Samsung raised prices on new orders across its 4nm, 5nm, and 8nm foundry processes in July, with increases reaching 15% for customers in China and the U.S., Reuters has reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. Chinese chip designers, cut off from advanced chipmaking tools by U.S. export controls, are accepting the largest hikes, and Samsung's 4nm line at Pyeongtaek has reportedly been running at full capacity since late last year. The increases come not too long after Samsung cut its 2nm wafer price to $20,000 in a reported attempt to undercut TSMC by roughly a third.

Customers in China and the U.S. saw quotes for the 4nm SF4 process climb 10% to 15% from June, while customers in Taiwan saw smaller increases of 5% to 10%, one source said. Wafers on the 5nm SF5 process rose 10% to 15%, and the 8nm node went up by close to 10%. Samsung declined to comment on the report.

Chinese orders now exceed what Samsung can take on because U.S. customers get served first and a slice of capacity stays reserved for Samsung's own silicon. This captive demand situation isn't new, with the Financial Times reporting last year that Samsung's chip exports to China grew 54% between 2023 and 2024, including a deal that supplied Baidu's Kunlun with more than three years' worth of logic dies for AI accelerators.

The Pyeongtaek SF4 line builds logic chips for Qualcomm alongside the base dies underneath Samsung's own HBM stacks, meaning external foundry customers compete for wafer starts with Samsung's memory division, the business that drove its record profits.

Counterpoint put Samsung at 7% of global foundry revenue in Q1 2026 against more than 70% for TSMC, but that gap is doing Samsung a favor on pricing: TSMC's leading-edge capacity is booked out by AI orders, and the market leader notified customers of 5% to 10% increases across all sub-5nm nodes starting in January, with some services reportedly rising around 25% in 2027. Samsung is raising prices beneath that umbrella and still landing below where TSMC's quotes are headed.

Samsung's foundry division has been loss-making since 2022, and Lee Min-hee, an analyst at BNK Investment & Securities, told the wire service that if Samsung keeps raising prices, "its foundry business could potentially become profitable as early as next year." The customer list backing that forecast has grown over the past year, spanning Tesla's $16.5 billion AI chip contract, an Apple manufacturing deal, a Broadcom AI chip agreement, and Nvidia's inference processor.

Beijing has been encouraging its tech giants to build data centers across the country as the central government believes that computing power, especially in the age of AI, correlates to national power. Because of this, many Chinese companies like Huawei and Tencent have been actively building AI infrastructure in rural provinces, like Guizhou province, which is located more than 500 miles to the northwest of Shenzhen. According to Tech Xplore, dozens of these facilities have been constructed in the area in recent years, with more on the way.

Unlike the U.S., where data centers face increasingly tough opposition, these build-outs are seemingly approved with relative ease, and the people living around them apparently appreciate the changes that the data centers and related infrastructure brought to the area. “It used to be a barren mountain, but since the area has developed, transportation has become more convenient, trade has picked up, business opportunities have emerged,” one shopkeeper told the publication. Another local, Li Xixiu, praised the development of the main road as tech companies entered the area, saying that it “boosted the economy of the area,” and that there have been more local opportunities since then. “All the villagers in our neighborhood now find jobs nearby, unlike before, when they had to go to other places,” said Li. Still, it must be noted that Beijing places tight control on objections and protests, and that ordinary people cannot just object to policies set by the central government.

One of the reasons behind American opposition to data centers is the egregious electricity price increases they’ve brought on the average user. The PJM Interconnection region, the biggest power region in the United States, has seen a massive 76% increase in electrical costs because of the burden that data centers have put on the grid. Aside from that, it’s estimated that 20% of power generated in the U.S., amounting to 194GW, will be allocated to data centers by 2035. By comparison, analysts say China has a massive advantage in power generation, with several western Chinese provinces offering steep discounts on their electricity bills for AI companies that use Chinese chips. Furthermore, because the state subsidizes the power costs of residential and agricultural users, the average citizen does not worry that a nearby data center would cause their utility costs to increase.

These rural provinces also have large swaths of land allocated for renewable energy production, with energy overproduction becoming a problem for some operators. So, the construction of these power-hungry buildings actually helps solve the problem by using up surplus power instead of letting it go to waste. The availability of land and power in these western provinces makes it more attractive and affordable to put up data centers, compared to areas east of the country which are largely built up and have higher population concentrations.

Still, this development is not without issue. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET) in Taiwan said in an email to AFP that while Guizhou has seen an average GDP growth of 7.4% over the past 10 years, wages didn’t increase as much and lagged behind much of the rest of the nation. “This contrast suggests that while data centers drive heavy investment in land and equipment, their impact on boosting local per capita income remains limited,” DSET researchers Cartus Bo-Xiang You and Angela Glowacki wrote.

Qualcomm has updated its benchmark slides for the new Snapdragon C chip targeting laptops as inexpensive as $300. Nearly a week after the company originally revealed the Snapdragon C's specs and performance, it reached out asking Tom's Hardware (and presumably other publications) to replace a slide with Qualcomm's power efficiency benchmarks with an updated slide, which now includes two fewer results.

You can see the old slide and updated slide in the gallery above. The results are the same between them. However, the updated slide removes the idle apps and web browsing results. A Qualcomm representative says the change was made to "improve clarity and relevance," though the removal of the tests so long after the original announcement raises more questions than it answers. We've asked Qualcomm if there's any additional reason why it removed these results.

The company asked Tom's Hardware to replace our usage of the original slide with the updated version, though a retraction of published benchmarks carries a bit more weight than a simple update. It's unclear, at this point, why Qualcomm is making the change outside of the statement provided about improving clarity. The reason why really doesn't matter, however. Qualcomm made claims about the efficiency of Snapdragon C nearly a week ago, and now those claims have changed.

One thing you'll notice is that the two results that were removed use "ABL" in front of the test. We're not sure what this acronym is in reference to. Presumably, it's not the Advanced Business Language, a scripting language tailored for enterprise database applications. It could mean "all-day battery life" or something similar, which would make sense. We've asked Qualcomm what ABL is in reference to in its slides.

The benchmarks compare Intel's N250, a quad-core chip built on Intel 7 that operates at up to 3.8 GHz, against the Snapdragon C. Qualcomm's latest chip comes with eight Kryo CPU cores, which can boost up to 3 GHz on a single core, and up to 2 GHz across all cores. Even without the removed results, there are a few important notes about Qualcomm's testing.

First, Qualcomm didn't test on AC power, but rather compared the Snapdragon C to the Intel N250 on battery power. We expect to see how performance out of the Intel N250 with AC power compares to battery power (Snapdragon chips generally have a narrow window of performance across both AC and battery power). More relevant for the efficiency claims are the comparison platforms, however.

Qualcomm used a reference 16-inch device with Snapdragon C and compared it to an 11.6-inch Acer TravelMate with the Intel N250. The company says the N250 machine had "total power configured to match 16" screen." That presumably means Qualcomm is looking at total system power, though it's hard to say for sure. The benchmarks provided don't include concrete numbers or units, but vague comparisons to the N250.

Thermal Grizzly has started selling its delidded version of AMD's already-excessive Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, and here's the hard part up front: it will set you back a cool $1,402.83. That price is, obviously, rather difficult to justify on the face of it, but Thermal Grizzly does at least provide considerably more than a CPU with the heatspreader yanked off.

The company thoroughly cleans and tests each processor after delidding, records its measured operating temperature, and includes a USB stick containing the test results and a microscope image of the exposed processor. More importantly, Thermal Grizzly provides a 24-month worldwide warranty; that's welcome in light of the fact that delidding the processor naturally voids AMD's own warranty.

The firm even goes a step further than you might expect on the warranty front. Under German law, the burden of proof normally shifts after the first 12 months of a purchase, but the company's warranty explicitly states that this reversal does not apply to its TG Delid CPUs. In other words, Thermal Grizzly continues to take responsibility for the product throughout the full 24-month warranty period rather than automatically putting the burden on the customer after the first year. That's a meaningful bit of insurance when you've just spent more than $1,400 on a processor that AMD won't touch with a ten-foot pole.

Paying more than $500 over MSRP could never really make any sense on a lower-end processor, and indeed we've reported on the high price of Thermal Grizzly's delidded CPUs before. But the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition is AMD's halo desktop processor, with 16 Zen 5 cores, 32 threads, and a whopping 192MB of L3 cache thanks to its unusual dual-CCD 3D V-Cache configuration. It also carries a 200W TDP and can consume considerably more power under heavy workloads; AMD itself recommends liquid cooling for optimal performance.

For someone who insists on having the biggest, baddest AM5 processor possible, a factory-tested direct-die version with a warranty is certainly a more attractive proposition than buying a retail chip and breaking out the delidding tools yourself. Delidding a CPU and cooling the silicon directly can reduce the thermal resistance between the processor and cooler, which is all but guaranteed to help the CPU sustain its normal boost behavior with less aggressive fan speeds, making an extremely powerful system somewhat quieter. What it won't help with (at least, not much) is performance.

That's because Thermal Grizzly's warranty is surprisingly restrictive about what you're actually allowed to do with all that newfound thermal headroom. The warranty covers normal operation as well as "overclocking according to manufacturer specifications," but excludes operation outside AMD's specified values. Thermal Grizzly specifically warns that CPU and memory clock speeds beyond those specifications aren't covered. So, in practical terms, you're probably looking at AMD-sanctioned tuning such as PBO and EXPO rather than taking your naked Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 and seeing how far you can push it before the magic blue smoke comes out.

Which is a little ironic given that overclocking is one of the main reasons an enthusiast might be interested in going to the trouble of delidding a processor in the first place. What Thermal Grizzly is essentially selling you is a much better thermal envelope while telling you that the warranty doesn't cover you if you use that envelope to operate the CPU outside AMD's specifications. As we've just explained, it's not completely pointless, but if you're looking to do some serious overclocking, DIY might be a more attractive route (warranty details notwithstanding).

Of course, before you decide if the extra $500 over MSRP for a delidded Dual Edition is worth it, you need to figure out why you'd want a Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 in the first place. Our own coverage of AMD's dual-CCD X3D processor found that it is by and large a halo product. The extra 3D V-Cache can provide meaningful benefits in certain workloads that can take advantage of the enormous amount of cache across both CCDs, but the gains aren't remotely proportional to the price premium over a Ryzen 9 9950X3D. Gaming performance, in particular, is generally exactly in line with the cheaper chip, and both typically run behind the Ryzen 9 9850X3D.

That's not to say the 9950X3D2 is a bad processor. Quite the opposite; rather, it's an extremely impressive stack of silicon, and AMD's decision to put 3D V-Cache on both CCDs makes it arguably the most exotic desktop processor the company has ever produced. It's just also very much a "because we can" product for people who want the best and don't particularly care what it costs. If you're one of the relatively small number of people whose workload genuinely benefits from having that much cache across 16 cores, there's a good chance you're doing that work on a workstation or EPYC system rather than spending your days trying to justify a $1,400 delidded AM5 CPU.

Still, if you've got the money to build a machine around the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, the extra $500 might not be a deal-breaker. For the price, you get a cooler-running, quieter system, and as long as you don't go ham on the overclocking, Thermal Grizzly has your back for 2 years. Just make sure you also buy your cooling equipment from Thermal Grizzly, because regular Socket AM5 cooling hardware may not mount up correctly to a delidded CPU.

GTA VI is one of the most hotly anticipated games in history, but Rockstar’s decision to not release a physical copy has hit a sore nerve among fans. Apparently, one of them is a talented hacker who somehow landed their hands on GTA VI gameplay and the entire map and decided to leak them. According to gaming creator NikTek on X, Cyberleek allegedly leaked the two clips and the entire map of Leonida as a protest against the publisher’s decision to sell pre-selling digital copies of the game. They said that they will not stop dropping leaks until the company issues a public apology and commits to doing better.

"No consumer shall pay for a game through digital storefronts before release and independent review. Physical preorders for tangible media remain permitted. Preorders were not created for gamers. They were created because physical discs had manufacturing limits. In digital distribution, there is no inventory. There is no stock shortage. A digital copy cannot sell out. Yet publishers kept the preorder system and stripped away its only consumer benefit. Now gamers pay early and receive nothing in return except a countdown timer and a cosmetic skin,” Cyberleek said on their website. “If publishers want revenue before launch, they can press discs. Print boxes. Put them on shelves. Earn that money through physical production."

Aside from this, Cyberleek has two other points in their manifesto: that publishers should not sell “fake” single-player DLCs that unlock content already included in the base game and that any title featuring single-player content must always be available, even when server support ends. These points are issues that many gamers are fighting for, especially as many companies focus on digital games and subscriptions over physical media and one-time purchases. One major example is Sony’s decision to cut physical media. This move has angered gamers, with many complaining that we no longer own the games we buy. Unfortunately, Rockstar is following in this trend — even though you can still physically buy GTA VI from retailers, these copies only contain a download code, not physical game discs you can insert into your console.

NikTek said in another X post that the leaked clips showed various gameplay details, including basketball games, vehicle loadouts, and openable and closable trunks. There’s also a stamina bar and an honor system similar to Red Dead Redemption 2. The map leak also showed details of the five counties, as well as revealing that there is a massive rail system and many tiny islands that players can explore. Another creator said that these leaked details are already over a year old, but Rockstar has been actively issuing DMCA takedowns against posts that showed these details, meaning these are likely clips of the real thing. After all, the base gameplay has likely already been completed, and the developers probably spent the last few months finalizing the game ahead of its November launch.

In recent years, the largest electronics manufacturing services (EMS) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) have gradually ceased their expansion in China and built production capacities elsewhere across Asia. Now, it is time for their clients to follow. Google intends to relocate production of all Pixel smartphones, smartwatches, and wireless earbuds from China beginning in 2027 as it continues to diversify its supply chain amid tensions between China and the U.S., reports Nikkei.

Google's EMS and ODM partners — such as Compal, Foxconn, and Pegatron — have significantly expanded manufacturing capacity in India and Vietnam in the past several years, although China still accounts for a meaningful portion of their production capacity. In a bid to reduce reliance on China, Google reportedly shifted production of some of its high-end Pixel smartphones to Vietnam this year and remained satisfied with the outcome. Since building premium handsets is considerably more complicated than assembling smartwatches or wireless earbuds, the progress with Pixel phones reportedly gave Google confidence that it could shift the rest of the lineup out of China in 2027. If the plan materializes, Google will become the second global smartphone brand after Samsung to relocate smartphone production from China to other countries.

Vietnam is particularly attractive for Google because Samsung has already established an extensive smartphone manufacturing ecosystem in the country that Google can tap into.

Google also has considerably fewer reasons than Apple to preserve its Chinese manufacturing footprint because Pixel smartphones are by far not as popular as iPhones and they are also not sold in China. Google expects Pixel smartphone shipments to grow by 8% – 10% from approximately 12 million units last year, which is an order of magnitude lower compared to iPhone sales per annum.

Despite rising component costs, Google's strategy for Pixel this year is reportedly focused on maintaining unit shipment growth. A supplier working with Google and Xiaomi reportedly told Nikkei that Google is among the few smartphone vendors that have not reduced their shipment forecasts this year, which is not particularly surprising as its unit sales are modest. Yet, it remains to be seen whether the company can both relocate production and increase output of handsets at the same time.

Consumer electronics brands like Apple and Google are shifting production away from China primarily due to escalating China – U.S. geopolitical tensions, which result in punitive tariffs, export controls, and the risk of sudden disruptions. As an added bonus, adding production capacities in countries like India and Vietnam automatically improves supply-chain resilience and reduces over-reliance on a single country. Rising labor and regulatory costs in China, combined with attractive incentives and growing manufacturing ecosystems in places like India and Vietnam, further encourage diversification. Meanwhile, companies like Foxconn or Pegatron do not abandon their China operations and continue to build products not meant for the U.S. market there.

With the pervasiveness of Flock cameras and the public’s backlash against surveillance technology that can track their movements under seemingly lax oversight, Comcast hopes consumers will be more receptive to monitoring activities inside the home. This week, Comcast announced Xfinity Shield, which it claims offers first-of-its-kind “intelligent home protection” courtesy of your seemingly mundane Wi-Fi router.

While the best Wi-Fi routers on the market are supposed to give you higher connection speeds, extended coverage, and enough capacity to handle all of your wireless devices, Comcast is tapping into a little-used aspect of Wi-Fi signals. Called Wi-Fi Motion, it monitors the signal strength and interference between your Wi-Fi router and connected devices. By measuring these frequency signals, it can detect if someone is moving around in your house. When unauthorized activity is detected, the router can instantly send an alert to your phone.

You could achieve the same intruder detection using traditional motion sensors in your home, or even an off-the-shelf security camera, but Wi-Fi Motion doesn’t require you to purchase additional hardware to function. However, since it’s only relying on changes in frequency signals, we’d imagine that it won’t offer as much granularity in motion detection, and it could even be more prone to false positives.

This isn’t exactly new technology, as we reported on Wi-Fi routers being used to detect humans in a room over three years ago. At the time, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University used a TP-Link Archer AC1750 router to track human movement and positions in a room.

With that said, we must be clear that this feature is opt-in by default. You will need to use the Xfinity app to enable Wi-Fi Motion, then enable alerts to monitor for suspicious activity. The app also provides three protection modes for monitoring: Home Watch, Away Watch, and Dark Watch.

Wi-Fi Motion is just one pillar of Wi-Fi Shield, which is a subset of Xfinity Shield. The other two pillars are Xfinity CyberSecure, which provides automatic protection for devices against phishing attacks and malware, and Family Settings, which allows you to manage screen time for individual devices. Wi-Fi Shield is available free of charge to Comcast customers with Advanced Xfinity Gateways. If you want additional protection, Comcast offers Shield Select for $15/month. Shield Select includes an indoor camera, a window/door sensor, cloud storage for captured video footage, and 24/7 emergency response support.

Divided across two countries and four campuses, Samsung's foundry roadmap runs from the Korean bases at Pyeongtaek, Hwaseong, and Giheung to the new U.S. site at Taylor. Samsung began mass-producing its first-gen 2nm process in 2025, moved equipment into its long-delayed Taylor, Texas fab in April this year, and lined up Tesla's AI6 processor under a $16.5 billion contract signed in July 2025, yet none of it has closed the gap with TSMC.

Samsung confirmed the 2nm milestone in its fourth-quarter 2025 results, the same release in which it returned its foundry unit toward profitability on the back of HBM4 logic-die orders. The unit still trails TSMC roughly 11:1 by revenue, and 2nm yields are reported to be sitting near 55%, below the threshold the business needs to run advanced nodes at a profit.

What separates Samsung from TSMC isn't fabs or customers but yield, and Samsung has been able to absorb the cost of that gap because its foundry unit sits inside the Device Solutions division alongside a memory business posting record profits. The company reports no standalone foundry P&L, which has given the operation years of runway that a pure-play foundry wouldn't have the benefit of.

Taylor, Texas

Samsung's Taylor project is both the centerpiece of its roadmap and the company's longest-running headache. The full campus, covering two fabs, an advanced packaging facility, and an R&D center, has been reported at around $44 billion, with the portion tied to U.S. funding set at over $37 billion. Samsung's CHIPS Act award was revised down from up to $6.4 billion to up to $4.745 billion as the project's scope narrowed, with Texas adding roughly $250 million in state incentives in September last year.

Construction stalled through 2024 and into 2025, with reporting at the time attributing the halt to an absence of committed customers and yield problems on the node the fab was meant to run. Samsung held an equipment move-in ceremony in April, and the site is now set to install a third-gen SF2P+ variant of its 2nm process, with trial production targeted by the end of 2026, full mass production in 2027, and a capacity goal of around 50,000 wafer starts per month. The facility's anchor tenant is Tesla, whose AI6 chip Samsung will build at Taylor under the eight-year deal running through 2033. Tesla's AI6 has reportedly slipped by around six months, tied to a delayed engineering run on Samsung's 2nm line, pushing volume toward late 2027.

Pyeongtaek

Pyeongtaek remains Samsung's largest production base, built out across a series of lines designated P1 through P5. In the near term, activity at Pyeongtaek centers on P4, where Samsung has pulled forward equipment move-in and is reported to be installing an HBM4 base-die line on its 1c-class DRAM, and on P5, the final planned fab at the site, where construction had been halted and is now reviving on the strength of AI memory demand. The P5 buildout carries a reported total investment of nearly 90 trillion won and a 2029 production target, according to Korean trade press.

The Korean expansion runs against a backdrop of capex restraint. Through 2024 and 2025, Samsung was reported to have cut foundry investment sharply and to have reviewed pausing both Pyeongtaek and Taylor work as losses mounted, with foundry utilization sitting around 50% in the second half of 2024 before recovering as clients returned.

Hwaseong and Giheung R&D

Process development runs out of Hwaseong's EUV line. The newer Giheung NRD-K research complex, a roughly 20 trillion won investment running to 2030 and dedicated to advanced-node R&D. Samsung deployed an ASML High-NA EUV research tool, the Twinscan EXE:5000, at Hwaseong for process development, and was understood to be buying two mass-production-class EXE:5200 systems — with the second originally being due to arrive in the first half of this year — aimed at the SF1.4 node and next-generation DRAM.

On the logic side, that plan has since shifted: Samsung's updated roadmap keeps SF1.4 on Low-NA tooling and reserves High-NA for the 1nm generation. Given that this research base feeds the production fabs, its output will now set the pace for how quickly Samsung can stabilize 2nm and move to 1.4nm.

The processes

Samsung's 2nm family runs from the first-generation SF2, now in mass production, through SF2P this year, the SF2P+ variant headed to Taylor, and SF2Z, which adds backside power delivery and is planned for mass production in 2027. The 1.4nm node, SF1.4, was originally targeted for 2027 mass production when Samsung announced it at the 2022 Foundry Forum. That date is now officially 2029, per an updated roadmap Samsung presented at the 2026 Next-Generation Lithography + Patterning Conference in August, which commits the company to three more years of refining the SF2 family before moving down a node.

The same presentation gave Samsung's first confirmation of where High-NA EUV enters production: not at 2nm or 1.4nm, but with the 1nm-class SF1A node around 2030. "We believe High-NA EUV will become necessary from A10 and below," Chang Min Park, Master VP of Technology at Samsung Electronics, told the conference, saying the tooling needs further improvement before it can carry mass production at larger nodes. SF1A is slated to run alongside SF1.4+, an enhanced 1.4nm variant that stays on proven Low-NA flows, so customers wary of High-NA's smaller exposure field and higher cost will have a fallback on familiar tooling.

As always, roadmaps live and die by their yields, and Samsung's is no exception. The company's first-gen 2nm yields were reported as climbing through 2025, but as of April, they still sat near 55%, below the level the business needs for profitable high-volume output, with reporting suggesting Qualcomm could route work back to TSMC as a result. These figures are obviously estimates rather than Samsung disclosures, and they've varied across sources, but they're consistent enough to say that yield — not capacity or customers — is Samsung's biggest constraint with 2nm.

To compensate, Samsung has been pulling back aggressively on price to stay competitive. The company is reported to have cut its 2nm wafer price to around $20,000, undercutting TSMC by roughly 33%, a discount that'll no doubt win price-sensitive work but compress the margin on a node already running below break-even yields. Undercutting on price while trailing on yield is a difficult combination to fund, which is why the unit's losses have set the pace of its recovery.

Exynos and external customers

Samsung's anchor customer on 2nm is its own mobile chip unit. The Exynos 2600, built on SF2, is the node's first commercial product and powers the standard Galaxy S26 and S26+. However, the Galaxy S26 Ultra runs Qualcomm's Snapdragon SoCs worldwide, and the Exynos reportedly covers only around a quarter to a third of S26 builds because yields cap how many it can supply.

A successor, the Exynos 2700 on SF2P, is in development for the Galaxy S27, with mass production targeted for the second half of this year. Samsung using its own processor to prove a node before committing to external customers is the same play we saw the company run at 3nm.

Externally, 2nm customers remain thin. The clearest to date is Japanese AI firm Preferred Networks, which Samsung confirmed as a turnkey customer for SF2 plus 2.5D packaging on AI accelerators. Tesla's AI6 is obviously the biggest name, and there are reports of a 2nm CPU order from a North American fabless customer identified as AMD and of advanced-stage talks with Qualcomm over Snapdragon work, though neither is confirmed.

HBM4

The strongest case for Samsung's integrated model sits in memory rather than logic. The company said it shipped the industry's first commercial HBM4 in February this year, running at 11.7 Gbps per pin against the 8 Gbps JEDEC baseline and extendable to 13 Gbps, with per-stack bandwidth up to 3.3 TB/s. The logic base die under that stack is built on Samsung's own 4nm foundry process, which lets the company source the base die in-house rather than buying it from TSMC as some rivals must, and it's reported to be moving the base die for custom HBM to its 2nm process for samples in 2027.

That capability has translated into qualification, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confirming in June that Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron had all passed certification to supply HBM4 for the Vera Rubin platform. Samsung is still the smaller supplier, with analysts putting SK hynix at roughly two-thirds of Nvidia's HBM4 allocation and Samsung in the mid-20% range. Still, qualification of all three vendors ends the period when Samsung was locked out of Nvidia's top memory tier.

Samsung has also moved early on the next step, having begun shipping HBM4E samples around May, claiming roughly 3.6 TB/s of bandwidth, and is positioning custom HBM with logic-based dies tailored to individual accelerator customers, including Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, and hyperscalers, with samples due in 2027. SK hynix followed with its own HBM4E samples weeks later, so although the lead is measured in weeks rather than generations, memory is the part of Samsung's business where it competes at the front rather than from behind.

Firmly in second place

Samsung has reshuffled its foundry leadership twice in a year, naming Han Jin-man to head the business in November 2024 and restoring a dual-CEO structure over the Device Solutions division in November 2025, with Jun Young-hyun over the DS division and Roh Tae-moon added as co-CEO.

The reshuffles followed a stretch in which foundry and System LSI losses were put by analysts at 3.18 trillion won for 2024, before reportedly narrowing below 1 trillion won by the third quarter of 2025 as utilization recovered from around 50% in late 2024 toward roughly 80% in early 2026. Chairman Jay Y. Lee has publicly ruled out spinning the foundry off to address the conflict that running it alongside the Exynos design unit creates for fabless customers, saying the company intends to grow the business rather than separate it.

The spending behind that recovery is massive, with Samsung having guided to more than 110 trillion won in combined facilities and R&D investment for 2026. The Device Solutions division is taking the bulk of a 10.2 trillion won first-quarter capital outlay, and Taylor ramp investments are set to rise from the second quarter onward. Ultimately, the company is funding an advanced-node buildout on both sides of the Pacific while the unit that runs those fabs is only now climbing back toward break-even.

In Q4 2025, TrendForce put TSMC's foundry revenue at $33.7 billion against roughly $3.4 billion for Samsung's foundry unit, leaving Samsung second with around 7% of the market. By Q1 2026, the same source had TSMC at $35.86 billion and Samsung near $3.2 billion, a gap of roughly 11 to one. Samsung is reported to be targeting foundry profitability by 2027, and a 20% market share, and its own 2026 guidance promises double-digit revenue growth and improved profitability driven by advanced nodes. The company is also reported to be reviewing a second Taylor fab and moving foundry leadership closer to its U.S. customers, a sign it's planning for the demand it hasn't yet converted.

Whether that holds depends on the same metric that has dogged the Taylor launch and the Tesla schedule. SF2 mass production and a marquee customer are both in place; what closes the distance to TSMC, or fails to, is yield reaching the level that makes a $44 billion fab and a $16.5 billion contract pay for themselves.

Data centers have become a hot topic uniting Americans recently, with over 70% opposing the building of this infrastructure near their homes. So, Liquid Death and Garage Beer have banded together to create a viral ad asking viewers to drink their products, create pee, and then send it to the AI data center of their choice. According to Marketing Dive, the concept started with Liquid Death’s creative team, with comedian Sabrina Jalees coming up with the data center idea. It was repurposed into this ad, featuring NFL star Jason Kelce, who co-owns Garage Beer, showing the two brands teaming up together to promote their products and asking people to pee on computers "to save humanity."

“We have a lot of affinity for what those guys are doing: they’re doing comedy, and they’re also an indie trying to break into the mainstream. We’re positioning our energy drink as a light beer of energy — it’s fewer calories, it’s lighter, it’s more drinkable — so that was the strategy,” Liquid Death vice president of creative Andy Pearson told the publication. As for the peeing on data center concept, Pearson added that it’s the one issue that's common across America. “When you look at the data, it is literally the one thing that unites all Americans right now, across the spectrum.” In the video below, Kelce opens by stating "AI data centers waste millions of gallons of water."

Aside from electricity use and consumption pushing prices for all consumers, the next big issue that many data centers face is the amount of water that they consume in their operations. There have been several instances of data centers affecting the water supply of the neighborhood that they’re in. One example of this is this 615-acre campus in Fayetteville, which has been causing low water pressure for over 15 months as it secretly sucked 29 million gallons of water, while another report showed a Meta data center allegedly muddying the water supply in a Georgia town.

These concerns had tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon release claims that their data centers only consume a small amount of water, while Nvidia has also been developing technologies that will cut data center water use by up to 100%. Still, many feel that these efforts aren’t enough to address the issues being felt right now, leading to passionate and widespread resistance against these projects across the nation.

The two indie brands are trying to get on board the issue in a more lighthearted, less preachy way, making use of humor and a bit of crudeness to touch on sensitive issues like data centers. While the video has a disclaimer saying, “to please don’t actually send your pee,” some developments plan to use treated wastewater instead of fresh water for their water demands, so some data centers already use “pee” to cool their GPUs. We just wish that more of these facilities did this from the beginning, instead of making thousands of people suffer from water problems.

An AI-themed bar in Beijing's Zhongguancun tech hub hands out free, unlimited DeepSeek tokens with its drinks, running inference locally on two Nvidia DGX Spark mini-PCs kept on display. The AGI Bar, opened last year on Haidian district's Inno Way startup street by Song De, an independent AI developer in his thirties who runs it in his spare time, sells a signature 9.9 yuan ($1.50) glass of foam, also named AGI, and lets anyone on the WiFi code use its house AI agent at no charge. Song has told Reuters the bar is "completely losing money," with roughly 10 times more drinks given away than sold.

The venue sits a short walk from Tsinghua and Peking universities and the Beijing offices of DeepSeek and Microsoft, has hosted parties for Chinese AI labs including Z.ai, and keeps the gong Z.ai struck for its January Hong Kong listing outside the front door. Its registered Chinese name translates to "knowledge distillation," a pun that works equally well for liquor and LLMs.

According to the report, much of the bar's operations have been automated, with AI agents taking care of inventory, reservations, and memberships. The owner is set to introduce humanoid robots later this year.

Each Spark pairs a 20-core Arm CPU with a Blackwell GPU on Nvidia's GB10 and carries 128GB of unified LPDDR5X, enough, per Nvidia, for models up to 200 billion parameters at FP4. Linking two units over their ConnectX-7 NICs pools 256GB. DeepSeek's V3 and R1 weigh in at 671 billion parameters, and V4 runs to 1.6 trillion, so whatever flows over the bar's WiFi is a distilled or aggressively quantized cut of the model rather than the real thing. The showpiece hardware isn't cheap either: after Nvidia raised the Founders Edition price 18% to $4,699 in response to memory shortages, a matched pair costs about $9,400 before a single free token is poured.

DeepSeek suspended its second fundraising round in late July, days after remarks attributed to founder Liang Wenfeng went viral on Chinese social media. The round had targeted a pre-money valuation of roughly 480 billion yuan, or about $71 billion.

Reports citing Chinese outlet Yicai say the leaked meeting minutes had Liang discussing DeepSeek's continued reliance on Nvidia chips and estimating that China trails leading U.S. labs by 12 to 18 months on around one-twentieth of their compute; Bloomberg, which originally covered the leaked transcript, said it hasn't verified its authenticity.

Those admissions reflect badly on Beijing's push to wean its AI sector off American silicon, an effort that last year saw DeepSeek reportedly urged to train R2 on Huawei's Ascend hardware before repeated failures sent training back to Nvidia GPUs. Two American Blackwell boxes displayed as a Beijing bar's main attraction make for a slightly off-message shrine.

Japanese chemical maker Ajinomoto has reportedly told customers in mainland China that it will cut supply of ABF, the insulating build-up film that's used in nearly every high-end processor package, by 30%, according to a report from the Chinese outlet JW Insights, which cites unnamed supply chain sources.

If true, that would be painful for Chinese customers like Shennan Circuits, Xingsen Technology, and Shenghong Electronics, who rely on Ajinomoto's reported 95% global market share of the film. In contrast, China's self-sufficiency rate is thought to sit below 5%.

JW Insights attributes the cut to Ajinomoto prioritizing Japanese customers and core overseas accounts, which supply the FC-BGA substrates under Nvidia, AMD, and Intel accelerators, over mainland buyers. Whether or not the 30% figure holds up, the squeeze is well documented, and China's response was underway long ago.

A confirmed shortage

Ajinomoto's ABF production ran at roughly 2 million square meters per month at full utilization in the second quarter. The company has committed ¥25 billion (around $156 million USD) since 2023 to expand capacity by about 50% by 2030, and land purchased in Kani City, Gifu Prefecture, hosts a third plant not expected to come online until around 2032.

In the fiscal year ended March 31, Ajinomoto reported that ABF sales grew 25% with margins above 50%, and the share of its film going into servers and networking silicon reached 70%, up from 40% in fiscal 2017. According to Goldman Sachs, the gap between ABF substrate supply and demand will widen from around 10% in the second half of 2026 to 21% in 2027 and 42% in 2028.

Ajinomoto notified substrate makers in May of a roughly 30% price hike taking effect this quarter, two months after UK activist fund Palliser Capital disclosed a top-25 shareholding on March 31 and publicly demanded the company raise ABF prices by more than 30%. That hike is confirmed, even if the volume cut isn't. ABF material accounts for about 30% of a substrate's bill of materials, so the increase flows directly into the cost of every FC-BGA package built on it. We've been tracking ABF crunches since the shortage that constrained GPU production in 2021 and 2022, and the current cycle looks to be extending a pattern that's already hit BT resin substrates and T-glass cloth, where single Japanese suppliers also dominate.

China has three films in qualification

Huazheng New Material's CBF, developed with the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Electronic Materials, is the most mature of China's three named alternatives. The film uses a modified epoxy resin with spherical silica filler, which routes around Ajinomoto's IP rather than copying it. According to reports coming from Chinese media, its mass-production yield sits at above 85%, with reliability testing reportedly having passed inside Huawei Ascend systems and validation underway at Xingsen and Shennan Circuits. Huazheng's first production line of 3 million square meters per year is said to be running at full utilization, and a second line doubling that is slated to come online at the end of 2026.

Lotus Holdings, best known in China as a producer of MSG, acquired 51% of Shenzhen Newface, the developer of NBF, in April for roughly ¥103 million. Newface is said to have qualified all products below nine build-up layers, with nine- to 11-layer films in development and validation underway at Taiwanese substrate makers. Ajinomoto itself is a food and seasonings company that derived ABF from its amino acid chemistry in the 1990s.

Hongchang Electronics' GBF, co-developed with Taiwan's Jinghua Technology, has been validated at a leading domestic OSAT and is in small-volume trial production, with scale-up targeted for the fourth quarter. All three films face the same challenge of downstream reliability qualification taking one to three years of thermal cycling, damp-heat aging, and electrical testing, often longer than the R&D itself, and the highest layer-count films under flagship AI accelerators remain unmatched domestically. Upstream inputs, including specialty resins and spherical silica filler, are themselves partly import-dependent.

Huawei's Ascend packaging sidesteps ABF

Huawei's Ascend 910C reportedly connects two compute dies on separate silicon interposers through an organic substrate, an approach SemiAnalysis has described as trading die-to-die bandwidth for yield and cost against Nvidia's CoWoS.

That architecture makes Huawei less dependent on the high layer-count ABF-based FC-BGA substrates that Nvidia's B200 and GB200, AMD's MI300X, and Intel's accelerators sit on, and Chinese reporting seems to position Ascend as the anchor qualification target for both CBF and GBF. Cambricon, Biren, Moore Threads, and Alibaba's T-Head, which package on conventional FC-BGA, are directly exposed to any mainland ABF supply disruptions.

China banned exports of dual-use items to Japanese military-linked end users back in January through Ministry of Commerce Announcement No. 1, following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's November remarks on a Taiwan contingency, with measurable fallout. Chinese exports of restricted rare earths to Japan fell roughly 51% year-over-year in the first half of 2026, Nikkei Asia reported, and Japan imported just 13 tons of dysprosium in the period, down 82% from two years earlier, per TrendForce.

Ajinomoto's move to cut ABF supply to China eight months later has obvious retaliatory optics, despite every account of the alleged cut attributing it to capacity allocation under AI demand. China's rare-earth controls have so far targeted materials where China holds the leverage, and ABF is a market where it holds none.

Meanwhile, BOE signed a three-year glass substrate agreement with Corning in May and designated glass-core packaging a strategic business in July, and Lens Technology announced a through-glass-via collaboration with Intel the same month, extending China's push into glass substrates as the longer-term route around Japanese film.

A glass core swaps out the middle layer of a substrate, but the chip package still needs insulating film built up on either side, so glass doesn't remove the need for ABF or its substitutes. None of China's glass projects has reached mass production either. Until that changes, China's answer to the reported cut depends on whether Shennan, Xingsen, and Shenghong qualify their domestic films.

With the RAMpocalypse in full swing and little relief in sight, we need to look at combo deals to take some of the sting out of these ridiculous prices. Newegg’s latest combo pairs the ‘new’ Ryzen 7 7700X3D gaming chip, a quality Asus ROG Strix B650-A Gaming Wifi motherboard, and 16GB (2x8GB) of Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM, plus a free Cooler Master 240mm AIO, for only $609.99. A savings of $124 (not including the freebie), which, when applied to the RAM, brings it down to a reasonable-for-the-times price (~$136), making this an inexpensive entry into the AM5 platform.

• Check out this deal on Newegg

While the Ryzen 7 7700X3D isn’t quite as fast as the 9800X3D, the 8-core 16-thread Zen 4 processor is still one of the top gaming chips and is well ahead of the recently re-released (and expensive, $349.99 at Newegg) Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Performance-wise, the 7700X3D is squarely between the faster 7800X3D and slower 7600X3D, and it clearly holds its own among its peers and is a great 1080p/144 0p gaming chip while not paying for the more expensive 9000 series X3D chips. Newegg also throws in a free Cooler Master Elite Liquid 240 AIO ($80 value), which pairs nicely with the processor.

Along with the processor is a 16GB (2x8GB) kit of Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 CL36 RAM in white to match the motherboard. This kit features a frosted RGB light bar that runs the length of the sticks, drawing attention inside your case. Or, if RGB lighting isn’t your thing and you prefer a stealthy appearance, you can turn it off. The DDR5-6000 speed lands in the sweet spot for the AM5 platform and is a worthwhile, good-looking option. The SK Hynix ICs under the heatsink pair nicely with the board and offer plenty of overclocking headroom if you choose.

Asus’ ROG Strix B650-A Gaming Wifi is a mid-range motherboard with a black PCB, silver/white heatsinks, and ROG RGB, providing a stark contrast of colors inside your chassis. The board offers capable power delivery, three M.2 sockets (one PCIe 5.0) and four SATA ports for storage, fast networking with integrated Wi-Fi 6E and 2.5 GbE, ample USB ports on the rear I/O including 20 Gbps Type-C port on the rear IO (8 other Type-A ports), a quality audio solution with the Realtek ALC4080 chip and Savitech SV3H712 combo, and finally, it offers a DIY-friendly design to help building your PC easier.

Together, this three-item combo can turn your AM5 upgrade dreams into reality without breaking the bank. At only $609.99, it’s a serious option for building or upgrading your gaming PC. And since it’s AM5, you can drop-in-upgrade to a 9000-series processor, AMD’s latest and greatest, like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D in the future.

There are many different options available if you want to buy a microSD card, but which one of these lasts the longest? Tech enthusiast Matt Cole wanted to find out, so he set up a torture rig in 2023 to put various cards through their paces and recently released an update on the status of his project on the r/DataHoarder subreddit. Cole said that he has a total of 351 microSD cards in his collection coming from 52 different brands and 111 unique models. Of these, 177 have already been tested until they completely stopped working, have become read-only, or more than half of the sectors on the card have experienced verification failure. Another 107 units are currently being put through their paces, while a further 67 are waiting for a microSD card slot to open up.

Cole has so far tested 200 cards last year, meaning 84 microSD's have failed in the intervening months. While this might sound disastrous for any manufacturer, we should note that the testing conditions are quite extreme, and it’s rare that a user would find themselves in these circumstances. If you want to check out the raw data, Cole’s database is publicly viewable on his website, but he’s also shared some of his observations after three years of testing. First, he divided his microSD cards into three categories: consumer-grade, high-endurance, and industrial-grade. Consumer-grade microSD cards are the typical cards you can get off Amazon, while high-endurance models are often labeled as such (or some other similar wording). Lastly, industrial-grade microSD cards are those that are specifically designed for heavy-duty use and would often come with a data sheet and an endurance claim.

According to the test results, the average consumer-grade microSD withstood 10,000 program/verify/erase cycles, with PNY, Kingston, Delkin Devices, Lexar, and Samsung rounding out Cole’s top five brands.

Interestingly, Amazon Basics received an honorable mention, with none of the microSD cards being tested failing yet. They’ve been running for 788 days now, with 16,600 cycles and a total of 4.2PB of data written on them. The only reason they didn’t make the main list is that they’re technically generic or off-brand microSD cards and Amazon could replace the NAND chips used in these cards anytime, thereby making the survey results moot. There’s a separate shorter list for high-endurance and industrial-grade cards, given that the sample size is just smaller and the latter is significantly more expensive than all the other microSD cards available here.

He also listed some of the worst performers per category from popular brands, like ADATA, Gigastone, Micro Center, Silicon Power, and, surprisingly, SanDisk, although Cole avoided no-name brands, since most users don’t expect much from them.

Doing all these tests simultaneously and continuously is no joke, and we see this in Cole’s setup. He runs a single Beelink Mini-S with an Intel N95 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 500GB SSD, five TRIGKEY Green G4 mini-PCs and one TRIGKEY K-N100 with an Intel N100 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 500GB SSD, and an AOOSTAR mini-PC with an Intel N150 CPU paired to 12GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD. Aside from these mini-PCs, he also has an MSI GE62VR-7RF Apache Pro laptop with an Intel Core i7-7700HQ, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, a Lenovo IdeaPad Y850 laptop with an Intel Core i7-3630QM, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, and an ASUS ROG Strix Hero II GL504GM laptop with an Intel i7-8750H, 32GB of RAM, and a 500GB SSD.

Running this experiment can get expensive as Cole needs to purchase all the microSD cards himself (unless someone donates them), especially at a time when memory card prices are skyrocketing. Aside from that, he also needs to purchase and maintain all that testing hardware. Although these are either relatively affordable mini-PCs or used gaming laptops, the cost of acquiring and running all these units will eventually stack up.

In late 2024, we reviewed ASRock’s X870E Taichi motherboard and loved its feature set, DIY-friendly nature, and loads of USB ports on the rear IO. Fast-forward to today and we’re covering the newly released ASRock X870E Taichi White. In addition to the different colorway and updated aesthetics, it also receives some iterative feature updates. This includes native 9950X3D support, faster Ethernet, and it’s ASRock’s first motherboard to feature all-white components. But the biggest changes with are the board’s improved looks.

Priced at $449.99 (or $438.99 on Newegg), it’s not inexpensive. But ASRock’s Taichi lineup always delivered the goods, offering flagship-class hardware that cost less than the competition. It may not have a fancy LCD screen like others, but it doesn’t have that same flagship price. Still, it does come with high-end features, including overbuilt power delivery (now with active cooling), 10 GbE (up from 5 GbE), a flagship audio solution with an integrated DAC, and even support for multi-GPU (AMD CrossFire). You get the same M.2 count (four), but fewer SATA ports (three, from six), DIY-friendly features, and plenty of USB ports on the rear IO, including two USB4 (40 Gbps) and Lightning Gaming ports. In short, it’s handsomely equipped.

Performance testing proceeded without a hitch, and the results were average overall. The results showed it was not only a solid productivity machine, be it rendering, encoding, or office work, but also showed it’s a competent gamer too. While it didn’t set the world on fire performance-wise, it was relatively consistent across the board.

Below, we’ll examine the Taichi White’s performance and other features, and decide if it has a chance to make our list of the best motherboards. But before we share test results and discuss details, here are the specifications from the ASRock website:

Specifications of the Taichi White

Inside the Box

Inside the box with the motherboard are a few accessories to get you started. You get four SATA cables (for three ports), three thermistor cables, an ARGB splitter cable, and last but not least, the Wi-Fi antenna. It’s not much, but it will at least get you a good wireless internet connection and let you attach SATA-based drives without a trip to the store.

Design and Features of the Taichi White

The Taichi White, like the original, keeps the same general design, with a vertical M.2 socket to the right of the RAM, and it uses a white, 8-layer PCB with beefy heatsinks covering the VRMs and two M.2 sockets, with the rest more of a plate-style cooling. Gone is the polarizing look of the original, with the gold dots and distinct cogs as the main design feature, moving to a more subtle look. We spy the Taichi branding on the left VRM heatsink, and you can see the small VRM fan, which is a unique look.

There are two RGB lighting zones: one hidden below the plate heatsink across the bottom and the other on the left VRM heatsink, which lights up the whole surface by the fan. ASRock’s Polychrome Sync software controls the lighting, with several canned light patterns, and most you can adjust (speed and color). The appearance is improved compared to the first X870E Taichi, but you’ll have to design an all-white build to take advantage of it.

Looking at the top left corner, we see your typical configuration with two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required) and the VRM heatsink. The latter uses a heatpipe to connect the top portion of the VRMs to the main, actively cooled portion of the heatsink. The tiny little fan remains off at idle and ramps up under load. It was quieter than the AIO we use, so there are no worries about noise. You can control the device in the BIOS and through Windows software. However, there’s better control through the latter. Here we see a tamer version of the Taichi theme, with the Taichi branding written vertically in chrome.

To the right of the socket area, we see the four DRAM slots, with locking mechanisms on both sides. ASRock lists support up to DDR5-8200, which is well above AMD’s sweet spot for the platform, but still a bit lower than some other high-end boards. We didn’t have any issues with our kits, including the DDR5-8000 kit with our APU.

Above the DRAM slots are the first three (of eight) 4-pin fan/pump headers. Each header supports PWM and DC-controlled devices through the BIOS. The lion's share of these headers (CPU_FAN2, CHA_FAN1-4, and both AIO_PUMP headers support a whopping 3W/36A each and also auto-detect 3-pin/4-pin, while the CPU_FAN1 supports up to 1A/12W. There’s plenty of output available.

To the right of the DRAM slots is a vertically oriented M.2 socket that uses ASRock’s M.2 Key Latch to hold the device down and the M.2 heatsink quick release to attach and detach quickly—this socket, M.2_2, is a PCIe 4.0 (64 Gbps) M.2 socket. Don’t let the heatsink fool you. It’s labeled as “Blazing” M.2 (typically reserved for PCIe 5.0-capable sockets), but it’s PCIe 4.0 (what ASRock calls “Hyper”).

Along the right edge, starting in the top-right corner, we spy the two-character Dr. Debug diagnostic panel that displays POST codes in bright white, and below that are LED-backlit Power and Reset buttons. Below those are the first two 3-pin ARGB headers, followed by the 24-pin ATX power lead for the board, a 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), and finally a front panel USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) Type-C connector.

Power delivery on the X870E Taichi White uses the same robust configuration as the original. There are 25 phases total, with an incredible 22 dedicated to Vcore. Power flows from the 8-pin EPS connectors to the Renesas RA229628 controller (there’s a second controller for the SOC, etc.). From there, power goes to the Renesas R2209004 110A SPS MOSFETs. The 2,420A available will handle any processor you throw at it with aplomb. Be it stock, overclocked, or even extreme overclocking, the power bits and active VRM cooler won’t have any issues, even with a Ryzen 9 9950X or the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2.

On the bottom half of the board, starting on the left and hidden under a shroud, is the audio section. ASRock uses the flagship Realtek ALC4082 codec (along with several dedicated audio capacitors) and the ESS SABRE9219 DAC for real panel audio. It also supports direct-drive technology on the front headphone port, supporting up to 600 Ohm headsets. This combination of codec and DAC is one of the best native audio solutions on motherboards.

In the middle of the board are two full-length slots, both of which connect through the CPU and split up x16 PCIe 5.0 lanes. The top slot supports up to x16 while the bottom is up to x8. When both are in use, it’s x8/x8.

Mixed in and around the PCIe slots are three M.2 sockets. Above the PCIe slot is the one and only PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps)-capable M.2 socket hidden under a significant heatsink. Recently, we tested motherboard heatsink contact on the primary M.2 heatsink (also with a quick release) and found that a majority do NOT make good contact with the devices they’re supposed to cool. The good news is the Taichi White was one (of six) that made adequate contact on both sides. The other two M.2 sockets in this area, both PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps), reside under the plate heatsink. Note: The Taichi White doesn’t share bandwidth with PCIe slots, USB ports, or anything. So feel free to stuff this board like a Thanksgiving turkey and get everything possible out of your USB, M.2, and PCIe slots.

Moving right, past the chipset to the edge are your three SATA ports. This is one place where ASRock cut back (from six), but these days, most people can get by with three SATA ports and four M.2 sockets. If you’re into RAID configurations, the SATA ports support RAID 0/1 modes while NVMe supports RAID 0/1/10. Finally, we've included a few images of the board's active ICs. ASRock uses a mix of Realtek (PWM controller, audio, MOSFETs) and Marvell ICs.

At the bottom are several headers, including front-panel audio and USB ports. A complete list of connectivity is listed below (from L to R):

• Front panel audio
• 4-pin RGB
• 3-pin ARGB
• (3) 2-pin Thermistor headers
• (2) USB 2.0 headers
• (4) 4-pin fan headers
• 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 header
• 2-pin Clear CMOS jumper
• Speaker
• Front panel

Flipping the board around to the rear IO, you can see it’s chock-full of colorful USB and other ports. On the left are Clear CMOS and BIOS Flashback buttons. Next to those are the Wi-Fi 7 (remember, it’s ‘only’ 160 Hz) antenna connections and the HDMI (v2.1) port. Next to that are stacks of colored USB ports. In total, there are 12: two USB 4 (40 Gbps) Type-C ports that double as video outputs; five USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), two of which are the Lightning USB ports (yellow - designed to reduce latency by using different controllers). Three USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports (purple) support USB PD 3.0 charging up to 5V@3A (15W). Lastly, there are two USB 2.0 ports in black. Above one of the Type-C ports is the Marvell (Aquantia) 10 GbE, and finally, on the right end, is the audio stack with two 3.5mm and SPDIF outputs.

If you’re an esports gamer where every millisecond counts, the lighting gaming ports could come in handy. Otherwise, it’s not really something that adds value to the average user.

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Firmware

Like other X870E ASRock boards, the X870E Taichi White starts in the informative Easy Mode, but it also lets you adjust several options (XMP, profiles, boot order, access to Fan-Tastic Tuning, etc.) here. The Taichi White uses a grey background and black characters, more or less matching the new Taichi’s theme. The high contrast also makes it easy to read. The standard BIOS displays headings across the top, with subheadings and details below.

You can tweak everything here, as ASRock includes every option you can think of. Overclocking is straightforward, with most options readily available. The layout is logical, and the mouse movement is smooth. We have no significant complaints about the ASRock firmware, but it could certainly use a facelift if it wants to keep up with recent Gigabyte and MSI offerings.

Software

ASRock offers several different software options. These include the App Shop, which lets users install drivers and software; the Nahimic 3 audio control panel; the A-Tuning application that lets you overclock and control fans; the Polychrome RGB software; and more. There’s also a Blazing OC Tuner and a convenient pop-up to install drivers when the system first boots. ASRock’s software provides everything users need to manage and tweak their systems.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (23H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late September 2024 (this includes the Branch Prediction Optimizations for AMD). Hardware-wise, we’ve updated the RAM kits (matching our Intel test system), cooling, storage, and video card. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest publicly available non-beta motherboard BIOS. The hardware we used is as follows:

TEST SYSTEM COMPONENTS:

• CPU - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
• Cooling - Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420
• Storage - Crucial 2TB T705 M.2 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD
• RAM - Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEAK2-32)
  Teamgroup T-Force Delta DDR5-7200 CL34 (FF3D518G7200HC34ABK)
  Klevv Cras XR5 RGB DDR5-8000 (KD5AGUA80-80R380S)
• GPU - Asus TUF RTX 4080 16G
• PSU - EVGA Supernova 850W P6
• Windows 11 64-bit (23H2 - 22631.4169)NVIDIA Driver 561.09

Benchmark Settings

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Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo) with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. The Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) for this baseline testing, so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics offer a valuable method for evaluating a board's performance, as identical settings are expected to yield similar results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are areas where motherboard manufacturers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and these settings can impact specific testing scenarios.

Starting with the synthetic benchmarks, the Taichi White performed average to below average. Nothing was inordinately slow (or fast), but some results, like POV-ray and Blender, fell on the slower side of average.

Timed Applications

Results from the timed applications were similar and around the average of our tested boards—nothing anomalous here either.

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of Zen 5, we’ve updated our game tests. We’re keeping the F1 racing game but have upgraded to F1 24. We also dropped Far Cry 6 in favor of an even more popular and good-looking game in Cyberpunk 2077. We run both games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). Cyberpunk 2077 uses DLSS, while we left F1 24 to native resolution scaling.

The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system-bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS setting, which can affect your gameplay and immersion.

The Taichi White did well in the 3DMark benchmarks and was towards the top of our results. In the actual games, it was slightly below the average, though you wouldn’t be able to tell without a frame counter staring you in the face.

Overclocking

Over the past few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking on both sides of the fence, while the out-of-the-box potential has increased. For overclockers, this means there’s less fun to have. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Today’s motherboards are more robust than ever, and they easily support power-hungry flagship-class processors, so we know the hardware can handle them. There are multiple ways to extract even more performance from these processors: enabling a canned PBO setting, manually tweaking the PBO settings, or just going for an all-core overclock. Results will vary and depend on the cooling as well. In other words, your mileage may vary. Considering all the above, we will not be overclocking the CPU. However, we will try out our different memory kits to ensure they meet the specifications.

For memory testing, we start with our fastest non-clock driver kit: Klevv 32GB (2x16) DDR5-8000. Per usual on this platform, it booted to Windows but wouldn’t pass a stress test with our 9900X. It did pass with the 8600G APU as expected.

The Team Group DDR5-7200 kit worked without issue. Those speeds are well past AMD’s ‘sweet spot’ for the platform. And because today’s RAM prices are so out of whack, we doubt many are shooting for these higher speeds anyway.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, cache, and Memory enabled for power testing, using the processor's peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is obtained from the wall using a Kill-A-Watt meter, which captures the entire PC (excluding the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note that we have moved to using only the stock power-use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure that the power delivery can handle flagship-class processors.

Stress testing this board with our DDR5-7200 kit showed it using a little more power than the average of all our X870 and B850 boards. At idle, it sat around 94W, slightly higher than average, and it peaked at 270W, one of the lower results under load. This averages out to 182W and is a bit more power-hungry than the average board.

VRM temperatures were good during our testing, peaking at just over 51 degrees Celsius on our sensor and 53 degrees on the hottest internal sensor. With 110A MOSFETs pushing ~150W loads, it’s a solid result with plenty of headroom left for a more powerful processor and/or overclocking.

Bottom Line

The ASRock X870E Taichi White ($449.99) takes everything we liked about the original Taichi and wraps it in a notably cleaner, all-white aesthetic while adding a few meaningful upgrades. The jump to 10 GbE, overkill power delivery with active VRM cooling, ample USB ports on the rear IO, and useful DIY-friendly features make it a compelling option for enthusiasts building a high-end AM5 rig.

The elephant in the room is that the original X870E Taichi still exists, and does so at a much lower price point of $319.99. In essence, if you don’t want a white build or don’t need 10 GbE, you can save quite a bit of money going with the original. You can also get the Asus ROG Strix X870E-A Gaming WiFi 6 Neo ($469.99), and while it’s missing a 10 GbE port (it has 5 GbE), it includes two PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots (four total). MSI’s popular X870E Carbon Wifi ($379.99 on sale) is a less expensive option without 10 GbE, but it also offers two PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots and 5 GbE. However, it is black. Gigabyte’s X870E Aorus Pro X3D Ice ($339.99 on sale, normally $436.99) is also a viable option in white, but lacks 10 GbE and, like the others, a flagship-class audio codec or integrated DACs.

Overall, we like the new X870E Taichi White, but it doesn’t quite have what it takes to make our best motherboards list. Although there are some iterative updates, the white aesthetic is the real winner. Not many users can use 10 GbE (you can also buy a 10 GbE card for your existing PC for around $72), but if you’re looking for a high-end white board and don’t want to spend $450, other appealing options are available.

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Taiwan will send NT$10,000 (roughly $314 USD) in cash to every resident next year, President Lai Ching-te said Monday. The 2027 central government budget sets aside NT$235.7 billion ($7.4 billion USD) so that, in his words, the "AI dividend can be shared by all."

Lai, quoted in a Presidential Office release reported by CNA, credited surging global demand for AI, high-performance computing, and cloud services with lifting projected 2027 general revenue to NT$3.93 trillion, enough to fund the payment with a balanced budget and what he called "effectively no new borrowing."

Taiwan's statistics agency, the DGBAS, raised its 2026 GDP growth forecast to 11.05% on August 14, up from 9.64% in May and the fastest pace since the economy expanded 12.75% in 1987. Output grew 14.15% year on year in the first half, and the agency now expects merchandise exports to reach $903.6 billion this year, a 41.19% jump and the sharpest increase in five decades.

Servers and related goods should account for almost 40% of those exports, up from around 30% in 2025, according to DGBAS statistics department head Tsai Yu-tai. Taiwanese manufacturers, including Foxconn, Quanta, and Wistron, build most of the world's AI servers and rack-scale systems, and that output has already pushed U.S. imports from Taiwan past imports from China for the first time in decades. The concentration extends to equities: TSMC alone represents about 40% of a Taiwanese stock market that overtook the UK's in total value earlier this year.

Lai acknowledged that the boom hasn't reached everyone, pointing to workers in services, traditional industries, and small businesses outside the tech sector. DGBAS figures back him up, as non-tech exports rose just 8.6% in the first seven months of the year, a fraction of the headline rate.

Taiwan paid out an identical NT$10,000 per person starting in November 2025, but under a NT$550 billion special budget pitched as relief from U.S. tariffs and inflation rather than as a share of AI profits. That round covered citizens, foreign permanent residents, and foreign spouses holding residence permits. The Presidential Office hasn't confirmed eligibility, timing, or distribution methods for the 2027 payment.

The opposition Kuomintang, which controls the legislature alongside the Taiwan People's Party, responded Tuesday by demanding Lai double the payment to NT$20,000. The same coalition passed the 2026 budget only last week after a record delay, cutting NT$48 billion from the Cabinet's proposal, so a smooth review is far from guaranteed.

ByteDance and Tencent have each taken delivery of roughly 10,000 Nvidia H200 accelerators in recent weeks, the Financial Times has reported, citing two people with knowledge of the matter, a development that would mark the first meaningful movement of the chips into mainland China since President Trump approved their export last December.

Beijing wants most of each company's U.S.-licensed allowance, which the FT puts at up to 100,000 units apiece, kept off the mainland, with regulators directing buyers toward Hong Kong instead. Nvidia is reportedly holding around 500,000 H200s built largely for Chinese customers. Trump cleared H200 exports to approved Chinese customers last December, in exchange for a 25% cut of every sale to the U.S. Treasury, and Washington had licensed roughly 10 firms, including Alibaba, ByteDance, Tencent, and JD.com, by May.

However, Beijing never let orders flow: every purchase requires case-by-case approval from the National Development and Reform Commission, and the resulting blockade left Jensen Huang telling investors that Nvidia's China market share had fallen from 95% to zero. As recently as mid-July, a U.S. trade official told a congressional hearing that only a very small quantity of chips had shipped against the licenses. Lenovo and other Nvidia partners told Chinese customers last week that they could resume orders for H200-based AI servers, per the FT, though each purchase still needs separate NDRC sign-off.

And just because chips are moving doesn’t mean the infrastructure is there to support them. The H200 draws up to 700W, with a fully loaded eight-GPU HGX H200 server pulling roughly 10 kW. At that rate, a single company's 100,000-unit allowance works out to about 12,500 servers and 125 MW of IT load, and Nvidia's reported 500,000-unit stockpile translates to roughly 625 MW.

Hong Kong's entire installed base runs to 47 data centers totaling about 581 MW, per Hong Kong Free Press, and the city's average PUE of 1.62 pushes actual grid draw well above the IT figure. "It's a dilemma," a person familiar with the situation told the FT, with companies unable to find anywhere in the territory to deploy the chips. The Northern Metropolis data center cluster meant to fix the shortfall, awarded to Range Intelligent Computing in March, isn't slated to come online until 2029.

Chinese labs increasingly run inference on domestic accelerators but are still thought to train frontier models on Nvidia hardware, and DeepSeek's failed attempts to train its R2 model on Huawei Ascend chips show why.

The 10,000-unit deliveries amount to roughly 2.5% of the 400,000-plus H200s that ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent were collectively approved to buy in January, but the NDRC still gates every order, and steering the bulk of licensed volumes to a territory that can't house them keeps the mainland market captive for domestic chipmakers.

Back before fast broadband internet came to most homes, game developers released their latest titles through shareware CDs so gamers could try them out before buying. And that's what id Software did when it released Quake in 1996.

As recounted by Google software engineer Fabien Sanglard, the company put both a shareware version and the complete version of Quake on a CD for just $10. But because the shareware version and the complete game only took up 22MB of a 640MB CD, the remaining 618MB had practically no use. id Software came up with the idea of including full, encrypted versions of all its other titles of the time on the CD, too.

If you wanted to unlock any of the full games on the disc, you just needed to call the “Quake Unlock Center," present a challenge code displayed by a program on the CD, and hand over your credit card details (or your parents'), after which the person on the other end would give you a code to unlock your game of choice.

That was a brilliant concept on the surface, as gamers who picked up Quake could just as easily buy any other id game they wanted without having to go to a local retailer. It also meant cutting out the middleman, allowing the developer to get the bulk of the proceeds of the sale.

Unfortunately, the developer underestimated the threat of hackers and crackers to this model. Freeloaders took to breaking the CD’s encryption as soon as it was released. It took hacker group GNOMON just 39 days to release a tool—QCRACK.exe—that could generate serial numbers for all the games on the CD, making for an incredible return on investment for that $10.

It turned out that id and TestDrive, a DRM company it had contracted to create the shareware disc, had relied on a form of security by obscurity. Even though the serial number that the agent handed back to anyone buying the game over the phone was semi-random due to the rotating challenge code the unlocking program asked buyers to present along with their payment, it could also be generated using data permanently molded onto the disc.

And in the days before online authentication, that hard-coded data proved to be the downfall of the entire scheme. The app that unlocked the full version of the games worked by checking whether the serial number the owner typed in matched one generated from the hard-coded local data. If one were to derive the scheme used to retrieve serial numbers according to the challenge code, one could bypass the need for payment entirely.

And that's exactly what the GNOMON hackers did in a little over a month. The hacking group did not reveal how it built the cracker, and the inner workings of the crack were only revealed in 2018 through reverse-engineering performed by Ruben Molina.

No matter how the GNOMON figured out id Software’s protection, this revelation was an absolute disaster for the company. In the end, it had to stop the distribution of the shareware CDs, meaning it ended up with 150,000 discs that it couldn't sell because of the existence of the crack.

The Quake crack shenanigans show that the race between game publishers and pirates has been going even before the advent of the internet. Even today, the infamous Denuvo DRM has already been cracked in all single-player games that it protected, rendering it effectively useless. Still, the company is likely taking steps to harden its DRM app in this cat-and-mouse game between anti-tamper software and pirates.

Building a PC is more expensive and thereby more stressful than ever in 2026. A good old-fashioned pre-built is a great way to save yourself some time and a ton of cash on parts, with exorbitant RAM, SSD, and GPU pricing yet to fully filter down to the pre-built market. As such, you can score this Intel Core Ultra 9 285-powered CyberPowerPC with an AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 2TB SSD, and more for just $1,849, a $500 discount.

● Check out this deal at Walmart

Considering 32GB of DDR5 RAM alone costs $400 right now, stacking up the cost of parts in this build reveals its value pretty quickly. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285 is around $700 at the moment, with the 285K retailing at $514. A 2TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 drive will set you back around $250, and the GPU in this build is $460. That's nearly the entire cost before you've factored in a case, motherboard, PSU, and cooler, not to mention the build cost.

The spec of this PC is admittedly a slightly strange combination of GPU and CPU. Intel's 285 Arrow Lake CPU is the company's current-gen 24-core flagship. With eight performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, it performs extremely well in multi-threaded Windows 11 testing. While it can't match AMD's potent X3D Ryzen chips in gaming, it was still more than enough to average 153 frames per second in our 1080p testing suite of 17 games.

As you can see from our GPU testing data, the Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB is on par with the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, but lags behind the RX 9070 and RTX 5070, as is to be expected. With its 2048 shares and 16GB of VRAM, this card sustained averages of nearly 60 frames per second in our 1440p Ultra tests, making it a great mid-range card. You'll likely struggle at 4K without some compromise, but this is a great card for middle-of-the-road performance.

If you're not convinced, you could spend a little more for this slightly different spec, which gets you a less potent Core Ultra 7 265KF but the superior AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, again with 16GB of VRAM. You still get the same 32GB of DDR5 and 2TB SSD for $1,999. This is a trade-off that might get you some more FPS in gaming at the expense of general productivity performance for other tasks.

Thanks to Intel's Gamer Days promo, both come with two free games: Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Star Wars Galactic Racer.

A developer has revealed that they used Claude Code to create a macOS laser printer driver for the HP Laser 1008a, a machine designed for Windows users. Kuberwastaken (AKA Kuber) says that “HP never shipped a working macOS driver for these,” but the Claude Code-assisted driver package now works so well they can “print from Apple Silicon macOS like a normal printer. CMD-P from any app. No terminal, no per-job scripts.”

Kuber provides some background to the driver development on the above-linked GitHub page. The HP family of printers, which includes the Laser 1008a, were just rebadged versions of Samsung’s SPL3 lasers, they say. This is fine for Windows users, but they don’t talk to computers via more widely compatible standards such as PostScript or PCL. Nor do they work with open source SPL/QPDL drivers, or Apple AirPrint.

So, how was this driver wrangling achieved, other than handing the job off to an AI coding agent? Kuber notes that the hp-laser-1008a-macos project leverages HP's own rastertospl. This is also used by the HP Unified Linux Driver, which works with this ‘Windows printer.’ Thus the new macOS driver works by inserting this codec inside a tiny Linux container, which delivers the result over USB.

Setting up this driver is a simple one-shot, one-time process - as it should be but might not have been expected. Kuber explains that a user needs only to make sure that Homebrew (Apple's package manager), is already installed on their system. Many may already have this installed, and if so, can just open up Terminal and paste in:
git clone https://github.com/Kuberwastaken/hp-laser-1008a-macos.git && cd hp-laser-1008a-macos && ./install.sh “That is it. It will ask for your Mac password once, set everything up, and your printer will appear as "HP Laser 1008a". Print to it from any app with Cmd-P,” boasts Kuber.

If you are a macOS user and get access to or are offered a cheap HP Laser 1008a, there’s now no need to turn your nose up at this SPL3 laser. Models including the HP Laser 1003/1006/1008 are all good with this driver, it is claimed. However, there are a few things to be aware of. Kuber notes that hp-laser-1008a-macos can be a bit slow from idle to first print, that Colima must be running, and some may have to update their USB product ID if the driver complains of “printer not found” on your model.

As per the intro, Kuber has shared this slickly working macOS printer driver on GitHub, so other developers don’t have to replicate this work.

Anyone who's played Minecraft for a while is familiar with community creations like in-game graphing calculators, QR code generators, and Tetris games built using command blocks, mods, and far too much free time. Building AI tools is a logical next step, and several complicated projects have arisen in that vein using redstone. Reddit user Objz, however, implemented an LLM using only 445,782 command blocks and no mods, plugins, or datapacks. By its creator's description, the project was "a headache."

Objz's LLM isn't actually that large. It only has a 64-dimensional embedding space, a 256-neuron hidden layer, and a tiny vocabulary of 2,048 words, and was trained on 11,118 DailyDialog conversations. Users can talk to it using the game's "/dialog" functionality, and the output stream comes back one word at a time, as with typical chatbots.

Even with that training, however, the author notes that this LLM is only conversational and isn't particularly clever, as it cannot do math and has no broad knowledge.

Even still, the work on display is quite impressive. 445,000 command blocks sounds like a lot until you realize that this kind of data and computational structure would require literally millions of cubes were it not optimized. Indeed, the original version, even with the aforementioned capabilities, rang in at nearly 2 million blocks. LLM weights are normally represented with floating-point values, which would be prohibitively complicated to implement, so Objz opted to use only ternary values for the weights: -1, 0, and +1.

Minecraft's "scoreboard" command supports multiplication and division, but it's integer-based, and using it would require integer-float conversion, thus adding extra operations. The initial quantization to -1/0/+1 kills two zombies with one stone, skipping commands and shrinking the dataset. The equivalent of each multiply-accumulate operation, then, averages 0.67 commands thanks to all the null values.

Objz notes that they didn't just round off the values from a normal model after the fact to achieve this ternary representation. The creator quantized them from the get-go for the forward pass through the model during training and used a straight-through estimator during backpropagation to update the underlying floating-point weights. That step helped lower the perplexity rate (roughly, how likely a model is to produce a nonsensical word in a response sequence) from 48.7 to 38.8 after some additional optimizations.

Given Minecraft's limits on how many commands it can execute at once, the LLM is split into smaller groups, and even then, it takes about 1.8 seconds to generate each word in a response on a 35-tick-per-second server. The author remarks that making this LLM bigger and smarter would be a computationally costly affair, as even a 135-million-parameter LLM built using this architecture would be a whopping 200x larger than this project. But it's a clever example of how constraints spur creativity.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has published its renewed National Security Science & Technology Strategy, and Appendix A of the 24-page document rewrites the federal Critical and Emerging Technologies (CET) list for the first time since February 2024, shrinking it from 18 categories to 14. Advanced cloud services, high-performance data storage and data centers, batteries, grid integration, gas turbine engines, and augmented and virtual reality have all gotten the chop, while post-quantum cryptography, integrated photonics, high entropy alloys, and "hardened operating systems for consumer use" have been added.

Federal agencies use the CET list when they write export control rules, screen foreign investment through CFIUS, vet federally funded research proposals, and set R&D budget priorities, so additions and deletions carry serious weight.

Advanced gas turbine engine technologies, which in 2024 covered aerospace and industrial engine production plus full-authority digital engine control, have no successor anywhere in the new list. Human-machine interfaces are also gone, taking augmented reality, virtual reality, and human-machine teaming with it; neurotechnologies moved into biotechnology, and brain-computer interfaces reappeared under future computing. Clean energy generation and storage were replaced by a nuclear-only category covering advanced fission, fusion, space nuclear power and propulsion, and high-temperature radiation-resistant materials.

The advanced computing category of 2024 was renamed future computing technologies and lost advanced cloud services, high-performance data storage and data centers, advanced modeling and simulation, and data processing techniques. In their place sit edge computing for tactical environments, photonic and neuromorphic modalities, and advanced spatial computing. Data centers dropped off the federal critical technology list in the middle of the largest datacenter buildout in the industry's history, which fits the strategy's funding guidance telling agencies to spend "where they can best complement rather than compete with private sector investment." With hyperscalers building the capacity, Washington no longer counts it as a research priority.

"Technologies for improving AI safety, trust, security, and responsible use" and "AI assurance and assessment techniques" were both deleted from the AI category and replaced by "interpretability and control" and "adversarial robustness and AI security." Meanwhile, AI and autonomy absorbed the old robotics and uncrewed systems category and gained multi-agent systems and swarm intelligence, autonomous agent identification and authentication, continual learning, distributed and privacy-preserving machine learning, and world systems as a named class of foundation model.

Post-quantum cryptography appears for the first time, alongside operational technology and industrial control system security, and AI-enabled autonomous cyber capabilities. Integrated photonics is a new semiconductor subfield, and where the 2024 list said only "novel materials for advanced microelectronics," the 2026 version names 2D materials as an example. Advanced manufacturing picked up high-entropy alloys, advanced composites and lightweight metals, digital threads and digital twins, and substitution of rare-earth and critical-minerals alloys with earth-abundant minerals.

Integrated photonics and 2D materials are the only additions to the semiconductor category, and non-Von Neumann architectures moved across to future computing. Design automation, process technology and equipment, beyond-CMOS, heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging, MEMS and NEMS all carry over unchanged from 2024.

Appendix B maps each technology area against seven national security needs, and the semiconductor row ticks six of them, representing broader coverage than nearly anything else on the list. The one column it's blank in is "lead in transformative emerging technology," which only AI and autonomy, biotechnology, and quantum satisfy. The funding section points the same way, telling agencies to rely on the private sector for later-stage work in advanced manufacturing, advanced communications, future computing, and PNT, categories that between them cover much of the chip supply chain. Chips are treated throughout the document as infrastructure to secure rather than a frontier to push.

Running Doom on the weirdest hardware and software has become a challenge in the developer community. The latest feat that we see today has been achieved by lauris-nl, after they built a port for the Canon EOS 550D digital SLR camera. The intrepid programmer achieved this by using the open-source Magic Lantern firmware that was supposed to unlock extra features for the camera. We’ve seen weird and quirky projects running on “exotic” hardware like an electric cooking pot, an Apple Lightning-to-HDMI dongle, or even an orbiting satellite, but this is the first time that I've seen one running on a camera.

The Canon EOS 550D, also known as the Rebel T2i, is an entry-level digital SLR that Canon launched in 2010. It had an 18-megapixel APS-C sensor paired with a DIGIC 4 image processor and features a 3-inch TFT LCD display and a rear mono speaker. This is apparently powerful enough to run Doom, with lauris-nl showing off the game running smoothly on the camera. The up, down, left, and right buttons serve as the camera control and navigation, while the set button is the select and fire button. You can press the Menu button to open the in-game menu, and then the DISP. button to go back while in the Doom menu. Since the 550D comes with a speaker, you can hear in-game sounds as you go through its different levels.

Unfortunately, its developer said that this port only works on the Canon EOS 550D with firmware version 1.0.9. They specifically said, “Do not install this binary on another camera model or firmware version.” Although they did not say why, you don’t want to run into the risk of bricking your camera if you attempt to do so (unless you know what you’re doing). Now, if you have this specific gear and want to give it a try yourself, it’s relatively easy to do. You just need a compatible Magic Lantern 550D.109 build on an SD card, copy the released module to ML/MODULES/doom.mo and create the ML/DOOM/ folder, then paste your Doom-compatible files into it.

From there, plug the SD card into your Canon camera, turn it on and select Doom > WAD in the Magic Lantern Games menu, and then restart the camera. From there, you’re off to blasting demons and the undead into kingdom come straight from your camera. This is a great way of relaxing after an entire day of shooting your subjects, although it’s ideal that you keep your Doom game on an SD card that’s separate from where you keep your photos. If you don’t have a Canon EOS 550D, another developer created a Doom port for the Canon PowerShot SD1000 / IXUS 70 point-and-shoot camera from 2007, so you might want to give it a try if you have it stored in your drawer.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday partially reversed a ruling that kept drone maker DJI on the Pentagon's Section 1260H list of "Chinese military companies," finding that a district judge upheld the government's central claim — that DJI contributes to China's defense industrial base — without reading the classified evidence behind it.

In the unclassified version of the Pentagon's December 2024 designation report, every word of the section making that claim is redacted except its heading, according to the opinion. The three-judge panel rejected DJI's other arguments, meaning that the company stays on the list while the case returns to the lower court. "The Court's finding that the public record contained insufficient evidence is a significant step toward correcting an unjustified designation," a DJI spokesperson said in a statement provided to Tom's Hardware.

Circuit Judge Bradley Garcia wrote that there's "no publicly stated rationale" for the Defense Department's belief that DJI contributes to the Chinese defense industrial base. The Pentagon's December 2024 report explaining the designation contains a section titled "DJI Contributes to the Chinese Defense Industrial Base," but everything below the heading is blacked out in the unclassified record.

District Judge Paul Friedman, who granted summary judgment against DJI last September, never examined the classified version. He relied instead on the government's court filings and material from other parts of the report, an approach the panel said violated the rule that courts must judge agency action solely on the grounds the agency itself invoked.

The panel affirmed the finding that DJI knowingly receives assistance from the Chinese government through its 2021 recognition as a National Enterprise Technology Center, a status granted by China's National Development and Reform Commission. Evidence cited in the Pentagon's report says the status carries free cash subsidies of 5 million to 15 million yuan, preferential tax rates on imported equipment, and financial support from state-owned capital funds. DJI's lawyers argued the company has never received any assistance through the recognition; the court dismissed that as a "self-serving assertion by counsel."

DJI's market position also appears to have counted against it because, to win its due process claim, the company needed to show the designation broadly precluded it from doing business. The panel cited testimony that DJI holds 90% of the global consumer drone market and nearly 70% of the drone sector overall, and ruled that lost contracts and state-level bans "fall well short" of that bar. Friedman can now examine the classified record and decide whether it supports the contribution finding, and the panel left it to him whether DJI's lawyers get any access to that material.

The Pentagon published a new 1260H list in early June, mid-appeal, with fresh justifications for DJI's inclusion, among them a "Single Champion" designation and claimed affiliations with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the People's Armed Police.

The judges in this appeal noted the new rationales raised the question of whether DJI's challenge to the January 2025 designation is moot, but let the case proceed on the current record. Even a win on remand wouldn't touch the June listing, which rests on different grounds under the 2024 NDAA amendments.

The designation sits alongside tariffs of up to 100% on foreign-made drones and the FCC's ban on new foreign-made drones, which DJI is separately fighting in the Ninth Circuit.

Thanks to the 60th Anniversary Sale event taking place at retailer Best Buy, we've spotted a host of great deals on some of our favorite tech gadgets. Falling back to the lowest price we've seen since Prime Day earlier this year, Bambu Lab's excellent P1S 3D printer and AMS color printing module combo bundle is back to just $499, saving $50 off the normal retail price we see for this combination. That's $50 you can put towards some reels of filament to start you on your 3D printing journey, or to just stock up on some new colors if you're a seasoned 3D printing veteran.

● Check out this deal at Best Buy

We had the chance to review the Bambu Lab P1S and awarded this printer an Editor's Choice award after our extensive testing. The P1S comes semi-assembled for an easy 15-minute setup out of the box. The printer features automatic bed leveling, an abundance of presets in the slicer software, and exceptional print speeds with up to a 20000 mm/s² acceleration limit. Thanks to the P1S's fully enclosed print space, the ability to produce high-temperature prints with fewer errors is increased, plus the P1S sports an ample build volume of 256 x 256 x 256 mm for your creations to come to life.

The P1S has a new younger sibling in the P2S, which is why we've seen some lovely discounts on this excellent printer. The P1S still uses a proprietary .4mm nozzle on its direct-drive extruder and has easy automatic print bed levelling for a quick setup process. Plus, for hassle-free print removals, there's a PEI textured spring steel sheet. Bambu Labs' P1S has multiple wireless options, including both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, with a microSD card slot for loading your print creations locally. You can navigate the menus and settings with the built-in LED screen, and thanks to the included AMS unit in this bundle offer, you can have up to four different color filaments installed for multi-color printing.

Intel's upcoming, next-gen Nova Lake CPUs are rumored to feature extra pools of L3 cache that the company is calling bLLC (Big Last Level Cache). It's Intel's answer to AMD's 3D V-Cache that has taken the gaming world by storm, but a new report from tipster Jaykihn implies that Nova Lake mobile chips will be skipping it entirely. Instead, the company is purportedly reserving bLLC's mobile debut for the generation after, codenamed Razor Lake.

That implies that only Nova Lake desktop processors will be the lucky recipients of bLLC, and even then, only a few higher-end SKUs are expected to feature it. Current rumors suggest a single NVL-S tile is said to house 144MB of bLLC when fully equipped, so dual-tile variants will double that to a whopping 288MB. But it seems like any laptop chip, or perhaps handheld, will be starved of this extra cache and rely on NVL-HX's native L3 cache.

In contrast, AMD first brought its 3D V-Cache over to laptops with the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D back in 2023, and has a Ryzen 9 9995HX3D chip today. Those two act as exceptions because, otherwise, the Red Team's additional cache is exclusive to desktops as well. AMD's flagship Strix Halo products aimed at gaming don't feature it either. Coincidentally, Intel's Halo-tier competitor is also said to debut with the Razor Lake family.

Earlier this year, rumors suggested that Intel is developing Nova Lake-AX to take on AMD's dominance in the high-end APU space, but the project was subsequently cancelled. New information said Intel decided to pivot to Razor Lake for an "AX" category instead, so it stands to reason we might see bLLC power Razor Lake-AX SKUs later as well, alongside the mainstream Razor Lake-HX chips.

In the same thread, Jaykihn also claimed that Razor Lake will be fabricated on TSMC's N2X node across mobile and desktop. On the other hand, it's still unclear whether Nova Lake would use the in-house 18A process or TSMC's N2P. Initial rumors pointed toward yield issues forcing Intel to leverage TSMC's technology, but more recent claims suggest the company is confident in its own 18A tech for most of Nova Lake's tiles.

It's likely that the Blue Team will utilize some combination of in-house and outsourced fabrication. Anyhow, for Razor Lake, TSMC's process technology roadmap from earlier this year puts N2X in 2027, so the timelines align. Razor Lake is expected to use the same Coyote Cove P-cores and Arctic Wolf E-cores that will be introduced on Nova Lake, while the generation after — Titan Lake — is rumored to finally unify the two.

In addition to its normal product and technology roadmaps, AMD has effectively made its 'X-by-year' efficiency programs a recurring engineering roadmap. Back in 2025, the company unveiled its 20x2030 initiative that promised to increase energy efficiency of its rack-scale AI solutions 20 times by 2030. Back then, AMD envisioned that its 2026 rack-scale AI systems will be 3X more energy efficient than its 2024 machines. However, the new estimates published on Tuesday indicate that its latest solutions are 4X more efficient compared to the 2024 baseline.

AMD estimates its progress at the rack level rather than on the CPU and AI accelerator levels, which obviously gives the company a lot of freedom in how to optimize performance efficiency. The company takes into account improvements in compute performance, process technology, memory bandwidth, data movement, interconnects, software, and system-level co-design. AMD says three major hardware characteristics determine AI system performance: compute capability, memory bandwidth, and interconnect bandwidth. New process technologies and architectures increase floating-point performance per watt, while improvements in memory integration and high-speed interconnects increase bandwidth available to processors. AMD expects these developments together to produce 20X higher AI performance per watt in 2030 compared to its 2024 baseline.

Memory and interconnects play particularly important roles because modern AI systems tend to move enormous amounts of data between accelerators and systems. AMD says higher memory bandwidth, greater bandwidth density, improved bandwidth per watt, larger caches, and tighter integration of memory and compute can reduce wasted energy consumption and increase performance efficiency. Meanwhile, faster scale-up interconnects can improve communication between GPUs, CPUs, and other components, which again increases performance efficiency. AMD's software optimizations are another part of the effort as higher performance achieved with optimizations ultimately means lower power consumption required to achieve an expected result.

What is a bit upsetting is that the 4X figure should be treated as an AMD estimate rather than a direct benchmark between two commercially available rack systems. AMD measures progress by comparing annual representative rack configurations with a 2024 baseline using the company's performance-per-watt methodology. In addition, its 2026 calculation combines measurements from actual products with modeled results in cases where final performance numbers were unavailable, which essentially means that AMD does not use its latest Instinct MI455X accelerators for its estimates.

If AMD reaches its 2030 targets, the company estimates that around two AMD racks in 2030 could provide the same amount of compute as 570 racks based on the Instinct MI300X from 2024. This essentially means a 20X lower power consumption or 20X higher performance at the same power consumption by 2030.

With prices generally higher than their LCD counterparts, the best OLED gaming monitors remain a premium category. And within that, there are flagships even though you’ll rarely see the words “bad” and “OLED” in the same sentence.

Asus ROG Swift displays represent an entire series of flagships, with every model featuring plenty of bells and whistles along with benchmark performance. I’ve looked at many of these in the past, and here, I have the latest one, the PG32UCWM. It’s a 32-inch Tandem RGB Stripe OLED with 4K resolution at 240 Hz, FHD at 480 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR10, DisplayHDR 400, Dolby Vision, and wide-gamut color. Let’s take a look.

Asus ROG Swift PG32UCWM Specs

First, we’ll tackle the alphabet soup in the room: Tandem RGB Stripe OLED. Let’s call it TRS-OLED, consisting of two light-emitting layers with red, green, and blue diodes. This approach addresses several issues. With two layers comes lower power consumption at a given light level. Tandem white OLEDs do the same thing. RGB Stripe takes care of the fringing issue where white diodes behind color filters can spread their light and cause a loss of sharpness. In practice, you will be hard-pressed to see any softness from any OLED, but an RGB Stripe panel like the PG32UCWM is a tad sharper, and you’ll see it in a side-by-side comparison. To this, Asus adds its True Black Glossy screen coating, which earns its name by reducing the effect of ambient light on the screen. Visually, it deepens black areas and improves perceived contrast.

Another advantage of RGB Stripe is increased color volume. Most wide gamut screens employ Quantum Dots to increase volume up to 110% of DCI-P3 or more. RGB Stripe achieves most of that without the light-reducing effect of a QD layer. The PG32UCWM delivers an honest 100% of P3, which is a little less than the competition, but it’s more than the 93-95% coverage of non-QD monitors. Asus promises and delivers accuracy out of the box as well with a calibration report stored in the panel’s firmware.

It wouldn’t be ROG without serious gaming performance, and on that, the PG32UCWM delivers in spades. 240 Hz at 4K is available for those with enough video card power to achieve it. If you want maximum fps, there’s a 480 Hz mode with FHD 1920x1080 resolution. You can also employ ELMB at lower frame rates to reduce motion blur. Asus includes its exclusive OLED Anti-Flicker feature, which mitigates stutter during rapid frame rate transitions. Does this translate into a fast and smooth experience? Check out my test results on page two to find out.

The PG32UCWM supports HDR10 with multiple picture modes and an adjustable option. And it accepts Dolby Vision content, which is still a rarity among computer monitors. Its dynamic tone mapping creates a major improvement in picture depth, regardless of the level to which content is mastered. It will show you every nuance and render every detail present in the original material.

Like all ROG Swift screens, the PG32UCWM includes multiple LED arrays on the back and in the stand where a logo can be projected onto the desktop. There is a full list of GamePlus enhancements like aim points and sniper modes. And some of these can be automated with AI to better adapt to the gaming environment. You also get USBs and a full set of the latest video I/O ports: HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1 and USB-C.

Swift displays usually come with a price premium over their competition, but the PG32UCWM comes out of the gate at $1,299, which isn’t a huge number when you consider its build quality and performance. It is a true flagship.

Assembly and Accessories

A colorfully adorned box houses the PG32UCWM in molded pulp, which is completely recyclable. The stand, base, and panel assemble without tools. The ROG logo projector lens fits under the base with magnets and includes extra lenses. A zippered pouch disgorges a cable bundle consisting of IEC cords, two USBs, HDMI, and DisplayPort. You also get sheets of ROG decals and a microfiber cleaning cloth for that beautiful shiny screen. Speaking of shiny, there is a lot of bling on this monitor, all protected by bits of clear film. It almost becomes a game to find it all, but at least you can be sure your PG32UCWM won’t arrive with scratches.

Product 360

The latest crop of Swift displays, like the PG32UCWM, set themselves apart with LEDs in the stand, a logo projector and clear plastic on the back that reveals the internal componentry. It’s a great complement to a transparent PC case, which Asus can also sell you. The right half includes the Lite-Brite LED feature, which can play a vast array of colors and effects. You also get lighting in the stand where it says “Swift”, in the base, in the ROG logo up front, and in the projector under the stand.

The stand is super solid and includes a 3.1-inch height adjustment plus 5/20 degrees tilt and 15 degrees swivel. There is no portrait mode. If you want one, you’ll need an aftermarket arm that interfaces with the included adapter bracket, which provides a 100mm VESA mount. It comes with beefy fasteners.

The styling is a two-piece configuration with the screen and its metal backing attached to a component bulge. This improves cooling along with a graphene layer and internal heat sinks. Several OLED care features enhance panel life, and Asus backs the PG32UCWM with a three-year warranty that includes burn-in. No internal fans are needed to keep running temps low.

The I/O panel includes one DisplayPort 2.1 (configurable to 1.4), two HDMI 2.1, and a USB-C (DP Alt). USB 3.2 is supported by one upstream and three downstream ports. Audio comes only through a 3.5mm headphone jack; there are no internal speakers.

OSD Features

The PG32UCWM’s OSD has every feature one could want in a flagship gaming monitor, including video processing and extensive image controls. It’s operated by a joystick behind the small protrusion in the front center. Two buttons flank it; one toggles power, and the user can program the other.

At the top of the Gaming menu is the Frame Rate Boost toggle. You can also switch modes with the left control button. Either way, it takes a few seconds for the picture to return. In GamePlus, you get frame counters, aiming points, sniper modes, timers, a stopwatch, and display alignment marks. Some of these have AI-controlled settings which change things like the reticle color or the gamma of the image’s dark areas to increase visibility.

GameVisual has nine picture modes, of which Racing is the default and best choice. Like all Asus ROG monitors, there’s an sRGB Cal mode which is accurate but also grays out the calibration controls. If you want sRGB, it’s better to pick that option from Color Space in the Color menu. Then you can adjust grayscale and gamma if you wish.

HDR is available in HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats. When the appropriate signal is present, you can pick between four different picture modes and turn on an adjustment toggle that enables the brightness and contrast sliders. Also included is Uniform Brightness for both SDR and HDR. If you turn this off, the peak output of small highlights can top 1,000 nits. I measured 532 nits from a 25% window pattern. This feature improves HDR impact and is handy for SDR gaming and video. Turn it on for productivity and static graphics where it will reduce eye fatigue during long work sessions.

The Color menu includes the aforementioned gamut options plus color temp and gamma presets. A set of RGB sliders can dial in grayscale to a very precise level. If you want to tweak color further, there are global and individual saturation controls.

Asus takes OLED care very seriously with a host of options like pixel cleaning, screen saver, orbiter, and logo brightness. All of these can be toggled individually. When I first powered up my PG32UCWM sample, it recommended running the pixel clean straight away, so I did. This often improves screen uniformity for brand-new monitors, though I didn’t see a difference in this case. You also get a proximity sensor that turns off the screen when you leave your desk.

The PG32UCWM includes PIP and PBP options for viewing two video sources at once. You can have individual color settings for the two windows and position and size them how you like. The Lighting Effect menu controls the many effects possible with LEDs in the base and back of the monitor. With Aura Sync enabled through Asus’ Display Widget Center app, you can coordinate the show with what’s happening on screen.

The quick menu has four user-programmable slots for one-click access to different functions. You can also program the four joystick directions and the left control button. There are two settings memories as well.

Asus ROG Swift PG32UCWM Calibration Settings

The PG32UCWM doesn’t need calibration in the Racing mode but I tweaked the RGB sliders for a nice gain, which took it into pro-monitor territory. Color is spot-on whether you choose wide gamut or sRGB. I found similar results in HDR mode when using either Gaming HDR or True Black modes, more about that on page five. Below are my suggested SDR settings including brightness values for Uniform Brightness on or off. You only need to set this value once for each mode, which is nice when switching back and forth.

Gaming and Hands-on

I’ve often said that it’s nearly impossible to buy a bad OLED. All the displays I’ve reviewed over the past few years are super close in performance and image quality. That said, there have been several variations in technology that have subtle effects on the picture. Asus currently has the largest selection of different panel types covering Quantum Dot, Tandem, and RGB Stripe as the major categories. The PG32UCWM combines the latter two into a fourth variant, Tandem RGB Stripe. Looking at my sample, I could immediately see its sharper image. OLEDs are always razor-sharp, but this one is sharper, and I could see that in a side-by-side comparison with a typical Quantum Dot panel.

I could see it while gaming too. The detailed environments of Doom Eternal were even more textural and sharply resolved than usual. Little things like the reflections of light on a gun barrel, or the changing hues of the player’s hand as I moved around had me almost entranced. I’ll warn you now, if you audition a PG32UCWM, you will want to buy it. The sharpness and clarity of this monitor is addictive.

Video processing was exemplary, as it is with any Asus ROG Swift display. Movements and transitions happened with surgical precision as I ran through my usual sequence of run-and-gun maneuvers. Turn and shoot became second nature as I was able to stay apart from enemies and still put most of my ammo on target. Lobbing grenades became easier too. I love the sticky ones!

I always check out the HDR calibration screen in Doom’s menu to look for the correct rendering of both highlight and shadow detail. Game HDR showed a little clipping of highlights, but shadow areas were perfect. True Black was the better mode, which showed everything clearly.

I also tried the dual mode switch. You don’t want to do this in a game because it scrambles the image to where you can’t see the menu. Always make the switch on the Windows desktop. The PG32UCWM lets you do this with a single button press. My GeForce RTX 4090 maintained 220-230fps at 4K and around 430fps in FHD. Though the image was softer, this monitor has smoother scaling than other dual-refresh screens I’ve reviewed. It is a good solution for those who can’t run more than 200fps in 4K.

When the games were put away in favor of getting work done, the PG32UCWM continued to provide a picture that was hard to look away from. It is very colorful, though a few Quantum Dot displays will show you a tad more red and green. But the PG32UCWM covers 100% of DCI-P3 so it still overachieves for SDR in a good way. When editing graphics, I switched the Color Space option to sRGB and enjoyed similarly high accuracy.

The effect of Asus’ True Black Glossy coating was also evident. Blacks seemed deeper because there was no reflected ambient light. The screen is shiny, but it rejects room light as if it were matte. This also makes color more vibrant. It was like having a light-blocking hood in place.

My user experience was completely positive. The PG32UCWM has a familiar and intuitive control and menu system. It’s easy to create different settings memories and to set up the quick menus for easy access to things like picture modes and GamePlus options. I could plug input devices into the USB ports, which was handy. My only minor complaint was the lack of internal speakers. But playing with the extensive LED lighting was fun.

Takeaway: The PG32UCWM is a benchmark gaming display with a reference-quality image. It’s incredibly sharp, and it looks great in brightly lit rooms thanks to its advanced screen coating and Tandem RGB Stripe technology. The refresh rate boost will be useful for those with less stout video cards, and its scaling down to FHD resolution is excellent. Paired with a well-endowed gaming PC, the PG32UCWM is about as good as it gets.

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To compare the PG32UCWM’s performance, I’ve mined only 32-inch 240 Hz OLEDs from my test database. The more recent models are MSI’s MPG 322UR X24 along with Asus’ PG32UCDM3 and XG32UQWMS. Older screens include Dough’s Spectrum Black 32 and HP’s Omen 32 OLED.

Pixel Response and Input Lag

Click here to read up on our pixel response and input lag testing procedures.

Since acquiring the Nvidia LDAT sensor, I’ve noted that OLED panel response times, black-to-white transition run in a super tight range from 0.12 to 0.24. The PG32UCWM manages this feat in 0.16 in both 240 and 480 Hz modes. Motion blur is non-existent when any of these screens run past 200fps.

In the lag test, the PG32UCWM is the quickest of the 240 Hz screens at 11.2ms average lag over 25 mouse clicks. Only a couple of the 360 Hz panels I’ve tested are quicker, and only by 1.2ms, a microscopic amount. What’s interesting is that 480 Hz is a tick slower at 12.9ms. This is still much lower than any human reaction time, so the difference is imperceptible. I’m confident that this is due to the processing lag involved in scaling the image down to Full HD from 4K.

Test Takeaway: The PG32UCWM is the quickest 32-inch 4K OLED you can buy at this time. Only a couple of 360 Hz QHD screens are a tad quicker, so if you have the video card necessary to run 4K over 200fps, this Asus is your best choice. There’s no motion blur at that speed either. I noted that 480 Hz brought an increase in frame rate but not in motion resolution. And it did not reduce input lag.

Viewing Angles

I’ve noticed slight differences in off-axis images from the different OLED variants I’ve reviewed. The PG32UCWM has two emissive layers, meaning that at any angle other than head-on, they are slightly out of phase with each other. This is the reason for the slight tints seen in a grayscale step pattern. In color patterns, or in actual content, you can’t see this issue. In the side photo, there is no change to brightness or gamma, which is typical of OLED displays. The top view washes out a bit with reduced gamma.

Screen Uniformity

To learn how we measure screen uniformity, click here.

The PG32UCWM is the recipient of serious quality control as its low 2.69% uniformity score indicates. There is no hint of bleed or glow in any part of the image. It doesn’t get much better than this.

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To read about our monitor tests in-depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test PC Monitors. We cover brightness and contrast testing on page two.

Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level

To find the PG32UCWM’s maximum brightness value, I turned Uniform Brightness off and measured a 25% window pattern. It peaked just below 500 nits, which is typical for the category. The Dough and HP screens have only fixed brightness for SDR, so they measure the same for window or full white field patterns. The PG32UCWM’s full-field value with Uniform Brightness on was 269 nits. Black levels and contrast could not be measured.

After Calibration to 200 nits

Calibration doesn’t change anything but the peak white value. I recommend setting uniform brightness to 200 nits using a full field pattern and variable brightness to 200 nits using a 25% window pattern. This creates a visual balance between the two modes. Black levels, static contrast and ANSI intra-image contrast could not be measured.

Test Takeaway: The PG32UCWM offers the option of fixed or variable brightness which is something not all OLEDs offer. It’s nice that the user can set individual brightness values for each mode just once. They are saved when switching back and forth which is another standout feature. The PG32UCWM can hit nearly 500 nits showing SDR content which makes it impactful for gaming and video content. Though contrast is theoretically infinite, the True Black Glossy screen coating makes this monitor’s blacks perceptually deeper.

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The PG32UCWM offers accurate color out of the box and does not need to be calibrated. You can choose between DCI-P3 and sRGB gamuts and adjust grayscale tracking to a high standard.

Grayscale and Gamma Tracking

Our grayscale and gamma tests use Calman calibration software from Portrait Displays. We describe our grayscale and gamma tests in detail here.

In the initial grayscale run, the PG32UCWM shows slight red errors in steps from 60 to 90% brightness. This error is barely visible, even in a test pattern. Gamma tracks very close to the 2.2 reference line. With calibration of the RGB sliders, all but one brightness step drops below 1dE. Gamma becomes a little tighter thanks to a change in the contrast slider.

For sRGB applications, I recommend using the sRGB gamut option rather than the sRGB Cal picture mode. Then, you can calibrate the grayscale if you wish. By default, it’s a little warm in tone. Gamma is excellent with no visible errors.

Comparisons

With a 2.27dE average value, the PG32UCWM has no visible grayscale issues. It can be used without calibration like all the screens here. One should expect this from a premium display. After changes to the RGB values (just blue actually), the error drops to 0.72dE, which is better than all but the MSI. Visually, there is no difference between any of the monitors.

The PG32UCWM’s gamma is very tight with a tiny 0.08 range of values and a 0.45% deviation from the 2.2. reference. The actual value is 2.19, which is nearly perfect and visually flawless.

Color Gamut Accuracy

Our color gamut and volume testing use Portrait Displays’ Calman software. For details on our color gamut testing and volume calculations, click here.

The PG32UCWM aces the default gamut test with a low value of 1.53dE, well below the visible threshold of 3dE. This is the average of 32 measurements. Though it covers right at 100% of DCI-P3, it is slightly oversaturated in the red, magenta, and blue areas of the triangle. Green is perfectly and fully rendered, putting the PG32UCWM ahead of any non-Quantum Dot screen. This is what Tandem OLED tech is supposed to do, and it is successful here. Calibration, shown in the second chart, tightens everything up even further, putting the monitor firmly in reference territory. This is excellent performance.

In the sRGB test, I’m showing a pre-calibration result so magenta is a tad off hue. The score is still quite low at 1.76dE so there’s no cause for complaint. The PG32UCWM is fully qualified for color-critical applications.

Comparisons

As impressive as the PG32UCWM’s color is, it isn’t any better than the others save the XG32UQWMS. I am picking nits here since the naked eye cannot see these differences. But every hundredth of a point counts, and the PG32UCWM has fewer than most with a 1.06dE score. That’s better than many pro monitors can boast, and it’s only a tick behind the Dough and MSI displays. It doesn’t really get better than this.

In the gamut volume test, the PG32UCWM is slightly behind the top four screens. But with almost exactly 100% coverage of DCI-P3, you’ll see every shade and hue from the original content, and more if you run wide gamut mode for SDR. sRGB coverage is also nearly ideal at 96.66%. There is no cause for complaint here.

Test Takeaway: The PG32UCWM is very colorful and accurate with visual perfection out of the box and calibration to a high standard. It is fully qualified for critical applications in either DCI-P3 or sRGB modes. It has a little less color volume than some of the competition but more than the average non-Quantum Dot display. Gamma is tight and ruler straight in every case, which makes fine detail and texture more visible and impactful.

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Our HDR benchmarking uses Portrait Displays’ Calman software. To learn about our HDR testing, see our breakdown of how we test PC monitors.

HDR is the PG32UCWM’s forte with its bright highlights, deep blacks and vivid color. It supports HDR10 with four specific modes and offers adjustable brightness and contrast. It also plays Dolby Vision content which is a rarity in the computer monitor genre.

HDR Brightness and Contrast

All the screens offer variable brightness for HDR content, so their peak levels vary somewhat. The PG32UCWM is in the middle at a healthy 532 nits which is plenty of light from the 25% window pattern I measured. Asus’ claim of 1,000 nits for a 3% window is completely valid. I measured this by engaging the Gaming HDR mode and turning on Adjustable HDR which upped the peak output a little. That changed the EOTF a little and I’ll show you how below.

Grayscale, EOTF and Color

In the first two charts, you can see the difference between the Gaming and True Black HDR modes. They offer the same accurate grayscale tracking but vary in the EOTF luminance curve. True Black is closer to the reference with only tiny variations from black to white. Gaming offers a little more peak output, but it rises from black too quickly. This will make mid-tone regions a little less textural. These are subtle differences that will be perceived differently by different viewers. I would go for the True Black version, but the Gaming HDR picture will be a little blingier. It’s like the “brighter TV sells better” principle seen at big-box electronics stores. At least the PG32UCWM gives you a choice.

I measured color in both modes and got similar results. There is a slight and general oversaturation in the manner of nearly all the HDR OLEDs I’ve tested. This is typical performance. The picture is very impactful and colorful. In the BT.2020 test, the PG32UCWM runs out of color at 90% red, 75% green, and 95% blue. This is also typical of wide gamut screens with either Tandem or Quantum Dot enhancement.

Test Takeaway: The PG32UCWM delivers a superb HDR image with options to dial it into the user’s liking. I recommend the True Black mode for its luminance accuracy, but some users may prefer the Gaming mode for its higher brightness. Either way, it’s gorgeous to look at. Also of note is that the PG32UCWM is one of the rare computer monitors that supports Dolby Vision.

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There’s always something special about flagship products. So, if a company makes a line of displays that are all flagship, are any of them special? In the case of Asus’ ROG Swift PG32UCWM, I’m going to say yes. Thanks to Asus’ willingness to seed its stable with multiple OLED panel technologies, we have a large array of choices, all of them good.

The PG32UCWM and its Tandem RGB Stripe panel stand out for being incredibly sharp. In other areas like color, video processing and build quality, it is the same as other Swift displays, but image clarity raises the bar. You can expect accurate color out of the box with reference-level performance after a few adjustments. Video processing is super smooth with perfect motion resolution and the lowest input lag in the category. There’s flexibility in the frame rate boost feature that lets the PG32UCWM work with less powerful video cards. And its extra features like GamePlus and Aura RGB elevate it beyond most premium monitors.

At $1,299, it is an investment, but consider that its performance and build quality mean you’ll be using it for many years through multiple system upgrades. If you desire a flagship monitor and have the budget, the Asus ROG Swift PG32UCWM is well worth checking out.

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The XPG Novakey RGB DDR5-6000 C30 is Adata's latest memory kit to hit the market, going toe-to-toe with the best RAM. Although we are still living in a memory shortage, memory brands will continue to release new memory products. The releases are not as frequent as before, but we are glad that companies still support consumers. As always, more competition helps improve prices and offers more options for consumers to choose from. Adata recently brought a new Novakey series to the market. It is a product from the brand's XPG division, with a strong emphasis on gaming culture. However, unlike some of Adata's other series that are available with and without RGB lighting, the Novakey lineup is only available with the former.

Adata’s Novakey memory modules stand out for the company's commitment to sustainability. It produces the memory modules with recycled materials, specifically 50% aluminum and 85% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic. The heat spreader, which features a brushed matte black aluminum construction, looks nice. The memory modules measure 1.79 inches (45.5 mm) in height, which we do not expect to pose a problem for big air CPU coolers, but it never hurts to double-check.

A defining feature of the Novakey memory modules is the debut of Adata’s patented “Infinity Mirror” design. When not powered on, the surface is synonymous with a reflective mirror. Once illuminated, though, it transforms into a dazzling visual effect. With the help of the lighting, the futuristic geometric silhouette gives the impression that the image looks 3D-ish and pops out.

The Infinity Mirror effect is present on only one side of the memory module, though. The opposite side features a standard black decorative strip. For customization, Adata offers its XPG Prime software, or you can use your motherboard's software, whether it be Asus Aura Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0, MSI Mystic Light Sync, or ASRock Polychrome Sync.

Under the sleek heat spreader, you will find a black 10-layer PCB with eight integrated circuits (ICs) on one side. It uses 2GB SK hynix H5CG48MEBDX014 (M-die) ICs to reach 16GB on each memory module. Meanwhile, Adata sources the power management integrated circuit (PMIC) from Richtek, labeled 0P=CH QYK.

For maximum compatibility, the Novakey memory modules run at DDR5-4800 with memory timings at 40-39-39-77. It supports both Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO technologies. Regardless of the standard, the only profile onboard the memory modules will get them up to DDR5-6000 and configure the memory timings and DRAM voltage to 30-40-40-77 and 1.4V, respectively. See our PC Memory 101 feature and How to Shop for RAM story for more timings and frequency considerations.

Comparison Hardware

The Intel system features the Core Ultra 9 285K processor and the MSI MEG Z890 Unify-X motherboard with firmware version 7E20v1AA0. Conversely, the AMD system utilizes the Ryzen 9 9900X processor and the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi motherboard with firmware version 7E49v1AA3. The Corsair iCUE Link Titan 360 RX LCD CPU liquid-cooling solution efficiently maintains optimal temperatures for both the Arrow Lake and Zen 5 processors, ensuring efficient thermal management across platforms.

The MSI GeForce RTX 4080 16GB Gaming X Trio efficiently handles demanding graphics workloads, preventing any bottlenecks during our gaming RAM benchmarks. The TeamGroup A440 Lite PCIe 4.0 SSD balances performance and capacity, delivering 2TB of ultra-fast storage with speeds up to 7,400 MB/s—perfect for Windows 11 24H2 installations, benchmarking software, and gaming applications.

The Corsair RM1000x Shift ATX 3.0 power supply delivers reliable and ample power to our test systems, directly supporting the GeForce RTX 4080 via its native 16-pin (12VHPWR) cable. The Streacom BC1 open-air test bench offers flexible, tool-free accommodation for all hardware components, streamlining assembly and component swaps.

Intel Performance

On average, the Novakey memory kit performed a bit slower than competing options like the Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C36 and the Ripjaws S5 DDR5-6000 C32. The performance gap is not massive, though. Although the Novakey boasts an impressive CAS Latency (CL) of 30 clock cycles, its other memory timings are comparatively loose, which affects bandwidth and latency, leading to lower real-world performance.-world performance.

AMD Performance

Adata’s memory kit delivered similar performance on the AMD system. It neither stood out as the fastest nor lagged behind the slower memory kit among the tested options. The performance was consistent across the range of different benchmarks.

Overclocking and Latency Tuning

Overclocking on the Novakey was a breeze. The only downside is that the kit already operates at a relatively high 1.4V for DDR5-6000, so we needed to increase the voltage further to 1.45V to gain any headroom for overclocking. The memory kit proved to be quite capable and handled DDR5-6400 speeds with the same timings.

The memory kit was unforgiving when attempting to tighten the CL timing, even with additional voltage applied. On the contrary, both the tRCD and tRP timings showed a bit more flexibility under 1.45V and allowed us to decrease them to 36 cycles, four cycles lower than the default values.

Bottom Line

The XPG Novakey RGB DDR5-6000 C30 is not just about looking good inside your system, thanks to the vibrant and customizable Infinity Mirror design. The memory kit's performance will not let you down, even if it's not the fastest contender on the market. At DDR5-6000, Adata is intentionally targeting the sweet spot for both Intel and AMD platforms. The fact that the XPG Novakey RGB DDR5-6000 C30 arrives with both Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO overclocking profile support ensures seamless integration regardless of the platform of choice.

The XPG Novakey RGB DDR5-6000 C30 has yet to make its debut on the hardware shelves at U.S. retailers. However, Adata has put the memory kit up for pre-order through Adata’s official online store for $589.99. While the price is certainly steep, it falls within expectations of a premium memory kit that is coming out during the memory shortage. Once things get back to normal, we should see Adata's memory kit at a more reasonable price. But for the meantime, the XPG Novakey RGB DDR5-6000 C30 represents a luxury that not many consumers can buy.

Buying a motherboard today can be a daunting task. There are more options than ever, with more features than ever, making it harder to know what you really need. Prices have also climbed consistently over the last several generations, with flagship motherboards now routinely costing as much as a high-end CPU or graphics card.

Modern motherboards range in price from under $100 for the most basic, to well over $1,000 for flagship/Halo-type boards from the ‘Big 4’ (Asus, ASRock, Gigabyte and MSI). But more expensive doesn’t always mean a better experience, especially if you’re likely not to use the hardware and features you’re paying for.

Several factors drive motherboard pricing. From the PCB layer count and copper content at your most basic level, chipset (some, like X870E, have two chips), power delivery, to controllers and premium components, they all increase the Bill of Materials (BOM). So what do you actually gain by spending more? It depends on the board, but outside of more robust power delivery, you tend to get additional, improved, or faster everything. Be it storage with M.2 sockets and SATA ports, USB ports, wired or wireless networking, the audio solution, or PCIe slots and bifurcation. And you can’t forget about the aesthetics. In general, the more you spend, the better the specs and the better they look. Some even include integrated screens. But it goes beyond just the hard specifications.

In addition to the hardware, motherboard partners attempt to inject value with DIY-friendly innovations such as toolless M.2 sockets and heatsinks, larger BIOSes with integrated drivers, or even quick-connect Wi-Fi antennas. All things that make building or swapping parts out easier on your PC. They’re even including “AI” features designed to help with overclocking and other functions like networking, or even local AI work, to make getting the most out of your system easier. And while some of those features can be valuable, their true worth is measured by the individual and whether they can get any use out of it.

The real question you need to ask yourself is what you need (and want) for how you use your PC today and in the near future, as every PC user is different. Whether you use your PC primarily for gaming, work purposes, or breaking overclocking records, needs will vary. The point of this article is to help users navigate through a dizzying array of options, determine what’s actually too much versus what you need, and perhaps save money by focusing on the right parts for your usage.

The cost of a motherboard

What, outside of marketing forces, drives motherboard pricing? First, there’s the BOM. Everything you see on the board has a cost. Starting with the PCB itself, it comes in layers like a sandwich, allowing all of the connectivity to reach where it needs to go without electrical interference. Budget boards tend to use fewer PCB layers and less copper, think 6-layer and 1 Oz, while mid-range and higher use 8/10 layers and 2 Oz of copper as selling points. Of course there’s validation and engineering costs that go into it, too.

On top of the PCB, you have various bits like the VRMs, which can range from downright anemic and a hindrance to performance, to overkill for anyone except extreme overclockers. Cheap boards tend only to give you the basics: fewer VRM phases and lower-rated MOSFETs (think 50A/60A), chokes, and capacitors. More expensive boards use a higher phase count and higher-rated MOSFETs, around 80A-110A.

For example, the popular 80A Intersil ISL99380 MOSFET can be found for around $2.72 apiece (@ 100 qty), while the less capable Vishay SIC623 50/60A is $1.69 per (@ 3,000 qty). Now, these prices are just what we can find online in lower quantities. If you need 100,000 units, prices will drop, and we don’t know what price the board partners contracted at. But the point is the difference in cost. The idea that the power bits on a 12-phase board with 50A MOSFETs will cost less than a 24-phase board with high-end 110A SPS MOSFETs should be clear, and we haven’t even touched on the chokes and capacitors that make up the VRMs.

Other onboard items such as network chips, USB controllers/hubs, SATA controllers, audio solutions with DACs and/or amplifiers, PCIe switches, BIOS chips, and more all add up (and that’s just the hardware/ICs). For example, a Marvell Aquantia AQC113 is around $27 apiece for 1,000 units, while the 2.5 GbE Realtek RTL8125BG can be found as low as $2 apiece for 30 units. Pricing isn’t publicly disclosed for many items to compare; for instance, we can’t find pricing for the ASmedia ASM4242 USB4 chip, but you can expect it to fetch a premium over most other supplemental, slower USB controllers. On the other side of the tracks, Intel’s JHL8540 Thunderbolt 4 chip costs a bit over $13 apiece for 2,000 units.

DIY-friendly features such as toolless M.2 sockets and PCIe latches likely also cost more than the basic M.2 socket with screws and PCIe slots without those features, but that’s something more tangible, even if it’s only used for installation and upgrade purposes, and likely not a significant part of the BOM cost.

You also can’t forget the appearance. From basic boards with minimal heatsinks and no RGBs to massive decorative heatsinks and shrouds, RGB lighting, and integrated screens, it all adds up. And of course, you have to factor in R&D to get these boards and all of their features created and to market in the first place. Just remember that not every additional dollar translates into something you’ll notice in everyday use.

Where does the value end?

Unfortunately, we don’t have a black-and-white answer to this question, as it depends on the person making the purchase and their needs, or how they plan to use the PC. Speaking generically, very few people need incredibly robust, 20-plus-phase, 110A MOSFET VRMs, even with a high-power flagship-class processor. Most users with any processor will be fine with a 12-18 phase board with 60-80A MOSFETs. There’s almost no point in paying the premium for a more-capable design so long as what it has can handle your processor without throttling it. And as you can see from our motherboard benchmarks below, performance is generally price-agnostic among these tightly grouped results.

Unless you plan to overclock and use extreme cooling methods, those monster 20-plus-phase 110A MOSFET power systems are overkill. Items like onboard buttons to adjust BCLK, voltage, or the multiplier are useless for all but the most extreme overclocking, used at the brink of stability. 99.9% of users who overclock can do so in the BIOS or use Windows tools without these extra features, which add cost. For example, the ASRock Z890 Taichi OCF with all of the overclocking bells and whistles for ~$400 isn’t the right choice unless you’re overclocking competitively.

Popular processors like the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and other X3D derivatives won’t need anything close to that and work just fine with 10-12 phase 50-60A MOSFETs. The same goes with Intel. You’ll need a better motherboard for a Core Ultra 285K than for a 250K Plus, especially if you plan to overclock.

10 GbE, or even 5 GbE, networking is another item that, chances are, you don’t need for most PC activities. With average download speeds in the US hovering just over 300 Mbps, you don’t need to worry about faster wired connectivity unless you need the bandwidth for your internal network, like a NAS or transferring among devices on your internal network. For example, I have 1 Gbps (sequential) fiber, which is the fastest my area offers currently. In this case, 1 GbE is enough, but leaves no room for upgrades. A good sweet spot for wired networking is 2.5 GbE, so anything over that is overkill for anyone who doesn’t need a fast LAN connection.

Wireless networking is another story. 2025 and 2026 brought Wi-Fi 7 to the masses, supplanting Wi-Fi 6/6E. The problem here is that few have Wi-Fi 7 wireless devices in the first place. Your motherboard, and perhaps your new phone or laptop, may have it, but that’s about it. This also means you need a Wi-Fi 7-capable router, and if you don’t have a capable adapter, buy one, which increases the total cost of ownership. Chances are you’ll be fine on Wi-Fi 6E or even the ‘slower’ Wi-Fi 7 (160 MHz instead of 320 MHz), depending on your device count and bandwidth needs. The more you have of both, the more 320 MHz Wi-Fi 7 can be beneficial.

PCIe lane switches (read: bifurcation) are also something that not many users need unless you have PCIe add-in cards. This is something you’ll need to dig into the specifications to find, as it’s not typically listed as a feature. It generally happens automatically due to lane sharing anyway, but that ability can add cost to the bottom line. You also need to watch out for lane sharing so you get what you pay for with your chosen hardware. Be it M.2 sockets and PCIe, or USB and M.2 sockets, chances are you’ll experience lane sharing in some form or another on Intel and AMD chipsets, more so on the mainstream and high-end boards. And while money doesn’t prevent this occurrence, there are only so many lanes to go around; the more features you try to add to a limited number of lanes, the more it has to share.

Take, for example, the flagship MSI MEG X870E Godlike and Godlike X we reviewed. Even though this is a $1,000 motherboard, it’s still limited to the lanes and bandwidth the chipset offers. In this case, the rear USB4 ports share bandwidth with the second PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 socket (M2_2). Here, because the board supports bifurcation, there are a few ways that setup plays out. If you want all of the bandwidth for the M.2, the USB4 port(s) are disabled. You can split them and share bandwidth, or you can get all the bandwidth for the USB4 ports, disabling the M.2 socket. On the same board, the third PCIe slot and fourth M.2 socket share the chipset's PCIe 4.0 lanes.

If we drop down to the X870 chipset, which uses only one Prom 21 chip and has fewer available lanes for sharing, we see a lot of the same thing. On the X870 Tomahawk Wifi (a $229 board), the rear USB4 port doesn’t share with anything but also only uses one PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket. Lane sharing on it is the same as the $1,000 Godlike between a PCIe slot and an M.2 device. In this case, the M.2 device doesn’t even receive the full x4 bandwidth, no matter what hardware is connected. The moral of the story here is to make sure you check the specifications and see what, if any, lane sharing occurs with your specific hardware configuration.

Who should buy what?

When selecting a motherboard, there are a few basic tenets I look at before purchasing, regardless of how I use the PC:

• CPU compatibility - You can’t fit square pegs into round holes. Intel doesn’t work with AMD, AM4 boards don’t work with AM5 processors, and so on. Make sure the board you want supports the processor you plan to purchase.
• Form Factor - Pick a size that fits your chassis: Mini-ITX, MicroATX, ATX, E-ATX.
• RAM Support - DDR4 or DDR5; again, you can’t fit square pegs into round holes. You can even save some money using DDR4 and not lose much performance.
• Storage - How many M.2 sockets do you need, and at what speeds? How many SATA ports?
• Expansion slots - How many do you need, and at what speeds? PCIe 5.0 or PCIe 4.0?
• Rear I/O and connectivity - Make sure you have enough USB ports and the speeds you need for the usage.
• Networking - How fast for the wired solution? Do I need two? Is Wi-Fi 7 an absolute need or a want?

At a high level, we can say motherboards that cost:

• Under $150: have basic functionality, fewer high-speed connections, weaker VRM designs
• $150-250: additional connectivity, the sweet spot for most users
• $250-400: even more connectivity, storage, and premium features, a sweet spot for enthusiasts
• $400+: enthusiast-class features, extreme VRMs, aesthetics, and diminishing returns
• $1,000+: Halo products where you pay for everything, not necessarily for better performance

Basics aside, how many and what speed you need for each feature varies depending on the person and how they plan to use the PC. Currently, I have seven USB devices, three M.2 drives, and one SATA-based HDD, along with a 9900X3D. By day, my workflows are generally light, with a dozen or two Chrome tabs up at one time along with Google Docs and a messaging application. By night, when my work is done, the kids are taken care of, and my wife goes to sleep, it’s a gaming PC.

A gamer’s needs are different than someone who uses the PC for content creation, for example, or a workstation user (powerful multi-core processors and a lot of RAM), or even a competitive overclocker. You don’t need a ton of or the fastest of anything to get the most out of your CPU, graphics card, and RAM. In other words, each type of user/functionality moves different features up and down on the priority list.

For example, as a budget-conscious gamer planning to use an X3D chip, I’d look at AMD and the B650E or B850 chipset-based motherboards, as they offer the best balance of price and features for a high-end gaming CPU without the tax of unnecessary enthusiast features. If you need advanced connectivity like USB and multiple PCIe 5.0 connections, that’s fine. The same goes for Intel; the B860 boards will do most users just fine.

Content creators often need a well-balanced system with high-speed connectivity such as Thunderbolt 4/5 or USB4, multiple M.2 storage slots, and fast networking to handle large media files and heavy workflows. You tend to see those features in X870/Z890 motherboards, specifically those with “Creator” in the title.

Extreme overclockers should look for boards with robust power delivery and overclocking features, such as integrated buttons on the motherboard or 2-DIMM slots that benefit memory overclocking. Boards like the ASRock X870E Taichi OCF ($499.99) or the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Apex ($726.50) are good examples with features dedicated to overclocking and getting every last MHz out of your system. They are also overkill for just about everyone who doesn’t have a Dewar full of liquid nitrogen.

Final thoughts

So how much is actually too much? The takeaway is that it depends on the situation. Most of us don’t require overkill power delivery and massive VRM heatsinks. Nor do we need 4-5 M.2 sockets or a dozen USB ports, and we can easily get away with less. Most motherboards in the $250-$400 range in the mainstream and enthusiast segment offer enough of everything to be a ‘good enough’ solution for most users. That said, they can also be overkill. It’s when you get into the budget chipsets (think A620 for AMD and Q870/H810 for Intel) that you may run into problems with VRM capability when using high-end processors, as well as connectivity shortcomings.

It seems counterintuitive, and you do get more features on higher-tier motherboards, but buying a more expensive motherboard doesn’t let you bypass the platform's hard limits. It often adds more lane/bandwidth sharing. For the most part, this isn’t a bad thing. You just have to know what hardware you plan to use and what you need from it. Drawing on the examples above, do you need the USB4 port(s) and that bandwidth for external devices (like storage), or the second PCIe 5.0 M.2 socket and its 128 Gbps of bandwidth? Or do you need the last PCIe expansion slot for an add-in card?

If you can answer these questions, you’re most of the way to avoiding overbuying on your motherboard and can then put that extra cash toward something you can actually benefit from. The best motherboard isn’t the one with the most features: it’s the one with the features you actually need. If you still need some assistance buying a new motherboard, check out our best motherboard list, which covers a wide variety of platforms, form factors, and price points. You can also check out our curated best motherboard deals to stretch your dollar even further.

Computer enthusiast 1usmus has developed a new update for their Hydra overclocking application that introduces VRAM overclocking and power limit control for some of the best graphics cards on the market, Nvidia's RTX 50-series. The new update, 2.3B, adds support for a maximum memory offset of +3000MHz for memory overclocking and a static power limit adjustment that peaks at 125% regardless of which RTX 50-series model is used.

The new update allows RTX 50-series graphics card owners to overclock their GPU’s GDDR7 memory up to 36 Gbps. 1usmus showed off their personal Asus ROG Astral LC RTX 5090 OC overclocked to 36 Gbps on the memory to confirm that the application works as advertised. Hydra’s aforementioned limits are reportedly aimed at this first release specifically to keep users safe. But 1usmus hinted that future iterations of the app could have higher limits, noting that the RTX Pro 6000 has experimental support for the “complete feature set” of the program.

Beyond VRAM and power limit adjustments, Hydra version 2.3B also features direct XBAR offset control and support for second-generation “Rail Offsets.” The voltage frequency curve has also been changed and is now unrestricted compared to prior versions.

Compared to mainstream overclocking tools, Hydra supports more in-depth overclocking features that are geared for extreme overclocking. This is particularly true of the XBAR offset control, which is a method of overclocking an Nvidia GPU’s interconnect, helping improve performance beyond just GPU core and memory overclocking, similar to overclocking the Infinity Fabric on AMD CPUs. For pure core and memory overclocking, Hydra’s latest update matches what existing overclocking tools can achieve, such as MSI Afterburner, for now.

For the uninitiated, Hydra is a tool 1usmus released several years ago to better tune Ryzen CPUs. Since then, the app has evolved from just being an advanced AMD overclocking utility to also featuring overclocking support for Nvidia GPUs, overclocking support for Radeon GPUs, DRAM overclocking, and memory stability testing.

Chinese AI accelerators are set to capture 90% of the country's domestic market as U.S. export controls and Beijing mandates push American-made hardware from AMD and Nvidia out of the market, according to a new report by TrendForce. Cambricon and Huawei are expected to be the biggest beneficiaries of the shift, according to DigiTimes. Yet, the big question is whether Chinese vendors can ship enough AI accelerators to satisfy demand.

China on track for AI accelerator self-sufficiency

Nvidia commanded 66% of China's AI accelerator market in 2024, but its share dropped to 40% in 2025 and was on track to drop to 8% in 2026, according to estimates made by Bernstein investment bank earlier this year. Considering the fact that Nvidia did not officially ship any new accelerators to Chinese clients in the first half of the year, Nvidia's chief executive Jensen Huang said in May that his company's market share in the PRC was 'zero.' Of course, some Nvidia GPUs make it to China 'unofficially' as local companies are too dependent on Nvidia's CUDA and high-end AI accelerators. Still, it is safe to say that the bulk of new deployments in the PRC are based on hardware designed and produced domestically.

China's total available market of AI accelerators topped 4 million units in 2025, according to numbers published by Guancha.cn. Last year, 2.2 million Nvidia AI GPUs made it to the Chinese market, and while Nvidia's market share shrank to 55%, it still significantly outperformed its closest rival, Huawei, which shipped 812,000 AI accelerators and commanded 20.3% of the market.

Shipments by other players were by far lower: Alibaba's T-Head produced 265,000 AI accelerators, followed by AMD with 160,000. Cambricon and Kunlunxin only supplied around 116,000 AI processors each, whereas others shipped fewer than 100,000 units.

"This year, the Chinese government has actively encouraged the adoption of domestic AI chips," the report from TrendForce reads. "This policy push will likely provide priority support to high-potential domestic players, allowing them to substantially expand their market share in China's high-end AI server market. At the same time, the domestic ecosystem is maturing in key areas such as advanced foundry nodes, advanced packaging, and thermal management."

The firm now expects shipments of high-end AI processors developed by Chinese companies to increase by more than 83% year-over-year in 2026 as domestic production capacity and deployments expand. As a result, its analysts project domestic AI accelerators to capture nearly 90% of sales (up from 45% last year), which means that foreign suppliers like AMD and Nvidia will be left with roughly 10%. This latest projection represents a major revision from the research firm's December 2025 outlook, which estimated that Chinese processors would account for approximately 50% of China’s high-end AI chip market in 2026.

Dual-track strategy

As AMD and Nvidia supplied some 2.36 million AI accelerators to the Chinese market last year, commanding a 59% unit share, replacing the majority of them will take a lot of effort, assuming that the TAM will remain at around 4 million units. TrendForce claims that China is set to adopt the so-called dual-track strategy, which involves AI accelerators from merchant suppliers like Huawei and Cambricon along with custom AI ASICs from Alibaba, Baidu, ByteDance, and Tencent.

"Together, these developments are moving China's AI infrastructure away from its heavy reliance on foreign GPUs, toward a dual-track model of 'domestic GPUs + proprietary ASICs,'" the firm claims.

Hyperscale cloud service providers (CSPs) are inclined to expand usage of their own silicon because it is cheaper compared to merchant accelerators and because it is optimized for their workloads and data formats. Meanwhile, developers of merchant AI hardware — such as Huawei, Biren, and Cambricon — will also gradually expand their output of accelerators as demand is very strong.

Bottlenecks

It remains to be seen whether the Chinese chipmaking industry can indeed replace 1.96 million high-end AI accelerators in just one year. To maintain the 4 million unit TAM, China's semiconductor industry will need to increase AI accelerator output by 2.2X in just one year.

SMIC — China's largest and most advanced foundry — this week announced that its Q2 2026 revenue increased to $3.005 billion, up from $2.505 billion in Q1 2026, and from $2.209 billion in Q2 2025. This suggests that the company is both increasing the output of chips and its prices. However, it remains to be seen whether SMIC's 36% YoY revenue increase is an indicator that it can increase output of high-end AI accelerators by over 2X compared to 2025.

Another major bottleneck for the Chinese industry is the lack of domestic production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Huawei has reportedly acquired plenty of HBM2-class memory from Samsung, but its stock is not endless, so its Ascend 950-series AI accelerators are set to rely on proprietary HiBL 1.0 and HiZQ 2.0 types of memory, not industry-standard HBM2 or HBM3. While China's DRAM champion CXMT is gearing up for HBM3 manufacturing in late 2026, it remains to be seen how quickly the company can ramp up production to decent levels.

Nvidia's CUDA software stack is the company's biggest advantage after the performance and versatility of its AI accelerators. But while performance can be matched with brute force, the software stack cannot be reproduced quickly. Last year, Huawei opened up its CANN software stack to accelerate its development, though we do not know if the company has achieved its targeted goals with this. Yet, without a doubt, China's AI software stack is getting more mature every year, so many new AI deployments may indeed rely on domestic stacks rather than on CUDA.

A shifting market

U.S. restrictions on exports of advanced AI accelerators, combined with China's own efforts to limit the use of American AI processors domestically, have largely pushed companies like AMD and Nvidia out of the Chinese market. Analysts now expect China-based independent hardware vendors to control 90% of the domestic AI accelerator market in 2026.

Chinese AI hardware has come a long way, and Huawei's solutions can outperform Nvidia's NVL72 GB200 rack-scale system, albeit while consuming more power. Therefore, if power is not a concern, Huawei can build AI data centers with performance that matches or exceeds those based on Nvidia GPUs.

However, replacing American GPUs almost completely while maintaining AI accelerator unit TAM at 4 million units will require China's industry to product 1.96 million AI accelerators in 2026, 2.2X more than in 2025. This seems impossible not only for TSMC, but also for local memory makers that still have to start making HBM memory.

To that end, while Chinese AI accelerators may indeed capture 90% of the domestic market, without hardware from American companies, that market can shrink dramatically in terms of units.

One man’s trash is another’s treasure, and that certainly seems to be the case for ‘Josh,’ a GameStop customer. The well-known gaming and trade-in business says that Josh came into its Clackamas, Oregon store and “traded hundreds of broken consoles for $10,690.06 in store credit.” In its Twitter/X post, GameStop shows Josh looking pleased with a fistful of trade credit cards, another image showing reams of receipts, and a far too small photo of the broken console haul.

That’s a lot of in-store credit to spend, but as most GameStop-ites will know, your trade-ins go further this way. In other words, if you asked for cash instead of credit, you would get less. Accepting the compromise of in-store credit can actually net you up to 50% more cash to spend – albeit with your choices locked to what GameStop has in stock. This might not be a big drawback if you like video games. But $10,690.06 is a lot of credit, even for the most avid gamer.

Checking the GameStop website today shows it doesn’t embrace gaming PCs or laptops, or PC components. Your local store might have a selection available, though. What I did see today were a few meager electronics items like MacBooks and iPhones listed. The major trade at this retailer is in PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch consoles and games. This is where most customers would probably expect to use their credit.

I found it interesting to try and identify the few broken consoles we can see in the plastic crates. Without too much scrutiny and pixel peeping, there are clearly a few Nintendo Switch Lites in there, a Sega GameGear, a pair of Sony PSPs, and numerous Nintendo Game Boys representing a few eras (GBC, DS, DSL). Under that crate are what look like a black and a white Xbox 360. There must have been many more crates to tally up to “hundreds.” Squinting at the receipts shows there were indeed multiple PS4, Xbox One, Series X, and 360 consoles in the traded collection.

In terms of pricing, the receipts reveal Josh traded in multiple Xbox One consoles for $7.92 each, Xbox Series X consoles for $10-11, PS4 consoles priced at $16 each, and working Xbox One consoles at around $40. Pricing for the more exciting stuff is unfortunately illegible in the photos.

Some social media keyboard warriors throw scorn at Josh for selling this bountiful collection of broken consoles to GameStop. The key accusation is basically that he’s been swindled by GameStop, who would pay a pittance compared to what could have been raised selling on auction sites like eBay. Perhaps he could have made a lot more cash selling his broken consoles independently, but depending on how many auctions he generated from the 100s of items, that would be a lot more effort: dealing with accurate description writing, photography, shipping, and the inevitable returns.

It would similarly be interesting to find out how much profit GameStop ends up making from this pile of consoles, but it isn't likely to share this kind of business data. Some of the consoles will likely be irreparable, only useful for spares and donor components; others, perhaps if there are rarer special editions in the collection, could bring in a lot of cash if fixed and refurbished.

Spirit Airlines, which declared bankruptcy and shut down on the 2nd of May this year, is selling all its assets in bankruptcy court auctions to pay off its roughly $8.1 billion in debt. According to Bloomberg Law, Google LLC beat out Mercor.io Corp. — an AI-focused recruitment firm — to the airline's data, with the AI tech giant offering $10 million, $2.5 million higher than the latter’s $7.5 million bid. Nevertheless, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York named Mercor.io Corp. as the backup buyer in case the Google deal falls through.

Google said it planned to use the massive amounts of data it purchased for training its AI LLMs, and the amount of data that the tech giant got its hands on is indeed a lot. Court records reveal that the Google purchase includes 100 million emails, 500 million Microsoft Teams chats, 7.2 billion records for competitors' flights, 7.5 billion passenger transaction records from 2008, and more than 175,000 employee records from 1986. Aside from this, the company will also get information on revenue, aircraft operations, employee productivity records, audits and fraud, marketing campaigns, human resources records, project management, and pricing curve data, among others.

This could be a cause of concern for anyone who’s ever transacted with the airline, either as a customer, employee, contractor, or even investor, especially as AI is known for its privacy problems. However, the company will not get access to personal data, including the 97.5 million passenger profiles that the airline kept or the 50.2 million customer records from the Free Spirit loyalty program. Furthermore, the court said that all the data being turned over to Google will be “rigorously scrubbed of any personally identifiable information by a third party before receipt.”

The tech giant is seemingly keen on getting its hands on unique data, especially as many companies are now suspected of acquiring thousands of books to train their AI models after they’ve already scraped huge swathes of the internet. Spirit Airlines data is valuable because it’s likely not readily available on the internet and contains specialized information gathered from decades of operation as an airline. Google can then use this to create AI models focused on aviation and offer its services to airlines.

We’re still unsure how AI will fit inside aviation operations, especially as it’s a conservative, safety-focused industry. Nevertheless, Google and other AI companies are probably keen on entering it, especially as air travel is only projected to grow in the coming years.

It is not a secret that American judges have very broad judicial immunity. Apparently, even in cases where a state judge is accused of relying entirely on artificial intelligence to make a judicial decision, the judge is still protected from a civil lawsuit by judicial immunity, according to a new U.S. federal court ruling. Interestingly, the ruling does not determine whether the judge actually used AI or whether such use is legally allowed, reports Reason.

The decision comes from Phillips v. Parlade, decided by U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro of the District of Nevada. The plaintiff claimed that judicial immunity should not apply because the state judge allegedly turned over her official decision-making responsibilities completely to AI and issued a ruling without using human judgment at all. According to Phillips, delegating 100% of the decision-making meant that the resulting order could not qualify as a ruling performed by a judge. He also said that such complete delegation placed the rulings outside the judge's jurisdiction, which is a rare case that removes judicial immunity.

Navarro rejected both arguments. Judges are generally shielded from civil liability even when their behavior involves mistakes, malevolence, or actions that exceed their authority. However, that protection does not apply when a judge acts with a complete lack of jurisdiction or when the challenged action is not judicial in character. To determine whether an action is judicial, courts look at whether it is a normal part of a judge’s job, took place in chambers, concerned a case before the judge, and involved the judge acting in an official capacity.

In this case, the issue was a ruling in Phillips's state-court case. Navarro found that producing a decision in a pending case is clearly a part of a judge's regular duties. Phillips also did not claim that the events took place outside the judge's chambers or provide legal support for his argument that using AI put the judge outside her jurisdiction. As a result, the judge remained protected by judicial immunity and the lawsuit had to be dismissed.

Eugene Volokh, who discovered the decision, stresses that the federal court did not determine whether Phillips's allegations were accurate and the judge indeed relied on AI in her decision-making. In fact, this conclusion means that even assuming the state judge had depended entirely on AI, Phillips could not pursue this particular federal lawsuit against her.

However, litigants still have other ways to challenge the judge's actions, Volokh notes. They can appeal the decision in state court, seek other legal remedies, or file a disciplinary complaint against the judge. The court did not rule that judges are legally or ethically allowed to delegate their decisions to AI. It did not even determine whether the judge in this case actually did so. It ruled only that alleged reliance on AI — apparently, even 100% reliance — does not by itself remove judicial immunity and allow the judge to be sued in this federal civil action.

Storage prices are exceptionally high at the moment, with no end in sight to when the cost of a new drive will fall to the all-time lows of days gone by. If you still need to fill the drive bays of your NAS, though, there are some HDDs available that have received small discounts. Best Buy is currently hosting its 60th Anniversary sales event, with discounts across the board on various tech items, but the deal we're interested in today is on Seagate's 8TB IronWolf NAS Hard Disk Drive, which has had $167 chopped off the list price, making it now $349.99.

● Check out this deal at Best Buy

At this price, the drive works out to cost $43.74 per TeraByte, which is high compared to the price per TB of larger HDD drives, but you're looking at a lower cost per unit if you're going to purchase multiple drives for backup redundancy. 8TB may not seem the greatest size, seeing as you can get 28TB capacities, but those drives cost considerably more in the current economic climate.

The Seagate IronWolf comes in a standard 3.5-inch metal chassis and is a CMR drive with a 256MB cache and 7,200 RPM disk spin speed. A SATA 6Gb/s interface delivers the fastest transfer speeds available for HDDs and makes plug-and-play exceptionally easy. The IronWolf HDDs have some of the fastest available speeds for NAS operation and are designed for 24/7 operation in a NAS storage environment, with lower noise and vibration.

If you're looking for a disk drive for use in a home server setup or media center, and want reliable, hard-working drives, then the IronWolf range of HDDs from Seagate is perfect for the job. Designed for durability and continued 24/7 operation, the IronWolf HDD comes with a 5-year limited warranty from Seagate.

Buying a gaming laptop is a great way to sidestep the exorbitant costs of RAM, SSDs, and GPUs that are plaguing the PC component market in 2026. Right now, Best Buy is selling a premium Lenovo gaming laptop with a massive discount as part of its 60th anniversary sale. Normally $4,249, a $1,350 discount gets you a 2.5K, 16-inch OLED laptop with Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, and Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU.

● Grab this deal at Best Buy

This premium laptop combines a hefty mobile GPU for gaming with an impressive 240Hz, 2560 x 1600 screen, plenty of RAM for multitasking, lots of storage, and great networking and connectivity options. We absolutely loved it in our review and this $1,350 discount makes it all the more enticing.

This is a premium gaming laptop that scored well in our Tom's Hardware review. The display in particular is outstanding, as is the sleek aluminum design, customizable RGB lighting, and sharp webcam. As you can see below, the laptop performs extremely well in our display measurements testing thanks to that impressive OLED panel.

We actually tested the 5080, 32GB RAM, 275HX variant of this laptop, which means we can tell you exactly how the device performs when gaming. In our gaming benchmarks, the Legion Pro 7i pumps out 163 frames per second in Shadow of the Tom Raider at 1080p, or 101 frames per second at the laptop's native resolution of 2560 x 1600. We also clocked Crysis Remastered at Very High, running in the mid-90s, with the 16 VRAM pool and 175W power draw putting in plenty of work.

This is a laptop that will handle anything you throw at it, work or play. Other noteworthy features include 32GB of DDR5 6400 RAM, 1TB SSD, HDMI, USB-C, and USB-A ports, as well as a headphone jack, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4. It also has an impressive 1440p webcam and scope for upgradeability thanks to its two M.2 drives. As per our review, this is an "outstanding" laptop that easily passes muster in terms of performance, while blowing us away with its OLED screen.

If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, Best Motherboard, or CPU Deals pages.

AI companies are reportedly buying up millions of books, some of which are rare, and using them to train AI models, often destroying the book in the process. And we now have more specifics about how this process works, thanks to an investigation from 404 Media. The outlet placed a tracking device inside a rare book that was part of a large, 1,000-book order — and it ended up in a Las Vegas Amazon warehouse.

Employees who spoke to 404 Media said they spend their time at the facility (named VGT3) cutting the spines off of books and feeding them into a scanner. VGT3 is reportedly part of another, larger facility in Las Vegas called LAS8. Its purpose, according to the employees who spoke to 404 media, is solely to cut the spines off books and scan them. "All we do is scan books," one employee told the outlet.

If there was any doubt about the purpose of the facility, a logo with VGT3 shows a dinosaur holding a book, looking like it's about to rip it up and take a bite. At the very least, the dinosaur isn't reading the book. You can see that image captured on 404's website above.

The investigation started in July, when 404 asked a bookseller if the outlet could place an Apple AirTag in a book inside a 1,000-book shipment. A shipment this large is unusual, though they've reportedly become increasingly common in the AI era. Book sales are up, and many suspect that isn't due to a rise in readership, but for training frontier AI models. The order was submitted through Biblio, an online marketplace that claims to be the "largest independent book marketplace in the world."

Often, these large orders contain a scattershot of different books. An independent bookseller in Ireland, for example, received an order for 5,000 books that they suspected was for training AI. “Some was high-quality non-fiction, like A History of Connemara, and the next thing might be The Eddie Hobbs Guide to your SSIA,” Tomás Kenny of Kennys Bookshop said at the time. 404 Media says that employees at VGT3 are required to scan the ISBN (barcode) of each book, lending credibility to the theory that AI companies are working through a list of every book that has ever been published.

Or, at least, every book with an ISBN. A bookseller told 404 Media that these large orders "never" include rare books that don't have an ISBN.

Earlier this year, court filings revealed Anthropic's 'Project Panama,' which kicked off in 2024. Documents as part of those filings make the project's purpose clear: "Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world," said an internal planning document. A judge ruled that Anthropic was allowed to use books to train its AI models. However, it was fined $1.5 billion for keeping 7 million pirated books in a central library. In a 2025 lawsuit against Meta, it was revealed that it had pirated nearly 82TB of books.

Scanning books en masse is nothing new. In 2005, Google spearheaded Google Books by scanning out-of-copyright titles from an on-campus library using specialized scanners. The books were then returned. Presumably, Google made use of some type of V-shaped scanner, which lays a book out naturally so as not to disturb the spine and binding.

In the case of VGT3, 404 reports that employees cut off the spine of the book before scanning, presumably to feed the pages flat into an industrial scanner. The insatiable hunger for data in frontier AI models seems to be moving at a faster pace than Google's early book digitization efforts.

It's hard to say why a facility like VGT3 operates in this way, though it likely comes down to cost. As major companies like Meta and Anthropic have been caught with a library of pirated books, they now need to buy them. And when purchasing thousands of books at a time, it's probably much cheaper to get secondhand copies from marketplaces like Biblio than it is to spend full price on digital versions of those books (if digital versions exist in the first place).

China's Ministry of State Security has told some state-linked organizations to remove a customized version of Windows 10 from their machines, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The order reportedly accelerates a planned retirement that the software's developer had scheduled for February 2027, and it sent Chinese OS vendors' shares surging, with Hunan Kylinsec and Archermind both hitting Shanghai's 20% daily limit and China National Software climbing 10%. Bloomberg's sources attributed the directive to data security concerns but didn't specify what vulnerabilities Beijing is worried about.

The affected software is the government edition developed by C&M Information Technologies (CMIT), a joint venture set up in 2016 between Microsoft and state-owned China Electronics Technology Group, with the Chinese side holding the majority stake. The build is based on Windows 10 Enterprise but strips out OneDrive and other consumer-facing components, disables certain native functions, keeps updates and activation inside China, and lets government users substitute Chinese encryption algorithms for Microsoft's standard cryptography. China Customs and Shanghai's Commission of Economy and Informatization were among the first pilot customers when the edition launched in 2017.

Microsoft ended mainstream Windows 10 support globally in October 2025, which left CMIT's edition as the only Windows still officially sanctioned for Chinese government use. "Microsoft is not aware of a security incident affecting this product," a company spokesperson told Bloomberg, adding that it continues to receive regular security updates.

Beijing banned Windows 8 from government procurement in 2014, ordered a three-year replacement of foreign PCs in government offices starting in 2019, and in 2022 told central agencies and state firms to scrap foreign-branded computers entirely. The domestic stack built to absorb that demand now includes Kylin V10, UnionTech's UOS, and Huawei's HarmonyOS 5 laptops, and it reaches down to the silicon in systems like Huawei's Qingyun desktops running the homegrown Kirin 9000X.

StatCounter's traffic data shows how little of that campaign has reached the consumer market. Windows accounted for 87.64% of Chinese desktop web traffic in July 2026, and Windows 10 alone still made up 43.56% of Chinese Windows usage, compared with 50.01% for Windows 11, ten months after mainstream support ended. Roughly two in five Chinese desktops are currently running an unsupported Microsoft OS, the gap that CMIT's edition was meant to close for government users.

It's not clear what the scope of the new directive is, with Bloomberg's reporting covering “some” state-linked entities. CMIT didn't respond to the outlet's request for comment.

It's a safe bet that 3D printer aficionados would definitely own an industrial SLM (Selective Laser Melting) printer if they could, as the creative possibilities granted by them are endless. One such possibility is making actual working rocket engines, as Indian startup Othisis just demonstrated with a stationary test-fire of its fully cryogenic rocket engine, after a few failed attempts.

As a broad description, SLM printers work by depositing a layer of microscopic metal powder on a base, and then firing a laser that melts the powder into solid at specific places. The base then drops down a fraction of a millimeter, a new layer of powder is deposited, and the process repeats. All told, this results in layers around just 0.05 to 0.06 mm thick, made of metals and alloys that traditional consumer 3D printers can't quite handle. Here's an illustrative video of the process.

Othisis' engine doesn't yet have a name, but it's a 5 kN fully cryogenic design, meaning that it uses both liquid oxygen (LOX) and methane as propellants, kept chilled in liquid state. As expected these days, the firm intends this design to be a VTVL (vertical take-off, vertical landing) reusable design. The Othisis design uses the chilled-fuel loop for cooling, plus both LOX and methane can be theoretically manufactured in-situ from CO2 and water.

Additionally, the burn is stronger than the commonly used Kerolox, while leaving behind almost no residue, lowering maintenance time and improving reusability turnaround. Drawbacks include lower fuel density (thus the need for larger tank sizes), trickier storage due to the low temperature, and potential hazards for handling.

Othisis has reportedly signed MoUs (memorandum of understanding) to carry payloads into space, even though it's only been formally in business for two years. The company is the brainchild of Syed Affan, the creator of the Rocketry India Discord server, who founded the company while pursuing his undergraduate degree.

Now that the best graphics cards are worth a fortune for both gamers and AI enthusiasts, modders have resorted to hacking Nvidia’s older Cryptocurrency Mining Processor (CMP) series, originally released five years ago, as a way to overcome the ongoing memory shortage and ludicrous prices. CMP Unlocker, a completely software-based solution, has restored the previously locked-away memory on the CMP 170HX, boosting its memory capacity by up to 8X — from just 8GB to a massive 64GB, and from 10GB to 40GB.

To truly understand how the hack works, you need to dissect the CMP 170HX. The CMP 170HX is the flagship SKU in Nvidia's CMP series and leverages the GA100 (Ampere) silicon. It is the same 7nm die that powers the more expensive A100 accelerator. Unlike other Nvidia silicon with separate soldered memory chips, the GA100 itself is a monolithic chip with on-package memory. That means the total amount of memory is physically present on all GA100 silicon, so it comes down to how many memory stacks are active.

The GA100 silicon features a total of six HBM2e memory stacks. Depending on the SKU Nvidia is aiming for, it could have five or six memory stacks enabled. The chipmaker carves the CMP 170HX from defective or binned GA100 silicon that did not meet the stringent quality requirements for the enterprise-grade A100. Nvidia officially sold the CMP 170HX in 8GB and 10GB variants. All the chipmaker did was disable the additional memory through firmware, along with other limitations, such as nerfing compute performance and PCIe interface speeds.

Nvidia's approach is somewhat reminiscent of the old AMD Phenom II and Athlon II days, where some models shipped with disabled cores that could sometimes be unlocked through BIOS tweaks. Similarly, the CMP 170HX 8GB and 10GB models can potentially be unlocked to access their full memory capacity of 64GB and 80GB, respectively, though only 40GB is confirmed to be working from user feedback. As detailed in "A Canary in the Crypto Mine: Defeating Stack Protection in a GPU Secure Coprocessor," Jon Pry's research paper provides the technical blueprint for bypassing Nvidia’s Falcon security microprocessor, which tools like CMP Unlocked are based on.

One of the most remarkable aspects of this exploit is that it is entirely software-based and requires no physical modifications to the CMP 170HX. It sounds like a joke, but you are literally downloading more memory for your graphics card. It’s important to note, however, that the amount of memory you can successfully unlock and maintain stability will vary. The issue is that there is no way to know whether the locked-away memory is fully functional because Nvidia did so for product segmentation, or whether the chipmaker deactivated it due to physical defects. It's a similar situation to another repurposed crypto device, AMD's BC-250, that we recently tested.

Beyond unlocking the hidden memory, the software exploit can also restore processing power to the CMP 170HX’s Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), which increases its computational performance. Another notable benefit is the upgrade to a faster PCIe interface speed. The CMP 170HX can now operate at PCIe 2.0 x4 speeds, a significant upgrade from its original restriction to PCIe 1.0 x4. There is still untapped performance, though. Nvidia implemented hard restrictions on the CMP 170HX’s connectivity by limiting the accelerator to just four PCIe lanes and physically omitting 12 capacitors from the PCB. If you solder the missing capacitors to the PCB, it could unlock full PCIe x16 bandwidth and enable the accelerator's maximum throughput, though we haven't seen that in action.

The CMP 170HX launched with a hefty price tag of $4,300 at the height of the cryptocurrency mining boom. Nowadays, they used to sell for around $250 on eBay. However, when word of the exploit got out, they immediately jumped to over $1,000, a 4X increase in market value. Nvidia’s A100, offered in 40GB and 80GB PCIe variants, starts at around $3,500 and $11,500, respectively. The CMP 170HX is attractive for AI users because it costs a fraction of the A100 but can offer the same memory capacity, though the silicon lottery is not always generous. Regardless, Nvidia’s Ampere architecture is now two generations old. Even with added memory capacity, it cannot match the raw computational performance or efficiency of Hopper or Blackwell.

There was a time when PC RAM and storage products were sold with lifetime warranties. Replacement of these components was an inconvenience at worst, with parts exhibiting great reliability and sold at trifling prices. In 2026, the tide has fully turned, and we see even the largest businesses wriggling to avoid warranty repairs and replacements with little shame. Yet another anti-consumer case in point is shared by GRINZ_DOCTOR on the Mildly Infuriating Subreddit. It appears to be a bizarre episode where Best Buy ‘repaired’ an under-warranty laptop by simply removing one of its SODIMMs, testing it worked reliably, and then sent it back to the customer with half the memory it originally shipped with installed, confusion possibly caused by a purchase made from a third-party seller.

You can see at the top of the letter from Best Buy/Geek Squad, dated August this year, the device sent in for warranty repair was a “Lenovo – Upgraded – Legion 5 15.1-inch WXGA Gaming Laptop, Intel i9-14900HX, RTX 5070, 64GB DDR5, 2TB SSD, +1TB dock station, Win 11 Pro” laptop in black, available to buy at Best Buy in the exact configuration. One possible reason for the mishap is that the linked product here is sold by a third-party retailer, PC Heaven, which offers "professionally customized and upgraded configurations." Upgraded in the product listing may be a giveaway that this is, in fact, one of PC Heaven's souped-up options.

GRINZ_DOCTOR sent the eight-month-old 64 GB laptop in for attention after beginning to experience repeated blue screen crashes. The notes mention that underlying software issues were basically ruled out ahead of the warranty return, as reinstalling Windows didn’t help.

Amputation was the chosen 'cure'

The technician accepted the Legion 5 in good cosmetic condition with “no visible wear or damage.” After investigations, the blue screen issues were clearly pinned on RAM, as the Best Buy tech closed the case with repair notes as follows: “Unit has two 32GB sticks for a total of 64GB; this unit only accepts 32GB RAM maximum. One stick of 32GB has been removed and sent back to client with unit.” Before ending the note with the punchline “Unit passed all tests.”

Of course, we don’t know exactly what was done by the repair tech during their fault-finding and resolution process. While GRINZ_DOCTOR insists they bought the unit as described on the upper section of the document with 64GB pre-installed, a product you can still get on Best Buy right now, it seems the most likely explanation for the snafu is that the customer bought an upgraded model from a third-party reseller. Best Buy's insistence that the laptop only supports 32GB of RAM does clash with the user's report that the laptop worked for eight months. Moreover, this certainly doesn't change the fact that they simply took the RAM from the machine without the customer's input. Best Buy also continues to list a configuration of a laptop on its website that the company admits is unsupported by the hardware.

Plenty of commenters have advised escalating the issue with Best Buy. They are advised to go to the store in person and keep escalating until a proper remedy - meaning a new working second RAM stick, or a like-for-like laptop replacement - is done. However, if they did indeed buy a third-party offering, their options may be limited.

Earlier this month, we reported on Micron offering pennies on the dollar for Crucial RAM returns. Meanwhile, in NAND-land, SK hynix reportedly ran out of replacement SSDs and is instead insisting on original purchase price refunds.

For the most part, you can rest assured that your device will remain uncompromised by malware if you keep to verified, trusted sources for downloading software. And yet, software booby traps sometimes find their way onto legitimate wares, as was the case of Geekom's network drivers for its range of A7, A8, AE7, AE8, AX7 Pro and AX8 Pro mini-PCs, as discovered by Videocardz.

If you have a Geekom mini-PC from those lines and have installed the LAN driver from the firm's website in the past, we'd advise a full system wipe if possible, or at the very least a Windows Defender offline scan. But in the words of Lt. Ellen Ripley, "nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

As it's part of a driver installer, this malicious software would get administrator-level permissions on your machine, being granted permission to steal all your data, intercept your keystrokes, or retrieve passwords. It connects to command-and-control centers so that the malfeasants can remotely access your PC at any time.

The basic story is fairly simple and sad as these things go: a support page for those series of machines contained a LAN driver whose installer was laced with the Asruex backdoor malware. As expected, Geekom has removed the software package in question and offered an apology, stating the driver was on a "legacy page [that] had already been replaced and was no longer accessible through the normal Support navigation, although it remained indexed by search engines."

The latter bit is precisely the problem, as it's a reasonable bet that many users (like yours truly) will first use Google or AI search to find the driver, and wouldn't go through Geekom's support menus. Furthermore, Geekom requested that Videocardz retract its original reporting of the problem, an arguably questionable move, and an ask that Videocardz denied.

For its part, Videocardz checked that the Asruex malware was indeed present with four separate detection engines: VirusTotal, FileScan.IO, MetaDefender, and Yarafy. It's worth nothing that nothing suggests that these families of mini-PCs are vulnerable out-of-the-box, too. That was unfortunately the case with some AceMagic machines a couple years ago that shipped with Bladabindi and Redline malware from the factory, as was Asus' incident with poisoned software updates in 2019.

The common knowledge for a new install is to get driver packages from Windows Update and only go to the manufacturers' website if something is amiss. However, many users might go to Geekom's site to ensure that they have the latest versions of their drivers, or perhaps they downloaded the LAN driver when trying to diagnose network issues of some sort.

As for a baseline cause, in our view this is clearly a case of Hanlon's Razor, as relatively small OEMs would have next to nothing to gain and everything to lose by intentionally shipping malware packages with their machines. As can be attested by most anyone who's installed Windows motherboard software of variable quality, Taiwan has historically been regarded as considering software a secondary concern when developing technology products, in part thanks to its unique geopolitical situation and the fact that its government only splits 30% of its IT budget to software.

Alibaba has agreed to sell its game development unit, Lingxi Games, to Asian private equity firm Trustar Capital, according to an internal staff memo sent Monday by Lingxi CEO Zhou Bingshu, per Reuters. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Alibaba stands to collect more than $2 billion from the transaction, while Bloomberg, which first reported the memo, valued the studio at no less than $1.5 billion. The sale transfers Alibaba's entire stake in the studio and takes the Chinese tech giant out of in-house game development entirely, freeing up cash for an AI infrastructure program the company has already said will blow past its original $53 billion budget.

"Alibaba is handing Lingxi to Trustar due to better focus on its strategic priorities," Zhou wrote in the memo, as quoted by Bloomberg. Zhou and his management team will stay on to run the studio under its new owner. The memo didn't disclose a price, an expected closing date, or any regulatory conditions attached to the deal, and none of the three companies responded to requests for comment.

Alibaba committed at least 380 billion yuan (around $53 billion at the time) to cloud and AI infrastructure over three years in February last year, a sum the company said was larger than everything it had spent on AI and cloud in the previous decade combined. CEO Eddie Wu told analysts in May that Alibaba would exceed that figure given the cost of its data center buildout, and the company is targeting $100 billion in AI revenue within five years.

Asset sales are covering part of the bill, with Alibaba having offloaded its stakes in hypermarket chain Sun Art and department store operator Intime for a combined $2.6 billion in late 2024.

Back in January, it was reported that the company is preparing an IPO for its chip design unit T-Head, another route to capital for the same program. T-Head designs the PPU accelerator that Chinese state television compared against Nvidia's H20 last September, and its silicon is central to Alibaba's plan to run more of its cloud on domestic hardware.

Guangzhou-based Lingxi is best known for Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition, a mobile multiplayer strategy title developed with Japan's Koei Tecmo. It’s understood that Alibaba had been shopping the studio around for some time, per two unnamed sources, and a fundraising process Lingxi explored in late 2023 stalled after Beijing proposed tighter rules for the online gaming sector.

Trustar, formerly known as CITIC Capital, is an Asia-focused private equity firm that Zhou described in the memo as having the industry resources to support the studio's next phase. The sale leaves Alibaba's consumer business focused on e-commerce and its Qwen chatbot, whose own team leadership put Chinese firms' odds of leapfrogging OpenAI and Anthropic at less than 20% earlier this year.

There’s light at the end of the tunnel for Nine PBS. We reported last week that the station lost access to 50TB of data representing 70 years of TV history. The issue was that its cloud storage provider went out of business and access to this important set of backups was abruptly cut off. In the meantime, a judge has cleared the way for Nine PBS to retrieve its archival data and programming from Iron Mountain Data Centers.

Let us refresh your memories of this case by sketching out a timeline of how we got here, before discussing the latest ruling.

• 2019: Nine PBS began using Open Source Storage (OSS) as its cloud storage provider.
• 2019-2025: Annual cloud storage contract renewals occur without incident.
• February 2026: Nine PBS wanted to meet with OSS about contract renewal but couldn’t get in touch.
• March 6, 2026: Without any new agreement inked, the existing contract expired on March 6, with the terms allowing 30 days for the customer to retrieve their data. However, OSS seemed to cut off access to Nine PBS cloud data without any warning or any grace period.
• March 13, 2026: Nine PBS learned that OSS saved its cloud data at physical servers housed in Iron Mountain, Colorado. So it wrote to request that Iron Mountain preserve and return the data. However, Iron Mountain doesn’t confirm or deny that it holds this data.
• April 16, 2026: Nine PBS filed suit against OSS, and new OSS owner James Tramel confirms the data is secured at Iron Mountain.
• May 2026: Tramel stops responding, later claiming he was defrauded into buying OSS.
• June 2026: Nine PBS obtains a default judgment stating it owns the data in question and has the right to possess it. Later the same month, Iron Mountain admits it possesses the data. However, Iron Mountain decides to block any access as it says OSS owns the physical servers.
• July 28, 2026: Nine PBS files a lawsuit against Iron Mountain, the data center provider for OSS, seeking protection against data deletion or modification.

Nine PBS - "70 years of our organization’s history" in danger

The latest development in this twisting and turning case of Nine PBS’s lost data seems like good news for the station. On August 12, 2026, a Denver judge established a process that would allow Nine PBS to retrieve its 50TB of archival data from Iron Mountain’s Denver data center.

The outlined framework includes appointing a third-party vendor, such as a former OSS employee, to assist in the retrieval of the data from the hardware in Iron Mountain. This must be done within 30 days. Moreover, Nine PBS must pay the current and overdue storage fees that OSS missed, and any physical devices the third party takes off the premises must be returned to Iron Mountain after data retrieval. Lastly, Nine PBS must verify no other ex-OSS client data is accessed, and indemnify Iron Mountain against any corruption of data owned by others.

Both Nine PBS and Iron Mountain are requested to provide progress updates on the data retrieval process by September 14. Hopefully this will be a lesson learned by Nine PBS, and it will swiftly implement a proper 3-2-1 backup of its irreplaceable data, so any cloud provider error doesn’t cause such a calamity in the future.

We're officially in dire straits. There's almost no way, if you're reading this site, that you aren't aware that memory prices have become entirely divorced from reality. Some are calling it the RAMpocalypse; I prefer "RAMageddon." Whatever you want to call it, though, the reality for PC builders right now is just grim. To put this in perspective, just take a look at our RAM price tracking post:

That's right: 128GB DDR5 kits are fully ten times more expensive than the lowest price we've ever seen. Things improve as you step down the memory capacities and speed tiers, but not as much as we'd like. You're still looking at $392 for a memory kit that was just $72 last year.

To reinforce the point, I pulled the latest average price data from PCPartPicker, comparing where we are today (August 2026) to exactly one year ago. This data is somewhat approximate, but it should be broadly accurate.

The numbers speak for themselves; in just 12 months, the cost of DDR5 memory has essentially exploded. We are looking at year-over-year increases nearing 500% for high-capacity kits. A standard 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5-5600 kit that would have cost you under $200 last summer is now demanding over $1,100. It is a 5x multiplier on a component that used to be a fairly boring and predictable line item in a PC build budget.

If you plan to just wait it out on an older AM4 or LGA1700 motherboard with DDR4, you'd better hope your memory holds out too, because DDR4 isn't safe from the fallout. With DDR5 entirely out of reach for most builders, the resulting scramble for older platforms running DDR4 memory has created a massive knock-on effect, and as a result, DDR4 kits are up anywhere from 120% to nearly 180% across the board. Nowhere near as bad as DDR5 pricing, but it still stings when a kit that was $105 last year is $281 this year.

This phenomenon is by no means exclusive to the US, either. German tech site ComputerBase have also been tracking this global trend, reporting just this week that average RAM prices in Europe have skyrocketed by 345% compared to September 2025. Their data shows the squeeze is bleeding into other components too, with hard drive and SSD prices both climbing over 125% in that same timeframe.

In fact, the situation is so severe that hyperscale buyers have reportedly already locked in almost all of the global DRAM production capacity for 2027, handing over advance deposits to guarantee their supply of precious DRAM, which is now among the highest-value commodities in the world by weight; mainstream DRAM chips are worth over half as much per kilogram as solid gold. PC and smartphone makers are simply fighting over the scraps, as low-priority markets compared to the extremely lucrative AI datacenter buildouts. And lucrative they are indeed; all four memory vendors (SK hynix, Samsung, Micron, and China's CXMT) have increased revenues by double, triple, or even more, all in just the space of one year.

For consumer prices to drop, we would essentially need a major contraction in the AI market, which would mean a massive correction in financial markets worldwide. Absent that, the people actually making the chips don't see an end in sight. SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung recently warned that 2027 will be the worst year for memory supply in the industry's history, forecasting that demand will outstrip their ability to produce it well into 2030. ADATA's Chairman, Simon Chen, was even more pessimistic, suggesting this DRAM crisis could last another 10 years and dismissing the idea of an "AI bubble" bursting anytime soon.

The era of cheap, plentiful memory is over, at least for now. If you need RAM today, you're either going to have to bite the bullet and pay the premium, or learn to get by with less. Make sure you check out our RAM price tracking post for the best deals we found on memory, as well as some tips on how to secure solid deals yourself.

PJM Interconnection, the grid operator serving 67 million people across 13 states and Washington, D.C., asked federal regulators on Thursday to approve rules that would cut power to new data centers ahead of households during supply shortages, Reuters reports. The filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission follows two consecutive capacity auctions that failed to secure enough generation, and PJM's board projects roughly 70 GW of new large load by 2038 against roughly 15 GW of generation retired since 2022.

Existing facilities aren't affected, with the proposed Interim Resource Adequacy Service applying only to new loads of 50 MW or more at a single site that connect without bringing their own generation, or otherwise securing supply, by June 1, 2027. Those facilities would be curtailed before PJM deploys Pre-Emergency Load Management, which are the demand-response programs that pay other customers to cut consumption during grid stress.

Attached to the scheme is a new Large Load Registry, which tracks the location and megawatt draw of every 50 MW-plus site in PJM's territory and whether it brings its own supply. Affected customers would be compensated at a FERC-approved hourly rate set at 50% of the penalty rate PJM pays existing demand-response resources during full grid emergencies. It’s understood that operators can waive that payment in line with the White House's Ratepayer Protection Pledge.

PJM can't actually flip the switch itself, however. The operator told Reuters that it lacks the authority to curtail individual sites and would need to rely on utilities and state governments to carry out the reductions, which is why the registry data will be shared with states to set load-shedding priorities. Virginia, home to the world's largest data center cluster, has already ordered operators to pay for their own dedicated grid infrastructure.

Data centers in PJM’s territory have been curtailed before under a Department of Energy emergency order issued in May, which enabled the operator to call on large loads with backup generation as a last resort ahead of rolling blackouts. PJM expected less than 5,800 MW of reserves during that heat event, with Maryland and Virginia under the most strain. Thursday's filing would turn that one-off emergency authority into an established mechanism.

In July, PJM’s capacity auction for the 2028/29 delivery year hit its $325 per megawatt-day price cap and still came up some 6,800 MW short of the operator’s reliability requirement. Its independent market monitor has attributed a 75.5% jump in regional power costs directly to data center demand.

A separate one-time backstop procurement, running September 30 through October 21 with offers capped at $555 per megawatt-day, aims to backfill the shortfall, and from the 2029/2030 auction onward PJM plans to exclude new large loads that don't bring their own supply from the demand it procures for at all.