AMD has begun integrating its next-generation graphics IP into the Linux kernel, releasing a series of eight patches that add GFX13 support to the open-source AMDGPU driver. These patches, submitted to the mailing list on November 9 by AMDGPU maintainer Alex Deucher, contain over 12,600 lines of code, excluding the typically large header files. GFX13 is anticipated to be the graphics core for RDNA 5, although AMD has not officially confirmed this connection. However, since GFX12 has been linked to RDNA 4, it is assumed that GFX13 is the correct codename for RDNA 5.

The patches introduce version 13 of three IP blocks: the "graphics" GFX block itself, the MicroEngine Scheduler (MES), and the IMU. On the compute side, the AMDKFD driver gains initial GC 13 support, a CWSR trap handler for saving and restoring compute wave state, and a temporary change that disables queue reset in the topology. The final patch enables the MGCG, CGCG, and CGLS clock gating features, which reduce power consumption when parts of the GPU are idle. Interestingly, the series mentions two specific targets, GFX 13.0.1 and GFX 13.0.4, indicating that AMD is preparing at least two graphics IP configurations. These version numbers do not correspond to any specific GPU models, so it is unclear which products they relate to. RDNA 5 is expected to be a significant advancement over RDNA 4, necessitating numerous patches to add support.

NVIDIA has released NVIDIA App 11.0.9.585, a small update that adds DLSS Override profiles for 19 games and Optimal Settings profiles for six. The list mixes older titles like PUBG: Battlegrounds, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and Dragon's Dogma 2 with Control Resonant, Silent Hill: Townfall, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, Gears of War: E-Day, and Star Wars: Galactic Racer, all of which were scheduled to launch in September or October. Oddly enough, 007 First Light was already listed in the main 11.0.9 release, and Active Matter showed up back in 11.0.8. NVIDIA doesn't explain the repeats, and it doesn't say which overrides each game supports either.

The changelog otherwise only mentions "various stability/security fixes" without any details. This build follows two bigger ones that added significantly more features. The main 11.0.9 release brought DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction and per-game Resizable BAR controls, while 11.0.9.565 added RTX Spark support, a local MCP server for AI agents, and a faster Performance Mode for DLSS Frame Generation. As a refresher, DLSS Override lets GeForce RTX owners use newer DLSS models, or modes like DLAA, that a game may not offer on its own. It sits under Graphics > Program Settings > Driver Settings. Below is the full list of games.

Haswell owners finally have a way to get Resizable BAR running on Intel 8-series motherboards. As spotted by Haze on X, a developer going by roschank has released reBART, an open-source UEFI driver for Z87, H87, Q87, B85, Q85, and H81 boards. Back in 2020, it was reported that Intel CPUs since Haswell support Resizable BAR, pending firmware updates from motherboard makers that never came for 8-series. The developer went digging after failing to get Above 4G Decoding working on their own B85 board, and found that Intel's 8-series platform code skips mapping memory above 4 GB altogether, something both 7-series and 9-series firmware handle. Apparently, every board maker they checked inherited the same gap, so the 4G toggle some of these BIOSes expose likely does nothing.

reBART lets the board boot normally and only kicks in right before the OS loads. At that point, it shifts the GPU's memory window up past the 4 GB line and points the boot display at the new location too. Unlike ReBarUEFI, it doesn't need module patching, though a DSDT patch is still required. Newer builds added experimental support for Intel Arc cards and multi-GPU setups, which is important since Intel once told Arc buyers without ReBAR to stick with other vendors. One user reports an Arc A750 and an Arc B580 both working with an unlimited BAR size on a Gigabyte GA-Z87M-D3H under Ubuntu. Of course, going this route means flashing a modified BIOS, and at least one ASUS Z87-Plus owner couldn't get the board to boot after the DSDT patch. The developer hasn't shared any performance numbers yet either.

The Valve Steam Frame has been supported in downstream SteamOS kernel builds since its launch in September, but a new set of patches submitted for inclusion in the mainline Linux kernel 7.4 will officially add support for the new VR headset in the mainline Linux kernel. The patches were submitted by Neil Armstrong on behalf of Valve Software and provide initial support for the Steam Frame.

The patch notes specifically mention support for system reserved memory, regulators, GPIO keys PMIC functions, PMIC ADC channels, USB gadget, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth, I2C and basic peripherals, and the built-in SD card slot. While support isn't yet feature-complete, it lays the groundwork for further kernel support down the line and should make it significantly easier for other distributions to support the Steam Frame without implementing a bunch of custom code and tools. This is also just one of many Linux 7.4 patches that will improve hardware support in the upcoming Linux kernel version.

Valve has been a major contributor to the Linux gaming scene since it launched the Arch-based SteamOS alongside the Steam Deck, and the company's latest contribution to the Linux gaming ecosystem comes by way of a series of patches by Vicki Pfau, a developer working on hardware support on behalf of Valve Software. In the patch notes, Pfau notes that the preliminary driver supports "general input for the Joy-Con 2, Pro Controller 2, and GameCube NSO controllers," including Bluetooth for all controllers and USB mode for the Pro Controller. The Linux kernel version 7.4 is slated to land in a fully stable form in January 2027.

Crucially, the Nintendo Switch 2 controllers were already largely supported on Linux via Steam, but kernel support means the controller won't need to run via Steam Input and can work in other game launchers without Steam being open. In addition to the Nintendo Switch 2 controllers, Linux 7.4 should bring hardware enablement and several features for a host of other peripherals, both gaming and otherwise, including additional sensor support for new AMD SoCs, better trackpad handling on T2 Macs, a new HID driver for Pulsar gaming mice—with support for reading the battery level, voltage, and charging status over both wired and wireless connection modes. On the topic of mice, the Kysona M600V2 also gets an HID driver. There are also new fixes incoming for the ASUS ROG Ally power management, and support was improved for the Lenovo Legion Go S controllers and lighting.

The launch of Valve's Steam Deck ignited a renewed interest in both Linux gaming and handheld x86 gaming PCs, and that push has resulted in accelerated development for projects like Bazzite. In a recent post, Bazzite developer, Andy East, aka Andy10115 online, has announced preliminary hardware support for both the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X20 and the Acer Predator Atlas handhelds in Bazzite.

The developer notes in the update, which also serves as a call for testers, that the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X20 that there is already full support for the display and back buttons—replete with VRR and HDR on the former and full button remapping on the latter—as well as working sleep/wake support. Support for RGB lighting customization is not yet implemented, but should arrive soon with Open Gaming Collective components. Similarly, fan control is still missing, but can be implemented with the usual Decky plugins, and an official OGUI plugin is in development.

AMD is reportedly working on official Ryzen overclocking controls for Linux. Per Phoronix, AMD engineer Shyam Sundar S K has posted a three-patch series for a new driver called AOD, short for AMD Overclocking Driver, to the platform-driver-x86 mailing list. It is a WMI driver that talks to the same firmware interface Ryzen Master uses on Windows, with all of its controls exposed through sysfs. For now, that covers PPT, TDC, and EDC limits along with their supported ranges, a platform-level SMT toggle, and a read-only memory clock readout. Notably, Ryzen Master itself isn't coming to Linux with this. AMD seems to be following the same approach it took with its amdgpu graphics driver, handling the kernel side and leaving the GUI to third-party tools such as CoreCtrl and to desktop environments.

There are a few catches, however. Power limit changes are stored in firmware and only kick in after a reboot. AMD's existing HSMP interface works the other way around, applying limits instantly but losing them on restart. The PPT, TDC, and EDC attributes are also write-only, since the firmware doesn't report the currently active values. The SMT switch, meanwhile, behaves more like a BIOS option than the kernel's nosmt boot parameter. Apparently, the firmware supports many more commands than the initial patches wire up, so more controls could arrive later. The patches are still under review, and there is no word yet on which kernel release will pick them up, so a proper Linux app for this is probably still a while away.

NVIDIA has updated its DLSS Frame Generation algorithm to be faster and more efficient. In the latest NVIDIA App beta update, rolling out today, the company introduced "Preset C," the fastest Performance Mode for DLSS Frame Generation. NVIDIA demonstrates that this mode can make frame generation up to 35% faster on the GeForce RTX 5060, with minimal trade-offs in image quality. This improvement applies to the GeForce RTX 40-Series, GeForce RTX 50-Series, and RTX Spark.

According to NVIDIA, there are two models for DLSS: Multi-Frame Generation and Frame Generation. The first model uses a standard AI approach that inputs motion vectors and depth to understand how two rendered frames are constructed. The second model employs optical flow for in-game elements like UI and ray tracing. Today, NVIDIA replaced this optical flow model with a much faster and lighter AI algorithm that boosts FPS across DLSS Frame Generation, Multi-Frame Generation, and Dynamic Multi-Frame Generation. This new model is available for download through the NVIDIA App beta update, so ensure you're running the latest beta version to try out the "Preset C" setting.

NVIDIA today introduced its GeForce 617.42 WHQL Game Ready driver, bringing support and optimizations for various new game releases. First, there is Game Ready support for two new titles: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and STAR WARS: Galactic Racer. These two AAA games are newly supported with this driver version, meaning the experience should be ready to go, but keep an eye out for any possible issues, as with every newly supported game. Next, we have optimizations for Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen and Valor Mortis, which have been fine-tuned to work better on NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics cards, extracting more performance and reducing visual glitches. Support for updates like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Sim Update 7 has also been included, ensuring the package covers modern game updates and releases.

The driver itself also fixes an issue with Assassin's Creed Shadows, which previously crashed to the desktop after extended gameplay with driver version 616.56. Gamers running this specific version should upgrade to the latest 617.42 WHQL edition, and the full changelog can be found below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 617.42 WHQL

A modder going by SupraGSX has released an unofficial Windows XP driver on GitHub that adds support for NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 10-series "Pascal" graphics cards, including the TITAN Xp. Called Forceware 382.69, it is a patched version of NVIDIA's 368.81 driver from July 2016 and only works on 32-bit Windows XP. The timing is a bit funny, since NVIDIA ended regular driver support for Pascal last year and later dropped the cards from its 590 driver branch. However, Forceware's latest release covers the GTX 1060, GTX 1070, GTX 1070 Ti, GTX 1080, GTX 1080 Ti, TITAN X (Pascal) and TITAN Xp, along with some GTX 900-series and Quadro cards.

It also adds DisplayPort 1.4 HBR3 and HDMI 2.0 handling. SupraGSX notes that these are INF additions, and that not every model was individually validated. The October 4 build fixes OpenGL crashes on Pascal, which was verified on a GTX 1080 Ti. Support for GP107 cards such as the GTX 1050 Ti is experimental and untested on real hardware. X user @TheBobPony, who shared a GPU-Z screenshot of a GTX 1080 running on Windows XP, described the driver as "vibe coded." That claim remains unconfirmed currently, as the project's README and release notes make no mention of AI tools. Readers are cautioned to keep unverified drivers off their primary PCs, AI-coded or otherwise. Still, the effort deserves some credit, if only for keeping the Xp on XP meme alive.

AnandTech forum user SixPie has spotted a previously unknown AMD codename, Gainsborough, in the Adrenalin 26.9.2 driver, and it may be the chip for Valve's Steam Deck 2. Import and export records show test equipment carrying the name was shipped to Asia several times in late July, and that it uses an FF6 BGA package with 1,179 contacts. AMD's partners who know about the Medusa APUs reportedly have no information on it, which would make sense for a custom part.

As for the Steam Deck 2 link, the name is the main clue. Valve's Steam Deck chips have used Final Fantasy VII codenames such as Aerith and Sephiroth before, and Gainsborough is Aerith's surname, as leaker Kepler_L2 pointed out. Separately, Moore's Law Is Dead claims it's a semi-custom APU built on TSMC N3P with Zen 6 and RDNA 5, possibly arriving in late 2027 or 2028, but none of that is confirmed. Moreover, there are reasons to be cautious. Leakers have reportedly tied the same FF6 package to AMD's upcoming Ryzen Z3 handheld chips, so there's conflicting information about who the customer really is.

Intel has added its highly anticipated "Crescent Island" Xe3P GPU IP as a supported platform to its Media Driver in the 2026Q3 release. This confirms that the company is working on bringing another GPU generation to the masses soon. With the Intel Media Driver 2026Q3, we learn that the GPU will support video acceleration as well. This means that video editing, video decoding and encoding, and processing will all be available on "Crescent Island," which we initially believed to be a GPU dedicated solely to AI inferencing. However, Intel will also power media processing workloads for workstations, and we expect to see similar features in video standards, like AV1 decode, as seen in "Panther Lake" and the upcoming "Nova Lake" with their respective integrated graphics.

If readers recall, Intel unveiled more details at Hot Chips 2026. Based on the Xe3P GPU IP, the graphics card is designed as a 350 W, air-cooled, PCIe format compatible with any configuration. The GPU itself features 32 Xe3P cores, 256 XMX engines, 32 MB of unified L2 cache, and 160 GB of LPDDR5X memory. This memory configuration is exclusive to Intel-branded "Crescent Island" graphics cards, while the company allows its ODMs to equip the card with up to 480 GB of LPDDR5X memory for maximum VRAM capacity.

Montage Technology announced the mass-production of its DDR5 Clock Driver Plus (CK01P), designed to deliver stable and reliable clocking for next-generation client memory modules.

Compliant with the JEDEC DDR5CKD01 clock driver specification, the CK01P primarily targets next-generation client memory modules, including DDR5 CUDIMM, CSODIMM, CQDIMM, and CAMM and supports data rates of up to 9200 MT/s. The CK01P supports three clock operating modes—single PLL, dual PLL, and PLL bypass—to accommodate a wide range of system requirements. Featuring a zero-phase-delay clock architecture, the device supports programmable per-channel delay and allows output characteristics to be configured through control registers, enabling flexible adaptation to different DIMM network topologies. In addition, unused clock outputs can be disabled to further reduce power consumption.

Montage Technology today announced the mass production of its Gen 5 DDR5 Register Clock Driver (RCD05). Designed for high-performance DDR5 RDIMM memory modules, the RCD05 addresses the growing demand from data centers, AI servers, and other applications for memory systems with higher bandwidth and greater reliability.

Compliant with the JEDEC DDR5RCD05 specification, the RCD05 supports data rates of up to 8000 MT/s, an approximately 11% increase over the previous-generation RCD04, providing greater memory bandwidth for next-generation server platforms. The RCD05 integrates a high-performance, low-jitter PLL clock driver circuit and supports key features including continuous-time linear equalization (CTLE) and ZQ calibration, helping improve signal integrity and stability for high-speed signal transmission.

AMD has submitted patches to its open-source graphics card drivers for Linux, adding support for GDDR7 memory, as anticipation builds for the company's next-generation RDNA 5 GPUs. In the AMDGPU open-source driver, GDDR7 is now listed among the supported VRAM types. Currently, AMD's graphics cards use GDDR6 for the consumer RDNA 4-based Radeon RX 9000 series, while Instinct MI data center and workstation GPUs use HBM3E and HBM4 memory. Since AMD is developing data center GPUs with HBM and consumer cards are the only models using GDDR, the GDDR7 placeholder indicates future support for RDNA 5.

Switching to GDDR7 will allow AMD to significantly boost the memory speeds of its graphics cards and potentially increase capacity, all while improving energy efficiency. The latest GDDR6 memory modules top out at 20 Gb/s, while GDDR7 can achieve 36 Gb/s today and even 48 Gb/s in future versions, according to JEDEC specifications. This could enable AMD's gaming and workstation GPUs with RDNA 5 technology to achieve significantly higher memory bandwidth, enhancing performance in memory-bound workloads.

Intel today released the latest version of its Arc GPU graphics drivers, version 101.9030 Beta, which adds Game Ready support for EA SPORTS FC 27, SILENT HILL: Townfall, and Aniimo. The update fixes stuttering in Dragon's Dogma 2 (DX12) on Core Ultra Series 2 and Series 3 chips with built-in Arc graphics, along with objects not populating in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (DX12) and a launch crash in Palia (DX12) on Arc B-Series cards. Capture One Pro hardware acceleration during export is fixed across all supported products. The Performance Tuning feature in Intel Graphics Software is still in Beta, and Intel notes that it may behave unexpectedly on systems with two tuning-capable GPUs. The full changelog is posted below, and you can grab the driver here:

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.9030 Beta

The RPCS3 team says it found a workaround for an NVIDIA driver bug that was holding back performance in the popular PlayStation 3 emulator on GeForce cards. Contributor "Yahfz" reportedly tracked the issue down, and the fix apparently boosts frame rates by up to 37% depending on the game and GPU, while also cutting VRAM usage in some titles. AMD GPUs are not affected, since RPCS3 says the bug is specific to NVIDIA's drivers. RPCS3 also said it has tried reaching NVIDIA through developer forums about this and other driver bugs, without much luck, and is hoping for a more direct line of communication going forward.

The numbers RPCS3 posted on X are pretty striking. A Ryzen 7 9850X3D paired with an RTX 5070 reportedly saw Gran Turismo 5 jump from 107 FPS to 147 FPS, a 37% gain, while VRAM usage dropped from 7.1 GB to 4.8 GB. Other pairings showed smaller gains: a Core i9-13900K with an RTX 3080 gained around 20% in one Red Dead Redemption test scene, and even an aging GTX 1060 with an i7-7700HQ reportedly saw roughly 10-20% improvements in Saints Row titles. Actual gains will apparently vary a lot by game and hardware, so it's probably worth tempering expectations a bit until more testing rolls in. Nonetheless, it looks like NVIDIA users emulating PS3 games get a solid free performance bump, though a proper fix from NVIDIA's side would still be the better long-term outcome.

Gaming laptop GPUs are generally power limited, which often results in significant performance losses compared to their desktop contemporaries, especially for higher-powered GPUs. However, a new mod called NvpwrControl aims to increase performance of NVIDIA's latest RTX 50-series gaming laptops by increasing their power targets using baked-in power policies not available to consumers.

The developer, who found the workaround by reverse-engineering NVIDIA's power management path, says that the mod supports the RTX 5070 Ti, 5080, and 5090 GPUs, with 140 W TGP 5070 Ti GPUs getting power targets all the way to 180 W. The 5070 Ti is the GPU with the most robust support so far, with the developer explicitly stating that RTX 5080 and 5090 support is experimental. Purportedly, the RTX 5080 and 5090 should be able to reach as high as 225 W with NvpwrControl, although that doesn't come without risks and caveats.

Valve is officially adding NVIDIA GPU driver support to SteamOS, as confirmed by the company's software developer Pierre-Loup Griffais. Until now, AMD has been the primary choice for SteamOS, both for CPUs and GPUs, since all of Valve's products are based on AMD hardware. However, this is changing as Valve aims to expand SteamOS to more PCs, allowing gamers to realize the Steam Machine dream on their own hardware, even if it is based on a different GPU manufacturer. When IGN asked Valve's developer about the progress of NVIDIA driver support, the response was:

Pierre-Loup Griffais for IGNYeah, we're working on it hard... We've done a few things like we've enabled the driver now in the main tree of SteamOS, so you can get things to light up on certain generations, but in terms of the performance difference between that driver and where the state of the art is, there's definitely still a little bit of a rift that we're trying to work on, but it's getting better day-to-day.

NVIDIA has released its latest GeForce Game Ready Drivers, version 616.92 WHQL, bringing support for important titles. This release optimizes GeForce graphics cards for the path tracing upgrade in 007 First Light, adds support for PUBG's upcoming DLSS Super Resolution update, and prepares Game Ready for Active Matter, Aniimo, and WARDOGS, three new DLSS games launching soon. Specifically, for BULKHEAD and Team 17's WARDOGS game, launching on September 10 as an all-out warfare first-person shooter, NVIDIA has included optimizations ahead of the launch to ensure the game runs smoothly. The list of fixed issues includes screen flicker in the browser when certain websites display content, as well as issues with virtual displays. However, issues with power management mode and Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. crashing persist.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 616.92 WHQL.

The Asahi Linux project development team has long been working on bringing Linux to Apple Silicon MacBooks and desktops, going so far as to show off games on the Arm-powered laptops. The latest patches to Asahi add proper support for USB4 and Thunderbolt on MacBooks with the M1, M2, and M3 SoCs, and that support is now making its way to the mainline Linux kernel, as per an upstream patch by prominent Asahi developer, Sven Peter.

This series adds initial USB4/Thunderbolt support for Apple Silicon M1, M2 and M3 SoCs. Each USB4 capable Type-C port comes with an ACIO ("Apple Converged I/O") block which contains a Cortex-M3 coprocessor and the hardware implementing the USB4 router.

We recently reported on the open-source overclocking tool, mVolt+, unlocking power limit control on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5000-series GPUs, allowing certain GPUs, like the RTX 5090, to draw up to 125 W of additional power and enabling significantly higher core clock speeds as a result. With the latest driver update 616.56, however, it seems as though NVIDIA has blocked the core power control functionality.

Based on reports from the Overclock.net forums, via Uniko's Hardware on X, any attempt to input any extra current results in a black screen, reminiscent of a driver crash. Reportedly, a beta build of Hydra 2.3 is still able to access its core power overrides on NVIDIA GPUs, even after the driver update. It's unclear if NVIDIA has intentionally blocked mVolt+ or if it's simply an untested combination of mVolt+ and the new NVIDIA driver causing an incompatibility.

As was recently discovered by an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 owner on Reddit, there is apparently a conflict between Windows 11's built-in driver management tools and ASUS's proprietary power profiles. After leaving their Zephyrus G14 laptop, with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti dGPU, in Eco Mode for a number of weeks, Reddit user u/OK-Horse-3169 switched their laptop back into performance mode in order to play some games, only to discover that Windows had deleted the GPU driver. According to ASUS's support documentation, this is expected behavior.

As it turns out, on basically any laptop with a MUX switch that disables the dGPU entirely, Windows 11 will automatically remove the drivers, because the driver is no longer necessary for a device that's no longer connected—it treats it much like it would a removable USB drive or peripheral. The source of the problem, as discovered by the redditor, is called pnpclean.dll, a maintenance task that deletes the aforementioned drivers if a device hasn't been connected for 15-30 days. After the driver was deleted, Windows recognized the user's RTX 5070 Ti as a generic display adaptor until the driver was reinstalled.

NVIDIA today released its latest GeForce Game Ready drivers, adding day-one optimizations for three upcoming titles, STAR WARS Zero Company, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, and Hell Let Loose: Vietnam. The new driver also addresses a couple of gaming and general bugs, including frame-rate issues with DOOM: The Dark Ages and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle games when using DLSS Frame Generation 3x or higher, as well as texture flickering in The Outer Worlds on R595 and R610 drivers.

The new drivers also fix several general bugs, including ones seen with ASUS Armory Crate's GameVisual profiles, a drivers crash in Chief Architect on GeForce RTX 4000 series cards, incorrect 3D application detection in Claude Desktop, crashes with certain 32-bit DirectX 12 applications, and OpenCL buffer limitations in Tycho Tracker. NVIDIA is still looking into an issue involving the "Prefer Maximum Performance" Power Management Mode, which may not be applied correctly.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 616.56 WHQL Game Ready driver

It was recently revealed in a handful of Reddit posts that an official Lenovo Legion Go BIOS update (N3CN42WW) was apparently causing the handheld gaming PCs to become unresponsive, with users claiming Lenovo told them they would be on the hook for repair costs. Now, nearly three weeks after the issues initially popped up, Lenovo has confirmed in a recent forum post that the issues cause by the BIOS update were indeed "not user error," and that repairs will be conducted by Lenovo under warranty.

While the root cause has not been identified yet, it is clear it is not user error. As such it should generally be handled under warranty and, in the case of out-of-warranty devices, it should be repaired free of charge, but please check local laws.