If your graphics card was somehow struck by lightning, would you expect it to survive? Probably not, but this happened to an NVIDIA RTX 3070 (in an indirect way), and the GPU was somehow repaired to a usable state.

VideoCardz noticed this tale from repair expert Brother Zhang, who has performed miraculous repairs on graphics cards in the past.

At the start of the above YouTube video, you can see the PC in which the RTX 3070 was installed, in its post-lightning strike state, with the inside of the computer essentially a melted mess (including the figurine decorations therein).

Forza Horizon 6 on PC is not only about choosing the highest visual settings and jumping into the next race. A smooth setup matters, but players also need a clear plan for progression, credits, upgrades, and the garage they want to build over time.

That is where many players get slowed down. The game can look great, but the experience still feels limited if the player does not have the right cars, enough credits, or a progression path that matches how they actually play. A good PC experience should cover both sides: how the game runs and how the player moves forward inside it.

PC players usually think about performance first. Frame rate, visual quality, ray tracing, upscaling, controls, and display settings can all change how a racing game feels. Forza's official PC breakdown highlights the PC version of Forza Horizon 6, including ray-traced reflections, ray-traced global illumination, ultrawide support, advanced upscaling options, live settings previews, and benchmark tools.

Apple's Vision Pro headset is reportedly being shelved for years, with the next iteration not expected until 2028 at the earliest.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, a known Apple insider with a fantastic track record of understanding the company's inner workings, Apple is shifting its focus to AI-powered wearables like smart glasses and camera-equipped AirPods. The Vision Pro, launched in early 2024, has struggled to gain traction, with only 600,000 units sold to date.

The Vision Pro is still quite far away in terms of design to what Apple desires with its AR glasses, but that's not what has caused skepticism among top executives. The headset's high price and heavy design have been cited as key barriers to adoption, along with practical use cases that warrant a general consumer, or even a power user, getting one.

eBay's board of directors formally opposes GameStop's $56 billion share buyout proposal and shares major points of concern with the deal.

A bit ago, GameStop made an offer to acquire eBay for $125 per share in a half-cash, half-stock deal worth around $56 billion. On the same day the proposal was announced, GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen went live with CNBC in a quizzical interview and was unable to answer exactly where the remaining buyout funds would come from--GameStop may be $15 billion short.

Fast-forwarding to today, and eBay has now rejected GameStop's offer. Paul Pressler, the chairman of eBay's board of directors, tells the GameStop CEO: "We have concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive."

Discord Nitro is now the cheapest version of Xbox Game Pass, offering a "Starter Edition" that gives subscribers access to over 50 PC and console games.

The integration, confirmed by both Microsoft and Discord, is rolling out to Nitro subscribers in waves and is available on the $9.99/month Nitro plan. This move adds a competitive edge to the $14.99 Game Pass Core and $19.99 Game Pass Ultimate tiers, which offer broader access and features like cloud streaming and multiplayer on consoles.

The Starter Edition, while more limited in scope, includes a curated selection of games and is directly integrated into Discord's "Now Playing" status system. Subscribers can launch Game Pass games directly from the platform, likely through the Xbox app, and take advantage of exclusive discounts on gaming peripherals from brands like Logitech G, SteelSeries, and KontrolFreak.

A year after its release, Noctua has finally released a black version of its NF-A12x25 G2 120mm fans for PC builders who desire a more conventional color scheme over Noctua's love it or hate it beige and brown default color scheme. The Chromax.Black version of the NF-A12x25 G2 costs the same as its brown counterpart and is going for $34.95 on Amazon at the time of writing.

Just like all of Noctua's outgoing Chromax black fans and coolers, the new black NF-A12x25 G2 fans are fully blacked out from the fan blades to the rubber grommets that help dampen vibrations during operation. Unlike most other fan manufacturers, Noctua is unable to create black versions of its products on a dime. The complexity of Noctua's fans is so extreme that even changes in color pigmentation can shift the reliability and performance of its fans without additional development.

Noctua described the complications of making Chromax black models of its products in a recent article, where it noted that its designs for some of its latest fans (including the NF-A12x25) are built at the absolute maximum of what injection molding can accomplish, even with the advanced polymers it uses, such as Sterrox LCP. Changing color pigments can impact the molding process, including affecting how a mold cools and solidifies. Noctua has to modify its injection molding process to account for the side effects that different color pigments have on the molding process. In a worst-case scenario, Noctua says it will recreate a product design completely from scratch just to make a black version.

SEGA has officially cancelled its unique ideas for a new kind of game genre--the mighty live service Super Game.

It's an end of an era for SEGA, or at least a conceptual end. I've been reporting on SEGA's interesting-sounding new Super Game idea for years now, and while the publisher never really explained the idea properly, it was nonetheless interesting. SEGA spoke of a new kind of living game genre where titles continually evolved over time, moving both strong game sales and monetization along the way.

Now SEGA has clarified some things in its latest FY26 earnings report. Due to the immediacy of its current business, which still requires the company to release new games that sell millions of copies every year, the Super Game initiative has been cancelled altogether. SEGA was prepared to spend around 100 billion yen ($634 million) across 5 years to fund its first Super Game, with the plan to release multiple Super Games by 2030.

Microsoft is offering those searching with Bing a chance to win some tempting prizes which are part of a $2,000,000 giveaway.

Windows Latest noticed a pop-up promoting this big 'prize drop' which appeared after a Bing search.

Apparently, half of that money, a cool million, is being given away as cash, and the other half in various prizes.

Pearl Abyss's latest Q1'26 results give an indication of how much money a publisher collects after a successful multi-million AAA product launch.

According to the latest figures, Crimson Desert generated nearly $200 million for South Korean developer Pearl Abyss in less than a month after launch.

The figures show that Crimson Desert, which is now recognized as an official new IP from the studio, made around 266.5 billion Korean won (roughly $179 million) in revenue in the Q1 period. As a result of the game's huge success, Pearl Abyss's revenue was up 420% to a staggering 328.5 billion Korean won (about $220 million). This effectively means that Crimson Desert accounted for 81.3% of all revenue for the period.

Valve is preparing to launch four versions of the Steam Machine, with a reservation system to prevent scalper markups.

Code in the latest Steam update hints at four distinct models and two Steam Frame packages, according to data mined by the Steam Machine subreddit. The four models remain unnamed, but previous leaks suggest they could include 512GB and 2TB storage variants, which, with the now four versions, could simply mean a Steam Machine bundle with and without a Steam Controller. Valve engineers confirmed that it intends to release at least two variants, though the memory crisis could have forced adjustments.

The reservation system mirrors the one used for the Steam Controller, which sold out instantly and was heavily resold at inflated prices. This move signals a more controlled launch strategy, with Valve likely aiming to avoid the chaos that followed the Steam Controller's release.

Microsoft exec Scott Hanselman has fired back at critics who accused the company of "cheating" over its Windows 11 speed boost feature, defending the practice as common across modern operating systems.

The controversy centers on the Low Latency Profile, a performance tweak that briefly boosts CPU speed when launching apps or menus, making Windows 11 feel snappier to the user. However, critics have accused Microsoft of taking shortcuts to achieve this new level of perceived performance in Windows 11, but Hanselman rebutted on X that all major OSes, including macOS and Linux, employ similar techniques to reduce latency and improve responsiveness.

Hanselman emphasized that this is not a novel trick, but a well-established method used in computing to prioritize specific tasks. He noted that even smartphones dynamically scale CPU performance in real time, a process known as dynamic frequency scaling.

According to a new rumor, Intel plans to bring back on-package memory with its upcoming Razor Lake-AX processors, expected to launch sometime in 2028. This will see the return of memory sitting close to the chip, which is something we haven't seen from Intel since its Lunar Lake SoCs, so this move will undoubtedly be used to enhance performance and efficiency, with a similar approach to AMD's Ryzen 'Halo' products like Strix Halo.

And with that, it looks like Intel's next-gen Razor Lake-AX processors will go head-to-head with AMD's next-gen Medusa Halo processors. The memory type for Razor Lake-AX is still to be determined, but with the release and launch a little while off, the expectation is that it will adopt the LPDDR6 standard for extra bandwidth.

This would make sense as Razor Lake, an optimized version of Nova Lake, will also bring improvements to its CPU technology and integrated Arc 'Celestial' or even 'Druid' graphics. This would position a premium Razor Lake-AX chip as something tailor-made for high-end portable computing, AI, and PC gaming.

Qualcomm and MediaTek are pushing to adopt TSMC's 2nm N2P process in 2026 to gain an early performance edge over Apple's upcoming A20 and A20 Pro chips.

The move could see their next-gen SoCs target higher clock speeds to deliver better single and multi-core performance. According to a report from WCCF Tech, citing Weibo Smart Chip Insider, both companies are prioritizing the more advanced N2P node over the standard N2 process, despite the higher cost-per-unit associated with it.

2nm chipsets from Qualcomm and MediaTek could be 20 percent more expensive than current flagship SoCs. This raises questions about how many OEMs will be willing to absorb the cost, especially in a market where price sensitivity is growing due to factors such as AI gobbling up DRAM.

One of the biggest new additions to gaming mouse technology arrived earlier this year with the Logitech G PRO X2 SUPERSTRIKE. Its 'Haptic Inductive Trigger System' (HITS) introduced a magnetic-like switch for the left- and right-click buttons that let users adjust actuation points and travel distances, as well as fine-tune the force feedback or 'click' feel.

Much like magnetic switches in the keyboard space, it's a game-changer for competitive gamers that play shooters like Counter-Strike 2 or Arc Raiders, as it unlocks a new level of customization and control. Logitech's HITS is the first magnetic switch for a gaming mouse we've seen, and with it delivering on its promise, it was only a matter of time before others followed suit and put their own spin on the idea of an adjustable magnetic switch for a gaming mouse.

Which brings us to Keychron's upcoming MaOptic switch, which it's teasing in the video above. However, what makes this different is that it appears to combine the versatility and customization of magnetic switches with the tactile, responsive click-feel of optical switches. And according to the company, you'll be able to switch freely between Optical and Linear Magnetic Modes via its web-based customization app.

OpenAI has launched Daybreak, a new cybersecurity platform powered by GPT-5.5 and the Codex agent framework. Daybreak is designed to help tech companies identify and fix software vulnerabilities, and is a direct response to Anthropic's Project Glasswing.

The platform aims to embed cyber defense into software from the beginning of the development process, not just as an afterthought. Daybreak builds on the success of OpenAI's earlier GPT-5.4-Cyber model, which helped remediate over 3,000 security flaws.

It uses Codex Security to create an editable threat model from a company's software repository and focuses on the most realistic attack paths. It also validates fixes in an isolated environment, ensuring patches work without causing unintended issues.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and we're expecting some big announcements from the gaming-focused brand at Computex 2026. And thanks to a little teaser over on the official ASUS ROG Instagram page, we've got our first look at what one of these might be, a reimagining of one of the very first premium motherboards released under the ROG banner.

In fact, this is a motherboard we reviewed back in 2006, the ASUS Crosshair Republic of Gamers, and noted it was "extremely powerful and stacked with impressive features" for gamers and overclockers. Although the look and feel of PC gaming hardware has definitely evolved over the subsequent 20 years, this first ROG Crosshair motherboard helped set the brand's trend of releasing stylish and powerful gear, thanks to its bright copper heatsink that covered the VRM, northbridge, and southbridge.

And it's the copper heatsink and classic ROG logo in the teaser that point to it being a reimagining of the classic motherboard. One of the more notable design touches on the original was its inclusion of a pretty basic LCD for monitoring, with this teaser hinting that the 20th-anniversary edition ROG Crosshair motherboard will ship with a full-color display featuring an animated version of the classic ROG logo.

A 155 GB unencrypted build of Forza Horizon 6 was leaked online before its scheduled release, and Playground Games has confirmed that the source was not a Steam employee or technical error but a reviewer, influencer, or industry insider.

The leak, which surfaced online nearly a week before the game's planned debut, came after an unencrypted Steam build was uploaded, allowing the files to be freely accessed and shared. Reports from Reddit and cracking forums indicated that the files included thousands of assets, effectively giving early access to the game's full content.

The incident raises serious concerns about how unreleased game builds are handled within the industry. Playground Games, known for its meticulous development and release strategies, now faces the challenge of mitigating the impact of the leak on both consumer excitement and competitive integrity.

In the 1980s, the idea of the home or personal computer was still relatively new or niche, which is why affordable options that connected to a standard TV found success. Two of the biggest names from the era, the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum, found success in the US and Europe, respectively, and were also home to what we know as computer games.

Games for these systems would go on to influence and even lead to the creation of some of the most well-respected designers and development studios in gaming history. And to celebrate the gaming legacy of these computers, Blaze Entertainment and Retro Games Ltd have partnered to create two portable retro gaming handheld consoles focused on classic Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum gaming.

Dubbed the THEC64 Handheld and The Spectrum Handheld, both devices flip open to reveal a 4.3-inch display with an 800x480 resolution. Certainly low-res by modern standards, but this is still a lot more pixels than these early home computers were pushing out. Each handheld comes pre-installed with 25 classic games to highlight this era of early gaming.

According to a new leak and report over at VideoCardz, citing leaked documents and information from AMD, the company is planning to launch a new entry-level RDNA 4 graphics card, the Radeon RX 9050. According to the information, this would use the full Navi 44 GPU in the Radeon RX 9060 XT, with the main differences being VRAM capacity and lower clock speeds.

The specs for the Radeon RX 9050, which are still to be confirmed, list the GPU as featuring 8GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus at 18.0 Gbps. This would deliver memory bandwidth of 288 GB/s, matching the baseline Radeon RX 9060, while coming in lower than the Radeon RX 9060 XT's 320 GB/s.

As for the clock speeds, the 2,048 Stream Processors, which match the Radeon RX 9060 XT, feature a Game Clock of 1,920 MHz and a Boost Clock of 2,600 MHz. This is notably lower than the 3,130 MHz reference Boost Clock speed of the Radeon RX 9060 XT, by 530 MHz, or around 17%. The difference is larger when looking at the Game Clock speeds, suggesting that the Radeon RX 9050 would ship with a lower power draw than the 9060 XT 8GB's TDP rating of 150W.

Blizzard may finally be cooking up World of Warcraft Classic Plus, a long-rumored version of the original MMO with modern updates.

The studio recently invited top streamers like Sodapoppin and Esfand to its California HQ under NDA, fueling speculation that something major is in the works. Blizzard hasn't officially confirmed the project, but the secrecy and targeted invite list point to a new take on the classic experience, as all the streamers it invited are known for streaming Blizzard's current Classic version of World of Warcraft.

WoW Classic Plus would diverge from the original game's timeline, offering a mix of nostalgia and updated systems. Essentially, WoW would be getting the Old School Runescape, which, for those who don't know, happened after RuneScape's developers rolled out the Evolution of Combat update, which completely overhauled RuneScape's combat mechanics, resulting in a mass exodus of players.