PCs with 32 GB and 64 GB of RAM are becoming less common, at least in the latest CPU-Z Validator statistics. According to Doc TB, one of the developers behind CPU-Z, this is the first time RAM capacity on PCs has declined year over year. 32 GB is still the most popular configuration at 37.2% of validations, though its share is down 2.5% compared to a year ago. 64 GB took a much bigger hit, falling 18% to 7.3%. Lower capacities are moving the other way, with 16 GB up 12.9% to 33.0% and 8 GB up 5.5% to 11.0%, while 96 GB and 128 GB setups dropped by more than 26% each. Memory type tells a similar story, with DDR4 now making up 54.5% of validations, up 6.0%, while DDR5 slipped 2.9% to 32.9%.

Of course, these figures only cover systems that users actually submit to the validator over the last three months, so they aren't a full picture of the PC market. Steam's September survey, for example, showed 32 GB overtaking 16 GB as the most common configuration among gamers, but that promptly flipped with the October survey. Still, the timing makes sense. Memory prices have climbed sharply this year, and Team Group expects the worst of the shortage to land between Q4 2026 and Q2 2027. DDR4 platforms may also get a second wind, with DDR4 motherboards getting released for unannounced LGA1700 processors expected in early 2027. It looks like plenty of people are sticking with older DDR4 systems or settling for 16 GB instead of paying current prices.

Google has started rolling out the November update for Googlebook, and the biggest change is how much memory the platform's on-device AI takes up. On the Acer Googlebook 14, ASUS Googlebook 14, and Lenovo Googlebook 15, Google's release notes say it has improved memory usage for on-device AI to make multitasking more stable on 16 GB devices. Apparently, this comes down to updated memory management in the NPU driver, which reportedly frees up between 3 GB and 6 GB of system RAM and lets the OS claw back memory when Chrome needs more of it. The Help Center notes don't put a number on it, though, and the 3 GB to 6 GB figure comes from Google's announcement on Reddit.

The update, build CL3B.260622.286.R2, carries the November 1 security patch and around 30 fixes in total. Among them are keyboard and trackpad input dropping out on convertibles, black screens with DRM-protected video on external monitors, external USB microphones not working, Zoom crashes with background effects, and bootloops when an update gets interrupted. HP and Dell owners also get a fix for Bluetooth audio lip-sync issues, and the Linux Terminal gets several reliability fixes. All three models getting the memory fix ship with 16 GB of RAM. Freeing up to 6 GB on those machines is a big deal, since that's over a third of the total memory. The update is rolling out gradually, and owners can check for it under Settings > System > Software updates > System update.

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is now close to double its $749 MSRP in the US. According to price tracking by VideoCardz, the cheapest RTX 5070 Ti at major US retailers was $1,339.99 on November 6, about 79% above MSRP, up from $1,179.99 on October 29. That's a $160 jump in just eight days. Some models have already crossed the 2x mark, like the ASUS TUF Gaming OC at $1,499.99 on B&H. Prices are also moving fast. At the time of writing, the cheapest RTX 5070 Ti sold by Newegg itself is an MSI SHADOW RTX 5070 Ti at $1,409.99. Things aren't much better in Germany, where the cheapest listing on Geizhals sits at €1,300 for a PNY model, roughly 48% above the €879 MSRP.

Things are probably going to get worse, too. NVIDIA's board partners in China are reportedly raising RTX 5070 Ti prices by around 1,000 RMB (about $150) this week, with retail prices expected to follow within a week or two. Unlike the RTX 5090 and 5080 16 GB, which have reportedly been discontinued, the RTX 5070 Ti is still officially in production. After reports of an end of production in January early this year, NVIDIA said it was still shipping all GeForce SKUs, and ASUS denied the card was end-of-life, while admitting that memory supply was hurting production and restocking. The card is still listed at major retailers, unlike the RTX 5080, which vanished from NVIDIA's US Marketplace two weeks after the RTX 5090 did the same. Anyone shopping for an RTX 5070 Ti should probably expect these prices to keep rising for a while.

ASUS today announced the XG Core Radeon RX 9060 XT LP 16 GB GDDR6, a compact external graphics solution that adds discrete graphics to compatible laptops, gaming handhelds and mini PCs through USB4 connectivity. Powered by AMD RDNA 4 architecture, it pairs 16 GB of GDDR6 memory with support for gaming, creative applications and compatible AI workloads. With the XG Core, users do not need to make any internal hardware modifications to their device to access the power of discrete graphics.

Discrete graphics for more demanding workloads
Thin laptops and compact PCs make everyday computing convenient, but users may need additional graphics power as their games and applications become more demanding. XG Core offers a way to extend the capabilities of a compatible device without replacing the entire system. Its external design adds a dedicated GPU when needed, giving users the flexibility to keep the device they already use for work, travel or play.

In a big surprise to no one, graphics card prices went up again in October. TechSpot's latest survey across 10 countries shows GPU prices rising 11% month over month, following a 15% jump in August and 7% in September, or roughly 35% over three months. On average, cards now sell for 44% above MSRP, climbing to 58% in the US and Canada. Keep in mind these numbers track the lowest in-stock price in each region, so most models cost even more. Moreover, there is another GeForce RTX 50-series price hike on the horizon, so these numbers will rise again pretty soon.

The GeForce RTX 5090 is in a league of its own. It got 32% pricier in a month, and its normalized global price of $7,240 sits a staggering 262% above its $1,999 MSRP, almost double the 136% figure from early September. In the US, the cheapest in-stock model now costs $9,400, or 370% over MSRP, and most models now sit above $11,000 comfortably. The RTX 5080 is following a similar path, up 22% in a month to $2,200 in the US, while Newegg had none of its own in stock when the data was collected. TechSpot argues the GDDR7 memory crisis can't explain a jump that big, and some retail sources apparently told them wholesale RTX 5080 costs have gone up recently too.

Raspberry Pi has raised prices again, and this time the 16 GB Raspberry Pi 5 takes the hit. CEO Eben Upton announced in a blog post that the 16 GB model goes up by $80 to $385, more than triple the $120 it launched at in January 2025. The 16 GB Compute Module 5 variants are also going up by $40, with updated prices listed in the product brief on the Compute Module 5 page. This follows the October 1 increase, when the 2 GB Pi 4 and Pi 5 each went up by $12.50. Compared to today's hike, that one was minor. Upton blames a lack of alternative supply for 16 GB DRAM, made worse by other ongoing component shortages.

Upton encouraged customers to make sure they are not paying for more memory than they need. He pointed out that lower-density variants or older Raspberry Pi models could be a solution. Also, underlined developers to optimize memory use in their applications. He closes the post by saying the current memory situation is difficult but temporary. Raspberry Pi Foundation intends to roll the increases back once memory costs start to decrease.

Valve's October 2026 Steam Hardware & Software Survey shows much of September's odd data snapping back. After 32 GB system RAM overtook 16 GB last month, the 16 GB tier is back in first place at 41.42% (up 3.60 points), while 32 GB dropped 5.16 points to 37.06%. The GeForce RTX 3060 is the most common GPU again at 3.62% across all platforms, a spot it held before September, while the RTX 5070 fell from 5.86% to 3.56%. It looks like the survey sample played a big part. Simplified Chinese fell 9.41 points to 21.98%, while English rose 4.84 points to 39.04%. The survey is voluntary, so a change in who responds can move the numbers without an actual hardware change behind it. We can't confirm that, but it would explain why so many categories shifted at once.

Windows 11 rose 1.17 points to 72.51%, and Linux climbed 0.90 points to 3.95%. The 1440p share dropped 5.22 points to 21.82%, while 1080p sits at 50.23%. On Windows, Intel gained 0.89 points to reach 53.48% CPU share, with AMD at 46.51%. Valve's Steam Frame, which launched in September, now holds 4.13% of surveyed VR headsets, up 3.72 points, while Meta Quest 3 continues to dominate with a 27.27% share. However, headset owners are only 1.75% of the survey, so it's a small group. The interesting bit is still the system RAM split, and while 32 GB RAM had been slowly gaining on 16 GB, it looks like September was the outlier. November's data should give us a better idea of the split.

NVIDIA's board partners reportedly still lack the supply of GeForce RTX 5080 24 GB design kits, making a nearby launch seemingly impossible. According to BenchLife, design kits have not yet been provided to NVIDIA's add-in card partners. These design kits typically include a GPU die and memory modules shipped directly from NVIDIA. NVIDIA negotiates GDDR7 module pricing and supply while also receiving GPU die shipments from TSMC. The company then packages these together and sends them to board partners for assembly on their custom PCBs and designs. Since this process takes time to validate and test new designs, board partners might be unable to meet the previously assumed launch in January.

Earlier rumors suggested that NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5080 24 GB might arrive sooner than expected, with a post from Board Channels' ChannelGate account claiming NVIDIA is speeding up the launch, with availability now expected around January 2027. Apparently, NVIDIA has already cleared out its RTX 5080 16 GB GPU inventory, and the remaining stock should last around two months. However, since board partners aren't receiving those GPU kits yet, this timing might be impossible to meet, and the window would be around Q1 2027, but not in January.

Tuxedo Computers has just announced its Nano Pro Gen15, a new mini PC powered by Intel's Panther Lake Core Ultra X7 358H CPU and its capable Arc B390 iGPU. The mini PC is a workstation targeting developers and home lab enthusiasts who want to run "local, secure, sovereign" LLMs, but Tuxedo also fully acknowledges that it can be used as a no-fuss mini gaming PC, thanks to Intel's graphics integrated into the Linux kernel of the pre-installed TuxedoOS. Physically, the Nano Pro Gen15 measures in at just 110 × 117.5 × 49 mm, and it features a plastic chassis, although Tuxedo has maintained a repair-friendly design, with just four screws required to access the internals, where the upgradeable RAM, storage, and wireless cards are easily accessible.

Tuxedo supplies a 120 W external power supply that connects via a barrel adaptor, but it makes no claims about the actual maximum TDP of the Intel CPU inside. Connectivity on the Nano Pro Gen15 is reasonable, if not stellar, with Wi-Fi 7 and dual 2.5 GbE for networking, alongside Bluetooth 6 for peripheral connectivity. On the back of the mini PC, there is a DC-in power port, the aforementioned 2.5 GbE ports, 2× USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, 2× HDMI ports with HDMI 2.1 support on Windows and 2.0b support on Linux (for now). On the front of the mini PC, there is a USB4 port, 1× USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port with DP 1.4a Alt Mode, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port alongside a 3.5 mm audio combo jack. Tuxedo says that, between the USB Type-C ports and the dedicated HDMI ports, the Nano Pro Gen15 can support up to four simultaneous displays.

NVIDIA's US Marketplace no longer lists the GeForce RTX 5080. The GPU filter on the store's graphics card page now tops out at the RTX 5070 Ti, followed by the RTX 5070, RTX 5060 Ti, RTX 5060, and RTX 5050, with partner RTX 5080 models gone as well. The same thing happened to the RTX 5090 about two weeks ago and, barring a brief cameo at $5,599, the card still hasn't returned. NVIDIA has since denied that the RTX 5090 is discontinued, though it hasn't said anything about the RTX 5080 yet. Oddly enough, its RTX 5080 product page still says "Starting at $999."

The removal seems limited to the US for now. NVIDIA's UK Marketplace still has 13 RTX 5080 listings and two RTX 5090 cards. Of course, a missing listing could simply mean there's no stock left, since the RTX 5080 already costs close to $2,000 at US retailers, roughly double its MSRP. That leaves the RTX 5070 Ti as the fastest card on NVIDIA's US store, and it isn't cheap either. The seven listings there range from $1,269.99 to $1,499.99, well above its $749 launch price.

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5080 24 GB might arrive sooner than expected. A new post from Board Channels' ChannelGate account claims NVIDIA is speeding up the launch, with availability now expected around January 2027 and December 2026 as the earliest option. Earlier this month, various sources relayed that the card was reportedly planned for Q1 2027. The same post says NVIDIA will stop supplying the RTX 5080 16 GB and the RTX 5090 D V2 to China, leaving the 24 GB RTX 5080 as the only flagship model in that market. The report only covers China, so there's no word yet on whether the 16 GB card is going away globally. If the January window pans out, a CES 2027 reveal seems likely, though NVIDIA hasn't confirmed anything.

Apparently, NVIDIA has already cleared out its RTX 5080 16 GB GPU inventory, and the remaining stock should last around two months. That roughly matches a leaker's claim that NVIDIA has January discontinuation dates set for the 16 GB card. The post is machine-translated, so some wording may be off. Specs are still unknown, though 24 GB on the same 256-bit bus would most likely mean 3 GB GDDR7 modules instead of 2 GB ones. Board Channels previously suggested the card could cost around 19,999 yuan (nearly $3,000) in China, while the 16 GB model already sells for close to $2,000 at U.S. retailers, double its $999 MSRP. With the memory shortage expected to get worse in 2027, it's reasonable to expect the 24 GB card to be both expensive and hard to find.

Rumors of the RTX 5080 16 GB being discontinued are picking up steam, and the effects are starting to show. RTX 5080 16 GB wholesale prices in China have jumped by around 2,000 yuan (roughly $300), according to new information from Board Channels. The card previously traded at 12,700 to 13,500 yuan (~$1,900 to $2,020) and now sits at 14,500 to 15,000 yuan (~$2,170 to $2,240). Board Channels blames tighter upstream supply and the reported discontinuation of the 16 GB model. A leaker recently claimed that NVIDIA has set January discontinuation dates for the card, though NVIDIA hasn't confirmed anything.

Along with the RTX 5080 16 GB, the RTX 5070 Ti, which uses the same 16 GB of GDDR7, is also facing price hikes. It is now going for 9,650 to 9,850 yuan (~$1,440 to $1,470), compared to 9,000 to 9,150 yuan (~$1,350 to $1,370) before, a roughly $100 bump. Board partners are adjusting too. ASUS has reportedly added 1,000 yuan (~$150) to all of its RTX 5080 16 GB models and 200 yuan (~$30) to the RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5070, and RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB cards. Gigabyte went further, with 1,200 yuan (~$180) on its RTX 5080 cards and 200 yuan (~$30) on the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070. Cheaper RTX 5060-class cards from both brands saw smaller bumps of 200 yuan (~$30) or less, and ASUS reportedly raised prices on its Radeon cards as well, between $15 and $50.

Xiaomi has officially spilled the beans on the 2027 update to its Redmi Book laptop series, detailing both a launch date and what to expect from the laptops in terms of performance and battery life. The information comes courtesy of the Xiaomi Redmi account on Weibo, and the announcement reveals an October 27 release date for the Redmi Book 14 and likely the 16, alongside it. It's so far unclear if and when the new Redmi Book laptops will launch internationally or what the pricing will be, but the outgoing Redmi Book 14 starts at 6,499 CNY with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage.

With the post, Xiaomi also confirms that the Redmi Book 14 and 16 will be using Intel's Wildcat Lake Core Series 3 processors, with previous leaks having tipped the Core 5 320 for the Redmi Book 16, and the fine print on the marketing images now confirming the Core 5 320 for the Redmi Book 14. The Redmi Book 14 2027 has also been confirmed to ship with a 72 Wh battery, which Xiaomi claims will deliver over 20 hours of office use, with a claimed 1.26 days of local video playback. It will also use LPDDR5X-7467 RAM, although capacities are unclear at the time of writing, aside from the confirmation that there will be a 16 GB version available. The fine print also confirms that the display will be 2.8K, however the panel tech isn't mentioned.

Earlier this month, leakers claimed NVIDIA had stopped allocating GB202 silicon to the GeForce RTX 5090, effectively discontinuing the Blackwell flagship. NVIDIA denied it a few days later, with SVP Jeff Fisher saying the RTX 5090 hasn't been discontinued and will keep shipping. Now, Moore's Law Is Dead (MLID) says the plans are still in place, and the RTX 5080 is part of them too. In the latest Broken Silicon episode, MLID read out a message from what he calls one of his oldest sources, apparently a major retailer, saying NVIDIA has set discontinuation dates for both cards in the first half of January 2027.

According to that source, the last RTX 5090 shipments arrived in September, while the final RTX 5080 batch should land by the end of October and sell through Thanksgiving. We recently reported that Micro Center has already marked its RTX 5090 listings as "Not Carried," which could be further evidence of the RTX 5090 leaving shelves. The retailer from MLID's video also says its system already has a placeholder SKU for an RTX 5080 24 GB, which aligns with BenchLife's earlier report of a Q1 2027 launch.

On two separate occasions, in August and again in September, it was predicted that entry-level GPUs would see significant price increases in the second half of 2026, and it seems as though that prediction has come true, as showed in a recent Reddit post sharing updated retailer listing prices for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs from Japan—one of the countries where PC hardware prices are often felt sooner than in international markets. According to the price list, the cheapest available RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB was ¥118,800 (~$750 converted), while RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB prices start at ¥139,800 (~$882 converted).

Meanwhile, the RTX 5070 12 GB starts at ¥145,800 (~$920 converted), 5070 Ti prices start at ¥230,800 (~$1,456 converted), and the RTX 5080 16 GB has climbed to a starting price of ¥295,801 (~$1,867 converted). Compared to MSRP, these new prices represent an increase of around 59% for the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB, 66-144% for the 5060 Ti 16 GB, 32-82% for the 5070, and as much as 94% for the RTX 5080.

ASUS today announced the ExpertBook A7 (14" AMD) laptop, designed to set the new measure for the modern workday through refined aesthetics, effortless agility, and everyday assurance. Its seamless all-metal construction, clean lines, beautiful finish, and precision details create a sophisticated look that feels polished from every angle. With a compact design measuring just 1 cm thin and starting at 1.2 kg, ExpertBook A7 moves effortlessly from one workspace to the next, while smooth performance, advanced security, and dependable durability help professionals stay productive wherever work takes them.

Designed for professionals whose work moves with them, ExpertBook A7 brings together style and mobility without compromising the essentials of everyday productivity. From its precision-milled aluminium alloy construction and immersive 3K OLED display to its intuitive haptic touchpad, responsive performance, and layered protection, every element is carefully considered creating an experience that feels refined, effortless, and dependable throughout the day.

HP revealed the EliteBoard G2a keyboard PC at CES 2026, promising "next-generation local AI power in a keyboard-sized form factor." Now, 10 months later, HP has released the updated EliteBoard G2a, revealing pricing and some of the keyboard and underlying PC specs, in the process. The G2a features either the updated AMD Ryzen AI 7 Pro 450 APU or its smaller Ryzen AI 5 Pro 435 counterpart. The cheapest version of the HP EliteBoard G2a, which packs a Ryzen AI 5 Pro, 16 GB of DDR5-5600 memory, and 512 GB of PCIe Gen 5 SSD storage, comes in at $3,028, while the SKU with the Ryzen AI 7 Pro 450 APU paired with 32 GB of memory and a 512 GB SSD, comes in at $4,167.

The small form factor PC is capable of drawing 65 W over USB Power Delivery, and the only I/O it features is a single USB4 port and a single USB Type-C 10 Gbps port. The EliteBoard G2a also features built-in dual speakers and comes bundled with an HP 675M wireless mouse. The keyboard component of the mini PC is a membrane keyboard, not mechanical, and it follows what appears to be an 1800 layout, and it has white backlighting. Fortunately, the EliteBoard G2a uses SODIMM RAM, so it's upgradeable in the event that you want 32 GB of RAM but don't want to pay HP's upgrade cost.

As if GPU prices weren't high enough, thanks to the ongoing RAMpocalypse driving up BOM costs continuously for what seems like the last year, the trend is clear. According to recent reports, it now seems as though AMD GPUs are slated to get even more price hikes in the near future. As reported by VideoCardz, based on a source on Board Channels, AMD has increased GPU vendor pricing by as much as $104 in China.

Reportedly, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX6500 XT pricing will remain unchanged, but the RX 9070 will get a price hike equivalent to $104, being the steepest price increase on the list, while the RX 9060 XT 8 GB will get the smallest price increase, at $45. It is said that these price hikes are motivated by higher memory prices and manufacturing costs, and that, while they are seemingly local to China for the time being, international board partners have also been informed of the upcoming changes.

Valve's September 2026 Steam Hardware & Software Survey shows that 32 GB of RAM is now the most common memory capacity among participating gamers. The 32 GB tier gained 4.77 points to reach 42.22%, while 16 GB fell 3.38 points to 37.82%. Last month, 16 GB still led with 41.20% against 37.45%, so that is a big swing for a single month. The idea had been around for a while, with 32 GB already being floated as the next standard back in August 2025. Steam only reports capacity, so the survey says nothing about speed or whether those kits are DDR4 or DDR5. It makes sense, though, with several recent games asking for 32 GB RAM in the recommended specs, with 16 GB now often listed in the minimum requirements.

Elsewhere, AMD gained 1.89 points on Windows to reach 47.41% CPU share, and the GeForce RTX 5070 is the most common GPU at 5.86%, up 2.30 points. 1440p primary displays climbed 5.18 points to 27.04%, and Windows 11 keeps growing at 71.34%. Of course, one month doesn't make a trend, so it's reasonable to wait for October's numbers to see whether 32 GB remains at the top. The survey is also voluntary, and the sample changed a lot this month. For example, Simplified Chinese jumped 7.42 points to 31.39% of surveyed systems. That change in sampled systems could explain part of the RAM swing, though it could also simply be 32 GB RAM gaining popularity.

Minisforum launched an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070-powered AtomMan G7 Pro mini PC in January 2026, and the brand has just announced the latest iteration in the AtomMan line-up, the AtomMan G1 Pro-89A6, which is now available with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT GPU with 16 GB of VRAM. The G1 Pro-89A6 is built on AMD's Ryzen 9 8945HX, a mobile CPU with 16 cores and 32 threads and a maximum boost clock of 5.4 GHz. Pricing on the RX 9060 XT mini PC starts at $1,759 during the launch promotion, with the MSRP jumping to $2,199 after that ends. The only configuration available has 32 GB of DDR5-5200 memory, which is upgradeable via SODIMM slots, and a 1 TB M.2 PCIe SSD.

The chassis of the new AtomMan G1 Pro-89A6 measures in at just 3.8 L, which is made all the more impressive by the 140 W TGP of its dGPU and its built-in 350 W PSU—which means no external power brick cluttering up whatever space the mini PC ends up in. The CPU and GPU are cooled by what appear to be two separate cooling solutions, with five copper heat pipes between them and each with its own exhaust vents. The CPU is cooled by a single-fan blower-style cooler, and the GPU is cooled by a triple-fan setup. The PSU also has its own compartmentalized cooling system. Although Minisforum hasn't specified what fans it's using, it claims to be using silent fans that spin at up to 3,600 RPM.

Orders that get mixed up often tend to leave buyers with the short end of the stick. For instance, in 2025, a Micro Center customer found backpacks inside a Zotac GeForce RTX 5090 box, and another Best Buy customer reportedly got rocks instead of an ASUS TUF RTX 5080 and was initially denied a refund. This time, apparently, the order error went the other way. Reddit user deadmanwonderland_23 says they ordered a single MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16 GB from Walmart for $1,099 and received four identical cards. The card looks like MSI's Frieren Edition, which comes with a bundled blanket, and currently goes for $1,259 on MSI's website. It was already a relatively good deal at $1,099, but getting four cards really sounds too good to be true. At the price paid, the four cards add up to roughly $4,400, and there's no word on whether the buyer has told Walmart about the extras.

One plausible explanation is that someone in a Walmart warehouse mistook a carton of four cards for a single special edition package. That seems like a possibility, but the actual reason is not currently known. As of now, Walmart hasn't commented on this incident, and the only account comes from a Reddit post, so take it with a grain of salt. Retailers have often let customers keep extra units in the past, though that is usually decided case by case. Walmart has been generous with mistakes before, like when a customer managed to pick up an RTX 5070 for just $129 due to a labeling error. Either way, it's something we don't often see in a GPU market where prices just keep climbing.

Seemingly in light of the recent PC hardware crisis, which has affected PC OEMs big and small alike, Colorful has just revived the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 for its latest Panda laptop design. The latest revision of the Colorful Panda P15E features the typical 15-inch form factor and chassis from the RTX 5050 version the brand previously sold, but it carries a significant downgrade in internals.

The new CPU in the Panda P15E is the Intel Core i5-13420H, an 8-core, 12-thread part with 4 P-Cores and 4 E-Cores and an Intel Iris Xe 80EU iGPU, while the dGPU featured in the new laptop is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050. As a result of the older platform, the laptop also resorts to 16 GB of DDR4-3200 memory and a 512 GB M.2 SSD. The display is a 144 Hz IPS unit that measures in at 15.6 inches. At the time of writing, it does not appear as though there is an international version of the RTX 3050 version of the laptop, but it is available on JD.com for RMB 6,299, which converts to roughly $938.70.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 currently ships with 2 GB GDDR7 modules, but even 3 GB modules have seen limited adoption due to their high cost. However, that could change soon. According to Weibo leaker Golden Pig Upgrade, memory manufacturers are reportedly planning 4 GB and 6 GB GDDR7 chips for a 2027 to 2028 window, a jump that could reshape how much VRAM budget and mid-range GPUs can carry without needing a wider memory bus. A 128-bit card using four memory packages currently tops out at 8 GB with today's 2 GB chips. Move to 4 GB chips and that same card could hit 16 GB, or 24 GB with 6 GB modules. Scale that up to a 256-bit interface with eight packages, and you're looking at 32 GB or 48 GB respectively, without touching the PCB layout or bus width. Of course, going the other way is possible too, a narrower memory bus combined with higher density, faster memory chips, can lead to similar bandwidth, with lower relative cost.

This would matter most at the low end, where narrow 128-bit buses have made generous VRAM capacities either awkward or expensive to pull off. Videocardz, citing supply chain sources, notes that today's 3 GB GDDR7 chips are already unusually expensive due to extreme demand, and that cost has reportedly contributed to delays around the rumored RTX 5050 9 GB and the RTX 50 Super refresh. If 4 GB chips end up cheaper to produce at scale, they could become the more practical choice for mainstream cards, while 6 GB modules might make more sense for workstation and other high-memory GPUs first. It's worth noting that the leaker's timeline only points to sometime in 2027 or 2028, so there's no confirmation this lines up with NVIDIA's RTX 60 series or AMD's next Radeon generation specifically.

Sapphire is preparing a Valor Mortis edition of its Nitro+ Radeon RX 9070 XT OC, a themed variant created in collaboration with dev studio One More Level and publisher Lyrical Games to coincide with the launch of their first-person Soulslike action game on October 13, 2026. This isn't Sapphire's first themed graphic card, the most recent was the Nitro+ RX 9070 XT OC Crimson Desert edition. The Valor Mortis variant follows the same path: a custom logo on the fans and a magnetic backplate decorated with game artwork. Even if not officially announced yet, the GPU, memory, cooling, and factory overclock likely won't change as the specs would match the Crimson Desert edition. This means the GPU will have up to 3060 MHz boost clock and 2520 MHz game clock, while the card will feature 16 GB of 256-bit GDDR6 at 20 Gbps.

A copy of the game comes bundled with the card, however, Sapphire did not mention which edition, standard or deluxe. Also, pricing or an exact release date has not been announced. We estimate that the Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 9070 XT OC will be available around October 13 or shortly after, given the game's launch date. As a side note, Sapphire is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Founder and CEO KD Au said the milestone "belongs to our customers, our partners at AMD, and every member of the SAPPHIRE team," adding that the company started with the ambition of building the best graphics cards in the world, a goal he says still drives the company today.

A Brazilian modder going by fmklab has built a working RTX 3070 Ti with 16 GB of memory, a configuration NVIDIA reportedly planned years ago but never brought to market. Instead of bolting bigger memory chips onto a retail 3070 Ti board, Fabio, aka fmklab, started with an ASUS TUF RTX 3070 PCB, which already runs on regular GDDR6 rather than the GDDR6X found on the real 3070 Ti. The RTX 3070 GPU was pulled and replaced with an actual 3070 Ti chip, and the original Samsung HC14 (8 Gb) memory modules were swapped for HC16 (16 Gb) units to double capacity. GPU-Z still reported 8 GB after the swap, so fmklab used NVIDIA's BIOS Reader tool to work out which memory straps needed rewiring. A few tweaks later, the full 16 GB buffer was showing up.

Once that was sorted, MATS testing came back clean, and the card ran a local LLM using nearly the full 16 GB pool. Moreover, Call of Duty: Warzone paired with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D was pulling over 13 GB with no signs of instability. NVIDIA had reportedly explored a 16 GB RTX 3070 Ti as far back as 2020, and the idea resurfaced through leaked engineering samples before NVIDIA reportedly shelved it. Fabio's Superposition score landed a bit below typical retail 3070 Ti runs, likely because GDDR6 is slower than GDDR6X, a fair tradeoff for doubling the memory this way. The base RTX 3070 has seen similar VRAM mods before, but this looks like the first working recreation of this specific 16 GB 3070 Ti variant.