Yesterday, Nintendo officially unveiled its Switch 2 handheld via a first look video presentation. Featured content did not come as a surprise to many gaming enthusiasts—a steady flow of leaks have already revealed outer and inner workings. Earlier today, the Digital Foundry team has offered their collective opinion on Nintendo's formal announcement. Their roundtable discussion first focused on the Switch 2's physical appearance—mainly a showcased physical increase in size, when lined up against the preceding (standard) model. Conversation quickly moved onto technical matters—a topic that Nintendo normally avoids discussing. The video presentation included in-game footage of a next-gen Mario Kart title—Oliver Mackenzie (a contributing DF video producer/writer) was not impressed by this short demo's visual fidelity. He noted an absence of DLSS image enhancement—surprising, given that the rumored NVIDIA Tegra T239 SoC is capable of deploying this graphics technology.

John, Rich and Oliver then moved onto discussing recently leaked clock speeds and performance figures (in handheld and docked modes)—overall, they reckon that these numbers seem fitting for a hybrid system. They noticed that the handheld GPU clock was lower than expected—based on their judgement of the Switch 2's fairly capable integrated cooling solution. In the past, Digital Foundry theorized that the NVIDIA-designed Tegra T239 will be an 8 nanometer part—rumored to be built on Samsung 8 nm DUV foundry node. Newer gaming community-generated proposals have suggested a shift to Samsung's 5 nm EUV node—mostly based on the chipset's physical footprint. In sharp contrast, the Digital Foundry guys are sticking with their 8 nm theory. Richard Leadbetter (DF's founder) has previously attempted to simulate Switch 2-esque performance on readily available Ampere-based hardware—he could revisit a laptop that sports a GeForce RTX 2050 mobile GPU. He believes that the leaked CPU and GPU clocks (across both modes) present plausible evidence of 8 nm-level performance, cross-referenced with his team's past analysis of the system's PCB. Debates will inevitably rage on, but Rich insists that the end result will be an example of "Occam's razor." The Tegra T239's four (long alleged) Cortex A78 cores appeared to be running at a higher frequency in portable mode than in docked—suggesting some unknown factors; perhaps a switching on or off of cores (situation dependent). Leadbetter and Co. will be looking forward to getting a proper hands-on experience at Nintendo's April to June launch events.

PowerColor started its online marketing campaign for new Reaper graphics card family earlier this week—a rendered scythe graphic was posted on social media along with this cryptic message: "The Reaper has arrived. Everything is under your control. Will you be the Reaper or the one reaped?" The Taiwanese graphics cards company has already unveiled its opening salvo of new RDNA 4-based card designs—on the internet and in real life. For example, PowerColor's Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper model was on display at CES 2025—where TechPowerUp spent a couple of minutes with an SFF-form-factor-friendly demonstration sample. Since then, more photo evidence has been posted on the AMD subreddit—a UK retailer appears to have units in-stock at their warehouse.

Team Red is seemingly operating in silent mode—they have not revealed concrete details about the upcoming launch of Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT) GPUs. Preliminary specification leaks and photos of boxed retail units have turned up this week—with yesterday's Reddit post indicating that Scan UK has received a big cardboard box containing PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 Reaper cards. Industry watchdogs reckon that AMD is still forming a release strategy—with board partners and retail/e-tail outlets waiting on and seemingly ready to receive new or finalized instructions.

Unannounced AMD Threadripper 9000 "Shimada Peak" processor SKUs have once again appeared on leaked shipping manifests—a 96-core variant was uncovered under similar circumstances last summer. The latest discovery—courtesy of reliable investigator Everest/Olrak_29 combing through info published on NBD—reveals a Zen 5-based product stack that lists 16, 32, 64 and 96-core models. Until now, industry watchdogs have not spotted evidence of 32-core and 64-core SKUs—alongside prior leaks that only mentioned 16-core and 96-core parts.

Team Red has not officially announced that it is working on a follow-up to its current generation Zen 4-equipped Threadripper 7000 "Storm Peak" CPU series, but tipsters believe that fundamental similarities—based on leaked core counts and specifications—position "Shimada Peak" as the logical/inevitable successor. Speculation points to all the leaked Threadripper 9000 HEDT processors having a TDP rating of 350 W. Industry insiders propose that the highest-end variant—sporting 96 cores and 192 threads—will contain 12 CCDs (eight cores per CCD), 32 MB L3 cache, and a lone I/O die. Wccftech theorizes that the 32-core model will be specced with four CCDs, while "the 64-core variant will come with eight CCDs." Insiders have whispered about a possible "later in 2025" launch window for "Shimada Peak."

AMD's Radeon RX 6750 GRE GPU is an (RDNA 2) Chinese market exclusive—Board Channels members reckon that this model is facing imminent discontinuation. The "GRE" affix denotes "Golden Rabbit Edition." Western graphics card enthusiasts will be familiar with this slightly odd moniker due to Radeon RX 7900 GRE-based (RDNA 3) cards heading to European and North American territories around early 2024. Sadly, this mid-to-high tier GPU is rumored to be reaching an end-of-life (EOL) phase—the latest speculation now points to Team Red's Radeon RX 6750 GRE being quietly withdrawn from China's PC hardware market.

Two Radeon RX 6750 GRE Navi 22-based SKUs—with 10 GB or 12 GB video memory configurations—were created specifically to fill a gap not occupied by AMD's Radeon RX 7600 XT model. The affordable-tier Golden Rabbit Editions are said to be highly popular with Chinese system integrators and budget-minded gamers, but Team Red and its board partners have (apparently) declared that the 10 GB variant is now discontinued. A Board Channel member posited that an "inventory digestion phase" is already underway, with an end date set in March. AIBs are reportedly waiting on "replacement plans from February to March." The Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB variant is reported to be sticking around for the moment, but a new candidate could be appearing in the near future. VideoCardz believes that AMD is considering a rollout of the—not yet announced and oft-delayed—Radeon RX 7650 GRE as a potential modernized substitute.

Samsung's native foundry operations have wrestled with the 3 nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) process—these problems have persisted since the first reports of "missed production targets" emerged late last year—online speculators floated a very disappointing yield figure: only 20%. Last December, industry moles proposed that the South Korean technology giant had devised plans to form an Exynos-centric "multi-channel partnership" with rival chipmakers. Speculation pointed to TSMC being the only valid ally. Semiconductor industry tipster—Jukanlosreve—believes that negotiations have taken place, and the answer was a firm "no." TSMC's most advanced node process order books are likely filled up with more important customers—industry watchdogs reckon that Apple usually gets first dibs.

Taiwan's top semiconductor manufacturer leads the market with its cutting-edge lithography techniques. Insiders believe that Samsung was impressed by TSMC's 2 nm trial production runs achieving (rumored) 60% yields. The higher-end Exynos chipsets are normally produced with the best node process available, but missed manufacturing goals have caused Samsung to drop in-house tech. In the recent past, Qualcomm's most powerful Snapdragon mobile chipsets have been deployed on flagship Galaxy S smartphones. Jukanlosreve believes that TSMC rejected Samsung's proposed Exynos deal due to a fear of revealing too many "trade secrets." Potentially, the South Koreans could have learned a thing or two about improving yields—courtesy of TSMC's expert knowledge.

Supply chain insiders reckon that stock of NVIDIA's "Ada Lovelace" generation GeForce RTX 4070 GPU will be depleted by the end of this month. This revelation emerges on the cusp of Team Green's GeForce RTX 5000 series of "Blackwell" GPUs heading to market (on January 30). The popular Chinese hardware forum—Board Channels—is a reliable source of product "supply and demand" information. Industry insiders believe that Team Green's mid-tier SKU will be completely sold—by the closing of this month—across several unnamed regional markets. NVIDIA's incoming GeForce RTX 5070 SKU (baseline $549 MSRP) appears to be the natural alternative, given that GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER offerings are priced within the range of $550 to $600—according to market research performed by VideoCardz.

A board member disclosed details and prophesized changes up and down NVIDIA's current-gen product stack: "The inventory for NVIDIA RTX 4070 and higher models is expected to be completely cleared by January. Starting from February, major AIC brands are anticipated to have stock remaining only for the RTX 4060 Ti and RTX 4060 series, which still need to be digested. However, since NVIDIA's Q1 begins in February, these two models will essentially enter the final stock phase." VideoCardz anticipates a March launch window for the GeForce RTX 5060 series—this could be well-timed given circumstances surrounding Team Green's (alleged) limiting of GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GPU supplies and the insider's predicted cessation of RTX 4060 (non-Ti) production.

Apple's top-end M4 Ultra desktop-class chipset is allegedly going to feature on upcoming Mac Pro and Mac Studio refreshes—new product unveilings could be on the company's schedule (WWDC 2025). Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has divulged intriguing M4-series information within his latest newsletter. The M4 Ultra SoC—codenamed "Hidra"—was previously believed to be the most powerful processor option available on both next-gen Mac Pro and Mac Studio platforms. Now, Gurman believes that Apple engineers have created a distinct custom chipset design—exclusively designed for the Mac Pro workstation product stack—that sits above their M4 Ultra SoC.

Somewhat confusingly he suggests that "Hidra" is the codename for this top-of-the-line processor. Rumors swirled last month about the cancellation of an alleged "Extreme" model, so there is a degree of uncertainty surrounding unannounced M4 SKUs. Potential customers could choose Apple's (potentially) more powerful "Hidra-equipped" Mac Pro workstation over the highest-end M4 Ultra-based Mac Studio model. Industry experts propose that "Hidra" will arrive with an increased number of CPU and GPU cores—exceeding the M4 Ultra's speculated makeup of a 32-core CPU and an 80-core GPU.

The majority of AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU-related leaks have emerged thanks to insiders playing around with pre-launch PowerColor RDNA 4 sample models. During and since CES, Team Red and its board partners have kept mum about specifications and performance figures—but happy accidents have allowed tech enthusiasts to pore over NDA-busting information. As reported by VideoCardz yesterday, Overclockers UK (OCUK) published a landing page that provided a brief look at basic Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 (non-XT) specs—the British retailer has since scrubbed this entry from its site.

Leaks have revealed alleged core counts—4096 for XT, and 3584 for non-XT—but Overclockers UK's charts listed a count of 4096 for both Navi 48 GPUs. They both sport 16 GB GDDR6 VRAM and 256-bit memory buses, and the leak reveals another shared trait: a 260 W TDP rating. VideoCardz reckons that this is an error—based on previous clock speed insider info, the Radeon RX 9070 non-XT's power consumption figure should be rated lower. The accidentally published clock speeds appear to be sourced from overclocked examples—AMD is reportedly not going to release full/finalized information until closer to launch, so OCUK could have relied on preliminary product guides. The FAQ section states that Team Red's RDNA 4 generation is sticking with a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 host interface—PCIe 5.0 systems are "thankfully" backwards compatible. NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 series will be leading the way into PCIe 5.0 spec territories.

TSMC is reportedly making decent progress with its advanced 2 nm (N2) node—industry news pieces from earlier this month pointed to the initiation of production lines across three fabrication sites. Taiwan's Economic Daily News has kept close tabs on these trial runs—insiders have indicated that TSMC's Kaohsiung plant is capable of matching the Baoshan location's targeted manufacturing output (5000 wafers per month, 60 percent yield). Reports suggest that the Kaohsiung 2 nm trial production will start up later this month—much earlier than anticipated.

The Taiwanese chip foundry giant is taking on the challenge of meeting "greater than expected" demand for its new generation 2 nm product—TSMC chairman C.C. Wei has previously stated that its latest and greatest is more popular (pre-launch) with customers than older 3 nm lines. Apple is rumored to be first in line—not a big surprise since TSMC has (supposedly) rolled out the VVIP red carpet for them in recent times. The Economic Daily News article also mentions Qualcomm and MediaTek being next in the queue for N2. TSMC's best foundries are expected to initiate mass production by the end of 2025.

AMD's official announcement of new RDNA 4 generation of GPUs—comprised of Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070—listed several manufacturing partners. YESTON did not join the likes of ASRock, PowerColor, Sapphire and XFX in showcasing custom designs "in-person" at CES, but their official social media accounts have unveiled a new Team Red GPU-based Sakura Atlantis edition card. YESTON has once again deployed its signature baby blue and pink color scheme—quite refreshing when compared to the slew of black/gray custom designs presented at last week's trade show.

Yeston was the first AMD AIB to publicly reveal Radeon RX 9070 XT's video memory allocation online—their social media post confirms the presence of 16 GB VRAM. Team Red partners in attendance at CES 2025 were not allowed to divulge this information, but a number of press outlets read model/name text on certain sticker attachments—corroborating previous leaks that listed 16 GB. Yeston's post outlines a white-lit breathing effects, as well as support for ARGB lighting. The new Sakura Atlantis shroud design is quite unconventional—breaking away from boxy aesthetics. Flowing lines and curved surfaces attract the eye, along with a pleasant pearlescent finish. Shell and starfish motif stickers adorn the card's three cooling fans. VideoCardz reports that Yeston has provided additional details—their Radeon RX 9070 XT-16G Sakura Atlantis model will feature an all-white PCB design and a white-colored I/O bracket. No surprises here, given the company's past choices.

AMD enforced strict conditions upon its manufacturing partners at the recently concluded CES trade event—various custom Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 (non-XT) models were showcased, but technical details were not revealed. The TechPowerUp team had a hands-on look at PowerColor's selection of Red Devil, Hellhound cards and newly debuted Reaper design—certain information could be pertained from labels and stickers (cough: 16 GB VRAM) yet brand reps remained tight-lipped about technical nitty gritty under-the-hood. News outlets have relied upon less-than-official sources—such as the Chiphell forum—to obtain performance figures. VideoCardz's working weekend session has produced alleged details about PowerColor's planned boost clock speeds—the headline being that a 3.0 GHz barrier has been broken.

The site's insider network proposes that PowerColor's top-flight Radeon RX 9070 XT Red Devil model is ready for launch with an OC BIOS set to boost matters up to 3060 MHz, while the silent performance mode shaves off fifty—bringing things down to a (still impressive) 3010 MHz. The more middle-of-the-pack Hellhound design is reported to achieve a 3010 MHz boost via its OC BIOS mode, and its silent operation is reported to be 2970 MHz. Additionally, a VideoCardz source reckons that game clocks are somewhere in the region of 2460 to 2520 MHz for both models. The "more affordable" PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT Reaper variant seems to lack BIOS switching, so its single operational mode is allegedly capable of boosting up to 2970 MHz.

Intel could be working on a new Arc graphics card according to Quantum Bits quoted by VideoCardz. It's based on the Battlemage architecture and has 24 GB of memory, twice as much as current models. This new card seems to be oriented more towards professionals, not gamers. Intel's Battlemage lineup currently has the Arc B580 model with 12 GB GDDR6 memory and a 192-bit bus. There's also the upcoming B570 with 10 GB and a 160-bit bus. The new 24 GB model will use the same BGM-G21 GPU as the B580, while the increased VRAM version could use higher capacity memory modules or a dual-sided module setup. No further technical details are available at this moment.

Intel looks to be aiming this 24 GB version at professional tasks such as artificial intelligence jobs like Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI. The card would be useful in data centers, edge computing, schools, and research, and this makes sense for Intel as they don't have a high-memory GPU for professional productivity markets yet. The company wants to launch this Arc Battlemage with bigger memory in 2025, we guess it might be announced in late spring or ahead of next year's Computex if there's no rush. Intel in the meantime will keep making their current gaming cards too as the latest Arc series was very well received, a big win for Intel after all the struggles. This rumor hints that Intel's expanding its GPU plan rather than letting it fade away, that was a gray scenario before the launch of Battlemage. Now it seems they want to compete in the professional and AI acceleration markets as well.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen AI Kraken Point APUs appear to be affordable APUs for next-generation thin-and-light laptops and potentially even some gaming handhelds. Murmurings of these new APUs have been going around for quite some time, but a PassMark benchmark was just posted, giving us a pretty comprehensive look at the hardware configuration for the upcoming Ryzen AI 7 350. While the CPU configuration in the PassMark result confirms the 4+4 configuration we reported on previously, it seems as though the iGPU portion of the new Ryzen AI 7 is getting something of a downgrade compared to previous generations.

While all previous mobile Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 APUs have featured the Radeon -80M or -90M series iGPUs, the Ryzen AI 7 350 steps down to the AMD Radeon 860M. Although not much is known about the new iGPU, it uses the same nomenclature as the Radeon iGPUs found in previous Ryzen 5 APUs, suggesting it is the less performant of the new 800 series iGPUs. This would be the first time, at least since the introduction of the Ryzen branding, that a Ryzen 7 CPU will use a cut-down iGPU. This, along with the 4+4 (Zen 5 and Zen 5c) heterogenous architecture, suggests that this Ryzen 7 APU will prioritize battery life and thermal performance, likely in response to Qualcomm's recent offerings. Comparing the 760M to the single 860M benchmark on PassMark reveals similar performance, with the 860M actually falling behind the average 760M by an average of 9.1%. Take this with a grain of salt, though, since there is only one benchmark result on PassMark for the 860M.

It looks like the end of the console-exclusive era is marching ever forward. On the one hand, more game studios are embracing simultaneous launch strategies, as was recently emphasized by both Square Enix and Ubisoft adopting multi-platform simultaneous launches for Fantasian Neo Dimension and Assassin's Creed Shadows, respectively. The latest game to join this trend is Outer Worlds 2, which will launch on all platforms—Xbox Series S|X, Windows, PlayStation 5, and even Game Pass—simultaneously in late 2025. The surprising bit about the multi-platform launch of The Outer Worlds 2 is that Microsoft purchased Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind The Outer Worlds, leading many to believe that future games in the franchise would be Xbox/Windows-first. While the original Outer Worlds was released after Microsoft bought Obsidian, the launch contract predates the acquisition, so it also had a simultaneous launch, regardless of Microsoft's ownership.

In addition to the swathe of new games embracing multiple simultaneous platform launches, Jez Cordon, executive editor at Windows Central and well-regarded source for gaming rumors, recently also sparked rumors with a post on X suggesting that no future games developed by Microsoft or its subsidiary studios will be permanent console exclusives. In a reply to a comment criticizing Microsoft for seemingly keeping some games on Xbox and others not, Cordon said "They don't. They're all coming to PlayStation over time."

The annual Game Awards is just around the corner, with the opening night scheduled for December 12, and gaming industry big-shots have teased that there are big announcements coming. One such announcement is the reveal of the second Borderlands 4 trailer, which is all but confirmed for The Game Awards, thanks to Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Software. We already know the game is planned for release sometime in 2025, but fans are itching to know more about what's to come from the looter shooter that dominated the early 2010s. Around the same time, Andy Robinson, CEO of Video Game Chronicle, teased that he is "Expecting a VERY big Game Awards next week," going on to hype up his followers with "Fire up the hype train."

Pitchford, who has a reputation for being very active on X, recently posted a not-so-subtle confirmation that Gearbox was working on a new trailer for Borderlands 4. Without revealing much more, Pitchford teased that the next trailer would start where the first left off, suggesting that we may find out more about whom the cybernetic arm at the end of the teaser trailer belongs to. So far, prevailing fan theories and speculation around the owner of said arm propose that it is a hint at the return of Gaige, a playable character, and fan favorite, from Borderlands 2. This is a plausible guess, since the Borderlands franchise is known for bringing back characters from previous games, and it wouldn't be the first time we will have seen a former playable character turn NPC.

It's been public knowledge for a while now that Lenovo is planning an imminent successor to its Legion Go handheld that has proven rather popular among handheld gamers. Previous leaks and rumors indicated that the Legion Go S 8ARP1, as it will apparently be named, will be a more affordable version of the current Legion Go. Now, thanks to Roland Quandt, Windows Central, and WinFuture, more details about the upcoming Legion Go S have leaked, including images of the device, supposed specifications, and a potential price.

According to the leaks, the new affordable handheld gaming PC will feature some substantial hardware changes, including a slightly smaller eight-inch display, this time with a much lower 1920 × 1200p resolution and a slightly lower 120 Hz refresh rate. Gone, too, are the Nintendo Switch-style detachable controllers, with the Legion Go S instead featuring a white unibody design. What's more interesting than the leaked images of the Legion Go S or the hardware changes—detachable controllers or not, the Legion Go is still intended to be used as a handheld—is the new AMD APU that will seemingly power the Go S. The as-yet unannounced AMD Ryzen Z2G looks like it will be an odd core configuration featuring an AMD Radeon 680M iGPU and Zen 3+ cores. Ultimately, the APU seems like it will put the Legion Go S somewhere between the current-generation Legion Go and devices featuring the AMD Ryzen Z1 (non-extreme), which is a good place to be if Lenovo hopes to compete with the likes of the Steam Deck OLED, which will seemingly cost around the same as the Legion Go S, depending on which region you are in.

Steam is highly valued by many gamers, not only for being a fairly inexpensive, easy way to buy and manage games, but also because it provides statistics on player count and play times, via tools like SteamDB, which are a neat way for gamers to see how the community is participating in games before buying them. According to a post on the FandomPulse Substack, however, Ubisoft has taken issue with Valve's player statistics.

The Substack post quotes Ubisoft insiders who claim that the game developer and "other companies" want Valve to disable or restrict the APIs used by tools like SteamDB and Steam Charts as a direct response to the disappointing performance of Star Wars Outlaws. This news also comes ahead of the early 2025 launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows, which has already caused significant apprehension as a result of game previews. The claims also mention that Ubisoft seeks to control the narrative of its games and potentially present a rosier image to its investors. If Ubisoft has its way, the gaming industry would lose even more transparency, since tools like SteamDB are often used by game journalists to evaluate the popularity and commercial success of games.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is seemingly not out of hot water with gamers just yet, although this time, the flak seems to have been mostly unwarranted. Earlier this week, rumors popped up on Reddit claiming to reveal the Assassin's Creed Shadows Animus Hub, which was supposedly the upcoming RPG's dedicated launcher, and a host of in-game season passes and rewards. The leak purports to detail the first free battle pass, which is referred to as "Eye in the Dark" and will consist of 20 reward tiers. Completing the battle pass allegedly rewards 9,050 Isu coins, which can be used to purchase various cosmetics in the form of character, weapon, and mount customization options. Somewhat comically, there appear to be in-game collaborations with the likes of VISA, Red Bull, Intel, BAPE Clothing and Sprecher, although how these will play out in the game is a mystery. This news made quite a stir when it was first announced, since Ubisoft was very clear when it confirmed the game's delay last month that there would be no season passes in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

As it turns out, though, the rumors were kicking up enough speculation about the return of paid subscriptions, battle passes, and season passes that Ubisoft took to its official Discord server to address the rumors directly. Although Ubisoft confirmed that the Animus Hub is a piece of software it has been working on, all the content and rewards offered in the Animus Hub will be free content. Ubisoft was, however, careful with its words, not denying the existence of season passes and battle passes, instead only commenting that those passes will not be paid. Additionally, Ubisoft confirmed that there will be additional in-game content available for free in the Animus Hub.

Apple's M4-equipped MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and 24" iMac lineups are set to debut next week. The M4 family of desktop-class SoCs, which will soon be joined by the M4 Pro and M4 Max, is likely to bring substantial performance improvements to the aforementioned Mac models. If the recently leaked benchmarks are anything to go by, the M4-powered lineup appears poised to outperform Intel's "Lunar Lake" rather comfortably, while bringing the heat to AMD's "Strix Halo" as well as Intel's upcoming "Arrow Lake-H"-powered notebooks.

For those interested in the thin-and-light segment, the MacBook Air has always presented itself as a very decent option. According to recent reports by Mark Gurman, the M4-equipped MacBook Air is scheduled for launch sometime during January to March of 2025, with mass production set to start soon. The Mac Studio, which was supposedly slated to launch alongside the MacBook Air, is now delayed by a few months and will possibly see the light of day during the second quarter of 2025.

A new rumor circulating via VideoCardz reveals alleged Cinebench R23 rendering scores for the upcoming AMD Ryzen 9 9800X3D CPU series. The lineup supposedly includes 8-core, 12-core, and 16-core models, all featuring Zen5 architecture and 3D V-Cache technology. The leak consists of Cinebench R23 benchmark scores, however, there are no screenshots, so it should be treated with caution as it comes from CodeCommando, a relatively new source with only one verified leak to his name—the Ryzen 9000 slides that emerged shortly before AMD's official announcement.

Comparing the results posted from CodeCommando with TechPowerUp review data of the previous generation, the picture presents itself in a promising way for the upcoming AMD CPUs. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D is around 10% faster in single-core and 17% faster in multi-core compared with Ryzen 9 7950X3D, while Ryzen 7 9800X3D seems to be 20% faster in single-core and 28% faster in multi-core than Ryzen 7 7800X3D. These initial benchmark results show notable performance gains for the 8-core SKU, with both X3D models demonstrating higher multi-core scores than their non-X3D counterparts. While the 9800X3D shows slightly lower single-core performance than the 8-core 9700X, it exceeds the 9700X in multi-core tests. This multi-core advantage likely comes from a higher TDP, though specific power specifications haven't been revealed yet.

The leaks and rumors surrounding Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake desktop CPU line-up are starting to heat up, with recent rumors tipping the existence of the Core Ultra 9 285K as the top-end chip in the upcoming launch. A new set of Geekbench 6 scores spotted by BenchLeaks on X, however, suggests the Core Ultra 9 285 non-K variant of this CPU might lag its Ryzen 9 counterparts significantly.

The Geekbench 6 test results, which were apparently achieved on an ASUS Prime Z890-P motherboard, reveal performance that falls short of even the current-generation AMD Ryzen 7 9700X, never mind any of the Ryzen 9 variants. The Geekbench 6 multicore score came in at an unimpressive 14,150, while the single-core score was a mere 3,081, falling short of the likes of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X, which scored up to 19,381 and 3,624 in multi- and single-core tests, respectively. However, there appears to be more to this story—namely an odd test configuration that could heavily skew the test results, since the "stock" Intel Core Ultra 9 285K scores significantly higher in the Geekbench 6 charts than this particular 285 seems to.

We've known about the upcoming AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D for a good long while now, and previous leaks and rumors indicated that it would offer a rather significant boost in gaming performance thanks to changes to the 3D V-cache amounts and layouts. Now, a new leak, which purports to show off the official retail packaging for the new CPU, suggests that clock speeds will get a boost over the existing AMD Ryzen 7 78000X3D.

The leak, shared by Moore's Law Is Dead on YouTube, shows off a supposed retail box for the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D that was sent to AMD's partners for marketing, and along with that, he claims to have had access to the entire marketing slide deck, which is where the frequency boost information comes from. According to the leaker, the 9800X3D's marketing material specifically calls out the processor as being "designed for increased frequencies."

The upcoming Strix Point Halo processors from AMD now have a new name - Ryzen AI Max - and come with big promises of impressive power. This rumor, first reported by VideoCardz and originating from Weibo leaker Golden Pig Upgrade, reveals key details about the first three processors in this lineup, along with their specifications.

The leaker claims AMD might roll out a new naming system for these processors branding them as part of the Ryzen AI Max series. These chips will run on the anticipated Strix Halo APU. This series includes three models, with the top-end version boasting up to 16 Zen 5 cores and 40 Compute Units (CUs) for graphics. This setup is expected for the best model contrary to earlier rumors that AMD would drop such a variant. In fact, word has it that at least two of the models in this lineup will come with 40 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units. The leaker also hints that Strix Halo will handle up to 96 GB of video memory suggesting AMD aims to make this processor work with its ROCm (Open Compute Platform) system.

According to a new leak by Hoang Anh Phu, the upcoming AMD Ryzen 9000 Strix Point desktop series and Ryzen AI 300 for laptops, both dedicated to consumers, will be complemented by the usual commercial and business counterparts: the AMD Ryzen PRO series sporting improved security and manageability features. The first Ryzen PRO model based on Strix Point was spotted in shipping manifests, confirming the series' existence. However, the launch date remains uncertain. Hoang Anh Phu, suggests an October launch for these CPUs.

Hoang's recent accurate leaks include the Radeon PRO W7900 Dual-Slot and Ryzen 8000F series for the DIY market. AMD is expected to introduce the Ryzen AI 300 PRO series six months after the April launch of the Ryzen 8000 PRO, including desktop and mobile variants. The leaker also revealed new PRO variant names: Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 370 and Ryzen AI 7 Pro 360. While exact specs remain unconfirmed, the first one is rumored to be a 12-core processor. On the other hand, it's more likely that the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 will be a 10-core version.

Speculated lower-end Intel second generation Arc GPUs popped up via SiSoftware Sandra database entries around mid-March—evaluation samples are likely in the hands of trusted hardware partners. Yesterday, momomo_us happened upon another interesting shipping manifest, following a series of AMD-related leaks. The latest list reveals five "Battlemage" products—three utilizing the BMG-21 GPU, and the remaining two being based on the BMG-10 design. These identifiers have appeared in older leaks, although the latter has been viewed in place sight—chez Intel Malaysia's Failure Analysis Lab.

Previous leaks suggest that these second generation Arc models (Xe2) reside within a "High-Performance Graphics" (HPG) discrete GPU family—the Xe2-HPG BMG-10 range is likely targeting an "enthusiast" market segment, while the Xe2-HPG BMG-21 tier is rumored to offer mid-tier performance. Intel staffers have expressed confidence about a possible late 2024 launch window. Back in January, Tom "TAP" Petersen revealed that the Arc hardware team had already moved onto third-gen "Celestial" GPU endeavors: "I'd say about 30% of our engineers are working on Battlemage, mostly on the software side because our hardware team is on the next thing." The first-gen deck has not been cleared fully it seems—the Alchemist family could be joined by two new variants in the near future.