When Nuvacore, a new CPU startup founded by legendary CPU and system architects Gerard Williams, John Bruno, and Ram Srinivasan, emerged from stealth earlier this year, it promised to "rewrite the rules of silicon," but did not say how it planned to do so. On Thursday, the company finally broke its silence and revealed that it is taking an unusual development approach that allows it to design a significant portion of its CPU core IP before committing to a particular instruction set architecture (ISA).

Traditionally, CPU developers start development of a new processor project with a particular ISA — such as Arm, RISC-V, or x86 — already selected. Although modern high-performance processors translate instructions into internal micro-operations and therefore separate the ISA from much of the underlying execution pipelines, the instruction set still influences numerous architectural decisions, including instruction decoding, register handling, memory ordering, and, of course, software compatibility.

Nuvacore says its Core First approach reverses at least part of this process. Instead of designing WarpCore around the requirements and limitations of a predetermined ISA, the company's engineers are developing a significant portion of the foundational CPU IP independent of a particular ISA. To a large degree, one can compare such an approach to the development of a car around its engine and not trying to fit an engine into an already developed platform.

"Rather than beginning with the constraints of an existing architecture and iterating from there, we are starting with the core itself," the company said in its statement.

As a result, the team may be able to better focus on the core's microarchitecture and optimize it for performance, power efficiency, and sustained workloads typical of modern data centers and AI infrastructure, the target application for the company. Nuvacore intends to select an instruction set later based on what works best for the systems that it and its partners plan to build.

There are obvious limits to how ISA-independent a CPU design can be. Eventually, WarpCore will need front-end logic designed around its chosen instruction set, and those architectural requirements will inevitably affect other parts of the processor. Nevertheless, substantial pieces of a modern CPU — such as execution units, branch-prediction units, data paths, caches, and portions of the memory subsystem — can be developed and evaluated before every ISA-related implementation decision is finalized.

In addition to not disclosing its ISA, which is arguably the biggest unanswered question surrounding the project, Nuvacore also has not disclosed the project's schedule, configuration, manufacturing process, power, or performance targets, though given the lack of the ISA commitment, one could say that the remaining details are not that important.

For now, the only thing that Nuvacore discloses about WarpCore is that it is "a new class of general-purpose CPU designed specifically for the sustained performance and power-efficiency requirements of AI infrastructure and contemporary data centers."

AMD's ambidextrous strategy returns?

Nuvacore's approach is not entirely without precedent. Under CEOs Rory Read and Lisa Su, AMD spent part of the 2010s pursuing an "ambidextrous" strategy intended to let it address x86 and Arm customers by sharing substantial processor and platform IP.

Arguably the most detailed part of the initiative was AMD's SkyBridge platform, announced in 2014. Under SkyBridge, AMD envisioned pin-compatible 64-bit Arm and x86 systems-on-chips that were to use AMD's own Puma+ x86 cores and Arm's Cortex-A57 cores with common platform infrastructure. Separately, AMD developed its custom 64-bit Arm K12 core under Jim Keller that was supposed to share microarchitecture features with Zen. Ultimately, due to lack of resources, SkyBridge was ultimately scrapped, while K12 never became a commercial product as AMD only pursued x86 Zen cores. The difference is, of course, that Nuvacore appears to be taking the idea further by deliberately postponing the ISA decision for WarpCore.

Since Nuvacore is still just a startup, we can only wonder whether its business plan includes marketing of CPUs at all. Nuvia, which was also founded by Williams and Bruno along with Manu Gulati, was acquired by Qualcomm and ultimately shaped the company's Snapdragon X Elite SoCs. In that light, its approach could give the company considerable commercial flexibility.

By developing much of its WarpCore design without tying it to a particular ISA, the company could potentially adapt the technology to the requirements of a future customer or partner. An Arm licensee could use the underlying core technology for an Arm implementation; another customer could choose RISC-V or another ISA. An established x86 vendor could potentially acquire or license the underlying microarchitecture and create its own x86 CPUs if it needs to.

Nuvacore, of course, has not indicated that such a transaction is its objective, but keeping WarpCore ISA-agnostic for as long as possible potentially broadens the number of companies to which its CPU technology could be valuable.

All in all, the Core First announcement tells us considerably more about how Nuvacore intends to develop WarpCore than what the processor itself will eventually look like. But if the company really does keep its ISA options open until relatively late in development, WarpCore represents an unusual attempt to separate development of a high-performance CPU microarchitecture from one of the decisions that normally defines a processor project from its earliest stages.

Former EVGA product manager Brendon Ray Hedrick has posted a personal account of his time at the company in which he details the challenges that EVGA encountered near the end of its partnership with Nvidia. When he left the company in 2019, Hedrick predicted that the business relationship between the two companies would eventually implode, which proved to be largely accurate when EVGA exited the GPU market in 2022.

As he tells it, Hedrick's concerns about the relationship between the two companies began when it first released the Founders Edition GPUs in 2016. While EVGA had sold Nvidia reference designs with its own brand on the box before, its primary (and only) GPU supplier was now competing directly against it by selling graphics cards directly to customers, bypassing board partners entirely.

However, the biggest challenge that EVGA faced arose, according to Hedrick, was when Nvidia began requiring its partners to sell a model that would hit the announced MSRP, even if it sold at a loss. Companies that did not comply would get reduced chip allocations, so partners needed to produce a loss leader product to ensure that they would get all of the chips they would need to satisfy demand.

“The models on which we did not lose money had better circuit boards and cooling of our own, but they also carried a substantial premium,” Hedrick writes. “To a customer comparing them with the advertised starting price, it could look as though EVGA was charging an enormous amount just for those additions.”

In Hedrick's view, as Nvidia Founders Edition cards got better with each generation, more expensive AIB offerings started to make less sense for most buyers. This led to loss-leading models constantly being sold out, while customers who chose more premium models started to hold on to their GPUs for an extra generation or more. “For a manufacturer like EVGA, those decisions carried very different consequences. We still had cards to sell and a business to sustain; enough customers sitting out a generation could be financially devastating,” Hedrick wrote.

In reference to Nvidia's introduction of real-time ray tracing tech on its RTX 20-series cards in 2018, Hedrick recounts that “Nvidia could afford a long technological bet. My concern was whether a company as lean as EVGA could comfortably absorb the difficult part of it,” in reference to convincing consumers that the upgrade to the new tech was worth it at a time when only a tiny handful of games featured RT.

When Hedrick left the company, he says he believed that EVGA and Nvidia had about four or five years left before the situation led to a confrontation. This prediction came true a year earlier than Hedrick projected. In 2022, EVGA announced that it would no longer make partner cards with the advent of the RTX 40-series and that it would exit the GPU market once its stock of RTX 30-series GPUs had run out.

At that time, it was reported that Nvidia GPUs made up 78% of EVGA’s revenue while contributing only a tiny percentage of the company’s overall profit. Other reports also said that while lower-tier products like the RTX 3060 remained profitable, EVGA lost hundreds of dollars for every RTX 3080 and higher GPU model that it sold.

While it’s easy to blame Nvidia's policies for EVGA’s exit from the GPU market, other analyses partially blamed the company for practices like contracting manufacturing to third parties and providing overly generous customer service for its failures. Its focus on North America and Europe also led to the company shipping fewer units compared to its competitors, meaning its fixed costs were further cutting into its already narrow margins. Although EVGA’s customer-centric approach made it one of the most beloved brands in the GPU space, its strategies ultimately left it vulnerable, and we all know how the story ended.

A Zotac RTX 3060 owner in India has been denied warranty support, even though their card would still seem to be covered. According to Reddit user u/AbhishekG9, they purchased a Zotac GeForce RTX 3060 Twin Edge from KVR Gaming System in Nehru Place, Delhi, on June 27, 2025. Zotac offers three years of standard warranty in India for RTX 30-series and later cards. That can be extended by two years in exchange for registering the product. The customer received an invoice and registered the graphics card with Zotac, for which an automatically generated registration confirmation was received on July 2, 2025.

However, when the customer reached out to Zotac for warranty support for an unspecified reason, the company reportedly told them that the graphics card was already out of warranty. According to an email from Zotac, the card's serial number showed an import date of April 2023. The company explained that warranty coverage can be determined using the original purchase date or the distributor's import date, and that product registration by itself does not establish warranty coverage.

At least in this instance, Zotac asserts that if one of its products is sold more than two years after it was imported, the company cannot provide extended warranty support. Since the graphics card was purchased by the customer in June 2025, the company advised them to approach the original seller for further assistance.

The customer argues that the distributor's original import date is not something an ordinary buyer would necessarily know when making a purchase. They also pointed out that they registered the product within days of purchase and received confirmation from Zotac.

Other users on the Reddit thread suggest that Zotac's policy isn't necessarily unreasonable. By tying the start of the warranty period to the date of import, plus an additional buffer period to allow the product to be sold, the policy would seem to prevent retailers from arbitrarily changing the date of sale in their records to make a product that would otherwise be out of warranty appear to be covered. If this particular card sat in retail inventory for an unusually long time (two years, in this instance), it's possible that initial buffer period was exhausted and that the clock began running down on the actual legal warranty period, regardless of the buyer's date of purchase.

But this could all be explained more clearly. If we take a look at the warranty terms and conditions on Zotac India’s website, it indeed mentions that the duration of warranty starts from the product's original date of purchase or the distributor import/invoice date. However, the policy does not explicitly specify a period in which the purchase date is used before the import date can become relevant, and that opaque reasoning appears to be the issue here.

The RTX 3060 owner told Tom’s Hardware that they plan to visit the shop where the graphics card was purchased and ask it to arrange a replacement. They also plan to record the visit as proof and, if the issue remains unresolved, file a complaint with India’s National Consumer Helpline.

This is not the first time Zotac has faced criticism over hair-splitting a warranty claim. Back in December 2025, an RTX 5070 Ti owner’s RMA was denied after Zotac said it had found an “irreversible” crack in the PCB near the PCIe connector. The company attributed the damage to external mechanical stress and suggested that the customer file a claim with the shipping carrier. Zotac later offered to dispose of the graphics card at its facility if the customer did not want it returned.

The USB Implementers Forum now lists some of Intel's Core Ultra 400-series 'Nova Lake' platforms in its Integrators List, meaning that the products have passed applicable USB compliance and interoperability tests. The PCI-SIG Integrators List also includes Intel’s 900-series chipsets for Nova Lake-S processors. Such tests are conducted ahead of product launches to ensure interoperability and to gain the right to use the PCIe and USB logos on new products.

The USB-IF listing confirms that Intel's mobile Nova Lake-H processor (Device ID D331, D333) is compliant with the USB4 80 Gbps specification (which is not surprising, as the part is also supposed to support Thunderbolt 5). In contrast, Intel's desktop Nova Lake PCH-S chipset (Device ID 6E6E) is compliant with the USB 3.2 Gen2 standard and supports a data transfer rate of up to 20 Gbps, which is in line with unofficial information about Intel's 900-series chipsets. Meanwhile, the Integrators List lacks Intel's desktop Nova Lake processor that is expected to support USB4 (more on this later).

The choice of the products to certify first — a desktop chipset and a high-performance notebook CPU — may seem a bit odd. However, there is a good explanation for why Intel submitted these parts to the Integrators List ahead of others and why the order of such submissions for compliance testing does not matter significantly in this case.

The USB-IF has a program called Qualification by Similarity (QbS) for sufficiently similar products, under which testing one product can enable related products to be certified and added to the Integrators List with limited or no additional compliance testing. Since USB4 and USB 3.2 circuitry in different Nova Lake products is similar, Intel can submit select CPUs and chipsets for USB-IF compliance tests and then follow up with the QbS.

Meanwhile, since USB-IF certification is formally attached to a specific product name, model, and revision, differently named products are not certified automatically simply because they contain identical USB circuitry. These products must be submitted separately under QbS, after which USB-IF decides whether the differences are significant enough to require additional testing.

The PCI-SIG Integrators List has included Intel's 900-series chipset (Device 6E38-6E3F, 6E30-6E35, 6E40-6E47) for Core Ultra 400-series 'Nova Lake-S' processors since April. In early August, the company’s as-yet-unidentified processor (Device IDs D461, D465, and D467–D46A) with a PCIe 5.0 x16 root complex passed interoperability tests and was listed alongside the chipset. We cannot state with certainty that this is a desktop Nova Lake CPU, although it is reasonable to suspect that the device belongs to the desktop Core Ultra 400-series platform.

As the official launch of Intel’s Core Ultra 400-series ‘Nova Lake’ processors for desktops and laptops looms, these platforms must pass various compliance and interoperability tests administered by industry standards organizations. So far, Intel’s Nova Lake CPUs and supporting chipsets have passed interoperability tests with the PCI-SIG and USB-IF. However, in the coming weeks or months, they will likely appear on other compliance and interoperability lists as well. Intel will also eventually need various regulatory and environmental documents, depending on what exactly is being sold and where, though such documents rarely enter the public domain ahead of formal launches.

Anyway, Nova Lake's listings in PCI-SIG and USB-IF Integrators List point to Intel's preparations for the launch of new CPUs for desktops and laptops. The latest leaks point to Core Ultra 400-series launches in Q1 2027, so setting the stage for their release early next year is a natural move for Intel.

After unveiling the EPYC 9006 (codenamed Venice) series in July and previewing a few impressive Zen 6 benchmarks, AMD has now released full pricing for its highly anticipated next-generation server chips. According to the list StorageReview obtained, AMD has big plans for the data center, with a wide range of SKUs from eight to 256 cores and pricing from $700 to $14,904.

As a quick refresher, AMD strategically divided the Venice lineup into two distinct segments. The SP7 platform is the flagship offering, delivering maximum memory capacity and throughput. It supports up to 16 memory channels, accommodating both RDIMMs and MDRDIMMs up to DDR5-12800. The platform offers up to 96 PCIe 6.0 lanes and supports Venice chips with TDPs between 400W and 600W.

The Venice parts designed for the SP7 socket offer scalable performance for enterprises. The lineup begins with the 64-core EPYC 9556, priced at $8,008, and extends to the flagship 256-core EPYC 9996, which commands $14,904. In retrospect, the EPYC 9996's price tag does not seem particularly shocking, especially since the previous-generation EPYC 9965 (codenamed Turin) launched at nearly the same price, around $14,800.

As is typical for server processors, the total price increases as the number of cores rises. However, the price per core actually decreases substantially as you move up the core ladder. The pricing dynamic is very notable with Venice. For example, the flagship EPYC 9996, with a massive 256 cores, comes out to just $58.21 per core, whereas the "entry-level" SP7 chip, the 64-core EPYC 9556, costs around $125.12 per core. As a result, higher core-count models are more attractive from a per-core value perspective for data centers, cloud service providers, and enterprises.

AMD EPYC 9006 SP7 Specifications and Pricing

The SP7 SKUs support both 1P and 2P socket configurations. The latter, in particular, enables up to 512 Zen 6 cores in one system by pairing two EPYC 9996 chips on a single motherboard. That level of performance logically comes with a substantial investment, since the processors alone would cost $29,808 before factoring in the significant expense of memory today.

Among the nine SP7 SKUs, two models in particular stand out: the EPYC 9686F and EPYC 9586F. The "F" suffix means these chips feature maximum boost clock speeds, in this case, 5 GHz. While both are impressive in their own right, AMD optimized these parts to hit 5 GHz. Naturally, this level of optimization carries a price premium. For example, the 64-core EPYC 9586F costs almost as much as the 96-core EPYC 9656, despite offering 33% fewer cores. The trade-off is also apparent in the thermal envelope. The EPYC 9586F has a TDP that is 100W higher than the EPYC 9656.

AMD EPYC 9006 SP8 Specifications and Pricing

The SP8 platform is a more streamlined and cost-effective counterpart to the SP7 platform for the Venice family. It supports eight-channel memory and does not embrace MRDIMMs. However, the limitation balances out by expansion possibilities, as the SP8 platform offers 128 PCIe 6.0 lanes, 33% more than the SP7 platform. Additionally, the SP8 platform has a lower thermal footprint, as these Zen 6 parts carry TDP ratings between 130W and 400W.

The SP8 platform offers an accessible entry point for organizations, with the octa-core EPYC 9106 priced at just $700. At the other end of the spectrum, the EPYC 9746, which is the top SP8 SKU, offers 128 Zen 6 cores at $11,679.

With the SP8 platform, we also see Zen 6 models with the “P” suffix, which indicates support for single-socket systems only. These variants deliver the same performance as their standard counterparts but at a significantly lower price. For example, the 128-core EPYC 9736P is 6% less expensive than the EPYC 9736. In an even more dramatic case, the 32-core EPYC 9356P retails for 26% less than the EPYC 9356.

One of the more unusual Venice chips is the 16-core EPYC 9176F. Despite its modest core count, it features a massive 192MB of L3 cache, 4X that of the 16-core EPYC 9116, while costing more than 3X as much. This translates to 12MB of L3 cache per core. With its high cache capacity and 5 GHz boost clock, AMD likely designed the EPYC 9176F for organizations seeking to minimize licensing costs for software priced per core.

AMD’s SP7 and SP8 platforms are scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of this year and the first half of 2027, respectively. However, these Venice prices are not final, as AMD has stated that the list is subject to change. AMD will extend the lineup further later in 2027 with Venice-X chips, which use the company's 3D V-Cache stacking.

There's a brilliantly priced, 4K-capable gaming PC on sale right now at Newegg. The tech retailer has dropped the price on this CyberPowerPC rig to $1,999.99, giving you specs that include the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, along with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

This is a powerful rig for gaming, with the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor at its core. The 7800X3D isn't quite at the top of the CPU food chain these days, but AMD's 3D V-cache chips continue to massively outperform the competition. The 7800X3D itself ships with eight cores, and all eight are able to use the boosted 96MB of L3 cache capacity.

This means the CPU doesn't have to drop down to the slower system RAM while you game, giving you even better performance. Along with those eight cores, you also get a 4.2 GHz clock speed, which can boost up to 5 GHz.

The CPU benchmark data below confirms that the 7800X3D is still one of the best options for a gaming rig in 2026. These AMD X3D chips are first-rate, with that L3 cache boost giving you the edge. It's rare to find X3D chips in a gaming PC under $2,000 these days, with the RAMpocalypse continuing to push prices up across the board. There's no need to worry about any poor CPU performance here.

A formidable combination with the 7800X3D is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070. As our RTX 5070 review shows, this is a GPU that delivers on performance, although the price for the GPU itself continues to be a problem. In this rig, though, you're getting a good, mid-tier performer that continues to make our best GPU list as the best all-rounder Nvidia GPU for gamers from this current generation.

The RTX 5070 ships with specs that include 6,144 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR7 VRAM operating on a 192-bit memory bus. Gamers can expect performance that hits the highest frame rates at 1080p, even using high and ultra presets. 1440p is a match here, too, although the most demanding games might require a graphics tweak from time to time.

As for 4K, that's possible here, but you will probably need to take full advantage of Nvidia DLSS to get the best frame rates, including multi-frame generation. AI frames are controversial, but they will ensure you can pass the 4K resolution barrier with playable frame rates without paying the thousands extra for an RTX 5090. Along with the GPU and CPU, you're getting a 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD and 32GB of DDR5 RAM. There are no compromises here for price, which is nice to see.

Specs like this are rare to find in a PC for under $2,000, but this $1,999.99 CyberPowerPC gaming PC is a rare find in a market that is only pointing upwards in price. If you fancy a 4K-capable gaming PC that'll last you for the next few years, pick up this PC while you can.

Intel has published a patent to integrate MicroLEDs directly into a CPU package. Aside from communication functions, Intel lists many possible uses, including using multi-colored lights to light up the wording on a processor. The patent, filed in 2022 but only published earlier this month, describes embedding a MicroLED into the package by using a glass substrate and through-glass vias (TGV), connecting directly to a die for power and signal routing. The patent says the purpose of the LEDs is "either aesthetic components of the electronic device or to indicate certain operations being performed by the electronic device."

As is the case with any patents, the purpose of embedding MicroLEDs into a chip is left open-ended. However, Intel interestingly calls out implementing MicroLEDs into a CPU, specifically, and provides several examples of how the tech might be used. The patent says the processor "may operate the micro LEDs so that the micro LEDs visually indicate that certain functions are being performed by the processor or simply for aesthetic effects."

In one part of the patent, Intel describes the LEDs being used to "light up wording across a central processing unit," suggesting some sort of read-out available directly on the CPU. How that would work on a standard processor with a heatsink atop remains an open question. In addition, the patent explicitly calls out that the LEDs can be different colors depending on the implementation. That could mean something more akin to RGB memory than a diagnostic readout. The patent leaves room for both designs.

You can see the main drawing for the patent above. In the middle is the glass substrate, sandwiched between two layers of package substrate. A semiconductor die is partially embedded within the glass substrate, leaving just the back surface of the die exposed; however, the patent says the die can be fully embedded in other implementations. The LEDs are connected directly to the semiconductor die, or through nanowires, and TGVs deliver power and signal to the semiconductor die through the glass substrate.

Intel says it builds the package with two layers of silicon nitride, which are formed on the package substrate surface and then attached to the glass substrate. Intel has been working through glass substrates for over three years now, as Intel claims it has 10 times better interconnect density than organic substrates.

The main patent drawing only shows a single IC, though the patent notes that's simply shown "for clarity." A finished product implementing this technology "will have an array or arrays of micro LEDs on one or more IC packages." So, given an ambitious-enough design, Intel could implement multiple LED-based functions directly into the processor.

Patents aren't products, and that's always an important reminder. Intel filed this patent over four years ago, and it's just now being published. Whether we actually see MicroLEDs embedded in a processor remains an open question. However, Intel has laid the groundwork to do something like that in the future.

Thermal Grizzly and Noctua have teamed up to release a new version of the WireView Pro II GPU monitoring device. By combining Thermal Grizzly’s power monitoring hardware with Noctua’s expertise in low-noise cooling, the WireView Pro II Noctua Edition aims to offer quieter operation by reducing the noise generated by the device’s cooling fan.

According to Roman Hartung, CEO of Thermal Grizzly, the GPU monitoring device has become a popular choice and has helped many users detect potentially dangerous connector issues with the infamous 12V-2x6 connector before they could cause damage. The WireView Pro II measures current independently on each 12V conductor rather than simply monitoring total power consumption. This allows it to identify unusual current distribution and potential contact issues that could contribute to connector damage. The device can also provide visual and audible warnings when configured limits are exceeded, with an optional automatic shutdown function.

"One of the most common points of feedback, however, was that the fan could still be noticeable in very quiet systems, so working with Noctua on a significantly quieter cooling solution was the logical next step - and, for us, really completes the product," added Hartung. For the Noctua Edition, the standard cooling solution has been replaced with a customized design featuring a Noctua NF-A4x10 fan, an optimized fan grille, and an enlarged CNC-machined aluminum housing. The fan uses semi-passive operation, remaining off for longer periods and only spinning when additional cooling is required.

In a worst-case scenario with the case fans turned off and temperatures above 40°C, it could handle up to a 300W GPU load without turning its fan on. When it does need active cooling, its fan runs under 2,000 RPM compared to 5,000 RPM on the standard mode, which cuts down noise from 39.4dB(A) to just 21.5dB(A) at a 10cm distance. This should make it essentially inaudible alongside the other fans in a very quiet PC.

The WireView Pro II Noctua Edition is available in Normal and Reversed variants to accommodate different 12V-2x6 connector and cable-routing configurations, along with an extended two-year warranty covering the GPU connector. While the press note suggests a retail price of $189.90, it is currently selling at $222.18 on Thermal Grizzly’s official online store.

Nvidia officially rolled out DLSS 5 earlier this month, bringing its new Neural Rendering technology to supported games for RTX 50-series GPU owners. While early testing has shown improvements in image quality and rendering, the technology is very resource-intensive, resulting in significant drops in frame rate. That, however, has not stopped modders from experimenting with DLSS 5 and attempting to bring the technology to AMD Radeon GPUs.

A GitHub project called DLSS-NR-on-AMD, designed to run DLSS 5 Neural Rendering on AMD's Radeon RX 9000 and RX 7000 series GPUs, is already seeing a rapid improvement in performance. It uses a ground-up, full reimplementation of the neural network runtime for AMD GPU architectures. As per the developer, the project currently works with DirectX 12 games that use FSR, with Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA V Enhanced among the tested titles.

Testing done by YouTube channel Ancient Gameplays shows Cyberpunk 2077 running at over 80 FPS on a Radeon RX 9070 XT without DLSS 5 Neural Rendering. Enabling the unofficial implementation, however, caused performance to drop around 11-12 FPS. Not only is that unplayable, but it also highlights just how much optimization was still needed to make the technology practical on AMD hardware.

Development has been rather quick, as an Alpha 0.3.3 version was released with a claimed 23% performance improvement, followed shortly by Alpha 0.4.0, which reportedly added another 42% improvement over version 0.3.3. The changes essentially amount to roughly a 74% performance improvement in just 24 hours. The project has also become easier to install thanks to the AMDNR launcher that can automate much of the setup process, meaning that users no longer need to manually copy and replace DLL files for each game. The launcher also supports different runtimes and provides additional options through the OptiScaler interface.

Ancient Gameplays tested the latest Alpha 0.4.0 build in Cyberpunk 2077 at 3440 x 1440 resolution and found the Radeon GPU reaching around 50 FPS. That is a substantial improvement over the roughly 30 FPS achieved with the earlier build, although it remains well below the performance of the game without Neural Rendering enabled.

There is still a long way to go before DLSS 5 on AMD hardware can be considered a practical alternative to native implementation. The project remains in alpha, which means performance and compatibility can vary considerably depending on the game and GPU. That said, the developer has informed Ancient Gameplays that they are working on another major update, which should bring a substantial performance boost on Radeon GPUs.

The latest all-white board to land on our test bench is from ASRock. But this time, it’s more affordable than the updated X870E Taichi White we recently covered. The $230 X870E Challenger Wifi White offers a surprising number of features for the price.

Specs-wise, the Challenger comes handsomely equipped for almost any price point. Features include a basic audio codec, robust VRMs, and ample (and fast!) USB connectivity (including USB4 ports). You also get plenty of internal storage options, with four M.2 sockets (one PCIe 5.0) and two SATA ports, and fast networking with 5 GbE and Wi-Fi 7 (160MHz). Looking at other boards at this price, some don’t include USB4, offer slower 2.5 GbE, or provide weaker audio solutions. For $230, the Challenger is a great deal for an X870E-based board, though, like everything, it has drawbacks that we’ll cover below.

On the performance front, the X870E Challenger delivered average-to-below-average results across most tests, as we again had to use our secondary DDR5-6000 kit (the Kingston kit isn’t officially supported and didn’t work after enabling the XMP/DOCP profile). Still, we’re confident it would perform a bit better if you snag some RAM on the board’s QVL list that has tighter secondary and tertiary timings.

Below, we’ll examine the X870E Challenger White’s performance and other features, and see if it earns a spot on our list of the best motherboards. But before we share test results and discuss details, here are the specifications from the ASRock website:

Specifications of the ASRock X870E Challenger Wifi White

Inside the Box

The retail packaging includes a few accessories to help you get up and running. You get the standard Wi-Fi antennas, two white SATA cables (one with a 90-degree connector), an installation guide, and some stickers. It’s not a lot, but par for the course in this price bracket.

Design and Features of the ASRock X870E Challenger Wifi White

The X870E Challenger Wifi White is, as the name describes, all white. In fact, everything save for two light-gray fan headers is white, along with the onboard chips and screws that secure the M.2 heatsinks to the 8-layer, server-grade PCB. Oversized VRM heatsinks cover the top-left part of the board, with Challenger written across them.

The bottom part of the board has a DIY-friendly, toolless multi-layer heatsink for the primary M.2 socket, plus basic plate-style heatsinks with screws for the M.2 sockets and dual promontory chipset. Overall, it’s a no-frills board (no integrated RGB lighting, even), so it lacks some of the larger plate-style heatsinks and ‘EZ latch features found on more expensive boards. You’ll need an all-white build to take advantage of the all-white look, but it’s still one of the better-looking white boards, especially for its price.

Starting in the top left corner, we see two “high-density” 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) to power the processor. Surrounding those are the two “XL” heatsinks to cool the flagship-class power delivery below. To the right of the socket are four DRAM slots with locking mechanisms on both sides. ASRock lists support up to DDR5-8200, which is plenty for the platform. Our Kingston kit didn’t want to play nice with this board, which makes this the third ASRock board that doesn’t support our base test kit. As always, stick to the memory QVL list for assured support.

Above the DRAM slots are the first three (of seven) 4-pin fan headers. Each header supports PWM- or DC-controlled devices and can be tweaked through the BIOS or ASRock’s Windows-based software. The CPU_FAN1 header supports up to 1A/12W output, while the rest support up to 3A/36W each. You should have plenty of headers and enough power.

Shifting focust to the right corner and moving down, the next feature is the 4-LED POST Status Checker. There are LEDs for the CPU, Boot, VGA, and RAM. During the POST process, these light up and, if there is a problem, the offending area’s LED stays lit, giving you a general idea of where the issue is. It’s not quite as helpful as the 2-character debug display on higher-end boards, but is a lot better than nothing and typical on a lower-priced motherboard.

Continuing down the edge, we spy two (of three) 3-pin ARGB headers, just above the main 24-pin ATX power connector. ASRock’s Polychrome Sync application controls the attached RGBs, offering several canned light patterns and adjustments. Last but not least is the front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C connector. If there’s one thing that stands out on this board, it’s the number and speed of the USB ports — there are a lot, and ASRock didn’t skimp on speed.

Power delivery on the X870E Challenger is one of the most robust we’ve seen, especially for a $290 budget-class X870E motherboard. It comes with 23 total phases, 20 dedicated to Vcore. Power flows from the 8-pin EPS connectors to the Renesas RAA229628 20-phase PWM controller. From there, power heads to the more Renesas bits, this time the R2209004 110A SPS MOSFETs — a surprise to see on a board of this class. The 2,200A available will most certainly handle anything you throw at it. Flagship processors like the Ryzen 9 9950X or Ryzen 9 9950X3D2, overclocked even with extreme cooling methods, are also no problem.

On the bottom half of the board, we’ll start on the left where there’s a fully exposed audio solution that shows off the flagship Realtek ALC4082 codec, along with a couple of dedicated audio capacitors. While you won’t find a fancy integrated amplifier or DAC, this is the best codec for the platform and another pleasant surprise on such an inexpensive offering.

In the middle of the board are three PCIe slots. Two are full-length, and one is an open-ended x1-size slot. The top slot uses ASRock’s Reinforced Steel Slot, connects through the CPU, and is your PCIe 5.0 x16 slot (no bifurcation) for video cards. The second full-length slot at the bottom connects through the chipset and runs up to PCIe 3.0 x2, while the tiny x1 slot runs at PCIe 3.0 x1 speeds and also sources its bandwidth from the chipset. I’d like to see a PCIe 4.0 slot for extra bandwidth, but as-is it will easily support lower-bandwidth expansion needs.

Mixed among the PCIe slots, to the right of the chipset heatsink, sit four M.2 sockets. The top socket, under the large, tiered, DIY-friendly heatsink, is the one and only PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) “Blazing” M.2 socket (M.2_1). M.2_2/3, which both run at PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps), are under the plate-style heatsink that’s secured with three captive screws. M.2_4 runs vertically along the right edge of the board and also supports PCIe 4.0 x4 drives. The good news is that the M.2 drives don't share lanes. You can pack the motherboard full of them, and each will run at full bandwidth without degrading or disabling another part. If your system needs a RAID setup on M.2, the board supports RAID0/1/10 modes. I wish there were more DIY-friendly features, but at this price, something has to give to keep prices low.

Hidden under the M.2 heatsink, along the right edge, is a 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) header and the two SATA ports (supports RAID0/1 modes). Finally, we've included a few images of the board's active ICs. ASRock uses a mix of ASMedia (USB4), Realtek (audio, networking), and Renesas for the power bits.

At the bottom are several headers, including front-panel audio and USB ports. A complete list of connectivity is listed below (from L to R):

• Front panel audio
• 4-pin RGB
• 3-pin ARGB
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• (4) 4-pin fan headers
• 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 header
• 2-pin Clear CMOS jumper
• Power LED and Speaker
• Front panel

Flipping the board around to the rear IO, you can see it’s chock-full of colorful USB and other ports. On the left are Clear CMOS and BIOS Flashback buttons. Next to those are the Wi-Fi 7 (remember, it’s ‘only’ 160 MHz) antenna connections and the HDMI (v2.1) port. Next to that are stacks of colored USB ports. In total, there are 12: two USB 4 (40 Gbps) Type-C ports that double as video outputs; five USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), two of which are the Lightning USB ports (yellow, and designed to reduce latency by using different controllers). Three USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports (purple) support USB PD 3.0 charging up to 5V@3A (15W). Lastly, the two USB 2.0 ports are black. Above one of the Type-C ports is the Realtek 5 GbE, and finally, on the right end, is the audio stack with two 3.5mm analog jacks and SPDIF outputs.

If you’re an esports gamer where every millisecond counts, the lighting gaming ports could come in handy. Otherwise, the feature adds little value for the average user.

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Firmware

Like other X870E ASRock boards, the X870E Challenger starts in the informative Easy Mode, but it also lets you adjust several options (XMP, profiles, boot order, access to Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.). The Challenger White uses a grey background and black characters, closely matching the new Taichi’s theme. The high contrast also makes it easy to read. The standard BIOS displays headings across the top, with subheadings and details below.

You can tweak anything here, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is straightforward, with most options readily available. The layout is logical, and the mouse movement is smooth. We have no significant complaints about the ASRock firmware, but it could certainly use a facelift if it wants to keep up with recent Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI updates.

Software

ASRock offers several different software options. These include the App Shop, which lets users install drivers and software; the Nahimic 3 audio control panel; the A-Tuning application that lets you overclock and control fans; the Polychrome RGB software; and more. There’s also a Blazing OC Tuner, Motherboard Utility, and a convenient pop-up to install drivers when the system first boots. ASRock’s software gives users everything they need to manage and tweak their systems.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (23H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late September 2024 (this includes the Branch Prediction Optimizations for AMD). Hardware-wise, we’ve updated the RAM kits (matching our Intel test system), cooling, storage, and video card. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest publicly available non-beta motherboard BIOS. The hardware we used is as follows:

TEST SYSTEM COMPONENTS

Benchmark Settings

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Benchmark Results

We run our standard benchmarks and power tests using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo) with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. We set the Windows power scheme to Balanced (default) for this baseline testing, so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics offer a valuable way to evaluate a board's performance, as identical settings should yield similar results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are areas where motherboard manufacturers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and these settings can impact specific testing scenarios.

Starting with our synthetic benchmarks, the Challenger was average to below average in our tests, mostly due to the different timings in our secondary RAM kit. If we could run our primary kit, I’m confident performance would be closer to average across the board.

Timed Applications

Our timed applications told the same story. The board hit the slower of the two times in LAME and Corona, and was on the slower side of average in the Handbrake tests.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of Zen 5, we’ve updated our game tests. We’re keeping the F1 racing game but have upgraded to F1 24. We also dropped Far Cry 6 in favor of an even more popular game in Cyberpunk 2077. We run both games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). Cyberpunk 2077 uses DLSS, while we left F1 24 on native resolution scaling.

The goal of these settings is to determine whether performance differs at the most commonly used (and CPU/system-bound) resolution, with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS setting, which can affect your gameplay and immersion.

The Challenger did well in the synthetic 3DMark benchmarks, but was slower in games. Here again, we’re confident that if the secondary/tertiary memory timings were the same, results would be closer to average for Cyberpunk 2077 and perhaps higher for F1 24.

In short, there’s nothing to worry about regarding performance on this board.

Overclocking

Over the past few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has shrunk on both sides of the fence, while out-of-the-box potential has increased. For overclockers, that means less fun. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Today’s motherboards are more robust than ever and easily support power-hungry, flagship-class processors, so we know the hardware can handle them. There are multiple ways to extract even more performance from these processors: enabling a canned PBO setting, manually tweaking the PBO settings, or just going for an all-core overclock. Results will vary and depend on the cooling as well. In other words, your mileage may vary. Given all of the above, we will not overclock the CPU. However, we will test different memory kits to ensure they meet the specifications.

For memory testing, we start with our fastest non-clock driver kit: Klevv 32GB (2x16) DDR5-8000. Per usual on this platform, it booted to Windows but wouldn’t pass a stress test with our 9900X. The Team Group DDR5-7200 kit worked without issue. After dropping in the 8600G APU, that DDR5-8000 Klev kit worked just fine. These speeds are well past the ‘sweet spot’ for the AM5 platform, and with today’s RAM prices, few are buying such fast kits anyway. But it’s good to know the board can handle it.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, cache, and Memory enabled for power testing, using the processor's peak power consumption value. We obtained the wattage reading from the wall using a Kill-A-Watt meter, which captures the entire PC (excluding the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note that we now use only the stock power-use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure the power delivery can handle flagship-class processors.

Stress testing this board with our DDR5-7200 kit showed it using less power than most. At idle, it sat around 78W, below average, and it peaked at 265W, slightly above average. This averages out to 162W, about 10W better than the running 172W average among our tested boards.

VRM temperatures were quite good during our testing, peaking at just over 47 degrees Celsius on our sensor and 53 degrees on the hottest internal sensor. With 80A MOSFETs pushing ~150W loads, it’s a solid result with headroom left for a more powerful processor and/or overclocking.

Bottom Line

Overall, the ASRock X870E Challenger Wifi White ($289.99) is an excellent and well-rounded budget X870E board. From the overbuilt power delivery and flagship audio codec to the copious number and speed of the USB ports, there’s a lot to like here, including the all-white aesthetic that’s sure to look good in a white build. Just add RGBs for additional bling, if that’s your thing.

Compared to others around this price point, like the Gigabyte X870E Eagle Wifi7 ($239.99), MSI’s X870E Gaming Plus MAX Wifi ($287.99), and the Asus TUF Gaming X870E-Plus Wifi7 ($289.99 (Asus’ least expensive X870E), the Challenger Wifi offers a better audio codec, a more robust VRM solution, more USB ports, and all M.2 sockets have a heatsink, whereas the competitors do not. You can step down to X870, but you lose bandwidth and bring the potential for lane sharing among USB, PCIe, and M.2 sockets.

In the end, the ASRock X870E Challenger Wifi is one of the best-equipped AMD boards around its $290 price point. If you’re sad because it’s white, don’t fret, as the black X870E Challenger Wifi is the same price. If you’re in the market for a new motherboard or want to jump into the AM5 platform with lots of features but don't have the budget for a more mid-range board, the X870E Challenger Wifi fits the bill and is one of the best X870E motherboards around.

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A PC RAM maker has honored its guarantee promises despite the memory kit in question’s price rising eightfold since it was bought. This is news in 2026, as we’ve heard of so many companies dealing with AI-inflated component pricing refusing to replace items, instead refunding the original purchasing price despite the products now being worth many multiples of the original price. These glad tidings come via Redditor Double-South8863, who says their $150 G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 64GB DDR5-6000 RAM kit, now priced at $1,200 on Amazon, was back at full capacity after the company replaced the stick. They received the replacement within two weeks.

“I will never buy any RAM other than G.Skill for as long as I live,” pledged Double-South8863 on Reddit. They informed their fellow social media posters that one of the 64GB RAM kit’s sticks died at the beginning of September. After some A/B testing, they were sure one of the 32GB sticks was dead.

On September 8, about a week after the issue first reared its head, Double-South8863 decided to start an RMA process and get the dud G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB 32GB DDR5-6000 stick replaced. They remember buying this highly desirable RAM kit online in May 2025 for the princely sum of $150. Now it is worth a king’s ransom at $1,200 on Amazon, and price tracker sites show it's even been as high as $1,300.

Perhaps the Redditor was aware of the reports of companies and their dastardly deeds regarding RMAs, as they are active on the PCMR subreddit. However, they optimistically went ahead and completed the RMA paperwork, then received instructions, including a shipping address to initiate the warranty exchange. Double-South8863 says they mailed the misbehaving memory module back to G.Skill on September 15. The Redditor’s post celebrating G.Skill’s customer service, proclaiming that they were now a “customer for life,” was published on September 26.

If you check the G.Skill site, you will note that this RAM-first firm still offers a limited lifetime warranty on all its popular RAM kits. Please note that, according to the official terms, this lifetime warranty “automatically terminates upon discontinuation or end-of-life ("EOL") designation of that specific model by G.Skill.” That means you shouldn't expect to swap out a faulty DDR5 module for a replacement for the whole of your natural life.

PC enthusiasts and DIYers are having a hard time right now as several key components required for performance builds are at all-time-high pricing. Meanwhile, those with a working setup pray that nothing will go wrong with the precious equipment they already have. Sadly, things do break, some components more than others. However, warranty obligations seem to have come under increased strain in recent months as consumer product scarcity means component makers can’t or won’t follow RMA norms that had been established for decades. Some of the worst cases we’ve seen involve PCs and component makers trying to refund the original (low) prices paid, substituting failed parts with non-equivalent parts, or even worse.

PlusAI, an autonomous trucking startup, is working with Nvidia to develop its systems and has several trucks and trailers marked with the logos of both companies. This likely caught the attention of thieves who were looking to score big on AI GPUs, with Wired reporting that two of the startup’s trailers got stolen and were found at another location. However, the joke’s on the criminals, as they discovered that the two stolen units contained 20,000 pounds of sand each.

The AI data center construction boom has made PC components like RAM and GPUs insanely expensive, which has led to a rise in petty theft involving these components. Enterprises and startups are being targeted, too, especially as they build data centers and local AI servers with millions of dollars’ worth of equipment and hardware. We’ve already seen cargo heists of copper cable and other hardware worth $1.3 million, while other criminals have become more brazen, pushing or spinning security escorts off the road so they can get away with a truck’s worth of AI GPUs.

While PlusAI is partnered with Nvidia, it also uses simulated cargo loads for real-world tests, allowing the company to model how a fully loaded semi-trailer would react to various road conditions. The startup’s truck cabs, which likely had advanced AI hardware installed, were parked securely inside its warehouse, while the trailers were apparently left outside and secured with hand locks. “PlusAI uses simulated loads in its trailers to assist with research and development testing,” company spokesperson Lauren Kwan told Wired, adding that they were recovered with “40,000 pounds of sand intact.”

Interestingly, the discovery of the theft was accidentally made by one of the startup’s top executives, who received a message from an acquaintance saying that they saw the trailers, which they described as “trucks,” near their workplace. This likely got the executive concerned, as that location was half a mile away from PlusAI’s warehouse, which led to the cops getting called. As for the prospective criminals, they probably left the crime scene disappointed — they thought they were getting a huge payday from two truckloads’ worth of smart silicon, but they ended up with 20 tons of dumb sand instead.

Gigabyte Technology hardly needs an introduction to anyone who has built a PC in the last three decades. Founded in Taipei in 1986, the company grew into one of the largest motherboard and graphics card manufacturers in the world, and its AORUS brand has become a fixture of the enthusiast market. Power supplies are a comparatively recent and more modest part of its business. Like nearly every PC brand, Gigabyte does not manufacture its own PSUs. Instead, it sources platforms from established OEMs and sells them under its UD, P-series and AORUS lines. The results have been uneven over the years, with some very good units and a few that left a lot to be desired, so the OEM and the target audience behind each model matters more than the badge on the box.

The Gaming GM PG5 series is Gigabyte's newest attempt to cover the upper mainstream, and the 1000W model in review today is something of a spiritual successor to the popular UD1000GM PG5. We look closer to determine how it ranks among our best power supplies list. It is built by HEC, a long-established Taiwanese OEM. It is fully compliant with the ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 design guides and comes with a native 12V-2x6 connector, a 135 mm fluid dynamic bearing fan, and (according to Gigabyte) 100% Japanese capacitors.

The headline feature, though, is T-Guard, a thermal monitoring system for the 12V-2x6 connector that can cut power to the graphics card if the connector starts overheating. The T-Guard signifies Gigabyte’s proposed solution to the known PCIe 5.1 connector overheating problem that almost every manufacturer has been trying to implement a defense against. Curiously, Gigabyte markets the unit with 80 PLUS Gold logos, even though it has received Platinum certifications from both CLEAResult (80 PLUS) and Cybenetics. It is also available in white as the 1000GM PG5 ICE, comes with a ten-year warranty, and retails for $170 at the time of this review.

Specifications and Design

In the Box

The Gaming 1000GM PG5 arrives in a black and orange cardboard box with a large render of the unit on the front, next to the model name and a bold orange "1000W" print. A row of small icons along the bottom highlights the ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 compatibility, the fully modular design, the Japanese capacitors, the smart fan, and T-Guard, while an 80 PLUS Gold badge sits at the top right corner. It is a flashy, gaming-oriented design, which is fitting given the name of the series.

The bundle is very basic. Other than the unit itself, we only found the AC power cord, four black cable ties, and a multilingual user manual. There are no Velcro straps and no cable combs. Strangely, there were not even mounting screws in our sample's box. For a $170 1000W unit, that is on the stingy side of things, although it hardly matters for the actual quality of the product, and most builders probably already have a drawer full of these things.

All of the cables are modular, including the 24-pin ATX cable. Gigabyte went with black, flat "embossed" cables, where every wire is individually insulated, but the wires are bound together into a ribbon. They are flexible and easy to route, and they look considerably better than plain flat cables. The single native 12V-2x6 cable has a dual-color connector, with a light grey front section that makes a partially seated plug easy to spot, and it is rated for 600W.

External Appearance

The chassis of the Gaming 1000GM PG5 measures 150 x 150 x 86 mm (L x W x H), which are slightly larger than the typical dimensions of a standard ATX unit. Still, at 150 mm long, it will fit in virtually every ATX case, although the length means that very compact builds may be a little tight once the modular cables are installed. The design is more elaborate than most PSUs in this price range. The upper part of the chassis is finished in a dark metallic gunmetal grey, while the lower part and the front and rear faces are matte black.

The sides carry a large embossed "GAMING" logo along with the Gigabyte name and the wattage, and the fan grille is a perforated octagonal area with the Gaming series logo at its center, with four exposed screws at the corners. The specifications sticker is placed on the side opposite the fan.

The rear face of the unit is almost entirely perforated with a honeycomb pattern, and there are only the on/off switch and the AC receptacle. There is no switch to control the semi-passive fan mode. It is always active. The modular panel on the front is clean and clearly labelled, with four sockets for the CPU and PCIe cables, three sockets for the peripheral and SATA cables, the 24-pin motherboard sockets and the non-standard 12V-2x6 cable socket, which is placed separately at the bottom left corner.

T-Guard is the major update over the UD1000GM PG5, and a feature Gigabyte clearly is relying on to market the unit. According to Gigabyte, precision thermistors monitor the temperature of the 12V-2x6 connector in real time, and if an abnormal temperature rise is detected, the system cuts power to the graphics card while keeping the rest of the system running. If the CPU has integrated graphics and the monitor is connected to the motherboard, the user can continue working and save any progress before shutting down, and a reboot is required to restore power to the GPU.

The UD1000GM PG5 had nothing similar. It relied solely on the typical protection features of every PSU, which do nothing against a single overheating connector, as current is spread across many pins and the total draw never approaches the OCP limit. Monitoring the temperature directly addresses the actual failure mode behind the melting connectors that have plagued high-end graphics cards over the past few years, and it is a lot more meaningful than yet another marketing badge. The concept is sound and, as a concept, it should work, unless the temperature increase on the connector is very abrupt and the position of the sensor does not allow it to react in time.

Internal Design

The cooling fan is a Hong Hua HA13525H12SF-Z, a 135 mm fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) fan rated at 0.50A. Hong Hua fans are very common inside mainstream PSUs, are reliable, and should easily last through the ten-year warranty. The larger 135 mm diameter allows the fan to move the same amount of air at lower speeds than a 120 mm fan, which pays off in the acoustics department and probably the main reason why the designer chose to push the chassis to 150 mm, as the 135 mm fan does not fit in a 140 mm chassis. A clear plastic sheet under the fan guides the airflow across the heatsinks.

The OEM behind the Gaming 1000GM PG5 is HEC, a manufacturer that has been producing power supplies for decades and has built units for many renowned brands. The platform is modern, with good-sized two-prong heatsinks for the active components, and a clean, well-spaced layout that helps with airflow. The transient filtering stage starts on a small PCB right behind the AC receptacle and continues on the main board, with four Y capacitors, three X capacitors, two filtering inductors, and a MOV, which is more than a complete filter for a unit of this class. An NTC thermistor and a bypass relay provide inrush current protection. There are two bridge rectifiers, mounted on their own relatively large dedicated heatsink.

The APFC stage uses three CRJW125N60G2F MOSFETs and a boost diode. The coil is fully enclosed and the bulk capacitor is a single 680 μF / 400 V unit from Toshin Kogyo (TK), a respected Japanese manufacturer, rated for 105 °C. The primary inversion stage consists of two NCE 65TF099F MOSFETs on a dedicated heatsink, forming a half-bridge LLC resonant topology. It is a simple, mature, and efficient arrangement that is found in the majority of high performance units today.

On the secondary side, the 12V rail is generated by six unidentifiable MOSFETs in a synchronous rectification arrangement. The 3.3V and 5V rails are generated by DC-to-DC converters on a vertical daughterboard. Gigabyte's claim of 100% Japanese capacitors is accurate. All of the electrolytic and polymer capacitors on the secondary side are supplied by TK as well, which is a welcome sight in a $170 unit, and it is excellent news for its long-term reliability.

Cold Test Results (25°C Ambient)

Cold Test Results (25°C Ambient)

For the testing of PSUs, we are using high-precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high-precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox, and various other bits and parts.

At 25 °C ambient, the Gaming 1000GM PG5 performs much better than the Gold logo on its box suggests. It averaged 92.6% at 230 VAC and 90.6% at 115 VAC across the nominal load range, peaking at 93.8% (230 VAC) at about 50% load and 92% (115 VAC) at about 30% load. Even at a sustained 1000W, efficiency was 91.0% and 88.5%, respectively. This is Platinum-level performance, and it is consistent with both certifications the unit actually holds: 80 PLUS Platinum from CLEAResult and ETA Platinum from Cybenetics. Why Gigabyte chose to market it as a Gold unit is anyone's guess.

The thermal and acoustic performance balance is impressive. The fan remains completely stopped up to about 30% load (roughly 300W), which covers most desktop work. Once it starts spinning, it barely gets audible up to 500W, where it reaches about 33 dB(A). From there it ramps up gradually, reaching 36.4 dB(A) at 600W and about 41 dB(A) at 800W, before climbing to 48.2 dB(A) at a sustained 1000W. That last figure is loud, but it is hardly a load most systems will continuously sustain. Thermally, the unit maintains very low and safe operating temperatures.

Hot Test Results (~45°C Ambient)

Hot Test Results (~45°C Ambient)

Inside our hotbox, at roughly 45 °C ambient, efficiency drops by just 0.8%, averaging 91.8% at 230 VAC and 89.8% at 115 VAC, with full load figures of 89.9% and 87.4% respectively. That is a very small degradation for a 20 °C increase in ambient temperature, which is a testament to the quality of the components and their resilience to adverse operating conditions.

The fan is a slightly different story. It still stays off up to about 300W, but it starts at a higher speed and ramps up much faster, reaching 38.3 dB(A) at 500W and 47.2 dB(A) at 800W. At a sustained 1000W, the fan climbs to 54.5 dB(A), practically the maximum, as the fan reaches its top speed, which is very loud and very noticeable in any system. In return, the internal temperatures stay very low, with the primary and secondary heatsinks reaching just 88°C and 82°C respectively at full load. These are high figures, but they are reasonable for a unit operating at its maximum output in a 45°C environment, and the unit’s components are very capable of handling them. Gigabyte clearly favored longevity over everything else.

PSU Quality and Bottom Line

Power Supply Quality

Voltage regulation is good on the minor rails and average on the 12V rail. Across the 20% to 100% load span, the 3.3V and 5V rails moved by just 0.5%, which is exceptional. The 12V rail regulation is 1.3% - not a class leading figure, but not a bad result either. The ripple suppression is very good. The 12V rail peaked at 48 mV at full load, while the 3.3V and 5V rails did not exceed 26 mV under any condition. Against the 120 mV and 50 mV ATX design limits, that is 60% headroom on the 12V rail and 48% on the minor rails. Several premium platforms can do better, but these figures are far from unacceptable on a mainstream PSU.

During our thorough assessment, we evaluate the essential protection features of every power supply unit we review, including Over Current Protection (OCP), Over Voltage Protection (OVP), Over Power Protection (OPP), and Short Circuit Protection (SCP).

All protection mechanisms were verified and triggered correctly during testing. With the unit hot, OCP tripped at 136% (27.2A) on both the 3.3V and 5V rails, and at 120% (100A) on the 12V rail, while OPP shut the unit down at 116% of its rated output, or about 1160W. These are tight thresholds for a 1000W unit, yet not too tight, as expected from an ATX 3.1 compliant unit.

Bottom Line

The Gigabyte Gaming 1000GM PG5 is a well-rounded power supply, and one that Gigabyte seems to undersell. The HEC platform is modern and well designed, the component selection includes Japanese capacitors all around, which is a welcome sight at this price point, and the unit is fully compliant with the latest ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 design guides. It is evident that Gigabyte favored longevity and reliability over squeezing out every last bit of electrical performance, and for a mainstream 1000W unit, that is a very reasonable priority.

T-Guard deserves a special mention, as it is the major update over the UD1000GM PG5 and the reason most people will notice this unit. It is Gigabyte's answer to the known 12V-2x6 connector overheating problem, which almost every manufacturer is currently trying to find a defense against. By monitoring the connector temperature and cutting power to the GPU if something goes wrong, while keeping the rest of the system alive, it targets the actual failure mode instead of relying on protections that were never designed for it. As a concept, it should work, unless the temperature rise is very abrupt and the position of the sensor does not allow it to react in time. Even so, for anyone planning to run a power hungry graphics card, it is a reassuring addition.

Efficiency is where the unit shines. It is Platinum-level efficient, as confirmed by our testing and both the 80 PLUS and Cybenetics certifications, which makes Gigabyte's decision to market it with Gold logos rather strange. The rest of the electrical performance is average for its class, with good minor rail regulation, a decent 1.3% on the 12V rail, and ripple that is comfortably within the ATX limits, if not remarkable. The balance between temperatures and noise is very good. At room temperature, the fan is barely audible up to 500W, and the internal temperatures remain low and safe, even inside our hotbox, where efficiency barely degraded.

The compromises are few. The fan gets very loud under sustained heavy loads in hot environments, practically reaching its top speed at full load, and the bundle is bare, lacking even mounting screws. The 150 mm long chassis, a consequence of the 135 mm fan, may also be a little tight in very compact cases. None of these are serious issues, as the vast majority of gaming systems will rarely push the unit hard enough for the fan to become a nuisance.

With a price tag of $170 at the time of this review and a ten-year warranty, the Gaming 1000GM PG5 represents good value, but it does not stand out across the board. Against other 1000W units in the same price range, such as the Corsair RM1000x, the MSI MAG A1000GL PCIE5 and the Montech Century II 1050W, it provides average all-around electrical performance, so buyers should not expect a noticeable difference in regulation or ripple. Where it pulls ahead is efficiency, as its Platinum-level figures are great for the class, and it also offers a good balance between temperatures and noise, with all-Japanese capacitors and T-Guard as extra reasons to pick it. For a gaming system built around a demanding graphics card, especially one with a 12V-2x6 connector, that combination makes the Gaming 1000GM PG5 a very sensible 1000W choice, even if it is not a clear winner in every category.

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The good news is that Sandisk is still putting out SSDs for consumers, and these are not just cheap replacements. The Optimus GX Pro 850P is a bona fide high-end Gen 4 SSD that puts Sandisk’s name on the WD Black SN850X’s legendary design. This means DRAM, TLC flash, and good performance for any role.

Like the Black SN850P, which is a Black SN850X made with a heatsink and for the PS5, the 850P is made for the console. Its heatsink is excellent, and it would fit right into your desktop PC, too. We wouldn’t recommend shucking it for use in a laptop, but theoretically it could work there as well. Our main concern would be the pricing, which is a bit steep – this is a nice drive, but you’ll pay a premium for it.

Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 850P Specifications

The Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 850P is available at the same capacities as its WD Black SN850P forebear: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB. This also matches the original WD Black SN850X and its later 8TB SKU. Prices at the time of review for the Optimus GX Pro 850P are $309.99, $609.99, $1,139.99, and $2,249.99. These prices are well above the $234.99, $494.99, and $1,019.00 that the Black SN850P is currently demanding. We think the prices will come down on the Sandisk drive, but be aware of the comparable alternatives when making a purchase.

The drive can reach up to 7,300 / 6,600 MB/s for sequential reads and writes and up to 1.2 million random read/write IOPS. This performance is at the top for a Gen 4 drive and, frankly, is capable of delivering an excellent experience even for heavier workloads. The drive’s warranty is standard at five years with 600TB of writes for every TB of capacity. The Optimus GX Pro 850P supports data-at-rest encryption through TCG Opal v2.01, but this is not explicitly listed for the SN850P, likely as this model is designed for use in the PS5.

Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 850P Software and Accessories

Sandisk fully supports its drives with downloadable software. For the Optimus GX Pro 850P this includes the Sandisk Dashboard, which is Sandisk’s version of WD’s Dashboard, and Acronis True Image for Sandisk. The former is an SSD toolbox with all of the expected features: drive health and SMART monitoring, firmware updating, performance testing, etc. Acronis True Image is OEM-licensed software used for backing up files and imaging drives.

Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 850P: A Closer Look

The Optimus GX Pro 850P is designed to specifically fit into the PS5 with an effective heatsink. The bare drive underneath is single-sided at 1TB and 2TB but double-sided at 4TB and 8TB. For that reason, the rated height is larger for the latter two SKUs. In general, this should not be an issue for fit in desktop PCs. The heatsink itself is finned for extra surface area for better heat dissipation and should keep the drive cool even under harsh conditions. It does not have RGB, unlike the WD Black SN850’s heatsinked SKU.

The drive label gives some additional information, such as a rating for 3.3V / 2.8A. This is ~9W, which matches the drive’s highest reported power state. This is certainly higher than the ~5W we see for many DRAM-less drives, which have half the flash channels on top of not having DRAM to worry about, but it is not enough to be a problem with this heatsink.

The Optimus GX Pro 850P has a relatively standard SSD layout with an SSD controller, a DRAM module, power management circuitry, and two NAND flash packages. The larger, double-sided versions of the drive will have more NAND flash packages, with two additional packages on the back. We’ve covered the controller and its iterations in the past. The DRAM, for what it’s worth, is DDR4, which is serviceable for the role volatile memory plays on an SSD: mostly as a metadata cache. The one caveat here is that our 2TB drive only has 1GB of DRAM, which is one-half the usual and likewise one-half of what we had on our 2TB WD Black SN850X sample. In practice, this should have no impact on intended workload performance and could potentially reduce cost a small amount.

The flash is potentially more interesting, as it could be the expected BiCS5, or it could have been updated. The 8TB WD Black SN850X uses BiCS6, and it can make sense to cycle in newer flash later on in a product’s lifetime. The Optimus GX Pro 850P is essentially in that line. What we can say for sure is that the flash on here was manufactured more recently than the flash on the Black SN850X samples we’ve reviewed at both capacities – newer in production date, not necessarily in generation – but the performance is close enough that there would be little perceptible difference even if it were generationally different. This drive is at the edge of what you can get out of this controller technology and Sandisk could also choose to tune it specifically for this performance range, so at the end of the day one could say this is, effectively, equivalent to the WD Black SN850X with BiCS5 TLC flash.

We believe our sample is still using BiCS5 anyway – the coding’s sixth character “C” implies that – but that statement applies to any potential BiCS6 swap. In this case, moving to newer BiCS5 means a higher I/O rate, 1,200 MT/s to 1,600 MT/s. The former is plenty to saturate a PCIe 4.0 link with an eight-channel controller like the 850P’s, but putting in newer flash makes sense from a supply perspective. Higher MT/s flash can have lower latency and potentially better power efficiency when run at a lower MT/s, but we don’t believe either is a motivation here. Real-world impacts are, again, minimal, with minor exceptions that might not exist if we were comparing to a current Black SN850X.

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Comparison Products

The Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 850P is Sandisk’s take on the WD Black SN850P, which in turn is a PS5 version of the Black SN850X, so we have to compare it to that latter drive. The stiffest proprietary competition is from Samsung with the 990 Pro. Alternatives with DRAM but different hardware include the Crucial T500, the Adata Legend 960 Max, the TeamGroup G70 Pro, and the Inland Gaming Performance Plus. To keep things honest, we also want to compare faster DRAM-less drives that have historically been great for the PS5. These include the Addlink A93 (4TB) and the WD Black SN7100.

Trace Testing — 3DMark Storage Benchmark

Built for gamers, 3DMark’s Storage Benchmark focuses on real-world gaming performance. Each round in this benchmark stresses storage based on gaming activities including loading games, saving progress, installing game files, and recording gameplay video streams. Future gaming benchmarks will be DirectStorage-inclusive and an evaluation for future-proofing is included where applicable.

Is the 850P a good game drive? In our estimation, yes. It beats the original Black SN850X, due in part to firmware maturity and/or the newer BiCS5 – we would expect these two to be comparable if the Black is or has been updated – and it is also faster than popular DRAM-less options like the A93. In general, we think going with something DRAM-less, like the A93, is a good way to save some money if you’re buying an SSD just to host games. This approach extends even to the Black SN7100, which struggles on this list against the largely DRAM-equipped competition, as it still scores pretty well. We consider 45µs or better to be excellent for load times.

Trace Testing — PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark

PCMark 10 is an industry standard trace-based benchmark that uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and everyday tasks to measure the performance of storage devices. The results are particularly useful when analyzing drives for their use as primary/boot storage devices and in work environments.

For general application use, we are a little more disappointed. The 850P ends up in the middle of the pack, although its results are still quite good. This will beat most DRAM-less drives, although it falls behind the Black SN7100, as that drive uses very responsive BiCS8 flash. This makes it clear that the 850P is using older BiCS flash, which doesn’t have the same latency edge. This isn’t the worst trade-off if you’re looking for a full-fledged SSD with eight flash channels and DRAM – this drive will sustain better over time and through heavier workloads. Again, anything at or below 45µs for latency is good in our book, so this would be perfectly suitable as an OS drive.

Console Testing — PlayStation 5 Transfers

The PlayStation 5 is capable of taking one additional PCIe 4.0 or faster SSD for extra game storage. While any 4.0 drive will technically work, Sony recommends drives that can deliver at least 5,500 MB/s of sequential read bandwidth for optimal performance. Based on our extensive testing, PCIe 5.0 SSDs don’t bring much to the table and generally shouldn’t be used in the PS5, especially as they may require additional cooling. Check our Best PS5 SSDs article for more information.

Our testing utilizes the PS5’s internal storage test and manual read/write tests with over 192GB of data both from and to the internal storage. Throttling is prevented where possible to see how each drive operates under ideal conditions. While game load times should not deviate much from drive to drive, our results can indicate which drives may be more responsive in long-term use.

The 850P should be, by most accounts, the definitive PS5 SSD. We’ve had the Black SN850X as our best SSD for the PS5 for quite a long time, although the SN850P is the PS5-specific model. The Black SN850X simply delivers a similar experience to the SN850P at a lower price point. Why is this the best SSD for the platform? Well, you get top-tier Gen 4 performance with reliability and an excellent heatsink. All of this still applies to Sandisk’s 850P.

Now, a DRAM-less alternative with half the flash channels – which means it runs cooler – like the A93 seems to be more sensible. It’s less expensive, and the PS5 doesn’t benefit from more performance than it provides. The argument here is therefore more on reliability and, possibly, consistency. The 850P can manage more flash at once – which actually is ideal for larger capacities, including 2TB for this generation – and it also has DRAM.

Many enthusiasts still want DRAM as it can improve performance and endurance. Keep in mind that our A93 sample is the 4TB model, which its controller can address thanks to a revision made for that purpose. A four-channel drive is still at its best with up to four dies per channel, or 16 in total, which works out to 2TB with 1Tb dies. Going past that doesn’t really deliver more performance, and having an eight-channel controller is preferable at higher capacities. A stronger argument would be this: the 850P is a quality, mature product that could act as an investment. Considering that a 2TB Black SN850X bought at its lowest price beats the stock market right now, that’s not as crazy as it once sounded.

Our take is that, for a PS5, you really can get anything. If you’re set on a quality drive, though, this one is basically as good as it gets. You’re here for the numbers, though, and it only wins in transfers to the drive, and not by much. That’s valid, but with more wear and a fuller drive, it is more likely to maintain peak performance for longer. So, don’t buy this drive for faster game load times or FPS, because you won’t get that here.

Transfer Rates — DiskBench

We use the DiskBench storage benchmarking tool to test file transfer performance with a custom 50GB dataset. We write 31,227 files of various types, such as pictures, PDFs, and videos to the test drive, then make a copy of that data to a new folder, and follow up with a reading test of a newly written 6.5GB zip file. This is a real-world type workload that fits into the cache of most drives.

Our DiskBench test gives a good measure of real-world performance with a mixed file load, with Gen 4 expectations around 2 GB/s for copies and writes and 4 GB/s for reads. Writes are going to be slower than reads and can help cap copy performance. The 850P does nothing unusual here, coming in at numbers close to these. We tend to put the most weight on copy performance and, here, the 850P manages to come in second behind only the T500. This makes sense as the T500 has newer flash with more planes, which helps it eke out more bandwidth. The Black SN7100 also has newer flash, specifically a newer form of BiCS, which keeps it competitive. Still, the 850P impressively beats the Black SN850X by a significant amount – perhaps due to firmware maturity and/or newer BiCS5 – and the 990 Pro as well.

This is an important result because most of what people use storage for ultimately comes down to transfers like these. Files between drives. Backups. Updating software. You’re not going to have a lot of transfers going on at once with a high queue depth, and if you’re working with smaller files, you are not going to get near the theoretical throughput. So, the 850P certainly earns the mantle of being a high-end Gen 4 drive. On the other hand, even the DRAM-less A93 is not that much slower. If you’re someone who does a lot of transfers, the added time could add up, though.

Synthetic Testing — ATTO / CrystalDiskMark

ATTO and CrystalDiskMark (CDM) are free and easy-to-use storage benchmarking tools that SSD vendors commonly use to assign performance specifications to their products. Both of these tools give us insight into how each device handles different file sizes and at different queue depths for both sequential and random workloads.

The 850P performs very closely to the Black SN850X in ATTO, as expected. We see no real anomalies here. The drive is very consistent, which makes for a reliable user experience regardless of workload type. It is easy to notice, however, that the 850P and Black SN850X have weaker performance between the 512B and 2KiB block sizes, closer to the Legend 960 Max and WD Black SN7100. We would chalk this up to the controller technology for the WD and Sandisk drives – they all use proprietary ones with the same foundation – with the Legend 960 Max being the singular SMI-based drive.

We’ve found historically that drives may show up weaker here in ATTO as indicative of a trade-off. This is because, generally, we think in terms of 4KiB – a typical cluster and sector size that is used for performance metrics everywhere – which is a logical page downstream from the 16KiB physical pages that modern flash uses. Handling smaller reads/writes could increase memory load and can increase latency. However, focusing on 4KiB and larger block sizes makes more sense for a variety of workloads, and performance is not the only factor. A manufacturer also has to consider power consumption and wear, for example. So there may be good design reasons for this behavior.

If we move on to CDM to see performance at 4KiB, at a typical queue depth of 1, the 850P is average with reads and on top with writes. Anything at or below 45µs for reads is pretty good, and the drive competes well. The SN7100 is in a class of its own with its BiCS8 flash. For writes, which are often less important, we see strong numbers from most drives. The DRAM-less A93, the SMI-based Legend 960 Max, and the proprietary 990 Pro are on the weaker end. Generally speaking, this does not indicate a problem with the drive at this level and could be a facet of the controller, the flash, or both, often also as a trade-off. What we can say is that the 850P is stellar here, which certainly makes it more attractive for use in a NAS, for caching, and for workloads that are not found in the PS5. That’s not a knock – it simply illustrates the drive’s heritage and underlines that this drive could be good anywhere.

Sustained Write Performance and Cache Recovery

Official write specifications are only part of the performance picture. Most SSDs implement a write cache, which is a fast area of pseudo-SLC (single-bit) programmed flash that absorbs incoming data. Sustained write speeds can suffer tremendously once the workload spills outside of the cache and into the "native" TLC (three-bit) or QLC (four-bit) flash. Performance can suffer even more if the drive is forced to fold, the process of migrating data out of the cache in order to free up space for further incoming data.

We use Iometer to hammer the SSD with sequential writes for 15 minutes to measure both the size of the write cache and performance after the cache is saturated. We also monitor cache recovery via multiple idle rounds. This process shows the performance of the drive in various states including the steady state write performance.

We’ll start with the 850P’s fastest mode in the cache: over 6.46 GB/s for just over 92 seconds. This is a 595GB cache, more or less exactly matching the Black SN850X. A drive with 3-bit TLC cache can handle up to one-third its actual size, so this is smaller than what’s possible but still large in the grand scheme of things. It’s more than suitably large to cache even large file writes, which means it can be used for things outside of gaming. This is reinforced by the post-cache speed, where it’s writing to the native TLC flash at a respectable 1.6 GB/s. This doesn’t sound like much given the speed of drives today, but it would be at or above the best Gen 3 drives in this mode while generally having a larger and faster cache.

Samsung’s 990 Pro is in the same boat, providing consistent performance outside the cache but looking slow compared to the steady state speeds we see with other drives. In part, this is due to the flash being used on it, as well as the WD/Sandisk drives. Newer flash has more planes and lower latency, both of which can boost throughput. Some drives, like the Inland Gaming Performance Plus, alternatively have smaller caches, which allow the drive to maintain higher sustained speeds. The same goes for the Legend 960 Max. Speed is also not everything, as not all drives write as smoothly in their post-cache modes. Maintaining responsiveness can help a drive feel spunkier when it hits this slower state.

If we take all of this into consideration, the 850P actually has some interesting applications. You could use this as a NAS drive, for example. Generally, we think the Inland Gaming Performance Plus – or the updated Performance Plus – would be better, as a super large cache leans more towards everyday consumer workloads. However, the 850P is steady enough with still sufficient speed. It would probably provide a better experience than the T500, especially as it has twice the flash channels, so it can manage better at high capacity. So, yes, this is a PS5 drive, but its heatsink and performance profile are such that you could use it as a workhorse drive as well.

Power Consumption and Temperature

We use the Quarch HD Programmable Power Module to gain a deeper understanding of power characteristics. Idle power consumption is an important aspect to consider, especially if you're looking for a laptop upgrade, as even the best ultrabooks can have mediocre stock storage in terms of capacity and performance. Desktops are often more performance-oriented with less support for power-saving features, so we show the worst-case for idle.

Some SSDs can consume watts of power at idle while better-suited ones sip just milliwatts. Average workload power consumption and max consumption are two other aspects of power consumption, but performance-per-watt, or efficiency, is more important. A drive might consume more power during any given workload, but accomplishing a task faster allows the drive to drop into an idle state more quickly, ultimately saving energy.

For temperature recording, we currently poll the drive’s primary composite sensor during testing with a ~22°C ambient. Our testing is rigorous enough to heat the drive to a realistic ceiling temperature, but real-world temperatures will vary due to the environment and workload factors.

The 850P has a heatsink, so it’s not going into a laptop, and concerns about power consumption are a little less important. The presence of the heatsink also helps keep the drive cool, so throttling is also not a big concern. Still, you could choose to remove the heatsink, and maybe you want to toss this into a small form factor media machine. In those cases, the 850P’s efficiency – which lands in the lower half of the pack – is sufficient but not great. It’s better than the SM2264-based Legend 960 Max and E18-based Gaming Performance Plus, which are good baselines, but falls behind newer drives and technology.

Our feeling here is that a high-end Gen 4 drive should get at least 400 MB/s per watt, which is generally the case. DRAM-less options can target much higher and are often a better choice if you’re worried about heat or power consumption. If you are going for a high-end drive, ideally you have a heatsink. The one the 850P comes with is very effective, with us measuring a maximum temperature of 54 degrees Celsius. This is very far off from throttling and, frankly, it is a fantastic result.

Test Bench and Testing Notes

We use an Alder Lake platform with most background applications such as indexing, Windows updates, and antivirus disabled in the OS to reduce run-to-run variability. Each SSD is prefilled to 50% capacity and tested as a secondary device. Unless noted, we use active cooling for all SSDs.

Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 850P Bottom Line

The Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 850P brings no real surprises. If you were expecting it to be a WD Black SN850P – which itself is just a Black SN850X with a PS5-compliant heatsink – with a Sandisk badge, then you won’t be disappointed. Technically, there are some firmware optimizations possible for a drive destined to be used in PS5s, but we’ve found that any such changes have little impact on overall performance. The 850P is a drive with mature hardware and firmware, and that’s the main story here. It’s a reliable, consistent, well-performing drive that will rock the PS5 but is also good in regular computers.

Our biggest complaint is probably that the 850P can be bested by other drives in any given category. There are less expensive drives with similar performance in the PS5. There are drives that will be better in a laptop, even assuming the 850P’s heatsink is removed. There are even drives that beat it on the desktop in some areas, or are less expensive. Frankly, it feels like a premium drive, and that’s long been the case for the Black SN850X and its progeny. This is also true of the Samsung 990 Pro, its direct competitor, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you want a rock-solid drive that can do anything, look no further. If you have a specific application in mind or want to save some money, there are other options.

Considering how much people value their data and worry about storage stability, we think the Optimus GX Pro 850P does have a place. It’s a no-nonsense drive that gets the job done with a proven track record. The heatsink is very effective, and the drive itself doesn’t really struggle with any one workload. While it is designed for the PS5, it would be plenty happy in an enthusiast’s desktop. Not everybody needs a Gen 5 powerhouse. We recommend it for the discerning buyer who wants something fast and reliable without having to guess what hardware is inside some generic brand’s drive.

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Nvidia has updated its RTX Mega Geometry SDK to 2.0, adding streaming support for “continuous level-of-detail clusters” to handle high-density meshes, according to the developer blog post. Nvidia says it works even for scenes too big for the VRAM budget. The technology is in addition to its RTX Kit, arriving alongside RTX Kit 2026.3. The announcement comes close to the release of Gears of War: E-Day, which makes use of RTX Mega Geometry technology. Nvidia has not explicitly said what version of Mega Geometry the game uses.

Mega Geometry “organizes detailed meshes into clusters so ray-traced scenes can adapt geometric detail efficiently,” according to Nvidia. The SDK appeared at version 0.9.0 beta in 2025 and found its way into Alan Wake 2’s title update 1.2.8 early that same year. Our test on an RTX 4090 found about 1GB of VRAM saved with a performance boost of 13%, at native 4K and with DLSS Quality. On an 8GB graphics card, that 1GB is an eighth of the memory.

The SDK is at version 2.0.0 on GitHub as of this week. The technology makes dense scenes less expensive to ray trace, with 2.0 specifically targeting geometry that doesn’t fit in VRAM. This means that “a scene’s source geometry no longer has to fit in VRAM [with detail] bounded by a memory budget rather than by mesh count,” according to Nvidia’s changelog.

When a scene goes over budget, it settles at lower detail instead of constantly swapping geometry in and out of VRAM. By default, this is based on 2GB of VRAM for streamed geometry, another 2GB for ray-tracing acceleration structures, and 4GB of material textures, but these are adjustable. The existing tessellation path remains.

In the case of Nvidia’s sample Zorah, there are 1.6 billion unique triangles in a 70GB download, with a first load that can require up to 64GB of RAM at peak. Zorah uses 31GB of mesh data, but the courtyard sample view only has 1.5GB of mesh data in VRAM, using an RTX 5090 at 4K with DLSS Quality.

The sample requires an RTX GPU with 10GB of VRAM or more, a Game Ready driver 570 or later, Microsoft’s DXR 1.1 or later, and Windows 10 at a minimum. For now, this looks more like a tool for developers than players. It’s an SDK with a reference sample, and currently no game has been confirmed to use it.

The rest of RTX Kit 2026.3 includes RTX Character Rendering 1.4, RTX Dynamic Illumination 3.1, RTX Neural Texture Compression (NTC) 0.10 beta, RTX Neural Shading 1.4, and RTX Texture Filtering 1.3. NTC has been at v0.10.0 beta on GitHub since Aug. 4, with the DX12 LinAlg path only for testing purposes. The DX12 LinAlg path requires preview driver 620.12, the preview Agility SDK, and Windows Developer Mode. That leaves Vulkan as the only way for released games to use NTC with Tensor Core acceleration today.

An existing problem, Nvidia said in August, is that under ray tracing, Nanite elements “switch to a single, static low-detail mesh” because it’s “prohibitively expensive” to build acceleration structures for them with “existing DXR 1.2 and Vulkan APIs.” It has taken six years of research and development to pioneer the new technology, with the innovations debuting with Gears of War: E-Day on Oct. 6. These will later be part of Microsoft’s DirectX Raytracing 2.0 standard, according to Nvidia.

On Sept. 22, in a Game Ready driver post, Nvidia stated that Mega Geometry enables “accurate ray tracing of Nanite geometry for the very first time.” Nvidia’s Game Ready driver 617.14 for the game is already out. Early access on Oct. 1 is the first chance for players to see Nvidia’s Nanite ray tracing technology in action.

When you buy a product, there is a reasonable expectation of warranty service. When you spend multiple thousands of dollars on a computer graphics card (a product category that has only recently entered the multi-thousand-dollar range), there is a reasonable expectation of exceptional service. What if, instead, you got absolutely no service? According to Redditor /u/Melodic_Initial_1767, that's what he got when he tried to RMA his burned GeForce RTX 5090.

Like so many others, "Melodic" found his graphics card non-functional after melting the 12V-2x6 connectors on both ends of the modular cable that came with his 1600-watt ASRock power supply (the PG-1600G, which we reviewed last year). This happened despite the fact that he says he was using the stock BIOS, no overclocking, and, in fact, a manually reduced power limit. Moreover, the card was supposedly sitting idle when it died, although that doesn't really mean anything. He opened a ticket with PNY and says he was denied the next day with this response:

Well, he wasn't using the included cable or an approved one, but he was using the native cable from his power supply; surely that should be good enough, right? After all, the warranty terms actually don't appear to say a single thing about 12VHPWR or 12V-2x6 cables. According to the Redditor, the only thing the warranty says about power is that the card has to be "installed in accordance with the installation guide provided herewith." Guess what the installation guide says?

If you guessed "locate an unused power connector within your system and plug it into the corresponding connector on your graphics card," congratulations, you will also be denied warranty service from PNY, because apparently you have to intuit which cables are approved by PNY, since, as far as we can see, there's no list of approved cables anywhere on PNY's website, nor in the product documentation for its graphics cards. Besides, the card didn't come with a 16-pin cable, so it's not like he could have used PNY's own cable, and the idea that the firm would prefer him to use an "octopus" adapter over a native cable is shaky at best.

I personally have never had the pleasure of dealing with PNY support, but multiple other Redditors in the thread, which is nearing 1,200 replies at this point, have mentioned a history of difficulty getting support from PNY. When asking the company which clause of their warranty policy they are using to deny his warranty request, /u/Melodic_Initial_1767 was apparently told by a "Senior Technician" that the decision is final and that his ticket had been closed.

A notable point brought up by /u/dusto_man in the thread is that the ASRock power supply used by "Melodic" advertises a "TempGuard" feature that supposedly monitors the temperature at the 12V-2x6 connector on the PSU side for safety, but clearly that either wasn't configured or also failed. ASRock offers a ten-year warranty on that unit; /u/dusto_man mentioned this in a thread where users were advising the original poster to contact ASRock and let that firm go after PNY to avoid covering the failed GPU, which is worth multiple thousands of dollars now.

Indeed, that could be why PNY is attempting to shut down the RMA attempt. The firm may not have any GeForce RTX 5090 cards to send him, and even if it does, the cheapest GeForce RTX 5090 card available to buy new on the market today is $4400 USD, and PNY would likely prefer to sell it at that price instead. While the board vendor is most likely only on the hook (legally) for /u/Melodic_Initial_1767's original purchase price, that could still easily be $2,000 or more. We have now seen these same RMA denial patterns with storage and memory devices from multiple vendors during the shortage, so it wouldn't be an exception. We'll have to wait and see if PNY will stand on unwritten technicalities rather than take a hit to its bottom line.

Tech enthusiast and developer Matt Birchler has tested an Apple iPhone 18 Pro with a can of La Croix used as a cooling device to address persistent thermal throttling that he noticed during his other tests with the phone. Surprisingly, this yielded much stronger results than one would assume, given that he simply placed the can of sparkling water on top of the phone, providing a 25% improvement in sustained performance.

Birchier has been benchmarking the A20 Pro processor inside the iPhone 18 Pro, and it has so far offered excellent transcription results in its normal non-sparkling-water-cooled configuration. In one test run, the latest Apple smartphone hit a maximum speed of 447.9 words per second, before settling down to a little over 320 for the 7th to the 20th runs. The reduced performance during the latter stages of a prolonged benchmark run is normal for nearly every portable device, as they reduce performance to avoid thermally damaging their chips and other components.

It’s exactly for this reason that high-performance computers often come with the best CPU coolers, with some enthusiasts preferring the best AIO coolers or custom water-cooling loops to get the most out of their high-end processors. However, this usually isn’t possible with most mainstream phones, unless you’re running a specialized gaming handset like the liquid-cooled Redmagic 11 Pro — but it seems that Birchler found a solution for the iPhone 18 Pro. “I did some benchmarking today and saw how the newest iPhone thermal throttles, which isn’t severe, but does happen,” the developer said. “I know from experience that if you put a cold beverage on the back of your phone, it will cool down really quick, so I thought…the test is obvious.”

So, Birchler pulled out an ice-cold can of La Croix from the fridge, started a benchmarking session consisting of 20 runs, and placed the drink on the back of the phone. After the tests were completed, the results were as expected: even though its initial run had a slightly lower result of 429.5 words per second, the “liquid-cooled” iPhone 18 Pro had a higher average of 400.4. This meant that giving the iPhone a cold drink helped it sustain around 25% higher performance, but at the cost of keeping the phone facing down while running heavy loads.

The average user wouldn’t need cooling solutions like these for most mobile devices. But if you use your device for extensive loads, like gaming or shooting and editing photos and videos, you might notice slower performance and a dimmer screen after a few minutes. You could follow Birchler’s lead and strap a cold drink to the back of your phone to reduce thermal throttling, but it’s going to be inconvenient and impractical. After all, it’s quite awkward to hold your phone while a can is sticking out of its back. This is why some smartphone accessory manufacturers make devices like the Black Shark Magnetic Phone Cooler 6 Pro for gamers or the SmallRig Universal Hyper Chill Cooling Phone Cage and the Tilta Khronos Advanced Kit for filmmakers.

Other enthusiasts have also experimented with their own designs, like this monstrous SSD cooling solution strapped to the back of an iPhone 17 Pro Max. These will allow you to squeeze more performance from your phone, but at the expense of an impractical design, additional weight, and shorter battery life.

Meta's new AI agent Muse is powered by AMD EPYC Turin host systems, with each sandbox sporting two dedicated cores and 8GB of memory. Blogger Evan Hoffman and analyst Tae Kim both discovered that Muse will run some rudimentary Ubuntu commands if prompted, passing along the output to help identify things like the specs of the host system. More concerning is that Muse seems able to execute commands that might be unsafe, with Hoffman claiming that Muse offered to set up SSH to Muse's private VM.

Both Kim and Hoffman asked Muse about the VM's specs, and in both instances, Muse revealed that it's running on AMD EPYC 9D25 CPUs, a high-density Turin chip with up to 128 cores (two of which are generally fused off or reserved). The VMs are running on Ubuntu 24.04 and using Linux kernel 7.0. The systems hosting Muse don't include GPUs. The AI agent revealed that Meta uses separate GPU servers for inference, isolating the agent to CPU-only sandboxes.

The agent suggests that each user gets their own private sandbox that's persistent, which allows us to do some math on how many people an individual tray can host. Assuming a 2P system that offers up to 510 vCPUs with 2TB of memory, hosting up to 254 Muse users. Muse has reportedly passed over 500,000 daily active users as of a few days ago, which would come out to somewhere around 2,000 server trays with dual EPYC 9D25 CPUs and 2TB of memory.

This is just some rough napkin math; don't take it as law. It's possible Meta has CPU-only servers deployed with multiple different chips to host Muse, and it's also possible there's overhead in the configuration. Turin chips support up to 6TB of memory with high-density DIMMs, for instance. Still, EPYC hosts seem popular for this use case, mainly because of their core density, as even a dual-core sandbox can add up quickly when multiplied across hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of users.

Muse isn't completely open. Hoffman shared an example where an attempted command failed due to improper permissions when Muse tried to query the kernel buffer. Presumably, sudo (admin) commands would be blocked as well.

However, there might still be some security loopholes. Hoffman says that Muse offered to set up SSH into the private Muse VM. With a reverse SSH tunnel — where the destination machine initiates the connection, bypassing the firewall — an attacker may be able to execute more damaging commands.

Meta's David Singleton says this is intended behavior, however, describing Muse as "a free computer in the cloud." Meta has an extensive white paper on the security architecture of Muse published on its research website.

Noctua is teaming up with Forced Physics DCT to explore whether the company’s JouleForce micro-channel array-based cooling can be adapted for desktop PCs and workstations. The long–term partnership will focus on developing a quieter way to use the tech, although Noctua said in its announcement that the partnership is not tied to any specific product or release date.

Claimed to be a new third path to cooling, JouleForce goes beyond traditional air and liquid cooling methods. While it is still based on air-cooling, its capabilities far exceed today’s modern CPU coolers, with the ability to cool over 2000W of thermal energy. The technology uses densely packed micro-channels designed to improve heat transfer. According to Forced Physics, its geometry prevents the boundary layer that normally forms along cooling surfaces, allowing heat to be extracted along the entire length of each channel. This essentially enables large amounts of heat to be removed using air alone, without requiring a liquid-cooling loop.

While that sounds impressive, bringing the technology to desktop PCs comes with a major challenge. The micro-channel arrays currently have a pressure drop that is “an order of magnitude and more” above the range of conventional PC fans. Thus, in its current state, JouleForce relies on industrial blowers, high-speed centrifugal fans, or even vacuum pumps to push air through the arrays.

Noctua’s expertise could prove useful as the company is known for developing some of the best performing PC fans. The partnership will investigate ways to reduce the pressure required by the micro-channel arrays or generate the necessary static pressure without making desktop systems excessively loud. “The pressure levels this technology requires in today’s implementations are currently supplied by equipment nobody would want on or under their desk, so this is a demanding, long-term engineering task – and one that we are eager to tackle,” said Roland Mossig, CEO at Noctua.

For now, Noctua and Forced Physics are still in the early research stage, with both companies planning to share updates as the project reaches significant milestones. If the two companies can crack the airflow and acoustic challenges, JouleForce could eventually make its way to desktop PCs. At the same time, Noctua would have a serious advantage in the market compared to other heatsink manufacturers.

Gamemax is a brand behind an OEM (Sohoo), founded to retail its own products. Founded in 2013, the company sells cases, coolers, monitors, peripherals, and power supplies under a positioning it calls affordable luxury, which in practice means visually loud products at prices that undercut the established names. Its power supply catalog has always been the most uneven part of the range. There are units at the bottom of the stack that exist purely to hit a price, and there are recent models such as the Lion Core series that carry genuine certification and measure respectably. Knowing which of the two a given Gamemax supply belongs to has historically required someone to open it up and put it on a load tester, because the badge on the box does not settle the question.

We examine the Gamemax RGB PRO 750G to see how it fares among the best power supplies on the market. The RGB PRO series sits in the middle of that catalog and leads with its lighting. The 750G reviewed here is the 750W model, a fully modular ATX unit built around a 140 mm ARGB fan, compliant with ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1, and fitted with a native 12V-2x6 connector for current graphics cards. Gamemax rates it at 40°C ambient and lists an operating range up to 50°C, with the important caveat that output is derated by twenty percent above 40°C, so anyone running it in a genuinely hot environment is buying a 600W supply.

The company claims 80 PLUS Gold efficiency, Japanese 105°C main capacitors, and 25 addressable lighting modes with motherboard sync. The Gold claim is the one worth pausing on, because no entry for this model exists in the CLEAResult 80 PLUS database, nor in the Cybenetics or PPLP databases, so the badge printed on the sticker is at present a manufacturer assertion and nothing more. At an MSRP of $105, the RGB PRO 750G is asking more than several other 750W Gold units currently sell for, which places a great deal of weight on the lighting to justify the difference.

Specifications and Design

In the Box

The RGB PRO 750G arrives in a black cardboard box with a render of the unit on the front, the model name and wattage set large across the top, and three badges in the top right corner: PCIe 5.1 ready, ATX 3.1 ready, and a warranty shield. Green pinstripes run vertically across the artwork, the word Gamemax is spelled out letter by letter along the bottom edge, and an RGB color wheel with the words RGB LIGHT VERSION occupies the corner. It is busy but legible, and the front of the box tells a buyer most of what they need to know.

Protection inside is adequate rather than generous, with the supply held between two molded pieces and the cables bagged separately. The bundle is thin. There is the AC power cord, four mounting screws, two zip ties, a multilingual user manual, and a 5V three-pin ARGB cable for motherboard synchronization. The ARGB cable is the one item a competitor would not usually include, and given the feature set, it is a necessity rather than a bonus.

All of the unit’s cables are individually sleeved in black braid. Gamemax's marketing describes the whole set as “embossed flat cables”. Wire gauges look appropriate throughout. These sleeved cables are slightly stiffer than flat ones and take more effort to route behind a motherboard tray, which is the usual trade for looks and ruggedness.

External Appearance

At 165 x 150 x 86 mm, the RGB PRO 750G is a slightly long power supply. The 165 mm depth is 25 mm more than the ATX design guide recommendation, which is commonly met by 750W units. While every full-size ATX case will likely take it, cable clearance behind the unit in a mid-tower with a shroud will be tighter than it should be. The chassis is all black with a slightly textured matte finish that, for some reason, is very sensitive to fingerprint marks. It is a decent paint job, evenly applied. Four exposed screws hold the fan in place.

The top face is dominated by a hexagonal honeycomb grille stamped directly into the panel rather than a separate wire guard, with a Gamemax lion badge at the hub of the fan. The specification sticker occupies the opposite face, printed clearly, and includes the full rail table, the safety marks, and an 80 PLUS Gold logo. The side panels carry a large 750W in outline type with RGB LIGHT VERSION beneath it and the lion logo rendered in a rainbow gradient, alongside a further honeycomb perforated section.

The rear face holds the C14 receptacle, a recessed main rocker switch, and a small square button labelled RGB LIGHT, all set into a perforated exhaust panel that covers most of the available area. The front face is the fully modular connector bay, arranged in two rows and silkscreened above and below each socket. A three pin 5V ARGB header sits at the left edge of the bay for the sync cable.

The lighting is the reason this model exists, and it is better executed than the price suggests. A ring of addressable LEDs sits under the perimeter of the fan opening and lights the honeycomb cells from beneath, so the effect is a glowing hexagonal halo rather than the illuminated fan blades most RGB supplies use. It is diffused, even, and free of the visible hot spots that give away cheap LED strips, and it looks considerably more expensive than it is. Gamemax claims 25 modes, cycled with the rear RGB LIGHT button.

A short press steps to the next mode, holding the button for three seconds switches the lighting off, pressing again restores the previous mode after a single white flash, and a longer hold enters a self-test that lights every LED white. The last mode is retained through a power cycle. Connecting the bundled cable to a 5V three-pin header on the motherboard hands control to the board's own software instead. However, the lighting is on the fan face, and in any case, with a bottom-mounted shroud, the conventional fan-down orientation buries the whole effect. Seeing it requires mounting the unit fan up, which most cases allow but which compromises intake air for the supply itself.

Internal Design

Cooling comes from a 140 mm fan is made by PowerYear, model PY-14025H12S, rated at 12V and 0.40A. We could not find a datasheet for it. Gamemax claims a fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) engine fan and has a 50,000-hour life expectancy. The “S” designation suggests a sleeve bearing, but fan OEMs are infamous for mixing SKUs, so we cannot say be certain of the engine inside it. In a unit with a 10-year warranty, we would certainly hope that Gamemax’s claims are accurate.

The platform is a Sohoo design. Guangdong Sohoo Technology is behind Gamemax, which is a Chinese manufacturer better known for cases and entry-level supplies than for anything with grand ambitions, but they have begun looking up lately. The layout is tidy for the class. Component placement is orderly, the soldering on the underside is clean, and the heatsinks are properly sized rather than the token strips of aluminum that usually accompany a budget platform. The extra 25 mm of chassis depth is put to use, as the board is not crowded and airflow is virtually unrestricted. None of this is bad work.

The transient filtering stage begins on a small vertical PCB mounted behind the AC receptacle and continues on the main board, comprising two Y capacitors, two X capacitors, two common-mode chokes, and a MOV. That is a basic but complete filter with nothing omitted. Inrush current is handled by an NTC thermistor with a relay for bypass duty. A single bridge rectifier is mounted on the main heatsink alongside the APFC components. The active PFC stage uses two Oriental Semiconductor OSG55R140F MOSFETs and stores energy in a Nichicon 390 μF, 420V capacitor rated to 105°C, from the CE GG series. That capacitor is the one Gamemax's marketing points to when it advertises Japanese capacitors, and on the primary side, the claim is accurate. The boost coil is unshielded.

The primary inversion stage is built from two Si-Trend SI23N50F MOSFETs in a half-bridge arrangement, also sharing the long heatsink with the APFC components and feeding the main transformer. The resonant components alongside it indicate an LLC resonant converter, the standard and sensible choice for a Gold-class unit of this size.

On the secondary side, the 12V rail is produced by four SPTJ4R1D6LA MOSFETs in synchronous rectification, a part we could not attribute to a known vendor. The 3.3V and 5V rails are generated by DC-to-DC converters on a vertical daughterboard adjacent to the modular PCB. Secondary filtering is where the cost comes out. Every secondary capacitor in this unit is supplied by Teapo. Teapo parts are not bad, and the ones fitted here are 105°C rated, but they are the middle-budget choice, which explains why the marketing claim about Japanese “main capacitors” looks carefully worded. With 10 years of warranty behind them, the secondary capacitors are the wrong place to have economized.

Cold Test Results (25°C Ambient)

Cold Test Results (25°C Ambient)

For the testing of PSUs, we are using high-precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high-precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox, and various other bits and parts.

At 25°C ambient, the RGB PRO 750G measures considerably better than its provenance would suggest. Efficiency averaged 90.8% across the nominal load range at 230 VAC and 88.6% at 115 VAC, peaking at 92.1% near 40% load on the higher input and 90.3% at roughly the same point on the lower one. Full load returns 90.7% and 87.2%, respectively, and the curve falls away gently rather than collapsing. Those are real Gold numbers. At 115 VAC the unit returns 88.3% at 20% load, 90.0% at 50% and 87.2% at 100%, which clears the 80 PLUS Gold thresholds of 87%, 90% and 87%, though two of the three points clear them by a thin margin. The performance is there. What is not there is any independent confirmation of it, since no entry for this model appears in the CLEAResult, Cybenetics, or PPLP databases, and an 80 PLUS Gold logo on a sticker with nothing behind it is a claim, not a real certification.

Thermally, the unit is excellent, and acoustically it pays for that. The primary heatsink reached 51.0°C and the secondary 47.8°C at full load, with exhaust air leaving at 39.7°C against a 25.2°C intake, a delta of 14.5°C. Those are figures we would expect from a considerably more expensive supply, and they are achieved the obvious way. There is no semi-passive mode, and the cooling profile is a little aggressive. The fan turns on from the moment the unit is powered, and it stays close to the base through the first 300W, drifting only to 33 dB(A). Past 400W, the curve turns sharply upward, reaching 43.0 dB(A) at 525W, 45.2 dB(A) at 600W, and close to 50 dB(A) at a sustained 750W. Below 300W, this is a quiet supply, and the absence of a fanless window costs it very little, as it is practically inaudible. Above 500W, it is one of the louder 750W units we have measured, and in a quiet build it will be the component you hear.

Hot Test Results (~45°C Ambient)

Hot Test Results (~45°C Ambient)

Inside the hotbox at approximately 45°C ambient, into the range where Gamemax derates it, efficiency moves, but not dramatically so. The average fell to 89.8% at 230 VAC and 87.7% at 115 VAC, with full load figures of 89.3% and 85.9%. A single point of degradation at 230 VAC across a 20-degree ambient rise is a genuinely good result for the class of this unit. The 115 VAC curve suffers more than the 230 VAC one, falling below 86% at maximum output, which is where the manufacturer's derating starts to look like sound engineering rather than marketing caution, as the signs of thermal stress become obvious.

Internal temperatures stayed under control. The primary heatsink reached 80.8°C and the secondary 76.3°C at full load, well within the ratings of the components fitted, and the exhaust delta is essentially unchanged from the cold run. Once again, the fan is doing the work. It starts at 37.7 dB(A) even at 37.5W, passes 45 dB(A) before 300W, reaches 50 dB(A) at half load, and finishes at 54.4 dB(A) at a sustained 750W. That is loud in the plain sense of the word, and it makes sustained heavy load in a warm case an unpleasant proposition. It is a unit that will stay cool and reliable, but acoustics are being sacrificed for it.

PSU Quality and Bottom Line

Power Supply Quality

Voltage regulation is good rather than exceptional. Across the 20% to 100% load span, the 3.3V rail moved by 1.1%, the 12V rail by 1.4%, and the 5V rail by 1.5%. The 12V line ran from 12.12V at 20% load down to 11.95V at maximum output, which is 0.4% below nominal and entirely comfortable. The 5V rail sags to 4.97V at full load and the 3.3V rail to 3.31V. Neither minor rail is generously specified in the first place, at 15A each and 80W combined, but modern systems ask almost nothing of them and the figures are of academic interest for most builders. Ripple suppression is the strongest single result in this review. The 12V rail peaked at 48 mV under full load against the 120 mV ATX design limit, leaving 60% headroom on the rail that matters. The 5V rail topped out at 28 mV and the 3.3V rail at 26 mV against their 50 mV limits, with roughly 44% and 48% headroom respectively. However, all three rails stayed almost perfectly flat across the load range rather than degrading as output climbed, which behavior is rather odd for a PC PSU, as they tend to perform better when lightly loaded.

During our thorough assessment, we evaluate the essential protection features of every power supply unit we review, including Over Current Protection (OCP), Over Voltage Protection (OVP), Over Power Protection (OPP), and Short Circuit Protection (SCP).

All protection mechanisms triggered correctly with the unit hot. OCP tripped at 136% on the 3.3V rail, or 20.4A, and at 132% on the 5V rail, or 19.8A. The 12V rail is the outlier. OCP intervened at 108%, equivalent to 67A against a 62A rating, which is a far tighter margin than we normally see and tighter than we are comfortable with on an ATX 3.1 supply. Modern graphics cards produce short excursions well above their rated draw, and a 12V protection point set 8% above the rail rating leaves very little room for them. OPP shut the unit down at approximately 110% of rated output, or 825W, which is similarly conservative. Nothing here is unsafe. The unit is simply less tolerant of transient behavior than its ATX 3.1 badge implies, and a system pairing an ATX 3.1 class graphics card with a supply already running near its rated output is the scenario we would be cautious about.

Bottom Line

The RGB PRO 750G is two products fighting each other. Underneath there is a Sohoo platform that is competently engineered, properly filtered, generously heatsinked for the class, and that holds its efficiency in heat better than many mainstream Gold units. The Nichicon primary capacitor is a real one, and the ripple figures, although not record-breaking, are the best part of the review. On top of it sits a lighting ring, a set of marketing claims that do not survive checking, and a price that assumes you want the first of those enough to stop asking questions about the second.

The measurements support the 80 PLUS badge even though there is no published certification for this particular model. An average of 90.8% at 230 VAC and 88.6% at 115 VAC are honest Gold numbers, and the 115 VAC curve clears the 80 PLUS Gold thresholds at all three checkpoints, if narrowly at two of them. Regulation is comfortable on every rail, and ripple has more than half its allowance spare on the 12V line. Internal temperatures are excellent in both ambients. Nothing in the electrical results embarrasses the unit.

The compromises are concentrated in three places. The secondary capacitors are all Teapo, which is the middle-budget choice and sits awkwardly against marketing that advertises Japanese capacitors without mentioning that only one of them is. The fan is a PowerYear part whose engine we cannot confirm, and it never stops; while that buys the excellent thermals, it also produces noise, which places this among the louder 750W supplies at high load. And the 12V OCP point of 67A, only eight percent above the rail rating, is tighter than a supply carrying an ATX 3.1 badge should be, given what current graphics cards do to a 12V rail on a millisecond scale. The warranty is the part of the package doing the most work. Ten years is serious coverage, level with MSI and three years beyond Corsair, and on a unit whose secondary capacitors are the obvious economy, it is the reassurance that makes them tolerable. It is also the clearest signal that Gamemax expects this platform to last, which the thermal results support.

The pricing is where the argument gets difficult. At $105, the RGB PRO 750G is not the cheap option, which is the position a Gamemax supply usually occupies and the one this feature sheet is built for. The MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 and the Corsair RM750e both sell below it routinely, frequently closer to eighty dollars, and both carry certification that exists in a public database along with quieter behavior at high load. Against that pair, the Gamemax is behind on certification, behind on acoustics, level with MSI and ahead of Corsair on warranty, competitive on efficiency, ahead on ripple, and 25 mm longer in the chassis. Against the Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 V4 at $119, it saves fourteen dollars and matches the coverage, giving up the conformal coating and the better-documented parts sheet to do it. It wins outright on exactly one axis, and that axis is decorative.

The engineering does not deserve dismissal, and anyone who assumes an RGB badge guarantees a bad power supply will be wrong about this one. It measures well, it runs cool, it is covered for a decade, and none of that is an accident. But competence is the floor in this segment rather than the selling point, and $105 asks a buyer to pay above the going rate for a unit that leads on decoration and merely keeps pace on everything else. If the ARGB halo is what you want, and your case mounts the supply fan up where you will actually see it, this is a defensible purchase that will not let you down. If it is not, the same money buys a certified, quieter, equally well-covered supply from a brand with a longer record, and that is the comparison Gamemax still has to answer.

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There is no doubt the GeForce RTX 5090 is one of the best graphics cards and has the full potential to leverage DLSS 5. However, if you plan to hop on the DLSS 5 bandwagon, you may want to keep an eye on your graphics card's temperatures and power consumption. According to tests by Korean outlet QuasarZone, the GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition peaked at nearly 650W in power draw, with the highest recorded temperature on the 16-pin (12VHPWR) power connector exceeding 90 degrees Celsius. Notably, that is higher than the standard temperatures measured for the GPU die.

While less frequent, user reports of the 16-pin power connector melting are still popping up if you look around the Internet, particularly on Reddit. Even a couple of media outlets have also encountered power connector meltdowns during their use. So, it is not an issue that affects only new users; 16-pin power connector failures extend to seasoned industry veterans, too. There is no prejudice toward Nvidia's Blackwell-powered graphics cards, either. Similar meltdowns have appeared on AMD Radeon graphics cards. Running DLSS 5 may just be adding fuel to the fire, figuratively.

QuasarZone ran Cyberpunk 2077 in a controlled environment at 27.5 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. The publication used a 4K (3840x2160) resolution with DLSS Quality and Ultra image settings and monitored the temperature of the 16-pin power connector. The media outlet tested the GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition, Asus ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090, and GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition.

Nvidia DLSS 5 Impact On 16-pin Power Connector Temperatures

In the first round of testing using a GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition with DLSS 5 disabled, QuasarZone measured 77.1 degrees Celsius on the latch side of the 16-pin power connector and 80.9 degrees Celsius on the opposite side. With DLSS 5 enabled, the temperatures quickly jumped to 83.4 and 91.7 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Before DLSS 5, the average core and peak temperatures for the GeForce RTX 5090 were 79.4 and 82.3 degrees Celsius, respectively. Afterward, they increased to 83 and 86.3 degrees Celsius. As a result, the 16-pin power connector was the hottest spot on the GeForce RTX 5090.

In contrast, the GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition ran at significantly lower, more manageable temperatures. Before activating DLSS 5, the temperature on the latch side and opposite the 16-pin power connector registered 45.8 and 47.6 degrees Celsius, respectively. With DLSS 5, the temperatures rose to 52.2 degrees Celsius on the latch side and 48.6 degrees Celsius on the opposite side. The results were not a surprise, since the GeForce RTX 5080 consumes less power than the GeForce RTX 5090.

Nvidia DLSS 5 Impact On Graphics Card Power Consumption

Using HWiNFO to measure average power consumption, the GeForce RTX 5090 showed a 13% increase in power draw with DLSS5 enabled. By contrast, the GeForce RTX 5080 showed a 17% increase in average power consumption under the same conditions. Despite these notable increases, both cards seemingly stayed within their official TDP specifications, with the RTX 5090 rated at 575W and the RTX 5080 at 360W.

HWiNFO uses a software-level API to poll power metrics from the graphics card's telemetry sensors. While it is sufficient for everyday monitoring, nothing is more accurate than measuring power directly from the circuit board. The Nvidia Power Capture Analysis Tool (PCAT) is perfect for that.

QuasarZone found that the GeForce RTX 5090's average and peak power draw increased by 13%, effectively exceeding the graphics card's power limit. The average power consumption readings differed by 3% between HWiNFO and PCAT.

Focusing primarily on the 16-pin power connector, QuasarZone's PCAT measurements showed a 582.7W power draw without DLSS 5 and 646.7W with it on, representing an 11% increase.

While 658W sounds scary, it does not compare to what we have seen on custom GeForce RTX 5090 models. On the GeForce RTX 5090 32G Lightning Z with DLSS 5, we observed the graphics card's power consumption spike to 592W at 1080p, 695W at 1440p, and 848W at 4K.

Using the Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 as a test subject, QuasarZone recorded the current flowing through each of the six power pins from the 16-pin power connector. Before enabling DLSS 5, the power readings ranged from 6.94A to 7.47A. When activated, the power readings spiked to between 7.83A and 8.51A. While the values remained within PCI-SIG’s requirement of 9.2A per pin, headroom is extremely thin, with just 0.69A between the highest recorded current and the official threshold.

In another simulation, the Korean media outlet explored the consequences of a loose pin or improper connection in the 16-pin power connector. This is the most common scenario that leads to 16-pin power connector meltdowns, due to unbalanced power loading across the connector. With one nonfunctional power pin, the electrical load is redistributed to the remaining pins.

With DLSS 5 off, the highest current registered on a single pin reached 8.9A. This value remains uncomfortably close to PCI-SIG's standard. However, turning on DLSS 5 pushed the power pins to 10.1A, 10% above the specification. The simple test highlights just how easily and quickly things can go wrong.

QuasarZone's alarming test results may look like fuel for fearmongering. However, the publication's tests align closely with our findings that DLSS 5 substantially increases power consumption. At least one user has allegedly reported a 16-pin power connector meltdown while experimenting with DLSS 5.

With the RAMpocalypse in full swing and little relief in sight, we need to look for combo deals to get the best prices on items like RAM (and even those are fleeting today). This 3-item combo from Newegg is one of the better ones lately, offering the wicked-fast gaming processor Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 RAM, and a quality motherboard in the Asus TUF Gaming X870E-Plus Wifi for only $1,050. A savings of $149. And if you apply the discount to the RAM, it’s only $351, which many would consider reasonable (for the times).

• Check out this deal at Newegg

First is one of the most popular and fastest current-generation CPUs for gaming: the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. This 8-core/16-thread Zen5-based processor has a base clock of 4.6 GHz and a max boost of 5.2 GHz, which is plenty of speed for any task. The X3D variant's 96MB of L3 cache helps with gaming (among other things), making it one of the fastest gaming CPUs available. It is also a well-rounded performer that excels in games and suits most applications. This combo also includes a free Rosewill FrostMax 240mm AIO with digital display (a $70 value), which easily handles the 120W processor.

The RAM portion of the bundle, Corsair’s Vengeance RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 RAM kit, is currently available on Newegg for a wallet-emptying $499.99 (the price keeps going up) when bought separately. The good news is that the discount brings this RAM down to $351. This black kit matches the Asus TUF Gaming X870E-Plus Wifi board in this combo and features a frosted RGB light bar that runs the length of the sticks. If RGB lighting isn’t your thing and you prefer a stealthy, unassuming look, you can turn it off. The DDR5-6000 speed lands in the sweet spot for the AM5 platform and is a worthwhile, good-looking option. The SK Hynix ICs under the heatsink pair nicely with the board and offer plenty of overclocking headroom.

Last, the Asus TUF Gaming X870E-Plus Wifi 7 is a solid all-around motherboard for the AM5 platform. It delivers sufficient power to support flagship-class processors and easily handles the 9800X3D in the combo, even with some overclocking. It comes with four M.2 sockets (one PCIe 5.0), two SATA ports for storage, fast networking with integrated Wi-Fi 7 and 2,5 GbE, ample USB ports on the rear IO (13, including two USB4 40 Gbps Type-C), and a quality audio solution based on the last-gen Realtek flagship (ALC1220P). Asus’ AI solutions (AI Cache Boost, Overclocking, Cooling II, and Networking II) and the DIY-friendly design make it easy to build and get the most out of your system.

Newegg used to offer several Combo deals with RAM. Still, over the past few weeks, as stock continues to dwindle, we’ve seen them whittle down to only a couple that are worthwhile, so when you see something like this and are ready to pull the trigger, do it, as you never know how long it will last. If you’re in the market to buy a new AM5-based system, this 3-item $1,050 combo from Newegg, sporting 32GB of RAM, the venerable Ryzen 5 9800X3D, and a quality motherboard (don’t forget the free 240mm AIO and AMD game bundle!), is currently one of the least expensive ways into the platform.

Micron is reportedly pulling the plug on its 2 GB (16Gb) GDDR7 memory chips, ending production and sales of both the 28 Gbps and 32 Gbps variants. According to an X post by UNIKO’s Hardware, the chips — some of which shipped on some GeForce RTX 50 graphics cards — are now designated as “End of Life” on Micron's site. Tom’s Hardware can confirm that the pages for module norms return “No results found.”

Micron just began supplying its 2GB GDDR7 to Nvidia earlier this year, with Samsung and SK Hynix being the main GDDR7 suppliers. As a result, Micron's 2GB module only shipped on a few Nvidia models, such as retail variants of the GeForce RTX 5060. Samsung and SK Hynix cover the vast bulk of 2 GB GDDR7 modules for the standard RTX 50 retail lineup, so the risk of immediate shortages is minimal. Micron’s uncompetitive position in the 2 GB segment also appears to have made a fast exit logical to free up fabrication capacity.

The company is reportedly shifting its focus toward higher-density 3 GB (24 Gb) GDDR7 chips. These larger packages are considered impractical for Nvidia's RTX 50 lineup because they are more expensive and result in less conventional consumer memory capacities. However, they yield higher profit margins and are actively utilized in Nvidia's high-end RTX PRO Blackwell GPUs tailored for generative and agentic AI workloads.

Micron’s decision follows the ongoing trend of memory suppliers prioritizing AI-facing technologies over their consumer and retail counterparts. The company exited its Crucial consumer memory and SSD business earlier, explicitly saying that surging AI data-center demand had prompted it to prioritize larger strategic customers in faster-growing segments.

A 3D artist looking to purchase an RTX 5090 for their work claimed that they scored an unopened Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 White OC from the secondhand market. According to Wccftech, the artist purchased the GPU expecting that it was signed by an Asus executive in celebration of the company’s 30th anniversary. But when they opened the package, they found the Nvidia chief’s signature on it instead.

Jensen Huang autographed the GPU and showed it off on camera last year, after which it was supposed to be given away by one lucky gamer. The artist did not mention how much they bought the “used” GPU for, but brand-new models of the RTX 5090 now hit $5,000 and can go up even higher, depending on the model. They also said that after opening the box, they did not use or test it, opting to sell it instead because of the immense value that such a limited-edition graphics card held for the right buyer.

This specific GPU is now in the hands of the Bonhams auction house, with bidding set for Oct. 4 to 14, 2026. It’s estimated that the graphics card will fetch somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000, especially as it bears the signature of Nvidia’s founder. However, it should be noted that an Asus ROG Matrix RTX 4090 sold for $16,000 back in 2023, while an Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhabab OC Edition was auctioned off last year for $24,200. Both GPUs were also autographed by Jensen, so there’s a good chance that this graphics card could fetch a much higher price.

Another Jensen Huang-related object was put on the auction block earlier this year and hit a record price. The leather Tom Ford jacket that the CEO wore at the Hon Hai (Foxconn) Tech Day in Taipei way back in October 2023 went up on Sotheby’s, where it was estimated that it would fetch somewhere between $40,000 and $60,000. However, the final price ended up at $960,000 — more than a hundred times higher than the jacket’s $9,000 price tag from the manufacturer.

Even though Jensen Huang isn’t a celebrity in the traditional sense, his approachable public persona and success story have made him quite popular among his fans. This “Jensanity” is prevalent in Taiwan, where he was originally from, and many see him as the bearer of Taiwanese pride and treat him like a pop star. It seems that this translates to his rich fans, too, with a few who are willing to spend thousands of dollars just to get their hands on autographed “artifacts” from the billionaire.

External GPUs (eGPU) have been tried time and again, and while they have found their niche among laptop users, they're not commonplace. Now that the AI craze is in full swing, more people are looking into owning a graphics card of some sort for the single purpose of running LLMs locally. The WiCi One is designed with that specific scenario in mind, but adds wireless connectivity, multi-device support, and onboard storage.

That list of words usually doesn't belong in the same sentence as GPUs, so it merits close inspection. First and foremost, the WiCi One leverages the WiFi 7 protocol to transmit data to and from the card. The firm says that client machines keep a GPU driver that makes the operating system think it's a graphics card just like any other, while in reality they'll be talking to the WiCi One over the network.

However, as WiCi explains in great detail, just blindly doing that would make for a terrible eGPU, as the standard communication between host and card is extremely chatty. That's not a problem with the sub-microsecond latency of PCIe 5.0, but would quickly turn even basic status querying operations into multi-second affairs. Large computations with lots of data shuffled back and forth could hypothetically take hours.

The company claims its driver software performs a great deal of data caching, deduplication, and compression, and is also very judicious about what type of hardware requests can be handled locally versus those that really do need to go over the airwaves.

This mode of operation and its corresponding separation of concerns bring several advantages: theoretically, the one GPU could be used on multiple machines. There are Python libraries for passing the WiCi One as any other GPU to LLMs, and also a standard HTTP API for network access, once again lending credence to the fact that multiple clients could use the WiCi One without any special configuration.

Running LLMs means shuffling a substantial amount of data back-and-forth, and contemporary models with a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture can run locally using an SSD as a fallback. WiCi took a clever approach and incorporated a 4 TB PCIe 5.0 SSD directly into the enclosure, in a bid to store model weights to both enable larger models and indirectly save on cross-network transfers.

WiCi also mentions that the card can also run games without modification, but doesn't elaborate on what kind of performance is expected. The documentation only ever mentions Vulkan and Direct3D, and hedges the fact that "[not] every API must be complete on day one." WiFi makes for a poor technology to underpin a real-time endeavor like pushing millions of polygons and textures in, and the resulting images out, in just 16.67ms for 60 FPS, so we'll venture that gamers will be best served with conventional eGPUs.

The base spec comes with an RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB graphics card, and is slated for a 2026 Q4 preview, with no release date set in stone. WiCi plans to offer a variant with an RTX 5090 and its 32 GB of VRAM, albeit there's no word on when that will arrive, much less at which price — especially considering those cards alone are currently going for well over 7 grand, and have been spotted selling for far more.

The asking price for all this is $1,999 for early signups, and $2,599 otherwise, for the base spec. Those figures might sound steep, but they're actually fairly reasonable if the WiCi packaging and software stack deliver. A quick skim of Newegg puts an RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB graphics card at $800 or more, while an NVMe 4 TB PCIe 5.0 SSD is a little pricier at $850. Once you factor in a hypothetical $100 for a power supply and another $100 for the case, Wi-Fi card, and assorted bits and bobs, you're at $1,850 already.

Despite strong launch sales, the Lisuan Tech LX 7G100 was clearly more of a domestic win for China than a contender against the best graphics cards on the market. Recent benchmark results published by German outlet PC Games Hardware (PCGH) show that the Chinese-made LX 7G100 still has a long way to go, offering only comparable performance to the nine-year-old Radeon RX 580 — but trailing by as much as 35% behind the seven-year-old GeForce RTX 2060.

Originally touted as a competitor to the GeForce RTX 4060, the LX 7G100 hit the market with high expectations. Initial benchmarks, however, quickly dispelled much of the early hype. Now, four months after its launch and following several driver updates, we once again see the LX 7G100 in the spotlight, but despite ongoing driver refinements, the graphics card's performance looks like it has flatlined.

The LX 7G100’s current performance closely matches AMD’s Radeon RX 580 and delivers a modest 5% boost over the Polaris-based card. It also outpaces Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 6GB by a notable 23%. In its current state, the LX 7G100 does not have what it takes to challenge more modern models in the upper echelon of the mid-range graphics card market.

The LX 7G100 lags by more than 2.2X behind current models, such as the GeForce RTX 4060 or GeForce RX 5050. When benchmarked against the latest GeForce RTX 5060, the LX 7G100 delivers only about a third of the performance. An obvious technological gap remains between Lisuan Tech and industry giants such as Nvidia, AMD, and even Intel, and it still has a lot of catching up to do.

Lisuan Tech LX 7G100 Benchmarks

In its defense, the LX 7G100 has already cleared one of the biggest hurdles that typically hinder Chinese chipmakers: driver support. Many graphics cards from emerging Chinese manufacturers have historically suffered from poor compatibility and software support. Lisuan Tech not only became the first Chinese chipmaker to obtain WHQL support for a graphics card, but the LX 7G100 launched with stable DirectX 12 gaming compatibility from the get-go. This alone has enabled the LX 7G100 to run a wide variety of modern games, including Cyberpunk 2077, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Battlefield 6, to name a few.

Lisuan Tech is clearly committing to improving its drivers. In the past four months alone, the Chinese chipmaker has rolled out three WHQL-certified driver updates. Drivers take time to mature, and given that the LX 7G100 has not even been on the market for a year, it is unreasonable to expect Lisuan Tech to match decades of expertise like Nvidia and AMD.

From a hardware standpoint, the LX 7G100, which leverages TSMC’s N6 FinFET process node, is not a bad graphics card. The silicon houses 6,144 shading units and clocks up to 2,000 MHz to deliver a peak FP32 performance of 24.5 TFLOPs. The LX 7G100's 12GB of GDDR6 memory runs across a 192-bit memory interface to provide a maximum bandwidth of up to 432 GB/s. On paper, these metrics place the LX 7G100 close to the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB or Radeon RX 6700 XT. Currently, the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB is twice as fast as the LX 7G100.

A 2X performance gap is certainly not something that's easy to close. Who knows just how much is left in the tank for the LX 7G100. Maybe Lisuan Tech has already pushed the hardware to its limits, or maybe some driver magic will put the LX 7G100 a few steps closer to the GeForce RTX 3060 12GB. Only time will tell, and it will be interesting to revisit the LX 7G100 in a few months' time.

If you’re one of the many consumers who are still struggling to find ways to spend your hard-earned money in the PC space, we found a deal that has nothing to do with ridiculously priced components like RAM, video cards, and storage, but still makes a difference in your computing experience. Newegg recently dropped the price of the MSI MAG 272QP QD-OLED X24 monitor to a palatable $359.99 (from its $499.99 MSRP) when using promo code SSF73849, just $10 away from its all-time low ($349.99), according to Camelcamelcamel. It's currently one of the best deals around on a high-quality 27-inch 4K QD-OLED with a high refresh rate.

Check out this deal on Newegg

This monitor is ready for any type of gaming you can throw at it, from MMOs that don’t need the high refresh rate but lean into the wide color gamut (98% RGB/99% DCI-P3/138% SRGB, Delta E≤2), to first-person shooters (FPS) where the blazing-fast 240Hz refresh rate and the highest VESA ClearMR rating (13000) make a difference. Even if you’re not a gamer, productivity activities also look good, and the long 3-year burn-in warranty, along with MSI’s OLED Care 2.0 technology (with Pixel Shift, Panel Protect, and other features), should move burn-in worries to the back burner.

The panel itself is a 26.5-inch 10-bit, QD-OLED sporting 4K UHD resolution (3,840 x 2,160). It has a typical contrast ratio of 1,500,000:1, a 0.03ms (GTG) response time, and a 172 pixels per inch density. It’s also VESA-certified DisplayHDR 400 True Black. This means you're getting a display that looks incredible and is a significant improvement over older monitors that can’t display the same colors or have as fast response times.

While a 4K QD-OLED for under $360 is an incredible deal right now, other features make it really useful for gaming. Functions like crosshair mode, which displays one of several crosshair styles on the screen regardless of background color, help with your aim/centering. A really useful feature for FPS games in particular, where point-and-click in the center is key.

It’s also AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync compatible (officially on Nvidia’s list!), which eliminates screen tearing by syncing your GPU's output with the monitor’s refresh rate. As far as connectivity goes, it has the usual suspects: two HDMI (2.1) ports, one DisplayPort (1.4a), and a USB Type-C (DP alt.), so you can connect this monitor to other items outside of your PC, including your laptop, handheld, a console (it even has a Console Mode that optimizes for gaming consoles such as the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S).

If you’re in the market for a new 4K OLED monitor, you won’t find any with these specifications for less right now. I can tell you from personal experience (I own the 32” 4K version of this monitor) that the colors are awesome, blacks are true black, and ghosting in high-action games is non-existent. Priced at $359.99 with promo code SSF73849, the 272QP QD-OLED X24 deal won’t be around for long. So if you’re thinking about moving up to 1440P OLED monitor, you’ll want to jump on this deal while you can.

Nvidia Founders Edition GPUs are often harder to come by compared to cards from AIB partners, and they’re typically sold on specific retail channels only. However, it seems that CyberPowerPC got its hands on these graphics cards, and you can now get them inside pre-built gaming PCs sold by the company on Walmart. These PCs are also on sale as part of the Nvidia GeForce Week from September 21 through 27 on the retail platform. Aside from coming with these coveted GPUs from Nvidia, these pre-built gaming PCs are also on a huge discount, giving gamers savings of $580 to over $1,300. Unfortunately, these units are only available in limited quantities, so we’re unsure how long stock will last.

• Get the CyberPowerPC RTX 5070 FE + Intel Core i7-14700KF pre-built gaming PC on Walmart.
• Get the CyberPowerPC RTX 5070 FE + AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D pre-built gaming PC on Walmart.
• Get the CyberPowerPC RTX 5080 FE + AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D pre-built gaming PC on Walmart.
• Get the CyberPowerPC RTX 5080 FE + Intel Core Ultra 9 285K pre-built gaming PC on Walmart.
• Get the CyberPowerPC RTX 5090 FE + AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D pre-built gaming PC on Walmart.

Nvidia has recently sold Founders Edition GPUs in a pop-up retail store at QuakeCon 2026 while also having them available at the PAX West gaming convention in Seattle, Washington, earlier this month. The company calls these retail pop-up stores “Verified Priority Access IRL,” meaning only real people can buy the cards, which are sold at MSRP. The VPA program started with the launch of the RTX 4090 FE, but the company brought it back with the arrival of the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 to help prevent scalping.

The aggressive discounts on these pre-builts suggest that CyberPowerPC acquired these Founders Edition GPUs at MSRP. The RTX 5070 FE PC with an Intel i7-14700KF, which had an SRP of $2,139.99, now only costs $1,549.00, offering savings of $590.99, while the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D version is priced at $1,599.00 — a $580.99 discount from its $2,179.99 regular price.

The RTX 5080 FE pre-builts offer bigger savings: the AMD Ryzen 7 version is now only $2,299.00, saving you $680.99 from its $2,979.99 SRP, while the Intel Core Ultra 9 option has its prices to $2,399.00 from $3,149.99 through its $750.99 discount. Finally, the RTX 5090 FE pre-built gaming PC has a regular price of $5,649.99 but is on sale at just $4,299.00, giving you $1,350.99 in savings.

These prices will let you get your hands on some of the best gaming GPUs on the market right now without breaking your wallet. According to the Tom’s Hardware GPU Price Tracker, the cheapest RTX 5090 is the Asus TUF Gaming RTX 5090, and it’s already priced higher on Amazon at $6,699.00, making this entire pre-built cheaper than that standalone GPU. While the RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 GPUs in the list are cheaper than these CyberPowerPC units, you’re still getting a complete system with a modern processor and a PSU, plus RAM and an SSD, which are some of the most expensive components you can find today. You also don’t have to worry about other specifications — even though the listing does not mention the brands and models of the other components included in the gaming PCs, they’re still decently specced with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD (2TB for the RTX 5090 version). You’ll have to act quickly, though, as they seem to be selling out fast.

A court in Germany has granted court injunctions against Micron, marking a win for YMTC on the European/German front in the 3-year legal war between the two companies over memory technology patents.

According to a Digitimes report, the court ruled on Sept. 18 that Micron did infringe YMTC’s 3D NAND technology patents in two instances. The injunctions could restrict Micron’s supply in Germany and impact the broader European NAND market. Micron said it disagreed with the court ruling and has already filed an appeal. It is also challenging the validity of the related patents in separate legal cases across various countries.