A new leak from hardware sleuth Jaykihn on X (formerly Twitter) suggests that Intel's next-generation Nova Lake HX family of processors will top out at a 28-core configuration. These CPUs are set to replace the incumbent Arrow Lake HX series, which is scheduled to arrive by late 2026 or early 2027.

Following the architectural shifts seen in Meteor Lake through Panther Lake, Intel's Nova Lake is expected to further refine this modular approach. At the microarchitectural level, Nova Lake is expected to pair "Coyote Cove" P-cores with "Darkmont" E-cores. While Darkmont has debuted with Panther Lake, details on the specific IPC gains and structural changes in Coyote Cove remain unknown.

The flagship desktop configuration is rumored to be a massive 3D package with several tiles, with up to 52 cores (16P+32E+4LPE), 48 of which are split across two Compute Tiles (each housing up to 24 cores) expected to be fabbed on Intel 18A or TSMC's N2 node, a centralized SoC Tile (expected to house the 4 LPE cores), a GPU Tile, and potentially a dedicated I/O tile.

Valve is going to roll out a Steam Store Home page refresh designed to make it easier to find new games and to display more content and information. The Steam Store Home page refresh is also about modernizing the UI by using higher-resolution game art and taking advantage of modern high-resolution QHD, 4K, and ultrawide displays. Valve notes that the store is now wider and more responsive, with the updates also making their way to the Steam Deck and Steam's Big Picture mode.

Although the overall layout is similar, the refresh introduces notable changes. For example, the 'Featured & Recommended' section at the top includes more detailed information when you hover over the cover art, including a user review round-up and a summary of the game, while also displaying adjacent games in the carousel.

The 'Discounts & events' section is also getting larger artwork, with the new Discovery Queue feature getting a prominent fixture, where you can browse through these curated titles without leaving the home page. 'Your Wishlist' and 'DLC for Your Games' sections are also being added, highlighting any potential discounts right there on the home page.

The Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for March 2026 are in, and there's some definite course correction after February's wild results. Last month, several GeForce RTX 50 and 40 Series cards shot up the market share ranking, with the GeForce RTX 5070 taking the top spot as the world's most popular gaming GPU. Now, based on the results, we were skeptical of their validity, as it represented one of the biggest single-month shifts to date.

The good news is that the March 2026 results look to be more in line with recent trends, which means the GeForce RTX 3060 has reclaimed the top spot as the most popular gaming GPU among PC gamers, followed by the GeForce RTX 4060. Now, the GeForce RTX 5070 is still proving to be the most popular GPU option in the current generation of GeForce RTX and Radeon RX cards, where it sits in the number five spot.

In the span of a year, it's become more popular than the GeForce RTX 3070, RTX 4070, and even the mainstream-focused GeForce RTX 5060. And speaking of Radeon RX cards, the first RDNA 4 model has made its way into the Steam Hardware & Software Survey results, with the Radeon RX 9070 appearing way down the list with 0.16% market share.

To its many fans, StarCraft is one of those Blizzard franchises that has remained dormant for way too long. That said, we've been hearing rumors of a new StarCraft game for years, and that it will arrive as a first- or third-person shooter. This dates back to 2024, when Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier said, "StarCraft is not dead," and that ex-Far Cry lead Dan Hay was leading development.

Fast-forward to 2026, and rumors that the game could be revealed and fully announced at BlizzCon 2026 later this year suggest the project is far enough along in development and design to be ready for a public reveal. This week, we've got word that Blizzard is hiring a "Lead Designer, Innovation" for an "Unannounced Game" that might be this new mysterious StarCraft project.

And we say that because the job listing is looking for a "Lead Game Designer to spearhead gameplay and content innovations for an upcoming AAA open-world shooter." Unless it's referring to a third shooter currently in development at Blizzard, counting Overwatch, there's a good chance this role could be related to the next StarCraft game.

Over the past year, a plethora of monitor manufacturers have announced a variety of extremely fast gaming monitors that come equipped with refresh rates well beyond 500Hz. AUO has introduced another monitor with such capabilities, with its latest offering featuring a blisteringly fast 800Hz refresh rate. AUO claims this new model is the world's first 24-inch gaming monitor with a refresh rate this high.

Very little was shared about the display's specs, but AUO confirmed the monitor will have a 1080p resolution and operate at up to 800Hz at native resolution. In this new bracket of extremely fast high refresh rate monitors, a monitor that can display its maximum refresh rate at both native resolution and 1080p is noteworthy. Just last year, more prominent display manufacturers were struggling to achieve such a high refresh rate-to-resolution ratio. This was obvious with LG's PG27AQWP-W and ASUS' PG27AQWP-W 720Hz dual-mode monitors, both of which can only achieve 720Hz at a paltry (though coincidental) 720p resolution.

As Videocardz noted, AUO appears to be stretching its claims about having the "world's first" 24-inch 800Hz monitor. Technically, there exists a 24.5-inch 1080p 800Hz monitor from HKC that was unveiled last year. Regardless, HKC's counterpart is 0.5 inches bigger, making AUO's claim legit (albeit barely). Other 800Hz panels similar to AUO's new 24-inch counterpart include AUO's own dual-mode 27-inch 4K panel that can run at 200Hz at native resolution or at 800Hz when downscaled to 1080p. But 800Hz is not the fastest refresh rate we've seen on monitors. HKC, TCL, Samsung, Antgamer, AOC, Philips, and Acer have all announced gaming monitors that reach up to 1000-1040Hz.

Although DDR5 memory pricing has recently dropped in the U.S. and China, a new report by TrendForce analysts says DRAM contract prices are set to increase in Q2 2026 as "high-capacity RDIMMs have become the primary procurement target" for AI deployment. And with supply still tight even after DRAM production and capacity have been reallocated to HBM and data center-first applications, contract pricing is set to increase by 58-63% compared to Q1 2026.

It's a notable increase in an industry where memory prices have continued to rise month after month. The report states that, even though DDR5 memory prices have recently trended downward due to lower demand, prices in the PC market will also rise as suppliers reduce shipments, forcing memory makers in the consumer space to procure what they need at higher prices.

And this extends to the GPU market, as GDDR6 and GDDR7 memory for PC gaming graphics cards are only being allocated "limited capacity," which means higher prices and scarcity in the months ahead. The AI arms race won't only affect DRAM pricing in Q2 2026; the report also states that NAND Flash contract prices will increase by up to 75% quarter over quarter, adversely affecting SSD pricing and availability.

Crimson Desert has proven to be one of the biggest and most notable releases of the year. This sprawling open-world action-adventure also pushes PC visual fidelity and performance to the limit with vast, detail-packed environments. That said, there's always room for improvement, especially when it comes to the game's ray-tracing.

Beyond Dreams, a YouTube channel that regularly mods the look of games via the ReShade post-processing injector, has uploaded a new video showcasing what Crimson Desert looks like running in 8K with a 'Complete RT' overhaul that dramatically improves Global Illumination (RTGI) and Ambient Occlusion, with cinematic changes made to grass rendering, color grading, and depth of field effects. It also adds a shaky-camera effect to give the presentation a more realistic, photoreal look.

Although the depth of field effects while you're playing an open-world action-adventure don't make a lot of sense, the improvements to Global Illumination are immediately apparent. With ReSTIR GI, Crimson Desert's environments and lighting look more natural, transforming the game from its "video game" look to something that definitely showcases the benefits of RTGI.

The new Dell XPS 14 for 2026 is now available, and with reviews popping up, one in particular has caught our attention for showcasing seriously impressive battery life. As seen in the review from Hardware Canucks, testing a model with an Intel Core Ultra 7 355 'Panther Lake' processor, measuring battery life with 'simple web browsing' with a peak display brightness of 150 nits, the Dell XPS 14 managed to achieve a seriously impressive runtime of 43 hours and 3 minutes.

This is almost triple the runtime of the MacBook Air 15's 14 hours and 30 minutes running the same test, showcasing that battery life on a Windows-based laptop has come a long way in recent years. However, there is one caveat to the 43 hours: VRR, or Variable Refresh Rate. Although VRR is a common feature in many modern displays, especially those built for gaming, the Dell XPS 14's display takes this one step further by offering a 1 Hz battery-saver mode.

Yes, this means the display refreshes its image only once per second, and it's best suited to mostly static workloads, like working in a spreadsheet. This is why the Dell XPS 14 was able to run for over 43 hours; however, the overall efficiency of the new Intel Core Ultra processors also played a big role.

AMD has announced that its annual AMD Advancing AI 2026 event is scheduled for July 22 to 23 in San Francisco, California. The annual AI everything event is designed to bring together developers, researchers, partners, and other customers to "experience the latest in AI infrastructure, architecture, and development."

As the company's flagship AI event, similar in scope to NVIDIA GTC, we can expect a few announcements during the opening keynote with AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su. During last year's event, AMD lifted the lid on its Instinct MI350 accelerators, teased its Helios rack, and even presented a look at EPYC CPUs powered by next-gen Zen 6 architecture.

With the AMD Instinct MI450 and Zen6-powered EPYC Venice CPUs on track for release this year, this will probably be the venue and time we get a deep dive and more details on these new technologies. Plus, introduce the next-gen Instinct MI500 accelerators, reportedly on track for 2027, and additional software updates.

Just a bit ago we published a report that Xbox has more games on the PlayStation Store's pre-order charts than Sony does. Now we've found an inverse relation, with Sony having more games than Microsoft does on the Xbox's top-sellers charts in the US.

The relationship between Sony and Microsoft is rather interesting. Seen as fierce rivals, especially during the FTC v Microsoft case in 2023, the two are also close bedfellows when it comes to big billion-dollar games like Minecraft, and after the merger, Call of Duty. While Xbox and PlayStation are competitor-rivals, they also maintain a symbiotic relationship, and this bond has only grown now that Microsoft has broken content exclusivity for good and all.

The dynamics of each company are likewise interesting. Sony is following Microsoft's lead to an extent, bringing multiple first-party funded and/or published games to Xbox, but only in the context of live service games like Marathon and Helldivers 2 (both of which appear on the Xbox list) as well as sports games like MLB The Show (this also pops up).

Last month, a malware toolkit called DarkSword had Apple users holding their iPhones a little tighter. The exploit could be used to break into older iPhones and iPads running iOS 18.4 through 18.7 simply by visiting a website hosting malicious code. Even legitimate websites that had been breached could be affected. The exploit could steal messages, browser histories, location data, and cryptocurrency, then upload everything to an attacker-controlled server. Bad news all around.

Apple responded by rolling out updates to address the two known exploits: Coruna, which affects devices running iOS 13 through iOS 17.2.1, and DarkSword, which targets iPhones running iOS 18.4 through 18.7.

There was a catch, though. Apple only patched iOS 18 for devices unable to run iOS 26. This left anyone who could upgrade but chose not to completely exposed. That is how Apple typically operates. If you are running an older version of iOS on a device that can be updated, Apple will withhold security patches until you make the jump to the latest version.

AMD's latest entry in its Ryzen 9000 X3D lineup is the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2, the world's first CPU with a dual 3D V-Cache design. Dell was actually one of the first companies to accidentally confirm the CPU's existence before launch, listing the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 in one of its configurations before quickly calling it an error and claiming it was meant to be the Ryzen 7 9950X3D.

Today, Dell's Alienware X handle has officially announced the newest addition to its Area 51 desktop lineup, powered by the 16-core, 32-thread Zen 5 flagship Ryzen 9 9950X3D2. This makes it the most powerful pre-built desktop the company has ever offered, with the processor bringing a dual X3D chiplet design, 192MB of L3 cache, and a total of 208MB of cache for superior gaming and productivity performance.

Interestingly, before the announcement, Dell had contacted VideoCardz to say that reports claiming the Area 51 would feature the 9950X3D2 were inaccurate. And now all of a sudden it has done exactly the opposite. Perhaps the company wanted a surprise announcement and was trying to keep things under wraps, but it could have simply not responded at all.

A modder and game maker wants to answer a question that has plagued PC gamers since the early 2000s: What would Diablo 2 be like with a first-person view like Elder Scrolls?

Diablo 2 as an FPS is surprisingly smooth--that is, if it's built by a skilled digital artisan with Unreal Engine 5's toolkit. YouTube creator and UE5 whiz I Make Games has released new gameplay footage for a side project meant to drum up interest for some kind of first-person, action-adventure Diablo game.

The result is an interesting look at a potential spin-off for the franchise, one that's more focused on in-your-face action similar to Skyrim. The Forgotten Tower has never seemed so dark and ominous, with the fallen clan goat men crowding the screen. The animations also show what sorceress abilities like ice blast and blizzard would be like in a dungeon-crawling 3D environment.

NVIDIA is reportedly running into manufacturing challenges with its next-generation Rubin Ultra GPU and is now considering a significant architectural revision. The standard Rubin, built for large-scale AI training, is on track to begin mass shipments this summer. Even before that rollout, reports about the more advanced Rubin Ultra are starting to surface, and its current roadmap may be hitting some real technological walls.

To understand the problem, it helps to know what Rubin Ultra was originally planned to be. NVIDIA introduced a dual-die architecture with the standard Rubin, meaning two silicon chips packaged together into one unit. Rubin Ultra was meant to take that further with a four-die setup, essentially doubling the base design into a much larger package. However, those ambitions may have pushed TSMC's advanced packaging technology past its practical limits.

Reports from Taiwan's Commercial Times suggest that NVIDIA may scale back the Rubin Ultra to a dual-die design, similar to the standard Rubin. The original design reportedly included 16 HBM4 memory stacks, around 1 TB of memory capacity, and CoWoS-L packaging.

New information has surfaced on Eidos-Montreal's cancelled games lineup, as per reports from Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson.

Like most of the games industry, Eidos-Montreal has had to adjust to new stark financial realities, culminating in three rounds of layoffs at the studio. New reports say that the recent wave of layoffs also came with the official cancellation of a big-budget AAA project that had been in development for multiple years.

Sources tell Insider Gaming that Eidos-Montreal had spent hundreds of millions of dollars producing an open-world third-person game set in a fantasy world. The game was apparently called Wildlands, but was known internally as P11, so-named because it was the 11th project that the studio had worked on. It was said to be almost complete before its cancellation.

Information about Intel's Wildcat Lake has been slowly emerging over the past few weeks. CPUs belonging to this yet unofficial lineup were first spotted on Geekbench and CrossMark, with another Core 3 304 entry surfacing later. Now, more information about Intel's Core 300 "Wildcat Lake" lineup has been uncovered by reputable leaker @Jaykihn on X (formerly Twitter).

According to the leak, the Intel Core 300 lineup will feature 6 SKUs, ranging from the base Core 3 304 to the flagship Core 7 360 CPU, with three Intel Core 5 SKUs in between. These CPUs are designed for efficiency, since they are mobile chips, which is why the leaked TDP ratings range from 15W to 35W across all SKUs.

Each CPU features a hybrid configuration, with two "Cougar Cove" P-cores paired with four low-power efficiency (LPE) cores. This configuration completely discards the "Darkmont" E-cores in favor of the LPE cores.

ShiftUp, the devs behind PlayStation hit Stellar Blade, are working directly with horror maven Shinji Mikami on a new game project.

The rumors were true: ShiftUp and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami have joined forces. ShiftUp, headquartered in Korea, has acquired Shinji Mikami's Japanese studio Unbound and will help fund and publish new projects, including Mikami's first game.

Mikami says that the new project is a sizable game, but won't offer specifics: "For the first time in a while, I'll be fully involved on-site to work on a fairly large game, and I'm really looking forward to it."

UK-based Analyst firm Ampere Analysis examines how the Switch 2's launch has affected third-party game sales, leading to a substantial +76% increase in software earnings on the Switch ecosystem.

Thanks to unrelenting software exclusivity, consumers typically buy Nintendo first-party games to play on Nintendo consoles. These titles are designed to be must-haves that can't be played anywhere else. Yet the Switch 2's release has catalyzed a mighty push of third-party software--which makes sense, because 3P vastly outnumbers Nintendo's catalog.

According to a new report from Ampere Analysis, the Switch 2's release helped boost third-party software sales by over 75% year-over-year, tacking on an additional $1 billion in revenue over a 9-month period. (Note: these sales are across both the Switch 1 and Switch 2 platform). The firm does a breakdown estimation on how much the top companies earned during the launch blitz, with Warner Bros. leading the charge primarily due to Hogwarts Legacy's success.

ASUS UK has revealed pricing for its updated family of ROG Zephyrus G14/G16 laptops with Intel's latest Panther Lake CPUs, as reported by Notebookcheck. If you were looking to get your hands on one of these laptops, be ready to pay a hefty price. ASUS UK has ballooned the price tag of the base G16 model by almost 30% as compared to last year. This is largely because the new base model now sports an RTX 5070, pushing the entry point into a higher price bracket.

It is important to note that these prices reflect the market in the United Kingdom, which is subject to VAT (Value Added Tax). That said, our comparison is within the same market, so we're likely to see a similar upward trend in the global market as well. The USD pricing provided in this article is estimated by removing the UK's standard VAT from the list price.

The floor for ASUS' 2026 lineup has shifted significantly. The most affordable G14 (GU405AP-SY004W) now starts at £2,899 (~$3,195), packed with an RTX 5070 and the Core Ultra 9 386H. If you want the larger G16 (GU606AP-TB003W) with the same specs, that entry point climbs to £3,199 (~$3,525). For context, last year's G16 with the RTX 5060 is now available for as low as £2,099 ($2,320). Whether you compare it to the base MSRP (a 30% hike) or to current retail prices (a massive 60% jump), there is a clear upward trend in pricing for these newer models.

Sony has long been rumored to be quietly working on a new handheld gaming device, and now renowned leaker KeplerL2 has shared details on how powerful Sony's upcoming device will be.

KeplerL2 became a voice of authority in the PC gaming community for accurate leaks on GPU architecture, providing SKUs, hardware specifications, and more. Now, Kepler has written in a new post on the NeoGAF forums that the GPU within Sony's PS6-generation handheld is "a bit ahead of XSS in raster (and ofc massively ahead in RT/PT)." Adding, the new handheld will also come with Sony's AI-powered upscaler, which would presumably be a version of PSSR, likely PSSR 3.

Sony is currently calling the PS6 handheld "Project Canis", and leaked specifications indicate that it will be rocking 4x Zen 6c cores, 2x Zen 6 LP cores, 16x RDNA 5 CUs, 192-bit LPDDR5X (24GB), and a 135mm² TSMC 3nm chip. According to Kepler, this device will outperform the Nintendo Switch 2, and depending on the AI upscaling performance, will beat out competing Microsoft handhelds such as the Xbox ROG Ally X. Kepler writes that Sony's new version of PSSR for the handheld will even be better than DLSS 4.5, which NVIDIA only announced at GTC 2026.