Not long after announcing an "end of the road" for World Rally Championship (WRC) franchise development, Electronic Arts (EA) reportedly implemented an unspecified number of layoffs at Codemasters. This long-running British racing game specialist became a fully EA-owned property just over five years ago. Since then, the studio continued work on the F1 franchise—in addition, teams also branched off into the making of well-known EA racing IPs: Grid and WRC. On forums and social media, (non-Codemasters) EA staffers indicated that colleagues had lost their jobs. Video Games Chronicle reached out to the publisher, for comment on last week's conditions. On April 29, the American video game company announced the cutting of hundreds of roles, and the cancelation of unannounced projects.

In a statement issued to VGC, an EA spokesperson explained: "as a business, we are constantly evolving to meet the growing needs of our players and driving greater focus across our portfolio. This has led us to look at reducing some roles, while we redeploy as many as possible against our strategic priorities." As reported earlier this year, the company tends to "reshuffle" its development staff following the completion of projects. It is not clear how much of the internal setup at Codemasters has been re-jigged, but an EA Racing franchise social media manager provided a little bit of insight. In a past weekend forum post, they posited that: "there's a lot of talent up for grabs now—the audio and vehicle art teams were some of the best in the business; and any game with cars in it should tap them up." Criterion could be an ideal location for transfers, but this Surrey, UK-based studio's focus has been redirected to non-racing IPs.

Gears of War: Reloaded is a celebration of one of gaming's most iconic franchises. Featuring 4K resolution, 120 FPS support, and the ultimate multiplayer experience with cross-progression and cross-play, across all platforms, this is the definitive way to experience the game that started it all. As we approach the 20th anniversary of Gears of War in 2026, we're reflecting on what this franchise means. It's about the stories we've told, the friendships we've built, and the unforgettable moments we've shared together. With Gears of War: Reloaded, we're opening that door to more players than ever.

A Modern Classic Goes Multiplatform
Originally released in 2006, Gears of War: Reloaded brings the full experience forward once again—enhanced for the latest hardware across multiple platforms, introducing the Gears of War franchise to a new generation of players. Developed by The Coalition in partnership with Sumo Interactive and Disbelief, Gears of War: Reloaded launches August 26, 2025, for $39.99 SRP on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox PC, Xbox Cloud Gaming, PlayStation 5, and Steam, and arrives on day one with Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass. Play on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox PC with Xbox Play Anywhere. Gears of War: Reloaded includes the full breadth of content from the Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, delivering the most complete version of the original game to date. Players will gain immediate access to all post-launch downloadable content at no additional cost—this includes the bonus Campaign act, all multiplayer maps and modes, and a full roster of classic characters and cosmetics unlockable through progression.

In October of 2025, Microsoft will phase out support for Windows 10. For many users, it's free to upgrade, but the baseline version of Windows 11 is limited in what it can do. If you want a more advanced OS with improved security, a refined user interface, and even improvements for gaming, try Windows 11 Pro. It would normally cost $199 to upgrade to Windows 11 Pro, but during this limited-time sale, it's only $14.97. No coupon needed.

Best Buy USA has updated its webstore with a "PNY GeForce RTX 5060 Overclocked 8 GB GDDR7 PCI Express 5.0 Graphics Card with Dual Fan" black edition card. NVIDIA and several of its board partners have already revealed forthcoming products, but a firm launch date was not announced during "GeForce RTX 5060 Desktop Family" introduction week. Inside track knowledge indicates a potential unveiling at Computex 2025; specifically on May 19. VideoCardz believes that GeForce RTX 5060 (non-Ti) evaluation samples were distributed well in advance of this month's big hardware conference. Two weeks ahead of an alleged simultaneous unveiling/retail launch, a barebones dual-fan PNY factory overclocked offering has appeared online. Best Buy's advertised $299.99 price point hovers just above Team Green's $299 starting line. A reference specced equivalent is present within TechPowerUp's GPU database; will retail outlets sticker this one with a just below $300 tag?

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB design received very little fanfare last month—certain members of the media had to fork out cash from their own wallets ($379 MSRP), in order to secure units for review purposes. Non-TI 8 GB (GB206 GPU-based) cards are not expected to receive widespread critical acclaim, but potential mainstream buyers could be enticed by "perceived value for money." Interestingly, PNY's mid-April "GeForce RTX 5060 Family" PR material teased a forthcoming "Single Fan RTX 5060" model. No promotional renders were provided, but Best Buy's listing has included an exploded depiction of the AIB's dual-fan solution. The contained (and suitably) stubby board design could be transferred quite easily to a smaller enclosure. Unlike GIGABYTE's recently uncovered short configuration, PNY has opted to go with a regular length PCIe interface.

Added Offline Single Player Mode: players can now enjoy Deadzone's single-player mode offline, without an internet connection! This was our top-requested feature, and the #1 priority for our team to deliver this week. We really wanted to address this for the community ASAP, and hope you can enjoy the improved experience this weekend! Note: this is a large change for our back-end systems. We expect performance to be stable after internal testing, but will monitor the patch to make sure it acts as expected. Co-op mode will also still require an online connection, so players can share the same game experience in real time.

Added a new mission—Uniform Chaos II
In this mission, each room randomly spawns a horde of the same type of enemies to defeat. This approach builds on the Uniform Chaos I mission, and offers an even deeper level of enemy variety and challenge for experienced players. This mission can be found in Zone 2, we hope you enjoy it!

Despite featuring the biggest GB202 configuration—24,064 CUDA cores distributed across 188 streaming multiprocessors running at up to 2,617 MHz, paired with 96 GB of GDDR7 ECC memory—the RTX PRO 6000 'Blackwell' GPU from NVIDIA is yet to have an official launch date or pricing disclosed. Early European retailer listings show the card starting at €8,982, including 21 percent VAT. Some vendors are already asking for more than €10,900. However, business customers evaluating net costs can anticipate a significant saving, with a rough estimate of €7,430 before tax, subject to local tax regulations and import fees. NVIDIA is expected to offer the RTX PRO 6000 in several variants, including Workstation, Server, and Max‑Q editions that tailor power envelopes and cooling designs to different professional environments.

In Japan, pre‑release listings place the RTX PRO 6000 at ¥1,630,600 (around $11,326), reflecting a similar premium level. The appearance of these price tags suggests that initial shipments have quietly reached distributors well before any formal announcement. One Redditor even got his hands on it early, preparing for a trial run. Of course, before NVIDIA releases RTX PRO-optimized drivers, the performance will lag behind the gaming GeForce RTX 5090 SKU. Geared toward enterprise workstations and professional workloads that demand high memory capacity and massive compute performance, this pricing profile distinguishes the RTX PRO 6000 from gaming-grade SKUs. Still, it is below the server-grade GB200-based Blackwell GPUs aimed at AI and HPC workloads.

Online chaos doesn't just come from pop-up ads or autoplay videos—it's in hidden trackers, shady websites, and data leaks that turn a simple scroll into a security risk. If you're managing devices for the whole family, things can get out of hand fast. That's where AdGuard's Family Plan steps in. Right now, you can grab lifetime access for just $15.97 using code FAMPLAN at checkout at StackSocial through April 27 (reg. $169.99).

This all-in-one data privacy tool blocks ads, filters out malicious websites, and protects up to nine devices from prying eyes. Whether you're trying to stream without interruptions, game without lag, or ensure your kids aren't falling into sketchy internet rabbit holes, AdGuard's got it covered.

Get lifetime protection for your whole household with this lifetime ad blocker. AdGuard's Family Plan is $15.97 with code FAMPLAN at checkout until April 27 at 11:59 p.m. PT (reg. $169.99).

Last week, GIGABYTE issued an official response to an initial case of "thermal conductive gel slippage," involving an ultra-expensive AORUS GeForce RTX 5080 MASTER ICE, a vertical-mounted graphics card setup, and very non-intensive MMO gaming sessions. The Taiwanese manufacturer believes that this problem is isolated within a first wave of products: "every graphics card is inspected and verified against our quality standards before leaving the factory. The thermal conductive gel is an insulating, deformable, putty-like compound. It is engineered to remain in place when applied properly, and can endure at least 150 °C before any melting or liquification could happen. In some early production batches for the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 50 Series, a slightly higher volume of gel was applied to ensure sufficient thermal coverage. The overapplication may cause the excessive gel to appear more prominent, extended, and could potentially be separated from the designated area. While the appearance of extra gel might be concerning, this cosmetic variance does not affect the card's performance, reliability, or lifespan. We had already inspected the issue, and adjusted the gel to the optimal amount in (subsequent) production runs."

Despite sending out a public assurance to a worried audience—"(we) take your concerns seriously and want to provide clear information"—GIGABYTE will not be recalling problematic products. VideoCardz reckons that the company is "downplaying" current conditions. Based on further evidence—shared by several members of the TechPowerUp forum (commenting on news coverage)—unfortunately, the first reported case (emerging from South Korea) was not an isolated incident. Given the contents of GIGABYTE's public bulletin, they seem to be aware that this special thermal material (reserved for fancier SKUs) is troubling owners of early batch "GeForce RTX 50 Series and Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics cards." TPU forumite, remekra, shared two images and the following bit of feedback (plus a warning): "I have mine mounted in Lian Li SUP01 case, so GPU is basically standing that's why it drips into the direction of ports. So far it does not overheat on memory modules. I will hold off sending it to GIGABYTE customer service, as I don't have good memories of them; so until it overheats or stops working I will use it. But if you have a vertical case or stand then be aware."

You've got to have good fundamentals if you hope to survive the battle for humanity's fate in Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion. That's why we're going to be showing off a series of introductory videos filling you in on the basics of this action-packed sequel's gameplay systems. In this teaser, you not only get a good look at several of the weapon types you can equip on your Arsenal, but what benefits they can provide beyond firepower on the battlefield. It's a harsh planet full of deadly threats, and you'll need every advantage you can get if you hope to survive.

Our "Combat Basics" video is the first in a series of gameplay system introduction trailers releasing for upcoming dark sci-fi action game, Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion, ahead of its launch for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC via Steam on 5 September, 2025. Offering a detailed view into the armored suit known as the Arsenal, as well as useful on-field tactics, it provides an exciting look at the fast-paced combat, as well as a glimpse of some of the titanic bosses waiting to challenge your skills. Created and produced by Kenichiro Tsukuda and featuring stunning mechanical designs from Shoji Kawamori, Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion takes the franchise in a dramatic new direction. Join the Reclaimers in their fight against the Axiom. Humanity's battle for liberation begins now!

Last September, AMD leadership publicly revealed UDNA—an "unforking" of previously separate enterprise and commercial GPU branches. Not long after this announcement, TechPowerUp's resident Serbian correspondent—AleksandarK—sat down with Team Red's Andrej Zdravkovic. The Chief Software Officer (and SVP) stated that a fair chunk of UDNA-related development work would be done by local engineers. Zdravkovic discussed this technology's eventual deployment in futuristic "AI PCs," but gamers have been salivating at the prospect of a proper successor to RDNA 4. A next-gen graphics architecture seeker—MrMPFR—has combed through official documents for any sign of UDNA preview material. The noted /Hardware subreddit member managed to distill their initial (very long) set of findings into an "easily digestible overview." They stated that this was just a small case of: "reporting and a little analysis on AMD's publicly available US patents filings," and other public-facing resources/archives.

Gleaned information included: "finalized architectural characteristics in future RDNA generations, AMD DXR IHV stacks (driver agnostic), and AMD sponsored titles. But please take everything with a grain of salt given my lack of professional expertise and experience with Real-time ray tracing (RTRT)". MrMPFR believes that Team Red started picking up former NVIDIA and Intel engineering talent, back in 2022/2023. In addition, a lot of new hires were apparently sourced from academic institutions. In theory, these newer team members have not had the time to make major inroads—in terms of getting finalized products out into the wild. MrMPFR reckons that noticeable contributions will accelerate AMD's making of "RDNA 6+/UDNA 2+," and beyond. Early 2025 leaks have pointed to the company collaborating with Sony; their "PlayStation 6" console is tipped to be powered by some fork of Team Red's "UDNA" graphics technology.

Independent Developer Raccoon Logic have today launched the Cosmic Hoarder edition of sci-fi adventure Revenge of the Savage Planet on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC - with the standard crash landing on 8th May. Playable in both singleplayer and co-op (couch and online), Revenge of the Savage Planet sees you abandoned on an alien planet with no job and no plan, after Alta Interglobal, your now former employer, deems your mission to colonise space too costly, leaving you to scavenge your way across four unique (and savage) planets in an attempt to return home.

Pioneers heading into deep space today with the Cosmic Hoarder edition will receive the Cinco de Mayo Trash Panda skin (First Month Only), Shama Lama's D.I.A.P.E.R (Ding Dong Influencer Accelerator Program Extreme Routine) 4 New Missions, HR Enforcer Deluxe Suit, Gold Lamé Space Suit, and the Official digital Soundtrack and Artbook.

Intel appears ready to broaden its Arc "Battlemage" lineup with a new, more powerful desktop graphics card likely to be called the Arc B770, potentially arriving as soon as next quarter. Until now, Team Blue has introduced only two Xe2 Battlemage models, the B570 (10 GB) and B580 (12 GB), both of which earned praise for solid performance at accessible price points. Enthusiasts have long speculated about successors like the B750, B770, and even a B780, but Intel shifted its public focus to upcoming AI PC processors after the B570 launch, leaving GPU fans uncertain which designs would materialize. Recent shipping manifests uncovered a "BMG‑G31" GPU die en route to Intel's Vietnam assembly plant, the same site that produced limited‑edition B570 and B580 cards, while insider Haze2K1's documents hint at a "B7XX" special‑edition series. Simultaneously, chatter about a 24 GB Developer Edition based on the earlier BMG‑G21 die suggests Intel is also eyeing workstation and creative‑professional markets.

A well-known tipster, OneRaichu, has further fueled excitement by reporting that the Arc B770 could pack between 24 and 32 Xe2 compute units, a 256‑bit memory interface, and 16 GB of GDDR6, positioning it squarely against rival xx60‑series models and promising a meaningful boost in gaming and compute workloads. Beyond Battlemage, Intel's next‑generation graphics architecture, Xe3 "Celestial," has reached pre‑silicon validation. According to Intel engineer Tom Petersen and corroborating industry leaks, Celestial's core media engines, Xe cores, XMX matrix units, and ray‑tracing hardware are fully designed and are now being tested in a hardware model to fine‑tune power consumption and clock speeds. With Computex 2025 kicking off in late May, Intel may at last clarify both its high‑end Battlemage refresh and the broader Celestial roadmap, potentially reshaping competition in the mainstream and next‑generation GPU markets.

Intel today announced that it is the only company to achieve full neural processing unit (NPU) support in the newly released MLPerf Client v0.6 benchmark. The result marks the industry's first standardized evaluation of large language model (LLM) performance on client NPUs. Intel's measurements of MLPerf Client v0.6 show Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors can produce output on both the graphics processing unit (GPU) and the NPU much faster than a typical human can read.

"We are proud to lead the industry in enabling full NPU acceleration and industry-leading GPU performance for AI workloads on client PC platforms. This success reflects Intel's deep hardware-software co-optimization and commitment to democratizing AI for PCs everywhere," said Daniel Rogers, Intel vice president and general manager of PC Product Marketing.

Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. has announced that SHADOW LABYRINTH is available for pre-order in three physical editions, inviting players to team up with PUCK and explore the mysteries of the labyrinth. SHADOW LABYRINTH is an action-packed 2D platformer from Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. Developed by Bandai Namco Studios Inc., the game is an epic journey through a hostile planet where dangers both new and familiar challenge players, and where they must explore, hunt, and consume the dark creatures around them in their quest to become the planet's apex predator. SHADOW LABYRINTH is slated for release on July 18, 2025, and is available now for pre-orders on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. The game is also launching on Nintendo Switch 2, with pre-orders to be announced at a later date.

As a departure from any previous PAC-MAN game, SHADOW LABYRINTH puts players in the role of another character as protagonist, a warrior named Swordsman No. 8, but with the mysterious yet familiar yellow companion PUCK at their side. PUCK's role is that of guide and guardian, teaching players that their aim in this treacherous world is to escape it, and to achieve that they must consume everything that waits in the darkness to survive and grow more powerful. Along the way, they encounter challenging enemies and puzzles with game play that weaves fluid tried and true 2D action platformer mechanics with inspired modern game design. SHADOW LABYRINTH offers a vast maze-filled world to explore as players uncover terrifying secrets about the planet and its inhabitants, discover powerful weapons and abilities, and encounter ever more challenging enemies including memorable bosses.

COUGAR, a global leader in PC cases, gaming furniture, peripherals, tech lifestyle, and esports solutions, proudly unveils OmnyX, a bold new case built to meet the vision and performance demands of creators, gamers, and hardware enthusiasts. Designed around the innovative Omnidirectional Dynamic Flow System (ODF), OmnyX delivers ultimate cooling efficiency, full orientation freedom, and clean, cable-free aesthetics.

Omnidirectional Dynamic Flow System for Total Placement Freedom
At the core of OmnyX is the revolutionary Omnidirectional Dynamic Flow system (ODF), enabling a perfectly symmetrical chassis that supports left, right, or center placement without compromising airflow or usability. This orientation flexibility lets users optimize desk space, improve cable routing, and achieve a cleaner, more functional setup.

iStorage, the global leader in hardware encrypted data storage and cloud encryption solutions, has once again raised the bar in data security with the launch of the world's first 26 TB PIN authenticated, hardware encrypted desktop drive. The groundbreaking diskAshur DT3 and diskAshur DT2, already trusted by governments, defense organizations, financial institutions, healthcare providers and media agencies around the world, are now available in an industry-leading 26 TB capacity. These high-capacity drives continue to set the benchmark for robust, portable and user-friendly data protection.

Raising the Bar in Government-Grade Security
The diskAshur DT3 is among the first encrypted HDDs pending certification under the new FIPS 140-3 Level 3 standard, the latest U.S. government benchmark for cryptographic security. It features TAA compliance, FIPS PUB 197-validated AES-XTS 256-bit hardware encryption, and a Common Criteria EAL5+ certified secure microprocessor, ensuring maximum defense against unauthorized access.

GIGABYTE Technology, a global leader in computing innovation, will return to COMPUTEX 2025 from May 20 to 23 under the theme "Omnipresence of Computing: AI Forward." Demonstrating how GIGABYTE's complete spectrum of solutions spanning the AI lifecycle, from data center training to edge deployment and end-user applications reshapes the infrastructure to meet the next-gen AI demands.

⁠As generative AI continues to evolve, so do the demands for handling massive token volumes, real-time data streaming, and high-throughput compute environments. GIGABYTE's end-to-end portfolio - ranging from rack-scale infrastructure to servers, cooling systems, embedded platforms, and personal computing—forms the foundation to accelerate AI breakthroughs across industries.

It appears that Wester Digital is getting ready to launch a new performance NVMe SSD in the shape of the WD_Black SN8100, as the drive has tipped up online. Oddly enough, it's not branded as a SanDisk drive, at least not in Europe where the drive is listed for pre-order. It was first spotted by @momomo_us on Amazon Germany, but the company only had the 1 TB SKU listed and a little bit of sleuthing on our side, quickly found the 2 TB and 4 TB SKU's listed with various etailers around the world.

It seems like WD has decided to use the Silicon Motion SM2508 NVMe SSD controller for the SN8100, although this has as yet to be verified and it's likely to be an OEM version of the controller without markings if true. The SN8100 is said to deliver read speeds of up to 14,900 MB/s and write speeds of up to 14,000 MB/s, with the 1 TB SKU being a bit slower at 11,000 MB/s. It should also deliver up to 2,300K IOPS, for both read and write operations. In Europe, the MSRP currently appears to be €200, €300-310 and €550-560 respectively for the different SKUs, which is a massive increase over the SN850X, but in line with recently launched PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs like the Kingston Fury Renegade G5. It's also listed for C$374 and C$560 for the 1 TB and 2 TB SKUs respectively by a Canadian etailer and £170, £260 and £455 in the UK for each of the three SKUs. The official launch date is said to be the 30th of May.

Under the theme "Access the Intelligent Transformation," Apacer (TWSE: 8271), a global leader in industrial-grade digital storage, returns to the COMPUTEX main hall to showcase next-generation storage innovations that drive intelligent, sustainable, and high-performance computing—and meet the evolving demands of enterprise and consumer markets alike. At Booth J1217a, Hall 1, Nangang Exhibition Center, Apacer will present a full product lineup featuring:

Sparkle announced availability of its flagship custom-design Intel Arc B580 graphics card, the Sparkle B580 ROC Luna OC Ultra. The card derives its name from an all-white appearance, with white making up not just the cooler shroud and fan impellers, but also the PCB solder-mask underneath. The card's design appears to balance elements to appeal to both gamers and creators. It comes with a 2.5-slot thick design that's at least an inch taller than what constitutes full-height. It uses an aluminium fin-stack heatsink that's ventilated by a pair of 90 mm fans.

The Sparkle Arc B580 ROC Luna OC Ultra comes with the company's highest factory overclock for the B580, with a max boost frequency of 2800 MHz compared to 2670 MHz reference, and 2740 MHz of its Titan OC graphics card. It also comes with increased power limits of 210 W, compared to 190 W reference. It draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The company didn't reveal pricing, but we expect it to be between the $250-300 mark.

TechPowerUp and Sudokoo brought you the 2025 SuperUser SuperCool Thermal Upgrade Giveaway in late-April, for our readers in the US, with entries slated to close last weekend. We have decided to extend this deadline to May 11. Up for grabs are two of Sudokoo's finest creations in the field of CPU cooling—the Proteus 360, and the SK700V Digital. Both are designed to go up against the industry's very best. The Proteus 360 is a premium 360 mm AIO CLC with contemporary touches, such as a large true-color display that can be made to put out just about any information; and a compound fan that's designed to minimize cable clutter; while the SK700V Digital is a heavy air-type cooler with a top-plate that has an LED segment display that puts out useful system monitoring info pulled from ACPI. There will be as many as five lucky winners, two of whom get the Proteus 360, and three of which get a SK700V Digital. All you have to do is fill up a brief form to help us get back to you if you've won. You can increase your chances of winning by sharing the Giveaway across your socials, retweeting any TechPowerUp post on the TechPowerUp X account, liking the Giveaway on Reddit, or visiting the Sudokoo Amazon store.

For more information and to participate, visit this page.

ASUS earlier this year introduced the limited edition ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 Dhahab graphics card. The card sports a gilded appearance, with sapphire blue metallic accents, and ASUS ROG branding resembling calligraphy. The card was debuted in the UAE and was expected to be available in limited quantities in the region. It looks like the company wants to extend this niche brand to even the GeForce RTX 5080, and is working on the ROG Astral RTX 5080 Dhahab Core. This card is based on the air-cooled ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC, but with the same aesthetic treatment as the RTX 5090 Dhahab.

The aluminium fins in the cooler have golden appearance (not actually gold-plated); as do the alloy cooler shroud, the fan impeller hubcaps, and the copper heat pipes. In place of chrome accents, it has contrasting sapphire blue metallic tones. There are other cultural icons, such as gold calligraphy set against black. At this point we're not sure what ASUS is referring to with the "Core" branding. Perhaps Core could denote the entry level into the Dhahab brand itself, with the RTX 5080 serving as a nice entry point.

According to the Financial Times, gathering data from satellite images and industry intelligence, Huawei has endeavored to develop a domestic AI supply chain to bypass foreign tech restriction influence. In Guanlan, China, Huawei started developing a complete facility for manufacturing semiconductors on 7 nm technology for its custom processors. Out of frustration with SMIC's low output capacity, Huawei has secured the entire silicon production, from sourcing materials, chemicals, and wafer fab equipment to chip-making equipment to actual chip design. According to Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis, "Huawei has embarked on an unprecedented effort to develop every part of the AI supply chain domestically from wafer fabrication equipment to model building," adding, "We have never seen one company attempt to do everything before."

It is also reported that Huawei's rivals in silicon manufacturing, SMIC and SMEE, have deployed engineers to help Huawei develop its own manufacturing flow. A few companies, all backed by Huawei with funding and research, are the backbone of this operation. SiCarrier, which we reported on back in March, supplies optical and X-ray inspection tools, atomic force microscopes, and alignment systems for metrology; gas-based and atomic layer deposition tools for film coating; plasma etchers for patterning; rapid thermal processors for material tuning; and electrical testing platforms for reliability screening. SwaySure and Fujian Jinhua supply memory chips, Si'En and Pehgjin supply power chips, and PWX and PST deal with logic.

Welcome to the first full week of the month of May, a week that brings with it a large amount of new releases, even though none of them really stands out. This week's major release puts you in charge of a kingdom as its ruler, for better or worse. If a kingdom is too much, maybe a dutchy is more your cup of tea? No? Then how about some trench warfare? All too antiquated for you? How about building your own moving village? Or maybe you'd rather go for a walk at midnight or descend into darkness? If none of these suits your taste, maybe this week's other releases will fill that new game void?

Yes, Your Grace 2: Snowfall / This week's major release / Thursday 8 May
Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall is a cinematic kingdom management game. Take on the role of a King, manage resources, support your loved ones, and make difficult decisions to see your kingdom prosper or fail. Dive into a Slavic-folklore inspired world and deal with a queue of petitioners who will bring trouble, help, or laughter into your throne room. Decide whether to help them with their problems, or conserve resources for more important matters. Steam link

Take-Two Interactive—the owner of Rockstar Games—has publicly endorsed the studio's decision to delay the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI into 2026. Following months of insider whispers, long-time franchise fans were not surprised when reading Rockstar's apology. Initially, Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA VI) was pictured as an important system seller—industry experts and analysts theorized a sharp uptake of PlayStation 5 Pro units. Due to the AAA+ title's planned home console-exclusive release, many hardcore gamers would opt for the best available experience—enabled by flagship hardware.

Naturally, the game's publisher was looking forward to massive sale results in 2025—mainly driven by Rockstar's big open world blockbuster. With a revised release date of May 26—within the next financial year—company leadership remains confident about a current GTA VI-less calendar. Strauss Zelnick—Two Interactive Software's chairman and CEO—believes that an upward trajectory is still on the cards: "we support fully Rockstar Games taking additional time to realize their creative vision for Grand Theft Auto VI, which promises to be a groundbreaking, blockbuster entertainment experience that exceeds audience expectations. While we take the movement of our titles seriously and appreciate the vast and deep global anticipation for Grand Theft Auto VI, we remain steadfast in our commitment to excellence. As we continue to release our phenomenal pipeline, we expect to deliver a multi-year period of growth in our business and enhanced value for our shareholders."

Astera Labs, Inc., a global leader in semiconductor-based connectivity solutions for AI and cloud infrastructure, today announced its purpose-built PCIe 6 connectivity portfolio is ramping production to fast-track deployments of modern AI platforms at scale. Now featuring gearbox connectivity solutions alongside fabric switches, retimers, and active cable modules, Astera Labs' expanding PCIe 6 portfolio provides a comprehensive connectivity platform to deliver unparalleled performance, utilization, and scalability for next-generation AI and general-compute systems. Along with Astera Labs' demonstrated PCIe 6 connectivity over optical media, the portfolio will provide even greater AI rack-scale distance optionality. The transition to PCIe 6 is fueled by the insatiable demand for higher compute, memory, networking, and storage data throughput, ensuring advanced AI accelerators and GPUs operate at peak efficiency.

Thad Omura, Chief Business Officer, said, "Our PCIe 6 solutions have successfully completed qualification with leading AI and cloud server customers, and we are ramping up to volume production in parallel with their next generation AI platform rollouts. By continuing to expand our industry-leading PCIe connectivity portfolio with additional innovative solutions that includes Scorpio Fabric Switches, Aries Retimers, Gearboxes, Smart Cable Modules, and PCIe over optics technology, we are providing our hyperscaler and data center partners all the necessary tools to accelerate the development and deployment of leading-edge AI platforms."

HYTE, a leading manufacturer of cutting-edge PC components and peripherals, announced today its continued partnership with ATLUS for its latest HYTE Collection with Metaphor: ReFantazio. Starting today, fans can pre-order a Y70 computer case themed after the game, accompanying keycaps, desk pads, and more—all with an aesthetic that is fit for aspirant royalty! To learn more, and to pre-order these items, head over here. As part of this latest project, HYTE worked closely with the Metaphor: ReFantazio team on the case, keycaps, and desk pad's design to ensure a high-quality product that is authentic to the game's environment and themes. The Metaphor: ReFantazio Y70 case lovingly displays the game's incredible artwork on its glass panels. Fans can also expect in-game elements thoughtfully integrated across the Y70's metal paneling, a custom metal plate that calls back to the game, and a deep mahogany colorway made for this collaboration.

Fans can also pre-order the Metaphor: ReFantazio Keycap Set, which comes with 152 individual keycaps that are fully compatible with ANSI / ISO / JIS WW keyboards. Like with the Y70, in-game elements, typography, and design inspired by the game, along with the deep mahogany colorway, have also been integrated into the keycaps. As part of this lineup, HYTE is also launching three 900 mm x 400 mm Desk Pads, a 60 cm x 45 cm Wall Scroll, and a Metaphor: ReFantazio keychain with a special glowing effect that lets natural backlight shine through - all of which feature the game's impeccable artwork in stunning detail.

Back in April, MSI unveiled the MAG 272UP QD-OLED X24 in China and now the display has tipped up on its global website, suggesting we'll see a world-wide release of what is set to be a more budget friendly 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor from the company. The base specs are quite similar to those of the MPG 272URX QD-OLED, as both models offer a 240 Hz refresh rate, a 0.03 ms response time, a peak HDR brightness of 1000 nits and a VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification. Both also have what MSI refers to as a graphene film with a custom heatsink to help cool the QD-OLED panel, as well as MSI's OLED Care 2.0 and a three-year warranty.

However, the MAG 272UP QD-OLED X24 only comes with DP 1.4a support, rather than DP 2.1a, although both displays sport a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports and a USB Type-C input with DP Alt mode. That said, the MAG 272UP QD-OLED X24 only offers a meagre 15 W USB PD charging, whereas the MPG 272URX offer 98 W charging and MSI has also dropped the USB hub and KVM support on the MAG model, but a headphone jack is still present. MSI has also gone for basic VESA Adaptive-Sync support, so no FreeSync or G-Sync support on this one. On the plus side, MSI has added console specific modes at 60 and 120 Hz at three different resolutions, something we haven't seen before and VRR is supported for consoles as well. The overall design remains the same though, making it easy to mistake the affordable SKU for the more feature rich SKU. So far there's no word on pricing outside of China, where it costs 5,499 RMB.

ASUS has added a brand-new ROG Strix GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB GDDR7 OC Edition SKU to its wide-ranging NVIDIA GPU portfolio. The company introduced new generation ROG Strix cards earlier this year, but these offerings were missing during the various GeForce RTX 50-series launch periods. Within the first quarter of 2025, ASUS seemingly concentrated on getting its TUF Gaming and PRIME lines onto retail shelves. As reported by VideoCardz, ROG Strix GeForce RTX 5070 Ti evaluation samples seem to be in the possession of media outlets. BenchLife.info has teased an upcoming full review, but their swift "hands-on" bit of coverage divulged an interesting claim about an alleged reshuffling of ASUS product hierarchies.

The article's author—Chris L.—stated: "ROG Strix RTX 50-series is finally on the market! After finishing GeForce RTX 5060 Ti tests, we return to a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics card. ASUS has made some changes to the GeForce RTX 50-series, replacing ROG Strix with ROG Astral to become the highest-end graphics card product line (for GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 tiers). As for ROG Strix and TUF Gaming, ProArt, Prime and DUAL series, they provide players with different choices. The flagship ROG Matrix still exists, but we won't see it until it is needed." Currently, new product listings point to ROG Strix being limited to custom (standard and overclocked) GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 options.

One of the interesting long-term trends in the commercial market is the shift in how people are functionally using PCs. Over the past few years, AI has gone from a dinner party conversation piece to practical use cases. Hand-waved discussions of future benefits are now concrete benefits in the here-and-now, from writing and validating software code to shaping customer communication. While many of these early AI workloads were executed in the cloud, we are seeing new use cases that require new local PC capabilities - capabilities AMD has been working to develop as part of its larger AI PC initiative. We've seen AI deployment accelerate in PCs, particularly as Microsoft builds these functions right into the operating system via its Windows 11 Copilot+ PC program.

In just two years, we've moved from an environment where the NPU was an unsupported, unknown proposition, to integrating NPU support into first and third-party applications. Commercial OEMs are expected to introduce AI PCs and Copilot+ PCs at a variety of price points throughout 2025, making local AI support more available and affordable. That's an important factor for corporate customers, many of which will be simultaneously negotiating the end of Windows 10 support and a historically large, pandemic-related system refresh wave. AI presents a further variable. The nature of the AI question has evolved over the last couple of years from "Does AI have a future in the enterprise?" to "What are the best practices for enterprise AI and AI PC deployment?" That's a significant shift, and it's worth unpacking in a little more detail.

Hollow Knight: Silksong's long gestation period has frustrated many Team Cherry fans. The Adelaide, Australia-based independent development and publishing house has only released one title: Hollow Knight (2017). The much-anticipated sequel was officially delayed two years ago; a "planned" H1 2023 launch window was scuppered. Since then, Metroidvania genre fanatics have pored over the slightest of new details or external insights. Team Cherry has maintained a very low profile the ensuing years, but hopes were elevated in March. At the time, Microsoft's ID@Xbox initiative boasted about their empowering (aka supplementary funding) of development on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Descenders Next, FBC: Firebreak, and "of course Hollow Knight: Silksong." Early last month, Team Cherry's PR and marketing chief—Matthew Griffin—confirmed that the team was working on versions of Silksong for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 consoles. Aditionally, two new in-game screenshots emerged via Nintendo of Japan's official website.

Fresh signs of activity were welcomed and celebrated by the upcoming game's intended audience. More good news has turned up this week—eagle-eyed observers noticed that The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) will be previewing a playable build later this year. As disclosed within a new exhibit description: "Game Worlds transports you inside the levels of 30 unforgettable video games, from global blockbusters like World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) to pioneer of the life simulation genre The Sims (Electronic Arts), Neopets (World of Neopia) and highly anticipated Australian title Hollow Knight: Silksong, plus more to be announced." The Melbourne-based museum could attract an unprecedented number of paying gamer tourists; playable titles will be showcased until February of next year.

We're excited to present IBM Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview, a preliminary version of the smallest model in the upcoming Granite 4.0 family of language models, to the open source community. Granite 4.0 Tiny Preview is extremely compact and compute efficient: at FP8 precision, several concurrent sessions performing long context (128K) tasks can be run on consumer grade hardware, including GPUs commonly available for under $350 USD. Though the model is only partially trained—it has only seen 2.5T of a planned 15T or more training tokens—it already offers performance rivaling that of IBM Granite 3.3 2B Instruct despite fewer active parameters and a roughly 72% reduction in memory requirements. We anticipate Granite 4.0 Tiny's performance to be on par with that of Granite 3.3 8B Instruct by the time it has completed training and post-training.

As its name suggests, Granite 4.0 Tiny will be among the smallest offerings in the Granite 4.0 model family. It will be officially released this summer as part of a model lineup that also includes Granite 4.0 Small and Granite 4.0 Medium. Granite 4.0 continues IBM's firm commitment to making efficiency and practicality the cornerstone of its enterprise LLM development. This preliminary version of Granite 4.0 Tiny is now available on Hugging Face—though we do not yet recommend the preview version for enterprise use—under a standard Apache 2.0 license. Our intent is to allow even GPU-poor developers to experiment and tinker with the model on consumer-grade GPUs. The model's novel architecture is pending support in Hugging Face transformers and vLLM, which we anticipate will be completed shortly for both projects. Official support to run this model locally through platform partners including Ollama and LMStudio is expected in time for the full model release later this summer.

At some point this week, the population of ASUS GeForce cards has grown again. In a very quiet manner, the brand has added over twenty new SKUs to its Team Green portfolio. The Taiwanese company seems to be catching up with a nearby AIB rival—since February, MSI has stealthily expanded its graphics card library. It will likely take a while—for PC hardware news outlets—to comb through everything, but momomo_us and Wccftech have put spotlights on two compelling "White Edition" spin-offs of already launched ASUS GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB and RTX 5070 12 GB custom models. The manufacturer's TUF Gaming division is best known for running with an industrial/military aesthetic on mid-tier positioned products—a standard palette combines gunmetal gray tones, silver highlights and minimal ARGB lighting zones.

The freshly introduced TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB GDDR7 White OC Edition will be deployed with the exact same specifications and "military-grade" components present on its traditionally-shaded sibling. In a similar manner, the new PRIME GeForce RTX 5070 White OC Edition 12 GB GDDR7 SKU leverages a repeat of original model specifications. The ASUS global website does not provide pricing or availability details, at the time of writing. Under normal circumstances, PRIME graphics cards were intended to be "baseline MSRP" conformant. It is not clear whether this white-hued + overclocked variant will hover close to NVIDIA's recommended GeForce RTX 5070 starting level: $549.00. Unfortunately, both of these brand-new almost "all-white" setups do not extend to contained PCB designs—we are probably looking at standard model boards. Gaming graphics card enthusiasts have heaped praise on PowerColor; thanks to their inclusion of suitably pale PCBs within "Spectral White" products.

In December, we reported that Intel's next‑generation Arc graphics cards, based on the Xe3 "Celestial" IP, are finished. Tom Petersen of Intel confirmed that the Xe3 IP is baked, meaning that basic media engines, Xe cores, XMX matrix engines, ray‑tracing engines, and other parts of the gaming GPU are already designed and most likely awaiting trial fabrication. Today, we learn that Intel has reached pre‑silicon validation, meaning that trial production is imminent. According to the X account @Haze2K1, which shared a snippet of Intel's milestones, a pre‑silicon hardware model of the Intel Arc Xe3 Celestial IP is being used to map out frequency and power usage in firmware. As a reminder, Intel's pre‑silicon validation platform enables OEM and IBV partners to boot and test new chip architectures months before any physical silicon is available, catching design issues much earlier in the development cycle.

Intel provides OEMs and IBVs access to a secure, cloud‑based environment that faithfully emulates hardware‑representative systems, allowing developers to validate firmware and software stacks from anywhere without the need for physical labs. Most likely, Intel is running massive emulations of hardware on FPGAs, which act as an ASIC chip—an Arc Xe3 GPU in this case. The pre‑silicon validation team is now optimizing the power‑frequency curve and the voltage in sleep, rest, and boost states, as well as their respective frequencies. With the Xe3 IP taking many forms, engineers are experimenting with every possible form factor, from mobile to discrete graphics. Additionally, data pathways depend on these frequency curves, which in turn rely on power states that allow voltage to spike up and down as the application requires. As this work is now complete, engineers are moving on to other areas for optimization, and once the silicon returns from volume production, it will be fully optimized. We expect the first trial of silicon soon, with volume production by the end of the year or in early 2026.

ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN, the standalone multiplayer co-op action survival game by FromSoftware, Inc. and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc., unveiled a new trailer to showcase an overview of the systems at players' disposal to conquer the game's various challenges in its harsh and unforgiving world. The network test was just a glimpse of the surface of the game's malleability, as the world of Limveld can twist and change with each run. Discover what awaits players when ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN launches later this month, by watching the new Gameplay Overview trailer (below).

In ELDEN RING NIGHTREIGN, players must make split-second decisions about combat and exploration across a map that can fluctuate with different biomes, weapons, and enemies in order to become stronger, and outrun the encroaching circle of fire to be able to take on terrifying bosses at the end of each day. This culminates on the third day, where if players were successful in surviving the night must take on one of the Nightlords—new bosses for this version. Nightfarers must learn to cooperate to take down these challenges, combining their unique abilities together for an unparalleled experience in the ELDEN RING universe. All is not lost for those who fall in defeat. Unsuccessful runs will grant players relics to allow them to customize and upgrade their characters tailored to their personal play styles.

Today, we are looking at the latest benchmark results for NVIDIA's upcoming RTX PRO 6000 "Blackwell" workstation-class GPU. Based on the new GB202 GPU, this professional visualization card features an impressive 24,064 CUDA cores distributed across 188 streaming multiprocessors, with boost clocks up to 2,617 MHz. It also introduces 96 GB of GDDR7 memory with full error‑correcting code, a capacity made possible by dual‑sided 3 GB modules. In Geekbench 6.4.0 OpenCL trials, the PRO 6000 Blackwell registered a total score of 368,219. That result trails the gaming‑oriented GeForce RTX 5090, which posted 376,858 points despite having fewer cores (21,760 vs. 24,064 of RTX PRO) and a lower peak clock of 2,410 MHz versus the 2617 MHz of RTX PRO.

A breakdown of subtests reveals that the workstation card falls behind in background blur (263.9 versus 310.7 images per second) and face detection (196.7 versus 241.5 images per second), yet it leads modestly in horizon detection and Gaussian blur. These mixed outcomes are attributed to pre‑release drivers, a temporary cap on visible memory (currently limited to 23.8 GB), and power‑limit settings. If the card ran on release drivers, software (especially OpenCL) could greatly benefit from more cores and higher max frequency. One significant distinction within the RTX PRO 6000 family concerns power consumption. The Max‑Q Workstation Edition is engineered for a 300 W thermal design point, making it suitable for compact chassis and environments where quiet operation is essential. It retains all 24,064 cores and the full 96 GB of memory, but clocks and voltages are adjusted to fit the 300 W budget. By contrast, the standard Workstation and Server models allow a thermal budget of up to 600 W, enabling higher sustained frequencies and heavier compute workloads in full‑size desktop towers and rack‑mounted systems.

The first couple of paragraphs within Anthropic's "Securing America's Compute Advantage: (Our) Position on the Diffusion Rule" article are standard fare. Roughly half-way through a read of this policy-related piece, the North American (Amazon-backed) AI startup makes some bizarre claims about the smuggling of AI-oriented products into China. Given ongoing global tensions and growing industry demands, these activities are somewhat expected—but Anthropic leadership described very specific methodologies. As stated within their "Chip Smuggling is a Major Threat" passage: "China has established sophisticated smuggling operations, with documented cases involving hundreds of millions of dollars worth of chips. In some cases, smugglers have employed creative methods to circumvent export controls, including hiding processors in prosthetic baby bumps and packing GPUs alongside live lobsters." Specific bits of hardware were not mentioned in this section, but the author later alludes to the frictionless transfer of thousands of "NVIDIA H100 advanced chips" into Chinese territories.

In a statement issued to CNBC, a Team Green spokesperson dismissed Anthropic's fanciful claims: "American firms should focus on innovation and rise to the challenge, rather than tell tall tales that large, heavy, and sensitive electronics are somehow smuggled in 'baby bumps' or 'alongside' live lobsters." This very public spat has received mainstream attention; with further coverage documenting additional "to and fro" barbs. NVIDIA criticized Anthropic's anti-foreign competition stance: "China, with half of the world's AI researchers, has highly capable AI experts at every layer of the AI stack. America cannot manipulate regulators to capture victory in AI." Amusingly, Anthropic's operations rely heavily on Team Green hardware—many online critics reckon that top US AI companies are jostling for priority access to cutting-edge GPUs/accelerators. In reaction to NVIDIA's dismissal of their report, a company spokesperson retorted with: "Anthropic stands by its recently filed public submission in support of strong and balanced export controls that help secure America's lead in infrastructure development and ensure that the values of freedom and democracy shape the future of AI."

The momentum around Deadzone's Early Access release has been amazing! Since this week's launch, over 30,000 players have jumped in, and the feedback has been super helpful. Thanks everybody! The most-requested feature so far is offline single-player mode, so we're making it a top priority. You'll be able to play Deadzone Rogue offline in single-player mode ASAP—we're aiming to have a patch out and live as quickly as possible.

We're also sorry if it wasn't clear that an online connection was required. We've updated our Steam page "System Requirements" with this info for now. Note: co-op mode will still require online play, so everyone can share the same game experience in real time. Thanks again for your support, it's been so exciting to see so many players enjoying Deadzone! In the meantime, keep the bug reports and feedback coming through Steam reviews, or Discord—in our #feedback channel. Let's make this the best game possible!

Mid-week, leakers produced an impressive list of unannounced next-gen AMD processor families—spanning across workstation, desktop, and laptop/notebook product lines. Additional data mining activities have outlined a possible "PRO model-only" release of Ryzen Threadripper Pro "Shimada Peak" 9000WX CPUs. AMD's upcoming Computex 2025 presentation plans could include an unveiling of their much-leaked Zen 5 workstation-grade processor family. Curiously, AMD's Technical Information Portal does not list a "Shimada Peak" High-End Desktop (HEDT) category—industry watchers expected to see a successor to the current-gen Ryzen Threadripper (non-PRO) 7000X "Storm Peak" series. In theory, next-gen HEDT models could be introduced at a later date. All leaked identifiers have featured "-5WX" affixes; denoting workstation deployments. Keen observers have not found products IPs ending with "-0X." InstLatX64's supplementary investigations seemed to confirm presences of the vast majority of recently disclosed next-wave product ranges—namely Ryzen 9000G "Gorgon Point" APUs and EPYC 4005 "Grado" CPUs. Another anomaly was discovered; the alleged Arm-based "Soundwave" SoC family was notably absent from Team Red's tech info repository.

Researchers at Fudan University have made a significant advancement in integrated circuit technology. The team led by Zhou Peng and Liu Chunsen has developed "PoX," a picosecond flash memory device that operates at unprecedented speeds. The team predicted a phenomenon called "super-injection" by creating a quasi-2D Poisson model, which surpasses existing theoretical limits on memory speed. Their device achieves read/write speeds of 400 picoseconds (less than one nanosecond), equaling approximately 2.5 billion operations per second and making it the world's fastest semiconductor charge memory technology. "This is like the device can work one billion times in the blink of an eye, while a U disk (a hard drive in USB form) can only work 1,000 times. The previous world record for similar technology was two million," said Zhou Peng, a researcher from Fudan University's State Key Laboratory of Integrated Chips and Systems and a leading scientist on the research team.

Traditional flash memory requires electrons to "warm up" and accelerate along a channel before being captured for storage, a process limited by the long acceleration distance and electric field constraints. The new approach includes Dirac energy band structure, ballistic transport properties of two-dimensional materials, and modulation for the Gaussian length of the 2D channel. This allows electrons to reach very high speeds immediately without any 'run-up' period. Once fully developed, it can completely revolutionize the computer architecture by making memory and storage components unnecessary, obviating the need for hierarchical storage and allowing for large AI models to be deployed locally. Within 3 -5 years, the researchers plan to scale integration to tens of megabits, after which the technology will be made available for licensing to industry. The research was published as 'Subnanosecond flash memory enabled by 2D-enhanced hot-carrier injection' in the journal Nature 641, 90-97 (2025).

While we initially set out to self-publish Battle Train, our goal is to make the best game possible. We've had many opportunities cross our paths, and one such opportunity felt too good to pass up. That said, we're proud to announce that we're now working with Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. to bring Battle Train to more folks in a couple of exciting ways. You've probably heard of Bandai Namco Entertainment. They've been around about as long as our entire industry and are known as the publishers behind everything from PAC-MAN to Elden Ring to Katamari Damacy (AKA, the silliest game with the best game soundtrack ever made).

Look, we know Battle Train is good. Our friends and family know Battle Train is good. But getting word to the general gaming community has been an uphill battle for us, so having Bandai Namco Entertainment on board to help increase our visibility is awesome… but while marketing is crucial, this news is about more than just marketing. With Bandai Namco Entertainment's support, we were able to extend development and add more to the game, polish the heck out of it, and really make this game sing. We're really pleased with the results. We've added extra cards, extra trains, extra trinkets, and extra time making sure Battle Train is an amazing gaming experience. ALSO, we're not just releasing on PC!!! We'll be bringing the ludicrous action of Battle Train to the Nintendo Switch as well! Surprise!!!

LIAN LI Industrial Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of chassis and PC accessories, introduces the LANCOOL 217, the successor to the popular LANCOOL 216. This mid-tower case merges high performance with elegance. It features real wood accents (walnut on black, beech on white), five pre-installed fans, including dual 170 mm front fans. The front fans are pre-installed in balanced mode for CPU and GPU cooling but can be switched to CPU mode, thanks to a tool-less design that facilitates easy adjustments. The LANCOOL 217 is the first of the LANCOOL series to introduce back-connect motherboard support, along with an innovative dual mounting position for the PSU (standard or rotated). The LANCOOL 217 is available in black and white at MSRP prices of $119.99 and $124.99, respectively.

Real Wood Accents
Available in dark walnut for black and light beech for white, the real wood accents bring warmth and elegance, making the LANCOOL 217 an ideal choice for setups that blend with contemporary or minimalist spaces. With the thoughtful positioning of wood elements, there is no compromise on performance, allowing for efficient cooling while elevating the case's visual appeal.

ASUS today announced the arrival of TUF Gaming T500, a compact desktop with the power to drive the latest and greatest AAA and esports games. Powered by up to an Intel Core i7-13620H processor, up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti GPU, up to 64 GB of DDR5 RAM and 2 TB of PCIe 4.0 storage, T500 is a well-rounded machine for esports and AAA gamers alike. With a compact chassis that features classic TUF Gaming style, T500 is an excellent fit in bedrooms and dorm rooms anywhere.

High-performance components
Powered by up to an Intel Core i7-13620H processor with six Performance cores and eight Efficiency cores and a max boost of 5.0 GHz, T500 can drive incredible gaming experiences alongside a snappy desktop experience. T500 packs up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti GPU. Boasting the latest NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs bring game-changing capabilities to gamers and creators. Equipped with a massive level of AI horsepower, the GeForce RTX 50 Series enables new experiences and next-level graphics fidelity. Multiply performance with NVIDIA DLSS 4 featuring Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction, and Multi Frame Generation. The GeForce RTX 5060 Ti is ready to power incredible performance in the games of today and tomorrow.

Rockstar has just announced that Grand Theft Auto VI will be delayed to May 26th, 2026, and will not be coming this Fall, as announced earlier. While no precise details were given, Rockstar has released a brief statement saying that the interest and excitement around the next Grand Theft Auto has been truly humbling for the entire team, and hope that Grand Theft Auto VI will live up to, and exceed those expectations.

Grand Theft Auto VI is now set to release on May 26, 2026.
We are very sorry that this is later than you expected. The interest and excitement surrounding a new Grand Theft Auto has been truly humbling for our entire team. We want to thank you for your support and your patience as we work to finish the game.
With every game we have released, the goal has always been to try and exceed your expectations, and Grand Theft Auto VI is no exception. We hope you understand that we need this extra time to deliver at the level of quality you expect and deserve.
We look forward to sharing more information with you soon.

Espressif Systems announced ESP32-C5, the industry's first RISC-V SoC that supports 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz dual-band Wi-Fi 6, along with Bluetooth 5 (LE) and IEEE 802.15.4 (Zigbee, Thread) connectivity. Today, we are glad to announce that ESP32-C5 is now in mass production.

ESP32-C5 is designed for applications that require high-efficiency, low-latency wireless transmission. ESP32-C5 has a 32-bit single-core processor which can clock up to 240 MHz in speed. It has a 384 KB on-chip SRAM along with external PSRAM support, 320 KB of ROM. It has up to 29 programmable GPIOs, supporting all the commonly used peripherals, high speed interfaces like SDIO, QSPI, and the best-in-class security features. The ESP32-C5 also includes an LP-CPU running up to 40 MHz which can act as the main processor for power sensitive applications. To learn more about the various capabilities and features of this MCU, please visit our website.

China is pushing forward with its HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) progress as part of its plan to be self-sufficient in the semiconductor industry. JCET Group, China's top semiconductor packaging firm, has bought advanced TC (thermal compression) bonders that are usually used for 12-high stacks of HBM3E chips, according to Money Today Korea (MTN). This state-of-the-art equipment comes from Korean companies where export rules are less strict. This lets China jump from its current HBM2 technology to more advanced memory solutions. However, even if China isn't yet going to produce HBM3E chips soon, having this equipment is useful to boost manufacturing yields even for lower-spec HBM products.

China's desire to make HBM chips at home is a reaction to U.S. rules and taxes meant to hold back its chip abilities. These steps haven't slowed progress; instead, they have made China more determined to stand on its own in chip-making. The AI chip design market hit $18.4 billion last year and is set to grow 28% each year until 2032. The plan aims to supply Chinese-made HBM chips to big tech firms like Huawei, Tencent, and DeepSeek. This helps China get around U.S. export limits while moving its chip industry up in value. Choi Jae-hyeok, Professor of Electrical and Information Engineering, Seoul National University says, "In China's case, it is government-led... In the case of DDR, they are making up to DDR4 and DDR5. China has always wanted to move from low-value-added products to high-value-added products. The next direction is HBM..."

A global leader in computing, networking, and storage solutions, QNAP Systems, Inc., today announced a partnership with VCA Technology Ltd., based in the UK, to launch a new AI Smart Surveillance Solution. QNAP's market-leading surveillance storage technology combined with VCA's AI analysis capabilities provides businesses an efficient, stable, and cost-effective smart surveillance system.

This solution not only effectively handles large-scale surveillance video data through QNAP's integrated storage and management functions but also enhances event analysis accuracy and response efficiency with VCA's AI technology. From basic object recognition (such as human shapes, vehicles, and backpacks) to behavior recognition through backbone analysis, this solution redefines the global smart surveillance market with rapid deployment and cost-effectiveness.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading brand of performance overclock memory and PC components, is showcasing large-capacity overclocked memory at DDR5-8400 128 GB (2x 64 GB) on the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E APEX motherboard and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D desktop processor. This memory overclock milestone redefines what's possible for high-performance computing with the newly announced G.SKILL DDR5 64 GB memory module, built with high-performance SK hynix DDR5 ICs. With 128 GB of overclocked high-speed memory capacity, this DDR5-8400 memory would be able to empower content creators, researchers, and professionals with more performance and capacity to complete computing tasks faster and more efficiently.

This extreme overclock achievement showcases G.SKILL's continued advancement in pushing DDR5 memory to new limits. While high-frequency memory kits have traditionally been limited to lower module capacities, this latest demonstration demonstrates that enthusiasts and professionals can now harness both blazing-fast speeds and massive memory capacity in a single kit. It provides an ideal choice for AI model development, high-resolution content creation, machine learning, and other professional workloads that demand both large memory pools and rapid memory data speeds.

The Kiwi Ears Septet features a highly sophisticated architecture comprising seven drivers per side: one dynamic driver, four balanced armature drivers, one planar magnetic driver, and one PZT driver. Supported by an extensive 5-way passive crossover system and a precision-engineered three-bore acoustic design, the Septet achieves a refined tonal balance with exceptional clarity, low distortion, and seamless frequency integration. Its tuning delivers a powerful yet controlled sub-bass, a natural and uncolored midrange, and an extended treble that maintains both detail and comfort. Equipped with a custom high-purity copper modular cable, compatible with 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm terminations, the Septet is crafted to meet the highest standards of modern high-fidelity audio.

10 mm Dynamic Driver
The Septet utilizes the tried-and-true 10 mm composite dynamic driver to power the sub-bass and bass. The large diaphragm dynamic driver outperforms other driver types for a powerful and deep sub-bass rumble down to 8 Hz, and delivers a sub-woofer-like bass signature. Tuned precisely through both passive and acoustic strategies, the Septet offers hard-hitting bass that is rich, yet clean, for an uncompromising listening experience.

In the last few weeks, Intel rolled out two new performance‑enhancing presets for its Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake" processors: Intel Performance Optimizations (IPO) and the factory‑approved 200S Boost overclocking profile. Independent benchmarks shared by a BiliBili user reveal that IPO delivers a slightly stronger uplift in gaming performance compared with 200S Boost. Testing centered on a Core Ultra 7 265K paired with DDR5‑8000 memory and a GeForce RTX 5090D. Seven modern titles were measured at 4K with DLSS enabled where supported. Three system presets were compared: a baseline with XMP‑enabled DDR5‑8000, Intel's 200S Boost, and Intel IPO. Under 200S Boost, Intel ramps the chip's Die‑to‑Die (D2D) fabric from 2.1 GHz to 3.2 GHz and the Next‑Generation Uncore (NGU) fabric from 2.6 GHz to 3.2 GHz, while maintaining factory CPU clock speeds. By contrast, IPO takes a more holistic approach: P‑core and E‑core boost clocks rise to 5.4 GHz and 4.9 GHz (from 5.2 GHz/4.9 GHz), the ring bus ticks up to 4.0 GHz (from 3.8 GHz), and memory is overdriven to DDR5‑8400 with tightened timings.

IPO's D2D and NGU fabrics run at 3.1 GHz due to power-and-thermal headroom trade-offs. Across the board, IPO edged out 200S Boost by roughly 2% in average frame rates and 1% in the 1% lows. In Forza Horizon 5, IPO delivered 274 FPS versus 269 FPS on 200S Boost, with 1% lows of 198 FPS (+1 FPS). Cyberpunk 2077 saw a 3% jump to 297 FPS average and a 6% gain in 1% lows. Total War: Warhammer III's averages climbed 6%, while 1% lows rose 9% under IPO. The most pronounced advantage appeared in Counter‑Strike 2 (tested at 1080p), where IPO boosted averages by 16% and 1% lows by 20 %. Watch Dogs: Legion also benefited, with an 8% average and 9% low‑end uplift. These results suggest that IPO's balanced tuning of CPU cores, ring bus, interconnects, and memory yields consistent, measurable gains over the simpler fabric‑focused 200S Boost profile. Intel has yet to greenlight the IPO's broader rollout beyond its initial OEM launch in China, but these early figures hint at meaningful real‑world improvements for Arrow Lake gamers.

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2025 second quarter ended March 29, 2025. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $95.4 billion, up 5 percent year over year, and quarterly diluted earnings per share of $1.65, up 8 percent year over year. "Today Apple is reporting strong quarterly results, including double-digit growth in Services," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "We were happy to welcome iPhone 16e to our lineup, and to introduce powerful new Macs and iPads that take advantage of the extraordinary capabilities of Apple silicon. And we were proud to announce that we've cut our carbon emissions by 60 percent over the past decade."

"Our March quarter business performance drove EPS growth of 8 percent and $24 billion in operating cash flow, allowing us to return $29 billion to shareholders," said Kevan Parekh, Apple's CFO. "And thanks to our high levels of customer loyalty and satisfaction, our installed base of active devices once again reached a new all-time high across all product categories and geographic segments."

At Raspberry Pi, our mission is to make computing accessible and affordable for everyone and for businesses at every scale, so today we're delighted to announce a reduction in the price of some of the most popular variants of Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. From now, if you buy a standard operating temperature Compute Module 4 from a Raspberry Pi Approved Reseller, it will cost you $5 less for a 4 GB RAM variant, and $10 less for an 8 GB RAM variant.

Broader access to a proven platform
Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 is the cornerstone of an astonishing variety of applications, from medical equipment to energy services infrastructure and from concrete monitoring to retro gaming. There is a vast number of embedded use cases that don't require the processing heft of our new (ish) Compute Module 5; by lowering the cost of the higher-memory-density variants of its predecessor, we aim to make these projects more cost-effective, and to unlock new ones that previously weren't viable. We hope the price drop will introduce new possibilities both for businesses and for enthusiasts, helping you bring into existence products and projects we'd never even imagined.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking, and storage solutions innovator, has launched the Beta version of QNAP High Availability (HA) solution. By leveraging dual-server architecture and failover technology, the QNAP HA solution minimizes system downtime risks and ensures uninterrupted critical services. This solution provides highly reliable data storage and continuous operation capabilities for businesses across various industries.

Modern enterprises rely heavily on critical services such as file servers, virtualization storage, and databases, where downtime tolerance is extremely low. Any unexpected disruption can lead to data loss, business interruptions, and reputational damage. QNAP's HA solution is not only for large enterprises, but also for small and medium-sized businesses and budget-conscious professional users, offering an easy-to-deploy and cost-effective HA architecture. This enables IT teams to deploy and manage HA environments efficiently while reducing downtime risks.

Step into the blood-stained boots of the DOOM Slayer in DOOM: The Dark Ages with the game-changing capabilities of GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs. Stand and fight as the super weapon of gods and kings in this never-before-seen dark and sinister medieval war. idTech8 delivers next-level graphical fidelity, speed, and visuals, enhanced by native ray tracing. And when played on a GeForce RTX 50 Series GPU or laptop, AI-powered NVIDIA DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation boosts frame rates and constructs high quality images, further enhancing the visuals for the definitive DOOM: The Dark Ages PC experience.

Until May 21st, as part of our DOOM: The Dark Ages GeForce RTX 50 Series Bundle, get the Premium Edition of DOOM: The Dark Ages (a $99.99 value) with the purchase of a qualifying GeForce RTX 5090, 5080, 5070 Ti, or 5070 desktop or graphics card, or a laptop with a GeForce RTX 5090, 5080, 5070 Ti, or 5070 Laptop GPU. The Premium Edition includes the digital artbook and soundtrack, the Divinity skin pack, and it enables Early Access to DOOM: The Dark Ages on May 13th, two days before general release, enabling you to fight the hordes of Hell that much sooner. Additionally, the Premium Edition includes campaign DLC that'll be automatically added to your game when released at a later date.

IBM is the first cloud service provider to make Intel Gaudi 3 AI accelerators available to customers, a move designed to make powerful artificial intelligence capabilities more accessible and to directly address the high cost of specialized AI hardware. For Intel, the rollout on IBM Cloud marks the first major commercial deployment of Gaudi 3, bringing choice to the market. By leveraging Intel Gaudi 3 on IBM Cloud, the two companies aim to help clients cost-effectively test, innovate and deploy GenAI solutions.

According to a recent forecast by research firm Gartner, worldwide generative AI (GenAI) spending is expected to total $644 billion in 2025, an increase of 76.4% from 2024. The research found "GenAI will have a transformative impact across all aspects of IT spending markets, suggesting a future where AI technologies become increasingly integral to business operations and consumer products."

Yesterday, Chosun Daily published a news report that alleges a key "Galaxy Z Flip 7-related" decision made by Samsung leadership. According to smartphone industry moles, the oft-leaked/rumored "Exynos 2500" chipset destined to debut in the company's next-gen (horizontal) foldable smartphone design. As stated in the South Korean insider article: "this is the first time that Samsung's own mobile application processor (AP) is being installed in a foldable phone." Prior to 2025, Galaxy Flip Z product lines made use of Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets. Throughout early 2025, leaks have linked the "troubled" Exynos 2500 mobile processor to futuristic Galaxy Z Flip 7, Fold 7, and affordable "FE" Enterprise Edition models. The emergence of a superior 2 nm "Exynos 2600" flagship chip—apparently tailored for Galaxy S26 devices (2026)—has allegedly relegated the lesser SoC into lower leagues.

Semiconductor industry watchdogs reckon that the "Exynos 2500" will be manufactured via Samsung Foundry's own 3 nm GAA node process (aka SF3). Notebookcheck commented on this odd choice: "industry estimates from earlier suggested (SF3) yields were around 40%, making it less than ideal for mass production. But it seems Samsung decided to proceed anyway to save on costs, and likely give a new lease of life to its struggling foundry business." Jukanlosreve followed up with additional inside knowledge, just after the publication of Chosun Daily's news piece. The keen tracker of foundry-related revelations let slip with this observation: "the Exynos 2500 being used in the Flip 7 is said to be a lower-clocked chip due to its low yield. So it might as well be called the E2500E." Samsung is expected to unveil its Galaxy Z Flip 7 smartphone family during an "Unpacked" July event. Experts believe that Foundry employees will accumulate useful experience from the mass production of 3 nm parts; thus leading to improved output of finalized 2 nm (SF2) production lines.

The global semiconductor industry is experiencing notable shifts, largely influenced by the rapid expansion of the Mainland China market. From 2010 to 2024, China's share of global semiconductor equipment sales rose significantly, from just 6% in 2010 to 38% in 2024. On the other side McKinsey reports that market shares in Taiwan, Korea and Japan are declining. Taiwan has started to build semiconductor fabs in the US and Europe, while Japan has seen few new fab projects despite TSMC's upcoming Kumamoto plant. At the same time, the US and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa have kept their market shares steady.

Globalization helped the semiconductor industry grow from 2010 to 2019, during this time Chinese semiconductor companies expanded, with local firms growing by about 21% each year. But growth slowed from 2019 to 2023 because of US sanctions on Huawei which affected its chip division HiSilicon. Even without HiSilicon, China's semiconductor industry still grew by 9-10% in that period. Experts think this growth will continue in the future, a trend that the current US tariffs are only accentuating. China's growing importance in industries like electric vehicles (EVs) and commercial drones is pushing its semiconductor goals even further. In 2023, China accounted for 60% of all new EV registrations around the world. At the same time, political tensions between countries have made China more eager to build a self-reliant domestic semiconductor ecosystem. China is testing a domestic extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography system at Huawei's Dongguan facility. The system uses laser-induced discharge plasma technology and is scheduled for trial production in Q3 2025, with mass manufacturing planned for 2026.

Dear Rally Community, every great journey eventually finds its finish line, and today, we announce that we've reached the end of the road working on WRC. After releasing EA SPORTS WRC in 2023, the 2024 season, including the recently released Hard Chargers Content pack, will be our last expansion. For now, we are pausing development plans on future rally titles. Rest assured, EA SPORTS WRC will continue to be available for existing and new players. We hope it remains a source of joy, excitement, and the thrill of rally racing. We've poured our hearts into making it for fans, and we know you'll keep the passion alive.

Our WRC partnership was a culmination of sorts for our Codemasters journey with off-road racing, spanning decades through titles like Colin McRae Rally, and DiRT. We've provided a home for every rally enthusiast, striving tirelessly to push the boundaries and deliver the exhilarating thrill of driving on the ragged edge. We've brought together incredibly talented racing developers, worked with some of the sport's icons, and had the opportunity to share our love of rallying. Thank you to all the fans who have and continue to be part of our rally journey.

• The Codemasters WRC Team

Over the past weekend, members of the Chiphell discussion board started posting truly NDA-busting photo material—one example made headlines a few days ago. A fairly convincing list of next-gen NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell series graphics cards appeared online just over a month ago; only a smattering of physical specimens have emerged since then. As pointed out by interested Chiphellers, Leadtek Chinese language websites have started listing a small selection of upcoming "Blackwell" generation professional SKUs.

The previously leaked PCB design was linked to Leadtek/NVIDIA's "blower-style" RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition 96 GB model. A brave Chiphell forumite has shared shots of another alleged internal component; a shorter PCB design has come to light—in VideoCardz's expert opinion, this stubby unit is destined to be contained within the Leadtek-made (non-Max-Q) RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition enclosure. Official Team Green promotional renders have already presented this darker alternative to existing Founders Edition gaming-oriented siblings. According to VideoCardz, Team Green's Professional Blackwell series review embargo is still in effect and official launch window information is still not a publicly-known quantity. The freshly leaked bare PCB seems to borrow design elements—namely a dual-sided GDDR7 memory module mounting setup—from NVIDIA's familiar GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition model.

Pilots, the invasion is upon us. The aliens are at our doorstep, and the fate of Earth rests on your shoulders. Deploy your mech and defend our planet with everything you've got! New to the Fight? Starvaders is the ultimate fusion of grid-based tactical combat and deckbuilding strategy, placing you in command of a formidable mech during humanity's last stand against alien invaders. The fate of the world rests on your shoulders, choose from three distinct Mech classes and ten pilots, each with their own unique stories, card pools and artifacts. Discover game-breaking combos, rewind time to alter your fate, and protect the future of humanity in this endlessly replayable rogue-like!

Message from the Pengonauts
We finally released! It's been a long (nearly four years!) but incredible journey, and we want to express our genuine appreciation for all of you who have played, enjoyed, and supported StarVaders during our development. We'd like to say a special thanks to all of our beta testers who've played a key role in shaping StarVaders into what it is today, and a thank you to everyone for joining us on this journey! We hope you'll stick with us to see where the Pengonauts' adventures lead next!

Around the middle of March, GMKtec's EVO-X2 Mini PC design attracted international media attention—thanks to Dr. Lisa Su's autograph adorning a special presentation sample. During festivities, this relatively young Chinese brand—founded back in 2019—introduced the "world's first" AI mini PC equipped with AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU. This flagship "Strix Halo" chip leverages Zen 5 and RDNA 3.5 technologies; the latter aspect forms the basis of an impressively potent Radeon 8060S iGPU. This integrated graphics solution has surpassed or matched some worthy (previous-gen) discrete competitors, and apparently performs admirably in LLM inference workload scenarios. At the tail end of March, GMKtec opened up pre-orders for its $2000+ headline product—starting off in China. Back then, potential international buyers were intrigued—many envisioned a pleasing wider distribution of EVO-X2 Mini PC retail stock. Given that GMKtec had semi-recently expanded its sales operation into Europe, hopes were elevated.

As reported by TechRadar last week, Eurozone tech enthusiast prayers were answered—their coverage outlined an intriguing pre-order campaign: "buyers can unlock a reduced pre-sale price of €1,499 for the base model by paying a $100 deposit. Those who want the higher configuration need to place a €200 deposit to qualify for a discounted €1,799 final price. All orders must be completed by May 7 to receive the full discount." Days later, VideoCardz and Notebookcheck noted a similar promotion—rolled out for North American audiences. Officially, the EVO-X2 Mini PC is (tentatively) set to launch on May 20—well ahead of Framework's projected "early Q3 2025" debut shipment of "tiny 4.5L Mini-ITX" Desktop units. Time limited promo prices are in effect until next week—the 64 GB and 128 GB RAM EVO-X2 package are currently discounted: $1399 and $1799 (respectively). As expected, GMKtec's official US webshop also requires pre-order deposits—refer to these details below.

Agentic AI is redefining the cybersecurity landscape—introducing new opportunities that demand rethinking how to secure AI while offering the keys to addressing those challenges. Unlike standard AI systems, AI agents can take autonomous actions—interacting with tools, environments, other agents and sensitive data. This provides new opportunities for defenders but also introduces new classes of risks. Enterprises must now take a dual approach: defend both with and against agentic AI.

Building Cybersecurity Defense With Agentic AI
Cybersecurity teams are increasingly overwhelmed by talent shortages and growing alert volume. Agentic AI offers new ways to bolster threat detection, response and AI security—and requires a fundamental pivot in the foundations of the cybersecurity ecosystem. Agentic AI systems can perceive, reason and act autonomously to solve complex problems. They can also serve as intelligent collaborators for cyber experts to safeguard digital assets, mitigate risks in enterprise environments and boost efficiency in security operations centers. This frees up cybersecurity teams to focus on high-impact decisions, helping them scale their expertise while potentially reducing workforce burnout. For example, AI agents can cut the time needed to respond to software security vulnerabilities by investigating the risk of a new common vulnerability or exposure in just seconds. They can search external resources, evaluate environments and summarize and prioritize findings so human analysts can take swift, informed action.

The vast majority of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) new stories—so far, in 2025—have involved or alluded to new-generation SK hynix and Micron products. As mentioned in recently published Samsung Electronics Q1 financial papers, company engineers are still working on "upcoming enhanced HBM3E products." Late last month, a neighbor/main rival publicly showcased their groundbreaking HBM4 memory solution—indicating a market leading development position. Samsung has officially roadmapped a futuristic "sixth-generation" HBM4 technology, but their immediate focus seems to be a targeted sales expansion of incoming "enhanced HBM3E 12H" products. Previously, the firm's Memory Business has lost HBM3 ground—within AI GPU/accelerator market segments—to key competitors.

Industry insiders believe that company leadership will attempt to regain lost market shares in a post-2025 world. As reported by South Korean news outlets, Kim Jae-joon (VP of Samsung's memory department) stated—during a recent earnings call, with analysts—that his team is: "already collaborating with multiple customers on custom versions based on both HBM4 and the enhanced HBM4E." The initiation of commercial shipments is anticipated at some point in 2026, hinging on mass production starting by the second half of this year. The boss notified listeners about development "running on schedule." A Hankyung article alleges that Samsung HBM4 evaluation samples have been sent out to "NVIDIA, Broadcom, and Google." Wccftech posits a positive early outlook: "Samsung will use its own 4 nm process from the foundry division and utilize the 10 nm 6th-generation 1c DRAM, which is known as one of the highest-end in the market. On paper, (their) HBM4 solution will be on par with competing models (from SK hynix), but we will have to wait and see."

Xbox players worldwide are facing sticker shock this week as Microsoft quietly implemented significant price increases across its latest hardware lineup and select first-party titles. The standard Xbox Series X with 1 TB of storage now carries a suggested retail price of $599.99, up from $499.99. The digital-only Series X has jumped to $549.99, and the special Galaxy Black 2 TB edition now lists at $729.99, compared with its original $599.99 launch price. Meanwhile, the more affordable Xbox Series S saw its 512 GB model climb from $299.99 to $379.99. A newly introduced 1 TB version of the Series S is now priced at $429.99. European customers will pay €349.99 for the base Series S and €599.99 for the standard Series X, while in the United Kingdom, those figures are £299.99 and £499.99, respectively.

Microsoft has also raised prices on accessories. The basic wireless controller increased from $59.99 to $64.99 in the U.S., and the Xbox Wireless Headset now costs $119.99 in North America. Some specialized peripherals, such as the Adaptive Controller and Adaptive Joystick, remain at their previous prices, relieving gamers needing those devices. On the software side, specific first-party titles launching this holiday season will carry a $79.99 price tag instead of the usual $69.99. Digital buyers will continue to benefit from Xbox Play Anywhere, which allows a single purchase to cover both console and PC versions at no extra charge. Importantly, Xbox Game Pass subscription fees are unchanged for now, even though Microsoft tweaked console and subscription pricing as recently as mid-2024 and made a minor adjustment in June 2023. In a statement, Xbox leadership acknowledged that these changes will be tough on fans. Still, the leadership said rising development, manufacturing, logistics costs, and ongoing trade-policy uncertainties drove them.

Ra Ra Boom is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC this summer, as part of what we consider the summer of beat 'em ups. As beat 'em up fans, we can't wait to play some of the great titles that will make this probably the biggest year for beat 'em ups since Castle Crashers launched forever ago. If you're a fan of beat 'em ups, you're in for a great summer. And we hope you consider adding Ra Ra Boom to your list of must plays. In Ra Ra Boom, you and up to three friends play as one of four ninja space cheerleaders. There's Aris (the leader), Ren (the blade), Vee (the shield), and Saida (the cyborg). Zoi, an AI gone rogue, has overtaken earth and our four heroines are the only ones who can stop it.

Beat 'em Up/Shoot 'em Up Mash Up
As the saying goes, you don't bring pom poms to a boss fight. So, we had to ensure our heroines were armed for the AI menace they were facing. Where most beat 'em ups focus on melee with limited-use ranged options, we did things a little different. Ra Ra Boom can be played as a pure beat 'em up. Each character has their own melee attack and you can be effective with them. Or you can play it as a pure shoot 'em up, because you also have an effective ranged attack with unlimited ammo. But it's best to mix the two, getting into your flow and finding the attack combos that suit the moment. We think that after you play Ra Ra Boom, with its speed and fluid mix of melee and ranged combat, it will be hard to go back to the standard we've all gotten used to.

Earlier this week, AMD carried out a surprise unveiling of its Radeon RX 9070 GRE 12 GB graphics card model. Prior to then, mixed messages—delivered via the usual insider sources—pointed to a myriad of possible launch windows within 2025. Despite claims of the RDNA 4 generation's debut "Great Radeon Edition" getting bumped into the latter half of this year, VideoCardz produced evidence of PowerColor readying Red Devil and Reaper SKUs for imminent arrival at retail outlets in China. Currently, Team Red and board partner participants have opened up pre-orders—finalized Radeon RX 9070 GRE products are due to launch on May 8; as Chinese market exclusives. A small selection of ASUS, PowerColor, Sapphire and Yeston custom designs are on the way—mostly reusing familiar shroud and backplate IPs.

Surprisingly, ASUS has opted out of redeploying current-gen PRIME and TUF Gaming Radeon enclosures. During AMD's official RDNA 4 "Great Radeon Edition" introduction day, the manufacturer revealed their lone custom GRE option: an ATS Megalodon SKU. VideoCardz has gathered new details—from ASUS China's official website and local e-commerce platforms. "ATS-RX9070GRE-O12G Megalodon" pre-orders are available with a 4199 RMB launch price point; aligning directly with AMD's recommended baseline MSRP. This factory overclocked card features a fairly basic 2.5-slot thick triple-fan cooling solution, but the company's marketing team has emphasized the utilization of phase-change GPU thermal pads. Certain previous-gen (NVIDIA-based) Megalodon models were hyped up with "Back To Future" (BTF) connectivity, but the forthcoming ATS Megalodon Radeon RX 9070 GRE is a relatively barebones offering.

Christoph Schell, Intel's chief commercial officer and executive vice president, plans to step down on June 30, according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The notice filed on April 28 states Schell is leaving to "pursue another career opportunity" with Kuka Group where he'll take on the CEO role. "Since joining Intel in 2022, Christoph has poured his heart and soul into our business and worked tirelessly in service of our customers," Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan wrote. "He has helped to steer our Sales and Marketing Group (SMG) through a challenging period and built a strong team along the way. I am grateful for his contributions and wish him success in his next role". Kuka Group stands out as a world leader in robotics offering robots, manufacturing cells, software, and cloud-based digital services. This exit comes after Intel reported another quarter of losses and more cost-cutting plans. However, it might not affect CEO Lip-Bu Tan's efforts to reshape the company, which include cutting jobs and simplifying management layers.

Since joining Intel in March 2022 from Hewlett-Packard, where he served seven years in senior management positions, Schell has witnessed Intel's continued financial challenges, including the recent first quarter results showing a net loss of US$800 million on revenue of US$12.7 billion. While the revenue met the upper threshold of previous guidance, Lip-Bu Tan acknowledged in the financial results statement that although "the first quarter was a step in the right direction, there are no quick fixes as we work to get back on a path to gaining market share and driving sustainable growth." Schell's tenure at Intel coincided with a period of leadership transition, having been appointed under former CEO Pat Gelsinger, who resigned in December 2024 after assuming the position in February 2021. Following Schell's departure, the head of America sales, Greg Ernst, is stepping in as the interim leader of Intel's Sales and Marketing Group.

May brings more than just rainbows and sunshine—it's also time for fresh adventures and epic battles. This GFN Thursday spotlights twenty can't-miss games joining the cloud this month, with something for every kind of gamer. Gear up with the nine games available this week, on top of the launch of Rust's Jungle Biome update.

Welcome to the Jungle
In Rust, a multiplayer survival game by Facepunch Studios, everyone starts off with only a rock and torch and must gather resources, build bases and fend off environmental threats and other players in a harsh, open-world setting. The game features intense player vs. player combat, dynamic alliances and frequent updates. Crocodiles, snakes and tigers—oh my! The latest update introduces a new jungle biome: a lush but dangerous environment filled with crocodiles, snakes, tigers and other wildlife. Added features include new early-game weapons, like a blowpipe with venom darts, as well as unique mechanics, like regrowing jungle vines. GeForce NOW members can experience the intense survival gameplay of Rust from the cloud. Whether on an underpowered PC, Mac, smartphone or smart TV, dive into the game's open-world chaos with smooth performance and stunning visuals.

BOOX has recently launched the Mira Pro (Color Version), its first 25.3-inch color E Ink monitor. As an upgrade to the monochrome Mira Pro, this new model combines the comfort of an E Ink display with rich colors. It aims to offer professionals, programmers, students, and other heavy screen users a more eye-friendly, immersive, and productive experience. The BOOX Mira Pro is available to purchase from BOOX for $1899.99.

Building on all the exceptional features the Mira Pro boasts, Mira Pro (Color Version) stands out with a Kaleido 3 color ePaper screen, featuring 16 levels of grayscale and 4,096 colors. It delivers soft colors for an enhanced visual experience, making it highly suitable for tasks that demand color differentiation, such as reviewing color-coded dashboards, analyzing data, or working with complex graphics.

Intel has only released two Arc Xe2 "Battlemage" desktop models: the B580 12 GB and B570 10 GB graphics cards. So far, these lower priced options have been warmly welcomed by reviewers and buyers alike—but gaming GPU enthusiasts are still actively clamoring for more potent second-gen "Battlemage" variants. The collective status of theorized "B750, B770, and (fancifully) B780" SKUs is frustratingly unclear. Intel has not generated any official new product noise since the launch of their B570 design, earlier this year—recent big announcements have focused on next-gen "AI PC" processor lines. A series of vague leaks have indicated cancelations and then revivals of speculated mid-to-high-end Arc Xe2 discrete cards.

As of late, a larger "BMG-G31" GPU identifier has appeared in shipping manifests—a previous leak pointed to "prototype" units being moved between company facilities. Yesterday, Haze2K1 shared another extract from NBD inventory documents—crucially, they believe that these items are heading to a crucial manufacturing plant in Vietnam. This location is/was tasked with the assembling of first-party B570 and B580 Limited Edition products. Fresh conjecture suggests that "B7XX" Limited Edition cards are in the pipeline, but current circumstances are still hazy. VideoCardz reckons that a "Developer Edition" 24 GB model is still in active development, but this rumored workstation/productivity-oriented card could be based on Intel's readily available "BMG-G21" GPU die.

Nintendo has released firmware update 20.0.0 for the Switch console and it brings several exciting new features. First up are Virtual Game Cards. Every game you buy digitally, along with specific DLC and free titles, now shows up as a virtual game card in its own menu. You can load or eject these cards on up to two linked consoles and lend them to family members on your Nintendo Account or to friends outside your group for up to 14 days. When the loan period ends, the game disappears from their library, but your saved data stays safe on their system. Next is GameShare, which only a Switch 2 owner can start. Once a Switch 2 user launches a compatible game, they can invite any nearby Switch or Switch 2 player to join in over local wireless. Only the host needs to own the game, and there doesn't seem to be a limit on how many players can connect. It's a simple way to play together without everyone having to buy the same title.

There are some visual changes on the HOME Menu as well. New icons for Virtual Game Cards and GameShare have appeared. The eShop icon switched from yellow to red, and the New Features icon now appears in green. Also, every installed title, be it physical or digital, now features a small blue Game Card icon, making it clear what's in your collection. With the Switch 2 launching on June 5, Nintendo has added a "System Transfer to Nintendo Switch 2" option under System Settings. This wizard guides you through uploading all your user profiles and saving files, screenshots, videos, and system settings to Nintendo's servers. Once complete, your old Switch resets to factory settings and the new console downloads everything back.

Hey everyone! We're almost exactly one year past the release of Sea of Stars (!!!), and while we've been a bit quiet lately, we're excited to share some fantastic news today. Throes of the Watchmaker is coming Spring 2025, for free! Visit the DLC's website for everything there is to know so far. We hope you're as excited as we are about this new adventure!

Malevolent Spectacle Awaits
Throes of the Watchmaker finds the Solstice Warriors Valere and Zale venturing into the miniature clockwork world of Horloge. In this magical land where denizens are threatened by a cursed carnival, our heroes will need to adapt to unfamiliar rules if their Sun and Moon powers are to manifest.

Syntech, a leading innovator in performance peripherals, proudly unveils the Chronos 68 Rapid Trigger Magnetic Keyboard - a premium gaming keyboard engineered for elite performance and designed to transition seamlessly between high-stakes gameplay and professional productivity.

With its Premium-grade aluminium chassis and carefully curated accessories, including a magnetic dust cover and ergonomic wrist rest, the Chronos 68 makes a striking first impression. But its true power lies beneath the surface - this is a keyboard built to deliver competitive advantage at every keystroke.

LG Display, the world's leading innovator of display technologies, announced today that it has become the world's first company to successfully verify the commercialization-level performance of blue phosphorescent OLED panels on a mass production line. The achievement comes about eight months after the company partnered with UDC to develop blue phosphorescence, and is considered a significant step closer to realizing a "dream OLED" display.

In the display industry, "dream OLED" refers to an OLED panel that achieves phosphorescence for all three primary colors of light (red, green, and blue). OLED panel light emission methods are broadly categorized into fluorescence and phosphorescence. Fluorescence is a simpler process in which materials emit light immediately upon receiving electrical energy, but its luminous efficiency is only 25%. In contrast, phosphorescence briefly stores received electrical energy before emitting light. Although it is technically more complex, this method offers luminous efficiency of 100% and uses a quarter as much power as fluorescence.

Intel is preparing to launch its first "Panther Lake" mobile processor later this year, but only one configuration will arrive in 2025. This SKU features four high-performance P-cores paired with eight E-cores, leaves out the lower-power efficiency cores, and packs four Xe3 GPU cores. With a 45 W TDP, it is clearly aimed at mainstream gaming laptops rather than ultralight notebooks. Panther Lake fills the gap left by "Lunar Lake" with a higher power envelope and a more performance-oriented design. Lunar Lake ranged from 17 W to 28 W, while Panther Lake's 45 W shows Intel is targeting users who need more sustained compute and graphics throughput. Rumors indicate additional Panther Lake variants will arrive in Q1 of 2026, when Intel plans to have more SKUs shipping to OEMs from volume production.

One such SKU is expected to feature 12 Xe3 GPU cores for premium thin-and-light laptops without discrete graphics. All of Panther Lake processors combine "Cougar Cove" performance cores with "Darkmont" efficiency cores, following Intel's hybrid approach introduced with "Meteor Lake". Intel's decision to stagger the rollout reflects supply chain considerations and product segmentation by power and graphics capability. Gaming laptops that can rely on integrated Xe3 graphics will welcome this 45 W chip, while other form factors may wait for next year's lower-power or ultralight 15 W models. Qualification with OEM partners should begin later this year, with laptop shipments expected by late Q4 2025. Until Intel shares more details on the rest of the Panther Lake lineup, much remains speculative.

The Trump administration is preparing substantial changes to the Biden-era Framework for AI Diffusion controlling advanced semiconductor exports. Sources close to the Reuters indicate officials will replace the current three-tier country classification with a unified government-to-government licensing system requiring bilateral approval for US chip acquisitions. The existing framework, implemented in January 2025, permits unrestricted exports to 17 allied nations plus Taiwan, imposes volume caps on roughly 120 countries and blocks shipments to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Current regulations exempt orders below 1,700 NVIDIA H100 equivalent units from full licensing requirements, needing only a notification.

Former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, acting as an informal adviser, verified that bilateral government agreements are under review. Officials are also considering reducing the notification threshold from 1,700 to approximately 500 H100 equivalents to address circumvention concerns. The proposal has drawn criticism from industry figures, including Oracle Executive VP Ken Glueck and a coalition of seven Republican senators who have urged Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to withdraw the existing framework entirely. The administration faces pressure to finalize regulations before the May 15 compliance deadline, balancing security objectives with trade considerations. An announcement is expected before the month's end.

A few weeks ago, we reported on AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT, which is scheduled to come right after this year's Computex show. Some early leaks have pointed to the existence of two Radeon RX 9060 XT variants: one with 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM and another with an 8 GB GDDR6 capacity. Recent rumors have begun speculating that the 8 GB card is not coming at all, which BenchLife now debunks. According to the publication: "As for the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 8 GB version, we have reliable sources telling us that there is currently no plan to stop supply or cancel it. As for the news from the market, it is just a rumor. The main reason is as mentioned earlier, it is entirely due to the reaction to the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti."

The 8 GB version of NVIDIA's latest GeForce RTX 5060 Ti wasn't well received. It wasn't even supplied to reviewers, and out own review was delayed as we waited to buy a card off the shelf. TechPowerUp's reviewer W1zzard confirmed that "If you want ray tracing, then RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB is your best option, and of course anything upcoming from AMD in that price bracket—we've been hearing rumors about an RX 9060 Series after Computex, an RX 9070 GRE is also likely, but both are unknowns in terms of performance and pricing." Perhaps if AMD can price this 8 GB card aggressively, it will receive praise from consumers. If not, it will be a turning point for the mid-range PC gamers, who now demand more VRAM for their cards so they are not left behind with future title releases, especially as they become more demanding.

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