EMTEK has released a new custom GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card in South Korea; fresh retail/e-tail listings have popped up online via the Danawa price comparison engine. Similar circumstances were observed around mid-February for the launch of the brand's GeForce RTX 5080 MIRACLE WHITE D7 16 GB SKU. EMTEK's GB205 "Blackwell" GPU-based offering sports a slightly smaller shroud design; its larger siblings are 2.5-slotters. As noted by VideoCardz, the GeForce RTX 5070 MIRACLE WHITE D7 12 GB model's 329 mm-long triple-fan cooling solution tempers a less potent key component.

EMTEK's brand-new card conforms to NVIDIA's reference specifications, so a relatively slim heatsink seems appropriate for this deployment. A dual BIOS switcher grants access to "Cooling" and "Silent 0-db" modes. Another nearby physical switch can enable/disable the MIRACLE WHITE D7's integrated "Auto ARGB" system. EMTEK's pricier pale-toned offerings—in GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti guises—feature intriguing USB-C connected Windows 11-controlled lighting schemes. The cheapest price for a RTX 5070 MIRACLE WHITE D7 card is 1,030,000 won (~$700 USD) according to Danawa SK aggregation. EMTEK products are only available in South Korea, therefore attract very little Western press coverage. Interestingly, the company also acts as a regional distributor of various PALIT GeForce and Sapphire Radeon graphics cards.

NVIDIA and its laptop/notebook manufacturing partners have just about managed a very last minute launch of GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile, RTX 5080 Mobile, RTX 5070 Ti Mobile GPU-powered devices at retail. According to the latest reports, yesterday's—March 31—small trickle out of high-end portable "Blackwell" hardware qualified as a launch within the first quarter of 2025. Due to Team Green's GeForce RTX 50 series being affected by ROPs anomalies—across desktop and mobile platforms—involved firms anticipated deliveries being delayed into April. As stated early last month, unnamed industry sources divulged details about official instructions: "manufacturers (must) inspect already-produced notebooks with new mobile GeForce RTX 5000 graphics chips." Going further back in time, supply chain moles predicted that the entire product stack—starting at the top with GeForce RTX 5090 M, going down to RTX 5070 M—would be subject to postponements.

PC gaming hardware watchdogs noticed a very limited supply of GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile-based laptops on "day one," at least in North America. VideoCardz spent some time combing through Newegg listings, after hearing about the Q1 launch via official social media announcements. The likes of ASUS, GIGABYTE, HP, Lenovo, MSI and Razer opened up direct pre-orders on February 25, but yesterday's embargo lift seemed to extend to general retails outlets. VideoCardz noted that the cheapest—at $4299—GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop options were already sold out. MSI's North American store lists an "out of stock" Titan 18 HX Dragon Edition Norse Myth 18-inch model with an eye-watering price tag of $6199.99. Additionally, the publication pointed out the best GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop starting price: $2499.99. GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptops start at $1899.99 on Newegg, but RTX 5070 Mobile-based options seemed to be absent. The online retailer's stock notification system predicts late April or early May replenishments of higher-end stock.

NVIDIA's stellar quality control with the $2,000 GeForce RTX 5090 saw quite a few customers end up with cards that had fewer ROPs than they should—168 as opposed to its original spec of 176. The 8 fewer ROPs results in a roughly 5% drop in performance. When you're ponying up over two grand, this is the last thing you want. But what if we told you there are cards out there were more ROPs than they should have? We have with us an ASUS ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 LC graphics card that we detected 192 ROPs on. That's right, the card has all the 192 ROPs active that are present in the "GB202" silicon, or two ROP partitions (16 ROPs) more than it should have. We received our ROG Astral RTX 5090 LC sample just a few weeks ago, and haven't had time to thoroughly test it yet, because we're in the middle of a full retest with new games and new drivers.

The ASUS ROG Astral LC is a factory overclocked card, with ASUS giving the card a generous OC to benefit from the liquid cooling solution (2580 MHz boost vs. 2407 MHz reference or +7.1%). To account for that, we tried our best to clock the card back down to reference specs, which is presented as the orange bar. This still isn't the same card as the RTX 5090 Founders Edition, because the superior cooling solution and power limits mean that the GPU enjoys better boost frequency residency, but this is as close as we can get to simulating reference spec. We ran the card through a battery of game tests, which show an average of 8% performance gains over the RTX 5090 Founders Edition.

ZOTAC GAMING has quietly added two more models to its SOLID GeForce RTX 50-series product range. Looking back into TechPowerUp's news archive, the Hong Kong-based manufacturer's latter half of March calendar has already introduced four brand-new SKUs, with adjusted dimensions. Two weeks ago, industry watchdogs spotted a low-key rollout of "slimmer profile" SOLID CORE GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti options. As discovered earlier today by VideoCardz, ZOTAC has expanded its "no frills" range—again, without the issuing of an accompaniment press release. Starting with the most confusing aspect, their report highlighted the two-slot thick "GeForce RTX 5070 Ti SOLID SFF" model. The company's "SOLID CORE" cards were recently introduced with 2.5-slot thick shrouds, but attached I/O brackets still occupied three spaces. The original "SOLID" equivalents turned up at launch with substantial 3.5-slot thick cooling solutions.

Throughout early 2025, NVIDIA and certain board partners projected plenty of ballyhoo regarding multiple GeForce RTX 50-series custom options conforming to official "SFF-Ready" standards. ZOTAC seems to be heading in that direction with its "slimmer" new product strategy. Their freshly-added GeForce RTX 5070 Ti SOLID SFF SKU is advertised as an "NVIDIA SFF-Ready GeForce Enthusiast Card," and (thankfully) features a two-slot I/O bracket. A specification sheet lists this model's height as 41.6 mm—sporting a noticeable reduction in one dimension, when compared to SOLID CORE (56 mm) and SOLID (68 mm) equivalent dimensions. When looking at ZOTAC's brand-new GeForce RTX 5070 Ti SOLID CORE OC White Edition product page, we can see that it is simply a pale redecoration of the standard SKU. The manufacturer has seemingly missed another opportunity to bung in a matching white PCB design.

MAINGEAR, the leader in premium-quality, high-performance gaming PCs, today unveiled its new 2025 pre-configured MG-1 gaming systems, equipped with NVIDIA's cutting-edge GeForce RTX 50-Series GPUs and powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 9000 Series CPUs and Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors. This exciting lineup offers gamers a significant leap in power, performance, and value, reinforcing MAINGEAR's commitment to redefining the gaming experience across all levels of play.

"2025 is bound to be the best year yet for PC gamers, and the introduction of our newest MG-1 systems continues to drive MAINGEAR's mission to deliver the ultimate gaming experience," said Wallace Santos, CEO of MAINGEAR. "With NVIDIA's RTX 50-Series GPUs, and the latest AMD Ryzen and Intel Core Ultra processors, we've got more options than ever before, ensuring the perfect fit for gamers of all skill levels and budgets."

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) and Team Vitality are delighted to announce the extension of their partnership. As of today, Team Vitality's Counter-Strike 2 and VALORANT teams will also benefit from a full range of ROG laptops, desktops and handheld consoles, providing them with even better hardware on their road toward excellence.

Thanks to this new phase of collaboration, Team Vitality players will benefit from cutting-edge gaming equipment, adapted to the demands of the highest competitive level. These computers will offer unrivalled processing power, ultra-high refresh rates and minimal latency, guaranteeing maximum precision and responsiveness in both training and competition. This partnership with Team Vitality marks a further step in ROG's drive to innovate and offer professional and amateur gamers alike an increasingly immersive and high-performance gaming experience.

According to ComputerBase, NVIDIA now requires laptop makers to clearly share full graphics power details for its upcoming GeForce RTX 50 Series "Blackwell" GPUs. This aims to fix long-standing issues with hidden performance limits that have led to unexpected differences between laptops with the same GPU model. In the past, many laptop makers did not provide complete information about total graphics power (TGP). This often meant that some lower-powered models performed better than higher-end ones because the power limits were unclear. Under the new guidelines, manufacturers must list important details such as base TGP, Dynamic Boost limits, and clock speeds on their product pages. NVIDIA said, "We work with laptop manufacturers to ensure they list graphics power on their product websites."

Companies like ASUS, MSI, and XMG have already started to show full specifications for models such as the ROG Scar 18 and Titan 18 HX. While most companies are following the rules, some remain unchanged. For example, Razer's Blade 16 (2025) initially left out the base TGP from its main specifications, hiding it in the product description. This can confuse buyers, as thinner laptop designs might use lower-powered GPUs even in high-end models. The fix for this issue is simple, and listing TGP and TDP values will ensure that gamers who plan on getting a laptop with a new RTX 50 series Blackwell GPU will choose their desired TDP for performance and power on the go aspects.

ASUS and MSI's price hiking of GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards is already a well explored subject matter (news-wise), but GPU market watchdogs have spent time investigating circumstances further down from the perch of NVIDIA's most visible board partner players. Citing evidence presented on the official Team Green subreddit, VideoCardz has levelled criticism in ZOTAC's direction. Apparently, the brand's North American store has—quite recently—jacked up asking prices for its custom GeForce RTX 5090 designs. The Hong Kong-based manufacturer only offers a choice of two models via its US webstore: SOLID OC and AMP Extreme INFINITY. At the time of writing, ZOTAC's webshop is undergoing "construction work"—fortunately, screenshots and crucial points of info were preserved by Redditors and media outlets. The flagship AMP Extreme INFINITY SKU has hit an unprecedented $2999.99 price point, although not reaching the heights of ASUS Astral ($3359.99!). A mid-March Wayback Machine save state reveals a previous RTX 5090 AMP Extreme INFINITY listing at $2599.99, but its initial launch price was $2499.99. Naturally, a flagship design—comprised of a robust cooling solution, fancy features/accessories and ARGB lighting—demands a premium upcharge, but ZOTAC's top-tier SKU is priced $1001 above Team Green's $1999 MSRP baseline.

ZOTAC's GeForce RTX 5090 SOLID (non-OC) SKU was supposed to act as the "barebones" baseline MSRP-conformant model, but price watchers noted that ZOTAC USA had removed this entry from the official webstore. Tom's Hardware reckons that the last recorded cost of ownership was $2199.99. ZOTAC's next best option is the brand's factory-overclocked variant—GeForce RTX 5090 SOLID OC—now adjusted up to $2699.99. Launch pricing was somewhere just above $2200, but that figure has changed over time. It was $2369.99, prior to this week—according to a Wayback Machine archived state. As reported last month, ZOTAC rolled out a "Priority Access Campaign" via Discord—this anti-scalping strategy received praise upon initiation, but VideoCardz's watchful eye has kept track of very few successful transactions. According to their latest investigative piece, a "top secret" ZOTAC Discord group was formed—this separate elite member-focused channel offers even "easier access" to coveted cutting-edge gaming graphics card.

NVIDIA's supply of Chinese market-exclusive H20 AI GPU faces an uncertain future, due to recently introduced energy-efficiency guidelines. As covered over a year ago, Team Green readied a regional alternative to its "full fat" H800 "Hopper" AI GPU—designed and/or neutered to comply with US sanctions. Despite being less performant than Western siblings, the H20 model proved to be highly popular by mid-2024—industry analysis projected "$12 billion in take-home revenue" for NVIDIA. According to a fresh Reuters news piece, demand for cut-down "Hopper" hardware has surged throughout early 2025. The report cites "a rush to adopt Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's cost-effective AI models" as the main cause behind an increased snap up rate of H20 chips; with the nation's "big three" AI players—Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance—driving the majority of sales.

The supply of H20 AI GPUs seems to be under threat on several fronts; Reuters points out that "U.S. officials were considering curbs on sales of H20 chips to China" back in January. Returning to the present day, their report sources "unofficial" statements from H3C—one of China's largest server equipment manufacturers and a key OEM partner for NVIDIA. An anonymous company insider outlined a murky outlook: "H20's international supply chain faces significant uncertainties...We were told the chips would be available, but when it came time to actually purchase them, we were informed they had already been sold at higher prices." More (rumored) bad news has arrived in the shape of alleged Chinese government intervention—the Financial Times posits that local regulators have privately advised that Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance not purchase NVIDIA H20 chips.

According to an investment bank UBS note, two industry titans—NVIDIA and Broadcom—are potential future clients that could significantly enhance Intel's Foundry business revenue. To revitalize Intel, newly appointed CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly aims to forge strategic alliances with two AI chip manufacturers. Tan, who assumed leadership earlier this month, is determined to rebuild the company's reputation by focusing on customer satisfaction and accelerating the development of its foundry business. UBS analyst Tim Arcuri suggests that while Broadcom might join the client roster, NVIDIA appears to be the more likely candidate. Rather than initially manufacturing NVIDIA's AI GPUs, Intel is expected to begin production with gaming GPUs. NVIDIA could even move to AI GPU production at Intel's fabs if satisfied.

Despite some early optimism, Intel's new CEO is now committed to addressing issues related to power consumption in Intel's manufacturing processes. UBS analyst Tim Arcuri noted that the firm is pushing hard to introduce a lower-power version of its 18A process, the so-called 18AP, which has reportedly struggled to meet energy requirements. Additionally, Intel is working to improve its advanced packaging techniques to rival Taiwan's TSMC CoWoS (S/L/R variants) technology, aiming to overcome packaging constraints that have slowed AI chip production. Analysts speculate that Intel might also become a secondary supplier to tech giant Apple. A promising partnership with Taiwan's United Microelectronics (UMC) could pave the way for Intel's chips to find their way into future Apple products. Whatever materializes, we are yet to see. Switching foundries from TSMC to Intel entirely is not possible for any of the aforementioned fabless designers, so it will likely be dual-sourcing at first, with some non-flagship SKUs getting the full port to Intel 18A.

To Western audiences, ZOTAC's X-Gaming graphics card product line is not a well known quantity—a search of TechPowerUp's news archive produces one result (from 2021). As reported by VideoCardz, X-Gaming models are only available to buy in China. Roughly two months ago, the Hong Kong-headquartered manufacturer teased four new designs based on NVIDIA's emerging GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" GPUs. As mentioned during our very recent coverage of ZOTAC's GeForce RTX 5080 Apocalypse OC model, the brand introduced familiar SOLID and AMP Extreme INFINITY families. A 2025 refresh of the company's "youthful" X-Gaming series was advertised as a subversion of: "the coldness of traditional graphics card industrial design through high-saturation contrasting color splicing, modular geometric segmentation and other techniques."

Since its beginnings, X-Gaming's core design concept is described as "breaking the dimensional wall between hardware and fashion." ZOTAC's local branch has just released brand-new X-Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 SKUs, in factory-overclocked and standard/reference configurations. VideoCardz believes that the GeForce RTX 5080 X-Gaming OC model launched—in China—earlier in the year. So far, all of the launched variants share the same visual theme—ZOTAC cites "inspiration" from a famous source: "the GeForce RTX 50 X-Gaming series graphics cards have a white base and large areas of contrasting colors. The front pattern design is inspired by the well-known artist Mr. Doodle (aka Sam Cox), whose iconic intensive linearism style is accurately restored on the X-Gaming: the front of the graphics card is covered with hundreds of lines, and the seemingly disordered graffiti combination creates a vibrant visual effect. Through a special printing process, the front pattern presents a unique visual effect under different light angles, further increasing the texture and layering of the card's appearance." Regional ZOTAC enthusiasts expected the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti option to borrow its "larger" sibling's robust cooling solution, but the GB203 GPU-based model makes do with a thinner shroud profile—also present on the GeForce RTX 5070 (non-Ti) X-Gaming SKU.

A new resident is moving into the cloud—KRAFTON's inZOI joins the 2,000+ games in the GeForce NOW cloud gaming library. Plus, members can get ready for an exclusive sneak peek as the Sunderfolk First Look Demo comes to the cloud. The demo is exclusively available for players on GeForce NOW until April 7, including Performance and Ultimate members as well as free users. And explore the world of Atomfall—part of 12 games joining the cloud this week.

Cloud of Possibilities
In inZOI—a groundbreaking life simulation game by Krafton that pushes the genre's boundaries—take on the role of an intern at AR COMPANY, managing virtual beings called "Zois" in a simulated city. The game features over 400 mental elements influencing Zois' behaviors. Experience the game's dynamic weather system, open-world environments inspired by real locations and cinematic cut scenes for key life events—and even create in-game objects. inZOI lets players craft unique stories and live out their dreams in a meticulously designed virtual world. Dive into the world of Zois without the need for high-end hardware. Members can manage their virtual homes, customize characters and explore the game's dynamic environments from various devices, streaming its detailed graphics and complex simulations with ease.

So far, AX Gaming has mainly released triple-fan cooled custom GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards under their "Rebel" product line. For example, TechPowerUp's GPU database lists a GeForce RTX 5070 X3W SKU—promo images showcase fairly straightforward white shroud and backplate designs; somewhat belying the family's namesake. Earlier today, VideoCardz put a spotlight on an extravagantly-decorated sibling—the X2W. TechPowerUp's news archive seems to lack in AX Gaming content, but a forumite correctly informed others about this sub-brand existing under the umbrella of Inno3D. The Singaporean AIB launched its AX Gaming off-shoot a few years ago; with its main market focus being China.

The freshly revealed AX Gaming Rebel GeForce RTX 5070 X2W 12 GB model sports a very busy shroud design; thus effortlessly distinguishing itself from nearby plain triple-fan products. Mayan civilization-inspired graffiti graphics are spreads across the card's front face. This funky aesthetic is also present on the model's retail packaging. Interestingly, the two cooling fans are adorned with a hand graphic; clutching a modern gamepad. Disappointingly, the manufacturer has not applied this loud patterning onto the X2W's backplate—we are looking at a mostly white landscape adorned with some sort of Rebel series emblem and "GeForce RTX" text. AX Gaming's specification sheet indicates that their X2W SKU sticks to NVIDIA's reference specifications. The manufacturer's "Punk 4.0" cooling system consists of two fans, paired with a heatsink that features five heatpipes. VideoCardz reckons that the housed PCB also exists within Inno3D's RTX 5070 TWIN X2 cards.

HP New Zealand's own webstore and Best Buy Canada have both listed OMEN 16L pre-built compact gaming PC systems with GeForce RTX 5060 Ti graphics cards. At this stage in time, NVIDIA's lower end "Blackwell" gaming GPUs are no longer big secrets—"full specifications" leaked out last week, and industry watchdogs recently predicted an April 16 launch day. As per usual, momomo_us sniffed out HP NZ's accidental publication of NDA-busting material—at the time of writing, the company's Kiwi branch has scrubbed these offending items from their webshop. Judging from preserved screenshots, both models were specced with GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB graphics cards.

Best Buy Canada's listing is still active, and advertises HP's upcoming white OMEN 16L variant as: "powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 8700F processor and 16 GB DDR5 RAM, it ensures smooth gaming and multitasking. NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5060 Ti graphics card with dedicated memory enhances immersion with seamless visuals...(the) GeForce RTX 5060 Ti graphics card with 16 GB GDDR7 dedicated memory ensures fluid visuals." Cost of ownership is listed as $1799.99 CAD (~$1263 USD), with a May 16 release—potentially placeholder information. Insiders reckon that Team Green's GeForce RTX 5060 (non-Ti) launch is delayed to mid-May. Roughly two weeks ago, a GeForce RTX 5060-based Acer pre-built gaming PC turned up online.

Fatshark has released its latest free update for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, called Nightmares & Visions. The latest updated brings a new wave-based activity, improvements to the end-game mode Havoc, overhaul of the Ogryn Talent Tree, time-limited special event, balance and quality of life changes, support for NVIDIA DLSS 4, and some bug fixes and changes.

The biggest update is the new game activity, Mortis Trials, which is a wave-based activity, with randomized abilities and buffs. Nightmares & Visions also bring a big refresh to the Havoc mode, with plenty of improvements, including rank overhaul and campaigns, as well as new challenges. The update also adds a time-limited special event, called "A Day At The Theatre", which focuses on playing Mortis Trials, while Ogryn Talent Tree also got a big rework.

Tom's Hardware just published an intensive data collection of online prices of the latest GPUs from AMD and NVIDIA, suggesting that real-world prices are nowhere near MSRP. With an investigation into the 30-day eBay average price based on listings, the data shows that a lot of GPU SKUs are retailing for well-above-average price premiums. The data tracker also looked for the best-priced listing of a specific SKU. For instance, NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 is seen retailing at around $700—a 27% increase over its official MSRP of $550—while the RTX 5080 pushes these premiums even further by selling at over 50% above its suggested price. The flagship RTX 5090 tops the chart with a staggering $4,222 on secondary markets compared to its $2,000 MSRP, an increase of roughly 111%.

In contrast, earlier models like the RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti show relatively minor inflation, with increases of only about 3% and 5%, respectively, according to recent eBay averages. Still, selling years-old GPUs at MSRP today proves that there is demand. On the AMD side, the Radeon RX 9070 series is no less dramatic. The base RX 9070, with a $550 MSRP, averages around $817 in real-world sales—a nearly 48% premium—while its high-end sibling, the RX 9070 XT, jumps to approximately $1,001 from a $600 MSRP, marking an increase of roughly 66%. Early figures even suggest that first-week sales for the RX 9070 series were ten times higher than those of previous AMD models, justifying the price surge. AMD is working on addressing this supply, which should improve in April, and NVIDIA is working with AIB partners, too, to deliver more Blackwell GPUs.

Last week, ZOTAC's Chinese branch fully unveiled their GeForce RTX 5080 Apocalypse OC graphics card via a special regional giveaway. The brand's Weibo account detailed a JX Online 3-themed competition, with the brand-new "elegant + powerful" card advertised as featuring: "a very beautiful mecha appearance, luxurious materials, and excellent performance." The Hong Kong-based manufacturer started to tease its new-gen Apocalypse model back in January, alongside familiar SOLID and AMP Extreme INFINITY offerings. Lucky winners will be getting their hands on one of ZOTAC's most extravagant shroud designs.

The latest iteration seems to sport a slightly evolved take on a previous-gen offering: ZOTAC's RTX 4080 Apocalypse OC SKU (see last photo below). We are likely looking at another quad-slot behemoth, with a sizeable ARGB ring surrounding the card's central cooling fan. The brand's design team has decided to go with a white backplate (instead of black), decorated with angular "mecha" graphics, while the shroud sports a few gold sections. Curiously, the latest setup seems to lack rear-mounting points for two extra mini-ARGB cooling fans placed over backplate cutouts—as seen on Ada Lovelace-era options. ZOTAC's January teaser hinted about Apocalypse SKUs emerging across their GeForce RTX 50-series stack (5090 down to 5070)—VideoCardz has heard murmurs about a possible RTX 5070 Ti variant being released in the near future. At the time of writing, ZOTAC China's website does not feature a dedicated GeForce RTX 5080 Apocalypse OC product page.

Last week, we heard rumors about NVIDIA delaying its launches of GeForce RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 by a couple of weeks. Initially, PC hardware watchdogs anticipated a product unveiling before GTC 2025 kick-off time. Industry insiders did not fully disclose the reasons behind Team Green's revised release schedules for more "budget-friendly" GB206 GPU-based offerings, but supply chain moles posited that GeForce RTX 5060 Ti graphics cards would reach retail by mid-April. As noted by VideoCardz last Saturday, a specific date was leaked by a reliable source: wxnod.

The tenured PC hardware soothsayer reckons that NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5060 Ti "will be released on April 16th at 9 pm" in 16 GB and 8 GB forms. According to VideoCardz's insider network, "briefings" regarding this alleged launch date were not yet distributed to key figures (i.e. board partners). An upcoming Wednesday rollout could be legitimate, given that Team Green and AIBs let loose GeForce RTX 5070 cards on March 5. A recent leak of GeForce RTX 5060 Ti "full specifications" indicates the laying of groundwork; leading to a potential launch in the coming weeks.

Generative AI is unlocking new capabilities for PCs and workstations, including game assistants, enhanced content-creation and productivity tools and more. NVIDIA NIM microservices, available now, and AI Blueprints, in the coming weeks, accelerate AI development and improve its accessibility. Announced at the CES trade show in January, NVIDIA NIM provides prepackaged, state-of-the-art AI models optimized for the NVIDIA RTX platform, including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series and, now, the new NVIDIA Blackwell RTX PRO GPUs. The microservices are easy to download and run. They span the top modalities for PC development and are compatible with top ecosystem applications and tools.

The experimental System Assistant feature of Project G-Assist was also released today. Project G-Assist showcases how AI assistants can enhance apps and games. The System Assistant allows users to run real-time diagnostics, get recommendations on performance optimizations, or control system software and peripherals - all via simple voice or text commands. Developers and enthusiasts can extend its capabilities with a simple plug-in architecture and new plug-in builder.

NVIDIA app is the essential companion for users with NVIDIA GPUs in their PCs and laptops. Whether you're a gaming enthusiast or a content creator, NVIDIA app simplifies the process of keeping your PC updated with the latest GeForce Game Ready and NVIDIA Studio Drivers, and enables quick discovery and installation of NVIDIA applications like GeForce NOW and NVIDIA Broadcast. In a new NVIDIA app update that's available now, we've expanded the functionality of our DLSS overrides, enabling you to fine tune image quality or boost performance for DLSS Super Resolution.

Additionally, we've brought Display Scaling and Display Color settings over from the NVIDIA Control Panel, modernizing and improving them, and taking another step towards unifying all NVIDIA GPU features in one responsive application. And via the Discover section, you can now download Project G-Assist, an experimental AI assistant that runs locally on GeForce RTX AI desktop PCs, helping users control a broad range of PC settings, from optimizing game and system settings, charting frame rates and other key performance statistics, to controlling select peripherals settings such as lighting - all via basic voice or text commands.

At Computex 2024, we showcased Project G-Assist - a tech demo that offered a glimpse of how AI assistants could elevate the PC experience for gamers, creators, and more. Today, we're releasing an experimental version of the Project G-Assist System Assistant feature for GeForce RTX desktop users, via NVIDIA app, with GeForce RTX laptop support coming in a future update. As modern PCs become more powerful, they also grow more complex to operate. Users today face over a trillion possible combinations of hardware and software settings when configuring a PC for peak performance - spanning the GPU, CPU, motherboard, monitors, peripherals, and more.

We built Project G-Assist, an AI assistant that runs locally on GeForce RTX AI PCs, to simplify this experience. G-Assist helps users control a broad range of PC settings, from optimizing game and system settings, charting frame rates and other key performance statistics, to controlling select peripherals settings such as lighting - all via basic voice or text commands.

More than 700 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. This week, DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation is multiplying performance in Enlisted, the Half-Life 2 RTX demo, KARMA: The Dark World, The First Berserker: Khazan, and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. And we can announce that Remedy Entertainment's FBC: Firebreak will launch with DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation support.

Additionally, there's a DLSS and technology-upgrading Control update available, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has updated to the latest DLSS Super Resolution transformer AI model, and RF Online Next is launching with support for DLSS Super Resolution. Read on for further details about each of these announcements, and check out our last DLSS article to learn about the addition of DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation to future releases, including Lost Soul Aside, Mecha BREAK, Phantom Blade Zero, Stellar Blade, Tides of Annihilation, and Wild Assault.

Paulo Gomes, a hardware modder from Brazil, specializes in memory chip replacement mods for graphics cards. In his latest project, he attempted to give the GeForce GTX 970 from a decade ago a memory upgrade to 8 GB, up from its default specs of 4 GB. This was done by replacing the default 4 Gbit (512 MB) 7 Gbps GDDR5 memory chips with 8 Gbit ones. Eight such chips across the GPU's 256-bit wide memory interface results in 8 GB.

It is important to bring up the memory partition controversy of the GTX 970 here. While the GTX 970 is advertised as a 4 GB graphics card, its memory is partitioned into two chunks of 3.5 GB and 512 MB. NVIDIA came up with no other reason for this than for better segmentation with the GTX 980. Given this partitioning, the modded GTX 970 should have at least 7 GB operating at full speed—larger than the 6 GB of the GTX 980 Ti.

Dune: Awakening, the multiplayer survival game inspired by Frank Herbert's legendary sci-fi novel and Legendary Entertainment's award-winning films, will launch on May 20th. Funcom is excited to share that pre-orders begin today, and gamers everywhere are now less than two months away from descending upon the most dangerous planet in the universe.

The standard edition, the Deluxe Edition, and the Ultimate Edition are now available for pre-order on Steam, with the latter including, among many other goodies, an incredible, 90-minute-long digital soundtrack. In celebration of this moment, Funcom has prepared a journey behind the scenes of the making of the music, giving viewers a unique glimpse at how award-winning composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen brought the album to life with a live orchestra at the legendary AIR Lyndhurst studio in London.

MSI made at least two typos and corrections spaced apart from each other that hint at the possibility of a 24 GB variant of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080. The first instance was on the side of the retail box of an RTX 5080 Vanguard OC Launch Edition, which had "24 GB GDDR7" printed on top of the RTX 5080 label. The second instance was in the VGA Support list in the product page of the MAG X870 Tomahawk motherboard, where the memory size is displayed as 24,576 MB (24 GB). There are two possible interpretations of this.

One possibility is that NVIDIA originally planned the RTX 5080 to feature 24 GB of memory, using 3 GB (24 Gbit) GDDR7 memory chips across the 256-bit wide memory bus of the "GB203" silicon, and initially communicated this to its board partners, but revised the specs in the months leading up to the launch, with the card ending up with 16 GB (8x 16 Gbit). The other possibility is that there is actually a 24 GB variant in the works, which NVIDIA could end up calling the "RTX 5080 24 GB." The RTX 5080 in the market already maxes out the "GB203" silicon it's based on, so the variant could just offer a 50% increase in memory size at the same or similar memory bandwidth. The additional memory could come in handy with 4K Ultra HD + ray tracing + DLSS 4 MFG scenarios where a gamer is looking to turn their roughly 60 FPS framerates to match the 120 Hz refresh rates of their displays.