With widespread disappointment regarding the availability and pricing of Valve’s Steam Machine, influencers and creators have been mixing up ‘alternatives’ of various shapes and sizes. However, we think the Terk Box v1.1 looks like the closest alternative yet in design and spirit. The work, as spotted by Hackaday, appears to be a collaboration between Jacob Terkelsen, an ex-Tom's Hardware contributor currently working for AMD, and a 3D printing and SFF PCs enthusiast who goes by the handle of 3DCatt.

If you are a 3D printer owner, you can grab the source files for the Terk Box v1.1 direct from Printables.com. There you will find a parts list, which details the various screws, riser cables, and numerous other parts you will need. The .STL source files are all there, too, of course, under a Creative Commons license.

Specific component brands don’t seem to be suggested by the makers, which is probably due to the set of standards embraced by the various PC parts makers. However, we do note in the user comments some people may have had a hard time fitting their GPU. 3DCatt says the max length that will fit is “about 180mm long.” That isn’t all, though, as the recommended PCIe riser cable wasn’t long enough for some, depending on the GPU model. AMD’s Terkelsen chipped in that the build was suitable for his RTX 5060 LP graphics card, but he requested more room for a front 140mm case fan, among a few other tweaks.

The current revision of the Terk Box measures 167 x 168 x 225mm. That may be close enough to the official machine (152 x 162 x 156mm) to justify the extra effort of doing this instead of finding an off-the-peg compact Mini ITX case. Some of the compromises with the Terk Box v1.1 appear to be the fussiness with GPU choice we mentioned above, and the less-than-ideal positioning of the CPU socket in relation to the PSU. However, both 3DCatt and Terkelsen have hinted at refinements on the way to v1.2.

Since they have already strayed from the cubic confines of Valve’s actual Steam Machine, I feel they shouldn’t feel too shackled to the design they currently have. I’ll be watching further developments with interest.

In summary, this is a design much closer in stature and spirit to the original Valve effort, but it is definitely a work in progress. With the various component constraints, the DIY price for this won’t be the most compelling, either. Readers who are 3D printing and PC DIY aficionados, and we must have a few of those, might be able to contribute to the project with suggestions, tweaks, and remixes.

Bundle deals are often the easiest way to sidestep today's inflated pricing of memory, SSDs, and GPUs. However, a well-configured prebuilt can be even more compelling, offering compatible components and the convenience of a fully assembled system out-of-the-box. One such prebuilt is the ABS Cyclone Aqua that is currently listed on Newegg for $1,399.99, down from its original price of $1,799.99 resulting in savings of $400. Customers can get an additional discount of 5% using the promo code ABSGAMER5 during checkout, essentially bringing the final cost down to $1,329.99, and an overall saving of $470.

• Check out this deal on Newegg

The ABS Cyclone Aqua gaming PC features hardware suitable for modern AAA gaming at 1080p. It is powered by an Intel Core i7-14700F, which is a solid 20-core (8 P-cores + 12 E-cores) processor with 28 threads and boost clock speeds of up to 5.4 GHz. The CPU is paired to an ASRock B760M-CX motherboard with 32GB (2 x 16GB) of DDR5 6000 MT/s memory from G.Skill. The motherboard also comes with onboard Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. For storage, the system includes a 1TB Kingston SNV3S M.2 2280 Gen 4 SSD offering read speeds of up to 5,000 MBps and write speeds of up to 3,500 MBps.

Graphics duties are handled by the MSI Shadow RTX 5060 with 8GB VRAM, which is essentially Nvidia’s latest entry-level 1080p card. While it may not be ideal for high-end AAA gaming, it should be good enough for less demanding titles, especially if you are into competitive FPS shooters. The rest of the features include a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Spectrum V3 CPU air cooler, a 650W 80+ Gold power supply unit, and a decent mid-tower case with a glass side panel, as well as two 120mm ARGB fans at the front and one at the rear.

If you've been holding off on a new gaming PC due to high component prices, this deal at $1,329.99 is definitely worth your attention. Considering that sourcing comparable components individually would likely push the total cost beyond $1,500, this prebuilt offers excellent value for the money.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.

Gaming laptops have become more enticing than ever amidst the ongoing industry volatility caused by the AI boom. It's difficult to find even GPUs at decent prices now, let alone RAM or storage devices, so a portable all-in-one machine can actually be a genuinely better buy in many cases. Lenovo has one such deal out right now: the Legion 5i is down to just $1,299 on B&H — discounted $400 from its list price.

• Check out this deal on B&H

For that money, you're getting a 115W RTX 5060, paired with the Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX processor with 20 cores boosting up to 5.2 GHz. That's a powerful hardware combo that can churn through both productivity and gaming tasks easily. Lenovo has equipped this Legion 5i with 32GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, with one M.2 slot empty for drop-in future upgrades.

You can arguably get RTX 5060-level performance for cheaper, but you wouldn't want to once you experience the main draw of this machine — its display. Featuring a gorgeous 15.1-inch OLED display with a 165 Hz refresh rate, this screen has 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space. It's also rated for HDR True Black 600 and has a sharp 2560x1600 resolution that will make your games pop off the panel.

We haven't reviewed this particular Lenovo Legion 5i model, but we've taken a look at other RTX 5060 laptops, from which we can gauge the performance ballpark. The Legion 5i lineup in general is revered in the community for its excellent price to performance ratio. Expect solid 1080p gaming across a plethora of titles, made to look even better on that Dolby Vision certified display.

In terms of connectivity, you get Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, plenty of fast USB-C and USB-A ports, HDMI and Ethernet. There's an 80Wh battery onboard with fast charging that can take the device from 0 to 70% in under 30 minutes. The 5MP webcam is nothing to boast about, but hey, it's there. Lenovo includes a standard 1-year warranty for peace of mind as well.

The Legion 5i is also well-built, with an aluminum lid ensuring one-handed operation. It doesn't have an outwardly gamer aesthetic, so it can blend in at all those performative cafés where you pretend you're working. It's not unwieldy either, coming it at around 4 pounds, which is lighter than a 16-inch MacBook Pro. All in all, this Lenovo Legion 5i for just $1,299 is a great deal for anyone looking to upgrade.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

If you're on the market for a new gaming laptop to replace an aging workhorse, or fancy having something a little more portable for stepping away from the desktop battlestation, then this Lenovo gaming laptop deal from Best Buy is a winner. At just $1,149.99 for the Lenovo Legion Pro 5, you're saving an impressive $510 off its usual list price, while picking up an OLED screen, plenty of RAM, and a discrete RTX 5060 GPU for a very good price. If you compare the laptop's specs to those of other machines available with similar components, this Legion 5 Pro shines with its value proposition.

• Grab this deal at Best Buy

The Lenovo Legion Pro 5 (model: 83LT000MUS) in today's deal features an AMD Ryzen 7 8745HX processor with a 3.6GHz base clock and Nvidia's mobile RTX 5060 graphics, paired with 8GB of VRAM. An ample 32GB of DDR5 memory and a 1TB SSD for storage are further standout specs for the price. Making your games and media look gorgeous is a bright 500 nit OLED screen measuring 16 inches with a sharp 2.5K resolution, and a speedy 165Hz refresh rate for those fast-paced action games.

We haven't had the opportunity to review this particular model of laptop, but we have tested other Lenovo Legion 5i machines with different specs, but similar features, such as the OLED screen used in this laptop, and so we're aware of how OLED panels can have an effect on battery performance. The battery here is rated for 6.5 hours of use, but, as we've commonly found with gaming laptops that use powerful GPUs and especially OLED screens, the battery can be drained more quickly than a standard IPS screen. Of course, to receive the full gaming potential of this laptop, you should connect to a mains power source.

Other features of the Legion Pro 5 include 2x USB-C and 3x USB Type-A ports, DisplayPort 2.1 (over USB-C), HDMI 2.1, Wi-Fi 7, an RGB backlit keyboard, and a 720p webcam.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

Minisforum let me go hands-on with its CES 2026 Innovation Award-winning Mini Workstation, so to get a grasp of what the diminutive new Minisforum MS-02 Ultra could offer, I decided to see if it could replace my aging but capable desktop PC.

This is a true David vs Goliath battle, at least in terms of physical presence. The sub-5-liter MS-02 Ultra battles with my much larger desktop system packed into a 55-liter Fractal Define S PC case. However, the result of the clash wasn’t as clear-cut as I expected, making me wonder what kind of PC I should be using daily in 2026.

Before we get into a specifications table, where you can see exactly how these two systems compare feature-by-feature, it is important to highlight the physical differences. The MS-02 Ultra is an incredible 11 times smaller than my Define S-desktop system. Obviously, such a small size means there are sacrifices to be made in terms of expandability, configurability, thermals, and noise. But those limitations are counterweighted by the benefits of the device being much physically smaller. Dare I say, the Minisforum is kind of portable, and even cute, which is not something I could say about the Define S PC.

The table below makes clear the specs of the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra workstation against those of the system it will have to battle on my desk.

CPU and GPU showdown

The Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX should be much more capable than the i5-14400F that I bought at Amazon for $115 last year. It tempts with the advantages of its modern Intel architecture, higher clock boost, and easily outguns my Raptor Lake Refresh chip on core count. Moreover, the new platform brings quite a lot of modern niceties. Particularly welcome, from my perspective, are the trio of really fast USB4 (including 2x USB4 v2) ports, all with DisplayPort capabilities.

A distinct advantage I expected in moving to the MS-02 Ultra was from the increased core count using Intel’s more modern architecture. Indeed, CPU-heavy benchmarks would show the new chip could convincingly eclipse the old mid-range Core i5-14400F in both single- and multicore workloads, given sufficient power supply and cooling capacity. But, we'll see how that translates to ‘Mark’s world’ of computing in the benchmarks section, below.

I’ll stress again that a brief check of the specs, ahead of any actual comparison testing, may suggest the little Minisforum would win hands-down in CPU-focused processing tasks, but the best consumer-grade GPU I could get to fit inside its sub-5-liter chassis would be crushed by the triple-fan behemoth in my ATX desktop. Indeed, that is sort of what happened. There are nuances, though, especially as I don’t really play any AAA or eSports PC games that launched in the 2020s, or dabble in local AI.

The MS-02 Ultra runs using the integrated graphics on the Core Ultra 9 285HX by. default. However, there’s a PCIe5.0 x16 slot, and incredibly, there’s room to install a two-slot low profile (LP) graphics card. This, plus the spare 8-pin connector from the built-in 350W PSU, allowed me to install a Gigabyte RTX 5060 OC LP GPU.

Nvidia’s RTX 5060 seemed to be the best graphics card choice for me, as a generalist/hobbyist PC user, though I’ve seen other early adopters of the MS-02 Ultra install cards like the Intel Arc Pro B50 (16GB), Nvidia RTX Pro 4000 Blackwell SFF (24GB), and the RTX 4000 SFF Ada (20GB). These offer far more VRAM but can cost a lot more, too. But thanks to this mini workstation allowing for GPU upgrades, perhaps the RTX 6060 or RTX 7060 will arrive one day with more than 8GB of VRAM on board, and in a low-profile form factor. Or maybe AMD will make a performant LP form factor card in the meantime.

More on specs

I chose my Fractal Define S-housed desktop's motherboard as it was one of the few B760 chipset boards with a USB-C 20 Gbps port as standard at the price point. So, getting three times more USB-C ports, with two of them supporting up to 80 Gbps as standard, on the compact MS-02 Ultra was a welcome platform boost. I’m sure there is potential here for some very useful docking or even eGPU use-cases.

I have a pair of Crucial X10 Pro 4TB devices for keeping games, TV, and movie libraries portable. My testing confirmed the USB4 v2 ports on the front work at full USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20 Gbps) speeds with the X10 Pro. Some USB4 controllers surprisingly don’t support Gen 2x2 and would fall back to 10 Gbps mode. My X10 Pros run about a third of the speed of the built-in M.2 SSD provided by Minisforum, but I feel they are good for external, highly portable units.

An extra two 25 GbE network ports and two of the available M.2 SSD slots are provided by a pre-installed low-profile card in the MS-02 Ultra’s PCIe 4.0 x16 slot. However, I chose to replace that with a cheap USB Type-A 3.0 card with four ports, as I really like to have lots of USB ports. My old desktop used a USB adaptor for Wi-Fi 6 and didn’t have Bluetooth. The MS-02 has built-in Intel BE200 Wi-Fi 7 and BT 5.4 card.

There are three PCIe slots in the MS-02 Ultra, but adding the GPU takes up the room where two single-slot add-in-cards would otherwise fit. That compares poorly with my Define S desktop, which has five slots. With a bulky GPU fitted in that ATX system, it was still possible to add another three single-slot PCIe cards. Again, I have one installed in there, bristling with extra USB ports.

Preparing for my personal benchmark battle

The most demanding things thrown at my PC are video editing and games like The Division 2 and Far Cry 5. The Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark is just there for an added reference point, (I bought it, but I’ve not actually got around to playing it yet.) The same goes for Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I also like playing in Borderlands GOTY Enhanced Edition, Command & Conquer Generals, and Amiga Forever – but those are so old and lightweight they weren’t worth testing for this performance comparison.

Most of the time, my computer will be used for little more than multiscreen word processing and browsing, communicating with work colleagues, and a touch of ancient Photoshop and Illustrator dabbling. These help me prepare artwork for here on Tom’s Hardware, some YouTube stuff, as well as laser cutting and engraving. Also, Photoshop has recently been replaced by the Affinity suite.

So, without further ado, let’s get into those benchmarks, which unashamedly revolve around my personal general-purpose computer use, with a few gaming classics thrown in. I’ve also included a ‘tweener’ system, where my large desktop was fitted with the incongruously tiny RTX 5060 LP card.

Minisforum MS-02 Ultra productivity performance

The comparison table above doesn’t offer much in the way of surprises. The MS-02 Ultra with Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285HX does exceedingly well in CPU-intensive tests, particularly those that take advantage of the abundance of available threads. We see the 285HX is a star performer in Cinebench R23, with single-thread scores similar to desktop processors like the Core i9-14900K and Ryzen 9 9950X. For multicore, you are also good to compare with the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and i9‑14900F, but the unlocked i9‑14900K starts to pull ahead convincingly.

I also think the 7-Zip (de)compression benchmark shows the MS-02 mini workstation in a good light. Handbrake 4K transcoding wasn’t much better compared with my old 14400F, though. Meanwhile, PassMark Performance Test, a mix of CPU, graphics, memory, and disk tests, showed some worthwhile performance benefits from the Minisforum – when the RTX 5060 was installed.

Minisforum MS-02 Ultra gaming performance

It is almost moot to highlight that the Define S desktop with Radeon RX 9070 would dominate in 3D games and 3D benchmarks. Nevertheless, there were some interesting results showing that the Ultra 9 285HX / RTX 5060 didn’t always beat the i5-14400F / RTX 5060 due to titles simply being ‘GPU-limited.’ An interesting outlier was the crazy-town USA-set Far Cry 5, where Ubisoft’s Dunia Engine 2 (a modified CryEngine) seemed to prefer the desktop Raptor Lake Refresh under the hood. All the games were tested in 1440p, with no upscaling or frame-gen tech applied.

Minisforum MS-02 Ultra power consumption and noise

Now we move into an area of both strength and weakness for the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra. In my benchmarks table, above, I also included power and noise readings. Starting with the good news, the MS-02 requires less power while idling and doing light tasks – like writing this. It also uses about 120W less when gaming, and all the titles I enjoy play smoothly enough on the RTX 5060 system at high to ultra settings at 1440p without the use of any scaling or frame gen tech.

Some bad news for the mini workstation is that it is more audible when idling and under load, in my experience. Initially, I measured both systems from about arm’s length distance. My Define S desktop uses large Noctua fans and sits under the desk, and in the comparison results, you see that even using the tiny RTX 5060 didn’t increase the noticeable system noise – it is hard to be 100% confident about the 1dBA difference observed.

Having the MS-02 Ultra at arm's length from my seated position, but on the desk top, the noise level was quite high at 48 dBA under load, as per the above chart. However, sitting it under the desk, where the big DIY desktop PC was previously located, reduced the max noise level to 41 dBA. But it's a far smaller system, and when positioned in the space vacated by the Define S, the Minisforum front panel moves beyond arm's reach under the desk. It is necessary to bend quite low from the chair to reach the power button and front I/O, which isn't convenient. That's why I decided to keep it on the desk.

I also note that the Minisforum BIOS has various fan modes (quiet, balanced, and performance) and manual tweaking of the trio of system fans. I ran it at ‘Balanced,’ so there’s probably some tuning that could be done for better noise performance.

Bottom line

In some many ways, the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra held its own against my old home-built Goliath.. The pint-sized challenger does everything I need, and some more. There are clear advantages to be had in CPU-heavy workloads. In GPU-heavy tasks and gaming, there’s clearly enough juice for my particular needs today. If you think about the future, then unlike many other mini PCs, this one can get upgraded with a faster next-generation low-profile graphics card (and other compact PCIe cards) if and when they arrive at an affordable price.

I’ll continue to work on configuring the fans, with an eye on processor and memory temperatures, as the louder fans are the one aspect of the MS-02 Ultra that pokes me in the ribs. It may also be repositioned further back on the desk or under it to scale back its audible presence. The fan noise isn’t high-pitched, and I sometimes forget it, but less is more.

We must also talk about the price of the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra mini workstation. As of the this writing, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX model with 2x 25 GbE PCIe SFP+ NIC, 32GB DDR5, plus a 1TB M.2 PCIe4x4 SSD, and Windows 11 Pro is priced at $1,583.90 from Amazon.com. You can also go barebone (no RAM, SSD, or OS) for $1,229.90 using a $300 discount coupon on the page, which could be a great option if you have a spare DDR5 SO-DIMM, M.2 SSD, and can source your own OS. As with all PCs at this time, prices are very volatile.

The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5060 OC LP 8G I bought to go in this system's PCIe ​5.0 x16 slot is currently $359 at Newegg. This was a necessary extra to indulge in the type and quality of gaming fun that I am used to.

Thus, for the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra 32GB/1TB with RTX 5060 LP graphics card installed, as tested, today's total price would be $1,942.90. Things have gotten a little pricier since I began my tests in early January, but that's the way the PC market is going.

We could talk about the comparison between the MS-02 Ultra build/cost and a desktop, with the latter offering much better value and expandability or upgradeability. However, getting something this performant yet compact, with this level of I/O spec and expandability, is going to be impossible with off-the-shelf parts. In this way, and especially for those with a use for the 2x 25 GbE PCIe SFP+ NIC, this mini workstation is a uniquely attractive package.

We're keeping an eye out for the lowest-priced GPUs and keeping those listed here for you. The sad state of the memory industry, which is besieged by insanely large memory orders for AI data centers and AI GPUs, has led to increasing prices for gaming graphics cards. Nvidia is purportedly allocating memory based on the amount of money it can make per GB of VRAM, which has made the situation dire for some models. To help you navigate the pricing crisis, we have compiled this GPU index to monitor the availability and pricing of recent graphics card releases from the current and previous generations.

We update this guide constantly with the best prices in the U.S. for each SKU of GPU from the most recent two generations of Nvidia, AMD, and Intel cards. We're listing the lowest price for an available graphics card, regardless of the manufacturer, so it could be an Asus, Zotac, MSI, Sapphire, Gigabyte, Powercolor, or ASRock-branded card, but it will be the cheapest.

A word of warning: with this list, sometimes the retailers switch to third-party sellers automatically. You must be super vigilant and check sellers to ensure legitimacy. For older generation graphics cards, it can often be difficult to find these cards brand-new and on sale from first-party retailers like Amazon, Newegg, and Best Buy, and they are more often than not listed by third parties. Check prices against the current generation of GPUs to understand if you are getting a good deal, or if you're in fact better off paying a little extra for the very latest graphics cards.

Also, check out our list of the best graphics cards and our GPU benchmark hierarchy to see evergreen performance data to help you make an informed decision when choosing a new GPU for your system.

Nvidia RTX 50-Series: Lowest Graphics Cards Prices

The latest 50-series graphics cards from Nvidia include the current most powerful consumer GPU - Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5090. The RTX 5090 uses the new Blackwell architecture and comes with a massive 32GB of GDDR7 VRAM, and given the current prioritization for models with lower amounts of VRAM to boost profits, it's a problem getting your hands on one at anything even in the vicinity of a reasonable price.

The 50-series range doesn't have the most impressive gen-on-gen performance uplifts on pure rasterization power compared to the 40-series, but it does support new software and tech such as 5th Gen Tensor cores, 4th Gen Ray Tracing cores, DLSS 4.5 with Multi-Frame Generation tech, and Reflex 2. Some of those technologies, like DLSS and frame gen, can help wring the most performance out of those lower-tier cards with less VRAM.

There are 8GB variants of the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti, available at near MSRP prices, with the higher-tier GPUs like the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5080 in poor supply at any reasonable price.

Nvidia RTX 40-Series: Lowest Graphics Cards Prices

Nvidia's 40-series Ada Lovelace architecture graphics cards include the powerful GeForce RTX 4090 and 4080 Super. The 4090 combines a massive 24GB of GDDR6X VRAM and Nvidia's 4th generation of Tensor cores for increased ray-tracing ability.

The RTX 40-series cards also feature support for Nvidia's DLSS 3 software for AI frame generation, which helps to increase frame rates on higher resolutions and settings. In general, Nvidia cards are the best choice for ray tracing, with more features than the competition. You'll also generally pay more for Nvidia GPUs relative to similarly performing AMD GPUs.

Unfortunately, RTX 40-series GPUs are no longer being produced, so stock levels have dried up on many card variants. Any available cards for sale have a high chance of being either second-hand or ex-mining hardware, yet still ask for exorbitant prices. Be extra vigilant when shopping for 40-series graphics cards, and buy from a reputable seller. Prices for 40-series cards are also much higher than they should be. They can be a good choice for a second-hand purchase if you can get one at the right price and accept all associated risks.

AMD Radeon RX 9000-Series: Lowest Graphics Cards Prices

AMD's competition to Nvidia includes the Radeon RX 9060, RX 9070, and RX 9070 XT graphics cards with MSRP prices of $269, $549, and $599, respectively. Finding one of these GPUs for that price, however, could prove to be a struggle as prices of Radeon graphics cards rise due to ever-expanding memory price hikes. These new cards go toe-to-toe with Nvidia's RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti and offer a great alternative to Team Green.

The RX 9070 XT comes with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM for those texture-heavy games and provides a large generational increase compared to RDNA 3. Improvements to AI and ray tracing tech have made this generation of AMD cards perform much better in games with ray tracing, but they still fall behind Nvidia in overall performance for ray/path tracing.

There are also 8GB and 16GB versions of the RX 9060 XT available, and they are selling for a fair price at the moment. However, 8GB of VRAM means the card isn't terribly futureproofed, as game requirements continually grow regarding shader and texture memory requirements.

AMD Radeon RX 7000-Series: Lowest Graphics Cards Prices

AMD's 7000-series GPUs are still a great option for a graphics card in your gaming rig if you can find one at a good price. Not the best choice if you're looking for pure ray-tracing performance, but if you want raw computational performance, they are a winner. Combined with AMD's FSR software, these 7000-series GPUs can still crank out high frame rates in the latest games.

The RX 7900 XTX in particular represents a great blend of power and performance, with it being the halo-tier card from the 7000-series and AMD not replicating a super-high-end card for the 9000-series. The RX 7900 XTX still ranks highly in our GPU Benchmark Hierarchy charts.

Here are all the lowest prices for the 7000-series models currently available.

Intel Arc GPUs: Lowest Graphics Card Prices

Intel's entry into the GPU market has been a little hit-and-miss. In some titles, these cards perform relatively well, but in older DirectX games, the cards suffer from some poor performance issues.

Frequent driver updates have made many improvements to the performance of Intel's Arc lineup and turned them into a much more viable choice for a budget gaming PC build. The prices of these GPUs have hit a price sweet spot that has been abandoned by Nvidia and AMD, especially for 1080p gaming. The Arc series of GPUs should certainly not be discounted when considering any budget gaming system build.

Intel's most recent launches include the Arc B580 and Arc B570, with the cards having 12GB of VRAM for the B580 and 10GB for the B570. Pricing is very competitive with the Intel cards, but the manufacturer's variety is limited, as is stock.

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Based on a machine translation, a January 10 report from ITmedia, retailers in Akihabara have resigned themselves to ongoing price pressure and supply issues across PC components. Multiple shops are reportedly saying that GPUs are selling out almost as soon as they arrive, with higher-end models becoming increasingly difficult to keep in stock, and there is little clarity on when replacements will be available.

The report describes the GPU aisle as "a little bit spicy," with staff at various retailers telling the outlet that, while demand remains "steady and informed," and few customers are engaged in panic buying, inventory is thin enough that availability has become a big concern. At PC Studio Akihabara Parts Museum, employees said any graphics card that reaches the sales floor tends to sell immediately.

Retailers have had to respond to this by tightening purchasing rules. Dospara Akihabara Main Store and PC SHOP Ark are both displaying notices restricting GPU purchases, regardless of model, with the latter having maintained some form of limitation since late 2025. These measures are not applied to a single SKU or vendor, but stores say the pressure is most severe with high-end GPUs.

In particular, retailers repeatedly pointed to GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and above as the pressure point. ITmedia notes that inventory above this tier is noticeably weaker than for lower-end cards, a trend already expected given year-end conditions but has since become more pronounced. At TSUKUMO eX., the shortage of high-end cards is so pronounced that roughly half of the showcase space has reportedly been covered because there is little product to display. "Radeon is in relatively stock, but it may be a matter of time…" a representative of that vendor said.

Shops are also expressing concern about restocking timelines, noting that the pressure is "much upstream." Another store cited rumors of upstream pricing and distribution issues, saying there is talk that shipments have been temporarily slowed or paused, leaving retailers unable to predict when higher-end cards will arrive.

This January update builds on reports from late December, when Akihabara shops were already limiting purchases of higher-capacity GPUs to one of each SKU per customer group and warning that 16GB-class cards might be difficult to replenish. What has shifted since then is the degree to which the shortage is visible on the sales floor, with one retailer resorting to covering empty shelves with a curtain because there’s no stock to fill them, and little prospect of any arriving in the near term.

While the reporting focuses on Japan, make no mistake: the affected products fall into a category that has been under pressure globally. GPUs with higher memory capacities are more exposed to rising memory costs and constrained — or, let’s face it, virtually non-existent — memory supply, and retailers are now beginning to see those pressures translate into empty shelves. Expect this to get worse throughout the year; we’re just getting started.

I've recently been putting some systems together on behalf of some friends for Christmas presents, and getting hold of just the RAM alone has been a bit of a nightmare. Trying to find the DDR5 6000MHz memory kits you want on sale, in stock, or priced less than a black-market kidney has been difficult. Twice, already, I've recommended buying a prebuilt PC (which is not something I'd normally do when building them myself) as individual kits are bumping up the price of a PC build by hundreds of dollars. In contrast, prebuilt gaming PCs seem to be absorbing the RAM price increases, so far anyway, and this is basically the case with today's spotlighted deal. MSI's Codex R2 gaming PC is just $929, unbelievable value in the current climate.

• Grab this deal at Newegg

The MSI Codex R2 gaming PC features very decent components for a budget 1080p gaming machine and also a couple of surprises. The hardware of this particular build configuration includes an Intel Core i5-14400F processor, Nvidia RTX 5060 graphics card, 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, and 2TB of storage. Along with the core components are a 650W 80+ Gold-rated power supply, ARGB fans, and even an included MSI mouse and keyboard. As I previously mentioned, it's surprising to find 32GB of RAM and a larger 2TB SSD in prebuilt PCs, especially at this price.

There's also an opportunity to upgrade in the future. Although you're limited to the LGA 1700 socket on the motherboard, the Intel Core i5-14400F could be upgraded to a much more powerful CPU, such as the Core i7-14700K, or even Core i9-14900K, depending on whether you can find the parts at a good price. But overall, this is a tremendously good prebuilt, considering the RAM alone is worth roughly $300-$500.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

According to Fast Technology, on November 14, a company in Shanghai sent one of its interns on a business trip to Suzhou to attend an Nvidia Roadshow event. At the end of the function, a stamp-collecting raffle was opened to everyone — essentially a lucky draw — where you could participate to win exciting prizes. Our "victim" signed up for it and ended up winning a brand-new RTX 5060, worth roughly 3000 RMB (~$422).

Graphics cards are typically the most expensive components in a computer. So, when you get your hands on one for free, it's like the universe finally throwing a bone at you, rewarding you for years of kindness and suffering. Then, if that GPU suddenly gets enveloped in a legal feud, you start to second-guess your alliances, shattering loyalties in a moment. Such is the bittersweet ordeal that unfolded in China this past week, where an employee almost lost his shiny new RTX 5060 but ultimately walked away with both the GPU and a story.

That same evening, he was told by a colleague that the finance department had already caught wind of this, and since the company would bear the costs, he should hand in the GPU. Later on, the winner reminisced about how accounts knew of no such thing, revealing that perhaps that coworker was just jealous in hindsight. Regardless, the news quickly spread, and the company became aware of the intern's blessed fortune. You can imagine how things took a turn from this point.

The firm gradually grew more contentious, demanding that the RTX 5060 be handed in because the event it was acquired at was part of a business trip, entirely paid for by the company. The employee would never have won the GPU had the firm not enabled him to attend the venue. Our winner refused, arguing that it belonged to him because he had won it on his own by pure luck. Neither party was willing to step down, and eventually the company's higher-ups got involved, repeatedly questioning him.

Even though the firm considered the RTX 5060 company property, it ultimately didn't confiscate the GPU. HR then told the intern to "look for another company," and he submitted his resignation that night. Assuming general corporate tendencies, the worker either had to be extremely steadfast or was paid like a typical intern (or not at all), so leaving the company over a $400 GPU was more worthwhile. Though staying without giving up the card might've harbored an even more hostile environment.

Lawyers discussing the case sided with the intern, saying that a prize won by random chance belongs to the person holding the ticket. It doesn't matter whether they were there on behalf of the business; in that moment, the employee wasn't fulfilling his duties when participating in the raffle. Unless the contract or internal rules explicitly address company property matters, in a legal standoff, the employee is in a stronger position.

Netizens agreed with this sentiment, with some mockingly asking whether the firm would've maintained the same tenacity and reimbursed the Internet had he been fined 50,000 RMB at the event instead. At the end, this story serves as a potent reminder to stand up for yourself in a corporate world that seldom sees you as anything more than replaceable.

Gaming laptops might be the odd one out when it comes to diminishing returns in PC hardware. The more you spend, the proportioanlly better thing you get; after all, there are just so many aspects of a portable device that can be improved little by little. But what if you could get a solid package without spending much? We've hunted down deal exactly like that: Lenovo's LOQ 15.6" gaming laptop for just $999 on Best Buy — a generous $300 off its list price, making it the cheapest RTX 5060 laptop we've ever seen.

• Check out RTX 5060 laptops on Best Buy

The LOQ lineup has been a long-standing pillar in the laptop community, trusted for its budget offerings, and this model is no different. It's the latest release from Lenovo featuring the RTX 5060 with a 100W TGP which offers commendable 1080p performance, but also the best battery life seen in a LOQ machine. It's paired with a Core i7-13650HX 14-core processor that should be able to breeze through any task, coupled with the 16GB DDR5 memory that is expandable with one extra SO-DIMM slot. There's 512GB of storage onboard, but, once again, you can expand that with another M.2 slot.

The 15.6-inch screen has a 1080p resolution with a 144Hz refresh rate and decent response times. You get G-Sync support on that screen, which is rare in this price bracket, along with Nvidia Advanced Optimus (MUX switch). Up top, there's a 1440p webcam that nicely compliments the solid combination of keyboard, trackpad, and speakers. This LOQ is not too thick either, so it's fairly portable, but despite that it has a great cooling system with fans that stay quiet under load. Not to mention, the plastic build does not feel cheap, especially with its relatively-sober design.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

There’s a compact new fanless chassis on the block, dubbed the FanlessVC2300S DT (machine translation). Listed on China’s Taobao online market (h/t FanlessTech), what makes this particular design remarkable is that an all-copper edition is being made available, limited to 10 units. It is going to be extremely tricky to snag one of those, we expect. Still, the aluminum-clad version in the image appears to have the same total passive cooling capacity of 250W.

The physical presence of the FanlessVC2300S DT is certainly its raison d’être, so let’s consider this aspect of the design first. Whether you opt for the majority copper or aluminum shrouded version, you will receive a 360 x 303 x 130mm case with an interior volume of 14.2 liters and an essentially copper passive cooling system inside. The limited-edition copper-encased version weighs in at a hefty 21.5kg (47.4 pounds), according to the specifications, while the aluminum alloy model is approximately half the mass at 11.2 kg (24.7 pounds).

As per the headline, this is an ITX form factor chassis. Thus, you can equip your own choice of 170 x 170mm ITX motherboard in this quick-release system case. On the topic of max compatibility, there is room for a Flex ATX PSU, with a Platinum-rated model recommended. You will also have room for a pair of memory modules with a maximum height of 44mm, and a single 2.5-inch storage device.

Moving on to the technical details, according to the chassis maker, you can fit a CPU and GPU, adding up to a TDP of as much as 250W. A half-height Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 is reportedly the most powerful option that works in this machine. That will likely contribute approximately 145W or less to the thermal budget. So, you’ll have 105W cooling capacity left for your CPU if you want to push your luck.

Following the ban of its Hopper H20 accelerations in China, Nvidia is reportedly planning on launching new Blackwell-based solutions at a lower price this year, per Reuters. With mass production anticipated by June, we can expect these solutions to be widely available in the Chinese market by Q3 or Q4. While technical details are still emerging, we can already discern some important details and specifications.

Due to stringent U.S. export policies targeting China, the Hopper family has largely been a cat-and-mouse chase between U.S. regulators and Nvidia. Even before their official debut, the flagship H100 and H200 accelerators were already subject to export bans. Nvidia introduced the H800 to circumvent these regulations, which eventually faced a similar fate in October 2023. The cut-down H20 served as Nvidia's primary AI solution for the Chinese market in the interim until its recent ban under the current administration last month, which forced Nvidia to write off $5.5 billion in GPU supply.

Reuters reports that Nvidia's follow-up to the H20 will be based on the Blackwell architecture, more specifically, the RTX Pro 6000D. Further clarification by tipster Jukanlosreve at X, citing a report from China's GF Securities, suggests the RTX Pro 6000D will be dubbed B40 (likely a successor to the Ada Lovelace L40). Reuters classifies this as a server-class GPU which uses traditional GDDR7 memory instead of HBM, and notably avoids the use of TSMC's CoWoS packaging technology, likely signaling at its monolithic nature.

Silicon possibilities and B40 pricing

Many RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti users encounter blank screens when restarting their systems. Nvidia has released an update to resolve this problem, not through a new driver, but as a firmware update for the GPU, also known as the vBIOS. The report strictly advises that only users experiencing this problem should update their firmware.

The problem likely stems from how Nvidia's vBIOS communicates with the system's BIOS/UEFI. If your motherboard does not support UEFI boot mode, Nvidia recommends contacting the customer service of your GPU manufacturer for a legacy vBIOS update. The exact culprit hasn't been specified, but the fact that Nvidia is providing a fix strongly implies that part of the problem is within their domain.

Nvidia's RTX 50 GPUs have struggled with stability and compatibility, starting with the problematic R570 branch of drivers, which even affected older RTX 20/30/40 series GPUs. Having experienced these issues first-hand, it took Nvidia multiple weeks to address most of them with the 576.02 update. If your RTX 5060 or RTX 5060 Ti throws a black or blank screen on reboot, you may need to update its vBIOS. An abrupt power outage during firmware updates can potentially brick your GPU, so proceed cautiously.

Fortunately, Nvidia's provided utility can verify compatibility with your system's firmware and determine if a vBIOS update is necessary. Nvidia recommends only installing this update if you're encountering blank screens. To apply the fix, you must first boot into the Operating System, which might be a hassle given the current predicament. Nvidia suggests the following temporary workarounds to boot with a display:

• Completely power down your system before booting.
• Ensure you are using the latest SBIOS from your motherboard vendor.
• Ensure you are in UEFI boot mode and not Legacy/CSM.
• Boot using an alternate graphics source (secondary card or integrated graphics).
• After powering on your system, wait for your operating system to load with the graphics driver installed.

AMD's latest RX 9060 XT GPUs continue the saga of bifurcating mainstream options into different memory configurations for market segmentation. According to AMD's Frank Azor, the 8GB flavor of the RX 9060 XT is designed to cater to the needs of the majority of gamers, who play at 1080p.

Gamers and developers have long bemoaned constrained memory capacities with modern GPUs. Even at 1080p, many demanding AAA titles can overwhelm 8GB GPUs, as confirmed by professional testing with cards like the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB. Despite sufficient raw horsepower, the constrained framebuffer often forces you to compromise on graphical fidelity or even resolution for a playable framerate. Nvidia's RTX 5060 GPUs have been at the epicenter of this criticism, to the point where an older RTX 3060 12GB can outperform them in certain scenarios.

There were rumors that AMD might scrap the 8GB model, following the backlash faced by Nvidia. This proved to be inaccurate, as the product was likely too far in the pipeline to be axed. While the GPUs are still almost two weeks away from launch, enthusiasts have already begun raising concerns about the viability of the 8GB model. AMD's Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions and Gaming Marketing, Frank Azor, stepped in to justify their rationale, stating these GPUs target the "majority of gamers," who play at 1080p.

MSI is invoking the past with several new RTX 5060 series SKUs unveiled at Computex 2025, Benchlife reports. The new RTX 5060 Ti TwinFrozer Retro and RTX 5060 Cyclone take direct inspiration from MSI's GPU cooler designs dating back to the early 2010s.

The RTX 5060 Ti TwinFrozer Retro is a callback to the TwinFrozer cooler design MSI invented in the early 2010s. This cooler nomenclature was responsible for cooling many of MSI's GeForce GPUs, including the GTX 500 series, 600 series, and 700 series. The RTX 5060 TwinFrozer Retro takes inspiration from the TwinFrozer II cooler on the GTX 400 and 500 series, featuring a metallic color theme with the heatsink exposed on the bottom of the shroud.

The RTX 5060 Ti TwinFrozer Retro takes the original TwinFrozer aesthetic and weaves it in with MSI's latest cooling technologies. The card boasts copper-aluminum composite fins, a no-solder-hole design, 7-bladed Stormforce fans, a nickel-plated copper baseplate, and a metal backplate. MSI is also allegedly using a hybrid copper/aluminum fin design to improve cooling efficiency further.

MSI's RTX 5070 Cyclone is another model with "retro" roots. The original Cyclone-cooler was popular with the GTX 400 and GTX 500 series, sporting a large single-fan cooler design. The Cyclone coolers were infamous for their janky look, with a cooler that seemed tailor-made for function over form. These coolers only encapsulate parts of the GPU that need to be cooled, such as the GPU core and memory, leaving most of the PCB exposed to the naked eye.

Unlike the aforementioned TwinFrozer Retro, MSI rebooted the Cyclone series already with the RTX 40 series. The RTX 4060 Cyclone 8G OC marked the official reboot of the series, being the first Cyclone GPU made in twelve years. The RTX 5070 Cyclone Visual represents MSI's next-generation Cyclone coolers in this new era for the sub-brand, featuring several differences over the previous RTX 4060 model.

Most notably, the new RTX 5070 Cyclone Visual (as the name implies) sports a screen directly on the fan hub, where users can show images and presumably GIFs. The cooler itself is almost a perfect representation of the original Cyclone coolers with exposed heatpipes on the top and a circular heatsink design that mimics the fan in the middle. The PCB has been formed to fit over the heatsink like a glove with a circular protrusion on the right to align with the tip of the heatsink in that area.

Although Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5060 is massively slower than higher-end Blackwell models, it has one indisputable advantage over its bigger brethren: low power consumption. This opens doors for makers of graphics cards to build GeForce RTX 5060 add-in-boards in a variety of form-factors to address different systems. And Zotac is one of the companies that does not hesitate to build miniature GeForce RTX 5060 cards.

The company is demonstrating a low-profile GeForce RTX 5060 as well as Mini-ITX GeForce RTX 5060 at Computex. Both boards are based on Nvidia’s GB206 graphics processing unit with 3840 CUDA cores and carry 8 GB of GDDR7 memory with a 128-bit interface, just like full-size boards. However, while the Mini-ITX version has four display connectors, the low-profile AIB has only three display outputs.

As for coolers, the Zotac Gaming Mini-ITX GeForce RTX 5060 comes with a rather sophisticated single-fan cooling system with multiple heat pipes, whereas the low-profile product is equipped with a dual-slot triple-fan cooler, which is something to be expected from a graphics board with a 145W total board power. To enhance the compatibility of both cards with inexpensive systems, Zotac equipped them with an eight-pin auxiliary PCIe power connector, which is perfectly fine for such devices.

As both gamers and makers of PC hardware try to squeeze all the juice from parts like graphics cards, the latter became quite huge in the last 10 years as they tend to come equipped with huge coolers no matter how much power they actually consume. To that end, it became close to impossible to find a gaming graphics card in low-profile and Mini-ITX form-factor. Fortunately, there are companies like Zotac, which tend to address rather niche markets with more or less decent offerings for gaming, providing an upgrade path for compact systems.

Zotac plans to start selling its low-profile and Mini-ITX versions of GeForce RTX 5060 graphics cards this summer, though it remains to be seen whether these boards will be available at price points close to GeForce RTX 5060’s MSRP of $299, or the company charges a premium for exclusivity as small graphics adapters are rare these days.

AMD has seized the opportunity presented by Computex 2025 to announce the chipmaker's third addition to the Radeon RX 9000 series. The newly unveiled Radeon RX 9060 XT complements the previously released Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon RX 9070 XT, strengthening AMD's RDNA 4 gaming portfolio to compete with the best graphics cards.

The Radeon RX 9060 XT serves as the successor to the Radeon RX 7600 XT, which was introduced in January 2024. Although it has only been a little less than a year and a half since the previous RDNA 3 graphics card has been out, the release of Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, coupled with the recent coming of the GeForce RTX 5060, means AMD needs a contender to compete within that market segment. Thus, the Radeon RX 9060 XT couldn't have arrived at a better time.

AMD provided renders of the Radeon RX 9060 XT solely for artistic and illustration purposes. Similar to the Radeon RX 9700 series situation, AMD isn't releasing any reference or MBA (Made by AMD) Radeon RX 9060 XT cards. However, the chipmaker's partners will offer reference-clocked models that should stick to or close to the MSRP.

Up until this point, AMD has been using the Navi 48 silicon for its Radeon RX 9070-series graphics cards; however, given the Navi 48's size and the Radeon RX 9060 XT's lower specifications, it wouldn't be a wise business decision to use the aforementioned silicon. Instead, AMD has introduced a smaller piece of RDNA 4 silicon shaped like Navi 44. As a result, the Radeon RX 9060 XT is the first SKU to leverage this silicon, and it probably won't be the last.

The Radeon RX 9060 XT transitions to a complete PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, opposite the Radeon RX 7600 XT, which was restricted to a PCIe 4.0 x8. For the past couple of generations, AMD has used the x8 interface for its Radeon RX x600-series graphics cards, such as the Radeon RX 7600 XT or Radeon RX 6600 XT. These SKUs typically use smaller silicon, and sometimes even silicon for mobile graphics cards, so a x16 interface usually doesn't offer substantial benefits. However, the latest GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB debacle has shown up to a 10% performance hit when used on a PCIe 4.0 interface. Sticking with an x16 interface for the Radeon RX 9060 XT is a sound move.

Navi 44 shares characteristics similar to Navi 48 in design and manufacturing processes. AMD's new silicon continues to sport a monolithic design and is manufactured using the same TSMC's N4P (4nm) FinFET process node. The Navi 44 silicon has a die size of 199 mm² with up to 29.7 billion transistors.

In contrast, Navi 33, which is used in the current Radeon RX 7600 XT, is built on TSMC's N6 (6nm) FinFET process. The silicon for Navi 33 is 204 mm² and contains up to 13.3 billion transistors, resulting in a density of 65.2 million transistors per mm². AMD decreased the die size of Navi 44 by approximately 2% relative to Navi 33, which is not a major reduction. However, Navi 44's transistor count has substantially improved, housing up to 2.2X more transistors than Navi 33. It works out to an impressive density of 149.2 million transistors per mm².

In addition to enhancing performance and transistor count, TSMC's N4P FinFET manufacturing process also boasts improvements in power efficiency. However, we'll have to wait for a full review of the Radeon RX 9060 XT to measure how efficient the graphics card is compared to the Radeon RX 7600 XT.

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT Specifications

The Radeon RX 9060 XT utilizes the full Navi 44 silicon, thus having access to all 32 Compute Units (CUs) equivalent to 2,048 Stream Processors (SPs). That's the exact core specifications as the Radeon RX 7600 XT. Therefore, the Radeon RX 9060 XT's performance uplift comes from the prowess of the new RDNA 4 CUs.

The graphics card also has 32 third-generation Ray Tracing cores, which can double the throughput compared to the second-generation counterparts inside the Radeon RX 7600 XT. Meanwhile, the 64 onboard second-generation AI accelerators can deliver up to 821 TOPS.

The Radeon RX 9060 XT boasts a 3,130 MHz boost clock, even higher than the Radeon RX 9070 series. Compared to its predecessor, the Radeon RX 9060 XT has a 14% higher boost clock speed, translating to around 13% higher FP32 performance on paper.

According to AMD's provided gaming benchmarks, the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB is up to 6% faster than the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB across 40 tested titles at 1440p (2560x1440) resolution with Ultra settings. AMD's selection does raise some eyebrows. It would have been a fairer comparison if the chipmaker had used the 16GB variant of the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti instead of the 8GB variant.

In contrast to the Radeon RX 7600 XT, which was only available with 16GB of GDDR6 memory, AMD offers the Radeon RX 9060 XT in 8GB and 16GB flavors. Regardless of the variant, the memory operates at 20 Gbps across a 128-bit interface. The Radeon RX 9060 XT delivers a memory bandwidth of up to 320 GB/s, 11% more than the existing Radeon RX 7600 XT. Meanwhile, the capacity of Infinity Cache remains the same on the Radeon RX 9060 XT.

The Radeon RX 9060 XT's TBP (Total Board Power) varies between the 8GB and 16GB models. The former is rated for 150W, and the latter is slightly higher at 160W. They're 21% and 16% lower than the Radeon RX 7600 XT, respectively. In any event, gamers can rest easy as the Radeon RX 9060 XT only employs a single 8-pin PCIe power connector.

RDNA 4 has permitted the Radeon RX 9060 XT to feature upgraded display outputs. It offers DisplayPort 2.1a and HDMI 2.1b support, contrary to the Radeon RX 7600 XT's DisplayPort 2.1 and HDMI 2.1a. The Radeon RX 9060 XT only provides two DisplayPort 2.1a outputs and a single HDMI 2.1 port, one less DisplayPort 2.1a output than the Radeon RX 9070 series.

FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4) launched alongside the Radeon RX 9000 series with initial support for 30 games. AMD expects the list to extend beyond 60 by the Radeon RX 9060 XT's launch date. The chipmaker is also preparing FSR Redstone, powered by machine learning, for a 2H launch. FSR Redstone will bring some cool features, such as neural radiance caching, machine learning ray regeneration, and machine learning frame generation.

New, possible details about a potential RTX 5080 Super have emerged, thanks to an X posting from well-reputed hardware leaker Kopite, who has a solid track record when it comes to all things Nvidia. The RTX 5080 Super is alleged to address GPU memory limitations with 24GB of fast GDDR7 memory, and a TGP (Total Graphics Power) that's rumored to exceed 400W. The leaker has not shared any details in regards to pricing and availability.

GDDR7 memory modules are currently available in 16Gb (2GB) and 24Gb (3GB) densities, with even higher capacities down the pipeline. The denser option directly translates to a 50% increase in VRAM capacity, even if the memory bus width remains the same.

Despite sharing the same 256-bit bus width as the RTX 5080, the RTX 5090 Mobile achieves its 24GB configuration with denser memory modules. The remainder of the Blackwell family sticks with standard 16Gb modules, similar to GDDR6X. However, this new leak suggests Nvidia might be eying transitioning to denser 24Gb options for the RTX 50 Super refresh.

The RTX 5080 Super reportedly employs the full-fat GB203 die, similar to the RTX 5080, with 10,752 CUDA cores or 84 Streaming Multiprocessors. The 256-bit interface enables eight memory modules, which have been populated with 24Gb (3GB) modules for 24GB of GDDR7 memory, rated at 32 Gbps. This puts the memory bandwidth at an impressive 1 TB/s, or 6.6% faster than the stock RTX 5080. Nvidia is also said to increase the power requirements for the RTX 5080 Super over 400W.

At Computex 2025, Razer has taken the covers off its brand new Razer Blade 14, the company's thinnest-ever 14-inch laptop. Available in different configurations, the new Blade 14 includes Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5060 or 5070 laptop GPUs, paired with AMD's Ryzen AI 9 365 processor.

Razer says it has fully redesigned the Blade 14, creating the company's thinnest-ever laptop, measuring just 15.7mm at its slimmest points. The Blade 14 weighs in at just 1.63 kg, too, and is milled from a single block of T6-grade aluminum.

Despite the small form factor, Razer has employed new "Thermal Hood" design, paired with a large vapor chamber. The company claims that this will provide "ample ventilation and additional thermal headroom for maximum operating performance," thanks to better heat management and airflow.

The new Blade 14's battery life is rated for up to 11 hours of on-screen time, thanks to a 72 Whr battery. The thin-and-light also offers ample connectivity options, like two USB 4 (Type-C) connectors, HDMI 2.1, Bluetooth 5.4, and Wi-Fi 7.

Under the hood, the new Blade 14 comes with Nvidia's latest 50 series mobile chips, with RTX 5060 and RTX 5070 flavors. Both mobile GPUs possess a TGP of 100W, with an additional 15W "Dynamic boost"

That means any prospective buyers will get all the benefits of the Nvidia Blackwell architecture, as well as DLSS 4's multi-frame generation.

That's paired with AMD's Ryzen AI 9 365 processor, which sports 10 cores and 20 threads, and possesses a 2 GHZ base clock, which can be boosted up to 5 GHz in optimal conditions. RAM is not user-upgradable, and can be configured between 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of LPDDR5X at 8000 MHz.

That all powers a 14-inch, three layer OLED display running at 2880 x 1800. The panel supports Nvidia G-Sync and has a refresh rate of 120Hz, as well as a 0.2ms response time. The display also offers a 1M:1 contrast ratio and wide 100% DCI-P3 color coverage.

Whether all that will be enough to knock the Asus TUF Gaming A14 off its perch as the top 14-inch model in our best gaming laptop rundown remains to be seen.

As mentioned, Razer is also adding an RTX 5060 option to its Razer Blade 16, paired with the same processor and RAM options as the Blade 14. However, the display differs, instead sporting a QHD+ 240 Hz OLED display.

If you were wondering where to buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, it launched yesterday along with the long-awaited driver, which has precluded reviews and testing ahead of release. While carefully controlled previews of the 5060 point to performance gains of up to 25% over the 4060, real-world performance is yet to be established.

Prices for the Blade 14 start at $2,299.99 for the RTX 5060 model. The 5070 version is $2,699, and you can also spec up to 2TB of SSD storage.

Following some very closely guarded previews, the new Nvidia RTX 5060 is now available to buy, delivering budget performance to users and just 8GB of VRAM starting at $299 (MSRP). It's a 1080p card that promises decent framerates, but we're yet to complete unfettered testing to determine where it ranks among the best GPUs and our overall GPU benchmarking hierarchy.

Unveiled in April, the 5060 follows the RTX 5060 Ti, which launched April 16 at prices of $429 and $379 for the 8GB or 16GB model, respectively. Like the Ti, the 5060 includes DLSS 4, including Multi Frame Generation and Super Resolution, as well as Nvidia Reflex. The drivers were released on May 19 alongside the card, which has precluded reviews going out ahead of release.

Over the weekend, select outlets published preview articles with strict criteria about which games could be tested and using which settings.

As you might imagine, these very favorable conditions yielded up to 25% performance boosts over Nvidia's RTX 4060. Reportedly, Nvidia only sanctioned Avowed, Doom: The Dark Ages, Marvel Rivals, Cyberpunk 2077, and Hogwarts Legacy as review titles, with comparisons limited to the RTX 3060 and RTX 2060 Super, with resolution fixed at 1080p, ultra image quality, DLSS in quality mode, and ray tracing. Settings were also limited to running frame generation exclusively.

This has naturally yielded fairly positive results thus far for obvious reasons. From the available figures, the 5060 trails the Ti variant by around 15% on average when using 2x DLSS, but appears to show performance increases of up to 25% over the RTX 4060 running titles like Cyberpunk 2077.

Naturally, we'd recommend waiting for full reviews (including our own, which is on the way) before making the purchase. However, if you'd like to look at stock or have no qualms about taking the plunge, here's where you can buy one.

Where to buy the Nvidia RTX 5060 in the US

• Newegg
• B&H Photo
• Best Buy

Use our handy table to check what's in stock and what models are available at which retailer. Check back daily as this list is update with the latest offers and pricing.

Click on the price, to be taken directly to retailer and model listed.

Asus's gaming laptops aren't seeing major refreshes at Computex, but they're being bumped to some of Nvidia's latest laptop silicon. At the Taipei tradeshow, the company is adding the RTX 5060 to a number of its existing laptops, including the ROG Strix G16, the Zephyrus G14, and the TUF Gaming F16, A16, and A18.

The TUF A14 (a laptop we mostly liked when we tested it) is getting a slight change. Asus says the laptop’s total system wattage is now up to 130W in manual mode (35 for the CPU, 95W for the GPU), but from what I can see on Asus’ product page, the laptop was already able to achieve this. But perhaps it was in a different power mode, as Asus expressly states the 130W number will now be achievable in Manual Mode.

The company has also added an air intake through the keyboard, which we’re told both improves cooling and helps lower the keyboard’s surface temperature for more comfortable gaming.

In the Strix G16, you'll be able to get configurations with up to an Intel Core i7-14650HX or AMD Ryzen 9 9955HX. On the Intel side, that's aging silicon compared to the more recent Core Ultra Series 2 chips, though 14th Gen processors are still solid options for gaming. On the AMD side, older silicon is being used in conjunction with the RTX 5070 Ti, which can be matched with the 9955HX or the older 8940 HX.

Both 5060 Strix models come with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, and 1920 x 1200 screens (the Intel version runs at 144 Hz, the AMD model at 165 Hz), though the Intel version has Wi-Fi 7 while AMD's uses Wi-Fi 6E. The Intel model will be $1,499.99 at Amazon, while Walmart will carry the AMD version for $1,599.99.

The Zephyrus makes a more natural home for the 5060, with its limited TGP that goes up to 110W. For $1,799.99 at Best Buy, Asus will sell a model with the RTX 5060, a last-gen AMD Ryzen AI 9 270, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. The company is also keeping around the existing model with a Ryzen 9 8945HS and RTX 5060 for $1,599.99, though you'll be able to go all the way up to an RTX 5080. (With the limited TGP, though, the 5080 is probably overkill here.)

It's least surprising to see the 5060 in the suite of TUF gaming PCs, which are typically aimed at the more budget-conscious section of the market. Like the Strix G16, the TUF Gaming F16 uses 14th Gen Intel Core processors with the 5060, and uses a 1920 x 1080, 165 Hz display. It will start at $1,539.99 at Best Buy in early June. The A18, a larger model powered by a last-gen AMD Ryzen 7 260, will be $1,599.99 at Costco and is expected to ship in August.

In materials sent to the press, Asus suggested that the RTX 5070 Ti is a sweet spot on models that have it, particularly the Strix and the Zephyrus, with it being a strong upgrade over the RTX 40-series. They're expensive, but they're not RTX 5090 or 5080-series expensive.

Asus' other big gaming announcement is the ROG Bulwark, a dock designed for the ROG Ally gaming handheld, though there's no reason it couldn't work with phones, laptops, or other companies' handhelds. The dock features an adjustable stand to hold an Ally or other device at any angle between 0 and 90 degrees.

Ports on the Bulwark consist of a 3.5 mm headphone jack, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-A ports, Ethernet, HDMI 2.1, and two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports (10 GBps), one of which is used to connect your device to the dock with an included 90-degree USB-C cable. The system can output up to 4K at 144 Hz with either the ROG Ally or ROG Ally X.

Pricing and release date information weren't made immediately available for the Bulwark.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is speaking live from Computex Taipei and the live stream is embedded below! The event takes place at 11 am Taiwan time which is 11 pm ET, 8 pm PT and 4 am BST.

We expect Huang to talk a lot about AI and Nvidia's industry-leading hardware. He'll likely make some announcements and we can imagine many will have to do with datacenter computing, but perhaps there will be some tidbits for desktop users as well.

Watch the feed above to find out.

It's the final day of Computex 2025, and things are winding down here. We'll still be bringing you updates, pictures from the floor, and more, and some recaps of all the biggest and best announcements.

In the meantime, sit back, relax, and wind down with us as we close out another year of Computex.

I come to Taiwan for the tech, but the affordable, high-quality coffee is what keeps me going

Taipei is great for a lot of reasons. But as a bit of a coffee addict and snob, I really appreciate the abundance of coffee shops and roasters here. And the coffee (like most food here) is pleasantly affordable.

This iced Americano (unfortunately, the cold brew was sold out) from one of my favorite spots, Coffee Moon, was the equivalent of about $3. And that’s on the expensive end. Major chains, like Louisa Coffee (I recommend the egg and peanut butter breakfast sandwich), tend to be cheaper. There are a lot of Starbucks here as well, but I’m not a fan – especially when there are so many other options.

I picked up some fresh-ground coffee for my travel-friendly Aeropress at Ikari Coffee (I like to think this chain is the Ikari Warriors retirement plan) for about $6 – enough for a week’s worth of early mornings and late nights, and then some. It’s going to be hard to go back to the $5 Dunkin’ cold brew when I get back home, even if the sizes are much bigger.

-Matt Safford

Picked up some spicy Guai Guai at 7-11, no Lisa Su or TSMC flavors to be found

There are plenty of tasty and interesting snacks to be had at Taipei’s night markets or the many (many) convenience stores. But I could help but pick up a couple of bags of spicy Guai Guai when I saw them today.

For those not in the know, this brand of Cheetos-like (but usually sweet) snack is part of a tradition or superstition (take your pick) where engineers and tech workers place the snacks in and around important machines to help assure they function without problems. The phenomenon is so widespread that we’ve seen both TSMC- and AMD / Lisa Su-branded versions of the snacks debut (and reportedly quickly get bought up) in the last couple of years. And of course, both companies have seen new levels of success in the past several years. Maybe someone should tell Intel’s new CEO to invest in some blue Guai Guai.

Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t find any of the TSMC or Ryzen varieties of the snacks, so these spicy ones will have to do. I’m going to leave them sitting on my laptop overnight, because it has a bad habit of blue-screening every week or so. Maybe the snacks will keep that from happening until I get home (or at least until I’m done reporting from Computex). If it doesn’t work, I may have to ask AI for some help with my crash dumps.

-Matt Safford

I both love and hate Taipei’s PC and component ads

I’ve been on the ground (and sweating) in Taipei for a few days now, and one of the first things that always strikes me here is the plethora of billboards and signs for various laptops and PC components.

Sure, a lot of this gets ramped up ahead of Computex, and many are in and around the Guang Hua Digital Plaza area, where there are dozens (perhaps hundreds) of shops and storefronts that sell pretty much everything PC related, from high-end gaming laptops to obscure PC cases, and entire stores dedicated to MSI, Asus, Aorus – there’s even a store that pretty much only sells Transcend storage devices and media.

But the ads exist away from the main tech district as well. Today I was walking to a record shop in an arts district, looked up and saw, of all things, a slim vertical billboard for power supply maker, Seasonic.

And later, as I was headed into an MRT (subway) station, making my way back to my hotel, there was a big banner for AMD’s Ryzen 9000 CPUs above the train platform.

The only other place I’ve seen ads like this for PC components and the latest laptops is in Tokyo’s famous Akihabara neighborhood during a visit in 2015 – where I bought a random wafer of chips at the back junk tech store that, sadly, was far too fragile to survive the trip home.

On the one hand, it’s cool to see the PC hardware we obsess over getting the kind of treatment and attention that is more typically afforded to the latest attempt at a blockbuster movie or a tech startup flush with cash and looking to build brand recognition. And I certainly find ads for components more interesting and less annoying than most ads I see walking around our office neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan.

But considering how much I already spend on PC hardware and related tech, I am not sure I’d want to be regularly be surrounded by ads reminding me that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D exists, making my perfectly capable 7950X feel outdated and inadequate, or that my RAM or storage isn’t as fast as it could be.

Sure, signs and billboards that are more targeted to my PC interests are cool to see here in Taipei, but I really don’t need any more “help” deciding when it’s time to upgrade. After all, if I spend all my money on new tech, I won’t have any left over to buy old records.

-Matt Safford

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shows off Nvidia RTX 5060

The Nvidia keynote is underway and most of what CEO Jensen Huang is talking about has to do with AI development, not desktop computing. However, he just showed off the new RTX 5060 on stage, flashing an Asus-branded RTX 5060 GPU and an MSI laptop with RTX 5060 inside.

Huang didn't share any details about the cards, but lots of information has already come out. For example, we reported yesterday that the RTX 5060 is 25% faster than the 4060 with frame generation enabled.

While he spoke, Huang stood in front of a digital scene of a pond in a European city (it looked like Italy). He said that an RTX card (perhaps the 5060) was rendering only 1 out of every 10 frames in the scene, which showed candles floating over water. Instead, he said DLSS was generating 9 out of every 10 frames.

This is probably all we'll hear about PC gaming during this keynote.

"You know, when you're CEO, you have many children, and GeForce is here, and now all of our keynotes are 90% not GeForce," Huang said. "But it's not because we don't love GeForce. GeForce RTX 50 series just had its most successful launch ever, the fastest launch in our history. And PC gaming is now 30 years old. So that tells you something about how incredible GeForce is."

Intel demos Panther Lake

Day 1 of Computex 2025 is in full swing, and Intel is demoing working Panther Lake Core Ultra 300 silicon for its laptops, the first to use its 18A process node. We've been shown real-time rendering and AI applications ahead of its early 2026 launch.

• Intel demos running Panther Lake systems, touts performance and power efficiency improvements

Nvidia NVLink expansion

One of Nvidia's biggest announcements at Computex 2025 is a new NVLink Fusion program which allows customers and partners to use NVLink in their own custom rack-scale design. Here are all the details...

• Nvidia announces NVLink Fusion to allow custom CPUs and AI Accelerators to work with its products

Morning folks, Stephen here picking up the live blog until 1pm ET - we're all over the Computex trade floor bringing you the latest insights and news, so stay tuned!

Getting strong "secret government operation" vibes from this scene outside of the Grand HiLai Hotel near the main Computex buildings today. I get it, arm, you're the future of efficient computing (maybe). Please don't call the black helicopters on me.

- Matthew Safford

New Acer monitors

Acer has unveiled the new Nitro PG271K monitor, featuring 4K at 72Hz, with DFR for 1080p at 144Hz, 0.5ms response time (GTG), USB-C, and HDMI ports.

There's also a new 32-inch ProCreator and a new portable PD163QT. Gamers will love the new Nitro GA341CUR W0, a 34-inch UWQHD display with a 240Hz refresh rate.

Nvidia G-Sync comes to Samsung's big screen

Samsung has announced that it is finally adding support for Nvidia G-Sync in its 2025 OLED TV lineup, starting with the S95F.

The return of Windows 7

We've all seen broken McDonald's order consoles running Windows 98 or some other such monstrosity, but how about this Computex display board that appears to have malfunctioned, revealing Windows 7 underneath.

Intel's new Arc Pro B50 breaks cover

Intel has just unveiled its brand new Arc Pro B50, a compact graphics card for workstations with 16GB of VRAM and a starting price of $299. There's also a new Pro B60 with a hefty 24GB with a price tag of roughly $500 per unit.

• Intel launches $299 Arc Pro B50 with 16GB of memory, 'Project Battlematrix' workstations with 24GB Arc Pro B60 GPUs

MSI's new AI-powered 500 Hz beast

MSI's new X50 is a QD-OLED monitor and a 500 Hz refresh rate, but the headline is actually its new AI Care Sensor, which can detect when you're not looking at the monitor, powering down accordingly to reduce burn-in.

• MSI’s new 500 Hz QD-OLED monitor leverages AI tech to save it from burn-in

Maxsun dual-GPU card

Alongside the aforementioned new Intel Arc Pro offerings, there's a brand new partner card from Maxsun that jams two Arc Pro B60 chips onto a single graphics card, replete with 48GB of total VRAM, or 96GB in a two-card configuration.

Cheaper than a 50 Series...

Want to score some Computex swag without splashing out thousands on the best graphics card? Head on down to the Nvidia truck and buy a Jensen Huang shirt for $37 instead.

Nvidia's new supercomputer

Nvidia announced at Computex that it would be working with Foxconn to build an AI supercomputer in Taiwan featuring 10,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs.

• Nvidia teams up with Foxconn to build an AI supercomputer in Taiwan

MSI's new desktop AI supercomputer

As promised, MSI has unveiled its new EdgeXpert MS-C931 supercomputer, powered by Nvidia DGX Spark and capable of 1,000 TOPS FP4 performance.

• MSI unveils EdgeXpert MS-C931 desktop AI supercomputer powered by Nvidia DGX Spark

Nvidia: No evidence of AI chip diversion

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says there is no evidence of AI chip diversion to blacklisted nations, in response to questions at Computex. Huang said countries and companies understand the rules and want to continue doing business with Nvidia.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says ‘There’s no evidence of any AI chip diversion’

Noctua's triple-fan RTX 5080

Check out ASUS' new Noctua triple-fan RTX 5080, as well as it's new external GPU dock, which we've been having a look at over on the floor.

• Asus unveils Noctua triple-fan RTX 5080, new external GPU dock, and more at Computex

Some holiday snaps...

Computex 2025 isn't all motherboards and silicon; here are some snaps of the locale here in Taipei.

Asus's RTX 5060

The RTX 5060 (and the long-awaited RTX 5060 driver) are now here, as is Asus' new RTX 5060 laptop lineup.

• Asus adds the RTX 5060 to its gaming laptop lineup, tweaks TUF A14 with better cooling

Asus ups the ante with the 610 Hz ROG Strix Ace XG248QSG gaming monitor

The ROG Strix Ace XG248QSG is the latest among the growing trend of 500 Hz+ gaming monitors. Asus is targeting the 24.1-inch ROG Strix Ace XG248QSG at the esports gaming crowd, and you’ll need one of the best graphics cards for gaming to get the most out of its insane 610 Hz refresh rate.

While Asus touts the 610 Hz refresh rate, it is achievable through overclocking – the panel has a native refresh rate of 600 Hz. Another thing to note is that this monitor uses a TN panel. TN panels aren’t known for their prowess in color reproduction, brightness, or viewing angles. However, Asus says that the ROG Strix Ace XG248QSG uses the latest iteration of its “Super TN” panel to combat some inherent deficiencies; notably improved color and boosted brightness levels (up to 370 nits).

Although the ROG Strix Ace XG248QSG doesn’t have RGB lighting effects that we typically expect from ROG products, it does have an attractive design, and is adjustable for height, tilt, and swivel. As for connectivity, you’ll get DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.1 ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

• Asus debuts 24-inch 610 Hz Full HD gaming monitor with a Super TN panel

Wood you believe it? Asus' ProArt GeForce RTX 50 family brings wood grain finishes, USB-C connectivity, and even M.2 support

Wood grain trim isn’t usually associated with PC components, let alone graphics cards. But that’s exactly what we have in store with the Asus RTX 50 Series ProArt series. All the graphics cards have a wood grain finish for the fan shroud, giving them a classy look over the more exhaustive use of RGB that we see in many high-end graphics cards.

But it goes beyond the wooden aesthetics; all four members of the ProArt RTX 5080 family include USB-C ports for connecting monitors of peripherals to offer “better versatility for content creation workflows.” The ProArt GeForce RTX 5080 OC goes one step further by including an M.2 slot for plugging in an SSD.

If you’re looking for a top-performing graphics card that offers more than just good looks as a side dish, the ProArt family seems like a good option to pursue – that is, if Asus can keep pricing in check.

• Asus RTX 5080 ProArt comes with a wood grain finish and M.2 slot option

This could be the new fastest SSD

At the moment, the Crucial T705 is the fastest consumer SSD on the market, hitting random reads and writes of 1.55 and 1.8M IOPS respectively. However, today at Computex, Crucial announced its successor, the T710 which promises to be 28 percent faster in reads and 42 faster in writes.

We have a full article with lots of details on the Crucial T710 right here.

The T710 will be available at an undetermined price in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB and 8TB capacities. It will come with and without a heatsink. The heatsink itself will be a slim 11mm thick.

The drive is one-sided and also promises low enough power to work well in a laptop, without massively draining the battery. It uses an SMI SM2508 SSD controller and 276-layer G9 TLC NAND to achieve these results.

Teamgroup is known for its radical cooling concepts that it demos at Computex every year, and 2025 is no exception. This year the company had a triple-M.2 all-in-one liquid cooler for those of you that simply can't cram enough storage into your rig. The company also had a new dual M.2 SSD and CPU cooler on display, too. Yes, the cooled liquid flows from the rad to the SSD first, thus preventing it from getting pre-heated liquid flowing from the CPU.

Good morning!

Good morning and welcome back to day two (one) of Computex 2025! Stephen here for the next eight hours, keeping you posted with everything going on at Computex, including live insight from the floor here in Taipei! While you were sleeping, here's what you missed...

• Asus debuts 24-inch 610 Hz Full HD gaming monitor with a Super TN panel
• Crucial announces T710 SSD with 14.9 GB/s of performance, X10 portable SSD up to 8TB
• MSI brings AMD-based AMD gaming handheld, updated mid-range gaming laptops to Computex

New Razer Blade 14

Razer has unveiled its new Blade 14 laptop at Computex. Sporting the Nvidia RTX 50-series (either the 5060 or 5070), it's the thinnest-ever Razer laptop of this size. There's also a new 5060 option for the larger Razer Blade 16.

• Razer unveils new Blade 14 laptop with Nvidia RTX 50 series GPUs and 3K 120Hz OLED display

Ascent GX10 special edition?

The Asus Ascent GX10 costs around $2,999 for the privilege of Nvidia GB10 packed into a tiny form factor. How much the markup is on this one is anyone's guess...

InWin celebrates 40 years with... this...

InWin is celebrating 40 years with this insane ChronoMancy case. It looks a bit like a prosthetic leg, is over 1 meter tall, and opens up like Iron Man's suit when you wave a magic wand at it. Standard...

• InWin celebrates 40 years with the ChronoMancy — futuristic 1.1m case opens with the wave of a wand

Unlimited poweeeeeeeer

The new Asus Pro Workstation is a 3000W power supply capable of powering four Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 cards by itself. It's so powerful you can even plug it into a standard U.S. outlet...

• Asus introduces 3000-watt PSU — enough capacity to power 4 RTX 5090s

Some colorful cases

Hyte's 2025 offering is a new X50 computer case that stands out thanks to its loud, vibrant colorway and design language reminiscent of a Smeg fridge. Check out the full details...

• Hyte’s new X50 PC case comes with a rounded aesthetic, high-performance mesh, and fun colors

Cherry's next generation switch

Alongside three others, Cherry has unveiled its brand new IK inductive switch, using patented inductive sensing technology it claims yields no mechanical wear and 50% less power consumption than magnetic switches.

• Cherry unveils next-generation keyboard switches with inductive sensing technology — claims no mechanical wear and 50% power reduction

MSI drops some insane gaming laptop artwork:

NZXT's new cases

NZXT has revealed not one but two stunning new cases, the H9 Flow and the H3 Flow. The former is a dual-chamber chassis with built-in fans and a controller hub, while the H3 is a Micro-ATX case. Despite this, it still features capacity for 10 fans!

• NZXT goes big and small at Computex with the H9 Flow and H3 Flow cases

AMD up next

Keeping on top of time zones during Computex is always a challenge - next on the agenda is AMD, who will host their Computex livestream and keynote tonight/tomorrow. It kicks off at 11 am UTC+8 on May 21, or 11 pm ET on May 20 if you're stateside. You can watch along over on YouTube!

Cooler Master's new panoramic case

The new Cooler Master MasterFrame 360 Panoramic is more fish tank than PC case, with a three-sided glass design that gives you unparalleled viewing of your internal hardware. There's also a new budget version of the QUBE 500, and more...

• Cooler Master unveils new pre-built PC with a 360 x 360mm radiator, new QUBE 500, and more

Turn any device into a Stream Deck...

One definite sleeper announcement from Computex 2025 is Elgato's new Virtual Stream Deck app, which lets you turn any device into a Stream Deck...

• Elgato now lets you turn any device you want into a Stream Deck

Corsair Air 5400

New from Corsair, the Air 5400 is the company's first triple-chamber design that can accomodate up to 360mm AIO cooling solutions, dumping the heat from the CPU directly out of the case.

• Corsair’s Air 5400 features a triple-chamber design for high-performance cooling

Phison's new controller could take the SSD speed crown

Earlier this week, we reported about the Crucial T710 SSD, which uses an SMI SM2508 SSD controller and boasts 2.2 million and 2.3 million read and write IOPS respectively. However, Phison seems ready to power drives which could close the T710 out of the water, thanks to its E28 controller.

We just reported that the Phison E28 controller promises 3 million read IOPS and 2.6 million write IOPS. That's along with 14.8 GB/s and 14 GB/s sequential reads and writes.

The controller is made using TSMC's 6nm process and it supports up to 32GB of TLC NAND. The E28 also boasts an eight channel layout that runs at 4200 MT/s and support for AES-256, TCG Opal and Pyrite encryption.

We visited Phison at Computex 2025 and grabbed a picture of a test system running CrystalDiskMark. In the pic above, you can see that the sample drive on display returned a 14,942 MB/s sequential read and a 14,149 MB/s write.

TeamGroup shows off thermoelectric SSD cooler

As we talked about in our article on TeamGroup's new Computex offerings, the company is showing a new SSD cooler that uses Peltier technology aka thermoelectric cooling. The company says that its AI-Flow X cooler will offer better cooling thanks to both this technology and to AI.

This looks very promising, but thermoelectric cooling has been known to have some drawbacks, such as generating heat. We'll have to see how this implementation fares.

Thermaltake embraces wood-accented cases

At Computex, Thermaltake is showing off its latest cases, which have Nordic, wood-grain accents. You could almost say that it's like going to Ikea, but hopefully with much easier building.

The new designs are available on several case lines, including the Tower 600, TR100, View 380/ 380 XL, View 270 and View 170 lines. The wood accents are either in light or dark wood.

No word yet on exact pricing or availability.

Adata courts enterprise customers with new Trusta brand

Adata is known for its SSDs and RAM, particularly under the XPG gaming sub-brand. Now the company is launching a new sub-brand aimed at enterprise customers.

Trusta (we guess they want you to trust it) will launch with two SSD lines: the T7 and the T5. We covered these in greater detail in our article about Trusta.

The T7P5, Trusta's flagship SSD, boasts sequential read and write speeds of 13,500 and 10,400 MB/s and uses either a U.2 interface or connects via E3.S or E1.S, all enterprise standards.

The T5 series has the T5P4B, T5S3B and T5S3 models. These connect weither via PCIe Gen 4 M.2 or 2.5-ich SATA connections.

AMD Keynote Underway and We're Blogging it

AMD's Jack Huynh, SVP and GM of Computing and Graphics, is delivering the company's Computex keynote. He started his presentation by talking about gaming and FSR. We're blogging the whole event at a separate AMD Computex live blog.

Good morning!

Day 2 is well underway here in Taipei and we have got a packed schedule to bring you. Stephen here taking you through the next eight hours, but first, a look at some of the things you may have missed overnight...

While you were sleeping:

The highlight overnight was the AMD keynote. The company unveiled its new Radeon RX 9060 XT and Ryzen Threadripper 9000, as well as the new Radeon AI Pro R9700, a PCIe 5.0 GPU for workstations and pro users.

• AMD launches Radeon AI Pro R9700 to challenge Nvidia's AI market dominance

The new RX 9060 XT launches on June 5, priced at $299, priced squarely in the firing line of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 which launched earlier this week.

• AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT launches on June 5, starting at $299

The AMD livestream broke before the keynote finished, but you can catch up on all of our coverage up to that point as it happened.

• AMD Computex 2025 Keynote

A display on your memory module?

A new innovation from V-Color adds a programmable LCD screen to its DDR5 DIMM modules. According to V-Color, the screen can be used to display information like capacity, speed bin, temperature, and voltage, all controlled through the company's app. The screen is on the side, so there are some obvious limitations, including how much capacity the format supports, but it still tops out at 48GB and also features programmable RGB LEDs.

• V-Color puts displays on memory modules

Another Jensen Huang signature...

The Nvidia CEO dropped by and added his mark to the flagship ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 50 Series on display:

Zotac's low-profile RTX 5060

New from Zotac at Computex is this low-profile RTX 5060. They carry the same GPU and VRAM as the full-sized boards, but offer only three display outputs and a neat single-fan setup.

• Zotac preps low-profile GeForce RTX 5060, Mini-ITX RTX 5060

113 GB/s speeds

We got a demo of Phison's Apex RAID setup, and it did not disappoint. Using 32 new PCIe Gen 5 SSDs in a RAID configuration, they clocked read and write speeds of 113.6 GB/s and 104.6 GB/s, respectively...

• Phison's Apex RAID demo showed us blistering 113 GB/s speeds in Computex demo

I spent way too much money on Guai Guai merch at the Computex store

Every trade show seems to have its own shop of overpriced merch. I’ve seen them at CES, GTC, IFA, and elsewhere, and never really been tempted to buy anything – until today. When I arrived at the Nangan Convention Center this morning, a half hour before the trade show opened to press, I wandered down the narrow entrance area, looking for the giant inflatable Guai Guai bag that’s typically there every year.

What I found was not only the big bag advertising the tech-protecting snacks, but a whole table of Guai Guai-themed merchandise. And I knew instantly that I couldn’t walk away without buying something – or, more likely, some things.

But the shop wasn’t open yet, so a couple of hours later, when I had a half hour between meetings, I returned and snapped up a green glass coffee mug, two omamori magnets (the actual omamoris were sadly already sold out), and a small travel bag. At checkout, I was also given a bag of Computex 2025 Guai Guai and a foldable fan as free gifts with my purchase.

Was it the most sensible 2,644 NTD I’ve ever spent? Probably not. But I knew if walked away from this very specific trade show swag, that I would regret it. And hey, who couldn’t use something else in their lives these days that “keeps everything alright?”

If I make it back to Computex next year, I’ll consider that a success for my lucky Guai Guai Computex swag. But if I am here again in a year (Computex 2026 is scheduled to run from June 2-5), maybe I’ll skip the Computex shop for the sake of my wallet.

–Matt Safford

More Jensen autographs...

Add another Jensen Huang autograph to the roster!

Catch up on AMD

Missed the AMD Keynote at Computex? Don't worry, everyone did, because the livestream broke. Here's a great way to catch up:

New from Colorful

A G-Helmet PC case, RTX 50-Series laptops, and more, Colorful unveiled some of the most eye-catching tech of Computex 2025...

• Colorful unveils new RTX 50-Series laptops, wild G-Helmet PC case, and more at Computex

The latest from be quiet!

be quiet! showed off the latest it has to offer including new keyboards, coolers, and PC cases. There are awesome new wooden bases for the 900 series, and an upgrade to the Pure Loop 3.

• be quiet! shows off new keyboards, coolers, and PC cases at Computex 2025

Lian Li embraces tempered glass

A new range of cases and more from Lian Li reveal that the company is embracing tempered glass on its front panels, eschewing the mesh that has served it well in previous years.

We got a look at the new Lancool 4, Lancool 217 INF, O11D Mini V2, DAN Case B4, Vector V100, and Vector V200 cases, along with the HydroShift III AIO.

• Lian Li is replacing mesh front panels with tempered glass on its new Lancool cases

Check out Noctua's thermosiphon cooler

Many of us use AIO (All-in-One) coolers that have a pump on top of the CPU that circulates coolant through a radiator where a fan blows the heat away. At Computex, Noctua is showing off a different kind of AIO, one without a pump at all.

Noctua's protoype thermosiphon cooler has liquid on top of the CPU where the heat from the CPU causes the coolant to boil. When the coolant turns into a gas it naturally moves through the pump up to the radiator where it is cooled and turns back into a liquid again.

Once it's a liquid again, the coolant flows downward back to the water block on top of the CPU and the cycle continues. Noctua is demonstrating this with a 360mm radiator.

So what's the point? By eliminating the pump, you cut the noise. Is the noise from your AIO's pump significant? I guess it depends on the product and how sensitive you are to noise and how much other noise there is in your system. Even the thermosiphon cooler still needs fans (3x 120mm fans actually).

Finally, a real solution to the melting cables problem

The next-gen of Seasonic Prime power supplies will have a feature that deals with the problem of melting 12VHPWR connectors. As you may know, many people with RTX 40 and 50 series cards have had problems with melting connectors because their 12VHPWR connectors weren't plugged in properly. Then the GPU calls for an unbalanced power load and the cables melt and disaster ensues.

At Computex, Seasonic showed a prototype PSU with a set of sensors that alerts PC users of a malfunction if there's an abnormal voltage output. There will be an external device that connects to the PSU and shows this alert. The PSU will also power down to prevent melting. The PSUs with this tech, unfortunately, aren't due out until 2026.

Thermaltake shows off Minecraft-themed AIO cooler

Look at this! It's almost as good as having a Chicken Jockey ride on top of your CPU.

Thermaltake has a Minecraft-themed, 360mm AIO cooler on display at its booth and it's called the Minecube 360 ARGB. The cooler has four, 3.95-inch displays surrounding the pump. In the display, each of these had a Minecraft scene, but it seems like you could put any image you want on there.

The 360mm radiator has three Thermaltake SWAFAN EX12 ARGB fans on it that use magnetic quick connections and daisy-chain together. The entire thing is controlled by TT RGB software.

We don't have more details about the Minecube so we don't know the pricing or availability. We also don't know if it comes with any addition Minecraft-themed parts. One of the two units on display had some plastic Minecraft trees and blocks on the case, but we don't know if they come with the cooler.

Thermaltake shows off cool case mods

As usual, Thermaltake's booth was filled with case mods from some of the leading modders. The company hosts an invitational where artists from around the world turn its cases into all kinds of neat things. This year, the Black Myth Wukong case was the most impressive.

Here's what we saw.

Good morning and welcome to Thursday live from Taipei, it's a little after five local time and we've been pacing the trade floor. Stephen here for the next eight hours to take you through everything we've find. But first, we'll catch you up on what you may have missed overnight.

The return of an icon

MSI has unveiled plenty of new incredible tech at Computex, but the pick of the bunch might be the return of its iconic TwinFrozer and Cyclone cooling platforms, which have been deployed on a new RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060, respectively.

• MSI's RTX 5060 Ti TwinFrozer Retro and RTX 5070 Cyclone graphics cards go heavy on nostalgia

AMD FSR Redstone

New technology from AMD brings a major update to FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). Dubbed Redstone, it has new features it hopes to rival Nvidia's DLSS using three new features: neural radiance caching, machine learning ray regeneration, and machine learning frame generation.

• AMD's FSR Redstone uses machine learning to achieve parity with Nvidia DLSS

A new solution to melting connectors

Seasonic has unveiled new Prime power supplies that seek to solve overheating and melting power connectors by using sensors, a microcontroller, and firmware to keep on top of things, letting you monitor voltage output and current, as well as shutting down the system automatically if things get out of hand.

• Seasonic’s next-generation Prime PSUs to will try to stop connectors from melting

Old dog, new Tryx

Tryx's new Arcvision case features an embedded, curved display in the lower-left corner. The panoramic illusion is some of the most impressive stuff we've seen in case innovation at this year's event!

• Tryx's new PC case has an embedded curved display

Zalman goes with the grain

Seems like everyone is adding wood to their PC components these days, and the latest manufacturer to jump on the trend is Zalman with its new ATX and micro-ATX cases.

• Zalman shows off woodgrain ATX and Micro-ATX cases

The most egregious branding ever

Thermal Grizzly has unveiled a new bench table made in partnership with overclocking royalty der8auer. The "der8enchtable" is a modular, user-friendly benchtable is designed to facilitate fast and efficient PC hardware testing. Maybe we should get one of those...

• Thermal Grizzly’s open-air der8enchtable is designed for dedicated PC tinkerers

A $50,000 cooling solution

Enermax's immersion-cooled workstation can support four Nvidia RTX 5090s and up to 3,300 watts of power, using two-phase liquid immersion to keep temperatures under control. It looks incredible and surely performs, but the privilege will cost you $50,000 before you add any components.

• This $50,000 immersion-cooled workstation can support four Nvidia RTX 5090s

Zotac Zone 2 coming... soon?

Zotac has taken the covers off its new Zone 2 handheld, replete with a 7-inch AMOLED display and AMD Ryzen AI HX 370 APU. While we expect this to be the second iteration of its Zone handheld, it's officially a prototype at this stage and there's no pricing or launch info.

• Zotac Zone 2 demoed with Manjaro Linux and an AMOLED panel — 12-core Zen 5 CPU and 32GB RAM under the hood

HighPoint’s RocketStor 6542AW offers nearly a petabyte of external storage using eight 122TB SSDs

How does nearly a petabyte of storage sound to you? Although I’m probably going to sound like the 640K remark often (and probably mistakenly) associated with Bill Gates, I don’t think I could ever come close to filling the 976GB of storage that’s possible with the HighPoint RocketStor 6542AW.

Even though the RocketStor 6542AW is relatively compact (measuring 9.25 x 927 x 4.84 inches), it is home to eight 2.5-inch NVMe bays with hot-swap support. If you’re considering throwing in garden variety M.2 SSDs, slow your roll; it only supports U.2 and U.3 SSDs. To demonstrate the full power of the RocketStor 6542AW, Highpoint installed Solidigm D5-P5336 122TB PCIe 4.0 SSDs. Each SSD is rated for 7,400 MB/s reads and 3,200 MB/s writes. Although the external storage has a CDFP port that offers sustained transfer rates of up to 32 GB/s, the D5-P5336 SSDs are limited to “just” 28 GB/s.

If you want a RocketStor 6542AW, the price for the external storage solution is $1,799. However, if you max out at 976GB, you’ll need to add eight Solidigm D5-P5336 priced at roughly $16,000 each.

• This 976TB external storage solution with 28 GB/s transfer speeds likely costs over $130,000

Lian Li shows off power supplies with rotating power outlet

Worried about where to mount the power supply in your case? Lian Li's new RS series has you covered. The power supplies have outlets that can rotate, allowing you to put them in from either the back or the side.

These power supplies also have dual 24-in and 8-pin connectors on the front and left so you can choose to plug in from either location. There's also a mount below the rear connector set (CPU, PCIe, SATA connectors) that can hold a bundled USB hub.

The hub has both USB and fan controller ports so you can plug internal devices and coolers into it.

Good morning and welcome to the final day of Computex 2025 live from Taipei. Things are winding down here, so stay tuned for some more floor shots, recaps, and our awards.

Liquid-cooled RTX 50 series from Maxsun

Maxsun has unveiled one of its wildest graphics card yet, a concept RTX 50-series with liquid cooling and a full RGB LED shroud.

• Maxsun shows off liquid-cooled RTX 50 series GPU covered in RGB lighting

3,000W power supplies

3,000 W power supplies are taking over Computex. First we saw a 3,000 Asus PSU earlier in the week. Then we saw two from Super Flower.

• Super Flower shows off not one but two 3000W PSUs at Computex 2025

More power supplies

If 3,000W is a little over your requirements, how about this Lian Li offering with a rotatable power outlet for maximum flexibility...

• Lian Li flexes new PSU with rotatable power outlet at Computex 2025

The Best of Computex 2025

Computex is in the books, and it's the moment you've all been waiting for. Let's take a look at our winners in the Tom's Hardware Best of Computex 2025 Awards. Starting with AMD...

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9000 Series

The new AMD Ryzen Threadripper 9000 Series is here. The flagship Ryzen 9 9995WX boasts 96 cores and 192 threads, with peak boost clocks of 5.4GHz and 300W TDP.

• AMD Announces Threadripper HEDT and Pro 9000-Series CPUs: 96 cores and 192 threads for Desktops and Workstations

AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT

The new AMD RX 9060 XT starts at $299 for the 8GB version, or $349 for the 16GB model. It has Navi 44 architecture and even beats the RX 9070 in boost clock speed (3,130 MHz). Could this be the value GPU of 2025 we've been waiting for?

• AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT launches on June 5, starting at $299

Phison E28 SSD controller

Phison's new E28 SSD controller delivers big efficiency gains thanks to a 6nm process note, but still delivers 14.8 GB/s of sequential read/write performance and 2.5 / 3.0 million random read/write IOPS. A wave of E28-powered SSDs are expected later this year.

• Phison's E28 controller's 14.8 GB/s, 3,000K IOPS, and 7W power draw could make it the new king of PCIe 5.0 performance

Asus ProArt RTX 5080

Asus wins for this creative take on the RTX 5080, accented with wood in a way that makes the card really stand out. After a week filled with wooden cases, a wooden GPU housing is a breath of fresh air.

• Asus RTX 5080 ProArt comes with a wood grain finish and M.2 slot option

Crucial T710 SSD

The new T710 promises 28 percent read speed increases and 42 percent faster write speeds over the T705, the best SSD for speeds right now.

• Crucial announces T710 SSD with 14.9 GB/s of performance, X10 portable SSD up to 8TB

Predator Triton 14 AI

The Triton 14 AI weighs 3.5 pounds and features a 14.5-inch 2880 x 1800 OLED screen. Under the hood there's a Lunar Lake Core Ultra 9 288V CPU with RTX 5070 graphics.

• Acer has a new pair of 14.5-inch laptops for gaming on the go

Corsair Air 5400

Corsair's Air 5400 case is an eye-catching design with a triple-chamber layout that dumps CPU heat directly out of the case via a 360mm AIO radiator.

• Corsair’s Air 5400 features a triple-chamber design for high-performance cooling

SilverStone FLP02

A highlight of the whole show and massive hit with our readers, SilverStone's FLP02 is a throwback case that even has faux floppy drives on the front.

• SilverStone reveals late-80s style tower PC case — proudly beige but thoroughly modern inside

Seasonic Prime Power Supplies

Seasonic's Prime Power Supplies feature sensors to detect voltage problems and even shut down your system to prevent damage, overheating, and dreaded melting connectors.

• Seasonic’s next-generation Prime PSUs to will try to stop connectors from melting

Asus ROG Falcata

The ROG Falcata is a split layout gaming keyboard with HFX V2 magnetic switches, and our limited hands on time had us massively intrigued.

• Asus ROG Falcata brings split layout and magnetic switches to competitive gaming

Cooler Master Elite case line

Cooler Master's case line-up stands out so much we have the whole lot an award. Each should cost less than $100, even the eye-catching curved glass models.

• Cooler Master plans to launch a curved-glass case for around $70 – at least outside of the U.S.

Lian Li V200

Lian Li's $110 case has two glass panels, touch controls, and a massive 8.8-inch screen embedded in the bottom chamber.

• Lian Li is replacing mesh front panels with tempered glass on its new Lancool cases

MSI X50 Gaming Monitor

MSI's X50 Gaming Monitor is a QD-OLED panel with a 500Hz refresh rate and 1440p resolution, and even has an AI sensor than can power down the panel when it senses you've walked off.

• MSI’s new 500 Hz QD-OLED monitor leverages AI tech to save it from burn-in

Asus ROG Strix Ace XG248QSG Monitor

Another incredible monitor we saw this year is the 610 Hz overclocked Asus ROG Strix Ace XG248QSG, sporting 1080p resolution.

• Asus debuts 24-inch 610 Hz Full HD gaming monitor with a Super TN panel

Thermaltake MineCube 360 Ultra ARGB AIO

Thermaltake's MineCube 360 is a 360mm AIO cooler with a 720 x 720 resolution screen that will show you delightful Minecraft screens.

V-Color Xfinity Manta DDR5 RAM

Our favorite RAM module from Computex is this V-Color Xfinity Manta DDR5 RAM that features a full-color LCD screen you can use to show stats like voltages, clock speeds, and more.

• V-Color puts displays on memory modules

Mark your calendars for Computex 2026

Computex 2025 is coming to a close. Its organizers have announced that next year's show will run from June 2 - June 5, 2026.

This year's show started on May 20, a bit earlier than usual. Next year, it's returning to a more standard timeframe.

That gives you about a year to come up with your Computex 2026 bingo card. And for our intrepid editors on the ground to recover from the jet lag.

— Andrew E. Freedman

AIO screens get even more complicated

Over at Antec's booth, we saw the Vortex View AIO cooler, which features a 360 mm radiator and a 5-inch display. While screens have been popping up on a lot of cooling pumps, this one stands out; the large screen is connected to the pump via a ball joint, allowing you to rotate it and angle it exactly how you want. It even gives you the option to place it either horizontally or vertically.

The cooler works with both Intel and AMD processors, including LGA 1851, LGA 1700, AM4, and AM5 sockets.

• Hands-on with the Antec Vortex View — a wild AIO cooler with a screen that rotates a full 360 degrees

Next on the schedule: Memorial Day

With Computex 2025 wrapped up, we turn our attention to Memorial Day sales. It's a great time to score some new hardware at bargain prices, and the deals are already coming thick and fast. Here are some of the highlights so far!

• AMD Ryzen 9950X3D: Now $699 (normally not available)
• Samsung 990 Pro (4TB): Now $309
• Alienware RTX 5090 Desktop: Now $4899
• Newegg: Up to 46% off SSDs
• Amazon: Save up to 40% on tech deals
• Best Buy: Up to $300 off laptops, monitors, & more
• Dell: Up to $700 off gaming PCs
• Lenovo: Save up to 59% on Lenovo laptops
• HP: Save over $50% on HP, HyperX, Omen, and Victus in the Memorial Day sale
• SK hynix Platinum P41 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD: now $124 at Newegg (was $156)
• AMD Ryzen 5 9600X Processor: now $198 at Newegg (was $279)
• Samsung 990 Pro 2TB SSD: now $169 at Amazon (was $249)
• Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 265K: now $269 at Amazon (was $404)
• Dell S3222DGM, 32-inch 2K 165 Hz Monitor: now $259 at Best Buy (was $329)
• MacBook Air 13 (2025, M4 chip): 16GB / 256GB: was $999, now $899 at Amazon
• MacBook Air 13 (M4, 2025): 16GB / 512GB: was $1199, now $1099 at Amazon

Earlier in the week, we reported on an Nvidia driver change which opened up crazy new possibilities for PC DIYers. However, the dreams of Intel Core 2 system makers enjoying outlandish high jinks with Nvidia RTX50 GPUs have now partially evaporated. Twitter(X)-based tech enthusiast Bob Pony, who first surfaced the driver change, is back, but his tales of “struggles,” aren’t exactly the news we wanted to hear.

To recap, the latest Nvidia GeForce driver re-enabled support for Intel processors dating back to the Core 2 era, as it no longer required CPU support for the POPCNT instruction. That is all well and good, and Pony took to Twitter yesterday to “happily confirm that it's possible to use an NVIDIA RTX 50 series graphics card in an old system such as an Intel Core 2 Quad.” Specifically, they partnered their old Core 2 Quad Q9450 with an unashamedly modern RTX 5060 Ti. “It works!” Pony celebrated, and tipped followers to avoid trying the same with an RTX 5060 non-Ti due to its PCIe x8 interface.

What happened next is that Pony quickly went from fiddling around in Windows 11 to trying to get some modern games running on their May-to-September combo.

Despite withholding pre-release RTX 5060 drivers from reviewers, Nvidia has reportedly given select outlets access to its upcoming RTX 5060 driver to create strict "preview" articles about the new mid-range Blackwell GPU. One such outlet, Ascii.jp, published an article benchmarking the RTX 5060 against the RTX 5060 Ti (8GB and 16GB) and other graphics cards in Doom: The Dark Ages, Cyberpunk 2077, and Marvel Rivals.

GameStar Tech claims there are strict Nvidia guidelines for the RTX 5060 previews. According to the German publication (machine translation), "The reason for this unusual situation: Nvidia has decided to only make the driver, which is essential for GPU testing, available in advance under certain conditions and to a very limited number of media outlets worldwide. This includes us."

The news outlet goes on to state, "What's particularly crucial is that we weren't able to freely choose which graphics cards and games we would measure and with which settings for this preview."

Apparently, previews could only compare the RTX 5060 to the RTX 3060 and RTX 2060 Super. The list of allowed titles is reportedly limited to Avowed, Doom: The Dark Ages, Marvel Rivals, Cyberpunk 2077, and Hogwarts Legacy. Meanwhile, the settings must be configured to 1080p resolution, ultra image quality, DLSS in quality mode, and ray tracing.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Benchmarks

Surprisingly, Ascii's RTX 5060 "preview" only included Doom: The Dark Ages, Cyberpunk 2077, and Marvel Rivals. However, the Japanese outlet did compare the RTX 5060 to several generations of GeForce x060-class GPUs, including the RTX 2060, RTX 3060 (12GB), RTX 4060, RTX 5060, and both variants of the RTX 5060 Ti.

Graphics settings were also limited to running frame generation exclusively, with the RTX 3060 and RTX 2060 running FSR 3 frame generation (since they don't support the DLSS counterpart).

Across all three titles, the new RTX 5060 trails the RTX 5060 Ti by 15% on average using 2x DLSS frame generation. If it wasn't obvious, take these results with a massive grain of salt. Frame generation is not a perfect multiplier of native performance, so there is bound to be a bit of variance between all six GPUs.

However, the RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti comparisons can be taken with more weight since they rely on the same GPU architecture and use identical frame generation techniques. We wouldn't be surprised if the performance difference between the two GPUs is very similar with frame generation turned off.

In Doom: The Dark Ages, the RTX 5060 was 17% faster than the RTX 4060, 35% faster than the RTX 3060, and over three times faster than the RTX 2060.

Focusing on the RTX 5060's performance against the RTX 5060 Ti, the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB was 15% faster than the RTX 5060 (again using 2x frame gen). The 8GB and 16GB variants perform the same in this title. Ultra nightmare settings were used for the graphics settings, with DLSS used on the RTX 4060 and above (FSR 3 was used on the older GPUs).

In Cyberpunk 2077, the RTX 5060 was 25% faster than the RTX 4060, 81% faster than the RTX 3060, and nearly four times faster than the RTX 2060. Against the RTX 5060 Ti, the 8GB variant was 15% faster than the RTX 5060, and the 16GB variant was 17% faster.

RT overdrive was used for the graphics settings with the DLSS 4 transformer model using the Quality preset on the RTX 4060 and above. The RTX 3060 and RTX 2060 exclusively used FSR 3 frame generation, with no notes on whether or not the two GPUs used FSR 3 upscaling.

In Marvel Rivals, the RTX 5060 was 16% faster than the RTX 4060, 48% faster than the RTX 3060, and 85% faster than the RTX 2060. Compared to the RTX 5060 Ti, the Ti variant was 14% faster than the vanilla RTX 5060. Again, the 16GB had worse performance than the 8GB variant of the RTX 5060 Ti in this title so that we can chalk it up to the margin of error.

Image quality was set to best with the DLSS 4 transformer model used on the RTX 4060 and above. This time, DLSS upscaling was used on the RTX 3060 and 2060 in conjunction with FSR 3 frame generation (though there are no notes on what version of DLSS was used on these GPUs).

This is the first time Nvidia has greenlit a "preview" of its future GPU products. Traditionally, reviewers are given one to two weeks (sometimes more) with a pre-release driver to create a review of a future Nvidia GPU that will go live before the GPU launches. For the RTX 5060, Nvidia has opted to stop reviewers from starting their GPU testing until launch day (May 19) when the card releases, forcing reviewers to publish their reviews days after the RTX 5060 release. In the meantime, Nvidia is using "preview" articles to stir hype for its upcoming mid-range GPU.

Photographs of a cancelled AMD RX 7000-series prototype have reportedly surfaced on X. According to GOKForFree, the GPU seems to be a working sample of what could have been the Radeon RX 7500. When tested using GPU-Z, it was shown to have 6GB of memory with a 96-bit bus, 1,536 shading units, and 64 ROPs.

By comparison, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 has 8GB of GDDR6 memory with a 128-bit bus, 2,048 shading units, and 64 ROPs. The graphics card was an incremental upgrade from the RX 6650 XT and competes directly with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060.

On the other hand, TechPowerUp lists an unreleased AMD Radeon RX 7500 XT with the same memory size as the unknown card, but with fewer shading units (1,024) and ROPs (32). So, it could be that this unknown GPU is the actual RX 7500 XT, with the details listed by TechPowerUp as those for the vanilla RX 7500. After all, it’s unlikely that AMD will release an XT version of a base-spec GPU.

Acer is kicking off its Computex announcements with a pair of 14-inch gaming laptops. The company's two new gaming laptops, the Predator Triton 14 AI and Helios Neo 14 AI, are both being targeted at both gamers and creative professionals.

The Triton 14 AI is extremely sleek (0.68 inches at its thickest point), but to get there, Acer is using a productivity-class processor. The Intel Core Ultra 9 288V is one of Intel's "Lunar Lake" processors with integrated RAM. This chip runs between 30W at base power, which isn't as powerful as most gaming laptop processors. We saw a similar case in the Razer Blade 16, which opted for a 28W AMD Ryzen chip to enable a thinner design.

Acer is using graphene on the CPU to serve as the thermal interface material, which the company says outperforms regular thermal paste by 14.5%.

Acer is pairing Lunar Lake with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU using Nvidia's Studio drivers, which are optimized for creative applications. The system goes up to 32GB of RAM (on the CPU) and 2TB of storage.

The Triton also features a 14.5-inch, 2880 x 1800 OLED touchscreen that runs up to 120 Hz and is Calman verified.There's also a haptic touchpad built into the wrist rest, similar to the MSI Titan and Dell XPS 13, that supports a stylus, which seems limited in terms of writing.

The system looks sleek, with a sparse design and a silver hinge with diamond cut edge designed to reflect different colors from different angles. Despite the slim design, you still get some gaming accouterments, like a per-key RGB keyboard.

If you want a more traditional gaming laptop, the Helios Neo 14 AI is a bit more conventional in its components. Here, Acer is using Intel's H-series "Arrow Lake" chips, going up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H, though still using up to 32GB of RAM, up to 2 TB of storage, and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU. It's also thicker than the Triton at 0.82 inches.

The Helios Neo will have two screen options. You get a 14.5-inch panel either way, but one is 2880 x 1800 at 120 Hz with a MUX switch (that typically requires rebooting the system), while a lower-res 2560 x 1600 option is faster at 165 Hz and uses Nvidia's Advanced Optimus to switch between the integrated GPU and the discrete one.

The Predator Helios Neo has a metal lid with an RGB logo that you can customize, as well as a three-zone RGB keyboard.

Of the two laptops, only the Triton is certified as a Copilot+ PC. The Lunar Lake NPU, at 48 TOPS, is far more powerful than the Arrow Lake's 13 TOPS. Microsoft's Copilot+ PC requirements demand a minimum of 40 TOPS.

Acer is also using Computex to update its Predator Orion 3000 to the latest chips from Intel and Nvidia, including up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 265F and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070.

The company hasn't announced North American pricing or release dates for any of these machines. Acer said it will release that information for the U.S. and Canada "closer to market availability." In Europe, the systems will launch in July, which might give us a rough window of when to expect them elsewhere.

Two outlets have benchmarked Nvidia's newest RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell GPU, revealing its full capabilities against the RTX 5090 and other GeForce GPUs. Privaterbok on Reddit revealed eight benchmarks on the new workstation GPU, featuring 3DMark and Geekbench 6 benchmark runs.

The Redditor published benchmark runs of the Blackwell-based workstation GPU in TimeSpy, TimeSpy Extreme, Steel Nomad, Port Royal, and Geekbench 6. On average, the RTX Pro 6000 is roughly 10-15% faster than a stock RTX 5090, and even faster with an overclock, according to RTX 5090 data from Videocardz.

For benchmark comparisons, we paired the Redditor's RTX Pro 6000 GPU benchmarking data against the best RTX 5090 results from 3DMark's browser. All of these 3DMark results take advantage of highly overclocked RTX 5090s, giving us an idea of what the workstation GPU is capable of compared to the fastest consumer GPU Nvidia makes currently on full tilt.

The RTX Pro 6000 at stock speeds loses to the overclocked RTX 5090 results, with the RTX 5090 being roughly 5-10% quicker on average. Looking at the overclocked RTX Pro 6000 results, the GPUs are on more equal footing, though the RTX Pro 6000 still loses in Time Spy with the RTX 5090 being 5% quicker. However, in Time Spy Extreme, the workstation GPU gains a slight win with a score 1% better than the RTX 5090.

These are by no means perfect comparisons; each 3DMark RTX 5090 score probably comes from a different person with different setups and different overclocks.

Geekbench 6 is more straightforward; we took the RTX 5090 results straight from the Geekbench website, which are officially validated. In Geekbench 6, the RTX Pro 6000 is anywhere between 9% and 15% faster than the RTX 5090.

Level1Techs also put the RTX Pro 6000 through some gaming-centric benchmarks, with several runs of Cyberpunk 2077. At ultra settings running at 4K with DLSS on auto (i.e., performance mode) with path tracing off, the RTX Pro 6000 achieved 127.02 frames per second, and with path tracing on 92.54 FPS

The RTX Pro 6000 is Nvidia's latest high-end workstation GPU (a Titan-like card) and successor to the RTX Pro 5000 (which was also Blackwell-based). The RTX Pro 6000 has 10% more CUDA cores than the RTX 5090 (24,064) and 96GB of GDDR7 memory. Outgoing pricing for the RTX Pro 6000 is in the $8,000 range.

Asus is bringing some snowy flair to its latest GPUs: the company just teased white editions across its lineup of RTX 50-series graphics cards. These include the premium ROG Astral as well as the TUF Gaming, and Prime series. These new variants will be showcased at this year’s Computex trade show, which kicks off next week.

The teaser only includes triple-fan (and quad-fan in case of the Astral) RTX 50-series graphics cards, which potentially means that Asus might not have plans to offer the same treatment for its dual-fan GPUs this year.

As of writing this article, the company’s website lists the above mentioned white GPUs across the RTX 5090, 5080, 5070 Ti and 5070. As for the RTX 5060 Ti and 5060, there are no fully white cards, but the Dual series is interesting with its dual-tone (black and white) finish.

New benchmarking figures appear to reveal that the NVIDIA RTX 5090 laptop GPU may not be all that it's cracked up to be, revealing some disappointing performance figures when compared to the 5090.

The RTX 5090 laptop GPU arrived in late March 2025, but its launch was plagued by several issues, including delayed review units. A few reviews were available soon after the GPU became available, like Tom’s Hardware’s review of the Razer Blade 16, but it took some time for us to see an RTX 4090 vs. RTX 5090 comparison on nearly identical units. Jarrod’s Tech has released a video evaluating two XMG Neo 16 laptops that were equipped with both GPUs, and the results are interesting, to say the least.

The XMG Neo 16 (2024) used an Intel Core i9-14900HX paired with 32 GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and an RTX 4090, while the newer XMG Neo 16 (2025) is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX with 32 GB of DDR5-6400 RAM and an RTX 5090 GPU. Because of these specifications, one would expect the newer laptop to run faster, especially as it has a newer top-of-the-line laptop CPU, faster memory, and the RTX 5090. More than that, the newer GPU uses faster VRAM and has 50% more memory than the RTX 4090. Unfortunately, Jarrod’s Tech’s test results tell a different story.

Zotac is preparing to launch new mini-PC offerings at Computex next week, featuring AMD's beastly Strix Halo APUs and desktop Blackwell GPUs from Nvidia. So far, the company has showcased two designs with Nvidia hardware, featuring the desktop RTX 5060 Ti and the RTX 5070, and one AMD-based design with a Ryzen AI MAX CPU. Details on exact specifications and pricing have not been shared, but we'll hear more from the team at Taipei in just a few days.

Under its ZBOX Mini PC offerings, Zotac's Magnus-E lineup features compact yet powerful mini-PCs targeted at enthusiasts and content creators. The latest Strix Halo addition should extend their appeal to AI/ML developers as well. The upcoming Magnus One is equipped with an 8.48-liter chassis, housing a desktop RTX 5070 Ti 16GB along with a Core Ultra 7 processor from Intel, potentially from the Core Ultra 200S series.

The Magnus EN follows with a compact 2.65-liter design, home to the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB (desktop). This is accompanied by a mobile Core Ultra 7 processor, which can either be the Core Ultra 7 265H or its HX counterpart. With Arrow Lake, the distinction between Intel's H and HX grade processors goes beyond TDP and core counts. Arrow Lake-H features rebadged SoC Tiles from Meteor Lake, which can potentially offset performance gains, as shown in a previous review.

A trio of Asus GeForce RTX 5060 graphics cards has been listed at Best Buy in the U.S. (h/t momomo_us). These RTX 5060 retail pages appear to have been published a week too early. Perhaps more importantly, they are coming in at prices significantly above the touted $299 starting price, ranging between $340 and an eye-watering $410.

The retailer listings, now deleted, provide prices and may confirm some key details of the yet-to-launch RTX 5060 graphics cards from the Asus Prime (regular and OC) and TUF (OC) families. Nvidia has officially stated it will launch the RTX 5060 exactly a week from now, so perhaps someone at Best Buy had a mix-up with their calendar.

We were also expecting pricing at or very close to $299, but these 8GB VRAM cards are priced at up to $110 more for the Asus TUF OC model. The best price is $340 for what is usually Asus’s lowest-tier Prime effort, without any factory overclock applied.

A closer look at the Asus RTX 5060 models?

A new report claims that Nvidia has recently raised the official prices of nearly all of its products to combat the impact of tariffs and surging manufacturing costs on its business, with gaming graphics cards receiving a 5 to 10% hike while AI GPUs see up to a 15% increase.

As reported by Digitimes Taiwan (translated), Nvidia is facing "multiple crises," including a $5.5 billion hit to its quarterly earnings over export restrictions on AI chips, including a ban on sales of its H20 chips to China.

Digitimes reports that CEO Jensen Huang has been "shuttling back and forth" between the US and China to minimize the impact of tariffs, and that "in order to maintain stable profitability," Nvidia has reportedly recently raised official prices for almost all its products, allowing its partners to increase prices accordingly.

Despite the hikes, Digitimes claims Nvidia's financial report at the end of the month "should be within financial forecasts and deliver excellent profit results," driven by strong demand for AI chips outside of China and the expanding spending from cloud service providers.

The report states that Nvidia has applied official price hikes to numerous products to keep its earnings stable, with partners following suit. As an example, Digitimes cites the RTX 5090, bought at premium prices upon release without hesitation, such that channel pricing "quickly doubled."

The report notes that following the AI chip ban, RTX 5090 prices climbed further still, surging overnight from around NT$90,000 to NT$100,000, with other RTX 50 series cards also increasing by 5-10%. Digitimes notes Nvidia has also raised the price of its H200 and B200 chips, with server vendors increasing prices by up to 15% accordingly.

According to the publication's supply chain sources, price hikes have been exacerbated by the shift of Blackwell chip production to TSMC's US plant, which has driven a significant rise in the price of production, materials, and logistics.

There is some hope that the measures could be temporary; however, following the news that the US and China have agreed on a trade deal that should cut tariffs by 115%, thanks to a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs. As with latent price increases being passed on to consumers, however, it could be some time before prices start to fall.

Nvidia just confirmed that it’s withholding pre-release drivers from reviewers for the RTX 5060, which will rival the best graphics cards. According to Dutch publication Tweakers.net [machine translated], the company said that it will only make the drivers for the mainstream graphics card available on May 19, the card's release date.

Many reviewers already have the GPU in their labs and test benches, but they still haven’t received the pre-release drivers typically included in the review kit. Several publications that usually receive these pre-release drivers have taken to social media and their respective pages to say they still haven’t gotten the required software to run what would be Nvidia’s most affordable RTX 50-series (codenamed Blackwell) GPU.

Team Green finally confirmed this to Tweakers.net, who said that it will only make the RTX 5060 drivers available on the day of release. This means that the tech media won’t be able to test the GPU until May 19 and publish their results after it goes on sale.

You won't typically find a Hygon processor among the list of best CPUs for gaming or other applications. Nevertheless, Hygon stands as one of China's most important fabless semiconductor companies. Hardware investigator HXL recently shared an ambitious roadmap detailing Hygon's forthcoming initiatives, including a flagship 128-core, 512-thread processor.

Baptized as the C86-5G, the upcoming server processor will feature up to 128 cores with simultaneous multithreading (SMT). However, there's a slight twist. Instead of utilizing the typical two-way SMT (SMT2) that we've grown accustomed to on modern mainstream and server chips, the C86-5G leverages four-way SMT (SMT4), which means four threads per core. That's why the C86-5G has 128 cores and 512 threads.

Manufacturers have long utilized various SMT layouts; Hygon is not introducing any innovative concepts. For instance, Intel's defunct Xeon Phi, particularly the Knights Landing variant, was equipped with an SMT4 architecture. Moreover, IBM's Power8 processors offer SMT4 capabilities and extend to SMT8.

Hygon C86-5G Specifications

The C86-5G, in contrast to its predecessor, the C86-4G, features up to twice as many cores and four times as many threads. Unfortunately, Hygon has not disclosed the specific microarchitecture utilized in the C86-5G, only mentioning that it has been "upgraded again." Consequently, the chipmaker claims that the C86-5G will significantly improve instructions per cycle (IPC) by more than 17%.

Hygon has come a long way since its first-generation server processor, which was built on the Dhyana microarchitecture derived from AMD's Zen IP. However, it seems to be a thing of the past, as Hygon's roadmap indicates that since the C86-4G model, the company has adopted a "new self-developed microarchitecture." Consequently, the C86-5G is said to employ an enhanced version of this mysterious microarchitecture.

The C86-5G has a rich feature set, including AVX-512 instructions and 16-channel DDR5-5600 support, up from the 12-channel DDR5-4800 configuration on the C86-4G. The former can substantially help the C86-5G power through server and enterprise workloads. Meanwhile, supporting 16 memory channels will allow Hygon's upcoming platform to house an enormous amount of memory. The manufacturer didn't specify which DIMM formats the C86-5G can handle, but being a server chip, it should support RDIMMs and such. But even with conventional DDR5 memory modules that have scaled up to 64GB per module, the C86-5G can have up to 1TB of DDR5-5600 at its disposal.

The earlier C86-4G model offers 128 PCIe 5.0 lanes for connectivity, matching the capacity of AMD's fourth-generation EPYC 7004 (codenamed Genoa) chips. Although the number of PCIe 5.0 lanes for the C86-5G is yet to be disclosed, Hygon has confirmed that the new flagship will support Compute Express Link 2.0 (CXL2.0). This positions the C86-5G competitively alongside the latest AMD EPYC 9005 (codenamed Turin) and Intel's 5th Gen Xeon (codenamed Emerald Rapids) processors in terms of interconnect standards.

The C86-4G has presumably been available since last year, suggesting that Hygon probably began development on the C86-5G already. However, since the roadmap is quite ambitious and lacks specific dates, we cannot determine the current status of the C86-5G.

Before the tariff conflict with the U.S., China was already pursuing technological self-sufficiency. The tariffs merely accelerated the nation's efforts to reach this goal, with companies like Hygon vital to the process. It's unrealistic to believe Hygon can launch a chip that rivals AMD's and Intel's performance levels. Nonetheless, the C86-5G seems to compare well with competitors in terms of features, at least. Considering the current landscape, we expect to see C86-5G benchmarks soon.

Reports from multiple independent reviewers and publications suggest that Nvidia is barring access to pre-release drivers for the upcoming budget-oriented RTX 5060. Apparently, Nvidia is dropping drivers for RTX 5060 GPUs with the retail embargo. Igor's Lab, HardwareLuxx, and Hardware Unboxed have all posted about the issue on their websites or on social media.

Without the drivers, proper day-one reviews from tech publications will be impossible, and the drivers will drop as many reviewers travel to Computex in Taipei.

Nvidia typically optimized pre-release drivers as part of the review kit. Nvidia typically releases the public-facing enablement drivers for a new GPU on the day of its retail launch. If proper drivers aren't installed, the system may either fail to detect the GPU or the results obtained from benchmarking the card will be unreliable at best.

Nvidia didn't send RTX 5060 Ti 8GB models to reviewers, leading them to acquire retail units at their own expense. As expected, that GPU struggles at 4K, at 1440p, and even at 1080p in a handful of titles compared to its 16GB sibling. The RTX 5060 and its 8GB may face similar woes, but that's at least somewhat counteracted by its cheaper price point. It's conceivable that internal software issues may be causing driver delays, if you want to give Nvidia the benefit of the doubt.

Alienware is typically known for sci-fi focused, spaceship-inspired designs. But with its new Aurora laptops, the Dell subsidiary is going for a bit more subtlety.

In time for PAX East, Alienware is launching the Alienware 16 Aurora and Alienware 16X Aurora, systems that blend understated (well, for Alienware) designs with gaming power. It feels like the successor to last year's Alienware m16 R2, which dialed down the gaming looks and added a "stealth mode" for quiet performance and plain lighting – and that feature is coming back with the Auroras.

Both Auroras come in a dark blue "interstellar indigo" chassis that features the alien head logo on the lid, but little else that screams gaming notebook. They have curved edges designed to be comfortable to pick up and carry, and can also be opened with one hand.

Alienware has made these gaming laptops smaller than its classic designs by eliminating the "thermal shelf," a cooling solution that typically juts out the back of the laptop. Instead, there's a cooler on the bottom of the device, where a rear foot would usually be found. This sucks cool air in from the bottom of the laptop and exhausts it from the back and sides.

The 16X Aurora is a more premium version of the system, with higher-end components and parts. It goes up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, 64GB of RAM, 2TB display, and a 240 Hz, 300-nit screen. Additionally, it has a higher-resolution webcam than the standard 16, and has a metal lid and bottom (as opposed to just the metal lid on the 16 Aurora).

There are other quality differences: The 16X has single-zone RGB, while the regular 16 just has white backlighting. Additionally, one of the 16X's USB Type-C ports supports Thunderbolt 4, while that's not the case on the 16.

The new systems will start at $1,149 in the US. For the regular Alienware 16 Aurora, that will get you an Intel Core i7 14700H (Raptor Lake Refresh), 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, Nvidia RTX 4050, and a QHD, 120 Hz display.

At launch, the Alienware 16X Aurora will start at $1,949, though a cheaper base model will launch "soon after," an Alienware rep tells me. The $1,949 system has a Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of storage, an RTX 5060, and a QHD, 240 Hz screen.

The Aurora laptops follow the launch of the new Area-51 machines announced earlier this year and recently released, and are the first Aurora-branded notebooks from the company in almost 20 years. Alienware's revival of its Aurora and Area-51 laptop sub-brands come as its parent company, Dell, attempts to simplify its naming schemes.

U.S. Congressman and physicist Bill Foster plans to introduce a bill that will require advanced AI chipmakers like Nvidia to include a built-in location reporting system. According to Reuters, this system will use existing and readily available technology to find the general country-level location of an AI chip. In fact, two sources say that Alphabet is using something similar to track the location of its in-house Tensor AI chips across all its data centers to protect against theft and other security breaches.

The White House, under both the Biden and Trump administrations, has been enforcing bans against the export of advanced chips to China since 2022. It has been doing this to limit its rival’s access to cutting-edge technology and help ensure the U.S.’s dominance in AI technology. Washington even recently expanded the export controls to include previously allowed chips like the MI308 and H20, resulting in an $800-million and $5.5-billion write-off for AMD and Nvidia, respectively.

However, the bans and sanctions have been criticized for being ineffective, with the former U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo calling them “a fool’s errand”. We’ve had verified reports of Chinese businesses smuggling advanced chips into mainland China, and the company behind DeepSeek, one of China’s most advanced AI models, is accused of using smuggled Nvidia AI chips. Even the U.S. Senate found that the Bureau of Security and Industry (BIS), the agency in charge of export controls, was sorely lacking in resources and relied on voluntary compliance from chipmakers.

Rep. Foster’s proposal aims to solve this issue by requiring AI chips to communicate with a secure computer server whenever they go online. According to the source, the time difference between when the chip sends the signal and when the server receives it is enough to determine its rough location. Reuters claims that independent technical experts say that the proposal by the congressman, who is a former particle physicist and has a doctorate in physics from Harvard University, is feasible and could potentially work.

Geo-blocking implementation to be discussed

Nvidia has announced a competition for May The Fourth 2025, which should mean at least two PC enthusiasts win a free GeForce RTX 5090 by the end of the day. It is very easy to enter, asking you to only make public your allegiance with an attached #RTXON tag. We also guess it is worthwhile making your reply grab the attention of the Nvidia, in a good way.

The above competition is dubbed 'The ultimate MayThe4thBeWithYou showdown' by Nvidia, and indeed, the RTX 5090 is one of the best graphics cards on the market in May 2025. However, to win, you must tell the green team "What side of the galaxy" you favor. Are you devoted to either the Star Wars or Star Trek series of films and shows? Whatever your feeling, share it with Nvidia on Twitter/X to have a chance of winning.

Since it is actually Star Wars Day today, there might be more of a chance of winning the Star Trek themed RTX 5090 Founders Edition GPU. Thus, cynical Star Wars fans might misstate their allegiance, for a better chance at GPU silicon heaven (or perhaps hell, if it melts). It is probably best not to second guess this game of chance, though, and concentrate on making your Tweet resonate.

Shipping graphics cards with just 8GB of VRAM is tantamount to "bringing a butter knife to a gunfight," opines the Grok AI, built-into Twitter/X. The AI agent was commenting on a thread about the recent RTX 5060 Ti 8GB performance analysis – one which showed this model may be up to 10% slower than the 16GB variant in popular games. Elon Musk's humorous AI is powered by hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs, so there is a little irony in it disparaging the same brand of silicon that gave it life.

PC enthusiasts were already braced for new generation SKUs arriving with as little as 8GB onboard - before graphics cards like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti were officially launched. Nevertheless, seeing these fears materialize was still painful. And this feeling of disappointment now looks set to continue, with the drip-drip of analysis of GPU commentators sharing benchmarks and 'told you so' tales. We must also add in to the unhappy mix the certainty that newer titles will only be pushing VRAM demands higher.

Grok - this 'humorous AI' isn't joking, or hallucinating

Responding to PunmasterStp on X, Grok highlighted that "Modern AAA games are chomping through VRAM faster than a kid with a bag of candy—especially at 1440p or 4K with all those juicy high-res textures and ray tracing bells and whistles." It went on to contrast the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB and 16GB variants. Users of the former will see it prematurely age with "stutters, texture pop-ins, and even crashes in heavy hitters like Hogwarts Legacy and Space Marine 2," Grok said. Meanwhile, the latter model, with 16GB, was said to be comfortably "cruising" in some of the same titles.

Grok continued with its unvarnished RTX 5060 Ti 8GB takedown by stating that "If you’re planning to game for the next few years without constantly tweaking settings down to potato mode, 8GB just ain’t gonna cut it." Potato mode seems a bit harsh, but the message is clear to those eyeing their budget and new/used 8GB graphics cards – save up more or adjust your expectations and preferences.

AMD is also expected to launch 8GB '60 card(s) shortly

Nvidia launched the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and 8GB models in mid-April, and the GPU with the larger VRAM received relatively positive reviews. However, many say that the 8GB graphics card is struggling due to a lack of VRAM, even at lower resolutions. Aside from that, Computer Base [machine translated] also discovered another issue brought by the smaller memory: reduced performance in some titles when attached to a PCIe 4.0 slot.

The publication measured 27 titles at 1440p, with the 8GB card getting an average FPS of 59.4 with a PCIe 5.0 motherboard, and a slightly lower 55.82 FPS when hooked up via PCIe 4.0. The 1% lows recorded are at 47.21 FPS and 43.93 FPS, respectively. This might not seem bad initially, but a few select titles had it much worse than the average.

Out of all the tested games, eight titles suffered a 5 FPS or more decrease in both average FPS and 1% lows—an almost 9% or more decrease in performance.

Nvidia has yet to officially reveal Blackwell-based graphics boards for professional visualization (ProViz) applications, but such cards are already undergoing testing in the wild by interested parties in Geekbench. An OpenCL benchmark result of Nvidia's upcoming RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition graphics card has emerged, confirming rumored specifications of the GPU and memory while raising questions about performance.

Nvidia's RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition add-in-board is based on the GB202 graphics processing unit (GPU) with 24,064 CUDA cores (188 streaming multiprocessors, 128 CUDA cores) allegedly operating at up to 2,617 MHz and carries 96 GB of memory with ECC, according to the Geekbench listing. By contrast, Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5090 — the best graphics card for gaming money can buy these days — features the GB202 GPU with 21,760 CUDA cores operating at up to 2,410 MHz and carries 32 GB of GDDR7 memory.

At first glance, the new RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition graphics board should easily beat its gaming counterpart, but this is not the case as the unit scores 368,219 points in GB6 6.4.0 OpenCL benchmark, whereas the GeForce RTX 5090 can score around 376,858 in the same benchmark. A 2.3% performance difference is hardly a big deal, but given significant hardware differences between the boards, it is natural to expect the new ProViz card to beat the gaming board.

The latest Steam Hardware survey from April shows Nvidia’s RTX 50 series GPUs making their first appearance almost four months after launch. Conversely, despite their apparent retail popularity, AMD’s RX 9000 GPUs are nowhere to be found on the list. While the absence of RDNA 4 is confusing, it might all boil down to a lack of adequate supply at MSRP.

The April Steam Hardware survey reflects a return to normality after the previous survey was skewed by an unexplained surge of Chinese users, knocking several statistics off the charts. Typical figures for operating systems, system specifications, and CPU/GPU vendor, among others, remained unchanged. Nvidia still reigns supreme in the GPU market with a 74.39% share, while Intel leads the CPU arena at 60.35%, closely followed by AMD.

Several new GPUs have gained traction among gamers, per the Steam Hardware survey, including Nvidia’s RTX 5080 (0.38%), RTX 5070 Ti (0.28%), and RTX 5070 (0.38%). The RTX 5090 being excluded from this list is self-explanatory, as that GPU is far out of the reach of the average user. After exhaustively searching the list, we found no GPU from AMD’s RX 9070 family. That’s quite telling since this has recently been one of AMD’s most successful GPU launches, coupled with Nvidia’s many shortfalls this generation.

There is a new AMD GPU on the survey, though — new to the survey statistics, at least. AMD's RX 7800 XT appears for the first time in the April 2025 figures, landing at 0.27% (the same as the 5070 Ti). The RX 7900 XT, 7900 GRE, 7600 XT, and 7600 all remain missing in action, along with virtually all Intel Arc GPUs (other than the integrated "Arc Graphics" that sits unchanged month-to-month at 0.22%).

It seems that AMD's RX 9060 XT 8GB is still on track, despite rumors suggesting otherwise, per Benchlife. The publication claims, through its sources, that AMD has no plans to cancel this 8GB VRAM product or halt supply to board partners. It's important to note that these cancellation rumors might not be completely baseless. Given the performance limitations of Nvidia's RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, AMD may be inclined to prioritize the RX 9060 XT 16GB over its 8GB sibling, but that's just speculation.

The RX 9060 XT branding was officially confirmed by AMD during the RX 9000 reveal at CES. It would only be a matter of time before the official announcement, which is reportedly set for Computex in just three weeks. Taking a page out of Nvidia's playbook, AMD's RX 9060 XT has been rumored to launch in two VRAM capacities: 8GB and 16GB. This further segments AMD's RDNA 4 portfolio, though we expect these GPUs to hit the $350 price point.

With an expected price difference of $30-$50, the 16GB model seems like the obvious choice, but it begs the question of why the 8GB model exists at all, considering a potential RX 9060 non-XT 8GB in the future, if it even exists.

Benchlife purports, through its sources, that AMD has no plans to cancel or halt the supply of the RX 9060 XT 8GB. While it is technically possible to convert existing 8GB designs to 16GB, the PCBs must be designed with extra routing, pads, and clearance for the added modules. Since the 8GB variant was likely designed before the performance limitations of the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB became clear, it's too far in the pipeline to be axed now.

Nvidia's RTX 50-series product stack has seen a decline in demand in the German market. According to ComputerBase, most RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070 AIB partner models are selling for at or below their respective MSRPs. The only exception is the RTX 5090, which is still in high demand and is struggling to stay on store shelves.

A table of RTX 50-series pricing shows what the GPUs were selling for last week, versus what they were selling for in March: At the end of March, the cheapest RTX 5080 models were priced at €1,169, versus last week's price of €1,119 (which matches the MSRP).

It has only been a few months since Nvidia officially announced its RTX 50-series graphics cards, but rumors are already pointing to a potential Super series refresh. According to a post on the Chiphell forums, a hit-and-miss source for hardware leaks, Nvidia might already be working on an RTX 5080 Super with 24GB and an RTX 5070 Super with 16GB of VRAM.

The key enabler behind these rumored memory configurations is said to be Nvidia’s use of 3GB GDDR7 memory modules. These modules essentially allow for more flexible VRAM amounts than the traditional 8GB or 16GB increments. By leveraging 3GB chips, Nvidia can gain the ability to offer configurations like 18GB (6×3GB) and 24GB (8×3GB) VRAM for its desktop class GPUs without making any major PCB redesigns.

This can also help Nvidia make refreshes or upgraded versions (like the aforementioned Super variants) easier to deliver without changing much hardware or firmware. With the higher amount of VRAM, these graphics cards will potentially have the ability to handle larger textures at higher resolutions, and more complex scenes with fewer performance drops.