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AMD swoops in to help as John Carmack slams Nvidia's $4,000 DGX Spark, says it doesn't hit performance claims, overheats, and maxes out at 100W power draw — developer forums inundated with crashing and shutdown reports

Nvidia’s DGX Spark, the company’s new $4,000 developer box powered by the Grace Blackwell GB10 superchip, is under fire after questions were raised about real-world performance and power draw.

OpenAI calls on U.S. to build 100 gigawatts of additional power-generating capacity per year, increase equivalent to 100 nuclear reactors yearly — says electricity is a 'strategic asset' in AI race against China

OpenAI has called on the US to build out more power-generating infrastructure, claiming that it is needed to help provide the backbone for the AI race the US is now in with China. With enormous infrastructure projects planned, it wants the US to build an additional 100 gigawatts of new energy capacity every year.

RTX 4090 laptop GPU gets 20% performance boost after shunt mod, beats the mobile RTX 5090, on average — reduced resistance boosts power to 240W

A user on Reddit shunt-modded their Zephyrus M16's RTX 4090 laptop GPU, which led to a 20% bump in performance compared to stock, while even beating RTX 5090 mobile on average. This was achieved by just stacking one resistor atop the existing one to trick the GPU into consuming way more power than it thinks it is.

China builds brain-mimicking AI server the size of a mini-fridge, claims 90% power reduction — BI Explorer 1 packs in 1,152 CPU cores and 4.8TB of memory, runs on a household power outlet

China's GDIIST research institute has announced the development and soon release of the BIE-1, an AI supercomputer inspired by the operation of the human brain. This neuromorphic computing tech is one of the first standalone, non-rack-based brain-based computers we've ever seen.

Scientists claim you can't see the difference between 1440p and 8K at 10 feet in new study on the limits of the human eye — would still be an improvement on the previously-touted upper limit of 60 pixels per degree

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Meta Reality Labs have conducted a new study on just how many pixels the human eye can take in at certain distances, and determined it's fewer than we might think. They claim in their results that it means most humans wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 1440p and 4K on a 50-inch screen at 10 feet distance.

Battlefield 6's long-awaited battle royale mode officially drops October 28 — "RedSec" will be free to play across PC and console

EA announced a battle royale mode was in development for Battlefield 6 a while ago, and now we know what it'll be called. RedSec releases tomorrow, alongside the game's first season update, and it will be completely free to play. More details will be revealed tomorrow, but we already know that RedSec will feature an insta-kill zone system, far less lenient than any other game.

Lenovo Legion devices running Linux set to get new 'Extreme' mode that fixes previously-broken power limits — only approved devices will be able to run the maximum performance mode

The power profiles on Lenovo Legion devices running Linux have been somewhat broken, where the highest-end Extreme mode would run on models that weren't ever designed to support it. A new proposed patch fixes this, corrects power profiles to work as intended, and makes it so that only explicitly approved models can get access to the Extreme mode easily.

M5 MacBook Pro's SSD is 2.5x faster on average than last-gen M4, exceeding Apple's own claims — M5 achieves 6,000+ MB/s across both read and write speeds

The new 14-inch MacBook Pro featuring the M5 chip has really fast SSDs that have been put to the test, exceeding Apple's own claims. In read speeds, the M5's SSD is more than 3x faster, whereas in write speeds, the difference is about 1.8x, with the M5 SSD achieving over 6,000 MB/s across both.

Cooler Master's new PC case with 5.25-inch drive bay launches in Japan as optical drive boom hits due to Windows 10 upgrade cycle — MasterBox CM695 addresses the country's reluctance to ditch physical media

Cooler Master is defying convention by launching a new midtower case in Japan that features a 5.25-inch optical drive bay up front. The MasterBox CM695 features a suitably-vintage design that also has space for up to four 3.5-inch hard drives, while still rocking a 20Gbps Type-C port at the top, along with a mesh front, and an option for a glass side panel.

Gaming-optimized Ryzen 5 7500X3D spotted at UK retailer, new six-core budget CPU apparently readied for launch — AMD might be prepping the cheapest Zen 4-based 3D V-Cache chip to date

AMD's 3D V-Cache tech is making its way down to the cheapest Raphael processor, with the new Ryzen 5 7500X3D. Found listed at a UK retailer, the 7500X3D will become the cheapest entry point to X3D chips on the AM5 platform, offering six Zen 4 cores and 102 MB of combine cache for maximum gaming performance.

China's ByteDance reportedly building a Steam competitor — 'GameTop' for overseas markets will distribute and publish games like any other store, while harboring a social space with AI-assisted creator tools

ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, is reportedly creating its own Steam competitor targeted at global markets. Dubbed "GameTop," the new storefront is said to carry social features, AI-assisted creator tools, and the typical publishing/distribution that other stores like Epic Games also have. Recruitment has already begun in China.

8-bit PC Hercules Graphics Card from 1984 gets revisited — Hercules GPU from the IBM era shaped the modern graphics we know today

The Hercules Graphics Card, released in 1982, was revolutionary for its time because it combined two popular video modes used in IBM PCs across the corporate world. It could display both sharp text and graphics quickly, thanks to its 32KB frame buffer, offering the best of both worlds in an era when compromise led the conversation.

Cooler Master apologizes for telling users to pry apart melting-prone 16-pin connectors to fix them, instructs customer support teams to stop recommending modifications — company also discontinues problematic right-angle connector

Cooler Master has provided an update stating it is no longer producing its problematic right-angle 12V-2x6 power plug. The company also corrected its customer support staff to stop recommending power connector modifications to its customers.

Over-the-top Warhammer 40K edition gaming chair on sale, flagship gaming chair for under $600

Secretlab's excellent Titan Evo, adorned in Ultramarine colors to form the Warhammer 40K special edition, is now on sale for less than $600. Discounted $70 from its original price and backed by a 3-year warranty, this chair is an unrequited celebration of the game, while offering a comfortable place for your butt to rest.

Ludicrous $6 billion Counter Strike 2 skins market crashes, loses $3 billion overnight — game update destroys inventories, collapses market

Counter-Strike 2 received an update yesterday that prompted the worst market crash in the game's history. Cosmetics worth over $6 billion fell to almost $3 billion after Valve made it easier to acquire them. Less scarcity means lower barrier of entry, but it also means less desirability for traders who'd invested everything into the game.

Intel Core Ultra 5 338H appears in Geekbench listing, confirming new "Arc B370" Xe3 iGPU — No "X" branding in sight as Panther Lake's naming scheme becomes clear

A new Geekbench listing for a midrange Panther Lake CPU, Core Ultra 5 338H, shows a modest bump in performance, but confirms more important details like the exact GPU being utilized under the hood, while clearing up the naming scheme confusion that previously made it part of the flagship "X" branding reserved only for SKUs with 12-core GPUs.

Intel has cut 35,500 jobs in less than two years — more than 20,000 let go in in recent months as Lip-Bu Tan continues drastic recovery journey

Intel cut 20,500 jobs under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan — totaling 35,500 in two years — and reduced R&D spending by over $800 million per quarter as it streamlines operations, cancels lower-priority projects, and concentrates investment on strategic projects.

Intel hamstrung by supply shortages across its business, including production capacity — says it will prioritize data center CPUs over consumer chips, warns of price hikes

Intel's third-quarter results were constrained by production and substrate shortages, forcing the company to prioritize data center CPUs over client chips, which will likely make Raptor Lake CPUs more expensive going forward.

Virtualized Windows 11 test shows Apple's M5 destroying Intel and AMD's best in single-core benchmark — Chinese enthusiast pits Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Core i9 14900KS against Apple's latest SoC

A Chinese enthusiast’s benchmark suggests Apple’s new M5 chip delivers record-breaking single-thread performance in CPU-Z, outperforming top AMD and Intel CPUs even while running Windows 11 in virtualization mode. But its multi-thread performance should be better.

Elon Musk claims Tesla's new AI5 chip is 40x more performant than previous-gen AI5 — Next-gen custom silicon for vehicle AI to now be built by Samsung & TSMC

Tesla's next-gen AI5 chips is going to be manufactured by both TSMC and, now, Samsung in America. Musk claims that it's 40x faster than the outgoing AI4 silicon, mostly because of a radical design approach that ditches legacy hardware blocks to focus on what's needed right now.

Nexperia fallout threatens automobile production as Japanese carmakers warn of supply disruptions while European companies prep assembly line shut-downs — mature-node chip market in crisis as supply dwindles

Japan's Automobile Manufacturers Association warned that Nexperia's disrupted chip supply could halt vehicle production across Japan, as Volkswagen is reportedly preparing to suspend assembly of Golf and Tiguan models as early as next week.

ROG Xbox Ally runs better on Linux than the Windows it ships with — new test shows up to 32% higher FPS, with more stable framerates and quicker sleep resume times

Running Bazzite on your ROG Xbox Ally X can net you some pretty big performance improvements, with some games running up to 32% better on Linux, versus the Windows-based Xbox FSE. Bazzite also reportedly offers better wake-up times from sleep and more stable frame rates all around.

Next-gen Xbox will be 'very premium, high-end experience', says Xbox President — stoking PC-console hybrid speculation

Xbox President Sarah Bond has just hinted at what the next-gen Xbox console might be, and it's looking a lot like a PC hybrid that may run Windows to support multiple storefronts. Sarah says a premium, high-end experience is in the works, which suggests a costly price tag often associated only with PCs.

Nvidia's homegrown memory design is almost standardized and ready for everyone to use — JEDEC says SOCAMM2 compact DRAM module for AI servers boasts higher speeds and broader compatibility

JEDEC is finalizing the design of the SOCAMM2 physical interface, which boasts LPDDR5X support of up to 9600 MT/s. It also features an SPD profile, making it compatible with hardware manufacturers beyond Nvidia.

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