PC build videos are a fairly common thing to stumble upon on YouTube, especially when the algorithm is well aware that you're a PC gaming enthusiast. That said, there was one recent upload from the channel GPUSpecs that immediately stood out during one of our recent 'let's kill some time on YouTube' breaks. And the title sums it up perfectly - 'Building a Gaming PC Without Using Intel, AMD, or NVIDIA.'

A functioning gaming x86 PC running Windows and playing games like Forza Horizon 5 without any Intel, AMD, or NVIDIA hardware is a fascinating project to take on, and the result is exactly that. As expected, GPUSpecs sourced parts from China, with the 8-core Zhaoxin KaiXian KX-7000 CPU being of particular interest, as it's an officially licensed x86 CPU thanks to Zhaoxin's ties to companies like VIA and Cyrix that made x86 processors back in the Pentium days.

In the video, we learn that he was able to purchase the CPU, which arrived pre-installed on a custom, compact ASUS motherboard, even though it doesn't feature any ASUS branding. The good news is that the CPU socket is basically identical to an Intel socket, so Intel mounting for an air cooler worked just fine.

In recent years, we've seen the rise in popularity of magnetic or analog keyboards in the PC gaming space. Magnetic switches open the door to adjustable actuation points and dual-mode action, and are highly sought after for that very reason. That said, the more tactile feel of mechanical switches is still highly sought after, and with its new G512 X gaming keyboard, Logitech is saying, 'Why not have both?'

Yes, the impressive new Logitech G512 X TMR Analog and Mechanical Gaming Keyboard ships with 39 Dual Swap hybrid TMR switch beds, meaning that you can hot-swap between analog/magnetic switches and traditional 5-pin mechanical switches on the same keyboard. It's an impressive achievement, and the new Logitech G512 X comes with 9 premium Gateron KS-20 analog switches for those seeking a competitive edge.

That isn't the only notable hardware innovation that the Logitech G512 X brings to the table, as you can add SAPP (Second Actuation Pressure Point) Rings to one of the analog switches secondary actions (programmable and assigned to a specific actuation point) so you get a tactile bump on that second trigger point. Throw in TMR (Tunnel Magneto Resistance) sensor technology for the analog side of the keyboard, a more advanced and accurate technology, and the Logitech G512 X stands out long before you take in its stylish physical design.

Earlier this month, Xbox and Activision announced that the live-action Call of Duty movie was on track to hit theaters on June 30, 2028. The film adaptation of one of the most popular gaming franchises of all time is being developed in partnership with Paramount, with acclaimed writer Taylor Sheridan (Sicario, Yellowstone) penning the script alongside director Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Lone Survivor).

Although we don't know much about the movie beyond the above, it seems it's already sparked its first bit of controversy courtesy of an old interview. Back in 2013, Call of Duty's Peter Berg sat down with Esquire and shared some very unflattering words about video games, specifically shooters like Call of Duty.

"Pathetic," Peter Berg responds when asked about his thoughts on video games. "Keyboard courage. Can't stand it. The only people that I give a Call of Duty get-out-of-jail-free card to is the military. They're out there serving and they're bored and they want to entertain themselves? Okay, maybe. Kids? Uh-uh."

Well, it's official: Microsoft and OpenAI are no longer monogamous when it comes to AI, with both companies releasing statements confirming that their exclusivity agreement is over. Prior to the announcement, Microsoft and OpenAI's several-year-long partnership saw the former delivering the Azure cloud-based infrastructure and billions of dollars in funding for the company's breakout AI hit, ChatGPT.

With the new agreement, "OpenAI can now serve all its products to customers across any cloud provider," however, Microsoft will remain OpenAI's primary cloud partner, with the AI firm's products to "ship first on Azure." This new open relationship makes sense in light of the recent news of Amazon investing $50 billion in OpenAI. A deal that includes silicon and gigawatts of compute.

In fact, when news broke that OpenAI was in talks with Amazon, some reports suggested that Microsoft considered suing OpenAI. A rumor that makes it sound like the partnership between the two companies has soured in recent months. That said, the revised agreement sees Microsoft retain its license for OpenAI's models and various products through 2032; however, this is now non-exclusive.

With Valve launching its new Steam Controller, its first hardware release for 2026, many are naturally wondering about the status of the upcoming Steam Machine and the inevitable Steam Deck 2 gaming handheld. As part of the new controller's debut, IGN sat down with Valve programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais to ask about the current status of the handheld sequel.

"We're hard at work on it," Griffais replied, confirming that the company is still very much all in on developing the highly anticipated Steam Deck 2. Although we didn't get any new information or details on hardware specs, a potential launch window, or any new features for the handheld, the good news is that Valve is treating its recent hardware push as a single ecosystem, where each device informs the others.

"If you look at our hardware projects over the years, you can draw a straight line from the original Steam Controller and Steam Machine to Steam Deck, to everything that we're announcing and shipping this year," Griffais adds. "We expect Steam Deck 2 will be a lot of the same, where a lot of what we're doing here will be learnings that build up to it."

The Kingston DC3000ME Gen5 U.2 NVMe SSD is now available in a 30.72 TB capacity, boosting storage density and performance for data centers. With its PCIe 5.0 NVMe interface, this new 30.72 TB model delivers sequential read speeds of up to 14 GB/s and random read performance of up to 2.8 million IOPS. It's also fully backward-compatible with PCIe 4.0, so it's next-gen-ready for data centers planning to upgrade sometime down the road.

Under the hood, the Kingston DC3000ME uses 3D eTLC NAND technology with on-board power-loss protection (PLP) to safeguard data in the event of a power outage. Security-wise, the Kingston DC3000ME supports AES 256-bit encryption and TCG Opal 2.0 self-encrypting drive (SED) capabilities. Plus, it's backed by a 5-year limited warranty for additional peace of mind.

In the current data center era of AI workloads, training, and inference, SSD speed, reliability, and capacity are becoming a top priority for new setups, upgrades, and future-proofing. The benefits of PCIe 5.0 speeds are a game-changer for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems running Large Language Models (LLM), as SSD storage is used to augment the cost-prohibitive capacity limitations of DRAM.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has been officially revealed, and fans are ecstatic about exploring the golden age of piracy again. We covered a report earlier this month that another Assassin's Creed remake was supposedly in the works, with rumors pointing towards an earlier installment in the series. A new leak suggests that Ubisoft may be going all the way back to Damascus for the next remake.

The leak comes from @xjØnathan on X (formerly Twitter), stating that an Assassin's Creed I remake is in the works. There is not much else to go on here, but the leaker claims that the original source is someone within Ubisoft. However, this lines up with the earlier report from Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, who claimed that another Assassin's Creed remake (after Black Flag) was already in the works.

Ubisoft also gave us an update on the roadmap of Assassin's Creed early last month. Head of Content, Jean Guesdon, stated that multiple projects were currently in progress, including the mainline game codenamed Hexe, a PvP multiplayer experience known as Invictus, and a AAA mobile game currently known as Jade. These projects are all moving at different speeds; however, as we recently saw with Assassin's Creed Hexe losing two directors in two months.

After months of rumors and speculation, Valve has finally announced that the new Steam Controller will launch on May 4, priced at $99 in the US, €99 in Europe, £85 in the UK, $149 CAD in Canada, and $149 AUD in Australia. As much as Valve tried to keep things under wraps, pricing had already leaked in an accidental embargo slip-up weeks earlier.

The announcement also settles one long-running question. The Steam Controller is launching separately, and neither the Steam Machine nor the Steam Frame has a confirmed release date. Valve has no real updates to share on either product, with programmer Pierre-Loup Griffais telling IGN when asked about the timeline, "Yeah, we don't have exact details about the timeline to share today," though he thinks "in general, things are going well."

As for the controller itself, it works with any computer running Steam and can also serve as a generic phone controller. A report from The Verge adds a few more confirmed details, including Valve's partnership with iFixit to produce replacement parts, meaning players can repair the device themselves with a proper guide.

Intel's latest driver release, 32.0.101.8517, for Arc Pro GPUs increases the integrated GPU's memory allocation to enable broader LLM inference support. The new driver allows users to allocate up to 93% of their system RAM to the integrated GPU. While the driver currently supports only a select number of SKUs, Intel is paving the way for larger LLM inference workloads without hitting memory capacity bottlenecks.

Traditional memory partitioning usually limits a GPU to 50% of system RAM. AMD's Variable Graphics Memory (VGM) allows high-end configurations, such as the Strix Halo, to allocate 96GB from a 128GB pool to the iGPU. Intel has been more aggressive in this regard. Last year, Intel raised the limit to 87% with its new "Shared GPU Memory Override" for Core Ultra Series 2 processors.

The latest driver release pushes that boundary further to 93% for local AI inference. This only supports integrated Arc Pro GPUs, such as the Arc Pro B390 and Arc Pro B370. While this allocation update is the headline feature for integrated GPUs only, the driver also supports discrete Arc Pro A and B-series cards.

The first independent benchmarks for Intel Core 300 "Wildcat Lake" CPUs are just starting to appear. Wildcat Lake was the topic of speculation for a long time, until Intel made the series official earlier this month. The Core 300 series of CPUs is meant to slot under the Core Ultra 300 "Panther Lake" chips in Intel's lineup and are targeted towards mid-range mobile and edge applications.

Recently, the Core 5 320, a mid-range Wildcat Lake chip, was spotted on benchmarking site PassMark. The results are quite impressive, and they look even better when compared to other CPUs. Keep in mind that the Core 5 320 is a 6-core, 6-thread CPU with 2 "Cougar Cove" P-cores and 4 "Darkmont" LPE cores, but no traditional E-cores.

On PassMark, the new Wildcat Lake chip scored a multi-threaded rating of 15222 and a single-threaded score of 4047. To put it into context, the single-threaded score is not anything to write home about, since the CPU can only boost to 4.6 GHz on the P-cores. However, the multi-core result is impressive, since it leads the Apple A18 Pro by 21%. That is the chip used in the new Apple MacBook Neo! The single-threaded result for the A18 Pro is 4066, which is essentially identical to the Wildcat Lake Core 5 320.

Following recent price hikes in the US, UK, Europe, and Japan, Sony has now announced new pricing for the PS5, PS5 Pro, and PS Portal across Southeast Asian markets. The new prices will bring these regions in line with global console pricing and will take effect May 1st, covering the PS5, PS5 Digital Edition, PS5 Pro, and PlayStation Portal in selected markets.

The Southeast Asia update covers Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The biggest price jump is seen in Indonesia, where the PlayStation Portal will now sell for IDR 5,199,000, up 44.5% from IDR 3,599,000.

For consoles, the largest confirmed increase is in the Philippines, where the standard PS5 moves from PHP 30,790 to PHP 40,032, a 30% increase. Vietnam follows with a 27.1% increase for the standard PS5, from VND 13,300,000 to VND 16,900,000.

AMD launched EXPO 1.2 a few days ago, but support only included X870E and X870 motherboards, making it unclear if the technology was going to trickle its way down to older motherboard chipsets. As reported by Uniko's Hardware on X, we now have confirmation that EXPO 1.2 will be making its way to older 600-series AM5 motherboards featuring X670 and B650 chipsets.

The news comes from Safedisk on the ROG forums, who responded to a forum member asking whether EXPO 1.2 support would trickle down to X670 series motherboards. Safedisk affirmed the response, noting that X670 and B650 would be getting support, but warned that development was going to "need time". Safedisk's confirmation also suggests that EXPO 1.2 support will be coming to B850 and B850E motherboards as well. There is no reason for AMD to restrict EXPO 1.2 support from B850/B850E motherboards when B650/B650E motherboards are receiving the update.

EXPO 1.2 is the latest iteration of AMD's Extended Profiles for Overclocking standard, and is AMD's counterpart to Intel's XMP standard. Version 1.2 of EXPO adds support for mix and matching DDR5 DIMMs with different capacities, CUDIMM, Ultra Low Latency mode, and support for three Chinese-based DDR5 memory manufacturers. However, there is a caveat with CUDIMM support; the memory controllers in AMD's outgoing AM5 CPUs don't support the CKE chip in CUDIMMs and thus can only run these modules in a compatibility mode that bypasses the CKE chip. Full support will be coming with Zen 6. For more details, check out our previous content on EXPO 1.2.

Intel just had a very strong Q1 2026 earnings call, reporting $13.8 billion in revenue, up 7.2% year over year and well above industry experts' expectations. Much of this revenue came from Intel's datacenter and AI divisions, which brought in $5.1 billion, but another division that flew under the radar was Intel Foundry. Intel's in-house manufacturing facilities brought in $5.4 billion in revenue, which was also higher than expectations.

It was widely known that the Foundry, despite a very solid long-term plan, was struggling to get off the ground in its early days. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan even expressed grave concerns about low yields and the Foundry's future. However, as reflected in the earnings call, the Foundry is now an integral part of Intel's business, and yields have slowly but surely improved.

Turns out, Intel has been managing its yields very effectively amid the ongoing chip shortage. While demand for AI and data centers is skyrocketing, Intel is cutting costs and increasing yields by making the most of its silicon wafers. Ben Bajarin, CEO of Creative Strategies, says that Intel is salvaging what would be "scrap" or low-end dies and turning them into binned-down SKUs to improve yields.

Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred is the second major expansion for the game, and it's out later today with servers, new campaign content, and Season 13 set to kick off at 4:00 PM PDT, April 27. Ahead of the launch, we were able to go hands-on with the new campaign on a pre-release server, while also getting a first-hand feel for the new endgame and all of the big changes. As someone who has been playing since launch, it's safe to say that Lord of Hatred is a game-changer.

Not only in terms of presenting an engaging story that actually adds closure to all of the background Mephisto stuff from the main game, but also the cranking up of the stakes of the first Vessel of Hatred expansion, but in terms of where Diablo 4 might be headed next. Ultimately, the big stuff here plays off the new story campaign, which is set in the new region of Skovos, home to the Amazons.

This backdrop, inspired by Greek myth, introduces a new major city and hub called Temis. For Diablo 4 fans, it's the best locale and hub to date, offering quick access to all of the game's existing and new features. From the return of Kanai's Cube to Talismans, the Pitt, Undericty, and War Plans, there's a lot, so here's a quick breakdown of what's in store in Lord of Hatred.

Okay, so the brand-name MOREFINE definitely sounds like it comes from a group that didn't quite grasp the potential English-language double-meaning as a drug, but that's secondary to the fact that its new MOREFINE G2 External GPU Docking Station is impressively compact. And stylish too, the black-and-brass unit weighs just 700 grams and measures 140 x 100 x 54mm.

With its Thunderbolt 5 (Type-C) port supporting 80 Gbps bidirectional data transfer and up to 100W power delivery, what makes the MOREFINE G2 External GPU Docking Station notable is that it includes a desktop-grade GeForce RTX 5060 Ti GPU with 16GB of memory. The MOREFINE G2 is also versatile, supporting a high-speed Oculink connection in addition to Thunderbolt 5.

In addition to delivering impressive 1080p and 1440p gaming performance, with MOREFINE G2 synthetic benchmark results delivering a 3DMark Time Spy score of 12,893 when paired with an AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 processor, it's also a capable GPU for AI workloads. The RTX 5060 Ti's 16GB of GDDR7 memory and Tensor Cores deliver up to 759 AI TOPS of performance.

Intel launched the Arc B580 desktop graphics card in December 2024 (check out our review here), giving us our first look at the second-generation 'Battlemage' architecture. As a follow-up to the first generation of Arc Graphics cards, the B580 was a big step forward in the right direction. From improved driver stability to broader compatibility with a wide range of games, and Intel's own XeSS technology offering a viable alternative to NVIDIA DLSS regarding Super Resolution and Frame Generation capabilities.

Since the B580's debut, we've been getting a lot of conflicting reports surrounding the company's desktop gaming GPU plans. Recently, the long-rumored 'Big Battlemage' arrived in workstation form for the AI market, with Xe3 and Xe3P gaming architectures shifting focus to the mobile market, that is, laptops and handhelds.

Xe3P, or the Arc-C series for mobile, was reportedly on track to get a desktop gaming GPU release under the codename 'Celestial.' However, based on the latest rumor and news from insider Jaykihn on social media, the 'Celestial' discrete gaming GPU was canceled a long time ago. And with no gaming GPUs reportedly on the cards through Q1 2027, the only hope would be Xe4 in late 2027 with 'Druid.'

It's no secret that Valve's Steam Machine went from being one of the most highly anticipated gaming hardware releases of early 2026 to being missing in action. The reason for this comes down to the ongoing memory crisis that has exponentially increased the prices of consumer memory and storage. Valve has officially confirmed this and stated that it still plans to ship both the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame headset in 2026.

According to a new report from Insider Gaming's Mike Straw, "Valve is getting closer to confirming everything" when it comes to the Steam Machine. Apparently, pricing is the big issue, with Valve actively debating whether it's willing to "take a loss" in the short term. This would mean Valve would lose money on every Steam Machine sold, with the idea being that it would recoup costs through users buying games on Steam.

Although we don't have a ballpark figure for any of the prices Valve is considering, a recent leak suggesting the Steam Controller will cost $100 makes it likely that the Steam Machine price will still be much higher than expected. Even if Valve is willing to take a loss or break even.

Recent rumors suggest Intel is rebranding its next-gen PC gaming handheld chips, with the Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme set to be formally unveiled at Computex 2026. Although these new Panther Lake chips haven't been officially announced, Robert Hallock, Intel VP and GM of its enthusiast channel, has seemingly inadvertently confirmed the 'Arc G3' branding.

The confirmation arrived via the German outlet PC Games Hardware, which posted its full interview with Robert Hallock. When asked about the Arc G3 Series launch and PC gaming handhelds, he responded with, "I actually don't work on Arc G3 all the time." So yeah, instead of a "no comment" like response, we got Robert Hallock simply stating that he's not deeply involved in the Arc G3 Series and that mobile technology and chips have a much longer marketing cycle than desktop processors.

Now, this could mean that the Intel Arc G3 Series is still a lot further out than expected and needs more development time for hardware and software to come together, that is, dedicated handhelds from Intel partners like MSI, which has support for mobile Arc Graphics with its Claw series. Still, per our previous reporting, we do have information on the specs for the upcoming Arc G3 Series.

Assassin's Creed Hexe has been in the works since late 2022 as part of the Assassin's Creed Infinity project. Ubisoft announced the game as the next mainline installment in the series after Assassin's Creed Shadows, but very little information has been coming out about the game since its announcement. However, we have a new development that might explain the apparent lack of information about the title.

According to a LinkedIn post, the game director for Assassin's Creed Hexe, Benoit Richer, is leaving the project. He is departing to cofound an indie studio of "industry veterans" and is seemingly no longer attached to Hexe or Ubisoft in any way moving forward. What's interesting is that this is the second high-profile departure from the Assassin's Creed Hexe team within two months.

Clint Hocking, the creative director for Hexe, left the development team during a tumultuous time at Ubisoft. He was replaced by Jean Guesdon, who is known for his work directing both Assassin's Creed Black Flag and Origins. Benoit Richer was previously the director of Assassin's Creed Valhalla and also directed Batman: Arkham Origins before joining Ubisoft in 2017.

Microsoft's next-generation console, codenamed Project Helix, may be facing turbulence before it even reaches store shelves. The console was first teased by Asha Sharma, Xbox Gaming's newly appointed CEO, who took over from longtime boss Phil Spencer earlier this year. In an interview with The Game Files, Sharma and Chief Content Officer Matt Booty discussed the broader state of Xbox, touching on hardware ambitions and the company's plans for Project Helix.

The pair were notably cautious about committing to specific timelines or price points for upcoming hardware, citing the unpredictable nature of the current market, and for good reason. The global memory market is experiencing what analysts are calling a structural crisis, driven by a permanent reallocation of silicon wafer capacity toward high-margin AI infrastructure.

In Q1 2026 alone, consumer RAM prices inflated by as much as 110%, with SSDs surging even further, triggering a widespread scramble among PC manufacturers to secure supply. CPU chips are also beginning to face shortages, as fabrication capacity is increasingly prioritized for server-grade components. The combined pressure from skyrocketing component costs and limited availability is creating a perfect storm for console makers, who rely on a stable and predictable bill of materials to lock in specifications and production schedules.