Latest News - Page 313

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).

Elden Ring Nightreign is a hit for Bandai Namco and FromSoftware with multi-million sales on the first day of release.

The new online PVE co-op Elden Ring game is off to an incredible start. Nightreign has sold 2 million copies on consoles and PC in the first day, FromSoftware has announced. Remember that Nightreign is a cross-gen release available on both PS4/Xbox One and the PS5/Xbox Series systems, so these full game sales metrics include all platforms.

The confirmation post was short and to the point: "Darkness fell over Limveld, and two million Nightfarers rose up against it. Thank you for your support."

Microsoft has been quietly working on a first-party Xbox handheld device for quite some time now, and just as rumors and reports were heating up that the green team was getting ready to showcase the new device, its launch has been delayed.

The news has come from Windows Central's Jez Corden, who exclusively reported yesterday that the first-party Xbox handheld was now delayed, per an internal announcement at Microsoft.Now, Corden has penned an explainer piece as to why it was a good decision for Microsoft to delay its first-party Xbox handheld to make way for third-party Xbox handhelds such as ASUS's upcoming device codenamed "Project Kennan" and Windows 11 gaming optimizations.

In a nutshell, Microsoft delayed its Xbox handheld because it's facing its most legitimate threat in the gaming market in decades, and that threat is coming from Valve, specifically SteamOS.

Google just issued a statement that confirms the suspicions of Android smartphone owners who've been complaining about Instagram draining their battery way more than it should - and also let us know that a fix has been deployed.

In the past couple of weeks, we've witnessed a raft of complaints that Instagram is not just torpedoing battery life, but also causing phones to get uncomfortably hot, too.

In a post on the Android help forum that Android Authority flagged up, a Google community manager acknowledged the problem, and said Instagram has updated its Android app so the battery drain bug 'should' be fixed.

AMD is expected to adjust their downgraded chip designs to form a new family of AI GPUs that will comply with the constantly evolving US export restrictions starting in July 2025, with a new rumored AI GPU that will battle NVIDIA and Huawei in China.

In a post by insider @Jukanlosreve we're hearing that AMD will soon have an AI GPU answer for the Chinese market that complies with US export restrictions, with DigiTimes reporting that AMD is expected to offer an RDNA 4-based Radeon AI PRO R9700 workstation GPU for the Chinese market.

AMD would be cutting down its specs to meet the US export restrictions, but will have just GDDR6 memory on its China-specific Radeon AI PRO R9700 GPU, versus NVIDIA with its rumored B20 shifting from HBM to GDDR memory, and GDDR7 at that (with far more memory bandwidth, which is an important part of AI workload performance).

CD Projekt is bringing Witcher 3 mods to consoles in a new update, the company today announced.

The Witcher 3, which just broke 60 million sales worldwide, is getting even more love from CD Projekt to celebrate the game's landmark 10 year anniversary. Gamers will soon be able to experience Geralt's adventures in a whole new way thanks to official mod support on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles.

Later this year, CD Projekt will release a Witcher 3 game patch that adds multi-platform mod support across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. The idea is to create an ecosystem that ties these platforms together with a centralized webwork of user-created mod content. Creators can make mods and tweaks with the official REDkit modding toolset, but it's not actually a requirement for specific additions like custom textures.

Yeston is offering RX 9060 XT graphics cards in 8GB and 16GB flavors as expected, but what very much isn't expected is that it appears that these products have different clock speeds as well as memory loadouts.

Now, this could be some kind of a mistake in terms of listing the respective specs of these Yeston GAEA models - which are going on sale in China in just over a week - or there might be a genuine difference here.

As VideoCardz reports, according to the specs, Yeston's RX 9060 XT with 16GB runs with a boost clock of 3230MHz and a game clock of 2620GHz, compared to 3130MHz and 2530MHz for the 8GB board.

Lenovo is preparing a new AI Mini-PC powered by AMD's new Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" APU, offering up some fantastic gaming performance inside of a smaller form factor system.

Inside, we're to expect Lenovo's new LCFC AI Mini-PC to be powered by the flagship Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" APU which offers 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 5 processing power, with an RDNA 3.5-based Radeon 8060S integrated GPU with 40 Compute Units.

Alongside the Strix Halo APU, the new Lenovo LCFC AI Mini-PC will feature dual Gen4 SSD slots for super-fast storage, and a rather large (and rather awesome inside of a Mini-PC) amount of memory: with 128GB of LPDDR5X-8000 RAM inside. Lenovo's new LCFC AI Mini-PC system features a 1GbE ethernet port as well as Wi-Fi (with no WiFi 6 listed).