in terms of sales and customer growth.The phased approach has involved building out data governance and data management best practices first, before investing in technology.Given the trend to do more with artificial intelligence (AI), the Gartner analysts urge IT leaders to ensure data engineers recognise the need to upskill themselves. This upskilling, according to Gartner, is required if data engineers want to participate in building the data foundation layer for companies that have decided to train language models on their enterprise data.With GenAIs [generative artificial intelligence] appetite for training data exponentially rising, data engineers can play a pivotal role in creating data platforms and pipelines that can supply high-quality data required for training these models, the analysts note in the Essential skills for data engineers to succeed report.Gartner predicts that companies will start building smaller, more refined and business-curated language models as opposed to large language models for greater controls on cost, privacy, risk and accuracy. Gartner believes data engineers will need to learn how to work with unstructured data and create data repositories to enable the building of these models.Ideally, IT leaders would be given the time and resources to develop a data engineering practice, but this is unlikely. Cotters experience at WaterWipes shows it is entirely possible for even those organisations that are still quite early in their data management journey to achieve business value relatively quickly. The one caveat is that this may involve being tied into a particular product set, such as an ERP system.

This illustration photograph taken on October 30, 2023, in Mulhouse, eastern France, shows figurines ... [+] next to a screen displaying a logo of OpenAI, a US artificial intelligence organisation. (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP) (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty ImagesOpenAI, the giant behind ChatGPT, just dropped a $14-million Super Bowl ad extolling the virtues of AI tech and positioning it as one of the greatest inventions in human history. Butshockinglynone of the content that appears in the 60-second spot was actually made by AI.In OpenAIs defense, the company did rely on its text-to-video AI model Sora in the concepting stage for the ad, but the final animation itself was entirely crafted by humans.This is a celebration of human creativity and an extension of human creativity, OpenAI Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rouch told The Verge.The ad, which features a slick aesthetic that I can only define as digital minimalism, traces some of the biggest moments in human progress from the discovery of fire to the moon landing, eventually arriving at the internet andyou guessed itChatGPT.Still, its not all that surprising that OpenAI relied on humans for the final spot.Despite the fast progression in generative AI tech, the outcomesespecially when it comes to video and animationstill exhibit unsettling, mildly uncanny characteristics. Its all in the little details: jerky movements, bizarre psychedelic-like textures and other such oddities. Just look at the AI deepfake French President Emmanuel Macron just posted.The ad premieres amidst the publishing of a new blog post from Sam Altman in which the OpenAI CEO predicts the use of AI will grow exponentially in the future due to swift decreases in costsabout ten times lower every 12 months for a given level of AI.In the essay, Altman further posits that AI should significantly improve living conditions for humans, but adds that distributing AIs benefits equally among people might require some human ingenuity.The historical impact of technological progress suggests that most of the metrics we care about (health outcomes, economic prosperity, etc.) get better on average and over the long-term, he elaborates, but increasing equality does not seem technologically determined and getting this right may require new ideas.AI was in the spotlight big time in this years Super Bowl. Google ran an AI-themed Super Bowl campaign around its own Gemini model showcasing how it can help small businesses.Unfortunately, the effort backfired due to a now-corrected statistic that placed Gouda cheese as one of the worlds most consumed. The statistic was fed by Gemini itself, which is somewhat ironic. Youd think this is precisely the kind of thing that AI woulda, Gouda, shoulda caughtbut it didnt.Yes, I know that was a terrible pun. I wish I could blame it on AI.

UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill ... [+] (Photo by Kent Nishimura of Getty Images)Getty ImagesLast month, Andrew Witty led UnitedHealth Groups first earnings call since the tragic murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of its insurance division, UnitedHealthcare. The killing shocked the industry, drawing renewed attention to the nations largest health insurer at a time when public frustration over healthcare costs and coverage denials has reached a boiling point.On the call, Witty addressed the elephant in the room: why America healthcare is unaffordable.Fundamentally, healthcare costs more in the U.S. because the price of a single procedure, visit or prescription is higher here than it is in other countries.Witty is right. Americans pay twice as much as their global counterparts for the same drugs, hospital stays and clinical services. Worse, insurers have little control over pricing: a broken patent system, restrictions on drug price negotiations and unchecked hospital consolidation make it extremely difficult to rein in the nations $5 trillion annual healthcare bill.But does that mean nothing can be done? UnitedHealth Group isnt just any insurer, after all. It is the largest and most powerful healthcare company in the world, insuring 50 million Americans, employing 90,000 physicians and generating the fourth highest revenue among U.S. corporations.Part of the challenge is that insurers have, historically, tackled rising costs by restricting care: rejecting prior authorization requests, denying claims and limiting patient access. This approach has made them a target for congressional scrutiny, media criticism and public outrage.MORE FOR YOUBut the story doesnt have to end there. Witty has an opportunity to seize this moment and shift strategy.The Next Era For UHG: Competing On Health, Not DenialsFor decades, UnitedHealthcare has stayed ahead of its competitors by consolidating market power, expanding into lucrative areas like pharmacy benefit management and maximizing profits within a dysfunctional system.Its a strategy reminiscent of a classic story. Two hikers encounter a charging bear in the woods. One quickly laces up his shoes. The other scoffs, Why bother? You cant outrun a bear! The first hiker responds, I dont have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you.Likewise, UHG has long focused on outrunning its competitors by cutting costs, tightening prior authorization rules and restricting access to care.Now, Witty has an opportunity to stop running and start leading. Instead of relying on prior authorization requirements and claims denials, UHG could lower costs by keeping people healthier in the first place.That would mean shifting from short-term cost-cutting measures to long-term investments in the prevention and effective management of chronic diseases: the biggest drivers of medical spending and the reason U.S. life expectancy has stagnated over the past 15 years.Wittys Chance To Fix The Real ProblemAccording to the CDC, 6 in 10 American adults have at least one chronic illness. Conditions like diabetes, heart failure and hypertension are major contributors to serious medical complications, including heart attacks, strokes, cancers and kidney failureleading causes of death and disability that account for at least 70% of all healthcare expenditures.But these complications of chronic disease arent inevitable. CDC data suggests that prevention and more effective control of chronic diseases would reduce these expensive and life-threatening medical problems by 30-50%. In other words, the problem isnt just the prevalence of chronic disease. Its how well (or poorly) the healthcare system controls them.Currently, the U.S. does a poor job of managing chronic disease.Hypertension, which contributes to 40% of strokes, is controlled only 60% of the time in the U.S. Yet high-performing healthcare systems achieve control rates that are 30% higher, according to HEDIS data.Diabetes, the leading cause of heart disease, kidney failure and amputations, is successfully controlled in less than half of patients nationwide, despite the availability of proven interventions.The problem is this: we know how to prevent these complications, but our healthcare system fails to value and fund the solution. As a result, the U.S. spends the vast majority of its healthcare dollars treating costly, preventable conditions after they become life-threatening. This is whereWitty and UnitedHealth Group have an unprecedented opportunity to address our current failures and lead the transformation of American medicine.UHG has the resources, data and provider network to implement smarter strategies at scale. By shifting away from a system that waits for life-threatening disease to develop, UHG could not only improve patient health but also significantly lower long-term healthcare costs.Three Ways UHG Can Lead The Future Of HealthcareWittys recent public comments suggest he understands the problem. The question is: Will he take the bold action required?For over a decade, policymakers and healthcare leaders have talked about shifting Americas healthcare model from fee-for-service medicine (which rewards volume) to value-based care (which rewards better health outcomes). But despite the rhetoric, little has changed. The financial incentives for doctors and hospitals remain misaligned, technology is underutilized in managing chronic disease and insurers continue to focus on restricting care rather than preventing illness. Witty has an opportunity to redefine what a health insurer can be. Here are three bold moves to kickstart the process of transformation:1. Pilot A Capitated Care ModelInstead of paying providers per test, procedure or hospitalization, United should pilot test a system in multiple communities where doctors and hospitals receive a fixed, risk-adjusted payment per patient. This model, called capitation, incentivizes prevention, early intervention and better disease management rather than unnecessary treatments.Make a five-year funding commitment to the participants to allow enough time for better chronic disease management to lower hospitalizations and emergency visits.Pay participating doctors at the level they would earn under fee-for-service but promise to share half of the cost savings with them as patients become healthier and require fewer ED visits, hospitalizations and complex procedures.2. Invest In Primary Care And Preventive HealthThe U.S. underinvests in primary care, favoring expensive specialty care and hospital interventions. UHG should shift incentives to prioritize prevention, ensuring chronic diseases are managed before they escalate.Increase the number of primary care doctors who participate in the pilot projects to ensure they have time to focus on prevention and effective management of chronic diseases when they arise.Leverage Optums data to help clinicians proactively manage patient health. Provide monthly reports highlighting patient progress on chronic disease management, identifying those at risk of complications and flagging individuals who need early intervention to prevent costly health crises.3. Use Generative AI For Excellent Chronic Disease ManagementInstead of patients relying on infrequent doctor visits for help managing their chronic diseases, AI-powered health monitoring could track daily patient datasuch as blood pressure, glucose levels and early signs of heart failureallowing for real-time intervention. By analyzing patterns and detecting warning signs early, AI can alert physicians when a patients condition is deteriorating, thus preventing costly complications and emergency hospitalizations.Use AI-driven predictive analytics to personalize care plans and recommend medication changes quickly, long before scheduled office visits.Use new, open-source AI models like DeepSeek to create disease-specific clinical tools that empower patients to both prevent and more effectively control their chronic conditions.A Defining Moment For Witty, UnitedHealthThis is Wittys chance to redefine the role of health insurance in America. With the cost of coverage becoming unaffordable for tens of millions of Americans and congressional scrutiny mounting, UHG has a choice: continue the status quo of cost-cutting and utilization restrictions and face potentially huge consequences or lead a transformation that lowers costs by improving health.For the health of our nation, lets hope he chooses the latter.UnitedHealth Group was contacted regarding this story on Friday, February 7. The company had not responded by the time of this articles publication.

In an age where flagship GPUs are said to cost $2,000 but, in reality, cost considerably more and that's assuming you can even find one we no longer feel excited for the latest and greatest games using cutting-edge rendering techniques. More often than not, these games are poorly optimized, and beyond that, they're usually not even fun to play.But, every now and then, we do get a new AAA title that doesn't run like hot garbage, doesn't require a flagship GPU for a smooth 60 fps (even with upscaling), and, above all else, is simply a good video game.But, every now and then, we do get a new AAA title that doesn't run like hot garbage, doesn't require a flagship GPU for a smooth 60 fps (even with upscaling), and, above all else, is simply a good video game. The most recent example of this rare phenomenon is Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, a game with a metascore of 88, equally positive user reviews, and very positive Steam reviews. So, we've got a good one here.With that in mind, we've spent the last few days doing nothing but benchmarking GPUs day and night to bring you the most comprehensive performance guide possible. We've tested 35 GPUs, across three resolutions, using four quality configurations. As usual, there's a lot of data to go over.But before we get into that, a few additional notes:First, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is built on the aging CryEngine albeit a heavily customized version but this means that features like ray tracing aren't included. We really do wonder how many gamers actually care about that. There's also no frame generation, which, while not a bad feature by any means, has limited usefulness in many cases.Both DLSS and FSR upscaling are supported though, and they are genuinely useful technologies.Ultimately, this means Kingdom Come: Deliverance II isn't going to win any awards for best graphics not by a long shot even though some of its locales are quite impressive. But as the reviews indicate, this isn't important. Gamers are more than happy to forgo visual fidelity for a game that is both fun to play and runs well two things that often go hand in hand.Don't get me wrong though, the game looks perfectly fine, and some aspects are even impressive, but overall it's not on the same level as something like Cyberpunk 2077, for example.For testing, we're using an early-game section appropriately titled Quest Start, where you ride on horseback along a predefined path. This setup makes for a highly repeatable graphical benchmark. Each test run lasts for 60 seconds, after which we can quickly reload to the starting point and run it again.We're testing at the standard 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions, using the Medium, High, and Ultra presets, along with an Ultra + Upscaling configuration, using 'DLSS Quality' for the GPUs that support it and 'FSR Quality' for everything else.We've skipped the 'Low' preset because, while it looks fine, the jump to 'Medium' is a significant visual upgrade. In fact, moving from Medium all the way to Ultra often isn't a drastic improvement, though it does reduce pop-in, which can be an issue in this game.There's a lot of data to go over so let's get into itBenchmarksUltra 1080pStarting with the native 1080p Ultra data, we see several promising signs. First, it's possible to achieve very high frame rates in this title, so flagship GPUs won't be capped at just over 100 fps something we've seen far too often recently. That, of course, spells disaster for mid-range and entry-level products.For around 90 fps which we generally aim for as a baseline the RTX 3080 or 4070 are more than sufficient. However, on the AMD side, you'll need a Radeon RX 7900 XT, as the 7900 GRE falls a bit short. It appears that, at least for now, Nvidia has an advantage over AMD in this title, as GPUs like the 7700 XT trail just behind the RTX 4060 Ti, which isn't typical.For 60 fps or better, the Arc B580 performs well, along with the RX 6800 and RTX 3060 Ti. It's good to see these older models still delivering a solid experience at the Ultra quality preset.Ultra 1440pJumping up to 1440p, you'll want a 6900 XT, 7800 XT, 7900 GRE, or RTX 4070 for over 60 fps. Nvidia still maintains a performance advantage at this resolution, with the 7900 XTX only managing to match the RTX 4070 Ti at 90 fps. For over 100 fps, you'll need an RTX 4080, 4080 Super, 5080, 4090, or 5090. As expected, the RTX 5080 was 11% faster than the 4080 Super and 13% slower than the 4090.Ultra 4KAt native 4K, you'll need an RTX 4080 or 4080 Super for 60 fps. The RTX 5080 offers an additional 16% performance boost, reaching 73 fps on average in our test. The 4090 was another 18% faster, while the 5090 was 35% faster than the 4090.Ultra (Upscaling) 1080pNow enabling upscaling at 1080p something we don't typically recommend since the render resolution is too low, even with the quality upscaling option DLSS generally performs better than FSR. With upscaling enabled, the RTX 5080 became 17% faster, while lower-end models like the RTX 4060 saw a 28% performance boost. On the Radeon side, the 7900 XTX gained 11% with FSR enabled, while the RX 7600 saw an 18% uplift. The good news is that nearly all tested GPUs were now capable of rendering 60 fps.Ultra (Upscaling) 1440pMoving up to 1440p, the RX 6800 now reaches 60 fps thanks to a 22% performance boost from FSR Quality upscaling. Several reasonably affordable GPUs, such as the 7700 XT and RTX 4060 Ti, now exceed 70 fps.Ultra (Upscaling) 4KAt 4K, we see the true benefits of upscaling. High-end GPUs such as the RTX 5090 saw a 33% performance uplift, with the same improvement observed on the 7900 XTX, allowing it to average 73 fps the same level of performance as the RTX 4070 Ti. Meanwhile, the 7900 XT and RTX 3080 now reach 60 fps.High 1080pDropping down to the High preset boosts the RTX 5090's performance by a massive 50%, reaching 341 fps. This is excellent news because it means that nearly all GPUs can now render over 60 fps at native 1080p. Even the RTX 3060 Ti is now capable of nearly 100 fps on average.High 1440pAt 1440p, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX sees an almost 40% performance increase compared to Ultra settings, while the RTX 4070 Ti gains 32%. This means playing at over 60 fps with the High preset, even at 1440p, is easily achievable with an Intel Arc A770, B580, RTX 3060 Ti, or RX 6800.High 4KAt 4K, we observe a 28% performance increase for the RTX 5090 compared to Ultra, with a 31% improvement for the 7900 XTX. For 60 fps or better, you'll need an RTX 4070 Ti or 7900 XT though the Radeon GPU just barely falls short of that target.Medium 1080pSwitching to the Medium preset at 1080p further boosts the RTX 5090's performance by 9% over High and an impressive 64% over Ultra. Meanwhile, the RTX 4070 enjoys a 21% uplift from High to Medium, marking a 69% increase from Ultra to Medium.This means that all GPUs can now render over 60 fps even the lower-end Radeon RX 6600 while still maintaining great visual quality.Medium 1440pAt 1440p (native), using the Medium preset, the RTX 3060, RX 7600, and RX 7600 XT achieve an average of 59 fps, while the RTX 4060 hits 63 fps and the Arc B580 reaches an impressive 77 fps. For those targeting 90 fps or better, the RX 6800 XT, 7700 XT, 7800 XT, or RTX 4070 will do the job.Medium 4KFinally, at native 4K using the Medium preset, achieving over 60 fps is possible with an RTX 3080, 4070 Super, or 7900 XT. Meanwhile, for over 90 fps, the RTX 4080, 4080 Super, 5080, 4090, or 5090 will work well.Kingdom Come FTW!Testing Kingdom Come: Deliverance II was a breath of fresh air. As a wise man once said, "It Just Works." It's rare these days that we play or even test a game using CryEngine. Hunt: Showdown might be the only current example.Seriously though, it was refreshing to test a game that loads quickly and doesn't have shader compilation screens that take several minutes in fact, it doesn't have them at all. Levels load quickly, quality settings can be adjusted on the fly, and at least in our experience, the game never crashes. It's also well optimized, runs smoothly on a wide range of hardware, and won't trick your CPU into thinking it's running a Blender simulation.Just loading some modern games for testing feels like a mission in itself, as if successfully getting into the game is part of the challenge. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is the opposite of that.Just loading some modern games for testing feels like a mission in itself, as if successfully getting into the game is part of the challenge. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, on the other hand, takes just 27 seconds to launch from the moment you hit "Play" in Steam or only 18 seconds if you skip the splash screens.Loading into the level takes just 26 seconds, meaning you can go from the Windows desktop to actually playing in under a minute. While some of this depends on CPU and storage performance, believe us, there are countless modern games that take literal minutes before you can even start playing.Not only are shader compilation loading screens nonexistent, but traversal stutter is also completely absent. The game is smooth as silk. This really highlights the issues we've been facing with Unreal Engine games clearly, Epic needs to rethink a few things.On that note, a big part of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II's success likely comes down to the fact that it's built on an older but highly efficient game engine. The fact that the game still looks great using the Medium preset, and can deliver well over 60 fps at native 1440p with a GPU such as the Arc A770, RTX 3060 Ti, or RX 6700 XT, is fantastic. It means nearly everyone can enjoy this game without having to spend oodles of cash just to get a console-like experience.Forcing ray tracing would have been disastrous for these GPUs we've seen plenty of examples of that. Take Star Wars Outlaws, for instance. We're not even sure to what extent it uses RT effects at the Medium preset, but to achieve frame rates remotely comparable to Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, you need to enable upscaling.Now, Star Wars Outlaws might look better than Kingdom Come: Deliverance II at the Medium preset that's subjective. The point is, if RT effects were mandatory in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II rather than optional, the game likely wouldn't have been received as well as it has.Don't miss: The Most Anticipated PC Games of 2025 (Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is one of them)Some might argue that the game could look much better with RT lighting, but if we consider most examples, the odds of that being the case aren't great. What we do know for sure is that RT would significantly reduce performance, likely for only a minor visual upgrade or one that most gamers wouldn't find worth the performance hit. We don't think we're wrong about this, and we'd bet most of you agree. Let us know in the comments below.That said, optional RT effects are fine as long as implementing them doesn't take away time that could otherwise be spent optimizing the game. As a side note, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II does offer a preset above "Ultra," labeled "Experimental," but we didn't bother benchmarking it. The visual quality difference was negligible, making the performance hit seem unnecessary.Another area where Kingdom Come: Deliverance II doesn't push visual boundaries is textures, though overall, they're certainly good enough. Even on the Ultra preset, gaming on an 8GB graphics card isn't an issue. The 8GB and 16GB versions of the RTX 4060 Ti delivered identical performance throughout our testing. That said, allocating a bit more VRAM to reduce pop-in would have been a welcome improvement.Overall, it's great to see so many gamers enjoying Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (one of our Most Anticipated PC Games of 2025), and from a performance perspective, we can see why. Hopefully, we'll see more well-optimized titles in 2025 though we certainly won't hold our breath.Shopping Shortcuts:Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 on AmazonNvidia GeForce RTX 5090 on AmazonAMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX on AmazonNvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super on AmazonIntel Arc B580 on AmazonAMD Radeon RX 7600 on AmazonAMD Radeon RX 7800 XT on AmazonAMD Radeon RX 7900 XT on Amazon

Justin Hotard, who joined Intel in February last year, is departing the company to lead Nokia.

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Jonathan Wolf was a tech exec who ate a lot of ultra-processed foods before cofounding a nutrition company.Wolf improved his diet by making small changes over a few years.They include eating fewer UPFs and switching from milk to dark chocolate.When Jonathan Wolf co-founded the nutrition company ZOE eight years ago, his diet was "not great." He was eating lots of ultra-processed food and tons of sugar, he told Business Insider.But he began making incremental changes to his diet in 2017,after he met ZOE co-founderTim Spector, an epidemiologistwho studies nutrition and gut health at Kings College London.Wolf was previously the chief product officer at an advertising tech company. Spector made him aware of how he could improve his diet, including by caring for his gut microbiome, or the microorganisms that live in the gastrointestinal tract. Evidence suggests that a diverse gut microbiome, partly achieved by eating fibrous and fermented foods, is linked to better physical and mental health.Here are the positive steps Wolf took.1) Eating fewer ultra-processed foods Ultra-processed food is made using industrial processes. MJ_Prototype/ Getty In the last 18 months, Wolf has become more aware of and reluctant to eat ultra-processed foods, he said. UPFs are made using industrial processes, and can contain additives such as preservatives and emulsifiers. They were linked to 32 health problems in a recent study, but the authors said further research is needed to confirm there is a link between UPFs and poor health.Wolf tries to eat fewer UPFs, including by avoiding artificial sweeteners or foods at restaurants that are likely to be ultra-processed."We're eating these foods that are made with ingredients that have never been available in the kitchen, that our bodies have never been exposed to before. Whereas our grandparents were eating zero ultra-processed foods," he said. "I suspect it's going to turn out to be a huge part of the health crisis that we're having."It can be hard to cut out UPFs entirely because they are ubiquitous, particularly in Western countries. Nichola Ludlam-Raine, a dietitian, previously told BI how they can be incorporated into a healthy diet.2) Shifting focus from excluding to adding foods to his dietWolf had stopped eating foods that he was led to believe weren't healthy, such as gluten.But research on the gut microbiome published in 2021, which ZOE was involved with, showed that a more diverse gut microbiome was associated with better markers of health, including lower blood pressure and a lower chance of having a fatty liver.Participants who ate a variety of healthy, plant-based foods had more diverse gut microbiomes, the study found.Wolf realized he needed to eat more whole foods to increase the diversity of his diet and, therefore, his gut microbiome.3) Working up to eating 30 plants a weekSpector was part of a 2018 American Gut Project study into how many types of dietary fiber, found in plants, are needed for a diverse microbiome. Fruits and vegetables were factored in, as well as other plant-based items such as spices.It concluded that 30 plants a week appeared to provide enough, which Wolf tries to aim for. Wolf tries to eat 30 plants a week to improve his gut microbiome diversity. istetiana/Getty Images "I did not get there in one step. In fact, it took me years to increase to 30. But I did it steadily, and I think the biggest thing that helped was the realization that tinned food and frozen food can actually be really healthy," he said.He tries to keep nutritious foods on hand, such as frozen spinach, canned beans, and nuts, so he can easily throw together a meal that contains at least a few plants.4) Gradually switching from milk to dark chocolateWolf was pleased to discover that he could still eat chocolate every day as part of a healthy diet."If you're eating a really high-quality dark chocolate, there's a lot of science that says that's actually good for you," he said, partly because it counts as one of your 30 plants a week, contains fiber, and is fermented.He slowly transitioned from eating milk chocolate, to 50% cocoa, to 60%, and all the way up to 90%. Dark chocolate contains antioxidants, fiber, and polyphenols.5) Eating fewer foods that spike his blood sugarWolf cut down on foods that spiked his blood sugar particularly high, specifically white bread and tea with lots of sugar.Blood sugar spikes are a safe and necessary part of digesting food. But having consistently high or low blood sugar can lead to a higher risk of chronic diseases, Sarah Berry, professor of nutritional sciences at King's College London, previously told BI.Wolf replaced white bread with rye bread because itZOE sells continuous glucose monitors, which were originally developed for people with diabetes to track their blood sugar levels. However, experts are split on whether they are useful for non-diabetics, and fear they may lead to people avoiding certain foods unnecessarily.