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The only other word I heard more than "AI" at CES 2026 was "DRAM" and the on-going crisis, but now it could get worse with reports that NVIDIA's next-gen Vera Rubin AI systems will eat up MILLIONS of terabytes of SSD capacity in the years to come.

That's just Vera Rubin let alone Rubin Ultra, let alone NVIDIA's next-gen Feynman GPU architecture after that... but in a new X post by @Jukan, we're hearing from a Citi analysis of the subject.

Citi explained: "We estimate that approximately 1,152TB of additional SSD NAND will be required per Vera Rubin server system to support NVIDIA's ICMS operations. Accordingly, assuming Vera Rubin server shipments of 30,000 units in 2026 and 100,000 units in 2027, NAND demand driven by ICMS is projected to reach 34.6 million TB in 2026 and 115.2 million TB in 2027".

Intel launched its new Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" CPUs at CES 2026 last week, and it looks like the new Panther Lake-powered gaming handhelds should offer performance close to what we'll see out of Sony's next-gen PlayStation 6 handheld.

In a new post on X by leaker @Kepler_L2 who posted: "PTL handhelds might be a great ballpark estimate for how PS6 Handheld will perform/how PS5 games can be scaled down to very low TDP. Z2E is too slow and Strix Halo is too fast, but PTL @ 30W should be very similar to Canis @ 15W".

Panther Lake has a fantastic integrated GPU in the form of the Arc B390 with 12 Xe3 GPU cores that provides some great performance, a good chunk of CPU cores, and the NPU. In its handheld SKU form, we should expect Intel to cut the fat (NPU) and keep the gold (CPU + GPU) and then it can be fully unleashed for next-gen gaming handhelds.

If you want a new benchmark to bring your expensive GeForce RTX 5090 to its knees, then check out Radiance, a new Raymarching benchmark that even at 1080p, the RTX 5090 can only spit out 2-3FPS.

The new Radiance benchmark was built by former Tom's Hardware and Thresh's FiringSquad writer, Alan Dong, with Radiance using the DX12 API and analyzing FP32 compute performance from your GPU by running a "raymarched" version of breakout. You can download Radiance: A Raymarching Benchmark right here.

The benchmark solely relies on raymarched geometry, with no texture maps, no shortcuts, no pre-baked illumination, this is all pure mathematics that your GPU needs to crunch. There are a few resolutions to choose from: 480p, 720p, 1080p, 1440p, and 4K with varying levels of debris count: no debris, 80 debris, 160 debris, 320 debris, and finally, 640 debris.

If you're fed up hearing about price hikes for PC components - and at this point, who isn't? - here's some more bad news, sadly, about PSUs and processor coolers.

VideoCardz reports that a major tech distributor in China has sent a letter to partners indicating that the prices of power supplies and CPU coolers are going to rise by an appreciable amount soon (from February 2026).

The distribution firm in question is Guangzhou Xinhongzheng Electronic Tech Company, and VideoCardz has got hold of a letter that details anticipated price increases for these components.

Baldur's Gate 3 would have come to the Nintendo Switch 2 if it was up to Larian Studios, but that much-wanted port will not be happening, the developer has confirmed.

You may recall that rumors were swirling late last year about such a port for the Switch 2, and the topic came up in a Reddit 'Ask Me Anything' (AMA) session, as Gamespot noticed.

As you can see in the thread above, Larian's founder and CEO Swen Vincke chimed in to say:

CES 2026 has officially wrapped up, and after spending a week walking around the Las Vegas Convention Center, and ducking in and out of numerous casinos for private meetings with companies, I have gathered my thoughts on what we can expect out of the upcoming year in terms of new technology, road bumps, and what to get excited about.

The whole week of meetings involved being introduced to new products, but every conversation was plagued by conversations about memory pricing, which is undoubtedly going to be a hurdle consumers will be hit by in 2026. For those who don't know, DRAM pricing is skyrocketing due to AI companies gobbling up the limited supply.

As a result, DRAM has become such a sought-after component that it's causing the pricing of products that require even small amounts of DRAM to increase significantly. For example, Dell's XPS 14, the company's entry-level laptop, has increased its price from last year's model at $1,699 to $2,050 for the latest generation.

ASRock unveiled a selection of new OLED gaming monitors under its Phantom Gaming brand, and its new brand of Taichi gaming monitors, with the company now expanding its premium line of gaming products.

ASRock showcased three new OLED gaming monitors featuring QD-OLED panel technology and WOLED panel technology, and each is branded Taichi. Starting with the TCO27USA, a 27-inch QD-OLED panel that features a 4K resolution and a refresh rate of 240Hz.

The TCO27USA also features a 0.03ms (GtG) response time, 250 nits standard brightness, and a range of I/O ports, such as 2x HDMI 2.1 (48G), 2x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A, 1x USB3.2 Gen 1 Type-B, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C with DP Alt Mode PD 65W, 1x Type-A (upgrade only), 1x headphone out, and x2 3W speakers. There is also tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustment available.

GameStop is officially closing as many as 400 retail locations across the United States, as part of the company's stringent cost-saving method.

A GameStop may be closing around you, with a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing revealing the company is anticipating the closure of a significant number of stores in fiscal 2025. The same filing revealed that GameStop would pay out GameStop's CEO, Ryan Cohen, up to $35 billion in stock options if he is able to increase the company's market cap to $100 billion.

The US isn't the only place GameStop intends to make physical store closures, with plans also in place to reduce physical stores in both Canada and European countries. Since the stock spike in 2021, GameStop has really struggled to adapt to the exponentially growing digital landscape for video game purchasing, with many gamers now turning to services such as Steam, Xbox Store, and the PlayStation Store over making a trip to a local GameStop.

Elon Musk has revealed during a recent X post that X, formerly Twitter, will be receiving a new algorithm, which the social media owner said would be made open source.

Musk took to his personal X account to announce that X is receiving a new algorithm and that within seven days it will be made open source, revealing all code that is used to determine which organic and advertising posts are recommended to users. Musk wrote that it will be made open source in just 7 days.

Additionally, the Tesla CEO also wrote that every four weeks the revealing of the code will take place, and will be accompanied by detailed developer's notes that are intended to inform the public on the changes.

Malwarebytes, a very popular antivirus software company, has informed its users that it discovered a breach when it was performing a dark web check. Malwarebytes linked the breach to an Instagram API exposure that dates back to 2024.

According to reports, the discovery comes amid Instagram users reportedly receiving emails from Instagram requesting a password change. According to Malwarebytes, the leaked information, which includes email addresses, phone numbers, usernames, and more personal information, may result in more serious attacks taking place, such as phishing attempts, account takeovers, and other various scams.

Meta has yet to comment on the recent discovery, which has connected at least 17.5 million Instagram users with leaked information discovered on the dark web. It's currently unclear if the information has been sold to bad actors. In order to be completely safe, it's recommended you change your Instagram password to an encrypted password, and also turn on two-factor authentication if you haven't already.

AI companies are gobbling up all memory across the world, resulting in skyrocketing prices for memory modules for consumers. As memory supply constraints continue to grow OEMs are being forced to turn to alternative suppliers for memory, with Barron's analyst Tae Kim reporting HP is struggling to obtain supply, and is now looking to add Chinese memory suppliers to its list of component suppliers.

HP is reportedly looking to ship "limited" products into Asia and Europe. Kim also wrote that since supply is drying up from memory suppliers such as Micron, Samsung, and others, OEMs such as HP will begin to turn to Chinese memory manufacturers such CXMT, as the company's DRAM wafer output is estimated to reach up to 300,000 units per month in 2026, and while that figure is low compared to some of the other players in the market, CXMT is renowned for its DDR5 module supply, and its lack of HBM adoption.

CXMT is looking to raise $4.2 billion USD to expand production. One of the hurdles HP will need to overcome if it decides to go with a Chinese supplier such as CXMT is US regulations on sourcing semiconductors from China. Given the current situation of memory supply and the insatiable demand for more memory, it's likely new regulations are going to be put into place around seeking supply from Chinese memory makers. HP is reportedly acquiring supply from a Chinese memory maker to ship a "limited" range of products in Asia and Europe.

Valve revealed the Steam Machine in November last year, with the announcement stating the new device was to arrive sometime in 2026.

One of the biggest points of the Steam Machine's unveiling video and following interviews Valve conducted with the press was affordability and ease of use. Valve hasn't officially said how much the Steam Machine will be, and since the unveiling speculation has been all over the place with some hoping for approximately $500, and others warning that it will be a $1,000+ PC/console.

The latest leaks come from Czech retailer Smarty.cz, which lists the 512GB Steam Machine model for about $950 and the 2TB model for $1,070. It should be noted these prices are estimations, and were conversions, which means US buyers from local retailers may not have to incur some taxes or trade tariffs.

Patriot Memory showcased its product stacks at CES 2026, with an interesting little storage hub that fits in your hand, but can output a display from your phone, act as storage, and even charge all in the same fits-in-your-palm size. Check it out:

The Patriot MD330 Storage Hub is an industry-first design that combines 4K display output over HDMI, USB-C PC 3.0 fast-charging, and built-in storage into a small compact device. Providing users with Projection + Storage + Power, the MD330 provides up to 100W of USB-C power delivery, up to 1TB of on-board storage, and the ability to output to a monitor or TV using HDMI.

Patriot had an Android smartphone in their suite, with the MD330 storage hub plugged in, playing PUBG but using a monitor as their display, and not the actual display on the smartphone. It's pretty wild, as the MD330 is also up to 1TB of storage on-the-go.

Thunderobot had its new MIX GAMING 2 Mini-PC on display at CES 2026 this year, with enough power to easily run 4K @ 120FPS gaming.

The MIX GAMING 2 system is thin-and-tall, looking quite unique standing up and solid on its stand, but inside you can configure it with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, and up to an ultra-fast NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU with 24GB of GDDR7 memory.

Thunderbolt allows for up to 230W of power to flow into the system, with the CPU allowed to use 120W on its own, and up to 175W on the GPU. Thunderobot uses an in-house "Night Owl" thermal system, with the internal layout integrated into one huge heatsink, fin stack, and dual fans that keep the 275HX and RTX 5090 cool.

Microsoft recently officially confirmed it will be hosting the Xbox Developer Direct 2026 on January 22 at 10 AM PT, where the company will showcase three titles.

However, Shinobi602, a prominent leaker with a healthy track record for predicting reveals, said in a post on the ResetEra board that Microsoft has a surprise reveal, a "secret fourth game". Shinobi602 was asked what the game is and the leaker said they aren't too excited about the title as it doesn't match their personal taste. Other than that, no information was given on the secret fourth game.

So far three games have been confirmed for the Xbox Developer Direct 2026, Forza Horizon 6 from Playground Games, which is certainly one to keep your eyes on after the developers said the open-world experience within Japan will "blow fans" away. Next is Fable, which Playground Games has been working on for seven years. Fable was originally meant to release in 2025, but was delayed to a 2026 release window, and some insiders have even said it could possibly slip into a 2027 release window.

DDR5 memory prices have gotten so out of control that a 256GB DDR5 memory module in China costs $5700, and that just 100 modules would buy you a housing unit in Shanghai.

The South China Morning Post reports that China's secondary semiconductor market is seeing a "sharp run-up" in memory chip prices as global supply tightens, with vendors saying that the rally has an interesting hurdle ahead: the prices are much higher, but consumers are disappearing.

Cai Zhaojie, a merchant who sells electronic components at Huaqiangbei, told SCMP: "We're looking at high asking prices, but no buyers". Merchants at Huaqiangbei reported huge increases in memory chips since late 2025, with DDR5 being one of the most in-demand items.

NVIDIA's next-gen RTX 6000 graphics cards could be out in the second half of 2027 according to a new rumor.

This comes from Kopite7kimi on X, one of the more reliable hardware leakers with GPUs, as flagged by Notebookcheck.net (via TechRadar), who posted a very brief theorized release date: 2027H2.

So, we could see the RTX 6090 muscling onto the discrete GPU market in a year and a half, or a bit longer, which isn't that far away now.

Rockstar Games has confirmed in court proceedings that Grand Theft Auto 6 has leaked to the public three times, resulting in three separate instances of employees being let go from the developer.

Rockstar cited its zero tolerance policy it has in place against leaks, and pointed to three instances where suspected individuals were let go from the company over leaks. Notably, Rockstar wrote that it "dismissed a Rockstar employee in Lincoln, UK in April 2025, who it alleged disclosed confidential information about GTA 6 to a third party who published the information to social media."

Additionally, Rockstar pointed to one dismissed employee in the US in November 2023, and another in India in November 2025. The last instance was dismissed for two separate acts of information leaking. The confirmation from Rockstar about a UK employee being fired in April 2025 lines up with a leak from X user GameRoll, which listed a bunch of information in a lengthy X post about the game's use of weight mechanics, "relationship bar," different gameplay options between male and female characters, dual protagonist option, details about characters, and more.

At CES 2026, AMD formally announced the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D CPU for PC gamers, pushing the clock speed up to 5.6 GHz, a notable increase over the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's 5.2 GHz. Naturally, it also features AMD's 3D V-Cache technology, which has proven to be highly effective at boosting gaming performance.

During our time with AMD at CES, we got a closer look at the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, literally, as we saw a delidded version of what looks to be a retail-ready sample of the CPU. Per our image above, you can also see the single CCD below the central I/O die.

As for the underlying hardware, it features 8 Zen 5 cores with 104 MB of cache. The TDP rating remains the same as the baseline Radeon 7 9800X3D model at 120W. Based on the company's internal benchmarks, the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is about 27% faster at 1080p gaming than the Intel Core Ultra 285K.

Thunderobot was something I sought out in the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center at CES 2026 today, finding the company's new ZERO Air gaming laptop powered by Intel's new Panther Lake CPU, and a super thin-and-light design.

The new Thunderobot ZERO Air gaming laptop is the next form of next-gen lightweight gaming laptops, with its new super thin-and-light design thanks to Intel's new Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" CPU made in-house on its new Intel 18A process node, and the use of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Laptop series GPUs, which are powerful, yet don't chew down a ton of power.

Thunderobot's new ZERO Air gaming laptop and its new Panther Lake CPU enjoys a 50% leap in multi-core performance over its predecessor, and 30% less power usage. The new ZERO Air features the Intel Core Ultra 9 386H with 16 cores and 16 threads at up to 4.9GHz.