Intel's "Arrow Lake Refresh" has not even been released, but the company has already canceled its flagship SKU planned for this refresh cycle, according to a report from VideoCardz. Two sources close to the media note that Intel's flagship Core Ultra 9 290K Plus might not roll out at all, despite the massive hype and leaked benchmarks indicating that Intel is releasing this CPU SKU as part of the "Arrow Lake Refresh" generation expected to arrive in March or April. Reportedly, Intel will instead focus on delivering value with its Core Ultra 7 270K Plus SKU, which carries 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores and a 5.5 GHz maximum turbo boost. For individual boosting frequency, P-Cores top out at 5.4 GHz, while the base runs at 3.7 GHz. For E-Cores, the boost frequency is set to a maximum of 4.7 GHz, while the base is set at 3.2 GHz.

As for a possible reason why Intel would cancel this SKU, the sources close to VideoCardz note that product overlap is the main issue, as the flagship Core Ultra 9 290K Plus would have the same core configuration as the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, just with slightly higher clock speeds. Additionally, Intel already maintains a Core Ultra 9 285K SKU from the regular "Arrow Lake" family, meaning that the company would have three similar SKUs at the very top of the stack. This way, it would only have to maintain two products, which would simplify manufacturing and supply chain logistics, allowing Intel to spend more time preparing for the next-generation "Nova Lake" launch later this year.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 9995WX HEDT processor with 96 cores and 192 threads comes with a default TDP of 350 W. However, heavy overclocking can bring the CPU to 1,300 W and requires a custom integrated heat spreader (IHS) that serves as a direct-die waterblock. In the latest endeavor by Geekerwan, the enthusiast created a custom fin structure inside the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 9995WX IHS that serves as a direct-die waterblock to achieve an impressive overclock of 5.325 GHz, drawing an astonishing 1,340 W during load, with the entire system drawing around 1,700 W. According to Geekerwan, he contacted ASUS China regional manager Tony Yu to experiment with different IHS designs before "ruining" the IHS of a $12,000 HEDT CPU. He then proceeded with trying a straight fin structure common in commercial waterblocks, but also conducted computer simulations that showed a curved, wavy S-shaped fin structure is the most efficient in capturing heat, as the coolant flows over a longer distance with minimal obstruction, resulting in 20% better cooling than the straight fin structure.

The IHS of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 9995WX processor is 4.1 mm thick, which left Geekerwan with about 2.0 mm of fin depth and about 2.1 mm for the structural integrity of the IHS, which is subject to a lot of water pressure. After a heavy 19-hour session of CNC milling, the result is a CPU that ran between 30-50°C, which is an amazing temperature under Cinebench 2026 load. The system also placed 7th in Cinebench R23, just behind an LN2-cooled AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX running at 6.2 GHz. Impressive heat dissipation and the massive 5.325 GHz clock on a 96-core system are also made possible with an industrial chiller, two Bosch water pumps from cars, and a 37-gallon water tank. You can check out the entire process below.

MSI's most powerful GPU—the GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning Z—will come with an extreme price tag to match, as the company has listed its GPU for NT$165,000, which works out to about $5,200. The company noted this pricing in a 24-hour giveaway scheduled to begin on Monday, February 9, at 10:00 AM Taiwanese time, lasting until Tuesday, February 10. The listing has revealed that the card we previewed at the 2026 International CES show is not only a premium design but also a premium-priced product, as the supply is limited to only 1,300 samples. MSI advertises a factory boost clock of 2,730 MHz and an "Extreme Performance" OC profile of 2,775 MHz. Additionally, the GPU is capable of reaching 3,742 MHz, which is the fastest LN2 GeForce RTX 5090 GPU ever.

The MSI GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning Z will come with an 800 W power limit out of the box, while the "Extreme" power preset mode gives it a 1000 W power envelope on the 360 mm AIO water cooling. The extensive engineering involved in the PCB design along with a 40-phase VRM allows the GPU to sustain multi-kilowatt loads. The card uses 28 Gbps Samsung GDDR7 memory, which can be overclocked to 36 Gbps on LN2. Additionally, only LN2 is capable of taming the XOC BIOS, which comes with 2.5 kW of power load and will require extensive PCB modifications. For a product that costs $5,200, only extreme overclockers would dare to modify the card. For the rest of us mere mortals, MSI recommends a power supply with a capacity of 1600 W, providing ample room for basic overclocking without ruining the card.

NVIDIA's upcoming "Vera Rubin" AI systems are scheduled for late summer shipping in the form of VR200 NVL72 rack-scale solutions that will power the next generation of AI models. However, not every memory maker of HBM4 qualified for a design win, as Micron has reportedly fallen out of the equation, with only Samsung and SK hynix left to supply the precious HBM4 memory. According to leaked institutional notes from SemiAnalysis, which tracks the supply chain in great detail, SK Hynix will represent about 70% of the HBM4 supply for VR200 NVL72 systems, with Samsung getting the remaining 30% of the supply. For a major memory maker like Micron, there is reportedly zero commitment for the supply of HBM4 memory.

Interestingly, this is not the end of Micron's share of memory in NVIDIA VR200 NVL72 systems. Instead of HBM4, the company will supply LPDDR5X memory for "Vera" CPUs, which can be equipped with up to 1.5 TB of LPDDR5X, making up for the lost share with the HBM4. It is possible that Micron didn't qualify for the significant system upgrade that NVIDIA performed for VR200 NVL72, which went from the initial system target of 13 TB/s in March 2025 to 20.5 TB/s in September. However, at CES 2026, NVIDIA confirmed that the VR200 NVL72 system is now operating at 22 TB/s of bandwidth, marking a nearly 70% increase in system bandwidth, all derived from aggressive memory specification scaling that the company demanded from the memory makers.

According to Nikkei Asia, some of the biggest PC makers like ASUS, Acer, Dell, and HP are exploring alternative memory suppliers amid industry-wide memory shortages, which are forcing PC OEMs to seek supply even from Chinese memory maker CXMT. Late last year, CXMT unveiled its homegrown DDR5-8000 and LPDDR5X-10667 memory modules at the 2025 China International Semiconductor Expo. This has likely prompted many OEMs to start finding alternatives to the traditional triad of SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron, whose supply has been very limited outside AI accelerator workloads.

CXMT offers 12 Gb and 16 Gb LPDDR5X capacities, while DDR5 scales to 16 Gb and 24 Gb module formats. The 16 Gb DDR5 chips from CXMT measure 67 square millimeters, with a density of 0.239 Gb per square millimeter. The G4 DRAM cells are 20% smaller than CXMT's previous G3 generation. Reportedly, CXMT manufactures these chips using a 16 nm node, which is three years behind Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron in manufacturing capabilities. However, CXMT is progressing quickly, and its DRAM modules adhere to the official JEDEC specifications and even exceeding the specification, making them ideal for OEM PCs depending on the use case.

At Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2026 in Barcelona, Akasa showcased its latest solutions that embed LCD screens in passively-cooled cases. There are three versions, including "Kepler," "Maxwell Pro Plus," and "Euler CMX," all of which come with an LCD screen for monitoring or providing a visual interface that a user might need. First on the list is the new "Kepler" chassis, which is a 2U rack-mountable design with support for microATX and Mini-ITX boards, compatible with either Intel LGA1851 or LGA1700 sockets, capable of running anything from 12th to 14th Generation Intel Core processors, or Core Ultra in the latest 15th Generation "Arrow Lake." The system limits the CPU TDP to 35 W, which makes sense since it is a completely passively cooled enclosure. Kepler includes a 150 W AC-to-DC converter to power the system, and there is the possibility to install up to four single-slot low-profile PCIe cards or anything that fits within four slots of low-profile PCIe space.

According to HardwareLuxx, NVIDIA has confirmed that Dynamic Multi Frame Generation (MFG) and Multi Frame Generation 6x mode are scheduled for release in April. HardwareLuxx visited NVIDIA's Munich office in Germany and obtained some exclusive information from the company. This includes the exact release date for NVIDIA's latest Dynamic Multi Frame Generation and Multi Frame Generation 6x mode, which are bringing NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 technologies to the public. With DLSS 4.5, NVIDIA can get the GPU to draw up to 5 frames following each traditionally rendered frame, made entirely using generative AI. Using the new MFG 6x mode results in a 6x performance uplift, where a game that traditionally runs at 60 FPS can now run at 360 FPS.

However, for setups where a monitor is maxed out at 240 Hz or 144 Hz, like many gaming panels are, using 6x MFG would be overkill. This is where Dynamic MFG comes into play. This technology will determine which MFG multiplier is needed based on the display's refresh rate capability that is used for the MFG target and the input framerate from the upscaler. The company calls this "automatic transmission" for MFG, making a parallel to modern vehicle automatic transmission systems that also switch gears based on the need. For example, in demanding game scenarios, the MFG multiplier could be 4x, 5x, or 6x, while less demanding game sections like the settings menu or some static scenes will require only a 2x multiplier to achieve the FPS goal. HardwareLuxx tested this and reported smooth transitions while keeping the FPS stable.

Corsair has been listed on Nasdaq since September 2020, when the company made an IPO at $17 per share. However, the company, which is a gaming staple, has now fallen to a measly sub-$5 range for the first time. Just days ahead of its full-year earnings and Q4 2025 results scheduled for February 12, Corsair is trading at $4.80 with a market capitalization of $504.63 million. During the first three months of its public listing, the stock reached an all-time high of $51.37, and the price has been in free fall since. This represents a 90% market value reduction over nearly five and a half years.

For the previous Q3 2025 report, the company reported a year-over-year revenue increase of 14% to $345.8 million, with projections for a full-year outlook being $1.425 billion to $1.475 billion, and adjusted operating income in the range of $76 million to $81 million. However, since the stock is now falling, we can expect that the earnings will possibly be at the lower end of the range. Interestingly, Corsair is one of the few publicly listed companies with revenues exceeding its market capitalization. This indicates that the company is capturing a significant revenue share among PC enthusiasts, but its operating costs are very high, and the business is net profit margin negative, which is a massive concern for investors using their hard-earned funds.

Artificial Intelligence may be eating the world of software now, but gamers are suffering. According to The Information, NVIDIA has reportedly entirely postponed the launch of its GeForce RTX 50 "SUPER" refresh, as the company's executives are prioritizing AI accelerators over the gaming sector, which consumes precious cutting edge GDDR7 memory. The GeForce RTX 50 "SUPER" refresh was originally scheduled for an announcement at CES 2026, with shipping in Q1 or Q2 of 2026. However, the GDDR7 memory used in the SUPER lineup was a high-capacity 3 GB version, which NVIDIA managers in December deemed too important for gamers, postponing the refresh entirely.

The "SUPER" series was planned with denser GDDR7 memory modules, offering 3 GB of capacity per chip, increasing the memory configuration of the standard GeForce RTX 5070, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5080. Initially, the RTX 5070 SUPER was planned with an upgrade to offer 18 GB, while the RTX 5070 Ti SUPER and RTX 5080 SUPER would each provide 24 GB of GDDR7 memory. As NVIDIA's AI GPU portfolio also uses the high-density GDDR7 memory, like the RTX PRO 6000 "Blackwell" and "Rubin CPX" the company has decided to instead prioritize this high-margin business, leaving gamers with inflated prices of the regular GeForce RTX 50-series.

When Intel unveiled its "Panther Lake" Core Ultra Series 3 mobile processors built on the 18A node, the company announced that a separate version fine-tuned for handheld gaming consoles is in the works. Called Intel Core Ultra G3 "Panther Lake," the chip is now scheduled to arrive in the second quarter of 2026, according to Golden Pig Upgrade. The company plans to bring two SKUs to the masses, which will be called G3 and G3 Extreme, each carrying a 14-core CPU configuration consisting of two P-Cores, eight E-Cores, and four additional LPE-Cores. However, the real star of the show of this SoC will be the Arc integrated graphics, which will arrive with 12 Xe3 cores in the G3 Extreme, or 10 Xe3 cores in the regular G3.

For the G3 Extreme, the plan is to run the Arc B380 iGPU with 12 Xe3 cores at 2.3 GHz, which is just 200 MHz shy of the flagship Core Ultra X9 388H's Arc B390. Basically, G3 Extreme handhelds can expect similar gaming performance to what we observed in our review of the flagship SKU, just with two P-Cores less and a slightly lower GPU clock. For the regular G3, the CPU configuration retains its capability, but the GPU drops to a 10-Core Xe3 IP called Arc B360. This integrated graphics drops core counts and GPU boost frequency to 2.2 GHz, which will result in a significant reduction in both gaming performance and TDP. Intel still hasn't revealed plans about TDP configurations, so we have to wait a bit longer for that.

In the latest set of enablement patches, Intel has confirmed that the upcoming "Nova Lake-P" processors will utilize Xe3P-LPG to power their integrated graphics. In addition, "Nova Lake-P" processors will include multiple new IPs like the Xe3P-LPM for media processing, which includes decoding and encoding, and the Xe3P-LPD for display output processing. These new IPs will work in tandem to deliver the next generation of Intel graphics, which will be separated into two categories within the "Nova Lake" generation. Interestingly, we learned a while back that not every "Nova Lake" SKU will ship with the same GPU configuration. "Nova Lake-H" mobile variants are expected to support ray tracing with the Xe3P-LPG graphics, while "Nova Lake-S," "Nova Lake-HX," and "Nova Lake-UL" may not.

The company seems to be selectively enabling advanced GPU features across these SKUs rather than providing a uniform feature set, as Xe3P-boosted "Nova Lake-H" notebook chips will be succeeding "Panther Lake-H" with its Xe3 GPU IP, so the new P variant will bring more power to mobile gaming setups and be a true successor in late 2026 or early 2027. This type of segmentation is a common strategy to differentiate products using the same silicon, which will influence purchasing decisions for gamers, creators, and laptop buyers of the future "Nova Lake" systems. Additionally, bundling next-generation GPU graphics IP like the Xe3P-LPG will be of massive significance only to those users relying on integrated GPUs, while those purchasing systems with discrete GPUs will focus primarily on the CPU and display/media output side.

Tenstorrent, a startup focused on designing high-performance AI accelerators and led by the renowned computer architect Jim Keller as CEO, has announced significant hardware updates to its existing Blackhole P150 accelerators, which include the P150a and P150b models. In the latest documentation change, the company notes that its Blackhole P150 accelerators will now work with about 14.3% fewer cores than originally advertised. In the official documents, the P150 accelerators are now shipping with 120 working "Tensix" cores instead of the previously advertised 140 cores. The reason for this change is unknown, as the company provided a vague explanation: "To present a unified interface to metal and other system software, firmware v19.5.0 and later will change the core count on all existing cards to 120. Typical workloads show a non-material (~1-2%) performance difference."

The Blackhole P150 accelerators featured 140 "Tensix" cores and 32 GB of GDDR6 memory, operating at up to 300 W in an actively cooled form factor designed for desktop workstations, and the P150a model includes four passive QSFP-DD 800G ports. However, as the number of cores is reduced by approximately 14%, TeraFLOPS take a nosedive as well. In the older documents for the 140-core SKUs, the BLOCKFP8 8-bit floating point performance was listed at 774 TeraFLOPS, while the new 120-core version reduces that number to 664 TeraFLOPS at the same precision level. Why this sudden change is happening is still a mystery. However, the HPC community with a lot of knowledge in the industry suggests a few reasons.

As February has just started, Valve finished processing data for the January edition of the Steam Hardware and Software Survey. One of the few interesting takeaways is that for the first time in months, Intel's share of consumer CPU usage has seen an uptick, instead of the slow decline it has been experiencing. According to the January update, Intel's CPU share among Steam platform users has grown to 56.64%, representing a small but pleasant increase of 0.25% over the December data. On the other hand, AMD recorded a slight decrease of 0.19%, now standing at 43.34% of the market. This means that Intel's market share has increased for the first time in months, as data from September reported a market share of 58.61%, then October showed 57.82%, 57.30% in November, and 56.39% in December. The chain of declining share has finally stopped, suggesting that Intel could have a chance to rebound in the consumer market section.

On the contrary, AMD's CPU market share has been rising for months, moving up from 41.31% in September to 43.53% in December, with a small correction now standing at 43.34%. This indicates that many new CPU purchasing decisions were made in favor of AMD, driven by the massive popularity of its Ryzen 9000X3D series, which has been well-received by PC enthusiasts. In contrast, Intel's latest "Arrow Lake" launch has faced some initial challenges with less-than-expected gaming performance, but besides discounts and firmware updates improving the situation, the community is now anticipating the launch of the "Arrow Lake Refresh" scheduled for March or April, which is expected to address these issues by shipping with higher out-of-the-box frequencies and additional tuning.

AMD posted its record fourth quarter revenue of $10.3 billion in 2025, and during the earnings call, the company issued some guidance on the upcoming product portfolio. During the call, AMD confirmed that Valve's Steam Machine is on track and shipping early this year, while its custom SoC division that designs processors for PlayStation and Xbox consoles will deliver an RDNA 5-based SoC for the next-generation Xbox console. While the Steam Machine specifications are confirmed, Xbox "Magnus" SoC is still largely a collection of rumored specifications. The "Magnus" SoC is rumored to feature the largest APU ever designed for a consumer console, with a 408 mm² chiplet design. Of this, 144 mm² is dedicated to the SoC built on TSMC's N3P node, while the GPU occupies 264 mm². The AMD chip is expected to include up to 11 CPU cores—three Zen 6 and eight Zen 6c—alongside a substantial GPU setup with 68 RDNA 5 compute units, four shader engines, and at least 24 MB of L2 cache. Memory might expand to 48 GB of GDDR7 on a 192-bit bus. A dedicated NPU is rumored to offer significant on-device AI performance, with reports suggesting up to 110 TOPS.

Dr. Lisa SuFor 2026, we expect semi-custom SoC annual revenue to decline by a significant double-digit percentage as we enter the seventh year of what has been a very strong console cycle. From a product standpoint, Valve is on track to begin shipping its AMD-powered Steam Machine early this year, and development of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox featuring an AMD semi-custom SoC is progressing well to support a launch in 2027.

Western Digital has today presented its latest effort to catch up with traditional QLC NAND Flash SSDs by improving its HDD offerings. With the latest High-Bandwidth HDDs, Western Digital has implemented two new technologies in a classical multi-platter HDD design. The first innovation comes in a form of High Bandwidth Drive Technology, which enables double the I/O bandwidth with a path to 8x the current bandwidth in the future. It relies on simultaneous reading and writing from multiple heads on multiple tracks, which is already in customer hands for validation. The second one is Dual Pivot Technology that introduces a second set of independent actuators on a separate pivot, which will not scarify drive capacity unlike older dual actuator designs.

Using Dual Pivot Technology, HDDs can pack more drive platters in a standard 3.5-inch body for higher capacities, and the performance grows by an additional 2x, which is 4x I/O bandwidth compared to today's drives. This technology will pave the way for 100 TB HDDs, that offer speeds comparable to QLC-based SATA III SSDs, at much better price/performance ratio and better data retention, prompting the massive boom of HDD development. Western Digital's drives with High Bandwidth Drive Technology are already shipping to customers, while drives with Dual Pivot Technology are in development in Western Digital's labs and are scheduled to become available in 2028, with early customer sampling probably much sooner.

According to Chinese Board Channels, a reliable source of GPU news, AMD's add-in board (AIB) partners are preparing for another round of GPU price increases. They also seem to be shifting their product focus toward 8 GB Radeon models. After distributors implemented a 5-10% price adjustment in January, another increase is reportedly planned for February or March, though the exact percentage is not yet known. Board Channels also reports that AMD is expected to prioritize stocking 8 GB SKUs such as the Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB and the older RDNA 3-based RX 7650 GRE, rather than the 16 GB SKUs like the Radeon RX 9070 XT. This shift is due to a shortage of GDDR6 memory, which is reducing the profit margins for AIBs without a significant price increase.

Distributors reportedly stocked up after January's price increase, which could lead to uneven availability if resellers hold onto inventory in anticipation of another adjustment. With DRAM prices having risen sharply in recent months, manufacturers are reassessing which memory configurations to produce, favoring 8 GB variants because they are cheaper to manufacture. This shift might also cause some 16 GB parts to become more expensive, narrowing the price gap between AMD and NVIDIA in the midrange market. The earliest effects of these changes are expected to be seen in mainland China, where partners may allocate more volume to 8 GB cards and reduce the output of certain 16 GB GRE and non-GRE models. We are yet to see how it reflects on the Western stores and pricing imposed by retailers like Amazon, Newegg, and others.

Mozilla's plans to make Firefox "a modern AI browser" have fallen flat on its face. When Anthony Enzor-DeMeo took over the Mozilla the new CEO, he announced plans to make the browser a modernized version of AI-first browsing experience. However, massive community backslash has resulted in the CEO quickly apologizing to the community and promising a killswitch. In the upcoming Firefox version 148, scheduled for a release on February 24, there will be an option to turn off AI features in the browser individually, or all at once. This includes AI-assisted translations, alt text in PDFs, AI-enhanced tab grouping, link previews, and an AI chatbot in the sidebar. Users can choose which features to enable or disable, and those who prefer not to use any AI functions can turn them off entirely with a single switch. This setting will persist even after future updates, ensuring that users who opt out will not encounter generative AI features.

Mozilla is fulfilling its earlier promise to implement an AI killswitch, an option increasingly sought after by many users. While some enjoy a web experience assisted by AI, many do not. Having an option to individually turn off specific features, or all at once, is the perfect solution. Interestingly, this is not the first time we are seeing features from companies that are marked as new updates, but instead delivering a shield from all the "AI enhancements." Users are clearly expressing a frustration of AI everywhere approach, and Mozilla is aiming to position Firefox right where the community wants it to be. For Firefox Nightly users, the feature is available right away. However, for Firefox stable, users must wait a few days until February 24 to install Firefox 148.

Intel's upcoming "Arrow Lake Refresh" are weeks away from the final release, but new listing suggests that there might be more SKUs getting a refresh makeover than we initially thought. In the latest listing by a Romanian retailer, there is a new SKU called Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus, with a code number BX80768250KF. The SKU is supposed to be the first version of the ARLR family with a "KF" mark, meaning that there won't be an integrated GPU in this processor Instead, only the CPU is provided, meaning that a GPU is mandatory, much like the previous KF SKUs. In the listing there is a mention of 4.2 GHz frequency, which aligns with the previously rumored Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and its P-core base speed of 4.2 GHz. This means that other specifications will remain similar to the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, like the E-Core base speed of 3.5 GHz, E-Core turbo of 4.7 GHz, and P-Core boost frequency of 5.3 GHz. The only difference will be the lack of iGPU, as it has been a case with previous KF SKUs.

Interestingly, the Romanian retailer is also listing the Core Ultra 250K Plus (BX80768250K) and Core Ultra 270K Plus (BX80768270K), while the flagship Ultra 9 290K Plus is not yet listed. This doesn't necessarily mean the SKU won't exist, but rather that this preliminary listing is incomplete for now. For the Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus, the retailer listed it at 1,049 Romanian Leu, which is about $243. As previous leaks suggest a March or April release of the ARLR family, we can expect the information and listings to intensify in the coming weeks. Some early benchmark runs also point to a 10% performance boost in flagship SKUs with the new refresh, so we have to wait and see how these mid-range chips perform in more testing.

Nintendo's return to the modern handheld gaming market has proven to be a record-breaking success. The company has reportedly sold 155 million Switch units worldwide since its initial launch. The latest Nintendo Switch 2 has sold 17.37 million units since its release in June 2025. During the holiday quarter, shipments reached 7.01 million units globally, while the original Switch sold 1.36 million units in the same period. Combined lifetime shipments for the Switch family now stands at 155.37 million units, surpassing the Nintendo DS total of 154.02 million, making it Nintendo's best-selling console ever.

Regarding software for these record-breaking units, sales for the new console are also strong, with 37.93 million Switch 2 titles sold to date, largely driven by first-party games. Mario Kart World has reached 14.03 million copies, Donkey Kong Bananza 4.25 million, and Pokémon Legends: ZA 3.89 million. Kirby Air Riders, released in November, has sold 1.76 million units. The older Switch remains commercially relevant, with cumulative software sales of 108.93 million this quarter. Long-running catalog titles such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, now at 70.59 million copies, and Super Mario Party Jamboree at 9.41 million, continue to sell well, aided by backward compatibility.

OCBASE has updated its OCCT tool to include overclocking support for Intel's latest Xeon 600 "Granite Rapids-WS" workstation processors, designed for precise tuning of Intel's best HEDT offering. While OCCT is traditionally known for hardware stability testing, OCBASE aims to transform it into a universal platform that combines fine-tuning, including overclocking, with stability testing in a single application. The company has worked with Intel to create a special skin for the OCCT tool, featuring an Intel-like blue and white theme. Besides the visual makeover, lots of under the hood changes follow.

For instance, Intel's flagship Xeon 698X, with 86 cores and 172 threads and 336 MB of L3 cache, can be overclocked from the application UI. The processor operates at a 2.0 GHz base clock and can boost up to 4.8 GHz with Turbo Boost Max 3.0 or 4.6 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0. Intel confirms that the 698X is fully unlocked, which is unusual for the Xeon processor family. With OCCT, users can now make per-core clock adjustments and live parameter edits while running continuous stress tests. Currently in a closed beta program, the public release is expected within weeks and will include Linux compatibility.

Chinese company Loongson has been developing custom processors based on the LoongArch instruction set, a new design initiated in 2020. Phoronix reviewed the company's 3B6000 processor, which has 12 cores supporting simultaneous multithreading (SMT2), resulting in 24 threads. The platform is compatible with DDR4 memory, with a controller targeting speeds up to 3,200 MT/s and ECC support, and the CPU runs at 2.4/2.5 GHz base frequency. In testing, the 3B6000 processor achieved about one-third the performance of the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X in aggregate benchmark testing. However, it outperformed the Raspberry Pi 500+ by a factor of 2.5, placing it between single-board computers and entry-level desktop systems.

For testing, Phoronix used the 3B6000x1-7A2000x1-EVB evaluation board, which appears dated compared to current motherboard designs, especially in terms of component selection and the cooling solution for the chipset. Expansion options include two PCIe x16 slots, one PCIe x4 slot, an M.2 connector, and four SATA ports. The integrated graphics unit supports both HDMI and VGA outputs. While the LoongArch64 architecture represents China's effort to develop an independent instruction set with the ability to tune features like security and specialized workloads, these benchmarks suggest the hardware execution still lags several generations behind x86-64 designs from AMD and Intel. Significant, multifold improvements are needed before it can match the performance of Western CPU makers.

Intel's next desktop "Arrow Lake Refresh" CPU upgrade is inching closer to reality. The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has been spotted in a new Geekbench run, adding to the evidence that the "Arrow Lake Refresh" will indeed offer a meaningful performance improvements over its predecessors. The test system used an ASUS ROG Strix Z890-E Gaming Wi-Fi board with 64 GB of DDR5-6800 memory. The processor achieved scores of 3,535 in the single-core test and 25,106 in the multicore test. Compared to the Core Ultra 9 285K's typical scores of around 3,200 and 22,560, this represents improvements of approximately 10.5% and 11.3%, respectively. These results place the 290K Plus at the top of Intel's consumer CPU rankings in Geekbench's database. An earlier leak on different hardware showed slightly lower results, suggesting that this newer test run benefits from better optimization rather than just faster memory.

The 290K Plus SKU keeps the same 24-core layout as its predecessor with 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores, plus identical power limits of PL1 of 125 W and PL2 of 250 W. The gains come from higher clock speeds. According to rumors, the efficiency cores now boost to 4.8 GHz, up 200 MHz, while the performance cores get an extra 100 MHz on both turbo and thermal velocity boost. The benchmark registered the chip running at 5.7 GHz during testing. Intel has confirmed the ARLR is coming but has stayed quiet on specific models and dates. Leaks suggest a March or April release, and since these chips use the same LGA 1851 socket, they should work as drop-in upgrades for current Z890 motherboards. As with any pre-release numbers, may not reflect final CPU performance, so final performance data and gaming results that come from third-party reviews will show the real-world situation.

Arm Flexible Access is evolving, unlocking broader startup eligibility, expanded edge AI capabilities, and a more flexible way to design, test, and bring silicon to market. Innovation in silicon design thrives on iteration. For startups and established design teams alike, the ability to explore, test, and refine without financial friction is essential. That's why Arm Flexible Access is evolving to make that journey even easier.

Arm Flexible Access already offers up-front, low-cost or no-cost access to a wide portfolio of Arm technology, tools, and training. This "try before you buy" model allows teams to build and test designs freely, only paying licensing fees for the technologies used in production silicon. It's helped launch over 400 chips across more than 100 companies.

Intel is reportedly mandating OEM integrators of the latest "Panther Lake" SoCs to use LPDDR5X memory starting at 7,467 MT/s and beyond, with an interesting software differentiator between adequate speeds or those below. According to Golden Pig Upgrade, LDDR5X memory running below the 7,467 MT/s threshold will force the software to display a generic mark of "Intel (R) Graphics," while configurations with that exact memory speed or higher will display the full name of "Intel (R) Arc (TM) Graphics B390" or "Intel (R) Arc (TM) Graphics B370" marking in Windows 11 Task Manager. Reportedly, Intel is doing this to stop OEMs from cutting corners with their "Panther Lake" laptop configurations, where they could bundle a lower-speed LDDR5X memory out of the Intel specification.

Without the required memory, Intel's Arc B390/B370 iGPUs would likely be left starving for bandwidth, as the whole SoC is being powered by that memory. At higher speeds, memory can do the data transfer faster, resulting in a boost of the overall system performance, and most importantly, the frame rate that these chips can push out. Especially for single-package systems like "Panther Lake" is, faster memory is a great way to get extra performance boost. Intel's flagship SKUs are advertised as capable of running with LPDDR5X memory at speeds up to 9,600 MT/s, which is just below the point where LPDDR5X technology tops out at 10,700 MT/s. Interestingly, there are lots of options from Intel's OEM partners that integrate top-end memory, which is a positive sign for the ecosystem.

Intel XeSS 3 with multi-frame generation (MFG) is expected to be available this month for the Arc B580 "Battlemage" graphics cards. However, some Redditors suggest there's a workaround to enable XeSS 3 and gain the FPS boost from MFG through a simple file swap. Gamers using Intel's Arc B580 have discovered that by installing Intel's driver package for "Panther Lake"—which includes XeSS 3 with MFG—and renaming certain dynamic link libraries, the drivers for Arc B580 can use libraries intended for Arc B390 and Arc B370 integrated graphics. The process is straightforward, allowing gamers to download, extract, rename, and activate XeSS 3 on their non-PTL systems without issues. This raises the question of why Intel chose not to officially support the discrete "Battlemage" GPUs for XeSS 3 on the new driver release day. Possible reasons could include marketing strategies or additional beta-testing before the official release.Here is a complete step-by-step solution.

If you're tired of seeing Microsoft's AI features like Copilot, agentic workloads, and Recall forced into their products, you're not alone. Microsoft has finally confirmed that it will be stepping back from its "AI everywhere" strategy. According to an exclusive report by Windows Central, the internal Windows 11 teams at Microsoft are now focusing on reducing forced AI integration. Instead, they aim to address what truly matters to consumers, such as fixing the bug-prone operating system and enhancing core features for a smoother user experience. The integration of Copilot into basic apps like Notepad and Paint is reportedly under review, and Microsoft may remove these features to restore the basic functionality users have come to appreciate. This includes features like basic text formatting and tables in Notepad, which are nice additions to a core application.

Additionally, forcing Copilot AI button in every application has been paused, as there has been very little interest from users in actually using these features. TechPowerUp Forums has been a constant source of criticism for Microsoft's forced AI integration, among the remaining large crowd of PC enthusiasts who have been fighting the "AI everywhere" approach for a while. Microsoft's telemetry records usage of these AI buttons and additions, likely showing that only a few percent of Windows 11 users are actually interested in having AI access every application layer, especially with the recent ambition to shape Windows 11 into "agentic OS." The company confirmed that these features are a security nightmare to maintain, so thankfully these efforts are now cancelled.

The AI arms race is now in full swing, and corporate espionage is reaching levels beyond what we previously imagined. According to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), former Google software engineer Linwei Ding has been convicted of economic espionage and theft of confidential AI technology, specifically related to Google Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). An FBI investigation revealed that the ex-Googler was suspected of stealing information about the entire infrastructure surrounding TPUs, including chip architecture, external connectivity, and more. The DOJ concluded that Linwei Ding was acting for the benefit of the People's Republic of China (PRC), with the primary goal of stealing sensitive intellectual property that Google has spent years and billions of US Dollars developing. Naturally, Google collaborated with the FBI to protect its intellectual property and found the former employee guilty of stealing as many as two thousand pages of confidential information.

U.S. Department of JusticeThe trade secrets contained detailed information about the architecture and functionality of Google's custom Tensor Processing Unit chips and systems and Google's Graphics Processing Unit systems, the software that allows the chips to communicate and execute tasks, and the software that orchestrates thousands of chips into a supercomputer capable of training and executing cutting-edge AI workloads. The trade secrets also pertained to Google's custom-designed SmartNIC, a type of network interface card used to facilitate high speed communication within Google's AI supercomputers and cloud networking products.

NVIDIA briefly updated its online marketplace with the latest stock of GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 Founders Edition SKUs, available at MSRP pricing. However, the entire stock was depleted in just minutes after the initial listing, suggesting that gamers have been trying to get their hands on MSRP-priced GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 GPUs but were able to do so only for a few minutes as the listing disappeared shortly thereafter. The flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition was listed at its Euro-designated MSRP of €2,099, while the high-end GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition GPU was listed at its €1,059 MSRP. Both GPUs were listed at 10:01 am, but the RTX 5090 FE was gone by 10:08 am, just seven minutes after listing. For the RTX 5080 FE, the listing disappeared at 10:20 am when the stock was gone. The mid-range RTX 5070 FE was also listed but stayed online for a few hours before disappearing.

For buyers interested in purchasing these GPUs at MSRPs, there is virtually no option besides the NVIDIA Marketplace. Any third-party storefronts, where NVIDIA's official AICs are listing these GPUs, are posting listings that go well above €3,000. The card rarely dips below that price, and the median price listing, according to ComputerBase, suggests that the number now floats at €3,566. Any listing near MSRP is a definite premium for gamers who want to get their hands on an already expensive GPU, meaning that they don't have to pay for inflated pricing caused by the GDDR7 memory shortage and NVIDIA's current production tactics. There haven't been any NVIDIA Marketplace updates since the beginning of December, meaning that nearly two full months have passed since the last "drop."

Believe it or not, NVIDIA launched its first SHIELD TV in 2015, marking nearly a decade of continuous support for the platform. In an interview with Ars Technica, Andrew Bell, NVIDIA's senior VP of hardware engineering, reassured the company's loyal fan base that they have no plans to abandon the SHIELD TV anytime soon, promising ongoing updates in the years to come. Bell expressed frustration with the limited updates typically provided for phones and tablets, saying, "Early on when we were building SHIELD TV, we decided we were going to support it for a long time." He recalled a conversation with CEO Jensen Huang about the duration of support, to which Huang responded, "For as long as we shall live."

As NVIDIA enters the second decade of supporting the SHIELD TV, they continue to produce the 2019 version, featuring the NVIDIA Tegra X1+ processor, 3 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of storage. There was once talk within the gaming community and among NVIDIA engineers about venturing into making a gaming console. "Pretty much everybody who worked at NVIDIA in the early days really wanted to make a game console," Bell confirmed. However, the complexity of building a console, which requires not just a GPU but also a CPU, an OS, games, and a user interface, deterred the company from pursuing this path.

Microsoft is actively working to repair the broken trust it has created within the Windows community. Sources close to The Verge report that the Redmond giant is focusing on enhancing the core functionality of the Windows 11 operating system and its underlying services. These have become so problematic that each new update introduces a slew of issues, disrupting many systems and undermining the confidence of PC enthusiasts. Through a process known as "swarming," Microsoft is deploying its massive engineering resources to address these problems swiftly, aiming to make Windows 11 a benchmark for performance and stability. However, this is a challenging task, as trust has significantly eroded in recent months due to the consistent issues with Windows 11. Pavan Davuluri, president of Windows and devices, has commented for The Verge:

The feedback we're receiving from our community of passionate customers and Windows Insiders has been clear. We need to improve Windows in ways that are meaningful for people. This year you will see us focus on addressing pain points we hear consistently from customers: improving system performance, reliability, and the overall experience of Windows.

Qualcomm and AMD are reportedly considering the integration of SOCAMM2 memory into their AI product lines to enhance memory capacity and speed. Following NVIDIA's "Vera" CPU, which features LPDDR5X memory on the SOCAMM factor, offering 1.2 TB/s of memory bandwidth and supporting up to 1.5 TB of LPDDR5X memory, Qualcomm and AMD aim to pursue a similar strategy to achieve high-speed, high-capacity AI systems. These systems require fast memory close to AI accelerators, and SOCAMM can complement the extensive HBM memory on the accelerators. It acts as a fast memory pool with sufficient capacity to store entire models in memory, reducing the need for data transfer to SSD flash storage.

NVIDIA's SOCAMM approach involves surrounding the CPU with multiple SOCAMM modules, a strategy Qualcomm and AMD are expected to adopt in their AI solutions. AMD's Instinct MI accelerators, paired with EPYC CPUs, might be the next candidates for this integration, or AMD may develop a completely new system. Qualcomm already offers AI solutions like the AI200 and AI250 inference accelerators, which include up to 768 GB of LPDDR5 per card. These could soon be complemented by SOCAMM, allowing for standardized memory expansion based on the SOCAMM standard rather than soldering individual memory modules. This approach would enable manufacturers to offer various system versions and solutions by simply adding or removing SOCAMM modules, without the need for extensive PCB soldering work.

Linux gamers may have a reason to celebrate. A new collaborative initiative, the Open Gaming Collective (OGC), is being launched to enhance support for Linux-based gaming. The OGC aims to establish a unified set of software components that will become the standard across various Linux distributions within the gaming community. Founded by ASUS's Linux division, Universal Blue / Bazzite, ChimeraOS, Nobara, Playtron, Fyra Labs, PikaOS, and ShadowBlip, the OGC team is focused on a universal goal of bringing Linux gamers a better experience. The basic concept involves all members contributing software updates across the stack and standardizing certain areas to improve game and device compatibility. The newest collective aims to make gaming on Linux much smoother, similar to what Valve did with its SteamOS and Proton compatibility layer.

Shared Technical Pillars
OGC focuses on the foundational layers of the Linux gaming stack. We host shared components, agreed upon by the members, for all to use, with an "Upstream First" philosophy. Some of the projects we have in mind:

• The OGC Kernel—a shared gaming-focused kernel
• A downstream fork of Gamescope that expands hardware support to more devices

Microsoft reported its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2025, ending December 31. During the earnings call, Microsoft highlighted that its Windows 11 operating system is achieving goals faster than its predecessor, Windows 10. As of today, Windows 11 has officially reached one billion global users. It took the new Windows OS just 1,576 days to reach this milestone, compared to the 1,706 days it took Windows 10. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that this is a significant milestone for the Windows operating system, which is now expanding more rapidly than during the days of Windows 10. With the recent end-of-life for Windows 10, many users and enterprises are looking to upgrade from their aging systems, and the logical choice for the next build is Windows 11.

Windows 11 has been on the market since October 5, 2021. In the tech space, that is a long time for any software product. Over time, it evolved from a slight reskin of the Windows 10 OS into a completely different user experience with more modern layouts and a modernized UI, but it also came with a slew of issues. As Microsoft has tried to integrate everything into a singular OS, issues became common with updates, causing random bugs and system crashes. Nowadays, it is popular to criticize Windows 11, but despite its buggy nature, the success and market penetration speak for themselves. Microsoft plans to keep Windows 11 as a long-running version, so it might be a while before we see a Windows 12 or anything similar.

Microsoft just reported its Q4 2025 results, providing some interesting insights into its gaming ventures. The company's overall quarterly revenue increased by an impressive 17% compared to the same period last year, reaching $81.3 billion. This growth is primarily driven by the strong performance of the cloud sector. However, Microsoft's gaming divisions are experiencing challenges with declining revenue. In its Xbox unit, hardware revenue decreased by 32% year-over-year, significantly impacting the business. The overall Xbox division saw a 9% decline, while Xbox content and services dropped by 5%. The services section, which includes the Game Pass subscription, is the only area not experiencing a steep decline. By recently rising Game Pass subscription prices, Microsoft aims to offset some of the hardware losses.

An interesting detail from the earnings report is the Windows OEM and Devices sector, which reported a modest growth of 1%. This is minor considering the Windows 10 end-of-life, which was expected to boost this sector significantly. Windows itself reported a 5% growth, but this is only a slight increase compared to what Microsoft anticipated from OEMs purchasing Windows license keys for Windows 11, as well as a major consumer upgrade spree to Windows 11 devices. With Xbox revenue declining significantly year-over-year for several years, it is becoming less of a priority for the company, which now derives substantial revenue from Microsoft Azure and 365 Commercial subscriptions.

Linux users with Intel's newer graphics hardware have experienced an unexpected performance boost and critical stability improvements with the latest Mesa 26.1 driver updates. Francisco Jerez, an engineer working on Intel's open-source graphics stack, successfully merged 18 patches aimed at addressing persistent video corruption issues affecting both "Alchemist" DG2 discrete and integrated GPUs on "Meteor Lake" SoC. The primary goal was to resolve visual artifacts and rendering errors that had long troubled these platforms. However, preliminary testing revealed significant performance improvements in various gaming scenarios, with one benchmark showing gains as high as 2.6x the original frame rate.

This notable example came from testing NBA 2K23 at 4K resolution with maximum settings using DirectX 11, where the optimization resulted in a 260% improvement on the "Alchemist" graphics hardware. The patch series required about four months of development since its initial submission in September 2024, showing that there is a massive and hidden layer of complexity involved in correcting these low-level rendering issues without introducing new instabilities. The documented performance data currently comes from a single game trace, leaving questions about the extent to which other titles might benefit from similar optimizations. These changes affect only Linux systems using the Mesa driver, and Windows-based systems have not yet been tested. Nonetheless, this development is a positive sign that Intel continues to optimize even older GPU generations.

Google's return to the desktop has been now cemented with the latest leak of the so-called "Aluminium OS." Accidentally shared by Google, 9to5Google managed to capture some screen recordings of this new creation that Google has been developing behind the scenes. A recent submission to the Google Issue Tracker revealed a Chrome Incognito bug, complete with video evidence from a system running Aluminium OS. Before the video was removed, 9to5Google obtained recordings showing a new Android-powered PC operating system. Running on the latest Android 16 platform, the system is being internally tested on an HP Elite Dragonfly 13.5 Chromebook laptop equipped with 12th Generation Intel "Alder Lake-U" Core processors. As a test unit, this marks a significant shift from the Android OS used on mobile Arm-based systems, as Aluminium OS now operates smoothly on x86 architecture.

Pictured is the new operating system in all its glory. The desktop design resembles a blend of macOS aesthetics and elements from the Gnome desktop environment typical of Linux distributions. It features a taskbar at the bottom, centrally positioned like in the default version of Windows 11. The battery status and Wi-Fi icons are located in the top right corner, alongside a Gemini button for easy AI access. In September 2025, at Qualcomm's 10th annual Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon and Google's head of platforms and devices, Rick Osterloh, discussed this new operating system. Google plans to merge its ChromeOS and Android for PC projects into a single branch, resulting in an Android for PC version called "Aluminium OS." This new OS will incorporate Google's advanced AI technologies from Gemini, running on more powerful mobile designs powered by the latest x86 architecture. It will feature processors with capable NPUs, allowing Google's open-source Gemma models to run locally without any issues.