Latest News - Page 306

Yes, ancient PC hardware still drives many government systems around the world. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States, which runs air traffic control facilities in the country and covers one of the busiest airways in the world, is still utilizing systems built in the 1990s with the Windows 95 operating system and floppy disks.

For those who remember the days of Windows 95 and floppy disks, you'll probably remember a time when using a computer meant that you probably didn't even have access to the Internet, or you were connecting to an online service using a dial-up modem that took a minute or two just to download images.

The good news is that the FAA has finally decided to bring its air traffic control systems and tools into the 21st century. According to acting FAA administrator Chris Rocheleau, this means "no more floppy disks or paper strips." Yes, the FAA also still uses a system of paper cards for air traffic control.

Hitman World of Assassination Signature Edition has launched on the Nintendo Switch 2, bringing more than 100+ hours of Agent 47 gameplay to Nintendo's new handheld console.

The Signature Edition combines Hitman, Hitman 2, and Hitman 3 main campaigns, along with Contracts mode, Escalation, Elusive Target arcades, live content, and the Freelancer game mode. Additionally, the Signature Edition includes all Hitman 2 Expansion Pack and Hitman 3 Deluxe Pack content. Unfortunately, early reviews of the port have reported there are some frame rate and stuttering issues in both docked and handheld mode, with the addition of online/offline save issues.

NintendoLife explains in its review of the Switch 2 port that saves are separate for online and offline activities, meaning if you are going portable without an internet connection, you won't carry your progress over to the online save file. The same goes for online progression and then playing offline. This seems like an extremely strange inclusion, especially for a console intended to be used portably, as not every player will have access to an internet connection while on the move.

MAINGEAR has just unleashed its new Ultima 18 gaming laptop, featuring an 18-inch 4K display at 200Hz, offering up to NVIDIA's new flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU. Check it out:

Inside, the new MAINGEAR Optima 18 is the company's most powerful gaming laptop ever: featuring Intel's latest Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, and up to NVIDIA's new flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU with 24GB of GDDR7 memory. We've got up to 192GB of quad-slot, dual-channel DDR5 memory, and Gen5 SSD support for ultra-fast storage goodness.

The 18-inch 4K display features a 3840 x 2400 native resolution with its 16:10 aspect ratio, a super-smooth 200Hz refresh rate, and under 7ms response time. This is probably the only lacking thing I can see from the MAINGEAR Optima 18 gaming laptop, as it would've been (real) nice to have seen the company use a Mini-LED or OLED display, and bring the refresh rate down to 120Hz.

AMD is gearing up to unleash its new CDNA 4 architecture inside of its new Instinct MI350 series AI accelerators, with its new flagship Instinct MI355X featuring 288GB of HBM3E memory and 1400W of peak board power.

AMD CTO Mark Papermaster unveiled the company's new Instinct MI350 series and new MI355X for AI and HPC at the ISC 2025 event recently, with 1400W of peak board power being close to double what the company's previous-gen Instinct AI accelerator consumed, according to new reports from ComputerBase.

We can expect the full unveiling of AMD's next-gen CDNA 4-based Instinct MI350 series AI accelerators during a livestream later this week on Thursday, with the new Instinct MI350 series AI chips based on the optimized CDNA 4 architecture. CDNA 4 is effective in supporting formats, something that was previously a downside for AMD.

AMD hasn't even released its next-gen Zen 6 processors yet, but the leaks don't stop... and now we're getting some more concrete leaks on what to expect from Zen 7 on the desktop: up to 32 cores and 64 threads on the new AM6 socket.

In a new video posted by leaker Moore's Law is Dead, we're hearing that Zen 7 on the desktop will see 32 cores and 64 threads (with unknown clock speeds, we're still years away from release). MLID's source said that consumer Zen 7 processors will feature dual 16-core chiplets, as well as "tons" of V-Cache.

MLID's source said: "After seeing your Zen 7 leak, I thought I should also let you know that there will likely be a standard version of Zen 7 for consumers that still has L3 cache on the core chiplets (3D variant has NO L3 cache on the core chiplets). So, the current plan for consumer Zen 7 is dual 16-core chiplets that will still utilize V-Cache to increase the total L3".

AMD is edging close to 40% of server market share in Q1 2025, where the company is expected to match (or even surpass) its major competitor -- Intel -- in 2026.

In a new report from DigiTimes picked up on X by insider @Jukanlosreve, we're hearing that in Q1 2025, AMD's server market share surged to 39.4% with expectations of surpassing 40% by the end of 2025. According to supply chain sources of DigiTimes, AMD is reportedly confident it will capture 50% of the server CPU market by 2026, where it will be (more) massively competitive against Intel.

If we rewind to 2017, AMD had virtually 0% market share in the server CPU business, but after CEO Lisa Su took control, those efforts saw the company reach 25% in 2023, and then 33% in 2024. Things are looking more than excellent for AMD and the server CPU market, something that wouldn't have predicted 10 years ago.

CD PROJEKT RED made a surprise visit to Apple Park to provide the press and content creators an early look at Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, running on an Apple M4 Max-powered MacBook Pro laptop at a rather smooth 120FPS.

Pawel Sasko, the associate game director on Cyberpunk 2077, shared on X something he calls one of the most memorable days of his life: showing off Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition running on an M4 Max-powered MacBook Pro laptop. Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will not only include the base game and Phantom Liberty expansion, but some massive system overhauls and updates that were introduced to the game post-launch.

This includes Update 2.1 which redefines everything from enemy AI and skill progression, through to the driving model and open-world interactions. The new hands-on demo at Apple Park shows that CD PROJEKT RED has been working hard behind the scenes on getting Cyberpunk 2077 running on macOS, heavily optimized for Apple's in-house M-series processors.

MindsEye came out yesterday, and it's really not going down well with some gamers - and performance levels are looking pretty wonky on PC even with a very powerful graphics card like the second-tier Blackwell offering from NVIDIA.

In case this one wasn't on your radar - which is entirely possible, it wasn't on ours - it's been pretty big news because MindsEye is from Build a Rocket Boy, a developer founded by Leslie Benzies, former president of Rockstar North.

However, the action-adventure thriller (which is out on PS5, Xbox and PC) that bills itself as narrative-focused (with cut-scenes aplenty, apparently) seriously challenges an NVIDIA RTX 5080 GPU as YouTube channel MxBenchmarkPC demonstrates. Check out the video clip above which was picked up by Wccftech.

It's safe to say Resident Evil fans are excited about the upcoming Resident Evil 9 titled "Resident Evil Requiem," which was officially unveiled at the Summer Game Fest in a new trailer. But now screenshots are leaking from people who have previewed the highly anticipated game.

While the trailer was being played to everyone at the Summer Games Fest, a small group of media were invited to experience a hands-on demo of the game behind closed doors. It appears the NDA for that demo experience lifts today, with many publications talking about their experience with what is described as a "very small portion of the game." However, alongside those experiences is a selection of new screenshots that have been published on Reddit, gaining an intense amount of attention on the r/ResidentEvil subreddit, as the screenshots provided details ahead of the NDA release.

According to the leaker, the game will come with first and third-person camera options, a familiar, fully armed second playable character, not announced yet, and haunting screams from Grace. The leaker cited the demo experience that is being published today by many media outlets, with most of them describing the experience as somewhat debilitating, as the in-game location was a wrecked building with barely working lights and a gigantic monster chasing after them, hence Grace's screaming. I have read the articles from the publications and summarized the details below into sections.

PCI-SIG has announced the official release of its new PCIe 7.0 specifications, offering up to a blistering 128GT/s transfer speeds, while teasing that pathfinding next-gen PCIe 8.0 specifications are "in progress".

In a new press release issued today, PCI-SIG's new PCIe 7.0 specifications see a doubling of bandwidth of the not-even-out-yet PCIe 6.0 specification (64GT/s) with PCIe 7.0 bursting at up to 128GT/s raw bit rate, and up to 512GB/sec bi-directionally through a PCIe 7.0 x16 connection.

PCIe 7.0 will be using PAM4 (Pulse Amplitude Modulation with 4 levels) signaling and Flit Mode, with improved power efficiency, backwards compatibility with previous generations of PCIe standards, and supports AI/ML (artificial intelligence and machine learning), HPC (high-performance computing), cloud, data centers, and more.

A very well-known AMD leaker has provided details on the unannounced PlayStation handheld device, with the leaker saying it will feature AI upscaling.

That leaker is KeplerL2, who has a well-known track record of being on the money when it comes to insider information about hardware from major semiconductor companies such as NVIDIA and AMD. Kepler has taken to the NeoGAF forums to provide some rumored specifications for the upcoming PlayStation portable device, with the leaker writing that AMD will power the portable device, and the selected chip will be the only one the company can provide until 2029 as there is "no planned Z3 lineup for AMD's next-gen APUs."

There's apparently a solution for NVIDIA RTX 5000 graphics cards failing to work with some EVGA motherboards, which, rather unbelievably, involves simply taping over a couple of pins on the GPU connector.

The reported problem, which means the PC with the RTX 5000 GPU fails to boot at all, has been encountered by a fair number of folks as evidenced in various posts on Reddit. One of those posts, penned by MurkyIncident and highlighted by Tom's Hardware, provides the workaround solution using the tape and you can read it above.

What's reportedly happening is that Blackwell GPUs are failing to work with some motherboards featuring the Intel Z690 chipset, and the reason is there are extra SMBUS pins live on these EVGA mobos.

Nintendo has officially confirmed that the Switch 2 is a storming success, shifting a huge 3.5 million units globally in the handheld's initial four days on sale.

That's a major achievement and means it's the fastest-selling device Nintendo has ever launched. To put it in perspective, the original Nintendo Switch managed to shift 2.7 million units not in four days, but in four weeks.

As pointed out in a reply to the thread on X (flagged by German tech site Computerbase, via VideoCardz) where Nintendo announced the milestone, if we compare that to Sony consoles, the PS4 racked up sales of 4.2 million in six weeks - and the PS5 hit 4.4 million in a slightly lengthier seven weeks.

The new AYANEO FLIP 1S DS is the latest iteration of the company's dual-screen Windows PC gaming handheld inspired by the iconic Nintendo DS. It is a notable upgrade over the previous AYANEO FLIP DS as the main top screen is now a large 7-inch 1080p OLED display with an impressive 144 Hz refresh rate and a maximum brightness of 800 nits.

The dual-screen clamshell handheld's bottom screen has also been upgraded to a 4.5-inch 1620x1080 IPS panel with a brightness of 550 nits and a 3:2 ratio that AYANEO calls the "golden ratio" for playing retro games and emulating classic hardware. As a Windows handheld, these two displays act like two screens, so you can game on one screen while opening a browser or running hardware monitoring tools on the other.

AYANEO even says you can play games while running AI tasks on the second screen, thanks to the new flagship AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor that powers the AYANEO FLIP 1S DS.

From developer SHIFT UP, the sci-fi action game Stellar Blade made waves when it launched on PlayStation 5 last year. The game is set to make its PC debut this week, with day-one support for DLSS 4, including Multi Frame Generation for the GeForce RTX 50 Series. With that, NVIDIA has posted some early benchmark results for the game, showcasing its performance, hitting an impressive 541.6 FPS in 4K on the flagship GeForce RTX 5090.

This figure comes from the game running with Mas Settings with DLSS 4's 'Performance' preset using the fantastic new transformer model for Super Resolution, alongside the maximum Multi Frame Generation setting of 4X. Yes, this means the 541.6 FPS is the AI-powered figure, but with DLSS turned off, the GeForce RTX 5090 still hits an impressive 168.7 FPS in 4K.

In 4K, with DLSS 4, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5080 also hit 330+ FPS, so Stellar Blade will arrive as a well-optimized title. Dropping the resolution down to 1440p, even the GeForce RTX 5060 8GB GPU can hit 83.3 FPS with DLSS turned off or 200+ FPS with DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was Microsoft's "one last thing" announcement during its big Xbox Games Showcase this past weekend. The company also confirmed that it's coming to PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4. However, it didn't provide a release date or window, which has many people speculating that the next mainline Call of Duty won't arrive until 2026.

And with that, you probably noticed that the Nintendo Switch 2 isn't included in the list of platforms the game is headed to, which is a little strange when you factor in that the game is also coming to last-gen systems like the PS4 and Xbox One. Does this mean Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 won't be headed to the Switch 2? Not precisely, and there are a few reasons why.

A source working on Black Ops 7 recently provided a statement to Eurogamer stating that the team is "committed to getting the franchise on Switch," is currently "working on it," and that it will "share details when ready."

Applied Digital Corporation is a designer, builder, and operator of next-gen digital infrastructure for HPC applications, announcing new 15-year lease agreements with AI Hyperscaler, CoreWeave.

This new agreement will see Applied Digital delivering 250 megawatts (MW) of critical IT load to hose CoreWeave's extensive AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure at its Ellendale, North Dakota data center campus. Across the expansive approximately 15-year term, Applied Digital anticipates generating around $7 billion in total revenue from the leases.

CoreWeave also retains the option to access an additional 150 MW of critical IT load at Ellendale, which has positioned the data center campus as a scalable hub for expanding AI and HPC workloads.

The DIY mechanical keyboard market is booming, offering gamers and PC enthusiasts the option to fully customize their boards - from switches to keycaps, mounting, dampening layers, and more. Razer, which has released a wide range of mechanical keyboards and gaming-focused peripherals for years, is entering the DIY space with the new BlackWidow V4 75% Barebones kit.

Explicitly designed for modders and those wanting a fully customizable keyboard, Razer notes that it offers "enthusiast-level acoustics, cutting-edge performance, and immersive lighting" in the popular 75% layout and form factor. In Barebones form, the keyboard allows owners to install their own mechanical switches (3-pin or 5-pin) and keycaps.

The wired board is packed with Razer's latest 8000 Hz HyperPolling technology for low-latency and instantaneous response times, making it perfect for those who regularly dive into competitive games.

Matrox is a name you might not have ever heard of, but they were a major player in the graphics card industry decades ago, and have remained in the business since... now the company have just announced a new dual-GPU graphics card with 8 x mini-DisplayPort 2.0 connectors.

Enter the Matrox LUMA Pro A380 Octal graphics card, which is a dual-GPU card based on the Intel Arc Alchemist GPU architecture. This is an embedded version of Alchemist with dual A380 GPUs, 12GB of GDDR6 memory, 8 x mini-DisplayPort 2.0 connectors which are capable of driving 4 x 8K displays or up to 8 x 5K displays... all in a single-slot design and using a single fan.

Matrox doesn't just have its new LUMA Pro A380 Octal graphics card on the market now, but its A380 Quad SKU is pretty much the same card but with a single-GPU design, lower power consumption, and 4 x full-sized DisplayPort connectors. Matrox's new LUMA Pro A380 Octal graphics card has 12GB of GDDR6 memory, while the A380 Quad features just 6GB of GDDR6.

White House AI czar David Sacks has said that China isn't years behind the US when it comes to AI, but more like 3-6 months behind, and that the AI race is "very close".

Sacks was speaking at the AWS Summit in Washington when the White House AI and crypto czar said: "China is not years and years behind us in AI. Maybe they're three to six months. It's a very close race". He also downplayed the issues of American AI chips being smuggled by bad actors, and raised concerns that regulating US AI too tightly could hurt growth, and cede the critical AI market to China.

He said: "We talk about these chips like they could be smuggled in the back of a briefcase. That's not what they look like. These are server racks that are eight feet tall and weigh two tons. They don't walk out doors. It's very easy to basically verify that they're where they're supposed to be".