The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it issued orders to five companies requiring them to provide information regarding recent investments and partnerships involving generative AI companies and major cloud service providers. The agency's 6(b) inquiry will scrutinize corporate partnerships and investments with AI providers to build a better internal understanding of these relationships and their impact on the competitive landscape. The compulsory orders were sent to Alphabet, Inc., Amazon.com, Inc., Anthropic PBC, Microsoft Corp., and OpenAI, Inc.

"History shows that new technologies can create new markets and healthy competition. As companies race to develop and monetize AI, we must guard against tactics that foreclose this opportunity, "said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan. "Our study will shed light on whether investments and partnerships pursued by dominant companies risk distorting innovation and undermining fair competition."

A whole bunch of custom GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER and 4070 Ti SUPER graphics card models were available to purchase via online retail outlets last week—several ZOTAC options were available on Amazon USA for a brief period over the weekend. Enthusiastic customers have jumped at the chance to acquire potent Ada Lovelace SUPER cards ahead of NVIDIA's official review embargo and launch dates—TPU's resident GPU Judge has just published his first set of GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER evaluations. An early example was documented on the /NVIDIA community subreddit—user "LightMoisture" provided evidence of his PNY RTX 4070 Ti VERTO Triple Fan purchase arriving two days before the sanctioned release date (January 24).

It is not too surprising to see retailers ship out pre-ordered products a tad prematurely (given delivery lead times), but intriguing posts on social media have been highlighted by VideoCardz. A very fortunate soul has received an ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 4080 SUPER OC graphics card, well in advance of Team Green's preferred January 31 launch day. The plucky owner has asked around for functioning drivers (good luck)—LightMoisture also ran into this issue with his PNY RTX 4070 Ti VERTO. The next public GeForce Driver release (551.15) is due tomorrow, with (presumed) support for GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER GPUs. LightMoisture's evidence included screenshots of the aforementioned PNY card's crendentials being displayed in TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.57.0, and test results generated by Maxon's Cinebench 2024 suite.

ZOTAC's new range of GeForce RTX 40 SUPER graphics cards have frequently hit headlines since an unveiling at CES 2024—the Hong Kong-headquarted hardware manufacturer set the tone early, with certain models sticking to NVIDIA guide prices. Hardware sleuth, momomo_us, has continued to keep track of ZOTAC-related activity—their latest discovery being the premature sale of GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Trinity Black Edition 16 GB models on Amazon USA. The listing popped up over the weekend, with customers greeted to a $899.99 asking price—so $100 above MSRP. It is clear that this product page was activated by mistake—the card is not available to purchase (at the time of writing).

VideoCardz proceeded to investigate further, following the initial find (courtesy of momomo_us)—their weekend sleuthing efforts have outed additional premature ZOTAC listings on Amazon.com. In the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER category we can see the AMP Extreme AIRO version ($1399.99), Trinity OC White Edition ($1349.99) and Trinity Black Edition ($1299.99). Moving down the line—with 4070 Ti SUPER cards—listings appeared for AMP HOLO ($969.99), Trinity OC White Edition ($939.99) and the aforementioned Trinity Black Edition (non-overclocked) coming in at $899.99. They also tracked down PNY's GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16 GB XLR8 Gaming VERTO EPIC-X RGB graphics card—its Amazon price listing was reported as being a semi-wallet friendly $1049 (prior to deactivation).

Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today announced an expansion of their strategic collaboration to deliver the most-advanced infrastructure, software and services to power customers' generative artificial intelligence (AI) innovations. The companies will bring together the best of NVIDIA and AWS technologies—from NVIDIA's newest multi-node systems featuring next-generation GPUs, CPUs and AI software, to AWS Nitro System advanced virtualization and security, Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) interconnect, and UltraCluster scalability—that are ideal for training foundation models and building generative AI applications.

The expanded collaboration builds on a longstanding relationship that has fueled the generative AI era by offering early machine learning (ML) pioneers the compute performance required to advance the state-of-the-art in these technologies.

At AWS re:Invent, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), today announced the next generation of two AWS-designed chip families—AWS Graviton4 and AWS Trainium2—delivering advancements in price performance and energy efficiency for a broad range of customer workloads, including machine learning (ML) training and generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Graviton4 and Trainium2 mark the latest innovations in chip design from AWS. With each successive generation of chip, AWS delivers better price performance and energy efficiency, giving customers even more options—in addition to chip/instance combinations featuring the latest chips from third parties like AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA—to run virtually any application or workload on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2).

The recent development of AI models that are more capable than ever has led to a massive demand for hardware infrastructure that powers them. As the dominant player in the industry with its GPU and CPU-GPU solutions, NVIDIA has reportedly discussed leasing data center space to power its own cloud service for these AI applications. Called NVIDIA Cloud DGX, it will reportedly put the company right up against its clients, which are cloud service providers (CSPs) as well. Companies like Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, and Oracle actively acquire NVIDIA GPUs to power their GPU-accelerated cloud instances. According to the report, this has been developing for a few years.

Additionally, it is worth noting that NVIDIA already owns parts for its potential data center infrastructure. This includes NVIDIA DGX and HGX units, which can just be interconnected in a data center, with cloud provisioning so developers can access NVIDIA's instances. A great benefit that would attract the end-user is that NVIDIA could potentially lower the price point of its offerings, as they are acquiring GPUs for much less compared to the CSPs that receive them with a profit margin that NVIDIA imposes. This can attract potential customers, leaving hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google without a moat in the cloud game. Of course, until this project is official, we should take this information with a grain of salt.

The burgeoning AI market is significantly impacting TSMC's CoWoS (Chip on Wafer on Substrate) advanced packaging production capacity, causing it to overflow due to high demand from major companies like NVIDIA, AMD, and Amazon. To accommodate this, TSMC is in the process of expanding its production capacity by acquiring additional CoWoS machines from equipment manufacturers like Xinyun, Wanrun, Hongsu, Titanium, and Qunyi. These expansions are expected to be operational in the first half of the next year, leading to an increased monthly production capacity, potentially close to 30,000 pieces, enabling TSMC to cater to more AI-related orders. These endeavors to increase capacity are in response to the amplified demand for AI chips from their applications in various domains, including autonomous vehicles and smart factories.

Despite TSMC's active steps to enlarge its CoWoS advanced packaging production, the overwhelming client demand is driving the company to place additional orders with equipment suppliers. It has been indicated that NVIDIA is currently TSMC's largest CoWoS advanced packaging customer, accounting for 60% of its production capacity. Due to the surge in demand, companies like AMD, Amazon, and Broadcom are also placing urgent orders, leading to a substantial increase in TSMC's advanced process capacity utilization. The overall situation indicates a thriving scenario for equipment manufacturers with clear visibility of orders extending into the following year, even as they navigate the challenges of fulfilling the rapidly growing and immediate demand in the AI market.

Today, we're announcing that Amazon will invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic. The agreement is part of a broader collaboration to develop the most reliable and high-performing foundation models in the industry. Our frontier safety research and products, together with Amazon Web Services' (AWS) expertise in running secure, reliable infrastructure, will make Anthropic's safe and steerable AI widely accessible to AWS customers.

AWS will become Anthropic's primary cloud provider for mission critical workloads, providing our team with access to leading compute infrastructure in the form of AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips, which will be used in addition to existing solutions for model training and deployment. Together, we'll combine our respective expertise to collaborate on the development of future Trainium and Inferentia technology.

Panos Panay did not present at Microsoft's recent Windows event in New York City—his departure from the titanic technology corporation was announced on September 18; so only three days before an official unveiling of new Surface products. Panay and his (now former) executive colleagues painted a positive picture regarding the move onto pastures new. News reports emerged about an alleged high level hiring by Amazon, with Panay overseeing Alexa and Echo divisions—replacing Dave Limp, SVP of Amazon Devices & Services. A Business Insider report suggests that Microsoft's former chief product officer was unhappy about budget cuts affecting his Surface division—certain insiders were not surprised when Panay announced his retirement from the big M.

The transfer to Amazon was in the works for a while, according to cited inside sources—Microsoft reportedly implemented a round of major budget cuts and product cancellations that did not sit well with Panay. The Surface department experienced "significant" downscaling, and plans for next-generation Surface Headphones were jettisoned. Business Insider proposed that funds had been reassigned to more important internal ventures—mainly artificial intelligence. Many folks were looking forward to Panay taking the stage in NYC earlier this week, but Brett Ostrum (Corporate Vice President of Surface Devices) ultimately acted as his replacement—with a showcasing of the company's latest portable Windows devices. Attendees were somewhat surprised to see Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella turn up as well—it is possible that he was added to the roster for "some extra firepower."

Amazon today introduced a range of new Echo devices designed for even more personalized, proactive, and intuitive Alexa experiences at home and on-the-go—the next-generation Echo Show 8, all-new Echo Hub, and new Echo Frames. In addition, Amazon collaborated with Safilo, one of the world's leading eyewear manufacturers, to blend the power of Alexa with iconic Carrera designs.

"Engagement with Echo devices is at an all-time high," said Daniel Rausch, vice president of Alexa and Fire TV. "Customers rely on Alexa for so much, including managing their smart homes, keeping up with the latest news, setting birthday reminders, and keeping their homes stocked with essentials. These new Echo devices give customers more ways to experience the world's best personal AI—and the growing generative AI capabilities that will be coming to Alexa soon—at home and on the go."

Amazon announced eero Max 7, its first Wi-Fi 7 mesh system and the fastest, most powerful eero yet. eero Max 7 combines the company's patented TrueMesh networking technology with the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard to dramatically increase speeds, avoid interference from neighboring networks, and improve mesh latency-and with 10 Gigabit Ethernet, it's now possible to download a 4K movie in 10 seconds or a 50 gigabyte video game in less than a minute.

"Connectivity is core to our everyday lives—we stream movies and TV, take video calls for work, play online games with our friends, and use an ever increasing number of connected devices," said Nick Weaver, co-founder and CEO of eero. "With tens of millions of eero devices around the world, we know customers notice even a millisecond delay when streaming a movie or gaming, want reliable connectivity in every corner of the home, and always look for faster speeds. eero Max 7 is the culmination of everything we've learned—this is an entirely new class of eero, built without compromise."

Introducing the JBL Authentics series. Striking sound performance meets timeless retro design inspired by JBL's heritage. The portable JBL Authentics 300 is a true decorative piece of the home, an all-encompassing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth smart speaker delivers room-filling professional sound to envelop you in 360-immersive audio - with portability to carry your music anywhere in your home. The JBL Authentics 200 and JBL Authentics 500 home speakers complete the all-new JBL Authentics series, available September 17th.

Room-filling sound throughout the home
Be at the center of your favorite song as the JBL Authentics 300 invites you to experience music like never before. For those looking for superior sound in and around the house, the JBL Authentics 300 offers portable high-performance sound with a built-in 8-hour battery. Delivering distinctive highs and deep bass, enjoy amazing audio performance wherever you are - from the kitchen to the garden or the next outdoor party.

Today, AMD announced Amazon Web Services (AWS) has expanded its 4th Gen AMD EPYC processor-based offerings with the general availability of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) M7a and Amazon EC2 Hpc7a instances, which offer next-generation performance and efficiency for applications that benefit from high performance, high throughput and tightly coupled HPC workloads, respectively.

"For customers with increasingly complex and compute-intensive workloads, 4th Gen EPYC processor-powered Amazon EC2 instances deliver a differentiated offering for customers," said David Brown, vice president of Amazon EC2 at AWS. "Combined with the power of the AWS Nitro System, both M7a and Hpc7a instances allow for fast and low-latency internode communications, advancing what our customers can achieve across our growing family of Amazon EC2 instances."

Today, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the general availability of new Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances powered by custom 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors. This launch is the latest on a growing list of 4th Gen Xeon-powered instances that deliver leading total cost of ownership (TCO) and the most built-in accelerators of any CPU to fuel key workloads like AI, database, networking and enterprise applications.

"Intel worked closely with AWS to bring our feature-rich 4th Gen Xeon processors to its cloud customers, many of which have benefited from its performance and value for months in private and public preview. Today, we're happy to bring that same real-world value to cloud customers around the globe," said Lisa Spelman, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of the Xeon Products and Solutions Group.

Camina Drummer has a few problems: Her spaceship is running out of fuel. Her medic is hiding a dark secret. And there's an asteroid headed their way. But that's just another day on The Artemis. In The Expanse: A Telltale Series, Drummer's problems are your problems. If you know her from the television show of the same name, you know she's strong-willed and loyal, with the kind of fierce temperament suited to space exploration. But here, in Telltale's first new game in five years, you get to make the decisions. And your crew—and the game—is paying attention. Episodic narratives are making a comeback. With them returns a style of game that is uniquely suited both to the video game medium and our present moment.

Today's release is the first of five to be rolled out over the next two months. The planned schedule is very much in line with prestige TV: Each episode will be between sixty and ninety minutes, and by the end you'll have witnessed a full narrative arc for this "eccentric crew," as Game Director Stephan Frost describes Drummer and her cohorts. But what makes episodic games so exciting and different from episodic television is the obvious fact that you don't just get one narrative, of course. You get yours, as you decide how and when to make certain decisions, with each plotline breaking off down multiple paths and crisscrossing across many story nodes. Sometimes this means you get to take down the leader of a doomsday cult with either force or subterfuge, as in HITMAN: World of Assassination; sometimes this means running into a burning building and risking the life of a trusted friend who runs in after you, as in The Walking Dead: Michonne.

AWS users can now access the leading performance demonstrated in industry benchmarks of AI training and inference. The cloud giant officially switched on a new Amazon EC2 P5 instance powered by NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs. The service lets users scale generative AI, high performance computing (HPC) and other applications with a click from a browser.

The news comes in the wake of AI's iPhone moment. Developers and researchers are using large language models (LLMs) to uncover new applications for AI almost daily. Bringing these new use cases to market requires the efficiency of accelerated computing. The NVIDIA H100 GPU delivers supercomputing-class performance through architectural innovations including fourth-generation Tensor Cores, a new Transformer Engine for accelerating LLMs and the latest NVLink technology that lets GPUs talk to each other at 900 GB/sec.

Intel has responded to the high demand for advanced chips in mainland China by bringing its processor, the Gaudi2, to the market. This move comes as the country grapples with US export restrictions, leading to a thriving market for smuggled NVIDIA GPUs. At a press conference in Beijing, Intel presented the Gaudi2 processor as an alternative to NVIDIA's A100 GPU, widely used for training AI systems. Despite US export controls, Intel recognizes the importance of the Chinese market, with 27 percent of its 2022 revenue generated from China. NVIDIA has also tried to comply with restrictions by offering modified versions of its GPUs, but limited supplies have driven the demand for smuggled GPUs. Intel's Gaudi2 aims to provide Chinese companies with various hardware options and bolster their ability to deploy AI through cloud and smart-edge technologies. By partnering with Inspur Group, a major AI server manufacturer, Intel plans to build Gaudi2-powered machines tailored explicitly for the Chinese market.

China's AI ambitions face potential challenges as the US government considers restricting Chinese companies access to American cloud computing services. This move could impede the utilization of advanced AI chips by major players like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft for their Chinese clients. Additionally, there are reports of a potential expansion of the US export ban to include NVIDIA's A800 GPU. As China continues to push forward with its AI development projects, Intel's introduction of the Gaudi2 processor helps country's demand for advanced chips. Balancing export controls and technological requirements within this complex trade landscape remains a crucial task for both companies and governments involved in the Chinese AI industry.

Not entirely unexpected, Seagate is getting ready to launch its first PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD which will be going under the name of FireCuda 540 and now details of the upcoming drive have appeared online courtesy of Amazon UK, B&H Photo and others that have put up the product for pre-order. For those worried about the lack of a 4 TB SKU, you can relax, as the company is planning a 4 TB SKU, which is made clear from the pictures posted by Amazon UK. However, changing the digit in the model number that represents the drive size, doesn't bring up any info about a 4 TB SKU at the moment.

It doesn't look like the FireCuda 540 will be competing with the fastest PCI 5.0 NVMe drives, as it's only listed as offering sequential drives speeds of up to 10 GB/s, although this applies to both read and write speeds for the 2 TB SKU, with the 1 TB SKU being somewhat slower with read speeds of 9.5 GB/s and write speeds of 8.5 GB/s. The 1 TB SKU is good for 1,000 TB TBW, with the 2 TB SKU doubling this to 2,000 TB and the 4 TB SKU apparently hitting 3,949 TB or as Seagate put it, this allows you to erase 90 percent of the drive every day for five years. B&H Photo has the drives listed at US$189.99 for the 1 TB SKU and US$319,99 for the 2 TB SKU—making both SKUs cheaper than Crucials T700—with Amazon UK listing the 1 TB SKU for £203.48 and no pricing for the 2 TB SKU. It's unclear when the Seagate FireCuda 540 will launch, but it can't be far away.

Razer looks to be preparing a pair of Viper Mini gaming mouse successors according to information shared on Reddit recently—but the peripheral specialist has decided to relabel these upcoming offerings under a new product family, albeit still sticking with a serpent naming scheme. Photos of boxed examples appeared online a few weeks ago, and this weekend two listings have turned up (before any official announcement) on Amazon.ca for a higher-end $179.99 "Cobra Pro Wireless" and a more budget friendly $54.99 "Cobra Wired" sibling. Pre-order information indicates that these units will be out on June 29, although Amazon Canada has quickly removed the product pages from their site. Gaming mouse purists have immediately jumped on this leak with criticism leveled at Razer for bumping up the number of Chroma RGB zones on these new models (when compared to predecessors), but the company is likely targeting a more mainstream crowd this time round.

The Razer Cobra Pro Wireless looks to be a slightly cheaper alternative to the extremely expensive Viper Mini Signature Edition (VMSE), thanks to sharing similar core specifications including the company's flagship Focus Pro 30K Optical Sensor and 90 million click-rated Optical Mouse Switches Gen-3. The Cobra Pro makes do with a plastic shell (no weight specified), which likely saves on material costs when contrasted with the magnesium alloy body featured on the 49 gram limited edition Viper Mini SE. Compatibility with Razer's 8000 Hz HyperPolling Wireless dongle was not outlined in the now removed listing. Razer's 58 gram Cobra Wired seems to be a true follow-up to the original (2020) Viper Mini—with Amazon's leaked spec sheet pointing to a fitting of the same previous generation 8500 DPI optical sensor, although the new entry level model has been updated with Razer's third-gen optical switches.

Select Samsung Smart TV and Smart Monitor owners will now gain access to nearly 3,000 games as Antstream Arcade and Blacknut have been added to the Samsung Gaming Hub partner lineup, with the rollout starting today. Samsung makes it easy for players of all ages to find content and choose apps from industry-leading game streaming partners: Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Amazon Luna, Utomik, and now over 1,400 games with arcade classics from Antstream Arcade, and over 500 premium family titles and exclusive games from Blacknut.

"Samsung Gaming Hub offers players more ways to access the titles they love and discover new ones to play from our game streaming partners, no console required," said Mike Lucero, Head of Product Management for Gaming at Samsung Electronics. "With Antstream Arcade and Blacknut, we've made games even easier to jump into. Now all you need to do is pick up your Samsung TV remote to enjoy great games like "Pac-Man" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", or pair your Bluetooth controller to access thousands of world-class games across genres. With more games and more ways to play, there has never been a better time to play games on Samsung Gaming Hub."

Samsung Electronics today announced the global launch of its full 2023 Smart Monitor lineup. The new M8, M7 and M5 Smart Monitors (Model Name: M80C, M70C, M50C) from Samsung enable users to tailor their monitors to their unique styles and needs, as they watch, play and work.

"We are raising the bar for Smart Monitors globally with our new lineup and especially our enhanced M8 model," said Hoon Chung, Executive Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. "Within a single monitor, users can enjoy the best of entertainment and gaming, productivity, design and personalized convenience and comfort."

Amazon today announced the new Fire Max 11—its biggest and most powerful tablet yet—that helps you stay entertained, connected, and productive. Featuring a brilliant 11-inch screen, a powerful octa-core processor, and 4 GB RAM, Fire Max 11 provides unrivaled value, performance, and fun and starts at just $229.99. A new optional magnetic attach keyboard and stylus enhance productivity and creativity to help you get more done—with a bundle starting at $329.99. Customers can pre-order Fire Max 11 and companion accessories starting today.

"Fire Max 11 is our most powerful tablet yet, with a beautiful screen and a sleek new design—it's built to help you have fun and get things done," said Kevin Keith, vice president of Amazon Devices. "The team has packed in an amazing number of premium features—a powerful octa-core processor, crystal-clear display, fingerprint recognition, superfast Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, 14 hour of battery life, support for great new accessories, and more—all at an incredible value. The new Fire Max 11 is proof you can get everything you need from a tablet without paying premium prices."

LG Electronics USA announced pricing and availability of the latest addition to its LG CineBeam lineup, the LG CineBeam PU700R. Featuring an intuitive and interior-friendly design that doesn't compromise on picture quality, the PU700R is available now at LG.com for $1699. Consumers who purchase an LG CineBeam PU700R projector through June 11 will receive a free LG XBOOM 360 Bluetooth speaker XO3QBE ($299.99 ARV).

The PU700R allows for content to be cast up to 120 inches in exceptional 4K UHD picture quality, and with optimized brightness levels and HDR support, users can enjoy high-quality picture in ambient lighting environments.

AMD's cheapest Zen 4 X3D processor is shaping up to be its most popular. Sales numbers from Germany's Mindfactory posted by TechEpiphany seemingly shows the recently launched Ryzen 7 7800X3D outselling last year's Ryzen 7 5800X3D nearly 2:1, with 4,720 7800X3Ds selling to the 5800X3D's 2,510 over a few week period. While these figures show sales for only a single region, evidence for this momentum is reflected in other regional retailers as well as some global outlets. On Amazon, for example, the 7800X3D has made a frequent appearance on the top 10 best selling CPUs list, with the rest of the Zen 4 lineup trailing well behind. Newegg reports the 7800X3D to be among the top 5 best selling CPUs on the site at time of writing. Microcenter also shows the 7800X3D and 5800X3D side-by-side in seventh and eighth places respectively for popularity.

Despite recent troubles with the AM5 platform and Zen 4 X3D processors, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is proving to be quite a success for AMD. The 7800X3D in our review was shown to be one of the most efficient processors we've ever tested, and offered gaming performance at or near the top of the charts across the gauntlet of games and resolutions thrown at it. The staggered release of the 7000X3D lineup, with the 7950X3D and 7900X3D launching first and the 7800X3D launching later, gave early signals that AMD knew what they had and wanted to push as many early adopters away from the better value chip as they could. Pricing for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D has been steady since it released, however we've already seen retailers offering discounts on the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Ryzen 9 7900X3D, as they presumably struggle to sell as well as the more aggressively positioned 7800X3D.

Intel has published its latest blog post, announcing the Intel Arc Balanced Builds, an initiative that pairs up Intel Arc GPUs with Intel Core CPUs, creating balanced configurations that match Intel Arc graphics cards to the "best-fitting" Intel Core CPU. Starting at $423 for the GPU and CPU and $899 for the full system, Intel claims these combinations come from thousands of test runs and hundreds of hours in the lab, leading up to 15,000 datapoints and 22 GB of data.

According to Intel's own testing, which includes a wide variety of Intel Core processors in different configurations and games, there is a perfect CPU range for both its entry level Intel Arc A380 graphics card, as well as the Intel Arc A750 and Arc A770 graphics cards. Of course, for those with a big or unlimited budget, there is always the best configuration that money can buy, but making a balanced build is what makes sense for many others.