Last week, industry reports pointed to evidence of NVIDIA H20 AI GPU shortages in China—supply chain insiders expressed frustration about limited availability, and alleged price hikes. Days later, local media outlets have disclosed staggering sales figures. Two unnamed sources opine that the likes of Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance have spent roughly US$16 billion on H20 purchases, across the first three months of 2025. Back in February, Reuters noted an extraordinary surge in orders for: "(Team Green's) H20 model—the most advanced AI processor legally available in China under U.S. export controls—driven by booming demand for Chinese startup DeepSeek's low-cost AI models." The unprecedented rush—to secure precious AI-crunching hardware—was likely motivated by whispers of elevated restrictions; coming from across the Pacific Ocean.

Curiously, local government bodies have allegedly "advised" a stoppage of H20 orders—a recent Financial Times article suggested that this message was directed at the nation's largest AI players (mentioned above). A few industry moles believe that NVIDIA's engineering department is working on another Chinese market exclusive AI chip, although it is not clear whether a new entrant will be designed to conform to recently introduced "not very strict" environmental regulations. Anonymous sources have made noise about an upgraded H20 variant; sporting fancy HBM3E modules.

Within the past few days, Best Buy updated its product inventory with brand-new CyberPowerPC GamerMaster desktop SKUs, featuring NVIDIA's unannounced GeForce RTX 5060 8 GB graphics card. Earlier today, the ever watchful momomo_us spotted NDA-busting listings on the North American retail chain's webstore. Similar information turned up weeks ago, albeit from a French vendor. At the time of writing, CyberPowerPC's "GMA2600BSTV2" and "GMA2600BST" models are no longer visible/accessible on BestBuy.com.

Thankfully, VideoCardz's investigative article contains preserved screengrabs—their fresh news piece also extends to coverage of Newegg's premature listing of upcoming GeForce RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060-based STORMCRAFT pre-built SIRIUS desktop gaming systems. The online publication has deduced a possible $299 price point for Team Green's lower end GB206 GPU-driven, given fresh rumors of GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB and RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB being tagged with speculative guide figures: $499 and $399 (respectively). A guesstimated verdict was reached following their analysis of (now removed) CyberPowerPC and STORMCRAFT product pages, with a comprehensive comparison of leaked system integrator price tags vs. speculative GeForce RTX 5060 Ti guide digits.

Early last month, a source in China leaked very speculative information regarding AMD's—not-yet-official—Radeon RX 9070 GRE model. PC hardware news outlets have just picked up on this low-key prediction—according to rumors, Team Red is readying a cheaper Radeon RX 9070 series SKU. RDNA 4's first "Great Radeon Edition" (GRE) card is tipped for launch prior to AMD's officially announced Radeon RX 9060 series—at some point in Q2 2025. The original leaker suggested that Team Red's Radeon RX 9070 GRE would offer a "better price-performance ratio" when compared to the current-generation flagship: Radeon RX 9070 XT. Yesterday, Benchlife.info disclosed fundamental spec points—Navi 48 die, 12 GB VRAM, 192-bit memory bus—likely procured from contacts within the board partner industry. The online publication believes that AMD and involved AIBs will release Radeon RX 9070 GRE 12 GB cards for the Chinese market, in the near future.

Historically, GRE models have always launched as regional exclusives—starting with RDNA 3's Radeon RX 7900 GRE. Upon arrival—in July 2023—Team Red's curious Navi 31 GPU-based offering was linked to a potential global rollout. This milestone goal was achieved, albeit many months later—following various periods of "testing the waters" in smaller European regional markets. Since then, AMD China has pushed out other GRE options—most notably their extremely popular Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB and 10 GB cards. Post-internationally available Radeon RX 9070 GRE, nothing else GRE-related has experienced widespread distribution outside of China. Back in February, board partners introduced custom Radeon RX 7650 GRE 8 GB designs, as "step-ups" from already launched Radeon RX 7600 cards. Potentially, AMD could gauge local uptake of the nascent Radeon RX 9070 GRE 12 GB model—with healthy sales figures (in China) paving the way for a wider release.

NVIDIA's unannounced GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB and 8 GB models are reportedly due for an official unveiling mid-way through this month; previous reports have suggested an April 16 retail launch. First leaked late last year, the existence of lower end "Blackwell" GPUs was "semi-officially" confirmed by system integrator specification sheets—two days ago, reportage pointed out another example. Inevitably, alleged launch pricing information has come to light as we close in on release time—courtesy of Board Channels; an inside track den of some repute. The "Expert No. 1" account has alluded to fresh Team Green rumors; they reckon that the company's incoming new model pricing will be "relatively aggressive."

Supply chain whispers indicate that NVIDIA will repeat its (previous-gen) MSRP guide policies, due to the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti cards offering "estimated similar performance" to GeForce RTX 4060 Ti options. Speculative guide price points of $499 and $399 are anticipated—according to industry moles—for the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB and RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB SKUs (respectively). Expert No. 1 has tracked recent GeForce RTX 4060 Ti price cuts; intimating the clearing out of old-gen stock. Team Green's GeForce RTX 5060 design is reportedly a more distant prospect—slated for arrival next month—so supply chain leakers have not yet picked up on pre-release MSRP info.

Early last month, video game industry watchdogs posited that Respawn Entertainment's reportedly canceled "unannounced incubation project" was some type of Titanfall IP. Certain insiders believed that the recently scrapped project was a "smaller-scale" multiplayer-focused game, rather than a full sequel to 2016's franchise entry. The long dormant first-person shooter sci-fi series has attracted a cult following, but Respawn pivoted with the IP's universe into producing Apex Legends—an extremely popular free-to-play online shooter. Hopes for a third Titanfall title have been revived once more; courtesy of two notorious Apex Legend data miners—YOROTSUKI and Osvaldatore. Earlier today, the latter figure uploaded a cryptic "Titanfall 3" logo to social media. In a more elaborate follow-up post, YOROTSUKI leaked some alleged "inner circle" info.

They dismissed comments about their collaborator simply playing a prank—too late for April Fool's day. They referred back to December, when they openly discussed Respawn's "development of a secret game." These past Discord conversations are now linked forward to an alleged still alive "Titanfall 3" project. YOROTSUKI predicts an unveiling to the public during The Game Awards 2025—so December, at the earliest. An official launch window is allegedly on the EA release calendar for 2026. As interpreted by MP1st, this new leak should be absorbed with maybe more than one grain of salt—the online publication has spent time sniffing out a Respawn Entertainment-adjacent property. Allegedly "Project Bruno" is Bit Reactor's "Star Wars turn-based tactics game," due for an official reveal later this month.

As expected, Nintendo's lengthy Switch 2 presentation contained very little technical information—the upcoming hybrid console's feature set, software library and user experience were showcased extensively. A series of leaks and plenty of online speculation—going back to earlier in the decade—pointed to the highly-anticipated Switch successor being based on an NVIDIA hardware foundation. A mysterious "Tegra 239" chipset emerged as the "logical" choice for Nintendo's next-gen system, but company representatives will likely not comment on the exact nature of internal components. Several months after the launch of Wii U, independent analysis (by Chipworks) of the host console's "Latte" GPU core verified a Radeon 4650/4670-class design. To the surprise of many industry watchdogs, a Nintendo employee has officially confirmed Switch 2's support of NVIDIA graphics technologies.

As disclosed to IGN—during a press junket—Takuhiro Dohta (senior director of the firm's Planning & Development Division) stated: "we use DLSS upscaling technology and that's something that we need to use as we develop games. And when it comes to the hardware, it is able to output to a TV at a maximum of 4K. Whether the software developer is going to use that as a native resolution, or get it to upscale is something that the software developer can choose. I think it opens up a lot of options for the software developer to choose from. Yes, the GPU does support ray tracing. As with DLSS, I believe this provides yet another option for the software developers to use and a tool for them." When pressed about the exact origins of the console's beating heart, Dohta deflected responsibility in the direction of Team Green: "Nintendo doesn't share too much on the hardware spec...What we really like to focus on is the value that we can provide to our consumers. But I do believe that our partner—NVIDIA—will be sharing some information." As pointed out by VideoCardz, Nintendo's hardware technical manager only mentioned options for the development side of things, not end user features. Yesterday's Metroid Prime 4: Beyond preview segment indicated that the title's Switch 2 Edition will arrive with four profiles; VideoCardz theorizes that DLSS will be used for differing levels—quality/performance—in handheld or docked operation.

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

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

NVIDIA has not formally announced the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti GPU, but its existence was leaked months ago via usual insider channels. Despite whispers of a launch happening mid-way through this month, Team Green did not host a rumored special preview event back in March. Premature listings of lower end "Blackwell" GPU-powered pre-built gaming systems have popped up online; Lenovo is the latest company to join in one the fun. Their "Legion Tower 5i Gen 10" pre-build is advertised as "coming soon," and configurable with GeForce RTX 5070, RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 discrete graphics solutions. Curiously, Lenovo is prepping this model with an "Intel ARL-HX customized HM870" microATX motherboard—implying that the Core Ultra 9 APU (285HX or 275HX) will be soldered on.

Lenovo's NDA-busting product page does not go into as much (GPU-related) detail as HP New Zealand's webstore and Best Buy Canada's listings. Last week, reports focused on a new-generation OMEN 16L compact pre-built series—providing further evidence of GeForce RTX 5060 Ti graphics cards being readied with 16 GB and 8 GB pools of VRAM. Interestingly, TechPowerUp's GPU curator has scrubbed the alleged GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB model's page from the site's database. VideoCardz has trained its expert eye on the Legion Tower 5i Gen 10 model's spec sheet and promotional imagery—their investigation put a spotlight on Lenovo's pre-rendered mock-up of a dual-fan card design that sports a single 8-pin power connector. In the recent past, AIB insiders have alluded to several custom models being configured with this older standard. VideoCardz noted that the forthcoming Legion pre-build is listed with "limited DisplayPort 1.4 support." This could be a pre-release mistake (based on placeholder material), or an indication of NVIDIA's cheaper GeForce RTX 50-series options arriving without DisplayPort 2.1 capabilities.

According to a fresh Money Today SK news article, Samsung is expected to launch a next-generation Galaxy Ring model later this year—this tiny wearable device is touted to operate with a "dream battery" design. The South Korean giant's Electro-Mechanics division is reportedly tasked with the challenging development of "all-solid-state" batteries for all manner of ultraportable products. Yesterday's report suggests that Samsung's upcoming Galaxy Ring sequel—apparently scheduled for launch within Q4'25—will be driven by the Electro-Mechanics team's pioneering effort. The production of all-solid-state battery units is an expensive endeavor, so industry watchdogs have predicted tough retail conditions for the forthcoming "Galaxy Ring 2" rollout—the original unit was not exactly a "hot property" in terms of sales figures.

Money Today's inside sources reckon that the Electro-Mechanics branch will—eventually—fit all-solid-state battery designs inside new-gen earphones (aka Galaxy Buds) by Q4 2026, and very futuristic smartwatches by the end of 2027. Given cost considerations, larger all-solid-state solutions—potentially for usage in smartphones—are not in the pipeline. Around early February of this year, the development of Samsung's (inevitable) "Galaxy S26" mobile series was linked to alleged 6000+ mAh silicon-carbon battery units. The South Korean's smartphone engineering team is reportedly trying to play catch up with more advanced solutions, as devised by competitors in China. The status of Samsung's proprietary silicon-carbon prototype is the subject of much online debate, but certain insiders believe that employees are still working hard on the perfection of an ideal "battery formula."

Mark Gurman—Bloomberg's resident soothsayer of Apple inside track info—has disclosed predictive outlooks for next-generation M5 chip-based MacBooks. Early last month, we experienced the launch of the Northern Californian company's M4 MacBook Air series—starting at $999; also available in a refreshing metallic blue finish. The latest iteration of Apple's signature "extra slim" notebook family arrived with decent performance figures. As per usual, press and community attention has turned to a potential successor. Gurman's (March 30) Power On newsletter posited that engineers are already working on M5-powered super slim sequels—he believes that these offerings will arrive early next year, potentially reusing the current generation's 15-inch and 13-inch fanless chassis designs.

In a mid-February predictive report, Gurman theorized that Apple was planning a major overhaul of the MacBook Pro design. A radical reimagining of the long-running notebook series—that reportedly utilizes M6 chipsets and OLED panels—is a distant prospect; perhaps later on in 2026. The Cupertino-headquartered megacorp is expected to stick with its traditional release cadence, so 2025's "M5" refresh of MacBook Pro models could trickle out by October. Insiders believe that Apple will reuse existing MacBook Pro shells—the last major redesign occurred back in 2021. According to early February reportage, mass production of the much-rumored M5 chip started at some point earlier in the year. Industry moles posit that a 3 nm (N3P) node process was on the order books, chez TSMC foundries.

Industry insiders posit that TSMC's two flagship fabrication facilities are running ahead of schedule with the development of an advanced 2 nm (N2) process node. A cross-facility mass production phase is tipped to begin later this year, which leaves room for next-level experiments. Taiwan's Economic Daily News has heard supply chain whispers about the Baoshan "P2" plant making internal preparations for a truly cutting edge 1.4 nm-class product. According to the report, unnamed sources have claimed that: "TSMC has made a major breakthrough in the advancement of its 1.4 nm process. (The company) has recently notified suppliers to prepare the necessary equipment for 1.4 nm, and plans to install a trial production 'mini-line' at P2 (Baoshan Fab 20)."

Their Hsinchu-adjacent "Fab 20" site is touted as a leading player in the prototyping of this new technology. Industry moles reckon that "1.4 nm expertise" will eventually trickle over to nearby "P3 and P4 plants" for full production phases. Allegedly, these factories were originally going to be involved in the manufacturing of 2 nm (N2) wafers. Additionally, TSMC's "Fab 25" campus could potentially play host to trial 1.4 nm activities—the Economic Daily News article proposes that four plants based in the Central Taiwan Science Park are pitching in with collaborative work. As interpreted by TrendForce, "P1" could begin "risk trial production" by 2027, followed by full-scale output within the following year.

Over the past weekend Jukanlosreve declared via social media that Samsung's: "Exynos 2600 (mobile SoC) is definitely back, and it will be used in the Galaxy S26 series. But the chip volume is so limited that it'll likely be similar to the Exynos 990 situation. I'm not sure if SF2 is actually any good." Mid-way through March, the keen observer of semiconductor industry conditions posited that Samsung's Foundry business could abandon a 1.4 nm (SF1.4) process node. SF2 (aka 2 nm GAA) seems to be in a healthier place, according to insiders—thanks to rumored assistance from an external AI-specialist partner. The development of next-generation flagship Exynos smartphone processors are allegedly closely tied with Samsung Foundry's 2 nm GAA manufacturing process.

As alluded to by Jukanlosreve's recent prediction, the statuses of leaked 2 nm-based "Exynos 2600" and "Exynos 2500" chips were often questioned by industry watchdogs in the past. The latter is purportedly destined for rollout in forthcoming affordable "Galaxy Z Flip FE" models, albeit in mature 4 nm form. Vhsss_God—another source of inside track info—has weighed in on the topic of Samsung's next-gen chipset roadmap. Compared to Jukanlosreve's musings, their similarly-timed weekend projection seemed to be quite fanciful: "exclusive leak...Samsung doesn't want to use Exynos or Qualcomm Snapdragon chips anymore. S26 line is targeted to launch with the new Samsung developed chip (2 nm)—formerly referred to as Exynos 2600. (The company) will try its hardest to ditch Snapdragon on the entire Galaxy line next year." Perhaps there is too much of a negative stigma attached to Samsung's long-running chipset nomenclature, but the majority of foundry moles continue to label incoming designs as Exynos processors.

PC hardware media outlets have uncovered a not yet officially announced Kingston Fury Renegade G5 SSD product family. Promotional images and fairly detailed specifications were reportedly sourced directly from the North American manufacturer's main web presence. Three next-gen PCIe 5.0 SSD options were highlighted; likely coming soon—in quick response to Samsung's recently launched 9100 PRO Series. The South Korean megacorp's cutting-edge proprietary Presto
S4LY027-controlled offerings are considered to be the world's fastest SSDs, but this elite level of performance has arrived with substantial price tags. At several points, W1zzard's evaluation of the $300 Samsung 9100 Pro 2 TB model touched upon cost-performance considerations. Kingston's forthcoming Fury Renegade G5 4 TB, 2 TB, and 1 TB SSD NVMe M.2 2280 SKUs possess the potential to match main rivals—according to a leaked spec chart, the flagship boasts up to 14,800 MB/s read and 14,000 MB/s write speeds.

The apparent selection of Silicon Motion's SM2508 controller is a key point of interest—this "superior performance" low-power PCIe Gen 5 x4 NVMe 2.0 SSD solution was announced late last summer. September preview material painted a promising picture, in terms of promised power efficiency. By late December, a Chinese manufacturer demonstrated 14.5 GB/s sequential reads enabled by Silicon Motion's flagship controller. At CES 2025, TechPowerUp staffers documented a handful of previewed SM2508-controlled commercial products. Returning to the present day, Kingston's inadvertent self-leak did not reveal Fury Renegade G5's eventual launch window or price brackets—these facts are expected to arrive online with a possible imminent issuing of official press material.

Over three years ago, Bit Reactor was announced as the lead development partner on a mysterious "Star Wars strategy game." According to an early 2022 press release, Respawn Entertainment would collaborate on this new IP project. As disclosed in a recent Star Wars Celebration LIVE! schedule, company representatives will present a "first look at a new Star Wars turn-based tactics" title on Saturday, April 19. MP1st has somewhat spoiled this upcoming public reveal, by publishing an article that contains an impressive collection of "sneak peek" screenshots from project "Bruno." This alleged internal codename was uncovered when the online publication "procured" images from an unnamed Bit Reactor artist's portfolio. MP1st claims that the leaked images are: "dated to mid-2023, indicating that they belong to an early build of the game...The gameplay screenshots showcase elements common to the turn-based genre, like an isometric view and a party of characters."

Familiar Star Wars faction designs and technologies are showcased in captures of this older "Bruno" build. Gameplay and user interface concepts seemingly demonstrate where Bit Reactor's collective expertise lies. The Baltimore metropolitan area-based studio is headed by Greg Foerstch (formerly of Firaxis Games); a tenured artistic director of multiple turn-based strategy favorites. His indie outfit describes how members have (previously): "developed some of the most successful games you've heard of, such as XCOM, Civilization, Gears of War, and Elders Scrolls Online. We learned from the best and reached the pinnacle with the highest accolades, including Game of the Year and BAFTA." As interpreted by MP1st, the leaked early interface mock-ups suggest a multi-platform release—with "controller button" prompts spotted on several shots.

Going back to the start of this year, TSMC's trial run of a cutting-edge 2 nm (N2) node process was reportedly progressing beyond initial expectations. According to industry moles, two flagship fabrication facilities are "optimistically" tipped to pump out 80,000 units per month (by the end of 2025). This cross-facility total figure was linked to TSMC's Baoshan—located near the Northern Taiwanese city of Hsinchu—and Kaohsiung (in the South) plants. The latest regional reports suggest that the aforementioned trial phase was a resounding success, with pleasing results pointing to an "ahead of schedule" transfer to mass production phases. Insiders previously heard about the Kaohsiung production hub's schedule; with mass production set to start by early 2026—according to fresh rumors, revised calendars have a kick-off window repositioned somewhere in late 2025. Apparently a special "2 nm plant expansion ceremony" took place in that location, earlier today.

A noted semiconductor business analyst—Ming-Chi Kuo—reckons that recent 2 nm pilot yields have progressed well over the 60% mark, meaning that the involved foundry teams are more than ready to move onto kicking things into high gear. Taiwan's Economic News Daily anticipates significant financial gains, due to TSMC N2 products already being in high demand: "the quarterly revenue in the second half of the year is expected to reach one trillion yuan (~US$30.1 billion) for the first time, and it is poised to challenge the goal of earning twice the share capital in a quarter and rewrite the record for a single quarter." The local publication claims that TSMC Baoshan's "first batch of production capacity" is fully reserved for Apple, while Kaohsiung will take care of orders for other (i.e. less) important customers.

Successors to AMD's current-generation lineup of Ryzen 8000G desktop APUs are reportedly in the pipeline—according to the latest HXL/9550pro predictive declaration, finalized units could arrive at retail later this year. They propose that an "AMD AM5 New APU" family could arrive alongside an unannounced MSI Unify-X enthusiast-grade motherboard design, within the final quarter of 2025. Press interpretations of this inside track information point to possible upcoming "Ryzen 9000G" processors, utilizing Team Red's Zen 5 and RDNA 3.5 technologies. This potent combination already exists, albeit in mobile form—namely within Team Red's stable of Ryzen AI "Strix Halo, Strix Point," and "Krackan Point" APUs.

Industry experts opine that AMD will most likely deploy high-end "Strix Point" silicon to desktop, or more fancifully: "Gorgon Point." The latter codename turned up via leaks last week. Around early 2024, we witnessed Team Red's transfer of "Phoenix"—from original mobile formats—to their AM5 desktop platform. TechPowerUp's W1zzard evaluated the Ryzen 5 8500G "Phoenix 2" APU last summer; this plucky budget-friendly model sports Zen 4 and Zen 4c cores. Theoretically a flagship "Ryzen 9000G" SKU could emerge with twelve processor cores (4x "Zen 5" + 8x "Zen 5c"), a Radeon 890M iGPU, and an XDNA 2 NPU.

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.

According to a report produced by semiconductor industry analysts at Kiwoom Securities—a South Korean financial services firm—Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is expected to complete the development of a 5 nm process at some point in 2025. Jukanlosreve summarized this projection in a recent social media post. SMIC is often considered to be China's flagship foundry business; the partially state-owned organization seems to heavily involved in the production of (rumored) next-gen Huawei Ascend 910 AI accelerators. SMIC foundry employees have reportedly struggled to break beyond a 7 nm manufacturing barrier, due to lack of readily accessible cutting-edge EUV equipment. As covered on TechPowerUp last month, leading lights within China's semiconductor industry are (allegedly) developing lithography solutions for cutting-edge 5 nm and 3 nm wafer production.

Huawei is reportedly evaluating an in-house developed laser-induced discharge plasma (LDP)-based machine, but finalized equipment will not be ready until 2026—at least for mass production purposes. Jukanlosreve's short interpretation of Kiwoom's report reads as follows: (SMIC) achieved mass production of the 7 nm (N+2) process without EUV and completed the development of the 5 nm process to support the mass production of the Huawei Ascend 910C. The cost of SMIC's 5 nm process is 40-50% higher than TSMC's, and its yield is roughly one-third." The nation's foundries are reliant on older ASML equipment, thus are unable to produce products that can compete with the advanced (volume and quality) output of "global" TSMC and Samsung chip manufacturing facilities. The fresh unveiling of SiCarrier's Color Mountain series has signalled a promising new era for China's foundry industry.

In a letter addressed to stockholders, Intel's new CEO—Lip-Bu Tan—roadmapped the importance of a couple of major upcoming product launches. Starting off, Team Blue's new chief detailed a fresh approach, with the casting off of old strategies: "achieving the results I know Intel is capable of starts by refocusing on our customers. This has been priority number one since my first day on the job. I am listening carefully to their feedback so that we continue driving the changes needed to delight our customers and strengthen our competitive position. Plain and simple, the time for talk is over. We must turn our words into action and deliver on our commitments. I have been pleased to see the leadership team has already started driving the culture change needed to make this happen. As CEO, I will continue to drive this transformation so that we move faster, work smarter and make it easier for customers to win with Intel."

Tan's mentioning of Core Ultra "Panther Lake" processors arriving within the second half of this year aligns with prior official statements. Insiders posited that Panther Lake-H (PTL-H) mobile CPUs were delayed into 2026 due to issues with the Foundry's 18A process node, but an Intel executive dismissed these claims a few weeks ago. Interestingly, the firm's Chinese office outlined an "early 2026 volume launch" of "Panther Lake (18A)" chips during a mid-March AI PC press event. A presentation slide indicated that an Early Enablement Program (EEP) is expected to start in October; Team Blue's loose terminology likely classes the sending off of samples—to OEMs, for approval—as a "real" product launch.

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

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

NVIDIA's supply of Chinese market-exclusive H20 AI GPU faces an uncertain future, due to recently introduced energy-efficiency guidelines. As covered over a year ago, Team Green readied a regional alternative to its "full fat" H800 "Hopper" AI GPU—designed and/or neutered to comply with US sanctions. Despite being less performant than Western siblings, the H20 model proved to be highly popular by mid-2024—industry analysis projected "$12 billion in take-home revenue" for NVIDIA. According to a fresh Reuters news piece, demand for cut-down "Hopper" hardware has surged throughout early 2025. The report cites "a rush to adopt Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's cost-effective AI models" as the main cause behind an increased snap up rate of H20 chips; with the nation's "big three" AI players—Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance—driving the majority of sales.

The supply of H20 AI GPUs seems to be under threat on several fronts; Reuters points out that "U.S. officials were considering curbs on sales of H20 chips to China" back in January. Returning to the present day, their report sources "unofficial" statements from H3C—one of China's largest server equipment manufacturers and a key OEM partner for NVIDIA. An anonymous company insider outlined a murky outlook: "H20's international supply chain faces significant uncertainties...We were told the chips would be available, but when it came time to actually purchase them, we were informed they had already been sold at higher prices." More (rumored) bad news has arrived in the shape of alleged Chinese government intervention—the Financial Times posits that local regulators have privately advised that Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance not purchase NVIDIA H20 chips.

Shipping manifests have served as fairly reliable sources of pre-launch information—Everest (aka Olrak29) has discovered many juicy details in recent times. Their latest sleuthing session—combing through NBD documents—has indicated AMD's (alleged) prepping of a larger socket design for next-generation mobile processors. A leaked document alludes to the existence of various "MEDUSA01" jig and block "FP10" socket validation parts. Current-generation Ryzen AI "Strix Point" 300 series APUs utilize the FP8 socket format. Based on the "MEDUSA01" shipping manifest, it seems that a successor will arrive with a larger footprint—measurements of 25 mm x 42.5 mm are repeated throughout the leaked description list. Industry watchdogs surmise that "Medusa Point's" BGA FP10 socket will be approximately 6% larger than its predecessor.

Mid-way through last month, insider theorizations pointed to "Medusa Point" being a chiplet-based design. A "single 12-core Zen 6 CCD" was linked to a TSMC 3 nm-class node, with "N4P" reportedly selected for a separate mobile client I/O die. Readily available 4 nm Ryzen AI "Strix Point" processors are monolithic in nature. Initial inside track info mentioned RDNA 4 technology in the same equation as "Medusa Point," but recent Team Red's recent-ish targeting of "GFX1153" places RDNA 3.5 as the de facto choice.

At the tail end of 2024, AMD technical staffers added the "GFX1153" target to their first-party GPU supported chip list. Almost three months later, PC hardware news outlets and online enthusiasts have just picked up on this development. "GFX1150" family IPs were previously linked to Team Red's RDNA 3.5 architecture. This graphics technology debuted with the launch of Ryzen AI "Strix Halo," "Strix Point" and "Krackan Point" mobile processors. Recent leaks have suggested that Team Red is satisfied with the performance of RDNA 3.5-based Radeon iGPUs; warranting a rumored repeat rollout with next-gen "Medusa Point" APU designs.

Both "Medusa Point" and "Gorgon Point" mobile CPU families are expected to launch next year, with leaks pointing to the utilization of "Zen 6" and "Zen 5" processor cores (respectively) and RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture. RDNA 4 seems to be a strictly desktop-oriented generation. AMD could be reserving the "further out" UDNA tech for truly next-generation integrated graphics solutions. In the interim, Team Red's "GFX1153" IP will likely serve as "Medusa Point's" onboard GPU, according to the latest logical theories. Last year, the "GFX1152" target was associated with Ryzen AI 7 300-series "Krackan Point" APUs.

The status of Intel "Meteor Lake-S" (MTL-S) desktop processors was the subject of much speculation throughout 2023—by September of that year, Team Blue leadership projected an upcoming launch in 2024. Technically, Meteor Lake was deployed to "sort-of desktops" platforms—albeit in mini-PCs that utilized Core Ultra mobile chips. Industry moles insisted that Intel was still actively engaged in production of MTL-S samples in late 2023. According to a recent ITHome report, those insider tales turned out to be legitimate. On Monday (March 24), the online publication revealed the existence of a mysterious "Q46W" engineering sample—courtesy of Kyoka (a trusted source). A CPU-Z diagnostic revealed the unannounced CPU's turboboost capability reaching 4.5 GHz, while base frequency sat at the 2.8 GHz mark.

According to ITHome's investigative piece, Team Blue: "tested a very special desktop processor: it uses the Meteor Lake architecture, has 6 performance cores and 8 energy efficiency cores (6P+8E), but the performance cores (P-cores) do not support Hyper-Threading. The production date of the product in hand is the 51st week of 2023, which is obviously later than the time when Meteor Lake-S was reported to be cancelled for external sales. From this situation, 'Q46W' may be a development test processor for FCLGA1851 platform or the 800 series chipset. Kyoka believes that the processor should be in the ES2 stage." A Xianyu seller—tbNick_3u8k4—is reportedly offloading a surprising quantity of "Intel Confidential Q46W" processors, allegedly manufactured back in early 2024. Photos show tray-mounted units available for sale on Taobao's second hand market platform. tbNick_3u8k4 mentions that this particular batch of Q46W chips "requires a special motherboard to light up," suggesting that readily available Intel 800 Series chipset-based models are not fit for purpose.

Last week, we heard rumors about NVIDIA delaying its launches of GeForce RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060 by a couple of weeks. Initially, PC hardware watchdogs anticipated a product unveiling before GTC 2025 kick-off time. Industry insiders did not fully disclose the reasons behind Team Green's revised release schedules for more "budget-friendly" GB206 GPU-based offerings, but supply chain moles posited that GeForce RTX 5060 Ti graphics cards would reach retail by mid-April. As noted by VideoCardz last Saturday, a specific date was leaked by a reliable source: wxnod.

The tenured PC hardware soothsayer reckons that NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5060 Ti "will be released on April 16th at 9 pm" in 16 GB and 8 GB forms. According to VideoCardz's insider network, "briefings" regarding this alleged launch date were not yet distributed to key figures (i.e. board partners). An upcoming Wednesday rollout could be legitimate, given that Team Green and AIBs let loose GeForce RTX 5070 cards on March 5. A recent leak of GeForce RTX 5060 Ti "full specifications" indicates the laying of groundwork; leading to a potential launch in the coming weeks.