NVIDIA and MediaTek's new Arm-based AI PC processor might be closer to release than we think, where it might have avoided an announcement at Computex 2025, the new APU will be released this year and it should appear inside of a new Alienware gaming laptop.

We've been hearing about NVIDIA x MediaTek and its new AI PC processor, which will offer up Arm-based CPU cores mixed with GeForce RTX series GPU cores, ready to take the fight to AMD and Intel and their respective Copilot+ AI laptops. In a new post by Taiwan Economic Daily, we're to expect NVIDIA and MediaTek to launch a new dedicated APU for new gaming laptops, with the first appearance being inside one of Dell's upcoming Alienware gaming laptops.

Originally, we heard it would be a desktop-based AI PC processor... but it looks like plans have changed, where the new chip will be an APU that would be unleashed in Q4 2025 or in Q1 2026. We should expect the new APU to feature Arm-based CPU cores, and Blackwell-based GPU cores making for a big shift in the APU market.

Those of you planning on buying a Switch 2 this week should be aware that much like the Switch OLED before it, the handheld comes with a layer of film on top of the screen, and Nintendo warns that you shouldn't pull this off.

The Verge spotted fan site NintendoSoup pointing out that the Switch 2's European safety manual contains the advice not to peel off said film layer which is "designed to prevent fragments scattering in the event of damage."

Some folks call this layer a screen protector, which it isn't, but rather, as Nintendo makes clear, it's actually part of the display - the topmost part which is designed to stop fragments of glass flying around (and potentially ending up in an eye, say) if the screen is smashed.

It's taken a few years, but real-time ray-tracing is now common in modern AAA games. Path Tracing or Full Ray-Tracing is set to be the next game-changer for in-game visuals - as seen in Cyberpunk 2077, Alan Wake 2, Indian Jones and the Great Circle, and others. Path Tracing is only possible thanks to technologies like DLSS Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction, and Frame Generation, as it just requires a lot of raw GPU horsepower to run.

As seen with the arrival of the GeForce RTX 50 Series, the next step toward making Path Tracing a reality will arrive through new rendering technologies that include Neural Rendering. So far, we've seen what this can do in titles like Alan Wake 2 and Half-Life 2 RTX, where Neural Shaders and other tech can boost Path Tracing performance.

The good news is that this isn't limited to NVIDIA hardware. Microsoft has also partnered with AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm to develop DirectX Raytracing (DXR) 1.2, which can boost Path Tracing performance by up to 2.3X through the deployment of Opacity Micromaps (OMMs).

Ubisoft has taken to X to tease something Splinter Cell, with an image of the series' protagonist, Sam Fisher, alongside a simple #SplinterCell hashtag. With Summer Game Fest around the corner, a week of conferences and live streams where we get a lot of new game announcements and first looks, we could be getting our first look at a new Splinter Cell game in a matter of days.

It remains to be seen what form Sam Fisher's return to the digital landscape will take - will it be something new or the return of a classic? In December 2021, the publisher announced that it was remaking the original Splinter Cell for a "modern-day audience" and would "keep the spirit and themes of the original game while exploring our characters and the world to make them more authentic and believable."

However, that was years ago, and without any significant updates since, the status of Ubisoft Toronto's Splinter Cell Remake remains unclear. The good news is that Ubisoft and industry insider Tom Henderson recently posted to social media that the remake "looks genuinely impressive," and we might hear about it sooner rather than later.

Elon Musk has just announced an all-new XChat is launching within X, which will be rolling out with encryption, vanishing messages, audio and video calls, and more.

XChat is built on Rust with (Bitcoin-style) encryption, with the Tesla and SpaceX boss saying that XChat has a "whole new architecture". Not only do we have encryption and vanishing messages, but XChat will let users send any file of kind, while audio and video calls can be made without a phone number on all platforms.

The new XChat system when compared to competing platforms like Signal and Telegram, differ in both features and security. Telegram has support for large groups and bots, but only its built-in Secret Chats are encrypted, with concerns surrounding metadata collection. Signal has end-to-end encryption by default, with minimal data collection that has people worried about privacy handles, but it's not feature-laden.

The MMO or MOBA mouse is an acquired taste because its design involves cramming as many buttons onto the input device as possible. Corsair's Scimitar series has been popular in this space for several years, and the new Corsair Scimitar Elite Wireless SE is set to be the most impressive version to date.

Underneath the hood, the new Scimitar Elite Wireless SE features Corsair's latest 33K DPI Marksman S sensor with an impressive 750 IPS tracking speed, support for the company's ultra-low latency 'SLIPSTREAM WIRELESS' technology, and a longer-lasting battery so you can game for longer between charges.

With 16 programmable buttons, including 12 on the left side, the Corsair Scimitar Elite Wireless SE is once again being positioned as the ultimate mouse for MMO and MOBA gamers. But thanks to Elgato Stream Deck integrations, it's also the ideal mouse for streamers and content creators.

Hell is Us, a new single-player sci-fi open-world action game set in an alternate world and timeline, was announced and showcased earlier this year during one of Sony's big State of Play events for PlayStation. From developer Rogue Factor and publisher Nacon, the game will launch on September 5 and come to PC.

The PS5-focused trailer above shows that the game features a dark and moody atmosphere and impressive Unreal Engine 5-powered environments and characters. That said, outside of the PC version, nothing we can see would explain the PC specs and hardware requirements for Hell is Us on PC other than adding a Full Ray Tracing or Path Tracing mode. It sounds like the game is set to become the new Crysis.

The developer posted the specs to the game's Steam page, where it states that to play the game with 'Ultra' quality settings at 4K at 30 FPS, you'll need either a GeForce RTX 4090 24GB or a Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB GPU. And even then, that's with DLSS and FSR enabled, just to hit 30 FPS.

The Intel Core Ultra 200V Series of mobile processors, also called 'Lunar Lake,' were the first chips to arrive with integrated second-generation Arc 'Battlemage' graphics. Like AMD's recent mobile Ryzen APUs with integrated RDNA graphics, the Intel Core Ultra 200V Series represents a new era for APUs or CPUs with integrated graphics, in that they can play modern AAA titles with decent performance and image quality.

That said, most portable PC gaming handhelds have opted to use Ryzen APUs over Lunar Lake, with MSI's Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+ being the only high-profile PC gaming handhelds with an Intel Core Ultra 200V Series processor. Intel rolled out today's specific GPU performance boost update to handhelds a month ago, with today's Intel Graphics Driver 32.0.101.6874 (WHQL Certified) adding these enhancements to all Lunar Lake devices.

It's a pretty big one, offering up to 10% more gaming performance on Intel Core Ultra 200V Series processors.

NVIDIA's expensive new RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPU has been tested in gaming against the GeForce RTX 5090 by overclocking legend Der8auer, in games including Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Outlaws, Remnant 2, and Assassin's Creed Mirage.

Starting with Cyberpunk 2077, we have the new NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPU -- which costs over $10,000 by the way -- the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell GPU is 15% faster than the GeForce RTX 5090. This is at 4K with maxed-out graphics settings, but with RT (ray tracing) and PT (path tracing) disabled.

Der8auer ran the RTX PRO 6000 vs RTX 5090 vs RTX 4090 benchmarks on an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor inside of an ASUS Crosshair X870E Hero motherboard, with 32GB of DDR5-6000 RAM at CL30. Moving onto Star Wars Outlaws, also at 4K and maxed-out graphics settings, the RTX PRO 6000 beats out the RTX 5090 by 11%.

PC gamers just want to spend their hard-earned cash on the best gaming PC components available, with Redditors now reporting that they purchased a ZOTAC GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card from Micro Center, but were scammed.

Instead of the RTX 5090, they found backpacks (yeah, the ones that go... on your back) inside of the box, and not their expensive new RTX 5090 graphics card. Redditor u/JamesFerg650 was scammed, reporting he purchased a brand new ZOTAC GeForce RTX 5090 but when he opened the box, there was no RTX 5090, and instead it was a few backpacks.

Even though the box was sealed, it means that the package was tampered with before it reached the shipping docks of Micro Center, and this since Redditor isn't the only one that has been scammed with an RTX 5090. Micro Center has since confirmed there have been 30 cases of RTX 5090 cards with backpacks in them, and they're all ZOTAC GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards.

Chinese tech companies are reportedly preparing for an AI future without NVIDIA as their stockpile of AI GPUs will run out in early 2026, with accelerated testing of homegrown AI chips, and a small window for the major decision (and the full switch) from NVIDIA to Huawei is expected to kick start a 3-month disruption.

With more and more US export restrictions hitting China, it is getting harder and harder for the country to acquire the bleeding-edge in AI silicon. Chinese tech giants including Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu are all beginning to test alternative semiconductors to meet the ever-growing AI-related internal and consumer demands, according to industry executives, reports the Financial Times.

These companies have been forced to bring forward their contingency planning as the continued tensions between US and China in the new Trump administration causing headaches in China. Last week we saw the Trump administration stopping the NVIDIA H20 AI GPU from being sold in China, which was already a cut-down version of the AI GPU, and now it's been banned.

On one of the many beautiful days in Taipei for Computex 2025, the fine folks at Cooler Master invited TweakTown to visit their brand-new HQ, and away we went. One of the standouts at their HQ was Cooler Master's growing MasterFrame family of cases, with an awesome, fully modular inner structure.

Cooler Master's new MasterFrame 600 Mesh was one of the highlights with an utterly gorgeous design, with the company using a high-airflow FineMesh design that includes Cooler Master's iconic FineMesh panels on front and top, ensuring maximum air intake and optimized thermal performance out-of-the-box.

The new MasterFrame 600 Mesh chassis features dual 200mm front fans pre-installed into the case, with the ARGB fans pumping out high-volume, low-noise airflow for superior cooling performance and aesthetic. Cooler Master's new MasterFrame 600 Mesh is FreeForm 2.0 ready, built on the fully modular, open-source MasterFrame structure, which allows gamers deep customization and community-driven changes down the road.

NVIDIA is reportedly set to cut production volumes by a rather large 20-30% of its GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, with the company making more room to make its new GB300 AI GPUs.

In a post on X by insider @Jukenlosreve and from a leaker on Board Channels, we're hearing that NVIDIA is set to cut the production of the GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs significantly in China, pushing more of its semiconductor chip-making focus into Blackwell AI GPUs including the new GB300.

We've seen some mega-expensive GeForce RTX 50 series cards on the market, with not-so-great availability, and even-worse-so pricing in some countries. NVIDIA only has so much silicon orders with TSMC that it seems that AI GPUs are becoming a bigger and bigger focus (something I said to various industry peeps at Computex 2025 earlier this month) that it seems to be shifting focus from gaming GPU production, to AI GPU production (which is where FAR bigger money is).

AMD is reportedly preparing a new enthusiast graphics card, with a rumored Radeon RX 9080 XT now in the headlines... with gaming performance beating the RTX 5080 and quite possibly matching the upcoming RTX 5080 SUPER.

In a new video from leaker Moore's Law is Dead, we're hearing that AMD is reportedly working on a new enthusiast-level RDNA 4-based graphics card that could end up being called the Radeon RX 9080 XT -- but let's hope AMD doesn't go nuts and call it something ridiculous like the Radeon RX 9080 XTX Ultra AI NPU or something like that.

Anyway, according to MLID's sources, the purported RDNA 4-based enthusiast GPU rocks faster GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit memory bus, with up to 32GB of GDDR7 on offer for the purported Radeon RX 9080 XT. Not only that, but the GPU was being pushed to its limits at anywhere between 3.7GHz and a much higher 4.0GHz, with up to 450W of power.

Official Xbox social media accounts have been hacked by an unknown individual or group that has posted what appears to be a fraudulent cryptocurrency scam.

The post to the official Xbox Instagram account stated that "Xbox enters the blockchain," adding Microsoft's gaming brand is "proud to announce the launch of our official token." The post on the Xbox Instagram feed was removed approximately 10 minutes after it was made public, and also appeared on Xbox's Instagram Story.

The caption in the post included a link to what can now only be considered a shady website disguised as an official Xbox link. While we won't be posting the link here, you can see it in the above screenshot, courtesy of The Verge's Tom Warren.

Auteur Hideo Kojima once again lays out his vision for a unique merging of games and films.

We've been covering Hideo Kojima's ideas about a game-film hybrid since 2020, and years later, these ideas are now starting to take shape. Kojima's love for movies is ever-present in his games, and things are going full-circle now with a Death Stranding film in production at A24. The artist's plans for the film-game are also manifesting in a new project called OD, which is being funded by Xbox with involvement from horror maven Jordan Peele.

Now in a recent interview with Vogue Japan, Kojima lays out a rather candid look at his multi-phase plan for his studio, Kojima Productions, and what he wants to accomplish with the new era of interactive media that he hopes to introduce.

Elder Scrolls Online is getting a new subclass system in just a few days that allows users to mix and match different skills from various classes.

With Update 46's release on June 2 for PC and June 16 for consoles, ESO players will soon be able to customize their characters in a brand new day. ZeniMax is introducing subclassing to ESO which will offer over 3,000 unique skill combinations across the 21 total skill lines available, with players being able to replace up to two native class skill lines with those from other classes.

Players will be able to jump into the subclass system as long as they have a level 50 character. There's a short quest to complete and the devs say it'll take around 5-10 minutes to go through the tutorial. ZeniMax is also introducing a new Disciple's Artisan item to boost skill leveling.

Atomic Heart, the BioShock-esque first-person shooter with sci-fi dystopian themes, has reached over 10 million people since releasing in early 2023. Now the development team is celebrating with a brand new initiative aimed at helping other indie studios.

Competition is fierce in the games industry, so it's always interesting and noteworthy when indie games see breakout success. Atomic Heart is one such game, and in little over 2 years, the alternate Soviet history shooter has been played by 10 million people. Xbox Game Pass was key to Atomic Heart's success--the game was available on Microsoft's all-you-can-play subscription service at launch.

Mundfish, the studio that made the game, isn't resting on its laurels though. Backed by the success of Atomic Heart, the team at Mundfish has launched Powerhouse, a new program that will give indie developers funding, expertise, and other support.

GreyNoise, a threat monitoring company, has discovered a botnet named AyySSHush. According to Censys search, there are more than 8,000 infected hosts, and thousands of these are ASUS routers.

The group behind the botnet is currently unknown, but according to GreyNoise's VP of data science, Bob Rudis, the movements and sophistication of the group suggest they are an "advanced, well-resourced adversary." They started with generic brute-force attacks, but have also incorporated an interesting security bypass to gain access to ASUS routers. The botnet locates ASUS routers and exploits various known bypass bugs to gain initial access to the router, then executes additional authentication bypass techniques to break into routers more effectively.

Once the hackers have cracked the router, they enable SSH, a remote command tool, and their own public key to the router, giving them secret, ongoing access, and begin disabling security tools. What's concerning is that they are able to do all of this using ASUS's own router settings, meaning the changes they have made will survive firmware updates and leave no malware trace, making this form of exploitation extremely difficult to detect.

Keen to have two player sessions of Elden Ring: Nightreign, rather than the full three player coop? Your wish may be granted sooner than you think, thanks to an enterprising modder rather than FromSoftware.

As you've doubtless seen, Elden Ring: Nightreign has got a rather mixed reception, and there have been some lower-scored reviews, as well as some thumbs-ups from other critics.

One clear pain point, though, is that the devs overlooked a two-player mode, never considering duo play (apparently), so your only choice if there's a pair of you looking for a game is to find a random third to make up the numbers, or, well, don't bother. (Solo play is allowed, but balance-wise, it has issues shall we say).