Graphics Cards

Saying one thing is a million times more something than another thing is often hyperbole, but during a recent GDC 2026 presentation, NVIDIA's John Spitzer said exactly that when it comes to path tracing performance on future GeForce RTX graphics cards. Of course, this comes with a caveat: performance compared to NVIDIA's pre-RTX Pascal-era GeForce GTX graphics cards that lacked dedicated ray-tracing and AI hardware. Yes, it's all thanks to AI.

Real-time path tracing or full ray tracing is so demanding on GPU hardware that it's only possible thanks to a wide range of AI-powered rendering technologies such as DLSS Super Resolution, Frame Generation, RTX Mega Geometry, and more. As these features are available on the current RTX Blackwell-powered GeForce RTX 50 Series, NVIDIA says it has already achieved 10,000X faster path-tracing performance than in the Pascal era.

"If you look at the performance there with just a software RT core to today, where we have fourth-generation RT cores, we have third-generation Tensor cores, we have DLSS 4.5, which is able to infer 23 out of 24 pixels rendered," NVIDIA VP of Developer & Performance Technology, John Spitzer, said. "These are multiplicative, that you can multiply them all together to get a scaling factor that, combined with the algorithm, eventually gave a 10,000 times that we've improved the performance over the last 10 years."

COLORFUL has announced a new line-up of GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards, powered by the latest RTX Blackwell architecture. The new iGame GeForce RTX 50 Ultra Series blends a similar hip-hop-inspired design and aesthetic to last year's Ultra lineup, albeit in a darker black colorway that highlights the purple flourishes.

Visually, they look impressive, with a gradient of purples and neons in the holographic finish and RGB graffiti on the side. With a large heatsink and triple fans for cooling, this new lineup covers all models from the GeForce RTX 5060 up to the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. All options ship with an out-of-the-box OC Mode, with the most powerful model including an iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Ultra OC SFF variant for compact builds.

In addition, COLORFUL has announced the new iGame GeForce RTX 50 Ultra DUO Series, featuring a similarly stylish design with compact dual-fan cooling. COLORFUL is releasing iGame GeForce RTX 5060 Ultra DUO and iGame GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Ultra DUO models, including RTX 5060 Ti variants with 8GB or 16GB of VRAM.

Playing a modern PC game, we have all grown accustomed to the 'shader compilation' process, which can take seconds or several minutes to complete. This process, designed to minimize stutter that occurs when new shaders are compiled in real time, also increases the time it takes to get into the action. And it's not always a one-and-done thing, as changes to settings and game updates can restart the shader compilation process.

At GDC 2026, Microsoft announced that it's bringing Advanced Shader Delivery for Windows to PC gamers, with NVIDIA confirming that it will be available for GeForce RTX gamers later this year. It's an ambitious update that is rolling out via the latest AgilitySDK 1.619 release, where developers can generate a "state object database (SODB) file" and then use an "offline compiler to compile the state objects into a precompiled shader database (PSDB)."

Although that's the technical summary of what's involved, the good news for gamers is that pre-compiled shaders for their specific GPU model will be downloaded as part of installing the full game, so the process will be automated and seamless. And for developers, there's also a new Stats API that can be used for optimization and seeing how the game runs in relation to the "shader cache hit rate."

Thermal Grizzly's WireView Pro II is designed not only to measure the power consumption of modern graphics cards or GPUs that use the new 12V-2x6 connector, like NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 5090, but also to prevent potential damage. With per-pin current monitoring, it can detect and alert users of any potential load issues.

The WireView Pro II is an enhanced version of the company's original design and features a CNC-machined aluminum housing with active cooling via a 30-mm fan and 90-degree cable routing. It sports a 320x170-pixel TFT-IPS color display for real-time monitoring of critical measurements such as total power, highest-current pin, voltage, and hottest sensor. And with safety being a key feature of the WireView Pro II, there are both audible and visual warnings if limits are exceeded.

Plus, there's automatic data logging via the included USB-C-to-USB-2.0 cable, making it a fantastic tool for overclockers and those with high-end systems looking to keep tabs on GPU power usage. And with the rise of white-colored PC builds and components, Thermal Grizzly has announced it's launching a WireView Pro II White Edition, available to pre-order via the company's official storefront.

The annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) is wrapping up. Although the event is focused on game developers and networking for their projects, it's also home to game technology companies and hardware makers who discuss what's on the horizon, what's next, and new technologies. At GDC 2026, Microsoft began its first public deep dive into its next-generation Project Helix console that will play both Xbox and PC games.

For NVIDIA and the GeForce RTX team, we got a release date for DLSS 4.5's impressive Dynamic Frame Generation technology, first looks at a suite of new titles with RTX-powered path tracing like 007 First Light and Control Resonant, new GeForce NOW cloud-testing tools, and CompyUI AI video generation for developers. Plus, it's bringing Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) to GeForce RTX users later this year.

For AMD, specifically Radeon, RDNA 4, and the recent launch of FSR Redstone, there was nothing to confirm or announce. Granted, AMD announced that it was developing its own version of AI-powered Multi Frame Generation, but this was for Project Helix and its suite of FSR Diamond technologies - with no word if it's coming to Radeon gamers on PC.

This year, the iconic GeForce 3, introduced in February 2001, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. More than just an interactive update, the GeForce 3 introduced programmable pixel and vertex shaders, paving the way for modern PC and console gaming. Some of the PC games that defined the GPU and that generation include id Software's Doom 3, with its groundbreaking per-pixel lighting, and Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, which featured incredible water effects for its time.

And with that, taking a break from preparing for his big NVIDIA GTC 2026 opening keynote, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang sat down with senior members of the GeForce team to discuss the importance of the GeForce 3 and its legacy. Not only that, but the GeForce 3 was instrumental in transforming NVIDIA into a computing company and the global leader in AI.

"Every game looked the same, looked heavily filtered, everything was bilinear and trilinear filtered," Jensen Huang says of the era before the GeForce 3 arrived in 2001. "We felt that games weren't like CAD; games are a medium for artistic expression, and if you look at all these different games, we wanted them all to look different."

NVIDIA has confirmed that the RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell will ship with 160 ROPs, not the 176 ROPs previously reported.

It appears the previous reporting was based on unlocked specification entries in the database, rather than NVIDIA's locked specification sheet for the product. The discrepancy between the previously reported figure and the official figure arose after a Reddit user noticed that his 48GB variant displayed 160 ROPs, despite reports citing that it would ship with 176 ROPs. In a statement provided to TechPowerUp, NVIDIA explained that a bug in GPU-Z is the cause of the discrepancy and that the new workstation card officially ships with 160 ROPs.

As for the other specifications, NVIDIA reveals in its official materials that the new RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell utilizes the latest Blackwell architecture, and sports 14,080 CUDA cores, 48 GB or 72 GB of GDDR7 ECC memory, 1,344 GB/s of bandwidth, a 512-bit memory interface, PCIe 5.0 x 16, and 300W of total power. Furthermore, NVIDIA states that the card comes with a Graphics Processing Cluster of 10, which verifies the 160 ROPs figure, as 1 GPC equals 16 ROPs.

GeForce Game Ready Driver 595.79 WHQL is now available for GeForce gamers, and it brings day-one support for a big PC game release on March 19, 2026. The highly anticipated open-world action-adventure Crimson Desert from Pearly Abyss and legendary game creator Hideo Kojima's latest opus, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.

Both games are set to debut with full DLSS 4 support with Multi Frame Generation for GeForce RTX 50 Series owners, with access to the new and improved DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution powered by NVIDIA's powerful new Transformer model via the NVIDIA App. And when it comes to the NVIDIA App, it's getting a major 'Beta' update on March 31.

This update will add DLSS Override support for the new DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi Frame Generation update, which is designed to intelligently max out your display's refresh rate and includes a new 6X mode. This update also includes an updated DLSS 4.5 Frame Generation for GeForce RTX 40 and RTX 50 Series gamers, improving image quality and performance.

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30 Series, built using a custom 8nm process from Samsung, rather than the custom TSMC process for the GeForce RTX 40 and RTX 50 Series, is set to return to production at the Samsung Electronics Pyeongtaek Semiconductor Factory. According to a new report by the Korean publication Hankyung, Samsung is prepping to recommence production of the 8nm GeForce RTX 3060, some two years after the last batch of RTX 3060 chips were manufactured.

The report doesn't set a timeline for production, other than that it'll happen "soon." With the initial media and insider reaction focused on NVIDIA re-introducing the GeForce RTX 3060 as a response to the current memory crisis and chip shortages, the report claims that the RTX 3060's return could be primarily for the Chinese market.

Due to restrictions on high-performance graphics cards sold in China, older GPUs like the GeForce RTX 3060 represent a way out for providing a cost-effective AI and PC gaming solution in the Chinese market. Of course, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang did say "it's a good idea to bring back old GPUs" at CES 2026 as a way to address current shortages, so this move could reflect a broader global strategy for 2026 and beyond.

Jon Peddie Research has posted its latest report on the fourth-quarter 2025 global PC graphics card market. Even though AIB (add-in-board) shipments decreased from the previous quarter due to the current memory crisis, they were up 36% year-over-year for the same period. When it comes to market share for graphics cards "largely supported by gamers," NVIDIA's share rose notably.

According to Q4 2025 data, NVIDIA's market share of total graphics card shipments reached a new high of 94%, up 10 percentage points from Q4 2024. As 2025 saw the release of the new GeForce RTX 50 Series from NVIDIA and the Radeon RX 9000 Series from AMD, this data shows NVIDIA pulling ahead, with AMD's GPU shipment market share dropping to 5% from 7% in the previous quarter and 15% in the same period the year before.

Intel's market share for discrete Arc GPUs remained flat at 1%. However, even though there are GPUs out there, Jon Peddie Research notes that the current high memory prices, driven by the AI boom and US government-imposed tariffs, are "killing the AIB market." In addition, more affordable laptops and notebooks with APUs featuring integrated GPUs alongside CPUs are putting additional pressure on the growing GPU market.

Another rumor has surfaced claiming that NVIDIA is planning to bring back the RTX 3060 in order to help shore up the GeForce line-up, which is facing stock difficulties due to the RAM crisis.

VideoCardz reports that there's a rumor from the Board Channels forum over in China which backs up previous speculation the RTX 3060 GPU could be resurrected in the first quarter of 2026.

This new nugget of gossip from the supply chain claims that RTX 3060s from "various brands" will gradually start to appear from between March 10 to 20. In other words, within the next couple of weeks.

NVIDIA has announced a new hotfix for GeForce Display Drivers after it was discovered that its latest 595.71 WHQL Game Ready driver was implementing voltage caps on GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs.

The timeline of events was as follows. On February 26, NVIDIA released the NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 595.59 WHQL driver, which was promptly followed by the 595.71 driver. Following that release, reports began surfacing of some RTX 50-series owners experiencing new voltage ceilings, resulting in reduced overall game performance. On March 4, NVIDIA announced a new hotfix that is currently ready to download.

Additionally, NVIDIA acknowledged the Game Ready driver for Resident Evil: Requiem contained many bugs players would have noticed within the game, such as white glowing lights/dots appearing when Subsurface Scattering is enabled. There were also several instances of crashing with Bethesda's Starfield. Those problems have now been all fixed in NVIDIA's latest GeForce driver update, which is currently available to download.

With the availability of 3GB GDDR7 chips or modules, the original plan for the GeForce RTX 50 Series was for NVIDIA to use these to provide a 50% increase in VRAM capacity with the arrival of the GeForce RTX 50 SUPER Series.

Of course, with the way things have gone regarding memory, storage, and the AI industry gobbling up all capacity, the SUPER series refresh has been put on indefinite hold. But it does look like NVIDIA will use 3GB GDDR7 memory with the RTX 50 Series, albeit not on models that could benefit from a capacity increase.

According to known insider and leaker MEGAsizeGPU on social media, NVIDIA is apparently prepping to release a GeForce RTX 5050 9GB graphics card that will use the new 3GB memory chips. Compared to the current GeForce RTX 5050 8GB, this new configuration would use a 96-bit memory interface and 28 Gbps memory speed. This would deliver a 12.5% increase in VRAM capacity and a 5% increase in overall bandwidth, to 336 GB/s.

It looks like NVIDIA has been on a bad run with GeForce Game Ready Driver releases. Earlier this week, we received GeForce Game Ready Driver 595.71 WHQL. This belated update added support for Capcom's Resident Evil Requiem, which was delayed because the initial version (595.59) included a serious bug that affected fan monitoring and even stopped fans from working on some GPUs.

Well, it seems that GeForce Game Ready Driver 595.71 WHQL is also not without issues, as several users are reporting performance drops that appear to be related to GPU core voltage limitations, causing boost clock speeds to drop below 3,000 MHz or 3 GHz even with a manual overclock applied. This is something we were able to replicate on a GeForce RTX 5080, where a previous 3.0+ GHz overclock was now sitting at sub-3 GHz.

This issue is not only being reported on NVIDIA's forums for the driver release but also on YouTube, where creators are showcasing the performance impact of what looks to be a voltage lock affecting all high-powered GeForce RTX 40 and RTX 50 Series GPUs. In Bang4BuckPC Gamer's video below, we see performance in the Heaven Benchmark running on a GeForce RTX 5090 drop from 183 FPS running driver version 591.74 to 144 FPS on GeForce Game Ready Driver 595.71.

Custom GPUs created to celebrate games and iconic franchises are few and far between, which is why it's always a pleasant surprise when one debuts. This week, MSI unveiled a pair of new GeForce RTX 5070 graphics cards, created in collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment to celebrate the launch of the MMO's latest expansion, World of Warcraft: Midnight.

With two designs, an MSI x World of Warcraft: Midnight GeForce RTX 5070 Light Edition and Void Edition, MSI and Blizzard have drawn on the elven lands of Quel'Thalas and the expansion's story for the physical design. In addition, the shell and cooling appear to be based on MSI's fantastic Gaming Trio models, with transparent panels, lighting, and metallic flourishes.

"The Void Edition embodies the rising Voidstorm, featuring bold, sharp lines and shadow-infused visual elements that reflect the relentless power of darkness," MSI writes in the announcement. With its dark fans and blue and violet colors, it's a striking look that would be well placed in any WoW fan's rig.

The limited-edition MSI GeForce RTX 5090 LIGHTNING Z not only features one of the most impressive GPU designs we've seen to date, but with its premium custom PCB and power delivery, the out-of-the-box 800W default OC mode delivers the fastest 4K gaming performance you can find. As detailed in our in-depth review, it's so fast that it feels more like a GeForce RTX 5090 Ti than a custom RTX 5090.

Well, even though the GeForce RTX 5090 is technically unavailable for sale in China, it looks like MSI has also released a China-exclusive version of this impressive GPU called the MSI GeForce RTX 5090D v2 LIGHTNING Z. This news arrives via Bilibili user 'Hardware Patrick Star' (via VideoCardz), confirming that MSI has released a separate batch of these limited-edition GPUs for the Chinese market or has allocated some of the 1,300 total global units to become GeForce RTX 5090D v2 variants.

The GPU we see here is number 909 of 1300. Created for China as a gaming GPU that adheres to US-government-based restrictions, the GeForce RTX 5090D v2 features the same 21,760 CUDA cores as the mainline RTX 5090, but with 24GB of GDDR7 VRAM on a 384-bit memory bus, versus 32GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus.

The Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for February 2026 are in, and according to Valve's latest data, the GeForce RTX 5070 is now the most popular PC gaming GPU, with a 9.42% market share. This is a massive increase over January 2026's figure of 2.87%, which indicates a potential error or miscalculation in the reporting, as when you factor in Steam's tens of millions of users, you're looking at one of the biggest single-month shifts we've seen to date.

The latest data show a significant change in the top ten, with several GPUs below the GeForce RTX 5070 also showing notable upticks in overall market share. In second place there's the GeForce RTX 4060, followed by GeForce RTX 5060, RTX 4060 Ti, and other mainstream and mid-range graphics cards from the Ada Lovelace and RTX Blackwell generations.

If these numbers are inflated, one reason could be the recent Chinese New Year holidays, which saw more Chinese and Asian Steam gamers included in the monthly survey, along with increased data from gaming and internet cafes that remain very popular across the region. This is not to say that the GeForce RTX 5070 isn't popular, as Steam Hardware & Software Survey results have shown the GPU slowly climb into the top ten in recent months.

NVIDIA's GeForce 3 was introduced way back in February 2001 and is widely considered a milestone release not only for PC gaming but also for video game graphics, as it introduced programmable pixel and vertex shaders (in DirectX 8.0) and what would become the standard for anti-aliasing before DLSS arrived on the scene several years later.

And this past weekend, the GPU series celebrated its 25th anniversary, with NVIDIA's GeForce team presenting a little trip down memory lane on social media and Twitch, showcasing some 2001-era GeForce 3 hardware playing some of the games that would define that era of PC gaming, graphics, and GeForce hardware.

If you're wondering why the arrival of programmable shaders was a game-changer, it all comes down to the unprecedented level of hardware control it offered developers and artists. Basically, lighting and rendering effects could now be calculated at a per-pixel level, adding texture and realism to objects in ways that hadn't been seen before.

We got our first look at ASUS's new ProArt GeForce RTX 5090 OC Edition back at CES 2026, with the GPU being the company's most compact GeForce RTX 5090 to date. With a 2.5-slot thickness and large twin 115mm fans, this new custom GPU looks to be using the same multi-PCB design and double flow-through cooling as NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition.

And, since it falls under the ProArt banner, ASUS's non-gaming boutique brand for creator and studio-focused gear (as well as gamers looking for a stylish, minimal look), the physical design features no RGB lighting. Instead, you've got a black GPU with gold accents denoting the modern ProArt aesthetic, as well as USB Type-C display output.

With the product page for this new GPU now live, we've got details on the PC specs, as well as confirmation of the unique double-flow-through design that includes a vapor chamber, liquid metal cooling, and a double-vented backplate that ASUS claims increases airflow and cooling efficiency by 11%.

NVIDIA has seemingly begun rolling out RTX 50-series GPUs with Micron memory modules, amid the ongoing DRAM shortage crisis.

The first Micron GDDR7 chips were discovered on a GALAX GeForce RTX 5060 Black OC V2 by Quasar Zone, which conducted a teardown of the GPU in their review. Notably, NVIDIA typically sourced its memory modules for its GPUs from Samsung and SK Hynix, but given that the supply of memory modules is currently being gobbled up by the demand for more AI-focused hardware, NVIDIA has moved to begin sourcing chips from Micron as well.

The teardown revealed four GDDR7 2GB memory chips located around the substrate. As for NVIDIA now purchasing memory from Micron, reports state that this decision by team green indicates NVIDIA is also struggling to maintain a sufficient supply of memory from Samsung and SK Hynix. But now that Micron is supplying memory to NVIDIA for consumer-level GPUs, we can hope that GPU prices will begin to recover. However, it will likely be some time before we see the impact on market prices.