Fitch has downgraded Intel's credit rating by one notch this week, assigning a negative outlook for the future of Intel, with the company now just two notches away from junk credit status.

Intel has been going through some serious trouble lately and still has a few (big) bumps in the road ahead, with Fitch noting serious competition from AMD, Broadcom, and NXP Semiconductors. Fitch analysts explained: "credit metrics remain weak and will require both stronger end markets and successful product ramps, along with net debt reduction over the next 12-14 months" in order for Intel to recover its recent ratings.

Fitch also said that while Intel has a better market position than other similarly rated peers, its financial structure is relatively weaker, facing "higher execution risk".

FMS: the Future of Memory and Storage is kicking off this week at the Santa Clara Convention Center, and KIOXIA will once again be on hand to showcase and demonstrate its latest breakthroughs and readily available solutions for scalable and efficient AI.

At FMS 2025, KIOXIA will be demonstrating its new LC9 Series, which includes the industry's first 245.76 TB NVMe SSD as part of a Dell PowerEdge 7715 system. The company will also be displaying its next-generation BiCS FLASH generation 9 and generation 10 3D Flash Memory technology, alongside its current BiCS FLASH

generation 8-powered devices.

Battlefield 6's huge beta begins on August 7 and you can get into the early access beta and earn yourself some rewards on the way, just by watching streamers play through Twitch Drops.

This means you can play the Battlefield 6 Early Access Beta two days early by just watching at least 30 minutes of Battlefield 6 streams on August 7 and 8, unlocking the Early Access Beta. So, if you missed out on getting yourself a code from the Battlefield 6 reveal event, watching 30 minutes of streams lets you get into the Battlefield 6 Early Access Beta a couple of days early.

The first open beta begins this weekend at 1AM PST on August 9, with the Battlefield 6 Open Beta running through until August 11. The second weekend takes place at 1AM PST August 14, running through until August 16.

Microsoft first introduced its controversial AI-powered Recall feature as an exclusive and key selling point for its new range of Copilot+ PCs in 2024. With an on-board NPU, Recall essentially takes screenshots of everything you do, stores all of that data in an indexable database that can then be called on with natural language as a powerful search tool that can tap into your Windows usage history.

Naturally, this brought up a whole range of security and privacy concerns, especially when it was discovered that the initial version of Recall was taking snapshots and screenshots of sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, and banking information. Microsoft then delayed the launch of Recall, retooled it for security and privacy, before launching it as an opt-in experience in late 2024.

One of the new features introduced with Microsoft's updated Recall was a "Filter sensitive information" setting enabled by default, which is designed to block sensitive information such as credit card numbers and passwords from being captured and recorded. A new investigation by The Register has discovered that even this is flawed, with Recall still capturing sensitive data.

The next-generation Xbox won't be a traditional console launch where it competes with the PlayStation 6, instead Microsoft seems to be using AMD's next-gen "Magnus" APU for a series of systems that run Xbox, but they're sold as pre-built gaming PCs.

We've had recent leaks regarding AMD's new semi-custom Magnus APU which will be for the next-generation Xbox, with a powerful Zen 6 CPU + RDNA 5 GPU inside the APU made for the next-gen Xbox. However, in leaks from Moore's Law is Dead we get a glance into the different dies that AMD is cooking up, with the AT2 and AT0 dies.

AT2 is the die used inside of the upcoming RDNA 5-powered Radeon RX 10000 series -- not confirmed yet, but placeholder names -- with the AT2 die powering the purported Radeon RX 10700 XT, RX 10700 GRE, and RX 10600 XT graphics cards.

Windows 11 is getting an accessibility feature that was previously spotted in testing, but was abandoned - a year and a half ago, in fact.

It's a useful ability whereby the position of the mouse cursor is highlighted by a large crosshair covering the whole screen, so those with low vision can see where the pointer is.

PhantomOfEarth spotted the return of this functionality with build 27913 in the Canary Channel, although it wasn't originally mentioned in Microsoft's blog post for that preview.

SK hynix has officially dethroned Samsung as the biggest memory chip supplier in the world for the first time ever, with SK hynix posting slightly higher memory sales for Q2 2025.

In a new report from Counterpoint picked up by insider @DanNystedt on X, we see that SK hynix memory chip sales reached $15.1 billion for Q2 2025, edging out Samsung and taking more of the ever-important HBM memory chip market share. SK hynix now has 62% of the HBM chip market supply, Samsung's share fell to 17% in Q2 2025, while US-based Micron holds on stronger than Samsung with 21% HBM chip supply.

SK hynix also outperformed Samsung with memory operating profit, with Counterpoint's analysis showing that the operating profits of the South Korean firms have taken divergent paths since the first half of 2024. SK hynix has formed itself into a key partner of HBM for NVIDIA, and has been recording rising operating profits since, while Samsung's operating profits have been falling as the company trips over itself in getting its HBM into the hands of AI chip makers.

MSI's new Claw A8 and Claw 8 AI+ gaming handhelds are powered by the AMD Strix Point APU and Intel Lunar Lake CPU, respectively, and have undergone some side-by-side benchmarking by Chinese content creator and reviewer Golden Pig Upgrade.

The AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU features a 3+5 configuration for the CPU -- 3 x Zen 5 and 5 x Zen 5c cores -- while the GPU side is the Radeon 890M which is powered by 16 CUs of RDNA 3.5-based GPU. On the Intel side of things, the Core Ultra 7 258V uses a 4+4 configuration of Skymont and Lion Cove cores, with Xe2-LPG graphics containing 8 Xe2 GPU cores.

Golden Pig Upgrade tested both variants of the Intel and AMD chips inside of the MSI Claw gaming handhelds spanning 10 games at 1080p, using 17W and 30W power targets.

Samsung's upcoming tri-fold smartphone is no surprise, but now the company has confirmed it will be unveiling its new tri-fold smartphone, as well as its new XR headset in October 2025.

We've had a flood of rumors regarding the tri-fold handset from Samsung which will reportedly be called the Galaxy G Fold, which will join the company's successful foldable family of smartphones that has recently seen the launch of the latest Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 smartphones.

Tri-fold smartphones aren't completely new, with Chinese smartphone maker Huawei already on the market with its own tri-fold Mate XT smartphone, but Samsung will be the first to have an internationally-available tri-fold smartphone, versus Huawei's tri-fold Mate XT which is only available in China.

Apple has announced its Q3 2025 earnings with a hefty $94 billion in revenue, and $23.4 billion in net profits, with iPhone earnings reaching a new all-time high.

Apple reported $94.04 billion of revenue in Q3 2025, up from the $85.78 billion it pulled in Q3 2024, while its operating profits sat at $23.4 billion. The iPhone revenue for Q3 2025 was also strong, delivering $44.58 billion in revenue across the three-month period, with the overall figure growing by 10% from the same quarter of 2024.

The company's Services division generated $27.4 billion in revenue during Q3 2025, compared to $24.2 billion in Q3 2024, while the Mac division made $8.05 billion in Q3 2025, compared to $7.01 billion in Q3 2024. However, the iPad division wasn't as successful, with revenues dropping to $6.58 billion during the quarter, compared to $7.16 billion from the same time last year.

NVIDIA's successor to the tweaked B30 AI GPU for China is reportedly the Rubin R30 AI GPU according to investment banking and capital market firm Jefferies.

In a note picked up by insider @Jukanrosleve, Jefferies expects the annual NVIDIA chip procurement by China in 2027 to account for 1 million H20 as well as 70,000 more powerful H100 AI GPUs. In 2025, they're estimating 1.8 million H20 AI GPUs and 50,000 H100 AI GPUs, while in 2026 they're expected to shift to 1.2 million new B30 AI GPUs and 50,000 of the more powerful Blackwell B200 AI GPUs, while the orders drop slightly in 2027 with 1 million B30 and 50,000 B200 AI GPUs.

However, Jefferies says things will change in 2028 with the next-gen Rubin R30 AI GPU which we haven't heard about until now. The headlines have been filled with the Hopper H20 and H100 AI GPUs, with the new tweaked-for-China B30 preparing for release in Q4 with performance said to be 10-20% slower than H20, but B30 will cost 30-40% less.

Although it hasn't been confirmed, all signs are pointing to Ubisoft releasing an Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag remake sometime soon. With several leaks and sources pointing to the existence of the game, it's currently one of the worst-kept secrets in video games. The original debuted in 2013 as the final mainline Assassin's Creed title to release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was well-received at the time, but over the years, its legacy has grown to the point where fans now refer to it as being one of the series' best entries. Thanks to its blend of third-person action and high-seas piracy, the addition of naval combat, and exploring islands for treasure was an unlikely but fantastic addition to a franchise built on third-person stealth action and parkour.

Recently, voice actor Matt Ryan, who played the game's protagonist Edward Kenway, told a fan at a convention that "you might have to beat it again," hinting that the remake was on the horizon. Adding "There's a reason I say that, but I can't say anything," all but confirmed Black Flag was making a comeback. Well, turns out Ubisoft wasn't too happy with his comments.

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is now out in the wild and running natively on Macs, with the flagship M4 Max chip inside the MacBook Pro 16 laptop running the game with ray tracing enabled at 1600p 61FPS average.

In some new tests from ComputerBase and its community running Cyberpunk 2077 across three benchmarks: Medium Preset, Ultra Preset, and the Ray Tracing Medium Preset, under two resolutions with 1920 x 1200 (1200p) and 2560 x 1600 (1600p).

Upscaling was enabled, with MetalFX upscaling set to Balanced with ray tracing is disabled, and to Performance when it's enabled. V-Sync was off, Maximum FPS was off, and Windows Mode was disabled, running Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition in full-screen mode.

Turtle Beach's new premium Victrix Pro BFG Reloaded wireless controller is the successor to the popular Victrix Pro BFG controller that competitive gamers and the fighting game community have embraced.

As a modular controller that lets you swap out various sticks, d-pads, and even button layouts, the new 'Reloaded' model's redesigned Fightpad module, which includes the six-button layout made popular by games like Street Fighter, now supports a wrist-grip setup so you can press those buttons like you're playing with an arcade stick. The Fightpad module also includes Kailh microswitches for "tournament-level precision."

The updated controller also features Hall Effect thumbsticks and triggers, for "drift-free precision and consistent, reliable input accuracy," two upgrades that help make it one of the most versatile premium controllers on the market. Thanks to its modular layout that lets you swap the orientation of sticks, buttons, and more, it's designed for all styles of games, from first-person shooters to third-person action-RPGs, fighting games, racing games, and more.

AMD's next-generation RDNA 5 GPU architecture will reportedly have around 10% in IPC performance uplifts over RDNA 4, according to the latest leaks.

We've been hearing about AMD's next-gen RDNA 5-based flagship GPU which should end up being called the Radeon RX 10900 XT, which will reportedly have its RDNA 5 GPU fabbed on TSMC's 3nm process node, feature up to 32GB of GDDR7 and could even be a next-gen RTX 6090 killer.

In his latest video, leaker Moore's Law is Dead says we can expect around 5-10% more IPC uplift from RDNA 5 over RDNA 4 in rasterization, while ray tracing performance should be a little higher.

We got our first look at MSI's GeForce RTX 5080 16G EXPERT OC graphics card at Computex 2025, with the successor to the MSI GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER EXPERT from 2024 set to release sometime soon. What separates MSI's EXPERT design from other cards in its extensive GeForce RTX 50 Series lineup is that it employs a 'Push Pull Airflow' design similar to NVIDIA's Founders Edition models.

This means you've got a fan on either side of the GPU working together to cool the hardware, with one acting as intake and the other as exhaust. With new images and specs for the MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G EXPERT OC appearing online over the weekend, via @wxnod on X, we've got more details on what to expect from MSI's new premium GeForce RTX 5080 - alongside the expected MSRP.

MSI's second-generation EXPERT design includes the company's FLOW FROZR 2 cooling system that consists of the 'Push Pull Airflow' design, STORMFORCE fans, aluminum die-casting, and a built-in advanced vapor chamber for the GPU and memory. It's also set to ship with a generous overclocked Boost Clock speed of up to 2730 MHz while maintaining the GeForce RTX 5080's TGP rating of 360W.

EA's highly anticipated Battlefield 6 will be released later this year and is currently making waves thanks to the recent gameplay trailer, hands-on previews, and upcoming Open Beta. Even though the game looks like it's going to ship in a well-optimized state, with the minimum GPU spec asking for a GeForce RTX 2060 and a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti recommended for 1440p 60FPS action, Battlefield 6 won't be receiving Steam Deck support.

During a recent Battlefield 6 multiplayer reveal event for media and creators, PCGamesN sat down with Battlefield chief Vince Zampella to discuss the possibility of the game running on PC gaming handhelds like Valve's Steam Deck and ASUS's ROG Ally.

"It does not work on Steam Deck," Vince Zampella responded when asked about the game running on PC gaming handhelds. "I think there are some non-Steam-Deck handheld platforms that it will work on, probably, right? But I don't think, you know, it's probably not the best way to play the game."

Intel's XeSS 2.1 joins AMD's FSR 3.1 as a platform-agnostic solution for Super Resolution and Frame Generation, available to all GeForce RTX and Radeon RX gamers as long as they've got at least a GeForce GTX 10 Series or Radeon RX 5000 Series card.

Intel's XeSS 2, which is the company's answer to NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR, has just been updated with the XeSS 2.1 SDK for game developers, adding support for both NVIDIA GeForce RTX and AMD Radeon RX graphics cards. Intel's XeSS 2.1 includes the AI-powered XeSS Super Resolution, XeSS Frame Generation, and Xe Low Latency technologies to enhance in-game performance and responsiveness.

Like the original XeSS, which included support for non-Intel Arc graphics cards, it's expected that image quality for upscaling and frame generation on NVIDIA and AMD GPUs will not be as good as what you'd get on a dedicated Intel GPU like the Intel Arc B580. This comes down to XeSS technologies being optimized and developed primarily for Intel architecture and AI hardware.

Windows is still the most popular operating system for PC gaming, with 59.9% of gamers using Windows 11, and a further 35.2% still using the soon-to-be end-of-life Windows 10. This is the latest data from Valve as part of its monthly Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for July 2025, which also shows that an increasing number of PC gamers are moving to or gaming on Linux.

Part of this is due to the popularity of Valve's Steam Deck PC gaming handheld, which runs on SteamOS or "Arch Linux". With reports pointing to Valve officially releasing SteamOS for desktop PCs in the future, alongside a potential lineup of dedicated Steam PCs hitting the market, there's a growing community of PC gamers out there looking to make the switch from Windows to SteamOS for PC gaming.

The current process to get SteamOS running on a desktop PC with AMD hardware isn't all that difficult, and the latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey results show that Linux is gaining ground. The July 2025 data shows that Windows' market share on Steam dropped by 0.44% while Linux's market share grew by 0.32%.

PELADN has just launched its new Link S-3, a new Thunderbolt 5 dock that supports external graphics cards with support for NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 5090, but the new Link S-3 also features more functionality with networking and storage on the TB5 dock.

PELADN's new Link-S3 Thunderbolt 5 dock has 80Gbps of bi-directional bandwidth over the Thunderbolt 5 port, with a reserved M.2 SSD slot and also a reserved 2.5GbE ethernet port, finished with a 140W Super-Fast charging design, delivering stronger power delivery while you're working or gaming.

There are two Thunderbolt 5 ports with the upstream port supporting up to 140W PD charging, and the downstream port offering 30W + DisplayPort 2.1 video output.