Latest News - Page 6

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.

GEEKOM Mini PCs pair high-performance hardware with compact, robust, and versatile builds for everyday productivity, creativity, and more. With Prime Day Sales kicking off, if you've been eyeing a Mini PC, now's the perfect time because you can save up to 30% off the entire GEEKOM lineup, from everyday solutions through to high-performance rigs that can handle complex AI and gaming workloads. And all of these deals are available via Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Best Buy.

For those looking for an everyday workhorse, there's the GEEKOM A5 Mini PC, powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 7430U processor with 16GB of expandable memory and 512GB of fast M.2 NVMe SSD storage. With multiple USB Type-C and Type-A ports, support for up to four displays, and wired and wireless networking, the GEEKOM A5 Mini PC is on sale for $371 USD after 15% off. And for those wanting a bit more power, the GEEKOM A5 Pro is also discounted and down to $584, featuring a more capable AMD Ryzen 5 7530U processor, 16GB of expandable memory, and 1TB of fast SSD storage.

Despite their compact size, GEEKOM Mini PCs are built to last and ship with robust cooling, including large fans, all-copper heat sinks, and copper tubes. They're also built for expansion, with memory and storage that can evolve alongside your needs. And with that, there's the added peace of mind that comes with each device's 3-year limited warranty. As these Prime Day deals cover the entire GEEKOM Mini PC lineup, you can also save big on high-performance, compact, and powerful devices like the GEEKOM A8 and GEEKOM A9 MAX Mini PCs.

The infamous 12V-2x6 power connector has claimed another victim. This time it is the media outlet, Club386, whose GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition and their be quiet! Dark Power 13 PSU were both destroyed after a properly seated, single-cable 16-pin connection melted at both ends. The cable was not a third-party product, and the connector was fully seated. The team has been testing GPUs for decades, so it is unlikely to be user error, but none of that mattered.

NVIDIA has since replaced the GPU, but the damage was done, and the point stands regardless. The melting connector problem goes all the way back to the RTX 4090 launch in late 2022, when the original 12VHPWR standard started showing up in repair shops at an alarming rate. The root cause was uneven power distribution across the connector's pins.

Thermal camera testing by overclocker "der8auer" revealed one wire hitting 150°C on an RTX 5090 while other pins carried almost no load at all. When one pin absorbs the bulk of a 575W card's power draw, something burns.

SteamOS (or Linux, more specifically) has always had a rocky relationship with NVIDIA. While AMD and Intel graphics drivers are largely open-source and baked right into the Linux kernel via Mesa, NVIDIA keeps things proprietary. Newer GeForce GPUs do get open kernel modules, but the actual user-space driver stack, the part that does the heavy lifting for gaming, remains closed off. That fundamental difference is why SteamOS has historically worked well with AMD hardware and been a headache everywhere else.

This is also why the Valve x NVIDIA collaboration is bigger news than it might initially seem. In an interview with The Verge tied to the Steam Machine launch, Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais confirmed that the company has assembled "a growing team" focused specifically on NVIDIA support for SteamOS, adding that they are "collaborating with NVIDIA very closely." He also made clear that GeForce support is not arriving this year, making late 2026 optimistic and 2027 more likely.

The timing is important because SteamOS is no longer just a Steam Deck thing. With the Steam Machine now officially out and SteamOS 3.8 pushing expanded desktop PC compatibility, Valve is clearly trying to grow SteamOS into something bigger.

Virtuix's omnidirectional treadmill technology for immersive VR, which lets you move freely in 360 degrees, is something we've covered before as a complete system that includes a custom headset and a standalone treadmill designed to be paired with a PC and an existing headset. This week, Virtuix is announcing the new Omni One for Quest, which brings its impressive VR treadmill to the Meta Quest ecosystem.

The all-in-one Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3 headsets are the most popular VR headsets on the market today. Even in PC gaming, Valve's latest data show that these devices account for over 60% of all VR gaming on the platform. Although relatively expensive at $2,595 USD, the Omni One for Quest is all about unlocking full movement in a virtual space when paired with compatible games.

Virtuix notes that the growing library of Meta Quest games and experiences that will feature native Omni One for Quest support on day one include VAIL, Forefront, The Boys, and Star Trek: Infection. More titles are coming, and for multiplayer games, there's support for playing online with others, even those that don't have an Omni system.

Valve has released the Steam Machine, but now that the device has made its way into the hands of reviewers, we are beginning to learn that Valve may have fallen short in many areas other than price (and the inclusion of a controller).

In their recent review of the Steam Machine, Gamers Nexus discovered several Steam Deck-specific remnants while examining SteamOS within the new device. There are numerous directories and usernames that feature the word "deck". While these may appear as completely cosmetic mistakes leftover by Valve developers, they actually have real-world impact in games.

For example, when a game is first booted, it may believe the device it's being played on is a Steam Deck, which means specific inputs such as mouse and keyboard are automatically disabled at launch. Gamers Nexus discovered this was the case with Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. To remedy this, Valve has rolled out a per-game option that disables automatic Steam Deck detection, which will prevent the title from thinking a Steam Deck is being used to play it.

After teasing the design earlier this year at CES, and then showcasing a more final version at Computex, GIGABYTE's new AORUS GeForce RTX 5090 INFINITY graphics card has debuted with a unique physical design alongside rare double flow-through cooling. And with that, it looks like GIGABYTE is expanding its INFINITY lineup with a stylish white-colored AORUS GeForce RTX 5080 INFINITY WOOD graphics card, and two additional RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti models.

AORUS GeForce RTX 5080 INFINITY WOOD is certainly a looker, as it takes the darker INFINITY design and gives it a bright white makeover with added wood panels. Based on the specs found on the official product page for the card, it shares the same physical quad-slot dimensions as the GeForce RTX 5090 model and the same premium WINDFORCE Hyperburst cooling system.

As a premium GPU, the AORUS GeForce RTX 5080 INFINITY WOOD also arrives as an OC model with an out-of-the-box Boost Clock of 2,805 MHz, a sizeable increase over the 2,617 MHz reference spec and NVIDIA's Founders Edition model, which sports a similar double-flow-through cooling design.

Valve has recently unveiled the price of the Steam Machine, and as gamers are deliberating the value offering given the higher-than-normal price, it may be worth noting that not every Steam Machine will ship with the exact same component configuration, thanks to the AI boom.

In an interview with Gamers Nexus, Valve confirmed that the Steam Machine's official specifications list states it features 16GB of DDR5-5600 system memory, but that the total memory capacity will be available in two configurations: a single RAM stick or two sticks.

Why does that matter?Objectively, dual-channel memory configurations perform better than single-channel configurations. However, during the same interview Valve claimed the performance delta between the two memory configurations was negligible, enabling them to ship the PC/console hybrid in both configurations.