Latest News - Page 105

GIGABYTE has a new motherboard for the overclockers out there, and it's the stunning Z890 AORUS TACHYON DUO X ICE. As the name suggests, this is a white, grey, and silver-colored board that delivers performance to match its style. The big thing here is that it has two DDR5 slots supporting the new CQDIMM memory technology unveiled at CES 2026.

A CQDIMM (Clocked Quad-rank Unbuffered Dual In-line Memory Module) provides 256 GB of memory capacity via two 128GB modules, while delivering high speeds and enhanced stability. For the Z890 AORUS TACHYON DUO X ICE, which features GIGABYTE's new D5 Duo X technology, overclockers and enthusiasts will be able to reach memory speeds of DDR5-10400 or 10,400 MT/s thanks to the CQDIMM upgrade and premium design that includes PCB optimizations and custom BIOS tuning.

This motherboard is a follow-up to the original Z890 AORUS TACHYON ICE for the Intel Core Ultra 200S Series, but this time the dual memory slots and the CPU socket are laid out horizontally as opposed to vertically. It features an 18+1+2 Digital VRM Design, an 8-layer PCB, and premium capacitors.

If you've bought a new keyboard specifically for PC gaming in the past year or so, you've probably noticed the arrival of Hall-effect or magnetic keyboards. For those who might need a refresher, magnetic switches, as opposed to mechanical switches, use a magnetic field to precisely actuate keystrokes rather than physical hardware.

The benefit for PC gaming and other tasks is the ability to adjust the actuation point for each key and assign multiple functions to a single keystroke. Plus, magnetic keyboards support SOCD and Rapid Trigger modes, which are becoming increasingly popular among competitive gamers. The only real downside to magnetic switches, for some, is that they do feel and sound different from mechanical switches.

And with that, GATERON has launched its new Magnetic Jade Attraction HE switches, which sport a "game-changing magnetic design" and are said to be "perfect for long coding sessions, fast typing, and competitive gaming." Based on the description and design, GATERON is positioning these as linear magnetic switches without any downsides.

If you've bought an Xbox Wireless controller or created your own via the Xbox Design Lab system in recent months and had the controller arrive without two AA batteries, that was an error on Microsoft's part. According to a new post on the official Xbox Support account's social media, a "limited number" of controllers have mistakenly been shipped (since December 2025) without batteries.

Naturally, if you were affected, you might have thought that Microsoft was saving a few dollars by no longer packing a pair of AA batteries with its controllers, but that's not the case. In addition to acknowledging that "all controllers moving forward will include batteries," Microsoft is apologizing by offering those affected a nice little bonus. Based on the responses to the post, it seems like quite a few gamers are affected by this mix-up.

The company is offering those affected by the mix-up an Xbox Rechargeable Battery + USB‑C Cable pack worth $24.99 USD. This is a notable upgrade over the standard disposable AA batteries that Microsoft packs with its controllers, as it offers play-and-charge functionality and eliminates the need to replace your controller's batteries.

Here's an interesting piece of hardware you may not have known existed: a Dual PCIe adapter card that adds two PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD slots to the same PCIe slot you use for your GPU. This is for those systems and rigs where a more affordable GPU might not be utilizing all x16 lanes.

What makes this stand out as an oddity is that the riser card will only work on motherboards that support PCIe bifurcation, which splits the x16 PCIe slot into three lanes: x8, x4, and x4. As posted on Reddit by 'thepromiseman,' they paired what appears to be the RIITOP Dual NVMe PCIe Adapter (available on Amazon for $29.99 USD) with a low-profile GIGABYTE graphics card in a Mini-ITX system.

And with that, the combined height of the GPU and adapter equals the standard height of a non-low-profile GPU. The benefit here is that the user was able to add two standard NVMe SSD slots to their compact system that would have been impossible otherwise. The user also notes that, since their motherboard supports PCIe bifurcation, everything worked without any tinkering or troubleshooting.

The current memory and storage crisis affecting the consumer technology industry has seen the prices for things like DDR5 memory kits and SSD storage steadily and even exponentially increase in recent months. Naturally, it's affected how everyday consumers, PC gamers, and enthusiasts are approaching upgrades and new builds, adjusting budgets and hardware options to adapt to the situation.

For those living in the US, Micro Center is one of the best-known retailers of PC hardware, with all major components in stock at large retail stores across the country. As the current DRAM and flash memory (storage) crisis is born from the AI industry and data centers buying up all stock and manufacturing capacity shifting to more advanced technologies like high-bandwidth memory (HBM), you'd think there would be mass shortages everywhere, with the limited available stock being sold at inflated prices.

Although anecdotal, a new post in the PCMasterRace thread on Reddit from Hell-Diver 7 shows that at least one Micro Center appears to be fully stocked with cabinets, shelves, and rows of DDR5 memory kits and SSDs on hand. Unfortunately, with this hardware readily available for purchase, prices are 200+ percent higher than before the current mess.

There are rumors and rumblings that Microsoft could pull Call of Duty from Game Pass, potentially nixing day-and-date releases or removing the series from the service altogether.

Call of Duty might get pulled from Game Pass at some point, possibly in a bid to lower the price of the service. During a recent video, Windows Central reporter Jez Corden mentioned that he's heard talk of Call of Duty being removed from the high-margin service. This could theoretically hit two birds with one stone: reducing Game Pass Ultimate's price while preserving the full value of Call of Duty game sales.

"If they take Call of Duty out of Game Pass this year, which is a possibility from what I've heard. I think it'll kind of reveal some of the cracks in the strategy...but I don't know," Corden, who closely monitors the goings-on within Xbox and Microsoft, said in a video on his YouTube channel.

We're continuing our TweakTown newsletter subscriber-exclusive giveaways, rewarding loyal readers with top-tier gear every week. For our latest giveaway, we've teamed up with MSI to bring one lucky winner a seriously powerful combo for a next-gen Intel build.

There will be one winner in total, and the prize bundle includes both a high-end Z890 motherboard and a feature-packed 360mm liquid cooler. Check out what's up for grabs below.

The MAG Z890 TOMAHAWK WIFI II is designed to provide a stable and feature-rich foundation for high-performance gaming and AI-focused PC builds. MSI equips it with support for Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) processors on the LGA1851 platform, up to 256GB of DDR5 memory, PCIe 5.0 expansion, and four M.2 slots, including a Gen5 slot for ultra-fast SSD storage.

Various global PlayStation Store pre-order rankings show strong demand for new titles, including IO Interactive's anticipated 007: First Light prequel, as well as Capcom's new IP Pragmata and Skybound's Invincible VS.

Sony's PlayStation Store pre-order charts show that gamers are willing to bite on a handful of new games, including Capcom's fresh android action game, Pragmata, and the suave 007 First Light. This article will take a look at the top 24 pre-order standings across 7 markets for today, April 12, 2026 to give an idea of the current demand for upcoming titles. The markets include the US, Canada, the UK, France, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Hong Kong.

Since every market and geography has its own tastes, the charts are varied and different from region to region, however there are some commonalities: the new 007 First Light James Bond game shows up in the top 5 in all tracked regions, indicating high interest for the game. Capcom's Pragmata also shows up on multiple top spots of the list, including regions like Hong Kong, Japan, and surprisingly, Saudi Arabia, which is said to be MENA's biggest market for PlayStation consoles.

When game publishers first began adopting Denuvo, many assumed it marked the end of piracy. And for a while, that was the case. Until recently, when a cracked copy of Capcom's Resident Evil: Requiem surfaced just days after launch. The hypervisor-based crack became so widespread that Denuvo's parent company, Irdeto, began working on countermeasures.

And just as the company is trying to quell that fire, a bombshell has dropped. A fully cracked version of Resident Evil: Requiem has now been released with DRM completely disabled. On Reddit, user voices38 revealed the crack, making it the first 2026 Denuvo game to be stripped of its anti-tamper protection. Alongside Doom: The Dark Ages, Requiem has joined a small but growing list of titles where Denuvo has been removed.

Unlike the hypervisor-bypass method, voices38 used the old-school approach to strip all Denuvo code. Previously, that process would take months or prove impossible altogether, but a game only 40 days old being cracked this way suggests that recent Denuvo implementations could soon be stripped cleanly and quickly. Voices38 has reportedly been building toolkits for contemporary Denuvo for some time, and it apparently took only two weeks to pull off the feat once everything was in place.

Early reports said that Rockstar Games was hacked, and that the cyber pirates would hold sensitive financial data for ransom until April 14. Now Rockstar steps in to clarify what actually happened.

Rockstar Games has been hit by a data breach, but critical info, like GTA 6's source code for example, is safe. The studio today confirmed that unauthorized bad actors were able to infiltrate and acquire data as a result of a third-party breach, yet nothing important or sensitive was accessed.

"We can confirm that a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach. This incident has no impact on our organization or our players," Rockstar Games said in a statement to Kotaku.

Pete Hines delivers a candid and rare look at the goings-on within Bethesda before his departure, hinting that turmoil may have happened following Microsoft's acquisition of the company.

Bethesda has changed considerably over the years, especially after Microsoft's $7.5 billion buyout following the passing of ZeniMax chief Robert Altman. Microsoft bought the studio in 2020, and after that, things became a bit frictional and confusing within the group, especially concerning Microsoft's flip-flop plans on exclusivity. This, and potential schisms with Game Pass, may have led to the departure of one of Bethesda's most well-known and dedicated executives, Pete Hines.

In a recent interview with Kirk McKeand's new Firezide Chat newsletter, Bethesda's former VP of marketing Pete Hines explained why he left the studio after 24 years. In a nutshell, Hines says that Bethesda is now a part of something that just didn't feel right to Hines--it wasn't authentic or genuine anymore.

Pearl Abyss outlines a roadmap of new updates coming to Crimson Desert, driven by a mix of fan feedback and the studio's ultimate vision for the game.

Crimson Desert continues to evolve based on what players actually want to see in the game. Pearl Abyss has steadily changed and morphed their first-ever AAA singleplayer game with a stream of new updates, and now the devs have outlined a preview list of new content and changes that are coming with future updates.

In fact, Pearl Abyss just released a new Crimson Desert 1.03 patch that actually includes some of the changes on the preview list, such as new skills for Damiane and Oongka and being able to hide weapons and shields equipped on Kliff's back. The rapid pace of Pearl Abyss's updates feels unprecedented in the AAA gaming space--the studio put out the preview list only yesterday and already put out a patch the next day.

Fortnite might finally be hitting a wall in terms of expansion and engagement, and new reports from Bloomberg say that the Disney x Epic partnership will lead to 2 more titles--including an extraction shooter similar to Arc Raiders.

Disney has big plans for Fortnite, having invested a whopping $1.5 billion into Epic Games to fund a vast array of new experiences. At the time, Disney said the team-up would lead to "transformational new games and entertainment universe."

Now thanks to reports from Bloomberg's Cecilia D'Anastasio, fans have an idea on what new games will come from the Epic x Disney partnership. Sources tell D'Anastasio that there are at least three games in development, and the first game will be an extraction shooter similar to Nexon's mega-hit Arc Raiders, featuring Disney characters instead of grizzled Arc hunters.

With the latest Intel Arc driver update released a few days ago, Crimson Desert finally started launching on Intel Arc GPUs, though with visible artifacts on faces and corrupted terrain, making it playable at best. Before that, the game launched on March 19 without Arc support, with Pearl Abyss advising affected users to seek refunds. It was a rough start for Intel Arc and handheld owners who were missing out entirely.

Now, three weeks after launch, Patch 1.03.00 has officially added Intel Arc GPU support on PC. In the Graphics & Settings section of the release notes, the dev team has confirmed the addition and noted that the experience should continue to improve through ongoing optimizations in future updates. The patch also adds Intel XeSS 3.0 and XeSS Frame Generation as upscaling options to the game.

Pearl Abyss has already flagged known issues for Arc-A series cards in the patch notes. According to the developers, Arc-A series users may encounter no display output with XeSS 3.0 or XeSS Frame Generation enabled, A770 owners can still hit crashes when using XeSS, and A750 users may still experience crashes in Hernand city.

Keyboard enthusiasts have long moved beyond just typing, spending hours swapping switches for the perfect sound, tuning dampeners, and adding custom keycaps to match their setup. And when it comes to such customization, Keychron is one of the most recognizable names in the space, consistently impressing with offerings like the Q1 HE 8K and K4 HE.

Now the company is opening up that customization even more. In an unusual move, Keychron has published editable source files for the cases, plates, and keycaps across its popular mechanical keyboard lineup, free for anyone to access. The company's CEO noted in a Discord announcement that "We think that making production hardware files available is a meaningful contribution to the broader hardware and keyboard community."

It's worth noting that this is not fully open source. Keychron describes the release as 'source available.' This means the files are shared for people to view and use, but the license only permits personal and educational projects, not commercial use. In other words, users can't sell keyboards built from these files, but can use them to customize and produce accessories for personal use.

Last year, Elon Musk announced XChat, a new encrypted messaging system within X, positioning it as a more secure alternative to competing platforms like Signal and Telegram. The app has been in testing since then with little update, until now. The official XChat account on X has confirmed that its standalone messaging app is coming to iPhone and iPad, with a release set for April 17.

An App Store listing for the app is already live, showing a design preview and a detailed icon. The listing shows a file size of 175.8MB and requires iOS 16.0 or later.

For those not caught up, XChat differs from the existing DM system on the main X platform. It is a dedicated environment focused entirely on private communication, something the platform makes clear with its official tagline: "your encrypted chats deserve their own app."

AMD's best CPU lineup is set to get a new entry on April 22nd. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 is the world's first CPU to feature dual 3D V-Cache, with a combined cache of 208MB including L2. However, that premium specification comes with a premium price tag, and its eye-watering $899 asking price for a consumer processor is pushing many gamers away.

Lucky for you, another top gaming CPU in the X3D lineup is currently available for almost half that price. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is on sale for 14% off on Amazon right now, bringing it to its lowest price yet on the retailer. The discount brings it down to $409.95 from the usual $479, cutting roughly $70 off the original MSRP. The previous all-time low was $419.95 in late March, so this latest deal pushes it another $10 below that record.

The new price positions the Ryzen 7 9800X3D as an even better value than the slightly refreshed Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which currently costs $489. With only a 2-3% performance difference, most users will see virtually identical real-world gaming performance, making the 9800X3D's $80 lower price a compelling advantage for gamers seeking the best value per dollar.

The world of tech just seems to be in a bad place right now. Sony increased the price of its PlayStation 5, Intel and AMD both announced CPU price increases, graphics cards have been in an eternal state of extinction since 2020, DRAM has joined the party with sky-high prices, and even Netflix recently increased prices across all tiers. If you were waiting for some good news on that front, well, today is not that day.

Apparently, YouTube is set to raise prices for YouTube Premium, with most tiers increasing by $2 in the US. Under the new rates, a standard YouTube Premium individual subscription will increase from $13.99 to $15.99 per month. If you are paying an annual subscription fee, the plan now costs $159.99, up from $139.99. You save an extra $4 by going with the annual plan under the new rates, but that feels like a drop in the bucket compared to the $20 price bump.

Users who subscribed through the Apple App Store are set to receive a larger price bump, with the rate for an individual Premium subscription now $20.99. The new pricing doesn't even exempt those with YouTube Premium Lite or the Student subscription. These tiers are also set to receive a $1 price increase, bringing their total to $8.99 per month.

Rockstar Games is hiring four Creator Platform positions, and there's speculation that these new jobs could help establish a UGC framework for GTA 6, possibly a SixM infrastructure or maybe even official user-generated content that's available in the retail build of the game.

A bit ago, Rockstar Games bought Cfx.re, the team behind popular roleplay and creator communities FiveM and RedM. Then the Cfx Marketplace was established, which is a store that sells in-game user-generated content like custom skins and scripts for real money--these creations are compatible with the special role-playing versions of Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA V on PC.

Cfx is a "community-driven modification framework" that essentially sits on top of the base versions of Rockstar's titles. It's a kind of compatibility layer that enables custom modding, but in a way that Rockstar and Take-Two approve of. The idea here is to create a sanctioned environment that's separate from the official games, including a separate instance of GTA Online, where gamers can engage with custom content and buy it in a digital marketplace, creating a user-generated content economy for Rockstar's GTA V and RDR2. While this strategy still uses UGC, different than something like Roblox, which is entirely built on user-created games. Rockstar's strategy is kind of a side thing that lives and operates alongside their official game servers.

On Thursday, Intel and Google announced a multi-year collaboration to advance AI infrastructure. Under this program, Google will continue to deploy Intel Xeon systems for its AI and cloud infrastructure going forward. Moreover, both companies agreed to work together on the expanded co-development of custom silicon, especially targeted towards AI applications.

According to Intel's announcement, this collaboration is essential for the future of AI infrastructure, as Google and Intel will work together to improve performance and energy efficiency, and to optimize costs for Google's AI and cloud deployments. In simple terms, both tech giants are going to work together to best capitalize on the AI boom.

The outlined program has two major parts: first, Google will continue to use Intel's Xeon processors for its Cloud, AI, inference, and general-purpose workloads. This will include both current Xeon models and future models that will likely be developed with Google's specific needs in mind.