Latest News - Page 177

We're continuing our TweakTown newsletter subscriber-exclusive giveaways, rewarding loyal readers with top-tier gear every week. This time, we've partnered with the team at be quiet! to deliver a powerhouse cooling package built for performance and silence. We're calling it the be quiet! Cooling Bundle - the ultimate setup for PC builders who want quiet efficiency without compromise. One lucky winner will receive the full bundle, as listed below, worth over $300.

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We feature a new prize every week, so there's always something exciting coming up.

After an extensive period of design, calibration, testing, optimization, and quality control, Thermal Grizzly is finally ready to debut its very first GPU Water Block. And when you take a closer look at its design, features, and construction, it not only lives up to the company's reputation of delivering outstanding cooling performance, but it might just be the RTX 5090 GPU Water Block to get.

Thermal Grizzly is a name that PC builders have trusted for over a decade, and for many is the go-to brand for thermal paste, pads, and cooling accessories. This year, the company is expanding into the world of custom liquid cooling with its very first DeltaMate GPU Water Block, designed and optimized for ASUS's flagship ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090. It also introduces the company's new GPU Guard, a foam gasket that surrounds the GPU die to protect it when liquid metal is used.

The GeForce RTX 5090 is the most powerful gaming and enthusiast-class GPU on the market, a card designed for 4K gaming at 200 FPS or higher, with cutting-edge, cinematic, ray-traced visuals. Built for those putting together an absolute beast of a water-cooled gaming rig, the DeltaMate GPU Water Block for the ROG Astral RTX 5090 is not only sleek and stylish, but it's built to deliver unmatched performance, cooling, and unlock the full potential of PC gaming's most powerful graphics card.

Intel could be partnering up with Tesla in the near future to make a chip for the carmaker on its new Intel 18A process node according to whispers and rumors online.

In a new post on X from Wccftech reporter @MuhammadZuhair Intel has already disclosed some details that they're moving into the custom silicon business, and since Elon loves partners right along his "area of business", all signs point to Intel.

After a large $16.5 billion deal for Samsung to fab its new Tesla AI6 chips at its new semiconductor plant in Texas, this news could be even bigger for both companies, but more so Intel. Zuhair said: "I won't speculate much and can't disclose many details, but an $INTC and $TSLA partnership on the 18A node isn't a far-fetched guess. Intel has already disclosed that they are tapping into the custom silicon business, and since Elon loves having partners right alongside his 'area of business', Intel could be a key partner".

Apple unveiled its new iPhone 17 smartphones last week powered by its new A19 Pro and A19 processors, fabbed at TSMC on its new 3nm process node, and now we have some comparisons between the A19 Pro and A19 chips. Check it out:

We don't yet know how many transistors are in the new A19 series processors, but we know their codenames are "Thera" and "Tilos" with both the A19 Pro and A19 featuring the same 6-core CPU with identical clock speeds (2 x 4.26GHz + 4 x 2.60GHz). The L2 shared cache amount is different, with the A19 Pro featuring Big 16MB + Small 6MB while the A19 sports Big 8MB and Small 4MB.

The GPU count on the A19 Pro is at 96 EUs (Execution Units) while the A19 has 80 EUs, while GPU ALUs on the A19 Pro sit at 768 ALUs while the A19 has 640 ALUs. Apple's new A19 Pro chip has 6 GPU clusters while the non-Pro variant has 5 GPU clusters.

Qualcomm is all systems go to unveil its next-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile processor next week, with the company outing it a little early, and explaining why it's changed the name of its upcoming SoC.

The company admits that it might look like it's skipped a few generations, but Qualcomm says the truth is simpler -- and more powerful -- as the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 marks the fifth generation of its premium 8-series platforms since Qualcomm shifted to its single-digit naming and visual identity years ago. Qualcomm adds "think of it like this: Gen 5 isn't just a number. It's a signal that this platform leads the family forward".

Qualcomm launched its Snapdragon 8 Elite last year, with the expected release of the next-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2, but the shift directly into the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will definitely have users' heads spinning. Qualcomm can't quite nail down where they are with their naming scheme, which is why they've had to pre-announce the new naming before announcing the chip itself.

AMD is now promoting that its high-end Ryzen 9000X3D processors, including the 9950X3D and 9800X3D when paired with a high-end GPU, can play popular esports games at over 1000FPS.

At a recent media event in China, AMD talked about being able to reach the very lofty heights of 1000FPS+ gaming in a bunch of esports games including Counter-Strike 2, Valorant, League of Legends, PUBG, and Naraka: Bladepoint using its Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 7 9800X3D processors.

AMD says that it's not just the desktop Ryzen 9000X3D series CPUs that can reach 1000FPS+ in these games, but its Ryzen 9 9955HX3D laptop processor, which I reviewed recently inside of the MSI Raider A18 HX A9W gaming laptop.

The new COLORFUL Rimbook S1 is the latest addition to the company's lineup of portable and lightweight laptops. With a launch MSRP of $439 USD, it's an affordable notebook to take, well, note of. Described as an everyday laptop for students, home users, and professionals, the Rimbook S1 has been designed to strike a balance between performance and efficiency while maintaining its attractive price.

The COLORFUL Rimbook S1 is a 14-inch laptop that sports a lightweight 1.48kg build, a 16:10 1920x1200 60 Hz display, and is powered by an Intel Core i5-13420H processor. It also ships with 16GB of DDR4 memory, a 512GB SSD, and an expandable M.2 slot, as well as multiple ports including USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, and audio. Naturally, there's also Wi-Fi 6; however, the specs don't seem to mention Bluetooth support.

However, there is one feature that we'd love to see become standard in the laptop space - a physical on and off button for the camera and microphone. Battery-wise, the COLORFUL Rimbook S1 also features a 60Wh battery with 65W fast charging, enabling all-day use.

NVIDIA could very well be the first customer for TSMC's most advanced, next-generation A16 process node in 2026, as it "feels heat from AMD" which is using TSMC's newest nodes for its dominant CPUs coming to market.

In a new report from Taiwanese media outlet Ctee picked up by @DanNystedt on X, we're hearing that NVIDIA could be the first customer for TSMC's next-gen A16 process node in 2H 2026. Most of the new 2nm chips coming off the production lines at TSMC will be for smartphones -- mostly Apple and MediaTek -- but AMD will have the first 2nm AI chip, which has prompted NVIDIA to consider the A16 node with backside power delivery (BSPD).

If NVIDIA does indeed use TSMC's new A16 node, it would be the first time that an AI chip was first to use the very latest TSMC process technology, knocking off smartphones from that claim.

Chalk this one up as a fan project that Nintendo is probably not a fan of. Super Mario Bros. Remastered for PC takes the iconic 1985 game and gives it a visual makeover that retains the look and feel of the NES classic, while adding widescreen support, subtle parallax scrolling and 3D effects to objects and characters, alongside expanding the cast of playable characters and including content from the Game Boy Color Super Mario Bros. Deluxe port from 1999.

It resides in that "remastered" grey area, where it requires a copy/backup of the original game to function, similar to how the recent native PC ports of classic Nintendo 64 games function. There are elements like art and music taken from the game backups, allowing the code and executables to be distributed without infringing on copyright.

At least that's the idea, as Nintendo is notorious for quickly shutting down any fan or emulation project that deals with its classic games and hardware. One of the coolest features of Super Mario Bros. Remastered is that it includes the ability to add custom characters, animations, and sprites, alongside a level editor reminiscent of Nintendo's Super Mario Maker series.

The new Commodore 64 Ultimate is a legitimate modern version of the classic computer, and the first release since enthusiasts and retro PC hardware aficionados acquired the iconic company. With production underway on the "first official Commodore 64 in over 30 years" and shipping expected to commence in November 2025, the Commodore 64 Ultimate is also set to arrive in a couple of stylish options.

On the high end, there's the Gold Founders Edition priced at $499.99 USD, inspired by the one millionth C64 gold PC that was created back in the day. For the Commodore 64 Ultimate, this includes 24k gold-plated badges, satin gold-colored keys, a translucent amber case, and a few additional goodies, such as a 24k gold 'dog tag' necklace.

On the more wallet-friendly side, there's the translucent Starlight Edition, priced at $349.99 USD, which includes a "game sound-reactive hidden-LED color-changing case" alongside the "world's first translucent mechanical keyboard PCB." For the purists, there's also a standard, old-school beige edition available for $299.99 USD.

"We've got first working samples of future MSI 50x0 graphics cards with unlocked extended voltage control and currently testing new beta with it," writes MSI Afterburner developer Unwinder over on the Guru3D forums. According to the developer, Afterburner is adding "triple channel voltage control and monitoring" for future MSI graphics cards.

If you're wondering what triple channel voltage control refers to, well, Unwinder explains that it includes "core voltage control (direct PWM access mode with +-100mV range instead of default NVIDIA's GPU boost voltage control on reference design cards, which is allowing you to get just 0 to ~20mV (0 to 100%) overvoltage range)" alongside memory voltage control and auxiliary (MSVDD) voltage control."

Now, Unwinder notes that this level of control won't work with the current GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 reference designs, as that access is locked and unavailable. In a nutshell, it means MSI is prepping to launch new flagship GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 graphics cards, which could be 'Special Edition' LIGHTNING GPUs we saw back at CES 2025.

GIGABYTE has announced the new AORUS RTX 5060 Ti AI BOX (via VideoCardz), an external GPU solution for laptop users designed to offer extra power for "gaming, creating, and AI." It's an interesting solution because it features a desktop-class GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB graphics card, with its Thunderbolt 5 and USB4 interface offering performance that is within 5% of a desktop PC with an on-board RTX 5060 Ti.

The performance difference primarily stems from the interface, with the desktop GPU supporting a PCIe 5.0 x8 connection when paired with a standard motherboard, versus the PCIe 4.0 x4 interface of Thunderbolt 5. The AORUS RTX 5060 Ti AI BOX has been designed as a plug-and-play device, featuring three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports for additional peripherals.

As a GIGABYTE and AORUS device, it features the company's WINDFORCE cooling system to keep the RTX 5060 Ti cool during use, alongside some RGB lighting effects on its sleek, tower-style form factor. As most all-in-one eGPUs currently include laptop-class graphics, if the price is right, the AORUS RTX 5060 Ti AI BOX could prove to be a popular option.

NVIDIA's orders for its beefed-up Blackwell Ultra GB300 AI servers are so big that they're "unimaginable" according to the head of Quanta Computer's AI server business.

In a new tweet from @DanNystedt on X on a story from UDN, we're learning that Quanta Computer's AI server business boss, Mike Yang, said GB300 AI server orders are mammoth, and that AI server shipments will peak in Q4 2025, while Q3 remains a transition period between new old (GB200) and new (GB300) AI products.

Yang said: "the current orders are unimaginable" in a UDN report. In response to the strong AI server demand, Quanta is looking to the United States, Thailand, Mexico, and other places to expand production capacity, as well as recruit a "large number of talents to alleviate the long-term shortage of talents".

SK hynix has confirmed it has successfully completed the development and finished preparation of its next-gen HBM4 memory, ready for ultra-high-performance AI, and will enter mass production for the world's first time.

The South Korean firm has said that it's successfully completed development and based on this technological achievement, SK hynix has prepared HBM4 mass production to "lead the AI era". We will see SK hynix HBM4 memory inside of next-gen AI chips like NVIDIA's upcoming Rubin AI GPUs in 2026.

Joohwan Cho, Head of HBM Development at SK hynix, who has led the development, said: "Completion of HBM4 development will be a new milestone for the industry. By supplying the product that meets customer needs in performance, power efficiency and reliability in a timely manner, the company will fulfill time to market and maintain competitive position".

NVIDIA introduced its new Rubin CPX processor at the recent AI Technology Conference recently, with the new CPU being part of the next-gen Vera Rubin NVL144 CPX system... and rumor has it this could be the foundation for its next-gen flagship GeForce RTX 6090 graphics card.

YouTuber "High Yield" is known for die shot analysis, where in a new post on X he noticed that Rubin CPX looks to pack raster units, display engines, and a full set of ROPs... these are components that aren't required for total AI workloads, but are the essential parts of a regular graphics card for rendering. This led him to ponder if Rubin CPX could be the foundation of the next-gen GeForce RTX 6090.

The published die render of Rubin CPX sees it possibly featuring 16 Graphics Processing Clusters that would each have 6 x TPCs (Texture Processing Clusters) for a total of 192 SMs, which is the same amount of SMs as the Blackwell GB202 GPU inside of the RTX 5090. Assuming that the final gaming variant of the GPU has the same configuration as Blackwell (8 x TPCs) that would mean we're looking at 256 Streaming Multiprocessors.

The Xbox Series S posed a unique challenge for Battlefield 6's dev team, but DICE was eventually able to get the game running at a smooth 60FPS on the lower-end system.

The Xbox Series S is a budget digital-only system with some big drawbacks: its GPU is 60% weaker than the Xbox Series X, and it only has 10GB of RAM, which has become a major sticking point for developers. Multiple game dev teams have discussed how the Series S has been problematic in various ways; Remedy said that having less memory is a 'pretty big problem,' Larian had to delay Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox because of the Series S, and more recently Dune Awakening dev Funcom spoke out about the system.

Now DICE is the latest game developer to acknowledge the Series S' lower-end power profile. In a recent interview with Kotaku, Battlefield 6 technical director Christian Buhl said that getting the game to run on the Series S was a challenge.

In its latest annual Corporate Report filing, Sony has made a commitment to continue making prestige singleplayer games for the PlayStation ecosystem.

Sony has no plans to shrug off singleplayer games any time soon, especially now that its live service ambitions have been rattled by the fickle market. A new strategy filing outlines Sony's upcoming plans for PlayStation and its various divisions, and "highly narrative-driven singleplayer games" are listed as growth opportunities for the business.

What's interesting is the distinction between how Sony will use singleplayer games versus live service games. The former is more focused on expanding the user base through must-have games, but this isn't just about consoles--remember that Sony sells games on PC now too, so PC users are included in the PlayStation ecosystem. Sony wants gamers to buy PS5 consoles to play PS5 games, but they also want to sell those same games to PC players later on.

Squadron 42 won't be at this year's digital CitizenCon event, and there's a possibility that the campaign may not meet its intended 2026 launch.

Star Citizen's standalone singleplayer campaign Squadron 42 might get delayed again. In a new 3-hour Star Citizen Live update, content director Jared Huckaby sat down with chief technology officer Benoît Beauséjour to discuss the game. Squadron 42 was briefly mentioned, with the developers saying that the campaign's absence from CitizenCon will allow the teams to focus on making the game rather than preparing trailers and promotional materials.

In the stream, Benoit clarifies that there are actually two separate teams working on both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 in parallel, and Huckaby offhand mentions that he's "not sure" if the studio will meet the 2026 release target for S42.

Original Fallout creator Tim Cain shares more thoughts about modern day games in the series, discussing what he'd do differently while praising Bethesda's business decision to open up the franchise to more widespread players.

With their punishing features and unclear game mechanics, classic Fallout games aren't always the most fun to play. Getting into these older cRPGs can be a chore, but Bethesda changed all that with Fallout 3, bringing the franchise into 3D with mass-market appeal. Offering Fallout to a casual audience is a big reason why the franchise has delivered multiple platinum best-sellers.

Bethesda's Fallout games are criticized for their "casualized" features--e.g. Fallout 4 doesn't even have skills--but even the original creators say that the studio is doing something right. In a recent interview with YouTube channel The Evil Eye, Fallout 1 creator Tim Cain gave Bethesda credit for their business acumen.

Sony will release a new upgraded version of its in-house PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaling tech in 2026, and while it's based on AMD's FSR 4, Sony clarifies that the update won't bring direct FSR 4 support to the console.

Previous reports indicated that AMD's new FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 would be coming to the PS5 Pro, bringing higher quality upscaling to the system. This isn't quite right, though; the PS5 Pro uses Sony's purpose-built PSSR upscaling tech, not a dedicated version of FSR 4. While it's true that the PS5 Pro's PSSR is built off of and derived from AMD's FSR 4, Sony uses its own specialized version that's trained on console-based games and content.

Sony set the record straight, reminding WCCFTech that the PS5 Pro won't be getting dedicated AMD FSR 4 compatibility.