Latest News - Page 116

Meta is currently building a new $27 billion data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana, the company's biggest to date. Naturally, it's all about AI, with Meta noting that this 4 million-square-foot Richland Parish Data Center will play a "vital role in accelerating our AI progress, delivering over two gigawatts of compute capacity to train future open-source large language models."

With the energy requirements of these new data centers straining local grids and energy supplies, Meta has reportedly struck a deal with Entergy Louisiana to fund and help build seven new natural gas power plants in the region. With a combined power output of 5,200 megawatts, this is enough to cover "two gigawatts of compute" of the data center and then some.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the energy deal also includes 240 miles of 500-kilovolt transmission or power lines and battery storage. Now, although "natural gas" might sound good on paper, it's not exactly clean - it's still a fossil fuel. Albeit one with fewer emissions than coal-fired plants.

Razer has lifted the lid on its new ultra-thin 2026 Blade 16 gaming laptop, and this refresh is set to push laptop performance to new heights. In addition to supporting the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processor, which features 33% more cores than the previous Blade 16, it's also set to ship with up to 64GB of LPDDR5-9600 MHz memory, which Razer says is the fastest available memory for a laptop.

The 16-core Intel Core Ultra 9 386H features a max boost frequency of 4.9 GHz, which should make a notable difference to CPU-heavy gaming, creative, and productivity workloads. It also features an integrated NPU with up to 50 TOPS of AI performance for local AI workloads. And when paired with the Razer Laptop Cooling Pad, the 2026 Blade 16 can be overclocked and boosted by up to 175W for even more performance when plugged in.

On the GPU side, the Razer's 2026 Blade 16 will once again leverage NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, with full support for DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation for high-end cinematic gaming. And although the 16-inch QHD+ (2560 x 1600) OLED panel sports the same 240 Hz refresh rate as last year's model, the 2026 edition does include one notable upgrade.

ASUS's ROG X870E APEX motherboard is the company's AM5 flagship for the current generation of Ryzen desktop processors. It's built for extreme CPU and memory overclocking thanks to premium power delivery, advanced memory technology, and a ROG Memory Fan Kit cooler to support OC action.

According to new screenshots showcasing the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition CPU in a system with the ROG Crosshair X870E APEX motherboard and 32GB of G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO DDR5 memory, ASUS's engineers were able to push DDR5-8800 memory speeds with low-latency CL32 timings. That last bit is particularly impressive because DDR5-8000+ speeds with Ryzen 9000 Series CPUs often come with much higher latency.

According to the source of the screenshot of ASUS's testing (Wccftech), the G.Skill memory appears to be a low-latency model with DDR5-6000 (6,000 MT/s) speeds. This means DDR8800 is effectively a 46.6% memory frequency overclock while maintaining similarly tight timings.

AMD recently announced the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition processor, the company's first desktop CPU with dual second-generation 3D V-Cache technology. This chiplet processor is powered by an impressive 16 Zen 5 cores and features 208MB of total cache. This is the "most ever built into a Ryzen processor," with the company saying that it's built for developers and creators.

Of course, as CPUs with 3D V-Cache technology are fantastic for PC gaming, we can probably throw that into the mix too. With a power rating of 200W, AMD notes that the new CPU delivers 5-10% performance improvements over the current Ryzen 9 9950X3D flagship in popular creative apps and workloads like DaVinci Resolve, Blender, and Unreal Engine.

And as the latest AM5 CPU, the good news is that the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition works with existing motherboards. In fact, ASRock has confirmed that its entire lineup of X870E, X870, B850, B850M, X670E, B650, B650M, and A620 motherboards is ready to pair with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, for a total of 90 motherboards.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney will step in and help a distinctly tragic situation affecting a laid off employee who has terminal brain cancer and no life insurance after the company eliminated his role at the group.

Epic Games recently laid off 1,000 workers, earning the ire from industry developers and gamers alike. One of the people affected by the recent layoffs was Mike Prinke, a terminal cancer patient whose life insurance policy was in dangerous jeopardy. Jenni Griffin, Mike's wife, shared the tragic story on Facebook, outlining the stress and fear that their family now faces as a result of the layoff.

"Because of the layoff, we didn't just lose income-we lost his life insurance. And because his condition is now considered a pre-existing condition, he can't get new coverage," Griffin said.

A series of new next-gen Zen 6 server EPYC processors from AMD have debuted on the open-source benchmarking platform OpenBenchmarking, thanks to Olrak29_ at X (formerly Twitter). These appear to be the first public sightings of the upcoming silicon, though performance is not indicative of the final result, as we're still dealing with early silicon. Codenamed 'Venice', AMD is on track to launch these 6th Gen EPYC processors in the second half of 2026.

Last April, AMD officially unveiled the codename and some architectural details for its next-generation EPYC family. The EPYC 9006 family is designed with the Zen 6 architecture and fabricated using TSMC's 2nm process. Current leaks underpin improved core counts, greater cache, and enhanced I/O capabilities, thanks to the new design and the higher density offered by the updated process node.

If we're to believe leaks, each Zen 6 CCD is moving from the standard 8-core structure to 12 cores, with 48MB of L3 cache, up from 32MB. The dense Zen 6c variant sees an even bigger jump from 16 cores to 32 cores per CCD, accompanied by 128MB of L3 cache (up from 32MB). This means that for a fully decked-out chip with eight Zen 6c CCDs, we're looking at 256 cores and 1GB of L3 cache. While industry insiders have teased this flagship spec, current data suggests the standard Zen 6 counterpart may top out at 96 cores with a similar eight CCD layout, unlike sixteen CCDs with Turin.

Japanese games-maker Square Enix has announced a dynamic duo team up with Google's AI division, Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun reports.

Square Enix is teaming up with Google to add a new AI companion into Dragon Quest X, allowing real-time hints, tips, and tricks for users.

The publisher will add a special new conversational AI companion into its popular MMORPG Dragon Quest X that's powered by Google's Gemini AI chatbot. It'll take the form of an in-game slime character, aka a special "Chatty Slimey" NPC, and players can ask it questions to get glean valuable info and help. The AI-powered slime will also have voiced dialog, and may be able to contextually speak on its own based on what's happening.

CD Projekt saw a record-breaking 60% profit margin throughout 2025, driven by full game sales and high-margin subscription deals.

It's not easy making continued profits in the video games industry, but CD Projekt has managed to pull off an astronomically high 60% profit margin for the full year of 2025.

In a new earnings report, company management highlights the numbers, with management explaining that the results were mostly due to the lucrative royalties from The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 being included on PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass.

New reports say that the anticipated Final Fantasy 9 Remake remains shelved for the time being as Square Enix focuses on other projects, including the third FF7 Remake chapter 3 as well as Dragon Quest XII and Kingdom Hearts IV.

Originally unearthed in the GeForce Now leak of 2021, Square Enix's FF9 Remake has remained shrouded in mystery. Last year was a good opportunity to reveal the project, as 2025 marked the 25th anniversary of the original game.

New reports say that the project has been put in cold storage, potentially to be resurrected for later use. Sources have told gaming YouTuber NateTheHate that the Final Fantasy 9 Remake is "on ice" for now.

Apple's MacBook Neo is a raging success and has helped the company bring in a record number of new users into the Apple ecosystem. However, one area where the Neo's designers cut corners is with the cooling solution, which allows the A18 Pro inside to thermal throttle under heavy workloads. YouTuber ETA Prime modded a MacBook Neo with a Peltier-based liquid cooling solution and found the chip performs significantly better without thermal throttling, especially in games.

The YouTuber used multiple cooling mods to make the liquid cooling mod possible. First, he applied a copper cooling mod to the Neo's A18 Pro inside, replacing the stock graphene pad with a copper shim sandwiched between the A18 Pro and thermal paste on the bottom and a thermal pad on top, connecting the copper pad to the bottom cover of the Neo. We will explain why this mod was necessary further below.

The liquid cooling system ETA Prime is using is designed for smartphones and uses a combination of electricity and coolant to cool the temperature of whatever device the system is connected to. The cooler uses a magnetic puck to attach itself to a smartphone and cool the internal components from the device's back cover. In the Neo's case, the YouTuber attached the puck right over the SoC and the copper shim above it. Using the liquid cooler this way likely wouldn't have been possible without the copper shim mod, the MacBook Neo's stock graphene pad doesn't connect to anything but the A18 Pro itself; which is why the chip thermal throttles.

A new leak points to a cheaper Game Pass option that could be a ray of hope for Xbox gamers amid rising gaming costs. The possible new tier would focus exclusively on first-party titles, with games such as Halo 5, Fallout 76, and DOOM Eternal potentially included. This comes on the heels of recent price hikes on the existing Game Pass tiers, which have pushed many users away from the subscription. Microsoft may be looking to change that.

According to a data mining leak from @redphx on X, Microsoft is reportedly working on a new program codenamed "TRION" or "TRITON." What sets it apart from existing tiers is that it would include only games from Xbox Game Studios, rather than the mixed catalog available now. Here's the full list of titles in the leaked Game Pass tier:

The new tier is likely targeting Xbox gamers who are only interested in its first-party titles, since many have been asking for such a program for a long time. The exact pricing for this leaked Game Pass tier also remains unknown, but many believe Microsoft could introduce it as an ad-supported or low-cost subscription. Since a first-party only approach theoretically eliminates licensing costs, it could allow Microsoft to offer the tier at a price point that works for casual players.

Bethesda is retiring its free-to-play Elder Scrolls Blades in June, and has already delisted the game from Switch, iOS, and Android.

The unpopular Elder Scrolls Blades has been removed from all storefronts and is no longer available to download. Bethesda announced that the free-to-play game will also be pulled offline on June 30, 2026, and from then on will no longer be able to be accessed.

As a farewell to players, the studio has opened up the floodgates to Blades' microtransaction storefront, reducing the costs of all items while giving users a batch of free currency.

Spiders Studio, the team behind RPGs like The Technomancer and Greedfall, is now up for sale as its parent Nacon goes through French insolvency proceedings.

Nacon is currently in financial trouble. The company missed a payment on one of its debts, and has filed for insolvency in French courts--a process that involves the group restructuring and essentially divesting parts of itself in an effort to stay afloat.

As part of this process, Spiders Studio, one of the subsidiary game development studios that Nacon owns, has been put up for sale. A filing on the ASPAJ website gives key stats about Spiders, showing that the studio currently has 75 employees and revenues that are "less than or equal to 1 million Euros," however, this is unclear whether or not this is on a quarterly or annual basis.

The current state of the gaming market is pushing budget gamers to cut corners on RAM, SSDs, and even CPU prices. AMD's long-running AM4 platform is single-handedly saving budget gamers by bringing its most affordable X3D chip to the UK market, offering higher gaming performance at a budget price.

AMD's Ryzen 5000 series has been one of the company's strongest sellers, but it discontinued its more powerful Ryzen 5000 gaming processors, the Ryzen 7 5700X3D and 5800X3D, last year. It kept the more affordable Ryzen 5600X3D and Ryzen 5500X3D available, though both remained limited to certain regions. The 5500X3D was initially limited to Latin America, but earlier this month, AMD launched the 6-core CPU in China. Turns out, that launch is still slowly expanding as we speak.

The Ryzen 5 5500X3D has now appeared at UK retailer PC Tec UK, spotted by VideoCardz. The retailer has listed the chip for 179 pounds, which works out to be around US$237. Unlike the China launch, this is an OEM tray version rather than a boxed retail part. PC Tec estimates orders will dispatch in the week of March 30, with the listing showing limited availability.

AMD's RX 9070 XT is finally trending towards reasonable territory, with three custom triple-fan models from Sapphire, GIGABYTE, and ASRock now available for $699 via promo codes, courtesy of VideoCardz. In fact, Newegg has bundled these GPUs with extra hardware. Depending on the listing, builders can walk away with either a free 512GB SSD, a 750W PSU, or a 360mm AIO at no extra cost.

With no manufacturer immune to the recent surge in DRAM costs, GPU prices have been trending upward for months, with models having more than 8GB of memory hit the hardest. This has caused a significant restructuring in the mid-range market, where the RTX 5070 has climbed to $649 from its $549 launch, while the RTX 5070 Ti is reaching four-digit territory. It took several months for the RX 9070 XT to finally hit its $599 MSRP. This milestone only lasted several weeks before the DRAM crisis took hold, sending prices shooting above $700.

Newegg lists three models of the RX 9070 XT. The ASRock Challenger includes a 360mm AIO ($70 value), the GIGABYTE Gaming OC comes with a 512GB Gen 4 SSD ($113 value), and the Sapphire Pulse features a 750W PSU ($80 value). While all listings have a base price of $729, applying the on-site promo codes brings the final price down to $699. This is not a direct price cut, but the math speaks for itself. If you factor in the bundled goodies, the effective value of the GPU drops to near MSRP levels.

Microsoft's Xbox has made some questionable marketing decisions lately, and new CEO Asha Sharma is trying her best to clean up the mess left behind. Following a report earlier this week suggesting she was quietly trying to scrub the controversial "This is an Xbox" campaign from the internet, a Microsoft spokesperson has now confirmed it officially.

The anonymous spokesperson confirmed to Windows Central that the company is putting the towel on the controversial marketing campaign. Sharma ended it because it "didn't feel like Xbox," and is now "personally leading a reset of how we show up as a brand."

Analysts and industry experts weigh in on the current state of game console prices, warning that the next-gen PS6 and Project Helix might cost $1,000 at release.

Afflicted with sticker shock, gamers are balking at the newly announced PS5 price hikes, particularly to the $900 price tag attached to Sony's mid-gen PlayStation 5 Pro console. But key figures in the games industry say that this new era of prohibitive pricing may just be the beginning of things to come, and higher MSRP could be here to stay throughout Gen 10.

"We're quickly moving towards a world in which a $1,000 console will be the norm, and console gaming will become a luxury expenditure," Joost van Dreunen, co-founder of analyst firm Superdata (acquired by Circana) and a current professor of NYU Stern School of Business, tells GamesRadar in a recent interview.

Sony is boosting PS5 prices, and soon the PS5 Pro will cost $900 in the United States. Ampere Analysis analyst Piers Harding-Rolls says it "wouldn't be a surprise" if Nintendo and Microsoft also raise the price of the Switch 2 and Xbox consoles.

Today, Sony announced that it would be raising prices of its PlayStation 5 consoles across the globe, with the base digital model at $600 and the Pro now at an eye-watering $900, making it the most expensive console currently available. The increases may not end there, though, and analysts are discussing the possibility of other competing systems also getting hikes.

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Ampere's Piers Harding-Rolls explains the current situation, saying that the price hikes are a result of supply chain disruptions and a bid to combat inflation.

Dispatch arrived on PS5 and PC last year to a strong reception, with players quickly falling for its superhero workplace comedy and, of course, Invisigal. However, when it was ported to Nintendo Switch 2 in January 2026, it came with heavy censorship. That sparked a blame game between the studio, AdHoc, and Nintendo. Still, the Switch version remains noticeably tamer than the other ports.

So when AdHoc announced during last night's Xbox Partner Preview showcase that Dispatch is heading to Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and Xbox Cloud, players had one question amid all the excitement: Will it be censored like the Switch 2 version?

"The Xbox version of Dispatch will be the same full release as the original PC and PlayStation versions," the studio wrote on social media. Some already expected as much, since Xbox and PS5 ports rarely stray far apart, but the clarification was appreciated by fans regardless. It's a small thing, but after the Switch 2 situation, players weren't taking any chances.

A lucky Walmart shopper secured an RTX 5060 Ti for just $80 and shared the details on Reddit, thanks to VideoCardz. After taxes, the total comes to almost $86, which still seems like an impossible figure given the card's current retail price. The GPU was marked down from its original retail price of $349 to just $80 for an insane 77% drop in price.

While clearance sales are not rare, finding a current-generation GPU for just 23% of its retail price is an extreme outlier that has caught the attention of the PC hardware community. The specific model in question is the MSI Ventus 2x, which currently retails between $349 and $419, depending on the store at the time of writing.

While the 8GB variant of the RTX 5060 Ti has faced its fair share of criticism for its limited framebuffer in 2026, a deal this aggressive is hard to ignore. For the Redditor in question, the jump is particularly significant; they are upgrading from the Pascal-based GTX 1060 6GB. For the price of a modern AAA title, this user is gaining roughly 3x more performance and a significantly more efficient architecture. This jump also unlocks new features like DLSS, Frame Generation, and Ray Tracing.