Following the announcement of Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra ahead of Computex, the company is announcing another device with the RTX Spark system on a chip at its developer conference, Build, in San Francisco.

That new PC is the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box. With the company pushing Windows as a platform for agentic AI with Nvidia's new processor, the Surface-branded mini PC is set to run sustained workloads with a 100W thermal envelope — more than you can get in a laptop.

Microsoft says that includes "long-running training jobs, agentic AI pipelines and local model fine-tuning."

The PC has an aluminum chassis with 1,000 air vents in a grid, which looks a bit like the flat top of the Xbox Series X. The system features two USB Type-C ports, HDMI, USB-A, Ethernet, and a headphone jack.

Nvidia states that the RTX Spark can deliver up to one petaflop of AI compute with 128GB of unified memory and can run models with up to 120 billion parameters locally.

The system will come set up for developers, with Visual Studio Code, GitHub Copilot, and other applications preinstalled. Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2) with support for Nvidia's CUDA technology will also come out of the box, along with PowerShell7.

Microsoft hasn't announced a price for the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, but says it will be available this year at microsoft.com in the United States. While you can't make a pre-order, you can sign up to learn more on the device's web page.

Microsoft has just announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, powered by Nvidia’s latest RTX Spark Superchip for laptops and desktop PCs, at Computex 2026. Claimed to be the most powerful Surface laptop device yet, the new Surface Laptop Ultra is essentially Microsoft’s answer to the current-gen MacBook Pro. The company has positioned the notebook primarily for AI development but also for creators and developers who seek powerful performance in a portable package.

Made in collaboration with Nvidia, the Surface Laptop Ultra will be one of the first devices featuring the RTX Spark Superchip. Nvidia’s new Windows on Arm platform is claimed to be more powerful and capable than any other on the market featuring 20 Arm CPU cores, a Blackwell GPU with 6144 CUDA cores, 128GB of unified LPDDR5X RAM, and up to 300 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The CPU and GPU are interconnected using NVLink C2C, while the large pool of unified memory can be dynamically allocated between the CPU and GPU. Offering up to 1 petaflop of AI compute, the RTX Spark is capable of running up to 120B parameter models locally.

As for the device itself, the new Surface Laptop Ultra will feature a 15-inch mini-LED PixelSense Ultra display with a resolution of 2880 x 1920, offering 262 pixels per inch. Microsoft claims that it can reach up to 2,000 nits of peak HDR brightness, which should be excellent for creators on the go. It also features a large haptic touchpad along with a good selection of ports, including HDMI, USB-C, USB-A, SD card reader, and a headphone jack. Weighing under just 4.5 pounds, it will be available in Platinum (silver) and Nightfall (black) color options. Microsoft claims all-day battery life on the laptop and an optimized internal layout with dual-fans to maintain proper thermals for sustained performance.

The new Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra is expected to arrive later this year, with final pricing and availability to be announced closer to launch. With the ongoing RAM-apocalypse, it seems like a smart move by Microsoft to adopt Nvidia’s new Arm platform with unified memory. Beyond reducing the need for large pools of dedicated system and graphics memory, the architecture should also help improve efficiency and enable larger AI models to run locally without relying heavily on cloud resources. If Nvidia's performance claims hold up in real-world workloads, the Surface Laptop Ultra could emerge as one of the most compelling Windows alternatives to Apple's MacBook Pro for AI developers, content creators, and power users alike.

AMD is allegedly working on an Arm-based SoC, codenamed "Sound Wave", in a bid to power Microsoft's Surface laptops next year, claims Kepler via ITHome. Moving away from traditional x86 designs, Sound Wave is reported to feature the Arm ISA and will likely leverage off-the-shelf Cortex cores. Details on exact specifications, availability, and pricing remain under wraps, so it's wise to approach this leak with caution.

Looking beyond its historical Wintel roots, Microsoft has made a clear push towards the WoA (Windows on Arm) platform. This was put into effect with the firm's partnership with Qualcomm, which yielded the Snapdragon X family. This was likely a significant catalyst that motivated Intel to engineer an efficiency-first alternative: Lunar Lake. In fact, even Nvidia is entering the WoA space with its rumored N1 family of SoCs, developed in partnership with MediaTek.

The strong success of the Nintendo Switch, powered by Nvidia hardware, underlines a lucrative market for Arm-based handhelds. These Sound Wave SoCs, if true, could be a foundation for the Steam Deck 2, but I must emphasize this is highly speculative. Microsoft's current-generation Surface Pro 11 and Surface 7 laptops are powered by chips from Qualcomm and Intel. AMD's existing gap in efficiency compared to Snapdragon X, Lunar Lake, and likely soon-to-launch N1 offerings could be bridged with these Arm-based SoCs.

At its Surface event scheduled for May 6th next week, Microsoft is expected to unveil two new compact offerings under its Surface Pro and Surface Laptop families, according to WinFuture. It's important to note that these smaller variants are not a new generation, but rather expand the existing Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7 product lines. Information about technical details, pricing, and availability remains in the dark, but Microsoft is expected to reveal more on Tuesday.

Microsoft offers a range of Surface devices, designed for various use cases. The Surface Pro family features 2-in-1 tablets that can function both as a tablet and a laptop with the detachable keyboard (purchased separately). The Surface Laptop series, on the other hand, sticks to the basics with a traditional clamshell laptop form factor.

Starting in June 2024, Microsoft revealed the Surface Laptop 7 (15-inch and 13.8-inch) and Surface Pro 11 (13-inch) families, initially equipped with Qualcomm's Arm-based Snapdragon X chips, for the mainstream. Variants with Intel's Lunar Lake followed, targeted towards business users.

12-inch version of the Surface Pro 11

Microsoft is reportedly extending these product lines with compact offerings, starting with a 12-inch version of the Surface Pro 11. In terms of display, we're looking at a PixelSense Flow LCD panel (likely IPS), though the refresh rate has not been specified. Under the hood, it reportedly features the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 SoC with 8 Oryon cores, along with a 45 TOPS capable Hexagon-based NPU.

The SoC is connected with 16GB of LPDDR5x memory (likely 8448 MT/s), which is non-expandable. The laptop is expected to be available in 256GB and 512GB storage capacities, supplied by a UFS-based solution, which, unlike SSDs, is not upgradable. Microsoft claims 16 hours of local video playback, but real-world usage will vary. The leaked press slides only mention two USB Type-C ports for data transfer, charging, and hooking up external displays.

13-inch version of the Surface Laptop 7

Microsoft is releasing two new Surface Copilot+ PCs designed for business use this coming month. According to the Microsoft Devices Blog, the company will launch the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop on February 18, and both devices will have a starting MSRP of $1,499.99. Aside from sporting an Intel Core Ultra 200V (Lunar Lake) chip, these will also have 5G connectivity, allowing you to connect to the internet even if there’s no nearby Wi-Fi access point.

The Surface Laptop for Business is available with either a 13.8-inch or 15-inch display, giving users the ability to pick a screen that will better suit their workflow. But whatever screen size you choose, you will get a sleek and compact laptop as the 13.8-inch laptop is just 0.69 inches thick, while the larger 15-inch model is just 0.72 inches. Microsoft also boasts a battery life of up to 22 hours for local video playback and 14 hours of active web usage, although this will definitely vary depending on your environment and situation.

If you want a more versatile device, the Surface Pro for Business might be a more suitable option. It’s only available as a 13-inch tablet, although you can choose between an OLED and LCD display. Microsoft added a 1440p ultrawide front-facing camera to make video meetings much easier, and it also installed a 10-megapixel Ultra HD rear-facing camera to capture other people in the room. Also, since this device is smaller than the Surface Laptop, it has a shorter but still respectable 14-hour battery life of local video playback and up to 10 hours of active web usage.

Note that the Surface Pro for Business doesn’t come with any accessories. If you want the Surface Pro Keyboard and the Surface Slim Pen, you have to buy them separately.

However, what makes these “for Business” devices more expensive and stand out from consumer-grade laptops are their security features. Both the Surface Laptop and Surface Pro are equipped with Windows 11 Secured-core PC and Microsoft Pluton technology. You’ll also get an integrated smart card reader on the Surface Laptop for Business, while the smaller Surface Pro for Business would have to settle for NFC authentication.

These two new devices will give enterprise customers more options if they want a Surface device. Previously, if they wanted the latest model of one of these, they’d have to settle for a Snapdragon X processor. While these are great chips, they have some compatibility limitations, especially for some older legacy software that some businesses still use to this day.

The Surface and Surface Pro lineups will get Lunar Lake models in 2025, a report from Windows Central claims.

Citing his sources, Windows Central senior editor Zac Bowden claims Microsoft is set to launch a slew of new Surface devices, including Lunar Lake-powered Surface and Surface Pro laptops, a new Surface Laptop Studio model sporting a Snapdraon X Plus, and a new Surface device with an 11-inch screen.

The Lunar Lake variant of the latest Surface Laptop 7 has been anticipated since October when a model sporting the Core Ultra 7 268V was spotted on Chinese e-tailer Goofish. Intel's Lunar Lake will also make its way to the Surface Pro 11, the report alleges. These Lunar Lake models will be pretty much the same as their Snapdragon counterparts, except for sporting an anti-reflective display, a feature that the previous Surface Laptop 6 and Surface Pro 10 had. Bowden believes that the Lunar Lake Surface Laptop could even sport 5G connectivity.

These new Surface devices would be Microsoft’s first Copilot+ PCs powered by Intel CPUs and will arrive in the first quarter of 2025, the report says. If true, then that may mean Microsoft plans to reveal these Lunar Lake laptops at CES in January.

Bowden says Microsoft is also working on a Copilot+ version of the Surface Laptop Studio. Although the Surface Laptop Studio 2 only came out last year, it’s in need of an upgrade because it uses one of Intel’s 13th Gen CPUs based on Raptor Lake, and those were already out of date by then. Raptor Lake has already been succeeded thrice over, by Raptor Lake Refresh, Meteor Lake, and now Lunar Lake.

It’s unclear to Bowden what processor Microsoft will choose for the new Surface Laptop Studio, but since it’s a Copilot+ PC, that means there are not a ton of options. It may use a Lunar Lake-based Core Ultra 200 CPU, but AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 APUs powered by Strix Point are also on the table, as are Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors. Depending on how far out this Surface Laptop Studio is, Microsoft may even choose processors set to launch in 2025 like Panther Lake.

There’s also a new Surface device in the works, with a screen size of 11 inches; it’s apparently similar to the Surface Laptop Go but more premium. According to the report, Qualcomm has scored this one, as Microsoft is using the Snapdragon X Plus for the upcoming Surface device. The cut-down version of Qualcomm’s high-end Snapdragon X Elite chip, the X Plus ranges from 8 to 10 cores rather than 12 and is equipped with a much weaker integrated GPU, but still has the same NPU capable of 45 TOPS and is more optimal for devices with reduced thermal headroom.

The new Surface Laptop Studio and the upcoming 11-inch Surface are expected to land in 2025 as well, but Bowden says they could arrive as late as fall.

Microsoft's 2024 Surface Pro 2-in-1 Laptop is on sale for its lowest price ever this Black Friday, at a record-low $999. For $999, you get the cheapest-ever Copilot+ 2-in-1 machine, with the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite processor, 16GB RAM, and 256GB storage.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 11th edition (or 2024 edition) offers a unique experience as a 2-in-1 laptop. The form factor provides a degree of customizability to your workflow; take notes typed or by hand with a stylus, draw or sketch on the go, or fire up some heavier programs thanks to the Snapdragon X Elite processor inside.

As someone who drove a Surface Go daily for productivity in my early college years, I can attest to the quality experience offered by Microsoft's 2-in-1 family of machines. DMing Dungeons and Dragons with a compact device, taking handwritten lecture notes, and having a digital sketchpad on the same device I typed essays and articles on was a game-changer for my workflow.

In addition to the Snapdragon X Elite, the machine comes with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage. The RAM in Surface Pros is soldered to the motherboard and non-upgradable, but the 256GB SSD is a replaceable M.2 2230 SD, which can be manually upgraded to 2TB or more. We'd recommend stepping up the storage from here to at least 512GB, if not 1TB, as 256GB is a bit of an un-fun experience. Check out our Black Friday SSD Deals landing page for help finding your compact SSD.

As a Copilot+ PC, the Surface Pro 2024 also comes with all of the Copilot+ AI features Microsoft loves to share. The much-maligned (and thankfully optional) Recall feature is back, offering total surveillance over your browsing to help you find what you forget. Other helpful features like Live Translation Captions, AI image generation, and resolution upscaling are also ready.

Microsoft's Surface Pro 2-in-1 (2024) is a steal for $999, representing $400 off on an exciting product. If your workflow wants versatility or a unique computing experience, look no further than this endearing tablet.

We are working hard to find the best deals for you this Black Friday. If you're looking for other products, check out our Black Friday Computer Hardware Deals Live blog for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals Live blog, Monitor Deals Live, Graphics Card Deals, or CPU Deals pages.

Microsoft is reportedly working on a new Surface Laptop powered by Intel's Lunar Lake processors, following leaks from Chinese marketplace Goofish discovered by Windows Central. The recently launched Core Ultra 200V processors are expected to bring improved power efficiency and better graphics performance compared to the Qualcomm Snapdragon X chipsets currently used in Microsoft’s consumer Surface Laptop lineup.

The leaked prototype suggests that the new Surface Laptop, potentially the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, will feature the Core Ultra 7 268V, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, offering notable enhancements for power users. The launch is speculated to happen in 2025, possibly around CES or later in spring.

While the leaks are not highly credible, they echo a similar situation from previous years, when a Surface Pro 7 Plus prototype was leaked before its release. Additionally, the prototype’s "NOT FOR SALE" engraving further indicates that the device could be a legitimate early sample unit.

Notably, the design of the leaked device appears to retain the same aesthetics as the Surface Laptop 7, meaning that the refresh will mainly focus on internal upgrades. The possibility of a 2025 release aligns with Microsoft’s typical product update schedule, and many speculate that CES 2025 could be the platform for the official unveiling.

Microsoft partnered with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X chipsets earlier this year, receiving exclusive access to its new consumer Surface Laptop and Surface Pro releases. As the company continues to refine its Surface line, including Lunar Lake processors, it may offer users more powerful and versatile hardware options, addressing the growing demand for efficient and performance-oriented laptops.

Intel’s Lunar Lake processors prioritize power efficiency while delivering robust performance, especially in GPU-intensive tasks like gaming. Initial impressions of Intel’s Lunar Lake architecture on laptops like the Asus ZenBook S 14 have been primarily positive. The new Core Ultra 200V outperforms Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite by a good margin, especially in games offering playable frame rates at 1080p resolution, a feat beyond the capabilities of current Snapdragon-powered Surface devices.

As with all leaks, the final specifications and design are subject to change until Microsoft provides official confirmation.

Microsoft's latest Surface devices, the Surface Pro (11th Edition) and Surface Laptop (7th Edition), made a splash this summer as the flagship Copilot+ PCs, utilizing Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and Plus processors. Now, Microsoft is making them available for business customers, and both the new Surface Pro and existing Surface Pro 10 with Intel chips will get 5G options.

The Snapdragon machines, sans 5G connectivity will be available on September 10. Like the consumer models, the Surface Pro will start with a 10-core Snapdragon X Plus and LCD display, or you can upgrade to both a 12-core Snapdragon X Elite and an OLED screen. The Surface Laptop will come in a 13.8-inch model using either a 10-core Plus or 12-core  Elite, or a 15-inch model relying solely on the Elite.

The more interesting SKUs are coming a little later, on September 26, when both the Intel-based Surface Pro 10 and the Snapdragon-based Surface Pro each get 5G. The Surface Pro 10 was only ever released as an enterprise device (an update for those who want to stick with x86 processors), while the Snapdragon-based Surface Pro didn't launch with wireless connectivity on the consumer model.

Microsoft quietly added 5G to the 2024 Snapdragon Surface Pro for the general populous after launch, specifically in the platinum color, with either a Snapdragon X Plus, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD or a Snapdragon X Elite, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD.

The Surface Pro 11th Edition and Surface Laptop 7th Edition starts at an MSRP of $1,099.99 . For commercial customers, the Surface Pro 11th Edition will start at $1,399.99, while the Surface Pro 10 with 5G starts at $1,499.99 .

In addition, Microsoft has a new Surface Keyboard releasing on October 3. It's not terribly different from the existing model, but this version has a Copilot key. Microsoft Surface general manager Nancie Gaskill claims in a blog post that "48% of Surface devices used by commercial customers are connected to additional monitors," so keeping this in the lineup makes sense. Pricing wasn't listed for the keyboard.

Microsoft is making a decisive statement with its new 2-in-1. The 2024 Surface Pro (dubbed the "11th Edition"), isn't the first Surface to use an Arm processor, but with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X chips and more compatible apps than ever, Microsoft is doubling down on a world where there are options for the best premium laptop beyond Intel and AMD's x86.

The new Surface also introduces OLED to the lineup for the first time, though you'll need to upgrade to the Snapdragon X Elite to get it. And while the Arm processors allow for long battery life, Arm compatibility in Windows isn't perfect yet. 

Some apps, especially games, won't work, and certain peripherals that require drivers that aren't built into Windows also aren’t likely to work. But with the addition of popular apps like Google Chrome and Adobe Photoshop, there is more native Arm software than ever.

Add in a new, really cool (but obscenely expensive) keyboard, and you get a Surface that feels fresh and modern. Now Microsoft needs to make sure Windows gets even more features to make it worth it.

Design of the Microsoft Surface Pro (2024)

If you want a tablet running Windows 11, the Surface Pro is still one of the few games in town. It's also perhaps the most svelte and attractive. The general shape of the Surface hasn't changed a ton in the last few years; it's a tablet with a kickstand and an optional (well, sold separately) keyboard. It's extremely portable, at 11.3 x 8.2 x 0.37 inches before the keyboard, and light at 1.97 pounds (895 grams).

Our review unit came in a pretty "sapphire" blue, though there are also options in a more traditional platinum, black, as well as a sandy "dune" color.

The kickstand on the rear is adorned with a tone-on-tone reflective Microsoft logo, and the only other distinctive feature is some venting for the fan. Otherwise, it's a plain slate.

The top of the tablet is where you'll find the power button and volume rocker. The ports are scant: the left side features two USB Type-C (USB 4) ports, while the right side has only the Surface Connect port. There is no headphone jack — this is the future, apparently.

On the bottom are magnetic ports to connect to Microsoft's Surface keyboards, which fold up over the display and serve as cover for the screen, similar to a clamshell laptop.

The tablet form factor is smaller than competing clamshells, which are more common. The 13-inch MacBook Air is 2.7 pounds and 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches. HP's OmniBook X (also a Copilot+ PC) is 12.32 x 8.8 x 0.57 inches and 2.97 pounds. The Dell XPS 14 with Intel Core Ultra is 12.6 x 8.5 x 0.71 inches and 3.3 pounds.

Productivity Performance on the Microsoft Surface Pro (2024)

The new Surface Pro is among the first computers we've tested with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite processors. It's another stab at bringing Windows on Arm to the masses, and also an attempt to infuse excitement for AI into the brand; the Surface Pro is one of the flagship Copilot+ PCs.

The Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 is the second fastest of Qualcomm's new chips, running 12 cores at a maximum multithreaded frequency of 3.4 GHz and a dual-core boost of 4.0 GHz. As we reviewed the Surface, that chip is paired with 16GB of LPDDR5x memory and a 512GB SSD. The chip performed admirably in our benchmarks, and we used Arm-native applications where available.

On Geekbench 6, the Surface Pro achieved a single-core score of 2,813 and a multi-core score of 14,432. The multi-core core was the highest among competitors, including the MacBook Air M3 (12,087), the Dell XPS 14 (12,701, Intel Core Ultra 7 155H), and HP OmniBook X (13,200, Snapdragon X1E-78-100). But Apple's M3 had the edge in single-core performance, topping the chart with a score of 3,082.

The Surface copied 25GB of files at a rate of 1,001.16 MBps, falling just behind the MacBook Air. It beat the other Snapdragon laptop, the HP OmniBook X (892.54), while the Intel-powered  XPS 14 blew the pack away at 1,843.93 MBps.

On Handbrake, the Surface Pro transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 5 minutes and 21 seconds, the fastest of the bunch. In this instance, the Mac was in the back of the pack at 6:32. (If you're wondering, the Surface Pro took 8 minutes and 12 seconds to complete the same task using the x86 version of the app in emulation. So using native apps really does matter!)

To stress the machine, we ran Cinebench R24 repeatedly for 20 sequences. Typically, this lets us see if a system is throttling when bogged down with intense workloads. In this case, we only got part of the story. The scores dropped from the first (828.28) to the second run (661.63), before leveling out in the mid 700's. Usually, we would run HWInfo in conjunction to measure temperatures and processor speeds, but that program isn't compatible with Qualcomm's Arm chip designs yet. (Though its developer claims that it is coming.)

The state of Windows on Arm, and Emulation

Previous efforts to get Windows software, which is typically written for x86 (Intel and AMD) architectures, running on Arm chips have been hit or miss at best, with many popular apps and programs running in emulation (making them slower while also consuming more battery life), and many other programs refusing to run at all. For an operating system like Windows where people have grown to expect software to mostly just work, that's a pretty big problem.

But with the launch of Snapdragon X Elite and the paired Microsoft Copilot+ push, things are very different this time around, with many mainstream apps and programs getting native Arm versions. These include Spotify, Photoshop, Zoom, Whatsapp, and, crucially, Google Chrome. Basically, everything in my day-to-day workload that I tried running worked fine, with the exception of HWinfo, which we typically use for testing. 

Microsoft still lists certain other limitations for Arm-based PCs, including issues with some third-party antivirus, many games (especially those with anti-cheat), and apps that customize Windows itself. Drivers for hardware and software that have not been designed for Arm will also have issues, so you'll have to rely only on drivers built into Windows 11 or for the manufacturer to make one for Arm.

Games are another story. While there are some games that work, many won't even launch. If you're hoping to game on Qualcomm's GPU, you'll have to wait for more work on the emulation side, or for more Arm native games. Dead Cells worked, but there was a weird strobing effect around the character, which was distracting. Stray wasn't able to install DirectX components and would not launch. The Finals would attempt to launch and then immediately stop, before the executable popped up.

Granted, Microsoft isn't calling the Surface Pro a gaming machine (though it would love you to stream games through Game Pass Ultimate, I'm sure). Gaming on Intel graphics isn't exactly an incredible experience, but the compatibility would be largely improved.

Display on the Microsoft Surface Pro (2024)

The Surface Pro's 13-inch OLED display is a stunner (if you opt for the lower-end Snapdragon X Plus CPU, you'll get a standard LCD screen). It's a high-resolution, 2880 x 1920 panel with a 3:2 aspect ratio and a refresh rate up to 120 Hz.

I used the Surface Pro to watch the teaser trailer for F1; the green grassy patches along an F1 track popped against the cement. All of the close-ups on the cars are feasts for the eyes, and I could make out Brad Pitt's furrowed brow on the screen.

The Surface's display easily outclassed the non-OLED MacBook Air and HP OmniBook X in our measurements, and it also surpassed the OLED screen on the XPS 14. Microsoft's screen covers 163% of the sRGB gamut and 115.2% of the DCI-P3 color space.

Microsoft's screen also proved to be the brightest of the group at 564 nits. The next closest was the MacBook Air at 476.4 nits.

As has been the case for years, Microsoft doesn't include a keyboard in the box with the Surface Pro. That costs extra. A stylus, for those who do a lot of notetaking or drawing, also isn't included. 

Our review unit came with the $450 Surface Pro Flex Keyboard with Slim Pen combo. The Slim Pen 2 isn't new, but the keyboard now works over Bluetooth to control the computer even when it's not directly connected. (You can buy the Flex keyboard without the Slim Pen for $350).

Microsoft still does low-travel typing extremely well. The chiclet keys feel surprisingly deep and crisp. There's a bit of bounce, particularly when the keyboard is tilted up, but it's still comfortable. On the monkeytype test, I hit 122 words per minute with 98% accuracy, which is better than I hit on some traditional laptops.

The Flex keyboard does have some cool tricks. There's a haptic feedback touchpad, which feels premium and is wider than on some other Surface keyboards. And I did appreciate being able to use the keyboard separately from the laptop. It would be great for travel in addition to one of the best portable monitors.

But that price is a huge ask for a keyboard designed to work with the Surface Pro almost exclusively. There are other keyboard options, including a non-Bluetooth keyboard starting at $139.99, with versions with stylus storage or an included pen going up from there.

The Surface Slim Pen 2 hasn't changed here. It still offers a low haptic rumble to simulate the feeling of writing or sketching on paper. It's not game-changing, but some people might like the feel. For me, I just like how well it works with the Surface screen set at 120 Hz, which feels more like seamless writing.

Audio on the Microsoft Surface Pro (2024)

For a sleek tablet, the Surface Pro has decent sound. The twin 2W speakers get nice and loud, with balanced audio. For instance, on Yellowcard's "Lights and Sounds," the drums snapped in balance with the guitars and vocals (I would've preferred the vocals to stand a bit more on their own), while violins fluttered gently in the background.

Other than the drums, there was little on the low end, and I couldn't make out the bass.

When I was playing Dead Cells (despite some flickering — see above), a coworker noted how good the system sounded for its size.

Upgradeability of the Microsoft Surface Pro (2024)

The Surface Pro has a small door on the rear, behind the kickstand, that provides easy access to upgrade or repair the SSD. Removing the door doesn't even require any tools – you simply push down on a small dimple and it pops off.

The SSD is held down by a Torx screw, which you'll need to put back in place with a new SSD. Microsoft uses small 2230 SSDs, like the best SSDs for the Steam Deck, rather than the standard 2280 SSDs 

Despite that ease, Microsoft claims that the Surface Pro isn't designed to be user-serviceable: "This device does not contain user serviceable parts. Hard drive is only removable by an authorized technician following Microsoft provided instructions," the fine print under the company's tech specs reads. 

Despite Microsoft claiming that the Surface Pro is more repairable than ever, it also states that parts that it sells through the Microsoft Store and iFixit are only for out-of-warranty repairs by "by individuals with the knowledge and experience to repair electronic devices following Microsoft’s Service Guide."

That's fair for many repairs, which require removing the display. But the SSD? That's pretty easy in comparison.

Battery Life on the Microsoft Surface Pro (2024) 

It's about time we move on from calling 8 hours "all-day" battery life. The Surface Pro shows some of Arm's power efficiency benefits, pushing to 12 hours and 17 minutes on our test, which involves streaming video, browsing the web, and light graphics work with the screen set to 150 nits.

The Surface easily beat the XPS 14 (8:56), though the MacBook Air (M3) at 15:13 and HP OmniBook X at 16:18 lasted even longer. It's possible that the OLED screen on the Surface was more of a power draw.

Copilot+ PC Features

Of course, as a Copilot+ PC, the Surface Pro also ships with Microsoft's exclusive (at least for now) AI-focused features, such as they are. Cocreator is an addition to Paint that attempts to combine a text prompt and your own attempts at drawing to create the kind of image you're after. Studio Effects add background blur and other effects to your webcam. And Live Captions With Translation extends the existing Live Captions feature (which adds captioning to basically any audio playing on the device) to provide live translations between languages.

How useful the above features will be to you will of course in large part depend on how and why you use your laptop. But we generally haven't found these Copilot+ features all that useful or exciting. And of course, the primary exclusive feature to Windows on Arm, the screen-capturing Recall, has seemingly been indefinitely delayed due to privacy concerns and the resulting backlash.

Heat on the Microsoft Surface Pro (2024)

We measured skin temperatures on the Surface Pro while running a gauntlet of Cinebench 2024 runs. While I don't expect that rendering is the main use case for something so slim, note that if you do push the Pro and Elite X to their limits, the system gets hot. The Surface reached 114.6 degrees Fahrenheit on the hottest part of the back of the device, which is too hot to comfortably hold as a tablet. You'll want to only use the keyboard for input if you're doing intense work.

For more typical usage, like writing, emails, and web browsing, the system stayed cool.

Webcams on the Microsoft Surface Pro (2024)

I'll give Microsoft this — it continues to put great cameras on its tablets. The Surface Pro is an excellent choice if you're on Zoom calls all day. Microsoft lists the front webcam as QHD, while the back has a 10MP shooter.

As a person who works at a desk, I'm far more preoccupied with the front-facing camera. 

Sample shots I took were excellent, catching every detail of my face, (including some eye bags from a few sleepless nights) and caught my burgundy shirt with perfect accuracy. The rear camera was more of a mixed bag, with some photos of fruit coming out a bit overexposed. It should work fine enough for simple fieldwork.

With its Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft has built more studio effects into Windows, like auto framing, filters, and background blur. Outside of auto eye contact, I generally had success with these when I chose to use them, but thankfully they were off by default.

Software and Warranty on the Microsoft Surface Pro (2024)

One of the benefits of Microsoft's Surface line of products is that there's minimal software installed. The only major preinstalled software is the Surface app, which has device information like the serial number, battery charging and pen pressure changes, and more. There's a section filled with partner deals, which feels like bloat.  

The Pro does, however, still have links to apps in the Microsoft Store in the Start menu, including Spotify and LinkedIn.

Microsoft sells the Surface Pro with a 1-year warranty, though you can bump it up to as much as four years with Microsoft Complete for an additional charge.

Configurations of the Microsoft Surface Pro (2024) 

We tested a $1,499.99 configuration of the Surface Pro with a 12-core Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100, 16GB of RAM, an OLED screen, 512GB of storage, and the sapphire blue color. But our unit also came with the new Surface Pro Flex Keyboard with Slim Pen, which runs $449.98. That adds up to a total of $1,949.97 as tested.

The new Surface Pro starts at $999.99, which gets you a less powerful 10-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip, an LCD display, 16GB of RAM, and a paltry 256GB storage drive. That base model also only comes in platinum.

In between, there are Snapdragon X Plus configurations that bump up to 512GB for $1,199.99. Beyond our option, boosting to Snapdragon X Elite and 1TB of storage is $1,699.99.

If you want the OLED screen, you need to get the Snapdragon X Elite chip. That's not available with the lower-end processor.

All of those prices, however, are without a keyboard or a stylus. Years and years later, Microsoft still isn't including crucial peripherals in the box. A Surface Pro keyboard without storage for a stylus is $139.99, and goes up from there with combos that include the Surface Slim Pen, like the new Flex Keyboard we tried out. Be sure to tack that on when you're budgeting for a system.

Later this year, Microsoft says it will be adding 5G versions of the Surface Pro with a nano SIM card slot.

Bottom Line

In many ways, the Surface Pro (11th Edition) feels like it's nailing Microsoft's original vision: a portable, slim PC that's capable on the go with long battery life and a focus on an incredible screen. In that respect, one could argue that the 2024 Surface Pro is one of the best iterations of the device.

What it's not, at least right now, is some sort of AI game changer. The Copilot+ features are few and far between, and outside of Live Translation, don't feel like big changes to functionality or accessibility. There are some apps that take advantage of the NPU, but most services, including Copilot itself, still run in the cloud.

As a showcase for the Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors, I suspect it will work for most people. More apps than ever are Arm native, though there are still some that don't work at all. I suspect it's professionals with niche uses that will have the most issues. (I suspect this is why the Surface Pro 10 for Business is around with Intel's Core Ultra chips). Anyone with mission-critical software or peripherals for work might want to wait and see if developers add support.

But as a vision for the future, where Arm is considered as important as Intel and AMD's chips to Microsoft, there's something here. The Surface Pro feels as nimble as ever, and the improved screen and longer battery life are welcome additions. Despite the lack of Intel or AMD, this feels like a flagship device. But for AI? Microsoft needs to get more developers on board to finish the job.

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Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 7 are shipping, and the folks at iFixit have already started examining the repairability of the devices. Surprisingly, the team has almost nothing but praise for how Microsoft enables technicians to service the latest Surface tablet and laptop.

Releasing its typical walkthrough of disassembling both devices on YouTube, Shahram Mokhtari from the iFixit crew goes through the process of removing just about every component to demonstrate how easily someone could repair their new Surface device at home. In the end, iFixit gives both the Surface Pro 11 and the Surface Laptop 7 a repairability rating of 8 out of 10, almost the highest possible score.

Once you get into the case of either device, you can see several labels and QR codes with wrench symbols above them. Microsoft calls them “Wayfinder Markings,” and they detail how many and what kind of screws are used to secure components, making it easy to know exactly which Torx driver bit to reach for. Not only that, but the QR codes take you straight to Microsoft’s download page for the official service guides. 

Yes, Microsoft has already published the service guides for both the Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7. As Mokhtari demonstrates, common tasks like removing the battery and SSD are relatively simple tasks on both tablet and laptop.

In the case of the laptop, battery removal can be accomplished without removing anything else from the computer other than the bottom feet and back cover. Previous Surface Laptop models buried the battery, making it necessary to remove several components just to replace the only consumable part inside the case.

The video proceeds to remove every component from the laptop, down to and including the motherboard. While replacing the SSD is easy, Mokhtari points out that the memory is soldered to the motherboard and is, therefore, not easily user-replaceable.

The Surface Pro 11 is also easy to work on. Mokhtari shows that the SSD can be replaced without disassembling the tablet. Tearing down the tablet for battery replacement or other repairs is slightly more involved than working on the laptop. The adhesive securing the screen could cause some frustration for a PC DIY enthusiast replacing the battery. That said, iFixit says the display removal is easy compared to other tablets.

Microsoft has taken great pains to make the tablet and laptop easier to repair. In the video, Mokhtari notes that when it comes to serviceability and modularity, “the Surface laptop line of devices started as some of the worst devices we’ve ever seen.” This new generation of devices shows that Microsoft is embracing the consumers’ right to repair by not only providing helpful labels and information inside the case but by publishing the service guides for them on launch day.

It's been rumored since at least April that Microsoft would upgrade its Surface and Surface Laptop. Well, today, at its AI and devices event in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft officially unveiled the two devices. While the looks are familiar, both devices have all-new hardware underneath that makes them incredibly powerful devices that blow away their predecessors.

Surface Laptop
Microsoft has opted for Snapdragon X processors in the Surface Laptop. The smaller 13.8-inch model is available with the Snapdragon X Plus and the Snapdragon X Elite, while the larger 15-inch model comes exclusively with the Snapdragon X Elite. No matter which model you choose, RAM options are 16GB, 32GB or 64GB, while storage options include a 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD.

According to Microsoft, when using the Snapdragon X Elite, the new Surface Laptop is up to 85 percent faster than the Surface Laptop 5. Microsoft is really aiming the Surface Laptop as a MacBook Air killer, touting up to 22 hours of battery life for the 15-inch model (66 WHr battery) and 20 hours with the 13.8-inch model (54 WHr). You also get Wi-Fi 7, which isn't available on any Apple MacBook (Air or Pro).

The 13.8-inch Surface Laptop weighs a smidge under 3 pounds, while the 15-inch model is 3.67 pounds. In the hands-on area, I got a chance to manhandle both machines, and I was impressed not only with the weight of both but how they felt in my hand. The 13.8-inch, however, was my favorite due to its form factor.

Surface Pro

The Surface Pro also gets a Snapdragon X makeover, and is available in two versions. The regular Surface Pro comes with a Snapdragon X Plus processor and a 13-inch 2880 x 1920 IPS PixelSense display. It's also limited to 16GB of LPDDR5x and can be equipped with up to a 512GB SSD. But the real star of the show is the Surface Pro with OLED. The model has a brilliant 13-inch OLED panel with a 2880 x 1920 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. Seeing the two side-by-side, there's no contest that the Surface Pro OLED has the superior display of the newly announced tablets.

As a higher-end machine, the Surface Pro OLED has 16GB and 32GB RAM options, and adds a 1TB SSD option at the top of the range for those that need more storage. While both laptops weigh 1.97 pounds, the OLED model has a slightly larger battery (53 WHr versus 47 WHr).

The Surface Pro also has available a new Flex Keyboard, which not only works when attached to the tablet, but also when detached. The wireless connection lets you place the Surface Pro wherever you want without being constrained by the physical keyboard. The touchpad incorporates a customizable haptic touchpad, which I was able to play around with a little bit in the demo area. The touchpad is also 14 percent larger, which is a huge boon as I always found the older touchpad to be a bit on the smaller side for my tastes.

The new Surface devices are available for preorder right now via Microsoft.com with a starting price of $999.

Hello from Redmond, Washington, where Microsoft will be holding its Spring 2024 event where it is expected to launch new Surface hardware and announce various improvements made to Windows 11 revolving around artificial intelligence (AI). There's also word that we'll hear from multiple OEMs that plan to release new thin and light laptops using Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Series of Arm processors.

The event is not being live-streamed for the public, but we'll begin our live coverage of the event starting at 1 pm ET (11 am PT).

We're currently seated, loaded up with sugary treats from Microsoft and listening to some bumping music from Kryptogram.

Frank Shaw, Microsoft's communications chief just came on stage to welcome the assembled press. He welcomed us to the new Redmond campus and joked about how "lively" the crowd was when not many people responded to his "Good morning" greeting. 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is now on stage to talk about moving beyond the cloud and instead toward the device. We moved to "how to build computers that understand us, instead of us having to understand computers. I think we're real close to the breakthrough."

Nadella announced that this new class of devices are called Copilot+PC

Yusuf Mehdi, Executive VP and Consumer Chief Marketing Office, is now on stage to talk up the benefits of Copilot+PCs. They are the "fastest Winodws PCs" ever created, things to a rearchitected Windows 11 operating system. Mehdi also claimed that the PCs are 58 faster than Apple's news MacBook Air with M3 processor.

Mehdi added, "The way we store content in our minds is not an efficient way of storing information on a computer." With Recall, a new feature in Windows 11, you leverage the power AI and system performance. As if you have a photographic memory. Helps you find anything you've ever seen or done on your computer.

For example, you can use your voice to search for anything on your PC. An example was shown where a voice search was initiated to find a chart with purple text that was created earlier in the week. Recall searched and found the PowerPoint presentation. 

Windows CoPilot runtime with 40+ AI models built into Windows 11. For example, the Photos app has been reimagined to edit and enhance your photos or use Supe Resolution. You can even use AI to have your photos tell textual stories

The CEOs of Intel, AMD and Qualcomm taped footage of them extolling the virtues of AI PCs and how they will drive new demand for consumer and business PCs.

Talking now about Snapdragon X Series PCs

Copilot+PCs running on Snapdragon X will have native Microsoft apps to enhance performance. Microsoft will also have native Arm apps from a number of third-party software partners. Also have a new Prism emulator called as efficient as Apple's Rosetta 2.

Microsoft announced a new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop CoPilot+Pro. The most powerful they've ever developed, running Snapdragon X. Most intelligent and most powerful ever built. The new Surface Laptop is available in 13.8- and 15-inch displays, and is available in four colors. 

It's more than 80 percent faster than the previous generation (Surface Laptop 5). It can run three 4K monitors plus the laptop itself (definitely a dig at the Apple MacBook Air). Longest battery life if any Surface device. The PixelSense display also has no notch (another knock against the MacBook Air).

Adobe's flagship apps are coming to Copilot+PCs, with native Arm support.

Live Captions with Live translations now available with Copilot+PCs. Can turn any audio passing through your computer into text in real-time, making it more accessible. Works with 40 languages, and the demo showed it working with four different languages simultaneously.

Now we're onto the new Surface Pro, which is up to 90 percent faster than the Surface Pro 9. Comes with Wi-Fi 7 and optional 5G. It also has a new OLED display, and a new Quad HD webcam and a 4K webcam. New Flex Keyboard can be used attached or detached -- it's also backlit. Touchpad is 14 percent larger and features customizable haptics.

Devices running Snapdragon X will be the first Copilot+PCs to hit the market. However, AMD and Intel machines meeting the Copilot+PC requirements will come from AMD and Intel. The first machines are coming from Asus, Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and countless others. Starting at $999 and preorders start today.

The Minisforum V3 tablet is the latest Ryzen 7 Hawk Point-powered PC to join the market. This time, it breaks from Minisforum's usual Mini PC flair in favor of the 3-in-1 tablet form factor popularized by Microsoft Surface and Lenovo Yoga tablet PCs. The Minisforum V3 has a 14-inch screen that can operate in a standard handheld tablet mode, a solo kickstand, and an included magnetic attachable keyboard for more laptop-typical use.

Most of the Minisforum V3's specs are somewhat standard for Ryzen 7 8840U devices, but there are some highlights here. 

The 8-core,16-thread Ryzen 7 8840U has been paired with a 2560 x 1600 16:10 IPS screen that runs at 165 Hz and has a reported 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. Combined with the unique form factor, this should make this device particularly compelling for professionals on the go, especially after some manual calibration is done for color accuracy and not just gamut coverage. The screen is rated for 500 nits, which is a bit brighter than some other laptops.

According to Minisforum, the cooling system should enable the Ryzen 7 8840U and its onboard Radeon 780M iGPU (RDNA3 with 12 Compute Units; AMD's current best iGPU) to run at a stable 28 watts at all times. 

This means that this laptop's performance should be on par with the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme when plugged into a wall — or likely better, considering the Minisforum V3's default configuration includes 32 GB of DDR5-6400 MT/s RAM. 

Besides core performance aspects, the rest of the device is most likely what you'd expect. The AI bandwagon is in full force, so there is touted "Ryzen AI" support and a dedicated Copilot key. Your enthusiasm about these particular features may vary, but they are present if your workflow has any use for them.

In any case, the Minisforum V3 does look like a nice Windows 3-in-1 tablet, with decent internal specs and features like quad speakers, display-in support for other devices, and full DCI-P3 coverage being a particular highlight. The official listing starts at $1,199 on Minisforum's site and includes 32 GB of DRR5-6400 MT/s RAM alongside a 1 TB NVMe Gen 4 drive.

This tablet is recommended firmly for people who can leverage its form factor and high color gamut coverage. The lack of a dedicated GPU in this price range hurts the pure-gaming value argument too much for anyone else. Performance-per-dollar-minded consumers should likely consult our list of the Best Gaming Laptops or the Premium Laptop roundup for other high-end tastes.

Microsoft is putting all of its weight behind Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon X Elite, and expects it to outperform Apple's competing M3 silicon — at least in certain workloads. The Verge reports that the trillion-dollar software and hardware behemoth is extremely confident in Qualcomm's new CPU and is planning several demos for its upcoming AI PC event in Seattle that will show the Snapdragon chip outperforming Apple's M3-equipped MacBook Air laptops.

These demos Microsoft is putting together supposedly won't just show the Snapdragon Elite X beating the Apple M3 in a single metric, but will show superiority across several workloads — including AI acceleration and app emulation. In fact, Microsoft claims that Windows devices sporting the X Elite chip will have faster app emulation than Rosetta 2, the compatibility layer Apple uses on its ARM-based CPUs to run x64 apps that don't have an ARM flavor.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft is also reportedly planning to use the Snapdragon X Elite in its upcoming Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 rather than Intel's competing Core Ultra Meteor Lake processors. However, these chips will be for consumer versions of the Surface devices. We already know that Microsoft's business counterparts will be sticking with Intel Core Ultra CPUs.

There's plenty of evidence to back up Microsoft's confidence. The Snapdragon X Elite is proving to be one of the most capable ARM-based consumer CPUs we've ever seen outside of Apple silicon. Several leaked Geekbench results already indicate the Snapdragon X Elite is on par with and even outperforming Intel's previous generation Core i7 and Core i9 Raptor Lake mobile CPUs, as well as AMD's latest Ryzen 9 8945HS flagship.

Qualcomm has also unveiled impressive performance figures for its new ARM CPU, even going so far as to show it outperforming the Apple M3 by a noticeable margin in Geekbench. Qualcomm senior VP and GM of compute and gaming at Qualcomm Kedar Kondap told us that the company believes its work on the X Elite is a pivotal moment, going on to say that the performance of the Snapdragon X Elite is something we haven't seen before in terms of leadership, technology, and power efficiency.

The Snapdragon X Elite is built using TSMC's 4nm process and is equipped with 12 Oryon performance cores that turbo up to 4.3GHz. There are no efficiency cores in the chip, and it's rated at up to 4.6TFLOPs of GPU performance and 45 TOPS of AI performance from its neural processing unit (NPU). Qualcomm claims the chip has 2X faster multi-threaded performance than Intel's i7-1360P and Apple M2, while consuming just one-third the power.

We'll have to wait and see if Microsoft's demos truly deliver what the company wants to accomplish. It's a safe bet Microsoft's will be able to show superior performance to the M3, but the question will be whether the demonstrated performance will extend beyond the specific use cases and apply to standard workloads. Microsoft's AI PC event reportedly starts next month in Seattle.

Microsoft announced that Pavan Davuluri will be the new Windows and Surface team lead, following the unification of the previously-separate Windows and Surface teams under the new "Windows + (Surface) Devices" umbrella [h/t The Verge].

Pavan Davuluri has worked at Microsoft since 2001 and has been Corporate VP for the past three years, so the position seems a natural fit— especially since he's been managing the Surface team since 2015. Davuluri was responsible for Microsoft's prior work with AMD and Qualcomm for custom Surface CPUs, which makes him an easy MVP of the established Surface team.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced two new Surface laptops, both with integrated Copilot AI assistant keys. These Surface laptops, Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6, had their announcement posted by Davuluri on Twitter, just days before he was revealed as the new Windows + Devices team lead at Microsoft.

Part of what reportedly drove this reorganization at Microsoft was its hiring of Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman for the new Microsoft AI team. The assembly of a dedicated AI team also aligns with previous reports of Microsoft developing its own networking gear for AI datacenters.

A memo posted by Rajesh Jha, Executive VP at Microsoft, states, "We are bringing together the Windows Experiences + Devices (E+D) division. This will enable us to take a holistic approach to building silicon, systems, experiences, and devices that span Windows client and cloud for this AI era. Pavan Davaluri will lead this time and continue to report to me. [...] The Windows team will continue to work closely with the Microsoft AI team on AI, silicon, and experiences."

It seems as though every major tech company is now busy talking about AI and how it will reshape their company, products, and the world around us. Nvidia has raked in billions over the past year selling its Hopper H100 and now H200 GPUs. It recently revealed the Blackwell B200 family, which ups the ante for AI training and inference yet again. The AI PC aims to democratize access to AI-powered tools and applications, supplemented by processing at the data center level.

Intel is working closely with Microsoft and others to push the AI PC narrative, with developer workshops and a renewed emphasis on building customized experiences. The hope is to sell more hardware and drive new PC experiences, powered by a combination of CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs — neural processing units.

As Microsoft, Intel, and others continue trying to push forward the era of "The AI PC", it seems paradigm shifts are necessary at the big tech companies. The unification of the Windows and (Surface) Devices teams at Microsoft will hopefully benefit both Windows as an operating system and future Surface devices as the pro-ready machines they're meant to be — but only time can determine Microsoft's success, here.

Microsoft is updating its Surface lineup, but only for business customers. During an online event today, the company announced two new devices: the Surface Pro 10 for Business and Surface Laptop 6 for Business. Both are powered by Intel Core Ultra processors, and Microsoft has dubbed them the "first Surface PCs optimized for AI."

The new units reflect Microsoft's vision to bring its Copilot into more businesses. Both the 13.5-inch and 15-inch Laptop 6 will have a dedicated Copilot key, while the Surface Pro 10 will have that key on a new Type Cover.

Microsoft is also pushing the Core Ultra's neural processing units (NPUs) to use Windows Studio Effects and Live Captions in supported apps in Windows 11.

Neither device looks particularly different from its predecessors (either for the mass market or for business). There are no announcements being made for either the Surface Pro 10 or Surface Laptop 6 outside of enterprise today, though rumors suggest those may have more significant redesigns — and possibly different chips — later this year.

The new business Surfaces are up for pre-order today and will ship on April 9. The Surface Pro 10 for Business will start at $1,199 with a Core Ultra 5-U, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, with options going up to $2,799.99 for a Core Ultra 7 with 64GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

The 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 6 for business will start at $1,199 with Core Ultra 5-H, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, while the 15-inch version will start at $1,399. The will top out at $2,799 and $2,999 respectively, with a Core Ultra 7-H, 64GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Versions with Smart Card readers will be an extra $50 and will only be available on models that come in black. 

Surface Pro 10 for Business

The new Surface Pro 10 for Business will use Intel Core Ultra U-series processors. For the first time, Microsoft will put 5G on a Surface Pro using Intel chips — though that's not coming until later this year. (The Surface Pro 10 is not to be confused with the Surface Pro X, an Arm-based tablet released in 2019.)

The tablet will come with either an Intel Core Ultra 5 135U or Core Ultra 7 165U, up to 64GB of LPDDR5X memory, and up to 1TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage. There's also a new NFC reader to use with security keys.

The company claims that its new 13-inch display is 33% brighter than previous panels and has a higher contrast ratio and a "custom designed durable anti-reflective coating." Additionally, Microsoft has bumped the webcam up to a 1440p lens with a 114-degree field of view, which Microsoft suggests is "the best front facing camera that has ever been put into a Windows 2-in-1 or laptop."

If you get one of Microsoft's new type covers, they will come with Copilot keys to launch Microsoft's AI assistant (though this new model will also be compatible with Surface Pro X keyboards). Among the new keyboards is one with bold lettering and a brighter backlight to make the keyboard easier to see. This keyboard will only be available in a US English layout and will be sold in the U.S. and Canada. (Microsoft will also be making its adaptive accessories available to business purchasers for the first time).

Surface Laptop 6 for Business

The Surface Laptop 6 for Business uses the more powerful Intel Core Ultra H-series chips: either an Intel Core Ultra 5 135H or Intel Core Ultra 7 165H, with higher wattages than the Surface Pro 10 for Business. If you're picking this machine, it's either because you prefer a clamshell or you want the extra power. Like previous versions of the Surface Laptop, it will come in both 13.5-inch and 15-inch screen versions. (The 15-inch model will have an option for a smart card reader in the U.S. and Canada — for businesses that use those for password-free logins.)

Unlike the Surface Pro, which uses 120 Hz displays with dynamic refresh rate, the Laptops are still using standard 60 Hz screens. Microsoft has finally bumped the webcam up to 1080p, which is important considering how many video calls are made on business laptops. 

I'm typically a fan of Microsoft's keyboards on the Surface Laptop, and it seems that the only change the company is making here is the addition of a Copilot key.

Repairability

Microsoft suggests that these new devices will be far easier to repair, with "built-in QR codes that provide convenient access to service guides." The Surface Pro 10 will feature markings inside the chassis to tell you which screwdrivers you need and how many screws hold down "key components." That said, Microsoft's small print suggests that these machines are still meant to only be upgraded or repaired by "authorized" service technicians.

Copilot on Surface

Adding Copilot keys to the Surface hardware doesn't give it any features that other Windows devices don't have, but it cements Microsoft's devotion to AI on its own hardware. Microsoft is also promoting a feature that lets you set Copilot in Microsoft 365 to "work" instead of "web," to let it search your work data — such as emails, calendars, documents, and more. It's likely that large organizations will want to use Copilot for Microsoft 365, which starts at $30 per person (per month).

Cura fuzzy skin is a setting in the Cura slicer that adds a rough texture to the 3D prints that mimic the appearance of fur and other materials like stones and wood. This is helpful when 3D printing organic models or designs meant to be handled like candle holders and even customized smartphone holders. It is also helpful in hiding imperfections, which are bound to happen in most prints even when you are using the best 3D printer. 

When you are 3D printing decorative designs like art pieces and vases, you can also use this feature to enhance their aesthetic look. 

When the Cura Fuzzy Skin feature is enabled, it modifies the outer layer of the print and introduces a pattern of extrusion, which generates a fuzzy finish as the nozzle moves back and forth and the printer changes printing direction within a short distance. The look of the textures generated depends on the size of the thickness, density, and other settings that you apply.

As you enable this feature, remember that your 3D printer might experience vibrations and produce abnormal noise as it rapidly changes direction.

Importing the File and Locating the Fuzzy Skin Feature

To start using this feature, begin by downloading the latest version of Cura and install it on your computer. If you already have it, ensure that it is updated then import your file to the software.

Go to the settings panel on the right-hand side of the interface and in the search option, type fuzzy skin and you will see it appear. Click on the check box to see various settings appearing on the drop-down.

The first setting you see when you enable Fuzzy Skin feature is Fuzzy Skin Outside Only, which when enabled, instructs Cura to apply the Fuzzy Skin effect only to the outermost surfaces of your print and excludes any internal or holes. This is useful when you want to add the textured appearance only on the exterior while maintaining a smoother finish on the inside.

Fuzzy Skin Thickness

Fuzzy Skin Thickness is a parameter that you see after Fuzzy Skin Outside Only. It allows you to specify the depth or thickness of the textured layer, affecting how the fuzzy features are displayed. The default value is usually around 0.3mm. Below is what the textures on the surface look like at this value.

When you increase the value to around 1mm, the irregularities will extend deeper into the print, making the textures much more visible and pronounced, as shown below.

On the other hand, using a lower value will result in a thinner layer of fuzzy skin and fine textures, as shown below.

As you adjust the Fuzzy Skin Thickness value, you must ensure that your wall thickness value is higher than that value.

Fuzzy Skin Density

Fuzzy Skin Density controls the intensity or the frequency of the irregularities on the outer layers. Unlike thickness we have just seen, the Fuzzy Skin Density setting determines how densely packed the variations in extrusion are. A higher value will make the irregularities much crowded, resulting in a pronounced textured appearance.

A lower Fuzzy Skin Density leads to a sparser distribution of the extrusion variations and produces a less pronounced fuzzy effect. You have to experiment and see which works best for your print. You can adjust the value, preview it and see how it appears before sending it to your 3D printer.

Fuzzy Skin Point Distance

This setting controls the distance between the points where irregularities are applied and influences the texture pattern's scale. Just like the skin density, you can use this parameter too to customize how closely or sparsely the variations in the extrusion are distributed on the print's surface.

A smaller point distance results in more closely spaced irregularities, leading to finer textures. Alternatively, a larger point distance results in less frequent and more widely spaced extrusions, producing large texture patterns.

Preview and Generate the G-code

Cura provides an easy way to preview and visualize how your prints will be 3D printed before sending them to your 3D printer. After applying the fuzzy skin settings, click the Slice button and go to the Preview option. You will then use the sliders on the right and bottom to preview how the fuzzy effects appear as the 3D printing process is visualized. 

You can inspect the surface texture, and when you identify any issues, you can make additional adjustments. I also recommend downloading and 3D printing Fuzzy Skin test print from Thingiverse and using it to find the optimal value. You can also check the file shared by a Reddit user to see what the final outcome should look like. 

When you are satisfied with the results and have made the necessary adjustments, you can slice the design, save the G-code file, and then send it to your 3D printer.

Though the Fuzzy Skin Feature is an important setting, especially when 3D printing specific designs as described in this article,  it’s essential to know that this feature can lead to a slight increase in the overall size of the print. This is because the outer layers usually become thicker because of the irregularities. 

So, for parts that need to be accurate, especially if intended to interlock with other components or be joined with other pieces, you should avoid activating this feature. But if you must use it, you need to adjust the Fuzzy Skin Thickness and Density to minimize the impact on the dimensions of your print while still achieving the textured effect.

More 3D Printer Tutorials

• How to Use PrusaSlicer: A Beginners Guide
•  5 Ways Fix Z Banding in 3D Printing
• How to Use FreeCAD for 3D Printing
• How to Convert OBJ Files to STL Files for 3D Printing
• How to Clean and Cure Resin Prints

A mouse pad might seem unnecessary these days — especially when the best gaming mice will work on just about any surface. But just because you don't need a mouse pad for your mouse to work doesn't mean you don't need one for your gaming setup. In fact, a level, consistent surface that's designed for gaming is exactly what you need to stay ahead of the competition.

Plus, some of them are really pretty, and can tie your whole desk together — especially if the rest of your setup involves customizable RGB lighting.

Gaming mouse pads come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but you generally won't find anything that's tiny — the standard gaming mouse pad is a "medium," and measure approximately 17.7 x 15.75 inches (450 x 400 mm). Many are larger — designed to fit under both your mouse and keyboard, or even cover your entire desk — but you'll want to make sure you get one that fits your space (after all, it's not a level, consistent surface if it doesn't sit flat on your desk). There are factors other than size to consider, such as thickness, surface type, edge stitching and lighting, and overall maintenance and durability. If customizable lighting is a priority, know that not all mouse pad lighting is created equal — the quality (and durability) of a mouse pad's edges, the number of RGB zones it has, and the software that supports it can all make a big difference.

We've tested dozens of mouse pads, and these are the best gaming mouse pads we've found — whether you want something for just your mouse or for your entire desk. We keep testing mouse pads after we publish hands-on pieces and reviews, and we update this page frequently to let you know how they're holding up.

Prime Day Exceptional Mouse Pad Deal

This is a standout deal from the Prime Day Event, which is currently taking place. Our list of best overall picks continues below.

The quick list

The Best Mouse Pads You Can Buy Today

Best Mouse Pad for Most People

If you don't need RGB (does anyone need RGB?), the SteelSeries QCK Heavy is an extra-thick, non-RGB cloth mouse pad that comes in three sizes. SteelSeries has several mouse pads in its QCK lineup, including the regular QCK, which is one-third the thickness of the QCK Heavy, and the recently-introduced QCK Performance, which features three different surfaces — speed, balance, and control. However, we prefer the QCK Heavy for most users: it's more durable than the regular QCK, and it offers a better size range (and is cheaper) than the QCK Performance.

Both the QCK Heavy and the regular QCK feature a micro-woven cloth surface that makes for easy but precise sliding and is hand-washable. Decoration is light — a small SteelSeries logo in the bottom left corner is the only thing that might distract you from your game. The mouse pad has a non-slip rubber base that keeps it firmly rooted to your desk — it didn't budge no matter how hard our reviewer moved their mouse.

The only minor gripe we had with the QCK Heavy is that it's so thick that it can take a bit of extra time to flatten out when you first take it out of the box. This isn't too much of an issue if you don't plan on moving it a lot, but be careful not to keep it rolled up too long when traveling. We suggest placing a heavy book or weight on top of it overnight before you first use it.

Both the QCK Heavy and the QCK should fit most desks, thanks to the various size options. Our reviewer tested the large size (17.7 x 15.7 x 0.24 inches / 450 x 400 x 6 mm), but the QCK Heavy also comes in medium and XXL, while the regular QCK comes in small, medium, large, 3XL, 4XL, and 5XL. The QCK Performance comes in two sizes, L and XL, which may be too large for many gamers' desks.

Best RGB Mouse Pad

Most RGB gaming mouse pads have lighting around the edges, usually with several individual lighting zones for seamless-yet-complex lighting effects. But why settle for edge-based lighting when you can have a backlit mouse pad? Razer's Firefly V2 Pro is the world's first (and, so far, only) RGB backlit mouse pad.

And it's definitely eye-catching.

The Firefly V2 Pro is a hard-surface mouse pad with 15 RGB lighting zones, which are located in a black bar along the top of the mouse pad. The mouse pad consists of three layers — the primary layer is a sturdy piece of translucent frosted plastic that diffuses lighting edge-to-edge. This frosted layer is covered in a thin, micro-textured surface (that's "optimized for optical sensors") so the lightshow won't mess with your mouse's sensor accuracy. The surface is matte and fairly grainy — mice glide smoothly across it, but it's not quite as comfortable as softer or smoother surfaces, and the texture seems to be aimed more toward speed rather than extreme precision.

The bottom of the mouse pad is covered in a rubbery, anti-slip material so the Firefly V2 Pro won't slip around your desk if you're swiping aggressively. The mouse pad comes in black and white colorways, and both allow for plenty of bright, colorful RGB lighting to shine through (especially in the dark).

All of the Firefly V2 Pro's lighting is located on one side (the black bar at the top), so that does slightly limit your lighting effects as compared to mouse pads with edge lighting. But this shouldn't be too much of an issue, so long as you're not dead set on a lighting effect that involves light moving around the perimeter of the mouse pad. The black bar at the top of the mouse pad also houses the mouse pad's USB-C port for connecting it to your system, as well as a USB 2.0 port — you can plug a mouse dongle into this port so it's as close as possible to your mouse, or you can plug... anything else into this port, as it's just a pass-through USB 2.0 port (still, it's a handy feature we rarely see on mouse pads).

The Firefly V2 Pro only comes in one size, medium, measuring 14.17 inches (360mm) wide by 10.95 inches (278mm) deep, and it's on the thicker side at 0.18 inches (4.6 mm) thick (it's around 0.5 inches/12.7mm thick at its thickest point — where the black bar is). Like most Razer peripherals, the Firefly V2 Pro can be configured in Razer's Synapse 3 software, and it works with the brand's Chroma lighting suite.

One thing to note before you run out and drop $100 on the Firefly V2 Pro (yes, it's $100, for a medium-sized mouse pad) — this might sound obvious, but the Firefly V2 Pro is most impressive in the dark. Or, well, the relatively dark. It doesn't look bad in a well-lit room — the RGB lighting is still bright and colorful around the edges of the mat — but in bright, direct lighting it doesn't look too different from a regular edge-lit RGB mouse pad. It's not the best purchase for sun-drenched offices or brightly-lit creator studios.

We've been using this mouse pad for over a year now, and it's holding up fairly well: while the original Firefly V2 had issues with surface peeling, we haven't experienced anything similar on the Firefly V2 Pro — though the surface has started to wear down a little, leaving smooth patches where we move our mouse most often. This hasn't affected mouse performance so far. The lighting has remained consistently bright and colorful, and the mouse pad still looks great (however, our experience with Razer mouse pad lighting failing usually comes at around the 1.5 - 2 year mark).

Best Budget-Friendly RGB Mouse Pad

If you don't want to spend much on a mouse pad but you also don't want to give up flashy RGB, the Cooler Master MP750 (M) features RGB lighting and can usually be found for $20 - $35, though the price fluctuates. According to Cooler Master, the finely textured cloth offers a "slick texture and smooth maneuverability," but while it was sufficient for the average game session during our testing, it didn't otherwise feel particularly special. It does, however, have a spill-resistant coating: we spilled water on it and the large droplet rolled off and was easy to clean up with a tissue. It also features a detachable cable for when you don't need RGB.

The MP750 (M)’s RGB border shines pretty brightly. A handy button lets you cycle through static colors without opening software. Unfortunately, black stitching interrupts the RGB frame, and we're a little worried about getting things (such as jewelry) caught between the loops and causing damage.

Since there’s only one RGB zone, there’s not that much to do in the Cooler Master Master Plus software. There are four lighting modes — Color Cycle, Static, Breathing or off — and five speed settings via a toggle. Static and Breathing modes offer a color picker, but it wasn’t always accurate. For example, we tried to make a peach/white breathing effect, and ended up with a white-ish purple flickering. The MP750 also comes in large and extra large versions.

Best Hybrid Surface Mouse Pad

The Razer Strider Chroma has a hybrid surface — harder and slicker than a cloth mouse pad, but with enough texture for controlled, precise movements. It’s the best of both worlds: perfect for gamers who need both speed and control. Plus, it’s water-resistant and easier to keep clean than your standard cloth mouse pad (though it's not quite as easy-to-clean as a hard surface).

The Strider Chroma only comes in one size — extended, which is large enough to hold both your keyboard and mouse without covering your entire desk. The Strider Chroma has a thick, no-slip rubber base and looks fantastic on your desk with seamless edges (no visible stitching) and 19 zones of bright, Chroma-infused RGB lighting that can be customized in Razer’s Chroma Studio with different colors and effects (including audio-reactive effects).

The main downside to the Strider Chroma is its price — with an MSRP of $130, it’s practically like buying a keyboard or a mouse. But it’s so beautiful it just might be worth it.

We should also point out that we used this mouse pad for around two years straight and found that around the two year mark the RGB started to discolor significantly — it was still bright and vibrant, but the lighting in the lower right corner remained red no matter how we tried to adjust it. Granted, we hadn't turned the mouse pad off for two years straight, but considering its price point is largely due to its lighting, we do think the lighting should have lasted a little longer.

Best Hard Surface Mouse Pad

If speed is your top priority, a soft, cloth mouse pad is not for you — and even a hybrid mouse pad will slow you down. You need a hard, smooth, low-friction surface made of plastic, ceramic, aluminum, or glass, like our favorite hard surface mouse pad, the Razer Atlas.

The Atlas is Razer’s first tempered glass mouse pad, and it’s entirely analog — no RGB, no Razer Synapse, nothing. Its smooth, matte surface is micro-etched with 2μm texturing that’s designed to work with optical sensors, and features an easy-to-clean oleophobic coating. The Atlas felt amazing and tracked perfectly with every laser and optical mouse we threw at it — though Razer recommends using a mouse with a Razer Focus Pro 30K Optical Sensor, such as the DeathAdder V3 Pro, of course. Its oleophobic coating offered just the right amount of friction (read: none) for maximizing speed without sacrificing precision.

Our main issue with the Atlas was its size — at 17.72 x 15.75 x 0.19 inches (450 x 400 x 5mm), and made of rigid glass, it’s a little too large to easily fit on the average desk, as it can’t be placed on uneven surfaces, nor are you supposed to put heavy, rough, sharp, hot, cold, etc. objects on top of it. Even just a little smaller would make this mouse pad an easier fit for the more deskspace-challenged.

Another minor issue is the oleophobic coating, which has started to come off slightly around the edges after a year or so of consistent use. This isn't too surprising, as Razer does warn you not to use chemicals for cleaning, but it seems the coating is also susceptible to oils from your skin.

Read: Razer Atlas Hands-On

Best XL Cloth Mouse Pad

With how big mouse mats are, it’s important that they don’t just provide your mouse with a good surface to slide around on, but also your wrists with a comfortable surface to rest on. The Corsair MM350 knocks this out of the park. While it does come in a smaller, more pad-shaped size, we’re recommending the mouse mat-sized, XL Extended version here so you can get the most out of that luxurious feel while not being too bothered by the seams at its edges.

While the mat’s surface feels great — almost like a cooling pad — it does come decked out with a battle-damaged gunmetal gray pattern that won’t be for everyone. But, good news: this mouse pad now comes in a plain black version (with Corsair's ship logo in the lower right corner) for the same price, as well as a pink cherry blossom version that retails for $10 more.

Best XL Cloth Mouse Pad with RGB

The HyperX Pulsefire mouse mat is HyperX’s first RGB mouse mat in its rectangular XL size, and is easily the company’s best RGB mouse pad for larger desks. At a spacious 35.43 x 16.54 x 0.2 inches, it’s a little too big for some setups, but it’s also a great way to cover as much of your desk as possible if you have the space. And at $50, it’s got a cheaper MSRP than similar rectangular options from the likes of SteelSeries and Thermaltake.

Construction is solid across the board here, with a textured cloth surface that gives you plenty of grip without feeling uncomfortable on your wrists and arms. The silicone shielding around the RGB-lit edge also means this mouse pad’s corners aren’t likely to fray anytime soon. Plus, the textured rubber on the mouse pad’s underside means it won’t slip around with your sweeping arm movements while you’re gaming.

The RGB is a little less robust than we’d like. There are only two zones, and while you can select from a wide variety of patterns and colors, there's no integration with Discord and the list of games with special integration for HyperX’s RGB software is pretty sparse. Still, the mouse pad's RGB touch sensor is a nice bonus, allowing you to easily cycle through 3 RGB presets without needing to dive into software.

Make sure to measure your desk before getting this mouse pad so it doesn't end up hanging over the edge!

Best Alternate Size Hard Surface Mouse Pad

Size definitely matters when it comes to glass mouse pads — if Razer's Atlas is too small or too large for your desk space, Skypad's Mousepad 3.0 has you covered. The Mousepad 3.0 comes in two sizes: regular (13.78 x 11.81 inches / 350 x 300mm) and XL (19.69 x 15.75 inches / 500 x 400mm) — exactly not the size of Razer's 17.72 x 15.75-inch (450 x 400mm) Atlas.

The smaller "regular" sized Mousepad 3.0 is the perfect size for the majority of desks — enough space to move your mouse with plenty of panache, thanks to the slick glass surface. The larger XL Mousepad 3.0 is large enough to fit a small gaming keyboard and an ultra-lightweight mouse — perfect for eSports players — for a more uniform peripheral surface.

While Skypad's Mousepad 3.0 isn't quite as smooth as the Atlas (it doesn't have the Atlas's oleophobic coating — but that does mean you don't have to worry about the coating coming off), it works just as well. Mice track perfectly along the micro-patterned matte-finish surface, which offers a smooth glide with a small amount of resistance from the texture. The texture does make precise stopping easier to adapt to, though the Atlas is probably better for those who want speed above all else.

Read: Skypad Mousepad 3.0 Review

Best Mouse Pad Accessory

If you're looking for a desktop accessory that isn't a mouse pad (or an accessory to pair with a mouse pad), why not look into a wrist rest to make typing and gaming more comfortable?

This wrist rest from HyperX features cool gel-infused memory foam under a layer of soft fabric to cushion and support your wrists. It's 3.46 inches (88mm) deep and comes in four widths to fit a variety of keyboards — full size (17.99 inches / 457mm), tenkeyless (14.25 inches / 362mm), compact (12.51 inches / 317.75 mm), and "mouse" (8.97 inches / 227.84 mm). It's 0.75 inches (19mm) thick, which is a pretty standard height that should suit most keyboards.

Other Mouse Pads We Tested

Logitech PowerPlay 2

Logitech's PowerPlay wireless charging system is one of the only wireless charging systems that has managed to make it past the first generation, and most of Logitech's current gaming mice now support it. It works as advertised: if you have a compatible mouse, all you have to do is plug in the mouse pad and swap in the corresponding wireless charging puck, and your mouse will charge when it's on the pad — while you're using it and while it's sitting idle.

In other words: you'll never have to plug in your mouse again. The Logitech PowerPlay is a great, albeit proprietary, wireless charging system, but the Logitech PowerPlay 2 is, unfortunately, a pretty big downgrade from the original. The original PowerPlay featured a built-in Lightspeed receiver that you could pair your mouse to, a detachable USB cable, customizable lighting, and it came with two mats — one hard surface and one soft surface.

The PowerPlay 2 cuts all of these features: there's no Lightspeed receiver, the cable is non-detachable (and not very rugged), there's no lighting, and it comes with one very thin soft surface mat. It is $20 cheaper than the original (though the original started out at the same $100 price point of the PowerPlay 2 and got a price increase sometime between then and now), but it's a lot more than $20 less impressive.

Read: Logitech PowerPlay 2 Review

Specifications Comparison

How We Test Mouse Pads

Mouse pads, like all peripherals, are about more than just performance. Performance is important, of course, but let's be serious: the high-end sensors in modern gaming mice can handle just about any surface you throw at them, let alone surfaces that are designed specifically for them. So while we do test mouse pads for how well they handle mice, there's a lot more to consider.

First, we take a look at the mouse pad's build quality — the materials and how they're put together. For cloth mouse pads, we look at the quality and texture of the surface weave, as well as the stitching around the edges. For hard or hybrid mouse pads, we look at how the surface is bonded to the bottom of the mouse pad — many hard mouse pads have issues with surface peeling. We take a look at any RGB lighting and see how even and bright it is, as this often fades with time.

We then spend at least a week with the mouse pad as our primary mouse (and keyboard, if applicable) surface. We use a variety of mice on it, and we test it against normal desk top hazards — liquid spills, dust, skin oils, and jewelry that might scratch or snag. We test how difficult it is to clean, but we also take note of how often it needs cleaning — a mouse pad that's easy to clean is still a hassle if it needs to be cleaned every time you sit down.

For mouse pads with RGB lighting, we look at how many lighting zones it has and how easy it is to customize those lighting zones using any included software. We also look at whether it has physical controls, pass-through ports, or a detachable USB cable.

Mouse pad testing is an ongoing process, as any problems usually take months to start appearing. We keep our mouse pads around for years so we can weigh in on whether the RGB lighting is starting to fade or the surface is peeling.

Quick Shopping Tips

Mouse pads aren't that complicated, but there are some variables to keep in mind while you shop:

• Material: Hard, plastic surfaces are more slippery, so your mouse will glide rapidly with little force from your hand. These are best reserved for more competitive gamers (or at least players with a mouse featuring DPI control). Soft, cloth mouse pads offer more precise pointer control, but may not be as quick as you'd like. You can also find hybrids, which are, well, hybrids. Hard and hybrid mouse pads will wear down skates more quickly than soft mouse pads.
  
  
• Size: Mouse pads start small but come in a few sizes — the largest ones will take up your entire desk. Do you need a gigantic mouse pad? If you play games that require extreme precision and control — such as first-person shooters — you might want to consider a larger pad; precision is generally attained with a lower DPI, and a lower DPI means bigger hand/arm movements. You definitely don't want to run out of room when you're lining up a headshot.
  
  
• RGB: RGB mouse pads are pretty, but they're powered via USB. This doesn't necessarily need to plug into your PC, unless you want to customize the pad's RGB with software (or have it coordinate with your other peripherals). Also, not all RGB is created equal. The number of RGB zones (not the same as the number of LEDs) will determine how complex the light show can get.
  
  
• Cleaning: If you do more than just occasional snacking at your desk, make sure any mouse pad you choose is easy to clean. Smooth, slippery surfaces are easy to wipe down, while cloth pads usually need more care (although some are treated to be spill-resistant). You'll need to take extra care with RGB mouse pads.
  
  
• Price: Mouse pads generally aren't built to last — they get a lot of wear and tear just sitting on your desk. Keep this in mind when you're shopping around — you can always find something to splurge on, but it might make more sense to buy something cheaper and replace it more frequently, especially if you're looking at soft / cloth mouse pads.

Finding Discounts on the Best Mouse Pads

Whether you're shopping for one of the best RGB mouse pads or considering a model that isn't on our list, you may find some savings by checking out our lists of the latest Best Buy promo codes, Newegg promo codes and Micro Center coupons.

Everything seems to indicate that the upcoming Core i5-14600K will be one of the best CPUs for gaming. The Raptor Lake Refresh chip capitalizes on Intel's rewarming treatment to offer faster clock speeds.

The core design on the Core i5-14600K has not changed from its predecessor. The 10nm processor still wields six P-cores and eight E-cores, a very familiar layout we've seen on the existing Core i5-13600K. As a result, the Core i5-14600K rocks 14 cores and 20 threads. As usual, only the P-cores leverage Hyper-Threading. Cache-wise, the Core i5-14600K retains the 24MB of L3 cache and 20MB of L2 cache from the Core i5-13600K for 44MB of total cache. What we can look forward to is the improved clock speeds.

According to a leaked CPU-Z screenshot courtesy of hardware sleuth HXL, the Core i5-14600K has a 5.3 GHz boost clock. However, we should approach the information cautiously since the chip is an ES (engineering sample) silicon. However, given how close we are to Raptor Lake Refresh's launch, the final boost clock speed is unlikely to change. Compared to the current Core i5-13600K, the Core i5-14600K has a 200 MHz higher boost clock.

Core i5-14600K Specifications

*Specifications are unconfirmed.

The CPU-Z screenshot doesn't list the Core i5-14600K's base clock speeds. However, a previous leak suggests that the P-cores on the Core i5-14600K reportedly run at 3.5 GHz, the same as the ones on the Core i5-13600K. The base clock for the E-core is unknown, but the exact source claims that the E-core boosts to 4 GHz, a 100 MHz improvement over the current Core i5-13600K.

According to the Core Temp 1.18 screenshot, a popular utility for monitoring processor temperatures, the Core i5-14600K maintains the 125W PBP (Processor Base Power). Sadly, it doesn't tell us anything about the MTP (Maximum Turbo Power), the more critical power metric, since it represents the power consumption during Turbo Boost. For reference, the Core i5-13600K has a 181W MTP. With the Core i5-14600K practically being a higher-clocked Core i5-13600K, the new chip could potentially push the MTP to around 200W.

The Core i5-14600K will debut alongside the Core i9-14900K and Core i7-14700K to replace the existing Raptor Lake K-series processors trio. Luckily, you won't need a new motherboard since the new chips are just reheated Raptor Lake parts and slide right into the LGA1700 socket. Raptor Lake Refresh is likely the last generation of processors on the LGA1700 socket before Intel transitions to the LGA1851 socket for Arrow Lake in 2024.

Your LGA1700 motherboard should support the upcoming Raptor Lake Refresh processors since motherboard vendors have released new firmware to accommodate the processor months before the launch. You don't have to throw away your CPU cooler or DDR5 memory. TeamGroup's JEDEC-compliant DDR5-6400 implies that Raptor Lake Refresh natively supports DDR5-6400.

The Intel Innovation 2023 event will occur between September 19 and 20, which we think is a great place to announce Raptor Lake Refresh. The 10nm chips are rumored to hit the market in October, so it's an excellent time to promote them at the Intel Innovation 2023 event.

Intel's 14th Generation Raptor Lake Refresh processors will definitely fight for a spot on the list of best CPUs. It shouldn't be long before Intel unleashes its new chips as benchmarks of the Core i9-14900K and Core i7-14700K have started to emerge.

The Core i9-14900K is a 24-core processor with 32 threads, containing eight P-cores and 16 E-cores. It serves as the direct replacement for Intel's Core i9-13900K, the current flagship of the 13th Generation Raptor Lake lineup. On the other hand, there's the Core i7-14700K, which will succeed the Core i7-13700K. However, the Core i7-14700K has a minor upgrade in its core configuration. Whereas the Core i7-13700K features eight P-cores and eight E-cores, the Core i7-14700K sports four additional E-cores.

Being a refresh, the Core i9-14900K and Core i7-14700K will logically have higher clock speeds than their Raptor Lake counterparts. It's a shame that the Crossmark benchmark doesn't show the processors' clock speeds. If the early rumors are legit, the Core i9-14900K may have a 6-GHz boost clock, 200 MHz higher than the current Core i9-13900K but on the same level as the Core i9-13900KS.

As with any preliminary benchmarks, we recommend you throw some salt over the results. According to Crossmark, the Raptor Lake Refresh processors were inside test systems with 16GB of DDR5-4800 memory, which is an intriguing choice since Intel's new platform seemingly supports DDR5-6400 out of the gate. Both systems also had the GeForce RTX 4090 as their discrete graphics card.

Core i9-14900K, Core i7-14700K Benchmarks

Overall, the Core i9-14900K was up to 14% faster than the Core i7-14700K. If we look at the individual results, the former had 15%, 12%, and 20% higher productivity, creativity, and responsiveness scores. Unfortunately, that's the extent of the comparison because the Core i9-14900K and Core i7-14700K results were significantly lower than their existing counterparts. Since the results aren't accurate, comparing the chips to its AMD Ryzen rivals doesn't make sense.

It's possible that the tested chips were ES (engineering sample) or QS (qualification sample) silicon with lower clock speeds. One of the tested chips was inside an Acer PC, suggesting that it's an OEM system, which we know nothing about, for example, the power configuration or cooling.

At any rate, we shouldn't get our hopes up for Raptor Lake Refresh, bringing a considerable performance improvement. As per alleged Intel performance projections, the new hybrid chips may only be between 1% to 3% faster than Raptor Lake. Remember that this is a refresh and probably the last breath of air for Intel's LGA1700 platform.

Raptor Lake Refresh rumors point to an October release. However, the announcement may come sooner. Intel has scheduled its Intel Innovation 2023 event for September 19 to 20; therefore, we could see a Raptor Lake Refresh unveiling. Intel did confirm that it'll talk about Meteor Lake at the event, so that's something to look forward to.

Rumors suggest that Microsoft will launch a next-generation Surface Go tablet later this year, and that device could be powered by Intel's new "Atom-inspired" Alder Lake-N CPU architecture. If true, this will give the next-gen Surface Go a significant performance boost over the outgoing Surface Go 3, which comes with much older 14nm Amber Lake CPUs.

The new rumors suggest that the next Surface Go 3 will be powered by the Intel Processor N200, a quad-core, four-threaded CPU with a 3.7GHz boost clock and 6W TDP. This chip is one of Intel's latest Alder Lake-N SoCs, featuring its highly efficient but surprisingly quick Gracemount CPU cores. These are the same cores found in Intel's Alder Lake and Raptor Lake desktop/mobile CPUs, where they are known as efficiency cores.

Despite their purpose, the Gracemount core is surprisingly powerful for its size and power consumption. Intel says Gracemount is just as fast as its 6th Generation CPUs built on the Skylake architecture in 2015, which is quick considering these chips consume around 6W (depending on clock speed and core count). For reference, a Skylake chip like a Core i5-6600K can still run basic workloads without a hitch and can still play modern games with modern GPUs as long as you aren't expecting sky-high frame rates.

This should give the next generation Surface Go very usable CPU performance, as it will be a noteworthy upgrade over the current generation's two options of either a Pentium Gold 6500Y or Core i3-10100Y. The N200 also features a modern integrated graphics chip running on Intel's Xe-LP architecture supporting AV1 encode/decode and 8K 60p playback. This will make the next Surface Go an excellent video-watching device (whether or not you're watching from the tablet screen or plugging into a 4K TV).

The only CPU choice rumored to be in the works for the new Surface Go is the Intel Processor N200. But we could see even more powerful CPUs in the official model since the current generation tablet has a Core i3 option. If Microsoft goes with a second, more powerful CPU option, we could see Core i3-N300 or Core i3-N305 being used, offering eight cores instead of four and a slightly higher clock speed. The N305, in particular, more than doubles the power rating of the N200, going from 6W to 15W.

According to Windows Latest, Microsoft is planning to launch the new Surface Go tablet this fall, supposedly, there was also going to be an ARM version that would release at the same time, but it has been postponed for unknown reasons.

The first AMD Radeon RX 7000-series RDNA 3 graphics card has appeared in the Steam Hardware Survey. We’d like to characterize this event as a rocket capsule splashing down into the ocean, but sadly for AMD, its flagship only created a tiny plop. In Steam’s July 2023 data, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX made its debut in the most popular PC video card charts at position 93.

While we know that the Steam Hardware Survey doesn’t give us any definitive data, sometimes it provides a useful guide to trends in the PC gaming market. We've been waiting on tenterhooks for the first AMD RX 7000-series GPU to appear since they first launched last December. AMD hasn’t made it easy for itself, as it released its most expensive ‘halo’ models first and only just followed up with the affordable mass-market Radeon RX 7600 this May.

It's natural for the most expensive graphics cards to sell in smaller numbers than budget, mainstream, or even high-end products. Still, the positioning of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is 56 places behind the potent GeForce RTX 4090 (position 37). AMD’s new survey entrant currently rubs shoulders with the likes of the GTX 950 and GTX 750, which were popular in their time (2012–2016) but are now largely retired from Steam gamer rigs in 2023.

It is no secret that the Steam Hardware Survey graphics cards charts have been dominated by Nvidia for several years. AMD’s top placing at the time of writing is with its integrated “AMD Radeon Graphics” in position 12, which could be one of multiple iGPUs. There's no discrete GPU entry from AMD until we scroll down to position 23, where the venerable Radeon RX 580 is hanging on with 1.07% share of Steam user eyeballs in July 2023.

It is hard to predict when AMD might make a top-10 gaming GPU again. However, one thing the red team can take solace in is that there are no RTX 40-series Ada Lovelace GPUs in the top 10 yet, either. The green team’s best placed RTX 40-series part is the GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU at position 26, and if you want to see an Ada desktop GPU in the rankings you have to scroll down to position 34, where the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti resides with a slowly growing Steam user share of 0.65%.

It's also curious that the RX 7900 XTX doesn't show up on the Steam API pages. Normally, those are more granular and will separate out GPUs with more than a 0.01% survey share. (Note: Don't look at the Vulkan figures, as every GPU gets double counted for some reason — the percentages add up to roughly 190% instead of ~95%.) The main video card page and the API page don't always fully line up, either: The RTX 4060 Laptop GPU sits at position 24 on the DX12 list, instead of position 26.

Overall, Nvidia's RTX 40-series still only accounts for about 3.4% of the total, while the previous generation RTX 30-series continues to hold steady at nearly 30%. Also, in case you're wondering, Intel Arc GPUs have yet to make an appearance on any of the Steam HW GPU lists.

CPUs, a Different Story

Elsewhere in the Steam Hardware survey, AMD is having a much smoother and satisfying ride. According to the latest results, the popularity of AMD Ryzen CPUs has grown well this year to 33.19% of the Steam user-base this July. (Again, don't pay attention to the March data, which appears to have been broken.) AMD’s gains appear to have plateaued this summer, but one third of gaming CPUs still represents a healthy chunk of the market.

Unfortunately, there's no granular data on what precise CPUs people are using. Clock speeds have largely overlapped going back to the early 2010s, plus the mix of mobile and desktop parts creates some confusion as well. The survey does show that 6-core CPUs remain the most popular option, followed by 4-core and then 8-core solutions. 10-, 12-, 14-, and 16-core options combined account for just under 12% of the market, while 24-core chips (Core i9-13900K plus a few Threadripper models) account for 0.77% of surveyed PCs.

The language you're using for a Large Language Model (LLM) can have a huge effect on its cost and create an AI divide between English speakers and the rest of the world. A recent study shows that, due to the way services like OpenAI, measure and bill for server costs, English-language inputs and outputs are much cheaper than those in other languages with Simplified Chinese costing about twice as much, Spanishing costing 1.5x the price and Shan language going for 15 times more.

Analyst Dylan Patel (@dylan522p) shared a photograph that leads to research conducted by the University of Oxford which found that asking an LLM to process a Burmese-written sentence cost 198 tokens, while that same sentence in English cost just 17 tokens. Tokens representing the computing power cost of accessing an LLM through an API (such as OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude 2), this means the Burmese sentence cost 11 times more through the service than the one written in English.

The tokenization model (which sees AI companies convert user input into computational cost) means that in a less-than-ideal world, models accessed outside the window of English language are much more expensive to access and train on. That's because languages such as Chinese have a different, more complex structure (either grammatically or by number of characters) than English, which results in their higher rate of tokenization. 

For example, according to OpenAI's GPT3 tokenizer, giving someone a token of "your affection" would be just two tokens in English but eight tokens in Simplified Chinese. This is true even though the Simplified Chinese text is just 4 characters (你的爱意) and the English one is 14 characters. Aleksandar Petrov et al's Tokenization Fairness page has a number of charts and tools you can use to see the disparity between languages.

OpenAI itself has a pretty helpful page explaining how it monetizes API access and usage of its ChatGPT model, which even includes access to a tokenizer tool that you can use to test the token cost per prompt. There, we see that 1 token is around 4 characters in English, and that 100 tokens would be around 75 English words. But that math just can't be applied to any other language, as OpenAI clearly puts it. 

There's really no competition against the cost-effectiveness of English in AI-related costs; Chinese, for example, costs twice as much as English in terms of required tokens per output. But it's simply a reflection of the available training data that AI companies have (until now) used to train their models on. If there's one thing the AI explosion has done for the world is show just how valuable high-quality emergent data (that which is created as a record of life) really is.

This issue directly links with AI companies' desire to achieve recursive training, or the ability to train AI models on their own outputs. If that's achieved, then future models will still show the same cost-effectiveness of English compared to other languages whose complexity and more limited availability of base training data. And when that happens, it's not just this vicious cycle of algorithmic bigotry we have to contend with: it's also that for now, research points to AI networks going MAD when trained over five times on their own outputs (synthetic data).

To further complicate the issue, it seems that other ways of quantifying costs (other than tokenization) would end up running into the same problems. Either via bit or character-counting, apparently no language can beat the pragmatic practicality of English - it would still present lower costs due to its inherently higher "compressibility" into a lower token count. 

That means the issue isn't in the way models have been monetized; it's an actual limitation of the technology and base models considered for training. And it should be no surprise to know the issue impacts multiple language models across their versions. They're all built mostly the same, after all.

This issue looks like a predictable one when we consider that the companies actually introducing Large Language Models (such as ChatGPT) or Generative Image networks (such as Midjourney) are mostly based in America. Lower usage costs and higher availability of quality data comes with the territory, in a way.

This cost difference has already led to a number of countries launching their own initiatives to train and deploy a native-language LLM. Both China and India have done so, and both claimed the same thing: that their plans were needed to accompany the pace of innovation allowed by English-based AI networks. And that rate is mostly limited by access and training costs.

It's only natural that everyone is looking to pay as little as possible for as much as possible; and these dynamics directly affect the cost of LLM training and deployment according to the base language. It's almost like this AI business is so complex, and its consequences so far-reaching, we have to be very careful with every little step we take.

After 3D printing, the next step is to finish the designs through post-processing activities to make them usable. Even if you're using one of the best 3D printers, Post-processing ensures that any rough textures and surfaces left behind are removed. In addition to smoothing out the design, post-processing can make the object more durable. This can be done by adding additional layers of materials to the design, coating, and even painting. If you are 3D printing with a resin, post-processing ensures that any resin left over on your design is cured and the print ready for other processes.

Even though the post-processing activities you apply to your prints are almost identical in all 3D printing technologies, some activities are specific to a resin or FDM printing. We are going to cover each of them. But before that, let’s look at the main tools you need in our process.

What You’ll Need

• Tweezers, pliers, or a sharp knife for removing supports from the prints.
• Wash and cure station for curing your 3D prints if they were printed with resin.
• Course and fine sandpapers for smoothening the print. You can begin with the 80-grit sandpaper before you go to a fine one like 220-grit.
• A basin of water and a piece of cloth for cleaning purposes.
• Safety equipment like gloves.
• Epoxy putty for filling gaps in your print.
• A spatula for mixing and applying epoxy putty.
• Primer to use before painting the model.
• Any spray paint of your choice to make your design unique.
• Epoxy coating kit for coating your prints.
• Glue for joining parts together. This is optional if your design was 3D printed as a single part.

1. Washing And Curing the Prints

If you are using SLA or DLP 3D printing technologies, perhaps on one of the best resin printers, washing and curing is the first thing you must do after the machine finishes its work. Washing ensures you remove all the uncured resin on the surface after printing. This uncured resin can be sticky and may cause the print to have a tacky or greasy feel. You can use a washing machine or expose it to UV light. You can follow the steps below to wash and cure your resin 3D prints:

• Set up your washing and curing station properly.
• Wear gloves, and after that, remove the print from the 3D printer bed, and be careful not to touch the resin.
• Insert the print into the washing station and ensure it is fully submerged, then close the chamber, and set the time (usually just a few minutes).
• Remove the print from the washing chamber and rinse it under running water after the cleaning cycle to remove any residual cleaning solution from the surface.
• Allow the design to air dry or use compressed air to remove excess water.
• Once the print is dry, place it in the curing chamber of the station, close and set the temperature, and after a few minutes, you can remove it, and it should be ready.
• If you don’t have a wash and cure machine, you can fill a container with a cleaning solution like isopropyl alcohol and place the print inside and ensure that you submerge it completely.
• Gently swirl the container to ensure the cleaning solution reaches all print surfaces.
• After that, air dry or use compressed air to remove excess liquid. 
• You can then expose it to a light source to cure it completely.

For more details, see our dedicated tutorial on how to clean and cure resin prints.

2. Removing Unwanted Parts

Both prints from FDM and resin 3D printing technologies might contain supports, and you need to effectively remove them without destroying any part of your design. To do this, you need to:

• Determine which parts of your 3D print have support structures and examine how they are connected to understand the best approach for removal.
• Once you locate the support materials, gently hold and pull them away using pliers or tweezers. You can also use your hands if they are easily accessible. Do it as carefully as possible to avoid damaging the object.
• If some supports are stubborn or difficult to reach, use a knife to slice or cut them away.
• Examine the print for any remaining small or attached pieces after removing the supports, and use your tools to trim or cut them away.
• Check for damage and inspect the printed object for any unintended marks caused during the support removal process. If you notice any issues, you can use other post-processing techniques discussed below to repair and improve the affected areas.

In addition to supports, you should check if there are strings around your designs and remove them.

3. Sanding And Smoothing

After removing support materials, you will find that rough surfaces remain on some sections of your prints, and you need to smoothen them. Even if there are no unwanted parts you need to remove, you should give your parts a smooth finish, and sanding is the best way to do this. In this process, you can use sandpapers with different textures depending on the nature of your print. To effectively sand and smooth 3D prints:

• Identify the areas that need smoothing, especially rough surfaces and the areas with imperfections. You should avoid delicate areas that might break off 
• Remove rougher areas with coarse-grit sandpaper, then proceed with a finer grit to refine the surfaces further and reduce scratches that the coarse grit might have left.
• As you sand, apply light to moderate pressure and move the sandpaper in a circular or back-and-forth motion. 
• Clean the print with a soft brush or wipe with a soft cloth, then apply acetone vapor to further smooth the surfaces.

4. Filling Gaps And Joining Parts

If gaps appear on your 3D prints after removing supports or when removing the print from the bed, you need to fill those gaps. You can use epoxy putty to do the job, as it can hide the imperfections or visible layer lines in your 3D Prints. To do this effectively:

• Take a portion of epoxy putty and apply it to the gap or imperfection on your 3D print.
• Use your fingers or a spatula to press and mold the putty into the gap, ensuring it fills the space.
• Allow the epoxy putty to dry by leaving it for a few hours to ensure a strong and durable fill.
• Use sandpaper to carefully sand down the filled areas, as you did before in the sanding step. 

If you 3D printed several parts that need joining, you can use glue to join those parts together. As you do so, ensure that you carefully align the parts and ensure they are correctly positioned and fit together as intended.

5. Priming And Painting

You can paint your 3D print with the color of your choice to make it unique. However, before you do so, it’s essential to prime the model to create a smooth surface that is easier to paint. Priming also helps to fill any tiny holes in the design. To prime and paint your design:

• Shake the primer can or mix it thoroughly using a brush-on primer, then apply a thin and even coat of primer to the entire print surface. Ensure you hold the can or brush at a distance to avoid over-application or causing drips.
• Apply a thin and even layer of paint to the primed surface using a brush or spray paint. 
• Let the paint dry before you touch or use the 3D print.

6. Coating

Coating involves applying a protective or decorative layer to the print to enhance the appearance and prevent wear and tear, as well as from environmental elements like humidity and dust. You can use various coatings like clear resin, epoxy, or polyurethane.

Here are the steps for coating 3D prints:

• Apply a thin and even layer of the coating material to the surface of the 3D print. Work in sections, starting from one end and moving systematically across the print. 
• Apply light pressure to ensure even distribution and coverage. 
• Let the coating dry, and allow the applied coating to cure or dry.

Not all of the above post-processing activities apply to all your designs, but you might have several of them done in your project. As you finish your designs, you just need to be careful not to damage any section.

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Zen 4 processors from AMD are undoubtedly some of the best CPUs on the market. However, the chipmaker is already preparing its next-generation Zen 5 chips, as evidenced by recent Linux patches and this new leak, coming to us via Benchleaks, of an alleged Ryzen 8000 (Strix Point) part. As always with leaks, take the news with a pinch of salt.

Officially, we know that Strix Point will arrive in 2024, featuring a combination of Zen 5 cores and RDNA 3.5 integrated graphics. AMD's notebook roadmap from last year pointed to an "advance node" for Strix Point, likely the same 4nm node for Phoenix Point or something newer. Like AMD's mobile Ryzen 7040 series (Phoenix Point) chips, Strix Point will also have the Artificial Intelligence Engine (AIE) at its disposal. Some gossip is floating around hardware circles that Strix Point may potentially arrive in two variants: one with a monolithic die design and another with a chiplet design. However, we haven't seen any proof to confirm or deny the rumors.

A Ryzen 8000 processor (via Benchleaks) has entered the MilkyWay@home database, a popular place to find unreleased AMD and Intel chips. Given the timing, it's evidently an engineering sample. The processor currently lacks a retail name and only sports the "100-000000994-03_N" identifier. The Strix Point chip reportedly belongs to AMD's Family 26 Model 32 Stepping 0 household. Family 25 comprises Zen 3, Zen 3+, and Zen 4 processors. Logically, Family 26 should be for Zen 5.

MilkyWay@home is far from a processor benchmark, so we don't get any meaningful information besides the fundamental specifications. For example, this particular Ryzen 8000 processor has 24 threads, meaning it's a 12-core part. The chip seemingly implies that Strix Point is receiving a core bump compared to Phoenix Point, which maxed out at eight cores.

Strix Point is a mobile processor. The desktop equivalent should be Granite Ridge, which also debuts in 2024. AMD confirmed in a recent webcast that Ryzen 8000, which has Zen 5 cores and Navi 3.5 graphics, will slot into the AM5 socket.

AMD hasn't shared an exact date on when Strix Point will make it to the market. Nonetheless, 2024 will be another exciting year for the mobile market as Zen 5 is slated to power a new wave of gaming laptops.

An interesting new Nvidia GeForce desktop graphics card has popped up at Chinese retailer JD.com. This latest in a long lineage of Chinese Frankenstein GPUs delivers a GeForce RTX 3050 in a low-profile (LP) design. However, the tech specs indicate that this card is equipped with a mobile RTX 3050 GPU, with 8GB of VRAM, and a low 65W TDP, meaning no PCI power connector would be required.

We think interest in this compact, low-wattage card will be limited due to the listing price of 1,999 Chinese Yuan ($278 at today's exchange rate). However, some text on the JD.com lead image implies deals can be done for volume orders.

In the images you can see that this GeForce RTX 3050 appears to be unbranded. Only one image includes a name 'Junwel', but searching for prior products from this firm was fruitless. The listing hints that this particular graphics card design will be a good choice for light e-Sports gaming or industrial PCs in need of a graphics adapter.

The graphics card's shroud and small fan are black nondescript parts, and there is no backplate. While this is a low-profile design, a full height bracket is shown in all the pictures, and no corresponding LP bracket can be seen in the listing, nor is one mentioned in the description / specs. Let us now look at the all the specs we have for this product, compared to a normal Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 desktop graphics card.

What is most out of place in the specs above is seeing what is thought to be a mobile RTX 3050 GPU paired with 8 GB of VRAM. In laptops, these GPUs came with 4 GB or 6 GB, while a buyer had to step up to an RTX 3050 Ti mobile to get 8 GB of VRAM.

We've recently reported on low-profile RTX 4060 desktop graphics cards on the way, from well known brands like Gigabyte. If / when a GeForce RTX 4050 is released by Nvidia, we could see several more very compact LP and Mini ITX alternatives.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 8GB is set to be released later this week. We already know that RTX 4060 models are being pitched at a $299 MSRP for reference-like specs, but some European retailers scared gamers last week, with products listed at up to €499. Thankfully, Newegg US pricing has now emerged with a trio of MSI branded models listed at between $299 and $329. These prices are between $80 and $100 less than their MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti brethren.

These are the first listings of GeForce RTX 4060 graphics cards from a significant US retailer. Moreover, Newegg has a track record of listing graphics cards slightly early before launch and the prices usually sticking.

Looking at what is on offer, the MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 4060 Black OC is a typical no-frills card from MSI's stables. If you dive into the listing you will see it has all the RTX 4060 specs you would expect, such as 3072 Cores CUDA Cores, 8GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, and PCI Express 4.0 x8 interface. These are set in stone across all cards under this designation. However, as an OC card, it offers a GPU boost clock of 2,490 MHz, a little better than the expected 2,460 MHz reference clocks. Lastly, as a 'Black Edition,' MSI will have saved spending any cash on RGB frills.

For $30 more, Newegg has listed both the MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming and Gaming X models. The firm's Gaming line is usually a step up in cooling spec / quality over the Ventus models, so some might consider them to be worth the 10% extra outlay. Though all the models listed are dual-fan designs, the Ventus 2X is 199mm in length, with the Gaming / X models coming in at 247mm.

Of the two MSI Gaming models, the Gaming X is preferable, with its 2,595 MHz boost clock straight out of the box -- no tinkering required. The Gaming (non-X) model is advertised with a 2,460 MHz GPU boost clock, matching what we think is the reference clock.

MSI launched its GeForce RTX 4060 / Ti family of graphics cards just ahead of Computex. The more powerful RTX 4060 Ti models are also available from some outlets in triple fan editions like the Ventus 3X (OC), Gaming Trio, and Gaming X Trio models.

Please stay tuned for our upcoming GeForce RTX 4060 reviews and analysis. It will also soon become apparent whether the RTX 4060 will earn a soon on our best graphics cards list. For new graphics cards in a similar price range, check our recent GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and Radeon RX 7600 reviews.

Over recent days we have seen an official GeForce RTX 4060 performance chart teasers from Nvidia, as well as some leaked third-party 3DMark benchmarking scores and comparisons.

AMD's Zen 4 processors may compete with the best CPUs. Nevertheless, the chipmaker hasn't moved on from Zen 3. As VideoCardz spotted, Gigabyte has listed an unannounced Zen 3 chip from the Ryzen 5000G (Cezanne) days. The Ryzen 7 5700 first popped up last year, but this is the first time it's been part of an official listing.

The Ryzen 7 5700 is an octa-core processor with 16 threads, a familiar configuration we've seen on the Ryzen 7 5700X (Vermeer) and Ryzen 7 5700G (Cezanne). However, according to Gigabyte's CPU support list, the Ryzen 7 5700 is more related to the latter, essentially turning it into a Ryzen 7 5700G without integrated graphics.

The Ryzen 7 5700 has a 3.7 GHz base clock and a 4.6 GHz boost clock. The chip's base clock is 100 MHz under the Ryzen 7 5700G. It shares the same 4MB L2 and 16MB L3 cache. Like the Ryzen 7 5700G, the non-G variant has a 65W TDP. Therefore, the unreleased processor is faster than the Ryzen 7 5700GE, the 35W more energy-efficient version of the Ryzen 7 5700G.

The Ryzen 7 5700 slots into the AM4 socket. Interestingly, the octa-core processor doesn't require new motherboard board firmware. It relies on the same firmware as the Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 7 5700GE; however, AMD never announced the Ryzen 7 5700. It's uncertain when Gigabyte added the SKU to the list. Other motherboard manufacturers haven't listed the Ryzen 7 5700.

The Ryzen 7 5700 probably isn't a retail product. Nevertheless, OEM parts often appear on platforms like eBay but lack warranty. Given the specifications, we suspect it may be an SKU that's exclusive for OEMs to use in their pre-built systems. We've found a few PCs online that leverage the Ryzen 7 5700, such as this one from an Argentine retailer. With AMD fleshing its product portfolio with new Zen 4 parts, the chipmaker is likely getting rid of leftover Zen 3 silicon, and what better way to do so than to release another Ryzen chip, even if it lacks an iGPU?

I only recently discovered the life-changing properties of a glass mouse pad — specifically, the Razer Atlas —  but glass mouse pads are not a new phenomenon. 

In fact, they’ve been around for about as long as gaming-specific PC peripherals have been around. Back in 2001 — when mice still had rollerballs on the bottom — the world’s first (according to the company) frosted glass mouse pad, aka the Icemat, debuted. It featured an acid-treated surface to better grip the mouse’s rollerball, and it was made of glass because glass attracted less dust and was also easier to clean than traditional cloth mouse pads. The company eventually moved away from glass to other materials (including steel) and away from making just mouse pads to making other peripherals, and in 2007 changed its name to SteelSeries. 

SteelSeries doesn’t currently make a glass mouse pad, but the market wasn’t empty prior to Razer’s Atlas. If you search for glass mouse pads, one company tops the results: Skypad, an eSports gaming peripherals maker from Denmark. Skypad has been making glass mouse pads — it’s currently on the third iteration, Mousepad 3.0 — and accessories for glass mouse pads since 2017.

Design and Size of the Mousepad 3.0

Skypad’s Mousepad 3.0 comes in two sizes: regular, which measures 13.78 x 11.81 x 0.14 inches (350 x 300 x 3.6mm), and XL, which measures 19.69 x 15.75 x 0.14 inches (500 x 400 x 3.6mm). If you’re wondering, Razer’s Atlas is in between these two sizes — it measures 17.72 x 15.75 x 0.19 inches (450 x 400 x 5mm) — and I thought it was just a little too big. Likewise, I found Skypad’s XL Mousepad 3.0 too large to fit on the average desk — especially since it’s too small to fit under both your mouse and your keyboard. While I absolutely understand the appeal of having more surface area for mouse movement, one of the benefits of using a smooth glass surface is that you won’t have to move your mouse as much (though I suppose you can — this will, obviously, vary based on your play style).

The Mousepad 3.0 comes in black and white colorways, and the XL Mousepad 3.0 can be purchased with Skypad’s cloud or text logo printed in the bottom right corner. These are the only options that are currently available (Razer’s Atlas also comes in black or white), but the company does occasionally do limited edition drops of its XL mouse pad, such as this black-and-white design featuring an original character named Sora.

Skypad’s regular Mousepad 3.0 is a much more manageable size. It’s quite a bit smaller than the Atlas, and is what most people would probably consider a “standard” or medium-sized mouse pad. Because it’s glass, it doesn’t feel quite as small as a similarly-sized cloth mouse pad, since smaller swipes go further. It’s also not quite as smooth as the Atlas, so I did find myself moving my mouse over a larger area than I did with the Atlas (but still smaller than with a non-glass mouse pad). What I’m trying to say is that if you’re used to larger mouse pads, you’ll probably still have an adjustment period if you move down — the Mousepad 3.0’s glass surface doesn’t completely negate the size. 

The Mousepad 3.0 is slimmer than the Atlas, at 0.14 inches (3.6mm) thick versus the Atlas’s 0.19 inches (5mm). That extra 1/20th of an inch (1.4mm) might not sound like it would make a noticeable difference, but it does. When I swapped out the Atlas for the Mousepad 3.0 for testing, the Mousepad 3.0’s slimness was immediately apparent. This might be partly due to the fact that my other mouse pad, which is currently under just my keyboard, is the Razer Strider Chroma, which is a hybrid pad that’s 0.16 inches (4mm) thick and feels much closer in height to the Mousepad 3.0 than it did to the Atlas. I didn’t find the Atlas’s thickness to be uncomfortable — and I still don’t — but after having tested both, I prefer the slimness of the Mousepad 3.0, especially for a smaller mouse pad that I wouldn’t be resting my entire arm on.

The bottom of the Mousepad 3.0 has four small circular anti-slip feet, which work very well. I had no issues with this mouse pad slipping or sliding — even slightly — in my testing. In fact, deliberately trying to push the mouse pad across my desk required a surprising amount of force (not a lot, just a surprising amount). This is, obviously, a good thing - the last thing you want a glass mouse pad to do is accidentally slip off your desk. The Atlas’s entire bottom is covered in textured anti-slip material, which doesn’t seem to work any better (or worse) at preventing slippage — but does seem to provide some very slight cushioning.

Specs

Durability of the Mousepad 3.0

The Mousepad 3.0 is made of tempered glass, but is “incredibly durable,” according to the company (which also told me to go ahead and drop it on the floor from varying heights). I happen to live in a factory-converted-loft with polished concrete floors, however, so I decided against haphazardly tossing it onto my floor... just in case it happened to break. I did consider taking it outside and dropping it on the street, but that didn’t seem very environmentally-friendly (even if I do live in downtown Los Angeles where the streets are full of broken glass anyway). 

But also, I don’t think throwing a mouse pad — glass or not — against solid concrete is a very realistic use case. What’s the most that’s really going to happen to this mouse pad? It might slip out of your hands as you’re unpacking it to put it on your desk, or maybe you’ll get frustrated during a game and slam your mouse down, but that’s about it. 

I did end up dropping it from various low heights (of between six inches and around three feet) onto an area rug in my apartment, and it’s still intact. Anyway, as you can see from this video, it’s possible that the Mousepad 3.0 would have survived me frisbee-ing it across the streets of Los Angeles, so it seems likely that it will also survive most realistic drop scenarios.  

The Mousepad 3.0’s surface also seems fairly durable: the lightly-textured matte-finished glass is relatively scratch-resistant (it is glass, however, so it will scratch if you make an effort to scratch it). It doesn’t have any sort of special coating like the Atlas’s oleophobic coating, so it doesn’t require any special care — you can clean it with regular glass cleaner. What’s less durable is the stick-on backing, which can be pretty easily scratched off. Scratching the back of the pad won’t affect performance, of course, but it won’t look as pretty.

Tracking and Performance

The Mousepad 3.0 has a slightly textured, matte-finish surface designed for speed — specifically, Skypad says the surface is the “ideal roughness for achieving speed” as a mouse will essentially travel across microscopic peaks, limiting friction. The surface offers a smooth glide with a small amount of resistance from the glass’s texture — it’s not as slick as the Atlas’s oleophobic-coated surface, but the texture does make precise stopping easier to adapt to. Like other glass mouse pads, the Mousepad 3.0 has micro patterning etched into its surface for tracking accuracy. 

I went ahead and tested the Mousepad 3.0 using all the mice I had within reach, including Razer’s Basilisk V3 Pro and Naga V2 Pro, Logitech’s G 502X Plus, Asus’s ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition, Mountain’s Makalu Max, HyperX’s Pulsefire Haste 2, Redragon’s M601 and M901, and even some $3 mouse I picked up years ago at Fry’s, back when Fry’s was still in business. None of the mice I tried had any issues with tracking accurately on the Mousepad 3.0 (on either colorway), except for the $3 mouse which has had some trouble tracking on every surface I’ve ever tried it on and probably has a polling rate of, like, 5 Hz.

While the Mousepad 3.0 does offer a very smooth, consistent surface, it didn’t quite give me the same dream-like awakening I had with the Atlas. The Atlas’s oleophobic coating — and perhaps the cushioning from the full rubber lining on the back — made for a slightly more comfortable experience overall. That’s not to say that the Mousepad 3.0 was uncomfortable, because it wasn’t (also, the difference wasn’t really that significant), but the Atlas somehow feels a little softer, as incongruous as that sounds. I did like the Mousepad 3.0’s slimmer profile, however. The Atlas was just thick enough to be noticeable, while the Mousepad 3.0 immediately felt like it was just part of my desk.

I also liked the Mousepad 3.0’s slightly textured surface for certain activities, such as pixel-precise actions in programs like Photoshop. But I still prefer a rougher hybrid (or cloth) mouse pad for that kind of detail or precision work, by a large margin — all hard mouse pads, glass or not, are much too slippery. The Mousepad 3.0’s textured surface also gave it a slight edge over the Atlas when it came to stopping power, because the Atlas is really slick.

The Pros and Cons of Glass

It seems glass mouse pads are the perfect hard surface mouse pads for performance-oriented gamers who need speed above all else: it’s hard to beat the glasstop combination of ultra-low friction and impressive tracking accuracy and precision. 

But there are a couple of caveats I’ve discovered while testing the Skypad Mousepad 3.0 and the Razer Atlas. First, it’s a good thing they’re easy to clean, because they do need to be cleaned more frequently than other mouse pads. Dust buildup, especially, messes with glide on a glass mouse pad — and, since it has nowhere to go (unlike a cloth mouse pad, where it just kind of...works its way into the surface, I guess) quickly accumulates around your mouse’s feet and sensor, which will mess with tracking. 

Second, while glass feels great under a mouse, it feels less great under your skin. Glass mouse pads are harder and colder than soft mouse pads, and I definitely started to miss the relative cushion and warmth of my hybrid mouse pad after weeks of using only glass. Also, sweat — while not an issue for me, but definitely an issue for many gamers — is definitely not fantastic on a glass mouse pad. Of course, you can always just wear long sleeves and gloves, but that might seem like overkill when you could also just get a different mouse pad. That said, Skypad does acknowledge these glass-specific issues, and even sells arm sleeve accessories to go with its pads. 

Finally, if you’re the kind of gamer who picks up your mouse a lot, glass mouse pads are noisy — and that’s even if you’re not slamming your mouse down in frustration or rage. Razer claims the surface of its Atlas is “specially treated” to allow for quieter mouse swipes (quieter than other glass mouse pads, that is), but it’s not the swiping that’s noisy. Swiping on the Mousepad 3.0 was slightly louder than swiping on the Atlas, but it wasn’t excessively loud on either. Dropping a mouse on both pads was like dropping a mouse on a piece of glass, however — though the Mousepad 3.0 did have a little more reverb from being perched on non-slip feet (and not entirely lined with rubber). 

The Bottom Line

If you’re looking for a glass mouse pad, Skypad’s Mousepad 3.0 is an excellent option. You already know I’m inexplicably in love with the Razer Atlas, and the Mousepad 3.0 is, frankly, very, very similar in feel and performance. My two main concerns with the Atlas were its size, because it felt just a little too large to be easily incorporated in most desk setups, and its durability — mostly because Razer warns against using soap or harsh cleaning agents to clean the Atlas’s surface, likely to prevent removal of the oleophobic coating. 

Skypad addresses both of these concerns with the Mousepad 3.0. The Mousepad 3.0 comes in a smaller size (as well as an XL size, so you have options) that is much more manageable for those of us who don’t have expansive desk real estate. The Mousepad 3.0 also does not have an oleophobic coating — and while that does make it slightly less dreamy to glide across, it also means you can spray it down with Windex, worry-free.

Ultimately, the best gaming mouse pad is a very personal choice that depends on everything from what mouse you have to what games you play to how big your desk is. Glass mouse pads are good for super-speedy frictionless glide that doesn’t dramatically sacrifice precision, but that doesn’t mean they’re good for tasks that require extreme precision (they’re not). But if you’re an eSports competitor looking for that extra edge, a glass mouse pad might just be the answer. The good news is that these $100+ slabs of glass have — so far — lived up to their promises of smooth, sexy swipes and etched optical sensor-friendly tracking wizardry.

The Skypad Mousepad 3.0 regular size starts at $99, while the Skypad Mousepad 3.0 XL costs $119 (both ship free to the U.S.).

Updated June 19, 2023, 7:12 a.m. PT - An earlier version of this article mistakenly cited the Sora character as being from an existing anime; however this character is an original character created by Skypad. 

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Microsoft has finally made replacement parts for its Surface devices available in the United States, Canada, and France. These components are meant for technically-inclined customers who want to repair their devices after the warranty expires. The available parts can be found in the Microsoft Store.

There are parts available for the Surface Pro 7, Surface Pro 8, and Surface Pro 9 (the Intel model and the SQ3 model with 5G), Surface Laptop 3, Surface Laptop 4, and Surface Laptop 5, the Surface Laptop Go 2, the Surface Laptop Studio and Surface Studio 2 Plus desktop. 

Some devices, like the Surface Pro 9, have many replaceable parts, including the kickstand, display, battery, ports, back cover, speaker and networking modules, and camera. Others, like the Surface Pro 7, only have a repairable kickstand. Most Surface Laptops have options for displays, keyboards, SSDs and rubber feet, though the Surface Laptop 5 also has options for a new enclosure, ports, thermal module and battery. A complete list can be found in Microsoft's blog post announcing the news.

The parts aren't cheap. A replacement battery for the Surface Pro 9 is $237.99 for the Intel model and $249.99 for the Arm version (this is odd, as they appear to be the same). A new screen for the Surface Pro 9 goes up to $362.99. A new keyboard for the Surface Laptop 5 starts at low as $87.99 for a 13.5-inch device using platinum colored- Alcantara fabric but jumps up to $137.99 for other materials, colors and sizes. 

There are several parts to peruse through, but not all of what Microsoft listed in its blog post is in the Microsoft Store just yet. For instance, new feet for a Surface Studio 2 Plus aren't listed for the Surface Laptops yet.

Microsoft isn't selling repair tools on its own. For that, it has partnered with iFixit; you can see that store here. Microsoft also has a dedicated self-repair page with links to repair guides, diagnostic toolkits, and links to tools and parts.

And just because you can doesn't mean you should. Microsoft's Surface devices aren't exactly known for their ease of repair (especially the Surface Pro, with a screen that is attached with an adhesive). "It is essential to follow the instructions in the applicable Microsoft Service Guide or article," Microsoft's vice president of devices, services and product engineering Tim McGuiggan wrote in the blog.

While it's great to see Microsoft making its devices more repairable for those with the knowledge to do so, it's not entirely out of generosity. In October 2021, Microsoft bowed to pressure from shareholders and As You Sow, an environmental nonprofit, and agreed to study and increase access to the independent repair of its devices. In the spring of 2022, it released a study focusing on waste and greenhouse gas emissions in Microsoft's existing repair processes.

Microsoft states that these replacement parts are for "out-of-warranty" repair. It's unclear if using them while the device is in warranty will void it. We've asked Microsoft about this and will update you if it responds.

Outside of the U.S., Canada, and France, McGuiggan wrote that "commercial resellers in all Surface markets will have access through existing channels," with updates coming for other countries later on.

In April 2022, Apple launched its self-service repair program in the United States and expanded to Europe later that year. Some critics suggested its repair program didn't go far enough, as it requires pairing parts to devices using a serial number or IMEI. Apple's setup lets customers rent a toolkit for $49, which could include bulky tools.

Several other electronics retailers, such as Google and Samsung, have partnered with iFixit to sell official replacement parts. That's also where Valve went for components for the Steam Deck. The upstart Framework has just released its third-generation laptop, which was designed for self-repair from the start.

Hopefully, this development means that upcoming Surface devices will come with self-repair in mind from the design phase. But at the very least, those with the bravery and knowledge to open their Surfaces now have another means to repair it other than sending it to Microsoft, especially if they don't have a local repair shop nearby.

For several years now, Asus' Zenbook ultraportable line has largely been a more affordable but capable alternative to some of the best ultraportables, like Dell's XPS 13 or HP's Dragonflys. In recent years, Asus has aggressively shifted to OLED screens, which helped the line stand out a bit more. But with its 2023 model, the Zenbook S 13 OLED (UX5304), Asus seems to be attempting to go from an also-ran to a leader in terms of design, while also maintaining its value angle – at least for those who can make use of its ample specs.

With an Intel 13th Gen Core i7-1355U processor, 1TB SSD and an impressive 32GB of RAM as standard, along with a 13.3-inch 2880 x 1800 OLED display, the Zenbook S 13 brings impressive specs for its $1,399 price. And while that's more than the $1,099 starting price of last year's model, it's also 0.23 pounds lighter (2.2 pounds) and thinner (0.43 inches) than its predecessor while delivering both Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports and a still-handy USB-A port. While its battery life wasn't better than the MacBook Air or the most recent XPS 13, the Zenbook did last over 10 hours in our testing, which is solid for something this thin and light.

But while all of that sounds (and indeed is) quite impressive, there are some downsides to the Zenbook S 13. For starters, the laptop ships with some nagging bloatware (McAfee is the main culprit). And performance in CPU-heavy long-term tasks definitely suffers as a result of the limited cooling afforded by the laptop's stylishly slim design. So it's better suited to light and bursty computing tasks.

It's also important to note we had a major issue with our first review unit. Near the end of our 30-minute Cinebench stress test, the display suddenly went permanently black, refusing to display anything, while every other aspect of the laptop functioned normally. We were worried that heat may have caused this issue, but Asus sent us another unit, which we put through the same stress test – three times in a row just to be sure – and the display on that unit continued to function perfectly. Considering no one else who reviewed this laptop seems to have suffered a screen failure, and we couldn't find any user reviews complaining of the same problem, it seems likely that our first unit was just faulty.

Design of the Asus Zenbook S 13

Asus has gone all-out with the design of its latest Zenbook, producing one of the edgiest and prettiest ultrabooks I've seen in years. The company is also keen to call out its use of recycled metals and plastics in the Zenbook S 13. But while those moves are important, it's the striking silver lines running through the "plasma ceramic aluminum" lid that grabbed me first. And when you open that lid, you're met with a gorgeous 2880 x 1800-resolution OLED screen rated at 550 nits. As we'll see later in testing, the display is also great at displaying vivid colors.

The lid material feels like a mix between smooth stone and metal, and it resists fingerprints and smudges better than most metal-clad laptops.

The company says that CNC machining into the lid material has allowed for a thinner lid overall. I measured it at around 3mm thick, and I was surprised at how little flex there was considering the lid looks on close inspection like a piece of metal with a sheet of glass attached to it.

And I generally don't place too much importance on absolute thinness. But it's hard not to be impressed by the laptop's 0.42-inch profile – especially when you realize Asus managed to include a USB-A port on the right edge, alongside an audio combo jack. On the other side is a full-size HDMI port, along with a pair of Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C ports. Any company that claims there isn't space for full-size ports or an audio jack in a slim laptop is officially on notice.

Surprisingly, the Zenbook S 13's hinge also opens to nearly 180 degrees, which wasn't something I was expecting. As with previous models, the hinge also lifts the rear of the laptop off the surface, helping improve airflow.

All that said, Asus certainly ins't alone in the extremely thin and light laptop space. HP's Elite Dragonfly G3 weighs the same 2.2 pounds and is slightly thicker at 0.64 inches. The latest XPS 13 is slightly heavier at 2.59 pounds, but is thinner than the Dragonfly (and slightly thicker than the Asus) at 0.55 inches. Apple's MacBook Air continues to be the institutional benchmark that slim laptops are measured against, and at 0.44 inches thick, the latest M2 MacBook Air is basically the same thickness as the Zenbook, but at 2.7 pounds, it's noticeably heavier.

Keep in mind, though, that all of the above ultralight competition is more expensive than the Zenbook S 13's $1,399, and most of it much more expensive when similarly equipped with the 32GB of RAM and 1TB SSD that comes standard in the sole U.S. configuration of the Zenbook. Apple's Air doesn't even offer a 32GB option, but a 24GB/1TB configuration sells for $2,099.

Asus Zenbook S 13 Specifications

Productivity Performance of the Asus Zenbook S 13

Looking at specs alone, the Zenbook S 13 seems quite competitive, with an Intel Core i7-1355U processor, a 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD and an impressive 32GB of RAM as standard. (For some odd reason, the Canadian version of the Zenbook only gets 16GB of RAM.) But at just 0.43 inches thick, I had a strong suspicion that limited space for cooling hardware would lead to lesser performance.

On Geekbench 5, things didn't look too bad for the Zenbook. Its single-core score of 1,828 was actually better than the Lenovo Yoga 7i, which shares the same processor. But the Zenbook's multi-core score of 7,494 lagged behind the Yoga's 8,663. And the latest MacBook Air led the pack on both fronts, with a single-core score of 1,932 and a multi-core result of 8,919.

Things looked worse for the Zenbook on our Handbrake video transcoding test. It took Asus' laptop 11 minutes and 11 seconds to transcode our 4K test video to 1080p. The Air again floated to victory here, taking just 7:52 to finish the same test. And the last-generation Dell XPS 13 was far behind at 16:53. But the Lenovo Yoga 7i with the same CPU as the Zenbook finished in 10:30, 41 seconds faster than the Asus.

The Zenbook managed to come out ahead in our 25GB file transfer test, moving our batch of test files at an impressive rate of 1,5560 MBps. The Yoga 7i wasn't too far behind at 1,380 MBps, but both the XPS 13 and Apple's Air were much slower, slipping below 1000 MBps.

To really stress the Zenbook S 13, we put it through 20 runs of Cinebench R23, and here is where we truly saw the downsides of the laptop's slim design – in multiple ways. The Zenbook started at a high of 6,497, dropped to 5,520 on run two, then stayed at or above 5,600 for the rest of its runs. The fans were steady and constant during this test, doing their best to dump heat from the slim chassis. The CPU's performance cores ran at an average of 2.53 GHz, while the efficiency cores averaged 1.86 GHz. The processor ran at an average temperature of 72.04 degrees Celsius.

That might not sound so bad, but the Yoga 7i, with the same CPU, started off much higher at 9,928 on Cinebench R23, and settled in around the 8,000 mark – much higher than the 5,600 range of the Zenbook. The Yoga's cores also ran significantly faster, and the CPU temperature was surprisingly cooler, at less than 67 degrees Celsius, compared to just over 72 C for the Zenbook.

Display on the Asus Zenbook S 13

When it's actually working, there's a lot to like about Zenbook S 13's 2880 x 1800-resolution OLED display. The resolution is a nice middle ground between 1080p and the pixel overkill that is 4K on a compact laptop display. The screen is eye-catchingly vivid, with saturated colors and deep blacks, and the brightness, while not the best we've seen, should be more than sufficient for most people.

When I watched the trailer for Roger Waters' "This Is Not a Drill - Live From Prague" concert film, the blacks of the screen were deeper than when I saw the show in real life at Madison Square Garden last summer. And the dramatic red lighting and bright white graphics really brought back the feeling of the concert as I remembered it – just with fewer obnoxiously drunk middle-aged concertgoers.

Most users should be quite happy with this display. It's a huge step up in color and contrast from any standard laptop LCD panel. Just know that it isn't the brightest of screens, so you may want to avoid trying to work in direct sunlight.

Asus' OLED panel covers 113% of the sRGB color gamut and 80% of the larger DCI-P3 space. That makes it better at color reproduction than the MacBook Air and Dell's XPS 13, and it's leagues ahead of the Lenovo Yoga 7i's panel.

Asus' screen, however, only beat the dim screen of the Yoga 7i in our testing, delivering 373 nits. The M2 MacBook Air was the leader in brightness, at 489 nits, while the XPS 13 wasn't far behind at 460.

That said, I never found myself wanting for more screen brightness when using the Zenbook S 13 – at least until the display on our first unit abruptly failed during our stress testing. Again, the second unit didn't suffer the same issue, so it's likely our first unit was defective.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the Asus Zenbook S 13

For a laptop this thin, the Zenbook S 13's keyboard feels surprisingly good. Not amazing, mind you; key travel is far from luxurious and the top row and bottom arrow keys are tiny thanks to the laptop's compact frame. But I used it to write large portions of this review and didn't have major productivity or comfort complaints.

The power button is integrated into the keyboard, which I don't generally find ideal. But its placement to the left of the delete key in the upper-right corner meant I never hit it accidentally. And even if I did, it's a bit stiffer than the regular keys around it, so I don't see it being a problem for most people.

The touchpad (which Asus feels the need to brand as ErgoSense) is also pleasant to use and pleasingly roomy at 6 inches, diagonally. It features a physical click that doesn't feel hollow or cheap. Asus says its 0.23 mm click depth is "1.44x longer than the previous model."

Given that the click here doesn't feel particularly deep, it sounds like I would not have loved the touchpad on the previous Zenbook. I had no issues with this touchpad though. Multi-touch gestures also worked well. If only I could remember to use these gestures when I'm not reviewing a laptop.

Audio on the Asus Zenbook S 13

The pair of speakers on the Zenbook S 13 are good – for a laptop that's less than half an inch thick. When I listened to IAMX's latest album, "Fault Lines," there was a decent amount of volume with the laptop turned all the way up. And even when cranked, I didn't notice any distortion in Chris Corner's alternating moans and shouty falsetto. But as is often the case with thin laptops (and plenty of not-so-thin ones, too), there wasn't much in the way of discernable bass.

The laptop comes with Dolby Atmos software, which has presets like Detailed, Balanced and Warm, as well as others for games and movies. I tried playing with them to eke out more low-end but always came back to the default Balanced setting.

In short, the sound output on the S 13 offers no major complaints for a super-slim and light laptop, but it's not the best. HP's Elite Dragonfly G3 offers louder and punchier speakers in a similar weight class. But you'll generally have to spend a lot more for that laptop. A configuration with a similar component layout as the Zenbook S 13 sells for around $2,000.

Upgradability of the Asus Zenbook S 13

Provided you have the small Torx bit that's required, getting inside the Zenbook S 13 is surprisingly easy. After removing 11 screws on the bottom of the laptop (which come in two lengths, so don't mix them up when screwing them back into the laptop), the bottom lifts off with relative ease.

Inside the slim laptop though, there isn't much to do other than possibly upgrade the M.2 SSD that lives under a thermal pad on the left in the image above. The Micron RAM you can see up above the CPU is soldered on. And about two-thirds of the laptop's internal space is taken up by the 63 WsHr battery.

Battery Life on the Asus Zenbook S 13

I wasn't sure where the Zenbook's battery life would land, given that it's one of the thinnest laptops available and it also has a fairly high-resolution OLED display. But its showing of 10 hours and 45 minutes on our battery test (which simulates browsing the web, streams video and runs light graphics tests with the display set to 150 nits of brightness) was more than I expected.

That said, that 10:45 result was more than an hour behind its closest competitor here, the Lenovo Yoga 7i, which lasted 12:03. And Apple's MacBook Air topped 14 hours on the same test. So in short, battery life on the Zenbook is solid, but behind the pack of competing ultra-light laptops.

Heat on the Asus Zenbook S 13

As is somewhat to be expected on a laptop this thin, Asus' latest Zenbook gets toasty under prolonged load. To see how hot it gets under stress, we measured the temperature while running our Cinebench R23 stress test.

During the 20-run test, the keyboard got its warmest in the area of the T, Y, and U keys (above where the CPU sits), topping out at 114.2 degrees Fahrenheit (45.67 Celsius). The touchpad stayed comparatively cool, hitting 84 degrees Fahrenheit (28.89 Celsius). The bottom of the laptop was even warmer, hitting 122.7 degrees Fahrenheit ( 50.39 Celsius). But that hot point was near the center rear, up under the rubber foot that runs the device's width. The areas around the edge and front of the laptop's bottom, where you're likely to be holding it, were much cooler.

Webcam on the Asus Zenbook S 13

You won't find any fancy high-resolution webcam on the Zenbook S 13, but the 1080p sensor that sits above the screen gets the job done without eliciting major complaints from me. There's enough resolution that I could make out the macabre detail on my Skinny Puppy shirt, and colors were accurate. Sunlight streaming in from the windows behind me while I wrote this was rendered as big washed-out blobs of white light. But that didn't affect the sharp focus on my face, so long as I had the laptop within typing distance in front of me.

There are also IR sensors for using Windows Hello, which worked well, even after the display on our unit stopped functioning. In short, this isn't the best webcam that I've seen on a laptop, but it's at least a step or two above "good enough" and should get you through out-of-office work meetings just fine.

Software and Warranty on the Asus Zenbook S 13

Aside from the screen deciding to stop working near the end of our testing, by far the worst thing about the Zenbook S 13 is how much gunk Asus pre-loads onto its premium portable. Beyond the usual Windows 11 shortcuts in the Start menu, there's a McAfee popup that keeps nagging you in the lower-right corner, Asus' GlideX app for "running mobile apps on a larger screen," ScreenXpert for moving and grouping apps across multiple screens, and the MyAsus app, which links you to customer support and customization options.

MyAsus also persistently nags you to lot into your Asus account, including on the splash page. And there's a whole section in the app called Asus Promotion, which mostly just offers trials of things like McAfee (again), NordVPN and Adobe programs, which of course are all subscription services that will start charging you (and presumably kick back some of that to Asus) if you forget to cancel.

The Edge browser is also cluttered with a collection of links to McAfee (yes, again) and the Asus Software Portal, which again features a prominent link to McAfee. It's not that most of this stuff isn't fairly easy to uninstall, but for a laptop that costs $1,400, the Zenbook S 13's out-of-the-box environment feels a lot more freemium than premium.

Bottom Line

I really wanted to like the Zenbook S 13 OLED, and for bits of time while testing and writing this review, I did. The physical design is striking; the laptop at least feels premium and well-built; and the input devices, battery life, and ports don't sacrifice too much for a laptop that's among the thinnest and lightest available. Plus, I love that 32GB of RAM and a fast 1TB SSD come standard (at least in the U.S., sorry Canada). Even the price, while high for most people at $1,399, is actually quite low for those specs.

But nagging software that seems always to be trying to sell you something mars the overall experience. And the cooling that Asus was able to wedge into the laptop's skinny 0.43-inch frame isn't really up to the task of keeping the laptop's performance up during CPU-heavy tasks that take more than a few seconds. And during our half-hour Cinebench stress test, the laptop got warmer than any ultraportable we've tested lately.

If you like the Zenbook's design and need something with 32GB of RAM because you don't like closing programs or browser tasks, the Zenbook S 13 is a decent option. But if you want to actually use the RAM and the Core i7 CPU for things like video editing or other time-consuming compute tasks, while still sticking with a slim, lightweight design, also consider HP's Elite Dragonfly G3 or maybe an XPS 13. Those laptops will cost more with similar components, but their thermal design is better suited to heavier workloads.

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While Intel was busy demonstrating its 14th Generation Meteor Lake processors at Computex 2023, others were already flipping the same hybrid chips on eBay. A "brand new" Meteor Lake mobile processor (via harukaze5719) has gone up for sale on eBay for $999, and the seller has two available.

The Meteor Lake in question is a mobile variant, so it's useless to anyone unless they have a compatible platform to house it. Meteor Lake will come to laptops first, which explains how merchants have managed to get their hands on early Meteor Lake chips and put them up for sale. Intel has yet to confirm whether it has any plans for the desktop. A leaked Intel roadmap claims Meteor Lake will reportedly debut as low-powered Core i3 and Core i5 parts. A subsequent rumor alleges that Intel has canceled the 6P + 8E configuration for desktop Meteor Lake.

According to the eBay description, the processor is seemingly a Meteor Lake P 6C+8A+GT2 model. The P-series SKUs are explicitly designed for thin and light laptops, so they typically have a low TDP with reduced clock speeds. Previous Raptor Lake-P and Alder Lake-P processors adhere to the 28W TDP limit, so Meteor Lake-P will likely follow the same guideline.

The Meteor Lake-P chip seems to feature six P-cores and eight E-cores. However, remember that there are two low-powered E-cores inside the SoC tile. Therefore, the Meteor Lake-P processor has a 16-core, 22-thread design, the same chip that Intel used in its Computex 2023 demo. If we don't consider the SoC cores, the Meteor Lake-P would share the same configuration as the flagship Core i7-1370P Raptor Lake-P that powers thin laptops, such as the Framework Laptop 13.

Meteor Lake-P leverages Redwood Cove and Crestmont cores that are slated to bring significant uplifts over the Raptor Cove and Gracemont cores inside Raptor Lake-P. Meteor Lake-P will also arrive with buffed-up integrated graphics. Leaked Meteor Lake benchmarks revealed the processors with Xe units with up to 128 EUs or 1,204 ALUs operating at 2.1 GHz. Raptor Lake-P and Alder Lake-P Xe iGPUs max out at 96 EUs for comparison. The added EUs and higher clock speeds could make Meteor Lake-P deliver graphics performance similar to entry-level discrete options from Nvidia or AMD. 

One of Meteor Lake's selling points is the VPU (Versatile Processing Unit) unit, which resides inside the SoC tile, and is responsible for AI workloads. The VPU, based on third-generation Movidius technology, is available in all Meteor Lake chips. Unfortunately, while Intel showed off the VPU's capabilities, the company didn't provide benchmark numbers.

Intel will rebrand Meteor Lake processors and provide insight into the new "Core" rework later. More details on Meteor Lake will be available in the year's third quarter. However, the processors won't hit the retail market until summer. Intel's plans for Meteor Lake are nothing short of ambitious, with the chipmaker aiming to ship millions of Meteor Lake chips to consumers over the next year.

If you're wondering why the camera on your Surface Pro X suddenly stopped working this week, you're not alone. A flood of Surface Pro X owners took to Reddit yesterday to complain that their webcams unexpectedly stopped working — an issue that can have various repercussions.

Surface Pro X owners attempting to use the camera are greeted with the following error message: 

Error code 0xA00F4271 (0x80004005). 

What's interesting about this particular issue is that it affects every single Surface Pro X customer. Given the encompassing nature of the camera failures, the most likely culprit is an expired security certificate, according to Reddit user Wapitiii. If you roll your Surface Pro X back to any date before May 23, 2023, the camera "magically" starts working again — giving credence to the suggestion that a security certificate is to blame. This isn't a good workaround, by the way, as rolling back the date on your device can result in authentication problems for secure websites or programs on your PC.  

"Well, setting the date manually back to April, but as stated before, the incorrect date interferes with date/time sensitive websites or apps," wrote PCurrington on the Microsoft Community forum. "Chrome immediately started blocking my email website, and I was unable to access a travel message board. Any software/website that tracks the date. So, when I want to use the camera, I have to manually adjust the date back, use Zoom, and then correct the date to automatic to use other apps or websites."

Without functioning cameras, Surface Pro X customers are unable to partake in video calls using Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet (among other popular apps used for work and education). In addition, the Surface Pro X's camera also works as a way to log into Windows 11 using Windows Hello. Users with non-functional cameras will need to login using alternative methods. 

Despite the widespread nature of this latest Surface Pro X problem, Microsoft hasn't officially commented on the problem yet. The company is at least aware of the problem, as a note in the Windows 11 Feedback Hub shows that Microsoft is "looking into it." Unfortunately, there is no timeline for a fix, so customers will need to roll back the system clock manually to use the camera (and risk upsetting other programs), or perhaps invest in an external webcam. 

Microsoft's Surface Pro X is a bit of an odd duck in the broad PC market to begin with: it's a 13-inch convertible powered by a Microsoft SQ1 or SQ2 Arm processor. The use of a power-sipping Arm processor allows the device to last up to 15 hours per charge. 

Microsoft earlier today released the Windows 11 "Moment 3" Update (KB5026446), but it is doubtful that it addresses the camera issues faced by Surface Pro X owners.

A new PugetBench result shared by @Benchleaks on Twitter has revealed yet another Meteor Lake processor with Intel's new "Core Ultra" branding. This time the new naming scheme was seen on a mysterious new chip called the Intel Core Ultra 7 1003H. 

We were introduced to Intel's new naming system a month ago, when Intel told us it would be rebranding in preparation for the upcoming Meteor Lake launch. Intel didn't officially say the new branding meant adding "Ultra" to the name, but we also saw an Ashes of Singularity listing showing a Meteor Lake processor called the Core Ultra 5 1003H — suggesting this was the re-branding Intel was referring to. 

This new PugetBench result from PugetSystems is the second leak we've seen with the Core Ultra branding. We're not sure what "Ultra" implies, but it could be one of several names (e.g. "Ultra," "Pro," "Max," etc.) to further split SKUs between the entry-level, mid-range, and high-end markets. 

The new PugetBench listing does imply that Intel will be keeping its 3/5/7/9 numbering system. The newly-spotted chip is the Core Ultra 7, and the chip we saw earlier was the Core Ultra 5. 

According to the PugetBench benchmark results, the new Core Ultra 7 1003H appears to be a mobile SKU (if the letter H didn't give that away). The chip scored a mediocre 534.5 points in the PugetBench Lightroom Classic benchmark, which is just 32.5 points beyond another PugetBench system featuring a much older Intel Core i7-8665U mobile processor. 

Obviously this benchmark score needs to be taken with a grain of salt, since the chip could be a pre-production sample with performance issues that still need to be worked out. Also, the Lightroom Classic benchmark usually isn't indicative of real-world performance, anyway. 

Meteor Lake will serve as Intel's 14th-generation CPU architecture, sporting several major enhancements over Raptor Lake — including an upgraded process node called Intel 4, a new multi-tile design language, Low-Power E-Cores, AI enhancements, and more powerful Arc Alchemist integrated graphics. 

We thought the whole 16-pin connector (12VHPWR) meltdown fiasco was behind us, but new user reports have emerged months after the first incidents occurred. Unfortunately the GeForce RTX 4090 — one of the best graphics cards we've tested — just can't catch a break. Over the last few days, at least three new victims have come forward to detail their (literal) meltdowns on Reddit.

One Redditor recounted how the 16-pin power adapter melted on their TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card after around six to seven months of usage. They assured the readers in the Reddit thread that they correctly connected the cable, wiggled it to see if it would come off, and ensured there were no gaps. They didn't often use the GeForce RTX 4090 for gaming but instead for training, with the graphics card typically pulling around 350W to 500W. Surprisingly, the Redditor's other Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4090 Gaming OC hasn't presented issues. However, they noted that they were using an adapter from "Moody" — we suspect they may be referring to Cablemod or MODDIY aftermarket adapters.

Meanwhile, another Redditor had a similar experience: while changing cases, they discovered that the included 16-pin power adapter from Nvidia had melted. Unluckily for them, there were also signs of some damage to the graphics card's 16-pin power connector. 

The third case is a rather peculiar one. We've mostly been seeing user reports of either the 16-pin power adapter or the 16-pin power connector melting, and, in some cases, both. However, the third victim shared a photograph of the 8-pin power connectors from their Corsair SF750 80 Plus Platinum SFX power supply showing some signs of meltdown. The minimum recommended power supply capacity for the GeForce RTX 4090 is 850W. Nonetheless, the Redditor ran a modest setup with a Ryzen 5 7600, a 65W chip, and a GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition — reportedly limited to 70% of its power limit (315W). They have had the system since Dec. 2022, which more or less aligns with the same failure period as the other Redditors.

The last advisory from Nvidia, posted in Nov. 2022, assured consumers that Nvidia was investigating the user reports. At the time, the chipmaker had detected around 50 cases on a global scale. However, it's a small sample size, given that Nvidia has likely sold tens and thousands of GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards.

Since Nvidia hasn't provided any updates recently, it's unknown if the company is still investigating the problem. The preliminary verdict was that the connectors weren't fully installed into the connector on the graphics card, and Nvidia chalked the issue up to user error. We're not saying it's impossible, since the 12VHPWR connector is a tiny connector, and sometimes accidents happen. But some of the victims claim to be veteran builders with a long track record of being able to plug power connectors in without problems. Plus, given the attention the issue has received, GeForce RTX 4090 owners are probably double- and even triple-checking their 12VHPWR power connections. 

Nvidia was reportedly researching other methods to ensure the connector was seated correctly before turning on the graphics card. But it's not clear whether Nvidia has made progress on solving that problem or if they're even still looking into it. 

Intel is readying its 14th Generation Meteor Lake processors for the second half of the year. A product of the chipmaker's Intel 4 (previously 7nm) manufacturing process, Meteor Lake will arrive for both laptop and desktop formats but presumably on the former first. Unearthed by hardware detective momomo_us, we get a first peek at two alleged Meteor Lake processors for mobile devices.

Intel continues to go down the hybrid path with Meteor Lake. Meteor Lake, which features a multi-tile design, will employ Redwood Cove performance cores (P-cores) to handle heavy workloads while saving the Cresmont efficient cores (E-cores) for simpler tasks. The design allows for maximizing performance without sacrificing power consumption. However, Meteor Lake may feature a third type of core, presently rumored as the LP E-cores (low-power efficient cores). The rumor appears to be legit since an Intel patent has shown two additional Cresmont cores inside the SoC tile, which appears to feature a larger process node.

Meteor Lake has four tiles: Graphics, SoC, CPU, and IOE. The LP E-cores reside inside the SoC tile, which performs functions equivalent to the I/O Die (IOD) in AMD Ryzen processors. According to previously leaked documents, Meteor Lake supports "Low-power island CPU offload," implying that the LP E-cores' job may involve taking care of processes when the processor is in idle or sleep mode. If accurate, it would substantially help reduce power consumption in laptops. Meteor Lake, like previous hybrid chips before it, will look good on paper due to the overall high core count. In Meteor Lake's case, we would also factor in the LP E-cores.

The first Meteor Lake sample emerged with 14 cores that likely adhere to a 4P + 8E design, whereas the second Meteor Lake sample has 16 cores that should stick to a 6P + 8E layout. The remaining two cores in both engineering sample (ES) processors are from the LP E-cores. The 14-core Meteor Lake chip reportedly has 14MB of L2 cache and 16MB of L3 cache. The processor has a 3.26 GHz clock speed. The processor may very well be the recently leaked Core Ultra 5 1003H. On the other hand, the 16-core variant appears to have 18 MB of L2 cache and 24MB of L3 cache. It runs with a 3.07 GHz base clock and a 4.2 GHz boost clock.

However, the SiSoftware benchmark report doesn't pick up Meteor Lake's L4 cache (ADM or Adamantine). Although Intel's patent doesn't specifically mention Meteor Lake, early Linux patches have suggested that ADM is present on the upcoming 7nm processors.

Intel's hosting a series of Vision 2023 regional events this month, starting one that took place at Orland between May 8 and May 10. There are still three more on the chipmaker's list: Taipei (May 24 to May 25, Shanghai (May 30 to May 31), and Amsterdam (June 13 to June 14). Therefore, we may learn more about Meteor Lake in the upcoming weeks.

Sabrent has launched its Rocket Q 2230 SSDs to target owners of small form factor devices looking for storage upgrades. These new M.2 drives come in the 2230 form factor, as you would guess from the name, and Sabrent is making them available in up to 2TB capacity. Pre-orders for the 2TB drives are open now, with the direct price set at $219.99.

We know that Steam Deck users have found it difficult to source the highest capacity 2TB M.2 2230 form factor SSDs, so it is good to have another option come to market. The M.2 2230 form factor is also necessary for those who will be changing the storage device in the Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC. Those with the Aokzoe A1 Pro have more options, though, as that handheld can fit up to 8TB in its M.2 2280 slot.

Circling back to the Sabrent Rocket Q4 2230, let us have a closer look at the outline specifications that are currently available:

You can see above that we don’t have the usual depth of tech specs, but we assume Sabrent will be releasing them when the drives move from the pre-order to shipping status. We note that the ‘Q’ in the new product series name means that QLC NAND is used here, while the previous gen used TLC NAND. Some other small details include the fact that these drives are backwards compatible with Gen2 and Gen3 PCIe slots, and that they will not only fit in the handhelds we mentioned, but also the newest Microsoft Surface devices.

The 2TB device is up for pre-order at $219.99. Clicking through reveals that shipments are expected to begin in June. Sabrent says “other capacities” will be made available, and we can already see the promotional website (first link) mentions a 1TB drive in the model/specs area.

We reviewed the previous gen Sabrent Rocket (SB-2130) in its 1TB flavor back in January 2023.. The SB-2130 models use Micron 176-layer TLC NAND, but were only made available in capacities up to 1TB. At the time our only major gripes we had were over the capacity limitation, and the price premium vs M.2 2280 SSDs. The price premium clearly still exists, as a 2TB M.2 2280 NVMe Gen4 SSDs from big brands like Samsung with TLC NAND and DRAM cache can easily be grabbed for under $150.

Renowned leaker momomo_us took to Twitter to share a screenshot of what may very well be the production specs for AMD's upcoming RX 7600, the company's foray into the midrange GPU pricing segment. As seen by TechPowerUp!, the typeface and general design of the screenshot looks in-line with what we'd expect from marketing materials straight out of AMD; nevertheless, take the news with a healthy dose of salt for now.

According to the leak, the RX 7600 will pack in 32 RDNA3 Compute Units, working out to 2,048 Stream Processors - that's the same as last generation's RX 6600 XT, but more than the card it supposedly replaces, the RX 6600, which shipped with only 1,792 SPs. It seems that AMD's bet on this segment's performance increase is based on the architectural improvements of RDNA3. Paired with increased computing resources; AMD could have opted to increase the chip's Infinity Cache compared to its previous-gen RX 6600 series, but it seems the company chose to stick with the 32 MB cache pool. There's no guarantee, but keeping the 32 MB Infinity Cache may mean that AMD will keep the 128-bit bus as well.

Gigabyte recently listed a number of RX 7600 cards with the Eurasian Economic Commission (ECC), a step usually taken within a few weeks of release. The card has already been listed in Singapore (with a stocking date for May 26th) for around $410, but we expect that to be a placeholder price with the usual mark-up for an as-yet unreleased product. It's expected that the RX 7600 will offer around 25% better performance than AMD's RX 6600. Today's market isn't the same as those before it, and with the slump in consumer spending, it'd be wise for AMD to bring its cards towards a more attractive price-point.

Microsoft is actively expanding a team tasked with making a new challenger to Apple Silicon, according to a report by Windows Latest. Like Apple's M series processors, the new Microsoft SoCs will be based on Arm architecture, the report claims. But making the SoC development somewhat more exciting, Microsoft is said to be working in parallel to make sure Windows 12 will be Arm optimized.

Information about a new Microsoft-designed Arm chip comes from several sources, Windows Latest discloses. A few job listings, like this one, are said to provide clues; several other job listings have been removed at the time of writing. In addition to these listings, an unnamed source indicated to Windows Latest that "Microsoft is optimizing Windows 12 for Silicon-ARM architecture."

Pondering over the still-live 'Senior Product Engineer' job listing reveals that the candidate will work for "the Microsoft Silicon team" and be tasked with a wide range of semiconductor development processes to advance Azure, XBOX, Surface, and HoloLens using Microsoft's "internally developed silicon components." The lengthy job description mentions various silicon design and testing tasks.

In another job description, which isn't sourced, Microsoft is specifically recruiting a 'Principal System on Chip (SoC) Silicon Architect.' It seeks someone with experience in high-performance SOC architecture and CPU and GPU architecture and design. The main role of this recruit will be in "building complex, state-of-the-art SOCs using leading silicon technology nodes and will collaborate closely with internal customers and partners," relays Windows Latest.

We aren't sure where the leap of faith or logic that the above team members will be designing a chip for Windows 12 comes from. We only have the related statement from Windows Latest about Windows 12 being optimized for Arm. So, please add a pinch of salt to the idea that Microsoft is readying an Apple M2 killer under its own efforts/brand. It would be more traditional for it to work with the likes of Qualcomm, which reckons it has an Arm chip with something special coming soon, thanks to the work of the ex-Nuvia team.

Some Context - Microsoft SQ Series - A Collaboration With Qualcomm

It wouldn't be so surprising if Microsoft's Silicon Team was working on a new Surface chip, as it has done so before. Less than three years ago it launched the Surface Pro X 2-in-1 with a custom Microsoft SQ1 processor (7W). That chip arrived with a lot of boasts about its CPU, GPU, and AI processing, but the claims, and compatibility, fell a little flat in practice (see linked review above). However, the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 launched last November with a new SQ3 chip, and did a lot better, as you can read in our review.

The SQ series Arm processors, which are custom designed for Surface portable devices, are collaboratively designed with Qualcomm doing most of the heavy lifting. These chips are based on contemporary Snapdragon 8CX designs, so when the Nuvia chips arrive, Microsoft might have a parallel SQ model taking advantage of the newer cores. The first Snapdragon with Nuvia cores is expected to be the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4 Processor, and should emerge near year-end.

Some Windows 12 Nuggets

Windows 12 is still very much an unknown but news of it has been cropping up more frequently in recent months. Windows 12 development was supposed to have started in earnest this March, and we have seen Intel Meteor Lake chips being prepared with Windows 12 support.

Windows Latest shared some nuggets regarding the new OS from Microsoft that are interesting enough to relay here. It says that Windows 12 has a targeted release date of late 2024. As part of the Windows Core project, version 12 should be more modular and customizable for different form factors - which will be further boosted by good Arm optimization.

Moreover, the built-in AI acceleration in modern processors will give utilities we have already seen in Windows 11 a smart boost. The source says that an AI-driven smart snap window arranging tool seen in Windows 11 is an example of something that could be standard in 12. Pausing for thought, could an AI coprocessor thus become a minimum requirement in Windows 12?

Valve’s Steam Deck has turned out to be a popular gaming handheld that has drawn the attention of Asus with its forthcoming ROG Ally. The Steam Deck comes standard with a 64GB eMMC and is available with an optional 256GB or 512GB NVMe SSD. However, if you want to upgrade to more internal storage, your options are somewhat limited due to Valve’s use of the M.2 2230 form factor for the SSD.

However, Corsair is throwing its hat into the ring with the new MP600 Mini (PCIe Gen4 x4), which uses the smaller M.2 2230 form factor. The SSD uses the Phison PS5021-E21T controller, rated for 4800 MBps of throughput in sequential reads and 4,800 MBps in sequential writes. In addition, random reads and writes are listed at 850,000 IOPS and 1,100,000 IOPS, respectively. For comparison, the 1TB Force MP600 M.2 2280 SSD uses a Phison PS5016-E16 controller and is rated for up to 4,950 MBps in sequential reads and up to 4,250 MBps in sequential reads. 

However, remember that all Steam Decks ship with a PCIe Gen3 x4 interface, which is theoretically capable of 4 GBps of throughput, with most drives topping out at around 3.5 GBps. And in certain instances, the 256GB and 512GB NVMe SSDs shipping with Steam Decks use a PCIe Gen3 x2 interface, halving maximum theoretical throughput to 2 GBps. In any case, rest assured that the MP600 Mini is more than capable of serving as a replacement SSD for the Steam Deck. 

While Corsair currently lists the MP600 Mini on its website, we couldn’t find any U.S. retailers with the SSD in stock. In fact, we only found a listing at the Danish retailer ProShop, where the MP600 Mini is priced at 119 euros, which is roughly $130. The retailer expects to have stock in on May 5th, so perhaps we’ll start seeing U.S. retailers with availability around that time.

However, if you need an M.2 2230 SSD right now for your Steam Deck (or Microsoft Surface, as Corsair conveniently points out), you can grab a 1TB Inland TN436 for $119 or a 1TB Sabrent Rocket 2230 for $159.99 at Amazon.

Although rumors have claimed otherwise, Intel’s 14th Generation Meteor Lake processors may debut in the desktop space after all. If the LGA1851 Meteor Lake-S interposer indicates anything, Intel appears to be testing a desktop variant of Meteor Lake. Maybe the tool serves other internal purposes, so we shouldn’t get our hopes up.

Even before the LGA1700 socket debuted, there were already talks of an LGA18xx socket. The LGA1700 houses 12th Generation Alder Lake and 13th Generation Raptor Lake processors. Therefore, Raptor Lake’s successor, whether it is Meteor Lake or not, will likely debut on a new socket. It’s well-known that Intel’s commitment to a socket isn’t as determined as AMD’s. For instance, AMD has pledged to support the latest AM5 socket through 2025 and beyond. If we look at previous Intel sockets, such as the LGA1200 socket, it only accommodated two generations of processors.

Hardware detective momomo_us recently discovered the LGA1851-MTL-S Interposer (Q6UB1851MTLS), seemingly implying that Intel may be preparing Meteor Lake-S desktop chips. The interposer’s job is to provide an electrical conduit that links a socket or connection to another. However, without access to the technical specifications or documentation, it’s hard to speculate the real purpose of the Meteor Lake-S interposer.

The interpose shows 1,851 contacts, aligning with the LGA1851 moniker. Assuming that’s the desktop socket for Meteor Lake, we could be looking at just an 8.9% increase in contacts over the current LGA1700 socket. However, the last transition from the LGA1200 to the LGA1700 socket yielded a 41.7% contact increase.

A previous leak of an alleged Intel document supposedly points to the usage of the 14th Generation moniker for upcoming Meteor Lake (MTL) processors. However, the document didn't specify whether Meteor Lake is coming to mobile, desktop, or both. It's not unheard of for certain Intel microarchitectures to stay in the mobile segment, for example, Tiger Lake. The document includes Tiger Lake under the 11th Generation section; therefore, the document considers both mobile and desktop lineups.

An unconfirmed Intel roadmap implies that Meteor Lake may not come to the desktop in a near future. However, the roadmap has led many to believe that Intel is reportedly preparing a Raptor Lake Refresh (RPL-R) for a Q3 release. Hence, it’s plausible that the rumored Raptor Lake Refresh is the last ride for Intel's LGA1700 socket.

Intel has made many strides with Meteor Lake lately. The chipmaker recently deployed some Linux patches, alluding to an L4 cache with the upcoming Meteor Lake chips. An Intel patent also emerged confirming the Meteor Lake's L4 cache, for which Intel uses the "Adamantine" moniker for the L4 cache. Mobile Meteor Lake is slated to launch this year, and if the desktop variant is on Intel's plans, it probably won't arrive until 2024, assuming there is some credence to the Raptor Lake Refresh.

AMD's EPYC Genoa-X server processors with 3D V-Cache will arrive later this year. An alleged engineering sample (ES) of the EPYC 9684X has gone up on sale for $1,300 on a second-hand Chinese selling platform. The Goofish seller claims the processor wields 96 cores and 1,152MB of L3 cache.

Genoa-X, which will feature TSMC's 5nm process node, is the follow-up to AMD's previous EPYC Milan-X chips. The upcoming Genoa-X chips will continue to leverage AMD's Zen 4 cores, just like the vanilla Genoa parts, and top out at 96 cores and 192 threads. However, the main attraction is the implementation of AMD's 3D V-Cache to boost Genoa-X's L3 cache over 1GB.

The photographs for the EPYC 9684X reportedly show that the chip pertains to the EPYC 9004-series lineup. In addition, the "110.10 SP5" marking and the picture of the rear of the processor seemingly corroborate that it's at least an EPYC chip and slots into the Socket SP5 (LGA6096). Hardware leaker YuuKi_AnS mentioned the EPYC 9684X as the flagship Genoa-X SKU so the chip exists. Unfortunately, the seller didn't share screenshots of the EPYC 9684X.

AMD Genoa-X Specifications*

*Specifications are unconfirmed.

However, given the merchant's claims that the EPYC 9684X has 96 Zen 4 cores, it's likely the flagship SKU for the Genoa-X lineup. There's also reportedly 1,152MB of L3 cache. It's a substantial improvement over Milan-X. Milan-X has 768MB of L3 cache; therefore, Genoa-X represents a whopping 50% increase. The cache layout also consists of 96MB of L2 cache and 3MB of L1 cache. Genoa-X will sport a 1,251MB total cache per chip if we factor in all the caches.

We already know that the regular Genoa has a maximum L3 cache of 384MB. The 3D V-Cache contributes the remaining 768MB on Genoa-X. It's pretty impressive what AMD has done with Genoa-X. The 3D V-Cache alone on Genoa-X is equivalent to the total L3 cache on Milan-X.

With Milan-X, AMD released four SKUs in total: EPYC 7773X (64 cores), EPYC 7573X (32 cores), EPYC 7473X (243 cores), and EPYC 7373X (16 cores). Assuming that YuuKi_AnS' insider information is accurate, Genoa-X should follow the same model and arrive with similar core counts with 1,152MB of L3 cache.

Genoa pushed the core count up to 96 cores from the 64 cores in Milan. Logically, the TDP is also higher. Genoa has a TDP of up to 360W, 29% higher than Milan. It's reasonable for us to fathom that Genoa-X could land with a higher TDP rating. According to the Genoa-X leak, AMD may keep the flagship EPYC 9684X at 400W and restrain the other chips to 320W.

Therefore, the EPYC 9684X's TDP is only 11% higher than the regular 96-core EPYC 9654. Compared to the previous EPYC 7773X, though, we're looking at a 43% increase. Furthermore, the TDP increments vary between the different SKUs. For example, the EPYC 9384X appears to have a 14% higher TDP than the EPYC 7573X, whereas the EPYC 9284X and EPYC 9184X TDPs are 33% greater than the EPYC 7473X and EPYC 7373X.

Genoa already offers AMD's data center customers big performance thanks to the generous amount of Zen 4 cores. Genoa-X will undoubtedly build upon that and provide extra firepower for latency-sensitive workloads. Genoa-X will launch in 2023, although AMD hasn't specified when.

Razer recently debuted its very first tempered glass mouse pad — the Razer Atlas. Now, while many people think mouse pads these days are just superfluous desk decorations (because optical mice can track on just about anything), gamers, at least, can still appreciate the value of a dedicated, consistent playing surface. Like most gaming peripherals, the best gaming mouse pad is pretty personal — there’s no single, perfect product for all (or even most) users. 

Or, well, there wasn’t...

I’m not saying the Atlas is the best mouse pad I’ve ever used, but it might be the best mouse pad I’ve ever used. Trust me, I do not say these words lightly, and I started from a place of deep, deep skepticism. After all, not only is the Atlas essentially just a Razer-branded slab of glass, it’s a $100 Razer-branded slab of glass. To be fair, the Atlas isn’t the first glass mouse pad ever, it’s merely Razer’s first glass mouse pad. There are a handful of glass mouse pads already on the market, including the Superglide from Pulsar and the Mousepad 3.0 from SkyPad — both of which are priced very close to the Atlas. 

But $100 is $100, and the Atlas is ultimately a piece of glass – a large, heavy, somewhat boring-looking piece of glass with some optical sensor-optimized micro-etching and a smudge-resistant oleophobic coating. It’s also possibly unusually fragile, based on the various safety guidelines and warnings Razer has provided thus far. It hardly seems worth a second look — on paper, at least. 

But it feels amazing, and it tracks like a dream. Not that my old mouse pad had any issues with tracking, because it didn’t (doesn’t — it’s still here, sitting next to the Atlas on my desk), but the Atlas just feels so good to use that even recognizably identical performance just feels better, somehow. 

What’s even crazier is that I don’t really like hard mouse pads with their smooth, sexy, low-friction surfaces. I don’t need to move my mouse across seven screens in the blink of an eye. In fact, I much prefer soft, textured mouse pads, which offer detailed, precise pointer control, at the expense of speed. I don’t mind feeling like I’m dragging my mouse through a muddy gravel driveway if it means pixel-perfect accuracy. Or, at least, I didn’t, until I spent approximately three minutes gliding my mouse across the silky-smooth surface of the Atlas.

Unboxing the Atlas

The Atlas arrived in a slim, poster-sized shipping box, though the actual retail packaging is only slightly larger than the product itself. I’m not sure if all Atlases will ship in such large boxes, or if this was just all they could find for the review unit (the packaging wasn’t otherwise ostentatious — if anything, it looked pretty hastily put together).

This is an entirely analog mouse pad. It has no RGB and it (thankfully) does not connect to Razer’s Synapse 3 software ecosystem. And it thus does not come with any cables or accessories. It didn’t even come with Razer’s usual instruction booklet and Chroma stickers (because it doesn’t have Chroma, I suppose).

The Atlas’s lack of RGB and fancy, all-glass construction does give this mouse pad a refined, premium look — but I’m not sure that’s what people want as part of their blinged-out Razer gaming setup. I placed the Atlas on my desk next to my current mouse pad — the Razer Strider Chroma — and the Atlas does sort of seem like a black hole next to all my spectrum-cycling peripherals and accessories.

The only thing inside the foam-lined box aside from the product itself was a slip of paper outlining safety guidelines and maintenance instructions. Here are the full safety guidelines:

• When placing the mouse mat, gently lay the entire mouse mat on a fully leveled surface. Don’t place the mouse mat on surfaces where its sides or edges will protrude.
• Don’t place (or drag) heavy, sharp, or rough items on top of the mouse mat, as this may scratch or damage its surface.
• Don’t strike the mouse mat using hard or pointed objects.
• Don’t place very hot or cold items on the mouse mat.

I guess that means using the Atlas as a cutting board, trivet, or coaster is out. In addition to the safety guidelines outlined on this sheet, Razer includes a handful of more dramatically illustrated safety warnings on the Atlas’s product page:

That’s right, the Atlas is a sheet of glass. Therefore, Razer thinks it’s important for you to know that it carries a risk of starting fires under direct sunlight, that it should not be used as a sunshade (?), and that it can hurt people if you bash them over the head with it. I’m not sure why Razer felt it necessary to illustrate these particular warnings, as they seem kind of ridiculous (but maybe that’s why I’m not a lawyer). The first two seem especially irrelevant, as the back of the Atlas is covered in a thin anti-slip rubber backing that renders the entirety of the mouse pad opaque.

Design and Size of the Atlas

The Atlas is... a gaming mouse pad. It’s a large, rectangular slab of CNC-milled tempered glass, with rounded edges and corners. Its surface is micro-etched with 2μm texturing that’s “optimized for optical sensors” and “specially treated for quieter swipes.” On top of this micro-etching, there’s a protective oleophobic coating that resists smudges and scratches and gives the Atlas a smooth, matte finish.

The Atlas comes in black and white colorways (my review unit was black). The Atlas isn’t particularly jaw-dropping when it’s sitting on your desk — it doesn’t have built-in RGB lighting, after all — but the micro-etched texturing does give the surface a sparkly, glittery quality when you shine a light over it. A 1.5-inch (38mm) black Razer triskelion snake logo adorns one corner of the mouse pad. Note that the logo is black on both colorways, so it’s much more visibly prominent on the white version.

The Atlas comes in one (large) size, measuring 17.72 inches (450mm) long by 15.75 inches (400mm) wide. This is the same size as Razer’s other large mouse pads, and is similar to what you’ll find from other gaming companies: SteelSeries’ large QCK has the exact same measurements, while Logitech’s G640 measures 18.11 x 15.74 inches (460 x 400mm).

The Atlas is a little thicker than many mouse pads at 0.19 inches (5mm) thick, including the anti-slip rubber backing, which is black on both colorwaysSo yea, it’s not particularly portable — it can’t be folded or rolled (obviously), and it weighs approximately 4.41 pounds (2kg).

I love large mouse pads — though I prefer XL mouse pads, which are large enough to fit under both a mouse and a keyboard. But the Atlas is a little too large. Yes, I realize it’s basically the same size as other large gaming mouse pads. But it feels larger than those, thanks to its rigid glass construction and various constraints: it can’t be placed on an uneven surface, nor can it be squeezed into a space that’s slightly too small — and you’re not supposed to let the edges or corners hang off of a desk.

I don’t know about most people, but I don’t have a lot of wide-open real estate on my desk. Finding space for a large mouse pad can be tricky, even on a desk that’s relatively free of clutter. For example, my main rig is currently set up on Cooler Master’s GD160 ARGB gaming desk, which has a 3-inch lip along the front and back edges — and I can’t place the mouse pad over this lip because it isn’t level with the rest of the tabletop. 

And you can usually place things on other mouse pads — most pretty easily double as desk pads, place mats, or coasters. But while “very hot or very cold items” maybe doesn’t refer to a cup of coffee or a glass of ice water, the Atlas doesn’t really seem like the kind of mouse pad you should set a drink down on, regardless.

Tracking and Performance

This mouse pad is amazing, and I love it.

It feels incredible. The surface feels a lot like the smooth, matte glass back of an iPhone 13 or 14 — it’s soft and slick, with low static and dynamic friction. The Atlas offers just enough resistance to still function as a mouse pad, but otherwise it’s basically the mouse-surface equivalent of a perfectly tranquil, mirror-reflective lake.

The mouse pad’s surface features micro-etched, 2μm texturing that’s designed specifically to work with optical sensors and “avoid spin outs.” For the best performance, Razer recommends using one of its recent mice with its latest Focus Pro 30K Optical Sensor, which has a 99.8% resolution accuracy and is capable of tracking “flawlessly” on clear glass that’s at least 0.16 inches (4mm) thick. But any of the top picks in our best gaming mouse lineup will have a sensor that tracks well on the Atlas. Of course, if the Focus Pro 30K Optical Sensor will work “flawlessly” on any moderately insulated window, this raises the question of why you would spend $100 on a fancy, micro-etched, optical-sensor-optimized piece of glass — but I digress. 

Current Razer mice with the Focus Pro 30K Optical Sensor include the DeathAdder V3 Pro, Viper V2 Pro, and Naga V2 Pro.

I tested the Atlas using a variety of mice, including premium gaming mice from Razer (Basilisk V3 Pro, DeathAdder V3 Pro), Logitech (G 502X Plus, G705), and Asus (ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition), as well as some lower-end gaming mice that were sitting in my cable drawer (Redragon M601, M901). The Atlas’s performance was consistent across the board: Silky, dream-like gliding; low static and dynamic friction; accurate, reliable tracking; and impressive stopping power, especially for a hard surface. None of the mice had trouble tracking on the Atlas. The mice with Razer’s Focus Pro 30K Optical Sensors didnt’ feel any more precise or accurate on the Atlas’s surface — at least, not more than they normally are on any surface — compared to those with older, lower-end sensors. 

Razer claims the Atlas’s surface is “specially treated” for “quieter mouse movements.” While mouse movements weren’t particularly loud, this is a hard, glass mouse pad — if you’re picking your mouse up and slamming it down, it’s going to sound like you’re slamming it down against a piece of glass. Flicks and swipes were relatively quiet, but this also depended at least somewhat on the individual mice.  The gaming mice I tested all had PTFE skates, and all sailed almost silently across the Atlas’s surface. A $6 Bluetooth mouse I bought on Amazon a few years ago, however, was pretty noisy as it moved over the surface — it definitely did not have PTFE skates (or... any skates, really). Razer recommends using mice with PTFE (“or equivalent”) skates with the Atlas, but even my skate-less Bluetooth mouse performed pretty well, considering. You will want to avoid using glass mouse skates on the Atlas, however, as glass-on-glass will scratch. And no one wants that on their $100 mouse pad.

The Bottom Line

Stop reading and buy this mouse pad, right now.

Just kidding — the Razer Atlas has inexplicably changed my entire outlook on mouse pads, but it’s not perfect (and it’s definitely not perfect for everyone). Moving a mouse over it feels like a dream and just about any mouse you throw at it tracks perfectly, but there’s more to a mouse pad than performance. My main issue with the Atlas is its size — it’s just a little too large for, I expect, most gaming setups. It may have the same dimensions as other large gaming mouse pads, but it’s less forgiving and it takes up more space because it’s a rigid piece of glass. I understand why gamers go for bigger mouse pads in general, and I don’t think the Atlas needs to shrink a full size — I think Razer could easily shave off an inch or two and find a size that still offers plenty of space without being so unwieldy. 

Also, while the Atlas’s lack of resistance feels fantastic, there is such a thing as too little resistance. I didn’t love using ultra-lightweight mice, such as the DeathAdder V3 Pro and the Asus ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition with the Atlas — I wanted some resistance to, I don’t know, ground my movements, perhaps. Using a mouse that feels like nothing on a mouse pad that feels like nothing is just too much... nothing.

Finally, Razer’s safety guidelines and unusual website warnings have me concerned about the Atlas’s durability. I’m not planning on dropping the Atlas off my fifth-floor balcony or anything, but being told not to place basically anything heavy, hot, cold, rough, sharp, scratchy, etc., on the mouse pad’s surface makes it sound less durable than I’d like. The Atlas is, luckily, very easy to clean — I’ve been using it for about a week and the oleophobic coating seems to be working well — it’s still perfectly pristine and free of fingerprints or smudges. Razer says the Atlas can be cleaned using a soft, possibly damp, cloth, but warns that it should not be cleaned using “soap or harsh cleaning agents,” which again sounds like it could be just about anything. I don’t sweat while gaming — I hardly sweat at all, in general — but if you are a sweaty gamer a glass mouse pad may not be for you. (At the very least it seems like sweating on this mouse pad might require something more than just a soft cloth to clean up.) 

The Atlas is a fantastic mouse pad for an aspirationally roomy, clean, and clutter-free battlestation — and I really do love it. But for those who aren’t quite as picture-perfect — myself included — $100 is a lot to spend on something so high-maintenance and demanding of your desk space.

Blizzard recently released a playable beta of Diablo IV. However, it appears that not everything is sunshine and rainbows in the Sanctuary, though. An alarming amount of user reports have emerged on Reddit and the Blizzard forums, claiming that the beta is bricking the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, one of the best graphics cards.

One Reddit user reported that his Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Vision OC 12G had perished after playing the game for only 20 minutes. According to the Redditor's recount, the cutscene in the chapel was the exact moment his GeForce RTX 3080 Ti went haywire. It didn't take long before other affected users started to pitch in. Another user claims the cutscene also bricked his Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Vision OC 12G. However, users have also experienced crashes during normal gameplay too.

The reported symptoms are identical among the different cases. The system immediately throws a black screen at the user, and the cooling fans on the graphics cards go crazy. Subsequently, no image comes from the graphics card even after a system or several system restarts. However, it's important to note that the issue doesn't affect everyone, though. Some Diablo IV players have reported that while they have suffered crashes from the beta, the graphics cards miraculously survived.

The user feedback on the original Reddit thread shows that most of the bricked GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards are from Gigabyte. There was also a good number of cases from unspecified vendors. However, one GeForce RTX 3080 Ti from EVGA reportedly bit the dust too. Sadly, the issue isn't limited to the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, either. One GeForce RTX 3080 owner and one Radeon RX 6900 XT also came forward, reporting their bricked graphics cards.

It's too soon to tell whether Gigabyte's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti or Diablo IV is the culprit behind the bricked graphics cards. However, another GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Vision OC 12G owner reported that Valheim bricked their graphics card. Gigabyte sent the user a replacement but didn't provide any details on what was wrong with the graphics card. So there is seemingly a precedent that something may be wrong with Gigabyte's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards.

Neither Blizzard nor Gigabyte has spoken about the issue. As a stopgap solution, users are recommending their peers cap the frame rate for safe measures. Nvidia GeForce owners can limit the frame rates on their graphics cards through the Nvidia control panel. The "Max Frame Rate" option resides in the "Global Setting" tab right under the "Manage 3D settings" section.

This Diablo IV bricking graphics card issue certainly has that New World-killing GeForce RTX 3090 vibe. Initially, users blamed New World because the open beta didn't have a frame rate limiter, making the GeForce RTX 3090 render the game menu at unnecessary high frame rates until the graphics card ultimately died. However, EVGA later discovered that bad soldering around the graphics card's MOSFET circuits killed the GeForce RTX 3090s, not New World. So it's not impossible to think that a bad batch of GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards may have escaped the factory. 

There's always a certain amount of risk when playing a beta version of an upcoming game. However, it shouldn't kill your graphics card - unless a defect exists that we don't know about, and Diablo IV exposes it.

AMD hasn't officially announced the Radeon RX 6300, but the card has appeared on Goofish (via HXL), a second-hand Chinese marketplace. The low-profile Navi 24 (codename Beige Goby) graphics card reportedly sells for less than $60 and could be an excellent entry-level competitor to rival the best graphics cards.

The first traces of the Radeon RX 6300 surfaced in May last year in the Linux kernel. However, the rumor mill had stopped spinning until recently, when the Radeon graphics card popped up on Goofish. It's uncertain if AMD will release the Radeon RX 6300 to the retail market. Instead, it could be an OEM-exclusive SKU. HP has listed the Radeon RX 6300 as a graphics option for the company's Elite Series 800 G9 desktop PCs.

The Radeon RX 6300 utilizes Navi 24 silicon, similar to AMD's other RDNA 2 offerings, including the Radeon RX 6400 and Radeon RX 6500 XT. Navi 24, a die that measures 107 mm² and comes out of TSMC's 6nm process node, is also a prominent option for discrete mobile options, such as the Radeon RX 6500M and Radeon RX 6550S. The Radeon RX 6300 utilizes a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface. Given its tiny die size, Navi 24 only houses 16 compute units (CUs). The Radeon RX 6300's die comes with 12 enabled CUs, amounting to 768 streaming processors (SPs) and 12 Ray Tracing accelerators.

AMD uses the same recipe for baking the Radeon RX 6400, but the Radeon RX 6300 is slower than the Radeon RX 6400. HP lists the former with a 1,512 MHz game clock, while the Radeon RX 6400 features a 2,039 MHz base clock, around 35% higher than the Radeon RX 6300. The lower clock speeds are the product of a lower TGP. The Radeon RX 6400 is rated for 53W, whereas the Radeon RX 6300 adheres to 32W, a 40% decrease. At least that means you won't have to fiddle with PCIe power connectors. Both Radeon graphics cards draw their necessary power from a standard expansion slot.

Radeon RX 6300 Specifications

AMD didn't just hobble the clock speeds and TGP on the Radeon RX 6300. The graphics card shows a substantial compromise to the memory subsystem. It only has 2GB of GDDR6 memory, half of the Radeon RX 6400. Although the memory chips run at 16 Gbps on both graphics cards, the Radeon RX 6300 only has a 32-bit memory interface compared to the Radeon RX 6400's 64-bit bus. Therefore, the Radeon RX 6300 can only deliver 64 GBps of memory bandwidth, 50% less than the Radeon RX 6400.

The Radeon RX 6300 could be a viable option for small form factor (SFF) systems that lack integrated graphics. The Navi 24-based graphics card comes with two HDMI 2.1 ports, after all. However, we can't see it as useful for a whole lot more than that. The Navi 24 lacks video encoding capabilities, so it's useless in an HTPC. It's far from a gaming graphics card, but you could get away with the occasional title at 1080p (1920x1080) if the image fidelity is dialed down far enough.

The Chinese merchant put the Radeon RX 6300 up for 399 yuan or $58.28. However, that's evidently not the official price since the seller probably pulled the graphics card from an OEM system and flipped it on Goofish. There aren't many options under $60. The only graphics cards available near that price are the older GeForce GT 710 or Radeon RD 5450 models, around the $50 mark.

Update: Our AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D Review is live, and it takes the crown as the fastest gaming CPU on the market. Read more here. 

Original Article:

AMD's line of 3D V-Cache-enabled Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs doesn't launch until Tuesday, February 28th, but Newegg already has listings for both the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Ryzen 9 7900X3D hidden on its site (as spotted by @momomo_us). Both listings show as out of stock and neither appears in Newegg's internal search. It's also possible that there's a listing stub for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which is also due out on Tuesday, but we were unable to find it.

These listings aren't particularly surprising as the chips were announced weeks ago, along with their availability date. Newegg doesn't show prices on these pages, but we already know that the MSRPs for the three chips are $699, $599 and $449 respectively. The links are below should you wish to bookmark them for easy access on launch day.

• Ryzen 9 7950X3D Newegg Listing
• Ryzen 9 7900X3D Newegg Listing

We already know a lot about these upcoming CPUs and we're about to learn more. There are rumors that the review posting date for these chips is February 27th. We also know that the chips will consist of two CCDs (core chiplet dies) that have half of the cores in them. One core will have the 3D V-Cache, making it ideal for gaming while the other core, without the 3D V-Cache, will be able to hit higher clock speeds.

Several benchmark scores have also leaked out, including one which shows the Ryzen 9 7950X3D beating the Core i9-13900K by an average of 11 percent when both chips were paired with an Nvidia RTX 3090 and tested in a set of five games. On one game, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, AMD's flagship chip won by a full 35 percent.

The chips start with the $449 Ryzen 7 7800X3D which features 8 cores, 16 threads and 104MB of cache, followed by the 12-core, 24-thread, $599 Ryzen 9 7900X3D and its 140MB of cache. The Ryzen 9 7950X3D is the flagship with 16 cores, 32 threads and 144MB of cache, along with a whopping $699 MSRP.

In preparation for the 7000X3D CPU's launch, motherboard vendors have been testing BIOS updates that will allow you to set the CCD priority for different tasks.  A beta version of a BIOS for Asus's X670 motherboards was posted online last week.

If you're considering planning to build or upgrade a PC, these chips may be right for you. We'll withhold final judgment until we've had the chance to do our own tests.

There’s a good reason artists, musicians, video editors and other digital creatives love Apple devices - but if you want to expand the capabilities of your Mac, iPhone or iPad, then ZikeTech’s range of peripherals should be at the top of your shopping list.

Apple’s pursuit of slimline and minimalistic designs for its products means that while they certainly look good, they can sometimes lack the ports and features that digital creatives require.

ZikeTech’s products can solve this issue by adding extra ports and features to your devices, while fitting in with Apple’s stylish aesthetic.

Take ZikeTech’s range of USB-C hubs. These can connect to your MacBook or iMac and adds additional ports, such as extra USB ports and a full-size HDMI port.

There are also hubs that add SD card readers - ideal for photographers. ZikeTech’s hubs for the iPad Pro further expand the functionality of Apple’s powerful tablet, turning it into a fully-fledged laptop.

Fully charged and protected 

ZikeTech also produces stylish charging products to keep the batteries of your devices topped up with it's 2-in-1 MagSafe wireless charging (with MFM certification). It can charge your Iphone, while also minimising clutter on your desk.

Meanwhile, the 100W GaN USB-C wall charger can quickly charge up a number of devices at once, making it ideal for travellers and people working on the road with multiple gadgets.

ZikeTech also supplies sleeves and cases that will help protect your laptop while travelling.

Not just for Apple products

While ZikeTech’s products are designed with Apple products in mind, they are universally compatible with pretty much any device with a USB-C port. 

This means they’re great with devices such as Microsoft’s Surface Pro lineup as well.

Transfer your photos in minutes

One of ZikeTech’s most exciting products is the World’s first and fastest USB4 SSD enclosure - ZikeDrive. Offering record-breaking speeds of up to 3.8GB/s (read) and 3.1GB/s (write), you can transfer around 1TB (1024GB) of video, music or photos in just five minutes.

Creatives who need to move around or back up huge amounts of files will no longer have to wait around while their files are transferred, and with its compact size (it’s smaller than an iPhone) and stowaway cable, it’s easy and convenient to carry around.

It will work with any USB-C device (though USB4/Thunderbolt 4 is recommended to get the maximum speeds) and you can easily install any NVMe SSD and the latest PCIe Gen 4x4 SSD using the tooless design.

Moreover, ZikeDrive can maintain high speed transfers without danger of overheating. Aerospace aluminium and corrugated design on the surface further improves the heat dissipation performance, ensuring the safety of files and computers, and means you don't have to worry when you're storing irreplaceable documents.

ZikeTech will launch this USB4 SSD enclosure on Indiegogo, and the campaign will start on January 23, 2023 at 8AM PST and ends on February 22, 2023. Early bird backers will get the ZikeDrive at 50% off the suggested retail price. Super-early bird backers will get an even bigger discount on the ZikeDrive, starting at $99.

After crowdfunding successfully, it is expected to start shipping in May 2023.

So, if you’re a digital creative that demands more from your devices, let ZikeTech help you expand your horizon.

Some video footage of a sprightly Jensen Huang has resurfaced via Reddit, and is causing a commotion. In the lengthy video we hear what appears to be a more idealistic version of the Nvidia CEO, with no leather jacket in sight, perched on the edge of a desk. He recounts how the video game graphics industry was looked down upon by investors, and his parents... However, the statement causing most sparks on social media today is when Jensen told the audience that one of his major goals was to make the best graphics technology “inexpensive.”

After a brief intro, Jensen outlined his vision beginning at 8:20 in the video below, where he talked about the importance of making gaming graphics cards affordable. “We started a company and the business plan basically read something like this,” stated the Nvidia CEO. “We are going to take technology that is only available only in the most expensive workstations. We’re going… to try and reinvent the technology and make it inexpensive.” He went on to explain to the attentive audience that his success was largely that “the killer app was video games.”

Jensen Huang related his experience as an engineer, entrepreneur and innovator to a small selection of Stanford University staff and students back in 2011. At the time, Nvidia was already a huge success, with many major industry milestones behind it; founded in 1994, with the popular Riva 128 launched in 1997, crediting itself with the ‘invention of the GPU’ in 1999, launching the CUDA architecture in 2005, and shipping of its billionth processor in the year this video was recorded. In product terms the highly anticipated GeForce GTX 500 (Fermi refresh) series was new. For some perspective the GeForce GTX 500 series of graphics cards launched in 2011 were  priced (MSRP) between $149 (GeForce GTX 550 Ti) and $699 (GTX 590 with dual-GPUs).

It sounds like a great plan, looking back from 2023, but younger Jensen went on to describe how dismissive investors (and parents) were regarding the stated route to success – following the goal of designing 3D graphics chips for gaming.

Tech enthusiasts tend to look closely at developments over shorter timescales, as they are keen to get an eye on the next big development, but if we step back we can see a bigger picture. Ponder over, for example the improvements to PC gaming graphics since this Stanford talk, when a flagship GPU was $699. The equivalent sum is about $950 today if we just consider general inflation.

For perhaps another view, take a look at our popular reference article, the GPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2023. This shows a pleasingly wide selection of graphics cards which are comparatively performance ranked from as far back as the GeForce RTX 900 series (Maxwell architecture, 2014-15) days. The steady march of GPU generational performance is still pretty clear to see, and if the prices are inherently wrong, the market will always decide. Let us know what you think about Jensen's 2011 statements in the comments section.