Latest News - Page 168

NVIDIA is reportedly planning on adjusting the production capacity for GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs in the first half of 2026.

The information has come from Board Channels and backed up by Benchlife, which reported the supply for the GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs may be cut by 30 to 40% compared to what it was in the first half of 2025. According to the report, the reason for the production change by NVIDIA isn't just GPU VRAM, but also memory used in the DIY channel, including motherboard-related memory.

Benchlife backed up the rumor by writing it has been informed by several AIC partners and component suppliers that NVIDIA will first adjust the supply of the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GDDR7. It should be noted the Board Channels report states the information isn't confirmed, and that it's rumored.

Financial documents spotted by an X user have revealed that Dambuster Studios is currently working on Dead Island 3, and when it expects it will be released.

According to the documents, the title is currently in "early production," which includes its design, character design, world design, and narrative. As for when it's expected to release, the financial documents state the studio expects to have everything wrapped up by Q1/2 2028, which, if everything stays on track, will mean Dead Island 3 will release five years after the last title in the franchise.

The documents state that Dambuster's primary focus is currently Dead Island 3, and that all developers are assigned to the project. Additionally, once the Luna and Mac versions of Dead Island 2 are complete, the Dambuster QA team will be moving to Dead Island 3 to begin testing. Other than that, there isn't much more information about Dead Island 3 within the documents, but this information does come after Dead Island 3 was teased earlier this year via a Steam post.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's Season 01 has kicked off, and it's being described as the biggest Black Ops season ever. And it's not hard to see why, as it includes nine maps, including remasters like Nuketown 2025, Standoff, and Meltdown, as well as newcomers like Fate and Utopia. Season 01 also introduces a slew of new game modes, new Zombies maps and modes, as well as Warzone's Black Ops 7 integration that introduces the New Haven's Hollow map.

And with AMD lifting the lid last week on its AMD FSR overhaul that formally introduces the company's new FSR 'Redstone' technologies for RDNA 4 owners, Black Ops 7 Season 01 also brings three out of four of these new AI-powered bits of tech to the game. This means Radeon RX 9000 Series owners can now enable AI or machine learning-powered upscaling, frame generation, and ray regeneration in the game.

FSR Upscaling (ML), formerly known as FSR 4, is AMD's latest and greatest version of its Super Resolution technology, delivering crisp, detailed visuals at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. Exclusive to RDNA 4 GPUs, such as the Radeon RX 9070 XT, it finally offers a viable alternative to NVIDIA DLSS as FSR Upscaling (ML) presents a dramatic improvement to image quality when compared to FSR 3.

Colorful has launched new GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards specifically for Mini-ITX builds and compact rigs. The new Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 50 Series Mini lineup includes three models: an iGame GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Mini OC 8GB, an iGame GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Mini OC 16GB, and an iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Mini OC 12GB.

All three sport the same compact dimensions of 180 x 123 x 39.8mm, making the GeForce RTX 5070 variant one of the smallest we've seen to date, especially for an OC model with a Boost Clock of 2557 MHz, a small but notable bump from the 2512 MHz reference spec. And with a GPU length of only 180mm, all three models feature a cooling solution with a single 95mm fan.

Both GeForce RTX 5060 Ti variants are also OC models, sporting a Boost Clock speed of 2632 MHz, which is a notable increase over the 2572 MHz reference spec. The all-black design of Colorful's new Mini range of GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards also includes minor RGB lighting on the side and a reinforced metal backplate.

ChatGPT users will soon be able to make Apple Music playlists within the app by simply asking ChatGPT to do it for them, as OpenAI's CEO of applications revealed in a recent Substack post that Apple Music has joined the list of upcoming partners that will integrate into ChatGPT.

OpenAI unveiled in October that apps are coming to ChatGPT, which opens the door for many popular apps to integrate directly into the service and enable ChatGPT users to take advantage of the interoperability. For example, Spotify, Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Figma, Expedia, and Zillow are all coming to ChatGPT as first-round partnerships, with even more popular apps being on the horizon as well.

According to Fidji Simo, OpenAI's CEO of applications, Adobe Airtable, Apple Music, Clay, Lovable, OpenTable, Replit, and Salesforce are also joining the list. So, how will Apple Music work within ChatGPT? Presumably, it will be very similar or even identical to how Spotify already works within the app.

Warner Bros Discovery will be informing shareholders to reject the offer made by Paramount Skydance, which is more than the $72 billion deal that Warner Bros struck with Netflix.

Reports indicate that despite Paramount's $108.4 offer, Warner Bros will be telling its shareholders to reject the offer and go with Netflix, as Warner has multiple concerns with Paramount's bid, including how it would be financed, according to a report from the Financial Times.

For those who don't know, Warner Bros Discovery put itself up for sale in October, which garnered many expressions of interest, including a bid from Paramount. However, on December 5, Warner Bros Discovery announced it had agreed to sell its film and streaming businesses to Netflix, which prompted a new offer from Paramount for the whole company and its television networks.

Steam Replay 2025 is here, which is Valve's annual wrap-up, so you can get a detailed breakdown on all of the games you've played this year. All you need to do is head to the Steam Replay 2025 page, and you'll be presented with a personalized breakdown of your 2025 PC gaming habits alongside how your stats compare to the rest of the community and a very cool calendar view of your 2025 PC gaming journey.

From the number of games played through to the achievements you've unlocked, you'll also get some interesting insights. For example, according to the Steam Replay 2025, PC gamers spend, on average, 40% of their playtime playing games released 8 or more years ago. Which, surprisingly, makes sense when you realize that popular titles like DOTA 2 and PUBG: Battlegrounds fall into this category.

And when you add in that 44% of all Steam users' playtime was spent playing games that were 1 - 7 years old in 2025, that only leaves 14% of all playtime on Steam spent playing new PC games released in 2025.

LG previously announced it would integrate Microsoft Copilot into its webOS platform for its TV lineup. Still, there hasn't been any indication of when this might happen. However, if, like us, you've got one of LG's impressive OLED TVs, you might have noticed that Microsoft Copilot has been added to the app lineup as part of a recent webOS update that rolled out globally last week.

As spotted by 'defjam16' on the aptly-titled 'mildlyinfuriating' thread on Reddit, a Microsoft Copilot app is not only automatically installed as part of the latest webOS update, but it can't be removed. This is something we've verified, but we've also noticed that the Copilot app simply opens a browser interface so you can interact with the AI assistant.

Naturally, a new app you can't remove (and a Microsoft AI one at that) has been met with backlash from several LG TV owners, who wonder why Copilot is showing up next to the apps they actually use, like Netflix and YouTube.

Samsung Foundry is reportedly close to securing a deal to fab Intel 8nm PCH chips, which would be another important semiconductor contract win for the South Korean giant.

In a new report from Korean media outlet Hankyung picked up by analyst @Jukan on X, we're hearing that Samsung Foundry is "on the verge" of securing an order for Intel's 8nm chips (PCH or Platform Controller Hub). Full-scale production is expected to kick off next year, with the PCH being a semiconductor that supports the CPU by handling functions like information input/output and device controls inside of computers including PCs and servers.

Intel has reportedly migrated (scaled down) the PCH -- previously fabbed at Samsung's 14nm foundry lines in Austin, Texas -- to an 8nm process, deciding to trust Samsung with semiconductor production again. Samsung Foundry's 8nm production line located in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, so PCH production would take place on South Korean soil once again.

We knew it was coming, but no one knows how much and how bad it'll be... but Japanese gamers have noticed that the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti has gone up in price by $100 this week alone.

Most people are worried about the out-of-control DRAM shortage skyrocketing DDR5 memory prices, but the DRAM shortage also hurts anything with DRAM chips -- GDDR6 and GDDR7 memory included -- with multiple sources noticing it impacting the price of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 graphics cards in Japan.

Gazlog reports that the RTX 5070 series is sharply rising in price across Japan, where it normally sells below MSRP. NVIDIA launched the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti at 148,800 Yen, but started selling for 126,000 Yen after a couple of months on the market. However, at 126,000 Yen, it makes the RTX 5070 Ti more expensive compared to the MSRP in the US. The RTX 5070 dropped to 82,000 Yen after its launch, after hitting the market in Japan for 108,000 Yen.

It's like every day is a "here we go again" day... and today we're reporting on the fact that out-of-control DRAM prices are forcing smartphone makers to re-think their 2026 plans, as the bill of materials (BOM) could increase by 25% according to the latest reports.

It was barely 24 hours ago that I reported that the return of 4GB of RAM in smartphones will be upon us in 2026, as well as the return of microSD expansion in upcoming smartphones, but with the BoM (Bill of Materials) rising 25%, then it just underscores that fact.

In a new report from Counterpoint Research, low-end, mid-range, and high-end smartphone BoM costs will be increasing 25%, 15% and 10%, respectively. It looks like Chinese OEMs will be hurt the most, with Apple and Samsung faring a little better.

I didn't think we'd be at the point of DDR5 RAM scams, but here we are: someone purchased an ADATA XPG DDR5 memory kit from Amazon, sealed... but inside, they were counterfeit DDR2 memory sticks.

The folks over at VideoCardz had a reader tell them they purchased the last 4 units of ADATA XPG Caster 32GB DDR5-6400 CL40 memory from Amazon Spain, with three of the kits arriving first and then the fourth a few days later. The tracking on the shipment showed they were coming from Ireland, with one of the kits resold, and another installed and working normally.

However, things changed when the user opened up the third kit, with the box still wrapped in plastic and looking like a regular DDR5 memory kit from the outside. However, inside of the package were older DDR and DDR2 memory modules with counterfeit stickers that resembled a DDR5 heatsink label, as well as a metal plate that was most likely placed there to fake the expected weight of the package.

GIGABYTE has officially released its AORUS RTX 5060 Ti AI BOX featuring a fast Thunderbolt 5 port, and desktop RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GPU inside.

The main feature with the new AORUS RTX 5060 Ti AI BOX is the Thunderbolt 5 port, with GIGABYTE including support for Thunderbolt 5 daisy chaining, with the same cable used for charging with USB PD 3.0 rated for up to 100W to the connected laptop.

GIGABYTE is marketing the AORUS RTX 5060 Ti AI BOX as more than just an external GPU enclosure, with the Thunderbolt 5 port joined by 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports as well as Ethernet.

Thunderobot will unveil its new flagship ZERO Air gaming laptop at CES 2026 in just over two weeks' time, powered by Intel's next-gen Core Ultra 300 series "Panther Lake" CPU.

In a new teaser video posted this week, Thunderobot's 2026 flagship "AI gaming" laptop will feature an Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processor in its new 16-inch ZERO Air gaming laptop. The trailer teases that Thunderobot's upcoming ZERO Air will be one of the first portable devices powered by the new Panther Lake CPUs from Intel, combined with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Laptop GPUs.

Thunderobot's CES 2026 teaser describes the upcoming ZERO Air gaming laptop: "A machine? Not anymore. This is the awakening of a new era in gaming AI". Personally, I'm absolutely not a fan of putting "AI" on anything near gaming, but CES 2026 is going to be absolutely full of it... Thunderobot won't be the only ones, they'll be one of many with "something AI".

Samsung has denied the recent rumors that it was planning to phase out its SATA SSDs, which hopefully makes consumers feel a little bit better in this topsy-turvy world of skyrocketing RAM and SSD prices.

In an exclusive statement with our friends over at Wccftech, a Samsung representative said: "the rumor regarding the phasing out of Samsung SATA or other SSDs is false".

As one of the largest NAND producers on the planet, it makes Samsung one of the biggest SSD supply chain champions, so the rumors that it was halting its SATA SSD production had some people very concerned, and rightfully so.

Sitting down with Hardware Unboxed in a new long-form video interview, Sapphire's PR Manager, Edward Crisler, talked about a wide range of topics related to graphics cards. Sapphire, after all, is one of AMD's key AIB partners for Radeon GPUs, and one of the key components of a modern graphics card is VRAM. And amid the current memory and DRAM crisis, we've already heard that GPU prices for Radeon cards are set to increase further throughout 2026.

With several industry insiders and analysts predicting that the DRAM crisis will last until 2028 and that the situation for consumer-facing tech like PCs, laptops, smartphones, and other gear like GPUs is pretty dire, Sapphire's Edward Crisler has a different take. A more optimistic one than we've been hearing of late.

First, he acknowledges that there's a "lot of uncertainty taking place in the market" right now, and that current shortages are affecting DDR5 memory kit pricing and leading to panic buying for all PC gaming hardware - GPUs included. Edward Crisler adds that this "uncertainty" will "hurt gamers for six months." After that? Well, he believes that within the next six to eight months "the market will start to stabilize."

The Fallout Season 2 premiere has been brought forward to December 16, so fans of the game and TV series will get to experience a fresh take on the franchise's iconic New Vegas location sooner than expected. And even though sitting down to watch the new season of Fallout with a bottle of Nuka Cola sounds like the perfect evening, Bethesda has partnered with Corsair, Elgato, and Drop to offer the next best thing - a bunch of new Nuka Cola-branded hardware.

The lineup includes a complete setup of gear with designs inspired by the "taste sensation that swept the Fallout nation," Nuka Cola. This means you're getting a lot of bright reds with the Nuka Cola branding and artwork seen in the game and TV series, which itself is a riff on the real-world king of cola-flavored beverages, Coke.

The collection includes award-winning hardware such as the CORSAIR HS80 RGB Wireless Gaming Headset, the Elgato Wave:3 microphone, the Drop CSTM80 Mechanical Keyboard, and more. With desk mats, microphone boom arms, and a custom Stream Deck, the whole collection would no doubt turn any gaming setup into a Nuka Cola shrine.

As far as game development and gaming are concerned, AI is well and truly here. From AI tools like DLSS and FSR used to enhance image quality and performance, to generative AI used to speed up development, ideation, art, design, and coding. Now, when it comes to the world of fake AI videos that take popular things to generate interest (or clicks), the term "AI slop" is used as a catch-all for everything.

And even though the consensus is that generative AI being used liberally for any form of entertainment, be it movies, music, or games, is bad, here's an interesting one. YouTube creator Aillusory has posted a new video titled 'The Witcher 3, but it's AI slop - Reimagined by AI.' The goal here was to capture cinematic and gameplay footage from CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3 and then use AI to remaster and "reimagine" the game with new photorealistic visuals.

And here's the thing: aside from the odd-looking (read, AI-looking) character and facial animations, the results are pretty impressive. Especially when it comes to the lighting and environment detail, with several of the game's iconic locations taking on a definite 'photorealistic' quality.

ASUS has quietly revamped the design of its Dual Series graphics cards for the GeForce RTX 5060 Series. Covering RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti models, the new 'EVO' models offer a slimmer 2.1-slot design for small-form-factor builds, alongside a simpler dual-fan look that does away with the two-tone transparent finish of earlier GeForce RTX 50 Series DUAL designs.

The new models are available in four models, covering OC and non-OC variants, and they are: the ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 5060 EVO 8GB, ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 5060 EVO OC Edition 8GB, ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 5060 Ti EVO 16GB, and ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 5060 Ti EVO OC Edition 16GB. Interestingly, these new EVO designs are skipping the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB variants, which makes sense as the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB are mostly being sold as part of pre-built systems.

Another notable design change with these new EVO graphics cards is that the single 8-pin power connector for all four models is now located on the left side of the GPU, close to the stainless steel bracket. This is an unusual choice and not something that you usually find.

Corsair's XENEON EDGE 14.5″ LCD Touchscreen is a versatile second screen with a five-point capacitive multi-touch touchscreen, 2560x720 native resolution, and a 60 Hz refresh rate. With the XENEON EDGE's USB Type-C with DisplayPort Alt Mod, full-sized HDMI port, and its ability to sit on your desk, next to your display, or in your PC case, it's no wonder the portable display sold out almost immediately when it debuted earlier this year.

In fact, the Corsair XENEON EDGE has quickly become an incredibly popular add-on thanks to its ability to serve as a second display for real-time monitoring of PC hardware like CPUs, GPUs, cooling, and storage, as well as a dedicated, compact window for communication apps or as a dedicated window for the Virtual Stream Deck. With its AHVA panel optimized for text and images, and its wide viewing angle, clarity is one of the XENEON EDGE's key features.

And now we can add multiple colorways to the list, as Corsair has announced it's releasing two new variants: Atomic Purple and White. "These finishes give PC builders, enthusiasts, and creators more ways to personalize their setups while retaining the same compact, versatile display that has become a favorite for system monitoring and customization," Corsair writes in the announcement.