It’s not a bad time to upgrade your gaming PC. Graphics card prices in the 2020s have undulated continuously as the industry has dealt with pandemic and AI-related shortages, but it’s actually possible to get respectable mainstream- to high-end GPUs like AMD’s Radeon RX 9060 XT and 9070 series or Nvidia’s RTX 5060, 5070, and 5080 series for at or slightly under their suggested retail prices right now. This was close to impossible through the spring and summer.

But it’s not a good time to build a new PC or swap your older motherboard out for a new one that needs DDR5 RAM. And the culprit is a shortage of RAM and flash memory chips that has suddenly sent SSD and (especially) memory prices into the stratosphere, caused primarily by the ongoing AI boom and exacerbated by panic-fueled buying by end users and device manufacturers.

To illustrate just how high things have jumped in a short amount of time, let’s compare some of the RAM and storage prices listed in our system guide from three months ago to the pricing for the exact same components today. Note that several of these are based on the last available price and are currently sold out; we also haven’t looked into things like microSD or microSD Express cards, which could also be affected.

In short, there’s no escaping these price increases, which affect SSDs and both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM kits of all capacities (though higher-capacity RAM kits do seem to be hit a little harder). If you’re thinking about an SSD upgrade, those increases haven’t become too ludicrous just yet, but if you were thinking about a RAM upgrade, your best bet is to hold on tight to whatever you already have and hope that nothing breaks any time soon.

Memory and storage shortages can be particularly difficult to get through. As with all chips, it can take years to ramp up capacity and/or build new manufacturing facilities. Not only do we need to meet today’s demand with supply levels that were decided years ago, but manufacturers also must try to decide tomorrow’s supply levels based on today’s demand. This was part of the problem during the pandemic-fueled chip shortages of 2021 and 2022—most companies weren’t prepared for the pandemic-fueled spike in demand for consumer tech, or for the lull in normal buying and upgrade patterns that followed (just look at PC sales, which went way up in 2020 and 2021, then crashed for a while, and then eventually returned to something resembling a normal pattern).

And memory makers in particular may be slow to ramp up manufacturing capacity in response to shortages. If they decide to start manufacturing more chips now, what happens if memory demand drops off a cliff in six months or a year (if, say, an AI bubble deflates or pops altogether)? It means an oversupply of memory chips—consumers benefit from rock-bottom prices for components, but it becomes harder for manufacturers to cover their costs. Memory shortages in late 2016 and 2017, for example, led to oversupply and big price cuts in 2018 and 2019, and some pretty awful earnings reports for manufacturers like Samsung and SK Hynix.

The upshot is: Not only are memory prices getting bad now, but it’s exceptionally difficult to predict when shortage-fueled price hikes might end.

It’s not just PC builders

PC and phone manufacturers—and makers of components that use memory chips, like GPUs—mostly haven’t hiked prices yet. These companies buy components in large quantities, and they typically do so ahead of time, dulling the impact of the increases in the short-term. The kinds of price increases we see, and what costs are passed on to consumers, will vary from company to company.

Bloomberg reports that Lenovo is “stockpiling memory and other critical components” to get it through 2026 without issues and that the company “will aim to avoid passing on rising costs to its customers in the current quarter.” Apple may also be in a good position to weather the shortage; analysts at Morgan Stanley and Bernstein Research believe that Apple has already laid claim to the RAM that it needs and that its healthy profit margins will allow it to absorb the increases better than most.

Framework on the other hand, a smaller company known best for its repairable and upgradeable laptop designs, says “it is likely we will need to increase memory pricing soon” to reflect price increases from its suppliers. The company has also stopped selling standalone RAM kits in its online store in an effort to fight scalpers who are trying to capitalize on the shortages.

Tom’s Hardware reports that AMD has told its partners that it expects to raise GPU prices by about 10 percent starting next year and that Nvidia may have canceled a planned RTX 50-series Super launch entirely because of shortages and price increases (the main draw of this Super refresh, according to the rumor mill, would have a bump from 2GB GDDR7 chips to 3GB chips, boosting memory capacities across the lineup by 50 percent).

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Posted Wednesday 26 November 2025 at 12:49 pm AEST (my time).

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After Valve announced its upcoming Steam Machine living room box earlier this month, some analysts suggested to Ars that Valve could and should aggressively subsidize that hardware with “loss leader” pricing that leads to more revenue from improved Steam software sales. In a new interview with YouTube channel Skill Up, though, Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais ruled out that kind of console-style pricing model, saying that the Steam Machine will be “more in line with what you might expect from the current PC market.”

Griffais said the AMD Zen 4 CPU and RDNA3 GPU in the Steam Machine were designed to outperform the bottom 70 percent of machines that opt-in to Valve’s regular hardware survey. And Steam Machine owners should expect to pay roughly what they would for desktop hardware with similar specs, he added.

“If you build a PC from parts and get to basically the same level of performance, that’s the general price window that we aim to be at,” Griffais said.

The new comments follow similar sentiments relayed by Linus Sebastian on a recent episode of his WAN Show podcast. Sebastian said that, when talking to Valve representatives at a preview event, he suggested that a heavily subsidized price point would make the Steam Machine hardware into “a more meaningful product.” But when he suggested that he was imagining a console-style price in the range of $500, “nobody said anything, but the energy of the room wasn’t great.”

Forget about $500

Based on these comments, we could start estimating a potential Steam Machine price range by speccing out a comparable desktop machine. That would likely require building around a Ryzen 5 7600X CPU and Radeon RX 7600 GPU, which would probably push the overall build into the $700-plus range. That would make the Steam Machine competitive with the pricey PS5 Pro, even though some estimates price out the actual internal Steam Machine components in the $400 to $500 range.

Regardless, the volatility in RAM and storage costs these days makes it hard to know exactly where the Steam Machine’s total costs and asking price will end up by the time we hit the early 2026 launch window. Griffais gestured toward this to Skill Up, noting that “right now is just a hard time to have a really good idea of what the price is going to be because there’s a lot of different things… a lot of external things.”

If the Steam Machine won’t cost significantly less than a similarly powerful gaming PC, some gamers may decide to just create their own Steam Machine alternative by installing SteamOS on a custom PC build, of course. Going that route also gives players the flexibility to future-proof against some potential Steam Machine deficiencies, like the relatively paltry 8GB of VRAM.

But Griffais told Skill Up that the official Steam Machine would still set itself apart from similar gaming PCs via features like its small form factor, ultra-quiet fan design, HDMI-CEC support, and strong integration with the Steam Controller and other Bluetooth controls.

“There’s people that are going to be perfectly happy building their PC at whatever level of spec, and that’s going to be a great experience for them,” Griffais said. “But we expect the machine is a nice baseline offering that lets you have some features that are really hard to get to otherwise.”

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Posted Wednesday 26 November 2025 at 12:48 pm AEST (my time).

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The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust is the investment fund that supports the Foundation’s charitable work. It manages large assets donated by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and the large past and ongoing donations from Warren Buffett.

It operates separately from the Foundation itself, which focuses on awarding grants and running global health and education programs. The Trust’s holdings are publicly disclosed through regular SEC filings.

Interestingly, the Trust reduced its Microsoft stake by about 65 percent in the quarter ending on 30 September 2025, selling more than 17 million shares during that period. Before the sale, Microsoft was the Trust’s largest holding at roughly $13 billion, which made up nearly one-third of the entire portfolio.

How did Gates' Trust portfolio change after the Microsoft sale?

The Steam Awards nominations will last until December 1, 10AM PT, giving PC gamers on the platform a week to make their choices on a variety of categories. Instead of other award events where a jury decides on what games will take the top spots, Valve's event relies solely on user votes, and there aren't many restrictions.

You can nominate a game in your library that you've played or any game from the store, as long as it has been released this year. However, one outlier is the Labor of Love Award. This lets you nominate almost any game released on the platform at any time. Only previous year's award winners, Warframe, GTA V, CS2, Terraria, Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Elden Ring, are excluded.

Here are all the nomination categories available:

Game of the Year Award

• Maybe it was its immersive gameplay, or its gripping story... its well-crafted characters, immaculate design, or addictive multiplayer. Whatever the reason, the winner of this year's Game of the Year Award is an instant classic.

VR Game of the Year Award

• The VR Game of the Year isn't merely masquerading as regular reality. This game improves on reality, taking advantage of the medium of VR and pushing the boundaries of the virtual realm.

Labor of Love Award

• This game has been out for a while. The team is well past the debut of their creative baby, but being the good parents they are, these devs continue to nurture and support their creation. This game, to this day, is still getting new content after all these years.

Best Game on Steam Deck Award

• This game was so good, you wanted to take it everywhere. So you grabbed your Steam Deck and did! Luckily, everything that made it endlessly playable at your desk got even better on the go.

Better With Friends Award

• There are some games out there that just aren't the same when you play by yourself. Maybe you need to have a friend to watch your back. Maybe you need to have a friend that you can stab in their back. Either way, fun is awaiting those who gather friends together play this game.

Outstanding Visual Style Award

• Visual style doesn't aspire to real-world graphical fidelity (though a noble goal in itself)… it describes a distinctive look and feel that suffuses an entire game.

Most Innovative Gameplay Award

• The designers of this game are at the front lines of creative experimentation, bringing a fresh perspective and brain-breaking surprises. This game delighted, inspired and entertained with newness never played before.

Best Game You Suck At Award

• This is the game that rewards persistence, and is not for the faint of heart. It's the toughest game we've ever loved.

Best Soundtrack Award

• This unsung hero deserves to be recognized for its outstanding musical score. It's the OST with the MOST!

Outstanding Story-Rich Game Award

• Some days, only a narrative-heavy game will hit the spot, and this one packs a wallop. It's as gripping as any soap opera, and as well-tuned as a prestige-TV screenplay. Bravissimo -- for making us feel things!

Sit Back and Relax Award

• This game is the antidote to a busy day. It's smooth, it's relaxing, it lets your worries melt away. This game is your moment of zen.

As usual, Valve has Steam profile rewards, in the form of badges, for users that nominate games and do tasks like give a review for at least one of them.

Once the nomination period ends, Valve will have a final voting round during the Steam Winter Sale of 2025 in December. This vote will last until January 3, 2026, which is when the winners for each category will be announced.

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Posted Wednesday 26 November 2025 at 3:36 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft first acknowledged the incident (tracked under EX1189820) at 09:57 AM UTC and, according to user reports on the DownDetector outage monitoring platform, it's also causing server connection and login issues.

"Users may be unable to connect to their Exchange Online mailbox in the classic Outlook experience. We're actively investigating the root cause of the connectivity failures," Microsoft said.

"Impact is specific to users located in the Asia Pacific and North America regions attempting to connect to their Exchange Online mailbox using the classic Outlook experience."

While Redmond has yet to share how many users are impacted by this ongoing issue, it has been tagged as an incident in the admin center, a label usually applied to service problems with significant user impact.

As a workaround, Microsoft advises affected customers to access their mailboxes via Outlook on the Web.

Classic Outlook search issues

Microsoft now analyzes the root cause of these connectivity failures, as well as a separate incident (EX1189768) acknowledged on Thursday morning, at 05:05 AM UTC, that is causing search issues for classic Outlook users.

"Impact is specific to some users attempting to search in the classic Outlook desktop client. We're analyzing service-side logs to identify the root cause and develop a mitigation plan," it added.

This follows a major DNS outage that impacted Azure and Microsoft 365 services in late October, preventing users from logging into company networks and accessing multiple services and platforms.

In early October, it mitigated another outage blocking customers' access to Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online, and the admin center via Microsoft Entra single sign-on (SSO) authentication due to Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) issues.

One day later, Microsoft resolved another incident caused by an Azure Front Door content delivery network (CDN) issue that took down Microsoft 365 services for customers across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

This is a developing story...

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Posted Wednesday 26 November 2025 at 3:34 am AEST (my time).

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Michael Crider’s headline at PCWorld today perfectly captures how ridiculous the PC memory shortage has become: stores like the San Francisco Bay Area’s Central Computers are beginning to sell RAM at market prices, like you’d pay for the catch-of-the-day at a seafood restaurant.

“Costs are fluctuating daily as manufacturers and distributors adjust to limited supply and high demand,” reads a message posted in the store’s display case, as spotted by Steve Lin. “Because of this, we can’t display fixed prices at this time.”

 

Micro Center is apparently doing the same: “Due to market volatility, we ask that you please see a Sales Associate for price,” reads an in-store message captured by Redditor CassTexas (via Tom’s Hardware).

It’s hard to overstate just how quickly the RAM crunch is changing the affordability of computers — and it might soon impact other realms as well, as everything from game consoles to smartphones require RAM to function.

Three months ago yesterday, I bought 32GB of memory for my gaming PC and the price of that exact kit has more than tripled since then. It now costs $300 more. ($440 vs. $130, in case you’re curious; a more common version of the same kit went from $105 to $400.) Some prices have doubled since October, and while you can still find some 32GB kits for as low as $230, a 64GB DDR5 kit can easily run you $700, $800, even $900.

Some high-profile product launches might be impacted by the price of memory. Valve pointed to the RAM crunch as one reason it couldn’t promise a specific price for its Steam Machine just yet.

Just as out-of-control GPU prices from earlier this year have finally settled down, runaway memory prices might make them shoot back up again. Every graphics card requires gobs of VRAM, more is better, and word is that Nvidia and AMD are preparing to raise prices to compensate for the crunch. Digital Foundry is recommending you buy a GPU at or below MSRP while you still can, one with 10GB or more of VRAM.

Leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead claims that Microsoft may have to raise Xbox prices yet again to compensate, but that Sony has stockpiled enough RAM for the PS5 to last some number of months.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says it may take years for high-end gaming to recover from the RAM crunch, because of AI. He says “factories are diverting leading edge DRAM capacity to meet AI needs where data centers are bidding far higher than consumer device makers.”

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Posted Tuesday 25 November 2025 at 4:59 pm AEST (my time).

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The Financial Times recently reported that Apple is preparing for Tim Cook's potential retirement between late January and June, with John Ternus, the senior vice president of hardware engineering, seen as the leading candidate to succeed him. However, a new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman suggests that stepping down in 2026 may not be part of Cook's plans.

Gurman says that, according to his sources, Tim Cook is unlikely to leave Apple in the middle of next year, and that any such news would more likely come from Apple itself as part of preparing Wall Street for the transition.

"Given Apple's tremendous success under Cook, his steady leadership after the death of Steve Jobs, and his relationship with both shareholders and the board, he has earned the right to decide his own future," Gurman said.

While John Ternus has reportedly taken on more responsibilities within the company, people inside Apple believe that Tim Cook loves his job, and that even after retiring, he may remain at Apple as chairman.

Next year is shaping up to be one of Apple's most pivotal years, with the company planning to launch its first foldable iPhone and overhaul the iPhone release schedule. In other words, Apple will already be navigating a major transition in 2026, and replacing the CEO in the middle of such a critical period doesn't seem like a wise move.

John Ternus is widely seen as Apple's next CEO, but the question now is simply when he will officially assume the role after Tim Cook.

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Posted Monday 24 November 2025 at 6:14 pm AEST (my time).

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In case you missed it, last week a couple of engineers from Valve revealed that the Steam Machine is equal to, or more powerful than 70% of PCs according to Steam's Hardware Survey.

Skill Up interviewed Valve's engineers, Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais, you can watch the video on YouTube (from around the 1 hour 23 minute mark). The video is nearly 3 hours long, and touches on various topics, including one that many people are anxious to know. What will the Steam Machine cost?

When he was asked about this, Griffais reiterated that the Steam Machine is like a mid-level PC. He mentioned that it is similar to building a PC from parts, that offers similar performance to the device. For reference, the Steam Machine is powered by a 6-core AMD Zen 4 CPU, an AMD RDNA3 GPU, 8GB GDDR6 VRAM and 16GB DDR5 RAM.

It makes sense, though the news might disappoint some people, because as soon after Valve had announced the device, gamers on social media were buzzing, and expected the device to be priced aggressively. That would be great, but it doesn't make sense for Valve's strategy. Consoles like the PS5, Xbox or Switch are usually sold at a lower price point to attract buyers. The companies make up for the device's price tag by selling games and subscriptions, and these are sold exclusively through the console's store. But, Valve has Steam, so the same theory should apply here, right? Not necessarily.

Linus Tech Tips released a video a couple of weeks ago, where he mentioned Valve had told him the Steam Machine would cost as much as a PC does. Linus explained that the Steam Machine is basically a computer, you could buy it and use it like one. If Valve priced it very affordably, it could attract corporations who may order it in bulk. This scenario isn't ideal for Valve, as it wouldn't bring in revenue from game sales. He's right. Valve itself had mentioned that users can install whatever operating system they want on the Steam Machine.

Later, on a WAN show episode (around 38:28) Linus stated that Valve wasn't happy when he asked if the Steam Machine would cost $500. Based on that, I guess we could be looking at a $700 to $800 price tag for the Steam Machine. That's not too bad, mid-range gaming laptops cost more than that, and many of them don't have an 8GB graphics card.

What do you think the Steam Machine's price will be?

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Posted Monday 24 November 2025 at 4:35 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of October): 5,009

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JayzTwoCents (4.27m subscribers)

November 24, 2025

Video length: 16m 33s

With RAM and SSD pricing soaring due to AI Datacenter buildouts... there is speculation that GPUs may be affected due to the shortages... but is that true?? Let's discuss!

00:00 DDR5 Pricing 

02:19 Supply and Demand 

05:36 Causes besides Supply and Demand 

06:37 AI Boom 

09:58 What about GPUs? 

13:19 Storage

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Posted Monday 24 November 2025 at 11:26 am AEST (my time).

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Quick links:

1. Windows 10 and 11
2. Windows Insider Program
3. Updates are available
4. Reviews are in
5. Gaming news

Windows 11 and Windows 10

Here, we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And, of course, you may find a word or two about older versions.

Microsoft held its annual Ignite conference this week, where it dropped a metric ton of various announcements, most of which were developer or enterprise-focused (you can find all the news from Ignite 2025 here). However, there were some consumer-facing announcements as well. For example, AI agents and components are becoming a critical part of Windows 11 as the company transitions into the next generation of Windows with AI-focused experiences.

Fortunately, some of the upcoming changes do not rely on slop. Microsoft revealed additional recovery features, giving users a new way to restore a broken system with minimal disruptions. Also, at long last, Microsoft is bringing Agenda View to Windows 11's Calendar Flyout, allowing you to check out upcoming events in the system tray.

Remember when people roasted Windows chief for posting out-of-touch Windows strategies to the point of him shutting down the reply section? This week, we had another round of misfired PR and Microsoft falling flat on its face to the thunderous mocking. The company published a cringe Copilot video where the AI struggles to do what it was supposed to do. After taking enormous piss from users, the company took the ad down.

Finally, there were less interesting or exciting updates, such as the latest recovery updates for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Windows 10 also received KB5072653 to address error 0x800f0922 preventing Windows Update from applying updates, and Windows 11 version 23H2 received a new non-security update with a bunch of fixes. As for bugs, a regular section of each Microsoft Weekly recap, Microsoft confirmed that most of major Windows 11 components are broken in certain scenarios.

Windows Insider Program

Here is what Microsoft released for Windows Insiders this week:

In addition to new builds in every preview channel, Microsoft quietly released a redesigned Windows Insider website. It now features more modern looks, proper explanations of each channel, and AI, of course, there is AI. Ironically, the AI turned out to be quite dumb, as it does not know who is at the helm of the Windows Insider Program, nor can it explain the history of Windows.

Also, Microsoft released a new update for Notepad, which introduced table support and streaming results for on-device AI processing.

Updates are available

This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties.

We also had a bunch of stories about PowerToys, a very useful set of utilities for Windows 10 and 11. Version 0.96 arrived this week as the latest major update. No new tools in this one, but there are plenty of useful upgrades for existing modules, such as Advanced Paste, Light Switch, and more.

Also, Microsoft is considering adding a new tool that makes you look better during video calls by placing a virtual ring of light around your screen. Right now, Windows Edge Light (developed by a Microsoft engineer) is available as a separate application, and Microsoft is thinking about integrating it into PowerToys.

Office apps across supported platforms will soon receive a major change to how the apps generate alt text. Microsoft wants them to be powered by generative AI models rather than the existing Azure Vision model moving forward.

Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting:

• Microsoft develops components to make computer-use AI agents much more reliable.

• Anthropic's Claude AI models expand to Azure with $5 billion Microsoft investment.

• Microsoft says SQL Server adoption on Linux is 'phenomenal', ends support for SUSE distro.

• Microsoft 365 Copilot's Project Opal aims to eliminate mundane tasks.

• Microsoft is preparing Copilot for Chrome because not everyone wants to use Edge.

• Microsoft warned IT admins that Windows Server 2025 is the last edition to support WINS.

   

Here are the latest drivers and firmware updates released this week:

• Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon Control Panel to boost gaming on X Elite PCs.

• Nvidia released a driver hotfix to address problems with the latest Windows 11 updates.

   

Reviews are in

Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week

Aryeh Goretsky reviewed the Lenovo ThinkPad X9 15 Gen 1 Aura Edition. In the review, he shared his experience of owning this powerful laptop for six months and how its hardware stood up to the testing.

Also, we published a review of the NUU B40 5G, a budget-friendly Android phone that tries to rival in the entry-level segment with stuff like nice design, good screen, and some interesting quirks. While it is not perfect, it is a great option to consider, especially with the discounted price of just $199.99.

On the gaming side

Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts, and more.

Xbox Design Lab, a special service that lets you create a custom and unique-looking gamepad, is now available to more users. This week, Microsoft announced a partnership with ESW, which enabled the company to ship custom-made controllers to over two dozen new countries across the globe.

Game Pass is getting new games for you to play. As usual, Microsoft announced a new wave of games that will be or already are available on consoles, PCs, and in the cloud. The latest additions include Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault, Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo, Revenge of the Savage Planet, Monsters are Coming! Rock & Road, and more.

Epic Games Store has finally received a much-needed feature for those who want to purchase games for their friends. The launcher now allows you to gift titles to your friends and relatives. Speaking of the Epic Games Store, you can grab Zoeti, a turn-based roguelike that utilizes a deck of playing cards for ability combos and skills. Steam is also offering a freebie, this time Warhammer: Vermintide 2. More deals can be found in our weekly Weekend PC Game Deals series.

If you use Nvidia's GeForce NOW cloud streaming service, you will be glad to know that the company has completed the upgrade process to RTX 5080 rigs. This enabled massive performance and resolution uplifts, resulting in the ability to play games at up to 5K 120FPS.

Other gaming news includes the following:

• Colossal Order quit Cities: Skylines franchise development as a new studio took over.

• Mafia: The Old Country gains free ride mode, first-person driving, new difficulty, and more.

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Posted Monday 24 November 2025 at 2:55 am AEST (my time).

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I'm just going to come out and say it. Microsoft needs to step in and stop there being a new Call of Duty game every single year.

Of course, having spent an exorbitant sum of money on acquiring it alongside the rest of the Activision Blizzard King portfolio, it's going to want to reap the financial rewards as fast, but also as long as it can.

I get that. But Microsoft doesn't exactly have a good record in keeping average consumers happy of late, does it? Black Ops 7 coming a year after Black Ops 6 isn't necessarily a problem, but it's also not helping it stand out, either.

It needs to stop. I love Call of Duty, but I don't want Modern Warfare 4 next year. I want there to be a break, a proper reset, a chance for the franchise to get back on its feet.

The money may keep rolling in, but Microsoft is the custodian of one of the biggest selling video game series in history. If something doesn't change, I fear we'll reach a breaking point and irreparable damage will have been done.

Call of Duty fatigue is real

Paul's Hardware (1.53m subscribers)

November 23, 2025

Video length: 11m 56s

0:00 Welcome to Paul’s Tech News - November 23, 2025 

1:50 Black Friday PC Hardware Sales Overshadowed by RAM/Storage Price Spikes 

4:03 GPUs To Get Expensive Again; Budget GPUs Might Just End 

“AI Generated” TECH BRIEFS 

5:40 Microsoft finally admits almost all major Windows 11 core features are broken 

6:41 Gmail can read your emails and attachments to train its AI, unless you opt out 

7:21 Leaked documents reveal that Amazon could replace 600,000 US workers with robots 

TECH BRIEFS

8:01 AMD shortens “FidelityFX Super Resolution” name to just “FSR” for Redstone Debut 

8:52 800W ASUS ROG Matrix XOC BIOS Flashed on Other RTX 5090 GPUs

9:52 End of Year Build / Giveaway Series Update

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Posted Sunday 23 November 2025 at 6:29 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of October): 5,009

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Sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, the latest entry in the yearly first-person shooter juggernaut franchise, are down significantly compared to its predecessor.

That's according to a report from The Game Business, which shared on Friday that per GSD (which tracks physical and digital game sales across European markets), sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 are down over 50% compared to 2024's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

The Game Business also notes that sales for Black Ops 7 are down 63% compared to the launch of Electronic Arts' Battlefield 6 in its first week. Despite this, Black Ops 7 was still the best-selling game of its launch week across Europe.

It's also important to keep in mind that Black Ops 7 is included at launch in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, though Black Ops 6 was the first entry in the series to be included in the subscription service at launch.

Here are the top ten best-selling games across Europe for the week ending Nov. 16, 2025, per The Game Business:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

2. Anno 117: Pax Romana

3. EA Sports FC 26

4. Battlefield 6

5. Pokémon Legends: Z-A *

6. Grand Theft Auto 5

7. Hogwarts Legacy

8. Ghost of Yotei

9. Red Dead Redemption 2

10. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

*Denotes no digital sales

Electronic Arts' and Battlefield Studios' new large-scale multiplayer FPS Battlefield 6 was expected to perform well when it launched in early October, but since its release, it's gone above and beyond all expectations. In the immediate days after launch, it accrued 750K concurrent players on Steam alone, and in its opening weekend, it sold over 7 million copies.

It's now been confirmed that Battlefield 6 is the best-selling game of 2025, as well as the best-selling FPS of the year and October's most profitable title. That astounding success can largely be attributed to the shooter's excellent gunplay and the fact that it's a return to form for Battlefield overall, complete with a traditional class-based structure, tons of weapons and gadgets to unlock, and a healthy variety of maps and modes to jump into.

Indeed, Battlefield 6 is the closest we've had to a "golden era" style Battlefield since Battlefield 1, and a colossal bounce back for a franchise that's been struggling significantly ever since Battlefield 2042 tarnished its reputation. It's inspired tons of fans, old and new alike, to return to the series — and according to one developer, it also seems to be driving former devs to come back, too.

That news comes from Daniel Cambrand, an environment artist working at DICE — one of the core teams at the heart of Battlefield Studios, and the steward of the franchise for the majority of its existence.

"Seeing quite an influx of ex-DICErs coming back to DICE," he wrote on social media on Thursday morning. "Every week I bump into someone new. So awesome to see."

Gamers Nexus (2.53m subscribers)

Novembwe 21, 2025

Video length: 33m 06s

In this hardware news recap for the week, we talk about the AMD Zen 7 and Zen 6 presence on the roadmap, a lawsuit against AMD over its and TSMC's bonding approach to X3D, the NVIDIA RTX 50 Super Series rumored existence and rumored delay rumors, GTA VI's non-rumored delay, SilverStone's new FLP03 case, and more.

00:00 - Recap for the Week 

01:28 - AI Dystopia Recap 

06:41 - AMD Zen 7 on the Roadmap 

10:49 - Rockstar Delays GTA 6 

13:29 - Rumor: NVIDIA Delays Super Series 

16:57 - AMD Sued for Patent Infringement 

20:41 - FBI Subpoenas Paywall Bypass Service 

25:01 - Intel Bartlett Lake-S Leak 

26:10 - AMD MI308 Approved for China 

28:29 - Empty Data Center Plague Begins 

30:44 - Silverstone FLP03 MATX Appears

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Posted Saturday 22 November 2025 at 4:28 am AEST (my time).

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According to Pu, Apple is expected to release the iPhone 17e, an entry-level MacBook, and an updated base model iPad in early 2026. The iPhone 17e could receive upgrades such as the A19 chip, an 18MP Center Stage selfie camera, and Apple’s C1 modem.

Other specifications may remain unchanged from the iPhone 16e. Though previous reports suggested Apple was hesitant about launching the iPhone 17e, it now appears the phone could make its way into next year’s iPhone lineup.

Moreover, the 12th-generation iPad will get an A18 chip and support for Apple Intelligence next year, with no other significant changes on the horizon.

But a low-cost MacBook with an iPhone chip could draw major attention in 2026. As Pu says, the rumored MacBook features an A18 Pro chip, which is the same processor found in the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. It also sports a 13-inch screen and would be available in silver, blue, pink, and yellow colors.

The price of this model still remains in question, but Bloomberg has already said it would cost less than $1,000. Given that it’s a budget-friendly MacBook, Apple is more likely to opt for a more basic design with less sophisticated hardware to keep the price down. The model is expected to rival Chromebooks and primarily cater to students.

Finally, Pu confirmed this week’s Bloomberg report about Apple’s plan to shake up the iPhone launch schedule, with the iPhone 18 Pro models and the foldable iPhone will launch in September 2026, and the rest of the lineup will hit shelves in Q1 2027.

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Posted Saturday 22 November 2025 at 4:26 am AEST (my time).

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A Microsoft executive is questioning why more people aren't impressed with AI, a week after the company touted the evolution of Windows into an "agentic OS," which immediately triggered backlash.

"Jeez there so many cynics! It cracks me up when I hear people call AI underwhelming,” tweeted Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO for Microsoft’s AI group.

Suleyman added that he grew up playing the old-school 2D Snake game on a Nokia phone. “The fact that people are unimpressed that we can have a fluent conversation with a super smart AI that can generate any image/video is mindblowing to me,” he wrote.  

Microsoft has been promoting new conversational AI chatbot experiences in Windows 11 that can be quite helpful. Last week, Windows boss Pavan Davuluri tried to talk up the AI features, tweeting, “Windows is evolving into an agentic OS, connecting devices, cloud, and AI to unlock intelligent productivity and secure work anywhere.”  

But instead of arousing genuine interest, Davuluri’s tweet set off some harsh feedback from at least some users put off by AI.

“Stop this non-sense. No one wants this,” wrote one programmer. “You live in a Twitter bubble where AI will create tons of wealth and you will perish unless you adopt it now. But your users are not in this bubble. They don't care about any of this shit.”

After turning off the public replies to his original tweet, Davuluri later responded to the criticism, posting: “I've read through the comments and see focus on things like reliability, performance, ease of use and more.” The same tweet also dropped any mention of AI, instead emphasizing Microsoft’s commitment to improve the Windows experience and other pain points, he said. 

Still, Suleyman’s tweet seems to signal frustration from Microsoft when the company has made AI a centerpiece to its software strategy. Days earlier, he also dismissed the idea that the AI industry is facing a bubble, adding: “AI is the smartest, most capable technology ever invented. And it keeps improving even faster than we thought possible.”

Suleyman’s tweet has since received some of its own backlash when it's clear that generative AI faces problems, including “hallucinating” the wrong information and sparking legal battles about copyright infringement, all the while potentially taking jobs away from humans. 

However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk seems to agree with Suleyman’s take. “Good point,” Musk wrote in response. Of course he's also a billionaire at the helm of his own startup, xAI, which is taking on OpenAI’s ChatGPT and even Microsoft itself.

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Some Dell and HP laptop owners have been befuddled by their machines’ inability to play HEVC/H.265 content in web browsers, despite their machines’ processors having integrated decoding support.

Laptops with sixth-generation Intel Core and later processors have built-in hardware support for HEVC decoding and encoding. AMD has made laptop chips supporting the codec since 2015. However, both Dell and HP have disabled this feature on some of their popular business notebooks.

HP discloses this in the data sheets for its affected laptops, which include the HP ProBook 460 G11 [PDF], ProBook 465 G11 [PDF], and EliteBook 665 G11 [PDF].

“Hardware acceleration for CODEC H.265/HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) is disabled on this platform,” the note reads.

Despite this notice, it can still be jarring to see a modern laptop’s web browser eternally load videos that play easily in media players. As a member of a group for system administrators on Reddit recalled recently:

People with older hardware were not experiencing problems, whereas those with newer machines needed to either have the HEVC codec from the Microsoft Store removed entirely from [Microsoft Media Foundation] or have hardware acceleration disabled in their web browser/web app, which causes a number of other problems / feature [degradations]. For example, no background blurring in conference programs, significantly degraded system performance …

Owners of some Dell laptops are also experiencing this, as the OEM has also disabled HEVC hardware decoding in some of its laptops. This information, however, isn’t that easy to find. For example, the product page for the Dell 16 Plus 2-in-1, which has HEVC hardware decoding disabled, makes no mention of HEVC. There’s also no mention of HEVC in the “Notes, cautions, and warnings” or specifications sections of the laptop’s online owner’s manual. The most easily identifiable information comes from a general support page that explains that Dell laptops only support HEVC content streaming on computer configurations with:

• An optional discrete graphics card
• An optional add-on video graphics card
• An integrated 4K display panel
• Dolby Vision
• A CyberLink Blu-ray player

When reached for comment, representatives from HP and Dell didn’t explain why the companies disabled HEVC hardware decoding on their laptops’ processors.

A statement from an HP spokesperson said:

In 2024, HP disabled the HEVC (H.265) codec hardware on select devices, including the 600 Series G11, 400 Series G11, and 200 Series G9 products. Customers requiring the ability to encode or decode HEVC content on one of the impacted models can utilize licensed third-party software solutions that include HEVC support. Check with your preferred video player for HEVC software support.

Dell’s media relations team shared a similar statement:

HEVC video playback is available on Dell’s premium systems and in select standard models equipped with hardware or software, such as integrated 4K displays, discrete graphics cards, Dolby Vision, or Cyberlink BluRay software. On other standard and base systems, HEVC playback is not included, but users can access HEVC content by purchasing an affordable third-party app from the Microsoft Store. For the best experience with high-resolution content, customers are encouraged to select systems designed for 4K or high-performance needs.

Associated costs with HEVC licensing rise

While HP’s and Dell’s reps didn’t explain the companies’ motives, it’s possible that the OEMs are looking to minimize costs, since OEMs may pay some or all of the licensing fees associated with HEVC hardware decoding and encoding support, as well as some or all of the royalties per the number of devices that they sell with HEVC hardware decoding and encoding support [PDF]. Chipmakers may take some of this burden off of OEMs, but companies don’t typically publicly disclose these terms.

The OEMs disabling codec hardware also comes as associated costs for the international video compression standard are set to increase in January, as licensing administrator Access Advance announced in July. Per a breakdown from patent pool administration VIA Licensing Alliance, royalty rates for HEVC for over 100,001 units are increasing from $0.20 each to $0.24 each in the United States. To put that into perspective, in Q3 2025, HP sold 15,002,000 laptops and desktops, and Dell sold 10,166,000 laptops and desktops, per Gartner.

Last year, NAS company Synology announced that it was ending support for HEVC, as well as H.264/AVC and VCI, transcoding on its DiskStation Manager and BeeStation OS platforms, saying that “support for video codecs is widespread on end devices, such as smartphones, tablets, computers, and smart TVs.”

“This update reduces unnecessary resource usage on the server and significantly improves media processing efficiency. The optimization is particularly effective in high-user environments compared to traditional server-side processing,” the announcement said.

Despite the growing costs and complications with HEVC licenses and workarounds, breaking features that have been widely available for years will likely lead to confusion and frustration.

“This is pretty ridiculous, given these systems are $800+ a machine, are part of a ‘Pro’ line (jabs at branding names are warranted – HEVC is used professionally), and more applications these days outside of Netflix and streaming TV are getting around to adopting HEVC,” a Redditor wrote.

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Posted Friday 21 November 2025 at 12:50 pm AEST (my time).

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Zork, the classic text-based adventure game of incalculable influence, has been made available under the MIT License, along with the sequels Zork II and Zork III.

The move to take these Zork games open source comes as the result of the shared work of the Xbox and Activision teams along with Microsoft’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO). Parent company Microsoft owns the intellectual property for the franchise.

Only the code itself has been made open source. Ancillary items like commercial packaging and marketing assets and materials remain proprietary, as do related trademarks and brands.

“Rather than creating new repositories, we’re contributing directly to history. In collaboration with Jason Scott, the well-known digital archivist of Internet Archive fame, we have officially submitted upstream pull requests to the historical source repositories of Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III. Those pull requests add a clear MIT LICENSE and formally document the open-source grant,” says the announcement co-written by Stacy Haffner (director of the OSPO at Microsoft) and Scott Hanselman (VP of Developer Community at the company).

Microsoft gained control of the Zork IP when it acquired Activision in 2022; Activision had come to own it when it acquired original publisher Infocom in the late ’80s. There was an attempt to sell Zork publishing rights directly to Microsoft even earlier in the ’80s, as founder Bill Gates was a big Zork fan, but it fell through, so it’s funny that it eventually ended up in the same place.

To be clear, this is not the first time the original Zork source code has been available to the general public. Scott uploaded it to GitHub in 2019, but the license situation was unresolved, and Activision or Microsoft could have issued a takedown request had they wished to.

Now that’s obviously not at risk of happening anymore.

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Posted Friday 21 November 2025 at 12:49 pm AEST (my time).

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According to CSA, Matter 1.5 focuses on the functional expansion of the standard by adding some of the most requested device types and features. One of the highlights is support for cameras so that developers can build and certify cameras that work directly with Matter-enabled devices without needing custom APIs or integrations.

Matter-enabled cameras use WebRTC technology to support live video and audio streaming, enabling two-way communication and local and remote access. Alongside support for multi-stream configurations, pan-tilt-zoom controls, detection and privacy zones, the Matter 1.5 specification also considers flexible storage options, including continuous or event-based recording to local or cloud storage.

Those with a love of plants and gardening might be interested in Matter 1.5, as it supports soil sensors. Such devices can measure factors such as moisture and temperature to achieve optimal conditions for plants, gardens, and lawns. They can be paired with Matter-enabled water valves or sprinklers to automate watering and help save water.

Speaking of indoors, Matter 1.5 builds on the existing compatibility for closures, including window shades, awnings, drapes, gates, and garage doors. The Alliance said that Matter 1.5 brings support for different motion types (sliding, rotating, or opening) across configurations such as single or dual panels, and nested mechanisms.

Manufacturers can implement these through a modular cluster design. Meanwhile, consumers can expect "more consistent and flexible control of closures across apps and ecosystems" and a clear indication of whether their garage or door lock is closed.

Matter 1.5 includes advanced energy management features, enabling utilities, grid operators, and energy services to share real-time and forecasted pricing, tariff, and carbon data with Matter-enabled devices. This data can be used by devices to estimate energy costs and automatically adjust their operations according to user preferences, tariff schedules, or regulatory requirements.

The Matter 1.5 specification, SDK, and test tools have been released and made available to manufacturers who are members of CSA.

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Posted Friday 21 November 2025 at 3:56 am AEST (my time).

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Dubbed Diplomatic Repercussions, the update takes aim at enhancing the diplomacy system. The developer notes that AI players will now consider more factors when partnering up with other factions. Players are also able to trade influence and items as a part of the rework. Speaking of AI, players should be seeing better decision-making from opponents as they react to campaign changes.

The economy has been "fully rebalanced" according to Stardock too, taking it more off planets and into orbits instead. Meanwhile, Orbital Shuttles have been added as a new visual element, showing how the residents of systems are traveling between population centers.

Moreover, brand-new Quick Start options are incoming as well. When kicking off a new campaign, players will be able to change how they begin their runs. This can range from simply having a light factory to their name all the way to having planets, fleets, and more.

Adding to that, the tech tree has received an ease-of-use upgrade, making it less cluttered visually. Similar subjects will now be grouped together, and some research will have lower requirements to let players reach higher-tier technologies a little easier, without needing so many research stations.

Lastly, the in-game modding menu is being updated to offer players more information at a glance and also be faster when browsing add-ons. Each mod's tile will have rating and category information, while an entire download and installation progress bar has been included for players jumping into total-conversion mods that can end up having large files.

“Fans have been giving us excellent feedback during the past year,” said Brian Clair, Stardock Entertainment. “We’ve been implementing a steady stream of improvements during 2025, but we wanted to go out with a bang and deliver an update that would excite the fans. Our v1.5 update includes some of the most requested updates from players.”

The Sins of a Solar Empire II version 1.5 Diplomatic Repercussions update is coming out on December 10.

Disclaimer: Neowin's relationship to Stardock

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Posted Friday 21 November 2025 at 3:50 am AEST (my time).

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It also saw record Data Center revenue of $51.2 billion, up 25% Q/Q and 66% Y/Y. Further results include gross margin (GAAP/Non-GAAP) of 73.4% and 73.6%, respectively and diluted earnings per share (GAAP/Non-GAAP) both coming in at $1.30.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said that Blackwell sales are “off the charts” and cloud GPUs are sold out. He also claimed that the company has entered “the virtuous cycle of AI.”

During the quarter, Data Center revenue hit $51.2 billion (up 25% Q/Q, up 66% Y/Y), Gaming hit $4.3 billion (down 1% Q/Q, up 30% Y/Y), Professional Visualization hit $760 million (up 26% Q/Q, up 56% Y/Y), and Automotive and Robotics hit $592 million (up 1% Q/Q, up 32% Y/Y).

Looking forward to the next quarter, the company is aiming to hit $65 billion, plus or minus 2%. For Gross Margin (GAAP/Non-GAAP), it is aiming for 74.8% and 75%, plus or minus 50 basis points. NVIDIA is targeting Operating Expenses (GAAP/Non-GAAP) of $6.7 billion and $5 billion respectively, and a Tax Rate of 17%, plus or minus 1%.

NVIDIA closed at $186.52 on Wednesday but in after-hours trading, it has risen to $196 at the time of writing. This is good for the company because at the start of the month it began to fall quite sharply. Its fall was not helped much by talk of AI being in a bubble. Only time will tell if it really is in a bubble or if spectators are getting overly spooked.

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Posted Friday 21 November 2025 at 3:48 am AEST (my time).

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Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme promise power and efficiency that set a new bar for Windows laptops. The latter "could be the most significant leap for high-end Windows PCs in a decade," according to our Editor-in-Chief Daniel Rubino. Those chips could redefine mobile computing, even for those who game on PCs.

Benchmarks run in real time by the press proved promising. The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is particularly interesting due to its single-core, multi-core, and GPU performance numbers. Rubino shared an in-depth breakdown, which is worth diving into. The main takeaway is that these chips could be outstanding.

But benchmarks and even real-world performance mean very little if your favorite games and programs are unavailable. Microsoft and Qualcomm have worked for years to improve Windows on ARM (also known as Windows on Snapdragon). The results of those efforts are obvious when it comes to apps. Now, gaming is catching up.

Today, the Adreno Control Panel app is coming out of beta and has been rebranded as the Snapdragon Control Panel. The functionality remains the same as before; now users can find tools to manage performance, update drivers, and monitor system metrics.

This new app can automatically detect games installed on a PC, including your Steam library. For those installed games, users can modify settings such as super resolution, framerate cap, anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, level of detail, and texture filtering to optimize quality and performance via an application profile manager. This app will also allow users to update their GPU drivers. It can notify users when new drivers are available and automatically install them if required.

Qualcomm wrote the following regarding the new Snapdragon Control Panel app:

"Designed to support a wide range of hardware capabilities, including graphics, compute, and AI, it is a central hub for customizing and enhancing Snapdragon-powered experiences. Whether you're a developer, gamer, or power user, it offers streamlined access to system controls and future-ready features."

Qualcomm today also released a new Adreno GPU driver with the following improvements:

• Fixes and improvements for over 100 games since launch.
• Bug fixes for app & system stability.
• Day 0 support and availability of upgradable graphics drivers (UGD) for Snapdragon X2 Elite, available in the first half of 2026.

Qualcomm highlighted that the upcoming Snapdragon X2 Elite will have native support for AVX2 emulation, which is critical for some games. The current Snapdragon X Series PCs will also receive the AVX2 update in the coming weeks.

You can download the new Snapdragon Control Panel app here and the latest Adreno GPU driver here from Qualcomm for your Snapdragon X Elite Windows PCs.

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Posted Thursday 20 November 2025 at 5:00 pm AEST (my time).

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There's no denying it: Battlefield 6 has proven to be a smash hit for publisher Electronic Arts (EA) and developer Battlefield Studios, and the FPS is still drawing in thousands upon thousands of players over a month after launch. At release, it blew up the Steam charts with nearly 750K concurrent players, sold a gargantuan 7 million copies in just three days, and scored highly on Metacritic with widespread positive reviews.

That copies sold metric, in particular — as well as the fact that Battlefield 6 held the #1 position on Steam's Top Sellers list for weeks — is indicative of the fact that the game has been a massive commercial success for EA, at least in its opening month. Indeed, 7 million sales in three days is a majorly impressive achievement, and I do not doubt that sales since then have continued to be strong.

Even so, I was surprised to see EA claim that Battlefield 6 is the "best-selling shooter game of the year" while advertising its Season 1 content on the game's homepage on Wednesday morning.

"Season 1 releases in 3 phases, each packed with thematic hardware, cutting-edge gadgets, new maps, and weapons of unprecedented power," reads the blurb you're greeted with when you visit the site. "There's never been a better time to jump into the best-selling shooter game of the year."