Since teasing its next-gen flagship motherboard design—at CES 2025—the ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) team has spent time finalizing an option that is even more extravagant than their hardcore overclocking-oriented Crosshair X870E Apex model. Naturally, the premium sub-brand did not reveal pricing during preview events—instead, premature European e-tail listings suggested a €1200 (~$1350 USD) tag. Tony Wu and colleagues at ASUS China introduced an impressive swath of brand-new products at an official in-person showcase last week, in Changsha.

During proceedings, company representatives introduced their top-flight E-ATX format board with a hefty day one price: 9999 RMB ($1360 USD). The ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme is expected to launch later this month; likely starting off with the Chinese domestic market. At the time of writing, the manufacturer's various global branches have not disclosed localized details—be it pricing or availability. Last week's presser did not produce any surprises, since plenty of specification details (and promo shots) leaked out late last month. One interesting and very over the top feature is the model's integration of an adjustable full-color 5-inch LCD screen. The primary M.2 storage solution will be cooled by an "innovative" 3D vapor chamber heatsink. Well-heeled customers will be relieved to know that ASUS has outfitted the AAA board design with their revamped Q-Release Slim mechanism.

ASUS today announced its participation in the NAB Show 2025. Visitors to the ASUS booth will have the opportunity to experience the future of content creation with live demonstrations of the latest ASUS ProArt offerings. The showcase includes the debut of the ProArt Cinema PQ09 monitor, featuring the largest-ever ASUS microLED display. The ProArt Display 6K PA32QCV and the ProArt CaliContrO MCA02 three-in-one calibrator will also be showcased. Also on show will be the 16-inch ProArt P16, a creative powerhouse laptop equipped with a 50 TOPS NPU, AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU. In addition, the NAB Show 2025 will feature the latest installment of the ProArt Masters' Talks series, with renowned creatives sharing their perspectives on current trends.

The ProArt Cinema PQ09 is the latest addition to the ProArt Cinema microLED display lineup. This 162-inch 4K HDR monitor features advanced panel technologies, ultrasmall 0.93 mm pixel pitch, 1200nits peak brightness, high 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and 97% DCI-P3 color gamut. Compared to conventional microLED displays with a 1.2 or 1.5 mm pixel pitch, ProArt Cinema PQ09 delivers smoother and more vibrant visuals, making it the perfect large-screen display for home cinema, broadcasting or other uses.

TechPowerUp's W1zzard did not honor the ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition graphics card model with any awards—as disclosed in his late January evaluation, a major negative point was highlighted: "no additional power limit increases allowed." The premium-tier ASUS offering managed to top TPU's "Maximum Overclock Comparison" GeForce RTX 5080-class table; comfortably leading the pack with an out-of-the-box (default) 400 W power setting. Reviewers and well-heeled owners—of this $1500+ special quad-fan package—have lamented the apparent lack of extra headroom. Sitting in fifth place was GIGABYTE's RTX 5080 GAMING OC SKU; a card that can support up to 450 W. As reported by VideoCardz earlier today, ASUS has taken onboard aforementioned feedback.

Resultant under-the-hood tinkerings were implemented mid-way through last month. The "ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 16 GB GDDR7 OC Edition" support page has welcomed a new downloadable file—authored on March 14—this BIOS update is advertised as being capable of: "increasing the (model's) maximum TGP to 450 W." Additional bragging rights will be granted with this patch; owners can boast about their expensive bits of kit being further enhanced—NVIDIA's reference specification TGP/TDP is 360 W. Thumbs up go to Team ASUS once again—mid-February Astral series updates tweaked noise profiles; not too long after an absorption of launch day criticism.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading brand of performance overclock memory and PC components, is thrilled to announce a new high-speed memory overclock DDR5 specification with an ultra-high kit capacity - DDR5-8000 CL44 with 128 GB (64 GB x2) kit capacity. This is the world's first DDR5 memory kit with 64 GB high-capacity modules to reach the extreme overclock level of DDR5-8000, setting a new milestone for high-performance computing, content creation, AI applications, and advanced workstation workloads.

New Era of Overclocking High-Capacity DDR5 64 GB Modules
Engineered for high-capacity overclocked performance, the DDR5-8000 128 GB (64 GB x2) combines ultra-high memory speed with massive memory kit capacity, surpassing the previous module capacity maximum at 48 GB per module. At last, power users and content creators who seek overclock performance memory for capacity-hungry applications will have the ideal DDR5 memory solution. Refer to the validation screenshot below to see DDR5-8000 CL44-58-58 128 GB (64 GB x2) tested on the ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR X870E APEX motherboard with the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X desktop processor.

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.

The upcoming collaboration project between Microsoft and ASUS is slowly materializing in the form of a handheld gaming console, as recently released promotional material shows. The latest teaser video shows an ASUS ROG Ally and Xbox controller merging into a single unit, becoming an animated character, indicating a hardware partnership that combines Microsoft's software ecosystem with ASUS's portable hardware expertise. Project Kennan, as the device is reportedly codenamed, contradicts earlier Xbox executive statements regarding development timelines. Initial projections suggested the hardware launch within a 2-3 year window, yet current information suggests a potential Q3/Q4 2025 release, with perhaps an announcement in Q2 this year. Following Steam Deck's market success, the accelerated schedule may come from increased competitive pressure in the handheld PC gaming segment.

The device appears to feature a predominantly black chassis, though other specifications remain undisclosed. AMD architecture integration will likely continue the foundation established in both Xbox Series consoles and the ROG Ally platform. This hardware choice would prioritize performance-per-watt efficiency crucial for portable gaming applications. A significant technical decision remains regarding the operating system implementation: whether to deploy standard Windows with Xbox integration or develop a custom Xbox-centric interface layer. This choice will directly impact ecosystem compatibility, application support, and user experience fluidity. Both companies have maintained limited official communication regarding the project, with the teaser video serving as the primary confirmation of their collaboration.

ASUS has readied its first all-in-one water cooler with a built-in curved AMOLED screen called ROG RYUO IV SLC 360 ARGB. The upcoming ASUS ROG RYUO AIO cooler integrates a 6.67-inch 60 Hz AMOLED display for system monitoring, significantly larger than any commercial AIO cooler with a built-in display on the pump/water block combo. The cooler operates at 39.6 dB while its 120 mm fans deliver 71.4 CFM airflow at speeds between 500-2650 RPM through PWM/DC control. A copper water block connected to a 360 mm aluminium radiator forms the thermal transfer system, joined by 200 mm FEP sleeved tubing. Socket compatibility includes current-generation Intel LGA-1851/1700 and AMD AM4/AM5 platforms, with no support for legacy sockets.

The expanded display provides real-time data visualization during intensive computational workloads without requiring additional monitoring software. ASUS plans to release the cooler before the "618" Mid-Year Shopping Festival. While the initial product features a 360 mm radiator, smaller variants may follow for space-constrained builds. No pricing details have been announced. A similar solution to this is TRYX Panorama AIO, which features a 6.5-inch L-shaped 3D screen as well, but ASUS has outdone it with a 6.7-inch screen variant now. We are curious how this cooler will look in real life, and some photos are already available below.

Here are some of the first pictures of the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme, the company's new flagship Socket AM5 motherboard. Until now, the company's AMD 800-series chipset motherboard lineup topped off with the ROG Crosshair X870E Hero for connectivity and the ROG Crosshair X870E Apex for overclocking chops, and the company is looking to push things up a notch, especially given that AMD's Ryzen 9000X3D series is established as the fastest processor series for gaming PC builds. This board is designed to compete with the likes of the MSI MEG X870E Godlike and the GIGABYTE X870E AORUS Xtreme. It is firmly into the E-ATX territory in terms of dimensions. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, two 8-pin EPS, and an 8-pin PCIe power. It uses the company's most powerful CPU VRM solution for the AMD platform, above even the 22-phase solution of the Hero.

The ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme comes with a large number of 4-pin PWM fan and water pump headers. Storage connectivity includes one M.2-22110 Gen 5 on the board with a chunky heat pipe-based cooler; a second Gen 5 and two Gen 4 slots on the board, and a DIMM.2 module that provides additional slots. The expansion slots provided are a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 and a second PCI-Express 4.0 x4 (physical x16). There are a boat-load of USB ports, including a couple of 40 Gbps USB4, 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, and several 10 Gbps and 5 Gbps USB 3.2 ports. Networking interfaces include Wi-Fi 7, a 10 GbE, and a 5 GbE. The board features the company's most premium onboard audio solution that probably combines a Realtek ALC4082 with an ESS ES9219 DAC for the front channels, an audiophile-grade OPAMP, and premium capacitors. The board offers many of the exclusive overclocker-friendly features found in the company's ROG Maximus Extreme motherboards. A star-attraction is its 4-inch true-color display over the VRM heatsinks, which can be programmed to show anything. There is no word on availability or pricing.

While we are used to gamers buying GPUs over their MSRPs just to get the latest and greatest, it appears that there are some limits to that. According to a Redditor, who pictured a Microcenter hardware store in Dallas, Texas, there are full shelves of ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090 GPUs with AIO liquid cooling. Instead of the usual sold-out reaction, gamers are drawing a line at these $3,719 GPUs, leaving shelves full of GPUs retailing for almost two times their MSRP. Despite being a flagship model with great performance (we tested an air-cooled ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090 version), all its bells and whistles aren't convincing enough for gamers to justify spending almost $4,000 on a single GPU. It could be the unusual 360 mm radiator that is difficult to accommodate in most cases or the case where gamers have started waiting for more realistically priced GPUs.

Interestingly, the regular air-cooled variants like the ASUS TUF version or the air-cooled Astral OC are nowhere to be found, as these models are priced much lower, with the TUF version carrying a $2,450 and Astral OC air-cooled version carrying a $2,800 MSRP. Of course, while these cards are not being sold at MSRP, they are likely being sold for much less than the Astral LC version, which nears the $4,000 price point. It appears that gamers are stopping the trend of paying astronomical prices over MSRP and are waiting for the supply to improve so prices can come down. In the past period, one tracker of RTX 5090 listings on eBay, averaging data for 30 days, noted that 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%. We hope the supply situation improves and that MSRP prices with slight premiums for high-end designs make a return.

The "standard" ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090 OC Edition is already a really an "astronomically expensive" prospect (if you can find available stock); launch MSRP was $2800, but retailers pushed that figure beyond the $3000 mark. An even fancier golden variant exists—as a reminder; news outlets picked up on the existence of a "Dhahab" model early last month. This luxuriously decorated collector piece was likely introduced as a regional exclusive, for MENA (Middle-East and North Africa). This week, ASUS managed to sneak one gold encrusted sample out to San Francisco, California.

Ernest Cheng—Director of Marketing at the firm's North American branch—shared a photo (via LinkedIn) of the very unique ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhahab OC Edition model; freshly scribbled on by Jensen Huang during GTC 2025. The ASUS exec commented on this blessing: "graphics card is one of a kind when it's been anointed. But it says a lot more when it's a Golden ROG RTX 5090 Astral." Press outlets reckon that this extremely special item will be auctioned off for charity; the presence of Team Green CEO's autograph and slogan ("RTX ON!") will boost its value severalfold. A Jensen Huang-signed ROG MATRIX RTX 4090 PLATINUM card attracted a top bid of $16,000; Der8auer (aka Roman Hartung) was officially congratulated as the winner back in late 2023.

Update 18:02 UTC: ASUS has confirmed that it will be supporting a local charity: "we are extremely honored to have this special edition ROG Astral RTX 5090 Dhahab OC graphics card, signed by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. This card will be officially auctioned to support relief efforts for the California wildfires in Los Angeles."

At CES 2025, ASUS unveiled their elite-tier ROG Crosshair X870E Apex motherboard design. Additionally, early January press material teased another top contender: "ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme is also waiting in the wings, with details to be shared on the way to its expected release in the first quarter (of 2025)." As reported by VideoCardz, the Taiwanese manufacturer seems to be readying its mysterious ultra-premium model for an imminent launch. Last week, HWiNFO v8.23-5685 Beta release notes turned up—revealing the existence of "enhanced sensor monitoring on ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme." Concurrently, a smattering of retail/e-tail listings have turned up in Europe. The lowest observed asking price (including VAT) was €1202.80, courtesy of Max ICT's (Netherlands) premature publishing of a product page.

Hopping across the Atlantic, industry watchdogs noted that Newegg was demanding a cool $749 for ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Apex pre-orders. Potential European customers will likely be greeted by a ~€827 (inc. VAT) price point. Since January, the Republic of Gamers marketing team has kept quiet on the X870E Extreme front. Their fancily-appointed board is still an unknown quantity in many regards; recent retail leaks lack technical information and visual representation. As noted by VideoCardz, time is running out for a Q1 2025 launch. As we head into April, Q2 looms in the near distance.

G.Skill International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading brand of performance overclock memory and PC components, is announcing a new high-capacity, low-latency DDR5 specification of DDR5-6000 CL26 with a total of 96 GB (48 GB x2) kit capacity, intended for the AMD AM5 platform. Designed for PC enthusiasts, gamers, professionals, and AI applications who are looking for high performance, this new memory kit enables low-latency performance at high kit capacities on the latest AMD computing platforms.

High-Capacity & Low-Latency Performance DDR5 Memory for AMD AM5
G.Skill continues to push the limits of DDR5 memory with the new DDR5-6000 CL26 at a high kit capacity of 96 GB (48 GB x2). Featuring a very low latency timing of CL26-36-36-96, this memory kit is engineered to provide efficiency and responsiveness for high-performance computing tasks, such as content creation, 3D modeling, or AI applications, on the latest AMD AM5 platforms. See below for a Memtest validation screenshots on the ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO motherboard with the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D desktop processor, as well as on the MSI MPG X870E CARBON WIFI motherboard with the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X desktop processor.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG), a global leader in gaming innovation, is shaking up esports with an electrifying partnership with Team Vitality, one of the most dominant forces in competitive gaming. This collaboration marks a new chapter in esports excellence, fusing cutting-edge gaming peripherals with world-class talent to push the limits of peak performance. Team Vitality starts 2025 off with a bang, coming off their recent CS2 victory at IEM Katowice, a strong start in the VCT Kickoff, and securing a playoff spot after back-to-back wins against T1 and DRX during the Swiss Round of VCT Masters Bangkok. With this momentum, the squad is hungrier than ever to extend their winning streak with the ultimate gear backing them up.

As their official gaming peripherals partner, ROG is equipping the elite Team Vitality roster with high-performance keyboards, mice, headsets, and other must-have gear designed for lightning-fast reflexes, pinpoint precision, and clutch reliability. The CS2 and VALORANT teams are already taking their gameplay to the next level with the ROG Falchion Ace HFX keyboard, praised by players for its instant actuation, premium feel, and rock-solid build quality, ensuring flawless execution in the heat of battle. "We are thrilled to join forces with Team Vitality, a powerhouse in the esports community," said Kris Huang, General Manager of the ROG Gaming Gear and Accessory Business Unit. "This partnership embodies our shared passion for gaming excellence, making sure that pro players have the very best tools to dominate the competition."

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) announced today that the ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 OC Edition graphics card has broken four world records and two global first place records in 3DMark Port Royal, 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme, 3DMark Time Spy Extreme, UNIGINE Superposition 1080p Xtreme, UNIGINE Superposition 8K Optimized, and GPUPI v3.3 32B.

ROG Astral is the flagship ASUS graphics cards family, and this OC Edition achieves a stunning boost clock speed of 2580 MHz right out of the box. A cutting-edge thermal solution keeps the heavyweight GeForce RTX 5090 GPU cool: a bold quad-fan design and phase-change GPU thermal pad ensure healthy temperatures that boost hardware longevity. Plus, a vapor chamber helps prevent heat buildup - offering one more layer of protection to keep performance at its peak. This card also packs premium power delivery to make sure the GPU gets stable, reliable power.

Starting now, you can pre-order GeForce RTX 5090, GeForce RTX 5080, and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti laptops ahead of their release in the coming months. Models will be available from top OEM partners including ASUS, GIGABYTE, HP, Lenovo, MECHREVO, MSI and Razer are available for pre-order now, with more coming soon. Availability will vary by country for each OEM partner and model. Powered by NVIDIA Blackwell, GeForce RTX 50 Series laptops bring game-changing capabilities to gamers and creators. Packed with incredible AI and neural rendering capabilities, GeForce RTX 50 Series Laptop GPUs enable new experiences and deliver unprecedented levels of detail in the latest, greatest games.

Multiply performance using DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, generate AI content at incredible speeds, and unleash your creativity with NVIDIA Studio apps and enhancements. All in the thinnest and longest lasting RTX laptops, optimized by new Max-Q technologies. The NVIDIA Blackwell architecture, and partners' design innovations, have enabled the creation of the thinnest, most performant, and most efficient GeForce RTX laptops ever made. In laptop designs as thin as 14.9 mm, you can run AI models twice as large in half the time, encode videos 40% faster, and play the most advanced games at superfast framerates, using half the power of previous-gen laptop GPUs. And with our latest Blackwell Max-Q advancements, battery life is boosted by up to 40%, enabling you to get more done between charges.

The new ASUS ROG Astral graphics card design debuted last month, with the rollout of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 "Blackwell" GPUs. The flagship model—in overclocked form—is not a wallet-friendly prospect; as highlighted by W1zzard's in-depth evaluation. The "astronomically-priced" premium-tier quad-fan model is a hot property; in more ways than one—late last week, an unfortunate ownership experience was shared online. NVIDIA subreddit member—Impossible-Weight485—uploaded photo evidence, accompanied by a short story: "I was playing PC games this afternoon, and when I was done with the games, my PC suddenly shut down while I was browsing websites. When I restarted the PC, the GPU caught on fire, and smoke started coming out. When I took out the GPU, I saw burn marks on both the GPU and the motherboard." Post-absorption, initial community and press feedback posited that the problem originated with a Multi-Layer Ceramic Capacitor (MLCC), located not far from the card's PCI-E interface.

High-profile figures soon swooped in, with different theories and offers. A Team Green subreddit moderator weighed in: "not adding this one to our GeForce RTX 50 Series 12VHPWR Megathread. This looks to be a blown power phase, and not melting power connector. The original poster provided additional photos of the cable, in addition to the GPU connector photo in the post. Both looks pristine...Yes, I watched Buildzoid's video (see below), hence updating this comment...Thanks to Buildzoid for the education!" The owner uploaded another interior shot, seemingly showing burn damage on their ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO motherboard. The severity of this incident attracted the attention of Gamers Nexus—Lelldorianx (aka Stephen Burke) reached out to the damaged card's owner: "messaging you. We'd buy the board and GPU from you if you want to just take the cash and buy something else (or) skip the RMA process." Burke and his colleagues are actively investigating various GeForce RTX 50-series "pratfalls"—earlier this month, reports indicated that the team was already engaged in the sourcing of problematic units.

Yesterday, the ASUS Chinese office announced a special event—on February 25—dedicated to launching a next-gen AMD APU-powered premium notebook model: "ROG Magic X (or Illusion X) is the first to be equipped with the Ryzen AI MAX+ three-in-one chip, which can efficiently coordinate multiple modes, provide combat power and computing power on demand, and can handle e-sports, creation and AI with one chip!" The manufacturer's Weibo post has generated plenty of buzz; industry insiders reckon that reviews could be published today (February 18)—HXL/9550pro informed VideoCardz with a not so cryptic message: "STX-Halo NDA: Feb 18th 2025."

Western press outlets point out that the ROG Magic X is a local variant of the familiar ROG Flow Z13 design; a 2025 refresh brings in AMD's much anticipated "Strix Halo" APU design. Team Red-authored marketing material and pre-release evaluation leaks have hinted about impressive integrated graphics solution performance; equalling or even exceeding that of previous-gen dGPUs. Well-known North American hardware review outlets have dropped hints (NDA permitting) about AMD's Ryzen Al Max+ 395 and Max 390 processors. Hardware Canucks could barely contain their excitement regarding the potent Zen 4 and RDNA 3.5 combo package; to the point of wish listing a potential direct successor: "Strix Halo is one of the most exciting things launched into the PC space in the last half decade. Full stop...AMD can't keep this as a one-off. If it's followed up with Zen 6 and RDNA 4 next year...watch out." Naturally, Team Red's cutting-edge mobile CPU technology is arriving in devices with high asking prices. The aforementioned ROG Flow Z13 2025 model—configured with top specs—is priced at $2699. Notebookcheck reckons that ASUS has tacked on an extra $500, since an announcement of initial pricing at CES 2025.

ASUS has released version one of a BIOS update tool for its ultra-premium air-cooled ROG Astral graphics cards, OC and standard flavors. Yesterday's update advertises an improved "Quiet Mode," that implements a "more silent fan curve." TechPowerUp reviewed the quad-fan configured ASUS ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 OC Edition cards late last month. Resident GPU evaluator, W1zzard, awarded the astronomically-priced flagship model with an "Editor's Choice" badge, but simultaneously pinned on a "But Expensive" honor. The lesser (GB203-based) Astral did not receive any accolades. Both models have courted criticism for louder than expected operation; W1zzard did not enjoy listening to the Astral GeForce RTX 5090 OC Edition's collective fan concerto. "Out of the box" settings were not great, and the quiet BIOS mode did not "help much" in reducing the highest-end Astral's cacophony.

TPU's GPU guru elaborated further: "the second BIOS runs a more relaxed fan curve, but it's not much quieter and achieves 36.5 dBA with 70°C. Sure, good temperature, but isn't the point of a 'quiet' BIOS that isn't quiet, even if temperatures are higher? MSI's Suprim lineup does much better noise-wise, with temperatures that aren't that much higher." The ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 OC Edition seems to be a less noisy prospect, given that its cooling solution is not dealing with the largest "Blackwell" GPU die. Its sound signature was less offensive, but W1zzard reckoned that there was room for improvement. On this subject he stated: "with the default (performance) BIOS, temperatures are extremely low, but noise levels are a little bit on the high side with 36 dBA. I would have preferred a more balanced setting. Good thing that ASUS includes a secondary quiet BIOS with their card. Now the card runs whisper quiet, emitting only 26 dBA, which is highly impressive for a card in this performance segment. It is not the quietest card though, the MSI Suprim SOC is a tiny bit quieter, and it is so out of the box, without requiring a manual BIOS switch change." ASUS has seemingly absorbed initial feedback from review outlets (plus early adopters)—yesterday's update arrived just under two weeks from launch time. Watch out for possible upcoming reassessments.

Earlier today, NVIDIA happily declared that: "GeForce RTX 50-series laptop pre-orders start February 25 from OEMs." A March launch window was mentioned during the company's official unveiling of its "Blackwell" GPU architecture at CES 2025. Mobile variants of the GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 Ti are expected to ship with laptops next month. GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile-equipped devices are due in April. As reported by VideoCardz, a Finnish retailer's webstore has confirmed the February 25 pre-order start date. The Gigantti.fi site lists several new ASUS ROG Zephyrus and Strix laptops; configured with the latest Intel Core Ultra 200HX or AMD "Strix Point/Fire Range" mobile APUs, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series discrete graphics solutions. The most expensive option is listed with a €5499 price point—interested buyers are looking at a spec that includes a 16-inch OLED screen, Core Ultra 9-285H processor, 32 GB LPDDR5X RAM, 1 TB M.2 PCIe SSD, and a GeForce RTX 5090 32 GB mobile GPU. At the time of writing, Gigantti's "cheapest" option is a €2999 ROG Strix 16 model; sporting a Ryzen 9 9955HX APU and GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 12 GB Mobile GPU.

NVIDIA disclosed official MSRPs during last month's CES presentation: $2199 for RTX 5090, $2199 for RTX 5080, $1599 for RTX 5070 Ti, and $1299 for the RTX 5070. Western press outlets have scouted North American online retail outlets. Tom's Hardware observed (ASUS and HP) price ranges starting at $1800. The most expensive offering came in at $4200; an ultra high-end ROG Strix Scar 18 laptop featuring a GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile GPU and an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU. Team Green's upcoming launch partners include Acer, ASUS, Dell, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo, Mechrevo, MSI and Razer. NVIDIA seems to have extra GeForce RTX 50-series announcements in the pipeline—they recommend that potential buyers: "stay tuned for more details!"

The next generation of graphics performance has arrived. We've prepared an all-new series of cards: ROG Astral. Featuring a new, sophisticated design and an outstanding cooling solution, the ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 and ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 are your premium picks for supercharging the performance of your gaming PC. All this new hardware in the ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 requires no small amount of power so that it can stretch its legs and run. Your PSU should be capable of at least 1000 W to run this card—more on that later. The circuitry that delivers this power is just as important, and it's one reason why many enthusiasts prefer ROG graphics cards. We've equipped the ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 for premium power delivery with 80-amp MOSFETs that can supply over 35% more headroom than standard designs. A massive 24-phase VRM array for the GPU and a seven-phase VRM for the GDDR7 memory chips distribute the work of supplying power, ensuring rock-solid stability and long-lasting performance. To give you peace of mind that your 16-pin PCIe power connector is seated properly, we provide monitoring through Power Detector+ in the GPU Tweak III app so that you can verify that the connector is fully seated. The app can even tell you exactly which pin is not seated properly, if that ever becomes a concern.

Ada, meet Blackwell
With the GeForce RTX 50 Series, NVIDIA debuts its latest Blackwell architecture. Armed with fifth-gen Tensor cores, new streaming multiprocessors optimized for neural shaders, and fourth-gen Ray Tracing cores built for Mega Geometry, the new graphics cards unlock access to the next generation of graphics technologies. For many gamers, the highlight of the new architecture is DLSS 4. DLSS is a revolutionary suite of neural rendering technologies that uses AI to boost FPS, reduce latency, and improve image quality. The latest breakthrough, DLSS 4, brings new Multi Frame Generation and enhanced Ray Reconstruction and Super Resolution. But there's more. NVIDIA Reflex 2 with Frame Warp provides game-winning responsiveness, and these cards are equipped to give you the best experience with ray-traced graphics yet.

ASUS ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 was reviewed by us at launch, where we remarked that it is the most expensive custom-design, with a launch price of $2,800 against the NVIDIA baseline of $2,000 (a 40% premium). The card is further marked up by retailers, and is going for nearly $3,000. While this is going on, ASUS released its first halo variant, the ROG Astral RTX 5090 OC Dhahab Edition. Probably targeting the MENA (Middle-East and North Africa) markets, the Dhahab Edition is a luxurious collector's edition item that's finished in gold. Dhahab is Arabic for gold, and you can see elements of this across the cooler shroud, backplate, and the GPU retention bracket. Even the heatsink underneath has gold color. We don't know the exact material of this card—whether it is a gold-like polish, or gold electroplated.

Contrasting all this gold is a turquoise-like stone embellishment that refracts light in a blue-green tone, just like the actual stone. There are several other cultural elements to this design, including Arabic calligraphy, and motifs representing "strength, courage, and unity." The gold backplate even has machined regional motifs representing the desert, and skyscrapers. Given that the regular ROG Astral RTX 5090 OC is already at around $3,000 on the streets, sky is the limit for what ASUS could ask for this collector's item.

As smartphone SoCs continue to get more powerful every single cycle, there seems to be a plethora of gaming-oriented smartphones entering the market. The pricey ASUS ROG Phone 9 lineup is perhaps the most well known in this regard, powered by the impressively potent Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC. However, the smartphone is well outside most people's budgets, and ASUS seems to have taken note of that. The company has now unveiled a more affordable version, dubbed the ROG Phone 9 FE. However, the smartphone is only available in Thailand for now, commanding a price tag of $890.

On paper, it appears that the only difference between the ROG Phone 9, and the 9 FE is the chipset. While the pricier sibling utilizes the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, the FE has to make do with the substantially inferior Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. Apart from that, the ROG Phone 9 FE is almost identical to the vanilla Phone 9, sporting 12 GB of LPDDR5X memory, 256 GB storage, a 50 MP primary shooter, 13 MP wide-angle shooter, and a 5 MP macro camera. At the front, a 32 MP selfie camera sits above the 6.78-inch OLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 and a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz. In synthetic benchmarks, the Snapdragon 8 Elite leads the 8 Gen 3 by around 25-30% in CPU tests, and around 30-35% in GPU benchmarks, although it does consume more power, which is to be expected.

G.Skill International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading brand of performance overclock memory and PC components, is announcing the release of high-speed, low-latency DDR5-6800 CL32 memory specification with large kit capacity of up to 96 GB (2x 48 GB), as well as DDR5-6400 CL28 32 GB (2x 16 GB) high-performance memory specification. These new memory specifications will be available under the G.SKILL Trident Z5 Royal, Trident Z5 RGB, and Ripjaws M5 RGB series, with Intel XMP 3.0 memory overclock profile support.

As G.SKILL continues to push memory performance to higher limits, an ideal memory solution for overclocking enthusiasts who are looking for both large capacity and high performance is born at DDR5-6800 CL32-42-42 at up to 96 GB (2x 48 GB). This new specification has been validated on both Intel Z790 and Z890 platforms. Please refer to the screenshots below for Memtest validation on the ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Hero motherboard with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K desktop processor, and the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero motherboard with the Intel Core i9-14900K desktop processor.

AMD has just published its "How to Sell" Ryzen AI MAX series guide—several news outlets have pored over the "claimed" gaming performance charts contained within this two-page document. Team Red appears to be in a boastful mood—their 1080p benchmark results reveal compelling numbers, as produced by their flagship Zen 5 "Strix Halo" processor (baseline 55 W TDP). According to Team Red's marketing guidelines, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU: "competes with a GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile GPU at similar TDP and form factor." The first-party produced comparison points to their Radeon 8060S integrated graphics solution being up to 68% faster—in modern gaming environments at 1080p settings—than the competing Team Green dedicated laptop-oriented GPU, limited to 65 W TGP due to form factor restrictions. Overall, the AMD test unit does better by 23.2% on average (referring to Wccftech's calculations).

According to the document, AMD's reference system was lined up against an ASUS ROG Flow Z13 (2023) gaming laptop specced with an Intel Core i9-13900H processor, and a GeForce RTX 4070 mobile graphics card. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395's "massive iGPU" can unleash the full force of forty RDNA 3.5 compute units, paired with up to 96 GB of unified on-board memory (from a total pool of 128 GB). Non-gaming benchmarks place the flagship Team Red processor above Intel Core Ultra 9 288V and Apple M4 Pro (12-core) CPUs—as always, it is best to wait for verification from independent evaluators. Saying that, the "Strix Halo" APU family has generated a lot of excitement—even going back to early leaks—and the latest marketed performance could drum up further interest.

Yes, the title is correct. One of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090D "China" edition GPUs, not the regular RTX 5090, managed to run at 3.4 GHz under liquid nitrogen. With a staggering 575 W default TDP, Tony Yu, ASUS China's general manager, has performed physical modifications that allow the card to run up to 1000 W TDP. The RTX 5090D is a China-exclusive variant with virtually no difference from the regular RTX 5090, just limited general AI capability due to US export regulations. ASUS China used its top-end Astral OC variant for this stunt, which, as we proved in our review of the regular ASUS RTX 5090 Astral OC, has some pretty good chip binning, allowing the card to reach the highest overclock. We pushed the regular RTX 5090 Astral OC GPU on air to 3086 MHz, a +277 MHz over the stock boost setting. However, the RTX 5090D equivalent under LN2 manages to reach 3,390 MHz at peak loads, which is a +581 MHz difference.

For memory, the overclock is equally impressive with 34 Gbps. Regarding performance, the LN2-overclocked RTX 5090D surpassed stock performance by approximately 16%. During benchmark tests, the GPU outperformed multiple previous-generation graphics cards, including a dual RTX 3090 Ti configuration in Port Royal and a quad GTX 1080 Ti setup in Fire Strike. Power consumption figures indicate that 1,760 W was used in total for a rig with ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090D, which is paired with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D on the ASUS ROG X870E Hero motherboard. This roughly yields a 1,000 W power consumption by the card, which has seen its PCB get physical modifications to output such high power.