Crimson Desert, the upcoming open-world action-adventure game from indie studio, Pearl Abyss, is finally closing in on its March 19 launch date, and as part of the lead-up to the launch, Pearl Abyss has officially published the minimum hardware requirements for both PC and console, including a proper dedicated handheld spec sheet that should give owners of the ASUS ROG Ally and Xbox Ally handheld gaming PCs an idea of what to expect. On the Xbox Series X and the Sony PlayStation 5, players can choose between Performance, Balanced, and Quality graphics settings, all of which with their own framerate targets and render quality settings. Performance targets 1080p resolution with 60 FPS, VRR or VSync enabled and ray tracing set to low. Balanced bumps up the resolution to 4K upscaled from 1280p with FSR 3 and targets 40 FPS with Vsync, while Quality scales 1440p to 4K with FSR 3 and targets 30 FPS with Vsync enabled. The PS5 Pro steps up all quality settings to 4K, with Performance and Balanced using Upgraded PSSR upscaling to upscale 1080p and 1440p with 60 FPS and 48+ FPS with VRR, respectively. Quality mode on the PS5 Pro goes straight for 4K native at 30 FPS with Vsync and ray tracing on ultra. For the Xbox Series S, there are only two quality settings: Performance, at 720p, 40 FPS with Vsync and RT off, or Quality, at 1080p, 30 FPS with RT off. The Xbox Series X, on the other hand, offers Performance, with 1080p at 60 FPS with VRR or Vsync and RT set to low; Balanced, with 4K upscaled from 1280p with FSR 3, at 40 FPS with RT on low; and Quality, which is 4K upscaled from 1440p with FSR 3, at 30 FPS with RT set to high.

On the PC side of things, the minimum GPU requirements call for an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT paired with an Intel Core i5-8500 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, 16 GB of RAM, and a 150 GB SSD—with these specs, expect 900p native resolution upscaled to 1080p at low settings with a 30 FPS target. Moving up to a GTX 1660 or Radeon RX 6500 XT gets you 1080p native at 30 FPS, while the recommended PC specs, and 1080p at 60 FPS, calls for an RX 6700 XT or RTX 2080 and an AMD Ryzen 5 5600 or Intel Core i5-11600K. Ultra settings, which should bump up quality to 4K 60 FPS on maximum graphics quality, requires an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti paired with an AMD Ryzen 7 7700X or Intel Core i5-13600K. According to Pearl Abyss, owners of the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally can expect 40 FPS at 720p with FSR 3 Frame Generation, while the ROG Xbox Ally X should be able to reach 60 FPS in Performance mode, with 720p upscaled to 1080p and FSR 3 Frame Generation enabled, while Balanced mode will target the same upscaled 720p resolution at 40 FPS with FSR 3 enabled, and Quality will bump up visual quality again to achieve 1080p at 30 FPS. The minimum requirements and expected quality and performance figures are quite reserved considering how demanding many modern games can be these days. While it remains to be seen how this hardware will actually perform in-game on launch day, it seems as though proprietary engines, like the Black Space engine used in Crimson Desert, and the impressively performant RE Engine used by Capcom, seem to be better off than the likes of Unreal Engine when it comes to lower-end hardware. AMD's FSR 4 Redstone will also likely play a key role in getting Crimson Desert running at higher frame rates than indicated in these charts—as long as the hardware is supported.

NACON and the Spiders studio are pleased to announce that the narrative RPG GreedFall: The Dying World is now available on PC (Steam), as well as for all owners of the digital Deluxe Edition on consoles. A new video also shows players everything they need to know in under two minutes. The title will be officially released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S this Thursday, March 12.

The story of GreedFall: The Dying World takes place three years before the events of the first opus. The Old Continent of Gacane is in agony, ravaged by a mysterious disease and incessant conflicts. Torn from your native island of Teer Fradee and taken prisoner, you must navigate this world of rival factions to regain your freedom. Use cunning, diplomacy, or combat, explore vast lands, and forge alliances with companions who can become friends, lovers, or rivals. Your choices will shape the course of your adventure and seal the fate of two worlds.

Intel's upcoming "Nova Lake-S" has been spotted in the wild for the first time in an ECS Liva P300 mini-PC. During the Embedded World 2026 event, ECS showcased the Intel Core Ultra 400 series "Nova Lake-S" mini-PC, featuring Intel's upcoming B960 chipset and support for DDR5 memory running at 8,000 MT/s. This suggests that Intel is upgrading its integrated memory controller on the "Nova Lake" platform to support these DDR5 speeds before any XMP and factory-overclocked memory are used. German tech media outlet ComputerBase managed to spot the new 3.5-liter mini-PC with the yet-unannounced platform. The support for higher-speed memory indicates that even Intel's current memory controller, which reportedly achieves DDR5 speeds of 7,200 MT/s in the upcoming "Arrow Lake Refresh," will receive an upgrade alongside the new core IP and configuration.

Interestingly, this PC is currently powered by a 120 W PSU, but before ECS delivers the Liva P300 PC to customers, it will be equipped with a 210-240 W power supply to support "Nova Lake" in its top configurations. Speaking of the top configuration, ComputerBase confirmed that the 52-core top SKU of "Nova Lake" will have a TDP of 175 W, while other configurations with a TDP of 65 W will also be available. Graphics output is powered by Xe3P GPU IP, as previously rumored, and the newly showcased ECS PC confirms these specifications. For AI capability, "Nova Lake" will deliver more than 100 TOPS using the 8-bit INT8 data type, thanks to the onboard NPU and the powerful Xe3P GPU IP.

Two Cakes Studio announced that Tactical Turn-based RPG Fight Life: Vanguard in a pixel-art dark fantasy world developed by StartImpulse, is coming on Steam April 10, 2026. In honor of this, the final playtest is launching with expanded content and invites players to participate. The playtest will be available until April 1, 2026.

This playtest will include the latest demo build, additional content, and a continuation of the story of the squad that accepted the challenge of a powerful Necromancer, offering 60-90 minutes of gameplay. This gives you enough time to master the combat system, experience the tactical depth, develop strategies around character abilities, and get genuinely invested in the story.

Acer today unveiled a new lineup of TravelMate Copilot+ PCs that empower organizations of all sizes to unleash the full potential of AI. The new TravelMate P4 14 AI, TravelMate P4 Spin 14 AI, TravelMate P2 16 AI, and TravelMate P2 14 AI business laptops are powered by up to the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors with Intel vPro, delivering real-world performance, long battery life, enterprise-grade security, and simplified manageability.

From SMBs to the public sector, the new lineup delivers a combination of performance, productivity, and security. The devices also represent the first Copilot+ PCs in the TravelMate P4 and P2 series, underscoring Acer's commitment to offering a robust commercial portfolio of AI-ready devices.

Pragmata is an upcoming fresh original sci-fi action-adventure IP out of Capcom, and if the studio's claims are to be believed, there is a lot of hype for an interesting new game franchise in a world full of remakes and copycats. According to a recent post on X by the Pragmata Japan account, the game's demo has been downloaded over 2 million times, and over 2 million players have added Pragmata to their wish lists.

According to independent data on SteamDB, Pragmata currently ranks 15th in the Steam Wishlist charts, just ahead of the Valve Steam Deck and behind Total War: Warhammer 40,000. Curiously, the Pragmata Sketchbook Demo's SteamDB page only records a peak concurrent player count of 7,932 players, although Pragmata will be a cross-platform launch, so there's likely decent interest on the PlayStation 5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series consoles. Pragmata is slated to launch on all aforementioned platforms and on PC via Steam on April 17, 2026. Pragmata also already has a Platinum ProtonDB rating, meaning it should play well with Linux and the Steam Deck.

NVIDIA has released GeForce driver version 595.79 WHQL, adding Game Ready support for Crimson Desert and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. On the bug fix side, three game-specific crashes are resolved. Crimson Desert and Star Citizen were both crashing on launch, and Resident Evil Requiem had a white glowing dots issue when Subsurface Scattering was enabled. Two general fixes are also included in this release. First is the one addressing GPU voltage being incorrectly capped when overclocked (previously resolved in GeForce Hotfix Display Driver version 595.76), and another fixing intermittent crashes or driver timeouts when playing multi-key DRM content in a browser on HDCP 1.x monitors.

Known issues still present include missing terrain in some areas of Enshrouded and occasional stutter in Arknights: Endfield. The release also adds G-Sync support for a batch of new monitors from Acer, AOC, ASUS, GIGABYTE, LG, MSI, Philips, and ViewSonic.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 595.79 WHQL

Applied Materials, Inc. today announced it is working with Micron Technology to develop next-generation DRAM, high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and NAND solutions that increase the energy-efficient performance of AI systems, bringing together advanced R&D capabilities from Applied's EPIC Center in Silicon Valley and Micron's state-of-the-art innovation center in Boise, Idaho to strengthen the semiconductor innovation pipeline in the United States.

"Applied Materials and Micron have a long-standing partnership focused on driving higher performance and more energy-efficient advanced memory chips by pushing the boundaries of materials engineering and manufacturing innovation," said Gary Dickerson, President and CEO of Applied Materials. "We are excited to deepen our collaboration with Micron as a founding partner at the EPIC Center as next-generation memory technologies play an increasingly vital role in the future of AI systems."

Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE: WOLF), a global leader in silicon carbide technology, today announced that its 300 mm silicon carbide (SiC) technology platform could serve as a foundational materials enabler for advanced AI and high‑performance computing (HPC) heterogeneous packaging by the end of this decade.

"As AI workloads continue to increase package size, power density, and integration complexity, we believe new materials foundations will be increasingly important to extend advanced packaging roadmaps," said Elif Balkas, Chief Technology Officer at Wolfspeed. "Our 300 mm silicon carbide platform is designed to align SiC's material advantages with industry‑standard manufacturing infrastructure and expand the solution space for next‑generation AI and HPC packaging architectures."

As OpenClaw gains global traction, AI agents are reshaping productivity. Yet, many users face technical hurdles in deployment, from system setup to driver configuration. Beelink bridges this gap with a full-stack AI solution: ranging from exclusive "Lobster Red" models with preinstalled OpenClaw to dual-OS switching versions and plug-and-play SSD upgrade kits. This comprehensive lineup meets diverse user needs while significantly lowering the barrier to AI deployment.

1. New Hardware: Preinstalled OpenClaw Series—AI-Ready Out of the Box
Featuring a premium all-metal chassis in exclusive Lobster Red, these new models offer a distinctive look built for the AI era.

During the development of GTA VI, Rockstar was hacked and had its data—much of it related to GTA VI—stolen by the aforementioned hacker, and although the hacker was arrested and is currently serving time for the hacks of both Rockstar and numerous other companies, he claims that the GTA VI source code he obtained during his raid is still being kept by someone external to Rockstar. According to @videotechuk_ on X, the hacker who cracked Rockstar's security in 2022, Arion Kurtaj, has managed to smuggle a smartphone into the UK prison where he is being held and has been using it to communicate with the outside world via WhatsApp. In one message thread, Kurtaj claims that the Grand Theft Auto VI source code was successfully stolen and is still being held by "someone" external to Rockstar.

The hacker is apparently surprised that the source code has not yet been made public—the hacker, aka Lapsus$, stole 90 unreleased GTA VI clips, some of which were released, but he never did publish the game's source code. Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two Interactive have been taking aggressive measures to prevent leaks surrounding GTA VI, with it being speculated that the company's recent return-to-office mandate and a series of contested layoffs were both attempts to catch or prevent leaks of the hotly anticipated installment in the GTA franchise.

NVIDIA at the 2026 GDC announced the first implementation of RTX Mega Geometry. Announced alongside its GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" generation, Mega Geometry is a technology that seeks to significantly increase geometric complexity of objects or surfaces with ray tracing elements. A distant analogue of Mega Textures, Mega Geometry leverages nested triangle clusters to reduce video memory footprint as well as the hardware cost of ray intersection. The RT cores in "Blackwell" GPUs have hardware-level readiness for Mega Geometry.

At GDC, NVIDIA showed us two distinct examples of Mega Geometry, the first one is "Alan Wake 2," where it is shown boosting Path Tracing performance, with tens of thousands of ray traced objects on the scene with a 5-20% frame rate improvement versus conventional ray tracing methods, and a 300 MB video memory footprint reduction from the nested triangle clusters model. Next up, is a demonstration of Mega Geometry foliage system in the upcoming "The Witcher 4" title. A pre-release demo (not indicative of actual gameplay) shows Mega Geometry render a forest with thousands of trees with millions objects on the scene, each with its own unique animation. Besides cluster triangles, the scene also implements Opacity Micromaps that NVIDIA introduced with RTX 40-series "Ada."

At GDC, NVIDIA announced a suite of tools designed to streamline local AI video generation for concept development and storyboarding. These updates specifically target rendering workflows running on NVIDIA RTX GPUs and the DGX Spark AI development desktop. ComfyUI, a popular generative AI tool known for its highly customizable but complex interface, is receiving a major accessibility update. To make the software more approachable for artists unfamiliar with visual programming concepts like node graphs, ComfyUI introduced App View. This new, simple interface allows you to generate content simply by entering a text prompt and adjusting basic parameters. The traditional, complex workspace remains fully available as Node View, and you can toggle seamlessly between the two modes depending on your need for granular control.

Generating high-quality 4K Ultra HD video locally entails balancing three constraints, generation speed, video memory limits, and overall control. Artists typically generate smaller, faster previews before upscaling them, a process that traditionally took minutes for just a 10-second clip. To accelerate this pipeline, NVIDIA released RTX Video Super Resolution as a node from directly within ComfyUI, enabling rapid upscaling to 4K. AI developers can access this upscaling technology through a free Python package available via the PyPI repository. The tool takes advantage of Tensor cores on GeForce RTX GPUs.

NVIDIA revealed several updates for its GeForce NOW cloud gaming platform during its GeForce ON event along the sidelines of GDC 2026. The announcements focus on software improvements, VR performance upgrades, and upcoming game additions. To simplify game discovery, NVIDIA is introducing in-app labels for users who connect their Xbox or Ubisoft+ accounts to the service. These labels will appear directly on game art within the GeForce NOW app, allowing users to see exactly which titles are available to play through their active subscription services. Account linking capabilities are expanding, with NVIDIA planning to add GOG account linking and library syncing in the coming months, which follows the Gaijin single sign-on integration announced earlier at CES.

For VR users, NVIDIA is increasing the streaming frame rate for supported devices. Starting Thursday, March 19, Ultimate users utilizing headsets like the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest will see streaming rates increase from 60 FPS to 90 FPS. This upgrade is intended to enhance the responsiveness and smoothness of VR sessions. The GeForce NOW library is also growing, with new high-profile releases scheduled to be available via the cloud at launch. Upcoming games include "Control Resonant," an action-adventure role-playing game from Remedy that combines supernatural powers with a cosmic threat in a warped Manhattan. Also joining the service at its PC launch is "Samson: A Tyndalston Story," a gritty action brawler developed by Liquid Swords. Lastly, the platform's Install-to-play feature is adding select Xbox games, such as Double Fine Productions' "Brutal Legend" and Compulsion Games' Contrast, giving users the flexibility to download and install specific owned titles. Further updates will be shared during regular GFN Thursday announcements.

NVIDIA at its GDC 2026 GeForce ON community update, announced that its DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi Frame Generation feature, first unveiled in January 2026, will be generally available from March 31. The feature lets GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" gaming GPUs dynamically adjust the rate of DLSS Multi Frame Generation (MFG) rate between 0 (no frame-gen), and 6x, depending on a target frame-rate determined by the display's capability. The feature is meant to be enabled through the NVIDIA App, specific to supported games. NVIDIA had earlier announced 6x MFG for RTX 50-series GPUs, going up from 4x MFG that the company launched alongside the GPU family in early 2025.

Multi Frame Generation allows the GPU to draw up to five frames succeeding every conventionally rendered frame completely using AI, effectively multiplying framerates. RTX 50-series which debuted alongside DLSS 4, could originally do up to 4x MFG, but NVIDIA increased this to 6x MFG with its 2025 DLSS 4.5 update that introduced a new 2nd generation Transformer AI model that's more accurate, and can more accurately predict motion vectors allowing NVIDIA to increase MFG factor to six. Frame generation comes with latency costs, and so Dynamic Multi Frame Generation allows the driver to opportunistically lower MFG factor to improve whole-system latencies. At GDC, NVIDIA announced that DLSS 4.5 is coming to at least 20 of this year's most hotly anticipated AAA game titles.

Dynabook Americas, Inc., the gold standard for long-lasting, professional-grade laptops, today announced the new Portégé X45W, a premium 14-inch 2-in-1 convertible laptop designed to deliver productivity and flexibility across modern work environments. The Portégé X45W expands Dynabook's AMD-powered portfolio of mobile computing products, giving customers more choice with AMD Ryzen processing and integrated AMD Radeon graphics.

"Portégé X45W reflects Dynabook's commitment to delivering professional-grade devices that people can count on, while continuing to expand AMD processor options across our portfolio," said James Robbins, General Manager, Dynabook Americas, Inc. "With a versatile 2-in-1 design, strong everyday performance, and a security-forward foundation, Portégé X45W is built to help organizations standardize on a flexible device that supports productivity and collaboration across business, education, healthcare and public sector environments."

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today unveils Dynamic Haptics, a new dual-source haptic system that unifies developer‑authored Razer Sensa HD Haptics effects with Audio‑to‑Haptics (A2H). Dynamic Haptics delivers a richer and more consistent haptic landscape across both handcrafted gameplay moments and the ambient world.

A New Level of Haptic Detail
For decades, immersion in games has been defined by what players see and hear. Higher resolutions, faster refresh rates, and spatial audio have pushed realism forward, but often stop short of one critical element: physical sensation.

At Embedded World, MediaTek unveiled a range of new Genio platforms ideal for powering a wide variety of IoT products and applications: MediaTek Genio Pro, Genio 420 and Genio 360. The Genio Pro series is MediaTek's premium offering for high-performance IoT and embedded offerings, while Genio 420 and Genio 360 bring efficient system-level edge AI performance to smart home, retail, industrial, and commercial IoT devices.

With its impressive AI, multimedia, and display capabilities, along with rich OS support, Genio Pro enables OEMs to develop the next generation of autonomous mobile robotics, commercial drones, edge AI devices, machine vision systems, and transportation and logistics platforms.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) today announced a collaboration aimed at developing new processes and materials to support sub-1 nm logic scaling. Building on a long record of successful partnerships, the new agreement will focus on the joint development of novel materials, fabrication processes, and High-NA EUV lithography processes to advance IBM's logic scaling roadmap.

IBM and Lam have collaborated for more than a decade to advance logic fabrication, notably enabling early generations of 7 nm, nanosheet, and EUV process technologies. Under this new five-year agreement, the companies intend to extend logic scaling to the sub-1 nm node. The work will focus on developing new materials, advanced etch and deposition capabilities for increasingly complex device architectures, and new High-NA EUV lithography processes to enable next-generation interconnect and device patterning and accelerate industry adoption.

Leading gaming accessories maker Turtle Beach Corporation (Nasdaq: TBCH), today revealed two new Mario themed peripherals for Nintendo fans -- the new Turtle Beach Rematch Wireless Controller: Mario & Luigi - for Nintendo Switch 2 and Turtle Beach Airlite Fit Wired Gaming Headset - Mario Star for Nintendo Switch 2. Mario is a well-known character from Nintendo, - and the Mario & Luigi Rematch Wireless RGB Gaming Controller and Mario Star Airlite Fit Wired Gaming Headset represent the grandest combination to date of technological gaming excellence and iconic character fun in Turtle Beach's growing catalogue of officially licensed by Nintendo gaming accessories.

The Mario & Luigi Rematch Wireless RGB Gaming Controller features TMR thumbsticks, four dynamic RGB modes that ignite Super Mario, motion control, and a C button for quick access to GameChat, and all-day gaming comfort. On the audio side, the Mario Star Airlite Fit Wired Gaming Headset has 40 mm speakers for immersive audio, over-ear jersey knit cushion earpads, and a noise-canceling flip to mute mic. Both the Mario & Luigi Rematch Wireless RGB Gaming Controller and Mario Star Airlite Fit Wired Gaming Headset are available for pre-order at www.turtlebeach.com and participating retailers worldwide The controller has an MSRP of $64.99/£54.99/€64.99 and the headset's MSRP is $27.99/£19.99/€24.99 and both arrive in stores globally on March 30, 2026.

The Liquid Freezer WS360 is an all-in-one CPU water cooler engineered for high-end workstation processors, including AMD EPYC, Ryzen Threadripper PRO, and Intel Xeon. Its enlarged copper cold plate ensures full CPU coverage and efficient heat transfer, making it ideal for demanding workloads. Reliable Cooling for Continuous Operation Built for 24/7 use, the Liquid Freezer WS360 combines pre-mounted ARCTIC P12 Pro PST CO fans with a high-density 38 mm radiator for efficient heat dissipation. Two grams of included MX-7 thermal paste ensure clean and effective application, while the robust, maintenance-free design provides stable cooling even under the most demanding workloads.

SK hynix has successfully developed new LPDDR6 memory modules with a 16 Gb capacity on the sixth-generation 10 nm node, known as 1c. The South Korean giant has confirmed that mass production of this memory is scheduled for the first half of the year, with the product reaching customers in the second half. Additionally, SK hynix claims that the speed of these LPDDR6 modules exceeds 10.7 Gbps, suggesting that the company is preparing some overclocked versions as well, surpassing the initial speed specifications of this LPDDR6 generation from JEDEC. If the previous International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2026 show in San Francisco was an indication, SK hynix is preparing modules that will run at speeds of up to 14.4 Gbps, delivering a significant throughput boost over the previous-generation LPDDR5X memory. The company claims a 33% improvement over LPDDR5X, which topped out at 10.7 Gbps, aligning with the 14.4 Gbps figure for LPDDR6.

SK hynix is also expecting significant power efficiency optimizations exceeding 20% thanks to the new technologies enabling LPDDR6 to run. This generation of low-power DDR memory uses a sub-channel structure that allows the memory channels to operate selectively and only process necessary data paths, meaning not all channels need to be engaged when unnecessary. Additionally, LPDDR6 incorporates Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS), which optimizes power consumption and performance by dynamically adjusting the voltage/frequency curve depending on the scenario. SK hynix notes that during applications like gaming, DVFS will scale the frequency to achieve maximum bandwidth, while standard applications will see lower frequencies to balance power consumption.

ASUS today announced ExpertCenter P700 Mini Tower (PM700MG) with AMD Ryzen AI 400-series processors, a refreshed 15-liter business desktop designed to deliver exceptional performance, scalability, and reliability for professional creators, engineers, and small businesses. With cutting-edge hardware, business-grade security, and comprehensive manageability, ExpertCenter P700 Mini Tower is engineered to be the trusted backbone of business-critical workloads.

Blending next-generation AI performance with whisper-quiet thermal design, P700 Mini Tower is built to tackle modern professional tasks with ease—from generative AI and content creation to advanced data analysis. As Copilot+ PCs, these new desktops bring intelligence and creativity to the forefront of everyday business, while the exclusive ASUS MyExpert all-in-one AI platform boosts productivity in multiple innovative and flexible ways. They also benefit from ASUS ExpertGuardian, providing all-around protection for sensitive data, plus military-grade durability to ensure long-term reliability.

ASRock, the global leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, mini PCs, gaming monitors, power supply units and AIOs, proudly announces a new overclocking World Record achieved with its flagship X870E Taichi OCF motherboard.

Professional overclocker Alex2305 successfully pushed system performance to a new level using the ASRock X870E Taichi OCF paired with the powerful AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor, achieving an incredible PCMark 10 Express score of 14290 marks, securing the World Record 1st Place on HWBOT.org.

ASRock, a global leader in motherboards, graphics cards, gaming monitors, small form factor PCs, power supply units, and AIO liquid coolers, today highlights the gaming performance potential of the DeskMeet Series platform when paired with the Intel Arc A380 Challenger ITX 6GB OC graphics card.

As GPU and memory prices continue to fluctuate, gamers are looking for smarter ways to build high-performance systems without exceptional value. ASRock recommends the DeskMeet Series platform paired with the Intel Arc A380 Challenger ITX 6GB OC graphics card, delivering a balanced configuration that achieves strong performance and outstanding value for mainstream gaming.

MSI is proud to announce a new collaboration with Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, unveiling an exclusive line of limited-edition products inspired by the anime's themes of companionship, memory, and the enduring journey. The collection includes the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16G FRIEREN EDITION OC, FORGE TKL WIRELESS FRIEREN EDITION, VERSA WIRELESS FRIEREN EDITION, and AGILITY FRIEREN EDITION.

Through refined design and powerful performance, MSI brings the emotional depth of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End to Life—crafting hardware that resonates with modern adventurers. From the moment the system powers on and the lights come alive, the experience evokes a quiet sense of magic, inviting users to begin a new chapter of their own journey.

MSI, a global leader in gaming and high-performance computing, has won four prestigious 2026 iF DESIGN AWARDs through AI integration and material innovation. These achievements highlight MSI's ability to redefine tech aesthetics and elevate the digital user experience. Outperforming over 10,000 entries from 68 countries, MSI's success—determined by a jury of 129 international experts—reinforces its unwavering leadership in design excellence across the business, gaming, and hardware sectors.

"Winning the iF DESIGN AWARD 2026 validates MSI's dedication to balancing extreme performance with intuitive user connection," said Sam Chern, MSI Vice President of Marketing. "Design is about solving problems and creating value. Whether through AI-driven user optimization or exquisite craftsmanship that grants hardware its unique identity, our goal is to integrate technology into life in an elegant and functional manner. MSI will continue to push traditional boundaries to create innovative solutions that offer both sustainable value and aesthetic excellence."

Alphacool International GmbH from Braunschweig is a pioneer in PC water cooling technology. With one of the most comprehensive product portfolios in the industry and more than 20 years of experience, Alphacool is expanding its lineup with the new ES RTX 6000 Pro Workstation / RTX 5090 Founders Edition and ES RTX 6000 Pro Server Edition - 1-Slot Design GPU coolers.

The Alphacool ES GPU water cooler for the RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition is designed for performance-optimized server and workstation systems. Its compact 1.5-slot design and rear-mounted ports allow easy integration even in systems with limited space. The top cover is made of lightweight and durable carbon, reducing weight while providing a clean and premium appearance. The cooling block features an optimized cooling channel structure and is made entirely of chrome-plated copper. This particularly robust surface reliably protects against corrosion, scratches, and mechanical stress during continuous 24/7 operation.

ASUS today announced NUC 16 Pro Mini PC, a compact Copilot+ PC offering versatile AI-accelerated performance to handle a wide range of needs. Powered by up to the latest Intel Core Ultra 9 Series 3 processor and boasting onboard LPDDR5x memory, the NUC 16 Pro delivers up to 1.5X faster 3D graphics processingi, 20% faster performance, and 50% less power consumption over previous-generation NUC models. Built-in Intel WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 wireless connectivity, along with dual 2.5G LAN ports, make the NUC 16 Pro ideal for hyper-connected workspaces. In addition, select models include fTPM for enterprise-grade security and management.

Next-generation Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors with built-in Intel Arc GPU
The NUC 16 Pro Mini PC easily tackles AI workloads. Featuring up to an Intel Core Ultra X9 processor with built-in Intel Arc B390 GPU and a 50 TOPS NPU delivering up to 180 Platform TOPS for real-time Edge AI inference and machine learning tasks. This compact Copilot+ PC is an Edge AI-ready system that enables secure, low-latency on-device intelligence to support AI-driven applications for videoconferencing, analytics, language translation, and enhanced team collaboration.

Worldwide shipments of desktops, notebooks and workstations in 2026 are expected to decline by 12% to 245 million units, according to the latest outlook from Omdia. This forecast is grounded in sharp increases in memory and storage prices - particularly the expected minimum 60% rise in 1Q26. Further upward price pressure is anticipated throughout the remaining quarters of the year, though subsequent increases are expected to be more moderate. Since 1Q25, the costs of mainstream memory and storage configurations have risen by between US$90 and US$165, placing substantial financial pressure on PC vendors and forcing them to reduce promotions, raise product prices, and adjust configurations. The impact across PC product categories is expected to be broadly consistent. Desktops are set to decline by 10% to 53.2 million units, while laptops will decline by 12% to 192.2 million units.

Considering how quickly the situation is evolving, Omdia has conducted a multi-scenario analysis of the impact. Based on the latest available information and market signals, the forecast carries a higher downside risk, namely a widening of shortages for both memory and storage and increasingly steep price hikes. This could further suppress consumer demand and tighten PC vendors' supply, pushing PC shipments toward a 15% decline or potentially worse. In addition, the recent outbreak of conflict in the Middle East has introduced substantial uncertainty for international transportation and regional market growth, although it remains to be seen whether this situation will persist.

The OfficePal KB70W takes your typing experience to a new level: With its gasket-mount design, polycarbonate positioning plate, PU damping and durable PBT keycaps, the keyboard offers smooth, quiet typing with keys that are pleasantly cushioned, yet highly responsive - just what you need for everyday use in the office. Thanks to the dual-mode operation, hot-swap switches and support for the VIA open-source software, it also adapts to the way you work—and not the other way around.

The gasket-mount design of the OfficePal KB70W significantly reduces noise and provides a typing feeling that is particularly smooth and comfortable. The OfficePal KB70W supports wired or wireless operation for maximum flexibility. Its long battery life ensures uninterrupted work for many hours. The abrasion-resistant PBT keycaps of the OfficePal KB70W are manufactured using the double-shot process and are therefore especially durable. In addition, the south-facing ARGB illumination ensures a uniform illumination of the keys.

Cooler Master, a global leader in PC components and tech lifestyle solutions, today announced that four of its products have received the iF DESIGN AWARD 2026, one of the world's most respected design honors presented annually by iF Design in Hamburg, Germany. The award recognizes outstanding achievement in product design, innovation, and user experience. For Cooler Master, the recognition highlights a design philosophy that combines engineering performance with builder-focused creativity.

The award-winning products include the COSMOS Alpha, MasterFrame 360 Panorama, Custom GPU Fan Cooling Kit, and MasterFan A120, each representing a different dimension of Cooler Master's design approach, from modular chassis architecture to advanced thermal engineering.

The global notebook market is expected to face dual pressures from weak demand and rising component costs in 2026, according to TrendForce's latest research on the notebook industry. In addition to rapidly rising memory prices, CPU pricing has also begun to move higher. TrendForce estimates that to preserve existing margin structures for both notebook brands and distribution channels, the retail price of a mainstream notebook with an original MSRP of US$900 could rise by nearly 40%.

TrendForce notes that since the start of 2026, supply for notebook DRAM and NAND Flash has tightened significantly. Prices have surged, and shortages of certain components have become more pronounced, increasing uncertainty for notebook brands as they plan their procurement strategies.

NVIDIA is reportedly preparing to update its GeForce RTX 5050 GPU with a new variant featuring 9 GB of GDDR7 memory. A well-known leaker on X, @kopite7kimi, confirmed that the upcoming card will maintain the same 130 W TDP and thermal envelope as the current GeForce RTX 5050, which has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. The current RTX 5050 uses 8 GB of 20 Gbps GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 320 GB/s of bandwidth. The new model is expected to use three modules of GDDR7 memory, each with 3 GB of capacity, resulting in a total of 9 GB across a 96-bit memory bus. While the narrower bus decreases the interface width, the switch to new 28 Gbps GDDR7 memory would increase total memory bandwidth to 336 GB/s, a roughly 5% improvement, along with a 12.5% boost in VRAM capacity. The new leak also claims that NVIDIA is using GB206 as a GPU base, while the older RTX 5050 8 GB with GDDR6 used GB207 die. However, the core count remains at 2,560 CUDA cores, suggesting that lower-binned GB206 dies found in RTX 5060 and other mid-range SKUs are repurposed for the new RTX 5050.

NVIDIA's switch to GDDR7 memory likely helps the company manage supply chain procurement better, as memory modules are in short supply. Instead of using four GDDR6 modules with 2 GB capacity each, NVIDIA is switching to three modules of GDDR7 with 3 GB capacity each, reducing the number of memory modules needed for this GPU. Interestingly, memory makers like Samsung, Micron, and SK hynix could now produce more of the 3 GB GDDR7 modules, with GDDR6 being in much shorter supply, forcing manufacturers to focus on the newer memory technology while GPU makers have to adapt. This has resulted in a situation where procuring three modules of 3 GB GDDR7 memory is now easier than finding a sufficient supply of GDDR6 modules, which NVIDIA needs to secure for each RTX 5050 GPU. As we approach Computex 2026, this GPU is expected to arrive sometime during that period.

ASUS recently announced the NUC 16 mini PC at CES 2026, with the NUCs confirmed to feature Intel's Panther Lake Core Ultra Series 3 CPUs, LPDDR5X-9600 RAM, and Intel Arc B390 integrated graphics. When the NUC Pro 16 was revealed, pricing and availability were somewhat nebulous, but that information has been partially revealed ahead of launch thanks to @realVictor_M on X.

According to the leaker, who cites what appears to be leaked Chinese press materials, the NUC 16 Pro with the Intel Core Ultra X7, 32 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of NVMe storage will cost RMB 10,999, which converts to roughly $1,600 ($1,591.50 exactly, at the time of writing). Part of this high pricing is likely to be a direct result of the current memory crisis caused by AI center demand, but it should also be noted that international pricing is rarely ever as simple as a currency conversion, so expect prices to be somewhat higher than that $1,600 when the mini PC launches internationally. It's also notable that ASUS originally cited the Intel Core Ultra X9 as the high-end CPU spec for the mini PC, and the pricing cited by the leak is for the X7 version. Currently, the Chinese launch looks to be scheduled for March 11, so an international launch should follow shortly thereafter.

Valve has been working to improve SteamOS since the launch of the Steam Deck, and the latest SteamOS and Steam Client updates out of Valve combine a whole host of bug fixes that were previously fed into the testing streams. Most notably of the lot are the changes to the accessibility and Steam Input options, but Valve also fixed a few issues that have been part of the SteamOS experience for some time, including flickering UI elements, low-resolution thumbnails on the Recent Games screen of the game library, and issues with button mapping and Switch Pro controller LEDs coming on when they're not supposed to. There are also some additional improvements to features like family sharing and high contrast theme options, but the most interesting addition comes by way of the generic SteamOS 3.7.20 release.

SteamOS 3.7.20 officially merges the NTsync driver from a previous beta release into the mainline OS version, which is a change that could see some games get notably higher performance in some instances. NTsync is a Linux kernel driver that's been in a stable state for a little over a year, but in essence, it aims to increase performance by more closely matching Windows NT synchronization when using the Proton compatibility layer. Other versions of Proton and WINE have had NTsync for a while as a performance booster, but now Valve has added official support for it to the kernel, leaving less development work in the hands of the community and Valve itself. NTsync promises performance uplifts in some games, although not all of them, and it won't always necessarily offer better performance than the existing Fsync, but it gives Linux gamers another option to use when they're tinkering with Proton settings to eke out that last drop of performance.

Heart Machine, the studio behind Hyper Light Drifter, its spiritual successor, Solar Ash, and its actual successor, Hyper Light Breaker, recently implemented a round of layoffs following the launch of Hyper Light Breaker, and it appears this round of layoffs—the second in recent memory—has not been taken lightly by the remaining developers at the studio. According to a recent report by Game Developer, employees at Heart Machine have officially joined the CWA (Communication Workers of America) in a voluntary bargaining agreement in the name of job security and workers' rights. The union members are reportedly currently evaluating their priorities and what they plan to bargain for, but the developers at the studio say that the justification for joining the union is to be able to protect the craft and the creative collaboration that enables game designers and video game workers to create "something they'd want to play themselves." According to an announcement by The CWA, a majority of workers at Heart Machine signed the unionization agreement, meaning contracts at the studio will now be drawn up with CWA representation.

Unionization has been something of a trend in recent years in the video game industry, with video game voice actors joining the protracted
SAG-Aftra strike in 2024 and 2025 seeking protections against the exact sorts of layoffs that previously affected Heart Machine developers, in addition to protections against the AI systems currently taking over the gaming industry. 2025 also saw the launch of the United Video Game Workers' Union, which seeks similar protections against practices like layoffs in the name of profit. A recent video game industry survey also indicated that as many as 82% of video game workers support unionization, with younger workers responding even more positively. The news of Heart Machine joining the CWA also follows the announcement that EA is cutting an unspecified number of jobs at its Battlefield 6 studios.

Nightdive Studios—renowned video game remaster developer and subsidiary of Atari—is thrilled to announce that SiN: Reloaded, the long-awaited remaster of the 1998 cult classic FPS, will launch in 2026 for PC and consoles. This faithful new edition of SiN boasts enhanced remastered visuals, modernized control schemes, and includes the Wages of SiN extra mission pack. It's time to pay for your sins, #$!%&!

Set in a near-future dystopian world, SiN: Reloaded puts you in control of security consultant Colonel John R. Blade as you take on the seductively evil Doctor Elexis Sinclaire. When Elexis, CEO of SinTEK Industries, begins injecting the streets with a DNA-altering drug, it's time to reassess the laws of morality by facing off against Elexis' unholy army of genetically-engineered mutants. Known for pushing the Quake II engine to its limits, the original SiN was lauded for introducing a groundbreaking amount of interactivity in every level. Players can hack their way into computer terminals using DOS-style code, use elevators and security cameras to wreak havoc, and traverse levels using a variety of vehicles, including a forklift, a patrol boat, and a helicopter. Your actions have consequences, creating branching paths as the game progresses.

Not too long ago, Colorful released its iGame Lab Vulcan NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs, which feature a clean white design language. Now, the GPU maker has announced a new Mini-ITX case to go with those GPU designs. The Colorful iGame Lab Vulcan Armor chassis is a 617 × 186.6 × 210 mm, or roughly 24 L in volume. Colorful specifically lists compatibility with its iGame RTX 5070 Ti Vulcan W OC, 5080 Vulcan W OC, 5090 D v2 Vulcan W OC 24 GB, and 5090 D Vulcan W OC 32 GB, since those are the GPUs that feature the shroud design that fits into the dedicated cutout on the side of the chassis, which exposes the GPU intake fans to fresh air.

The chassis offers support for up to 240 mm radiators—and comes with a 240 mm radiator, rated at 240 W TDP, with slim fans pre-installed—and SFX PSUs up to 110 mm long. While the chassis is technically designed for Colorful's own GPU shrouds, it technically fits 3-slot GPUs up to 373.2 mm long—an enterprising modder could likely fairly easily 3D print a bracket to fill make up for any discrepancies between the case cutout and the GPU shroud on third-party designs. The case also sports a magnetic attachment base on the top panel for attaching things like the Colorful Vulcan screen. Front I/O consists of a USB 3.2 Type-C port and dual USB 3.0 ports. International pricing and launch dates have not yet been confirmed at the time of writing.

AMD has released Ryzen Chipset Driver version 8.02.18.557, a maintenance update focused on bug fixes and restoring a couple of components that went missing in a previous package. Specifically, support for the AMS Mailbox driver and the S0i3 filter driver are back, both needed for power management and system communication on supported Ryzen platforms. A few known issues are still present. Users on chipset installer version 7 can't directly roll back to version 6 or older. If you need to do that, you'll have to uninstall the newer installer first, delete the Qt_Dependencies folder, and then install the older package.

Other minor fixes include driver names showing up in English on non-English operating systems, occasional failures when installing or upgrading the Ryzen PPKG component, and some compatibility issues with the AMS and S0i3 filter drivers on non-English OS environments.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Chipset Software 8.02.18.557

At Embedded World 2026, Intel launched the Intel Core processor Series 2 with P-cores, an industrial-ready platform engineered for mission-critical edge applications. Intel also announced its latest Edge AI suite for Health & Life Sciences, providing validated reference pipelines and benchmarking tools for AI-powered patient monitoring solutions.

"Intel continues to lead in edge computing, which remains one of our fastest-growing business segments," said Dan Rodriguez, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of the Edge Computing Group. " With the introduction of Core Series 2, our CES launch of Core Ultra Series 3, and our expanding Edge AI Suites, we continue to deliver comprehensive platforms that meet diverse edge customer needs with breakthrough performance, reliability, and integrated AI acceleration."

The latest in a long line of layoffs and budget cuts affecting the gaming industry comes by way of EA, who has just been confirmed to be laying off developers across all four studios that worked on Battlefield 6—those being Criterion, Dice, Motive, and Ripple Effect. This is according to a report by IGN, although it's unclear how many employees will be affected by the layoffs. Battlefield 6 has seemingly been one of the most successful Battlefield game so far, allegedly topping 7 million unit sales in the first three days following the October 2025 launch, making it a big revenue driver for record profits in Q3 2025. As of the time of writing, Battlefield 6 has peaked at 747,440 concurrent players on Steam, with daily concurrent player counts peaking at around 65,000-70,000 players. Part of EA's justification for the layoffs is "feedback and insights from Battlefield Labs," so perhaps part of the reason for the layoffs is players moving from Battlefield 6 to the free-to-play Battlefield RedSec.

When asked for comment by GameIndustry.biz, EA said that "We've made select changes within our Battlefield organization to better align our teams around what matters most to our community. Battlefield remains one of our biggest priorities, and we're continuing to invest in the franchise, guided by player feedback and insights from Battlefield Labs." This round of layoffs comes mere weeks after EA laid off an unknown number of developers at Full Circle, the studio behind Skate. These layoffs are seemingly part of EA's plan to cut costs following a recent acquisition by a consortium of investors in late 2025.

Intel has launched its official XeSS 3.0 software development kit (SDK), which allows game developers to incorporate the latest binaries into their games and integrate XeSS 3.0 into game engines. Interestingly, Intel has released this version as a binary, pre-compiled file, rather than the open-source XeSS version the company promised a long time ago. This promise has remained unfulfilled for four years, with each XeSS release being closed-source, only available on GitHub under the Intel Simplified Software License as of the October 2022 revision. This binary is provided as a DLL file for Windows operating systems, meaning that Linux users cannot run this SDK on their systems without a translation layer. For users wanting to update older XeSS 2.x versions, you simply need to replace the libxess.dll, libxell.dll, and libxess_fg.dll files with those from the newest XeSS 3.0 ZIP folder.

Intel promotes XeSS 3.0 with its main feature being multi-frame generation (MFG). This version integrates up to three generated frames between two rendered frames, resulting in up to a fourfold frame increase using MFG, similar to NVIDIA's DLSS MFG technology. Intel is joining the AI-generated frame insertion trend, which seems to be gradually expanding. Interestingly, Intel also added a feature that allows XeSS 3.0 to use external memory heaps. This means the Intel XeSS SDK can now utilize GPU memory allocated by the game engine itself, allowing XeSS and the engine to operate on the same VRAM blocks instead of each reserving separate ones. This helps developers avoid duplicate buffers and fragmentation, gives them direct control over allocation and residency, and makes integrating XeSS into an existing render pipeline cleaner and more efficient.

Xiaomi's upcoming Book 14 laptop has leaked online, revealing the expected specifications for the upcoming thin-and-light productivity laptop. According to Digital Chat Station on Weibo, the Xiaomi Book 14 will feature Intel's Panther Lake Core Ultra Series 3 CPUs, specifically the Core Ultra 5 325 and Core Ultra X7 358H, with either 24 GB or 32 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage. This means that the Xiaomi Book 14 will be available in at least one configuration with Intel's impressive new Arc B390 iGPU, which has proven itself in both gaming and creative workloads aside from the usual productivity fare.

Following DCS's post, Aura Pig also posted on Weibo about the upcoming MacBook competitor, stating that the both the build quality and battery life of the Xiaomi Book 14 were impressive. The 14-inch display is also touch-enabled, although the laptop is purportedly squarely in the premium category, suggesting a high price. The current-gen Xiaomi Book 14 tops out at 16 GB of memory and is only available with Intel's 12th-Gen CPUs and up to 512 GB of storage, so the new model will be a significant upgrade in terms of performance and convenience if the leaked specifications are any indication. Weight on the new Book 14 will be slightly lower than the old model, at around 1 kg compared to the 1.37 kg in the current Book 14.

MONTECH, a global leader in PC cases, power supplies, and cooling solutions, proudly announces the launch of SKY 3, the next evolution of its iconic SKY series PC cases. SKY 3 introduces a reimagined modular internal architecture and integrated horizon lighting, designed to meet the demands of next-generation hardware while delivering a remarkably clean and adaptable build experience. With support for back-connect motherboards and next-gen GPUs, SKY 3 blends future-ready performance with refined, modern aesthetics.

Adaptive Modular Bottom Chamber
At the heart of SKY 3 is an innovative adaptive modular bottom chamber, featuring a fully swappable PSU compartment and bottom fan bracket that allow builders to customize internal layouts based on cooling priorities. In GPU Mode, intake fans are positioned directly beneath the graphics card to maximize static pressure and cooling efficiency. In CPU Mode, airflow is redirected toward the motherboard area, helping dissipate heat from VRMs and surrounding components while supporting stable CPU operation. This flexible design empowers users to tailor airflow behavior to their specific system configuration.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the Montech Sky 3 is now live]

Akasa, a leading provider of thermal solutions, announced the Pascal MX, an IP65-rated dust-tight and water jet resistant aluminium fanless case designed for Mini-ITX and Thin Mini-ITX motherboard systems operating in industrial, outdoor or mission-critical environments. The Pascal MX addresses one of the core challenges in harsh-environment embedded computing: maintaining system reliability where conventional fan-cooled cases fail due to dust ingress and moisture. For engineers and system integrators attending Embedded World 2026 in Nuremberg from 10 to 12 March, the Pascal MX will be on display at Hall 1, Booth 640, alongside Akasa's wider range of fanless cases, CPU coolers, heatsinks, and thermal solutions.

At the heart of the Pascal MX is Akasa's patented spring-loaded CPU mounting system, which maintains consistent, uniform contact pressure across all supported sockets (Intel LGA1851, LGA1700, and LGA1200). This enables the same chassis to support Intel Core processors from 10th-14th Generation and the latest Intel Core Ultra (15th Gen) processors, all at up to 65 W TDP. Heat from the CPU and M.2 2280 SSD is conducted into the aluminium chassis via dedicated thermal modules, dissipating passively through the external fins. With no fans and no moving parts, the Pascal MX eliminates the primary sources of mechanical failure and particulate ingress that limit system uptime in demanding deployments.

Samsung Electronics America today shared its plan to expand support for glasses-free 3D gameplay on the Samsung Odyssey 3D gaming monitor at GDC Festival of Gaming 2026 in San Francisco. Samsung will spotlight Hell is Us and Cronos: The New Dawn as part of its expanding 3D gaming ecosystem, demonstrating how leading titles are embracing immersive displays without the need for special glasses.

"The Odyssey 3D is designed for gamers who want to experience their hobby in a way that feels like they're completely embedded in the action," said Kevin Lee, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display (VD) Business at Samsung Electronics. "Through partnerships with leading gaming studios, we are committed to creating an ecosystem of top-tier titles, making great games extraordinary."

At this year's Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, NVIDIA has prepared a special GeForce ON community update scheduled for tomorrow, where the company will address its gaming audience. While we have no official expectations for this GeForce ON update, NVIDIA might preview either new technologies that the company is developing for its gamers or new implementations in games and game engines. Usually, this centers around technologies like Deep Learning Super Sampling, Ray Tracing, Path Tracing, GeForce NOW expansion, gaming monitors like the Big Format Gaming Displays, or something entirely different. Interestingly, NVIDIA might also preview potential product launches for its GTC 2026, which starts just a week from now, on March 16 and lasts through March 19. We are eagerly anticipating any formal announcement, and you can check out the video link that starts the premiere tomorrow, below.

Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe today announcedEchoes of Aincrad, a new action RPG set in the breathtaking floating castle of Aincrad from the Sword Art Online universe where every battle could be your last. Players will get to create their own hero and dive into the game, facing the many challenges ahead by mastering dodges, parries and well-timed attacks. Echoes of Aincrad will launch on 10 July 2026 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam.

Echoes of Aincrad invites adventurers into a dynamic and vibrant world filled with challenges and unforgettable encounters, becoming a "player" in the game through an extensive avatar customization will place them as the true hero of this story. As the story progresses through quests and missions, players will be able to adapt and upgrade their equipment, weapons, and attributes, and select special skills to match their preferred playstyle while growing stronger as they level up. But they will not journey alone, the outcome of real-time combat will also rely on the chosen partner for each outing, deciding the stance they should take during fight, more aggressive or supportive, and as that bond deepens, players will unlock their partner's powerful abilities.

Factory automation, physical AI in mobile robotics, and other AI-driven edge applications are rapidly evolving and driving the need for computing platforms that provide real-time AI processing, deterministic performance, and long-term reliability in always-on environments.

To meet these needs, AMD is expanding its AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Series processor portfolio. New processors feature up to 2x higher CPU core counts, up to 8x higher graphics processing unit (GPU) compute, and an estimated 36% higher system tera operations.

ASRock Industrial announces new industrial motherboards supporting AMD EPYC 4005/4004, Ryzen 9000/8000/7000, and Ryzen Embedded 9000/7000 Series processors, expanding its platform portfolio across IMB-A1700, IMB-A1302, IMB-A1003, and IMB-A1002. Powered by AMD EPYC 4005 Series processors with up to 16 cores and 32 threads, delivering high-performance and energy efficiency for edge servers and enterprise workloads, alongside Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 Series for exceptional computing power and Ryzen Embedded 9000 Series for long-term availability in reliable edge computing. Supporting ATX, microATX, and Mini-ITX form factors, these platforms feature DDR5 memory, PCIe Gen 5 expansion, multi-display capability, and rich industrial I/O to enable flexible system designs for computer vision, video analytics, AI-enhanced workloads, software development, gaming platforms, and professional-grade productivity systems.

IMB-A1700 Series: ATX Motherboard for high-performance
The IMB-A1700 ATX motherboard supports AMD EPYC 4005/4004, Ryzen 9000/8000/7000, and Ryzen Embedded 9000/7000 Series processors, delivering robust computing performance for demanding workloads. The board features four DDR5 5600 MHz ECC/non-ECC U-DIMM slots supporting up to 256 GB of memory, providing a stable foundation for high-throughput and multitasking environments. Expansion capability includes two PCIe x16 (Gen 5) slots, configurable as either one PCIe x16 (Gen 5) or two PCIe x8 (Gen 5), one PCIe x4 (Gen 4), and four PCIe x1 (Gen 4) slots, enabling flexible integration of GPUs, AI accelerators, and add-on cards. Storage support includes one M.2 key M for NVMe SSD and four SATA3 ports with RAID 0/1/10 support, enabling high-speed storage deployment. I/O connectivity is comprehensive, featuring seven USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, eight USB 2.0 ports, and six COM ports, complemented by three 2.5G LAN and one 1G LAN. Supporting quad-display output via HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.2++ and built in an ATX form factor (12 x 9.6 inches), the IMB-A1700 is well-suited for AI-driven video analytics platforms, computer vision servers, high-end development systems, and performance-focused computing deployments.

Ahead of Embedded World, Arduino announced the upcoming launch of its newest platform to democratize edge AI, Arduino VENTUNO Q. Named after the Italian word for twenty-one, VENTUNO Q builds on the iconic legacy of the popular Arduino UNO family and embodies the company's coming of age as it prepares to celebrate its foundation's 21st anniversary, later this month.

At the Edge of Intelligence: Where AI Takes Action
VENTUNO Q unites high‑performance AI compute with deterministic real‑time control, enabling systems that don't just interpret the world—they interact with it.
The board builds upon a dual-brain architecture similar to Arduino UNO Q, yet significantly upgrades capabilities leveraging the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ8 Series for both traditional and generative AI workloads, supported by NPU acceleration delivering up to 40 dense TOPS, as well as a dedicated STM32H5 microcontroller for low‑latency actuation and motor control. In addition, VENTUNO Q comes with 16 GB RAM—able to handle concurrent inference and complex multitasking—and an expandable 64 GB of storage.

The GEEKOM A5 Pro 2026 Edition arrives as one of the most compelling compact desktops to date, earning its position as the best $600 mini PC in 2026 thanks to a rare blend of high performance that breezes through all daily tasks, solid build quality that withstand at least 5 years of intensive use, and a 3-year warranty for long-term peace of mind. Its launch further strengthens GEEKOM's reputation the global leader in small-form-factor computing.

At the heart of the A5 Pro 2026 Edition is AMD's Ryzen R5 7530U, a 6-core, 12-thread processor capable of boosting up to 4.5 GHz. Paired with Radeon graphics, dual-channel memory, and fast SSD storage, the system delivers smooth performance across daily office tasks, home entertainment, creative workloads, and even light gaming.

Global high-performance computing and industrial embedded platform leader MSI will showcase a complete Edge AI ecosystem at Embedded World 2026, integrating edge computing platforms and vertical industry solutions to demonstrate industrial-grade Edge AI computing and on-site deployment capabilities.

As artificial intelligence applications increasingly extend from the cloud to field environments, MSI leverages industrial-grade reliability and platform integration expertise to help enterprises build intelligent systems with long-term operational stability, accelerating digital transformation across transportation, manufacturing, retail, agriculture, and UAV applications.

Following Sandisk's new naming scheme for NVMe SSDs, it now looks like Seagate is ready to announce a shift to a new naming for some of its SSDs as well. In a leak that at least in part appears to be thanks to a spec sheet uploaded by Best Buy, Seagate's upcoming FireCuda X series has leaked and the first model in the new series looks to be the X1070. That's a pretty big jump in model numbers, as Seagate's current top of the range FireCuda NVMe SSD is the 530R. Unlike the Barracuda 540, the FireCuda X1070 isn't a PCIe 5.0 drive and it does in fact not even trump the FireCuda 530R in terms of performance, despite the new model name suggesting it would.

The X1070 offers a max sequential read speed of 7200 MB/s, down from 7400 MB/s for the 530R and max sequential write speed of 6000 MB/s for the 1 TB SKU and 6500 MB/s for the 2 and 4 TB SKUs, where the 530R ranges from 6800-7000 MB/s. The random IOPS are also lower at around 900k vs. 1.3 million. The TBW rating is also about half that of the 530R, somewhat depending on the SKU, but Seagate still offers a five year warranty. The only good news is that the power usage is down by around 3-4 W, again depending on SKU, but this suggests we might be looking at a DRAM-less model here. We'll have to wait for the actual launch to find out the pricing, but it looks like the current FireCuda 530R is a better option over the X1070, unless you need an SSD that is more power efficient and hopefully produces less heat.

MaxSun has introduced two additional GPU variants to its Arc Pro B60 Dual GPU lineup. Each card features two of Intel's Arc Pro B60 GPUs, offering a total of 40 Xe2 cores and 48 GB of GDDR6 memory. The first variant is a passively cooled model designed for dual-slot configurations, ideal for server setups with high-airflow chassis that direct air across the card. This design allows any server case with high-RPM fans to accommodate multiple GPUs in parallel for AI inference and local development. However, the standout model is the liquid-cooled edition, measuring 300 x 110 x 20 mm and occupying a single slot. This compact profile is a distinct advantage of the water-cooled design, allowing several cards to be installed close together in dense enclosures without the need for strong airflow.

With the liquid-cooled edition, the card's TDP remains at 400 W, similar to the passive and fan-equipped versions. However, overall performance is expected to be slightly higher due to the increased stability that liquid cooling provides. The compact liquid-cooled unit was developed in collaboration with abee, and the company reports peak GPU temperatures around 61°C when integrated into a cooling loop, although other loop characteristics are unknown. It is assumed that standard industry loop measurements were conducted. Two hose barbs and a 12V-2x6 power connector are located on the rear edge, along with a fan header for auxiliary cooling control. A single-slot bracket offers one DisplayPort 1.2 and one HDMI 2.1a connector for each GPU, resulting in four display outputs in total. In a workstation, you could fit a few of these GPUs and quickly multiply the compute and memory capacity, creating a capable system even without a high-end GPU.

During MWC, Fujitsu partnered with networking equipment maker 1FINITY to unveil the first silicon wafers and an engineering sample of its "MONAKA" CPU. Scheduled for release in 2027, the initial Fujitsu MONAKA CPU utilizes the Armv9-A architecture and a 3D chiplet layout that combines a core die with separate SRAM and I/O dies. A single chip features 144 cores, and two-socket configurations can scale up to 288 cores per node. The platform supports 12-channel DDR5, PCIe 6.0 with CXL 3.0, and Arm SVE2 for AI and HPC workloads. Fujitsu has chosen TSMC to manufacture this chip using the 2 nm node, paired with Broadcom's 3.5D eXtreme Dimension System-in-Package (XDSiP) packaging architecture. This packaging allows MONAKA to become a 144-core design featuring four 36-core chiplets. These chiplets are stacked face-to-face with SRAM tiles through hybrid copper bonding, utilizing TSMC's N5 process for the cache layer.

In the pictures below, we can see the silicon complex in its early sample packaging, which shows a large central I/O die, HBM memory around the CPU, and the new packaging technology. Reportedly, this CPU has already reached a working version, with Broadcom shipping the CPU to Fujitsu in late February this year. After initial testing and early performance validation, Fujitsu plans to ship these processors to customers around summer, with mass shipping to commence in 2027. The company envisions this SoC as a powerhouse for AI inference, simulation, and large-scale data processing. It will sell these systems to external customers, who showed great interest in Fujitsu's A64FX when the Fugaku computer came online. Fugaku was the most powerful supercomputer back in 2020, achieving 415.53 PetaFLOPS of FP64 and an impressive HPL-AI score of 1.421 ExaFLOPS using lower FP16 precision. Hence, we expect the new MONAKA CPU to enable much greater speeds and some efficiency improvements as well.

Apple could name its upcoming laptop MacBook "Ultra" as the ultimate portable Mac from the Cupertino-based giant. According to Mark Gurman in the latest PowerOn newsletter, Apple is giving the MacBook a long-rumored "Ultra" overhaul, this time as an addition to the existing MacBook lineup, not as a product replacement. This model is expected to be Apple's first MacBook with an OLED touchscreen and a dynamic island instead of the traditional notch found on today's MacBook displays. It will sit above the new M5 Pro and M5 Max-powered MacBook Pro 14 and MacBook Pro 16, making Apple's new Mac lineup one of the most diverse in the company's history, especially with the recent launch of the MacBook Neo.

While March was reserved for the regular MacBook Pro devices, Apple is scheduling its MacBook Ultra overhaul for the end of this year, when we are also likely to see new chips powering the ultimate design. Pricing is expected to increase as well, as we have historically seen Apple introduce a price premium whenever a new OLED panel was installed on a device, similar to when the iPad received an OLED upgrade. These MacBook Ultra devices are codenamed K114 and K116 and are breaking with Apple's design philosophy, which has been critical of touchscreen devices for years. Apple's legendary co-founder Steve Jobs once called the touchscreen laptop experience "ergonomically terrible," but the competitive landscape has changed significantly over the past few years. To stay competitive, Apple is adapting to these industry changes slowly but surely. Interestingly, Gurman is not certain that Apple will definitely call it MacBook Ultra, it could also retain some Pro model naming, with clear differentiators for this model to sit at the top of the MacBook line.

Chinese NAND Flash maker Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC) has introduced its first client M.2 NVMe PCIe 5.0 SSD, named the PC550. As many PC OEMs face challenges in acquiring storage solutions at reasonable prices, YMTC aims to assist with its inaugural PCIe 5.0 NVMe model. The M.2 2242 and 2280 modules feature a PCIe Gen 5 x4 link combined with the NVMe 2.0 protocol and YMTC's X4-9070 3D NAND, built on Xtacking 4.0. YMTC designed the PC550 with a four-channel architecture, which the company claims reduces power consumption and thermal output compared to the more common eight-channel designs. The lineup includes capacities of 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB, with no pricing on the official website. Consumers can contact YMTC, or wait for distribution channels to start offering these SSDs.

YMTC rates the largest variant at up to 10,500 MB/s for sequential reads and up to 10,000 MB/s for sequential writes. These speeds surpass most Gen 4 drives but fall short of some Gen 5 offerings that reach nearly 15,000 MB/s, suggesting a less powerful SSD controller. Random performance scales with capacity. The 512 GB model is listed at up to 880,000 random read IOPS and 1,100,000 random write IOPS, with an endurance rating of 300 TBW. The 1 TB and 2 TB models achieve approximately 1,300,000 random IOPS for both read and write, with endurance ratings of 600 TBW and 1,200 TBW, respectively. Idle power consumption is quoted at under 3 milliwatts, and active consumption is under 6 watts, making these figures suitable for notebook use.

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060 is making a comeback, expected around mid-March. For this, NVIDIA will once again use Samsung's 8 nm DUV node, as it has in the past. This has been confirmed by the Korean media outlet Hankyung, which reports that Samsung is restarting its 8 nm node production to meet NVIDIA's needs. Originally, Samsung manufactured these GPUs back in 2021. The entire NVIDIA "Ampere" architecture lineup was produced on the 8 nm DUV node, and we didn't anticipate its return after several years. However, since NVIDIA has transitioned to TSMC for manufacturing its "Ada Lovelace" and latest "Blackwell" GPUs, and has become TSMC's largest customer, utilizing the 5 nm node, this move is intriguing.

We still lack concrete information about which version of the RTX 3060 will be reintroduced—whether it will be the original 12 GB model with a 192-bit wide memory bus or the newer 8 GB variant with a 128-bit bus. Additionally, the decision to use a two-generation-old GPU architecture in 2026 is puzzling, as the reason NVIDIA has chosen the RTX 3060 instead of a newer model like the RTX 4060 remains unclear. Speculatively, it could be because the RTX 4060 is based on the same NVIDIA 4N (5 nm-class) node at TSMC as the current RTX 5060, while the RTX 3060, along with the rest of the GeForce "Ampere" generation, is built on the Samsung 8N (8 nm DUV) foundry node, which would leave the 5 nm capacity for "Blackwell" and its enterprise variants. Finally, it is worth pointing out that when GPU IP design is done, it is usually hard-linked with the node it has been prepared for, so NVIDIA is sticking with Samsung again to avoid any potential upfront costs of adapting this GPU for a different node.

As we enter the second week of March, we got plenty of new games launching once again. We kick off the week with a John Carpenter game that doesn't include vampires as this week's major release. As for the other games, we kick off the week with a friendlier theme where you have to make a dead planet alive again, followed by taking on the job as a park ranger. Next up we have a game about a wolf and princess, which is followed by a magical, turn-based tactical RPG. Next up you get to hunt some monsters and finally we have a Saturday release that puts you in charge of a tank. We also have a couple of additional games at the end that didn't quite make the list.

John Carpenter's Toxic Commando / This week's major release / Thursday 12 March
Pick a character and team up with three friends 'cause it's time to save the world. Experience intense FPS action as you obliterate hordes of terrifying monsters! You may not be on the best team of mercenaries, but you are… a Toxic Commando. Steam link

GIGABYTE over the weekend introduced the Z890 AORUS Elite WiFi7 Plus and Z890 Eagle WiFi7 Plus motherboards. The two boards are timed to launch alongside Intel's new Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus "Arrow Lake-S" processors later this month, and come with out-of-the-box support for the new chips. Both boards come with GIGABYTE's Ultra Turbo Mode automated boost frequency and voltage offsets that are applied on top of Intel 200S Boost, on Core Ultra Series 2 "K" and "KF" unlocked processors. An interesting cost-cutting measure with both these boards is that they lack a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports normally expected of Z890 motherboards, and instead wire out just a single 40 Gbps USB4 port.

The Z890 AORUS Elite WiFi7 Plus is the more premium model among the two, offering a 16+1+2 phase CPU VRM with 60 A DrMOS; while the Z890 Eagle WiFi7 Plus offers a 14+1+2 phase VRM. The AORUS Elite WiFi7 Plus offers 5 GbE wired LAN using a Realtek-sourced controller, while the Eagle WiFi7 offers a 2.5 GbE from a Realtek controller. Both boards offer Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 using Intel WLAN modules, with the AORUS Elite WiFi7 Plus offering a 320 MHz Intel BE200NGW, while the Eagle WiFi 7 Plus offers a 160 MHz Intel BE202 (BE200NGW-M). Both boards offer a fairly decent onboard audio solution using a Realtek ALC1220 HDA codec and WIMA capacitors. Also, common to both boards are convenient SMD buttons on the rear I/O shields for power, reset, clear CMOS, and USB BIOS flashback. Both boards are expected to be priced around the $250-mark.

Leaks about an upcoming Razer Viper V4 Pro have been circulating for a while now, with multiple e-sports pros seemingly using the new mouse in competitive tournaments. Now, though, the new wireless mouse has effectively been confirmed by two separate posts showing off early retail appearances of the Viper V4 Pro. First, a Reddit user posted in-store images of the Viper V4 Pro retail packaging that had seemingly accidentally been put in the storefront ahead of launch, and although the post was subsequently deleted by the r/MouseReview subreddit user, it didn't stop the images from showing up on X. For the most part, it seems like an iterative update to the existing Viper V3 Pro, as was expected, given the specs of the DeathAdder V4 Pro.

The aforementioned retail box gives us a good idea of what to expect from the Viper V4 Pro—that is, a minor sensor update to the Razer Focus Pro 50K, new Razer Optical Gen 4 switches, a Razer optical scroll wheel, and a 49 g total weight. Notably, the sensor is a slight improvement over even the Razer DeathAdder V4 Pro, although much of the rest of the mouse's specifications are practically identical. As expected, the Viper V4 Pro adopts the same more efficient and lower latency dome-shaped wireless receiver as the DeathAdder V4 Pro, replete with 8K polling and a claimed 180-hour battery life. According to Danish computer store, ComputerSalg, where the Viper V4 Pro was prematurely launched as well, although without any photos, the mouse will also be available in white at launch, and it will cost a staggering $199 (DKK 1,290 converted excluding VAT). This is significantly more expensive than both the existing Viper V3 Pro and the DeathAdder V4 Pro, so it's likely a pre-launch placeholder or the price of some special edition colorway. All of this indicates that the Viper V4 Pro is likely to launch within the next few weeks, but it will have to contend with both the new tech in the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike and the slew of Chinese gaming mice with similar hardware specs and much lower pricing.

Given the current state of the gaming industry, rumors have started to emerge about the next-gen gaming console launches, with previous rumors claiming that the PlayStation 6 would launch alongside a new standalone PlayStation Portable gaming handheld, and that the PS6 would have less graphical processing power than the upcoming Xbox console. In a new post on YouTube, ubiquitous leaker and industry insider, Moore's Law is Dead, claims that the PS6 Orion—the living room console—will feature 2.5-3× the rasterization performance of the PS5 and 6-12× the ray tracing performance of the PS5, or 3-6× faster ray tracing than the PS5 Pro and roughly twice the raster performance of the PS5 Pro. This is thanks to a significantly faster RDNA 5 GPU with 52-54 CUs running at around 2-3.6 GHz and delivering around 34-40 TFLOPS of theoretical performance.

The leaker also shot down rumors that recently surfaced claiming that the PlayStation 6 may be delayed to as late as 2029 due to the ongoing memory crisis, stating that the nature of memory and APU fabrication contracts make it unlikely that the PS6 will be delayed that long. Instead, we may see a brief period of increased pricing or scarcity at launch. Apparently, according to his sources, Sony has a contract with TSMC to start mass-producing the PS6 as early as Q2 2027. MLID also mentions the AMD "Canis" APU slated to arrive in the PS6 handheld console, claiming that it will feature four Zen 6c cores, two Zen 6 LP cores (for running the operating system), and 16 RDNA 5 CUs running at 1.6-2 GHz with a 15 W total board power, all being fed by LPDDR5X memory over a 192-bit bus. All of this will allegedly be targeting 1080p gameplay with a significantly higher power limit when docked. He also speculates that the handheld will feature "vastly better" ray tracing than the PS5.

Valve's announcement of the Steam Machine has generated a lot of excitement amongst PC gamers and apparently more than a little consternation in the ranks of traditional console makers, although the recent announcement that pricing for the upcoming living room PC is delayed due to the RAM shortage has poured a bit of cold water on things. Adding to that disappointment, Valve recently softened its promise to deliver the Steam Machine and Valve Index in "early 2026" as it had initially promised.

In a recent Steam Year In Review news post, Valve says that "We shared recently that there have been challenges with memory and storage shortages, but we will be shipping all three products this year. More updates will be shared as we finalize our plans." Notably, however, this previously read "We hope to ship in 2026, but as we shared recently, memory and storage shortages have created challenges for us," according to VideoCardz, but the verbiage has since been changed. The Steam Store page for the Steam Machine only lists "coming soon" in the release date section, but it's also curious that Valve seems steadfast in its plans to release the Steam Frame, Machine, and Controller simultaneously, despite the potential delays in delivering the hardware.

Intel's recently announced Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake-H" mobile processor die-shot has been annotated by Kurnal Insights. "Panther Lake-H" is a disaggregated processor, just like its predecessor, "Arrow Lake-H," and "Meteor Lake," but Intel has followed a disaggregation plan resembling that of "Lunar Lake," where an SoC tile contains the CPU cores across both the main compute complex and low-power island; the NPU, and the processor's main integrated memory controllers; the Graphics tile contains the iGPU's number-crunching machinery, the Xe cores; while the I/O tile contains the chip's various platform I/O components.

The SoC tile is built on the Intel 18A foundry node. On the mainstream notebook "Panther Lake-H" processor variants, such as the one annotated below, the Graphics tile contains 4 Xe cores, and is built on the Intel 3 foundry node. On the ultraportable "Panther Lake-U" processor with powerful integrated graphics meant for devices lacking discrete GPUs, the Graphics tile has 12 Xe cores, and is built on the TSMC N3E node. The I/O tile continues to be built on the same TSMC N6 node as the ones on previous-generation "Arrow Lake" processors.

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Intel's Core Ultra 7 270K Plus was recently leaked in an upcoming HP prebuilt desktop PC, ostensibly once more confirming the imminent launch of the new Arrow Lake Refresh desktop CPUs. Now, the Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus has appeared in PassMark's benchmark charts, potentially both confirming the specifications of the mid-range Arrow Lake Refresh and setting expectations of performance for the new CPUs. According to PassMark, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus scored 50,478 points in the CPU benchmark, coming out around 16% faster than the 14-core Core Ultra 5 245K and Core Ultra 5 245 KF that preceded it.

That benchmark score, although based on a single benchmark, puts the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus almost exactly halfway between the Core Ultra 5 245K and Core Ultra 7 265K, which is not a terrible place to be. According to previous leaks, now somewhat validated by this benchmark score, the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus will add four additional E-cores over the original 14-core Core Ultra 5 245 CPUs, for a total of 18 cores and 18 threads—6 P-cores and 12 E-cores.

Slay the Spire 2, the much-awaited successor to the indie roguelike deckbuilder, has finally launched on Steam, and within 24 hours of launch, it has rocketed to the top of the Steam Sales Chart and recorded some impressive player count figures. According to SteamDB, Slay the Spire 2 has attracted a peak of 430,456 concurrent players during its first 24 hours out the gates, and it has reached the number one spot in the Steam Sales chart, beating out both Marathon and Resident Evil Requiem for revenue on March 6, 2026. Mega Crit, the studio behind the game, even celebrated the game surpassing 179,456 concurrent players, marking it as "the highest ever for any roguelite."

By all indications, the indie game appears to have had a very successful launch, and the 97% positive review rating on Steam backs that up. The new installment in the game series builds on the gameplay and world of the original by adding new characters, cards, abilities, and secrets, but it notably adds a co-op mode as well. Judging by the Steam reviews, most of the improvements seem to successfully build on what made the previous game great without sacrificing anything in the process, and the multiplayer functionality seems to have been executed well, rather than shoehorned in for wider appeal.

Intel's upcoming "Arrow Lake Refresh" Core Ultra 7 270K Plus processor has made its debut on HP's website, as discovered by @momomo_us. HP has installed this unreleased processor in its HyperX OMEN desktop gaming PC. The Core Ultra 7 270K Plus represents the pinnacle of the "Arrow Lake Refresh" generation, featuring 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, along with 36 MB of shared L3 cache. However, it operates at slightly lower clock speeds than the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K. Recently, a new rumor suggested that Intel might unveil the full specifications of these chips on March 11, with reviews following on March 23. Retail availability of the new generation is expected shortly after.

This is the top SKU that will appear with the "Arrow Lake Refresh," as Intel has reportedly decided not to launch the rumored "Core Ultra 9 290K Plus," which would have been a more powerful version of the 285K with even higher clock speeds. The main reason for canceling this SKU is product overlap. The flagship Core Ultra 9 290K Plus would have had the same core configuration as the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, just with slightly higher clock speeds. Additionally, Intel already offers a Core Ultra 9 285K SKU from the regular "Arrow Lake" family, which means the company would have three similar SKUs at the top of the stack. By maintaining only two products, Intel can simplify manufacturing and supply chain logistics, allowing more focus on preparing for the next-generation "Nova Lake" launch later this year.

Following the recently launched InfinityBook Max 16 - INTEL with Core Ultra 9 275HX, the AMD-based variant of the thin and light Linux gaming workstation is now ready to hit the market.

Despite its robust high-quality full-metal chassis, the InfinityBook Max 16 weighs just over 2 kg and is powered by up to a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 or 5070, and a 99 Wh battery, while the 500 nits, 100 % DCI-P3 display qualifies the Linux ultrabook workstation for software development, professional media design, and gaming.

According to a new report from Jon Peddie Research, NVIDIA has once again increased its market share in the AIB GPU sector, reaching 94% in Q4 2025. This marks a 1.6% rise from the previous quarter and sets a new all-time high in recent reports. Meanwhile, AMD's market share has been declining, with a 1.6% decrease that appears to have benefited NVIDIA's partners and their shipments. Overall, JPR records indicate that the AIB GPU market sold 11.5 million units in the final quarter of 2025, a reduction of half a million units from Q3, but a significant 36% increase compared to 8.45 million units in the final quarter of 2024. JPR attributes the slight decline in overall GPU AIB shipments to rising memory prices and tariffs affecting the global supply chain, which have driven up the costs of discrete GPU solutions that use expensive GDDR7 and GDDR6 memory.

Intel's market share in AIB GPU shipments remains steady at around 1%, consistent with its performance in Q3 2025 when the company achieved its first single-digit percentage since launching its Arc "Alchemist" GPUs for gamers. This indicates that Intel's progress is stable, with demand remaining consistent as gamers continue to choose Intel GPUs at the same rate as before. For Intel to break out of the single-digit bracket, the company likely needs more GPU designs, such as the anticipated "Battlemage" B770 graphics card.

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of edge computing solutions, industrial motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, is excited to introduce the H810MT-E 2.0 motherboard, a smart and future-ready platform engineered to power modern everyday computing. Built around Intel's latest Core Ultra 9, 7, and 5 processors in the LGA1851 package and driven by the Intel H810 single-chip architecture, the H810MT-E 2.0 brings next-generation technologies together with proven stability. Designed for office productivity, home entertainment, and versatile system builds, it delivers consistent performance for daily workloads while providing the flexibility to grow alongside evolving user demands.

The H810MT-E 2.0 fully embraces next-generation DDR5 memory technology, supporting up to 128 GB across dual DIMM slots to ensure smooth and responsive multitasking. Delivering significantly higher bandwidth than previous-generation DDR4 while operating with improved power efficiency, DDR5 accelerates application performance, enhances workflow fluidity, and strengthens overall system responsiveness. From handling office applications and multiple browser sessions to streaming high-resolution media at home, users benefit from a platform built to keep pace with today's computing requirements while maintaining balanced efficiency.

AYANEO Pocket AIR Mini, AYANEO's first entry-level product, carries with it the memories and nostalgia of classic gaming while setting a new benchmark for retro handhelds in its class. With AYANEO's flagship DNA fully integrated, players can experience top-tier handheld design and features at an entry-level price, turning the vision of a "retro handheld that everyone can afford" into reality.

Since its release, AYANEO Pocket AIR Mini has quickly won the hearts of players and truly lived up to its reputation as a high-quality retro handheld that everyone can enjoy. With its exquisite mini form factor, classic retro control layout, and excellent performance, it not only satisfies players' nostalgia for traditional handheld gaming but also makes every gaming session more immersive and enjoyable. Whether you are a longtime retro gaming enthusiast or a newcomer to handheld gaming, this device offers a fun and engaging experience for everyone.

Advantech (TWSE: 2395), a global leader in Edge Computing and IoT automation solutions, today announced the launch of the EKI-6333BE-4GD, its first industrial-grade Wi-Fi 7 Access Point designed to deliver deterministic wireless connectivity for next-generation smart factories, autonomous logistics, and AI-driven industrial environments.

As mobile automation, robotics, and Edge AI applications rapidly expand across industrial environments, reliable wireless infrastructure has become critical for ensuring uninterrupted operations. The EKI-6333BE-4GD addresses these challenges with high-throughput Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, industrial-grade resilience, and advanced network management, enabling enterprises to build secure and scalable wireless infrastructure for mission-critical industrial systems.

UGREEN, a leading global consumer electronics brand, announced on March 6 that pre-orders have opened for its latest Maxidok line of docks, an all-new collection of Thunderbolt 5 docking stations for the European market. As a leading docking station brand on Amazon Europe, UGREEN brings next-generation desktop connectivity to the lineup, with higher bandwidth, lower latency, and greater expansion capabilities, providing a significant boost in performance and workflow flexibility.

As laptops become thinner and lighter, the trade-off is fewer available ports. At the same time, demand for faster data transfers, multi-display outputs, and external storage continues to rise. The Maxidok line, the latest flagship in UGREEN's Revodok series, is built to resolve these challenges with Thunderbolt 5 technology. It eliminates port and bandwidth bottlenecks that traditional docks struggle with for 4K/8K and multi‑device workflows, fully utilising the high bandwidth and advanced display capabilities of Thunderbolt 5. The result is a powerful tool built to accelerate creative workflows and truly help users "Max Out Your Productivity."

ASRock, a global leader in motherboards, graphics cards, gaming monitors, small form factor PCs, power supply units, and AIO liquid coolers, today introduced that its Z890I Nova WiFi R2.0, paired with two Kingston 4-rank DDR5 128 GB memory modules, has successfully enabled CQDIMM support through optimized circuit design and hardware and software tuning. The platform achieves DDR5-7400 MT/s operation with a total capacity of 256 GB, surpassing the DDR5-7200 MT/s limit commonly seen on most platforms today. This milestone represents a major breakthrough for high-capacity, high-bandwidth DDR5 memory applications.

CQDIMM is based on a 4-rank CUDIMM (Clocked Unbuffered DIMM) design, with a maximum capacity of 128 GB per module and a native speed of DDR5-7200 MT/s, addressing the long-standing challenge of balancing large memory capacity with high bandwidth. With CQDIMM support, the Z890I Nova WiFi R2.0 further pushes memory performance to DDR5-7400 MT/s, delivering a memory configuration that combines both high capacity and high performance to meet the demanding requirements of AI computing, content creation, and professional workloads.

There has been a lot of talk about the future of the Xbox gaming brand since it was announced that Phil Spencer would be stepping down as head of Microsoft's gaming business. The new CEO of Xbox, Asha Sharma, has previously defended against a barrage of this skepticism, revealing that she has in mind a "return to Xbox," and with new posts on X by both Xbox and Sharma, she confirmed that part of this return does indeed include a hardware launch. The next-gen Xbox is called Project Helix, and although neither Sharma nor Xbox itself has revealed much more about the next-gen console than the logo and project name, Sharma also hinted that more information may be revealed at GDC, which is slated to take place on March 9-13.

The next-gen Xbox has long been rumored, with recent rumors claiming that it will be a hybrid device, bridging the gap between a living room console and a PC—perhaps in response to the recent rise of devices like the Steam Deck and the pressure of the upcoming Steam Machine—and Sharma more or less hints at this in her post, stating that "Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games." This isn't the first time Sharma has spoken about the next-gen Xbox hardware platform, having mentioned it in a recent interview as a key part of the brand's future. Speculation about Sharma's leadership of Xbox has also veered into deep skepticism, largely resulting from Sharma's history as CEO of Microsoft's CoreAI platform and her willingness to use AI in the gaming industry, even if she claims that she will not tolerate AI slop.

ATK, maker of the Blazing Sky Duckbill mouse that launched in mid-2025 and the recently announced Yogo75 mechanical keyboard, has officially unveiled the launch date, design, and some specifications for its upcoming Zero wireless gaming mouse. The Zero takes a slightly different approach to most of ATK's other gaming mice, opting, instead of the usual ABS or forged carbon fiber, for a translucent, textured polycarbonate shell that will allow you to see the internals of the mouse. The Zero has been confirmed to be arriving in at least three translucent colorways: black, pink, and white, although ATK is known for having a wide variety of color options on most of its gaming mice.

According to the official teaser on X and a recent Reddit post, the ATK Zero will feature much of the same tech as has been present in many of the brand's more recent releases, including the Nordic 54L15 MCU, a PixArt PAW 3950 Ultra sensor with up to 42,000 DPI sensitivity and a 20,000 FPS mode, 8 kHz polling, and a 300 mAh battery. The aforementioned spec sheet also mentions a 39 g weight and dimensions coming in at 120.1 × 63.2 × 38.1 mm, making it almost identical to the Pulsar X2 CrazyLight Medium in terms of size, shape, and weight. The ATK Zero will feature custom ATK optical switches for the main clicks, a TTC Gold encoder for the scroll wheel, and pure PTFE skates. The launch date is currently set for March 11, although pricing is still unknown.

Marathon recently had quite a successful server slam weekend, drawing in nearly 150,000 players at one point on Steam alone. In the hours since its March 5 launch, it has consistently played host to around 80,000 concurrent players, showing that it wasn't just the free test drawing players into the new extraction shooter. However, it seems as though Bungie wants to include as many gamers in the fun as possible, according to the game's ESRB rating, which has recently been updated to include both the Xbox One and PlayStation 5 in addition to the previous ratings for PC, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5 platforms.

Bungie has not confirmed whether it is planning to bring Marathon to older systems, but it's curious nonetheless that the game would receive a dedicated rating for last-gen consoles, especially since older games that launched on last-gen consoles but have since become playable on new consoles, like Destiny 2, have not been updated at the ESRB to include newer console generations in their ratings. Marathon's minimum hardware requirements for PC are far from high-end, calling for just an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT and an Intel Core i5-6600 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600 with 8 GB of RAM. The PS4, for its part, is powered by an AMD GCN 1.1.0 GPU with 1152 shading units, coming in at around 1.843 TFLOPS theoretical performance, which is substantially lower than the GTX 1050 Ti's 2.183 TFLOPS, but given the nature of tailored console hardware, it wouldn't be surprising if it could be run smoothly on the aging hardware. However, it has been reported that Marathon runs fairly well on Windows gaming handhelds, so it may be technically possible to get the game running on older consoles if the development team decides to put in the work.

Resident Evil Requiem recently launched as the newest installment in Capcom's zombie horror franchise, and although it received glowing reviews, even topping the Steam charts and handily beating out every other Resident Evil game on PC, gamers were a little disappointed to find out that the game was originally meant to feature a return to Raccoon City and the Spencer mansion from Resident Evil 1. According to prominent game leaker, Dusk Golem on X, part of the reason for the mansion scene being cut from Requiem was to avoid repetition in both the upcoming Code Veronica remake and a Resident Evil 1 remake.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of Resident Evil Requiem is now live]

According to the leaker, Resident Evil 1 is confirmed as being in early development, and a Code Veronica will be the next game in the series, which would mean having gameplay in the same mansion in three successive games, which, in the leaker's own words would "start to feel very samey & not very special at all." Resident Evil Code Veronica Remake is slated to launch in 2027, although the Resident Evil 1 remake is still in the early stages of development, so it seems like a 2029 release date would be the earliest we can expect. Supposedly, the remake will be in the updated RE Engine in which Requiem was also made and demonstrates decent visuals and performance, even with modest hardware requirements.

March is in full bloom, and that means a fresh wave of games heading to the cloud. 15 new titles are joining the GeForce NOW library this month. Leading the March lineup is Pearl Abyss' Crimson Desert, an open‑world action‑adventure set in a war‑torn fantasy land, alongside plenty of other games to explore. Whether looking to shake off the winter blues or jump into some bracket‑worthy gaming action, there's something for everyone in the cloud. March into the cloud and see what's new - and keep an eye on GFN Thursdays all month for more updates. This week kicks off the month with eight new games.

March Gaming Madness
LORT dials chaos up to 11 and snaps the knob clean off. Big Distraction's off‑the‑rails adventure hurls players into a world where every corner hides a bad idea waiting to become a great story, powered by wild weapons, weirder characters and "Did that just happen?" moments. Catch every glorious disaster in full fidelity and play it on GeForce NOW, available this week.

Over a decade ago, the BC1 Open Benchtable launched with one clear goal: the ultimate portable platform for traveling overclocking enthusiasts. Its minimalist, toolless, flat pack design proved so effective that it quickly became the benchmark for open air builds, evolving from road warrior to permanent showcase platform for hobbyists and professionals alike.

Portability demanded compromises: slim profile, simple brackets, no native support for complete vertical builds. Today we close those gaps with precision engineered accessories that extend the BC1's legendary versatility without changing its core DNA.

Keychron recently announced the new Q HE 8K gaming keyboard line-up, starting with the Q1 HE, Q3 HE, and Q6 HE, all of which feature Keychron's Ultra-Fast Magnetic Lime switches and full metal construction. Keychron has now also added the Q5 HE 8K to the list, for those who want a slightly more compact layout but don't want to sacrifice the num pad in the process. The Q5 HE 8K is available on the Keychron web store in black and white colorways for $239.99. It will likely also launch on Amazon at a later date, but it is not yet available there.

Everything about the Q5 HE 8K is just about identical to the other keyboards in the series, with the exception of the layout, from the polyurethane foam gasket mount to the aluminium plate and OSA profile double-shot PBT keycaps. The main draw over the Q5 HE 8K is that it condenses much of the same functionality as the full-size Q6 HE 8K into a small footprint—408 mm long vs 446 mm on the Q6 HE 8K—while only losing five keys and not compromising with a small zero key on the num pad. Unlike most 1800 layout keyboards, the Q5 HE 8K also has a programmable knob and a row of macro keys above the num pad. Like its brethren, the Q5 HE 8K is a wired-only keyboard, which has the side effect of bringing the front height down to 20.6 mm, and it has the same analog input features and 8 kHz polling rate as the other keyboards in the 8K series. The keyboard is also remappable and configurable in the Keychron Launcher web app, and it features all the usual analog keyboard trappings, like SOCD, DKS, Rapid Trigger, and controller emulation. It also has on-board macros with macro recording or manual programming functionality in Launcher, and it features Keychron's usual hardware OS selector switch alongside a hardware profile selector switch near the USB-C port.

imec, a global leader in nano-electronics and digital innovation, and Atlas Data Storage, a pioneer of production-scale DNA data storage, today announce a new strategic partnership to accelerate the development of digital data storage using synthetic DNA. The collaboration combines Atlas' ASIC design expertise and scalable DNA synthesis technology with imec's deep expertise in advanced chip development, fabrication, and integration. In addition to prototyping and strategic support, imec is investing in Atlas.

As data creation and storage accelerates in the AI age, magnetic media such as tape and hard disk drives face unavoidable limits in density, sustainability, cost, and long-term reliability. DNA data storage compresses vast datasets into tiny volumes while ensuring ultra-long durability with minimal energy and maintenance.

We reported that Apple's M5 Pro/Max series of SoCs is now incorporating an additional core tier alongside the usual configuration we have been seeing in the company's processors for years. The performance core has been renamed "Super Core," and Apple has introduced a middle-tier design called Performance Core, which is actually a new "M-Core," while the Efficiency Core remains the same. As the regular big P-Core has been renamed to Super-Core, Apple is updating its nomenclature even for the regular M5 SoC with the macOS Tahoe 26.3.1 update. In this update, Apple has renamed the bigger Performance core to Super-Core, meaning that the M5 SoC now has four super cores and six efficiency cores, whereas this was previously called a four performance-core and six efficiency-core design before the update.

This M5 SoC has no new "M-Cores" variants that sit between the super core and efficiency core, while the M5 Pro and M5 Max have six Super-Cores and 12 M-Cores. The M-Core is a 7-wide out-of-order execution CPU that has roughly 70% of the P-core performance with slightly lower power usage. Interestingly, the efficiency core is completely absent from the new M5 Pro/Max SoCs, resulting in a combination of performance and middle-class cores. This leaves only the regular M5 with the efficiency cores in its CPU package. This macOS software update is only meant for the M5-powered MacBook Pro, which has been shipping with older macOS versions without the Tahoe's v26.3.1 update. For the latest MacBook Air and MacBook Pro equipped with M5, M5 Pro, and M5 Max SoCs, the operating system will likely already show the new naming out of the box, as Apple likely applied all OS updates before shipping. Below are screenshots courtesy of Andrew Cunningham from Ars Technica, showing the new nomenclature on the left, and old way on the right.

NuPhy recently revealed the Aquarium keycap set in its custom nSA profile for low-profile mechanical keyboards, like the Air60 HE and Node series mechanical keyboards. Now, the brand has announced the latest iteration in its nSA keycap range, the Creative Engine design, which features a much more practical design than the Aquarium set. The NuPhy Creative Engine nSA keycap set is available on the NuPhy online store for $49.95 and includes 126 keys, providing a few alternative keycaps for some modifiers and navigation keys and supporting a little more than an average 100% keyboard. That said, the keycap set does not have proper extended compatibility for odd-ball layouts or even ISO, although you could probably make it work on a split space keyboard, thanks to the 2.25u and 2.75u enter and shift keys, thanks to the uniform height.

Much like the Aquarium keycap set, the Creative Engine keycap set is designed by BOHO and manufactured by KeyTok, a well-known OEM in the mechanical keyboard space. The Creative Engine keycap set is inspired by the UI of Adobe Illustrator, with three shades of gray for the main alphanumeric keycaps and bright yellow for the accent keycaps. The legend on the keycaps echoes the Illustrator theme, with each keycap featuring dye-sublimation printed iconography and lettering for built-in Illustrator keyboard shortcuts. The nSA profile features a 5.5 mm maximum height and a spherical top—this simply means that the top curves in both the X and Y axes, unlike something like Cherry, which uses cylindrical tops that only curve in the X axis. NuPhy explicitly lists compatibility with its own Air, Kick, and Node series low-profile keycaps, but the keycaps should be compatible with any mechanical keyboard that uses MX-style switches and has a layout somewhere between 60% and 100% and uses a 6.25u space bar.

NVIDIA has reportedly halted production of its China-focused H200 "Hopper" GPU at TSMC's facilities, according to multiple reports. The company has built up an inventory of 250,000 H200 GPUs, which will be available in the Chinese market for select applications that do not compromise United States national security. After NVIDIA was granted export rights to China for its H200 accelerators, the company began stockpiling these GPUs to supply AI labs across China. However, China has also restricted what its domestic companies and AI labs can import, meaning that the import of H200 GPUs is still prohibited unless a company receives a letter of exemption from Beijing. This has resulted in NVIDIA using its TSMC N5 5 nm node capacity to create about 250,000 units, which are now stored in a warehouse awaiting export approval from the U.S. administration and import approval from Chinese customs for AI labs.

Interestingly, the Financial Times and Reuters note that NVIDIA will now "reallocate" capacity from H200 production to the new "Rubin." However, these two GPU generations do not use the same manufacturing node or packaging technology. For "Hopper," NVIDIA uses TSMC's 5 nm node with CoWoS-S packaging, while "Rubin" uses a 3 nm node with CoWoS-L packaging. These reports likely refer to some conversion of manufacturing capacity involving either the node or packaging capacity that NVIDIA has secured. It is unlikely that the 5 nm semiconductor node can be converted into a 3 nm node without significant line remodeling and changes to manufacturing equipment. However, packaging can be adjusted more easily, which is likely what these reports are indicating.

Other World Computing (OWC), a trusted leader in high-performance storage, memory, connectivity, software, and accessories that empower creative and business professionals to maximize performance, enhance reliability, and streamline workflows, today announced storage and connectivity solutions for Apple's all new MacBook Neo.

It is always an exciting moment when Apple introduces a new Mac for the people who depend on these machines to get real work done," said Larry O'Connor, Founder and CEO of Other World Computing (OWC). "The MacBook Neo brings powerful capabilities into an incredibly portable form factor and much lower price, and that means professionals, students, and creators will want tools that travel just as easily and affordably while expanding what the system can do. With solutions like the OWC Travel Dock and our USB-C storage solutions, OWC makes it simple and affordable to connect more to the Neo and easily expand your storage so users can work anywhere without compromise."

MSI, a leading brand in gaming hardware, is thrilled to partner with Pearl Abyss, the acclaimed game developer and publisher, to offer PC gamers an exclusive reward.

Embark on a thrilling adventure in Crimson Desert with MSI's high-performance motherboards
From March 6th to April 6th, 2026, gamers who purchase select MSI X870E or B850 motherboards can claim a free Crimson Desert Steam code. Experience the stunning visuals and action-packed open world of Pywel, powered by the cutting-edge performance of MSI's latest hardware.

CP156 is a ToughArmor series removable NVMe enclosure that fits into a standard external 3.5" drive bay. It allows two 7 mm U.2/U.3 NVMe SSDs to be mounted together on a single removable tray. Unlike traditional 2-bay designs where each SSD is removed separately, CP156 keeps both drives physically secured on the same tray. This ensures that:

• Drive order remains fixed
• Paired SSDs are never separated
• No accidental swapping during handling or transport

For RAID configurations, mirrored datasets, or application-specific SSD pairs, maintaining correct drive sequence is critical. CP156 eliminates the risk of mix-ups during physical movement.

Wishfully Studios and Thunderful invite players to visit a stunning world and experience a heartfelt story of companionship in Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf, available now on PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation 5 PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch for $19.99 / €19.99 / £16.99.

A Supporter Pack for the game is also available for PC and PlayStation 5, which includes a digital art book, the Novo Language Companion - a guide to the game's language - and, for PC, stunning wallpapers and backgrounds. A demo for the game launched today on Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch and remains available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox platforms.

Developer DALOAR and publisher Daedalic Entertainment are pleased to announce that the first-person horror adventure The Occultist will release on April 8, 2026. The Occultist is now also available for pre-order on PlayStation 5 and Xbox. More information can be found on the game's official website: https://www.theoccultist-game.com.

The episode explores how environmental details, distant sounds, and carefully used silence shape the experience of exploring the island. Instead of relying on jump scares or gore, the developers focus on sustained tension where atmosphere and player imagination gradually build fear throughout the journey.

System76 has refreshed its Launch mechanical keyboard lineup with a new Prism Black finish and doubleshot PBT shine-through keycaps, the latter being corrosion-resistant and keeping the RGB backlighting visible without washing it out. For the unfamiliar, System76 is based in Denver, Colorado, US, and is primarily known for its Linux-first laptops, desktops, and servers, plus the in-house Pop!_OS operating system. Both the Launch and Launch Heavy keyboards are milled from solid aluminium blocks and built around a custom open-source PCB. Switch swapping is tool-free thanks to Kailh MX hot-swap sockets, with Jade, Royal, Silent Pink, and Silent Brown variants available at purchase. The keyboards also feature per-key RGB and full N-key rollover. Firmware is QMK-based and fully open source, with layout and lighting customization handled through the System76 Keyboard Configurator app on Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Connectivity on both keyboards is wired, using a detachable USB connection, and System76 includes both USB-C to USB-C and USB-A to USB-C cables in the box. The compact Launch measures 308.3 mm x 135.1 mm x 30.6 mm, with an 84-key layout, and includes a four-port USB hub with two USB-C and two USB-A ports, all running at 10 Gbps. The Launch Heavy offers a 105-key layout, measures 394 mm x 135.1 mm x 30.3 mm, and comes with the same SuperSpeed four-port USB hub to match. The Launch starts at $285 and the Launch Heavy at $299.

In response to memory shortages, PC OEMs are exploring alternative manufacturers and suppliers for this increasingly scarce and valuable resource. Customers now need to make purchasing decisions within an hour or even prepay suppliers to secure DRAM. Recently, Lenovo has started using the Chinese memory supplier CXMT in some of its laptop models. Lenovo is officially rolling out its LPCAMM2 memory to mainstream laptops after introducing it with the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 back in 2024. LPCAMM2 is a new memory standard that combines the performance of LPDDR5X with the upgradeability of a regular SODIMM. The ThinkBook 16+ is likely Lenovo's first consumer device to feature LPCAMM2, offering up to 32 GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory, supported by an Intel Core Ultra X7 385H and its Arc B390 iGPU, using the first CXMT memory modules.

Late last year, CXMT introduced its DDR5-8000 and LPDDR5X-10667 memory modules at the 2025 China International Semiconductor Expo. This development has likely encouraged many OEMs to seek alternatives to traditional suppliers like SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron, whose supply has been very limited outside AI accelerator workloads. Even Apple is reportedly considering partnerships with Chinese semiconductor manufacturers CXMT and YMTC for its upcoming iPhone 18 series and possibly other products like MacBooks and Mac computers. With suppliers such as Kioxia, Samsung, and SK hynix raising prices due to a significant industry shortage, Apple is experiencing pressure on its profit margins while maintaining the same MSRP for its products. To diversify its supply chain, Apple is reportedly looking into sourcing DRAM from CXMT and NAND Flash from YMTC to reduce its reliance on South Korean and Japanese suppliers.

Intel has quietly initiated open-source efforts to lay the groundwork for its next-generation Xe3P graphics within the Mesa OpenGL "Iris" and Vulkan "Anvil" drivers. According to a report from Phoronix, these efforts are not immediately focused on making the driver functional but rather on establishing code paths that can be developed for this graphics IP in the future. This means preliminary support is still a few weeks away, as additional work is needed behind the scenes. By the time Xe3P GPUs are released, open-source driver support should be ready.

We expect to see the first versions of Xe3P GPUs this year, as this IP will take on various forms. Some will be featured in the upcoming "Nova Lake" desktop processors for the consumer market, anticipated later this year. Early open-source enablement suggests "Nova Lake-P" processors will include Xe3P-LPG for integrated graphics. Additionally, "Nova Lake-P" processors will incorporate multiple new IPs like Xe3P-LPM for media processing, which handles decoding and encoding, and Xe3P-LPD for display output processing. Finally, the Xe3P IP will also be part of Intel's AI-focused "Crescent Island" inference GPU, which will feature 160 GB of onboard LPDDR5X. We are still awaiting performance claims for this Xe3P GPU, so we need to be patient a little longer.

Yesterday, Apple announced its newest low-cost MacBook Neo, starting at $599 in the United States, or about $499 for education and students. Some online criticism emerged regarding Apple's decision to offer a laptop with only 8 GB of RAM in 2026, with no options for higher RAM capacity. However, this 8 GB of RAM is a design choice Apple made at TSMC's packaging facilities for the A18 Pro chip. Inside the MacBook Neo, Apple decided to reuse the iPhone 16 Pro's chip, which comes from TSMC with 8 GB of LPDDR5X memory. This memory is attached directly above the A18 Pro SoC using Integrated Fan-Out Package on Package (InFO-PoP), creating a 3D wafer-level fan-out package. This package is designed to hold memory directly above the SoC die, resulting in a smaller PCB design without the LPDDR5X module taking up over 100 mm² of PCB area.

Therefore, Apple's MacBook Neo configurations are limited to what the A18 Pro SoC is originally packaged with. These are 8 GB LPDDR5X modules that are shipped directly to TSMC for integration into the InFO-PoP package, which is later shipped back to Apple for integration into these new MacBook Neo laptops. While offering 8 GB laptops in modern times might seem controversial, the design choices behind the SoC and the goal of keeping unit costs low are what limit Apple from providing more memory capacity. Finally, these SoCs use Unix-based macOS, which is optimized for good memory management at this capacity, ensuring that users can still have a satisfactory experience.

At MWC 2026, Fibocom unveiled its new 5G SoC Dongle solution series, designed with an all-in-one SoC architecture that integrates high-performance 5G communication, an intelligent operating system, and flexible eSIM/vSIM services. This solution aims to deliver a cost-efficient and scalable 5G terminal option for the global mobile broadband market.

SoC Integration: Redefining 5G Terminal Efficiency
The highlight of Fibocom's 5G SoC Dongle lies in its high-performance SoC-based architecture, offering advantages in performance, cost, intelligent interaction, and application flexibility.

• Performance Leap: Equipped with an octa-core CPU (up to 2.3 GHz) and Adreno 613 GPU, the dongle delivers exceptional data processing power alongside ultra-fast 5G connectivity.
• Cost Efficiency: The SoC's high level of integration minimizes peripheral components and optimizes hardware design. This not only improves production yield but also significantly reduces development and material costs, providing strong pricing competitiveness for operators and enterprise customers.

Capcom Co., Ltd. today announced that worldwide sales of Resident Evil Requiem, released on February 27, 2026, surpassed 5 million units.

Resident Evil Requiem is the latest installment in the Resident Evil series, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this month. The title successfully elevated the essence of survival horror by heightening the interplay between intense fear and exhilarating action. Resident Evil Requiem was developed using RE ENGINE, Capcom's proprietary game engine, which allowed the company to deliver visuals in photorealistic detail, including the characters' skin, teary eyes, and flowing hair, as well as the translucency of light. In addition, the title offers a new game experience for a broad fanbase through multiple difficulty settings that accommodate everyone from newcomers to experienced players, as well as allowing players to switch between first-person and third-person perspectives in real-time to suit each player's individual play styles.

TrendForce's latest research on smartphone panels reveals that shortages and rising memory prices—one of the most costly components in smartphones—are reshaping brand shipment strategies for 2026 and weakening panel demand.

Global smartphone panel shipments are projected to reach 2.14 billion units in 2026, down 7.3% YoY from 2.31 billion units in 2025. This marks the end of the growth cycle that began in 2023 and the market's first annual decline in several years.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, a mid-range GPU now two generations old, is reportedly returning to NVIDIA's supply this month. According to Chinese Board Channels, NVIDIA is planning a mid-March restock of the "Ampere" GPU, aligning with earlier rumors that suggested a Q1 2026 revival. Interestingly, it is unclear which version of the RTX 3060 will be reintroduced—whether it will be the original 12 GB model with a 192-bit wide memory bus or the newer 8 GB variant with a 128-bit bus. NVIDIA's decision to bring back this older SKU is puzzling, especially considering it is two generations old and comes amid memory supply chain shortages. However, this older SKU uses GDDR6 memory, which might be more readily available as the newer GDDR7 is being used by modern "Blackwell" GPUs and the upcoming "Rubin CPX" accelerators.

Why NVIDIA has chosen the RTX 3060 instead of a newer model like the RTX 4060 remains uncertain. Speculatively, it could be due to the fact that the RTX 4060 is based on the same NVIDIA 4N foundry node at TSMC as the current RTX 5060, while the RTX 3060, along with the rest of the GeForce "Ampere" generation, is built on the Samsung 8N (8 nm DUV) foundry node. Additionally, Board Channels note that GeForce RTX 3060 models from various brands will start arriving soon, which means NVIDIA's add-in card partners are doing much of the heavy lifting to bring back this SKU, with NVIDIA only supplying the GPU die and memory as an installation kit. AICs could start marketing this GPU again or just quietly add it to their websites. We are waiting a few more days to see how the re-launch unfolds and which SKUs we end up getting. Finally, the most important factor for considering this GPU when modern alternatives exist is the pricing, which will dictate its sales.

Antec Inc., a global leader in high-performance computer components and accessories, proudly announces the launch of the Antec 900, a next-generation full-tower chassis engineered for Edge AI workloads, professional workstations, and high-end gaming systems. Designed for demanding computing environments, the Antec 900 provides a scalable platform for AI development, engineering, content creation, and 8K-capable gaming.

The Antec 900 supports ATX, E-ATX, SSI-CEB, and SSI-EEB motherboards, including AMD Threadripper systems, and is also compatible with back-connect motherboards for cleaner cable management and improved airflow. The spacious interior accommodates multi-GPU and accelerator configurations such as NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada series GPUs. With support for graphics cards up to 495 mm in length and 160 mm in thickness, the chassis is built for the latest generation of high-performance hardware.

Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS), a premier chip and silicon IP provider making data faster and safer, today announced the industry's leading HBM4E Memory Controller IP, extending its market leadership in HBM IP. This new solution delivers breakthrough performance with advanced reliability features enabling designers to address the demanding memory bandwidth requirements of next-generation AI accelerators and graphics processing units (GPUs).

"Given the insatiable bandwidth demands of AI, it's imperative for the memory ecosystem to continue aggressively advancing memory performance," said Simon Blake-Wilson, SVP and general manager of Silicon IP, at Rambus. "As a leading silicon IP provider for AI applications, we are bringing the industry's leading HBM4E Controller IP solution to the market as a key enabler for breakthrough performance in next-generation AI processors and accelerators."

NVIDIA has rolled out GeForce Hotfix Display Driver version 595.76, based on the recently released 595.71 WHQL Game Ready driver. The update specifically targets a GPU voltage cap issue affecting overclocked graphics cards, which prevented them from boosting to expected frequency levels. The voltage limitation surfaced shortly after the March 3 release of the 595.71 WHQL driver, which itself was meant to resolve problems introduced by the earlier 595.59 build. Users with RTX 50-series "Blackwell" GPUs reported reduced boost clocks and performance degradation under load, with observed core voltages sitting lower than on prior drivers. The new 595.76 hotfix restores proper voltage behavior when overclocking is applied.

Beyond the voltage fix, the hotfix addresses several game-related issues. In Resident Evil Requiem, it resolves white glowing artifacts that appeared when Subsurface Scattering was enabled and improves path tracing performance. It also fixes launch crashes in Star Citizen and corrects intermittent application crashes or driver timeouts when playing multi-key DRM content in browsers on HDCP 1.x monitors. As with all NVIDIA hotfix releases, version 595.76 is a beta, optional driver distributed through the company's Customer Care support site. It undergoes a shortened QA cycle and will be pulled once its fixes are rolled into the next official WHQL-certified release. Users seeking maximum stability may prefer to wait for that broader driver update.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix Display Driver 595.76

An Assassin's Creed Black Flag Remake has been rumored for years at this point, with the most recent rumors claiming a 2026 launch date, but now, the new Assassin's Creed Head of Content, Jean Guedon, has confirmed in a recent brand update blog post that Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is in development. While the game's existence is now confirmed, no launch date or window has been attached yet, and Ubisoft indicated in the blog post that it is but one of several AC projects "in various stages of development."

As the title of the blog post "Assassin's Creed Into 2026" indicates, Guesdon also gives us an idea of what to expect from the franchise for 2026 onwards, aside from Black Flag. Namely, he says that the next Assassin's Creed game slated for launch is Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe, which looks to have recently received a combat rework deep into its development cycle. Hexe is confirmed to be a narrative-driven, darker twist on the franchise, and Ubisoft will "be quiet for a little longer," ahead of release, but it looks to be the closest to launch. Assassin's Creed Invictus is the name of the PVP multiplayer Assassin's Creed game that Guedon has also confirmed to be in development alongside Codename Jade, which is an open-world mobile game that will seemingly take place in China and was originally rumored for a 2023 launch.

On Monday, AMD announced its latest Ryzen AI 400 Series and Ryzen AI PRO 400 Series desktop processors, based on the "Gorgon Point" silicon and powered by the "Zen 5" core configuration. This generation follows the Ryzen 8000G series, known as "Phoenix Point." However, it has been revealed that the Ryzen AI 400 series reduces the number of usable PCIe lanes compared to the previous Ryzen 8000G generation. The new top SKU offers 16 native PCIe 4.0 lanes, but only 12 are available to the rest of the system. Four of these PCIe lanes are used for the chipset link that connects the AM5 socket to the motherboard chipset, leaving fewer lanes for the end-user. Lower-tier chips may provide as few as 10 usable lanes, which is insufficient to run a discrete GPU at its full 16x lanes in the PCIe 4.0 connector on the AM5 motherboard. When a user installs an M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, only eight lanes remain available for a discrete graphics card, meaning the GPU will operate in x8 mode instead of x16.

Interestingly, AMD hasn't fully utilized the "Gorgon Point" silicon in the desktop Ryzen AI 400G series. For example, the top model—Ryzen AI 7 450G—is configured with four "Zen 5" cores and four "Zen 5c" cores, making up an eight-core configuration. The fully unlocked "Gorgon Point" silicon in laptops has 12 cores in total, with four "Zen 5" and eight "Zen 5c" cores. This is a similar configuration to "Strix Point," but adapted for mobile. It's also worth noting AMD's approach with the iGPU. The top 450G processor model only comes with 8 iGPU compute units, which is half the CUs physically available on the silicon. Most other processor models in the series come with just 4 CUs.

NVIDIA is reportedly planning a second RTX 5050 variant with 9 GB of memory instead of the standard 8 GB, according to leaker MEGAsizeGPU who has a decent track record on NVIDIA leaks. Unlike the existing RTX 5050, which uses 8 GB of 20 Gbps GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus for 320 GB/s of bandwidth, the new model is said to adopt 3 GB GDDR7 modules. The updated configuration would total 9 GB across a 96-bit memory bus. While the narrower bus reduces interface width, the move to 28 Gbps GDDR7 would raise total memory bandwidth to 336 GB/s, a roughly 5% increase, alongside a 12.5% boost in VRAM capacity. Core specifications are expected to remain unchanged. The card would continue to use the GB207 GPU, based on the Blackwell architecture, with 2560 CUDA cores and a 130 W TDP. No changes to clock speeds or core counts have been mentioned.

The report also claims NVIDIA is preparing adjustments higher up the stack. A revised GeForce RTX 5060 may transition to the larger GB205 die, currently used in the RTX 5070, in a cut-down configuration. That would reportedly reduce the GPU from 6144 CUDA cores and a 192-bit bus to 3840 cores and a 128-bit interface. Such a move would require board partners to adopt new PCBs compatible with GB205 and standard 8-pin power connectors. According to the leak, these changes are tied to supply constraints affecting lower-tier RTX 50-series GPUs, including the RTX 5050 and RTX 5060. The GeForce RTX 5060 12 GB, which appeared in earlier roadmaps, is now reportedly canceled.

Lamptron has added silver colorways to its HC060 and HM049 hardware monitors, two compact displays built for real-time system monitoring inside or alongside a PC. The bigger of the two is the HC060, a 6-inch LCD running at 1024 x 768 and 60 Hz. It connects over HDMI and Micro USB, draws power via USB, and ties into AIDA64 for live system data, however, it can also handle photos, video, or light gaming if you want to use it that way. The unit measures 148.5 x 8.5 x 70 mm with a visible screen area of 133 x 74.5 mm and an 80° viewing angle. It can sit on a desk or be mounted inside a chassis, and supports custom skins from Lamptron or your own.

The HM049 is the smaller option at 4.9 inches, with a 960 x 320 panel at 60 Hz. Same connectivity and AIDA64 support, same skin customization, just in a more compact 148.5 x 42.5 x 66 mm body with a 111×37.5 mm display area and matching 80° viewing angle. Both models are available through the Lamptron AliExpress store and regional resellers across Europe, North America, and Asia. The HC060 starts at €149.90 and the HM049 at €79.90.

Panmnesia, an AI infrastructure link solution provider, today announced the signing of a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SK Telecom, South Korea's largest telco and a leading AI company. The agreement, signed at MWC26 in Barcelona, aims to jointly develop a CXL-based next-generation AI data center architecture.

As large-scale AI services continue to expand, data centers are investing heavily in massive deployments of high-performance GPUs, resulting in astronomical costs. Recognizing the need for sustainable scalability, SK Telecom and Panmnesia are focusing beyond simple GPU expansion to technologies that enable more efficient utilization of existing computing resources. Through this collaboration, the two companies aim to simultaneously improve cost efficiency and performance by innovating data center interconnect architecture based on Compute Express Link (CXL) technology.

Morefine has announced the N1 NAS, a tower-style NAS solution that packs the AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 8845HS, up to 96 GB of DDR5-5600 ECC memory, dual 10 GbE ports, and built-in PCIe expansion. Pricing starts at $759 for a barebones version, but 32 GB of memory bumps that up to $1,209, while the 64 GB and 96 GB versions come in at $1,569 and $1,929. The Morefine N1 has three M.2 slots for up to 12 TB of SSD storage alongside four hot-swap 3.5-inch HDD bays accessible via the top of the case for an additional 120 TB. The aluminium case itself measured 218 × 193 × 372 mm, making it considerably smaller than many ITX systems but not quite as svelte as a traditional mini PC, like the recently announced Minisforum MS-A2.

The N1 also comes with a built-in 800 W PSU with 400 W dedicated to the GPU power budget, making it adequate for something like an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, although the included PSU power connectors are not specified. Internal space for the dGPU is limited to 330 mm × 66 mm, too, so SFF GPUs will be the way to go. The port selection is also fairly decent for an SFF PC, packing dual USB 2.0, 1× USB4 port, 1× USB 3.2 Gen 2, 1× USB 3.2 Gen 1, a full size SD card reader, 1× HDMI 2.0, and dual 10 GbE RJ 45 ports. It also has a small 3-inch full color touch screen on the front of the case for displaying things like system information.

Other World Computing (OWC), a trusted leader in high-performance storage, memory, connectivity, software, and accessories that empower creative and business professionals to maximize performance, enhance reliability, and streamline workflows, today announced its unmatched roster of storage, connectivity, and expansion solutions for the newly announced Apple MacBook Pro with all new M5 Pro and M5 Max and MacBook Air with M5, as well as the Apple iPad Air, powered by M4 and Studio Display and all-new Studio Display XDR.

Apple today unveiled MacBook Neo, an all-new laptop that delivers the magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price, making it even more accessible to millions of people around the world. MacBook Neo starts with a beautiful Apple design, featuring a durable aluminium enclosure in an array of gorgeous colors—blush, indigo, silver, and a fresh new citrus. Its stunning 13-inch Liquid Retina display brings websites, photos, videos, and apps to life with high resolution and brightness, and support for 1 billion colors. Powered by A18 Pro, MacBook Neo can fly through everyday tasks, from browsing the web and streaming content, to editing photos, exploring creative hobbies, or using AI capabilities across apps. In fact, it's up to 50 percent faster for everyday tasks like web browsing, and up to 3x faster when running on-device AI workloads like applying advanced effects to photos, compared to the bestselling PC with the latest shipping Intel Core Ultra 5. Providing up to 16 hours of battery life, MacBook Neo allows users to go all day on a single charge.

A 1080p FaceTime HD camera and dual mics make it easy to look and sound great, and the dual side-firing speakers with Spatial Audio deliver crisp, immersive sound. MacBook Neo also features Apple's renowned Magic Keyboard for comfortable and precise typing, and a large Multi-Touch trackpad with support for intuitive gestures, enabling smooth and precise control. Completing the MacBook Neo experience is macOS Tahoe, with powerful built-in apps like Messages, Pages, Calendar, and Safari; seamless integration with iPhone; Apple Intelligence; as well as broad compatibility with third-party apps. And starting at just $599 and $499 for education, MacBook Neo is Apple's most affordable laptop ever, providing an unprecedented combination of quality and value. MacBook Neo is available to pre-order starting today, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.

Asustor has rounded out its AS72 rackmount NAS lineup with the AS7224RDX Lockerstor 24R Pro Gen 2, adding a 24-bay option to sit alongside the existing 12-bay AS7212RDX and 16-bay AS7216RDX models that launched back in August 2025. The new model supports drives up to 32 TB, giving it a raw internal capacity of 768 TB. It can be expanded to 36 bays with the AX7012R expansion unit, at which point it can pass the 1 PB internal capacity. The AS72 family runs on an AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 7745 (8 cores, up to 5.3 GHz) and comes with 16 GB of DDR5-4800 ECC memory, upgradeable to 192 GB. Networking covers dual 10 GbE and dual 1 GbE out of the box, with PCIe Gen 5 x8 and x4 slots available for 25/40/50 GbE NICs or SAS cards if you need more. Asustor quotes SMB multichannel speeds of up to 2,309 MB/s read and 1,886 MB/s write over 10 GbE in RAID 5.

The rest of the feature set is what you'd expect at this level: RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50/60, hot-swap bays, a hardware encryption engine, M.2 PCIe Gen 5 SSD support, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, and dual redundant 550 W 80 Plus Platinum PSUs. No pricing has been announced.

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today unveiled the Razer BlackShark V3 X HyperSpeed for Xbox - White Edition and Razer BlackShark V3 X HyperSpeed for PlayStation - White Edition.

Bringing a clean new colorway to one of Razer's most lightweight, high-performance wireless console headsets, the White Edition is designed to complement next-generation consoles while delivering the same esports-ready performance that the BlackShark line is known for.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading innovator in computing, networking, and storage solutions, today introduced the TS-h1077AFU, a compact 10-bay SATA-based all-flash NAS designed for businesses seeking fast, reliable, and cost-effective flash storage. Built on the ZFS-based QuTS hero operating system, powered by AMD Ryzen PRO 7000 Series processors, and equipped with ECC DDR5 memory, the TS-h1077AFU delivers exceptional performance, data integrity, and deployment value. Engineered with speed, density, and reliability at its core, the TS-h1077AFU is ideal for virtualization, high-speed media workflows, database operations, and multi-site backup consolidation.

"Following the strong market reception of our 30-bay TS-h3077AFU, we developed the TS-h1077AFU to bring the same enterprise flash performance to a more compact and versatile form factor," said Alex Shih, Product Manager at QNAP. "This 10-bay model gives businesses greater flexibility when designing high-performance flash storage architectures, while retaining the reliability and data integrity that QuTS hero is known for."

The memory procurement market has adopted a new business model with hourly contracts, where quoted prices are valid for only a single hour, necessitating a new pricing quote with each change. Memory makers like SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron are responding to the massive demand for their memory solutions with new types of contracts that force OEMs to make quick decisions to procure DRAM within a very short timeframe. This means that memory makers are requiring much faster contract settlements, as the rapid increase in demand is causing product pricing to change literally by the hour. For example, large PC OEMs, who are among the biggest customers, now have to ship PCs with one pricing, while their future products are subject to price changes that fluctuate by the hour. How sustainable and stable this market will be remains to be seen.

Interestingly, the customer DRAM market is splitting into two camps. A short list of deep-pocketed customers, including large cloud providers, major automakers, and top smartphone firms such as Apple and Samsung Electronics, retain priority access to DRAM and the best pricing negotiation leverage. Memory manufacturers like SK hynix and Micron are said to prioritize these relationships above all else by favoring buyers who can prepay or settle in cash. For the vast remainder, more than 190,000 small and medium enterprises, the situation is harsher. Many lack the cash flow and bargaining leverage to accept rapid price jumps. As costs climb, some firms are revising demand forecasts downward to avoid margin erosion. Demand outside of the hyperscaler/data center sector may be revisited downward for many companies, as consumers are less keen on spending more on products that are becoming more expensive each day.

ASUS has reportedly updated its product pricing in the Chinese market to reflect the memory component shortage across the semiconductor industry. According to Board Channels, ASUS is adjusting the pricing for the GeForce RTX 50 Series "Blackwell" GPUs with GDDR7 memory, while the pricing strategy for AMD Radeon RX 9000/7000 and other series remains unchanged. At the very top, ASUS is increasing the price of its RTX 5090 D v2 SKUs by about 500 yuan, which is approximately $72 at the time of writing. Other SKUs like the GeForce RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, regular RTX 5070, and RTX 5060 Ti with 16 GB of VRAM are experiencing an increase of anywhere from $14.50 to $45. Interestingly, some older and low-end SKUs like the popular GT 1030 and GT 710 series, which provide basic graphics output for many prebuilt PCs, are also seeing a price increase of up to $8. AMD's Radeon series reportedly remains unchanged, which can be explained by these GPUs already having gone through a price increase cycle and GDDR6 memory being in better supply than GDDR7.You can check out the entire list with proposed price changes below.

TCL CSOT, a global leader in advanced display technologies and TCL Technology subsidiary, debuts its next-generation display innovation at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026. Under the theme "Super Pixel Beyond Limits," the company debuts its Super Pixel technology alongside major Inkjet-printed OLED (IJP OLED) advancements and a full portfolio of next-generation displays. These innovations reflect the APEX philosophy, prioritizing human-centric benefits and sustainability over pure specifications to inspire future possibilities.

"The APEX philosophy is our compass, guiding us to create visually stunning, healthier, more sustainable technologies," said Jun Zhao, Senior Vice President of TCL Technology and CEO of TCL CSOT. "Advancements like Super Pixel and IJP OLED aren't just single-component improvements; they represent a fundamental shift toward manufacturing stunning, flexible, and efficient displays."

Chieftec is pleased to present our new high-performance ATX workstation chassis, BW-01B-OP. Designed with a timelessly elegant front panel and a modern door concept, it combines professional aesthetics with practical functionality. Its essential front I/O, including a USB Type-C port, ensures convenient connectivity for today's workflows.

Key Features

• Modern ATX workstation with a pre-installed 120 mm PWM HDB fan
• Supports radiators up to 360 mm
• Two tool-less 5.25" drive bays
• Features 3.5" and 2.5" tool-less trays for up to 10 SSD/HDD drives
• Easy-to-remove storage cage system

EA posted a job listing seeking an engineer to port its Javelin Anticheat, a kernel-level anticheat solution, to the Windows-on-Arm (WoA) platform. This is a significant indicator of where the industry is headed, confirming that the biggest game developers are officially porting their game engines, games, and anticheat solutions to Arm-based PCs running the Windows 11 operating system. Interestingly, this coincides with NVIDIA's introduction of its N1/N1X SoCs with Arm-based CPU cores, which are expected to launch in the first half of this year. These will offer consumers 20 CPU cores, consisting of 10 Cortex-X925 and 10 Cortex-A725 CPU cores based on the Armv9.2 ISA, along with a "Blackwell" GPU optimized for low power settings with 6,144 CUDA cores. Adding to the growing ecosystem of WoA solutions, NVIDIA will be competing with Qualcomm's recent Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Plus SoCs.

If readers recall Valve's efforts to port regular Windows games to Linux, one of the biggest issues was the use of kernel-based anti-cheat solutions that simply couldn't work on the non-standard Windows 11 platform. A similar situation is now occurring even between Windows versions, as EA needs to develop a specialized solution that will work on non-x86 deployments like the standard Windows-on-Arm. It will likely be a few months before the official deployment is released, but the job listing suggests that some internal work is in progress. This means that the senior engineer EA is looking for could arrive to quickly bring these pieces together and make the new platform work without any issues.

AAEON's UP brand has announced the release of the Intelli TWL01 Edge, an Industrial Multimedia PC with dual 4K displays, multiple mounting options, and a range of Intel Core Processor N-series CPUs (formerly Twin Lake). Built to provide a cost-effective platform for multimedia solution building, the Intelli TWL01 Edge hosts two HDMI 2.0b ports capable of dual simultaneous 4K displays. In addition to this, AAEON notes that the system's Intel Processor N-series platform grants users access to both Intel UHD Graphics and DirectX 12.1 graphics API support, for the purpose of leveraging interactive dashboard functionality, reduced frame latency, and more efficient video rendering for both smaller kiosk and video conferencing suite setups as well as commercial large-scale video walls and interactive billboards.

The Intelli TWL01 Edge is both compact at 152 mm x 124.5 mm x 39 mm and fanless, a design choice driven by market user requests for a system that can be discreetly installed and operate with minimal noise. Moreover, the system offers versatile mounting options, with DIN Rail, VESA, and wall mounting available, allowing the device to be securely mounted in high-vibration settings, clutter-free integration with monitors or kiosks, and even secure media control room cabinets. In the same vein, its environmental specifications make it a relatively safe option for industrial deployment, with a broad 9 V to 36 V power input range, as well as 8 GB of soldered LPDDR5 system memory.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced a global campaign to kick off its 20th anniversary celebrations. From March 2 to April 13, ROG invites fans worldwide to celebrate by sharing content on social media and submitting their Dare-to-ROG stories via short-form videos. Entrants will complete actions and submit content types aligned with multiple fan levels (Level 1, 2, 3 and mega fans) to earn Gleam points and unlock different prize pools. ROG fans can submit their content to be eligible for a prize pool of over US $20,000.

In 2006, a group of passionate ASUS engineers joined forces to build incredible products for gamers like themselves. Out of their work, the Republic of Gamers was born. The shared love for gaming is—and always will be—the core spirit of ROG. Since then, ROG has armed gamers with high-tech PC gear crafted with vanguard spirit, dominant performance, and unmistakable attitude. The mission has never changed: to make the most powerful weapons on the battlefield for every gamer around the world.For more information, and to participate, visit this page.

Rumors recently popped up claiming that Sony would be moving away from PC ports of its major first-party game releases in 2026, especially single-player games. While those rumors have yet to be confirmed by Sony itself, Mike Ybarra, the former president of Blizzard Entertainment, has commented in a recent post on X that this may be the case, but he also points the finger at Valve's Steam Machine as partly to blame for this turn of events. He also adds that Sony sees the recent shake-up at Xbox as the "last nail in the coffin there," implying that Sony is making the right choice and that the shake-up will only embolden the Japanese gaming giant.

The former executive says that the incumbent console manufacturers "view Valve as a major new competitor" in the living room console space, adding that there will be third-party variants running SteamOS that will likely only compound this external pressure on Sony. He goes on to argue that Steam, and by extension the Steam Machine, has the biggest player base and biggest game library of all three living room console makers, and that "shipping good exclusive games matters." Ybarra also notes that Valve's independence, being a private company, allows it more freedom than Sony, who has to answer to shareholders and investors. For Sony's part, it's easy to see how cutting back on PC ports—effectively reducing the Steam Machine's library—could be an easy way to gain a competitive edge. As we discussed previously, it seems as though Sony's PC port business isn't a massive revenue driver in the first place, so it could be a low-risk way for Sony to protect its console ecosystem from incoming competition.

It's no secret that Highguard has languished under dwindling player counts and an apparent lack of funding since its launch in late January 2026, with rumors swirling that Tencent pulled funding from Studio Wildlight shortly after the launch of the game, prompting a round of layoffs that saw around 80% of the development team behind the game lose their jobs. Now, barely a month after launch, Wildlight has announced that it will shut down Highguard on March 12. Servers will remain online until March 12, but it's unclear if players will receive refunds for in-game purchases.

Despite the imminent shut-down, it seems like the developer will release the available content that has been completed in an upcoming update that will launch ahead of the shutdown and add a new Warden, a new weapon, account-level progression, and skill trees to the game—all content that may have added enough interest in the game if released earlier, but will likely suffer from being too little, too late. This isn't the first apparent last-ditch effort to save the game, with previous patches addressing complaints by adding new bases and a new game mode, among other new content, all of which again seemed to be positively received but didn't make a dent in the game's plummeting player counts.

Intel Corporation today announced that its board of directors has elected Dr. Craig H. Barratt as independent chair, effective following the company's Annual Stockholders' Meeting on May 13, 2026. Barratt will succeed Frank D. Yeary, who is retiring from the board and will not stand for reelection at the Annual Meeting. Yeary has served as a director since 2009 and as chair since 2023.

"On behalf of the board and the entire company, I want to thank Frank for his commitment to Intel and his strong leadership as chair during one of the most consequential periods in Intel's history," said Lip-Bu Tan, CEO, Intel. "Frank led the effort to bring me in as the company's CEO, encouraged disciplined board oversight, and reinforced strong board governance. With his and the board's support, I have been empowered to take decisive actions to strengthen our financial foundation, advance our process roadmap and position the company for long-term competitiveness. His leadership helped guide Intel through a period of transformation and onto firmer footing for the next phase."

Today at MWC 2026, Lenovo announced its latest consumer device innovations targeted at creators, gamers, and productivity-focused users. This includes powerful creative convertibles like the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition (14", 11), ultralight laptops like the IdeaPad Slim 5i Ultra (14", 11), productivity-on-the-go tablets like the Idea Tab Pro Gen 2, and the Yoga Pro 7a (15", 11) and the Legion 7a (15", 11)—laptops both powered by AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Series processors, delivering next-generation improvements in performance, AI experiences, and graphics.

Lenovo also unveiled proofs of concept from both its Yoga and Legion sub-brands—the Yoga Book Pro 3D Concept and the Legion Go Fold Concept—that embody Lenovo's commitment to pushing the envelope with its consumer innovations. The Yoga Book Pro 3D Concept addresses gaps in the 3D creative process by shedding the need for peripherals and streamlining user interactions. The Legion Go Fold Concept pushes the adaptability ethos of the Legion Go line of gaming handhelds even further with modularity to fit even more use cases.

AMD and Lenovo recently drew ire from the gaming community over its apparent lack of support for the original Legion Go gaming handheld, although it was subsequently revealed that ASUS had more recent updates available for the ROG Ally, which is based on the same AMD APU. More recently, it was revealed by Adam Patrick Murray on The Full Nerd podcast that Lenovo has issued a statement in response to the news reports, and that the company has confirmed it will offer support for the Legion Go at least until October 2029. Murray says that his PR contact, who clarified the state of the Legion Go's support, denounced the original comment by Lenovo support that claimed that AMD and Lenovo were no longer supporting the device as an "ugly rumor." That said, the Legion Go's support has never had the best reputation for software support, with gamers often complaining in the r/LegionGo subreddit about slow updates.

Lenovo's full statement reads:

Support for the Lenovo Legion Go (8.8", 1) has not been discontinued. Lenovo is actively continuing to support the Legion Go (8.8", 1) with necessary driver and BIOS updates and will continue to do so through October 2029. Lenovo is working in concert with AMD on driver update cadence, and new updates will be released once they have passed Lenovo's rigorous review protocols.

Ubiquiti has released a new member of its UniFi Mesh APs, called the U7 Mesh which has a rather novel design that works both indoors and outdoors, since it's IPx6 rated. The Wi-Fi 7 access point is admittedly only dual-band, we'd guess due to the short range of the 6 GHz band, which wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to include in an outdoors AP. The U7 Mesh is an upgraded version of its U6 Mesh, which is something of an odd sidegrade, as although it has been given a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port, the 5 GHz Wi-Fi radio has been downgraded from 4x4 to 2x2.

The U7 Mesh offers up to 4.3 Gbps throughput in the 5 GHz, but this is limited to devices that can use 240 MHz wide channels, which not all Wi-Fi devices support, as even some Wi-Fi 7 devices are limited to 160 MHz. The 2.4 GHz band supports speeds of up to 688 Mbps. Ubiquiti has changed the antenna design to allow for omnidirectional or directional use for the 5 GHz radio, which could be useful in a backhaul type situation. The U7 Mesh is powered via PoE and has a max power consumption of 13 W. The U7 Mesh is available now for US$199.

The global NAND Flash industry continued to benefit from AI infrastructure build-outs in 4Q25, according to TrendForce's latest research. All in all, the combined revenue of the top five NAND flash suppliers sharply rose 23.8% QoQ to US$21.17 billion.

The primary growth driver was explosive demand for enterprise SSDs, fueled by large-scale AI server deployments by North American CSPs. Meanwhile, severe HDD shortages and extended lead times accelerated a shift in orders toward NAND solutions, which further tightened supply. The resulting imbalance worsened NAND shortages and pushed prices higher, directly boosting supplier revenues.

As technology innovation accelerates both data creation and value, the need for scalable, efficient, high-performance storage solutions has never been greater. Today, Seagate Technology announced its next-generation Mozaic 4+ platform, the industry's only heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR)-based storage platform deployed at-scale, is now qualified and in production with two leading hyperscale cloud providers. Supporting capacities up to 44 TB, these qualifications reflect production-scale deployments in hyperscale environments.

With additional customer qualifications under way, Seagate is delivering on its roadmap to scale from today's 4+TB per-disk toward a future 10 TB per-disk - enabling hard drive capacities of up to 100 TB. The platform incorporates a next-generation suspension architecture and an enhanced system-on-a-chip that enables precise recording at higher densities while maintaining enterprise-class reliability. Each platform generation allows continued gains in capacity without requiring disruptive architectural shifts.

The MSI GeForce RTX 5090D v2 Lightning has officially appeared on the Chinese market, according to a Bilibili user named "Hardware Patrick Star." This China-exclusive SKU is an adaptation of the new GeForce RTX 5090D v2 with MSI's overclocking enhancements, allowing the card to reach new performance heights, paired with an all-in-one liquid cooler. The new RTX 5090D v2 retains the GB202 family's compute power, with 21,760 CUDA cores, Blackwell architecture, and a 575 W TGP, but reduces the memory to 24 GB of GDDR7 on a 384-bit bus, compared to the previous 32 GB on a 512-bit bus. MSI noted that the GeForce RTX 5090D Lightning GPU is limited to 1,300 units. However, since the China-exclusive SKU is considered a completely different graphics card, it is possible that there are another 1,300 units for the Chinese market with the RTX 5090D v2 Lightning model. The Bilibili user has SKU number 909, indicating that the rest have been distributed to retail channels.

We reviewed MSI's regular GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning graphics card and found that the GPU can reach up to 1,000 W with an OC BIOS loaded. We observed an average GPU clock speed of 3,218 MHz due to the water cooling. Independent testing might show the RTX 5090D v2 Lightning achieving similar performance levels, but since it's a China-focused SKU, we could only see reviews from Chinese hardware reviewers. Earlier claims by EXPreview indicate that hands-on testing suggests mixed results for buyers. In pure gaming, the RTX 5090D and RTX 5090D v2 cards are often nearly identical, with frame rate differences usually within a percent or two, so most current 4K titles will not noticeably suffer from the missing 8 GB. For AI workloads and model inference, the gap is more significant, with single-digit to low-double-digit performance drops where extra memory is important.

AMD is seeing server CPU demand it didn't fully anticipate, with CEO Lisa Su describing it as having "far exceeded" her expectations. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference earlier today, Su outlined how the landscape has shifted as agentic AI applications have taken off, pushing CPUs back into the spotlight alongside accelerators. The CPU-to-GPU ratio in AI compute workloads has evolved dramatically over the past few months, and top customers reportedly told Su that CPU demand sitting alongside AI was "under-forecasted." Supply is tightening as a result. The sudden spike in customer commitments left little time for the supply chain to adjust, though AMD says it's working closely with partners to ease existing bottlenecks and expects capacity to expand over the coming year. Su expressed confidence that AMD's product lineup is well positioned to address training, inference, and agentic workloads going forward. We've also seen this play out at the customer level, with hyperscalers like Meta signing CPU agreements with AMD and NVIDIA, a sign that compute is diversifying away from a pure GPU focus.

Back in late January, Intel disclosed it had to reallocate wafer capacity from its PC division to Xeon production after hyperscalers started ordering larger quantities than anticipated, triggering a temporary shortage. Then, in early February, both Intel and AMD warned customers in China about tightening supplies, with Intel Xeon delivery times stretching to as long as six months and prices up more than 10%. AMD's situation is somewhat less difficult, but lead times have still pushed out to eight to ten weeks for some orders. On the consumer side, AMD's next-gen Ryzen 'Olympic Ridge' desktop processors based on Zen 6 are rumored to have slipped to 2027, possibly another sign that AMD is prioritizing Zen 6 chiplets for EPYC server processors.

Apple today launched its most advanced silicon design yet with the introduction of the M5 Pro and M5 Max processors for MacBook Pro laptops. These new SoCs feature an 18-core CPU with six new "super cores" and 12 performance cores. The main difference between the M5 Pro and M5 Max lies in the size of the integrated GPU and the maximum memory capacity that Apple can equip these SoCs with. With these two SoCs, Apple has added another core tier to its lineup. In the M5 Pro/Max SoCs, a new tier called "M-core" has been introduced, which sits between the Super Core and Efficiency Core. What used to be performance and efficiency cores in the regular M5 have been renamed. Essentially, Apple renamed the performance core to super core and introduced an M-core tier that sits between the super core and efficiency core. Interestingly, the efficiency core is completely absent from the new SoCs, resulting in a combination of performance and middle-class cores, which will enhance the performance of these processors. In this context, the regular M5 SoC has four super cores and six efficiency cores.

Inside these new SoCs, the six super cores run at 4.61 GHz, while the M-cores run at 4.38 GHz. The M-core is a 7-wide out-of-order execution CPU that has roughly 70% of the P-core performance with slightly lower power usage. This new core tier is expected to boost the multithreaded performance of the M5 Pro/Max processors by up to 20%, according to some preliminary estimates found on Chinese Baidu forums. For the M5 Pro, Apple has included 16 MB of cache for the super cores, 16 MB of cache for the M-cores, and 24 MB of memory cache. The memory choice is LPDDR5X, which runs at 9,600 MT/s and offers up to 64 GB of capacity. In the M5 Max, the core cache remains the same, but the memory cache is increased to 48 MB, and the memory capacity is upgraded to a configuration of up to 128 GB. Both SoCs feature GPU cores that run at 1.62 GHz, with the M5 Pro having a 20-core iGPU and the M5 Max having a 40-core iGPU.

Keychron has been revamping its mainline mechanical keyboard line-up pretty consistently lately, but its latest launch, the B11 Pro, is a deviation from those designs, falling square in the mobile productivity space rather than the enthusiast mechanical keyboard sphere. The B11 Pro adapts the ergonomic 65% Alice layout seen in Keychron's K11 Max and puts it into an ultraportable, foldable keyboard with scissor switches. The folding form factor and 65% layout mean that, when folded, the B11 Pro measures in at just 196.3 × 143 mm when folded up, making it a potential option for space-constrained travelers and commuters. The Keychron B11 Pro is currently available on the Keychron online store for $64.99, although it will likely launch on Amazon at a later date.

The B11 Pro has a 65% layout, meaning there is no num pad, nor is there an F row—likely a decision made in favor of a compact physical footprint—although there is a dedicated compact arrow cluster, which should make the adjustment to the smaller layout somewhat easier. It also uses Keychron's scissor switch mechanism and concave keycaps, meaning it should feel something akin to a laptop keyboard to type on. Keychron does not specify, but none of the other keyboards in the B Pro series feature NKRO, so it's safe to assume neither does the B11 Pro. Interestingly, Keychron has opted for a soft-touch material on the back of the B11 Pro, and the whole keyboard weighs in at just 258 g. The B11 Pro also features both 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth 5.3, and the keyboard supposedly gets around 135 hours on a single charge from a 250 mAh battery. There's also a nifty sensor that detects when the keyboard is closed—both a convenience and battery-saving feature. Keychron has also conveniently labelled the relevant modifier keycaps with both macOS and Windows legends, and the key maps themselves can be changed in Keychron Launcher, much like the brand's mechanical keyboard line-up.

NVIDIA today announced that GTC, the world's premier conference on AI and accelerated computing, will take place March 16-19 this year in San Jose, California. More than 30,000 attendees— spanning developers, researchers, business leaders and AI-native companies—will gather from over 190 countries to explore how AI is becoming essential infrastructure, powering a new industrial era.

"GTC is the epicenter of the AI industrial era," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "AI is no longer a single breakthrough or application—it is essential infrastructure. Every company will use it. Every nation will build it. From energy and chips to infrastructure, models and applications, every layer of the stack is advancing at once, and you'll see that all come to life at GTC."

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) today extended its leadership in low-power server memory by shipping customer samples of the industry's highest-capacity LPDRAM module—256 GB SOCAMM2. Enabled by the industry's first monolithic 32 Gb LPDDR5X design, this milestone represents a transformational step forward for AI data centers, delivering low-power memory capacity that can unlock new system architectures.

The convergence of AI training, inference, agentic AI and general-purpose compute are driving more demanding memory requirements and reshaping data center system architectures. Modern AI workloads drive large model parameters, expansive context windows and persistent key value (KV) caches, while core compute continues to scale in data intensity, concurrency and memory footprint.

VIA Labs, Inc. (VLI), a leading supplier of USB4, DisplayPort, SuperSpeed USB, USB 2.0, and USB Power Delivery Controllers, today announced at Embedded World 2026 the expansion of its industrial portfolio with the debut of the VL819i USB 5 Gbps and VL822i 10 Gbps Hub Controllers. Following the successful release of its industrial-grade VL122i STT and VL123i MTT USB 2.0 hubs earlier this year, this latest launch provides industrial partners with high-reliability, high-bandwidth applications such as machine vision, high-performance peripherals, displays, data acquisition, storage, and general connectivity. Attendees can learn more about VLI's controller silicon products during Embedded World 2026, March 10-12, at Booth 3-396 in Hall 3, Exhibition Centre Nuremberg.

VIA Labs' industrial-grade hub controllers are engineered for stable and reliable operation in extended-temperature environments from -40°C to +85°C and feature enhanced signal integrity and low-power design. They are ideal for embedded systems, servers, industrial PCs, smart retail terminals, and more.

Quectel Wireless Solutions, a global end-to-end IoT solutions provider, today announces the launch of a new intelligent CPE reference design based on the MediaTek T930 platform, integrating 5G-Advanced and Wi-Fi 8 technologies.

The solution combines the high-performance 5G-A connectivity, intelligent reliability and advanced capabilities of the MediaTek T930 platform with Quectel's deep expertise in the global Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) market. Moving beyond a simple focus on high speed, it delivers a fully integrated, all-in-one solution featuring exceptional performance, ultra-high stability, and intelligent network management.

Elgato, a brand of CORSAIR, today announced Wave Next, the company's next generation of audio products and the most significant evolution of the Wave platform since its debut in 2020. Wave Next brings together six deeply integrated products: Wave Link 3.0 software, Wave:3 MK.2, Wave XLR MK.2, XLR Dock MK.2, Wave XLR Pro, and Stream Deck + XL. Together, they form a cohesive ecosystem spanning audio capture, processing, and control, built for how modern creators and professionals actually work.

"When we launched the first Wave microphone in 2020, we set out to make audio workflows easier for creators," said Julian Fest, SVP and General Manager of Elgato. "Since then, hundreds of thousands of real-world setups have taught us what works, what is still too complicated, and where the real bottlenecks are. Wave Next is the synthesis of everything we have learned, reimagined into a single platform offering powerful software that is now free for everyone, hardware that processes audio at the source, and physical controls that make managing it all feel effortless."

Apple today announced a new family of displays engineered to pair beautifully with Mac and meet the needs of everyone, from everyday users to the world's top pros. The new Studio Display features a 12MP Center Stage camera, now with improved image quality and support for Desk View; a studio-quality three-microphone array; and an immersive six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio. It also now includes powerful Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, providing more downstream connectivity for high-speed accessories or daisy-chaining displays.

The all-new Studio Display XDR takes the pro display experience to the next level. Its 27-inch 5K Retina XDR display features an advanced mini-LED backlight with over 2,000 local dimming zones, up to 1000 nits of SDR brightness, and 2000 nits of peak HDR brightness, in addition to a wider color gamut, so content jumps off the screen with breathtaking contrast, vibrancy, and accuracy. With its 120 Hz refresh rate, Studio Display XDR is even more responsive to content in motion, and Adaptive Sync dynamically adjusts frame rates for content like video playback or graphically intense games. Studio Display XDR offers the same advanced camera and audio system as Studio Display, as well as Thunderbolt 5 connectivity to simplify pro workflow setups. The new Studio Display with a tilt-adjustable stand starts at $1,599, and Studio Display XDR with a tilt- and height-adjustable stand starts at $3,299. Both are available in standard or nano-texture glass options, and can be pre-ordered starting tomorrow, March 4, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.

Apple today announced the new MacBook Air with M5, bringing exceptional performance and expanded AI capabilities to the world's most popular laptop. M5 features a faster CPU and next-generation GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core, enabling MacBook Air to power through a variety of workflows, from creative projects to complex AI tasks. MacBook Air now comes standard with double the starting storage at 512 GB with faster SSD technology, and is configurable up to 4 TB, so customers can keep their most important work on hand. Apple's N1 wireless chip delivers Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 for seamless connectivity on the go.

MacBook Air features a beautifully thin, light, and durable aluminium design, stunning Liquid Retina display, 12MP Center Stage camera, up to 18 hours of battery life, an immersive sound system with Spatial Audio, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports with support for up to two external displays. Combined with the power of macOS Tahoe and Apple Intelligence, MacBook Air delivers unmatched value for college students and creative professionals, and it's the most popular laptop for business users. Available in 13- and 15-inch models in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver, the new MacBook Air with M5 is available for pre-order starting tomorrow, March 4, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.

Apple today announced the latest 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro with the all-new M5 Pro and M5 Max, bringing game-changing performance and AI capabilities to the world's best pro laptop. With M5 Pro and M5 Max, MacBook Pro features a new CPU with the world's fastest CPU core, a next-generation GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core, and higher unified memory bandwidth, altogether delivering up to 4x AI performance compared to the previous generation, and up to 8x AI performance compared to M1 models. This allows developers, researchers, business professionals, and creatives to unlock new AI-enabled workflows right on MacBook Pro.

It now comes with up to 2x faster SSD performance and starts at 1 TB of storage for M5 Pro and 2 TB for M5 Max. The new MacBook Pro includes N1, an Apple-designed wireless networking chip that enables Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, bringing improved performance and reliability to wireless connections. It also offers up to 24 hours of battery life; a gorgeous Liquid Retina XDR display with a nano-texture option; a wide array of connectivity, including Thunderbolt 5; a 12MP Center Stage camera; studio-quality mics; an immersive six-speaker sound system; Apple Intelligence features; and the power of macOS Tahoe. The new MacBook Pro comes in space black and silver, and is available to pre-order starting tomorrow, March 4, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.

Apple today announced M5 Pro and M5 Max, the world's most advanced chips for pro laptops, powering the new MacBook Pro. The chips are built using a new Apple-designed Fusion Architecture. This innovative design combines two dies into a single system on a chip (SoC), which includes a powerful CPU, scalable GPU, Media Engine, unified memory controller, Neural Engine, and Thunderbolt 5 capabilities. M5 Pro and M5 Max feature a new 18-core CPU architecture. It includes six of the highest-performing core design, now called super cores, that are the world's fastest CPU core. Alongside these cores are 12 all-new performance cores, optimized for power-efficient, multithreaded workloads. Collectively, the CPU significantly boosts performance by up to 30 percent for pro workloads.

The GPU scales up the next-generation architecture introduced in M5 to an up-to-40-core GPU. With a Neural Accelerator in each GPU core and higher unified memory bandwidth, M5 Pro and M5 Max are over 4x the peak GPU compute for AI compared to the previous generation. The GPU substantially increases graphics capabilities—now up to 35 percent for apps using ray tracing than M4 Pro and M4 Max—enhancing advanced visual effects and 3D rendering. With M5 Pro and M5 Max, the new MacBook Pro is the ultimate powerhouse for pros and is available for pre-order starting tomorrow, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.

Each week, new games and apps integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. DLSS 4.5 is our latest upgrade to the ever-improving DLSS Super Resolution, adding a second generation transformer model that further enhances image quality. Via the NVIDIA app, you can apply DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution to your game library on all GeForce RTX PCs and laptops, instantly upgrading clarity and quality.

This week, you can upgrade Marathon and Black One Blood Brothers with DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution, followed by Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection on March 13th. And Demonologist now includes native support for DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution. On March 19th, DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH launches, featuring DLSS 4 With Multi Frame Generation, and DLSS Super Resolution that can be upgraded to DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution via the NVIDIA app.

BenQ, the global leader in display and color-tuning innovation, today announced its MA270S, a new 27-inch 5K monitor designed to give Mac users the clarity, color, and intuitive experience they expect from a native Apple display. As the latest expansion to the Mac-optimized MA series, including the MA270U/MA270UP and MA320U/MA320UP, the BenQ MA270S is ideal for Mac users who rely on precise visual detail and text clarity to match the accuracy and sharpness of their MacBook display.

The MA270S features a Nano Gloss panel and true 5K resolution (5120x2880), matching macOS native pixel density for sharper text, lifelike images, and comfortable extended use. It delivers Mac-level color with 500-nit brightness, 99% P3 color, and a 2000:1 contrast ratio for vibrant color reproduction and crisp detail. With iKeyboard Control, users can adjust brightness and volume directly from the MacBook keyboard, creating a more seamless, native Mac experience.

Fraunhofer IIS and Airoha Technology are presenting a breakthrough multi-channel spatial audio solution for next-generation wireless headsets at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026. The collaboration integrates Fraunhofer's industry-leading LC3plus codec and Cingo spatial audio rendering solutions with Airoha's flagship Bluetooth SoC, the AB1595—enabling high-definition, low-latency, and resilient wireless multichannel audio tailored for premium mobile and XR applications.

At the core of this joint solution is a seamless, high-definition multichannel wireless transmission chain designed to meet the evolving demands of mobile devices, extended reality (XR), and immersive media ecosystems. By leveraging Airoha's proprietary High Data-rate Technology (HDT), the AB1595 platform provides the robust bandwidth required to support Fraunhofer's LC3plus codec. This combination delivers high-resolution audio with efficient bitrates and ultra-low latency—essential for scalable, multichannel headset designs that go far beyond traditional stereo limitations.

At MWC 2026, Fibocom (300638.SZ, 0638.HK) and MediaTek unveiled a flagship CPE solution powered by the FG390 5G module and Filogic 8800 Wi-Fi 8 chipset. The new design combines 5G-A's high-speed connectivity with Wi-Fi 8's enhanced wireless performance, delivering faster, smarter, and more reliable network access for global users.

Key Highlights:

• Powerful 5G + Wi-Fi 8 integration: The solution integrates with the Filogic 8800 Wi-Fi 8 platform and the FG390 5G module powered by MediaTek T930, bringing together the best of 5G-A and Wi-Fi 8 to create seamless, high-performance connectivity for homes and SMB.
• Smarter multi-AP collaboration: Reduces interference by over 40% and boosts spectrum efficiency for smoother multi-device operation.
• Extended coverage and stronger stability: With Enhanced Long-Range (ELR) and dRU technologies, wall penetration and coverage increase by up to 40%, keeping edge connections stable.
• Lower latency, higher throughput: Latency drops to sub-millisecond levels, while throughput doubles—even with 200+ devices connected simultaneously.
• Designed for the AI era: Supports 2.4/5/6 GHz tri-band concurrency, ensuring reliable connections for AI devices, AR/VR applications, and smart-home networks.

NVIDIA has reportedly lowered its performance requirements for the HBM4 memory used in "Rubin" GPUs, as SK hynix and Samsung are reportedly struggling to meet the ambitious performance targets set by NVIDIA. According to a new note from SemiAnalysis, NVIDIA is reducing its specification requirements for the upcoming GPU generation. Originally, NVIDIA targeted a total bandwidth of 22 TB/s for the Rubin chip, but memory suppliers seem to be having difficulty meeting these requirements. Initial shipments are expected to achieve closer to 20 TB/s, which translates to approximately 10 Gbps per pin for HBM4. This indicates that NVIDIA's aggressive upgrade plan for "Vera Rubin" is facing a setback, and the final performance will differ slightly.

Interestingly, NVIDIA's initial target for the "Vera Rubin" VR200 NVL72 system was 13 TB/s in March 2025, which was later upgraded to 20.5 TB/s by September. At CES 2026, NVIDIA confirmed that the VR200 NVL72 system is now operating at 22 TB/s of bandwidth. Compared to AMD's Instinct MI455X accelerator, which has 19.6 TB/s, NVIDIA initially had lower system bandwidth. They addressed this by using faster DRAM and improving interconnects between CPUs, GPUs, and the entire system. However, as memory makers like SK hynix and Samsung struggle to meet NVIDIA's performance requirements, we will see HBM4 speeds of about 20 TB/s for the entire "Vera Rubin" system.

Samsung is overhauling the power delivery network in its HBM4E memory to tackle what's becoming one of the bigger engineering headaches in next-gen AI chips. This comes just two weeks after the company shipped its first commercial HBM4, already pushing 11.7 Gbps consistently with headroom up to 13 Gbps. As designs move from HBM4 to HBM4E, the number of power bumps grows from 13,682 to 14,457, packed into the same space with thinner, denser wiring. That drives up current density and resistance, causing IR drop (voltage weakens as it travels through the circuits) while the heat generated in the process makes things worse, creating a feedback loop that can affect performance or even cause circuit failure.

To fix this, Samsung segmented the power network. The large centralized MET4 power block on the base die, previously laid out in big honeycomb-like sections near the interposer, has been split into four smaller sections, with upper layers further broken up to reduce congestion and shorten routing paths. According to Samsung, the results were significant, metal circuit defects dropped 97% compared to HBM4, and IR drop improved by 41%, giving the chip more voltage headroom for higher speeds and better reliability.

NVIDIA released its GeForce 595.71 WHQL Game Ready Drivers yesterday to address issues with the previous 595.59 WHQL version. However, troubles don't seem to be over yet, as reports are coming from multiple users running the latest driver that the new installation is restricting GPU voltages across the RTX 50 series of "Blackwell" graphics cards. As multiple reports point out, the v595.71 driver is causing users to see a significant performance drop across multiple titles, all stemming from the capped GPU core voltage that is reducing the frequency. Wccftech testing has confirmed that the MSI GeForce RTX 5090 SUPRIM X used to run at a 1.020-1.030 V range, resulting in about 3,015-3,030 MHz in FurMark stress-testing using the older v591.86 driver with a manual overclock applied.

However, without a change in settings, the GPU now runs at a lowered voltage range between 1.005 V and 1.010 V, with occasional drops to 1.0 V. This has resulted in boost frequencies that are below 3,000 MHz, degrading the GPU performance while also lowering power usage. The reasoning behind this might be that NVIDIA is experimenting with lower voltage caps to limit what the GPU is capable of boosting to, so it can draw less power and prevent the fragile nature of the 12V-2x6 connector from overheating. Yesterday's launch of the GeForce 595.71 WHQL Game Ready Driver mentioned that the previous driver issues were resolved, which included fans not spinning or not being detected at all. However, with the new driver release, we didn't receive any information about intentional or unintentional voltage regulation happening within the driver. Hence, we are left to wait for the official company response.

ASRock Industrial announces the launch of the iEPF-11000S Series, a powerful Expandable Edge AIoT Platform engineered for next-generation edge AI applications. Powered by Intel Xeon 600 processors with W890 chipset, the iEPF-11000S Series delivers professional grade CPU performance, support for up to four graphic cards, PCIe Gen 5 connectivity, and up to 2 TB of RDIMM/RDIMM-3DS DDR5 memory with ECC protection for mission-critical edge processes. Designed for versatility, the iEPF-11000S Series features a comprehensive I/O with multiple expansion slots, high-speed networking including 10 GbE, and advanced storage capabilities. Built for professional computing environments, it includes a robust 1600 W power supply unit, TPM 2.0 security, and Intel vPro manageability. With support for both 4U tower or rack-mount configurations, the series is primed for advanced edge AI computing platforms, powering Gen AI LLMs, AI training and inference, visual computing, data analytics, and compute-intensive industrial applications that demand exceptional processing power and reliability.

iEPF-11000S: Quad-GPU Edge AI Platform with Intel Xeon 600
Powered by Intel Xeon 600 processors, the iEPF-11000S Series delivers high performance for edge AI computing, real-time analytics, and compute intensive industrial automation. Supporting up to 2 TB of quad-channel DDR5 ECC RDIMM memory, it ensures fast, reliable, and memory-intensive processing for AI model training, predictive maintenance, and automation. Designed for AI acceleration, deep learning, and high-performance visual computing, the iEPF-11000S Series supports up to four discrete GPUs, delivering the compute power needed for multimodel parallel inference, AI training, and intensive visual computing. Its powerful computing resources enable accelerated deployment of real-time AI inference, data analytics, and intelligent industrial automation.

Club 3D, a Dutch technology innovator specializing in advanced computer connectivity solutions since 1997, announced its newest connectivity solutions for March. These include 2 new adapters, a USB-C to RJ45 10G Ethernet Adapter and a USB-C to HDMI 2.1 Adapter. The Club 3D CAC-2505 is a premium USB-C to HDMI 2.1 adapter that delivers next-generation visual performance in a compact form factor. It is designed to future-proof your setup by enabling stunning 8K60Hz video output from any USB-C device supporting DP Alt Mode.

The Club 3D CAC-2531 is a professional-grade USB-C to RJ45 10G Ethernet Adapter that delivers blazing-fast 10 Gbps speeds to any mobile or desktop setup. It is designed to bridge the gap between ultraportable hardware and high-speed network environments while providing a compact, plug-and-play solution for data-heavy workflows.

Huion, a trusted name in the design and manufacturing of digital drawing tablets, has officially launched its next-gen 21.5-inch pen display today, the Kamvas 22 (Gen 3). This exciting development comes at the perfect time for digital artists as we kick off the new year.

Over the past two years, Huion has consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation, advancing both technology and expanding its product lineup. This showcases the company's determination to offer a diverse range of options tailored to both entry-level and professional artists. With Kamvas 22 (Gen 3), they now have another tool to express their artistic vision.

MSI, a world-leading provider of high-performance gaming hardware, proudly announces its latest collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment to celebrate the launch of World of Warcraft: Midnight. Together, MSI and Blizzard introduce the limited edition MSI × World of Warcraft: Midnight GeForce RTX 5070 graphics cards, available in two distinct designs—Light Edition and Void Edition—bringing the legendary forces of Azeroth to life through cutting-edge performance and immersive visual storytelling.

Powered by NVIDIA Blackwell, GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs bring game-changing capabilities to gamers and creators. Equipped with a massive level of AI horsepower, the RTX 50 Series enables new experiences and next-level graphics fidelity. Multiply performance with NVIDIA DLSS 4, generate images at unprecedented speed, and unleash creativity with NVIDIA Studio.

Quectel Wireless Solutions, a global end-to-end IoT solutions provider, today announces the FCE870Q Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 module. The module's higher peak data rate of 5.8 Gbps, coupled with lower latency and strong network connection reliability, makes it ideal for over-the-top (OTT) services, high-definition video and augmented and virtual reality use cases.

Featuring 4K 4096 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), an advanced modulation technique in Wi-Fi 7 that increases data throughput by 20% compared to Wi-Fi6, the FCE870Q enables faster 4K and 8K streaming. Performance is also aided by the module's support for 320 MHz enhanced multi-link single radio (eMSLR) technology which enables the faster data rate alongside ultra-low latency. A highlight of this module is the integration of Bluetooth 6.0 featuring built-in Channel Sounding to enable enhanced ranging accuracy and advanced proximity-based applications.

Pulsar Gaming Gears, a leading developer of high-performance esports peripherals, in collaboration with Prodigy SEG, today announced the official launch of the Pulsar ZywOo The Chosen Mouse Gen 2 Limited Edition Pink. This new product launch aligns with a historic peak in the career of Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut. Recently crowned the World #1 Player for a record-breaking fourth time, ZywOo has officially become the most decorated individual in the history of the game. Coming off back-to-back championship wins at IEM Kraków 2026 and PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026, he has reached a career milestone of 30 HLTV MVP medals-shattering all previous records.

This new generation is the product of Pulsar's uncompromising eS standard, utilizing Pulsar's advanced in-house R&D and meticulous refinement to meet the exact competitive needs identified from the first generation. Designed for palm grip users, the mouse features a unique, refined shape co-created with ZyWOo, and two sizes, Mini 59 g, Medium 62 g to ensure the absolute control and consistency required for elite-tier competitive play. Speaking on the new iteration of the mouse, ZywOo emphasized the continuous drive for competitive perfection.

In February, TechPowerUp partnered with Fosi Audio to bring our readers from around the world a chance to grab one of 10 Fosi Audio C3 gaming-grade external sound cards with AI-powered DSPs. The Fosi Audio C3 is an external USB sound card (DAC + headphones amp) with a selection of parts purpose built for PC gaming. The C3 uses AI models to recognize key in-game sounds, such as footsteps, gunfire, reloads, and directional cues, and dynamically enhance what matters while reducing irrelevant or distracting noise. Rather than simply making certain frequencies louder, the system is designed to identify and prioritize important sounds depending on the gameplay context. The Giveaway is now close, and the results are in! Without further ado, here are the 10 winners!

• ShurikN from Serbia
• Bryan from Singapore
• Khusanbek from the United Kingdom
• Russel from Australia
• ushirlo from Croatia
• Yu-Jie from the United States
• Markus from Germany
• FatherOBlivion from the United States
• Xin Qi from the Netherlands
• azarel from Denmark

Huge congratulations to all 10 of you! TechPowerUp and Fosi Audio will return with more such interesting Giveaways!

Rising memory and storage costs are pricing entry-level PC buyers out of the market, which may disappear entirely. According to the analyst firm Gartner, the sub-$500 PC sector might vanish by 2028. Their analysis indicates that memory, which used to be just a small part of the total bill of materials (BOM) at 16% of the total PC cost in 2025, is expected to rise to nearly a quarter of the PC's cost at 23%, making the entry-level PC segment unsustainable. "This sharp increase removes vendors' ability to absorb costs, making low-margin entry-level laptops nonviable. Ultimately, we expect the sub-$500 entry-level PC segment will disappear by 2028," said Ranjit Atwal, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner. He added, "In addition, rising AI PC prices will delay the projected 50% market penetration of AI PCs until 2028."

We have witnessed multiple price increases across many PC components such as DRAM, NAND Flash, and GPUs. With manufacturers unable to produce PCs at any tangible profit levels in the sub-$500 PC sector, it might entirely disappear from the mainstream PC market. The concept of budget builds might become obsolete, with the majority of PCs ending up in categories above that threshold, near or beyond four figures. Gartner estimates that there will be about a 130% increase in combined DRAM and NAND Flash pricing by the end of this year, increasing PC prices by about 17% compared to 2025 levels. This situation will push consumer and enterprise demand toward premium PCs.

At MWC Barcelona 2026, Huawei debuts its latest SuperPoD product Atlas 950 SuperPoD, TaiShan 950 SuperPoD and a series of computing solutions to the global market. This embodies the company's latest endeavor to open source and open collaboration with the aim of building a resilient computing foundation and creating a new option worldwide.

Tech innovation builds a resilient computing foundation
With AI technologies evolving rapidly and models now using trillions of parameters, agentic AI is beginning to penetrate into core production processes in many industries. This is driving up demand for larger computing scale and lower latency. However, these massive models are beyond the reach of conventional horizontal scaling; larger clusters often suffer from lower utilization and frequent training interruptions.

Akasa, a leading provider of thermal solutions, has launched the AK-CC7409BP01, a low-profile CPU cooler designed for thermally demanding, space-constrained environments. Compatible with Intel LGA1851 and LGA1700 sockets, the cooler integrates a copper vapor chamber heatsink and a UL-certified side blower fan to deliver reliable, sustained cooling at only 29.5 mm in height, making it well-suited to 1U servers, SFF systems and other applications where vertical clearance is limited.

The AK-CC7409BP01 supports 12th-14th Generation Intel Core desktop processors (LGA1700 socket) and Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors (LGA1851 socket) up to 125 W TDP.

As NAND Flash pricing has skyrocketed, reaching nearly a 500% increase over the past six months, Phison has reportedly started requiring some customers to make prepayments to control the supply. This means that customers who haven't even started a Phison order will need to send funds as a form of credit to purchase a set amount of Phison controllers, SSDs, or any other storage products. According to a notice to its customers, Phison has stated that the rapid increase in NAND Flash demand has driven various parts of the storage supply chain to seek alternative payment methods, with a focus on quicker settlements. This means customers must either accept faster contract settlements or use other forms of payment like prepayment credits.

Phison is a company primarily focused on making SSD controllers, which are manufactured at TSMC, Samsung, or other fabs as logic devices, not NAND Flash. The company's latest E28 controller is produced on TSMC's 6 nm node, a mature class of semiconductor nodes. This suggests that Phison's supply chain is largely intact. However, if Phison is arranging NAND Flash purchases on behalf of customers, that could explain why faster settlements are requested. Specific arrangements likely vary by customer and should be confirmed on a case-by-case basis. There might be situations where Phison provides SSD makers with blueprints for SSDs and handles part of the design and supply chain logistics within the company, making the situation more understandable. In such cases, Phison would need to secure a fast contract settlement to ensure the SSD maker gets the best possible price for the NAND Flash that ultimately pairs with a Phison controller. The full statement follows.

AMD earlier today announced the Ryzen AI 400 series desktop APUs in the Socket AM5 package. These are the company's second desktop APU generation on Socket AM5 following the Ryzen 8000G series "Phoenix Point." While "Phoenix Point" is based on "Zen 4," the newer Ryzen AI 400 series is built on the "Gorgon Point" silicon powered by the "Zen 5" microarchitecture. A key difference between the two APU generations is the emphasis on AI performance. "Gorgon Point" packs an XDNA 2 NPU with 50 TOPS of throughput on tap, making Ryzen AI 400 series the first socketed desktop processor that meets Microsoft Copilot+ requirements.

While "Phoenix Point" featured a single CCX design with up to eight full-sized "Zen 4" cores, "Gorgon Point" reverts to a dual-CCX design for its CPU complex. The first CCX features four full-sized "Zen 5" cores that can boost up to the maximum rated speed of the APU model, along with 8 MB of L3 cache that's shared among the four "Zen 5" cores. The second CCX features four compacted "Zen 5c" cores, with an 8 MB L3 cache shared among them. "Zen 5c" is a physically compacted version of "Zen 5," it has an identical IPC and ISA, but it caps out at roughly two-thirds the maximum boost frequency of the full-sized "Zen 5" cores. For threads to migrate between the two CCX, their instructions and data make a trip through the chip's Infinity Fabric interconnect, just like it was during the old "Zen 2" architecture days.

Manage your business finances like a pro with a lifetime license for Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, now only $200 (reg. $699). Many small business owners start managing their finances with spreadsheets and bank portals, only to realize they need something a bit more robust. Intuit QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus gives you a full desktop accounting system with a lifetime license and no ongoing subscription, and it's on sale now for $199.97 (reg. $699).

Rich color options, powerful features, and an ultra-lightweight build—the Yunzii M1 is designed to deliver exceptional comfort and precision in every move. With its sleek design and pro-level performance, it's the perfect upgrade for your gaming desk setup and daily workflow alike.

Versatile Connectivity
The Yunzii M1 supports 2.4 GHz wireless, Bluetooth, and USB-C wired modes, offering flexible and low-latency performance across different usage scenarios. Compatible with both Windows and macOS, it transitions seamlessly between gaming, office work, and travel setups. Each package includes the Yunzii M1 mouse, a Type-C cable, a 2.4G receiver with a built-in storage compartment, and a user manual—everything you need right out of the box.

Intel has confirmed the existence of its larger Arc Pro B70 "Battlemage" graphics card, designed for professional visualization and AI workloads, through its LLM Scaler software with a small performance testing done in non-ideal scenario. The company plans to release this GPU within the current quarter, which means we could see the official launch and availability in about a month. The upcoming Arc Pro B70 and Arc Pro B65 GPUs are part of this release, utilizing the long-rumored BMG-G31 GPU die intended for higher-end models.

Starting with the more advanced Arc Pro B70, Intel plans a BMG-G31 configuration featuring 32 Xe2 cores and 32 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus. This setup translates to approximately 4,096 FP32 cores in its full configuration, doubling the core count and memory capacity of the current Arc Pro B60, within a single-GPU version. For the smaller Arc Pro B65, Intel has scaled down the BMG-G31 die to support 2,560 FP32 cores, with a total of 20 Xe2 cores. While this matches the core configuration of the Arc Pro B60, the B65 comes with 32 GB of GDDR6 memory, which is 8 GB more than the Arc Pro B60. As dual-GPU configurations were common with the Arc Pro B60, we might also see dual-GPU PCBs with the Arc Pro B70 if Intel's partners like Maxsun follow suit with their Arc Pro B60 Dual-GPU card.

According to Culpium—written by ex Bloomberg tech industry writer Tim Culpan—TSMC is now telling its customers to apply for production allocation for its N2 node, as most of it has already been booked up until the end of 2027. Lead time is said to be six quarters on what production capacity is left, which is causing problems for companies that manufacture with TSMC to live up to their own roadmaps. Even those lucky enough to have been allocated production on the N2 node are said to be looking at as much as a 12 month lead time from start of production until delivery of the finished chips.

Culpium also confirms that NVIDIA now is TSMC's biggest customer, as we reported last week. Even so, NVIDIA is also said to be affected by the N2 node production constraints, even though they might not be as badly affected as small customers of TSMC. The report mentions that there are some exceptions to the lead times, including what is referred to as hot lots or hot runs, but these come in at premium pricing for the customers, as these are last-minute production runs that don't have guaranteed lead times. This is bad news all around, as it means a lot of planned products are unlikely to see the light of day, as they will either be too costly to manufacture or it will simply take too long for it to make sense to invest in.

Today, the NanoIC pilot line, a European initiative coordinated by imec and dedicated to accelerating innovation in chip technologies beyond 2 nm, releases two first-of-a-kind advanced interconnect process design kits (PDKs): a fine-pitch redistribution layer (RDL) and die-to-wafer (D2W) hybrid bonding PDK. These early-access PDKs bring advanced packaging capabilities within reach of universities, start‑ups, and industry innovators and mark an important step in enabling high‑density, energy‑efficient chip‑to‑chip connectivity.

As the semiconductor industry moves toward ever more complex and heterogeneous system architectures, advanced packaging has become a key enabler in supporting this progress. Instead of merely enclosing individual chips, today's packaging technologies bring multiple dies (chiplets) together into tightly integrated systems where performance, energy efficiency, and bandwidth hinge on how effectively those components can interact. By enabling chiplets to be interconnected at high density, advanced packaging provides the foundation for the next generation of high‑performance computing, AI accelerators, and data‑intensive applications.

NVIDIA has released its latest GeForce 595.71 WHQL Game Ready Driver, addressing issues from the previous 595.59 WHQL version, which caused many headaches for gamers who installed it. With the new 595.71 WHQL, NVIDIA is providing support and optimizations for games such as Resident Evil Requiem and Marathon. Alongside these games, the new 595.71 WHQL fixes problems found in 595.59 WHQL, including a bug where one or more GPU fans stopped spinning after the update. Thankfully, this has been fixed, and gamers were spared the headaches of potentially damaging their expensive GPUs. Additionally, hardware monitoring utilities can now once again recognize all GPU fans, allowing users to continue monitoring and fine-tuning fan profiles without issues. Interestingly, this comes as another game ready driver release, and not a hotfix version. NVIDIA also fixed some game artifacts that were appearing specifically with the GeForce RTX 50 series, such as green artifacts in Total War: THREE KINGDOMS and black bars appearing in The Ascent.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 595.71 WHQL

Apple today announced the new iPad Air featuring M4 and more memory, giving users a big jump in performance at the same starting price. With a faster CPU and GPU, iPad Air boosts tasks like editing and gaming, and is a powerful device for AI with a faster Neural Engine, higher memory bandwidth, and 50 percent more unified system memory than the previous generation. With M4, iPad Air is up to 30 percent faster than iPad Air with M3, and up to 2.3x faster than iPad Air with M1. The new iPad Air also features the latest in Apple silicon connectivity chips, N1 and C1X, delivering fast wireless and cellular connections—and support for Wi-Fi 7—that empower users to work and be creative anywhere. Available in two sizes and four gorgeous finishes that users love, the 11-inch iPad Air is super portable, and the 13-inch model provides an even larger display for those who want more space to multitask. With game-changing iPadOS 26 capabilities, advanced cameras, all-day battery life, a powerful app ecosystem, and support for accessories like Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard, iPad Air delivers a remarkable and versatile experience for anyone who wants to do more on iPad, from students and creators, to business users and gamers.

With the same starting price of just $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-inch model, the new iPad Air is an incredible value. And for education, the 11-inch iPad Air starts at $549, and the 13-inch model starts at $749. Customers can pre-order iPad Air starting Wednesday, March 4, with availability beginning Wednesday, March 11.

Intel used its MWC conference in Barcelona to showcase its most core-dense Xeon 6+ processor, codenamed "Clearwater Forest." As one of Intel's most complex chiplet designs, the package combines 12 compute chiplets manufactured on an Intel 18A node with three active base tiles on Intel 3 and two I/O tiles on Intel 7. In this configuration, each compute tile contains six modules of four "Darkmont" efficiency cores, providing 24 E-cores per tile and a maximum of 288 "Darkmont" E-cores on a single socket. A two-socket system, therefore, approaches 576 cores. The design connects clusters with a high-bandwidth on-chip fabric and stacks die using Foveros Direct 3D, while EMIB links connect multiple tiles in a 2.5D arrangement.

Each "Darkmont" E-core comes with a 64 KB instruction cache, a wider front end, and a larger out-of-order window to sustain more in-flight work. Execution resources and the number of execution ports have been increased to improve parallel integer and vector throughput. Physically, clusters are grouped in four-core units sharing about 4 MB of L2 cache per group, and the package-level last-level cache can exceed a gigabyte, with about 1,152 MB of combined last-level cache across the package. "Clearwater Forest" supports the existing Xeon server platform socket, 12 memory channels, and broad I/O, including 96 PCIe 5.0 lanes and 64 CXL 2.0 lanes. Memory speed targets push toward DDR5-8000.

Montech today unveiled the Beta 2 line of mainstream ATX 3.1 power supplies. These PSUs are designed to meet ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 CEM specifications, providing mainstream-thru-performance segment gaming PC builds with a modern PSU architecture. These come in four variants based on output, 550 W, 650 W, 750 W, and 850 W. All four offer 80 Plus Bronze-rated switching efficiency. All four models come with fixed cabling, which comprises individually-sleeved wires for each cable.

The PSUs feature single +12 V rail design, DC-to-DC switching, and most common electrical protections. All four use 120 mm hydro-dynamic bearing fans, and a Japanese-made main capacitor. All four models come with 24-pin ATX and two 4+4 pin EPS connectors. The 550 W, 650 W, and 750 W models come with two 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors (which meet ATX 3.1 excursion specs); while the 850 W model offers a 450 W-rated 12V-2x6 connector besides two 6+2 pin PCIe power. Montech is backing all four models with 5-year warranties. The 550 W model is priced at $49.90, the 650 W model at $59.90, the 750 W model at $63.90, while the 850 W model goes for $69.90.

Esports is entering its most transformative era yet, according to major global research from Logitech G showing increasing cultural acceptance and a significant rise in the number of people who view professional gaming as a legitimate and aspirational career path.

The newly released study, based on 18,000 respondents across 12 countries, shows that nearly one in 10 (8 per cent) of people globally would choose to become a professional gamer if they could restart their career, ranking higher than professions such as politician (6 per cent), recruiter (6 per cent), or professional racer (5 per cent). Gen Z respondents ranked pro gaming among their top career ambitions at 15 per cent, if they had the chance to start over or pick a new career, compared with 10 per cent of Millennials, 7 per cent of Gen X, and just 3 per cent of Boomers.

At MWC 2026, TCL introduces a comprehensive tablet lineup designed to support a range of modern digital lifestyles.

Leading the Productivity Segment
The TCL Note A1 NXTPAPER follows its award‑winning debut at CES with a showcase at MWC. As TCL's first NXTPAPER e-note, it delivers a paper‑like visual experience powered by NXTPAPER Pure display technology with 3A Crystal Shield Glass. Paired with the T‑Pen Pro featuring ultra‑low latency and 8,192 pressure levels, it closely replicates natural handwriting. Integrated AI tools further enhance note‑taking and content organization, creating a focused digital workspace for professionals, students, and creators.

Samsung Display participates in MWC26, the world's largest mobile communications exhibition, held in Barcelona, Spain from March 2 to 5. Marking its fourth consecutive year at the event, Samsung Display showcases a broad portfolio of OLED technologies that serve as both interfaces and component solutions optimized for AI edge computing. Notably, reflecting the growing importance of smartphone privacy alongside enhanced AI capabilities, the company has unveiled the "Flex Magic Pixel" zone, presenting its breakthrough panel-integrated privacy technology that demonstrates its OLED innovation to a global audience.

Under this year's exhibition theme, "The IQ Era," Samsung Display has designed its booth around the concept of "Intelligent OLED City." The booth is organized into four zones: AI Square, AI Edge District, AI Entertainment District and AI Sports District.

As 5G adoption continues to accelerate, high-speed connectivity is reshaping digital experiences—yet many users worldwide still do not have access to 5G. To bridge this gap and accelerate the transition from 4G to 5G, TCL is introducing an entry-level 5G connectivity lineup at MWC26, including TCL 5G CPE B50 and TCL 5G Mobile Wi-Fi B50 Pro. Together with the brand-new Wi-Fi router TCL LINKHUB WR5360, these products deliver faster, more stable and smarter connectivity across homes, offices and mobile scenarios. By integrating 5G and Wi-Fi 7 technologies into entry-level devices, TCL continues to make premium connectivity more attainable.

TCL 5G CPE B50: A high-performance entry-level 5G foundation
Built around essential connectivity demands—including speed, stability, and multi-device capacity—B50 brings advanced 5G and Wi-Fi 7 technologies into an accessible networking solution.

TCL introduces its all-new TCL CrystalClip earbuds at MWC 2026, setting a new benchmark for open-ear audio with a seamless blend of immersive sound performance, effortless all-day comfort, refined design aesthetics, intuitive AI-powered functionality and truly enduring battery life.

Pioneering the Future of Open-Ear Comfort
The way we listen is evolving, and so are consumer expectations. Consumers are increasingly seeking solutions that offer extended comfort, maintain connection with the environment, and deliver high-quality audio throughout the day. This growing preference has paved the way for "open-ear" design to emerge as a natural evolution in personal audio.

RayNeo, a leading innovator in augmented reality (AR) wearable technology, today unveiled the Batman Edition of its latest smart glasses, the RayNeo Air 4 Pro, at MWC 2026. Available for purchase since February 27, 2026, RayNeo Air 4 Pro comes in both a Standard Edition and Batman Editions, offering consumers more personalized choices that blend practical entertainment and productivity with everyday cosplay expression.

Next-Generation Entertainment: The RayNeo Air 4 Pro
Positioned as a "new species of head-mounted TV," the RayNeo Air 4 Pro sets a new benchmark for personal entertainment by combining industry-leading display technology with premium audio. Powered by a customized Vision 4000 chip and fine-tuned in collaboration with the legendary audio brand Bang & Olufsen, the device transforms any environment into a private cinema. Whether connected to a smartphone, PC, or the newly launched Nintendo Switch 2, this "pocket magician" delivers an immersive, on-the-go viewing experience. Key features of the RayNeo Air 4 Pro include:

At the 2026 Mobile World Congress (MWC), TCL announced a groundbreaking advancement in its proprietary NXTPAPER eye-care technology. For the first time, NXTPAPER's signature full-color electronic display technology will be integrated with AMOLED displays, marking a major leap forward in the mobile viewing experience. This significant advancement combines the unparalleled picture quality, rich, finely detailed visuals and exceptional brightness of AMOLED with TCL's industry-leading eye care display performance, delivering a display that is both exceptionally vibrant and remarkably gentle on the eyes during prolonged viewing. Through natural-light-like visual comfort and an extraordinary paper-like experience, this brings global users a truly unmatched level of visual comfort on smartphones, leading the industry into a new era of intuitive, visually comfortable mobile display technology.

"As screen time continues to rise, from early messages to night scrolling, visual fatigue has become a shared modern experience. As the primary medium through which we perceive the world and access information, displays must not only deliver stunning image quality but also prioritize visual health." said Jefferson Li, General Manager of TCL Mobile Phone. "This new milestone in our NXTPAPER journey reflects TCL's unwavering commitment to human-centric innovation. By integrating NXTPAPER with AMOLED, we are addressing the market demand for displays that don't force users to choose between vivid visuals and eye comfort. This advancement brings us closer to our mission of creating a smartphone viewing experience that feels incredibly natural and comfortable while staying easy on the eyes even during prolonged use."

pureLiFi, the global leader in light-based communications, is set to challenge expectations at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 by shattering speed barriers and solving the Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) industry's toughest challenge, delivering high quality signal indoors. LiFi is a high-speed, wireless communication technology that transmits data through the light spectrum rather than traditional radio frequencies.

The latest LiFi systems on show leverage technology trusted by international security agencies for classified networks, demonstrating that LiFi's massive capacity and military-grade security are accessible to all. Moving beyond the constraints of radio frequencies, pureLiFi is unveiling its High-Bandwidth Architecture, capable of a staggering 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps). Alongside this breakthrough, the company will showcase a powerhouse lineup of 5G FWA partner demonstrations and the latest Bridge XC Flex system.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced its industry-leading Wi-Fi 8 portfolio, a key step toward building the connectivity foundation for the AI era. The comprehensive portfolio features the Qualcomm FastConnect 8800 Mobile Connectivity System and five new Qualcomm Dragonwing Networking Platforms. Each is engineered to deliver the connectivity and compute performance required to anchor a new generation of products, leveraging unparalleled intelligence with breakthrough architecture for today's AI demand realities.

"Today's network traffic profile is fundamentally changing as AI-fueled demand requires a re-thinking of the core architecture. Qualcomm Technologies is redefining that architecture to enable AI everywhere," said Gautam Sheoran, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Connectivity, Broadband and Networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Next-gen networks and devices not only need to be AI-native, but they need a new breed of intelligent, high performance connectivity. Qualcomm Technologies' Wi-Fi 8 generation of products is the whole package: faster speeds, higher reliability, longer range, and powerful AI."

Microsoft recently updated its Agility SDK to version 1.619, bringing DirectX Shader Model 6.9 alongside some new DirectX 12 improvements. However, Microsoft's latest product demo about Shader Execution Reordering (SER) now confirms a massive performance uplift across several GPUs, with up to a 90% improvement on Intel Arc B-Series and more than 80% from independent sources' benchmarks on NVIDIA "Blackwell." With SER, the API gives applications the ability to dynamically sort rays for highly optimized parallel execution, improving performance by a large margin. In Microsoft's own testing, Intel's Arc B-Series GPUs, which include "Battlemage" discrete GPUs and Xe3-based integrated GPUs in "Panther Lake," managed to achieve a 90% framerate increase in the technology demonstration, suggesting that ray tracing performance still has some tricks up its sleeve for optimization.

Meanwhile, the company also tested the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 with SER, scoring a 40% improvement over the default ray sorting in the previous execution model. Independent testing from Osvaldo Pinali Doederlein on X showed that the GeForce RTX 5080 "Blackwell" GPU scored about an 80% improvement running this demo, which gives confidence that games implementing this technology will provide gamers with a massive performance boost once implemented. Microsoft has built this D3D12RaytracingHelloShaderExecutionReordering demo with a minimum demonstration of the SER technology, so anyone can test their own hardware and the performance improvement.

At MWC 2026, Lenovo builds on the momentum from CES and Tech World to highlight its latest portfolio of AI-powered business devices, intelligent form factors, and enterprise-ready platforms, designed to help organizations scale AI with confidence. From modular AI PC concepts and rugged frontline tablets to the trusted ThinkPad portfolio and human-centric AI companions, Lenovo's MWC showcase highlights how innovation, reliability, and repairability come together to support modern work.

The new announcements reflect a continued focus on delivering democratized AI that is productive, adaptable, and protected, addressing the real-world needs of professionals, IT leaders, and enterprises operating across increasingly distributed environments. By combining AI-ready devices with strong repairability, platform choice across leading silicon partners, and enterprise-grade security and services, Lenovo is enabling businesses to adopt AI-powered computing without added complexity.

MSI, a leading global provider of high-performance server solutions, is showcasing its latest AI-vRAN solutions at MWC 2026 (Booth #5A61) to address the evolving requirements of next-generation telecom networks. MSI's AI-vRAN stack, integrated with GPU server solutions, is designed to bring AI capabilities into the core of network operations, supporting growing telecommunications workloads and accelerating the transition toward AI-powered mobile networks.

"AI is rapidly reshaping the telecommunications landscape, and MSI is focused on helping operators build scalable network architectures that support diverse applications, including voice, data, video streaming, and AI workloads, through a unified infrastructure," said Danny Hsu, General Manager of Enterprise Platform Solutions at MSI. "This AI-powered vRAN architecture delivers greater flexibility for 5G and future 6G deployments while accelerating time-to-market for new services."

At Mobile World Congress 2026, AMD announced an expanded Ryzen AI portfolio with the launch of the AMD Ryzen AI 400 Series and Ryzen AI PRO 400 Series desktop processors. The new processors deliver powerful on-device AI acceleration and next-generation performance, enabling users to run AI applications and LLMs locally and tackle compute-intensive applications, including those for design and engineering, with ease. Additionally, AMD is expanding the Ryzen AI 400 Series mobile portfolio to include workstations.

With these additions, Ryzen AI 400 Series processors enable original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to offer next-gen AI PCs across high-performance desktops, laptops and mobile workstations optimized for modern workloads.

AMD has expanded the availability of its Ryzen 5 5500X3D to the Chinese market, giving new life to a processor that first appeared in Latin America last year. There was no formal launch event or major announcement. Instead, the chip appeared through retail channels quietly, with a listing price of 1,199 RMB (roughly $175). At its core, the Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a six-core, 12-thread "Zen 3" processor designed for the AM4 platform. It runs at a 3.0 GHz base frequency and can boost up to 4.0 GHz. What sets it apart from standard Ryzen 5 models of the same generation is its expanded cache configuration. With a combined 99 MB of L2 and L3 cache, it targets gaming workloads that benefit from reduced memory latency and improved data access patterns, as seen with the other X3D SKUs.

AMD lists the processor at a 105 W TDP, and buyers should note that it does not include a bundled cooler and lacks integrated graphics. At $175, this pricing positions the 5500X3D as one of the more accessible X3D options available. AMD revived its AM4 socket with an additional "Zen 3" chip, but this time in an X3D variant to keep up with modern designs in performance. With support for DDR4 memory, PCIe 4.0, and a wide range of AM4 motherboards, including X570 and B550, the 5500X3D offers existing users a relatively inexpensive drop-in upgrade. For those running Ryzen 3 or Ryzen 5 from the 5000 series, this chip could be a very good upgrade without having to switch to a completely new platform and the more expensive DDR5 memory.

We've known for a while now, that Intel's early-2026 refresh of its Core Ultra series-2 "Arrow Lake" desktop processor lineup could see a refresh with the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus and Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, with reviews tentatively going live on March 23. VideoCardz reports that the company could unveil these chips close to two weeks earlier than that, on March 11. This would probably be when the company announces the two chips and reveals some of their specs. Reviews could remain on track for March 23, with retail availability of the chips shortly after. There's no confirmation yet on whether the two chips have "KF" variants lacking integrated graphics, but that's fairly likely.

Both SKUs see increases in CPU core counts and L3 cache sizes compared to current SKUs leading the Core Ultra 5 and Core Ultra 7 brand extensions. The Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is a 6P+12E chip, with a generous 30 MB of shared L3 cache; while the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus maxes out the "Arrow Lake-S" silicon, enabling all 8 P-cores, and all 16 E-cores, with all 36 MB of shared L3 cache available; albeit with slightly lower clock-speeds than the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K. Intel reportedly dropped plans to launch the fabled "Core Ultra 9 290K Plus," which would have been a supercharged variant of the 285K with even higher clock speeds.

Micron Technology, Inc. celebrated the grand opening of its semiconductor assembly and test facility in Sanand, Gujarat, India. The state-of-the-art facility converts advanced DRAM and NAND wafers from Micron's global manufacturing network into finished memory and storage products. Once fully ramped, the first phase of Micron's Sanand operation will feature more than 500,000 square feet of cleanroom space, making it one of the world's largest single-floor assembly and test cleanrooms. The site serves customers worldwide to meet the growing global demand for memory and storage fueled by AI.

The facility represents a combined investment of approximately $2.75 billion by Micron and its government partners, advancing semiconductor manufacturing capabilities in India. Micron Chairman, President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and other executives witnessed the opening ceremony with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat Bhupendra Patel, Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor and other distinguished government officials and guests.

GIGABYTE Technology, a global leader known for its engineering excellence in high-performance computing and AI servers, extends its comprehensive end-to-end AI infrastructure portfolio designed specifically for the telecommunications industry at MWC 2026. GIGABYTE's end-to-end product solutions enable operators to convert massive volumes of network data into intelligence, automation, and new revenue streams, as telecommunications networks evolve from data carriers into AI-powered digital platforms.

At the core of the telco-to-AI transformation is the AI Factory, where network and subscriber data are converted into operational intelligence and commercialized AI services. GIGABYTE addresses this need with GB300 NVL72, a liquid-cooled rack-scale platform integrating 72 NVIDIA Blackwell Ultra GPUs and 36 NVIDIA Grace CPUs in a single system. Connected via NVIDIA Quantum-X800 InfiniBand or NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet and NVIDIA ConnectX -8 SuperNIC s, GB300 NVL72 is optimized for large-scale AI training and inference workloads, enabling operators to automate operations, optimize network planning, and deploy AI-driven services at telecom scale.

At MWC 2026, Lenovo introduces a new generation of adaptive AI devices and forward-looking concepts designed for business professionals, creators, students, and gamers. Headlined by new modular PC architecture, a glasses-free 3D laptop concept, a foldable gaming handheld device, and the initial rollout of Lenovo Qira, Lenovo's showcase reflects a broader shift in personal computing toward systems that adapt intelligently to people and their environments. Across its portfolio, Lenovo continues to focus on delivering technology that is more personalized, proactive, and protected, while building a unified AI ecosystem that works naturally across devices.

"The AI era will not be defined by a single device or application, but by intelligent systems that work seamlessly across everything we use," said Luca Rossi, President, Intelligent Devices Group, Lenovo. "We are demonstrating how Lenovo and Motorola are bringing that vision to life, combining adaptive hardware innovation with a single, unified system-level AI integration that works naturally across PCs, smartphones, tablets, wearables, and beyond. From premium mobile devices and transformative form factors, to the rollout of Lenovo Qira, we are building the widest AI portfolio that delivers more connected, more intuitive personal computing experiences designed around people."

ACEMAGIC's K1 Mini PC, powered by Intel's 12th Gen Core i5-12600H, is currently available at a substantial discount on Amazon US. Originally priced at $579.99, the system is now listed at $399.99, with an additional 10% off promo code bringing the final price down to $359.99. The promotion runs from February 4, 2026 (04:00 PST) through March 31, 2026 (23:59 PST).

Alder Lake-H Performance in a Compact Form Factor
The ACEMAGIC K1 is built around the Intel Core i5-12600H, a 12-core (4P + 8E) / 16-thread processor based on Intel's Alder Lake architecture. With boost clocks up to 4.5 GHz, the chip offers significantly higher multithreaded performance compared to typical low-power U-series mini PC CPUs, and even outpaces processors such as the i5-12450H in many workloads.

To purchase from the United States, visit this page (Amazon link).

To purchase from Canada, visit this page (Amazon Canada link).