Alongside the launch, the company also discussed new features in its latest chipset driver package including one which makes it unnecessary to reinstall Windows after changing CPUs. Besides that, the driver also fixes a VBS issue on Windows 10.

Speaking of which, the VBS setting was one of the main highlighted points in our reviewer's guide. AMD asked us to test with the VBS setting enabled as this was in accordance with Microsoft's own guidance. It said:

To align with Microsoft’s guidance, AMD recommends enabling VBS (it is enabled by default). The benchmarks published in this guide are captured with VBS enabled, so please enable VBS if you wish to use this data to sanity check. While not recommended, if you choose to disable VBS, it is best to shut it off in the BIOS and not in software.

To be clear, the testing OS AMD asked for was Windows 11 version 23H2 or 24H2 and VBS is not enabled by default nor recommended to be kept enabled on Windows 10. However, the feature is a known performance hog and in a new test, it was seen that both the Ryzen 9 9950X3D as well as the previously released Ryzen 7 9800X3D are worse off in Windows 11.

For those unfamiliar, VBS or Virutalization-based Security, also called Core Isolation, is a Windows security feature and uses Windows hypervisor and hardware-based virtualization to create an isolated environment to protect from potentially malicious code that can harm the kernel. Security is also the reason why Microsoft recommends users update to Windows 11 from 10 via a clean install.

The testing was conducted by the YouTube channel Tech YES City and it found that Microsoft's recommended setting was not the most optimal for gaming at all. In Fortnite for example, there is an 18% performance advantage on Windows 10 vs Windows 11 (VBS).

What's perhaps even more interesting is that Windows 10 still has the edge even when VBS was disabled on Windows 11. Although the gap had reduced, it was still a substantial ~9.25% in favor of Windows 10.

A similar trend was observed in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 as well, among other games, although not to the same degree as in Fortnite.

Neowin too had tested Windows 10 vs 11 performance back in 2023 both for in-place upgrade and clean installation, and found back-and-forth advantages between the two. We plan to revisit the topic soon and do some Ryzen CPU testing this time. Last time, we had used Intel's i9-14900K.

Source and images: Tech YES City (YouTube)

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Using a Windows PC with an Arm-based Snapdragon processor in it feels a lot like using a regular-old Intel or AMD PC these days, thanks to the work developers have put in to get their apps running natively on Arm chips and the work Microsoft has done on Windows' Prism technology for translating x86 apps to run on Arm processors. But some of the old compatibility gaps remain.

For example, while many PC games will run well enough on an Arm PC without any changes from the game's developer, online multiplayer games that rely on kernel-level anti-cheat software generally don't work. Drivers and other lower-level Windows software can't be translated by Prism, and in many cases, the Arm PC user base is still small enough that developers haven't put in the work to get Arm versions of their software up and running.

Epic Games is taking a step in that direction later this year—today, the company announced that it's bringing its Epic Online Services Easy Anti-Cheat software to Arm PCs, along with official Windows-on-Arm support for Fortnite. Both are coming to Arm PCs "later this year."

"In addition to releasing Windows on Snapdragon anti-cheat support for Fortnite, we will bring this support to developers through an Epic Online Services SDK release," the company's blog post says. "This will enable developers using Easy Anti-Cheat to bring this compatibility to their own games."

It sounds like game developers who use Epic's anti-cheat software will still need to update their games to make them Arm-compatible, but Epic adding support to its SDK should at least make implementation relatively simple.

Microsoft's development tools support running a mix of translated x86 code and native Arm code (called "Arm64EC," this feature was added in Windows 11). We've asked both Epic and Microsoft if a game written for x86 processors could run alongside the Arm-native anti-cheat software or if the game would also need to be ported to Arm—obviously, having to create an Arm-native port would increase the level of effort needed from developers. We'll update the article if we receive a definitive response.

Epic's anti-cheat software isn't the only kernel-level anti-cheat software that exists, and it will still probably be a while before all of the different implementations work on Arm PCs. But if Epic thinks it's in the company's interest to bring this software to Windows on Arm, it's an indication that these PCs are doing well enough for an Arm port to be worth the time and effort.

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With the emergence of generative AI, there has been a lot of speculation about how the technology will impact our lives. On the one hand, there's a 99.9% probability it will end humanity, but as we edge closer to existential doom, the technology might claim jobs from professionals, from software engineering to architectural gigs.

To that end, it is still incredibly difficult to determine how things will play out, especially following recent reports that suggest top AI labs, including Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI won't be able to develop advanced AI systems soon.

The reports attribute the issue to a lack of high-quality content for model training. However, key executives in the AI landscape, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, disputed the claims indicating that there is no evidence showing that scaling laws have begun to stop AI progression. "There is no wall," added OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

In a recent podcast interview, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates painted a future where AI is integrated across all aspects and spheres of our lives. The philanthropic billionaire claims the AI era is reminiscent of when the computer first launched.

As you may know, computers were broadly seen as enterprise devices, restricting them to businesses, mostly due to the cost implication and usability (limited internet connection hampered the adoption of computers in households for a long time).

In Gates' youth, the executive mapped out a plan to get computers to every household, envisioning a future where computers could learn. Gates indicated that improving user experience with better PC graphics would help bring his dream to life.

Voila, a majority of households now have a PC, and in some cases, multiple devices. Interestingly, the billionaire predicts AI will follow the same route, with everyone ending up with a dedicated AI agent to cater for their needs.

Sure enough, AMD’s exciting Radeon 9070 and 9070 XT graphic card prices, quoted at $550/$600, are looking too good to be true. Newegg, Overclockers UK, and even Micro Center are among the outlets that have now quietly raised the prices on the supposedly entry-level MSRP models of these graphics cards by $50-$130. Last Thursday, AMD wouldn’t deny reports that its partners are explicitly allowed to rapidly increase those prices beyond MSRP, and a week later, that’s already coming to pass.

While it’s true that board partners like ASRock, Gigabyte, PowerColor, Sapphire, and XFX generally charge more for cards with fancier cooling solutions, those aren’t the cards we’re talking about today. We’ve been tracking prices on ten specific models of the AMD 9070 and AMD 9070 XT that were originally introduced at their $550 and $600 MSRPs.

None of those cards are currently in stock at any retailer we’ve checked — but some retailers have already modified their pricetags ahead of new shipments. Here are the changes we’ve seen:

• Newegg now lists PowerColor’s 9070 XT Reaper at $700, a $100 jump
• Newegg now lists XFX’s 9070 XT Swift at at $730, a $130 jump
• Newegg now lists ASRock’s 9070 XT Steel Legend at $670, a $70 jump
• OCUK now lists PowerColor’s 9070 XT Reaper and Sapphire Pulse 9070 XT at £650, an £80 jump
• OCUK now lists ASRock’s 9070 XT Steel Legend at £669, a £99 jump

• Micro Center now lists XFX’s 9070 Swift OC at $630, an $80 jump
• Micro Center now lists Gigabyte’s 9070 Gaming OC at $670, a $130 jump
• OCUK now lists PowerColor’s 9070 Reaper at £570, a £40 jump
• OCUK now lists Sapphire’s Pulse 9070 at £570, a £40 jump

Not every retailer has changed out the pricetags on every card. Best Buy, which only listed a single model of the 9070 and 9070 XT at MSRP to begin with, hasn’t changed those prices yet — though they’re admittedly still out of stock. (It also now lists a pair of out-of-stock Gigabyte cards at MSRP.) Micro Center also still lists three models of 9070 and four models of 9070 XT at MSRP, though all are out of stock.

On the Nvidia front, there doesn’t seem to be much retailer/board partner scalping going on yet, at least at major US retailers. We’re tracking six different models of $550 RTX 5070, three different models of $750 RTX 5070 Ti, and three different models of $1,000 RTX 5080 which were originally listed at MSRP prices. Best Buy, Newegg, and Micro Center are still listing the ones they stock at MSRP today.

Last week, AMD told us that “we expect cards to be available from multiple vendors at $549 / $599,” and that more cards are coming. AMD did not say which board partners or retailers would agree to offer cards at those prices, or how few those partners would have to sell at those prices before charging more.

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Kuo might be hinting at the rumored smart home hub, which is expected to feature an iPad-like display on top of a speaker unit. The device has reportedly been pushed multiple times for various reasons, including delays in software development and the lack of advanced Siri features.

However, there is more to the speaker's extended timeline than Apple Intelligence. The Cupertino giant is also expected to bring a 'dramatic' UI overhaul across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS platforms. This could be another reason the next-gen HomePod can't arrive on the shelves sooner.

"Beyond Apple Intelligence, the issues also involve ensuring the HomePod’s interface aligns with new OS updates (like iOS 19) set to roll out across other devices in 2H25. This alignment is essential for seamlessly integrating new products into Apple’s ecosystem," Kuo said in a post on X.

The rumored smart home hub is expected to come with a 6-inch to 7-inch display, an A18 chip, and support for Apple Intelligence. The company might be able to sell around 500,000 units of the device in the second half of 2025, as per the analyst.

A display-enabled HomePod might be Apple's move to reposition the HomePod lineup. That would be similar to what it has done with Apple Watch, transforming it from an iPhone accessory to a health-focused device.

With the Apple Car possibly out of the picture, the company is now paying full attention to building its smart home ecosystem by launching several new products. Apple is reportedly working on another smart display device with a robotic arm and exploring ideas for robots.

Kuo previously reported that Apple is working on a smart home IP camera that will offer wireless connectivity with the rumored smart home hub. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is also working on a smart doorbell with Face ID to unlock your door.

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Lip-Bu Tan is Intel's new CEO, effective March 18, 2025. He is a veteran of the technology and semiconductor industry with over 20 years of chipmaking and software experience. He worked as CEO of Cadence Design Systems from 2009 to 2021. In 2021, Lip-Bu Tan became a member of Intel's board of directors.

Tan holds a Bachelor of Science in physics from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, a Master of Science in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the University of San Francisco. In 2022, he received the Robert N. Noyce Award, the Semiconductor Industry Association’s highest honor.

Here is what Lip-Bu Tan said about the appointment:

I am honored to join Intel as CEO. I have tremendous respect and admiration for this iconic company, and I see significant opportunities to remake our business in ways that serve our customers better and create value for our shareholders.

 

Intel has a powerful and differentiated computing platform, a vast customer installed base and a robust manufacturing footprint that is getting stronger by the day as we rebuild our process technology roadmap.

 

I am eager to join the company and build upon the work the entire Intel team has been doing to position our business for the future.

As for David Zinsner, he will remain executive vice president and chief financial officer at Intel, while Michelle Johnston Holthaus will remain chief executive officer of Intel products.

You can read Intel's full press release about the new CEO here.

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The RTX 5060 series reportedly consists of three variants: the RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB VRAM, the RTX 5060 Ti with 8GB of VRAM, and the RTX 5060 (also with 8GB of memory). This is the same configuration as the previous-gen RTX 4060 Ti/non-Ti variants.

Nvidia's new mid-range graphics cards are expected to feature more CUDA cores, faster (DDR7) memory, and higher TGP. In the Ti variant, customers will see a jump from 4352 cores to 4608 cores, while in the non-Ti variant, the upgrade will be more significant: from 3072 to 4352 CUDA cores.

Although the amount of RAM is not going to change (which makes quite a lot of PC enthusiasts with tighter budgets quite upset), Nvidia is upgrading from GDDR6/GDDR6X to GDDR7. This increases memory clocks from 18 and 17Gbps to 28Gbps and the bandwidth up from 288/272GB/s to 448GB/s.

According to VideoCardz, Nvidia also "upgraded" the RTX 5060 to another chip tier. It now uses XX6 (GB206) instead of XX7 (AD107) in the RTX 4060, leaving the GB207 chip for the upcoming RTX 5050 (less powerful Nvidia graphics cards use dies with higher numbers).

Here is a quick spec rundown (keep in mind these specs have not been confirmed yet):

Prices and the launch date are not known yet. Expect full details tomorrow with the official announcement.

Source: VideoCardz

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Gamers Nexus (2.42M subscribers)

March 11, 2025

Video length: 29m 06s

AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU launches on March 12, 2025 with an MSRP of $700, accompanied by the 9900X3D at $600 MSRP. We're reviewing and benchmarking the AMD 9950X3D CPU vs. alternatives, like the 9800X3D, Intel 285K (lol), 14900K, and base 9950X. Testing includes benchmarks in gaming and production, such as file compression, decompression, Blender CPU rendering, Adobe Premiere, and more. We also look briefly at power consumption and efficiency of the 9950X3D Zen 5 CPU for AM5 boards. Our team has prepared a number of videos to go up over the next few weeks, but we're taking a production break now that we're through all the major component reviews for the past few weeks, so we'll likely skip the 9900X3D review (but may add it to charts at some point).

00:00 - AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU Review

03:25 - AMD R9 9950X3D CPU Specs vs 9950X

05:49 - Testing Basics and Expectations

07:57 - Frequency Validation: Blender All-Core

09:00 - Frequency Validation: Cinebench 1T

09:29 - Baldur's Gate 3 CPU Benchmarks

11:00 - Stellaris Simulation Time Benchmark

12:07 - Dragon's Dogma 2 Best CPUs

13:35 - FFXIV Dawntrail 9950X3D vs 9800X3D

15:08 - FFXIV 1440p Benchmarks

15:48 - Starfield CPU Comparison 2025

16:55 - Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty CPU Benchmarks

17:36 - F1 24 1080p

18:14 - F1 24 1440p

18:34 - Blender CPU Rendering Benchmarks

20:00 - Chromium Code Compile Test

20:47 - File Compression Benchmarks

21:41 - File Decompression 2025 CPU Benchmarks

22:13 - Adobe Premiere CPU Comparison

23:00 - Power and Efficiency: Starfield

24:01 - Power and Efficiency: 7-Zip Compression

24:52 - Power and Efficiency: 7-Zip Decompression

25:10 - Conclusion

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Google recently killed the Chromecast brand, but the dongles live on—mostly. Owners of the second-generation Chromecast and Chromecast Audio have noticed this week that their beloved streaming gadgets are no longer working. It appears that Google configured the devices with a single 10-year certificate that has now expired, and updating it is no simple feat. Google is looking into a fix, and there's nothing you can do in the meantime. In fact, trying to fix this yourself might only make things worse.

Beginning this week, attempting to connect your phone to a second-gen Chromecast or Chromecast Audio results in untrusted device or authentication errors. The unhelpful popup suggests this could be due to outdated firmware, which is technically true. Some wondered if this was simply Google's way of putting the decade-old device out to pasture.

One industrious Redditor has identified the dongle's certificate chain with a line reading "NotAfter: Mar 9 16:44:39 2025 GMT." Google may have included a 10-year certificate with the intention of updating it, or perhaps plans to switch to a rotating certificate fell through the cracks, or maybe no one had a plan because Google didn't expect these $35 devices to still be so popular a decade later—all things are possible in Google product support.

The unhelpfulness of Google's error message may have gotten some people in deeper trouble. A common troubleshooting step with Chromecasts is to factory reset them, as it only takes a moment to reconfigure one via the Home app. However, these devices cannot be configured in their current state because they can't connect to your phone, turning the dongles into round bricks. That could make any Google effort to revive the device much more difficult.

Speaking of Google, it has acknowledged the issue and confirmed that a fix is in the works. "We're aware of an issue with Chromecast v2 and Chromecast Audio devices," a Google spokesperson said. "We will share an update once we have more details about the issue and the fix."

You can keep an eye on the support thread in the official support forums for updates on that front.

Second-gen Chromecast still supported

Google stopped supporting the original 2013 Chromecast after 10 years, so it would not have been surprising to see the second gen officially join the Google Graveyard this year. Perhaps that was even Google's intention. However, there was no announcement or offer of Google Store credit for an alternative device—a common tactic when Google kills a device people still use. However, the Chromecast just stopped working when its certificate expired. This naturally upset Chromecast fans.

The error messages are not helpful.

Credit: Google

There are plenty of people yelling at Google online about this because the devices remain hugely popular, and that's no surprise. The 2015 streamers sold millions of units before they were removed from sale in 2019. Unless you demand 4K video, the 2015 Chromecast still does its job. It has slightly slow but serviceable Wi-Fi, and TVs still have HDMI ports. So there are probably millions of second-gen Chromecasts dangling from the backs of TVs around the world. And there is no modern equivalent of the Chromecast Audio in Google's lineup, a device that people still covet and which regularly sells for almost $100 on eBay.

That's the great thing about the Chromecast. Unlike most Google products—and to borrow a phrase—the Chromecast just works. There's no constantly changing, ad-infested home screen, nor is there a remote to get lost in the couch or burn through batteries. You simply connect with your phone and go. Yes, these models are almost a decade old, but there's no reason to toss them in the garbage. The fact that so many people are upset about the outage is a tribute to the reliability of the Chromecast paradigm.

Legacy Chromecast fans have reason for hope, though. Google tells Ars Technica that it has not abandoned these devices. Regardless of its initial intentions, the company is committed to fixing this certificate issue, and the dongle could still have more life in it. "We still support Chromecast v2," Google said.

We can't say how long that support commitment will last, but this product will have an even longer lifespan than the iconic original Chromecast dongle.

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Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launched in November 2024, and the initial experience was subpar, to say the least. In addition to network and server instabilities, players were upset about the missing Marketplace support, which prevented them from accessing additional free and premium content for the game. Now, Asobo Studios is fixing that unfortunate omission.

With the latest update, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 gets access to thousands of add-ons ported from the previous version of the game. Those items have one of the following three tags to help users better understand compatibility:

• Not Creator-Approved: the creator either confirmed that the add-on is not compatible or has not provided any compatibility information.
• Not Available: you own the content, but it is not compatible with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2025.
• No Tag: the item is compatible with the latest version of the game.

DLC creators can upgrade their content to MSFS 2024 for free or charge users for updates. Another thing worth noting is that, as of right now, rentals and gifting are not available—these options will arrive with the Sim Update 2 next month. Also, there is no content from third-party developers at the moment, plus a list of known issues, which you can check out here.

As for the latest world update, it focuses on South America and countries such as Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. There are 75 new points of interest, three discovery flights, three landing challenges, three bush trips, a helicopter landing challenge, a rally race in an F/A-18, and a low-altitude challenge in an L-39. These activities will be available on March 17, while the rest of the update is available right now in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and Microsoft Flight Simulator.

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With that out of the way, now the disclosure: AMD lets us keep the hardware they provided for the review, but this does not influence our findings.

Sayan Sen contributed to this review, and also provided the benchmark graphics.

For our benchmarks, we used six self-bought games, or where possible, trials with access to the benchmark. They are:

• Final Fantasy XV
• Assassin's Creed Odyssey
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Hitman 3
• Far Cry 6

We mainly focused on games that are fairly CPU-heavy, spanning across various engines.

hwinfo.com provided a commercial license of HWiNFO, and UL Solutions provided us with Professional (commercial use) licenses for 3DMark, and Procyon. We also used 7-Zip and Cinebench 2024.

Introduction

The Zen 5 family of desktop processors, under which the 9950X3D falls, started releasing last July, and are based on the same AM5 socket design of the 7000 series Zen 4 generation. They support DDR5 memory using the A620, B650(E)/X670(E), or B850(E)/X870(E) chipsets. The 9950X3D, which AMD says is a "Gaming and Content Creation Processor" and sits right at the top end of the Zen 5 launch, is officially releasing today, and will go on sale tomorrow, March 12 at retailers.

Below are the specs of both the 9950X3D and 7950X3D, on which our comparison will be based:

Although on paper there does not seem to be a significant difference between the old and new in the above table, this is because most of the changes are actually architectural. For example, the 2nd generation AMD 3D V-Cache Technology, which is included on the 9950X3D is reversed, meaning the 3D V-Cache layer is now placed under the processor cores, which results in cooling solutions having an almost direct contact to the hottest part of the CPU. The higher socket power also results in longer boosts, and there's even support for higher clocked DDR5 memory.

Building the beast

Test system

• Computer ATX Open Motherboard Rack
• AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
• Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER (BIOS N10)
• be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850W
• Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 CPU Air Cooler
• Thermal Grizzly Carbonaut (38x38x0,2mm)
• 2x 16GB G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo RGB Series DDR5 6000MT/s CL28-36-36-96
• Samsung 990 Pro 1TB (PCIe Gen4)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition
• Windows 11 Pro Build 26100.3194
• dGPU driver: Nvidia driver 572.47
• Adrenaline Edition: 24.12.1

Reference System

• Lian Li 011 Dynamic EVO
• AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
• ASRock X670E Steel Legend (BIOS v3.16)
• Corsair RM1000x Shift 1000W
• NZXT Kraken Elite 360 RGB
• 2x 32GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR5 6000MT/s CL36-38-38-80
• T-Force Z540 2TB (PCIe Gen5)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition
• Windows 11 Pro Build 26100.3194
• dGPU driver: Nvidia driver 572.47
• Adrenaline Edition: 24.12.1

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We initially planned on using the same memory kit (DDR5-6000 CL36) on both platforms to keep it equal but decided against it since using higher latency memory on the 9950X3D would be artificially hamstringing its performance by not taking advantage of the memory-specific optimizations in the new architecture.

We did try the AMD-supplied DDR5-6000 CL28 on our Ryzen 7950X3D but it was not fully stable, with it going into memory training time and time again, so we dropped that idea.

By the way, a single self-purchased 5090 FE was used between both systems, (I do not have two of these cards!) this was to see how the CPUs complimented the same dGPU in some of the benchmarks. Game Mode was also enabled in Windows 11, this was also requested of AMD in our reviewers guide.

The test hardware was open plan, and our BIOS version was N10, which was supplied by AMD itself, as this version is not on the official Gigabyte support web page. AMD also suggested we use Adrenaline Edition 24.12.1 which we did so we could verify their scores against ours. Resizeable BAR was enabled (default BIOS setting) as was MultiCore Enhancement (MCE), which was on Auto by default, showing it as "Enabled". On a similar note, Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) was set to "Advanced" on our AMD system, which is also the default setting.

Essentially, we ran everything on the default settings since that was the idea, as the average user won't go into BIOS immediately to play around with the settings.

I resisted using thermal paste again because of the mess, but also because I have had great temperatures and results with Thermal Grizzly's Carbonaut thermal pad with my i7-14700K test system.

It really, really works!

The highest temperature we recorded with our 9950X3D in our tests was 83.4C in Cinebench 2024, compared to 85.2C with the 7950X3D which uses thermal paste (installed in the summer of 2023).

When handling any of the hardware, I always used an anti-static band. I even ordered a cable that let me power on, reset, and see the status of HDD and Power LEDs, so I didn't have to use a screwdriver on the pins.

Benchmarks

The following benchmarks were done with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition in the system.

We start with 3DMark's Fire Strike Ultra which is a DirectX 11 synthetic gaming test.

As you can see in the chart below, aside from the default physics test, we also used custom settings and measured the CPU performances. We turned the resolution down from the default (4K) to 720p to minimize the GPU workload since we are trying to tax the CPUs' and not the GPU. This is generally the simplest way to do it as we have discussed earlier. AMD's new 9950X3D is around 19% faster than the 7950X3D in the physics tests.

We must say that we are impressed with how well UL has designed the physics test since there is hardly anything to separate the 4K and the 720p results. We definitely expected a small yet significant difference between the resolutions considering how much less GPU-heavy 720p is compared to 4K but that's not the case.

The 720p graphics test is certainly revealing. In this, we see that the new 9950X3D is 15% faster than the 7950X3D. At default(4L) settings, this graphics test would be tied as then the 5090 would be tested.

Following that, we have Time Spy Extreme which is a DirectX 12 4K synthetic test. We run a similar test scenario here.

The gap between the two chips closes down here. In the physics tests, the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D comes out about 16% faster than its predecessor, and in the 720p graphics test, it is 12% better.

Moving on to the more modern 3DMark DirectX 12 tests, we have Steel Nomad and Steel Nomad Lite.

Interestingly, on the Steel Nomad 720p graphics test, the performance differential was exactly the same as we found on 720p Time Spy Extreme graphics, the 9950X3D was 12% better than the 7950X3D. Meanwhile, on Steel Nomad Lite, the gap between the two 16-core X3D CPUs was 15.5%.

Unlike Time Spy and Fire Strike, Steel Nomad does not have any standalone physics tests, and thus we relied on low-resolution graphics tests.

After looking at the rasterization performances, we next look at Speed Way which tests ray tracing.

Even though ray tracing is stressful for the CPU, it is still the GPU that does most of the heavy lifting, as we see a rather insignificant 2.1% improvement with the 9950X3D even at 720p.

Finally, we have the 3DMark CPU profile test which sees how well a CPU scales across cores and threads.

At its best, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D shows up to 32% better performance but generally, the advantage is around 22% over the 7950X3D. Due to how the AMD chipset driver handles the CCDs (Core Compute Die) in gaming-like workloads like this test, it does not scale at all above 16 threads.

Following synthetics, we move on to real-world games.

2016's Final Fantasy XV, based on Luminous Engine, is the oldest game in our suite. Here, we saw almost identical performance between the two CPUs.

Up next, we have Assassin's Creed Odyssey based on AnvilNext 2.0. This is from 2018 and the 9950X3D was 7% and 7.5% better in averages and minimums, respectively.

2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider, built on the Foundation Engine, showed close to a 14.5% uplift over the 9950X3D in the averages. The 95% lows were 17% better on the new X3D.

Please note that here, we dropped down to 720p as we observed near 100% utilization of the gaming CCD (the one with the 3D V-cache) even at 1080p and wanted to see how the game would behave if we further increased the load on the processor.

On Cyberpunk 2077 that's based on the Red engine, the Ryzen 9950X3D was 11% better than in average framerates and 12.75% better on the minimums.

2021's Hitman 3 based on the Glacier 2 engine was 9.3% ahead on the 9950X3D vs the 7950X3D, which is substantial and not totally insignificant.

Finally, we come to Far Cry 6 which saw the biggest gain in our entire suite. The average FPS on the new 9950X3D was 45% better than on the 7950X3D. The minimum FPS differential was even higher at 51.2%.

Far Cry 6 is based on the Dunia engine and is known to be quite single-thread bound. What this tells us is that other single-thread heavy games, the likes of Counter-Strike 2, will probably also see big improvements on 9950X3D. This was also one of the titles in AMD's new Application Compatibility Database which is meant to boost the X3D performance on certain games.

In most of our gaming results, we exceeded what AMD had suggested in the review guide and that was because we used different settings that were even more CPU-focused.

Wrapping up our game testing, we move to productivity. First up we have UL Procyon Office Productivity benchmark.

Despite being around 23 to 26% faster than the 7950X3D in Word, Excel, and Outlook, the overall score was only 9% better on the 9950X3D. That is because we saw a very substantial 18% regression in PowerPoint output on our test. This does not match AMD's guidance as it did not see a performance loss on its newer chip.

On Cinebench 2024, the 16-core Zen 5 9950X3D part is 24% faster. This is a rendering test and thus stresses all available threads.

Next up, we tested a couple of AI workloads starting with Procyon's Computer Vision. For those wondering, computer vision is the ability of machines to extract and analyze information from images or videos.

We saw a massive 51% boost in the Computer Vision test. It looks like Zen 5's AI-specific optimizations and improvements are paying off.

Next up, in text generation, we saw anywhere between 2.6% to 20% improvement on the Ryzen 9 9950X3D.

Last but not least, we also benchmarked 7-Zip compression and decompression, which measures in GIPS (billion instructions per second). The 9950X3D was 10% better in decompression and 14% better in compression.

With all the game and productivity app results out of our way, we now turn our attention to power efficiency and value.

For power efficiency, we only measure gaming efficiency as the X3D chips are advertised first and foremost for gaming.

The new 9950X3D is a mixed bag here with it showing excellent performance-per-watt (for wattage we considered the CPU package power) in titles like Far Cry 6 with a 57% advantage. However, there is more than one instance where it loses too. In Final Fantasy XV, for example, it was 23.3% behind the 7950X3D and in Cyberpunk 2077, that gap is 22%.

Although we did not individually measure efficiency figures in productivity tasks, it is noteworthy that the 9950X3D recorded its highest power usage in Cinebench 2024 as it consumed an average of ~182 watts with a peak of 200 watts. The 7950X3D, meanwhile, was much more efficient with an average draw of ~131 watts and a maximum of ~139.5.

Credit where it's due, the new 9950X3D, despite guzzling down more power, manages to outdo the 7950X3D in the cooling department as it peaked at 83.4 C compared to 85.2 on the 7950X3D, in spite of the 9950X3D using a slightly worse (air) cooling solution versus liquid with the 7950X3D.The effect of the new 3D V-cache arrangement is evident here.

Moving on, after a mediocre showing in gaming power efficiency, we check out if the value prospect on the X3D chip fares better, and it certainly does, although, not by a massive margin.

Again, Far Cry 6 put on the best showing here with a 45% better score. In most of the other games, it was around 10 to 15%.

Following gaming, we also test the value of the chips in productivity tasks. Computer Vision with a 51% performance-per-dollar uplift was the most impressive. This is a phenomenal performance gain and if you are someone looking at such tasks, then the 9950X3D will absolutely be worth the upgrade.

Other workloads saw less than 30% gains and typically around 20%. The PowerPoint number stands out as a failure.

Conclusion

AMD thoroughly impressed us with its RX 9070 XT graphics so much so that we gave it a 10 out of 10. That is not quite the case with the 9950X3D, though that's not to say that it's a bad part and you shouldn't buy it. However, you aren't looking at any massive performance uplift here gen-on-gen outside of scenarios like single-threaded games and certain AI applications. So a jump from a 7950X3D to a 9950X3D might be a bit of an (expensive) stretch for most.

However, if you are on a lower-core count part and are in need of more cores, the 9950X3D should serve you very well. At the end of the day, this is still one of the fastest CPUs money can buy and it is still on AM5. So, as a Ryzen 7000/9000 series CPU owner, you can simply jump on it with a firmware update (assuming your motherboard VRM section is good enough for a 16-core 9950X3D).

For those on AM4-based Ryzen 5000 or older who haven't made the jump to the AM5 socket yet, the 9950X3D will offer an enormous performance improvement if you can justify the platform upgrade cost.

Meanwhile, people on Intel, especially 11th Gen and older, can also consider AMD's new X3D flagship for some serious performance jump.

The Ryzen 9 9950X3D gets an 9 out of 10 from us as there is very little to pick on as a flaw. Its efficiency aspect, as we see above in the performance-per-watt chart, is one area we hoped AMD would have done a bit better; although the company should still be comfortably ahead of Team Blue in this department, Intel could end up catching up soon if AMD does not practice caution.

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HP, along with other printer brands, is infamous for issuing firmware updates that brick already-purchased printers that have tried to use third-party ink. In a new form of frustration, HP is now being accused of issuing a firmware update that broke customers’ laser printers—even though the devices are loaded with HP-brand toner.

The firmware update in question is version 20250209, which HP issued on March 4 for its LaserJet MFP M232-M237 models. Per HP, the update includes “security updates,” a “regulatory requirement update,” “general improvements and bug fixes,” and fixes for IPP Everywhere. Looking back to older updates’ fixes and changes, which the new update includes, doesn’t reveal anything out of the ordinary. The older updates mention things like “fixed print quality to ensure borders are not cropped for certain document types,” and “improved firmware update and cartridge rejection experiences.” But there’s no mention of changes to how the printers use or read toner.

However, users have been reporting sudden problems using HP-brand toner in their M232–M237 series printers since their devices updated to 20250209. Users on HP’s support forum say they see Error Code 11 and the hardware’s toner light flashing when trying to print. Some said they’ve cleaned the contacts and reinstalled their toner but still can't print.

“Insanely frustrating because it's my small business printer and just stopped working out of nowhere[,] and I even replaced the tone[r,] which was a $60 expense,” a forum user wrote on March 8.

When reached for comment, an HP spokesperson said:

We are aware of a firmware issue affecting a limited number of HP LaserJet 200 Series devices and our team is actively working on a solution. For assistance, affected customers can contact our support team at: https://support.hp.com.

HP users have been burned by printer updates before

HP hasn't clarified how widespread the reported problems are. But this isn't the first time that HP broke its customers’ printers with an update. In May 2023, for example, a firmware update caused several HP OfficeJet brand printers to stop printing and show a blue screen for weeks.

With such bad experiences with printer updates and HP’s controversial stance on purposely breaking HP printer functionality when using non-HP ink, some have minimal patience for malfunctioning HP printers. As one forum commenter wrote:

… this is just a bad look for HP all around. We're just the ones that noticed it and know how to post on a forum. Imagine how many 1,000s of other users are being affected by this and just think their printer broke.

Some commenters are already using current exasperation to push HP's customers to move to rival printer-maker Brother.

"I went out and got a similar Brother printer for $144 at Walmart," one of HP’s forum users wrote. "Not ideal - but no more auto firmware updates - plus the new printer has [its] own 250 sheet paper tray and manual sheet feeder[,] which is nice. Just a little bigger than the HP. It's a little slower first page out - but I'm not in any particular hurry."

Brother was recently accused via viral video of updating its laser printers so they wouldn't print or would print worse when using non-Brother toner. But Brother denied this is the case to Ars.

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With Update 18, Forza Motorsport players can earn seven new-to-the-game cars. In the Showroom, you will be able to get the 2024 Lamborghini SC63, the 2020 Oreca #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca 07, the 2023 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, the 2015 Koenigsegg One:1, and the 2014 Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon.

Completing events in Challenge Hub will get you the 2021 Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4, the 2018 Lotus Evora GT430, the 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto, and the 1975 Forsberg Racing Nissan "Gold Leader" Datsun 280Z. But it is not just cars—other Challenge Hub rewards include the Good Luck Suit and Cosmic Suit for your character.

The update also contains several changes, such as matchmaking improvements, fixes for the incorrect highlight brightness in HDR, a better HUD, and more. Here are some of the most important ones:

• We've made improvements to Multiplayer matchmaking services in Forza Motorsport with the intended effect of improving population of lobbies. We recently tested these changes with participants in our Forza Insiders Program and are now rolling them out to all players with Update 18.
• For some HDR displays, the game would automatically configure its HDR Brightness value below 1,000 nits which made the highlights in the image look flat and clamped. The fix prevents the game from automatically configuring the value below 1,000 even if the display metadata reports that its peak luminance is under 1,000.
• Increased race duration of ‘Short’ length races from 8 minutes to 10 minutes in Featured Multiplayer. Also, we’ve updated the Event schedule timing for ‘Short’ and ‘Medium’ length races to slightly increase the amount of time between races based on player feedback.
• We’ve enabled the Lap counter in the HUD during Timed Races, which includes Practice as well as Multi-Class Races for easier lap tracking. In addition, Last Lap / Best Lap has also been enabled in the HUD during Timed and Multi-Class Races.

Update 18 is now out in the Microsoft Store and Steam. However, Spotlight cars and events will begin on March 12 at 5 PM PT time. You can read more about Forza Motorsport Update 18 in the official Forza blog post.

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Mobile World Congress ran throughout last week, giving us another glimpse of what's on the way for consumer tech. Lenovo unveiled a solar powered concept PC and a concept laptop with an 18.1-inch foldable display.

We also saw devices that will actually hit store shelves, such as the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition.

Outside of Mobile World Congress, Microsoft blocked its Copilot AI assistant from helping people pirate Windows 11. Copilot also got a non-pirate related update on Windows 11 and macOS.

Microsoft blocks (some) Windows 11 pirates

"Embark on an inspiring mission of human connection beyond the UCA. Sam—with companions by his side—sets out on a new journey to save humanity from extinction," says the studio, describing the upcoming experience. "Join them as they traverse a world beset by otherworldly enemies, obstacles and a haunting question: should we have connected? Step by step, legendary game creator Hideo Kojima changes the world once again."

Watch the new extended gameplay trailer below.

Alongside the new footage and release date, pre-order bonuses and two special editions Kojima Productions is planning for the PlayStation exclusive game were announced today too.

For pre-ordering, the studio is offering everyone a custom hologram (Quokka) as an early unlock, as well as the Battle, Boost, and Bokka Skeletons in Silver across levels 1, 2, and 3 for use in the campaign. All base and special edition buyers receive this bonus for pre-ordering.

Next, the Death Stranding 2 Digital Deluxe Edition will set PlayStation 5 gamers back $79.99. This brings the Gold version of the above-mentioned Skeletons, the Quokka, Chiral Feline, and Why Me? patches, as well as the Machine Gun as a level 1 early unlock.

Costing $229.99, the Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition is a massive physical-only edition packed full of goodies, and it includes everything from the Deluxe edition as well. Check out what's included in this version below:

• Full Game Digital Download
• Collector’s Box
• 48-hour Early Access to the Game
• 15” Magellan Man Statue
• 3” Dollman Figurine
• Art Cards
• Letter from Hideo Kojima
• In-game Items
• Machine Gun (MP Bullets) LV1 (EARLY UNLOCK)
• Battle Skeleton: Gold [Lv1, Lv2, Lv3]
• Boost Skeleton: Gold [Lv1, Lv2, Lv3]
• Bokka Skeleton: Gold [Lv1, Lv2, Lv3]
• Patch 70: Quokka
• Patch 71: Chiral Feline
• Patch 72: Why Me?

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach releases on June 26 on the PlayStation 5 with a $69.99 price tag. Those who purchase the Digital Deluxe or Collector's Editions will be able to jump in 48 hours earlier, starting June 24. Pre-orders go live on March 17.

Currently, no plans have been announced to bring the highly anticipated sequel to other platforms. The original Death Stranding's PlayStation exclusivity ended with a PC release only a year after launch. Just last year, even a surprise Xbox port landed, five years after the original release on PlayStation.

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Table of contents:

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

Windows 11 and 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 but still supported versions.

Windows 11 24H2 issues just keep coming. This time, users discovered that the operating system was quietly throttling and slowing down. Upon minimizing an app or window, Windows 11 24H2 reportedly goes into a sort of power-saving mode with an aggressive reduction of processor clock speed.

On the bright side, we finally have a fix for a very old pre-Windows 11 0x80131500 Store error.

Valve has some fresh stats for gamers and developers to check out. The results of the Steam Hardware and Software Survey for February 2025 are now out, giving us a closer look at the most popular hardware and software picks among PC gamers. Interestingly, last month, Windows 11 experienced a notable decrease on Steam, letting Windows 10 claim first place once again.

Windows Insider Program

Here is what Microsoft Released this week for testing in the Windows Insider Program:

In a somewhat unexpected move, Microsoft announced a truly native Copilot app for Windows 11 and 10. It is now available for testing in the Insider program (check out our article to learn how to install it outside the program), offering customers XAML-based UI and some new features (some are still missing, though).

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.

This week, we had a few PowerToys updates. For one, Microsoft released version 0.89 with improvements to existing tools, such as Advanced Paste, FancyZones, Image Resizer, and more. In addition to that, Microsoft wants to hear your feedback about the upcoming redesign for the Keyboard Manager.

On the browser side, we have a big announcement from Opera. The company announced the AI Browser Operator, which, as the name suggests, can take over control for you and execute various tasks following your commands. The Operator will be available for Opera customers in a future update.

Microsoft released Edge 134 in the Stable channel, bringing improved Teams link handling on macOS, performance improvements in Settings (thanks to WebUI 2.0), and all sorts of bug fixes across the browser. The Game Assist (a separate version of Edge for Game Bar in Windows) also received an update with new game support and quite a lot of fresh features.

In the Edge Insider program, Microsoft released Edge Dev 135.0.3168.2 with an improved update menu and fixes for various bugs that were causing crashes.

Mozilla also dropped a big release. Firefox 136 landed in the Release channel with long-anticipated vertical tabs, sidebar improvements, hardware-accelerated HEVC video support on Linux with AMD GPUs (macOS included) and other changes.

Finally, we have a couple of useful guides for Chrome users. Check out this article to learn how to force dark mode on all websites and this guide to learn how to install uBlock Origin and other Manifest V2-based extensions, which are now turned off by default.

You might remember that in 2024, Microsoft announced the end of Publisher, a once popular app from the Office suite. Now, we have a new support page detailing what will soon happen to the app and what alternatives users can consider.

Speaking of Office apps, Microsoft shared more information about OneDrive backup prompts in Office applications and an update to OneDrive shared folders turning into links.

Microsoft also released yet another update for Copilot. Following the release of Think Deeper and Copilot Voice for all users, Microsoft upgraded its service to the o3-mini high model, offering users better AI for free with unlimited access.

Other notable updates include the following:

• Microsoft introduced Dragon Copilot, a unified voice AI assistant for clinicians.

• DeepSeek 7B and 14B AI models are now available on Copilot+ PCs.

• VMware released a new version of Workstation Pro with fixes for Windows 11 freezes and more.

• Logitech Options+ has been updated with support for more webcams, new features, etc.

• Microsoft invests in South Africa to boost its infrastructure footprint and education.

• Microsoft adds the ability to edit display names in Teams meetings for Preview users.

• Microsoft Planner gets customizable backgrounds to make plans look better.

   

And here are the newest drivers released this week:

• AMD released a new chipset driver with improved app compatibility.
• Intel released new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth drivers with improved Wi-Fi sensing and more.
• Intel 32.0.101.6647 WHQL with Rise of the Ronin support.
• Nvidia 572.70 WHQL with RTX 5070 support and more.
• AMD 25.3.1 WHQL with support for new GPUs, AFMF 2.1, FSR 4, and more.

In addition to a new chipset driver, AMD posted a notification that UEFI systems are required for its new graphics cards. UEFI is one of the Windows 11 hardware requirements, and now, AMD is making it clear that its RX 9000 GPUs won't work on PCs with legacy BIOS.

Reviews are in

Here is hardware and software we reviewed this week

This week, we have a fresh smartphone review from Robbe Khan. The new Xiaomi 15 visited his testing labs, showing its excellent build quality, fast-charging capabilities, stunning display, powerful processor, and more. However, the phone is not flawless, so watch out for some firmware quirks, occasional stutters, etc.

Next, we have a review of the RX 9070 XT, AMD's latest high-end graphics card. Steven Parker reviewed a variant from Sapphire, which scored a perfect 10 out of 10 score for offering better ray tracing, solid AI performance (you can check a dedicated comparison here), no questionable power connectors, and good performance in gaming.

On the gaming side

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

If you are a Game Pass subscriber, look out for new games coming soon to the catalog. Monster Train, Galacticare, Enter the Gungeon, Balatro, and other indies will be available to play on Xbox, PC, and Cloud in no time.

Game Pass is not the only service getting new games. Amazon Prime Gaming is offering 20 PC games as part of this month's offer. They include Saints Row: The Third Remastered, Mafia II: Definitive Edition, Beholder 3, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Session: Skate Sim, and more.

Next, we have GeForce NOW, Nvidia's cloud-based gaming service that lets you stream games from the cloud. It now supports Monster Hunter Wilds, Split Fiction, FragPunk, and more games. Just keep in mind that you need to own those games to play them on GeForce NOW.

Microsoft has some good news for fans of the Tony Hawk's Pro Staker franchise. The company announced a remake of the third and fourth installments. They are coming on July 11 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. The game will also land in Game Pass as a day-on release.

Other notable gaming stories include the following:

• Rockstar announced a new studio acquisition and formed Rockstar Australia.

• Bethesda says it's planning "exciting things" for Starfield in 2025.

• Assassin's Creed Shadows will offer 30, 40, and 60FPS modes on Xbox Series X and PS5.

• Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's DRM-free GOG launch gets a late March release date.

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Paul's Hardware (1.51M subscribers)

March 9, 2025

Video length: 11m 19s

0:00 Welcome to Paul’s Tech News - March 9, 2025

1:49 9070 and 9070 XT Launch; Sold out Despite Higher Quantities Available

TECH BRIEFS

5:21 AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT leaks out: 16GB and 8GB configs

5:55 RTX 5070 Launch goes poorly; Founders Edition delayed to late March

6:46 Rumor of a 5090 Recall wasn’t true (at this point)

7:26 RTX 50 GPUs might also be missing ROPs - Nvidia denies accusation

8:30 RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti might be revealed next week

9:05 RTX 5050 Rumored now too, perhaps due to Intel Battlemage competition

9:59 9950X3D and 9900X3D prices and launch date announced

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Cargo records from NBD indicate that Nvidia has been shipping two unreleased workstation GPUs for testing and validation purposes. Further information emerged from LeadTek's website, revealing specifications for one of these cards, initially spotted by Harukaze on X.

The leaked information suggests Nvidia is adopting a new naming convention for its professional workstation line, incorporating a Pro label. The flagship model appears to retain the RTX 6000 designation but with an added X suffix. Two models are currently indicated—the RTX Pro 6000 X Blackwell and the RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell.

Preliminary alleged specifications for the RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell include 24,064 CUDA cores, 188 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), 188 RT Cores, and 752 Tensor Cores. Both the X and non-X variants are reported to feature 96GB of GDDR7 memory, suggesting a 512-bit memory interface.

The leaked data also suggests that the RTX Pro 6000 X Blackwell could have a thermal design power (TDP) of 600 watts - more than double that of the 300W RTX 6000 Ada. This suggests that the new Blackwell GPUs could be targeted at demanding professional visualization, AI training, and computer-aided design applications.

If the rumors are true, the new GPUs could carry MSRPs similar to the current $6,000-$8,000 RTX 6000 Ada. Nvidia has not officially announced or confirmed these new Blackwell workstation cards. But an official unveiling of these new workstation GPUs may be seen at Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference (GTC), which takes place March 17-21.

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For the first time in quite a while, I've actually caved to my monthly urge to reinstall Bethesda's beloved RPG The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and then mod the crap out of it. Typically, this endeavor ends with me sending it back to Oblivion once I remember it's ultimately still the same game I've played through dozens of times now, but things are different this time. I found an extensive modlist that piqued my interest with its plethora of transformative gameplay changes, and after checking it out this week, I've fallen in love with Skyrim all over again.

That modpack is LoreRim, a mammoth project by YouTuber biggie_boss that completely reworks Skyrim into a modernized and hardcore experience while still remaining faithful to the game's tone and visual aesthetic. The list includes thousands of the best Skyrim mods, along with tons of compatibility patches and custom tweaks that ensure everything works together smoothly. It also has options for both "Default" mid-level visuals and "Ultra" high-end ones to make it suitable for a wide range of PC gaming rigs, along with full widescreen support — something members of the ultrawide gang like me greatly appreciate.

At the heart of LoreRim is Requiem, a huge overhaul to Skyrim's world that immersively rebalances loot placements, replaces level scaling with static, carefully thought out enemy stats and traits (undead, for example, are highly resistant to most forms of damage that aren't done with silver weapons, elemental spells, or Restoration magic), elevates the overall lethality of combat, and more. In short, it's a mod that forces you to approach encounters with significantly more preparation and caution, and makes your progression through them far more meaningful.

AMD announced these chips at CES 2025 and also shared performance gains that customers can expect from them.

The Ryzen 9 9950X3D is the flagship model with 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen5 architecture. It operates at max speeds of up to 5.7GHz with a nominal TDP of 170W. However, it is not clocks or the number of cores that make X3D chips from AMD special. A large amount of stacked 3D V-Cache (second generation) enables significant performance gains over "regular" models. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D has 144MB of L3 combined L2+L3 cache, which is a 64MB increase over the standard Ryzen 9 9950X.

As for the lower-tier model, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D, it is a 12-core/24-thread part with 140MB of L3 combined L2+L3 cache, 120 TDP, and up to 5.5GHz clocks.

Both Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D are launching at the same price as their predecessors, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Ryzen 9 7900X3D, which were launched in February 2023. However, unlike previous-generation Ryzen processors with 3D cache, this generation supports overclocking thanks to cache improvements. In previous-gen Ryzen 3D models, overclocking was limited to avoid stability issues.

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Now, Bethesda has delivered a message to fans with some encouraging words, though it's still not offering any specifics about what's happening.

In a reply to a fan commenting on Bethesda needing to communicate more with players regarding what's next for the game, the company responded via its official X page by saying that the team is "hard at work" creating more content for the title for 2025 and that more will be revealed later:

Bethesda's original post-launch slate for Starfield already had a second expansion pack planned for the RPG in 2025 as a part of its Year 2 roadmap. Some leaks also stated that this could be titled Starborn, named after the mysterious group that appears in the base campaign.

The final update to hit the game came out in November, aiming to fix bugs that players had been encountering in the Starfield: Shattered Space expansion. This is also when the game crossed 15 million players. Then in early December, a Doom crossover landed as an optional community-developed mini-quest. Since then though, Microsoft and Bethesda have not mentioned much about Starfield at all.

Hopefully, the teaser from the Bethesda social media post means the second expansion, and maybe much more, will soon be announced by the company. Microsoft may also be preparing a PlayStation 5 port announcement, considering its latest move to become a game publisher across all platforms.

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According to the reports, Nvidia has reached out to laptop manufacturers to ask them to verify the ROP counts in their systems. This development has raised concerns among consumers, who were led to believe that the issue was isolated to a specific subset of Nvidia's desktop GPUs.

In response to these reports, Nvidia's GeForce global PR director, Ben Berraondo, told The Verge that "All partners continue to run checks as part of our standard testing procedure" and that Nvidia will reach out to the German publications to discuss the matter further. Pressed for a more detailed response, Berraondo said: "Nope," as in none of the laptop GPUs are vulnerable to the missing ROP issue.

Adding to the confusion, Heise and HardwareLuxx have stated that the testing will lead to some delay in the release of some of the RTX 50 series laptops. Specifically, they point out that some laptops are likely to ship in April or May, although originally announced release dates in March.

Also, Nvidia officially confirmed that missing ROPs are a "rare issue" that hits GeForce RTX 5090/5090D and 5070 Ti only and just 0.5% of the related GPUs are involved.

We have identified a rare issue affecting less than 0.5% of GeForce RTX 5090 / 5090D, RTX 5080, and 5070 Ti GPUs which have one fewer ROP than specified. The average graphical performance impact is 4%, with no impact on AI and Compute workloads.

Sources: Heise Online, HardwareLuxx, The Verge

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Creating new and exciting tech products requires thinking outside of the box. At this week's Mobile World Congress (MWC) conference in Barcelona, we got a peek at some of the research and development happening in the hopes of forging a functional gadget that people might actually want to buy one day.

While MWC is best known for its smartphone developments, we thought we'd break down the most intriguing, non-phone prototypes brought to the show for you. Since these are just concept devices, it's possible that you'll never see any of the following designs in real products. However, every technology described below is being demonstrated via a tangible proof of concept. And the companies involved—Samsung and Lenovo—both have histories of getting prototyped technologies into real gadgets.

Samsung’s briefcase-tablet

How many times must something repeat before it's considered a trend? We ask because Samsung Display this week demoed the third recent take we've seen on integrating computing devices into suitcases.

Samsung Display's Flexible Briefcase prototype uses an 18.1-inch OLED tablet that "can be folded into a compact briefcase for convenience," per the company's announcement. Samsung Display brought a proof of concept to MWC, but attendees say they haven't been allowed to touch it.

But just looking at it, the device appears similar to LG's StanbyMe Go (27LX5QKNA), which is a real product that people can buy. LG's product is a 27-inch tablet that can fold out from a briefcase and be propped up within the luggage. Samsung's prototype looks more like a metal case that opens up to reveal a foldable, completely removable tablet.

The folding screen could yield a similar experience to using a foldable laptop. However, that brings questions around how one could easily navigate the tablet via touch and why a folding, massive tablet in luggage is better than a regular one. Samsung Display is a display supplier and doesn't make gadgets, though, so it may relegate answering those questions to someone else.

Samsung's concept also brings to mind the Base Case, a briefcase that encapsulates two 24-inch monitors for mobile work setups. The Base Case is also not a real product currently and is seeking crowdfunding.

The laptop that bends over backward for you

There are several laptops that you can buy with a foldable screen right now. But none of them bends the way that Lenovo's Thinkbook Flip AI concept laptop does. As Lenovo described it, the computer's OLED panel uses two hinges for "outward folding," enabling the display to go from 13 inches to 18.1 inches.

Enhanced flexibility is supposed to enable the screen to adapt to different workloads. In addition to the concept functioning like a regular clamshell laptop, users could extend the screen into an extra-tall display. That could be helpful for tasks like reading long documents or scrolling social feeds.

There's also Share Mode, which enables you and someone sitting across from you to both see the laptop's display.

Again, every concept in this article may never be sold in actual products. Still, Lenovo's prototype is said to be fully functional with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and a PCIe SSD (further spec details weren't provided). Lenovo also has a strong record of incorporating prototypes into final products. For example, this June, Lenovo is scheduled to release the rollable-screen laptop that it showed as a proof of concept in February 2023.

Hands-on with Lenovo's Foldable Laptop Concept at MWC 2025.

Lenovo’s solar-powered gadgets

There are many complications involved in making a solar-powered laptop. For one, depending on the configuration, laptops can drain power quickly. Having a computer rely on the sun for power would lead to numerous drawbacks, like shorter battery life and dimmer screens.

In an attempt to get closer to addressing some of those problems, the Lenovo Yoga Solar PC Concept has a solar panel integrated into its cover. Lenovo claims the panel has a conversion rate of "over 24 percent." Per Lenovo's announcement:

This conversion rate is achieved by leveraging ‘Back Contact Cell’ technology, which moves mounting brackets and gridlines to the back of the solar cells, maximizing the active absorption. The ... Dynamic Solar Tracking system constantly measures the solar panel’s current and voltage, working with the Solar-First Energy system to automatically adjust the charger’s settings to prioritize sending the harvested energy to the system, helping to ensure maximum energy savings and system stability, regardless of light intensity. Even in low-light conditions, the panel can still generate power, sustaining battery charge when the PC is idle.

We'll take Lenovo's claims with a grain of salt, but Lenovo does appear to be seriously researching solar-powered gadgets. The vendor claimed that its solar panel can absorb and convert enough "direct," "optimal," and "uninterrupted" sunlight in 20 minutes for an hour of video 1080p playback with default settings. That conversion rate could drop based on how bright the sunlight is, the angle at which sunlight is hitting the PC, geographic location, and other factors.

For certain types of users, though, solar power will not be reliably powerful enough to be their computer's sole source of power. A final offering would have better appeal using solar power as a backup. Lenovo is also toying with that idea through its Solar Power Kit attachment proof of concept.

Lenovo designed it to provide extra power to Lenovo Yoga laptops. The solar panel can use its own kickstand or attach to whatever else is around, like a backpack or tree. It absorbs solar energy and converts it to PC power using Maximum Power Point Tracking, Lenovo said. The Kit would attach to laptops via a USB-C cable. Another option is to use the Solar Power Kit to charge a power bank.

Lenovo isn't limiting this concept to PCs and suggested that the tech it demonstrated could be applied to other devices, like tablets and speakers.

A new take on foldable gaming handhelds

We've seen gaming handheld devices that can fold in half before. But the gadget that Samsung Display demoed this week brings the fold to the actual screen.

Again, Samsung Display is a display supplier, so it makes sense that its approach to a new gaming handheld focuses on the display. The prototype it brought to MWC, dubbed Flex Gaming, is smaller than a Nintendo Switch and included joysticks and areas that look fit for D-pads or buttons.

The emphasis is on the foldable display, which could make a gadget extremely portable but extra fragile. We'd also worry about the viewing experience. Foldable screens have visible creases, especially when viewed from different angles or in bright conditions. Both of those conditions are likely to come up with a gaming device meant for playing on the go.

Still, companies are eager to force folding screens into more types of devices, with the tech already expanding from phones to PCs and monitors. And although all of the concepts in this article may never evolve into real products, Samsung Display has shown repeated interest in providing unique displays for handheld gaming devices. At the 2023 CES trade show in Las Vegas, Samsung demoed a similar device with a horizontal fold, like a calendar, compared to the newer prototype's book-like vertical fold:

It's unclear why the fold changed from prototype to prototype, but we do know that this is a concept that Samsung Display has been playing with for at least a few years. In 2022, Samsung filed a patent application for a foldable gaming handheld that looks similar to the device shown off at MWC 2025:

Lenovo’s magnetic PC accessories

Framework has already proven how helpful modular laptops can be for longevity and durability. Being able to add new components and parts to your PC enables the system to evolve with the times and your computing needs.

Framework's designs largely focus on easily upgrading essential computer parts, like RAM, keyboards, and ports. Lenovo's new concepts, on the other hand, offer laptop accessories that you can live without.

Among the prototypes that Lenovo demoed this week is a small, circular display adorned with cat ears and a tail. The display shows a smiley face with an expression that changes based on what you're doing on the connected system and "offers personalized emoji notifications," per Lenovo. The Tiko Pro Concept is a small screen that attaches to a Lenovo Thinkbook laptop and shows widgets, like the time, a stopwatch, transcriptions, or a combination.

Likely offering greater appeal, Lenovo also demoed detachable secondary laptop screens, including a pair of 13.3 inch displays that connect to the left and right side of a Lenovo laptop's display, plus a 10-inch option.

Lenovo demoed these attachments on a real upcoming laptop, the Thinkbook 16p Gen 6 (which is supposed to come out in June starting at 2,999 euros excluding VAT, or about $3,245).

Lenovo has been discussing using pogo pins to attach removable accessories to laptops since CES 2024. PCMag reported that the company plans to release a Magic Bay webcam with 4K resolution and speakers this year.

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Intel just announced its "most powerful lineup of commercial AI PCs ever" at Mobile World Congress 2025. Powering those PCs are the company's newest processors, which now include the Intel Core Ultra 200U, 200H, 200HX, and 200S, as well as the Intel Core Ultra 200V series.

The list is especially of note today because it marks the expansion of Intel Core Ultra Series 2 to include devices with Intel vPro.

With all the new chips on the way, Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) processors with vPro will be available across laptops, desktops and workstations.

Intel vPro is a business computing platform. PCs with the vPro brand have vPro-enabled CPUs and have to feature certain specs for management, security, and performance.

“2025 is a pivotal year for PC refresh, and with Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) processors, we’re delivering the most advanced commercial systems to date,” said David Feng, vice president of the Client Computing Group and general manager of Client Segments at Intel. “Our AI PC processors cater to every form factor – from thin-and-light productivity devices to high-performance workstations – all backed by Intel vPro, which sets the industry standard in business computing with unmatched manageability and security.”

Gamers Nexus (2.42M subscribers)

March 6, 2025

Video length: 31m 38s

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 video card is shipping alongside the RX 9070 XT and surprised us with its efficiency. The power-to-performance ratio is strong on the RX 9070 non-XT, seemingly finding a "sweet spot" of balance between power consumption and the output. The 9070 and 9070 XT are known to have a weirdly small $50 gap between them, at an MSRP of $550 and $600, but in either case, the two have ganged-up on the NVIDIA RTX 5070 GPU to effectively invalidate its existence -- even more than NVIDIA already did. This review benchmarks the performance of the RX 9070 vs. the 9070 XT, RTX 5070, RX 6700 XT, 6600, and plenty more.

00:00 - AMD RX 9070 GPU Review

03:16 - Basics, Specs, Differences from 9070 XT

05:46 - Dragon's Dogma 2 4K Benchmarks

06:29 - Dragon's Dogma 2 1440p GPU Comparison

07:30 - Dragon's Dogma 2 1080p Best GPUs 2025

08:08 - FFXIV Dawntrail 4K Benchmarks

09:13 - FFXIV Dawntrail 1440p 9070 vs 5070

09:37 - Resident Evil 4 4K RX 9070 XT vs 9070

10:35 - Resident Evil 4 1440p Best Video Cards

10:59 - Resident Evil 4 1080p Graphics Card Test

11:14 - Black Myth Wukong 4K GPU Differences

11:50 - Black Myth Wukong 1440p Benchmarks

12:31 - Black Myth Wukong 1080p

12:59 - Starfield 4K

13:34 - Starfield 1440p

14:12 - Starfield 1080p

14:25 - Dying Light 2 4K

15:02 - Dying Light 2 1440p

15:26 - Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty 4K

16:01 - Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty 1440p

16:20 - Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty 1080p

16:47 - Ray Tracing: Black Myth Wukong 4K

18:09 - Ray Tracing: Black Myth Wukong 1440p

18:35 - Ray Tracing: Black Myth Wukong 1080p

18:59 - Ray Tracing: Dragon's Dogma 2 4K

19:18 - Ray Tracing: Dragon's Dogma 2 1440p

19:43 - Ray Tracing: Dragon's Dogma 2 1080p

19:59 - Ray Tracing: Dying Light 2 4K

20:15 - Ray Tracing: Dying Light 2 1440p, 1080p

20:44 - Ray Tracing: Resident Evil 4 4K

21:09 - Ray Tracing: Resident Evil 4 1440p

21:25 - Ray Tracing: Cyberpunk 2077 4K Ultra

22:10 - Ray Tracing: Cyberpunk 2077 4K Medium

22:25 - Ray Tracing: Cyberpunk 2077 1080p Ultra

22:44 - Ray Tracing: Cyberpunk 1080p Medium

23:07 - Efficiency and Power: F1 24 RT 4K

23:44 - Efficiency and Power: F1 24 RT 1080p

24:03 - Efficiency and Power: FFXIV 4K

24:32 - Efficiency and Power: FFXIV 1440p

24:54 - Efficiency and Power: Dragon's Dogma 2

25:19 - Efficiency and Power: Starfield 1440p

25:49 - Conclusion and Summary Charts

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