The new ASUS ROG Azoth Extreme premium wireless gaming keyboard is here; however, it's hard not to look past the price - $499 USD. So then, what does a 75% gaming keyboard that costs as much as a GeForce RTX 4070 include? Quite a lot of premium features: a full-color OLED touchscreen, a carbon fiber positioning plate, and an adjustable gasket mount.

The latter allows gamers to toggle between two different type-feels, a first for a gaming keyboard. We first saw the ASUS ROG Azoth Extreme at Computex 2024, where ASUS explained that no expense was spared; every square inch of this thing has been designed to deliver the company's most premium keyboard experience to date. After a brief hands-on, we awarded it a Best of Computex 2024 award.

You'll have to wait a bit for our full review (it's due to arrive any minute), so let's go through what makes this custom 75% gaming keyboard a true enthusiast-level piece of hardware.

Amazon has launched its Prime Day deals, which means prices across the vast online retailer have slashed considerably.

If you need a new PC upgrade to get those extra frames in your favorite game, are looking to add a small accessory to your already awesome setup, or just want an entirely new gaming rig, Corsair has your back as it has slashed prices on Amazon across its various products. Below is a list of the best deals you will find on during Prime Day, which will run from July 16 to July 17, 2024.

First, we have the 5000D AIRFLOW TG Black, a tempered glass mid-tower case that, if you purchase during Prime Day, will save you $50, as it's discounted by 29%. As for cooling, there are various products discounted by 22%, but what stood out is the H150i ELIT LCD XT WHT, which will be priced at $232.75. For entire pre-built gaming PCs there is the Corsair Vengeance i7500 Gaming PC, originally priced at $2,499, but is going for $1,999, saving you $500 or 20%.

AMD has cooked up its new Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series CPUs with some brand new overclocking features, one of which is called Curve Shaper.

In a new post on X, leaker "1usmus" shared some details on AMD's new Curve Shaper, an add-on for AMD's current Curve Optimizer for its new fleet of Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series CPUs. AMD's new Ryzen 9000 series overclocking feature is Curve Shaper, a new feature extensively used for tuning your new Ryzen 9000 series CPU.

Currently, Ryzen 7000 series CPU owners can select a curve optimizer to be stable at low and high operating temperatures throughout the entire load range. But the new Curve Shapder feature on AMD's new Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series CPUs lets users tweak the CO across the entire temperature range. 1usmus shared a table of the Curve Shaper, which you can see below:

Emulation on iOS for Apple iPhone, iPad, and the Vision Pro headset continues to mature, with the first free PC emulator, 'UTM SE,' now available on the App Store. Interestingly, Apple rejected the app in June, even though it had changed its policy on consoles and other retro gaming emulators. According to Apple, a PC is not a console; however, with a few changes, the app has been approved for distribution.

UTM SE is a PC emulator for macOS and iOS designed to run various recent and retro PC operating systems, from Windows XP to Windows 11 to Linux and retro versions of macOS. It emulates "x86, PPC, and RISC-V architectures" with graphics-based and text-only operating system support.

That said, the emulator's PC gaming chops have one fundamental limitation. "UTM does not currently support GPU emulation/virtualization on Windows," which means no 3D acceleration via OpenGL or DirectX - so you're limited to software rendering. Still, this covers a long list of classics.

AMD's new Zen 5-based Ryzen 9 9950X processor has already been LN2 cooled and overclocked to 6.6GHz and scored 55K points in Cinebench R23. Check it out:

The AMD XOC (Extreme Overclocking) team recently held a live demo with AMD's new Ryzen 9 9950X processor at AMD's recent Zen 5 Tech Day for the press, with GamersNexus capturing a shot of the video during the event. The XOC team used an ASUS ROG X670E Crosshair Gene motherboard, a motherboard created specifically for overclockers in mind, with just two DDR5 DIMM slots.

The team chose the flagship AMD Ryzen 9 9950X processor, with LN2 cooling and advanced testing and overclocking. While the AMD Ryzen Master suite functioned during the video, a custom app made by ASUS was used instead for this overclock on the Ryzen 9 9950X.

Two new gaming monitors aimed at eSports gamers have been unveiled by AOC, and they are designed to provide users with as many frames as possible at the cost of visual fidelity.

The gaming monitor market has seen an influx in the number of OLED offerings, and while gaming monitors that take advantage of this new pixel technology are widely considered the best for gaming, not everyone can afford to fork out nearly $1,000 to pick one up. That is why we are still seeing new products using old pixel technologies such as IPS, VA or even TN.

Engineers have learned to squeeze out as much performance as they possibly can out of these older pixel technologies, which means they can be tailored to specific gaming experiences. AGON by AOC is no stranger to this and now it has unveiled two new gaming monitor offerings that are designed with one thing in mind - refresh rates. The AGON PRO AG246FK and the AG256FS are designed with eSports gaming in mind.

Samsung will use its in-house 4nm foundry process to mass produce its next-generation HBM4 memory to directly take on South Korean competitor SK hynix and TSMC in the race for AI memory supremacy.

In a new report from the Korea Economic Daily, we're hearing that Samsung will use its 4nm foundry process for the logic die of HBM4 memory chips (sixth-generation HBM) according to industry sources of KED. The logic die itself sits at the base of the stacks of dies and is one of the core components of an HBM chip used on AI chips.

SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron all make HBM, with logic dies used on the latest HBM3E memory, but the new HBM4 memory of the future requires a foundry process that's ready with customized functions required by AI chip makers like NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel, and more.

Intel has reportedly placed 3nm orders with TSMC for its next-generation AI chip codenamed "Falcon Shores" which teases TSMC's new CoWoS advanced packaging will be used, with Falcon Shores expected to be produced in late 2025.

In a new report from CNyes, TSMC has received yet another "successful order" for Intel's next-gen AI chip called Falcon Shores on TSMC's newer 3nm process node and CoWoS advanced packaging technology, with Falcon Shores to take on NVIDIA's tight grip on the AI chip market.

The new Falcon Shores AI chip design has been finalized (tape out) and will reportedly enter mass production at the end of 2025. Intel acquired Habana back in 2019, with Habana maintaining its independence in its operating model, but over the years, things have changed and now Intel will combine Habana's technology with its own GPU technology.

GPU images and GPU-Z screenshots have emerged for the GeForce RTX 4070 10GB that could have been. The unreleased prototype from NVIDIA features 10GB of VRAM on a slower 160-bit memory interface. The 'for reals' GeForce RTX 4070 launched in April 2023 and features 12GB of VRAM on a 192-bit interface, with a total memory bandwidth that is 20% faster than what we see here.

However, the AD104-275 chip in this unreleased GeForce RTX 4070 10GB prototype features 7,168 CUDA Cores - more than what is found in the actual GeForce RTX 4070 (5,888 CUDA Cores) and in line with the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER that was released earlier this year.

Interestingly, this prototype also features faster Base and Boost Clock speeds compared to the retail GeForce RTX 4070 - 2355/2520MHz versus 1920/2475MHz.

SK hynix is gearing up to strengthen its "triangular alliance" with NVIDIA and TSMC for the future of AI GPUs and future-gen HBM4 memory.

The South Korean company will attend SEMICON Taiwan on September 4, with SK hynix president Kim Joo-sun to deliver a keynote speech at the CEO Summit of SEMICON Taiwan, which will be the first time that the company has taken a large role like this at the event.

Around 1,000 companies attend SEMICON, a major event in the semiconductor space. Companies like TSMC attend to show off their latest semiconductor equipment and technologies, build new relationships, and strengthen old ones.

AMD has confirmed that its upcoming Zen 5 desktop CPU, the Ryzen 9000 Series, is launching on July 31 with four models: the Ryzen 9 9950X, Ryzen 9 9900X, Ryzen 7 9700X, and Ryzen 5 9600X. Price points are still TBC, but as part of a new deep dive into Zen 5, AMD has also provided some fresh benchmark results comparing the non-flagship 9900X, 9700X, and 9600X against their Intel 14th Gen counterparts.

Granted, as official benchmarks, these are most likely hand-picked to paint a positive picture, but they align with the impressive early leaks covering Zen 5 performance. The big takeaway, which is excellent to see confirmed by AMD here, is that the Ryzen 9000 Series is notably more efficient than Zen 4, runs a lot cooler, and supports more advanced overclocking for the CPU and DDR5 memory.

The first chart compares the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X to the Intel Core i9 14900K.

With U.S. export restrictions on GPUs hitting a certain performance level for AI, the flagship GeForce RTX 4090 is no longer officially available in China and has been replaced with the GeForce RTX 4090D. For PC gaming, there's not much separating the two; however, this raises questions about NVIDIA's plans for the upcoming Blackwell generation.

It's all but 'officially confirmed' that the next-gen GeForce RTX 5090 will be considerably more powerful than the RTX 4090 - with the question now being by how much, 30%, 40%, 80%? According to insider hongxing2020 on X, NVIDIA has its next-gen GeForce RTX 5090D ready and will release the GPU sometime in January 2025.

It's unclear what the configuration here will be or how it would differ from the baseline GeForce RTX 5090. On that front, NVIDIA could still be working on finalizing the GeForce RTX 50 Series specs. That said, any RTX 5090D would kind of have to be a PC gaming powerhouse - but without the raw AI performance.

Sabrent has just teased that it's about to kick off its Amazon Prime Day 2024 sales with some storage bargains for your new PC, laptop, or portable gaming handheld.

Let's begin with the Sabrent 4-Bay Docking Station that handles SSDs and HDDs in 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch sizes, with a power supply and fan, and with 4 bays, you can handle 4 big drives with separate on/off switches. The Sabrent DS-U3B4 is normally $99.99, down to $84.99 during Amazon Prime Day.

Next up is the Sabrent 4-Drive NVMe M.2 SSD to PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter (EC-P3X4), which is normally $179.99, down to $149.99 for Amazon Prime Day. The Sabrent 4-Drive NVMe M.2 SSD to PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter will allow you to add 4 x NVMe M.2 SSDs to a single slot inside of your PC, so if you need to fill some unused PCIe x4 slot inside of your system, this is the bad boy for you.

In a bid to maximize revenues and further improve profitability--especially a full year after the $70 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard King--Microsoft has made radical changes to its Xbox Game Pass subscription, including the outright removal of its console tier.

A bit ago, Microsoft announced a big shake up to its value-oriented Xbox Game Pass subscription service. Three key things happened: Price increases, adjustments of value, and the removal of the service's most saturated tier.

On the price increase front, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is increasing from $16.99 a month to $19.99 a month. Prices for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate held strong, with the debut $14.99 staying static across for years, but Ultimate prices jumped to $16.99 in 2023, and now to $19.99 in 2024--representing a 33% increase across the full five-year span that Ultimate has been offered.

Microsoft's recent Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price hike is the second increase since the service rolled out in 2019, and represents a +18% increase in a year's time.

As we had predicted in 2022, Microsoft recently made the decision to raise Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription prices to reflect the added value of new games, such as the gargantuan Call of Duty Black Ops 6. That's not the only thing Microsoft did, though; the company also fragmented the value of Game Pass by removing day one first-party releases on its new Game Pass Standard tier.

The new multi-tiered structure gave rise to a price hike for the all-encompassing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. This appears to be an effort to offset cannibalization and ensure long-term revenue via the lease-based model of subscriptions versus the one-off premium purchase that companies like Activision enjoyed in the past; gamers can sub for one month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $20 instead of paying $70 for new first-party games, including Call of Duty Black Ops 6.

Thanks to GEEKOM, we've got another exclusive Prime Day Deal on a powerful Mini PC that you won't want to miss. TweakTown readers can save $100 off the GEEKOM Mini IT13 Mini PC. A powerful little unit equipped with the 14 Core and 24 Thread Intel Core i7-13620H processor. With integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, 32GB of DDR4 memory, and 1TB of fast PCIe Gen 4 storage.

Weighing only 653 grams with compact dimensions (117 x 112 x 49.2mm), the GEEKOM Mini IT13 also features USB 3.2, USB 4, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 6E, and 2.5 Gbps Ethernet. Throw in up to 8K video support with AV1 decoding, an SD-card reader, and support for external graphics. And with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed, the GEEKOM Mini IT13 can be anything you want it to be.

A workstation, home theatre, gaming rig, photo and video editing studio, productivity computer, security system, and more. The GEEKOM Mini IT12 Mini PC with 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor normally retails for $599 USD, but right now, it's just $499! Enter the coupon code TWEAKIT13 at checkout to take $100 off the price of this powerful Mini PC.

AMD's next-gen Zen 5-based Ryzen 9 9950X processor has been tested once again, this time at 253W and its unlimited PPT setting, which sees the Ryzen 9950X beating out Intel's current-gen flagship Core i9-14900K by 35% in Blender benchmarks.

The new performance information on the Ryzen 9 9950X processor is coming from AnandTech forum user "Igor_Kavinski" once again, testing the Zen 5 chip on Blender. Remember: this isn't a final retail CPU but an ES chip (engineering sample), meaning we could see slightly more performance out of the Ryzen 9 9950X when it launches later this month.

Igor tested the Ryzen 9 9950X processor at 5 different PPT (Package Power Tracking) settings, which control the maximum amount of power the CPU can use. The Ryzen 9 9950X ended up being 20% faster than the Ryzen 9 7950X at its maximum power level, with Igor unleashing the 253W PPT setting, matching the Core i9-14900K "PL2" mode and unlimited PPT.

Anandtech forum user 'Igor Kavinski' has posted benchmark results for the upcoming Zen 5 launch flagship CPU - the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X. Still, on track for a July launch, the forum user has posted several Blender benchmark results covering various demanding 3D modeling tests. Based on what we're seeing, the upcoming Zen 5 CPU looks like a great option for 3D modelers.

The benchmarks include Precision Boost Overdrive and water cooling, with some of the most exciting results coming from the CPU when it's being pushed to its power limit. As an engineering sample, the CPU boost clock speed is listed as 5.62 GHz, lower than the 5.7 GHz outlined by AMD - so what we're seeing could be from a sample with limitations. Even so, it's excellent that temperatures rarely rise above 60 degrees.

As for the 160W sweet spot, the Ryzen 9 9950X outperforms the Ryzen 9 7950X, running at 230W by up to 16%, and the Intel Core i9-14900K, running at 253W, by up to 20%.

MediaTek is plotting along with new server processors based on the Arm architecture, in both CPU and GPU form, using TSMC's newer 3nm process node. The new Arm-based MediaTek AI chips will be launched in the second half of 2025.

In a new report from UDN, we hear that mass production is aiming for the second half of 2025, with orders expected from large cloud service providers (CSPs). MediaTek hasn't responded to the rumors, of course, but industry analysis shows that the AI server market is "rising rapidly," reports UDN, and that high-end AI models require high-performance computing (HPC) chips from major manufacturers like NVIDIA and AMD.

However, HPC consumes far too much power and doesn't require a large amount of AI inference, so in this field, there's no need for HPC chips. The mid-to-low-end AI server market is now growing, generating new demand. The low-power Arm architecture processor has become a "new target" for major CSP manufacturers.

Apple will be enjoying the first waves of TSMC's new 2nm production capacity, with TSMC reportedly kicking off trial production of its new 2nm node this week.

In a new report from Ctee, Apple has the first production capacity out of TSMC in 2025 for its new 2nm process node, with plans to use next-generation 3D advanced packaging platform SoIC (or System on Integrated Chip) on its next-gen M5 chips. SoIC production capacity is scheduled to "increase several times" in 2026, reports Ctee.

Apple is TSMC's largest customer and has taken the lead in booking 2nm advanced process production capacity, with rumors that its next-gen M5 chips and the use of SoIC advanced packaging will hit mass production in 2025. Ctee's supply chain sources said that Apple's upcoming SoIC production is "relatively easy" compared to AI chips.