Ubisoft has announced that it has acquired March of Giants, formerly developed by Amazon's Montreal Games studio. The team will join Ubisoft to continue development of the free-to-play title, and is currently working on the next major update. March of Giants puts players in some big shoes, placing them in the role of a giant combatant on a ravaged urban battlefield inspired by the technology of the early 1900s. The 4v4 tactical multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) sees players fighting through lanes, commanding battalions of comparatively pint-sized enemies, and deploying Battleworks—such as trenches, tanks, turrets, and bunkers—to eliminate the enemy team. The gameplay combines elements of real-time strategy and lane-based combat with large-scale coordination and mastery of the giant heroes that make up its roster.

The team behind the game consists of a group of veteran developers, led by two former Ubisoft team members with ties to some of the company's biggest franchises. Alex Parizeau, Senior Production lead, is the former Managing Director of Ubisoft Toronto, having overseen several major AAA productions. Xavier Marquis, Creative Director, was the original Creative Director behind Rainbow Six Siege. Both bring their wealth of experience, passion, and expertise to the development of this new title.

Beelink has started marketing a slick-looking ME Pro NAS system; past weekend updates—mostly aimed at the Chinese market—contain only scant details. Western audiences were treated to a 35-second-long teaser trailer that shows off some of the next-gen device's internals. The Shenzhen-based manufacturer advertises the ME Pro model as a NAS/mini PC hybrid—the standard version seems to accommodate two drives. In the recent past, Beelink has hinted about a larger 4-bay variant. According to the company's Weibo blog, the ME Pro's unique selling point (USP) is: "a groundbreaking DIY drawer-style design, modularizing the motherboard and allowing you to upgrade the core components as needed, truly realizing 'My device, my control,' solving big problems with a small investment."

Beelink's promo video shows AMD, Arm, and Intel board options being swapped in and out of the compact hybrid NAS/PC system. Elaborating on Team Blue hardware, one press outlet—NAS Compares—reportedly attended a recent special preview event at Beelink's headquarters. Representatives allegedly outlined board designs that featured Intel N95 "Alder Lake-N" and N150 "Twin Lake" processors. The manufacturer has not released an ME Pro specification sheet, so it is difficult to judge the product's proportions. In a second Weibo post, Beelink's description reads as follows: "(our design) uses a unibody metal casing, replacing the traditional multi-component structure, which significantly reduces size while improving structural strength. Compared to mainstream dual-bay NAS devices, the overall size is reduced by nearly 50%, making it more suitable for desktop and home environments." A vague "coming soon" tagline could hint at an eventual proper unveiling at next month's CES trade show.

Minisforum has introduced the BD895i SE, a new MoDT (Mobile on Desktop) Mini-ITX motherboard built around AMD's Ryzen 9 8945HX mobile processor. Similar in concept to the earlier BE7XXi HX series, the BD895i SE targets compact, high-performance desktop builds by combining a flagship mobile CPU with a full-featured ITX (170 × 170 mm) layout and a large, pre-installed CPU heatsink. The board features a 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 8945HX processor, running at a 2.5 GHz base clock with boost speeds of up to 5.4 GHz. The CPU is rated at a 100 W TDP, with boost power reaching up to 120 W. Minisforum included a low-profile heatsink with four heatpipes and a total height of 37 mm leaving users the choice to add their own 120 mm fan if needed.

The BD895i SE motherboard features a full PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for a dedicated graphics card, as the integrated AMD Radeon 610M is not really suitable for gaming. Then there are two DDR5-5200 SO-DIMM slots supporting up to 96 GB and dual PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 2280 slots for NVMe storage. Another M.2 2230 E-Key slot is reserved for Wi-Fi or Bluetooth cards. In terms of connectivity, it offers HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and USB-C with DisplayPort Alt Mode (all up to 8K at 60 Hz or 4K at 120 Hz). A 2.5 GbE LAN port alongside a mix of USB 2.0, USB 3.2 Gen 1, and USB-C Gen 2 ports and full analog audio jacks on the rear I/O complements the specs. Power is supplied through standard ATX connectors, making the board compatible with conventional desktop PSUs. Pricing is set at around $423.90 in the US (regular price $529), while European pricing is listed at €439 (regular price €549). Minisforum BD895i SE is positioned as a compact but premium option for users looking to build a powerful small-form-factor system around AMD latest high-end mobile CPU.

Thank you to the community for your feedback following the reveal of Deus Ex Remastered. We've listened to what you had to say, and in order to better meet fan expectations and deliver the best possible experience for players, Deus Ex Remastered will no longer launch on Feb. 5, 2026. We look forward to sharing more updates with you when the time comes. All existing pre-orders will be fully refunded. Thank you again for your patience and support.

About Deus Ex Remastered
The year is 2052. Societies are teetering on collapse, plagues spread unchecked, and shadow governments shape the future. You are JC Denton—a nano-augmented UNATCO operative tasked with protecting order. But the deeper you dig, the more lies you uncover. What begins as a mission becomes a fracture point in human history.

About a year ago, industry insiders let slip early details regarding Apple's mysterious "Baltra" AI chip. At the time, Broadcom was reportedly assisting with the design's network technology. In addition, the "Baltra" project was linked to TSMC 3 nm N3E or N3P node processes. Recent leaks suggest an adjusted gestation schedule; instead of a predicted start of "mass production by 2026," timelines seem to be extended by another year. The reasons behind this rumored delay are not clear, but the North American giant has—officially, as of October 2025—bolstered its Apple Intelligence and Private Cloud Compute-oriented data centers with US-made advanced server equipment, likely running on familiar M2 Ultra processors. Industry moles reckon that M4-based variants are being readied for distribution.

Apple's futuristic in-house "Baltra" AI setup is expected to be inference-oriented, as predicted by Max Weinbach. The tech industry analyst imagined: "basically, I doubt they'll do a massive cluster, but maybe something closer to a GB300 style, with ~64 chips all to all with larger high bandwidth LPDDR memory. Should be significantly cheaper than most current chips, and match the needs." Last month, Mark Gurman claimed that Apple had signed up for a custom Google Gemini-powered LLM. The notorious tipster believes that the claimed $1 billion per year deal will drive next-gen personalized Siri and AI web search functions. As mentioned before, Apple's in-progress "Baltra" data center chip could be designed for efficiency and cost-effectiveness, rather than the raw processing power required for training.

ARCTIC introduces MX-7, a new thermal paste that delivers reliable performance in both classic desktop CPU setups and demanding direct die applications on GPUs, laptops, and console processors. Thanks to a new formula, MX-7 achieves even lower thermal resistance and offers a measurable increase in performance. The thermal paste is neither electrically conductive nor capacitive, eliminating the risk of short circuits or discharges.

MX-7 is a relatively viscous thermal paste that cannot be applied with a spatula. An even layer thickness is achieved through contact pressure when mounting the cooler. The MX-7 impresses not only with its performance, but also with its new syringe design. The improved composition with high cohesiveness reduces the pump-out effect during repeated heat cycles—ideal for long-lasting performance. The Authenticity Check also allows the authenticity of each individual product to be verified.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Season 01 kicks off with a bang: remastered classics like Nuketown 2025 and Standoff, new maps like Fate, Utopia, and Odysseus, and a wild holiday variant, Sleighjacked. Multiplayer fans get a buffet of modes—Prop Hunt, Sticks and Stones, One in the Chamber, Sharpshooter, and Gun Game—each tuned for maximum chaos and competition. Endgame received colossal new World Events. And for Zombies fans? The new Astra Malorum Map and Survival Map: Exit 115 are waiting, with new enemies (hello, O.S.C.A.R.), The Mule Kick Perk-a-Cola, and a new Wonder Weapon to discover.

AMD FSR: Ready to Run
Season 01 is the first to launch with AMD's FSR Redstone features. What does that mean for players? In short: smoother performance, sharper visuals, and a more immersive experience—no matter how intense the firefight gets. FSR is built on machine learning, delivering next-gen upscaling, frame generation, and ray regeneration. Whether you're pushing for 240 Hz on a Radeon RX 9000 series card or just want your game to look and feel incredible at any frame rate, Redstone has you covered

Global sales of total semiconductor manufacturing equipment by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are forecast to reach a record high of $133 billion in 2025, growing 13.7% year-on-year, SEMI announced today in its Year-End Total Semiconductor Equipment Forecast - OEM Perspective at SEMICON Japan 2025. Growth in semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales is expected to continue in the two following years of the forecast period, with projections of $145 billion in 2026 and $156 billion in 2027. This growth will be driven primarily by investments related to AI, particularly in leading-edge logic, memory, and the adoption of advanced packaging technologies.

"Global semiconductor equipment sales show robust momentum, with both the front-end and back-end segments projected to see three consecutive years of growth, culminating in total sales surpassing $150 billion for the first time in 2027," said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO. "Investments to support AI demand have been stronger than anticipated since our midyear forecast, leading us to boost the outlook for all segments."

D-Link Corporation, a global leader in networking and connectivity solutions, announced the launch of Nuclias Unity, a next-generation license-free cloud network management platform. Purpose-built for organizations ranging from SMBs to large, multi-site enterprises, Nuclias Unity delivers unified control, simplified operations, and enterprise-grade reliability—without the traditional cost and complexity of licensed cloud platforms.

Backed by D-Link's decades of networking expertise, Nuclias Unity empowers IT teams to manage wired and wireless networks through a unified cloud management platform, accelerating cloud adoption while ensuring visibility, consistency, and operational efficiency across all business environments.

Colorful today introduced its iGame Mini RTX 50-series graphics cards. Not only do these cards meet NVIDIA's SFF-Ready specification for compact graphics cards, but exceed it by miles (rather, inches). The series is led by the iGame GeForce RTX 5070 Mini OC, followed by the iGame GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Mini OC, and its 8 GB variant. Both the RTX 5070 and RTX 5060 Ti based cards appear to have a similar cooling solution, which contributes to their tight dimensions of 18 cm length, 12.3 cm height, and strictly 2-slot thickness.

The cooler of these cards features a dense aluminium fin-stack heatsink with the fins protruding out from the cooler shroud, much like NVIDIA's Founders Edition coolers. There is a single 95 mm axial airflow fan ventilating it. The backplate is solid metal, with a matte surface. On the RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB Mini OC, it cools half the memory chips. The iGame RTX 5070 Mini OC comes with factory OC of 2557 MHz compared to 2512 MHz reference; while both the RTX 5060 Ti cards come with 2632 MHz boost frequencies compared to 2572 MHz reference. The iGame RTX 5070 Mini OC draws power from a 16-pin 12V-2x6 connector rated for 300 W input, while the RTX 5060 Ti Mini OC cards come with single 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Thermaltake today introduced the TH360 V3 Ultra ARGB Sync Snow Edition, a premium all-in-one liquid CPU cooler that's positioned a notch below the company's Minecube Ultra series. The cooler features a cube-shaped pump-block, with a larger 4-inch, square true-color display floating on top. The cubical region stays recessed to ensure clearance around the CPU socket area. The 4-inch square display comes with a decent resolution of 720 x 720 pixels, and since it's square, the display-head can be rotated via software without any moving parts. The display connects to TT RGB Plus software, which puts out system monitoring info pulled from ACPI, and also lets you change backgrounds, and the cooler's lighting. Speaking of which, you get an ARGB diffuser framing the screen from the sides, and each of the three included 120 mm fans comes with RGB lighting of its own.

The pump turns at speeds ranging between 800 and 2,500 RPM. The cooler comes with 46 cm long tubing. Each of the three included 120 mm fans ventilating the 360 mm radiator turns at 500 to 2,500 RPM, pushing up to 85.29 CFM of airflow at 3.86 mm H₂O static pressure, and up to 37.8 dBA of noise. All current desktop CPU socket types are supported, including AM5, AM4, LGA1851, LGA1700, and LGA115x/LGA1200. Thermaltake claims that the cooler can handle thermal loads of up to 365 W TDP, making it suitable for enthusiast-segment processors. The company didn't reveal pricing.

ENERMAX, an industry-leading force dedicated designing high-performance computer hardware and cooling solutions, proudly announces the launch of the REVOLUTION III S 1000 W, a premium fully modular power supply designed to meet the latest standards in performance, reliability, and aesthetics. Available in both black and white, the REVOLUTION III S 1000 W offers enthusiasts and professionals the flexibility to build powerful systems without compromise. The REVOLUTION III S comes with a 13-year warranty that highlights ENERMAX's confidence in the product's reliability and long-term durability.

The newest addition to the REVOLUTION line is 80 Plus, Cybenetics, and PPLP Platinum certified, ensuring outstanding efficiency and reduced power consumption. Fully compliant with the Intel ATX 3.1 standard, the REVOLUTION III S guarantees stable and reliable power delivery for not only the latest generation of high-performance graphics cards and CPUs, but also the upcoming generations too. Equipped with one 12V-2x6 interface, the REVOLUTION III S 1000 W can deliver up to 600 W of dedicated power to the latest GPU, making it future-ready for enthusiast builds.

The global DRAM shortage has driven up the prices of individual RAM kits, but PC OEMs have largely remained unaffected. Acer and ASUS indicated this week that rising memory costs are starting to influence notebook pricing, though retail price changes are still limited for now. Some brands, such as Dell, may begin raising prices on select high-end and business models, but neither Acer nor ASUS has officially changed their MSRPs in any way. Company executives warned that as new orders enter the market in the coming quarters, memory inflation will increasingly be reflected in end-product pricing. However, pricing remains stable for the time being, and there are no price changes.

Much of the near-term price stability comes from long-term supply agreements that protect OEMs and ODMs from paying spot market rates. Acer's CEO noted that memory historically accounted for about 8% to 10% of a PC's bill of materials, and that a 30% to 50% rise in memory costs so far has resulted in only an approximate 2% to 3% impact on the total BOM cost. Since many manufacturers secure memory through contracts that renew on quarterly or multi-year cycles, wider price fluctuations effects are likely to appear gradually, with more noticeable changes expected from the second quarter and into the third quarter of 2026 as contracts reset.

Intel Foundry announced that it has managed to install the world's most advanced EUV machine—ASML's TWINSCAN EXE:5200B High-NA EUV scanner—in its facilities. The company is producing its 14A node using High-NA EUV lithography, marking the first industry transition from Low-NA. In collaboration with ASML, Intel has completed acceptance testing at Intel Foundry for its 14A node to enhance wafer output. The TWINSCAN EXE:5200B is ASML's second version of High-NA EUV scanners, following the TWINSCAN EXE:5000, which Intel initially used for its 14A trial runs. Intel previously reported processing over 30,000 wafers in a single quarter, achieving simplified manufacturing by reducing the steps needed for a specific layer from 40 to fewer than 10, resulting in significantly faster cycle times.

The new TWINSCAN EXE:5200B achieves an output of 175 wafers per hour in standard conditions, where Intel plans to tune it to over 200 wafers per hour. The machine also advances overlay precision, enabling accurate alignment of distinct lithography layers down to 0.7 nanometers. This achievement builds on Intel's High NA EUV experience, which began in 2023 with the installation of the industry's first commercial High NA tool at its Oregon research and development facility. Intel is currently shipping 14A PDK 0.5 to customers, who are reportedly very satisfied with the node's development. The company itself has praised the 14A node development as it has been achieving far better yield and performance parameters at this stage of development than the 18A node.

Leading provider of industrial PC solutions AAEON (Stock Code: 6579), today introduced the BOXER-6648-ARS, its first fanless embedded Box PC featuring the new Intel Core Ultra Processors (Series 2) range (formerly Arrow Lake). Available in two SKUs offering either the Intel H810 (A1) or Intel Q870 Chipset (A2), the system offers a choice of Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 285/285T, Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 265/265T, or Intel Core Ultra 5 Processor 225/225T CPUs. As a result, the system can provide up to 24 cores of processing power alongside up to 36 TOPs of AI inferencing performance via new Intel platform's integrated CPU, GPU and NPU die architecture.

Primarily designed for more complex or AI-driven industrial automation applications, the BOXER-6648-ARS is equipped with six DB-9 ports for RS-232/422/485, an 8-bit DIO terminal block, and three LAN ports (two 2.5GbE, one 1GbE). The model based on the Intel H810 Chipset adds four USB 3.2 (5 Gbps) and four USB 2.0 ports to this selection, while the Intel Q870 Chipset model is more expansive, with six USB 3.2 (10 Gbps) ports and two USB 2.0. The other main differentiator between the two SKUs is Intel Active Management Technology support on the two 2.5GbE LAN ports, which is reserved for the Intel Q870 Chipset (A2) model only.

Intel announced significant changes in its senior leadership today, particularly in a key visionary role second only the CEO. Since Sachin Katti's departure a few weeks ago, the chief technology officer position has been vacant. Pushkar Ranade has now been appointed as the interim CTO. He will reportedly "help formulate the company's advanced technology strategy and to consolidate and develop critical emerging technologies, such as quantum computing, advanced interconnects, and novel materials within the new CTO Office." Pushkar Ranade has contributed to various Intel node developments and has been with the company for more than a decade, working on projects from the 65 nm node development to 7 nm SoCs. As interim CTO, he will assist CEO Lip-Bu Tan in executing his vision for a revitalized Intel.

Intel also made a few other leadership changes. Robin Colwell assumes the role of leading Intel's senior government affairs, where she will have worldwide engagement with policymakers, regulators, and industry stakeholders. Additionally, Annie Shea Weckesser joins as senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer, leading the company's newly integrated global marketing and communications organization. She will unify corporate reputation, brand strategy, and market engagement. Intel's CEO Lip-Bu Tan pointed out that that all new executives offer the specialized knowledge and strategic vision essential for Intel's sustained success.

TechPowerUp partners with Chieftec to bring our readers from the European Union a chance to grab as many as six pieces of Chieftec gaming PC hardware, but you'd better hurry, entries close soon! Up for grabs are a Chieftec The Cube cube-shaped microATX case; a spacious Chieftec Hunter 3 EATX tower case; a Chieftec Apex Lumo ATX mid-tower case, a Chieftec Stealth 1000 W ATX 3.1 modular power supply; a Chieftec Iceberg 360 RGB AIO CLC, and a Chieftec Iceberg White 360 AIO CLC. Entries have been open over the past week, but close on December 19. It's really easy to join in, just fill up a little form to help us get back to you if you've won!

For more details, and to participate, visit this page.

GIGABYTE, the world's leading computer brand, announces that the AORUS PRIME 5 is now officially available. This high-performance desktop system is built on a new architecture with flagship-grade hardware, paired with GIGABYTE's signature cooling innovations and advanced fan technology. Designed to deliver exceptional speed and long-term reliability for gaming and multitasking, the AORUS PRIME 5 combines power, precision, and design with true plug-and-play simplicity.

The AORUS PRIME 5 not only features up to an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 graphics cards for multicore and next-generation AI performance, but is also built entirely with GIGABYTE products, including a 2 TB SSD and 32 GB of high-speed RGB memory for lightning-fast responsiveness and seamless multitasking. This configuration embodies GIGABYTE's DNA of proven stability, even extending that excellence into a fully integrated cooling solution.

The gaming hardware industry has been in a bit of a state of late as a result of increased demand for DRAM causing a supply shortage and massive price hikes. As a result of the aforementioned issues, Samsung has been rumored to be converting some of its HBM3E and NAND production capacity to DRAM in order to meet demand. The ensuing rumors claimed that Samsung was planning an exit from the NAND, and thus SATA SSD market, as a result of the shift in focus. Micron's recent exit from the consumer space, and the closure of its Crucial memory and SSD brand, lent credence to these rumors, however, these rumors have recently been addressed by a Samsung spokesperson directly in a response to Wccftech. The spokesperson simply said "The rumor regarding the phasing out of Samsung SATA or other SSDs is false," apparently declining to expand any further. However, this is just one indication that the DRAM crisis may not be as long-lived as some have claimed.

Around the same time, in an interview with Hardware Unboxed, Edward Crisler, the PR manager for Sapphire, cautioned PC gamers and potential buyers against panic buying, saying that, "the good news is, I don't think the real pain, that we're suffering now and for the next six months or so, is going to last much longer than that," although he goes on to say that the actual issue at hand is uncertainty of the situation. The implication is that the market will eventually begin to stabilize within the next six to eight months. The implication isn't necessarily that DRAM prices will return to normal, but rather that DRAM supply will eventually catch up to supply. It could also be the case that the massive AI and datacenter boom currently causing the shortages will slow in the coming months, which would also help to stabilize things somewhat. Crisler is careful to note that DRAM prices may still remain somewhat elevated after the market stabilizes, but he seems to be convinced that the sky-high prices we're seeing for consumer memory will fall to some degree and that the gaming industry will adapt to whatever the end result is of the market shake-up.

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic (FotoR) was unveiled at The Game Awards, last week. Prior to introductory events unfolding in Los Angeles, the games industry rumor mill had generated speculation about various "Knights of the Old Republic" (KotoR) remake or reboot projects. Days ago, Lucasfilm and Arcanaut Studios unveiled a spiritual successor—many attendees and stream watchers were surprised by the collaborators' teaser trailer. Long-time franchise fans were happy to see Casey Hudson—a former BioWare veteran—introduce his latest project. SW: Fate of the Old Republic's game director has worked on a number of popular titles, including: Knights of the Old Republic (2003), Jade Empire (2005), the original Mass Effect trilogy (2007 to 2012), and Anthem (2019).

Predictably, well-known figures weighed in with skeptical opinions and predictions. Jason Schreier—of Bloomberg fame—a very recently booted up development cycle: "Lucasfilm says the studio (Arcanaut) was founded this year, which means that 2030 is an 'optimistic' guess. Maybe it'll be a PlayStation 7 game." Schreier's expertise—as a journalist and author—mostly covers the making of modern AAA titles; usually mega expensive and time-consuming affairs. In theory, FotoR's development team "has it easy" due to their game being a "narrative-driven single-player action RPG," rather than a huge open world experience. In a response seemingly directed at outsider estimates, Hudson commented: "don't worry about the 'not till 2030' rumors. Game will be out before then. I'm not getting any younger!"

NVIDIA today announced it has acquired SchedMD - the leading developer of Slurm, an open-source workload management system for high-performance computing (HPC) and AI - to help strengthen the open-source software ecosystem and drive AI innovation for researchers, developers and enterprises. NVIDIA will continue to develop and distribute Slurm as open-source, vendor-neutral software, making it widely available to and supported by the broader HPC and AI community across diverse hardware and software environments.

HPC and AI workloads involve complex computations running parallel tasks on clusters that require queuing, scheduling and allocating computational resources. As HPC and AI clusters get larger and more powerful, efficient resource utilization is critical. As the leading workload manager and job scheduler in scalability, throughput and complex policy management, Slurm is used in more than half of the top 10 and top 100 systems in the TOP500 list of supercomputers. Slurm, which is supported on the latest NVIDIA hardware, is also part of the critical infrastructure needed for generative AI, used by foundation model developers and AI builders to manage model training and inference needs.

Behind the scenes the team here at Bungie has been incredibly hard at work on Marathon, our brand-new PvPvE extraction shooter—where the dark sci-fi world of Tau Ceti collides with tense survival FPS gameplay. In Marathon, players scavenge the lost colony of Tau Ceti IV as a bio-cybernetic Runner while surviving against hostile UESC security forces, rival Runners, and unpredictable environments to seek their fortune. Today's ViDoc shares a new look at Marathon's gameplay and immersive sci-fi setting. The team also explores updates since Alpha, like improved visual fidelity, proximity chat, solo play, and a new Runner shell: Rook.

On Tau Ceti, death is the first step
Your journey begins in the proving grounds of Perimeter, where you'll get your cybernetic legs under you and learn the basics of how to extract alive. Then, the anomaly-scarred Dire Marsh ups the ante and takes you to the remains of the human colony that's filled with more danger and bigger rewards. As you grow your vault and survival skills, you'll make your way to Outpost, the UESC's forward base of operations with patrols, locked rooms, and loot that will have you tempting fate at each turn.

ASUS has expanded its DUAL graphics card family with a smattering of lower-end models—based on NVIDIA's GB206 "Blackwell" GPU—that offer a slimmer profile. Brand-new listings, added in a low-key manner—are tagged with "EVO" designations. As highlighted by Vortez, the DUAL EVO design comes in at "2.1-slot" thickness (42 mm). This slight shrinkage—mostly in one dimension: width—distinguishes new entries from standard DUAL options. The latter examples exist as 2.5-slot thick (50 mm) offerings. There are negligible differences—between twin axial tech-fan cooled EVO and non-EVO SKUs—in terms of card length and height.

At a glance, ASUS has only introduced this slimmer shroud design across overclocked (OC) edition and non-overclocked GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB and RTX 5060 8 GB models. Confusingly, this generation's EVO aesthetic actually debuted mid-way through 2025, under the guise of vanilla DUAL GeForce RTX 5050 graphics card options—all truly 2.0-slot (40 mm) thick. This brand-new wave of cards has lead to an adjusted placement of single 8-pin power connectors—DUAL GeForce RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 EVO designs have this aspect positioned closer to their I/O brackets. The TechPowerUp readership can familiarize itself with a myriad of DUAL EVO and DUAL options present within the site's well-maintained GPU database. Fresh entries popped up before the publication of this news piece.

From the creators of Apex Legends and Titanfall, comes Highguard: a PvP raid shooter where players will ride, fight, and raid as Wardens, arcane gunslingers sent to fight for control of a mythical continent. There they'll clash against rival Warden crews for possession of the Shieldbreaker, then break into and destroy the enemy base to secure territory in this all-new breed of shooter. Play FREE when Highguard launches on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 on January 26, 2026

An all-new PvP raid shooter from Wildlight Entertainment. Ride, fight, and raid in the battle for control of a mythical continent. Launching for free early next year. Wishlist now on Steam, Xbox X|S, and PlayStation 5. Learn more about Highguard at www.playhighguard.com, and stay up to date on the latest game news.

Thunderobot (partnered with Machenike) is set to introduce the ZERO Air gaming laptop at next month's CES trade show. A teaser video was made available last Friday (December 12), but an earlier press release was largely ignored by PC hardware press outlets. The Chinese manufacturer's 2026 "AI gaming" product lineup will make use of "Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors," including the brand-new 16-inch ZERO Air design. Thunderobot's latest trailer hints at the ZERO Air being one of the first portable devices to feature Intel Core Ultra "Panther Lake" processors combined with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5000-series Laptop graphics cards. A multitude of Intel partners are expected to showcase Core Ultra 300 series-based laptops and notebooks at CES 2026.

For example, MSI has already revealed its next-gen Prestige lineup, with a view to fully introduce the professional 2026 series in the new year. Members of the press and influencers have already handled early samples, as of late November. Thunderobot's forthcoming lightweight (1.6 kg) gaming laptop is said to offer "dual full-power performance." Pre-launch press material seems to be vague about the meaning of this "dual" system. Last week we heard about ASUS readying an extremely lightweight Zenbook DUO design; this next-gen ultra-slimline notebook was marketed as featuring a dual-battery configuration.

India has achieved a significant milestone in its semiconductor journey with the launch of DHRUV64. It is a fully indigenous microprocessor developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) under the Microprocessor Development Program (MDP). DHRUV64 provides the nation a reliable, homegrown processor technology. It is capable of supporting strategic and commercial applications. It marks a major advancement in India's pursuit of self-reliance in advanced chip design.

DHRUV64 is built with modern architectural features. It delivers higher efficiency, enhanced multitasking capability and improved reliability. Its advanced design enables seamless integration with a wide range of external hardware systems. The processor's modern fabrication leverages technologies used for high-performance chips. This makes DHRUV64 suitable for sectors such as 5G infrastructure, automotive systems, consumer electronics, industrial automation and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Alchemy Factory is now available in Early Access on Steam. Developed by D5 Copperhead and published by Gamirror Games, this medieval-style automation production game combines simulation management and sandbox building. Early Access is priced at $17.99, with a 10% discount available for the first two weeks.

Alchemy Factory is an automation production game set in a medieval world, blending simulation management and sandbox building. Players take on the role of a magic apprentice who unlocks magical technologies, designs automated production lines, and sells various alchemical goods. The goal is to eventually become a master alchemist whose wealth rivals nations, spanning fields like potion making, metallurgy, and jewelry, and to gradually build your own alchemical kingdom.

MSI's AMD APU-powered Claw A8 handheld gaming PC seems to be heading to North American shores. Over the past weekend, web sleuths noticed Newegg and B&H Photo Video listings. At the time of writing, a pre-release price tag—$1149—is attached to the territory specific "BZ2EM-070US" SKU. Reflecting similar past practices, MSI has staggered the rollout of its latest Windows 11-based portable gaming system. The Taiwanese manufacturer has tended to favor Asian territories when distributing the first waves of Claw hardware—notably, the current-gen A8 debuted in China (and nearby) around "late July/early August."

Unlike most of the competition, MSI opted into using Intel APUs across first and second-generation Claw platforms. Even in Core Ultra 7 form, Team Blue's "Meteor Lake" chipsets trailed behind competing AMD-centric hardware. MSI's second wave handheld PCs—Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+—were driven by Intel's Core Ultra 7 258V APU. This "Lunar Lake" mobile processor currently competes with Team Red's AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme SoC, as tracked/observed by Golden Pig Upgrade. Around mid-May, we picked up on whispers of the MSI Claw family diversifying into the AMD APU realm. A couple of months later, the Ryzen Z2 Extreme-powered Claw A8 started to trickle out at retail. Eventually reaching UK stores by September; priced at £849 (~$1135 USD)—available in Polar Tempest (white) or Neon Green finishes. Presently, only the white 1 TB + 24 GB LPDDR5X model is listed by Newegg and B&H.

KIOXIA is introducing a new storage solution with its Exceria G3 SSD series, an M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD lineup that combines PCIe 5.0 speeds with QLC NAND memory to offer more affordable options for fast PCIe 5.0 storage. Scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2025, these M.2 2280 drives will be available in 1 TB and 2 TB capacities. They promise sequential read speeds of up to 10,000 MB/s and write speeds reaching 9,600 MB/s for the larger model. By integrating the latest interface standard with its eighth-generation BiCS FLASH QLC memory, KIOXIA aims to attract users looking to upgrade from older SATA and PCIe 3.0 drives, without pushing them into the higher-priced tier dominated by TLC NAND.

While QLC memory has historically lagged behind TLC in endurance and performance, the 2 TB G3 surpasses KIOXIA's Exceria Plus G4 in sequential writes and random IOPS, achieving 1.6 million read operations and 1.45 million write operations per second. This improvement is due to the BiCS8 architectural enhancements, which enable KIOXIA to rate the drives at 600 TBW for the 1 TB model and 1,200 TBW for the 2 TB version. These durability figures are comparable to most modern TLC offerings. The 1 TB variant is also impressive, with 10,000 MB/s read speeds, 8,900 MB/s write speeds, and 1.3 million IOPS for random reads. Naturally, performance decreases with smaller capacities. Pricing is still unknown, but the point here is affordability, so that might be something to look forward to.

On December 16 we will release a content update for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl with a brand-new storyline. All of this—completely free for all owners of the game. Christmas arrived earlier in the Zone. Let's get into it.

So what is this new quest?
Strange things start happening near the Malachite on the Western part of the map. The research groups sent by scientists were reporting a signal interfering with their usual PDA communications. After listening to it, stalkers were suffering from headaches, nose bleeds, and hallucinations. Professor Medulin witnessed everything with his own eyes. While being good at scientific research, he didn't know enough about the radio signal and what to do to figure out what was happening. That's where Banzai steps in, a radio enthusiast, who also joined the investigation, but something went wrong. You may hear their emergency transmission almost anywhere in the Zone. Pay close attention to the Red Forest Region on your map, and from here on, your intuition, rationality and choices will lead you down the rabbit hole to see how deep it is.

The good-old "spinning rust"—commonly referred to as Hard Disk Drives (HDDs)—may be another leg in the depleted computing infrastructure caused by the AI boom. According to DigiTimes, contract negotiations for the fourth quarter of 2025 concluded with traditional HDD prices settling about 4% higher quarter-over-quarter, marking the largest rise in the past eight quarters. That is over the largest increase in recent years, indicating that the demand is again outpacing supply even in the slower storage segments like HDD. The massive demand reportedly comes from particularly strong uptake for desktop 3.5-inch drives in China and continued heavy procurement of high-capacity units by major U.S. cloud service providers and hyperscalers.

In China, there is a preference for domestically produced CPUs and operating systems, combined with an increase in local PC assembly, which has brought HDDs back into first-class role in certain PC configurations after years of being replaced by SSDs. Additionally, concerns about SSD data retention have led some customers and policymakers to favor HDDs for specific workloads. Large cloud operators are also expanding their exabyte-class storage for AI, analytics, and archival needs. Manufacturers report that utilization rates are at or near full capacity as demand extends beyond traditional surveillance and backup applications. Especially with AI infrastructure, storing massive data for model training has prompted AI labs to use some HDD-based storage infrastructure where speed isn't needed.

Acer introduced its opening salvo of Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB and RX 9070 non-XT 16 GB custom card designs back in March, almost alongside competing options produced by other AMD board partners. Oddly, the Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer did not end up launching Navi 48 GPU-based products during that period—months later, retail stock started appearing in Japan. Fast-forward to the end of 2025, and Acer seems to be catching up with other AIBs, yet again. Last Friday (December 12), a Japanese press release signalled the arrival of White Edition Predator BiFrost options at retail outlets. The flagship spin-off SKU is available immediately, at 138,800 yen (tax included), converting to ~$896 USD.

A weekend investigation—prompted by GDM/hermitage akihabara's PR release—produced evidence of pale Predator BiFrost Radeon RX 9070 XT OC and RX 9070 OC stock reaching Europe. VideoCardz happened upon highly-detailed entries on the Geizhals price aggregation engine. In Germany, Acer's best RDNA 4 gaming card—now dressed in white—is (appropriately) cheapest at the "NBB - notebooksbilliger" Ebay store. An active voucher promo brings total cost of ownership down to €613.81 (~$722 USD). Alternatively, NBB and Nullprozentshop offer the joint-lowest non-XT White Edition listings: €539.00 (~$634 USD). Product renders show familiar packaging; already present on boxed standard black models. Oddly, the non-XT promotional shots show the deployment of three 8-pin power connectors (instead of the standard two). Normally this triple provision is reserved for top-level XT options, so Acer's graphics department could be using a generic image set for both overclocked models.

Marvell recently showcased its custom silicon IP advancements at the Marvell Analyst Day 2025. The company has developed SRAM IP that surpasses industry standards in terms of power efficiency and density. Initially launched in June, their 2 nm SRAM IP now reveals performance figures that highlight its superiority over standard solutions. In a 256K instance comparison, Marvell reports an 80% reduction in total power consumption, a 37% smaller area, and cycle times that are 22% faster. Additionally, Marvell's memory layout is more rectangular, facilitating easier integration into dense SoCs.

Further comparisons with top alternatives show that Marvell's custom SRAM uses 50% less area at the same bandwidth, reduces standby power by 66%, and delivers 17 times more bandwidth per mm² when normalized by area. These improvements are attributed to redesigned clocking and port structures that enhance bandwidth from on-die SRAM. Marvell argues that this architectural approach results in significantly higher bandwidth density and lower power consumption compared to standard dense SRAM IP. In an era where logic scaling continues to outpace memory in modern semiconductor nodes, having custom IP that aggressively boosts SRAM density and reduces power usage is a massive advantage.

HDMI Licensing Administrator, Inc. (HDMI LA) announced that its CES 2026 booth will spotlight HDMI gaming technologies with a range of demonstrations designed to engage both professional attendees and gaming enthusiasts. The booth will feature the performance benefits of three HDMI cable types across interactive gaming demonstrations:

• Ultra96 HDMI Cable, introduced in the recently released HDMI 2.2 Specification, will be on display with early prototypes
• Ultra High Speed HDMI Cable
• Premium High Speed HDMI Cable

These demonstrations will highlight how the right HDMI connectivity drives exceptional performance for next-generation gaming experiences.

A new era of survival horror arrives with Resident Evil Requiem, the latest and most immersive entry yet in the iconic Resident Evil series. Experience terrifying survival horror with FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft, and dive into pulse-pounding action with legendary agent Leon S. Kennedy. Both of their journeys and unique gameplay styles intertwine into a heart-stopping, emotional experience that will chill you to your core. Watch the latest heart-stopping trailer (below) for a taste of the horrors that await on February 27, 2026.

Requiem for the dead. Nightmare for the living. Resident Evil Requiem is now available for pre-order! Experience terrifying survival horror with FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft, and dive into pulse-pounding action with legendary agent Leon S. Kennedy. Both of their journeys and unique gameplay styles intertwine into a heart-stopping, emotional experience that will chill you to your core. A new era of survival horror begins when Resident Evil Requiem launches February 27, 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, Steam, and Epic Games Store.

At the mid-way point of last week, HKC promo material teased an imminent unveiling of the world's first RGB Mini-LED gaming monitor. Days later—as promised—the Chinese semiconductor display specialist delivered on this promised. Their upcoming cutting-edge product boasts "simultaneous light and color control" capabilities, enabled by an RGB Mini-LED backlight system. By comparison, normal (white/blue) Mini-LED only delivers "single light control." So far, only well-heeled customers/business owners have enjoyed this richer color experience, via extremely large format televisions, courtesy of Hisense and Samsung. According to a domestic press release, HKC's "color focused" M10 Ultra is capable of "reshaping light," thanks to the integrated backlight array's 4788 independent control zones. The company claims that its latest design largely eliminates the halo effect/phenomenon that is a byproduct of Mini-LED backlight tech—enabled through a micron-level "light and color control" matrix and independent R-G-B channel manipulation algorithms.

The M10 Ultra's recent introduction did not extend into a retail release, but a launch—at least in China—could happen within the first quarter of 2026. HKC reckons that their forthcoming 32-inch 4K offering reaches professional-grade standards with a 100% coverage of the BT.2020 color gamut (also sRGB, DCI-P3, and Adobe RGB). According to an initial specification sheet, the manufacturer's latest 31.4-inch panel can support dual-mode functionality—primarily 3840 x 2160 resolution, at a 165 Hz native refresh rate. A competitive gaming-oriented mode boosts the refresh rate up to 330 Hz, with screen resolution reduced to 1080p. The M10 Ultra seems to be up-to-date in terms of high-bandwidth connectivity: DisplayPort 2.1 is present on the spec sheet. Curiously, HKC did not specify whether this model is an IPS or VA-type monitor.

NVIDIA today announced the NVIDIA Nemotron 3 family of open models, data and libraries designed to power transparent, efficient and specialized agentic AI development across industries. The Nemotron 3 models—with Nano, Super and Ultra sizes—introduce a breakthrough hybrid latent mixture-of-experts (MoE) architecture that helps developers build and deploy reliable multi-agent systems at scale.

As organizations shift from single-model chatbots to collaborative multi-agent AI systems, developers face mounting challenges, including communication overhead, context drift and high inference costs. In addition, developers require transparency to trust the models that will automate their complex workflows. Nemotron 3 directly addresses these challenges, delivering the performance and openness customers need to build specialized, agentic AI.

According to a report from Sedaily, cited by TrendForce, Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) Division is in discussions with AMD over manufacturing its chips on Samsung Foundry's second-generation 2 nm process known as SF2P. Samsung's 2 nm technology is competing directly with TSMC's N2 and Intel's 18A, both using the Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor architectures. Industry sources say a decision on moving forward with a formal agreement could come as early as January next year, with actual production being more a matter of "when" rather than "if". As part of the talks, Samsung is expected to run AMD designs through a multi-project wafer (MPW) program in the near term. This would allow both companies to evaluate SF2P's performance and yields before committing to volume manufacturing. The chip involved is believed to be AMD's next-generation EPYC "Venice" server CPU, according to Global Economic News. If the MPW results meet AMD's expectations, sources say it could open the door for AMD to adopt a dual-foundry strategy, pairing Samsung with TSMC. Such a move would not be limited to server products, and could eventually extend to future consumer CPUs, including the "Olympic Ridge" Ryzen lineup.

Separately, the report highlights the AI-focused partnership between Samsung and AMD. Despite Samsung's challenges in entering NVIDIA's HBM supply chain, it has secured a strong position with AMD. Samsung is already supplying HBM3E 12-layer memory for AMD's MI350 accelerators and is considered well positioned for HBM4, which is expected to debut alongside AMD next-generation MI450 products. From Samsung's perspective, adding AMD as a foundry customer would further support its recent recovery. Sedaily notes that Samsung Foundry has picked up momentum after winning orders from major clients such as Tesla and Apple. At the same time, industry sources point to TSMC capacity constraints and rising wafer prices, those factors making Samsung an alternative.

The world's top-performing system for graph processing at scale was built on a commercially available cluster. NVIDIA last month announced a record-breaking benchmark result of 410 trillion traversed edges per second (TEPS), ranking No. 1 on the 31st Graph500 breadth-first search (BFS) list. Performed on an accelerated computing cluster hosted in a CoreWeave data center in Dallas, the winning run used 8,192 NVIDIA H100 GPUs to process a graph with 2.2 trillion vertices and 35 trillion edges. This result is more than double the performance of comparable solutions on the list, including those hosted in national labs.

To put this performance in perspective, say every person on Earth has 150 friends. This would represent 1.2 trillion edges in a graph of social relationships. The level of performance recently achieved by NVIDIA and CoreWeave enables searching through every friend relationship on Earth in just about three milliseconds. Speed at that scale is half the story—the real breakthrough is efficiency. A comparable entry in the top 10 runs of the Graph500 list used about 9,000 nodes, while the winning run from NVIDIA used just over 1,000 nodes, delivering 3x better performance per dollar.

Attack Shark, a gaming peripheral brand specializing in affordable, high-performance mechanical keyboards, gaming mice, and accessories, released the V8, a next-generation lightweight wireless gaming mouse born for eSports. Designed for competitive players seeking faster response, greater stability, and sustained comfort, the V8 introduces breakthrough technology, setting a new benchmark for gaming mice.

Co-designed with the Attack Shark player community, the V8 features a shark-fin wireless receiver with an enhanced antenna for stronger signals and stable transmission. Its unique design ensures low latency even in interference-heavy environments. An LED indicator provides instant visibility of connectivity, polling rate, and battery status, delivering a reliable, uninterrupted wireless experience for competitive play.

AMD's AIB partners are speaking up as they express more design freedom for their GPUs. According to Sapphire, AMD-exclusive GPU AIB, they are limited in their ability to modify the card and must adhere to chipmaker's official design rules. However, they now want more freedom to make GPUs focus on overclocking, extremely silent operation, and other traits that PC enthusiasts will appreciate. In a Hardware Unboxed interview with Ed Crisler, PR Manager at Sapphire Technology for North America, the AIB has expressed some frustration over their design rule limits.

Sometimes I really wish the chip makers would get out of the way and let us partners just make our cards. Give us the chip. Give us the RAM. Tell us what we have to provide to make it work with the board. And then let us make the cards. Let us have our fun. Let us go nuts. Let there be real differentiation. Sometimes it feels like this market becomes too too much the same.

Samsung is reportedly considering halting its consumer SATA III SSD production lines due to a growing shortage of NAND flash in the supply chain. According to Moore's Law is Dead, industry insiders have been discussing Samsung's potential stop of regular SATA III SSD production. Most NAND flash is being allocated to datacenter customers, such as AI labs and hyperscalers, leaving limited supply for the lower-margin consumer market, including PC gamers and tech enthusiasts. However, this likely only impacts regular SATA III SSDs and not Samsung's popular M.2 PCIe NVMe drives, which have been a consumer favorite for years. Additionally, there are reports that Samsung is converting its NAND flash production lines in Pyeongtaek and Hwaseong to focus on DRAM production. The upcoming Pyeongtaek Fab 4 (P4) is also expected to operate as a DRAM-only facility using Samsung's latest 1c process.

Earlier industry sources suggest that Samsung is becoming cautious about the NAND market, while demand for standard DRAM has surged. This shift makes NAND flash a less attractive segment, causing the entire supply chain to slow down as inventories are depleted. The demand for AI infrastructure has rapidly depleted inventory across the supply chain, and NAND flash is no exception. The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure has led to NAND flash shortages, which could persist for years. It was noted that the price of a 1 Terabit TLC NAND increased from $4.80 in July 2025 to $10.70 in November 2025, marking an increase of over 100% in less than six months. Other types of NAND flash, such as MLC and QLC, have also seen their spot prices more than double.

MSI started selling its flagship Socket AM5 motherboard, the MEG X870E GODLIKE X Edition, at an eye-watering $1,300 in the US and approximately €1,200 in the EU (EUR price includes VAT). The board was announced way back in August, and is only now making its way to retail. Various tech publications including TechPowerUp posted reviews of the board over the weekend. Our review can be read here. This board is the absolute pinnacle of connectivity on the AMD platform, providing connectivity and overclocking capabilities that very few other boards offer. Its closes competitors would be the ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme, and the GIGABYTE X870E AORUS Extreme AI Top. Its truckload of connectivity options include 40 Gbps USB4, thirteen 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-A and type-C ports; 10 GbE and 5 GbE wired LAN, Wi-Fi 7, and a very expensive onboard audio solution. More than the actual board, MSI includes an AIC-based M.2 riser, a fan management module, at least half a dozen M.2 slots on board, and a powerful VRM solution to power current and future processors.

Be sure to check out the TechPowerUp review of the MSI MEG X870E GODLIKE X Edition motherboard.

Palit today announced the Palit Maker Borderlands 4 themed mod giveaway. The three custom Borderlands 4 GeForce RTX 50 GPU mods were realized using the creative freedom of Palit Maker support. Comment under the Instagram post of the mod you like the most and get the chance to win amazing prizes! Palit Maker is our original concept for gamers seeking a unique build. It allows you to create a personalized graphics card without affecting the warranty. Download the 3D files from our website and start creating today.

Microsoft's Copilot AI chatbot is arguably one of the most controversial add-ons ever implemented in the Windows 11 operating system. However, the controversy doesn't stop at PC operating systems. It seems to extend to TVs as well. According to Reddit user u/defjam16, his LG TV webOS received an update that installed Microsoft's Copilot AI app, with no option to remove it. Although users can choose to ignore it, the push for increased AI integration in everyday products is becoming unavoidable, even on TVs. What exactly can a Copilot AI app do in your TV? We don't know either.

Microsoft is likely promoting its Copilot on TVs to capture more of the AI app market, aiming to become the go-to platform for AI inquiries. Since webOS is a Linux-based TV operating system LG uses, it is also possible that Microsoft is preparing the Copilot AI app for a wider rollout to Linux users, who are now officially commanding a 3% market share among PCs. Other TV operating system platforms are also at "risk" of getting a dedicated Microsoft Copilot AI app, which is especially bad for people not wanting their TV to do any AI processing.

Welcome to the second to last full week of 2025 and most likely the last week of any kind of interesting new game releases. This week's major release is a first person MMO set in a post Soviet-era universe. If that's not your ginger bread flavour, how about a top-down mix between a MOBA and an RPG, or a tactics-JRPG from the PS4, since we're apparently blending several different styles of game styles this week. Next up we have a retro FPS, which is followed by a retro 2D platformer remaster and finally we end the week with some pro bowling of all things.

Pioner / This week's major release / Tuesday 16 December
Pioner is an open-world MMO first-person shooter set in a haunting, alternative-reality world where Soviet-era structures lie abandoned on a desolate, post-apocalyptic island. In this immersive environment, the gameplay experience is defined by dynamic PvE and PvP elements, where realism takes priority over traditional health bars or character levels. Steam link

SK Hynix held an internal company meeting, where the company reportedly presented some tough pills to swallow for many gamers. The company now forecasts the tight memory supply to last through 2028 for the commodity DRAM, which includes DDR5/DDR4, GDDR6/GDDR7, and LPDDR5x/LPDDR6. All the aforementioned DRAM variants are essential for PC and console components, making millions of gamers at risk of absorbing a massive price increase as a result. As memory supplier inventories deplete, production capacity will not increase to meet demand as it has in the past. This marks a departure from the usual response by memory manufacturers, who typically ramp up capacity in response to demand.

However, an interesting thing that SK Hynix has noted is that this situation will exclude the company's most advanced memory solutions—HBM and SOCAMM. These products are expected to get an additional capacity expansion, without tight supply impacting this part of the DRAM supply chain. These products are even in high demand as they are mostly consumed in higher volume than the regular commodity DRAM, due to their integration into AI products such as GPUs and servers.

If you love documentaries, then you already know what a bad selection streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu have, but there's good news. Curiosity Stream is a streaming platform dedicated entirely to documentaries and educational content, and they just dropped a lifetime subscription on sale for $149.99 (reg. $399.99). The Curiosity Stream catalog covers science, history, nature, space, and technology, and it actually grows every week instead of shrinking behind licensing changes. You can watch deep dives on engineering and archaeology, follow wildlife photographers around the world, or settle in with space-focused series that feel genuinely cinematic.

Since the platform was founded by the creator of Discovery Communications, it leans heavily into educational programming that's still fun to watch. The interface is clean, it works on pretty much any device, and offline viewing makes long trips far less boring. With a lifetime plan, you skip the yearly renewal headache and just keep the entire library forever.

For a very limited time, you can get a Curiosity Stream Standard Lifetime Subscription on sale for $150.

Huawei's next-generation Ascend 950 AI accelerator has been pictured for the first time, showcasing the company's custom silicon and HBM memory. The chip combines Huawei's first self-developed HBM memory with a new generation of AI acceleration. Huawei aims to compete through scale rather than focusing solely on single-chip performance. Although it currently trails NVIDIA in per-chip performance, Huawei's system-scale solutions can still be competitive. The company has announced the Ascend 950 family for early 2026, featuring two variants.

The 950PR model includes 128 GB of in-house HBM with around 1.6 TB/s of bandwidth, while the 950DT model increases memory to 144 GB and boosts bandwidth to nearly 4 TB/s. Both chips target one PetaFLOP of FP8, and two PetaFLOPS of FP4. Huawei's competitive strategy emphasizes dense packaging and aggressive networking, rather than relying solely on raw per-chip performance. We have no information on the node selection, but it will likely be SMIC's newest N+3 node with 5 nm-class features. Chinese SMIC has officially achieved volume production of its newest 5 nm node relying on the deep ultraviolet (DUV) to manufacture its silicon. Since the first customer for N+3 was Huawei with Kirin 9030 SoC, it is only logical that the more important Ascend AI accelerator family is manufactured using the same node.

A fresh update of AMD's chipset driver package seems to contain a major reference to an unreleased mobile processor series. The "pmf_ryzen_ai400series" directory was found within Team Red's Chipset Software v7.10.02.711 release. By simple deduction, PC hardware news outlets reckon that the "Gorgon Point" family is ready for validation at OEMs. Related leaks have come from mid-year shipping manifests, and recent benchmark diagnostics. Industry observers believe that AMD will unveil this "refreshed" product lineup at next month's CES trade event. Attendees will likely witness a redeployment of trusted current-gen technologies: Zen 5 + Zen 5c CPU cores, RDNA 3.5 iGPUs, and XDNA 2 NPUs. Simply put, the "Gorgon Point" laptop/notebook-oriented processor lineup will likely arrive as a mild upgrade over readily available Ryzen AI 300 "Strix Point" forebears. Until "Zen 6" heads to mobile platforms later on in 2026, interim Ryzen AI 400 APUs are expected to drive a new wave of portable AI PCs.

Independent developer and publisher CI Games has revealed the very first look at gameplay of the highly anticipated action-RPG Lords of the Fallen II as part of The Game Awards (TGA). The hard-hitting new trailer, featuring a cover of "It's a Sin" by chart-topping rock band Ghost, illustrates the game's brutal soulslike combat against an array of fearsome, towering creatures amid an expansive world characterized by its trademark dual realms. Built on Unreal Engine 5, Lords of the Fallen II launches in 2026 on the PlayStation 5 system, the Xbox Series X|S console systems, PC via the Epic Games Store, and is available to wishlist now.

Lords of the Fallen II, currently in active development, is a new soulslike action-RPG set in a human realm besieged by eons of malevolent gods, visceral magic, and unflinching defenders. 1,000 years after the fall of the dark god Adyr, a lone kingdom stands against the forces of the dead realm known as Umbral and its eldritch master.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer is prepping its engines for launch, bringing a runs-based, high-stakes reinvention of racing to the Star Wars galaxy in 2026. Launching on PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox Series X|S, and PC, Star Wars: Galactic Racer is the debut game from AAA development studio Fuse Games - led by former Criterion Games GM Matt Webster - in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games and publisher Secret Mode.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer introduces players to The Galactic League, an unsanctioned racing circuit born in the lawless Outer Rim, where the galaxy's best pilots battle in dangerous races where only the bold survive. Slam, shunt, and takedown rivals as you pilot different classes of repulsorcraft each with distinct physics and playstyles. Speed across new and iconic Star Wars planets, where branching routes and varied environments ensure no two races play the same.

To all players of Monster Hunter Wilds, title update 4 will be released on December 16, 2025. This update will deliver additional content, including Gogmazios, the first Elder Dragon in Wilds, and the expansion of endgame content with the addition of the Gogma Artian Weapons. In this update we also focus on improving the game's stability and performance, implementing various improvements including CPU/GPU optimization for all platforms.

To further improve stability and performance, additional improvements will be implemented in a patch exclusive to the Steam version in late January 2026, as well as in the Ver. 1.041 update in February. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who has reported issues and provided feedback. Your feedback has aided the development team's ongoing work to improve the overall experience through these updates. We'd like to further explain the stability and performance improvements roadmap that was shown in the December 2025 Monster Hunter Showcase.

Earlier today, ASRock's "AGESA to Combo AM5 1.2.7.1" BIOS update turned up within the official support index. In general, several B650 and B850 chipset-based motherboard models—once updated with the AGESA BIOS 1.2.7.1 stable release—will be blessed with "upcoming CPU compatibility." Recent PC hardware community excitement has been generated by key marketing terms, including "Future CPU Ready" or "Ultimate Compatibility." As of mid-October, ASUS started hinting about forthcoming "Zen 6" processor support, on AM5 platforms. Next-gen mainstream desktop Ryzen CPUs are not expected to arrive until later on in 2026.

Looking at ASRock's latest BIOS release, upcoming support could refer to products that are due for launch in the near future. Around late October, the AGESA 1.2.7.0 beta contained code references to familiar Team Red "Strix Point" (STX) and "Phoenix Point" (PHX) architectures. Unlike nearby rivals, ASRock did not embrace v1.2.7.0—instead today's release jumps to v1.2.7.1. Presumably, the up-to-date revisions pave the way for "Krackan Point" or "Strix Point" desktop APUs on ASRock's slice of B650 and B850 boards. AMD could introduce the "Ryzen 9000G" series at CES 2025, potentially alongside the oft-leaked "Ryzen 7 9850X3D" SKU, and a more mysterious "Ryzen 9 9950X3D2" flagship model.

Reef Entertainment is thrilled to announce that Terminator 2D: NO FATE is now available on PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC (via Steam and Epic Games Store). Developed by Bitmap Bureau, this officially licensed 2D action side-scroller set in the iconic Terminator universe delivers the studio's signature adrenaline-fuelled gameplay and glorious pixel art style in a complete arcade experience.

Alongside the launch, fans can dive into the new trailer to see Terminator 2D: NO FATE in action. The game lets players step into the shoes of legendary heroes Sarah Connor and the T-800 as they battle to escape the relentless T-1000, one of cinema's deadliest killers. Future War missions place players in control of Resistance leader John Connor as he takes the fight directly to Skynet in the War Against the Machines. Blending classic moments from Terminator 2: Judgment Day with never-before-seen scenarios and multiple endings, this unique story puts the fate of humanity directly in your hands.

Earlier today, the global ASUS social media account kicked off a marketing campaign for a futuristic Zenbook DUO design. A brief but slick trailer drives two key points into viewer's retinas: "Next Level Durability" and "Next Level Power That Lasts." The 22-second-long teaser video focuses on sturdy-looking hinge systems, and then a glowing pair of power cells. The CGI cutaway shows a depiction of batteries being stashed inside both halves of the device. According to quick Wccftech research, Lenovo's ThinkPad T580 15" model seems to contain a similar setup, albeit minus dual-displays—granting an advertised/claimed 27-hour-long battery life. ASUS confirms that the next-gen Zenbook DUO high-end notebook model will be unveiled at CES 2026. Specifically, during a January 6 special online event/livestream.

Current-gen Zenbook DUO (UX8406) options are fitted with two "full-size" 14-inch 3K 120 Hz OLED touchscreens. The most potent variant is driven by Intel's Core Ultra 9 285H APU. This flagship mobile processor—sitting atop the "Arrow Lake-H" series—sports an Arc Graphics 140T (Xe-LPG+) iGPU. The 2026 Zenbook DUO could be treated with a next-gen hardware upgrade—potentially "Panther Lake-H." Recent leaks signal an imminent introduction of Team Blue's next-wave flagship chip: Core Ultra X9 388H. A very capable 12-Xe3 core iGPU will have an easier time running twin ultra-resolution/high-refresh displays. The short Zenbook DUO 2026 teaser provides a blurry look at a revised detachable keyboard design. When compared to current accessories, a larger trackpad seems to be present, along with recessed keys, and a slimmer profile.

Akasa, a leading provider of thermal solutions, have announced the Euler TX3, an aluminium fanless case designed for Thin Mini-ITX motherboards. Utilizing passive cooling, the Euler TX3 supports Intel Core (8th-14th Gen) and Core Ultra (15th Gen) processors up to 35 W TDP. With a compact volume of only 3.9L, the case is well-suited for industrial automation, point-of-sale (POS), kiosk, digital signage or other commercial systems that require long operational life and minimal maintenance.

The enclosure's fully fanless design utilizes an aluminium thermal module to transfer heat efficiently from the CPU to the external aluminium fins, while eliminating noise and mechanical failure points, ensuring stable and long-term performance. The design incorporates Akasa's patented spring mounting system to ensure reliable thermal contact and compatibility across a diverse range of Thin Mini-ITX form factor boards.

On behalf of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and Bad Robot Games (BRG), it is our pleasure to announce 4:Loop, a 4-player co-op shooter experience set in an original sci-fi universe. Our teams are thrilled to finally show you what we've been working on, and now you can catch a first glimpse of gameplay by watching the official gameplay reveal trailer that debuted at the 2025 TGAs. Check out the trailer below.

Don't forget to wishlist on PlayStation Store and Steam to keep up with all the latest 4:Loop secrets coming soon. Created by Mike Booth and the interactive storytellers at Bad Robot Games, 4:LOOP is a tactical, four-player co-op shooter crafted for endless replayability and infinite ways to build the ultimate team. Together, if you can learn from your mistakes, you might just fail to save the world.

Yesterday, AMD quietly introduced enterprise-grade Radeon AI PRO R9700S and R9600D graphics cards. Two reference designs were showcased within a small batch of promotional renders, but the company has not issued a proper press release that covers the launch of passively-cooled professional "RDNA 4" offerings. Following in the footsteps of Team Red's low-key expansion of the Navi 48 GPU-based Radeon AI PRO, involved board partners have discreetly added their own interpretations to official web presences.

Minus grand fanfare, Sapphire's global site has been updated with "RADEON AI PRO R9700S 32 GB Passive" and "RADEON AI PRO R9600D 32 GB Passive" product pages. Frustratingly, the two listings are not easily accessed from the company's main set of menus. The larger card—with dual-slot thickness—bears an understated two-tone matte/gloss aesthetic. The smaller R9600D SKU is a much simpler affair; its black shroud and backplate are sparsely decorated with branding and vague line patterns. Sapphire's two custom designs are equipped with 12V-2x6 power connectors. The Sapphire R9700S Passive SKU spec sheet seems to align with Team Red's reference points for the air/blower-cooled Radeon AI PRO R9700 design—including a 300 W TDP rating, and 256-bit memory interface. Sapphire's custom R9600D card's power consumption is rated at 150 W; also set at reference level.

Larian Studios is proud to announce Divinity, a brand-new game set in the world of Rivellon. Revealed with a trailer shown live during The Game Awards 2025, Divinity is Larian's most ambitious title yet. The gods are silent. Rivellon bleeds. New powers stir.

Built by the team who brought you Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios unchains its ambitions to bring you an RPG with greater breadth and depth than ever before. While Divinity is a brand-new game that doesn't require experience with previous Larian titles, those who've played Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin 2 will be able to enjoy greater understanding and continuity.

Retro Games Ltd. (RGL), in partnership with PLAION REPLAI, is proud to announce THEQUICKSHOT II, a modern reimagining of one of the most iconic joysticks of the home-computer era. Reviving the unmistakable silhouette, hands-on feel, and arcade-inspired attitude of the original Quickshot II, this new USB-enabled controller brings authentic retro play into the modern age while honoring one of the most beloved pieces of gaming hardware ever made.

For millions of players in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Quickshot II wasn't just a controller, it was the controller. Its flight-stick profile and signature red trigger made it a ubiquitous presence across the most important gaming platforms of the time. Decades later, it remains instantly recognizable and deeply nostalgic for retro fans worldwide.

Rebellions and Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced Red Hat OpenShift AI powered by Rebellions neural processing units (NPUs), integrating Red Hat's scalable, flexible and open source AI inference capabilities with Rebellions' energy-efficient NPUs to deliver a validated full-stack enterprise AI platform. This collaboration fully supports Red Hat's goal to deliver "any model, any accelerator, any cloud" to customers globally by enabling more choice and optionality in the architectures underpinning AI workloads.

As organizations move AI initiatives into actual business use cases, challenges such as infrastructure costs, deployment complexity, and the need for flexible environments with enhanced security footprints are becoming more prominent. GPU-centric environments on their own can be insufficient to meet the performance and efficiency demands at scale. Red Hat OpenShift AI powered by Rebellions NPUs addresses these challenges by enabling organizations to operate AI workloads more efficiently across environments.

In the near future, an experimental attempt to harness the power of the Earth's core ends in a terrifying disaster, turning soil to scum and the living to undead monsters. However, Leon Dorsey, the genius behind the experiment has a plan to make things right: a team of highly trained mercenaries to get the job done. Unfortunately, they were all too expensive. That's why he hired THE TOXIC COMMANDO.

Team with up to 4 buddies with full cross-play support across PC and consoles. Send the Sludge God and its horde of things-that-should-never-be back to the underworld as you drive across semi-open maps and tear through the wasteland. Find how your squad clicks, shooting swarms of enemies together and smashing them under the wheels of your favorite ride for that pure rush of power of satisfaction. Unload an array of gunfire, grenades, special abilities, and even freaking katanas. When mutated monstrosities swarm from every angle, teamwork isn't optional: it's survival.

Intel has conducted early tool qualification tests on wet etch systems from ACM Research as part of its preparations for the next-generation 14A node, which is scheduled for volume production in 2027. These evaluations have drawn external political attention because ACM has significant research and manufacturing facilities in China and has faced U.S. restrictions on its overseas company departments. The situation is further complicated by a past investment in ACM through Walden International, a firm associated with Lip-Bu Tan, who now leads Intel. Intel has not yet announced a decision to adopt ACM's tools for 14A production, nor provided any statement.

The new tool testing has led to political scrutiny and calls for stricter procurement rules for companies that have received government support. Although ACM Research is a U.S. company, its research and operations expansion in China pose a security threat to government-backed Intel, which is striving to maintain American semiconductor independence. At the same time, Intel has already confirmed its use of ASML's High-NA EUV lithography, another tool from the West that is prohibited from being sold to Chinese entities. ASML operates 12 offices across China, primarily for operational purposes, but it is not under the same level of scrutiny. We are awaiting any possible updates to determine if there are additional underlying reasons why Intel and ACM Research are facing challenges in this situation.

Prime ABGB, and Indian computer hardware store, has inadvertently revealed "Arrow Lake Refresh" desktop processor specifications several weeks in advance of a much-anticipated early 2026 launch. Details of Intel's upcoming "Core Ultra 9 290K Plus" and "Core Ultra 7 270K Plus" SKUs have mostly tumbled out from benchmark database entries, but momomo_us's latest discovery indicates a prepping of launch stock through retail channels. Prime ABGB's listings do not offer any pricing information, but comprehensive spec tables—kindly collated below, by VideoCardz—and renders of familiar black box designs are still present on the webstore (at the time of writing).

An overview of the unreleased flagship "ARL-S Refresh" chip states: "(this) first SKU is the Core Ultra 290K Plus, which will be replacing the current-gen Core Ultra 285K. It has the same 8P+16E core count, but the P-Core turbo has been bumped 100 MHz to 5.6 GHz, and the E-Core now turbos at up to 4.8 GHz, up from 4.6 GHz." The other overview seems to contain/retain placeholder information: "(the) 270K Plus appears to be part of the Arrow Lake‑S Refresh for desktops from Intel. It is positioned as an enhancement over the existing 265K (and possibly 285K) models with higher core counts and faster memory support." According to recent whispers, a third "Arrow Lake-S Refresh" option—Core Ultra 5 250K—is expected to serve as a successor to the current/non-Plus generation's upper-mid-range Core Ultra 5 245K model. Given recent leak rate upticks, PC hardware news outlets reckon that the Core Ultra 200K Plus processor series will be released following an official introduction at CES 2026.

Capcom Co., Ltd. today announced that sci-fi action-adventure game PRAGMATA, a completely new IP, is scheduled for release on April 24, 2026. PRAGMATA is a new type of sci-fi action-adventure game mixing puzzle and action elements. In the game, which takes place on the moon in a near-future world, the spacesuit-clad Hugh and android girl Diana cooperate while fighting their way back to Earth. By bringing the title to Nintendo Switch 2 in addition to PlayStation 5 system, Xbox Series X|S and PC, Capcom looks to further advance its multi-platform strategy and expand its user base. Moreover, a playable demo of the game will be released first on PC starting today, December 12, to further convey the appeal of the title. The company hopes that players look forward to PRAGMATA, which has already garnered acclaim for its playable demos at global events, including Tokyo Game Show 2025, one of the largest game shows.

Capcom remains firmly committed to satisfying the expectations of all users by leveraging its industry leading game development capabilities in order to create highly entertaining gameplay experiences.

Hi everyone—Thomas from Frictional Games here. We're so excited to finally talk about our next game: Ontos, a sci-fi mystery thriller coming in 2026. Since the release of Soma, ten years ago, we've been hard at work trying to take that experience and bring it to the next level. Something that pushes our gameplay, design scope, and philosophical themes further than we've ever gone before, and we're finally able to show a little more for you today.

In Ontos you'll play as Aditi, who has received a message from her estranged father promising to reveal the mysteries of their shared past, including the truth about an inexplicable miracle from her childhood. Aditi's quest for answers will lead her to the repurposed moon hotel Samsara, a shadow of its former glory. Aditi knows the journey ahead will be difficult, but she's driven to get to the bottom of the impossible enigmas that have played on her mind, haunted her even, since she was a kid.

Apple launched its A19 Pro and A19 mobile processors about three months ago. The 3 nm 64-bit Arm-based SoCs drive a new wave of iPhone 17 series smartphones, as well as the ultraslim + lightweight iPhone Air. It took a while for close-up die shots to emerge from independent groups. Eventually, close-ups of the A19 Pro's layout turned up online, mid-way through November. Investigations have focused on Apple's selection of TSMC's cutting-edge N3P node process; granting a noticeable reduction in die areas, when compared to previous-gen equivalents. 2024's A18 Pro and A18 designs are 3 nm chips, but manufactured via N3E (FinFET)—an older/less advanced node. The leading foundry's N3P product is referred to as a "high-performance variant."

When comparing the current flagship chipset (A19 Pro) to its predecessor (A18 Pro), keen observers noted a 10% reduction in footprint—going from 105 mm² down to 98.6 mm². Additionally, SemiAnalysis reckons that the A19 is 9% smaller than its forebear (A18). According to their calculations, the upgrade to N3P would only grant about a 4% difference in area. Logically, Apple's engineering team must have played around with other aspects in order to reach nine to ten percent shrinkage. SemiAnalysis outlined important improvements across the latest chip designs: "looking at core areas, The P-Core shrank by 4%, while the E-Core and GPU are 10% larger, reflecting the increased transistor budget for the large efficiency gains seen in benchmarks...The cache macro doubled in size to 32 KB for a 10% higher density cache: A18 4 MB of SLC: 1.08 mm², and A19 4 MB of SLC: 0.98 mm². There's also a more area efficient layout of all the minor 'uncore' SOC area (e.g. display/media engine, ISP, security etc)." In conclusion, they propose that several smart design innovations have lead to "an area reduction comparable to a major node shrink," overall a big achievement, albeit in a smaller package.

Scythe Japan has launched the Kotetsu Mark 4 (model SCKTT-4000), its latest budget air cooler designed as a follow-up to the popular Kotetsu Mark 3. The new model keeps the familiar single-tower layout with four 6 mm nickel-plated heatpipes, now paired with the Wonder Tornado 120 mm PWM fan, a change from the KAZE FLEX II 120 PWM from Mark 3. The cooler measures 134 × 155 × 80 mm (vs 138 x 154 x 80 mm in Mark 3) with the fan attached and weighs 771 g. The 120 mm fan operates from 350 ±200 RPM up to 2000 RPM, pushing up to 60.29 CFM with noise levels rated between 3.0 and 28.88 dBA. Static pressure is listed at 0.05-2.45 mmH₂O, which should be enough for mainstream CPUs in compact or mid-tower builds. Another change is the restyled top cover adding a bit of attention to details.

Kotetsu Mark 4 is compatible with Intel LGA 1851, 1700, 1200, and 115X and AMD AM4 / AM5 platforms. Scythe includes a single year of warranty. In Japan, the cooler is priced at ¥3,480, roughly $22, an entry-level product for users looking for a quiet, no-fuss CPU air cooler. It's worth noting that Scythe unfortunately shut down its European branch this April, meaning customers in the region now have to rely on European distributors and online retailers. Before the Kotetsu Mark 4, Scythe also introduced the Mugen 6 Dual Fan White Edition in September, a premium variant of the Mugen 6 series that originally debuted earlier this February.

Level up your handheld play with Nitro Deck 2! A completely new product engineered for compatibility with Nintendo Switch 2 and fully backwards compatible with Switch and Switch OLED. The Nitro Deck 2 delivers redesigned ergonomics, newly optimized controls, and expanded versatility across PC, mobile and smart TVs via Bluetooth and USB.

Nitro Deck 2 holds your console for handheld play, and its removable centerpiece lets it instantly convert into a standalone pro-style controller for use when your console is docked, giving you even more ways to play. Inside, CRKD CaptiStick Technology uses a capacitor-based, zero-contact sensor design engineered to eliminate stick drift and deliver consistent, long-lasting precision with no electromagnetic interference. Customize your setup even further with innovative adjustable controls and tuning through the CRKD Companion App.

During The Game Awards 2025, KOEI TECMO America and developer Team NINJA announced that the new demo for their upcoming dark samurai action RPG, Nioh 3, will be released Jan. 29, 2026 on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC via Steam. In addition, as showcased in the action-packed trailer, new exclusive early purchase bonuses have also been revealed ahead of the game's release on Feb. 6, 2026.

Before transcending through time to save Japan, players will be able to sharpen their blades in the new demo in solo or online multiplayer for up to three players. After completing the demo, fans will be able to carry over their save data to the final game and continue their journey to become Shogun. More details about the new demo will be released at a later date.

Remedy Entertainment unveiled CONTROL Resonant, the highly-anticipated sequel to Remedy's critically acclaimed, multi-award-winning CONTROL. Players will explore a warped Manhattan on the brink of paranatural annihilation in this thrilling action-adventure RPG. Unleash the extraordinary powers of Dylan Faden as he fights for his humanity and survival against a reality-bending cosmic threat. CONTROL Resonant will be published by Remedy Entertainment. Annapurna Pictures are co-financing and co-producing the game as part of a strategic partnership with Remedy Entertainment. CONTROL Resonant is scheduled to be released in 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, and Mac via Steam and the App Store.

After years in confinement at the hands of the Federal Bureau of Control (FBC), Dylan Faden's former captors are deploying him at the peak of a supernatural crisis. Charged with combating a mysterious cosmic entity as it alters fundamental aspects of our reality, Dylan must harness his new found powers to take the fight to the myriad threats overwhelming Manhattan. On the path to unlocking the full potential of his supernatural abilities Dylan will also seek out his sister, FBC Director Jesse Faden, as he struggles to comprehend and contain the dangers that have spilled beyond the confines of the Oldest House to tear the world apart.

Revealed at The Game Awards with a visceral audio-visual intro priming the audience before dropping a trailer featuring the first glimpse at game play, Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. today announced ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE. Developed by Bandai Namco Aces Inc., the first mainline entry in ACE COMBAT in seven years promises to elevate the flight shooting franchise to new heights, harnessing the power of Unreal Engine 5 and proprietary technology to create a visually stunning, ultra-realistic aerial thrill ride.

ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE will feature a deep, engaging Campaign Mode revealed at announcement that puts players in the role of an ace pilot in an emotionally charged story of identity and duty, fighting for the survival of their homeland. With details to be revealed later, the title will also deliver multiplayer modes that thrust players into unforgettable aerial dogfights against friends and foes. ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE is coming in 2026 to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam.

To mark the end of Total War's 25th Anniversary Celebrations, SEGA and The Creative Assembly Limited are excited to announce Total War: WARHAMMER 40,000. Set within the iconic science-fantasy setting created by Games Workshop, it represents a revolutionary new chapter in the award-winning strategy franchise. The game's debut trailer was introduced at The Game Awards by Emmy-nominated actor and Warhammer 40,000 superfan, David Harbor (Stranger Things, Marvel Cinematic Universe), who will portray a mysterious, yet to-be-revealed character. Within it, the bleak but spectacular setting is on full display as mankind's vast armies battle to protect their crumbling empire in a galaxy ravaged by unending war. Rewatch it here: LINK

WAGE TOTAL WAR IN THE 41 ST MILLENNIUM
For the first time, Total War steps into the far future, bringing its signature blend of strategic depth and cinematic warfare to the brutal, battle-scarred galaxy of Warhammer 40,000. Set within a vast galactic sandbox, players will forge a warpath across the stars, bending the galaxy to their will as they crusade through an age of relentless war and conquest. The game sets out on an ambitious journey to create the ultimate strategy experience for the Warhammer 40,000 universe - one that will grow over time into a sprawling galactic battlefield, packed with iconic heroes, fearsome war machines, and richly-realized worlds.

At The Game Awards earlier this evening, two new entries in the Tomb Raider franchise were announced. Audiences were introduced to the long-awaited next chapter of Lara Croft's story, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, as well as the surprise announcement of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, a fully reimagined version of Lara Croft's iconic debut adventure. Watch the trailers now!

Tomb Raider: Catalyst, developed by Crystal Dynamics, marks a bold new direction for the series as Lara Croft embarks on a new adventure across Northern India. Tomb Raider: Catalyst is set in the wake of a mythical cataclysm that has unleashed ancient secrets and awakened the mysterious forces that guard them. When the most notorious treasure hunters from around the world descend on the region, Lara races to uncover the truth buried beneath the fractured landscape and stop those who would use its power for their own gain. As the ancient world collides with the present, Lara must decide who to trust among rivals and allies to prevent a catastrophe and protect a secret that could reshape the future.

Since their debut in 2023, AI PCs have taken the market by storm. Gartner projects that 77 million AI PCs will ship in 2025, representing 31% of the worldwide PC market, and growing to a 55% market share in 2026. Meanwhile, edge AI is multiplying due to a variety of factors, including smaller and more efficient AI algorithms, more powerful AI silicon, and the proliferation of IoT devices.

As laptops, AI PCs, and the latest imaging systems demand even higher performance and lower power, SoCs are challenged to keep pace. Advanced-node SoCs at 5 nm and below must balance efficiency with ultra-low voltages and growing bandwidth needs. High-resolution cameras, faster frame rates, and AI-driven workloads all require interfaces that deliver speed with minimal EMI/RFI noise.

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of edge computing solutions, industrial motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, today unveils the A620MT-E 2.0 motherboard, a reliable and adaptable AM5 platform designed for modern office environments, home entertainment setups, and SI integration projects.

Built on AMD's A620A single chip architecture with full support for Ryzen 9000, 8000, and 7000 series processors, the A620MT-E 2.0 delivers efficient performance and dependable stability for a wide range of everyday applications. It is an ideal choice for office users who need a smooth experience running essential tasks such as web browsing, emails, and productivity software. Home users will enjoy its capability as an HTPC platform for streaming TV shows and movies, listening to music, and engaging in light gaming. SI builders will appreciate its ability to support integrated systems handling customer data, transaction records, communications, and various business processes with consistent and secure performance.

Framework has published an official company blog post announcing that it is preparing a 50% price increase for its DDR5 memory upgrade configurations. In an effort to remain transparent with customers, the company has stated that it intends to raise the price of DDR5 memory available in Framework Laptop DIY Edition orders by 50%. This decision is a direct response to the significantly higher costs the company is facing from its DRAM suppliers and distributors. As a result, the company cannot absorb all of these cost increases on its own and needs to pass some of them on to the consumer.

The company will not increase the prices of its existing pre-configured systems that include DRAM, as these were acquired at earlier, standard prices. As the memory market becomes more volatile, this might be just the first wave of price hikes, since the company cannot absorb the added costs of new memory orders. Since Framework manufactures various components, from laptops to mini-PCs, the company uses a mix of DDR5, LPDDR5X, and GDDR. All of these are in tight supply due to the AI boom depleting any remaining DRAM inventory.

Kioxia Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, today announced the development of highly stackable oxide-semiconductor channel transistors that will enable the practical implementation of high-density, low-power 3D DRAM. This technology was presented at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in San Francisco, USA, on December 10, and has the potential to reduce power consumption across a wide range of applications, including AI servers and IoT components.

In the era of AI, there is growing demand for DRAM with larger capacity and lower power consumption that can process large amounts of data. Traditional DRAM technology is reaching the physical limits of memory cell size scaling, prompting research into the 3D stacking of memory cells to provide additional capacity. The use of single-crystal silicon as the channel material for transistors in stacked memory cells, as is the case with conventional DRAM, drives up manufacturing costs, and the power required to refresh the memory cells increases proportionally to the memory capacity.

TrendForce's latest research indicates that the global foundry industry continued to profit in 3Q25, fueled by strong demand for AI in HPC and new consumer-electronics chips and IC peripherals. Revenue was primarily driven by advanced processes at 7 nm and below, with support from high-value wafers. Chinese foundries also expanded their business through supply-chain diversification. As a result, total revenue for the top 10 foundries increased by 8.1% QoQ to nearly US$45.1 billion.

TrendForce notes that expectations for 2026 demand have become cautious amid geopolitical headwinds. Furthermore, DRAM shortages and quarterly price increases since mid-2025 continue to strain downstream production costs. Even though automotive and industrial-control segments are preparing to resume restocking toward the end of 2025, the 4Q25 uptick in foundry utilization will be limited. Consequently, revenue growth among the top 10 is projected to narrow significantly in the fourth quarter.

When we founded Archetype Entertainment, we wanted to push the boundaries of what RPGs could be. With EXODUS, our sci-fi action-adventure RPG, we had a clear vision: create a protagonist whose journey from nobody to hero mirrors your own growth as a player. In Jun, the game's main character, we hope to have created someone players can immerse themselves in as they confront humanity's greatest threats 40,000 years in the future. Today, I'm thrilled to announce that EXODUS launches Early 2027, and we're celebrating by unveiling our latest trailer: "The Rise of Jun Aslan."

From Salvager to Savior: Jun's Impossible Journey
You are Jun Aslan. When your story begins, you're not humanity's last hope. Not yet. You're a lowly salvager on Lidon, a dying moon forgotten by a galaxy that's moved on. Each day, you scrape through forty thousand years of wreckage: the bones of dead ships and failed dreams left behind by voyagers who came before. That's intentional. We want you, like Jun, to feel that sense of insignificance before the stars finally call to you.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, made by the independent French video game developer Sandfall Interactive, is the big winner at The Game Awards 2025 in Los Angeles, taking home the coveted "Game of the Year" award, as well as the "Best Game Direction" and "Best Narrative" awards. In case you missed it, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was nominated in a total of twelve categories. Launched in April, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 got some of the best reviews and has sold over 5 million units worldwide.

To celebrate the win, Sandfall Interactive released the Thank You update trailer, as well as the new free game update, bringing new content with a new playable environment, new music tracks, new boss battles in the Endless Tower, new Luminas and Weapons, official Photo Mode, new localizations, new quality of life and performance improvements across all platforms, including certification for Steam Deck and ROG Xbox Ally handhelds, as well as the official AMD FSR 4 Redstone support.

Arcanaut Studios announced Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic with a teaser trailer revealed live at The Game Awards 2025. Created in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games, Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic is a narrative-driven single-player action RPG where you step into the role of a Force user on a journey through a galaxy on the edge of rebirth. Led by Casey Hudson, Arcanaut Studios unites veteran storytellers and developers to create a spiritual successor to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic that blends innovative storytelling, memorable characters, and heart-pounding combat. Star Wars: Fate of the Republic immerses players in an unforgettable experience where every decision deepens their journey toward light or darkness.

"Working on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was one of the defining experiences of my career," said Casey Hudson, Game Director at Arcanaut Studios. "With Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, we're telling a completely new and different story with everything we've learned since - crafting an adventure about choice, destiny, and the timeless struggle between light and dark. It's a dream come true to once again collaborate with Lucasfilm Games."

The newest generation of Alienware 16 and Alienware 18 Area-51 systems pushes high-end gaming and professional workloads to new levels with Intel Core Ultra (Arrow Lake-HX) processors, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-Series GPUs up to the RTX 5090, high-refresh QHD+ displays, advanced cooling, Wi-Fi 7, Thunderbolt 5, and optional mechanical CherryMX keyboards in a premium, reinforced chassis.

Despite these impressive hardware specifications, performance on these systems can still be held back by the standard 330 W / 360 W AC adapters. Under heavy or extended loads, the OEM power bricks often cannot supply enough sustained wattage, resulting in reduced turbo headroom, inconsistent frame rates, high adapter temperatures, throttling, or battery drain even while plugged in.

Hot on the heels of the recent launch of the QK65 Mk3, Qwertykeys has announced its next two keyboard launches, the Qwertykeys Neo98 and Neo75. The Neo98 will be an 1800 layout mechanical keyboard—meaning it includes a full-size number pad and a navigation cluster, with spacing between the alphanumeric keys, navigation cluster, and the num pad, but the navigation keys above the arrow keys consist of only four keys, and the right shift is shorter than normal—while the Neo75 will follow a traditional 75% layout. The larger layout isn't quite a full-size keyboard, but it offers many of the same benefits for productivity users as a full-size layout, including a full-size zero key in the num pad. Both new keyboards will feature full-aluminium cases as well, and both feature an acoustic chamber in the bottom case and will ship with a full complement of acoustic foams—plate foam, poron case foam, and an IXPE sheet.

Both the Neo98 and Neo75 will feature three mounting options—PCB gasket mounting with silicone or poron foam or a top-mount option for those who prefer a slightly stiffer typing feel and a louder keyboard. The keyboards will both also be available with a choice of aluminium or PP plates, offering different typing sound and feel. In terms of connectivity, the Neo75 and Neo98 will offer Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz, and USB-C wired connections, with the wireless connectivity backed up by dual 2,200 mAh batteries, although Qwertykeys doesn't make any claims about battery life figures. The aluminium cases will also be offered in a variety of anodized color options, with seven pre-configured top and bottom case color combinations available—teal top and silver bottom, slate blue top and silver bottom, taupe gray top and warm silver bottom, orange top and silver bottom, dusty rose top and plum bottom, black top and light gray bottom, and anodized silver top and light gray bottom. The Neo75 and Neo98 will be available for pre-order as of January 5, 2026 on the Qwertykeys site and from official vendors. Pricing has not yet been revealed.

Chinese company SMIC has officially achieved volume production of its newest 5 nm-class node called SMIC N+3. This is officially China's most advanced semiconductor node produced without any extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools, relying on the deep ultraviolet (DUV) to manufacture its silicon. In the latest analysis of the Huawei Kirin 9030 SoC, the TechInsights has confirmed that the chip has officially been manufactured using the new advanced node, bringing Chinese semiconductor independence one step closer to reality. This node is a full generation ahead of the older SMIC N+2, which is 7 nm-class node Huawei has been using to manufacture its Ascend series of AI accelerators and other infrastructure parts.

However, this is not without drawbacks. Since SMIC uses DUV to print silicon designs, the company faces significant challenges in realizing its silicon ambitions. For printing smaller nodes, EUV scanners offer more possibilities due to their much smaller wavelength of 13.5 nm, compared to the smallest DUV immersion scanner wavelength of 193 nm. TechInsights has confirmed that SMIC's N+3 node, despite achieving impressive DUV multi-patterning implementation, encounters significant yield challenges, particularly due to the aggressively scaled metal pitch. As a result, the Huawei Kirin 9030 SoC is likely produced at an operating loss, with a significant portion of dies being discarded or used for downgraded chips.

Keychron recently unveiled the first keyboards in the 8K refresh of its Q series analog gaming keyboards, and now it has revealed the Q2 HE 8K, which is a 65% version of the Q1 HE 8K. Much like the bigger versions that launched in November, the Keychron Q2 HE 8K features an all-aluminium chassis with a gasket mount, and it uses Keychron's OSA profile double-shot PBT keycaps for a slightly different look than the regular Cherry or OEM profile. It also uses the Keychron Ultra-Fast Lime Magnetic switches, which are lightweight, short-throw magnetic switch, coming in at just 35 gf actuation force and 3.35 mm of total travel. It also features an updated controller, which now delivers 8,000 Hz polling rate, although it has sacrificed the wireless connection of the prior Q HE series keyboards for the reduced latency. The updated sensors in the Q2 HE 8K also make the Q2 HE 8K keyboard compatible with a wider assortment of magnetic switches, rather than being limited to the south-pole Gateron Double-Rail Magnetic switches like previous Keychron HE keyboards.

The Keychron Q2 HE 8K is available from Keychron directly for $229.99, and it is available in both white and black colorways, both of which feature purple accents on the enter and escape keys and the CNC-machined aluminium knobs. The 65% layout is a slight variation of the traditional 65% layout, in the sense that it only features two navigation keys to the right of the alpha column, instead of the regular four keys. This is partially to accommodate the knob, but it is also because the Q2 HE 8K uses an exploded 65% layout, with space between the alpha cluster and the arrow keys and the navigation column. The Q2 HE 8K is fully customizable in Keychron Launcher, with support for analog features like Rapid Trigger, SOCD, Snap Tap, controller emulation, and Mod Tap, but there are also traditional mechanical keyboard customization options, like macro recording, layer setup, and key remapping. Actuation point customization is adjustable from 0.01 mm to 3.35 mm, with a minimum sensitivity of 0.001 mm.

CD Projekt Red has previously openly stated that it would not be showcasing anything new at the 2025 The Game Awards show, but despite this, a wild rumor has started circulating claiming that the Polish game studio will introduce a new DLC for The Witcher 3. CDPR previously released a trailer for The Witcher 4 at The Game Awards 2024, so it stands to reason that there may be another announcement or reveal from the game studio at this year's The Game Awards. The rumors started because of a supposed leak that was revealed by Borys Nieśpielak in a Remigiusz Maciaszek podcast on YouTube. When the topic of a new Witcher 3 DLC came up, the YouTuber claimed that he had confirmed with multiple sources that the DLC would launch at The Game Awards 2025. This claim should, however, be taken with a grain of salt for a number of reasons, though.

For starters, at this point, The Witcher 3 released over a decade ago and has had multiple updates and expansions over the years. Additionally, aside from CDPR executives already confirming that there will be "no new content" at this year's The Game Awards show, CDPR has already announced the final update for The Witcher 3, although this has since been delayed to 2026. Perhaps the new DLC that is being referenced in the YouTube leak is a surprise content expansion planned to launch alongside the final update, which is slated to bring cross-platform mod support to the game. It should be noted that this is not the first time we're hearing about a potential 2025 DLC for The Witcher 3. Earlier this year, rumors claimed that there was a new DLC coming that would add story details and bridge the gap between The Witcher 3 story to date and what's to come in The Witcher 4.

Capcom's slightly delayed end-of-year showcase aired earlier today, with one short segment focusing on an updated version of Monster Hunter Wilds. The long-running ARPG franchise's latest entry was launched across multiple platforms just over nine months ago. Prior to widespread release, a few reviewers reported major performance issues on modern consoles and PCs. Even highly-specced systems were stressed by Capcom's RE Engine-based flagship fantasy title. Amusingly, a PC benchmark tool was made available several weeks ahead of the game's launch. Since late February, several PC-centric patches have been issued. A lot of Monster Hunter series enthusiasts were not satisfied with these improvements, and simply stopped playing the modern blockbuster. Capcom's mid-December presentation encourages the lost segment of its fan base to "pick up the game again."

A Free Title Update 4 (TU4) is due to arrive on Dec 16. The official Monster Hunter social media account reckons that this patch will: "bring an array of performance improvements across all platforms. TU4 focuses on CPU and GPU optimization, reducing processing load with more than 100 under-the-hood improvements, among others." This general purpose set of improvements will be followed by two platform specific updates—the MH software engineering team has been tasked with molding the PC version into a better state. Capcom's steep challenge will be dealt with in the near future, as outlined by their latest message: "we'll follow this up in January with a PC-specific update with even more improvements, and are looking into further optimization for implementation in the February content update. We're committed to making Monster Hunter Wilds a great experience for all players. Thank you for your patience and continued support."

Unveiling what it describes as the most capable model series yet for professional knowledge work, OpenAI launched GPT-5.2 today. The model was trained and deployed on NVIDIA infrastructure, including NVIDIA Hopper and GB200 NVL72 systems. It's the latest example of how leading AI builders train and deploy at scale on NVIDIA's full-stack AI infrastructure.

Pretraining: The Bedrock of Intelligence
AI models are getting more capable thanks to three scaling laws: pretraining, post-training and test-time scaling. Reasoning models, which apply compute during inference to tackle complex queries, using multiple networks working together, are now everywhere. But pre-training and post-training remain the bedrock of intelligence. They're core to making reasoning models smarter and more useful. And getting there takes scale. Training frontier models from scratch isn't a small job. It takes tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of GPUs working together effectively. That level of scale demands excellence across many dimensions. It requires world-class accelerators, advanced networking across scale-up, scale-out and increasingly scale-across architectures, plus a fully optimized software stack. In short, a purpose-built infrastructure platform built to deliver performance at scale.

Samsung Foundry's "Heat Path Block" (HPB) technology is reportedly a key aspect featured within the upcoming Exynos 2600 application processor (AP). The South Korean's previous flagship mobile chipsets have often been beset with thermal issues, leading to the deployment of rival chipsets within certain generations of Samsung Galaxy smartphones. The South Korean seems to be pinning its hopes on the emerging Exynos 2600 across a number of fronts. Most notably as a confident "proof of concept" demonstration of the foundry business's cutting-edge 2 nm GAA process (aka SF2). According to a freshly-published ET News SK article, Samsung's innovative "semiconductor heat-suppressing technology" has already attracted interest from Apple and Qualcomm.

In the recent past, these VVIP clients have been on the order books for TSMC's best modern node processes. Samsung's SF2 line is seemingly being dangled as a carrot; designed to entice the return of former customers. Semiconductor industry trackers reckon that the Exynos 2600 SoC—enhanced with HPB tech—will serve as a strong demo of Samsung's 2 nm chip making capabilities. The foundry's in-house Heat Path Block is a copper heatsink that is packaged on top of a mobile AP. Heat dissipation is further maximized by moving DRAM to the side—previous Exynos layouts had this aspect placed atop APs. Insiders believe that a 30% improvement has been observed when comparing the Exynos 2600 to a predecessor. Samsung's System LSI division supposedly co-created the HPB design with an internal packaging development organization.

Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc., a leading photonic quantum computing company, has announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MoU") with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research ("A*STAR") in Singapore. This agreement builds on Xanadu's existing partnership with (A*STAR IME) and extends to include the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing (A*STAR IHPC) and A*STAR Quantum Innovation Centre. Together, Xanadu and A*STAR intend to advance research and development in quantum technologies, with the goal of establishing long-term research collaborations and exploring the potential of creating joint quantum laboratories and operations in Singapore.

Quantum technology developments are advancing rapidly as governments and industries increase investments to bring practical value to various industries such as AI, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, chemistry, and more. A*STAR has strong capabilities in photonics heterogenous integration, quantum sensing, quantum software and algorithms, quantum materials and devices, semiconductors, and advanced packaging. Combining Xanadu's deep expertise in photonic quantum computing hardware, software, and algorithms with A*STAR's leading reputation in research and technology translation is expected to strengthen critical research efforts and has the potential to support future quantum technology developments.

Late last month, an unreleased "Xeon 696X" processor was spotted in the SiSoftware Official Benchmark Ranker database. A recent uptick in "Granite Rapids-WS" leaks—including a long SKU stack—hints at an imminent launch. The latest leak, found within the PassMark CPU benchmark archive, seemingly reaffirms the Xeon 696X model's existence. Unfortunately, today's diagnostic points to a lower than anticipated core count: 32 instead 64. Based on older information, this appears to be a major mistake (on the PassMark side). Last month's SiSoftware-based info dump described a sample that leveraged 64 cores and 128 threads.

x86deadandback's initial social media post highlighted the PassMark suite's error. According to a quick benchmark score comparison (courtesy of Wccftech), the forthcoming sub-flagship workstation processor does better than the current "Sapphire Rapids-WS" range topper (Xeon W9-3595X) in multicore scenarios. A disappointing single-core tally likely comes from the next-gen candidate being disadvantaged as an early engineering sample. A rough equivalent from the Red Team—Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9985WX—enjoys a leading position on the comparative chart.

NVIDIA's recent generations of GPUs, such as "Hopper" and "Blackwell," have been known for stalling their high-performance computing (HPC) oriented FP64 double-precision performance. However, the company is not inherently abandoning the HPC space and has confirmed for HPCWire that 64-bit floating point data is not going away. According to Dion Harris, the senior director of HPC and AI hyperscale infrastructure solutions at NVIDIA, the company is "definitely looking to bring some additional [FP64] capabilities in our future gen architectures. We are very serious about making sure that we can deliver the required performance to power those simulation workloads."

The acceleration of 64-bit floating-point data paths is crucial for the HPC community, particularly in the life sciences. When a workload demands sustained high-precision support, NVIDIA's recent generations have not met expectations. For comparison, NVIDIA's current most powerful B300 "Blackwell Ultra" accelerator achieves only 1.2 TeraFLOPS of FP64 performance. In contrast, the older H200 "Hopper" reaches an impressive 34 TeraFLOPS of FP64 compute at its peak. For FP8 low-precision, the B300 delivers 9 PetaFLOPS, while the H200 provides 3.958 PetaFLOPS.

What is Dunjungle all About? The title is a portmanteau of "Dungeon" and "Jungle," in case you're wondering! I aimed to keep a lighthearted and humorous vibe to the game. I believed "Monkey protecting the jungle" allowed for that, and if I make you laugh or smile at least once at a funny item description or NPC dialogue line, I'll consider myself successful. In terms of gameplay, my goal with Dunjungle was to make an action rogue-lite that's easy to pick up and play for 30-to-50-minute sessions. I've been a fan of the old Castlevania games for a long time, so I wanted to make a combat system inspired by it, but faster paced. You might notice some references in game! Run variation was also a top priority, so you'll currently be able to find 33 main weapons, 39 sub-weapons, 100 relics, and 15 classes (affecting the monkey's appearance and abilities). This lets you mix it up every run and try many different playstyles, keeping the game fresh for dozens of hours.

Evolution of the Monkey
While new to consoles, the PC version of Dunjungle has been on Early Access for a year. During this time, the community was super important for improving the experience, inspiring many of the system changes, new content and overall balancing that the game has gone through, and you'll be able to enjoy the benefits from day one on Xbox consoles! Having smooth controls and game flow was a cornerstone for making the monkey rogue-lite experience as fun as it can be, and having players play the game over and over really helped me refine the experience to get to that sweet spot we were looking for.

Club 3D officially released its 2 newest products: The CSV-2562 13-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station and the CSV-2512 KVM Switch. These new products are a strong way to end the year for Club 3D since the docking station is Club 3D's most powerful docking station yet.

CSV-2562 13-1 Thunderbolt 5 Docking Station M.2 SSD 2x HDMI 8K60Hz Thunderbolt Share Certified 180 W
The Club 3D CSV-2562 is a certified Thunderbolt 5 docking station that consolidates all essential ports into one device, including an SSD slot for easily expanding your computer's storage with the same speeds as your internal drive.

• Club 3D's highest model Thunderbolt 5 device, fully certified for guaranteed compatibility and peak performance.
• Add more space with an easy-to-use SSD slot, giving your computer the same lightning-fast speed as its built-in storage.
• Connect up to 3 screens at 5K60Hz, ideal for multitasking at a high level.
• Delivers a 140 W power delivery to your laptop and 30 W to your phone or tablet, to charge your devices without the need for extra chargers.
• Comes with a Thunderbolt Share license to connect two computers directly for seamless file transfer and display control.
• Upgrade your setup with the CSV-2562 and experience peak Thunderbolt 5 performance from one compact and reliable docking station.

EK by LM TEK is proud to introduce the EK-Pro GPU Zotac RTX 5090, a high-performance single-slot water block engineered for high-density AI server deployment and professional workstation applications. Designed exclusively for the ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 5090 Solid, this full-cover EK-Pro block actively cools the GPU core, VRAM, and VRM to deliver ultra-low temperatures and maximum performance.

Its single-slot design ensures maximum compute density, with quick-disconnect fittings for hassle-free maintenance and minimal downtime. The EK-Pro GPU Zotac RTX 5090 is now available to order at EK Shop.

Hello Citizens! We are coming back to you with another update regarding the upcoming Frostpunk 1886. Your warm welcome to the title, after the last announcement, gave us the heat we needed to launch our generators, and we would like to show you yet another tease of what the team has been working on. We don't want to spoil too much, so check out our new video with Maciej Sułecki—Game Director of Frostpunk 1886—revealed during the recent 11 bit studios Digital Showcase event.

Keep in mind that we're still about two years ahead of release, so what you're seeing is early in development. Our goal has always been to make a game with Citizens and for the sake of the City, so we're eager to hear your thoughts on it. As we will be progressing through 2026, you can expect more frequent updates about the development of the game, and we can't wait to show you more behind the scenes content from our path towards the release!

UK-based seating specialist, Boulies, today announces the launch of its newest ergonomic model, the OP180 Ergonomic Desk Chair, engineered to deliver a supportive, breathable and fully customizable seating experience for home offices and professional environments alike. With a focus on long-term comfort, premium materials and adaptable ergonomics, the OP180 is designed to accommodate users of varying heights, workloads and working styles. Able to hold a weight limit of 160 kg with its heavy-duty mechanism and featuring a forward tilt for a focused sitting position, it is comfortable and can be used by all.

Designed with comfort at its core, the OP180 features a plush, pressure-relieving cushioned seat that strikes an ideal balance between softness and structured support, making it suitable for extended periods of sitting—particularly those working 8 hours or more each day. This is paired with a high-tension mesh backrest that delivers firm, breathable support and efficient airflow, keeping the user cool and comfortable through changing workloads, extended calls or intense focus sessions.

Semiconductor industry insiders reckon that TSMC leadership has revised its production strategies for a Japan-based fabrication site. The Taiwanese foundry business owns a majority stake in Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (JASM). This partnership lead to a "Fab 23 phase 1" plant coming online a year ago, in the Kumamoto Prefecture. This factory is tasked with producing past-gen-sized wafers; at best on a 12 nm process node. A neighboring "phase 2" foundry is still under construction, but fresh inside track info proposes that certain activities have been put on hold. Initially, the "Fab 23 phase 2" (also known as "JASM phase 2") was categorized as a 6 nm and 7 nm chip production specialist, with building work expected to end by 2027. Rumors from late 2023 indicated company bigwigs "mulling" over a jump up to an N4 process. This year's surging demand for AI-grade hardware has reportedly prompted another reassessment of JASM production outlooks.

Nikkei Asia alleges that TSMC is "considering using its second plant in Japan to make more advanced chips than originally planned." According to publication's unnamed sources, the still in-progress phase 2 site could take on the challenge of dealing in N4 and N5. Lately, demand for 6 nm and 7 nm products has diminished. Tom's Hardware has looked into the latest claims, their resultant report highlights a major pause of construction: "one interesting thing to note about TSMC's Fab 23 phase 2 is that while it entered the early phase of physical build-out in late October (according to Nikkei), photos taken at the site in November showed cranes, excavators, and piledrivers on site. However, images captured in early December reveal that nearly all heavy equipment has since been removed. Also, suppliers were notified that work would pause, although no reasons were provided." Additionally, Nikkei's insiders claim that new equipment orders are on hold—the two Japanese sites will not require any additional tools "throughout 2026."

The latest set of pre-release HWiNFO patch notes includes "enhanced support" for notable next-gen Intel mobile processors: "Nova Lake-H" and "Nova Lake-HX." This futuristic family is expected to launch later on in 2026, so it is encouraging to see early signs of the rumored "Core Ultra 400" series nearing finalized form. Recent leaks have mostly provided evidence of "Nova Lake-S" silicon coming to desktop platforms, but mobile variants were last mentioned—around late October—within relevant "Xe3P kernel graphics driver patches." It is believed that "Nova Lake-H" models will be deployed in gaming laptops/notebooks, while more potent "Nova Lake-HX" options are expected to turn up in mobile workstation-grade devices.

The HWiNFO version 8.35 preview notes also mention two more Team Blue processor families: "Arrow Lake Refresh" and "Panther Lake." The forthcoming current-gen desktop CPU refresh could act as a minor stopgap, until the arrival of truly next-gen "Nova Lake-S" units. Recent "Core Ultra 200K Plus" leaks indicate the readying of three SKUs, destined to keep the LGA1851 socket alive for a little longer. Intel could introduce "ARL-S Refresh" products at CES 2026, leading to a predicted Q1 retail launch. Within a similar timeframe, a first-wave release of "Core Ultra 300" mobile processors is anticipated. Lately, Team Blue and MSI (a key hardware partner) have already showcased "Panther Lake-H" APU-based products at a special press/influencer event.

AMD has officially expanded its Radeon AI PRO R9000 workstation lineup with two new Navi 48-based cards built on the RDNA 4 architecture. The two models are the Radeon AI PRO R9700S and the Radeon AI PRO R9600D. Both models feature 32 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit interface, delivering a peak memory bandwidth of 640 GB/s. These additions offer a consistent hardware platform for professional customers who require larger frame buffer sizes for compute and visualization tasks.

The Radeon AI PRO R9700S maintains the full Navi 48 configuration with 64 CUs and 4,096 SPs. AMD rates the card at up to 47.8 TeraFLOPS of FP32 performance when the boost clock reaches 2,920 MHz, with a total board power of 300 W. The Radeon AI PRO R9600D, on the other hand, reduces the Navi 48 configuration to 48 active CUs and 3,072 SPs, offering approximately 24.8 TeraFLOPS of FP32 throughput at a boost clock of 2,020 MHz, while targeting a lower 150 W board power.

Game Directors Adam Stjärnljus and Klas Martin Eriksson walk you through fresh footage and introduce one of the sequel's additions: a completely new gameplay feature that changes how you explore, solve puzzles, and interact with the world. In this showcase, you'll meet one of the adorable new creatures joining Lana and Mui on their journey: the small, fluffy Rollers. These creatures can reshape the environment, unlock hidden paths, and open up creative new solutions to the challenges ahead. Rollers can help Lana and Mui open entirely new paths and possibilities.

Planet of Lana II is an emotional, companion-driven puzzle-adventure set in a beautifully hand-painted world filled with wonder, danger, and hope. As greed and power divide the tribes of their home planet, Lana and her little companion, Mui, must stand together against the forces reshaping their world—struggling not just for survival, but for the soul of their home.

Corsair today expanded its XENEON EDGE 14.5" LCD Touchscreen lineup with two new colorways: Atomic Purple and White. These finishes give PC builders, enthusiasts, and creators more ways to personalize their setups while retaining the same compact, versatile display that has become a favorite for system monitoring and customization. The new White XENEON EDGE adds a clean finish for any premium workspace.

Atomic Purple delivers a bold, nostalgic look with a translucent finish that adds depth without overpowering a build. White offers a clean, minimalist aesthetic that complements modern systems. Both colorways extend beyond the display itself to the included desk stand, ensuring a cohesive look whether mounted inside a case or placed on a desktop.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in standards development for the microelectronics industry, today announced it is nearing completion of a new standard for Standard Package High Bandwidth Memory (SPHBM4). SPHBM4 devices are similar to the HBM4 devices commonly used in artificial intelligence accelerators, using the same DRAM dies on a new interface base die which can be mounted on standard organic substrates. In contrast, HBM4 is typically mounted on silicon substrates.

As planned, SPHBM operates at the same aggregate data throughput as HBM4 using fewer pins by operating at a higher frequency. Where the HBM4 interface has 2048 data signals, when published, SPHBM4 will define 512 data signals with 4:1 serialization to achieve the same bandwidth. This change allows the relaxed bump pitch required for connection to organic substrates.

FEVM's brand-new FAEX1 mini PC has turned up at retail in China, packing AMD's top-flight "Strix Halo" Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mobile processor into a tiny footprint. The PC system manufacturer has prior experience with this potent 16-core APU—around late April, they introduced their FA‑EX9 model. This slightly older design made use of a 2-liter case. Fast-forward to the tail end of 2025, this feat of engineering has been surpassed by the FAEX1—somehow squeezing a similar set of features into a 1.02-liter chassis. A "160 W maximum performance"-rated cooling setup consists of a large vapor chamber and two fans. According to an early hands-on video report—under normal 120 W conditions—the FAEX1 operates quietly at "below 40dB."

The ultra-compact mini PC sports a surprisingly comprehensive selection of ports, on front and back faces. Notably, an external GPU can be hooked up via an OCuLink port, or USB4. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chipset already offers plenty of integrated graphics muscle; the Radeon 8060S iGPU is somewhat comparable to the GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop dGPU, in terms of gaming performance. A JD.com store listing outlines a few FAEX1 SKU configurations—starting at 10,999 Yuan (~$1577 USD) for a basic system (no SSD bundled in) with 64 GB of LPDDR5X RAM onboard (soldered). The most expensive variant—sporting 128 GB of system memory—is priced at 13,999 Yuan (~$1982 USD).

Hunters, saddle up - adventure awaits in the cloud. Journey into the world of Monster Hunter Stories as Capcom's acclaimed role-playing classics join GeForce NOW. Monster Hunter Stories and Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin are soaring into the cloud this week, bringing colorful worlds, charming companions and turn-based monster battles across devices. They lead seven new games joining the cloud this week, on top of an ARC Raiders "Electrician Backpack: Emerald Wave Variant" reward for Ultimate members who want to drop into battle in style.

It's also been a big year for games, and this year's major gaming awards nominees show just how strong gaming is right now - with many of those fan-favorite titles playable on GeForce NOW, no downloads required. Look for the "The Game Awards" row in the GeForce NOW app to dive in instantly.

Corsair (Nasdaq: CRSR), maker of leading gaming peripherals, announced a collaboration of collectible peripherals featuring the taste sensation that swept the Fallout nation, Nuka Cola. Inspired by one of gaming's most beloved beverages, the Nuka Cola collection features Corsair's HS80 RGB Wireless Gaming Headset, Elgato's Wave:3 microphone, Drop's CSTM80 Mechanical Keyboard, and many other products, all of which bear the iconic colorways and branding of the Fallout universe's favorite drink.

"Since its creation in 1997, the world of Fallout has immersed millions of players in its post-apocalyptic world, and the fan base has only grown larger with the award-winning television series," said Tobias Brinkmann, Vice President and General Manager of Gaming Peripherals at Corsair. "Corsair is excited to partner with Bethesda Softworks and offer Fallout fans the opportunity to showcase their love for the groundbreaking game with this collection. We couldn't be happier with the way our partnership with Bethesda Softworks helped bring this wide range of products to life, and we're thrilled to have the chance to work with them."

SK hynix is pushing hard on next-gen AI NAND, and 2027 seems to be its next major milestone. According to a ZDNet report, the company is working with NVIDIA to build ultra-fast AI-focused NAND chips that could hit up to 30x the performance of today's enterprise SSDs. Early samples are planned for late 2026, with second-gen entering mass production by the end of 2027. A big part of that effort is SK hynix AI-N P high-performance SSD architecture aimed at removing I/O bottlenecks in large AI inference workloads. ZDNet says the redesigned NAND and controller are already in proof-of-concept (PoC) testing with NVIDIA. SK hynix is targeting 25 million IOPS on PCIe Gen 6 for first samples next year, and 100 million IOPS for the production version in 2027. For comparison, current enterprise SSDs manage roughly 2-3 million IOPS (high-end models).

The roadmap also includes AI-N B, better known as HBF (High Bandwidth Flash), developed with Sandisk. An alpha spec is expected in early 2026 with evaluation units coming in 2027. Behind all these efforts a broader strategy starts to unveil with SK hynix next-gen AI-NAND chips split into three. First we have AI-N P (ultra-high performance SSD) for performance, AI-N B (High Bandwidth Flash) for bandwidth, and AI-N D (High Capacity/Low Cost SSD) for higher-capacity and lower-cost designs. ZDNet adds that SK hynix views the AI market as two distinct fronts: large data-center deployments demanding massive throughput, and on-device AI favoring low-power efficiency. SK hynix is positioning its AI-N lineup to serve both with the 2026 AI-N P generation expected to offer roughly 8-10x the performance of current SSDs.

Nintendo is confronting a significant jump in memory costs that is already affecting its hardware business. This quarter the company faces roughly a 41% increase for the 12 GB LPDDR5X modules used in the Switch 2, while 256 GB of NAND flash has risen by about 8%. Those increases raise the bill of materials for every product that depends on these components and have coincided with a pullback in the company's share price to levels not seen since May. The increased spending on components comes at a time when the new console must demonstrate its long-term commercial viability. Nintendo needs to keep investing in an ecosystem that is becoming increasingly costly to sustain.

A larger portion of the per-unit cost being linked to more expensive DRAM is forcing tighter internal storage management and increasing reliance on external media, which are also trading at high prices. This raises the overall cost of ownership for gamers who purchase large third-party titles or need extra storage capacity. Since the Switch 2's profit margins were not particularly wide to begin with, absorbing a 41% increase in DRAM costs and an 8% rise in NAND costs will significantly reduce Nintendo's ability to fund promotions, subsidize bundles, or invest in additional marketing without impacting profitability. A price increase might also be necessary, as Nintendo cannot absorb all these costs.

The NVIDIA accelerated computing platform is leading supercomputing benchmarks once dominated by CPUs, enabling AI, science, business and computing efficiency worldwide. Moore's Law has run its course, and parallel processing is the way forward. With this evolution, NVIDIA GPU platforms are now uniquely positioned to deliver on the three scaling laws—pre-training, post-training and test-time compute—for everything from next-generation recommender systems and large language models (LLMs) to AI agents and beyond.

The CPU-to-GPU Transition: A Historic Shift in Computing
At SC25, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang highlighted the shifting landscape. Within the TOP100, a subset of the TOP500 list of supercomputers, over 85% of systems use GPUs. This flip represents a historic transition from the serial‑processing paradigm of CPUs to massively parallel accelerated architectures. Before 2012, machine learning was based on programmed logic. Statistical models were used and ran efficiently on CPUs as a corpus of hard-coded rules. But this all changed when AlexNet running on gaming GPUs demonstrated image classification could be learned by examples. Its implications were enormous for the future of AI, with parallel processing on increasing sums of data on GPUs driving a new wave of computing.

AGI Technology, a leading memory brand from Taiwan, announced that it will participate in CES 2026 from January 6 to 9 in Las Vegas at The Venetian Resort, Level 2, Bellini 2001B, where it will debut its complete lineup of next-generation high-speed storage solutions. Under the theme "Powering What's Next with AGI Innovation," AGI will showcase breakthrough technologies across extreme overclocking, high-speed transmission, and rugged mobile storage to address the surging demands of AI computing, ultra-high-resolution content workflows, and multitask creative environments.

AGI's Next-Generation Storage Portfolio Debuts
Project S10 Gen 5 SSD—6 nm Controller, 11,000 MB/s Performance

• AGI introduces its new flagship Project S10 Gen 5 SSD featuring TSMC's 6 nm controller, delivering significantly enhanced efficiency and effectively addressing the thermal challenges common in Gen 5 devices under extended heavy workloads. With PCIe Gen 5 x4, the drive reaches speeds of 11,000 MB/s, offering a dramatic bandwidth upgrade over Gen 4. Combined with its low-power controller and high-efficiency cooling module, the S10 provides sustained, stable performance for AI datasets, AAA gaming, and high-resolution rendering.

New research from Omdia shows that the semiconductor market delivered a record breaking performance in 3Q25 with industry revenue reaching $216.3bn, up 14.5% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ). This marks the first time the global semiconductor market has exceeded $200bn in a single quarter, following an already strong 2Q25, which saw 8% QoQ growth. At this pace, the industry is on track to exceed $800bn in total revenue for 2025.

3Q25 far exceeds seasonal expectations
Demand for AI and memory products remains strong, with both segments continuing to outpace the wider market. While AI has dominated recent industry narratives, Omdia notes that more segments contributed to growth in 3Q25 than in previous quarters.

AAEON's UP brand, has announced the release of four new additions to its UP Edge system product line, each designed to offer distinct advantages for different industrial automation project needs. The new releases include two credit card-sized devices, the UP TWL Edge and slimmer UP TWLS Edge, which are catered towards applications such as IoT gateways and central industrial controllers, respectively.

Meanwhile, the UP Squared TWL Edge's specifications focus on connectivity, with a design intended to allow legacy systems to modernize control, monitoring, and visualization tasks. The final offering, the UP Squared Pro TWL Edge, is positioned for more advanced industrial solutions, leveraging the device's expansion options for the integration of AI accelerators for applications such as machine vision and predictive maintenance. While their specifications and intended deployment scenarios differ, the new Mini PCs all come with the option of Intel Core 3 Processor N355, Intel Processor N250, or Intel Processor N150 CPUs (formerly Twin Lake).

Without much fanfare, ASUS has listed the ROG Strix 5K XG27JCG on its ROG website and as the model name alludes, we're looking at a 5K gaming monitor. In this case, 5K equates to 5120 x 2880 pixels, or 2560 x 1440 in dual mode. The 27-inch fast IPS panel is capable of 180 Hz in 5K mode, or 330 Hz in QHD mode and it has a 0.3 ms response time (GTG). The panel also sports VESA DisplayHDR 600, a contrast ratio of 1500:1 and it supports 97 percent of the DCI-P3 colour space. More gaming specific features include ASUS's ELMB 2 technology, ELMB sync, FreeSync Premium Pro and G-SYNC compatible support, plus a host of other ASUS specific gaming features.

Oddly enough, ASUS has only equipped the ROG Strix 5K XG27JCG with a DP 1.4 port, as well as two HDMI 2.1 ports and a USB Type-C port that either does DP Alt mode and 15 W power delivery, or is only for firmware upgrades, depending on where on the product page you look. There's also a 3-port USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) hub with a separate input, as well as a headphone jack. We should also point out that according to ASUS, to use the display at 180 Hz at 5K, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series card or an AMD Radeon RX7600 or better is needed. According to VideoCardz, the ROG Strix 5K XG27JCG is already listed by Hong Kong retailers for HKD 6,499, which equates to around US$840.

The Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC), the trusted global leader in computing benchmarks, today announced the availability of the SPECviewperf 15.0.1 benchmark, an important update to the worldwide standard for measuring graphics performance based on professional applications. This release introduces snx-05, a workload based on Siemens NX 2406, rounding out the benchmark's support for high-end computer-aided design (CAD) applications.

The new snx-05 workload represents the first "snap-in" workload enabled by SPECviewperf 15's modern architecture, which allows for the addition of new workloads without requiring users to re-run existing benchmarks. This workload utilizes the OpenGL graphics API and stresses standard OpenGL features, including vertex and pixel shaders, textures, and multisampled antialiasing.

Quantum Art, a developer of full-stack quantum computers based on trapped-ion qubits and a proprietary scale-up architecture, today announced that it has closed a $100 million Series A funding round. The investment accelerates the company's path toward commercializing its systems, achieving quantum advantage, scaling its platform to enable quantum processors with thousands of qubits, and supporting Quantum Art's expansion from early revenues into significant commercial scale.

Bedford Ridge Capital led the round. The financing brings Quantum Art's total funding to date to $124 million following a seed round in 2022. The funding accelerates the development of Perspective, a 1,000-qubit multi-core system aimed at achieving quantum advantage, and supports prototyping of the company's third-generation 2D architecture targeting thousands of qubits for high-impact, real-world applications.

Google's custom AI infrastructure is beginning to draw external interest, and the company has reportedly developed two new TPU versions: one designed for AI inference and another optimized for training. With the eighth generation of TPU designs, Google has introduced the TPUv8ax "Sunfish" for training AI models like Gemini, and the TPUv8x "Zebrafish" for large-scale model inference. For "Sunfish," Google has partnered with Broadcom and its custom design team, which handles end-to-end design, memory, supporting hardware, and packaging, providing Google with a finished product ready for integration into its extensive server infrastructure.

For the inference-focused "Zebrafish" TPUv8x, Google has enlisted MediaTek's assistance, but only in a limited capacity. Google is sourcing wafers and memory directly from suppliers, while MediaTek contributes to supporting chips and packaging efforts, areas where Google has limited expertise. This means that a lot of chip design efforts are now processed in-house, easing reliance on external partners. However, since Google is not yet up to speed with the full-stack chip design, some help is still needed. The concrete performance figures and memory capacities are still unknown. However, we expect another leap over the TPUv7 "Ironwood," which carries 4,614 TeraFLOPS at FP8 precision and 192 GB of HBM memory.

TrendForce's latest investigations reveal that memory prices are projected to rise sharply again in the first quarter of 2026, exerting significant cost pressure on global end-device manufacturers. Consequently, smartphone and notebook brands are compelled to increase their product prices and reduce specifications. A further downward revision of shipment forecasts now seems unavoidable, with market resources becoming more concentrated among a few leading brands.

TrendForce notes that memory is increasingly accounting for a larger share of the BOM costs in consumer devices like smartphones and PCs. Even for Apple, which has strong profitability, the memory component in the total BOM for iPhones is expected to significantly increase in 1Q26. This development may lead Apple to reevaluate pricing strategies for new models and consider reducing or removing price cuts on older versions.

Apple's Studio Display launched in 2022, introducing a number of interesting features and quality of life touches to Apple's desktop monitor offerings, including a host of smart camera features powered by the onboard A13 Bionic SoC. Now, it seems as though the 5K retina display will be getting a much-needed upgrade sometime in 2026. As discovered by Macworld, iOS 26 code references J527, which has previously been identified as the codename for a new Apple Studio Display, and within this code, there are also hints at a new set of features for the next-gen desktop monitor.

Supposedly, the second-generation Studio Display will be upgraded from 60 Hz to 120 Hz ProMotion with a variable refresh rate, and the new monitor will feature both HDR and SDR modes, which points to a panel upgrade—perhaps an update to Mini-LED or OLED, although the latter seems less likely, given Apple's history and the previous rumors that pointed to a Mini-LED Studio Display that was slated for a 2025 launch. The new display will apparently also be updated from the aging A13 Bionic SoC to the new A19 that is currently in use in the Apple iPhone 17 series. While it's unclear what new features this may introduce to the new Studio Display, Apple could take advantage of the updated image processor and more powerful 16-core Neural Engine for both image processing for the built-in webcam. This could mean expanding on features like Center Stage, Spatial Audio, and voice control—the updated SoC could even mean better offline voice processing for Siri.

There has been a lot of talk recently about Microsoft consolidating its console and PC gaming experiences under a single Windows-based OS—with speculation being fuelled by the likes of the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, which is as much a Windows PC as it is an Xbox gaming console. The most recent addition to the long list of leaks and rumors comes from ubiquitous leaker, NateDrake, on the ResetEra forum, who claims that Microsoft is investing significant resources to make "legacy" Xbox games playable on Windows and the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally. Allegedly, legacy games here refer to games that were originally published for the original Xbox and the Xbox 360.

The leaker is confident that there is work being done towards backwards compatibility behind the scenes, but it's currently unclear to what extent this is being pursued and how successful it will be, but Microsoft's backwards compatibility within the Xbox game library was a strong selling point for the company until the backwards compatibility program was ended in 2021. Prior leaks about backwards compatibility indicate that the solution might come in the form of an emulator. Given the potential consolidation of Windows and Xbox game consoles, legacy Xbox games on Windows would also mean backwards compatibility for the next-gen Xbox console, which is slated to be in-house hardware.

We recently reported on a series of firings at Rockstar, which resulted in accusations of union busting from the affected employees and the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain and a subsequent open letter from over 200 Rockstar North employees demanding that the fired employees be reinstated. Following the aftermath of the firing, the matter was brought up in a session of the British parliament, to which Keir Starmer responded that ministers would "look into the particular case" of alleged union busting. Rockstar, for its part, insists that the employees were fired due to "gross employee misconduct," with Rockstar claiming that confidential information was leaked in a public forum—in this case a Discord chat—although the union fighting on behalf of the employees denies these allegations.

Whether the UK parliament will actually uncover anything meaningful is unclear, although the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain's Game Workers division has filed a lawsuit against Rockstar Games alleging wrongful dismissal. In the press release about the lawsuit, the IWGB revealed that it had attempted to meet with Rockstar Games, although the game studio had declined the meeting request. This is also only the latest in a long line of layoffs that has plagued the gaming industry for the last few years, with an unofficial gaming layoffs tracker reporting that over 3,500 gaming employees have been laid off in 2025 so far.

Lenovo today announced an expansive series of new data storage, virtualization solutions and data management services, designed to help customers modernize their IT and data infrastructure for powering enterprise applications and AI ready capabilities. Today's new offerings include new Lenovo ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile data storage and virtualization solutions, announced in tandem with data management services. Designed to provide a modern foundation for enterprises and mid-size businesses achieving AI innovations, this announcement combines complementary hardware, software and services offerings to help deploy, manage, and unleash the true potential of enterprise data.

"Sixty-three percent of organizations either do not have or are unsure if they have the right data management practices for AI, according to a survey by Gartner". Customer unique data is the differentiation that will drive their competitive advantage and most accurate results, however 80% of storage deployed in the last 5 years is on slower hard drive-based storage (according to IDC reporting) that is not optimized for AI. At the same time, customers are challenged with new virtualization and containerization requirements that demand open solutions. Businesses must mitigate this risk by ensuring their enterprise data systems and practices are modernized for advanced use cases.

ESS Technology, Inc., the industry leader in audio semiconductor devices, today introduces its newest member to the SABRE CODEC family that integrates stereo analog input and output channels with exceptional capability.

The ES9291 is a cost-effective solution that integrates stereo Analog-Digital (ADC) and Digital-Analog (DAC) converters that provide ultra-low noise conversion with a True dynamic range (DNR) of +121dB, and a THD+N that is rated at -110dB per channel on both the ADC and DAC pathways. The ES9291 targets professional audio interfaces, very high-quality microphones, live stream media, powered speakers, mixers, recorders and other applications.

Enterprises, cloud providers, and research organizations need AI infrastructure that delivers results fast, not just parts to assemble. Today, AMD is introducing AMD Pensando Pollara 400 AI NIC-Ready Server Platforms: a growing ecosystem of server systems from leading partners that come preconfigured with the AMD Pensando Pollara 400 AI Network Interface Card to deliver high-performance, Ethernet-based AI networking out of the box for both the front-end and back-end. By combining proven server designs, powerful AMD compute, and Pollara 400's fully programmable 400G Ethernet, these platforms help organizations stand up scalable AI clusters faster and with greater confidence.

AMD Pensando Pollara 400 AI NIC-Ready Server Platforms brings together servers from leading partners with the AMD Pensando Pollara 400 AI NIC to easily power the communication cycles required for the unique demand of AI workloads. These platforms give customers a consistent AI networking foundation across a broad ecosystem of server designs. Partners can offer dense GPU training nodes, high-throughput inference servers, that can often combine AMD EPYC Server CPUs, AMD Instinct GPU accelerators, and AMD Pensando Pollara 400 AI NIC-based Ethernet fabrics. Unlike other AI NICs, the AMD Pensando Pollara 400 AI NIC is fully hardware and software programmable, meaning the AI NIC can be updated without a hardware overhaul as transport and congestion-control algorithms evolve. This flexibility allows the same server platform to be tuned over time for new AI workloads, updated business priorities, and topologies.

Earlier this week, the US government approved exports of NVIDIA H200 data center-grade accelerators to China. This reverses a previous decision, to prevent "full fat" H200 hardware reaching Chinese shores. Team Green engineers were reportedly working on a severely reduced "H20" alternative—whispers of this sanction-conforming design emerged earlier on in 2025. A competing Chinese product—Huawei's Ascend 910C accelerator—is often regarded as a main rival to newly approved past-gen Team Green AI-crunching solutions. According to Bloomberg's inside sources, White House officials were assessing the Ascend 910C's capabilities—most notably in the form of Huawei's super node CloudMatrix 384 system.

Despite lagging behind the H200, in terms of computing power and memory bandwidth, a large array of Ascend 910C accelerators (384 in total) is still a significant force. Additionally, Bloomberg's unnamed sources allege that the current US administration is worried about China rapidly improving its domestic semiconductor production capacities. Anonymous industry figures have whispered about Huawei and foundry partners working towards manufacturing 600,000 units throughout the coming year. Supposedly, the aforementioned White House staffers have considered a slightly different scenario—that Huawei: "would be capable, in 2026, of producing a few million of its Ascend 910C accelerators." According to a related Reuters news article, Chinese regulators are reportedly weighing up methods that will limit local industry's access to NVIDIA H200 systems.

NVIDIA has reportedly developed a chip-tracking technology that will pinpoint the exact locations its GPUs are deployed in. According to a report from Reuters, this technology is a software tool that detects exactly where and how its chips are used to fight GPU smuggling networks from escaping the official U.S. sanctions. For example, NVIDIA's latest "Blackwell" GPUs have been banned from selling to Chinese entities, and GPU smugglers in other countries have been able to stock up on these and export them, bypassing the official U.S. sanctions. Just recently, NVIDIA got a green light from the Trump administration to sell its H200 "Hopper" GPUs to Chinese customers, but that excludes the more powerful "Blackwell" generation.

NVIDIA for ReutersWe're in the process of implementing a new software service that empowers data center operators to monitor the health and inventory of their entire AI GPU fleet. This customer-installed software agent leverages GPU telemetry to monitor fleet health, integrity and inventory.

OneXPlayer has launched an official Kickstarter campaign placeholder for its latest "Super X" 14-inch laptop/tablet hybrid. This device features an uncommon configuration with two form factors and offers an option for liquid cooling, making it the first two-in-one device to support an external liquid cooling unit. At the heart of the system is an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU, featuring 16 cores and 32 threads running at boost speeds of 5.1 GHz. The APU is paired with a Radeon 8060S, equivalent to a desktop RTX 4060, providing the laptop with significant computing power in a 14-inch form factor.

This is where things get interesting. AMD allows a configurable TDP option for its APUs, and once the Super X device is connected to external water cooling, the cTDP increases to 120 W from its original base of 45 W. This flexibility allows the Super X unit to stay cool while operating in both laptop and tablet modes, and to boost to higher sustained frequencies when the external liquid cooling unit is connected. The Frost Bay liquid-cooling unit comes as a separate purchase, but allows the system to reach its full potential under high-intensity loads. The AMD "Strix Halo" APU can be paired with 128 GB of RAM, where 96 GB can be allocated dynamically for the GPU so it can run LLMs locally.

For over ten years, the Ride franchise has been a virtual meeting point for all bike lovers. The latest instalment, Ride 6, is set to be the ultimate celebration of their passion, offering a wide range of new activities and the largest bike selection ever seen. To achieve this, we have implemented a structured process that involves all departments in true teamwork, with the common goal of making bikes as realistic as possible.

Let's pick some references
Everything begins with a list: our Game Design Department is the brain behind the assembling of the roster, which consists of both returning bikes and brand-new models. Once the list is ready, the Reference and Licensing Department swings into action. They're the ones that start contacting all manufacturers, to explain the project and finalize the agreements to greenlight their bikes' presence in game. While this is all brewing, each bike's characteristics - think of weight, power, cylinders—are analyzed by the Physics Department to understand what kind of tuning is needed.

A few months ago, RGB Mini-LED technology was hyped as the next big shake up for the television industry/market. Instead of widely utilized conventional white or blue generating backlight systems (usually combined with quantum dot conversion), pure sources of red, green, and blue offer superior on-screen color reproduction. The tech's primary purveyors—Samsung and Hisense—seem to be in a race to launch next-gen TV products with competing arrays onboard, starting with absolutely non-mainsteam 100+ inch offerings. Eventually, RGB Mini-LED configurations will trickle down to more affordable screen sizes (55" - 85").

Another big player, HKC, seems to be signalling its intent to pioneer RGB Mini-LED tech within the computer monitor market. Earlier today, (likely) leaked teaser/promo material was uploaded by Lonely City Hardware (@realVictor_M) on social media. Further conjecture points to the Chinese manufacturer potentially showcasing the "world's first RGB Mini LED monitor" at next month's CES trade event. Currently, HKC's panels are found in KOORUI and ANTGAMING products. Presently, familiar (non-RGB) Mini-LED backlit monitors are positioned as viable alternatives to OLED equivalents, especially in the field of gaming. The competing technologies have their own positive and negative aspects, but OLED continues to dominate in terms of popularity and availability at retail.

Quantum hardware is advancing rapidly, but until machines reach hundreds or thousands of reliable qubits, high-performance simulation is essential for building, testing, and optimizing real applications. State-of-the-art simulators capable of handling large-scale circuits let developers get ahead of the hardware and be ready when the technology arrives. PennyLane's Lightning on AMD GPUs transforms quantum circuit simulation into a high-performance computing pipeline, enabling researchers and engineers to tackle problem sizes previously unfeasible.

Pennylane's Lightning simulator, running on AMD GPU hardware, has been demonstrated at scale on the Frontier Supercomputer—however, expanding access to quantum simulation requires making this software stack available on a broader range of systems. In this post, we provide an avenue for anyone to try PennyLane on AMD GPUs via the AMD Developer Cloud. We will show how to do it using three methods: Docker, Python wheels, and source code installation, each tailored to different user preferences and needs. By the end, you will be able to run your first Hello World program on AMD hardware and have a development environment to explore more complex PennyLane programs.

NVIDIA's "Ampere" generation of GeForce RTX graphics cards continues to attract buyers, albeit mostly across used markets. Certain discerning gaming GPU enthusiasts often consider newer "Ada Lovelace" and "Blackwell" architectures to be too expensive. Seninno, an AI PC hardware enthusiast, attempted to strike the right balance between price and past-gen performance. His mid-November video report focused on an unusual custom GeForce RTX 3080 card. Under normal circumstances, owners of RTX 30-series sub-flagships could play around with 10 GB of GDDR6X VRAM. Another unusual 20 GB example has come to light—courtesy of Seninno's search for a bargain. Historically, a handful of variants—mostly made by MSI—have turned up via used product channels in China. Seninno's video report delves into his acquiring of an ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3080 20 GB card.

Weeks after performing an extensive teardown, Seninno's discovery gained wider press coverage—yesterday's Uniko's Hardware article weighed in on debates over the card's origins. Could it be an engineering sample, an OEM release, or a previous owner's modification project? The YouTuber stated: "I found it (for sale in a) Chinese flea market, I've never seen this model, and I can't found any info online, so I decided to try it, but the condition wasn't great, or I would've kept it." An inspection of printed material pointed to a fairly official looking "STRIX-RTX3080-20G" code. A "10DE 2206 -1043 87AA" device ID was detected by GPU-Z, with a "20480 MB" memory size. Seninno was not impressed with the card's scuffed condition, both externally and internally—it was likely hooked up to a crypto mining rig in the past—and aims to return it to an unnamed vendor. Upon examining the deshrouded card, he reckoned that the memory modules were intact and original, but there was evidence of thermal paste reapplications and screws being removed, and not replaced.

EK by LM TEK, the premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is proud to introduce the EK-Quantum Vector³ Master RTX 5090 - Plexi, our latest high-performance water block designed exclusively for the Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 5090 MASTER & Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5090 GAMING OC.

Unmatched Performance and Cooling Efficiency
Engineered for the Gigabyte AORUS GeForce RTX 5090 MASTER and Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5090 GAMING OC models, the EK-Quantum Vector³ Master RTX 5090 - Plexi delivers elite thermal performance for enthusiasts who demand more.

The Temple of Elemental Evil: A Classic Greyhawk Adventure is now available on Steam! Originally developed by Troika Games and released in 2003, this beloved adaptation of the iconic, genre-defining DUNGEONS & DRAGONS module returns for a new generation of adventurers. Built on the 3.5 edition ruleset, The Temple of Elemental Evil challenges players to delve into the infamous dungeon, confront sinister monsters and cultists, and navigate the deadly rivalries of four elemental factions locked in conflict.

This Steam release stands on the remarkable work of the Circle of Eight and Temple+ modding communities, whose dedication over the years has elevated the game far beyond its original form. The Temple of Elemental Evil, has inspired a passionate community for over two decades. This updated edition is a true labor of love. It brings the classic D&D adventure to life for modern players with over a thousand fixes and improvements—from enhanced stability and AI to smoother performance, refined UI, and countless quality-of-life updates. We're deeply thankful to everyone who's helped preserve and evolve this classic.

Ugreen is best known for producing a wide range of USB hardware, cables, and AC adapters. Earlier in the week, Chinese PC hardware press outlets noticed the retail listing of a brand-new LinkStation Graphics Card Expansion Dock. Ugreen's entry into this loftier market segment has generated buzz outside of China. A sleek semi-open enclosure design is combined with an impressive set of internals. An initial JD.com store entry advertises a 2299 Yuan (~$325 USD) price tag. Promotional renders show a hosted NVIDIA GeForce RTX Founders Edition graphics cards—matching the dock's largely brushed aluminium aesthetic—but Ugreen's spec sheet states that users can slot in their favored AMD or Intel products.

A fully-closed LinkStation can house a maximum card length of 370 mm. Excessively proportioned units can be accommodated, as long as a modular top cover is removed. This 5.08 kg eGPU setup can be hooked up to laptops, mini PCs, and gaming handhelds. Ugreen's dock sports an OCuLink port; supporting data transfer speeds up to 64 Gbps. Alternatively, USB4 (40 Gbps) connectivity is present—granting 100 W of reverse charging for connected devices. According to a contents rundown, 0.5 m OCuLink and 0.8 m USB4 cables are bundled in as standard. A 850 W Gold-rated ATX 3.1 power supply is fitted within the LinkStation Dock; good enough to take on GeForce RTX 40 or 50-series dGPUs. In-housing testing of the dock's OCuLink connection shows near-to direct-to-desktop mainboard interface performance.

A message from the Call of Duty team: first off, thank you for all for the feedback we have received over the last few months. Call of Duty has enjoyed long-standing success because of all of you, a passionate community that demands excellence and deserves nothing less. We also know that for some of you, the Franchise has not met your expectations fully. To be very clear, we know what you expect and rest assured we will deliver, and overdeliver, on those expectations as we move forward.

With respect to Black Ops 7, we set our sights to deliver a spiritual successor to Black Ops 2 and the studios have poured their passion into making a great game that all of us are very proud of. But it's one thing for us to say it, more importantly it's up to you to try it and judge for yourselves. So as it relates to Black Ops 7 and the future of Call of Duty, here are a few important notes.

Around mid-to-late October, Zotac introduced a pleasingly ultra-compact ZBOX MAGNUS EN275060TC barebones PC system. Back then, preview material focused on relatively potent Team Blue and Green hardware being bunged into a 2.65-liter chassis. Many tech enthusiasts were impressed by the Zotac engineering team's latest feat; mainly the fitting of desktop-class GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB graphics card into an extremely cramped interior. Some cork sniffers were less enthused by the manufacturer's choice of CPU—an Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX model—due to the chip's mobile application origin. A true all-desktop-grade alternative is also lined up within Zotac's ZBOX MAGNUS product stack, but packaged in a larger enclosure: EU27507TC.

HKEPC has performed teardowns of Zotac's latest and greatest ZBOX MAGNUS systems, with the EN275060TC SKU receiving the most recent treatment. A gory feature article was published yesterday, providing close-up shots of the mini PC's intriguing custom discrete graphics solution. Zotac's "Blackwell" gaming range has favored larger profiles, but the emergence of less potent NVIDIA GPUs has diversified the company's portfolio of current-gen cooling solutions. HKEPC's investigation of the EN275060TC's interior setup shows a compelling custom GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB card, that lacks an external power connector. A GPU-Z diagnostic indicates the utilization of a hybrid "PCIe x8 5.0 + x8 5.0" interface.

Mad Catz Global Limited, a leading innovator in ergonomic and highly customizable gaming hardware, today announced that the M.M.O. 7+ wireless gaming mouse is now shipping worldwide. Consumer availability will begin rolling out regionally, with preorders opening in select markets starting December 2025.

Built on the legacy of the award-winning M.M.O. 7 first introduced more than a decade ago, the new M.M.O. 7+ has been re-engineered to meet modern gaming standards. The redesigned model features enhancements based on extensive customer feedback, including reinforced and strengthened components and wireless capabilities, while retaining the intuitive and precise input controls that have made the M.M.O. 7 a fan favorite.

ININ Games is proud to officially announce R-Type Dimensions III, a major new milestone in one of gaming's most iconic shoot 'em up series. Developed in close cooperation with Tozai and Irem, the license owner, and the original creator of R-Type, this new project represents one of the most ambitious and significant undertakings in ININ's history. The game is set to be released on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox, and PC (Steam).

Building on the legacy of R-Type Dimensions and R-Type Dimensions EX, Dimensions III has been completely re-envisioned with cutting-edge visuals and sounds and expanded gameplay modes to deliver the most definitive modern edition of R-Type's classic era.

Introducing the all-new Xbox Wireless Controllers - Fallout Pip-Boy and Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 - Fallout Pip-Boy. Vault Dwellers have few options at their disposal to survive against the post nuclear landscape, but thankfully Vault-Tec has provided one S.P.E.C.I.A.L. tool, the Pip-Boy! While the first Fallout designed controllers were focused on Vault Boy and all his different incarnations, we wanted Fallout fans to be able to gear up with the same tech that their characters use. The Xbox controller designs replicate that warm green hue that emits from your own personal Pip-Boy, with instantly recognizable game HUD icons to match.

The Xbox Wireless Controller - Fallout Pip-Boy is available for pre-order, for a limited time, at Microsoft Store. For those looking to create their own unique design, both Xbox Wireless Controller and Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 are available now with Xbox Design Lab. This Fallout-themed masterpiece pays homage to Vault Boy and his iconic S.P.E.C.I.A.L. traits, featuring a striking green metallic D-Pad and a custom Fallout topcase that radiates craftsmanship and heritage.

The upcoming "Panther Lake" mobile processor series seems to consist of (at least) fourteen distinct SKUs, according to a major mid-October and November leaks. Since then, a bunch of these elaborately named models have been fleshed out in greater detail—courtesy of benchmark data appearing across online repositories. The supposed flagship option—"Core Ultra X9 388H"—has appeared again; courtesy of a mysterious "Default string Default string" test system posting results and basic specifications onto the Geekbench Browser database. Almost two months ago, the not-yet-launched Core Ultra X9 388H chip's integrated graphics solution seemed to do quite well in 3DMark Time Spy tests.

Looking at intriguing Geekbench 6.5 info, a 16-core CPU design—hosted on an "NM14PTL" board—scored (overall) 3057 points in single-core stakes, and 17687 points in multicore scenarios. These tallies seem to place the next-gen "flagship" above the "Arrow Lake-H" Core Ultra 9 285H APU, with an approximate 15 to 19% performance advantage over the "direct predecessor." The leaked Core Ultra X9 388H candidate seems to perform in the region of Team Blue's beefier "Arrow Lake-HX" Core Ultra 9 275HX model. Looking at current-gen competition, AMD's "Strix Halo" range topper—Ryzen AI Max+ 395—about matches the forthcoming "Panther Lake" flagship in terms of multicore, but Team Blue's futuristic design seems to win in the realm of single core performance. Additional "Core Ultra X9 388H" fundamentals include a measured 5.078 MHz maximum frequency, 4.0 GHz base frequency, and 18 MB of L3 cache. Cluster 1 consists of four cores, presumably "Cougar Cove" Power units. Cluster 2 sports twelve cores in total; official slides designate "Darkmont" architecture across eight E-cores and four LP-E cores.

Endorfy introduces three new magnetic wrist rests designed for everyday comfort: Thock Palm Rest V2, Thock TKL Palm Rest V2, and Thock 75% Palm Rest V2. Each one is made from supportive memory foam wrapped in soft PU leather. They offer steady and well-shaped hand support during work and gaming, meeting the needs of anyone who spends long hours at a desk. The series is tailored for owners of Thock and Thock V2 keyboards in both wired and wireless versions, yet it will pair just as well with keyboards from other brands. Each Palm Rest V2 delivers comfortable wrist support and noticeably improves day-to-day ergonomics from the very first use.

COMFORT THAT ADAPTS TO YOU
The Thock Palm Rest V2 series is designed to disappear beneath your hands in the best possible way. The high-quality memory foam responds to pressure and temperature, naturally adjusting to the wrists' position. The surface is finished with soft PU leather that gives smooth, secure support for long hours at the desk.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced the acquisition of Ventana Micro Systems Inc., underscoring its commitment to advancing the RISC-V standard and ecosystem. This strategic move strengthens Qualcomm's CPU capabilities by integrating Ventana's expertise in RISC-V ISA development. The Ventana team will complement Qualcomm's ongoing RISC-V and custom Oryon CPU development, further advancing technology leadership in the AI era across all businesses.

"At Qualcomm, we are committed to shaping the future of intelligent computing. We believe the RISC-V instruction set architecture has the potential to advance the frontier on CPU technology, enabling innovation across products. The acquisition of Ventana Micro Systems marks a pivotal step in our journey to deliver industry-leading RISC-V based CPU technology across products," said Durga Malladi, executive vice president and general manager, technology planning, edge solutions and datacenter, Qualcomm Technologies.

AMD has released its latest AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 25.12.1 WHQL drivers, headlined by support for AMD FSR 4 "Redstone", the company's next-gen FidelityFX Super Resolution technology. The driver also adds product support for the Radeon AI PRO R9600D and Radeon AI PRO R9700S, alongside several fixes. These include Radeon Anti-Lag 2 not available in Counter-Strike 2 (DX11), crashes with some HDMI 2.1 displays during standby, intermittent Radeon Overlay freezes, and a crash in ARC Raiders on the Blue Gate map on RX 9000 series GPUs.

Known issues remain, including Cyberpunk 2077 path-tracing crashes, instability in Battlefield 6 on Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, Roblox Player crashes when task-switching on RX 7000 GPUs, Battlefield 6 texture flicker when using Record & Stream, and incorrect shadows in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. AMD says fixes are in progress.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 25.12.1 WHQL
[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the AMD FSR 4 Redstone is now live]

Canonical is pleased to announce an expanded collaboration with AMD to package and maintain AMD ROCm software directly in Ubuntu. AMD ROCm is an open software ecosystem to enable hardware-accelerated AI/ML and HPC workloads on AMD Instinct and AMD Radeon GPUs, simplifying the deployment of AI infrastructure with long term support from Canonical.

Canonical has formed a dedicated team of engineers to package the AMD ROCm software libraries to streamline installation, support, and long-term maintenance on Ubuntu. Canonical will also submit these packages for consideration on Debian.

As the gaming world braces for the next generation of console gaming, EasySMX, the leading manufacturer of gaming peripherals, officially unveils the S10 Lite, a controller designed to redefine the entry-level experience for the New Nintendo Switch 2. Positioned as the definitive "Best Switch 2 Controller at $40," the S10 Lite combines "light entry" accessibility, striking aesthetics, and an intuitive "pick-up-and-play" design. It is engineered specifically to meet the rigid demands of young gamers and casual enthusiasts who refuse to compromise on ultra-smooth gaming performance despite a budget-friendly price point.

As the gaming landscape evolves toward 2026, EasySMX recognizes that players have diverse needs. While the S10 caters to the enthusiast seeking maximum competitive advantage, the S10 Lite ($39.99) arrives as the definitive "Essential Choice." It is designed to be the Best Compatibility $40 Switch 2 Controller 2026, serving as the perfect reliable backup, travel companion, or "Player 2" controller without sacrificing the core quality the S-Series is known for.

Noctua and Prusa Research today introduced two new 3D printing filaments in Noctua's signature colorway. The new Prusament PLA Noctua Beige and Prusament PLA Noctua Brown combine Prusa's renowned in-house manufacturing quality and excellent printing performance with Noctua's iconic color scheme, which makes them an ideal choice when printing parts for Noctua-themed PC builds or DIY projects that utilise Noctua fans. "We've always admired how the maker community utilises our fans and creates parts that enable new types of applications", says Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "Teaming up with Prusa Research to offer filaments in our signature colors to facilitate integrating our fans with 3D printed parts of any kind feels like a great way of giving back to the community."

"Building your own PC has always been quite common here in the Czech Republic, and I remember using Noctua fans in my own builds back in the day. Since then, I've seen so many community projects trying to match Noctua's iconic color scheme without ever finding a perfect fit," says Josef Prusa (Founder and CEO of Prusa Research). "I'm really happy we got to team up with Noctua to bring these color-matched filaments to the market. It's the perfect choice for any PC builder or modder, allowing them to build even better-looking computers with color-matched components and accessories."

ARCTIC continues the P Pro Reverse fan series with the 140 mm models. Already successfully used in the Xtender case, the fans are now also available separately and impress with powerful, quiet cooling and long-lasting performance. Like the 120 mm fans in the series, the P14 Pro Reverse fans are also specially designed for reverse airflow and are ideal for pull configurations and precise A-RGB display. Their flow-optimized design with funnel-shaped inlet and teardrop-shaped struts reduces turbulence, minimizes noise, and ensures maximum efficiency.

Minimal clearance dimensions, automatic balancing, and high-precision measurement guarantee low-vibration operation, while the fluid dynamic bearing with extended shaft ensures additional quietness and even pressure distribution. The addressable RGB lighting with twelve digitally controllable LEDs enables individual effects and seamless integration into the system for impressive visual staging.

CD PROJEKT RED proudly marks five years in Night City with a special anniversary trailer, partnerships, and announcements - all in celebration of Cyberpunk 2077's journey over the last half a decade! Originally released on December 10th, 2020, Cyberpunk 2077 is an acclaimed open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the futuristic megalopolis of Night City. Players take on the role of cyber-enhanced mercenary V, taking on a fight for glory and survival - doing whatever it takes to become a legend and leave their mark.

Since launch, the game has sold 35 million copies and has seen numerous wide-ranging updates, including the game-changing Update 2.0, the spy-thriller expansion Phantom Liberty, releases on Nintendo Switch 2 and Apple silicon Mac models and more. Over the years, it has cemented itself as one of gaming's most immersive open-world RPGs, and has developed a passionate and ever-growing community. To celebrate this journey, CD PROJEKT RED released a special trailer that looks back on V's emotional story in the City of Legends.

Tiiny AI Inc. (www.tiiny.ai), a US deep-tech AI startup, today unveiled the world's smallest personal AI supercomputer, the Tiiny AI Pocket Lab, officially verified by Guinness World Records under the category "The Smallest MiniPC (100B LLM Locally)." The event marked the first global public unveiling of the Tiiny AI Pocket Lab. For the first time in AI supercomputing, a pocket-sized device is capable of running up-to a full 120-billion-parameter large language model (LLM) entirely on-device—without cloud connectivity, servers, or high-end GPUs.

Designed for energy-efficient personal intelligence, Tiiny AI Pocket Lab runs within a 65 W power envelope. It can enable large-model performance at a fraction of the energy and carbon footprint of traditional GPU-based systems.

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today announced its modern take on a gaming legend: the Razer Boomslang 20th Anniversary Edition. Launched as the world's first gaming mouse, the Razer Boomslang did not just change the game - it defined a new era of play. Its distinctive snake-head silhouette became an icon of early gaming. Groundbreaking features such as 2,000 DPI mechanical ball tracking and on-the-fly sensitivity adjustment delivered precision unheard of at the time, setting a new benchmark when competitive PC gaming was still finding its footing.

20 YEARS IN THE MAKING. A LEGACY REBORN.
Two decades later, that promise lives on. The Boomslang returns in its 20th Anniversary Edition - reborn with cutting-edge technology for today's gaming era, while honoring the design and spirit that started it all. "When we designed the Razer Boomslang, we just wanted to get the unfair advantage in gaming, and that single spark helped ignite the entire multi-billion dollar gaming peripherals industry that we know today," said Min-Liang Tan, Co-Founder and CEO of Razer. "The Boomslang 20th Anniversary Edition is more than a mouse. It's a tribute to the community who made this possible and a reaffirmation of our motto that continues to guide everything we do: For Gamers. By Gamers."

MSI is thrilled to unveil its latest range of motherboards, designed specifically for the AMD Ryzen X870E chipset. These motherboards are part of the new MSI MAX series, they are not just about robust performance and rock-solid reliability. They also offer enhanced customization, putting you in the driver's seat of your computing experience. With MSI's signature EZ DIY features, these motherboards are set to revolutionize computing, offering seamless installation and unimaginable control over your system.

Alongside the debut of MSI's new X870E motherboards, the MEG X870E ACE MAX makes a powerful return. This refreshed edition features a suite of refined enhancements designed to enhance performance further. With enhancements tailored for the MAX and EVO series, users can expect improved overclock tuning, improved thermal solutions, and greater compatibility making it an ideal choice for enthusiasts seeking to maximize the systems.

KIOXIA Europe GmbH today announced the EXCERIA PRO G2 SSD, the new performance flagship in its EXCERIA Personal SSD portfolio. Engineered for enthusiasts who demand the very best, the EXCERIA PRO G2 delivers blistering PCIe 5.0 speeds backed by high-performance BiCS FLASH TLC 3D flash memory. Pushing the boundaries of what's possible in consumer storage, the EXCERIA PRO G2 achieves impressive sequential read speeds of up to 14,900 MB/s and write speeds of up to 13,700 MB/s. This immense bandwidth, combined with exceptional random read/write performance, enhances data efficiency, enabling instantaneous game loading, seamless 8K video editing, and vastly accelerated workflow for the most demanding applications.

Available in capacities up to 4 TB and built in the M.2 2280 form factor, the EXCERIA PRO G2 is built for those who refuse to compromise. It leverages KIOXIA's advanced BiCS FLASH TLC 3D flash memory and a high-performance engine to provide sustained speeds and robust reliability under heavy, continuous workloads, making it the ideal drive for high-end PCs, next-gen gaming consoles, and professional content creation systems.

According to sources close to Wired, Intel has signed a new agreement with SambaNova, an AI chip startup, to acquire the company under undisclosed terms. The signed term sheet is non-binding, meaning it can be canceled under any condition, and a final deal has not yet been reached. Intel's current CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, has been serving as chairman of the board for SambaNova Systems, effectively giving him insider knowledge of the company's operations. The company has raised a total of $1.14 billion in funding as of early 2025, meaning that a lot of investors have shown confidence into its technology.

SambaNova develops AI chips based on its Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU), which takes a novel approach to enable trillion-parameter inference on its SambaRack rack-scale solutions. The latest 4th generation RDU features 1,040 RDU cores, 653 TeraFLOPS of BF16 (similar to FP16) compute, 520 MB of on-chip memory, 64 GB of HBM3, and is paired with a 1.5 TB external DDR memory pool to accommodate large language models for inference. Since it is a private company, we don't have sales figures officially published anywhere.

December 13, 20:35 UTC: Bloomberg reports that the deal is worth about $1.6 billion, including debt. Additionally, the deal is reportedly nearing its final stages.

Microsoft has laid out its 2026 Windows 11 vision board, highlighting what the Redmond giant has in store for its operating system. According to Microsoft, the 2026 is shaping up to be a year of optimizations, as the company is now shifting towards performance delivery, alongside new features. "We're committed to making Windows the best place to play, and we will continue refining system behaviors that matter most to gaming: background workload management, power and scheduling improvements, graphics stack optimizations, and updated drivers," said Microsoft in its latest blog post.

Perhaps the most important pillar of this is the background workload management, which adds overhead to a system. Recently, we observed that the Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE) on a regular Windows 11 build reduces background overhead, with RAM usage dropping significantly by 9.3%. Similarly, an increase in FPS of up to 8.6% can also be observed, thanks to more optimized background workload management. Features such as power and scheduling will also contribute a few percentage points of improvement, potentially making the OS overhead a negligible factor.

Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI), a Total IT Solution Provider for AI, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, today announced the expansion of its NVIDIA Blackwell architecture portfolio with the introduction and shipment availability of new 4U and 2-OU (OCP) liquid-cooled NVIDIA HGX B300 systems. These latest additions are a key part of Supermicro's Data Center Building Block Solutions (DCBBS) that deliver unprecedented GPU density and power efficiency for hyperscale data centers and AI factory deployments.

"With AI infrastructure demand accelerating globally, our new liquid-cooled NVIDIA HGX B300 systems deliver the performance density and energy efficiency that hyperscalers and AI factories need today," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "We're now offering the industry's most compact NVIDIA HGX B300 solutions—achieving up to 144 GPUs in a single rack—while reducing power consumption and cooling costs through our proven direct liquid-cooling technology. Through our DCBBS, this is how Supermicro enables our customers to deploy AI at scale: faster time-to market, maximum performance per watt, and end-to-end integration from design to deployment."

Higround, the lifestyle and gaming peripheral brand, is thrilled to announce its landmark second collaboration with SEGA, celebrating the enduring legacy of Sonic the Hedgehog and the iconic Dreamcast console.

For Higround, nostalgia isn't just about what you see, but what you feel and hear. This collection merges the radical, optimistic future imagined in the past with the cutting-edge performance of today. The drop highlights the growth of the Higround brand by expanding its lineup to include the 75% and 96% form factors along with the Hall Effect keyboard, perfectly embodying the theme of Sonic's unmatched speed.

Intel "Arrow Lake Refresh" processor leaks continue to flow; the latest NDA-busting information comes from a test build's Geekbench 6.4 (on Windows 11 64-bit) scores and diagnostics. The evaluation platform utilized a Gigabyte Z890 EAGLE WIFI7 mainboard, paired with 64 GB DDR5-4800 SDRAM (four channels). Yesterday's database entry fleshes out a "Core Ultra 7 270K Plus" SKU's fundamentals and early performance figures. Team Blue's upcoming "Core Ultra 200K Plus" (unlocked) product stack is expected to consist of three models; reportedly prepped to outperform vanilla "Arrow Lake-S" desktop equivalents.

The freshly debuted Core Ultra 7 270K Plus option seems to be positioned as a clear upgrade over the familiar Core Ultra 7 265K 20-core CPU. According to Geekbench Browser, the newer design sports an extra complement of cores—specifically, four efficiency units. In general, industry experts reckon that "ARL-S Refresh" E-core base and turbo clocks have been elevated by 100 MHz. On average, the newer chip seemingly outperforms its natural predecessor by a small margin: 5.6% in single-core stakes, and 4.2% in multicore. Larger margins—in Geekbench—are anticipated in the near future, due to other test platforms taking advantage of greater memory transfer rates. A related late November leak described improved DDR5 memory support: 7200 MT/s transfer rates on CUDIMM modules.

It's here. UNBEATABLE is out on PC (Steam) AND PlayStation 5. I don't know what's about to happen. By the time I save this and make it go live, we're still living in the world where the game isn't out yet. I don't know what people think of it, or what reviews look like, or...anything. I've played the game infinity times, myself, but the thing about writing and directing a video game that's been in your head this long is you can't ever experience the game yourself the same way. I already have the feeling inside me that I want the game to give you. I can only hope it works.

You, though, reading this, are in another world. The game is out now. You might actually know how people feel about it. You might actually feel about it a certain way! But I don't know any of that, and we're still technically working on it, trying to fix bugs and make small bits better here and there. That will continue to be true, actually.

More than 800 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. Today, Battlefield 6's Winter Offensive update goes live, adding even more new content, and Doll Impostor has added support for our latest DLSS Super Resolution AI model. Also, you have a chance of winning a custom-wrapped Resident Evil Requiem GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card in our latest holiday giveaway, and can snag a free ARC Raiders backpack thanks to GeForce Rewards.

Your Chance To Win A Resident Evil Requiem GeForce RTX 5090
The Season of RTX continues with a Resident Evil Requiem GeForce RTX 5090 giveaway! For a chance to win this custom-wrapped graphics card, head to our social channels on Facebook, Instagram and X, look for the prompt, and follow the steps to enter yourself into the giveaway for this GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition.

Biwin has just released its intriguing Mini SSD design as a standalone product for consumers, at least in China. A brief introduction—carrying a largely red theme—occurred roughly four months ago. At the time, the Chinese storage media specialist did not give its proprietary design a proper model designation. Fast-forward to early December, fresh JD.com and official website listings have signalled the CL100's arrival at retail. A wider release seems inevitable, but prospective global customers will need to grab a matching "plug and play" Mini SSD Reader (RD510) in order to access the tiny product's contained pool of storage. The CL100 Mini SSD is described as: "a high-performance, ultra-mini storage solution. Measuring just 15.0 mm × 17.0 mm × 1.4 mm, it offers SSD performance in the size of a small coin or just about the size of a microSD card."

GPD and OneXPlayer have referred to the emerging format's slot standard as "1517," since their Win 5 and Super X (respectively) handheld gaming devices are already supporters of Biwin's sleek design. Naturally, the CL100's compact setup is marketed as an ideal removable storage solution for compatible ultra-thin notebooks/laptops, mini PCs, and portable gaming PCs. One key innovation is highlighted on the company's dedicated product page: "CL100 uses advanced LGA packaging technology, integrating the controller and flash memory modules into an ultra-compact form." Official marketing material outlines "impressive read speeds up to 3700 MB/s, and write speeds up to 3400 MB/s." The JD.com SKU selection system lists three prices: 599 Yuan (~$85 USD) for the 512 GB model, 1099 Yuan (~$156 USD) for Biwin's 1 TB option, and 2199 Yuan (~$311 USD) for the 2 TB range topper.

Dynabook Americas, Inc., the gold standard for long-lasting, professional-grade laptops, today unveiled its latest Copilot-enhanced professional laptops, the all-new 14-inch Tecra A45-M and 16-inch Tecra A65-M. Engineered with AMD Ryzen and AMD Ryzen PRO 200 Series processors, these new Windows 11 Pro laptops fuse cutting-edge hardware with advanced AI to redefine productivity and performance for modern professionals and educators.

"These new Tecra laptops extend Dynabook's tradition of delivering high-value, professional-grade solutions while giving our customers a greater variety of processor options," said James Robbins, General Manager, Dynabook Americas, Inc. "By pairing AMD Ryzen and Ryzen PRO 200 Series processors with our pro-grade Tecra platform, we're bringing strong multi-core performance, practical on-device AI and enterprise-grade security and manageability to organizations that demand reliability and long-term value."

Solid State Disks Limited (SSDL), a leading manufacturer of solid-state-drives (SSDs) and a provider of reverse engineering services, has launched DuplicatorPlus, a device for cloning or copying the contents of most SCSI-based drives onto a CF card, networked computer or the cloud.

DuplicatorPlus can be used out of the box, as it is supplied with a power lead and the cables/adaptors needed to power and communicate with the legacy SCSI drive being cloned or copied. Also, if DuplicatorPlus is used to make a clone rather than a copy of a SCSI-based drive onto a CF card that is compatible with one of SSDL's SCSIFlash drives then it (the drive) can be used as a swap-in replacement for the legacy SCSI drive. No modifications need to be made to the host computer.

The team at Chaos Manufacturing is thrilled to announce our debut game: Sol Shogunate—what we call a "samurai space opera." So, what does that mean? Sol Shogunate is a single-player third-person action RPG where you play as the ultimate samurai in an alt-future setting that pays homage to the majesty of feudal Japanese tradition. The "space opera" part has two meanings. Space opera is a sci-fi subgenre that speaks to sci-fi universes filled with drama and adventure. But it's also a nod to the strong musical component that is at the core of our game. We're marrying combat, story, and music into an experience that we hope players will remember long after the credits roll.

A Lone Ronin Against the Sol Shogunate
In Sol Shogunate, players step into the role of Yuzuki, the last surviving heir of a once-powerful samurai family. Following her family's massacre, she's on a bloody quest for vengeance. Her story becomes far more than a personal vendetta, however, as she unearths the buried histories and lies underpinning the powerful shogunate that dominates the solar system.

Fresh JD.com store listings have aptly reaffirmed ever-increasing memory pricing trends—over the past weekend, ITHome noticed extortionate tags applied to Asgard's newest high-capacity DDR5 kits. Given current circumstances, certain PC hardware enthusiasts will begrudgingly meet the challenge of taking on daunting costs of ownership. The Chinese brand's latest premium-tier 256 GB (4 x 64 GB) and 192 GB (4 x 48 GB) kits are not particularly cutting-edge in terms of basic specifications: 6000 MT/s memory transfer rates, on SK Hynix M-die ICs. Over a year ago, the company launched a better-binned Thor DDR5-9600 product line, albeit with a much lower capacity: 48 GB (2 x 24 GB).

The Valkyrie II RGB 256 GB limited edition kit—marked with CL32-45-45-90 timing credentials—reportedly launched at 14,599 Yuan (~$2067 USD), but an updated JD.com page tacks on an additional 2400 Yuan. This (roughly) 16.4 % increase leads to a ~$2407 USD total. The Valkyrie's "racing orange" color scheme is an acquired taste; thankfully the manufacturer's cheaper alternative offers a stealthier approach. At the time of writing, the Asgard Thor Armor 192 GB limited edition kit's launch price remains intact: at 8599 Yuan (~$1217 USD). Granting access to respectable CL28-36-36-72 timings, and understated "carbon fiber heat spreaders." Recent press coverage has compared Asgard high-capacity memory prices to current-gen NVIDIA desktop graphics products—namely the Valkyrie II 256 GB costing $400 more than a GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition card (at MSRP). Tom's Hardware points out that similarly specced G. Skill and Corsair kits sport greater price tags, with competing Asgard SKUs matching or exceeding performance (specs-wise).

Hello Lost Souls, we are thrilled to announce that Death Howl is now available on PC (Steam & GOG), PlayStation 5 and Xbox platforms! Looking back at the beginning of this journey, we are honestly speechless at how far we've come. Countless days, weeks, and months were spent discussing, balancing mechanics, writing the story, and suiting it with music and visuals. The result is over 25 hours of captivating gameplay for you to enjoy!

We want to sincerely thank all of you who helped shape the game by playing the demo and participating in the playtests. Your feedback was invaluable, helping us balance the many cards, mechanics, and modifiers. We are incredibly proud of the outcome and hope you enjoy accompanying Ro on her journey, and that her story will stay with you a little longer.

A mysterious "OneXPlayer X1 i" handheld gaming device has leaked out via benchmark result databases. Pre-launch leaks indicate the presence of an Intel "Core Ultra 5 338H" APU within evaluated hardware. PC hardware news outlets have focused on an intriguing FurMark 2 diagnostic—published around mid-November, but brought to light by momomo_us this week. Driver information points to "Panther Lake-H" processor test subjects being engineering samples, and quick interpretations of benchmark data demonstrate performance lagging behind previous-gen equivalents. Tom's Hardware compared the leaked results to archived "Lunar Lake" (Xe-LPG+) and "Arrow Lake" (Xe2-LPG) scores in GPU Magick's database.

"Xe3 iGPU scoring 2383 points in Furmark's benchmark test at a reported max boost clock of up to 2300 MHz, and up to 36 watts of power—possibly for the entire APU. However, the GPU is outperformed by Intel's outgoing Arc 140V and 140T counterparts, with the 140 V scoring 2736 points and the 140T scoring 2398 points, respectively...Both 140-series iGPUs operate at between 10 and 12 watts (below the next-gen design's 35 W TDP), making the B370 worse on energy efficiency as well." The Arc B370 integrated solution is touted as being part of an entry-level package. Curiously, Intel's official slides—from two months ago—only outline a "smaller four-Xe-core GPU tile" and a "larger twelve-Xe-core version." The early "Core Ultra 5 338H" candidates seem to leverage a "somewhere between" 10-core iGPU design. The Arc B370's apparent "B-series" designation adds extra confusion—"B" is normally associated with the "Battlemage" generation, but recent Team Blue declarations have "Panther Lake" Xe3 iGPUs not categorized as using next-gen "Celestial" graphics architecture.

TechPowerUp partners with Chieftec to bring our readers from the European Union the 2025 Yearend Mega Giveaway! Open from now until December 19, you have a chance to bag one of six pieces of Chieftec gear. Up for grabs are a Chieftec The Cube cube-shaped microATX case; a spacious Chieftec Hunter 3 EATX tower case; a Chieftec Apex Lumo ATX mid-tower case, a Chieftec Stealth 1000 W ATX 3.1 modular power supply; a Chieftec Iceberg 360 RGB AIO CLC, and a Chieftec Iceberg White 360 AIO CLC. These six cover some of the finest pieces of Chieftec gear, particularly The Cube microATX case, the Hunter 3 tower, the Stealth 1000 W PSU, and those groovy new liquid CPU coolers. To participate, simply fill up a short form to help us get back to you if you've won. Good Luck!

For more details, and to participate, visit this page.

Hyper, the creator of innovative tech accessories for creators and power users, today announced the launch of the HyperDrive Next USB4 V2 M.2 PCIe Enclosure. A CES Innovation Awards 2026 Honoree, this next-generation expansion solution delivers 80 Gbps USB4 V2 connection for high-speed storage and modular PCIe expansion.

"With the rise of AI workloads, growing media file sizes, and more modular workflows, users need external solutions that match the workstation-level performance of built-in storage," said Gabi Iorio, Director of Global Marketing and Sales, Hyper. "The HyperDrive Next USB4 V2 Enclosure gives them PCIe Gen 4 performance, modular expansion options, and rugged protection—all in a compact, user-friendly form factor."

Hi Total War Community! First and foremost, welcome to TotalWar.com and the MEDIEVAL III hub, our official space where we will discuss anything and everything related to the game. My name is Pawel Wojs, I'm the Game Director for this exciting project and I'm here to kick off a series of blogs about our early vision for it. This is a series we know means a lot to many of you, and having personally worked on MEDIEVAL II almost 20 years ago, it's beyond my wildest dreams that I get to lead the team bringing its sequel to life.

Our intention for announcing this early is simple; MEDIEVAL III is important to us, and we know it's important to you, so we want to give you the opportunity to get a bit closer to it. Our goal is to talk to you more about what we're working on and why we're doing it. It is a very new way for us to communicate about these early phases of game development, but we're excited to take you on the journey.

Penguin Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: PENG), a leading provider of high-performance computing and AI infrastructure solutions, today announced the release of its SMART 64 GB DDR5-6400 ECC CSODIMM memory modules, the newest addition to its broad DDR5 SODIMM lineup.

Designed for high-performance computing (HPC) in industrial, edge, telecom, and networking systems, the new module supports both commercial-temperature (C-temp) and industrial-temperature (I-temp) options, engineered to provide reliable operation in harsh environments. The compact CSODIMM form factor delivers higher density and faster bandwidth with error correction capability (ECC) to meet the demanding requirements of next-generation platforms.

Fairphone, the global leader in modular and sustainable electronics, introduces the new Fairbuds XL, the next evolution of its award-winning modular, self-repairable headphones. Building on the success of its predecessor, the new Fairbuds XL improves on features that made the original a success, delivering richer sound, greater comfort, and even better sustainability.

Chandler Hatton, Chief Technology Officer at Fairphone: "With the new Fairbuds XL, we set out to build something truly worth keeping. Every improvement we made had to enhance both performance and responsibility. So you get richer sound, a more comfortable fit, and a design you can open, repair, and continue using long after most products are replaced. Better audio, better materials, certified longevity - all working together. This is what technology looks like when modularity, longevity and caring for people and the planet is at the core of the design from the very start."

AI-driven workloads are transforming the performance and efficiency requirements of embedded infrastructure systems. From networking switches, routers, and DPU control planes to cold cloud storage, aerospace and robotics applications, today's embedded computing system architects must deliver higher compute density, energy efficiency, and extended longevity—within smaller, power-constrained designs.

AMD is addressing these evolving requirements with the introduction of the AMD EPYC Embedded 2005 Series processors delivering high-performance, energy efficiency, and advanced reliability and security in a small BGA (ball grid array) footprint for network, storage and industrial infrastructure systems requiring 24/7 operation.

Over the past weekend, Taiwanese semiconductor industry moles alleged that the nation's leading foundry service is considering external advanced packaging production avenues. According to UDN Money, TSMC's "entire CoWoS series of advanced packaging products" are fully booked up—with plenty of demand coming from the usual big AI hardware players. Various flavors of Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) exist, including the currently vaunted CoWoS-L and CoWoS-S processes. A surge in orders—reportedly coming from NVIDIA, Google, Amazon, and MediaTek—has supposedly prompted a revised strategy, beyond planned expansions of first-party facilities (primarily CoWoS-L). In order to meet lofty VIP client requests, TSMC leadership could be bolstering relationships with third-party chip packagers. The UDN Money report cites predictions made by Counterpoint, a research company—they reckon that ASE Technology (in 2026) will benefit greatly from taking on some of TSMC's "spillover."

The premier foundry business is expected to establish an improved "supply-demand" within the next year; possibly influenced by Intel's emerging capabilities—rumors have spread about Apple and Qualcomm weighing up Team Blue's advanced packaging processes. If these whispered "backup strategies" come into effect, key customers could switch loyalties by early 2028. Currently, TSMC's Arizona hub fields a massive disadvantage: a complete lack of on-site advanced packaging. Last we heard—from inside trackers—company leadership was looking into the repurposing of a planned sixth phase fabrication plant (P6 fab). This pivot could pave the way for a "fast track" deployment of US-based CoWoS activities.

Ahead of CES 2026, DEEPX, a pioneer in ultra-low-power on-device AI semiconductors, today announced the official launch of the DX-H1 vision neural processing unit (V-NPU), a dedicated video intelligence chipset capable of processing hundreds of AI video channels at just 30 W.

Redefining Video AI Infrastructure
The DX-H1 V-NPU is an all-in-one video intelligence solution combining a multi-channel engine capable of decoding, encoding and transcoding with dedicated NPU architecture. Unlike traditional setups that require parallel configurations of GPU servers and hardware codecs, the DX-H1 V-NPU handles the entire pipeline on a single chip -- from stream input to preprocessing, AI inference, and re-encoding.

xMEMS Labs, creator of the world's first solid-state MEMS loudspeakers and the first fan-on-a-chip cooling solution, today announced its participation at CES 2026 (January 6-9, Las Vegas, The Venetian, Suite 34-208), where it will demonstrate category-defining innovations for the fast-accelerating market of AI-enabled wearable and mobile devices.

At the show, xMEMS will highlight two flagship piezoMEMS technologies uniquely suited for the new class of all-day-wearable, AI-powered consumer electronics:
µCooling - the world's first air-pump-on-a-chip: a 1-mm-thin, solid-state micro-blower capable of delivering local, targeted airflow to manage heat from AI processors in devices too thin for mechanical fans - such as smart glasses, smartphones, SSDs, and other compact edge-AI systems.

Every December, as the industry winds down and most studios are pushing their last patches before holiday break, 11bit studios do the opposite… They wake everyone up. Their December 8th Showcase was easily their first ambitious broadcast, loaded with updates, reveals, and a few very intentional teases aimed right at the core of their community. As a thank you to the AMD community and in celebration of this first showcase, 11bit is even providing our members with free game keys for their classic Beat Cop! Oh, and there was even an update on Frostpunk 1886!

This year's theme? Momentum. Every game on display wasn't just "something coming someday," but something meaningful, tangible, and arriving sooner than most of us expected. The highlight—unsurprisingly—was Frostpunk 2. Not one, but three beats landed during the show, underscoring just how aggressively the team at 11 bit is supporting the sequel. The broadcast opened with the announcement of a Free Content Update, dropping live during the showcase. And with full AMD FSR support baked in, players on all hardware tiers, including AMD-powered handheld PCs, will see smoother framerates and sharper image quality as they dive back into the city's frozen politics.

Moore Threads, a growing force within China's domestic graphics card development industry, has scheduled its very first MUSA Developer Conference (MDC 2025). The Beijing-based event will kick of on December 19, and wrap up a day later. Earlier today, Zhang Jianzhong—the company's founder, chairman and CEO—issued a pre-game primer. Primarily, his upcoming keynote presentation will focus on full-stack development strategy—utilizing Moore Threads Unified System Architecture (MUSA). The former NVIDIA China executive also mentioned an imminent unveiling of his firm's next-generation GPU design. This teased future technology is set to succeed previous attempts, mostly launched three years ago—TechPowerUp has covered previous-gen "Chunxiao" MTT S80 16 GB (mainstream desktop) and MTT S4000 48 GB (AI workstation-grade) card models in the recent past.

Moore Threads leadership is likely keen ride a large wave of momentum—mostly generated by a $1.1 billion listing, following the company's early December debut IPO. Last week, this valuation buzz generated lofty headlines, with a couple of titles dubbing Moore Threads as the "Chinese NVIDIA." This month's MUSA Developer Conference seems to be aimed at the enterprise market segment, so desktop gaming products are not expected to feature prominently (if at all) during a run through of the Moore Threads hardware roadmap. According to local news reports, Chinese GPU specialists are expected to rapidly respond to NVIDIA's newly-awarded export license—clearing the way for a major injection of H200 data center accelerators into the region.

The latest Steam Client beta build dated to December 4th has unofficially been backported to Windows 7 SP1 x64 and Windows 8.x x64. While these operating systems have long been abandoned by Microsoft, an enthusiast "EAZY BLACK" has managed to make an unofficial backport of Steam's Client beta build. Both Windows 7 SP1 x64 and Windows 8.x x64 are platforms that Valve officially stopped supporting in early 2024. This means that any future support will come solely from the gaming community, as a dedicated effort to ensure that no one is left behind, even if they are using an unsupported operating system.

The distribution comes as compact 230 MB packages hosted on w7revived.chefkiss.dev and mirrored by BobPony. Each package is accompanied by an intriguing security warning that Windows builds must be first updated to their latest versions, which happened years ago on both Windows 7 and Windows 8. A screenshot shared with the post shows Steam operating on Windows 7 with the About dialog visible and several Half-Life titles listed, indicating that core features are functioning. Community reaction has been mixed, with many users expressing gratitude for renewed compatibility.

FinalWire Ltd. today announced the immediate availability of AIDA64 Extreme 8.20 software, a streamlined diagnostic and benchmarking tool for home users; the immediate availability of AIDA64 Engineer 8.20 software, a professional diagnostic and benchmarking solution for corporate IT technicians and engineers; the immediate availability of AIDA64 Business 8.20 software, an essential network management solution for small and medium scale enterprises; and the immediate availability of AIDA64 Network Audit 8.20 software, a dedicated network audit toolset to collect and manage corporate network inventories.

The new AIDA64 update introduces SensorPanel and OSD Panel improvements, support for the latest Turing external displays, and supports the latest graphics and GPGPU computing technologies by AMD, Intel and NVIDIA.

DOWNLOAD: FinalWire AIDA64 Extreme v8.20

Corsair (Nasdaq: CRSR), maker of award-winning gaming peripherals, announced today that a shipment of preem Arasaka-grade hardware is about to hit the streets. The Corsair x Cyberpunk 2077: Arasaka Edition collaboration with CD PROJEKT RED celebrates the 5th anniversary of Cyberpunk 2077 with a limited run of officially licensed gaming peripherals. Fans can relive their legendary Night City exploits with new gear styled with the iconic Arasaka Corporation branding.

"Cyberpunk 2077 captivated legions of fans, immersing them in the dystopia of Night City as V and Johnny Silverhand work together to best play the hand they've been dealt," said Tobias Brinkmann, Vice President and General Manager of Gaming Peripherals at Corsair. "Corsair is excited to partner with CD PROJEKT RED and offer Cyberpunk fans the chance to pick up these exclusive peripherals.We're proud to have the opportunity to work with CD PROJEKT RED to bring these products to life with detailed designs allowing players to show off their love for this modern classic."

Corsair (Nasdaq: CRSR) is excited to announce the FRAME 4000D LCD RS ARGB, a premium mid-tower case featuring a fully functional XENEON EDGE 14.5" LCD Touchscreen. Building on the success of the award-winning FRAME 4000D, this upgraded version delivers improved airflow, enhanced connectivity, and reinforced steel panels while showcasing the flexibility of the FRAME Modular Case System. Additionally, LCD Mounting Kits are available to let builders integrate a XENEON EDGE 14.5" LCD Touchscreen into their existing FRAME 4000D or FRAME 5000D case.

Built-in Style
The integrated XENEON EDGE 14.5" LCD Touchscreen display offers a crisp 2560x720 native resolution and a bright AHVA panel that remains clear at any angle. It is ideal for real-time system monitoring, iCUE Widgets, or use as a secondary Windows display. Five-point multitouch ensures intuitive control, and the screen comes pre-installed and pre-wired in the side panel, ready to use out of the box. Easily connect the display to your GPU with the included HDMI or DisplayPort over USB Type-C cables for a quick, seamless setup.

Hey all, in partnership with the wrist-guard warriors at Devolver Digital, I'm so incredibly proud to announce that SKATE STORY is available now! This has been quite the journey after 6 long years of development and I hope you all have fun playing it, as I did creating it.You are a demon in the Underworld, made out of glass and pain. The Devil has given you a skateboard with a simple deal: Skate to the Moon and swallow it—and you shall be freed.

Ollie, kickflip, and grind your way through the ash and smoke of The Emptylands as you take on a seemingly impossible quest. Learn to master your weight and motion to conquer the weeping concrete. Savor the ritualistic beauty as you set your feet to pop a perfect kickflip. Make sure to join our Discord to report any bugs, feedback and to also share your trick lines with your fellow Moon eaters.

Philips and AOC introduced the first gaming monitors capable of supporting 500 Hz at 1440p and 1000 Hz at 720p. The Philips Evnia 27M2N5500XD and AOC AGON Pro AGP277QK monitors were showcased in China on December 6 and both seem to be built around the same 27-inch panel. Both models are QHD 500 Hz displays that can toggle to a lower-resolution 720p mode that will double the refresh rate to 1000 Hz. DisplaySpecifications reports a 2000:1 static contrast ratio, VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification, 1 ms GtG response time, and wide-gamut coverage. While the panel type hasn't been confirmed, the listed contrast rules out TN and makes high-contrast IPS or VA variants the most likely candidate.

The Evnia 27M2N5500XD previously appeared at the WePlay Culture Expo in Shanghai, where Philips highlighted its AI-based light-sync system and ComfortView 4.0 eye-health features. The retail version includes Philips' Smart ErgoBase for full adjustability; the AOC AGP277QK is expected to ship with a similar 4-way stand. As these remain LCD panels, the 1000 Hz mode is subject to typical LCD limitations, including not-perfect response times. This could result in some image quality issues, however, this marks the first commercial implementation of 1000 Hz on a desktop monitor. Philips and AOC have not announced pricing or global availability. Most likely, the two monitors will be showcased in a few weeks at CES 2026, where more details will be shared.

ASUS has officially denied a recall of its limited edition GeForce RTX 5090 ROG MATRIX graphics card, which was reportedly facing some quality issues. However, ASUS was quick to dispute these claims. In the past, an ASUS reportedly representative informed Swedish e-tailer "Inet" that they had identified a quality issue with the RTX 5090 32 GB ROG Matrix Platinum 30th Anniversary Edition, preventing planned deliveries while they worked on an undated replacement. However, in ComputerBase update from Christian Wefers, part of ASUS Public Relations, the situation is now clearer:

Christian WefersThere is no product recall for the ROG Matrix GeForce RTX 5090. We proactively adjusted the original timeline to allow additional time for product improvements and to ensure an optimal customer experience. The products will arrive at our partners within the next few days. Availability may vary by region.

Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP) today announced the development of a nanoimprint lithography (NIL) template featuring a circuit line width of 10 nanometers (nm: 10-9 meter). The new template enables patterning for logic semiconductors equivalent to the 1.4 nm generation and meets the miniaturization needs of cutting-edge logic semiconductors used in devices such as smartphones, data centers, and NAND flash memory.

Background and Aims
In line with the shift to more sophisticated devices seen in recent years, demands have emerged for even greater miniaturization in cutting-edge semiconductors, leading to advances in Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) lithography-based production. EUV lithography, however, requires substantial capital investment, energy consumption, and operating costs in building production lines and the exposure process. This has fed into the pressing need to balance a reduction in manufacturing costs with a lowering in the environmental burden.

As AI workloads grow more intensive and distributed, data center infrastructure strategies must balance performance, efficiency, and scalability through increasingly intelligent and adaptive systems. To support this next generation of digital infrastructure, Siemens and nVent are combining their expertise to help data centers prepare cooling and power infrastructure for global deployment and operational resilience.

The new joint architecture developed by Siemens and nVent has been created to help customers build 100 MW hyperscale AI data centers designed to house large-scale, liquid-cooled AI infrastructure like NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD with DGX GB200 systems. It presents a Tier III-capable architecture that integrates Siemens' industrial-grade electrical and automation systems with NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD reference designs and nVent liquid cooling technology.

"We have decades of expertise supporting customers' next-generation computing infrastructure needs," said Sara Zawoyski, president of nVent Systems Protection. "This collaboration with Siemens underscores that commitment. The joint reference architecture will help data center managers deploy our cutting-edge cooling infrastructure to support the AI buildout."

The Trump administration has approved a framework allowing NVIDIA to resume exports of its H200 data center accelerators to China, subject to a revenue-sharing condition that allocates 25% of sales proceeds to the U.S. government. Rather than lifting export restrictions outright, the arrangement requires that recipients be vetted through Commerce Department licensing, so shipments will be controlled and limited to approved commercial customers. The decision reopens a major market for high-end accelerators while maintaining a regulatory channel to monitor distribution.

The H200 chip remains a powerful solution for large-scale AI workloads even today. Manufactured using TSMC's N4 process, it combines NVIDIA's "Hopper"-derived architecture with 141 GB of HBM3E memory and 4.8 TB/s memory bandwidth, making it ideal for large model training and dense inference tasks. Although it doesn't match the performance of NVIDIA's current "Blackwell" family and other upcoming accelerators, the H200 is a mature product that has been shipping since spring 2024 and benefits from a well-developed driver and software ecosystem. Its raw compute power is roughly double that of solutions like the Huawei Ascend 910C, making it very competitive even today.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced that it is set to unveil the next chapter in gaming at its virtual launch event, CES 2026 ROG—Dare to Innovate. The showcase will stream globally via YouTube on January 5, 2026, 6 p.m. EST, 3:00 p.m. PST. Commemorating the 20th anniversary of ROG, this milestone event embodies two decades of relentless ingenuity, community-driven progress, and a passion for challenging conventions. From pioneering motherboards and high-performance gaming laptops to innovative gaming gear, ROG continues to embody an experimental spirit—turning bold ideas into real breakthroughs.

This year's lineup introduces a fresh generation of innovations throughout the ROG portfolio, including next-level gaming systems, revolutionary cooling solutions, and displays that offer breathtaking clarity and immersive experiences. Attendees can look forward to world-first technologies and imaginative engineering in motherboards, laptops, desktops, and gaming gear—including the latest ROG Strix and Crosshair gaming motherboards, Zephyrus laptop series, and ROG gaming displays, designed for performance, precision, and style. All featured ROG products and innovations will also be available for hands-on demonstrations at the ASUS & ROG CES 2026 Media Showroom at The Venetian Expo, Level 3, San Polo 3403. The showroom will be open on January 5 (10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. PST) and January 6-8 (9:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. PST).

Tachyum announced that it is beginning to take steps to defend the use of its registered TPU trademark. Tachyum initially applied for trademark status in September 2015 and has held the rights to TPU (for its AI Tachyum Processing Unit) since October 2020. Google recently filed for similar trademark protection of Google TPU for its Tensor Processing Unit on November 21st of this year.

Tachyum is requesting Google to stop using TPU as a part of a descriptor for its Google TPU and will petition the U.S. Trademark Office to defend its legal claims to the term. Trademarks are important and valuable property of companies in much the same way that patents, copyrights and other intellectual property assignments are. Tachyum offers its TPU AI intellectual property as a licensable core, allowing developers to take full advantage of intelligent, datacenter-trained AI when making IoT and Edge devices. Tachyum is the only owner of the TPU trademark within the AI space.

Tata Group, a global enterprise headquartered in India and Intel Corporation announced a strategic alliance to explore a collaboration focused on consumer and enterprise hardware enablement, and semiconductor and systems manufacturing to support India's domestic semiconductor ecosystem. This collaboration marks a pivotal step towards developing India-based geo-resilient electronics and semiconductor supply chain.

As part of the Memorandum of Understanding ("MoU"), Intel and Tata intend to explore manufacturing and packaging of Intel products for local markets at Tata Electronics' upcoming Fab and OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) facilities, as well as a collaboration for advanced packaging in India. In addition, Intel and Tata intend to explore the opportunity to rapidly scale tailored AI PC solutions for consumer and enterprise markets in India, which is projected to be a global top five market by 2030. This collaboration would leverage Intel's AI compute reference designs, Tata Electronics' industry-leading Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) capabilities, and broad access to the Indian market through Tata Group companies.

SilverStone today introduced the WS380-E, a feature-packed workstation case for builds that are heavy both on GPUs and local storage. This tower-type-case is cavernous, measuring 453 mm x 175 mm x 683 mm (HxWxD), and supports motherboards in the SSI-EEB and E-ATX form-factors. The forward region of the case has two detachable 4-bay drive cages with caddies that let you hot-swap 12 Gbps SAS HDDs in the 3.5-inch form-factor.

There are also two 5.25-inch drive bays for optical or tape drives. Between this region and the main chamber with the motherboard tray is a detachable column that can mount up to three 120 mm fans, or a 360 mm radiator. Even with this in place, you get clearance for add-on cards up to 37 cm in length. There are 8 expansion card slots. An external fan module mounted outside the case provides additional ventilation for add-on cards. The case supports 2U redundant and hot-swappable or standard ATX PSU (you can replace a backplane to switch between the two PSU types). Besides the three 120 mm conveyor fans, there are two high airflow 80 mm exhaust fans at the rear. Front-panel I/O includes a 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 type-C, two USB 3.0 type-A, and 3.5 mm headset jacks. While the case uses SECC and plastic in places, its structural and load-bearing bits are made of galvanized steel.

Update Dec 11th: SilverStone mentions the US pricing to be $860.

AAEON's UP brand, a leading designer and manufacturer of industrial development boards, today announced its collaboration with DEEPX, a pioneer in producing power-efficient yet sophisticated AI acceleration modules. The partnership will see multiple models from UP's Development Kit and Mini PC series utilize DEEPX's innovative DX-M1 AI chip to satisfy market demand for ultra-low power, compact, and AI-ready edge platforms upon which customers can build new, innovative industrial automation solutions.

Designed to bring GPU-class AI model execution at just 2 W-5 W, DEEPX's DX-M1 AI chip is particularly well-suited for integration with the UP brand's portfolio of small form factor products, given the module's low power footprint and innovative thermal management. The first UP products to be equipped with the DX-M1 chip will be the recently-released UP Squared Pro TWL and UP Xtreme ARL Development Kits, granting the platforms a boost of 25 TOPs of AI performance alongside preinstalled Linux Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS with the UP AI Software Suite and NPU driver.

Give your setup a maritime makeover: The mechanical SKILLER SGK50 S3 Ultimate Rev2 not only has abrasion-resistant dye-sub PBT keycaps in a cool ocean design, but also comes with a matching mouse mat. And because the compact 75 % layout saves so much space, the keyboard will be even more of an eye-catcher on the top of your desk. The pre-installed Sharkoon switches provide a responsive typing feeling, while the hot-swap PCB opens the way to a fully customized typing experience.

For a fresh look on your desk, the SKILLER SGK50 S3 Ultimate Rev2 comes with a mouse mat with a matching ocean design. The durable dye-sub PBT keycaps of the SKILLER SGK50 S3 Ultimate Rev2 are resistant to abrasion and fingerprints and ensure a good typing experience that will last. The specially developed Sharkoon switches of the SKILLER SGK50 S3 Ultimate Rev2 offer a smooth, linear typing feel that will give your gaming sessions fresh energy.

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Most cloud platforms charge you forever, but Internxt is offering a lifetime alternative. For $269.97 (reg. $2,999), you get 10 TB of encrypted storage that you own outright. No renewals, no monthly billing, no worrying about losing access. The long-term savings stand out. A comparable Dropbox plan runs about $15 per month, which adds up fast. With Internxt, one payment covers years of storage and removes the stress of managing another recurring subscription.

Security is a major part of the appeal. Internxt uses end-to-end encryption, post-quantum security standards, and open-source code, so the platform is transparent and privacy-focused rather than ad-driven or upsell-heavy. It also works across devices. You can store and manage files in your browser, use the desktop app, or access everything from your phone. PCWorld even gave Internxt an Editors' Choice award for its blend of simple syncing, true backup tools, and user-friendly design. For people juggling large media libraries, creative projects, work archives, or years of personal backups, having 10 TB you don't have to rent makes life noticeably easier.

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Cooler Master has initiated their Cosmos Alpha marketing campaign; kicking off with a teaser trailer that loudly proclaims "Build Without Limits." The existence of promotional material came to light almost a month ago, with members of the Cooler Master Philippines community group stumbling upon an unlisted YouTube upload and sharing slick product renders. Earlier today, a TechPowerUp forumite alerted others to available stock. An Indian shop, Vedant Computers, has priced Cooler Master's brand-new gigantic flagship tower case—bearing model code C700-KGNN-S00—at a "discounted" ₹32,699 (~$364 USD). UPDATE: Cooler Master has informed us that no price has been set for the Cosmos Alpha and the store incorrectly communicated a price.

The Cosmos Alpha's overall aesthetic is a somewhat familiar prospect—after all, prototype units were exhibited at Computex 2025. Almost six months later, since the unveiling of fledgling "Cosmos 2025" specimens in Taiwan, Cooler Master is unleashing its FreeForm 2.0" modular system into an ultra-premium segment. Distinct air and water-cooled demonstrations builds were on display at the mid-year event. The company's latest teaser advertises an extremely roomy interior that can accommodate massive radiator configurations, and a 400 mm maximum length graphics card, supported by the Alpha's convenient integrated holder.