Intel is preparing to launch its first "Panther Lake" mobile processor later this year, but only one configuration will arrive in 2025. This SKU features four high-performance P-cores paired with eight E-cores, leaves out the lower-power efficiency cores, and packs four Xe3 GPU cores. With a 45 W TDP, it is clearly aimed at mainstream gaming laptops rather than ultralight notebooks. Panther Lake fills the gap left by "Lunar Lake" with a higher power envelope and a more performance-oriented design. Lunar Lake ranged from 17 W to 28 W, while Panther Lake's 45 W shows Intel is targeting users who need more sustained compute and graphics throughput. Rumors indicate additional Panther Lake variants will arrive in Q1 of 2026, when Intel plans to have more SKUs shipping to OEMs from volume production.

One such SKU is expected to feature 12 Xe3 GPU cores for premium thin-and-light laptops without discrete graphics. All of Panther Lake processors combine "Cougar Cove" performance cores with "Darkmont" efficiency cores, following Intel's hybrid approach introduced with "Meteor Lake". Intel's decision to stagger the rollout reflects supply chain considerations and product segmentation by power and graphics capability. Gaming laptops that can rely on integrated Xe3 graphics will welcome this 45 W chip, while other form factors may wait for next year's lower-power or ultralight 15 W models. Qualification with OEM partners should begin later this year, with laptop shipments expected by late Q4 2025. Until Intel shares more details on the rest of the Panther Lake lineup, much remains speculative.

GAMDIAS, a prominent name in PC gaming hardware, is set to showcase its latest innovations at COMPUTEX 2025, guided by this year's vision of "Gaming Reimagined." In line with our commitment to ESG principles, we've moved this year's showcase to Grand Hilai Taipei, just a 5-minute walk from the main venue—reducing waste and environmental impact of traditional booth setups.

Every setup in our suite is thoughtfully designed for reuse in future events, reinforcing our sustainable approach. On display are our latest innovations, including PC cases, LCD display CPU coolers, the brand-new THOR Series PSUs, and advanced gaming gears - all crafted to push boundaries, inspire creativity, and bring "Gaming Reimagined" to life.

NVIDIA has significantly advanced professional graphics by rebranding its workstation lineup as "RTX PRO" and incorporating an amazing 96 GB of GDDR7 memory capacity into a single RTX PRO 6000 card. This marks the first time 3 GB GDDR7 modules have been employed in a workstation GPU, each supporting error-correcting code for enhanced reliability. By arranging 16 such modules on each side of the PCB, NVIDIA achieves the remarkable 96 GB capacity while maintaining a TDP limit of 300 W for its Max-Q variant (pictured below) and up to 600 W for other SKUs. A recent leak on the Chiphell forum provides a clear insight into the new PCB layout. The customary 12 V-6×2 power connector has been omitted and replaced by four solder points intended for a cable extension.

This design choice suggests preparation for both Server and Max-Q editions, where power inputs are relocated to the rear of the card. Despite the simplified power interface and reduced footprint, the Max-Q model retains the full GB202 Blackwell GPU and the complete memory capacity. At the top of the series, the RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell will be offered in three distinct configurations. The Workstation and Server editions feature 24,064 CUDA cores, 96 GB of GDDR7 ECC memory, and a 600 W power budget, ensuring consistent performance in desktop towers and rack-mounted systems. The Max-Q edition employs the identical GPU and memory configuration but limits power consumption to 300 W through lower clocks and power limits, making it particularly well suited for compact chassis and noise-sensitive environments.

NVIDIA has just rolled out GeForce Hotfix Driver 576.26, an essential update for RTX 50 series graphics cards that fixes an array of game crashes, display oddities, and performance quirks that have been cropping up lately. If you've been getting random crashes in Black Myth: Wukong when the hero transforms or freezes in Horizon Forbidden West after loading a save, those problems are gone. DisplayPort 2.1 users will no longer see blank screens on those new LG monitors running HDR and you won't get that annoying flicker at high refresh rates, and if your multi-monitor setup was showing a grey-screen crash, that too should be fixed. Forza Horizon 5 fans can put nighttime light flickers behind them, and Forza Motorsport tracks will stay intact whether you're racing at night or running benchmarks.

Red Dead Redemption 2 now starts smoothly in DX12 mode, and you should see Dead Island 2 run OK again after updating past game-ready driver 576.02. Resident Evil 4 Remake's background textures will stop flickering, and the fixes from the previous 576.15 hotfix are included here too, so shadow corruption, Lumion 2024 crashes, missing GPU temperature reports after sleep, shader compile crashes, notebook standby black screens, SteamVR micro-stutters and low idle clock speeds have all been addressed. In a true tone of hotfix, the driver is quickly patching out weird game quirks after they were established as bugs on a wide range of user machines.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix Driver 576.26

AMD has officially announced the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE, the China-exclusive high-end RDNA 4 gaming GPU, along with a May 8 pre-order date. As with previous iterations of AMD's GRE GPUs, the RX 9070 GRE is a trimmed-back version of the higher-tier models, with both less VRAM and fewer compute units than its other RDNA 4 counterparts. Along with the official announcement and the May 8 release date, at least one pre-order retail listing has been spotted online, with retail prices coming in at 4499 CNY ($617 converted). The retail unit in question is an ASUS tri-fan card, so it comes in slightly above the claimed 4199 CNY MSRP.

According to the specifications released by AMD, the RX 9070 GRE features 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with up to 432 GB/s bandwidth. Instead of the 56 compute units found in the Radeon RX 9070, the 9070 GRE has 48 CUs, which should make it a fair bit slower than the 9070 and 9070 XT. However, the GPU boost frequency has been bumped up to 2,790 MHz on the 9070 GRE, from 2,520 MHz on the RX 9070. AMD claims the new GPU is 6% faster than the RX 7900 GRE in "more than 30 games." The RX 9070 GRE also features a standard 2×8-pin power connector, so no need to worry about melting 12VHPWR cables. Much like the other RDNA 4 GPUs, the RX 9070 GRE has launched without a first-party reference design, meaning it may become difficult to find MSRP variants of the 9070 GRE.

OKI Circuit Technology, the OKI Group printed circuit board (PCB) company, has successfully developed 124-layer PCB technology for wafer inspection equipment designed for next-generation high bandwidth memory, such as HBM mounted on AI semiconductors. This is a roughly 15% increase in the number of layers over conventional 108-layer designs. OTC is seeking to establish mass production technology by October 2025 at its Joetsu Plant in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, which has a proven track record and advanced development and production capabilities in the field of high multilayer, high-precision, large-format PCBs for semiconductor inspection equipment.

AI processing requires the transmission of vast data volumes between graphics processing unit (GPU) semiconductors and memory. As semiconductor performance increases, the memory installed is also required to have high-speed, high-frequency, and high-density data transfer capabilities. HBM features a stacked DRAM structure, requiring technology capable of fabricating wafers even more thinly and precisely. This configuration also requires that the PCBs used in inspection equipment meet even higher levels of performance and quality.

At the 2025 Shanghai Auto Show, Intel revealed its next-generation automotive system-on-chip lineup, unveiling two ambitious platforms, "Frisco Lake" and "Grizzly Lake". The company described these new designs as key steps toward fully software-driven vehicles, where much of the intelligence is handled by high-performance processors instead of dedicated hardware circuits. Intel said these chips would support advanced driver assistance and richer multimedia features. Intel's second generation Software Defined Vehicle, or SDV, Frisco Lake, is built on the upcoming "Panther Lake" architecture. The first volumes are expected in the first half of 2026, and TDP options will be among 20-65 W to meet different use cases. Intel says Frisco Lake will deliver ten times more AI performance and sixty-one percent better energy efficiency compared to the current Raptor Lake-based platform.

The new graphics block is based on the third-generation Xe architecture, known as "Celestial", replacing the older Battlemage design. Frisco Lake also supports twelve simultaneous camera inputs and up to two hundred and eighty audio channels. Linux kernel patch analysis also shows Frisco Lake cores are based on Panther Lake, confirming Intel's adaptation of its client CPUs for automotive use. Looking further ahead, Intel shared an early roadmap for its third-generation SDV platform, Grizzly Lake, which should arrive in the first half of 2027. Codenamed Monument Peak, these chips will use "Nova Lake" cores and may offer up to 32 efficiency-optimized cores along with an integrated Xe GPU capable of about seven TeraFLOPS. Additional features include support for six independent displays, twelve camera interfaces, and compliance with automotive safety standards.

PlayStation 5 Pro console—the most innovative PlayStation console to date—elevates gaming experiences to the next level with features like upgraded GPU, advanced ray tracing, and PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) - an AI-driven upscaling that delivers super sharp image clarity with high framerate gameplay. Today we're providing a closer look at the console's internal architecture, as Sony Interactive Entertainment engineers Shinya Tsuchida, PS5 Pro Mechanical Design Lead and Shinya Hiromitsu, PS5 Pro Electrical Design Lead, provide a deep-dive into the console's innovative technology and design philosophy.

Note: in this article, we refer to the PlayStation 5 model released in 2020 as the "original PS5," the PS5 released in 2023 as the "current PS5," and the PS5 Pro released in 2024 as the "PS5 Pro." Do not try this at home. Risk of fires, and exposure to electric shock or other injuries. Disassembling your console will invalidate your manufacturer's guarantee.

Yesterday, AMD released Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 25.4.1 Optional Beta drivers that add FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, Assassin's Creed Shadows, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Dynasty Warriors Origin, Civilization 7, and Naraka Bladepoint. It also brings Amuse 3 support and AMD-optimized models to Radeon RX 9000 and RX 7000 series graphics cards alongside Ryzen AI 300 series processors. Among the many fixes you'll find corrected lighting artifacts in Topaz Photo AI's Adjust Lighting features on RX 9000 series cards, removed flicker when using AMD FreeSync, improved DirectML and GenAI performance in Amuse 3.0 on RX 7000 GPUs and Ryzen AI 300 series chips, and patched image corruption in certain diffuser models on RX 9000 hardware.

The update also smooths out stutter and performance drops in World of Warcraft's Western Plaguelands, restores integrated camera detection after factory resets on Ryzen AI Max devices, and addresses AMD Chat installation hangs. Since this is still an optional beta with some known issues, like FSR 4 not activating in Naraka Bladepoint on Windows 10, crashes in The Last of Us Part 2, memory leaks in SteamVR on RX 9000 cards, or intermittent launch and stability hiccups in games like Cyberpunk 2077, Fantasy VII Rebirth, Battlefield 1, Monster Hunter Wilds and Marvel's Spider-Man 2, AMD recommends using the suggested workarounds such as disabling motion smoothing or integrated graphics in your BIOS and holding out for your system vendor's certified driver to ensure full compatibility.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 25.4.1 Beta

VideoCardz has put a spotlight on a compelling Intel Community announcement—ten days ago, a site moderator (RonaldM_Intel) disclosed that company engineers are currently engaged in the investigation of a major Arc graphics card-related issue. At the beginning of 2025, Hardware Unboxed uploaded a video article (see below) that delved into the Arc Xe2 B580 graphics card design's "big problem." Going back several months, review outlets observed B580 sample cards leveraging lower than expected performance when paired with older generation processors. As summarized by VideoCardz's recent report; significant performance drops were tracked when test units were linked up with AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or 5600 CPUs—relative to a more modern rig; powered by Team Red's Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Additionally, evaluators observed worrying signs when B580 cards were tested on platforms based on Intel's 9th Gen Core i5-9600K processor.

Budget-conscious buyers have embraced Team Blue's new generation cards, with many participants upgrading older builds with Intel Arc B580 12 GB and B570 10 GB graphics cards (original launch MSRPs: $250 and $220, respectively). Given that many owners will be sticking with prior-gen processors, industry watchdogs have leveled criticism at Team Blue—the company has disappointed many, with an apparent lack of action. Months after the fact—likely after a healthy intake of community feedback—Intel has officially acknowledged these issues. As disclosed by RonaldM_Intel's announcement: "thank you for your patience. We are aware of reports of performance sensitivity in some games when paired with older generation processors. We have increased our platform coverage to include more configurations in our validation process, and we are continuing to investigate optimizations."

NVIDIA's latest GeForce 576.02 WHQL driver, released on April 16, which brought support for the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, appears to deliver unexpected performance gains for several "Blackwell" GeForce RTX 50 series GPUS in UL's 3DMark Steel Nomad benchmark. ComputerBase community users with RTX 5070, 5070 Ti, and 5080 GPUs reported three to eight percent score uplifts after upgrading, prompting ComputerBase to verify these claims under controlled conditions. Their independent testing confirms that the RTX 5080 jumps from 8,094 to 8,550 points (a 5.6 percent boost), the RTX 5070 Ti climbs from 6,463 to 6,932 points (7.3 percent), and the RTX 5070 improves from 4,838 to 5,242 points (8.4 percent).

By contrast, the flagship RTX 5090 sees only a marginal lift from 14,032 to 14,117 points, which is well within standard test variance, while the RTX 5060 Ti remains essentially unchanged at roughly 3,530 points, likely because it launched with an up-to-date driver. When evaluating other popular UL benchmarks, namely Speed Way and Time Spy, ComputerBase observed no measurable uplift from driver version 576.02. In fact, some Time Spy runs dipped slightly, underlining that the anomaly appears confined to Steel Nomad's specific workload. It's important to note that synthetic benchmarks do not always translate directly to in-game performance. Historical data from ComputerBase's GPU suite suggests Blackwell cards sometimes outperform their synthetic gains in actual titles, but results vary by engine and title. Besides RTX 5060 Ti support and a strange performance increase, the 576.02 WHQL fixes a host of game‑specific crashes, stutters, aliasing, and stability issues across titles like Fortnite, Overwatch 2, Hellblade II, Control, and more.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of premium gaming hardware, today launched the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti (16 GB and 8 GB variants) and RTX 5060 series graphics cards powered by NVIDIA Blackwell architecture. The RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 are relatively mid-range products that focus on 2k and 1080p gameplay, and cater to the needs of gamers, creators, and light AI developers for daily use. GIGABYTE offers a variety of air-cooled graphics cards, allowing users to choose the best option. Depending on the model, AORUS ELITE, GAMING, AERO, EAGLE, EAGLE ICE, WINDFORCE, and low-profile graphics cards support either the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti series or RTX 5060 GPUs.⁠

GIGABYTE has upgraded the WINDFORCE cooling system for the new generation, balancing performance and thermal efficiency. The new Hawk Fan design minimizes turbulence and noise, achieving up to a 53.6% increase in air pressure and a 12.5% boost in air volume while keeping the lower acoustics. To enhance cooling efficiency, server-grade thermal conductive gel is applied to critical components such as VRAM and MOSFETs. This highly deformable, non-fluid gel ensures optimal contact even on uneven surfaces and remains resistant to deformation caused by transport or prolonged use. Paired with advanced thermal solutions—including an optimal heatsink with a copper plate for direct GPU contact, and composite copper heat-pipes—these graphics cards deliver exceptional cooling performance and whisper-quiet operation, even under intensive workloads.

Acer today announced the expansion of its mainstream Nitro gaming line with the launch of the new Acer Nitro AI laptops and the Nitro 20 desktop. The Nitro range brings a full-package gaming experience and great value for gamers and content creators, combining robust processing power, essential computing features, and more without breaking the bank. The addition of slim laptops and a compact Windows PC option also support users with limited space for their gaming set-ups.

The Nitro AI laptops are Copilot+ PCs, powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors and equipped with the game-changing NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series Laptop GPUs to make more powerful AI rendering capabilities more accessible. The Nitro 20 desktop also utilizes AI processors and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 GPU, focusing on better energy efficiency with a smaller footprint.

AMD officially released ROCm 6.4, its latest open‑source GPU compute stack, bringing several under‑the‑hood improvements while still lacking official RDNA 4 support. The update improves compatibility between ROCm's user‑space libraries and the AMDKFD kernel driver, making it easier to run across a wider range of Linux kernels. AMD has also expanded its internal testing to cover more combinations of user and kernel versions, which should reduce integration headaches for HPC and AI workloads. On the framework side, ROCm 6.4 now supports PyTorch 2.5 and 2.6 out of the box, so developers can use the latest deep‑learning features without building from source. The Megatron‑LM integration adds three new fused kernels, Attention (QKV), Layer Norm, and ROPE, to speed up transformer model training by combining multiple operations into single GPU passes. Video decoding gets a boost, too, with VP9 support in both rocDecode and rocPyDecode, plus a new bitstream reader module to streamline media pipelines.

Oracle Linux 9 is now officially supported, and the Radeon PRO W7800 48 GB workstation card has been validated under ROCm. AMD also enabled CPX mode with NPS4 memory configurations, catering to advanced memory bandwidth scenarios on MI Instinct accelerators. Despite these updates, ROCm 6.4 still does not officially support RDNA 4 GPUs, such as the RX 9070 series. While community members report that the new release can run on those cards unofficially, the lack of formal enablement means RDNA 4's doubled FP16 throughput, eight times INT4 sparsity acceleration, and FP8 capabilities remain largely untapped in ROCm workflows. On Linux, consumer Radeon support is limited to just a few models, even though Windows coverage for RDNA 2 and 3 families has expanded since 2022. With AMD's "Advancing AI" event coming in June, many developers are hoping for an announcement about RDNA 4 integration. Until then, those who need guaranteed, day‑one GPU support may continue to look at alternative ecosystems.

High-performance GPUs manufactured in Taiwan could now enter the US market tariff-free through a technical loophole in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), found by a research firm SemiAnalysis. Companies can route Taiwan-made GPUs through assembly facilities in Mexico and Canada, effectively circumventing the 32% import duty that would otherwise apply to direct shipments from Taiwan. The exemption hinges on a Most-Favored-Nation clause within the USMCA framework that specifically classifies digital processing units (HTS 8471.50), automatic data processing machine units (HTS 8471.80), and their associated components (HTS 8473.30) as "originating goods." This classification applies regardless of manufacturing origin, creating a duty-free pathway for NVIDIA HGX boards, GB200 baseboards, and RTX GPU cards that undergo final assembly in North American facilities.

The strategy capitalizes on two complementary policy mechanisms. First, President Trump's March 7 executive orders maintained existing USMCA exemptions, preserving the duty-free status for compliant goods from Canada and Mexico. Second, the USMCA's expanded definition of originating products creates a classification framework that treats assembled servers and related components as North American products despite their core manufacturing in Taiwan. For US technology firms, the additional logistical complexity of cross-border assembly operations is offset by eliminating substantial import duties on these high-value components. This practice mirrors established protocols in agricultural imports, where products like Mexican avocados gain preferential treatment under similar origin rules. The global supply chain is adapting quickly, especially in high-margin areas like GPUs, which power AI workloads. We are yet to see how companies set up manufacturing and logistics in the new era of tariff-driven narrative.

PowerColor, a global leader in high-performance graphics card innovation, proudly announces the Red Devil Spectral White AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT 16 GB - a limited-edition masterpiece that marks a first for the iconic Red Devil series. For years, gamers have admired the elegance of Spectral White designs, and now, for the first time, PowerColor brings that vision to life with the Red Devil's flagship performance.

A True Spectral White Marvel
Crafted with meticulous attention to detail, the Red Devil Spectral White redefines what it means to blend form and function. From the PCB and heatsink to the cooler shroud and power connectors, every component has been precision-engineered in pure white, delivering a truly unified aesthetic rarely seen in high-performance GPUs. At the heart of its design lies Hellstone—a signature multi-faceted RGB element positioned at the tail of the card. It radiates vivid, customizable lighting that glows like a mystical crystal, making the Spectral White model not just a GPU, but a centerpiece of any gaming setup. Gamers can control the lighting via RGB headers, offering seamless synchronization with the rest of their system.

While semiconductors are exempt (for now at least) from Trump's tariffs, other components going into our PCs are not. According to Tom's Hardware, which spoke to multiple system integrators, tariffs are about to hike PC costs by at least 20%, with system integrators hurt the most. The tariff package imposes a 54% rate on Chinese goods, 34% on top of earlier tariffs, and significant duties on Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam products. These countries supply essential PC components such as SSDs, RAM, cases, and graphics cards. Wallace Santos, CEO of Maingear, highlighted the immediate effects on production: "Tariffs have a direct impact on our cost structure… which we have to pass down to our customers." He further explained that some suppliers have halted production in China, leading to scarcity and escalating costs. Santos estimates that prices for his PCs will rise "20 to 25% as a result of the tariffs."

Other company leaders express concern over the limited alternatives available. Kelt Reeves, CEO of Falcon Northwest, stated, "Sadly the overwhelming majority of PC component manufacturing is not done in the US and never has been. There's no US alternative supplier for most PC parts." Reeves added that even US-based system integrators are "facing skyrocketing costs" due to the tariffs, which are set to worsen an already challenging market situation caused by ongoing GPU shortages. Jon Bach, CEO of Puget Systems, shared his perspective in a recent blog post, noting that his company might absorb some costs to minimize consumer price increases. However, even before the latest tariff updates, Bach predicted a price rise of "20 to 45 percent by June." Critics of the tariffs warn of broader economic issues. Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, condemned the policy as "massive tax hikes on Americans that will drive inflation, kill jobs on Main Street, and may cause a recession for the US economy." With these tariffs taking effect, the PC industry faces a period of adjustment marked by increased costs and significant supply chain challenges.

It seems as though the high pricing and shortages surrounding NVIDIA's latest GeForce RTX 5000 series GPUs has resulted in gamers turning to previous GPU generations for salvation. According to the latest Newegg GPU bestseller charts, the $459.98 MSI Ventus NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8 GB graphics card is currently the best-selling GPU. Curiously, the Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT OC 16 GB is close on its heels, with the Gigabyte AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT on its heels in third place. The first NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5000 series GPU on the Newegg bestseller list is the ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 5070 OC, which is in eighth place, behind several AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, RX 9070 XT, and RX 6600 models. It's unclear whether this is due to high pricing or simply a lack of stock to sell, although the RTX 5070 OC is currently available on Newegg for $739.99. Curiously, this is also the only in-stock RTX 5000 series card amongst the top 20 best-selling GPUs on Newegg. Granted, this is only one vendor, but the majority of the GPUs on the list are either AMD Radeon RX 7000 series or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4000 series GPUs.

The most recent Steam Hardware & Software Survey, updated for March 2025, however, tells a more confusing story. While adoption rates for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5000 series GPUs is certainly slow, with the RTX 5080 being the only 5000 series GPU to even feature on the chart, with 0.19% growth over the last month, gamers seem to be moving away from the RTX 4000 series even faster. The GPU that showed the most growth during the last Steam Survey is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, which is already six years old. It's also interesting to note that most of the AMD GPUs in the Steam Survey results also saw minor upticks in adoption. Recent reports out of Japan show that AMD has garnered massive interest since the launch of the RX 9070 series GPUs, with claims of 45% market share coming as a surprise after NVIDIA reached 90% GPU market share in December last year. While NVIDIA's supply issues are likely at least partially to blame for AMD's increased popularity, there is also a growing sentiment amongst gamers, backed by some of our own testing, that NVIDIA is more interested in AI and simply isn't equipping its gaming graphics cards with enough VRAM for high-resolution and high-refresh rate gaming.

The Nintendo Switch 2, unveiled April 2, takes performance to the next level, powered by a custom NVIDIA processor featuring an NVIDIA GPU with dedicated RT Cores and Tensor Cores for stunning visuals and AI-driven enhancements. With 1,000 engineer-years of effort across every element—from system and chip design to a custom GPU, APIs and world-class development tools—the Nintendo Switch 2 brings major upgrades. The new console enables up to 4K gaming in TV mode and up to 120 FPS at 1080p in handheld mode. Nintendo Switch 2 also supports HDR, and AI upscaling to sharpen visuals and smooth gameplay.

AI and Ray Tracing for Next-Level Visuals
The new RT Cores bring real-time ray tracing, delivering lifelike lighting, reflections and shadows for more immersive worlds. Tensor Cores power AI-driven features like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), boosting resolution for sharper details without sacrificing image quality. Tensor Cores also enable AI-powered face tracking and background removal in video chat use cases, enhancing social gaming and streaming. With millions of players worldwide, the Nintendo Switch has become a gaming powerhouse and home to Nintendo's storied franchises. Its hybrid design redefined console gaming, bridging TV and handheld play.

Yesterday, United States President Donald Trump announced a set of tariffs imposed on US trading partners, imposing a series of 10%+ tariffs on partners, calling it a "Liberation Day." Today, we are calculating how much these tariffs will impact consumers and what is most important at TechPowerUp: semiconductors powering our GPUs and CPUs. According to one of the top investment banks, Goldman Sachs, semiconductors are exempt from the reciprocal tariffs that Trump has imposed on Taiwan. However, the semiconductor manufacturing equipment used by makers like TSMC is not exempt and is expected to be hit with the 32% tariffs. This is only half of what Taiwan imposes on imports of US-made goods. For TSMC, the number one maker of GPUs and CPUs, tariffs can be tricky to navigate. While its existing manufacturing facilities use equipment sourced from Dutch ASML and a few US companies like Lam Research and KLA Corporation, it shouldn't be a problem to ship new silicon to the US.

However, if TSMC wants to expand its manufacturing facilities in any country that is not the US, it will have to deal with 32% tariffs on US-sourced silicon manufacturing equipment. For EU-based ASML, things are looking a little different. If over 20% of the equipment is made up of US content, a tariff exemption might apply, potentially reducing import costs. If more than one-fifth of a product's components or value originates from US sources, the equipment may be eligible for tariff relief. ASML's machines include some US components, so determining whether these machines meet the 20% threshold is crucial. If they do, the tariff exemption could help lower costs associated with importing these advanced machines, reaching up to $380 million. For non-US-injected goods, EU entities are subject to 20% tariffs.

AMD and its board partners cleared "phase one" of RDNA 4 earlier on in March, with the launch of Radeon RX 9070 Series graphics cards. At the tail end of special introductory events, Team Red representatives—on both sides of the Pacific—teased a second quarter release of lower end Radeon RX 9060 Series models. A handful of AIBs have registered multiple custom Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB and 8 GB SKUs, so expectations have been set for an imminent arrival. A fresh insider leak suggests that AMD has something else Navi 48 GPU-related in the pipeline; possibly scheduled for launch before rumored Radeon RX 9060 XT cards. Earlier today, IT Home picked up on chatter regarding a mysterious Radeon RX 9070 GRE model. Apparently Zhongzheng Computer (note: machine translated name) issued an intriguing tidbit on its WeChat official account—the March 9 bulletin stated: "friends who don't have enough budget for Radeon RX 9070 XT can wait for RX 9070 GRE, which will have a better price-performance ratio. Radeon RX 9060 XT will have to wait for a while."

Based on this news, VideoCardz believes that Chinese market stock of custom Radeon RX 9070 16 GB (non-XT) cards was not topped up last week. Local sources have observed regional market conditions with almost zero availability—conjecture points to Team Red's local office "deliberately" paving the way for "gap-filling" Radeon RX 9070 GRE 12 GB options. As reported by TechPowerUp on multiple occasions, AMD's "GRE" (aka Golden Rabbit Edition) nomenclature debuted with their introduction of a Radeon 7900 GRE 16 GB model back in 2023—the Year of the Rabbit. This (now) very out-of-date naming scheme was revised earlier this year—with a modernized abbreviation of "Great Radeon Edition." Benchlife.info weighed in on rumors regarding a new-generation GRE package: "(it) uses the same Navi 48 die, that is, the RDNA 4 GPU architecture, as the Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 currently on sale, but the memory will be reduced to 12 GB and the memory interface will be 192-bit. Our sources have informed us that the Radeon RX 9070 GRE 12 GB is currently being planned by AIB partners and is ready to enter mass production." VideoCardz has kindly assembled a relevant comparison chart—see below. Naturally, these theorized specifications place the incoming GRE somewhere in between the already released Radeon RX 9070 16 GB cards, and a rumored Radeon RX 9060 XT class.

Surface defects on the GPU die of a PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT Hellhound have been linked to excessive thermal hotspots, according to analysis following Igor's Lab's investigation. Microscopic examination revealed 1,934 pits across the silicon die surface despite proper thermal interface material application. The defects affect over one percent of the chip's surface area, with the largest measuring 12.59 µm in depth and 212.36 µm in diameter—significantly exceeding industry tolerances. These imperfections impede heat transfer, causing localized temperatures to reach 113°C, exceeding the 110°C threshold for RDNA GPUs and triggering thermal throttling. The defects appear to stem from flaws in the backgrinding process that thins silicon wafers for packaging. Improper process control creates surface irregularities that compromise thermal conductivity and structural integrity.

The discovery raises questions about the effectiveness of automated optical inspection systems in detecting subtle surface abnormalities. TSMC, the maker of these chips, uses optical recognition tools to see if any defects occurred. AMD stated: "We are aware of the reported issue and believe this to be an isolated incident. We are working with our partners and internal teams to understand the issue." The company maintains this is an isolated case, though the findings suggest potential gaps in quality control protocols. Users experiencing thermal issues with affected RX 9070 XT units should initiate the RMA process for replacement while AMD and PowerColor investigate whether these defects exist beyond the identified sample. We hope no further issues are present, and so far, PowerColor hasn't received any customer complaints. We are on the lookout for further situation development. We reviewed PowerColor's Radeon RX 9070 Hellhound, and found no issues on our unit, so this indeed remains an isolated case so far.

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

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

Intel GPU enthusiasts have been waiting patiently for news regarding higher-end models; ever since the launches of wallet-friendly Arc Xe2 "Battlemage" B580 and B570 graphics cards. As the cliché goes; recent silence has been deafening—we last heard about a speculative expanded lineup of B-series SKUs around late January. At the time, three mysterious "Battlemage" PCI identifiers turned up online; courtesy of Tomasz Gawroński's detective work. Opinions were split about the exact nature of these leaked "BMG" IDs; one camp envisioned Team Blue having professional variants of their existing B580 in the pipeline—presumably with generously specced pools of 24 GB VRAM onboard. A more optimistic group posited that Intel's Arc Xe2 desktop gaming family would welcome more potent "B750, B770," and (maybe) "B780" SKUs.

Yesterday, Tomasz Gawroński (aka GawroskiT) interacted with another notable source of inside track information: Jaykihn (jaykihn0). Plenty of Team Blue-related "scoops" have emerged via Jaykihn's social media channel; mostly predictions regarding upcoming desktop, mobile and enterprise CPUs. Their latest leak indicates Intel's alleged abandoning of a high-end/larger "BMG-G31" GPU die in 2024; within the third quarter of that year. Insiders have long insisted that the Arc Xe2 "Battlemage" project navigated choppy waters during development; hence the appearance of endless theories about the whole caboodle being called off. Jaykihn clarified that he believes that a "retail" launch of "BMG-G31" dGPUs will no longer take place. Many watchdogs will assume that a gap will be filled by forthcoming Arc Xe3 "Celestial" discrete GPUs. Jaykihn stated that they have no fresh insights into how that project is going.

Intel has released its latest version of the Arc GPU Graphics Driver, version 101.6653 Beta. The latest GPU graphics driver update brings Game On driver support for inZOI, KARMA: The Dark World, and The First Berserker: Khazan games, and improves performance Intel Arc B-series Graphics GPUs in Rise of Ronin game. According to Intel, you can expect up to 15 percent performance increase at 1080p resolution and up to 18 percent at 1440p resolution, both with Ultra Settings.

As it is the Beta released, Intel did not fix any previously known issues, so there is still an extensive list, including issues in Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and Call of Duty: Blackops 6 games, as well as some other applications like PugentBench, Topaz Labs Photo AI, MLPerf, Adobe Lightroom Classic, and others. You can check out the full release notes below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6653 Beta