Leaker Haze2K1 says on X that Intel might put the Arc B580 on the end-of-life (EOL) list. Apparently, Intel wants to prioritize workstation and AI inference cards like the Arc Pro B50, which are reportedly selling really well and carry higher margins. Intel hasn't confirmed anything, and Haze2K1 only says the card "might" go EOL, so this is only a rumor for now. However, the logic checks out. The Arc B580 launched in December 2024 at $249 and beat the RTX 4060 in TechPowerUp's review. The Arc Pro B50 and B60 use the same BMG-G21 silicon, and the B60 pairs the same 20 Xe cores with 24 GB of memory instead of 12 GB. Intel estimated the B60 at around $500 at launch, roughly double the B580's price. Clearly, Intel stands to gain more monetary benefit from the workstation cards.

As for the consumer GPUs, their supply already looks quite thin. The B580 is reportedly out of stock at most retailers, and prices have also climbed well above MSRP. The leaker doesn't mention the Arc B570, so we don't know if Intel has similar plans for that card as well. Intel's larger BMG-G31 chip also showed up in March in the workstation-only Arc Pro B70 and B65, so the shift toward pro cards seems to be underway already. If the B580 does go away, gamers will lose one of the more affordable 12 GB cards, even though the Arc B580 was selling above its MSRP. That said, I wouldn't expect cheaper Arc cards anytime soon

Anyone holding out for an affordable next-gen NVIDIA card might have a long wait. Hardware leaker Kepler_L2 claims on NeoGAF that the GeForce RTX 6060 will "launch much later," adding that, based on recent trends, he doubts it will even match the PlayStation 6. He was replying to a forum member who argued the PS6 would compete with the RTX 6060, in the same thread where he claimed the console's RAM and storage alone cost over $680. Kepler didn't give an actual date, and the 2029 figure going around seems to be an extrapolation. Both Kepler and kopite7kimi have placed NVIDIA's Rubin-based RTX 60 series in 2028, and the x60 cards usually trail the flagship by a few months. The RTX 5060 arrived under four months after the RTX 5090, while the RTX 4060 took over eight months to follow the RTX 4090.

With a flagship launch around mid-2028 or later, that could push the RTX 6060 into 2029. That said, the "much later" comment seems to be relative to the PS6, which is reportedly targeting late 2027, so the exact timing is still anyone's guess. Kepler didn't say why, but the ongoing memory shortage looks like the obvious suspect. NVIDIA reportedly postponed its RTX 50 SUPER refresh earlier this year to prioritize AI products that use the same GDDR7 memory, and the company recently admitted that RTX 5090 supply is tight. Of course, NVIDIA hasn't announced the RTX 60 series officially yet, so treat this as a rumor. Anyone looking to buy a new NVIDIA GPU should probably expect the current RTX 50 lineup to stick around for quite a while.

News recently broke that NVIDIA had published the first native Windows-on-Arm toolkit for its RTX Spark platform, and it didn't take long for a Chinese developer, VoidTech, and modder to use NVIDIA's work to get an NVIDIA RTX 4060 working on an Arm-powered Huawei Qingyun desktop with a Kunpeng 920 CPU.

In a video on Bilibili, the developer explains that he managed to get the device supported by extracting NVIDIA's ARM64 driver from the Spark software. He adds that, while the device is recognized by both NVIDIA's driver and TechPowerUp's GPU-Z, and is able to accelerate graphics tasks, there is no video output, so he notes that it is "suitable for use with streaming" (machine translation).

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB "Ampere" GPU, which is two generations old, is expected to make a comeback in June this year. Meanwhile, the rumored RTX 5050 9 GB edition is reportedly on hold. According to well-known hardware leaker MEGAsizeGPU on X, NVIDIA is pausing the transition from its 8 GB RTX 5050 "Blackwell" version to a 9 GB model due to the reintroduction of the GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB "Ampere" GPU. Since both of these GPUs compete in the budget segment, the company will reportedly only release the older GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB SKU with a 192-bit wide memory bus. For this, NVIDIA will once again use Samsung's 8 nm DUV node, as it has in the past. The entire NVIDIA "Ampere" architecture lineup was produced on the 8 nm DUV node, and its return after several years was unexpected. However, since NVIDIA has transitioned to TSMC for manufacturing its "Ada Lovelace" and latest "Blackwell" GPUs, becoming TSMC's largest customer using the 5 nm node, this move is intriguing.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 features 3,584 CUDA cores and 12 GB of GDDR6 memory. In contrast, the GeForce RTX 5050 has newer CUDA cores on a smaller node with 2,560 cores on the GB207 die, but it has less memory, with only 9 GB of the rumored GDDR7. Since the resurrected GeForce RTX 3060 will use the older GDDR6 memory, sourcing GDDR6 may have been easier for NVIDIA, leaving the more expensive GDDR7 for its other GPUs.

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060 is making a comeback, expected around mid-March. For this, NVIDIA will once again use Samsung's 8 nm DUV node, as it has in the past. This has been confirmed by the Korean media outlet Hankyung, which reports that Samsung is restarting its 8 nm node production to meet NVIDIA's needs. Originally, Samsung manufactured these GPUs back in 2021. The entire NVIDIA "Ampere" architecture lineup was produced on the 8 nm DUV node, and we didn't anticipate its return after several years. However, since NVIDIA has transitioned to TSMC for manufacturing its "Ada Lovelace" and latest "Blackwell" GPUs, and has become TSMC's largest customer, utilizing the 5 nm node, this move is intriguing.

We still lack concrete information about which version of the RTX 3060 will be reintroduced—whether it will be the original 12 GB model with a 192-bit wide memory bus or the newer 8 GB variant with a 128-bit bus. Additionally, the decision to use a two-generation-old GPU architecture in 2026 is puzzling, as the reason NVIDIA has chosen the RTX 3060 instead of a newer model like the RTX 4060 remains unclear. Speculatively, it could be because the RTX 4060 is based on the same NVIDIA 4N (5 nm-class) node at TSMC as the current RTX 5060, while the RTX 3060, along with the rest of the GeForce "Ampere" generation, is built on the Samsung 8N (8 nm DUV) foundry node, which would leave the 5 nm capacity for "Blackwell" and its enterprise variants. Finally, it is worth pointing out that when GPU IP design is done, it is usually hard-linked with the node it has been prepared for, so NVIDIA is sticking with Samsung again to avoid any potential upfront costs of adapting this GPU for a different node.

Initial benchmarks shared on China's Weibo platform by INNO3D hinted that NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 5050 may not quite catch up to the GeForce RTX 4060 in raw performance. The leaked figures, which focused on a handful of 3DMark tests and a selection of game runs, showed the RTX 5050 lagging just a few percent behind its established last-gen mid-range sibling. While those early results did not cover a comprehensive range of titles, they suggested that the new card would fall slightly short of the RTX 4060's average frame rate and 1% low metrics when gaming at 1080p settings.

A more complete picture emerged from South Korea's Quasar Zone review of the Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 5050 Ultra OC White edition. In tests across fifteen popular 1080p games, the RTX 5050 delivered roughly 7% lower average frame rates and similar 1% low results compared to the RTX 4060. Even Intel's Arc B580 managed to edge it out by a small margin in those same trials. However, NVIDIA's Multi-Frame Generation options dramatically change the story by reconstructing additional frames on the fly. When these technologies are enabled, the RTX 5050 not only leaves older-generation cards well behind but also overtakes the higher-priced RTX 4060 Ti in several benchmarks. As we await more reviews to emerge, it will be interesting to see if the newest DLSS and MFG are sufficient for gamers to purchase the entry-level Blackwell GPU or opt for an older mid-range Ada Lovelace.

Lisuan Technology announced this week on its official WeChat channel that it has successfully powered on its prototype G100 graphics card. The company describes the G100 as China's first domestically designed 6 nm GPU, marking a significant milestone in its effort to challenge established industry players. With the first silicon now operational, Lisuan is moving into driver development, software validation, and broader system integration testing. Although Lisuan has provided few formal specifications, rumors indicate that SMIC is fabbing the G100 die, currently the only Chinese foundry capable of producing a 6 nm node under US export restrictions. Rumors describe the performance as being on par with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4060 in mid-range gaming tests, alongside generous onboard memory, efficient power consumption, and support for DirectX 12, Vulkan 1.3, and OpenGL 4.6. If accurate, these features could position the G100 for both gaming and general-purpose GPU workloads.

Founded in late 2021 by a team of former Silicon Valley engineers with more than 25 years of collective chip-design experience, Lisuan Technology is among the youngest entrants in China's graphics-chip sector. It follows Biren Technology (established in 2019) and Moore Threads (established in 2020) in their pursuit of a homegrown alternative to foreign GPU offerings. Beijing's push for semiconductor self-sufficiency has encouraged such ventures, and Lisuan insists its TrueGPU architecture is fully developed in-house rather than licensed from outside sources. The G100 was initially slated for a 2023 launch but encountered financial headwinds that nearly forced Lisuan into bankruptcy in 2024. A $27.7 million capital injection from the parent company, Dongxin Semiconductor, kept development on track through tape-out and early risk-production trials. Lisuan now plans to ship small volumes of G100 cards in the third quarter of 2025, with mass availability more likely in 2026.

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 could be the last of its kind; according to Tom Warren's latest theories. Yesterday, The Verge's senior editor envisioned a streamlined future lineup of Microsoft's portable PC devices. According to inside track information, the tech giant is expected to announce the end-of-life (EOL) status for this relatively young branch of Surface products (debuted back in 2021). The Surface Laptop Studio 2 is advertised as being "a laptop like no other"—courtesy of a unique/versatile setup that features a "dynamic woven hinge." Three hybrid configurations are officially outlined as: "laptop mode for productivity, stage mode for streaming, and studio mode for creativity." Current generation models are powered by Intel's 13th Gen Core i7-13700H processor (aka the "Evo" platform), and can be configured with discrete NVIDIA mobile graphics solutions (GeForce RTX 4060, RTX 4050, or RTX 2000 Ada Generation). Under normal circumstances, a baseline build—reliant on an iGPU—starts at about $2400.

At the time of writing, Microsoft has not acknowledged The Verge's insider report. So far, resellers have shared top secret info—indicating an upcoming official announcement; possibly due by next month. Another group of unnamed sources claim that Surface Laptop Studio 2 manufacturing activities have already ended, as of early May (2025). The megacorporation has culled other Surface products in the past; sometimes coinciding with the departure of key executive team members and mass layoffs. A few days ago, mainstream news outlets covered Microsoft's latest batch of staff reductions—affecting roughly 6000 workers. Warren's article dashes all hopes of a potential third-gen design: "there doesn't appear to be a Surface Laptop Studio 3 on the horizon."

Compulab has updated its "ruggedised" Airtop3 compact form factor PC line with a new configuration that includes a pre-installed "Ada Lovelace" GeForce RTX 4060 8 GB discrete graphics card. Back in 2018, TechPowerUp's news section covered the Israeli firm's initiation of a crowdfunding campaign for their fanless Airtop2 Inferno Mini-PC. This second generation design launched with a desktop GeForce GTX 1080 "Pascal" card onboard. Compulab's current-gen SFF fanless IoT Edge server model was first revealed in 2019; debuting with passively cooled Intel Core i9-9900K (Coffee Lake Refresh) processors and Team Green's Quadro RTX 4000 (Turing) graphics cards. Going further back—to February 2018—the brand introduced its vanilla Airtop2 design.

The latest Airtop3 revision still utilizes an old LGA1151 socket platform; compatible with a small selection of Team Blue "Coffee Lake"—original and refreshed—CPUs. The best configuration can be equipped with a workstation grade Xeon E-2278GE processor. The cheapest option is outfitted with an entry level Celeron G4900T unit. As noted by VideoCardz, Compulab's starting price for an Airtop3 + GeForce RTX 4060 dGPU is $2780. A GPU-less setup costs $1790. Customers can pick between the GeForce RTX 4060 or an older "Ampere" RTX A2000 6 GB card. No matter the specification, CPU/APU and GPU aspects are passively cooled via sizeable copper plates.

Frequenters of the MindFactory.de webshop have highlighted worrying signs of decline. A telling example was posted to the (German language) PCBaumeister subreddit; where a member queried: "what's going on at MindFactory? Only 12 Intel CPUs, 36 graphics cards (all brands), 30 monitors left on offer. Are they going bankrupt or are they emptying their inventory?" Similar alerts landed across PC hardware discussion boards—regional press outlets started to pay attention once a decent number of observations were tallied. Even VideoCardz started to receive tip-offs from its German readership, regarding MindFactory's very limited selection of previous-gen NVIDIA graphics cards (see screenshot below). According to the latest news articles, higher-end GeForce 40-series models are not listed. Additionally, there is a distinct lack of GeForce 50-series products on the webstore. VideoCardz found plenty of entries for AMD Radeon graphics cards, but nothing newer or more advanced than the RX 7800 XT.

Curious customers have contacted the webshop's service team, regarding low inventory and lack of product variety. A typical response reads as follows: "we (Mindfactory.de) are currently restructuring our store, which is why we have so few items in stock at the moment. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us." Following on from community tips, local media outlets have shared their own investigations—currently, several online sites propose that MindFactory is facing bankruptcy. WinFuture.de's article sports a prominent "Insolvenz—Freie Marktwirtschaft" graphic—translation: "insolvency—free-market capitalism." Igor Wallossek—of Igor's Lab fame—took issue with some of the sensationalistic headlines. He weighed in on this matter: "apparently, bankruptcy is to be filed for next week. I cannot speak about the background, it is extremely sensitive. I have known about it since Friday (February 28)." A dedicated news piece did not appear on igorslab.de, due to the following of an ethical code of conduct.

Morefine is a relatively reputed brand of mini PCs that we have covered in the past. The company has now introduced a powerful new eGPU dubbed the G1, which can also function as a dock, courtesy of its healthy selection of ports. The eGPU can be equipped with the RTX 4060 Laptop, RTX 4080 Laptop, or even the RTX 4090 Laptop GPUs. The product is already available for purchase, with prices starting from $659 for the RTX 4060 L variant, $1,099 for the RTX 4080 L variant, and the highest-end RTX 4090 Laptop variant is unfortunately out of stock as of this writing, which otherwise carries a price tag of $1,699.

For those who need a refresher, the RTX 4060 Laptop packs 3,072 CUDA cores paired with 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM, allowing for performance that is roughly in the same league as the Radeon RX 7600M GPU found in many other eGPUs. The RTX 4080 Laptop and RTX 4090 Laptop GPUs pack 7,424 and 9,728 CUDA cores coupled with 12 and 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM respectively. Morefine has revealed the 3D Mark scores for each of the systems, which is certainly a good thing for prospective buyers. The 14 x 10 x 5.4 cm chassis is impressively compact, and as mentioned previously, the ports on offer are equally impressive. An OCuLink port is provided, along with Thunderbolt 3 (85W PD), which can swapped with a dual USB-C module for folks with systems that cannot take advantage of OCuLink. Other ports include triple USB-A 3.2, dual HDMI 2.1, and DisplayPort 1.4 ports.

Well, the wait is over and early reviews for AMD's Strix Halo APUs have finally dropped. For those who kept up with the leaks and rumors, the high-end RDNA 3.5 Radeon 8060S iGPU was repeatedly rumored to features up to 40 CUs, allowing for raw performance that keeps up with several discrete-class mobile GPUs. Now that we have concrete information, it appears that the Strix Halo iGPU does indeed trade blows with mid-range mobile GPUs, which is an undeniably impressive feat for an integrated unit. Some of the fastest x86 iGPUs - the Arc 140 V, Radeon 890M, are all left in the dust, although Apple's highest-end offerings are unsurprisingly well ahead.

Starting off with 3D Mark Time Spy, the 40-CU Radeon 8060S, housed in the 13-inch ROG Flow Z13, managed an impressive score of 10,200 points according to Notebookcheck. This puts the iGPU in close proximity to other RTX 4070-powered 14-inch gaming laptops, such as the Zephyrus G14 which managed to rake in around 10,300 points. Compared to the previous iteration of the ROG Flow Z13, which boasts a 65-watt RTX 4070, the Radeon 8060S-powered Z13 pulls ahead by around 5%. Laptops with more substantial power envelopes do race ahead significantly, such as the 140-watt RTX 4070 Laptop-powered Razer Blade 14 which managed over 13,000 points. In the Steel Nomad benchmark, however, the Radeon 8060S appears less impressive, trailing behind not only the RTX 4070 Laptop, but also systems with the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU (110 W).

Supply chain and board partner (AIB) insiders have once again signalled a murky future for Team Green's "Ada Lovelace" generation of gaming graphics cards—Chinese industry soothsayers believe that supplies of GeForce RTX 4060 GPUs will change significantly throughout February. A somewhat similar disclosure popped up online half-way through January—when members of the Board Channels discussion board predicted an end of the month stock depletion of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPUs. Several web entities believe that NVIDIA is paving the way for a next wave of GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" graphics cards.

Gory details appeared on Board Channels—yesterday morning's China market-focused bulletin stated: "supply of the main models of the RTX 4060 series will be greatly reduced from the first quarter of 2025, that is, from February 2025 in the domestic market, NVIDIA's supply of RTX4060 series GPUs will be greatly reduced, which is at least 60% less than the estimated Q4 of 2024." Team Green and its partners are reportedly working on a March launch window for GeForce RTX 5060 (non-Ti) and RTX 5060 Ti graphics card models—neatly aligning with the RTX 4060-related timeframes proposed by industry insiders. The Board Channels article added further clarification: "the number of GPUs that each core AIC brand manufacturer can get from NVIDIA will be greatly reduced."

NVIDIA is expected to release the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti and the all-important RTX 5060 in early Q2-2025. The RTX 5060 series releases last as it gives the market time to absorb inventory of the RTX 4060 Ti and the RTX 4060, both of which are very popular in their market segments. Maxsun has filed regulatory paperwork for its custom design RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 graphics cards. The company is planning several custom design graphics card models under its iCraft line of graphics cards for both GPUs. What's interesting, though, is that the RTX 5060 Ti series appears to have two memory based variants just like the RTX 4060 Ti—16 GB and 8 GB.

The filings point to seven RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB custom graphics card SKUs, seven of them for the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB, and eight of them for the RTX 5060 (non-Ti), which comes with a memory size of just 8 GB. Our recent reviews of the Intel Arc B580 "Battlemage" graphics card concluded that 8 GB was holding back performance of the RTX 4060 in games with ray tracing workloads, with the B580 enjoying not just 50% more memory at 12 GB, but also that much more memory bandwidth than the RTX 4060. It looks like NVIDIA will address at least one of the two shortcomings—bandwidth. The company is rumored to give both the RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 faster GDDR7 memory.

Supply chain insiders reckon that stock of NVIDIA's "Ada Lovelace" generation GeForce RTX 4070 GPU will be depleted by the end of this month. This revelation emerges on the cusp of Team Green's GeForce RTX 5000 series of "Blackwell" GPUs heading to market (on January 30). The popular Chinese hardware forum—Board Channels—is a reliable source of product "supply and demand" information. Industry insiders believe that Team Green's mid-tier SKU will be completely sold—by the closing of this month—across several unnamed regional markets. NVIDIA's incoming GeForce RTX 5070 SKU (baseline $549 MSRP) appears to be the natural alternative, given that GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER offerings are priced within the range of $550 to $600—according to market research performed by VideoCardz.

A board member disclosed details and prophesized changes up and down NVIDIA's current-gen product stack: "The inventory for NVIDIA RTX 4070 and higher models is expected to be completely cleared by January. Starting from February, major AIC brands are anticipated to have stock remaining only for the RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 4060 series, which still need to be digested. However, since NVIDIA's Q1 begins in February, these two models will essentially enter the final stock phase." VideoCardz anticipates a March launch window for the GeForce RTX 5060 series—this could be well-timed given circumstances surrounding Team Green's (alleged) limiting of GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GPU supplies and the insider's predicted cessation of RTX 4060 (non-Ti) production.

Today's gamers are not just players; we are the innovators and leaders of tomorrow's workforce. As someone who recognizes the incredible potential within our gaming community, I'm committed to supporting your journey both in and out of the game. In our latest announcements focusing on the future of play and work, we've shared exciting updates across various fronts, including some major innovations in gaming. I'm thrilled to introduce even more gear designed to enhance your gaming experience. From the powerful OMEN 16 Laptop and the compact OMEN 16L Desktop to our stunning new OMEN displays and precise HyperX mice, I can't wait to dive into the details and show you how these products will elevate your play and keep you ahead of the curve. We're not just creating innovations; we're shaping the future of play.

Power and Performance for All: The OMEN 16 Laptop and OMEN 16L Desktop
At HP, your feedback is our guiding star. You told us you want smooth, immersive gameplay on machines that stay cool and quiet; we created the third-generation OMEN 16 to be our coolest and quietest version yet. The OMEN 16 elevates your gaming experience with cutting-edge technology and thoughtful design, keeping performance at its peak. Let's dive into the technical specifics.

ASUS today announced ASUS ExpertCenter P500 Mini Tower (P500MV), a high-performance desktop PC for that's designed to redefine value and performance for small businesses. With the new ASUS Tower Air Cooler thermal design and powered by the latest up to Intel Core i7 processor, P5 Mini Tower unleashes up to 95 W TDP—delivering 30% better peak performance than competitors in its class. With exceptional energy efficiency, this powerful new desktop also saves up to 38% energy.i

Security is paramount with ExpertCenter P500 Mini Tower, so it's backed by the reassurance of multiple ASUS ExpertGuardian protections. This powerhouse meets commercial-grade standards with a NIST SP 800-155-compliant BIOS, while ASUS assures at least five years of BIOS and driver updates to protect critical data.

Lenovo announced the latest additions to its Lenovo Legion ecosystem of gaming devices, accessories, and software today at CES 2025, delivering a deep bench of devices across a wide range of form-factors that give gamers of all levels powerful options to game their way in pursuit of 'reaching their impossible'. These new devices include:

• The Lenovo Legion Go S (8", 1) and Lenovo Legion Go S (8", 1) - Powered by SteamOS, gaming handheld devices featuring an 8-inch screen with VRR support, a chassis sporting fused TrueStrike controllers with adjustable trigger switches and hall-effect joysticks, and the world's first officially licensed handheld powered by SteamOS.
• The Lenovo Legion Go (8.8", 2), a gaming handheld prototype device planned to feature a native landscape OLED display, up to double the RAM compared to previous generation, and a bigger battery.
• The redesigned Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (16", 10), Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (16", 10) and Lenovo Legion Pro 5 (16", 10) laptops, with new aggressive design language, more performance, and new Lenovo PureSight OLED display options.
• A fully redesigned Legion Space gaming software solution that unifies all Lenovo Legion device settings, syncs with all Lenovo Legion ecosystem devices, provides access to all games in one library, and features a suite of new AI-powered features that help gamers up their game, their streams, and their enjoyment.
• The Lenovo Legion Pro 34WD-10 monitor, a PureSight OLED display with gaming-specific features to give competitive gamers an edge on the map.
• Lenovo also announced other new additions to its Legion and LOQ laptops and desktops, the latest Legion Tab, and a selection of Legion accessories to complement the gaming devices.

Steam's monthly hardware and software surveys provide a decent picture of what hardware and software gamers rely on to play their favorite games—at least those on Valve's game platform. Since the launch of Windows 11, it has been a somewhat reliable way to track the adoption of the new Windows version, and, as the official cut-off for Windows 10 support draws near, one would expect Windows 11 to pick up steam, especially among gamers, where Windows is the dominant OS. The results of the November Steam Survey are in, and while not much has changed on the hardware front, it seems like Microsoft is indeed wearing gamers down when it comes to Windows 11 adoption. Despite seeing a decent uptick in Windows 11 installations, the overall Windows market share dropped, even if almost imperceptibly, while Linux and macOS both saw a slight uptick in adoption among Steam gamers. As expected, Windows remained the dominant platform for gamers, but Windows 11, specifically, saw growth of 4.18%, while Windows 10 lost 4.15%, which is almost an exact 1:1 match, indicating that gamers are largely staying on Windows when they finally decide to move on from Windows 10. Overall, Windows lost 0.05% market share, compared to Linux, which gained 0.03% and macOS, which grew by 0.02%.

Valve's SteamOS Holo was the most popular Linux version in the survey, but it, too, slid by 0.28%. Of course, the hardware split for Linux is representative of the software side of things, which is to say: It's mostly just Steam Decks. As expected, most of the video cards and CPUs in the Linux results were AMD GPUs, with well over 36% of the sampled Linux gamers using AMD GPUs, even disregarding the obvious bias introduced by the AMD-powered Steam Deck hardware. The most popular NVIDIA GPU on Linux systems running Steam is currently the GeForce RTX 3060, at a mere 1.46% of the market share. Meanwhile, on Windows side, 5.03% of gamers are using the GTX 3060, with the next most popular GPU being the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, at 4.92%.

As we entered November, Valve just finished processing data for October in its monthly update of Steam Hardware and Software Survey, showcasing trend changes in the largest gaming community. And according to October data, AMD's discrete GPUs are not exactly in the best place. In the top 20 most commonly used GPUs, not a single discrete SKU was based on AMD. All of them included NVIDIA as their primary GPU choice. However, there is some change to AMD's entries, as the Radeon RX 580, which used to be the most popular AMD GPU, just got bested by the Radeon RX 6600 as the most common choice for AMD gamers. The AMD Radeon RX 6600 now holds 0.98% of the GPU market.

NVIDIA's situation paints a different picture, as the top 20 spots are all occupied by NVIDIA-powered gamers. The GeForce RTX 3060 remains the most popular GPU at 7.46% of the GPU market, but the number two spot is now held by the GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU at 5.61%. This is an interesting change since this NVIDIA GPU was in third place, right behind the regular GeForce RTX 4060 for desktops. However, laptop gamers are in abundance, and they are showing their strength, placing the desktop GeForce RTX 4060 in third place, recording 5.25% usage.

Minisforum stands as a reputed brand in the ever-advancing segment of mini PCs. The brand's recently unveiled 790S7 joins its commendable lineup of high-performance SFF PCs with specifications that are impressive to say the least. At 7 liters, the 790S7 is not exactly 'tiny', but is substantially more compact than traditional tower PCs.

The system is powered by a 16-core Ryzen 9 7940HX 'Dragon Range' CPU at its heart, paired with up to 64 B of DDR5-5200 RAM and 4 terabytes of flash storage along with the titular RTX 4060 discrete GPU. Unlike most of the other compact PCs from the brand, the RTX 4060 GPU in the 790S7 is of the full-fledged desktop variant and not the slower 'Laptop' kind.

In a recent event hosted by Chinese laptop manufacturer Hasee, company's chairman Wu Haijun unveiled exciting details about NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 5060 "Blackwell" laptop GPU. Attending the event was industry insider Golden Pig Upgrade, who managed to catch some details of the card set to launch next year. The RTX 5060 is expected to be the first in the market to feature GDDR7 memory, a move that aligns with earlier leaks suggesting NVIDIA's entire Blackwell lineup would adopt this new standard. This upgrade is anticipated to deliver substantial boosts in bandwidth and possibly increased VRAM capacities in other SKUs. Perhaps most intriguing is the reported performance of the RTX 5060. Wu said this laptop SKU could offer performance comparable to the current RTX 4070 laptop GPU. It's said to exceed the RTX 4070 in ray tracing scenarios and match or come close to its rasterization performance.

This leap in capabilities is made even more impressive by the chip's reduced power consumption, with a maximum TGP of 115 W compared to the RTX 4060's 140 W. The reported power efficiency gains are not exclusive to RTX 5060. Wu suggests that the entire Blackwell lineup will see significant reductions in power draw, potentially lowering overall system power consumption by 40 to 50 watts in many Blackwell models. While specific technical details remain limited, it's believed the RTX 5060 will utilize the GB206 GPU die paired with 8 GB of GDDR7 memory, likely running at 28 Gbps in its initial iteration.

TechPowerUp has released version 2.60.0 of GPU-Z, a popular graphics sub-system information, monitoring, and diagnostic utility. This latest update brings significant enhancements, including full support for the Arm64 architecture and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite GPUs. The release also adds support for AMD Zen 5 CPU temperature monitoring and a wide range of new GPUs from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel. Notable additions include the NVIDIA 4070 Ti Super (AD102), RTX 4070 (AD103), RTX 4060 Ti (AD104), RTX 4060 (AD106), as well as AMD Zen 5 (Strix Point and Granite Ridge), and Intel Raptor Lake U SKUs and Meteor Lake Intel Arc Graphics.

In addition to expanded hardware support, GPU-Z 2.60.0 addresses several important issues. The update fixes NVIDIA driver version reporting for some pre-2015 versions, resolves an installer problem that prevented closing running instances of GPU-Z, and corrects the "0 MHz" memory clock display on certain AMD RDNA GPUs without overclocking support. Other improvements include a small handle leak fix, added support for the Monster Notebook subvendor ID, and compatibility with new VMWare virtual GPU IDs. The installer now requires Windows 7 or newer, with appropriate messaging for unsupported systems. Users can download the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z from the official TechPowerUp website to access these new features and improvements.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.60.0

Simply NUC, Inc., a leading custom computing company, proudly announced the launch of the Scorpion Canyon NUC 14 Performance device across their global websites, a revolutionary PC workstation designed to meet diverse computing needs. Featuring the latest Intel Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" CPUs, Intel Arc integrated graphics, and optional NVIDIA RTX 4060 or 4070 graphics, the NUC 14 Performance redefines computing in a compact form factor.

"Introducing the NUC 14 Performance is a significant milestone for us," said Aaron Rowsell, Founder & President of Simply NUC. "This product family ushers in advanced AI capabilities and top-tier graphics in computing power. With unmatched performance, AI-readiness, and a sleek tool-less design, the NUC 14 Performance sets a new standard for compact workstations."

ASUS today announced ASUS NUC 14 Performance, a business-friendly barebones mini PC that offers a dynamic fusion of efficiency and raw power. Featuring Intel Core Ultra 9 or 7 processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 or 4060 graphics, ASUS NUC 14 Performance delivers the computing prowess enterprises need for AI-based workloads.

New AI-enabled performance
The latest Intel Core 9 and 7 series CPUs employ new Intel processor technology that enhances computing performance by approximately 21.5% (versus previous-generation processors) while reducing power consumption by up to 40%. An integrated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) helps boost AI applications, giving the processor exceptional energy-efficiency and endurance for sustained AI computing tasks like image generation and facial recognition.