Latest News - Page 47

Intel's upcoming Nova Lake desktop platform is shaping up to be a serious power draw. According to leaker LC Tech Leaks, backed by well-known Intel leaker Jaykihn, Intel has revised its Z990 power design guidance, with a PL2 target of 474W reserved for nominal performance on dual-compute-tile Nova Lake-S CPUs. Anything exceeding 474W would apply specifically to overclocking scenarios on dual-die configurations.

For context, PL2 refers to the maximum power a CPU can draw during short burst workloads before throttling back to its sustained PL1 limit. A 474W PL2 figure is unprecedented for a consumer Intel desktop platform, territory typically associated with high-end desktop workstation designs. Given that the flagship Nova Lake-S dual compute tile configuration packs up to 52 cores, the number is aggressive but not entirely surprising.

The revised power guidance has also prompted discussion around a third 8-pin EPS CPU power connector appearing on some Z990 motherboards. Most current enthusiast boards ship with two EPS connectors, so adding a third raised questions about whether it was required for full performance with the 52-core chip.

The memory crisis, dubbed by many as the RAMpocalypse, has touched nearly every corner of the tech world. Console launches have been delayed, laptop prices have climbed, and PC builders are holding off on new rigs with no clear end in sight. Now, Micron has revealed a new business model that makes it clear that relief is not coming anytime soon.

During its Q3 earnings call, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra disclosed that the company has signed 16 Strategic Customer Agreements, or SCAs, with major customers, including hyperscalers. Most of these agreements run from 2026 to 2030 and cannot be canceled. Each SCA commits a customer to purchase a set volume of memory annually over five years, within a defined price band that has both a floor and a ceiling. The floor price is set to deliver what Micron describes as "a very robust gross margin, well above our peak quarterly margins in any past cycle."

The ceiling protects customers if prices climb even higher. Customers also pay an upfront cash deposit as a fail-safe, with $18 billion in cash and $22 billion in total financial commitments already deposited across all 16 agreements. These deposits are returned quarterly but are decremented if a customer fails to purchase the committed volume.

Over the past few months, Microsoft has been hard at work improving the Windows 11 experience, and for obvious reasons. It wants to win back the nearly billion users it left behind after ending security updates for Windows 10. But despite those efforts, Windows 10 fans are not budging, which has now forced the company to give them more breathing room.

Microsoft has quietly extended Windows 10's Extended Security Updates program by another year. The company updated its support page without any formal announcement and has since confirmed that it was not a mistake.

GTA 6's new $80 price tag may introduce a new mainline pricing model for AAA games moving forward, and some of the largest franchises are expected to embrace the higher-cost MSRP.

Games are getting more expensive to make, and developers are now charging more for the biggest titles. Nintendo was the first to raise game prices to $80 with Mario Kart, and now the biggest entertainment release of all time--GTA 6--will also cost $80. Pandora's box has been opened, so to speak, and S&P Global Market Intelligence analyst Neil Barbour believes other big games will be next.

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Barbour says that gaming's other annual hits could get hiked to $80 too. This includes games like Call of Duty, NBA 2K, and EA's yearly sports games. These are the same exact titles that collectively raised game prices to $70 at the beginning of the console generation back in 2020.

The Steam Machine has not even launched yet and Valve employees are already talking about future iterations of the console. PC Gamer conducted an interview with Valve engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Yazan Aldehayyat, who divulged ideas on the potential release cadence of future Steam Machine iterations.

Griffais reportedly told PC Gamer that the lifecycle of the Steam Machine does not need to be nearly as long as the Steam Deck. (For reference, it has been four years since the Steam Deck's release.) Griffais elaborated that this logic comes from the way Valve views its performance targets for the two devices. Valve reportedly treats the Steam Deck as a console, but treats the Steam Machine more as a gaming PC. Griffais explained that the extreme range of various CPU and GPU hardware configurations in the PC space makes it more appropriate for the Steam Machine to have less stringent performance targets compared to the Deck.

Sadly, the Valve engineers clarified that they are not building a Steam Machine 2 right now, nor is the console's announcement right around the corner. The duo revealed that the RAM crisis and the "natural slowdown" of the gaming PC upgrade cycle will affect the launch window of a future Steam Machine model. Aldehayyat pointed out that the longer upgrade cycle of the modern gaming PC industry will likely extend the longevity of the outgoing Steam Machine, compared to what the console might have achieved if it had launched a decade ago. Aldehayyat also pointed out that the performance demands of PC games in the Steam library are also a contributing factor. "...Like if a bunch of new games come out on Steam that require more performance, that would probably make us wanna upgrade the Steam Machine faster."

When Valve announced the Steam Machine at $1,049 with semi-custom RDNA 3 graphics, the obvious question was: can't you just build something better in the same footprint? AMD engineer Jacob Terkelsen decided to find out, and the answer is a resounding yes.

Terkelsen shared his creation, the Terk Box v1.1, on X on June 24. The build uses a 3D-printed Mini-ITX case designed by 3DCatt, whose print files are now publicly available on Printables for anyone who wants to replicate the project. The chassis is built around a standard Mini-ITX motherboard and a 400W FlexATX PSU, making it a legitimate compact living-room candidate in the same vein as the Steam Machine.

The hardware inside is rather interesting. Terkelsen fitted a low-profile GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, an AMD Ryzen 5 5500, 16GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD. The RTX 5060 alone represents a substantial leap over what Valve ships in the Steam Machine, which packs an RDNA 3 GPU roughly equivalent to a Radeon RX 7600M.

Sony's PlayStation Store listing for GTA 6 indicates that GTA Online will remain separate from the premium-priced story mode.

Rockstar has already confirmed that GTA 6 is a singleplayer experience, and it's clear that the game will launch without GTA Online packed in. The language that Sony is using around the game could mean GTA 6 and GTA Online could stay separated and sold as two different products. Technically, Rockstar already did this in 2022 when it opted to sell GTA V and GTA Online separately for reduced prices, and it looks like this model will be used for this cycle too.

While checking over the PlayStation Store, I noticed that GTA 6 is listed as "offline play only" when viewing the game on the PS5's version of the PS Store. That terminology is not used anywhere else in Sony's product materials for GTA 6. Elsewhere, including the browser PS Store and the PlayStation.com splash page, the game is listed as "offline play enabled."

Valve's Steam Machine hasn't even shipped yet, and scalpers are already cashing in. With purchase invitations set to go out the week of June 29, we have spotted resellers listing confirmed reservation spots on eBay at jaw-dropping markups. They are turning what was already an expensive piece of hardware into something far more painful for regular gamers.

We have independently spotted a listing on eBay asking $3,200 for the 512GB Steam Machine with Steam Controller bundle. Then, we ran across some more listings for the same bundle, one at $2,800, another at $2,999, and one as high as $3,500 for the 2TB model. All of these listings are for confirmed reservation spots, meaning the sellers received one of Valve's lottery invitation emails and are now flipping their place in line rather than purchasing the hardware for themselves.

Perhaps most concerning is a listing that has already sold at $2,800. That means someone out there paid real money for a scalper's reservation. Whether that transaction delivers an actual Steam Machine or nothing at all remains to be seen.

Valve has silently updated its marketing for the Steam Machine to drop the 60 FPS nomenclature found in advertising material on the Steam Machine's product page. Steam Hardware Updates on X saw the update, showing that Valve changed one of its text blurbs from "4K gaming at 60 FPS with FSR,..." to "up to 4K gaming with FSR 4.1,...".

Whether or not this change was made due to community backlash remains to be seen. But it is no secret that Valve's newest console is not up to the task of running every single game in the Steam library at 4K at 60 FPS, at least without the help of frame generation. Extensive testing by multiple reviewers has confirmed that the console's combination of a mediocre Zen 4/Zen 4c CPU and RDNA 3 GPU is only good enough for sub-60 FPS gameplay at 4K resolution in the most demanding titles available in the Steam library. For instance, in Digital Foundry's coverage of the Steam Machine, they recorded a benchmark result of just 30 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p (not 4K) using ray tracing, despite using FSR 3 in performance mode and running at graphics settings comparable to the base PS5.

As a reminder, the Steam Machine packs modest specs that represent what an entry-level gaming PC might look like in 2026. The system is armed with a custom Zen 4 chip with two vanilla Zen 4 cores, four Zen 4c cores, and a custom RDNA 3 GPU with 28 CUs and 8GB of GDDR6. For perspective, the GPU in the Steam machine features nearly identical specs to the RX 6600 that launched almost five years ago, save for the fact that the RX 6600 runs on RDNA 2, not RDNA 3. Valve is also pairing some Steam Machine orders with a single stick of DDR5 memory due to memory shortages, further reducing its performance in memory-bound situations.

Some fresh GTA 6 gameplay info has been spilled courtesy of Amazon, including the apparent depth of the integrated social networks feature, which will allow you to "follow influencers" and view viral videos.

The leak, spotted by Vice, comes via the Amazon site in Brazil, where the product page for GTA 6 has gone live for pre-orders complete with said details.

Some of this we already know, but there are some interesting nuggets of info which are new, and some pretty cool stuff therein - assuming all this is genuine, of course (and there's some skepticism about that).

The new Razer Soma Chroma is a wireless RGB gaming chair, and if you're wondering what that is, well, it's pretty straightforward. Basically, you've got Razer Chroma RGB Reactive Game Lighting built into the headrest, which is a pair of RGB lighting strips that synchronize with your PC and react to the on-screen action in over 300 integrated Razer Chroma-supported games.

In addition, Razer Chroma RGB offers a range of presets and is fully customizable through the Razer Synapse app. The Razer Soma Chroma also includes touch controls integrated in the fabric on the top of the headrest, with the built-in Control Panel offering quick access to lighting modes, brightness settings, and switching between PC (2.4 GHz) and mobile (Bluetooth) modes.

Of course, the Razer Soma Chroma is also a premium gaming chair that features a reinforced steel frame and wheelbase for durability, up to 155 degrees of recline for relaxation and productivity, and a built-in ergonomic lumbar arch to support posture and reduce fatigue during long gaming sessions.

Browser-based gaming has come a long way, especially in enabling access to classic games that were once standalone desktop or console experiences. For example, DOS Zone is a repository of classic PC games from the MS-DOS era, and it's a browser-based, ad-free way to play classics like Duke Nukem 3D, Sim City 2000, and Prince of Persia. And now we can add Valve's iconic Half-Life 2 to the list of classic games that are fully playable in a browser tab.

Developed by Slqnt and 98006, this web-based port of the game reportedly took three months to develop, but it offers the complete game to play with only a few graphical issues. The most notable one is that the character's eyes aren't rendered with irises or pupils, so they kind of look like zombies. Still, it's an impressive feat to get one of the most impressive games from the 2000s to run in a browser with all of the gameplay intact.

And it's also a testament to just how far we've come, both hardware and internet-wise, where cutting-edge games from back in the day can be played in a browser without having to wait an hour or several hours for a game to download and install.

This week, developer Rockstar Games and publisher Take-Two opened up Pre-Orders for what is shaping up to be the biggest game release of all time, Grand Theft Auto VI. Launching on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19, the $80 USD standard edition includes 'One Month of GTA+.'

Like previous entries in the series, it's expected that GTA 6 will once again push the envelope regarding mature and controversial content. And even though the ESRB in North America hasn't given the game an official rating, GTA 5 was rated M (Mature, 17+); it's already looking like Grand Theft Auto VI might be banned in some countries. Or, at the very least the eventual next-gen GTA Online mode that will accompany the game at some point in the future.

As Sony is the key hardware and marketing partner for the game, the company is seemingly taking the lead for pre-orders. And it seems that because there's a free month of GTA+, the monthly premium subscription for Grand Theft Auto Online, Grand Theft Auto VI (or this one component) won't be available for purchase in the following countries.

The Steam Summer Sale for 2026 has begun, and with thousands of games on sale, there are so many great deals that it's hard to keep track of them all. And if you're one of the many PC gamers out there who has uttered the phrase, "I'll wait for the Steam sale," then you're in luck because some of the biggest and most acclaimed releases from the last couple of years have been given their first major discount.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, the historically accurate and award-winning story-driven action RPG from last year, is 60% off, bringing its price down from $59.99 to $23.99. Also released last year, DOOM: The Dark Ages is 67% off and available for only $23.09. And if you've been sitting on the fence when it comes to Battlefield 6, EA's latest entry in the popular series is 50% off, bringing the price down to $34.99, just in time for Season 3's last big update.

And if you're one of the millions that have been glued to their screens watching all of the World Cup action, EA's premier soccer/football game, EA SPORTS FC 26, is currently 80% off and available for $13.99. And if you're looking for deep discounts like this, with games that are 90% off and available for under $10, you've come to the right place. Here are some of the best Steam Summer Sale 2026 deals for under $5 and $10.

Anthropic has accused Chinese tech giant Alibaba of carrying out the largest known distillation attack on the company to date. In a letter dated June 10 and sent to US Senators Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren, Anthropic alleged that operators affiliated with Alibaba and its Qwen AI lab generated more than 28.8 million exchanges with Claude through nearly 25,000 fraudulent accounts between April 22 and June 5, 2026.

A distillation attack, also known as a model extraction attack, involves querying a rival AI model at an industrial scale and using its outputs to train a smaller, less capable model. The attacker interacts with the target system like an ordinary user but with millions of carefully crafted prompts designed to extract its most valuable capabilities. Crucially, this does not mean Alibaba obtained Claude's source code, model weights, or original training data. The alleged campaign instead involved collecting Claude's responses at scale and using them as training material.

According to Anthropic, the campaign was specifically designed to help Alibaba's Qwen model approach the capabilities of Anthropic's frontier Mythos Preview model, which focuses on advanced coding, multi-step reasoning, and cybersecurity tasks. Anthropic alleged that the Chinese government was complicit in the effort and described distillation attacks as turning hundreds of billions of dollars in American AI investment into a subsidy for geopolitical competitors.

IBM has announced what it calls the world's first sub-1 nanometer chip technology, unveiling a new 0.7nm process built around an entirely new transistor architecture called nanostack. The result is a chip the size of a human fingernail that packs nearly 100 billion transistors, almost double the density of IBM's previous 2nm chip from 2021.

IBM says the architecture could deliver either 50% higher performance or 70% greater energy efficiency compared to its predecessor, and it represents what the company believes is a viable path for chip scaling for at least the next decade. Before going ahead, it is worth clarifying what "sub-1 nanometer" actually means here.

Modern process node names have not corresponded to literal physical dimensions for decades. IBM's 0.7nm designation, which it also calls the 7 angstrom node, refers to a generation of manufacturing capability rather than a physical transistor size. What matters practically is that the architecture delivers the density and efficiency improvements that such a node implies.

It was only a matter of time. Apple has raised prices across its Mac and iPad lineups, effective immediately. The MacBook Neo now starts at $699, up from $599, while the MacBook Air jumped from $1,099 to $1,299. The MacBook Pro saw the largest increase among the laptops, rising by $300 to start at $1,999.

The Mac Studio also took a significant hit, with the M4 Max version now starting at $2,499, up from $1,999. The M3 Ultra version of the Mac Studio went up from $3,000 to $5,299, the largest single price hike in this round.

On the tablet side, the base iPad now starts at $449 (up from $349), the iPad Air jumped from $599 to $749, and the iPad Pro rose from $999 to $1,199. The iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods, and accessories are the only product lines left untouched, for now. The average price increase across affected products sits at $246.67.

Apple is reportedly making a significant change to its Apple Silicon roadmap. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the company has canceled plans for M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, making the M6 the first Apple Silicon generation since 2020 to ship without higher-end variants. Instead of following the usual cadence, Apple is jumping straight to the M7, which is being designed primarily around on-device AI performance.

The base M6 chip is still on track for late 2026 and will appear in entry-level MacBook Pro models, the Mac mini, iMac, and potentially upcoming iPad Pro and iPad Air models. It brings meaningful improvements over the M5, including memory bandwidth up to 200GB/s compared to 153GB/s on the M5, an updated Neural Engine, a redesigned GPU with up to 12 cores, up from 10, and performance improvements across all processor cores. Prior rumors have also suggested that the M6 will be built on Apple's new 2nm process to reduce manufacturing costs.

The M7 is expected to arrive in relatively quick succession, with the base chip targeting the first half of 2027. The M7 Pro and M7 Max are slated for the end of 2027, with the M7 Ultra following in 2028. Bloomberg reports that the M7 line is designed primarily around major advancements in on-device AI processing, with the base M7 expected to support around 240 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

The RAMpocalypse reached a new milestone in Q2 2026. According to market research firm SigmaIntel, consumer memory prices rose sharply in the second quarter as supply-demand imbalances persisted across the industry. These are quarter-over-quarter figures, meaning prices didn't just climb versus last year; they also jumped relative to the already elevated Q1 2026 levels.

The LPDDR segment took the worst hit. LPDDR4X 4GB ICs rose 75%, going from $26.2 to $45.9, while 96Gb (12GB) LPDDR5X modules surged 89%, climbing from $77.1 to a whopping $145.9. This is the single biggest price jump in DRAM across any segment.

On the standard DDR side, a 16GB DDR4 stick now costs $207.1 versus last quarter's $137, a 51% increase, while a basic 16Gb (2GB) DDR module jumped from $19.2 to $28.5, up 49%. It is important to note that DDR5 pricing wasn't even included in SigmaIntel's report, and we've already documented how brutally expensive DDR5 has become.

Sony has confirmed layoffs at Bungie, and reports say that half of the studio--some 400 people--could be let go.

Disaster strikes at Bungie today with major layoffs affecting its development teams. PlayStation studios head Hermen Hulst released a memo that revealed the extent of the layoffs. Most of the Destiny team is being let go, as well as groups at SIE that are technically outside of Bungie but assist with Destiny and Marathon. Even some of the Marathon group will be let go as Sony and Bungie drastically downsize the workforce.

"We have made the decision to reduce Bungie's workforce, affecting a significant number of employees, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members. There are also reductions across SIE teams that support Bungie's operations," Hulst said.