À l’occasion de la sortie de S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, MSI a réalisé une série de produits en collaboration avec GSC Game World, à l’effigie du jeu. Ils proposent une carte graphique RTX 4070Ti, une manette compatible Xbox, un clavier mécanique et une souris. Ils nous ont gentiment contactés pour réaliser une collaboration, ce qui nous permet de vous proposer aujourd’hui un test de la MSI Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless S.T.AL.K.E.R. 2. Malheureusement, elle ne semble plus disponible à l’achat en Europe pour le moment. Mais en commençant à rédiger l’article, je me suis rendu compte que c’était le même modèle qu’avait testé notre illustre nounourss en 2021, avec une couleur différente. Je vais donc suivre la même procédure pour voir comment elle a évolué. On aurait également bien aimé tester le clavier, mais malheureusement, il n’est pas prévu pour le marché français. Cependant, il semble disponible sur Amazon.de pour un peu moins de 90 € avec les frais de port.

Nous avons reçu la MSI Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 il y a un peu plus d’une semaine, et je l’ai utilisée pour jouer à S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, rédiger des articles, et glander sur le net. On remercie d’ailleurs chaleureusement MSI qui nous a permis d’obtenir une clef du jeu via l’éditeur, pour commencer à le tester dès la sortie.

Caractéristiques

La MSI Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless ne pèse que 9 grammes de plus que la version filaire, soit 74 g pour une taille de 130,1 x 67 x 38,3 mm. Elle est donc très légère : à peine plus lourde que ses concurrentes la SteelSeries Aerox 3 Wireless (68 g) ou la Corsair KATAR Elite Wireless (69 g), dans la même gamme de prix. Elle embarque toujours le capteur PixArt PAW 3370 qui monte jusqu’à 20 000 DPI avec un polling rate allant jusqu’à 1000 Hz.

Quelques mesures

J’ai repris les mêmes procédures suivies par nounourss lors de ses tests précédents. J’ai d’abord voulu vérifier si la souris était capable de maintenir le polling rate à 1000 Hz, puis la valeur réelle du DPI par rapport à la valeur logicielle et enfin, s’il était possible de la faire décrocher avec des mouvements rapides.

Réponse de la Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless aux différents polling rate

Comme il y a trois ans, le polling rate est stable dans toutes les configurations : de 125 à 1000 Hz avec un DPI de 1200.

Réponse de la Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless à différentes vitesses de mouvement

J’ai effectué des mouvements lents ou rapides du poignet de type aller-retour. Comme vous pouvez le voir, à aucun moment la souris ne décroche, ce qui correspondra aux situations dans la plupart des FPS, même rapides. J’ai effectué les relevés à 800 DPI, 1200 DPI (mon réglage), 1600 DPI et 3200 DPI.

Tentative de décrochage

Enfin, j’ai voulu vérifier s’il y avait un décrochage de la MSI Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless en effectuant le mouvement le plus rapide possible sur toute la longueur de mon tapis, là encore à plusieurs valeurs de DPI. Toujours aucun souci de tracking.

Mesure du réglage d’usine du capteur

Si la précision du capteur semble correcte lorsque l’on monte en DPI, les réglages d’usine pouvant différer de la réalité, qu’en est-il de sa valeur réelle ? Dans le cas de la MSI Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless, les réglages d’usine sont très bons avec une marge d’erreur de 1 à 2 %, comme en 2021.

À l’usage

Habitué à une Logitech G502 Hero filaire et ses 121 grammes, la MSI Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless, toute S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 qu’elle soit, est vraiment légère. Si je craignais de perdre en sensations et d’avoir l’impression d’avoir un jouet dans les mains, il s’avère finalement que j’apprécie beaucoup en jeu. La plupart d’entre vous sont déjà passés au sans-fil, et c’est effectivement agréable. D’autant plus que la différence avec le filaire est absolument imperceptible en termes de temps de réaction. Ceux qui ne seraient pas convaincus n’ont qu’à regarder ce qu’utilisent les progamers sur Counter-Strike 2. Mais revenons-en à notre souris. Elle ne propose que 5 boutons, dont 2 sous le pouce, et une molette non débrayable. Un bouton additionnel est présent sous la souris pour régler le DPI. L’emplacement est certes un peu étrange, mais on s’en fiche un peu, quel esprit malade irait changer son DPI à la volée en plein jeu ? Côté esthétique, elle arbore une décoration plutôt sympathique pour les fans de S.T.A.L.K.E.R., et possède toujours son éclairage RGB. La texture sur les côtés, qui fait penser à du caoutchouc, est très agréable au toucher, mais accroche facilement les poussières, comme vous pouvez le voir sur les photos. D’autre part, le reste est parfaitement lisse, contrairement à la souris de base, ce qui laisse apparaître rapidement les traces de doigts. Une petite chiffonnette aurait pu être une bonne idée à glisser dans la boîte. Bien que les boutons supplémentaires soient placés sur le côté gauche, la souris est symétrique, ce qui lui permet donc d’être utilisée sans problème par un gaucher.

Côté autonomie, MSI annonce 80 heures de batterie avec une seule charge. Pendant toute la semaine, je n’ai malheureusement pas eu l’occasion de le vérifier, car j’ai dû l’utiliser en mode filaire au milieu de la semaine, ce qui l’a rechargée en quelques minutes. Même si l’autonomie est un peu inférieure – nounourss avait estimé environ 60 heures sur la version d’il y a trois ans –, le socle, qui fait à la fois rallonge USB pour le dongle et prise de recharge, permet de ne jamais être à court : il suffit d’y poser la souris un soir de temps en temps, et c’est reparti pour la semaine.

Étant habitué à la molette débrayable de chez Logitech (MX Master au travail, G502 Hero à la maison), je ne peux pas me résoudre à utiliser la MSI Clutch GM41 dans les tâches quotidiennes. D’autre part, il lui manque quelques boutons pour qu’elle soit réellement adaptée à mon utilisation (modification du volume, notamment). Mais j’ai vraiment pris plaisir à l’utiliser en jeu, son environnement de prédilection.

Logiciel

S’il existait deux logiciels il y a trois ans, seul MSI Center a reconnu la souris cette fois-ci. Le skin S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, d’une parfaite inutilité dans un soft que l’on ne lancera qu’une fois, est tout de même une attention sympathique pour les fans hardcore. Dommage qu’ils n’aient pas porté plus d’attention à la présentation, toujours très sommaire et austère. D’autre part, la méthode d’attribution des boutons semble avoir été développée pour montrer comment ne surtout pas concevoir une interface. Il faut dérouler plusieurs menus pour sélectionner ses fonctions, ce qui n’est ni intuitif ni pratique. En revanche, du côté du choix des DPI, c’est beaucoup mieux, puisqu’on peut régler chacun des cinq seuils proposés très facilement, et que la sélection de la précision du capteur est bien visible. De plus, le petit point d’interrogation vient décrire précisément chaque fonction, ce qui manquait cruellement dans le logiciel il y a trois ans. Un très bon point, donc.

Un superbe skin S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, que je me suis empressé d'appliquer.

Le menu de l'enfer.

Sobre, mais efficace.

Malheureusement, impossible de paramétrer les leds de la souris dans ce logiciel.

Conclusion

Ce test de la MSI Clutch GM41 Lightweight Wireless S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 montre que la souris d’origine de 2021 était très bien à l’époque et qu’elle l’est toujours aujourd’hui. La version classique, proposée à un tarif conseillé de 69,99 €, actuellement en promo à 65 €, représente une très bonne souris sans fil moyen de gamme, qui se caractérise par sa légèreté et son importante autonomie. Elle est agréable à utiliser en jeu, et suffisamment précise pour la majorité des joueurs. Son logiciel de configuration est toujours un peu faible, mais le réglage des seuils de DPI est désormais beaucoup plus facile à ajuster. Cependant, la version S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 ne semble malheureusement plus disponible dans nos contrées, et seul le magasin US a l’air d’en proposer actuellement, au tarif de $99.

Raspberry Pi has announced the Pico 2 W, a wireless version of its Pico 2 microcontroller board built for hobbyists and industrial applications. From a report: At $7, it's a relatively inexpensive way to control electronic devices like smart home gadgets and robots. With the new version, users will be able to securely link to remote sources to send and receive data, either via Bluetooth 5.2 or Wi-Fi 802.11n. As with the Pico 2, the wireless variant is built around the RP2350 microcontroller built in-house by Raspberry Pi. it offers more speed and memory than the original RP2040 chip, along with a security model built around Arm's TrustZone for Cortex-M. Users can program it using C, C++ and MicroPython, and choose between Arm Cortex-M33 or RISC-V cores.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Framework CEO Nirav Patel had one of the bravest tech demos that we've seen at a conference yet -- modifying a Framework Laptop from x86 to RISC-V live on stage. In the five-minute duration of one of the Ubuntu Summit's Lightning Talks, he opened up a Framework machine, removed its motherboard, installed a RISC-V-powered replacement, reconnected it, and closed the machine up again. All while presenting the talk live, and pretty much without hesitation, deviation, or repetition. It was an impressive performance, and you can watch it yourself at the 8:56:30 mark in the video recording. Now DeepComputing is taking orders for the DC-ROMA board, at least to those in its early access program. The new main board is powered by a StarFive JH7110 System-on-Chip. (Note: there are two tabs on the page, for both the JH7110 and JH7100, and we can't link directly to the latter.) CNX Software has more details about the SoC. Although the SoC has six CPU cores, two are dedicated processors, making it a quad-core 64-bit device. The four general-purpose cores are 64-bit and run at up to 1.5 GHz. It supports 8 GB of RAM and eMMC storage. [...] In our opinion, RISC-V is not yet competitive with Arm in performance. However, this is a real, usable, general-purpose computer, based on an open instruction set. That's no mean feat, and it's got more than enough performance for less demanding work. It's also the first third-party main board for the Framework hardware, which is another welcome achievement. The company has now delivered several new generations of hardware, including a 16-inch model, and continues to upgrade its machines' specs.

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"Researchers at the University of Texas have unveiled a new thermal interface material that could revolutionize cooling, outperforming top liquid metal solutions by up to 72% in heat dissipation," writes Slashdot reader jjslash. "This breakthrough not only improves energy efficiency but also enables higher-density data center setups, cutting cooling costs and energy usage significantly." TechSpot reports: Thanks to a mechanochemically engineered combination of the liquid metal alloy Galinstan and ceramic aluminum nitride, this thermal interface material, or TIM, outperformed the best commercial liquid metal cooling products by a staggering 56-72% in lab tests. It allowed dissipation of up to 2,760 watts of heat from just a 16 square centimeter area. The material pulls this off by bridging the gap between the theoretical heat transfer limits of these materials and what's achieved in real products. Through mechanochemistry, the liquid metal and ceramic ingredients are mixed in an extremely controlled way, creating gradient interfaces that heat can flow across much more easily. Beyond just being better at cooling, the researchers claim that the higher performance reduces the energy needed to run cooling pumps and fans by up to 65%. It also unlocks the ability to cram more heat-generating processors into the same space without overheating issues. [...] As for how you can get your hands on the material: it's yet to make it out of the labs. The UT team has so far only tested it successfully at small scales but is now working on producing larger batches to put through real-world trials with data center partners. The material has been detailed in a paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

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Communications of the ACM checks in on the quest for room-temperature superconductivity. "Time and time again, physicists have announced breakthroughs that were later found to be irreproducible, in error, or even fraudulent." But "The issue is once again simmering..." In January 2024, a group of researchers from Europe and South America announced they had achieved a milestone in room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductivity. Using Scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite with surface wrinkles, which formed line defects, they observed a room-temperature superconducting state. Their paper, published in the journal Advanced Quantum Technologies, has gained considerable attention in the scientific world... Although many in the scientific community remain incredulous, if valid, this development could help solve a key piece of the puzzle: how defects and wrinkles in a material such as scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) affect electrical properties and behavior within superconductive systems... "We haven't reached a point where there is a clear path to room temperature superconductivity because researchers are either overly enthusiastic or deceptive," said Elie Track, chief technology officer at HYPRES, Inc., an Elmsford, NY, company that develops and commercializes superconductor integrated circuits (ICs) and systems. "People fail to check measurements and others can't reproduce their results. There is a lot of carelessness and sloppy science surrounding the space because people are so eager to achieve success." The team conducting research into scotch-taped cleaved pyrolytic graphite believe their discovery could tilt the search for practically useful room-temperature superconductivity in a favorable direction. They reported they were able to achieve one-dimensional superconductivity in pyrolytic graphite at temperatures as great as 300 degrees Kelvin (26.85 degrees Celsius), and at ambient pressure. Vinokur and physicist Maria Cristina Diamantini described the development as the first "unambiguous experimental evidence" for a global room temperature zero-resistance state. If true, the team's research could illuminate a path to new superconducting materials.... Others remain skeptical, however. For example Alan Kadin [a technical consultant in the field and a former professor of electrical engineering at the University of Rochester] pointed out that one of the key researchers for the project, Yakov Kopelevich, has been working in the field for two decades and, so far, "The results are not reproducible in other labs...Until someone else independently reproduces these results, I think we can safely ignore them," he argued... Yet as scientists continue to bang away at the superconducting challenge — including the possibility of using generative AI to explore materials and techniques — optimism is growing that a major breakthrough could occur.

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Longtime Slashdot reader Baron_Yam writes: Memristors are the long-sought 4th fundamental circuit element. They promise analog computing capability in hardware, the ability to hold state without power, and to work with less power. A small cluster of them can replace a transistor using less space. Working and long term storage can blend together and neural networks can be implemented in hardware -- they are a game-changing innovation. Now, researchers are getting closer to putting these into production as they can now produce graphene-based memristors at wafer scale. "One of the key challenges in memristor development is device degradation, which graphene can help prevent," reports Phys.Org. "By blocking chemical pathways that degrade traditional electrodes, graphene could significantly extend the lifetime and reliability of these devices. Its remarkable transparency, transmitting 98% of light, also opens doors to advanced computing applications, particularly in AI and optoelectronics." The findings have been published in the journal ACS Advanced Electronic Materials.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Qualcomm has a new chip for flagship phones, and the best part is that it uses an improved version of the Oryon CPU architecture that the Snapdragon X Elite chips brought to Windows PCs earlier this year. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is the follow-up to last year's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 -- yet another change to the naming convention that Qualcomm uses for its high-end phone chips, though, as usual, the number 8 is still involved. The 8 Elite uses a "brand-new, 2nd-generation Qualcomm Oryon CPU" with clock speeds up to 4.32 GHz, which Qualcomm says will improve performance by about 45 percent compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Rather than a mix of large, medium, and small CPU cores as it has used in the past, the 8 Elite has two "Prime" cores for hitting that high peak clock speed, while the other six are all "Performance" cores that peak at a lower 3.53 GHz. But it doesn't look like Qualcomm is using a mix of different CPU architectures anymore, choosing to distinguish the higher-performing core from the lower-performing ones by clock speed alone. Qualcomm promises a similar 40 percent performance boost from the new Adreno 830 GPU. The chip also includes a marginally improved Snapdragon X80 5G modem, up from an X75 modem in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 -- its main improvement appears to be support for additional antennas, for a total of six, but the download speed still tops out at a theoretical 10Gbps. Wi-Fi 7 support appears to be the same as in the 8 Gen 3, but the 8 Elite does support the Bluetooth 6.0 standard, up from Bluetooth 5.4 in the 8 Gen 3. Qualcomm says the new chip's CPU features "44% improved power efficiency" and "40% greater power efficiency" for the GPU, which ought to keep power usage in line despite the performance improvements -- these gains are probably attributable to the new 3 nm TSMC manufacturing process, compared to the 4 nm process used for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. And no 2024 chip announcement would be complete without some kind of AI mention: Qualcomm's image signal processor is now an "AI ISP," which Qualcomm says "recognizes and enhances virtually anything in the frame, including faces, hair, clothing, objects, backgrounds, and beyond." These capabilities can allow it to remove objects from the background of photos, among other things, using the on-device processing power of the chip's Hexagon neural processing unit (NPU). The NPU is 45 percent faster than the one in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Phones using the Snapdragon 8 Elite should begin appearing in "the coming weeks."

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In a new teardown video published last week, iFixit reveals a Quest 2 headset "hiding inside" the cheaper yet enhanced Quest 3S. The Verge reports: The first hint of that is the headset's Fresnel lenses, which iFixit's Shahram Mokhtari writes in a blog post are "100% compatible" with those used by the Quest 2. The headset has the older headset's IPD adjustment mechanism, as well; and it shares the same single LCD panel, rather than using one panel per eye, like the Meta Quest 3. Legacy parts aside, iFixit found that the 3S uses two IR sensors for depth mapping instead of a single depth sensor. That "rare iterative improvement over the Quest 3" performed "exceptionally well in unlit spaces," Mokhtari writes in the blog. And of course, it uses the same Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 SoC as the Quest 3, and works with Meta's newer Touch Plus controllers, which are sold separately. The Quest 3S "costs $299.99, while the Quest 3 is $499.99," notes The Verge. So, not only is the 3S cheaper but replacement parts should be easier to find since the Quest 2 "has already been around for four years."

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Amazon has unveiled its first color e-reader, the Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition, priced at $279.99. The 7-inch device, available for preorder with shipments starting October 30th, utilizes E Ink's Kaleido technology and a new display stack. Kevin Keith, head of Kindle products, claims the Colorsoft maintains Kindle's hallmark features while introducing color without compromising performance. The e-reader boasts a 300ppi screen, enhanced LED pixels, and improved light distribution for vivid colors. It offers faster page turns and book openings compared to previous models. The color screen enhances the user interface, allowing for full-color book covers and a more vibrant standby display.

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Global semiconductor sales recorded a 20.6% year-on-year increase in August to $53.1 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). The Register reports: The Americas led the way, with sales up 43.9 percent to $15.4 billion over last year to notch up what may be the highest on record for August, the SIA said. This comes on the back of swelling demand from sectors such as AI, cloud computing, and automotive. Over in Asia-Pacific sales grew year-on-year by 17.1 percent to $10.95 billion, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization, which compiles these stats for the SIA. China was up 19.2 percent to $13 billion and Japan grew two percent to $4 billion. Europe was the outlier, recording a nine percent drop to $4.7 billion. No reason was given for this decline. However, on a worldwide basis, all continents returned positive month-on-month numbers in August for the first time since October 2023, indicating that the semiconductor industry is on a path to recovery.

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