ASUS and MSI's price hiking of GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards is already a well explored subject matter (news-wise), but GPU market watchdogs have spent time investigating circumstances further down from the perch of NVIDIA's most visible board partner players. Citing evidence presented on the official Team Green subreddit, VideoCardz has levelled criticism in ZOTAC's direction. Apparently, the brand's North American store has—quite recently—jacked up asking prices for its custom GeForce RTX 5090 designs. The Hong Kong-based manufacturer only offers a choice of two models via its US webstore: SOLID OC and AMP Extreme INFINITY. At the time of writing, ZOTAC's webshop is undergoing "construction work"—fortunately, screenshots and crucial points of info were preserved by Redditors and media outlets. The flagship AMP Extreme INFINITY SKU has hit an unprecedented $2999.99 price point, although not reaching the heights of ASUS Astral ($3359.99!). A mid-March Wayback Machine save state reveals a previous RTX 5090 AMP Extreme INFINITY listing at $2599.99, but its initial launch price was $2499.99. Naturally, a flagship design—comprised of a robust cooling solution, fancy features/accessories and ARGB lighting—demands a premium upcharge, but ZOTAC's top-tier SKU is priced $1001 above Team Green's $1999 MSRP baseline.

ZOTAC's GeForce RTX 5090 SOLID (non-OC) SKU was supposed to act as the "barebones" baseline MSRP-conformant model, but price watchers noted that ZOTAC USA had removed this entry from the official webstore. Tom's Hardware reckons that the last recorded cost of ownership was $2199.99. ZOTAC's next best option is the brand's factory-overclocked variant—GeForce RTX 5090 SOLID OC—now adjusted up to $2699.99. Launch pricing was somewhere just above $2200, but that figure has changed over time. It was $2369.99, prior to this week—according to a Wayback Machine archived state. As reported last month, ZOTAC rolled out a "Priority Access Campaign" via Discord—this anti-scalping strategy received praise upon initiation, but VideoCardz's watchful eye has kept track of very few successful transactions. According to their latest investigative piece, a "top secret" ZOTAC Discord group was formed—this separate elite member-focused channel offers even "easier access" to coveted cutting-edge gaming graphics card.

As expected, Nintendo has kept quiet about the upcoming Switch 2 hybrid console's feature set and internal makeup. The next-gen portable gaming system's debut presentation served as a mostly surface-level teaser. News outlets have relied heavily on leaks for "insider" reportage, going back to the early 2020s—starting off with kopite7kimi's discovery of a mysterious NVIDIA "T239" chipset. As reported last week, Famiboards—a Nintendo-centric online forum—has served as a somewhat reliable source of inside track information. Earlier in the year, one member started to share NDA-busting details about Switch 2's display technology: "I've heard that the screen supports 120 Hz and VRR, which should help a lot in handheld." Weeks later, SecretBoy elaborated on the benefits of this setup: "developers can optimize the handheld profiles of their games with VRR and 40 FPS in mind."

The GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit views SecretBoy's leaks as being fairly accurate/legitimate: "(they) called out the GPU performance before the clock speeds were leaked; 10 days later back in January (3 TFLOPS docked, 1.4/1.5 TFLOPS handheld)." Earlier today, the tipster's latest musings were compiled into a Reddit summary—another set of quotes reads as follows (in condensed form): "I will reiterate that the screen is 120 Hz with HDR and VRR support. That's what I'm personally most excited for...No idea about the actual quality of the screen, but I think OLED was always going to be too expensive for this feature set, which they needed to get into the first iteration of the hardware so that developers could optimize their games around it (speculation)." Screen technology connoisseurs have expressed much disappointment about Nintendo's alleged selection of an "inferior" panel—many will point out that Valve was inspired by the Switch OLED model (2021); their Steam Deck handheld was famously upgraded/refreshed in 2023 with a fancier screen. Invited guests will get to experience Switch 2's "hugely revelatory" LCD tech at various Nintendo-hosted international preview events in April.

Frequenters of the MindFactory.de webshop have highlighted worrying signs of decline. A telling example was posted to the (German language) PCBaumeister subreddit; where a member queried: "what's going on at MindFactory? Only 12 Intel CPUs, 36 graphics cards (all brands), 30 monitors left on offer. Are they going bankrupt or are they emptying their inventory?" Similar alerts landed across PC hardware discussion boards—regional press outlets started to pay attention once a decent number of observations were tallied. Even VideoCardz started to receive tip-offs from its German readership, regarding MindFactory's very limited selection of previous-gen NVIDIA graphics cards (see screenshot below). According to the latest news articles, higher-end GeForce 40-series models are not listed. Additionally, there is a distinct lack of GeForce 50-series products on the webstore. VideoCardz found plenty of entries for AMD Radeon graphics cards, but nothing newer or more advanced than the RX 7800 XT.

Curious customers have contacted the webshop's service team, regarding low inventory and lack of product variety. A typical response reads as follows: "we (Mindfactory.de) are currently restructuring our store, which is why we have so few items in stock at the moment. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us." Following on from community tips, local media outlets have shared their own investigations—currently, several online sites propose that MindFactory is facing bankruptcy. WinFuture.de's article sports a prominent "Insolvenz—Freie Marktwirtschaft" graphic—translation: "insolvency—free-market capitalism." Igor Wallossek—of Igor's Lab fame—took issue with some of the sensationalistic headlines. He weighed in on this matter: "apparently, bankruptcy is to be filed for next week. I cannot speak about the background, it is extremely sensitive. I have known about it since Friday (February 28)." A dedicated news piece did not appear on igorslab.de, due to the following of an ethical code of conduct.

ASUS has taken the unusual step of formally announcing day one availability of its brand-new offerings—in TUF Gaming and PRIME forms—to the NVIDIA subreddit community. Today (March 5) marks the retail rollout of AIB-built GeForce RTX 5070 graphics cards—unfortunately, NVIDIA Founders Edition enthusiasts will have to wait a little longer for a now delayed launch. VideoCardz has called out ASUS on a number of occasions over the past month and a half, regarding alleged GeForce RTX 50-series "price manipulation" practices. In their latest bit of company coverage, the publication concedes that ASUS representatives are doing a better job in communicating launch day circumstances to its target audience. In contrast, other board partners have (reportedly) not reached out to the hardware gaming community.

The ASUS_MKTLeeM account has produced a useful "Day 1 Pricing and Availability in US and CA" buying guide for TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5070 OC Edition ($739.99 USD) and ASUS Prime GeForce RTX 5070 models (standard: $549.99, OC: $699.99). The company rep disclosed the outlook for this opening salvo: "we expect that most, if not all of these will be available at 6am PST for the US. Of course, things happen sometimes; and a particular e-tailer or retailer may have a website issue or may be pending for stock to reach them. Feel free to ask later in the day and we can track this down...For Canada, I do not have confirmation on which stores will have Day 1 stock at this time, unfortunately. If I receive confirmation before the end of the day I will update it." They noted that Best Buy Canada may experience delayed shipments (1-3 weeks) of TUF Gaming RTX 5070 OC Edition stock. Unfortunately, higher-end options are not releasing alongside "cheaper" brethren parts—MKTLeeM stated: "the ROG Strix cards will not be available Day 1. There is currently no ETA for when these cards will be available, but we will update the post and/or the availability post in the comments when we have an update." Press outlets have highlighted the apparent limited range of ASUS launch day models. Interestingly, the TUF Gaming RTX 5070 (non-OC) option was not included in MKTLeeM's subreddit thread.

The new ASUS ROG Astral graphics card design debuted last month, with the rollout of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 "Blackwell" GPUs. The flagship model—in overclocked form—is not a wallet-friendly prospect; as highlighted by W1zzard's in-depth evaluation. The "astronomically-priced" premium-tier quad-fan model is a hot property; in more ways than one—late last week, an unfortunate ownership experience was shared online. NVIDIA subreddit member—Impossible-Weight485—uploaded photo evidence, accompanied by a short story: "I was playing PC games this afternoon, and when I was done with the games, my PC suddenly shut down while I was browsing websites. When I restarted the PC, the GPU caught on fire, and smoke started coming out. When I took out the GPU, I saw burn marks on both the GPU and the motherboard." Post-absorption, initial community and press feedback posited that the problem originated with a Multi-Layer Ceramic Capacitor (MLCC), located not far from the card's PCI-E interface.

High-profile figures soon swooped in, with different theories and offers. A Team Green subreddit moderator weighed in: "not adding this one to our GeForce RTX 50 Series 12VHPWR Megathread. This looks to be a blown power phase, and not melting power connector. The original poster provided additional photos of the cable, in addition to the GPU connector photo in the post. Both looks pristine...Yes, I watched Buildzoid's video (see below), hence updating this comment...Thanks to Buildzoid for the education!" The owner uploaded another interior shot, seemingly showing burn damage on their ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO motherboard. The severity of this incident attracted the attention of Gamers Nexus—Lelldorianx (aka Stephen Burke) reached out to the damaged card's owner: "messaging you. We'd buy the board and GPU from you if you want to just take the cash and buy something else (or) skip the RMA process." Burke and his colleagues are actively investigating various GeForce RTX 50-series "pratfalls"—earlier this month, reports indicated that the team was already engaged in the sourcing of problematic units.

A brave Vietnamese high-end GPU enthusiast uploaded photo evidence of a freshly made purchase—COLORFUL's iGame GeForce RTX 5080 Ultra W OC model—onto the NVIDIA subreddit. Undoubtedly, a retailer in the Southeast Asia region had thrown caution to the wind and let stock prematurely float onto shelves. The plucky customer claimed that the transaction had taken place around a week ago—so well in advance of the official January 30 launch. The original post and several photos have been deleted, but several news outlets have preserved these details. The buyer alleges that they handed over $1400 for this "beautiful" triple-slot custom design—emblazoned with a funky graffiti-inspired lighting system and street art graphics.

The $401 upcharge above baseline MSRP ($999 in the U.S.) indicates that COLORFUL has outfitted this particular model with a beefy cooling solution and other premium features (e.g. stainless steel I/O plate with an attached one-click overclocking button). This custom GeForce RTX 5080 "Blackwell" GPU-based model was added to a working PC build—one photo shows off a B650 motherboard—but the lucky owner will have to deal with a lack of publicly released drivers. Fortunately, they have skipped ahead a step—less fortunate day one customers (across the globe) are seemingly faced with an incoming storm at retail.

Intel's Core Ultra 3 205 processor's spec sheet appeared online for a short period of time—members of the Team Blue subreddit discovered an official product page (now removed) and other related details. In part, discussion focused on the alleged lower-end "Arrow Lake-S" (ARL-S) desktop CPU being "reserved for OEMs." Previously, this SKU's existence was leaked out at various points back in 2024. VideoCardz has kindly preserved the latest set of information, prior to its removal from Intel's official web presence—showing a potential new addition to the Core Ultra 200S (Series 2) lineup.

The Core Ultra 3 205 model appears to slot into a segment previously occupied by (now retired) budget-oriented Pentium and Celeron products—based on the specification sheet listing of a 57 W TDP (aligning with past ratings). The Maximum Turbo Power limit is 76 W. Team Blue has inadvertently revealed that this is an eight-core processor, comprised of four Lion Cove P-Cores and four Skymont E-Cores—so 8 (4P + 4E). The performance-oriented cores can (Max Turbo) boost up to 4.9 GHz, while the efficiency-focused units are capable of reaching up to 4.4 GHz. The on-board AI Boost NPU is rated for a peak rating of 13 TOPS (Int8). The Core Ultra 3 205's GPU seems to only utilize two out of the four available Arc Xe-LPG cores. The product page mentioned that the Core Ultra 3 205 is due for launch in Q1 2025, although the "Market Status = Launched" segment adds to the confusion surrounding this now de-listed SKU.

A new security breach is trying to pump the brakes on Path Of Exile 2's overwhelmingly positive late 2024 launch, as a mysterious hack appears to be making the rounds in the new RPG, although the source of the vulnerability is yet to be identified. According to a growing number of posts on the Path of Exile 2 forum, subreddit, and even the game's Steam reviews, players are apparently logging into their PoE 2 accounts only to find that all their loot and gear they've now spent dozens or even hundreds of hours grinding for, has been removed from their accounts. The most alarming thing is that nobody seems to know how these hacks are happening. Some players say they changed their main email address and Steam login passwords days before they were hacked, and most seem to have no Steam 2FA requests, suggesting that there is either a security issue with the Path of Exile 2 game servers or there is some sort of session hijacking happening that is giving bad actors access to player accounts.

Until now, Grinding Gear Games, the developer behind Path of Exile 2, has not openly commented on the hacking incidents, with a single comment from the support team on the forum advising players to email support about it if they encounter such instances. According to the Steam review mentioning an account hacking incident, however, the player managed to track down the hacker on his own, subsequently contacted support and posted about it in the PoE 2 forum, and asked the moderator to assist in preventing the sale of the rest of his goods. This attempt was apparently enough to get the gamer's forum posts removed and put on probation. Meanwhile, the support request was met even more unkindly, with PoE 2 support going so far as to lock him out of his own account. He also isn't alone, with others in the Path of Exile 2 forum reporting that sharing the in-game name of their alleged hacker with support has led to their game account being locked.

Thousands of dicussion communities on Reddit have now shut doors to public access—warning signs started to appear online over past weeks, with community leaders drumming up support for a protest against the social news site's policy changes, including a strategy to monetize access to a vast pool of user data. For example the highly popular r/hardware subreddit is now "a private community"—unregistered users are greeted with a succinct message on the front page: "This subreddit is temporarily closed in protest of Reddit killing third party apps, see /r/ModCoord and /r/Save3rdPartyApps for more information." News sites are reporting that close to a total of 3500 subreddits have joined the "blackout" effort. According to the BBC this includes "five of the 10 most popular communities on the site - r/gaming, r/aww, r/Music, r/todayilearned and r/pics - which each have memberships of more than 30 million people."

A group message was shared by a moderation collective last week: "On June 12th, many subreddits will be going dark to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren't able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app. This isn't something any of us do lightly: we do what we do because we love Reddit, and we truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what we love." A moderator (speaking to the BBC anonymously) said that the protest will be effective due to "strength in numbers," which will presumably grab the attention of Reddit's executive team.