Post-Computex 2025, another hint about NVIDIA's next rung of current-gen mobile graphics cards has emerged online. Mid-week, harukaze5719 shared an intriguing screenshot of PCI IDs, accompanied by a brief message: "2d80-2dff = GB207." Most of the captured information is common knowledge, but an unreleased model was present. The "GeForce RTX 5050 Max-Q/Mobile" entry will likely translate into real life laptop/notebook form by mid-summer.

harukaze5719's leaked list seems to confirm the future deployment of a "GB207M" GPU die—likely the smallest and least potent iteration of Team Green's "Blackwell" gaming line. According to fresh reportage, a desktop sibling is supposedly being lined up for launch in July. A late April theory suggested AMD's preparing of RDNA 4 mobile "Radeon RX 9000M" GPUs; the least powerful options—reportedly based on a Navi 44 die—could compete with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5060 Laptop design. Rival timelines are unclear, but manufacturing partners (Lenovo, LG, MSI, Razer etc.) seem to be prepping a plethora of Team Green-based portable gaming devices.

According to the Financial Times, new restrictions—affecting the supply of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software suites to Chinese companies—will cause major disruption within the domestic chip design industry. The US government's latest trade amendments are expected to impact Xiaomi and its freshly launched flagship XRING mobile chip family; the first iteration is a compelling first-party effort. Unlike many Chinese tech firms, the popular smartphone specialist can access pretty advanced TSMC node processes. Xiaomi's CEO—Lei Jun—announced his team's 3 nm design during pre-launch preview events.

Days later, closer analysis indicated a selection of TSMC's "N3E" node process. Digital Chat Station—a noted smartphone industry expert—summarized an uncertain future: "under this ban (of EDA tools), XRING chips will not be breaking through a 2 nm barrier, and can only revolve around the (current 'N3E') 3 nm node for a long time. XRING O1 will also be the only time in recent years that it can be on par with current-gen (proprietary) Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek mobile chipsets." Crucially, EDA software plays an important role in creating Gate All Around Field Effect Transistor (GAAFET) structures. TSMC's upcoming 2 nm node process is a GAA product. Tom's Hardware believes that several big Chinese tech players, including Huawei, are in the process of developing in-house EDA tools. Not long after unveiling their XRING flagship, Xiaomi outlined an extended Qualcomm chip deal.

Last Thursday, Xiaomi revealed its proprietary XRING O1 3 nm mobile chipset. After months of rumors, the Chinese firm's highly anticipated first-party chip design was introduced during their special "A New Beginning" event—held in Beijing. During this multipronged product launch celebration, company leadership disclosed the underpinnings of their first-ever flagship processor. According to official descriptions, Xiaomi's pivotal XRING O1 SoC is built on: "a cutting-edge second-gen 3 nm process with 19 billion transistors, features a 10-core CPU and 16-core Immortalis-G925 GPU, delivering flagship performance with industry-leading power efficiency. It also integrates Xiaomi's fourth-gen ISP and a 6-core NPU offering 44 TOPS for advanced AI processing." Days prior to important ceremonies in China, a joint statement—issued by Qualcomm—detailed an extended Snapdragon chipset supply agreement. The XRING O1 processor line will drive forthcoming Xiaomi 15S Pro smartphones and Pad 7 Ultra tablets; reserved for initial "domestic market" launches. Qualcomm's current flagship offerings are technically superior to Xiaomi's fresh effort, but an ever-shifting political landscape could affect future shipments.

Lu Weibing—a company president and partner—has outlined a vision for XRING's eventual expansion beyond a flagship/high-end product tier. Last week's intro firmly positioned the 3 nm part as premium option that will power suitably expensive Android-based mobile devices. Weibing acknowledged that his team has jumped into the deep end: "(for) this platform capability, it is most difficult to work on smartphone flagship SoC, it has high power consumption demand and its technology is extremely complicated. If you can, then you should have the ability to work on flagship smartphone SoC. (Once you) move to work on other chips, it won't be that difficult." Industry moles posit that Xiaomi's XRING division is already a formidable force, in terms of staff headcounts and experience. The department could be absorbing some inspiration from Apple; namely their custom C1 modem chip. The firm's president painted a picture of things to come: "so we want to focus on the flagship SoC, and then we want to make a capable modem for the future. We have to work on 4G and 5G parts—together with 3G—leading to a complete matrix. So that is what we need to do at this stage." Early leaks have indicated the existence of a binned version of the XRING O1 SoC; present within early Xiaomi Pad 7 Ultra tablet samples. In theory, these compromised chips could be deployed in unannounced cheaper products.

At Xbox, we want to help you spend more time playing the games you love, to be there when you need some help—and out of the way when you don't. Copilot for Gaming (Beta) is designed to do just that, and starting today, you can begin testing this new feature as it starts rolling out to the beta version of the Xbox app for mobile devices.

Copilot for Gaming is the ultimate gaming sidekick, making gaming with Xbox more seamless and personalized. In this early version of the feature for mobile, you'll be able to access Copilot for Gaming on a second screen, without distracting you from your core gameplay experience. The companion knows what game you're playing and understands your Xbox activity, so it can answer any questions about the games you're interested in, provide links to more information when its response includes web sources, or answer questions based on your account, play history and achievements.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Xiaomi Corporation are celebrating 15 years of collaboration and have executed a multi-year agreement. The relationship between Qualcomm Technologies and Xiaomi has been pivotal in driving innovation across the technology industry and the companies are committed to delivering industry-leading products and solutions across various device categories globally.

"Qualcomm Technologies has always been one of Xiaomi's most trusted and vital partners, supporting our journey from a startup to a global technology leader. We look forward to continuing the next 15 years of our collaboration and leveraging Qualcomm's cutting-edge Snapdragon platforms and technologies to deliver even more innovative and high-quality products to our customers worldwide," said Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi.

As previously promised, Dr. Rick Tsai took to the Computex 2025 stage earlier today. The MediaTek CEO's keynote speech included a teaser for next-gen. Currently, the fabless chip design firm's best offerings are manufactured at TSMC foundries—utilizing 3 nm node processes. According to inside track knowledge, the forthcoming Dimensity 9500 mobile chipset will be based on "N3P." During today's important presentation, Tsai announced his company's next major leap—with "2 nm silicon innovation." According to a presentation slide, a tape-out phase is anticipated by this September. Industry experts reckon that a futuristic flagship—perhaps "Dimensity 9600"—SoC will benefit from this generational jump. Finalized products could arrive around late 2026; with MediaTek reportedly being on TSMC's 2 nm (N2) mass production order books. Officially, MediaTek's shift from 3 nm into 2 nm is expected to improve chip performance—with an estimated 15% uplift—while reducing power consumption (by ~25%).

Yesterday, Lei Jun—the CEO of Xiaomi—finally introduced his firm's proprietary XRING 01 mobile chipset, via a couple of Weibo posts. In an initial afternoon short blog entry, the executive informed his followers with a happy unveiling: "I would like to share with you a piece of news: Xiaomi's self-developed and designed mobile phone SoC chip, named XRING 01, will be released in late May. Thank you for your support!" About a month ago, the company's oft-rumored return to in-house chip efforts was linked to a major corporate offshoot. The speculated "chip platform department" was likely established a while ago, given early May reports of the division's staff headcount exceeding 1000+. At the time, an "Xring" codename was mentioned by industry tipsters (in China).

In a follow-up "Weibo Text" bulletin, Xiaomi's head honcho recalled older project timelines and technological attempts: "even drinking ice for ten years can't cool your blood! Xiaomi's journey to making chips began in September 2014. Time flies, and more than ten years have passed in the blink of an eye...Figures 2 and 3 are photos of Xiaomi's first chip launch conference in February 2017." Jun's did not provide any hints about the XRING 01 chip's underpinnings. Late 2024 leaks alluded to a reportedly troubled prototype—insiders connected this design to fairly new Arm Cortex architecture, and a TSMC 4 nm "N4P" node process. The vast majority of Xiaomi's modern flagship smartphone devices utilize top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets. For example, the brand's latest Xiaomi Ultra 15 model is powered by the ubiquitous Snapdragon 8 Elite (Gen 4) platform.

Acer today announced a range of new products for users on the go, including two new tablets -- the Acer Iconia V12 and the Acer Iconia V11 -- and three new 5G network connectivity devices, including the Acer Connect X6E Plus 5G CPE, the Acer Connect M5 Mobile Wi-Fi, and the Acer Connect D5 Pro 5G dongle.

Acer Iconia V Series Tablets: Portable and Reliable for Entertainment and Multitasking
The Acer Iconia V12 and Iconia V11 are versatile tablets catering to a wide range of users, from students and family members to budget-conscious consumers, seeking a reliable mobile companion for everyday use. Their stunning displays offer a large viewing area with a wide 16:10 aspect ratio, up to 2K resolution, and 90 Hz refresh rate. The narrow bezel design maximizes screen real estate to see and do more, while their thin in-cell touch panels enhance touch sensitivity performance to deliver a more responsive and immersive experience.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today unveiled the latest addition to its 7-series lineup - the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 Mobile Platform. This brand-new platform is designed to enhance users' favorite multimedia experiences and deliver robust performance across the board. Whether capturing priceless moments with advanced image processing or enjoying action-packed gaming with select Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 captivates users, allowing them to fully immerse themselves in their passions. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 also delivers innovative AI capabilities, including support for Gen AI assistants and popular large language models (LLMs) running directly on the device, with new-in-series stable diffusion image generation.

"With the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 Mobile Platform, we are delivering new levels of possibilities in the 7-series with AI-driven experiences built directly into the hardware, making it easier than ever for users to capture, create, and share," said Chris Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile handsets at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Backed by Snapdragon Sound technology and packed with premium audio technologies, including the first-ever support for Qualcomm Expanded Personal Area Network (XPAN) technology outside the 8-series, this platform brings cutting-edge multimedia experiences to a broader audience."

AVerMedia Technologies, Inc., a pioneer in digital video and audio convergence, is thrilled to announce its latest collaboration with CAMO Studio, the powerful and intuitive streaming app developed by Reincubate. This partnership brings together AVerMedia's newly launched GO-Series—a lineup of ultraportable Type-C streaming gear—and CAMO's cutting-edge mobile streaming software to deliver the ultimate on-the-go content creation experience.

This collaboration highlights the synergy between AVerMedia's ELITE GO (GC313Pro) and the CAMO Studio App for iPad/Tablet—offering a truly laptop-free streaming solution for creators, gamers, and professionals who want to broadcast directly from handheld consoles, phones, or tablets.

Late last month, data miners unearthed a wide variety of unannounced AMD Ryzen processor IPs. A "Sound Wave" product category received less attention, but Team Red's curious codename has reemerged in the middle of May. Thanks to fresh Kepler L2 theorizations, this mysterious mobile APU family has a potential end destination. Leaks from 2024 suggested that company engineers were working on an unusual Arm-based processor branch. AMD is cozily well-versed in all things x86, but an alleged present day diversification—into Arm (x64) territories—has confounded a fair few industry watchdogs.

In a tangential conversation—forking off from speculative "Zen 6" and PlayStation 6 APU chatter—Kepler L2 reckons that Team Red "Sound Wave" chips will be deployed in 2026, possibly within a refreshed Microsoft Surface lineup. Current-gen Arm-based offerings—leveraging Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors—have generated mixed user impressions (press and public alike). Microsoft and Qualcomm's "Windows on Arm" (WoA) platform partnership was elevated earlier on in May (with cheaper options), but troublesome hardware-to-software compatibility issues have reportedly caused some rifts in this relationship. As of last week, evaluators seemed to be poking around with NVIDIA's rumored Arm-based "N1" chip series on Windows. In theory, AMD's futuristic "Sound Wave" designs could do battle with (claimed) Team Green and MediaTek collaborative efforts.

Digital Chat Station (DCS)—a dedicated watcher of futuristic smartphone chip developments—has returned to a favorite topic: Qualcomm's rumored "Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2" mobile chipset. The tenured technological soothsayer disclosed compelling "SM8850" details over a month ago; mostly focusing on key next-gen upgrades. His latest bulletin reiterates many past claims, but a new proposition points to a significant bump in onboard AI-crunching capabilities. DCS's latest dose of inside track knowledge points to the Gen 2 chip's NPU computing power being bumped up "to 100 TOPS."

At the tail end of their bulletin, DCS mentioned an interesting new feature: "(the SM8850) chip natively supports hardware-level sunlight screen; display brightness of new devices will be greatly improved, and the native-level super frame will be further improved." In a separate post, DCS hinted about a forthcoming "Snapdragon 8 flagship chip-powered" smartphone that will make use of a "new silicon" 7800 mAh capacity battery. Commenters have linked OnePlus to this development—Chinese electronics firms seem to be ahead of mainstream South Korean rivals, with their formulations of silicon-carbon battery technology. DCS's freshest theory did not place the cutting-edge "Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2" chip alongside a super high-capacity power cell, but examples of this potent combination could arrive later this year.

Yesterday, Chosun Daily published a news report that alleges a key "Galaxy Z Flip 7-related" decision made by Samsung leadership. According to smartphone industry moles, the oft-leaked/rumored "Exynos 2500" chipset destined to debut in the company's next-gen (horizontal) foldable smartphone design. As stated in the South Korean insider article: "this is the first time that Samsung's own mobile application processor (AP) is being installed in a foldable phone." Prior to 2025, Galaxy Flip Z product lines made use of Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets. Throughout early 2025, leaks have linked the "troubled" Exynos 2500 mobile processor to futuristic Galaxy Z Flip 7, Fold 7, and affordable "FE" Enterprise Edition models. The emergence of a superior 2 nm "Exynos 2600" flagship chip—apparently tailored for Galaxy S26 devices (2026)—has allegedly relegated the lesser SoC into lower leagues.

Semiconductor industry watchdogs reckon that the "Exynos 2500" will be manufactured via Samsung Foundry's own 3 nm GAA node process (aka SF3). Notebookcheck commented on this odd choice: "industry estimates from earlier suggested (SF3) yields were around 40%, making it less than ideal for mass production. But it seems Samsung decided to proceed anyway to save on costs, and likely give a new lease of life to its struggling foundry business." Jukanlosreve followed up with additional inside knowledge, just after the publication of Chosun Daily's news piece. The keen tracker of foundry-related revelations let slip with this observation: "the Exynos 2500 being used in the Flip 7 is said to be a lower-clocked chip due to its low yield. So it might as well be called the E2500E." Samsung is expected to unveil its Galaxy Z Flip 7 smartphone family during an "Unpacked" July event. Experts believe that Foundry employees will accumulate useful experience from the mass production of 3 nm parts; thus leading to improved output of finalized 2 nm (SF2) production lines.

Industry watchdogs have held the belief that Samsung's foundry business has lost several key clients due to alleged yield problems—the South Korean megacorp appears to be diligently working on major improvements with currently "in-progress" manufacturing processes; namely 2 nm GAA (aka SF2). Semiconductor industry insiders believe that TSMC is still leading the way with a recently completed trial run of their own 2 nm design, but rumors of elevated prices have reportedly upset certain important customers. According to a fresh Sedaily news article, Qualcomm has conducted negotiations with Samsung Foundry top brass—semiconductor industry moles claim that a "Snapdragon 8 Elite 2nd generation product" was the main topic of discussion. This next-gen flagship mobile chipset was previously linked to a 3 nm TSMC node, but newer rumors point to a possible spin-off that will utilize a "more advanced 2 nm process"—courtesy of Samsung Electronic's prime "Hwaseong S3" facility.

Sedaily and Jukanlosreve reckon that mass production will kick off at this cutting-edge early next year. Earlier today, Jukanlosreve added extra conjecture/context via a long social media bulletin: "the completed chips are expected to be integrated into Samsung Galaxy smartphones slated for launch in H2 2026. Design work is to finish in Q2 2025, after which mass-production preparations will begin and wafer runs will start in Q1 2026. Output is estimated at roughly 1,000 twelve-inch wafers per month. Given that Samsung's current 2 nm capacity is about 7,000 wafers/month, this project would utilize only around 15 % of its available capacity—suggesting this is a modest order rather than a large-scale win." These predictions have surprised many industry observers; Samsung leadership has seemingly tried to prioritize the in-house Exynos mobile processor designs within futuristic flagship Galaxy smartphone devices. Jukanlosreve reckons that the Samsung Foundry is keen to embrace any new "golden opportunities," given the operation's weakened track record across the past half decade. One unnamed insider posited: "this Qualcomm partnership could pave the way for orders from other big tech players." Sedaily sent a query to Samsung HQ, regarding the latest inside talk—a company spokesperson replied with: "we cannot confirm anything related to customer orders."

Officially, AMD is set to reveal the next wave of RDNA 4—in desktop form—at some point within the second quarter of this year. Unlike its main rival—NVIDIA—company representatives have not publicly discussed a comprehensive branch-off into dedicated laptop graphics solutions. Team Red's previous-gen "Navi Mobile" Radeon RX 7000M lineup received little fanfare, and early 2025 "official" talk indicated that company engineers were focused on delivering RDNA 4 to desktop. Additionally, late March leaks suggested an increased future reliance on integrated RDNA 3.5-based graphics solutions. Seemingly out of nowhere, All The Watts!! has produced a list of six tentative Radeon RX 9000M family variants. As interpreted by VideoCardz, the leaker has cryptically included supposed compute unit (CU) counts and VRAM configurations. A rumored Radeon RX 9080M flagship SKU could be based on AMD's Navi 48 GPU design; prepped with 64 RDNA 4 compute units (or 4096 stream processors) and 16 GB of video memory.

The leaked Radeon RX 9070M XT's basic details match certain data points present on the rumored Radeon RX 9070 GRE 12 GB desktop card's specification sheet. VideoCardz reckons that the RX 9070M XT will also utilize Team Red's Navi 48 GPU, but with a reduced compute unit count of 48 (or 3072 SPs). The four remaining RDNA 4 laptop SKUs—RX 9070M, RX 9070S, RX 9060M and RX 9060S—are said to be based on company's Navi 44 GPU IP, and configured with 8 GB pools of VRAM. Two days ago, AMD hinted about new generation Radeon Mobile gaming experiences getting introduced at next month's Computex 2025 trade show.

AMD today announced that it will be hosting a press conference during Computex 2025. The in-person and livestreamed press conference will take place on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, at 11 a.m. UTC+8, Taipei, at the Grand Hyatt, Taipei. The event will showcase the advancements AMD has driven with AI in gaming, PCs and professional workloads.

AMD senior vice president and general manager of the Computing and Graphics Group Jack Huynh, along with industry partners, will discuss how AMD is expanding its leadership across gaming, workstations, and AI PCs, and highlight the breadth of the company's high-performance computing and AI product portfolio. The livestream will start at 8 p.m. PT/11 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 20 on AMD.com, with replay available after the conclusion of the livestream event.

Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), a leader in innovative memory and storage solutions, today announced a market segment-based reorganization of its business units to capitalize on the transformative growth driven by AI, from data centers to edge devices.

Micron has maintained multiple generations of industry leadership in DRAM and NAND technology and has the strongest competitive positioning in its history. Micron's industry-leading product portfolio, combined with world-class manufacturing execution enables the development of differentiated solutions for its customers across end markets. As high-performance memory and storage become increasingly vital to drive the growth of AI, this Business Unit reorganization will allow Micron to stay at the forefront of innovation in each market segment through deeper customer engagement to address the dynamic needs of the industry.

Last year, leakers posited that Xiaomi engineers were working on proprietary new-generation mobile chipset. The giant Chinese technology company has produced proprietary SoC designs in the past—most notably 2017's Pengpai/Surge S1 (blink, and you missed it)—but has largely relied on a wide swatch of Qualcomm solutions for deployment in smartphones. According to a fairly fresh ITHome news report (via a source at Sina Technology), Xiaomi has established a "chip platform department" under the umbrella of its mobile phone product development division. The exact nature of this newly-formed team remains semi-mysterious, and how it intermeshes with current (rumored) proprietary chip design efforts. The megacorporation's speculated "dedicated chip platform department" is said to be working on a "Xuanjie" SoC series.

Qin Muyun—a former senior director of product marketing at Qualcomm—is purported to be the new department's leader. Insiders believe that Muyun will answer directly to Xiaomi's CEO: Lei Jun. Over the past half decade, company engineers have accumulated chip designing experience in multiple lesser technology fields—ITHome lists: "imaging, fast charging, power management, communication, and display" aspects. Xiaomi leadership could be "shaking up" its first-party SoC development projects. Two weeks ago, rumors turned up online regarding a node process downgrade—from 3 nm to 4 nm. Smartphone industry watchdogs reckon that Xiaomi's forthcoming flagship chipset design will perform on the level of Qualcomm's first generation Snapdragon 8 mobile processor (from 2021).

Samsung Electronics today announced the new Galaxy XCover7 Pro and Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro, enterprise-ready devices designed to meet the demands of today's fast-paced, high-intensity work environments. Continuing the legacy of Samsung's ruggedized devices, these latest Pro models are versatile, optimized and secure—delivering enhanced durability, steady performance and optimized workflow to empower frontline workers, from the office to the field and beyond.

With 5G connectivity, an upgraded processor and increased memory, the XCover7 Pro and Tab Active5 Pro offer enhanced mobility and reliability. The XCover7 Pro features a powerful new stereo speaker system with anti-feedback technology, which minimizes unwanted audio loops for clearer communication. Both devices offer enhanced battery capacity, with the XCover7 Pro equipped with a 4,350mAh battery for longer usage, while the Tab Active5 Pro comes with a 10,100mAh battery set designed to support demanding workflows. The Tab Active5 Pro also supports Dual Hot-Swap battery functionality, allowing workers to replace batteries without powering down their devices and ensuring seamless operation even when battery levels are low.

MediaTek today announced the Dimensity 9400+ SoC, the latest addition to MediaTek's Dimensity flagship chipset family. Providing exceptional Generative and agentic AI capabilities as well as other performance enhancements, the Dimensity 9400+ supports the latest Large Language Models (LLM) while sustaining a super power-efficient design. The Dimensity 9400+ features an All Big Core design, integrating one Arm Cortex-X925 core operating up to 3.73 GHz, combined with 3x Cortex-X4 and 4x Cortex-A720 cores. This powerful configuration accelerates single and multithreaded performance for top-tier Android UX experiences.

"The MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ will make it easier to deliver innovative, personalized AI experiences on-device, combined with enhanced overall performance to ensure your device can handle all tasks with ease," said JC Hsu, Corporate Senior Vice President at MediaTek. "We are working closely with developers and manufacturers to continue building a robust ecosystem of AI applications and other features that will bring a number of speed and privacy benefits to consumers."

MediaTek has introduced the Kompanio Ultra, the latest milestone in AI-powered, high-performance Chromebooks. Leveraging MediaTek's proven expertise in flagship innovation, this powerful new platform brings fantastic on-device AI capabilities, superior computing performance, and industry-leading power efficiency to the newest Chromebook Plus devices. "The Kompanio Ultra underscores our commitment to delivering groundbreaking computing performance and efficiency that MediaTek has shown as a leader in the mobile compute space for many years," said Adam King, Vice President & General Manager of Computing and Multimedia Business at MediaTek. "We worked closely with Google to ensure the newest Chromebook Plus devices enjoy next-generation on-device AI capabilities, superior performance per watt, and immersive multimedia."

The Kompanio Ultra is MediaTek's most powerful Chromebook processor to date, integrating 50 TOPS of AI processing power to enable on-device generative AI experiences. With MediaTek's 8th-generation NPU, users can expect real-time task automation, personalized computing, and seamless AI-enhanced workflows—with local processing for enhanced speed, security, efficiency, and support for AI workloads without an internet connection. Built on the cutting-edge (TSMC) 3 nm process, the Kompanio Ultra features an all-big-core CPU architecture with an Arm Cortex-X925 processor clocked at up to 3.62 GHz, delivering industry-leading single and multithreaded performance. Whether handling intensive applications like video editing, content creation, or high-resolution gaming, this processor ensures smooth, lag-free performance with unmatched multitasking capabilities.

NVIDIA and its laptop manufacturing partners managed to squeeze out higher end models at the start of the week (March 31); qualifying just in time as a Q1 2025 launch. As predicted by PC gaming hardware watchdogs, conditions on day one—for the general public—were far from perfect. Media and influencer outlets received pre-launch evaluation units—Monday's embargo lift did not open up floodgates to a massive number of published/uploaded reviews. Independent benchmarking of Team Green's flagship—GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile—produced somewhat underwhelming results. To summarize, several outlets—including Notebookcheck—observed NVIDIA's topmost laptop-oriented GPU trailing way behind its desktop equivalent in lab tests. Notebookcheck commented on these findings: "laptop gamers will want to keep their expectations in check as the mobile GeForce RTX 5090 can be 50 percent slower than the desktop counterpart as shown by our benchmarks. The enormous gap between the mobile RTX 5090 and desktop RTX 5090 and the somewhat disappointing leap over the outgoing mobile RTX 4080 can be mostly attributed to TGP."

The German online publication was more impressed with NVIDIA's sub-flagship model—two Ryzen 9 9955HX-powered Schenker XMG Neo 16 test units—sporting almost identical specifications—were pitched against each other, a resultant mini-review of benched figures was made available earlier today. Notebookcheck's Allen Ngo provided some context: "3DMark benchmarks...show that the (Schenker Neo's) GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile unit is roughly 10 to 15 percent slower than its pricier sibling. This deficit translates fairly well when running actual games like Baldur's Gate 3, Final Fantasy XV, Alan Wake 2, or Assassin's Creed Shadows. As usual, the deficit is widest when running at 4K resolutions on demanding games and smallest when running at lower resolutions where graphics become less GPU bound. A notable observation is that the performance gap between the mobile RTX 5080 and mobile RTX 5090 would remain the same, whether or not DLSS is enabled. When running Assassin's Creed Shadows with DLSS on, for example, the mobile RTX 5090 would maintain its 15 percent lead over the mobile RTX 5080. The relatively small performance drop between the two enthusiast GPUs means it may be worth configuring laptops with the RTX 5080 instead of the RTX 5090 to save on hundreds of dollars or for better performance-per-dollar." As demonstrated by Bestware.com's system configurator, the XMG NEO 16 (A25) SKU with a GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile GPU demands a €855 (~$928 USD) upcharge over an RTX 5080-based build.

Digital Chat Station (DCS)—a tenured leaker of Qualcomm pre-release information—has shared new "Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2" chipset details. Earlier today, their Weibo feed was updated with a couple of technological predictions. The announced smartphone chip's "SM8850" identifier was disclosed once again, along with the repeated claim that Qualcomm has selected a 3 nm "N3P" node process. Industry watchdogs expect to see the San Diego-headquartered fabless semiconductor designer introduce its next-generation flagship smartphone SoC in October. The current-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite platform was unveiled last Fall; sporting cutting-edge "Oryon" (aka Phoenix) processor cores and an integrated Adreno 830 graphics solution. DCS reckons that the natural successor will reuse a familiar "2 + 6" core configuration; comprised of two prime "big performance" units, and six "normal" performance-tuned units. An Adreno 840 iGPU was listed as DCS's final point of conjecture.

The incoming "Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2" chipset was mentioned in the same sentence as rumored "Pegasus" cores (Phoenix's sequel)—slightly far-fetched rumors from 2024 suggested Qualcomm's upgraded processor architecture being tested at maximum frequencies of 5.0 GHz (on performance cores). As pointed out by Wccftech, Gen 1's performance cores run at 4.47 GHz (by default). In today's follow-up post, DCS claimed that Qualcomm's: "self-developed CPU architecture is now in the second generation, with a performance setting of over 380 W+." Industry watchdogs reckon that the "Snapdragon 8 Elite 2" chip will be capable of recording 3.8+ million point tallies in AnTuTu V10 gauntlets, thanks to the alleged utilization of ArmV9 architecture. DCS theorized that the speculated "SM8850" SoC will support ARM's Scalable Matrix Extension 1 (SME 1) and Scalable Vector Extension 2 (SVE2) instruction sets.

CD Projekt Red, the studio behind wildly popular The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 game franchises, is once again entering the mobile gaming scene, this time in partnership with Scopely, the massive publisher that recently made news for buying Niantic, developer behind Pokémon Go. CD Projekt Red announced the partnership in its 2024 financial earnings report, although the announcement is rather vague.

According to the earnings report, CDPR and Scopely will develop "a game set within one of CD PROJEKT's IPs," and nothing more than that. Currently, a Witcher or Cyberpunk spin-off seem equally likely, although with The Witcher 4 expected to launch within the next few years, CDPR may be looking to build up hype around the Witcher universe leading up to that launch. That said, there is also reportedly a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel in the works as well, so a Cyberpunk spin-off is also a possibility. CDPR has already released a number of iOS and Android games set in The Witcher IP, including Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, Gwent: Rogue Mage, The Witcher, Monster Slayer, The Witcher Battle Arena, The Witcher Adventure Game, and Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales. Meanwhile, there has been but one mobile game based on the Cyberpunk universe—Roach Race—so it would not be surprising to see a Cyberpunk 2077 spin-off come out of the partnership.

TrendForce's latest findings reveal that U.S. tariff hikes prompted most downstream brands to frontload shipments to 1Q25, accelerating inventory reduction across the memory supply chain. Looking ahead to the second quarter, conventional DRAM prices are expected to decline by just 0-5% QoQ, while average DRAM pricing including HBM is forecast to rise by 3-8%, driven by increasing shipments of HBM3e 12hi.

PC and server DRAM prices to hold steady
In response to potential U.S. tariff hikes, major PC OEMs are requesting ODMs to increase production, accelerating DRAM depletion in their inventories. OEMs with lower inventory levels may raise procurement from suppliers in Q2 to ensure stable DRAM supply for the second half of 2025.