Latest News - Page 48

AMD has issued a hotfix driver for Windows 10 users to fix a problem preventing Radeon gamers from running Adrenalin driver 26.6.2 - AMD's first driver with FSR 4.1 enablement for RDNA 3 GPUs, on Windows 10. AMD announced the new hotfix driver on X, version 26.6.3, and further elaborated that the hotfix will only be needed for a week, as the team gets ready to push the Windows 10 installation fix to an upcoming WHQL update next week.

Adrenalin driver 26.6.2 was one of the most important driver updates AMD has released this year, featuring FSR 4.1 upscaling support for previous-generation RX 7000 series GPUs and RDNA 3.x integrated graphics chips. After the driver's release, gamers quickly discovered that the update was broken on Windows 10, forcing Windows 10 users to switch back to an older revision. The issue specifically relates to a conflict with the driver and AMD's control panel software, which spits out an error message telling the user that the control panel version is incompatible with the driver. The issue is widespread, affecting a broad range of hardware, including Ryzen 9000 series CPUs and RX 9000 series GPUs. Windows 11 users are apparently not affected for unknown reasons.

AMD could have waited a week to get this fix out to everyone, but demand for AMD to extend FSR 4 support to older RDNA 3 and RDNA 2 GPUs has been significant over the past year on social media and comments on various AMD YouTube videos. Likely incentivizing AMD to push out a hotfix driver to fill in the gap. It's worth mentioning that hotfix drivers do not represent the most stable releases, so if you value driver stability, you might want to skip this update. But, for those who want FSR 4.1 support right now and are running an RX 7000 GPU and Windows 10, AMD's latest hotfix driver is the best option.

UPDATE: Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter, a largely credible magazine, that Rockstar currently has no plans to release GTA 6 on disc any time soon--especially not for the holidays.

New reports say GTA 6 will have a disc version after all...but this true physical SKU may not be available until a full month after launch.

GTA 6 is digital-only at launch, but it might not stay that way forever. New reports say that Rockstar could release a proper physical version of GTA 6 sometime in December. This version would of course come with a disc in the box, not just a download code, and may even have extras like a map and manual.

Xbox consoles are getting another price hike, Microsoft today announced.

Gaming is getting more expensive. GTA 6 will cost $80, but most people are buying the $100 version. Valve's new Steam Machine will launch at $1,049, and consoles are more expensive than they've ever been. Now gaming hardware is getting more expensive, at least at Microsoft.

Xbox today announced another price hike to its hardware lineup that affects all variants. The 2TB Series X Galaxy Black is also being taken out of production. "Effective August 1, 2026, we will be updating prices worldwide. The price of XBOX consoles will increase by US$100 for 512 GB models and US$150 for 1 TB models. We will also be sunsetting our 2 TB model."

Shortly after Computex earlier this month, Lexar was kind enough to offer journalists a tour of their headquarters and manufacturing facilities in China. It was an eye-opening experience. Not just for the beauty and cultural experience of China, but for witnessing Lexar's space-age manufacturing, quality control measures, and compatibility testing. Lexar takes pride in being a provider of storage and memory solutions.

It has been said that storage is the foundation of civilization. That's not some throwaway cheesy line. Think about it. Almost everything we know of ancient history and antiquity comes from tablets and scrolls, artifacts, books, and documents. Moving forward, we have punch cards, typewriters, drums, floppy disks, and hard drives. These days we have DRAM, SD cards, and SSDs. Who knows where we'll go next. DNA storage? Holographics?

Storage is more important than ever. In an online world, nearly everyone has a digital footprint. That's saying nothing about the insatiable demands that come from AI. All those 1s and 0s need to be stored somewhere, whether it's in memory or persistent storage. Without storage, well, we'd be screwed to put it mildly.

A couple of months ago, Blizzard released the second major expansion for its premier action-RPG with Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred. And based on the response from media, gamers, and fans alike, it delivered the best version of the game to date, thanks to its massive endgame overhaul, redesigned Skill Trees, improved itemization, new and surprisingly deep crafting system, and several Quality of Life updates. That, and it offers a satisfying, cinematic conclusion to the story laid out in the initial release.

And with Diablo IV: Season 14 'Season of Death Awakening' being the first proper seasonal update for the new Lord of Hatred, it introduces a new storyline and seasonal mechanic in the form of Pandemonium Ruptures born from Dark Rituals. These can appear throughout Sanctuary, where players can close them for loot and reputation, and take the fight to the new Seasonal Lair Boss.

But perhaps the biggest update coming with Diablo IV: Season 14 'Season of Death Awakening,' is something Blizzard is calling Mythic Uniques 3.0, where "every Unique can be Mythic."

AMD has released the FSR SDK v2.3.0 for game developers, which allows them to integrate AMD's FSR technologies into their projects natively. This is a notable update because it includes the DLL for the latest version of FSR Upscaling 4.1.1, which adds support for Radeon RX 7000 Series (RDNA 3) discrete GPUs. AMD has already released FSR Upscaling 4.1.1 as part of the latest Adrenalin drivers for Radeon GPUs, allowing RDNA 3 gamers to use the FSR 4 driver override feature, so this is more for future game releases and updates.

Perhaps the biggest addition to FSR SDK v2.3.0 is the arrival of AMD FSR Ray Regeneration 1.2.0. FSR Ray Regeneration is the company's answer to DLSS Ray Reconstruction, as it leverages AI and machine learning to denoise ray-traced lighting effects. The technology is still relatively fresh on the scene and only available in a handful of titles like Call of Duty and Crimson Desert, with the overall effect being an improvement compared to non-AI denoisers, but still a step or two behind DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction when it comes to image quality and detail that's restored.

With FSR Ray Regeneration 1.2.0, AMD notes that this update features "quality improvements," which is great to see, alongside expanding the technology to cover ambient and specular occlusion denoising. These new optional add-ons should bring noticeable improvements to FSR Ray Regeneration's image quality, so it will be interesting to see how they look in-game.

Valve has made it pretty clear that, with the success of the original Steam Deck, it was working on a follow-up. However, its position has always been that, for them to release a Steam Deck 2, the handheld would need to deliver a notable generational leap in performance rather than an incremental one. It needs to feel like a new console generation, and not the incremental updates seen in PC hardware and gaming.

With previous word from the company being that it's "hard at work" on creating the Steam Deck 2, and credible leakers stating that the company is targeting a 2028 release window (assuming hardware prices normalize by then), we've now got a small but definitely worthwhile update thanks to the recent launch of the Steam Machine.

Speaking with IGN, Valve has provided a quick update on the Steam Deck 2's development, and it sounds like the hardware is getting pretty close to being locked in.

When it comes to PC audio, especially for gaming, there's a lot of attention paid to headsets. And for good reason: there are many gaming headset options, and their mix of portability, versatility, and microphones makes them a go-to choice for multiplayer gaming and social interaction. That said, dedicated speakers will always have a place in any setup, and if you're looking for a more compact option, you might want to check out the new Creative XF1 Desktop Speakers.

The physical design here, available in black or white, is traditional bookshelf in that you've got a pair of woofers and tweeters in a design that hasn't really changed all that much in decades. However, the Creative XF1 Desktop Speakers are definitely modern as the built-in DAC supports high-resolution audio across Bluetooth 6.0, USB-C audio, and AUX input. On the wireless front, it supports the lossless LDAC codec for premium sound.

Now, when it comes to overall audio presence, larger speakers/woofers are important. As compact speakers, the Creative XF1 can output 72W of room-filling sound with its 3-inch FEA-optimized woofers. There's also bi-amplification with dedicated amps for both high and low frequencies, delivering cleaner, more balanced sound. As for the high-resolution playback, they support up to 40 kHz via USB Audio and analog line-in.

8BitDo's Retro 87 Mechanical Keyboard has seen a couple of variants in recent years, starting with a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) inspired design and later a translucent green option inspired by the original Xbox console. Fast-forward to 2026, to borrow an era-specific phrase, and 8BitDo is launching the Retro 87 Keyboard - Clear Blue to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Nintendo 64.

The translucent blue shell of the keyboard mimics the various post-launch N64 consoles Nintendo released, with a vibrant, colorful see-through design. Elsewhere, this custom Retro 87 Keyboard also includes some nice touches that pay homage to the Nintendo 64's groundbreaking, for the time, controller.

This includes yellow arrow keys with icons inspired by the controllers' C or 'Camera' buttons, blue and green 'A' and 'B' keys, and a mix of light and dark grey keys to add to the N64 feel. The Nintendo 64 was the company's first console built for real-time 3D graphics, launching in Japan on June 23, 1996, and then later that year in North America on September 29, 1996. The 8BitDo Retro 87 Keyboard - Clear Blue is launching soon, with pre-orders now open on the official 8BitDo storefront.

An unfortunate OLED monitor buyer has become one of many victims surrounding Amazon's faulty return system. Ph9ntasy on the PCMR subreddit complained about an Amazon order that was not fulfilled correctly and revealed they received a damaged 240Hz ROG Swift XG27AQDMG OLED display instead of the ROG Swift PG27AQWP-W OLED 540Hz 1440p display they initially ordered.

The faulty order gets even more complicated when the Reddit user revealed that the monitor was shipped to a different country, away from the US, and they had to spend $368 on shipping alone. The unfortunate Amazon customer was able to make contact with Amazon, and Amazon was willing to send a refund, but only on one condition, the monitor needed to be returned to one of their US-based locations. This was detrimental as shipping the monitor back would reportedly cost $600.

Receiving a product you didn't order from Amazon has been a problem that has grown over the past few years due to Amazon's faulty return system. Thieves have learned to exploit Amazon's refund-first, ask questions later approach, by purchasing a product and then returning the box with a counterfeit item inside. Thieves are able to get away with this because Amazon employees often don't check the package contents inside. Worse still, these items can be recirculated back into Amazon's warehouses as new items, which is likely how this situation occurred.

Google is developing an upgraded variant of its next-generation Tensor Processing Unit, and MediaTek has secured the exclusive contract to build it. The chip is codenamed Triggerfish and sits within the TPU v9 family as an upgraded follow-on to the base Humufish design. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo confirmed the arrangement on June 22, with production expected to begin in late 2027 and volume ramping through 2028.

Triggerfish builds on Humufish, though with some AI-targeted changes. SRAM capacity is two to three times higher than that of Humufish, allowing complex AI tasks to run on-chip rather than accessing slower memory. A new simulation die has been added, and the memory has been upgraded from HBM4 to HBM4E for higher bandwidth. This directly addresses the memory wall bottleneck that limits how fast AI accelerators can feed data to their compute units.

A dedicated CPU tile on the same package as the main compute die handles workload switching between training and inference. This makes Triggerfish the first Google TPU designed to handle both in a single chip rather than splitting them across separate silicon.

Samsung has announced the world's first UFS 5.0 storage chip, and the performance numbers are a significant step up from what is currently shipping in smartphones. Sequential read speeds reach up to 10.8 GB/s and sequential write speeds up to 9.5 GB/s, more than double the 4.3 GB/s read and 4.1 GB/s write ceiling of the current UFS 4.1 standard. Mass production is scheduled to begin in Q4 2026, with capacities up to 1TB available at launch.

Samsung claims UFS 5.0 is over 40% more power-efficient than UFS 4.1, achieved through clock gating and multi-voltage technologies that reduce the power required to move the same amount of data. The physical package has also shrunk, measuring 7.5mm x 13mm x 0.9mm, around 16.7% smaller than the previous generation, which matters for increasingly compact device designs across smartphones, XR headsets, and wearables.

Samsung is pitching UFS 5.0 primarily as an AI storage solution. On-device AI workloads increasingly depend on fast local data retrieval rather than raw compute power alone, and faster storage directly reduces the latency between a model request and its response. The JEDEC UFS 5.0 specification was finalized in October 2025, and Samsung's first chip is meeting those performance targets.

Rockstar has revealed a lot about GTA 6 today, including the official price of $80, but there is something else that most people missed. Hidden in plain sight on the official GTA 6 website, Rockstar Games revealed more about the game's story than most people expected.

The description for the GTA 6 Ultimate Edition notes that its bonus content is spread across the game's story, with new items becoming available as each chapter progresses. This directly confirms that the campaign is divided into discrete chapters.

It's a small line buried in an edition breakdown, and it may very well mean nothing, but the implications if it is true are significant. For context, the mainline GTA games have historically taken a continuous, mission-to-mission approach to storytelling. You follow your protagonist through one unbroken narrative thread, with little formal delineation between story acts. However, that apparently won't be the case with GTA 6.

AMD's Adrenalin 26.6.2 driver, which brings FSR 4.1 support to Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs, has hit a major snag for Windows 10 users. According to AMD, the driver fails to launch properly on Windows 10 systems and instead displays an error stating that the software is not compatible with the installed AMD graphics driver. Device Manager shows a yellow exclamation mark next to the GPU under Display Adapters, and some users are also reporting Error Code 43.

The issue appears to be tied specifically to Windows 10. Windows 11 users are not mentioned in AMD's advisory, and the bulk of reports are coming from Windows 10 installations. That said, a smaller number of users have also reported problems with RX 9000 series cards and even Ryzen 9000 integrated graphics under Windows 10.

AMD's official advisory recommends rolling back to Adrenalin 26.6.1 as a temporary workaround while engineers investigate. The catch is that 26.6.1 does not include support for FSR 4.1 on RDNA 3 GPUs. For Windows 10 users with RX 7000 cards who were waiting on FSR 4.1, the options are limited to either rolling back or using a third-party tool like OptiScaler in the meantime.

A Facebook post from a hardware community group just caught my attention, and it's a frustrating one. Apparently, this buyer, Crayola Johnson, ordered AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D from Amazon and received an Intel Core i9-10900K instead. The box arrived sealed with no visible signs of tampering, meaning whoever made the swap did so before the product even reached the customer's hands.

This is far from an isolated incident. We've covered multiple CPU switching cases on TweakTown over the past couple of years. The most egregious one was probably not even a CPU one, but a 970 EVO SSD that was disguised as a 990 PRO with fake stickers.

Earlier in 2025, a reviewer from Hardware Busters ordered a 9800X3D from Amazon Germany and found an AMD FX-4100 inside a sealed box. Before that, fake 7800X3D units with empty PCBs and counterfeit heatspreaders were circulating, and we also reported on a Ryzen 9 9950X3D that arrived with a 3D-printed base and no actual CPU under the IHS.

Sony says that GTA 6 will 'play best on PS5' ahead of pre-orders opening at midnight tonight, and the game's storefront listing also confirms it'll be enhanced on the mid-gen PlayStation 5 Pro.

Sony's marketing deal with Rockstar has been revealed alongside official confirmation that GTA 6 will cost $80. A new post on the PlayStation Blog gives somewhat vague assertions that PS5 will be the best place to play the hugely anticipated sequel, all without actually highlighting the benefits of the confirmed PS5 Pro enhancements (GTA 6 is also optimized for Xbox Series X/S as well, per the Xbox listing).

In the post, Sony highlights that GTA 6 will use the PS5's proprietary hardware features, including DualSense haptics support like adaptive resistance triggers and improved rumble, complete with sounds coming from the onboard speaker; Tempest 3D Audio engine support; and support of Sony's high-end SSD tech leading to "near-instant loading times."

Grand Theft Auto 6 might not have an integrated GTA Online component--Rockstar says the game is a "singleplayer experience."

Today, Rockstar Games confirmed GTA 6 will cost $80, and that physical editions of the game will ship with a code in a box (there will be no disc version of GTA 6). New info about the game is coming out across all channels, and a new FAQ on the PlayStation Store might indicate GTA 6 is a standalone singleplayer-only game (at least for now).

The FAQ clearly asks if GTA 6 will have any multiplayer modes or features, with a curt response: "Grand Theft Auto VI is a single-player experience." This strongly indicates that if GTA 6 does get online support (which it should, in some way), that it will be released as a standalone product and decouple the main game from the online mode.

GTA 6 will cost $80 for the standard version and will not ship on a disc at launch--physical editions come with a code in a box.

Rockstar Games today made an announcement that should make GTA 6 a far more profitable game. The publisher says that GTA 6's price tag starts at $79.99 in the United States, with pre-orders opening up later tonight at midnight on June 25, 2026. Physical media fans will be disappointed that GTA 6's physical box version will come with a code instead of the full game shipping on the disc.

The reason why Rockstar might be to ensure no leaks happen, and to make sure that everyone can jump into the game at the same time. "The physical version of Grand Theft Auto VI, containing a download code inside the box, will be available starting November 12 to support pre-loading," Rockstar says.

Electric scooter manufacturer Ausom is running a new limited-time "Soccer Season Promotion" offering discounts on three of its leading consumer-focused electric scooters.

The promotion runs from June 22 through to July 20, 2026, and celebrates Father's Day alongside the upcoming soccer events. As for the discounted electric scooters, Ausom has slashed prices on the Gosoul 2, Gosoul 2 Pro Dual Motor, and K20 Pro Dual Motor. Buyers can use the code "AUSSOMSS" at checkout to take an additional $50 off each scooter, which are already discounted.

The entry-level of the three is the Gosoul 2, which has been marked down from $599 to $579, making the final price with the additional $50 discount at checkout $529. The Gosoul 2 is primarily aimed at everyday commuters who just need to go from point A to point B and won't encounter tough terrain, steep climbs, or long distances. The Gosoul 2 comes with ShocFree suspension, which Ausom says is designed to provide a rider with a smooth riding experience across urban terrain, such as roads or pavements.

For on-the-go productivity, entertainment, and managing day-to-day tasks, it's hard to look past an ultra-thin and lightweight laptop. GEEKOM, a name that has become a mainstay in the Mini PC space thanks to a broad lineup of compact, powerful, quiet, and well-built rigs, has brought its expertise to the portable and lightweight laptop space with devices like the GEEKOM GeekBook X16 Pro. This is an ultra-lightweight laptop that packs serious power in its sleek, stylish build, and with Pride Day sales kicking off, you can save big on this impressive laptop right now on Amazon.

The GeekBook X16 Pro is built to last, with a full-metal, lightweight 2.8 lbs (1.27 kg) body made from aerospace-grade magnesium alloy in a precision-milled CNC unibody design that measures just 0.27 inches (6.8 mm) thick. And with a Titanium Gray finish, it's as sleek as it is compact. Lift the lid, and you've got a crisp 16-inch IPS display with a 2.5K (2560 x 1600) resolution, a fast 120 Hz refresh rate, 400 nits of peak brightness for working in bright environments, and 100% sRGB color accuracy for creative tasks and workloads.

Underneath the hood, it's powered by the flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 185H 'Meteor Lake' processor that sports an impressive 16 cores, 22 threads, clock speeds of up to 5.1 GHz, and 24MB of Smart Cache for fast and consistent performance no matter the task. The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H also features integrated Intel Arc graphics with support for the latest graphics and video technologies, AI-powered XeSS rendering technologies, and dedicated ray tracing hardware for gaming and complex graphics workloads.