Articles by Zak Killian, Contributor

Zak Killian is a freelance contributor to Tom's Hardware who has also written for HotHardware and Tech Report. Ever since typing in games from magazines in ATARI BASIC on his family's Atari 800XL as a youth, Zak has been deeply fascinated with the capabilities of computers. His passion for gaming as a kid led to more technical engagement with PCs as a teenager, when he first built his own system: an AMD K6. Not long after, he founded his own PC repair shop in the year 2000. Now, decades later, he's still building and benchmarking new boxes, still gaming in every free hour, and still arguing on the internet with almost any opinion anyone has. Something of a modern-day Renaissance man, he may not be an expert on anything, but he knows just a little about nearly everything.

Articles by: Zak Killian

Google Chrome 'silently' downloads 4GB AI model to your device without permission, report claims — researcher says practice may violate EU law, waste thousands of kilowatts of energy

By Zak Killian published 6 May 26

Security researcher says that Google is likely in violation of EU law and wasting thousands upon thousands of kilowatts.

Nvidia accelerates end-of-life for some Jetson AI processors due to memory shortages — RAMpocalypse sends older DDR4-based modules to the great scrapheap in the sky

By Zak Killian published 3 May 26

Nvidia is apparently discontinuing some older embedded platforms earlier than anticipated, but this is mostly about market reality finally catching up, not abrupt discontinuation.

A screenshot from the PlayCanvas FPS game made with gaussian splats showing impressive visual realism.

Developer creates a basic first person shooter game using Gaussian splats, and you can play it for free in your browser

By Zak Killian published 27 April 26

It's not much of a game, but it's an impressive proof of concept for the novel technology.

Intel shutters open-source evangelism program and archives key community projects — closures point to significant shift in open-source leadership

By Zak Killian published 23 April 26

The latest round of GitHub closures underscores a broader pullback in Intel's open-source footprint amid ongoing restructuring.

Linux 7.1 update includes new in-kernel NTFS driver — delivers storage support upgrade for Linux users

By Zak Killian published 20 April 26

Linux 7.1 is bringing what might be the biggest under-the-radar storage change in years: a new in-kernel NTFS driver.

SNK revives the mighty Neo Geo in modern form — new AES+ system plays classic games without emulation

By Zak Killian published 18 April 26

The Neo Geo AES+ is real, it's coming this November

NZXT to cough up $3.45 million over 'predatory' Flex PC rental scheme in RICO class-action settlement — in-debt customers to get up to $5,000 of relief, eligible renters to be granted ownership

By Zak Killian published 13 April 26

The company allegedly engaged in just about every kind of deceptive business practice possible, and even targeted children.

A screenshot of a Linux directory listing with a picture of Tux, the Linux mascot, in the corner; a person is walking in the reflection on the screen.

Linux lays down the law on AI-generated code, says yes to Copilot, no to AI slop, and humans take the fall for mistakes — after months of fierce debate, Torvalds and maintainers come to an agreement

By Zak Killian published 12 April 26

After months of fierce debate, Linus Torvalds and the Linux kernel maintainers have laid down the law on AI-generated code.

Ambitious hacker reduces worst-case memory latency by up to 93%, but with severe downsides — 1960s bottleneck overcome by hedging memory accesses to avoid running into DRAM refresh stalls

By Zak Killian published 10 April 26

The clever software trick works on both x86 and Arm to radically reduce worst-case memory latency, but it has severe limitations, too.

Ambrish Srivastava, Ahmed Shihab, Irving Tan, and Kris Sennesael performing a "WD" hand gesture at Innovation Day 2026.

WD Innovation Day 2026 press Q&A transcript: roadmap plans to reach 60TB with ePMR and 100TB via HAMR by 2029 — 'at some point, the laws of physics will require us to transition to HAMR'

By Zak Killian published 6 April 26

Premium WD's leadership, now fully split from Sandisk, talks about its expectations for the future with industry analysts. We cover the full transcript of the press-only session right here.

A photo showing the Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus in a motherboard socket.

Intel's potent 18-core Core Ultra 5 250KF Plus CPU lands at retail for under $200

By Zak Killian published 3 April 26

Intel's chip matches similarly-priced AMD parts in gaming and mercilessly wallops them in multi-threaded work.

A screenshot from a Trashbench video showing the Arctic WS360 successfully mounted on the operational GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card.

Ambitious modder bolts a 360mm server AIO onto an RTX 3080, slashes VRAM temps in half — enormous workstation cooler powers 54 degree drop, 9% performance uplift

By Zak Killian published 28 March 26

Trashbench decided to take an Arctic WS360 360mm server AIO cooler and strap it directly to a GeForce RTX 3080

OLED monitor sales surged 92% in 2025 — Asus led with 2.7 million units shipped as gamer-friendly panel tech goes mainstream

By Zak Killian published 26 March 26

Gamers are finally buying OLEDs thanks to bumps in durability and brightness as well as drops in prices.

A screenshot from the game Crimson Desert, showing intense melee combat gameplay.

Crimson Desert offers no support for Intel GPUs — developer Pearl Abyss says 'please refer to the refund policy'

By Zak Killian published 20 March 26

Crimson Desert doesn't support Intel GPUs, and the game's developers is telling customers to simply ask for a refund.

A high-detail render of an AMD Ryzen AI processor.

First credible leak of an AMD Zen 6 processor pops up on Geekbench — ten-core CPU seems to have 32MB of L3 cache

By Zak Killian published 16 March 26

While the result doesn't mean much due to this being early silicon running at low clocks, it proves that AMD has Zen 6 consumer CPUs up and running.

An indistinct render with "Next-Gen Direct Storage API" text laid over.

Microsoft debuts DirectStorage 1.4 at GDC 2026, with Zstandard compression and GACL — update promises developers improved compression ratios, faster loading, and more

By Zak Killian published 13 March 26

DirectStorage 1.4 brings along key upgrades to the API, including support for Zstandard compression as well as CreatorID for improved GPU scheduling.

RPCS3 Emulator boasts over 1500 FPS on the Minecraft title screen — platform hails performance landmark, one frame rendered every 0.00064 seconds

By Zak Killian published 10 March 26

The RPCS3 emulator team brags of immense optimization even as fans whine that many titles remain unplayable without the latest hardware.

AMD VP uses AI to create Radeon Linux userland driver in Python — senior AI engineer says he "didn't open the editor once"

By Zak Killian published 7 March 26

AMD's VP of AI software vibe coded the driver entirely using Claude Code, but it's meant for testing, not for deployment to users.

A GeForce 3 graphics card flanked by game boxes for Star Wars Jedi Knight 2, Warcraft III, and Max Payne.

The Nvidia GeForce3 launched 25 years ago — underappreciated at launch, its impact shaped the industry

By Zak Killian published 1 March 26

Technological evolution rarely looks important in the moment. In fact, sometimes it even looks like a regression.

Tim Cook, Jensen Huang, and Christine Lagarde listening to a speech by Donald Trump at the WEF.

US gov't warned Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Tim Cook, and Lisa Su that China could invade Taiwan by 2027 — Apple CEO reportedly said he sleeps 'with one eye open'

By Zak Killian published 24 February 26

A new report reveals that tech CEOs were cautioned in 2023, yet haven't really taken action on the info.

A product photo of a Thermal Grizzly delidded CPU.

Thermal Grizzly pops the top on Ryzen 7 9850X3Ds for you, charges eyewatering premium for delidded chips — almost double the cost of a regular model, comes with its own warranty

By Zak Killian published 20 February 26

The chips come with an assurance of functionality and a 24-month warranty, which ain't bad all things considered.

Japanese toilet maker 'the most undervalued and overlooked AI memory beneficiary,' investors claim — shares up nearly 40% in first two months of 2026

By Zak Killian published 17 February 26

A company most famous for toilets and bidets is seeing meteoric stock growth due to demand for its advanced ceramics products.

An image of five Fortnite characters standing abreast, facing the viewer

Epic Games brings Secure Boot and TPM to competitive Fortnite — most players unaffected by new measures

By Zak Killian published 12 February 26

Epic Games has announced new security measures for Fortnite, but the elevated requirements only apply to tournament play — for now.

ASRock issues statement concerning yet another round of Ryzen 9000 CPU failures — motherboard vendor says it is 'working in seamless coordination' with AMD to investigate

By Zak Killian published 5 February 26

While the scope of the faults appears to be quite small, ASRock joins the chorus of motherboard companies promising to search for a cause.

A header image showing the Tom's Hardware Tech Deals badge along with the Lenovo Legion 5i gaming laptop.

RTX 5070 OLED gaming laptop slashed to $1,294 in Lenovo's blowout sale — premium 1440p 280 Hz OLED monitor drops down to $485

By Zak Killian published 31 January 26

Deals We spotted some outstanding Saturday deals on Lenovo's website, including powerful gaming laptops and high-end gaming displays.

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