Latest News - Page 357

Kingston will soon be joining the Gen5 SSD market with the introduction of its new Fury Renegade G5 SSD that will feature up to 14.8GB/sec reads and up to 4TB capacity.

In a new post from VideoCardz, we're learning that the new Kingston Fury Renegade G5 Gen5 SSDs will feature up to 14.8GB/sec (14,800MB/sec) reads and up to 14GB/sec (14,000MB/sec) writes, with up to 2,200,000 IOPS performance. There will be no 512GB variant, with Kingston only releasing a 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB G5 SSD... no 8TB option in sight unfortunately.

Inside, Kingston's new Fury Renegade G5 SSDs are using the Silicon Motion SM2508 controller, which is based on a 6nm chip and uses 3D TLC NAND technology.

Why is the Nintendo Switch $450? In short: Nintendo is charging you extra because of risks, principally from tariffs.

The Switch 2 will release on June 5 for $450, complete with the first-ever $80 Switch game. Fans are still dealing with sticker shock and are demanding Nintendo lower the price, but that's not likely to happen. The Switch 2's high MSRP is Nintendo's way of trying to navigate an unprecedented global market while protecting its hardware profit margins in the process.

IGN spoke to a group of industry specialists and analysts, asking why the Switch 2 costs so much. The consensus is Nintendo is responding to the uncertain effect of tariffs with the only thing it can really control: Price.

SK hynix has started its HBM expansion project, with its "M10F" semiconductor fab re-purposing now in operation, meaning it can make more HBM memory chips for the AI industry later this year.

In a new report from ETnews, we're learning that SK hynix has completed the re-purposing of its semiconductor fab known as "M10F" located in Icheon, South Korea. This semiconductor fab has had its existing DRAM packaging lines converted to an HBM packaging line.

An industry insider said: "They introduced and replaced some packaging equipment and modified the required materials to suit the new packing specifications. They obtained the necessary permits from the local fire department at the end of last month and have commenced mass production".

We all thought it would be the release of Rockstar's beyond-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 that would see game prices upwards of $100, but it is Nintendo with the price of its just-announced Mario Kart World for its next-gen Switch 2 that could do it.

Nintendo provided some more details for Mario Kart World, exclusive to its new Switch 2 gaming handheld and priced at $80 for the digital version, and a huge $90 for the physical version of the game. Now that the world has swallowed that $90 tiny little physical copy of the game, the world of not just $100 but even more, has opened up for Rockstar and GTA 6.

It was only a month ago that Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter discussed GTA 6 and its rumored $100 pricing, where he said: "We think the company has plans to sell the game at a previously unheard of price point, and suspect that management can offer consumers an incentive to pay $100 or more per unit by rewarding them with a large amount of in-game currency to be spent in GTA Online".

"With 1,000 engineer-years of effort across every element - from system and chip design to a custom GPU, application programming interfaces (APIs), and world-class development tools - the Nintendo Switch 2 brings major upgrades," NVIDIA's Muni Anda writes in a new blog post about the new console.

The Nintendo Switch 2 features a custom NVIDIA GPU that includes RT Cores and Tensor Cores, as seen in its GeForce RTX range. The original Nintendo Switch hardware was based on older NVIDIA architecture from before the RT and AI era of gaming, so the Switch 2 will benefit significantly from DLSS AI upscaling - and it is probably the main reason a game like Metroid Prime 4 can run at a smooth 4K 60 FPS when docked.

When comparing the CPU and GPU inside the Switch 2 to the original, NVIDIA says it offers "10X the graphics performance," extending to the development side with "better physics and optimized APIs for faster, more efficient game creation."

Although full specs on the chip and its capabilities have yet to be confirmed, NVIDIA has confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2 includes an NVIDIA GPU with "RT Cores and Tensor Cores" to support AI enhancements like DLSS and real-time ray-tracing. Nintendo's official technical specs for the new console simply list a "Custom processor made by NVIDIA" for the CPU and GPU.

Either way, it's a massive improvement over the original switch, which included a custom NVIDIA Tegra X1 chip based on the pre-GeForce RTX 'Maxwell' architecture - a chip also used in NVIDIA's Shield devices. With RT Cores and Tensor Cores (the exact CUDA Core counts and clock speeds are still TBC), the Switch 2's GPU architecture, according to leaks, is based on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture from the GeForce RTX 30 Series.

"The new RT Cores bring real-time ray tracing, delivering lifelike lighting, reflections, and shadows for more immersive worlds," Muni Anda, Vice President of Software Engineering at NVIDIA, writes. "Tensor Cores power AI-driven features like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), boosting resolution for sharper details without sacrificing image quality."

Vietnamese shop Nguyencongpc have been building custom AI servers based on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards, with 7 x RTX 5090 cards used with 28 power cables in total, and 4000W of power consumption for the custom AI servers.

If you thought cryptocurrency mining back a few years ago caused issues with GPU shortages, it seems we have to fear custom AI servers using consumer-focused GeForce RTX 50 series gaming GPUs creating shortages for PC gamers. At the time, NVIDIA gimped crypto mining performance, but crypto miners continued to find ways around that.

However, NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card ships with a huge 32GB of ultra-fast GDDR7 memory, with large pools of memory favored by AI workloads, so a Vietnamese shop has used 7 of them in a custom AI server for various AI workloads, and 7 x 32GB of RAM is a big deal for AI users.

Intel and TSMC have reportedly reached a preliminary agreement for a chipmaking joint venture, where TSMC will run Intel's expanding US-based semiconductor fabs.

In a new report from The Information, we're learning that executives from Intel and TSMC reached a preliminary agreement to form a joint venture that would see TSMC running Intel's manufacturing plants. Intel and other US chipmakers will hold the majority of stock in the joint venture, which includes at least some of Intel's factories. TSMC will reportedly take a 20% stake in the new company, with both Intel and TSMC declining to comment.

It was only last month in March 2025 that we were hearing reports that TSMC had reached a joint venture foundry idea with US chip designers including NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, and Qualcomm.

Nintendo's new Switch 2 will make one of the biggest upgrades to any gameplay experience by reducing loading times.

The Switch isn't known for being a fast device. Whether you're trying to play a demanding game on the Tegra X1 SoC or loading an in-game zone, the Switch is sometimes pretty sluggish. But the new-and-improved Switch 2 supercharges data speeds with new flash storage, helping cut out those interruption points.

The Switch 2 isn't as fast as the PlayStation 5's custom PCIe 4.0 SSD but it does make a significant improvement over the storage found in the base Switch, which is a single Toshiba THGBMHG8C2LBAIL 32 GB eMMC NAND Flash chip with a maximum data rate of 400MB/sec. The Switch 2 uses UFS storage instead of the Switch 1's eMMC, which is faster than the original, but Nintendo hasn't revealed specifics on the storage outside of a whopping 256GB capacity and confirmation that the storage uses UFS.

With $80 and sometimes even $90 games, Nintendo fans are still reeling with Switch 2 sticker shock...but not all publishers will raise prices of their games. And we now have an idea of how high-end games will run on the Switch 2 hardware.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is coming on June 5 for $450 with a ton of games prepared for launch. The Switch 2's new chip allows it to run more demanding games, helping push Nintendo's successor closer to the more powerful Steam Deck PC handhelds. Publishers who didn't bring their games to Switch 1 over performance concerns now have a chance to sell their game on a Nintendo handheld.

Cyberpunk 2077 is one such game, and now CD Projekt has spoken up to get ahead of some of the static around Switch 2 game prices. According to Jan Rosner, who oversees distribution, licensing and partnerships for the Polish developer, Cyberpunk 2077 won't cost $80 on Switch 2 and the full game will be on the Switch 2 game cartridge.

Digital Foundry may not have had any luck spotting proof of DLSS in the Switch 2 Direct, but Nintendo has confirmed the Switch 2 does indeed utilize NVIDIA's upscaling tech.

The Switch 2 does indeed use NVIDIA's proprietary DLSS technology to facilitate gaming in 4K resolution and 1080p 120FPS, Nintendo Switch 2 director confirmed at a recent press event in New York. It was also confirmed that the Switch 2's new chipset, which is believed to be based on NVIDIA's newer Orin Tegra line, supports raytracing.

"We use DLSS upscaling technology and that's something that we need to use as we develop games," Dohta said, speaking of the Switch 2's hardware, as noted by IGN's Wesley Yin-Poole.

Cooler Master's novel take on an RTX 5080 graphics card was presented at CES 2025, and we've now seen some further details about this innovation (complete with pics, too, a couple of which you can check out above and below).

You may not have seen the original revelation, but Cooler Master's idea is to present an RTX 5080 with a custom cooling solution that allows for the fans to be swapped out - and other manufacturer's fans can be used, not just those from Cooler Master.

In other words, you can pick a high-quality fan of your preference, one that's nice and quiet, to keep the RTX 5080 cool and running smoothly.

As the next move with RDNA 4 GPUs, AMD is rumored to be launching a GRE spin on its RX 9070 graphics card.

As you might expect, this is supposedly happening in the Asian market, but if an RX 9070 GRE does indeed end up being realized, there's always a decent chance it could eventually be available in the US and other regions. There's past precedent for that, certainly.

The rumor of the RX 9070 GRE comes from IT Home, a Chinese tech site, as flagged up by VideoCardz, but at this point it remains a relatively flimsy assertion.

At a developer roundtable with some creators of the Nintendo Switch 2 the press asked some questions that has gained us some more knowledge about the hardware inside Nintendo's latest console.

Producer Kouichi Kawamoto, technical director Tetsuya Sasaki, and director Takuhiro Dohta answered a few questions from the press about the new console, with one of those questions being in regard to the Switch 2's battery life. According to Nintendo's official specification sheet for the console, the battery for the Switch 2 is a 5220 mAh battery that's expected to last anywhere between 2 and 6.5 hours on a single full charge.

As pointed out by the press, that is quite a discrepancy, and according to the Nintendo officials, that is a "rough estimate" as many variables can severely impact battery life.

Nintendo has officially showcased the successor to the Nintendo Switch, and now that the Switch 2-focussed Direct is complete and we know what to expect, companies are beginning to showcase additional products to pair with the new system. One of those products is additional storage, which is a little different with the Switch 2 compared to the original Switch.

It has been confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2 will only support microSD Express cards, which offer SSD-like speeds with up to 985MB/sec -- a huge jump from the 104MB/sec on the regular microSD cards. However, regular microSD cards are still compatible with the Switch 2 but are only limited to storing screenshots and videos, and are incompatible for saving and loading games.

Express cards are indicated by the "EX" located on the face of the card; no EX means no Express, and if that's the case, you will likely need to upgrade if you intend on taking advantage of the additional storage slot in the Nintendo Switch 2. So, what should you upgrade to?

Grand Theft Auto V might soon be available to those who've signed up for Microsoft's PC Game Pass, or that's the word from the grapevine.

GTA V has come to Xbox Game Pass in the past, but as you can see above, apparently it's returning there, but also being made available via the PC Game Pass. (Or at least as far as we can tell this is the first time, although a few folks are arguing that isn't the case).

At any rate, this was flagged up by a rumor peddler on X, Ben (VideotechUK), and apparently Rockstar is informing various community pages of this fact via an email that's doing the rounds.

FromSoftware, the developer of the critically acclaimed Elden Ring and Dark Souls franchise, will be releasing The Duskbloods, a new multiplayer game exclusively releasing on the Nintendo Switch 2.

The Duskbloods was announced during the recent Nintendo Switch 2-focussed Direct where Nintendo finally gave a close-up look at the new console, which is scheduled to launch on June 5. The Duskbloods is helmed by legendary game director Hidetaka Miyazakai, and while not many details were revealed during the trailer, we have learned the game will be a player-versus-player-versus-environment, or PvPvE experience.

FromSoftware recently unveiled Elden Ring: Nightreign, a multiplayer-focused spin-off of the critically acclaimed Elden Ring. Now, with the announcement of The Duskbloods, it's solidified the developer's new embracement of multiplayer-focused games. FromSoftware earned its stars and stripes with single-player-focused titles that only had very limited multiplayer experiences.

A faulty GPU chip has reportedly been found in a PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT Hellhound, leading to GPU temperatures and hotspots exceeding the 110 degrees Celcius threshold for RDNA 4 GPUs - hitting 113 degrees. The full report can be found at Igor's Lab, where Igor Wallossek conducted extensive tests on the GPU sent to their lab by a reader reporting unusually high temperatures.

Igor notes that the fault lies with the GPU die because even after applying a "high-quality PTM pad and additional thermal putty instead of rigid pads on the memory and voltage converters," the GPU's thermal performance did not significantly improve. Microscopic examination of the GPU die found 1,934 pits across the surface, with the largest exceeding industry standards.

These tiny pits prevent proper heat transfer, leading to temperatures as high as 113 degrees. This alarming situation renders the Radeon RX 9070 XT faulty or damaged; thankfully, AMD has already responded to the report, saying that it believes this is "an isolated incident" and will work with its partners to "understand the issue."

The Nintendo Switch 2, like the original, will support microSD cards for storage expansion. However, due to the boost in internal storage and Game Card speeds, microSD cards compatible with the original Nintendo Switch will not work with Switch 2. This is because you'll need one of the new microSD Express cards that supports faster transfer speeds.

During its big Switch 2 presentation, Nintendo confirmed that faster internal and external storage will dramatically improve load times. At the same time, the more rapid transfer speeds will also be critical for streaming things like texture data and other elements when gaming in 4K 60 Hz or 1080p 120 Hz modes.

If this is the first time you've heard of microSD Express cards, you're not alone, as they aren't as widely available as the most standard options compatible with the original Switch. However, if you plan on picking up a Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5 and want more storage, check out the Lexar PLAY PRO microSDXC Express Card - which offers up to 1TB of additional capacity for games.

Nintendo is taking scalpers head on with the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, and as the company teased many months ago, it has a plan in place to mitigate scalping as much as possible. We now know what that plan is.

Nintendo just wrapped up its Switch 2-dedicated Direct, where we got a close-up look at the highly anticipated console, the new Mario Kart game launching alongside it, and an official release date/price. The Nintendo Switch 2 will release on June 5, and the base console will be priced at $449, with the Mario Kart World bundle being $499.

As with every major console release, gamers are quick to raise concerns about scalping, or the practice of people buying the console at retail price and reselling it for a profit. However, Nintendo's plan to prevent this as much as possible involves mass stock, which it has already secured and shipped to the US, and several new plans.