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TechPowerUp has finally added hotspot temperature monitoring to GPU-Z months after other popular tools such as HWMonitor, HWiNFO, and AIDA64 added support for Blackwell's hotspot sensor. Patch notes for the latest version of GPU-Z, 2.71.0 have added RTX 50 series hotspot sensor monitoring and hotspot monitoring for the GDDR7 memory modules on Blackwell GPUs.

The app also features a plethora of other updates and bug fixes, including a new overclocking readout interface in the overclocking tab for NVIDIA GPUs that reports XBAR, SYS video clock, and boost lock status. PCIe bandwidth can now be measured in GB/s on NVIDIA GPUs through the addition of a new sensor. Support for several new GPUs has also been added, including the unreleased RTX 4070 10GB and Steam Machine's custom RDNA 3 GPU.

When Blackwell first arrived, NVIDIA put an artificial block on the RTX 50 series hotspot sensor through NVAPI, preventing customers and even its own AIB partners from seeing the hotspot temperature of its Blackwell GPUs for unknown reasons. Months after the RTX 50 series' initial release, a repair technician found a method to return the hotspot temperature back to Blackwell GPUs by modifying NVIDIA's proprietary internal diagnostic software.

Activision has lofty goals to make the next Halo game the best in the series.

Activision now runs Halo. Microsoft is shaking up Xbox and changing things around, and has given Activision the responsibility of making the next Halo game. Speaking to Windows Central, Activision gave a statement that affirmed a team is being assembled for the next Halo game--which The Hollywood Reporter says will be a full, AAA mainline game.

Activision says that this opportunity represents "an honor and a responsibility that we do not take lightly," and the team's main goal is to deliver the "greatest Halo game ever." No details on the next game were revealed at this stage.

Micron's run supplying memory for NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 series appears to be over. As unikoshardware spotted on X, Micron's official part catalog now lists both of its 2GB GDDR7 chips, the 28 Gbps MT68A512M32DF-28:A and the 32 Gbps MT68A512M32DF-32:A, with a status of "End of Life," meaning the company has completely halted production.

The company spent a notably short time producing the 2GB GDDR7 modules. Micron only joined NVIDIA's GDDR7 supply chain in mid-2025, and it wasn't until February of this year that its chips were actually sighted on an RTX 50 mobile series GPU. In less than a year, the company appears to have pulled the plug on the exact chips it had just begun supplying, without any public explanation.

With Micron completely out of the frame, Samsung and SK hynix are now the sole suppliers of the 2GB GDDR7 modules that power the current RTX 50 lineup. This shift shouldn't cause any dramatic supply collapse on its own, as Micron was never the primary source. But if it was covering even a small slice of total volume, its exit adds more tension to a memory market that's already under serious strain. NVIDIA has pushed through multiple GPU-memory price hikes this year, and board partners were forced to raise RTX 50 series pricing in response.

MediaTek is expanding its presence in the laptop market with the new Dimensity CX C10 Max, a 3nm processor designed for Google's newly launched Googlebook family of laptops. As part of MediaTek's new Dimensity CX family, the chip targets premium, thin-and-light laptops where performance and power efficiency are equally important.

Under the hood, the Dimensity CX C10 Max features an eight-core CPU. The configuration includes a Cortex-X925 core clocked at up to 3.73GHz, alongside three Cortex-X4 cores and four Cortex-A720 cores. Notably, MediaTek is sticking with an older generation of Arm CPU cores here, as Arm has already moved on to its newer C1-series designs and recently unveiled the next-generation C2 CPU cluster.

MediaTek pairs the CPU with an 11-core Arm Immortalis-G925 MC11 GPU. Based on its specifications, the C10 Max appears to be closely related to the Dimensity 9400+ platform, sharing the same CPU cores, clock speeds, cache configuration, and NPU, albeit with an 11-core rather than 12-core Immortalis-G925 GPU.

Another Game Ready driver has been released for GeForce graphics card owners, featuring game ready support for Control Resonant, Gears of War: E-Day, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Remastered, and AION 2. The new driver, version 617.14, features three bug fixes, including two monitor related fixes and a gaming fix for three titles.

Specifically, NVIDIA has fixed a bug in Judgement, Lost Judgement and Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O where the aforementioned games may fail to launch after updating to driver 616.56. NVIDIA also fixed a no picture bug on the Odyssey G95NC monitor when connected to HDMI after updating to R615 series drivers, and an issue where certain monitors might not wake from sleep when connected to DisplayPort after updating to the same driver branch.

Control Resonant is the latest game to come out by Remedy Entertainment that builds on the story of the first Control game, following Jesse Faden's brother Dylan Faden. The game's story focuses on containing the Hiss, an invasive micro-organism that has broken the confinement of the FBC and is spreading all over Manhattan. The game features multiple upgrades over Control's ray-traced graphics engine, to provide a path-traced mode that features path-traced direct and indirect lighting across the entire environment. Similar to 007 First Light's recent path tracing update, Control Resonant's path tracing mode is super challenging to run, and puts even the RTX 5090 to its knees.

Despite Sony being tight-lipped about any upcoming features for PlayStation users, signs of a new PlayStation rewards system keep surfacing in different forms. In a screenshot posted to X, Zuby_Tech shows a standalone "Wallet Credits" tile inside the PS Store, with $10 seemingly earned from a game purchase. At the time of writing, it's unclear which regions and games this new cashback scheme applies to.

Other players have reported similar findings. According to posts from realradec and GameRoll_ on X, some users have seen $10 in wallet credit land automatically after buying specific new titles, including The Blood of Dawnwalker, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Halloween: The Game, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, and Star Wars Zero Company, as far as reported.

One thing worth noting is that Zuby_Tech's screenshot shows the price in British pounds, suggesting a UK account, but earlier reports from Insider Gaming said they couldn't replicate the Wallet Credit offer on UK consoles when testing it themselves. That suggests the feature is currently being tested across select accounts rather than being tied to a specific region or user base.

NVIDIA's RTX 5000 Founders Edition graphics cards are difficult to come by - and in some cases, near impossible - but a fresh batch of these GPUs has been deployed in the US in gaming rigs from CyberPowerPC.

VideoCardz reports that the manufacturer of prebuilts is selling PCs with Founders Edition RTX 5080 and 5070 GPUs inside them via Walmart, as part of the retailer's NVIDIA GeForce promotion this week.

However, the PCs with RTX 5080 graphics cards have already sold out sadly. When VideoCardz wrote about this, the cheaper model at $2,299 had already gone (where the NVIDIA GPU was paired with a Ryzen 9800X3D CPU). The $2,399 PC was seemingly still available, built around an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, but that's now vanished, too.

New memory testing has confirmed that AMD's Ryzen CPUs with 3D V-Cache are less sensitive to high-speed DDR5 memory setups compared to other CPUs on the market (including Intel chips). TechPowerUp conducted an eight-game benchmark test with eight different DDR5 memory configurations on a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and found the fastest-performing kits on average performed only 2% better than the slowest kits.

TechPowerUp found that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D performs 2% better on average with a DDR5-6000 Ultra Low Latency 2x16GB kit of memory using 30-38-38-32 timings, compared to a DDR5-4800 2x8GB kit running at JEDEC timings. The test bench was paired with an RTX 4090, and all eight games were tested at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, featuring Palworld, Baldur's Gate 3, Elden Ring, Resident Evil 9, Spider-Man Remastered, Forza Horizon 6, Counter-Strike 2, and Cyberpunk 2077. The full suite of test kits consisted of eight single-stick and dual-stick configurations with either 16GB or 32GB of memory capacity and transfer rates ranging from DDR5-4800 all the way up to DDR5-8000.

In Palworld at 1080p high settings, all eight DDR5 configurations ran at a super tight 119 FPS average, with 1% lows being 6% faster on the fastest kit (DDR5-6000 2x16GB Ultra Low Latency) compared to the slowest kit (DDR5-5600 2x8GB). In Baldur's Gate 3 at 1080p high settings, the performance gap between the fastest and slowest kits was 6.24 FPS for average FPS, ranging between 178.97 and 172.73 FPS. 1% lows were 7% faster on the fastest kit (DDR5-8000 2x16GB) compared to the slowest kit (DDR5-4800 2x16GB). Similarly, 0.1% lows performed 5% better on the fastest kit (DDR5-6000 2x16GB Ultra Low Latency) compared to the slowest kit (DDR5-4800 2x16GB)

Grok 4.7 is out and Elon Musk has highlighted the game creation capabilities of the new model, boasting that it will be able to make "photo-realistic and physics-precise games", while showing off an early GTA-style offering.

Musk pointed to a post on X from a Grok 4.7 user, X Freeze, who claims to have "built a GTA-style open-world game from a single prompt in Grok Build". It's possible to explore the cityscape, enter cars and drive them around.

An illustrative video is provided, and while the clip makes it clear that the game is very basic - photorealistic it most certainly isn't, not unless you're taking snaps in Legoland - it's nonetheless impressive that this is apparently the work of the AI based off a single prompt.

NZXT's S Series of mid-tower ATX cases is back with the new compact steel S5 RGB and S5 RGB Deluxe. The NZXT S5 RGB ($49.99 USD) and the S5 RGB Deluxe ($59.99 USD) arrive with single-frame 360mm RGB reverse fans on the right-side intake, with the big difference between the two being that the latter includes more pre-installed RGB fans. In addition to the single-frame 360mm RGB reverse fans, the S5 RGB Deluxe includes a pre-installed 120mm RGB reverse fan in the angled bottom mount and a 120mm RGB rear fan.

Elsewhere, the two cases are identical, with solid steel construction for weight and reliability, dual tempered glass panels on the front and side for panoramic views of components, and support for 10 fans in total. At 482 x 210 x 423mm, the steel frames and panels bring the 42.8 Liter chassis weight to 6.14kg for the S5 RGB and 6.44kg for the S5 RGB Deluxe.

With support for 360mm radiator cooling, NZXT notes that the new S Series has been designed for direct airflow to the "hottest component," aka your graphics card. The bottom fan points directly at the GPU, and the angled intake fan is also designed to push airflow in that direction. Both the NZXT S5 RGB and S5 RGB Deluxe are designed for DIY-friendliness with tool-free panel removal and a modern I/O that includes USB-C and dual USB-A ports.

Microsoft confirms layoffs and big organizational changes at Xbox, where divisions like Bethesda and Obsidian will work together to make games.

It's official: Xbox is changing, and today's announcement is a big one. Xbox's Matt Booty outlined what's next, confirming structural and personnel changes. Xbox will lay off 268 people across first-party studios--Halo Studios was mentioned directly--as well as other management groups.

Now on to the paradigm shifts. Activision will develop the next Halo game, and it will not be responsible for, and be an authority over, Rare and World's Edge. Bethesda will do the same for Obsidian (the two teams are currently collaborating on a new Fallout project). Turn10 and Playground Games are joining forces, coming together as one studio. King now includes Microsoft Casual Games.

Those with a GIGABYTE motherboard in their PC should be aware of a fresh vulnerability in the company's Control Center software that requires action now.

PC Gamer noticed the security advisory which was posted warning about vulnerabilities in the drivers relating to the GIGABYTE Control Center app.

There are "multiple security vulnerabilities" in GVCIDrv64.sys and gdrv3.sys, we're told, and you should update to the latest version of the Control Center which has them patched.

Durabook has revealed a new rugged laptop that comes with three displays and tips the scales at 9.8kg.

Thin-and-light the Durabook Z14I-DX3 most certainly isn't, but this hefty workstation (flagged up by VideoCardz) is a sturdy portable which is built to MIL-STD-810H and MIL-STD-461G standards. That means a "fully rugged construction" suitable for industrial or other demanding environments, with the laptop able to work in a temperature range of -29C to 63C.

The Z14I-DX3 runs an Intel Meteor Lake processor - you get the choice of a Core Ultra 5 125U or Core Ultra 7 155U with Intel AI Boost NPU - and for graphics grunt you can optionally equip the Durabook with up to an NVIDIA RTX 5000 GPU.

Microsoft will announce even more restructuring at Xbox today, with layoffs and even the possibility of game studio mergers and consolidations, sources tell both The Verge and The Information.

There will be more dour news from Xbox today as Microsoft is reportedly planning to enact the next phase of its restructuring plan. Reports say that this will take shape in the form of mass layoffs that affect hundreds of people, as well as a business re-orientation that could see studios and teams combined/consolidated into more cohesive and synergistic units.

Insider NateTheHate, who has proven to be accurate in the past, says that Halo could even be moved under Activision Blizzard's purview. Years ago, Sony wrote in court testimony that Xbox would become a "one stop shop for shooters" if the ABK merger went through. To illustrate the point, I made an infographic (see below).

Final Fantasy VII Revelation will provide PlayStation 5 Pro owners with a smooth 4K gaming experience at 60 FPS when it arrives next year.

Naturally enough, the game will manage this feat using PSSR upscaling, and as Wccftech reports we've got this info from game director Naoki Hamaguchi, who confirmed a 4K and 60 FPS mode for PS5 Pro.

As you can see above, Hamaguchi posted on X:

Some PC gamers have been hearing a mysterious "ba bing" notification sound seemingly at random while using their PC. It now appears that the sound has been the Epic Games launcher all along.

Fortnite news account FireMonkey traced the noises to six audio files used by the launcher's social and party features. The chimes play when a party member joins or leaves, receives a party message, changes party joinability, or enables or disables push-to-talk.

Because an Epic party can remain active while the launcher runs in the background, the sounds may play while the user is in another application, sometimes without an obvious corresponding notification, such as a pop-up text notification appearing in the bottom right-hand corner of Windows 11.

A 1TB iPhone 18 Pro Max equipped with QLC NAND briefly saw its write throughput collapse to 1.1 MB/s after its caches were exhausted in a storage benchmark. The handset also trailed a TLC-equipped 512GB iPhone 18 Pro in HOMOLAB's random and mixed storage tests.

Storage-testing channel HOMOLAB used FIO to compare the two devices. During 128K sequential writes beginning with the nearly empty 1TB handset, its dynamic SLC cache delivered more than 3,000 MB/s and covered approximately 250GB. Performance then fell to an average of 578 MB/s in a pseudo-TLC stage before the QLC write-back phase averaged 79.4 MB/s, with a minimum of 25.6 MB/s.

HOMOLAB repeated the benchmark after filling 60% of the phone's storage. Its SLC cache then shrank to 58GB, pseudo-TLC performance averaged 396 MB/s, and the QLC write-back stage averaged 45 MB/s while briefly reaching the widely cited 1.1 MB/s minimum.

Sapphire Technology is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year as the creator of high-performance computing hardware. For PC gamers, Sapphire is synonymous with AMD's Radeon lineup, which makes sense, as the company began as a graphics card maker before expanding into motherboards, Mini PC systems, and pro-grade Radeon graphics for AI, robotics, and automotive.

At TweakTown, Sapphire has always been on our radar for PC gaming hardware, and over the years we've tested several Sapphire GPUs. Back in 2006, we reviewed the water-cooled Sapphire TOXIC Radeon X1900 XTX card back when everything Radeon fell under the ATI banner. Cut to 2016, and in our review of the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 480 8GB, we praised its 1080p gaming performance, cooling, and build quality.

More recently, we reviewed the premium Radeon RX 9070 XT NITRO+ PhantomLink GPU and NITRO+ X870EA PhantomLink Polar Edition motherboard, a combination built for flagship RDNA 4 performance with no visible cables. Looking back at the past two decades of our GPU coverage, it's clear that Sapphire has been a key partner for AMD and Radeon, and one of the most recognized and trusted options for PC gamers.

Eight years ago this week, NVIDIA launched the GeForce RTX 2080, its first GPU in its new Turing lineup of PC gaming graphics cards, followed by the flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti on September 27, 2018. As the follow-up to the iconic 10-Series and the GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 Ti combo, NVIDIA made a major architectural shift with the first RTX generation, ushering in real-time ray tracing and DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling, with brand-new RT and Tensor Cores.

Now, looking back at PC and console gaming in 2026, both ray tracing and AI-powered neural rendering technologies are commonplace - thanks in part to NVIDIA leading the charge. In fact, major game releases in 2026 are expected to launch with support for NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, and Intel XeSS to boost performance, with ray tracing maturing to the point where it's baked into the core technology and rendering pipelines of games like DOOM: The Dark Ages.

Of course, as with any new groundbreaking technology, there were teething issues. For the GeForce RTX 20 Series, that meant no real ray-tracing or even DLSS support on day one. When Battlefield V arrived with ray-traced reflections in November 2018, the performance impact and DLSS image quality made it feel more like a tech demo than a glimpse of the future.

LG's latest OLED gaming panel is designed specifically for esports and competitive gaming. The 24-inch Full HD OLED panel is described as a mainstream display, aiming to bring OLED technology to a wider gaming community, especially those who play competitive titles and esports at 1080p and high refresh rates.

And on that front, even though the 24-inch size and Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution might not sound all that impressive, this new OLED panel supports a 720Hz refresh rate driven by a "proprietary algorithm" and custom solution to ensure stable performance. It also supports a fast 0.02ms response time, making it one of the fastest OLED panels for latency and overall gaming performance.

With its 720Hz refresh rate, 0.02ms response time, and OLED technology for deep blacks, near-infinite contrast, and vibrant colors, it improves motion clarity. It reduces unwanted effects like ghosting while maintaining image quality that far exceeds non-OLED esports displays.