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.

More than 700 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. In the near future, DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation is multiplying performance in Steel Seed. STORROR Parkour Pro is available now with DLSS Frame Generation. And check out new DLSS 4 trailers for Cyberpunk 2077 and FragPunk.

Steel Seed Launching With DLSS Multi Frame Generation, DLSS Frame Generation & DLSS Super Resolution April 22nd
Storm in a Teacup and ESDigital Games' Steel Seed is a stealth-action adventure set in a dark sci-fi world where humanity stands on the brink of extinction. Join protagonist Zoe and her flying drone companion, KOBY, as they investigate the depths of a hostile underground facility in search of answers and the key to the survival of mankind. After a catastrophic event rendered Earth uninhabitable, machines took control of the remnants of humanity's survival. The underground facility is a vast, machine-built structure designed for machines - not humans. Each region presents unique environmental storytelling, hazards, and secrets waiting to be uncovered. From towering industrial landscapes to eerie biodomes, the world of Steel Seed is as haunting as it is immersive. Explore a hand-crafted world filled with dynamic combat, formidable enemies, and an immersive narrative that challenges the very definition of humanity.

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.

Coinciding with the launch of GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 "Blackwell" graphics cards earlier in the year, Original Price House and MSI initiated a compelling promotional competition for Taiwanese PC hardware enthusiasts. As covered on TechPowerUp at the end of last week, eager collectors of signature "Lucky Dragon" figurines were seeking the completion of whole "Blind Box Of Lucky" sets. A qualifying quantity—of nine individual/unique designs—would grant access to a "free" MSI GeForce RTX 5080 VANGUARD SOC graphics card; supplied by Original Price House (a regional shop). The promo's original terms proudly proclaimed that "there is no limit to the exchange for a complete set." In a follow-up report, HKEPC Hardware put a spotlight on the campaign's apparent premature end.

The Hong Kong-based news PC news outlet provided evidence of the event organizers "modification of the rules"—advancing claim/collection deadlines from the (original) May 31, 2025 end date to March 31, 2025. Extra international attention has reportedly "ruined" MSI and Original Price House's local campaign. HKEPC commented on the circumstances: "it is understood that (the shop) originally estimated that the number of Lucky Dragon dolls that can be found in Taiwan is/was limited, but it obviously underestimated the power of the community. Many people bought dolls from all over the world at high prices to participate in the event, resulting in the store being 'overwhelmed with sales'." Last week's report suggested that five completed sets of Lucky Dragon figurines had happily been exchanged for premium-tier MSI GeForce RTX 5080 VANGUARD SOC models. Within the last couple of days, another six "winners" have turned up with qualifying collections of cute toys. According to HKEPC's latest coverage: "this number (of claimants) is already double the original expectation. Therefore, according to the instructions of the manufacturer (MSI), Original Price House has decided to advance the exchange deadline to March 31."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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."

Time to sharpen the blade. GeForce NOW brings a legendary addition to the cloud: Ubisoft's highly anticipated Assassin's Creed Shadows is now available for members to stream. Plus, dive into the updated version of the iconic Fable Anniversary—part of 11 games joining the cloud this week.

Silent as a Shadow
Explore 16th-century Japan, uncover conspiracies and shape the destiny of a nation—all from the cloud. Assassin's Creed Shadows unfolds in 1579, during the turbulent Azuchi-Momoyama period of feudal Japan, a time of civil war and cultural exchange. Step into the roles of Naoe, a fictional shinobi assassin and daughter of Fujibayashi Nagato, and Yasuke, a character based on the historical African samurai. Their stories intertwine as they find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict.

Graphics card price watchers have highlighted refreshing downward motion in Europe, apparently affecting three out of the four GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards. VideoCardz received a couple of email tip-offs from its pan-European audience, prompting the publication of a short investigative piece. NVIDIA's slight adjustment of official pricing for GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 models is the result of a strengthened Euro. The US dollar's value has dropped by roughly 3.9 %; according to recent detective work, focusing on German trends. Team Green's "generous" reductions have arrived roughly two weeks after a stabilization of the USD-EUR exchange rate.

Curiously, the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is an outlier here—NVIDIA did not reduce its German guide price (€879 + VAT) for this upper-mid-range offer. A Founders Edition does not exist at this GPU level, so Team Green has tasked its board partners with the creation of so-called "MSRP conformant" alternatives. One of VideoCardz's tipsters has observed various GeForce RTX 50 series models simply "rotting on shelves," due to potential buyers balking at unreasonable retailer-implemented price hikes. NVIDIA's minor changes (4.3 to 4.6 %) are unlikely to make a noticeable impact across the Euro zone.

At its annual Amplify Conference, HP Inc. today announced new products and services designed to shape the future of work, empowering people and businesses to create and manage their own way of working. The company unveiled more than 80 PCs, AI-powered print tools for SMBs, and Workforce Experience Platform enhancements all built to drive company growth and professional fulfillment.

"HP is translating AI into meaningful experiences that drive growth and fulfillment," said Enrique Lores, President and CEO at HP Inc. "We are shaping the future of work with game-changing AI innovations that seamlessly adapt to how people want to work."

Eurocom is launching the Raptor X18, the world's first customized 18" laptop powered by the newest 24 GB GDDR7 680 Tensor AI cores NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, 256 GB of DDR5 memory, 32 TB of RAID 0/1/5 four NVMe SSDs, and the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor with 24 cores, 24 threads, and a massive 36 MB cache. Eurocom is pushing the boundaries of portable high-performance computing with the launch of the Raptor X18 Mobile Supercomputer, designed for those who demand extreme computational power—whether for AI development, deep learning, scientific simulations, engineering, content creation, or gaming at the highest levels.

Unparalleled Performance and Display
The Raptor X18 is the first laptop ever to feature an astonishing 256 GB of DDR5 memory, ensuring seamless multitasking for the most memory-intensive operations, including running large-scale LLM models offline and locally. Combined with 24 GB of next-gen GDDR7 VRAM from the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 GPU (680 Tensor AI cores), this mobile supercomputer dominates AI processing, 3D modeling, complex simulations, and ultra-high-performance gaming. With up to 32 TB of NVMe SSD storage in RAID 0/1/5, users can store and access massive datasets with blazing speed, eliminating bottlenecks in high-end workflows. The Raptor X18 features an 18-inch UHD 200 Hz (3840x2400) display, offering impeccable clarity and smoothness for gaming, scientific visualization, and content creation.

NVIDIA ACE is a suite of RTX-accelerated digital human technologies that bring game characters to life with generative AI. Earlier this year, we unveiled AI-powered NVIDIA ACE Autonomous Game Characters, adding autonomous teammates, NPCs, and enemies to games, unlocking a whole new set of gameplay possibilities. These ACE autonomous game characters make their debut later this month in two titles. In the life simulator inZOI, players can customize "Smart Zoi" NPCs with life goals that in turn use AI to guide behavior and interactions with other NPCs.

In NARAKA: BLADEPOINT MOBILE PC VERSION, NVIDIA ACE-powered teammates help players battle enemies, hunt for loot, and fight for victory. Additionally, NVIDIA ACE technologies continue to advance, incorporating new vision and audio language models, enhancing facial animation with new model architectures, and accelerating game development with updated ACE plugins for Maya and Unreal Engine for offline authoring.

More than 700 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players. With the addition of the latest DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation games, our newest performance multiplier is now available in over 100 games and apps, making it the most rapidly adopted NVIDIA game technology of all time.

Additionally, we can today reveal that Lost Soul Aside, Mecha BREAK, Phantom Blade Zero, Stellar Blade, Tides of Annihilation, and Wild Assault will all launch with DLSS Multi Frame Generation, and our suite of other DLSS technologies, giving GeForce RTX gamers the definitive PC experience in each. Furthermore, today we released an updated Zorah demo, built in Unreal Engine 5, that showcases the latest advancements in neural rendering powered by GeForce RTX 50 Series and AI.

Bundle up - GeForce NOW is bringing a flurry of Blizzard titles to its ever-expanding library. Prepare to weather epic gameplay in the cloud, tackling the genres of real-time strategy (RTS), multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) and more. Classic Blizzard titles join GeForce NOW, including Heroes of the Storm, Warcraft Rumble and three titles from the Warcraft: Remastered series. They're all part of 11 games joining the cloud this week, atop the latest update for hit game Zenless Zone Zero from miHoYo.

Blizzard Heats Things Up
Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard's unique take on the MOBA genre, offers fast-paced team battles across diverse battlegrounds. The game features a roster of iconic Blizzard franchise characters, each with customizable talents and abilities. Heroes of the Storm emphasizes team-based gameplay with shared experiences and objectives, making it more accessible to newcomers while providing depth for experienced players.

NVIDIA today announced ahead of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) groundbreaking enhancements to NVIDIA RTX neural rendering technologies. NVIDIA has partnered with Microsoft to bring neural shading support to the Microsoft DirectX preview in April, giving developers access to AI Tensor Cores in NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs to accelerate neural networks from within a game's graphics pipeline. Neural shading represents a revolution in graphics programming, combining AI with traditional rendering to dramatically boost frame rates, enhance image quality and reduce system resource usage.

"Microsoft is adding cooperative vector support to DirectX and HLSL, starting with a preview this April," said Shawn Hargreaves, Direct3D development manager at Microsoft. "This will advance the future of graphics programming by enabling neural rendering across the gaming industry. Unlocking Tensor Cores on NVIDIA RTX will allow developers to fully leverage RTX Neural Shaders for richer, more immersive experiences on Windows."

Cooler Master, a leading provider of PC components, gaming peripherals, and tech lifestyle solutions, today announced the HAF 5 Pro, a fully built gaming system designed to deliver robust performance and seamless gameplay. Powered by an Intel Core i7-12700F processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, the HAF 5 Pro leverages Cooler Master's expertise in high airflow cases, efficient cooling, and premium power delivery—paired with the enhanced gaming features of Windows 11.

"We've taken our hallmark high-airflow concept and built a system that's both powerful and visually striking," said Jimmy Sha, CEO of Cooler Master. "Our customers know and trust the HAF lineup for cooling prowess, so outfitting it with top-tier components, a dedicated VGA fan, and Windows 11's advanced gaming capabilities was a natural progression to offer an all-in-one experience."

As we have witnessed in the past few weeks, leaked retailer listings are undoubtedly an interesting way to gain more information regarding upcoming hardware. A set of recent listings by the retailer PC21, as well as Acer Hong Kong, have revealed some details regarding the upcoming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Laptop and RTX 5050 Laptop GPUs. First of all, it appears that we now have concrete information regarding the launch date for the RTX 5060 laptop GPU. According to Acer, the RTX 5060 Laptop-equipped producs will start shipping sometime in May. Moreover, as the leaked listing has revealed, RTX 5060 and RTX 5050 Laptop GPUs will arrive with 8 GB of VRAM, both based on the new GDDR7 spec.

This is quite an interesting development, considering that the RTX 5050 Desktop GPU is expected to ship with GDDR6 memory, so it does appear that the Laptop variant will have superior memory speeds. Considering that the RTX 5070 laptop GPU will also boast 8 GB of GDDR7 memory, it is clear that the primary differences between the RTX 5050, RTX 5060, and RTX 5070 Laptop variants will be limited to core counts. Those who demand more than just 8 GB of VRAM will have to shell out extra for the RTX 5070 Ti Laptop, which is expected to ship with 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192 bit bus. As for pricing, the leaked MSI VenturePro 16 with a Core 7 240H CPU, 16 GB DDR5 memory, 512 GB SSD and an RTX 5050 Laptop GPU is seemingly priced at €1580, or roughly $1720. Clearly, even the lowest-end of Blackwell GPUs are all set to boast price tags lofty enough to make even those with deep pockets weep.

A week ago, MSI introduced its lineup of custom GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card models—headlined by their premium VANGUARD option, with a product stack going down to a budget friendly INSPIRE 3X offering. Since then, the Taiwanese manufacturer has added another entry to its NVIDIA "Blackwell" GB205 GPU-based family. As observed by VideoCardz, MSI is overpopulating its GeForce RTX 5070 stack with two more models. The SHADOW 2X OC and SHADOW 2X (non-OC) have—very recently—popped up on the company's website, with absolutely zero PR fanfare. The triple-fan SHADOW 3X designs received a similar treatment last month—brand-new stealth-black GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti custom designs seemingly appeared overnight.

As befits the nomenclature, MSI's SHADOW 2X design sports a TORX 5.0 dual-fan cooling solution. As covered by TechPowerUp's news section in the past, the SHADOW series shares similarities with VENTUS—both families serve as "baseline MSRP" conformant products, due to a minimalistic aesthetic and barebones feature set (i.e. focused on the essentials). MSI marketing blurb describes SHADOW as: "a performance-focused design that delivers the gaming experience players want, making it the ideal choice when upgrading or building a gaming rig." The company has courted controversy in recent times; VideoCardz and other media outlets have leveled plenty of criticism throughout February and March—the lack of "MSRP" models and reported price hiking at launch became major sticking points. Industry watchdogs believe that the freshly unveiled SHADOW 2X models will be in short supply for the foreseeable future.

AMD's Radeon RX 9070 XT is demonstrating unexpected performance gains through aggressive undervolting, with overclocking specialists documenting significant improvements that push the GPU past NVIDIA's pricier GeForce RTX 5080 in specific benchmarks. Recent tests by Der8auer using a PowerColor Red Devil RX 9070 XT revealed a 10% frame rate increase in Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K Ultra settings by applying a -170 mV voltage offset while increasing the power target to 110%. This modification enabled the GPU to reach clock speeds of 3.36 GHz, compared to 2.90 GHz at stock settings, resulting in 66 FPS versus the RTX 5080's 65 FPS in identical testing environments. The undervolting phenomenon appears consistent across the product line, with YouTuber Alva Jonathan achieving similar 10% performance improvements on the standard RX 9070 using ASRock's Steel Legend model.

Both testers discovered that traditional core clock overclocking yielded negligible results, suggesting these factory-overclocked cards are already operating near their architectural limits. The voltage-frequency curve adjustments effectively lower the voltage required for higher frequencies. Memory overclocking proved counterproductive, with error correction mechanisms actually reducing in-game performance when pushed beyond stable parameters. These results come with important caveats—both tested units are premium variants with enhanced power delivery and cooling solutions that sell significantly above AMD's MSRP. The PowerColor Red Devil commanded a $200 premium over the RX 9070 XT's $599 launch price, while the ASRock Steel Legend carried a $90 markup over the RX 9070's base $550 MSRP. Even with these premiums, however, the high-end RX 9070 XT models remain approximately $200 less expensive than NVIDIA's RTX 5080 while delivering comparable rasterization performance after optimization, despite NVIDIA's ongoing advantages in ray tracing capabilities and software ecosystem.

NVIDIA has finally responded to widespread stability problems affecting its RTX 50 series "Blackwell" GPU lineup with the release of GeForce Hotfix Display Driver 572.75. The emergency update specifically targets two critical issues: black screen crashes plaguing the entire RTX 50 series and performance degradation after system reboots when overclocking RTX 5080/5090 models. This hotfix arrives after weeks of user complaints about system instability, particularly when utilizing DLSS 4 frame generation and other advanced features. The release comes directly through NVIDIA's Customer Care support site rather than standard distribution channels, packed in the hotfix release.

According to NVIDIA's release notes, the driver underwent an "abbreviated QA process" to spread its availability to affected users. While the company acknowledges the complexity of its driver software and has "an army of software engineers" addressing bugs, many early Blackwell buyers have expressed frustration over paying premium prices for hardware hindered by fundamental stability issues. NVIDIA has indicated that these fixes and additional improvements will be incorporated into the next official WHQL-certified driver release, though no specific timeline has been provided. At TechPowerUp, we don't host hotfix drivers, only WHQL versions, so you must go to NVIDIA's website here to download the latest driver.