Paul's Hardware (1.5M subscribers)

January 13, 2025

Video length: 5m 11s

0:00 Welcome to LG Ultragear at CES 2025!

0:41 Motorized Bendable 45-inch 5Kx2K GX9 OLED Gaming Monitor (45GX990A)

2:32 45-inch 5Kx2K GX9 OLED (45GX950A), 800R fixed curvature

3:31 39-inch GX9S (39GX90SA) 3440x1440 240Hz 800R

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Most computer standards change quickly, with manufacturers adopting new ports, cables, and form factors as soon as they release. Random-access memory (RAM), meanwhile, hasn’t changed all that much in the last decade. So what is the difference between the different types of modern RAM?

Since its introduction in 2014, DDR4 has been the de facto standard for desktop computers, and DDR5 has taken over only in the last few processor generations. Along with a slightly updated form factor, DDR5 raises the total possible capacity and top speed of your memory, adds in some new functionality for overclockers, and reduces its overall power usage.

Capacity and Form Factor

The first thing you’ll likely notice when shopping for DDR5 memory, at least for consumer options, are higher base capacities. While 16 GB DDR4 kits are commonplace, most DDR5 kits start at 32 GB, typically in a 2 x 16 GB setup. We already recommended 32 GB for new systems, so this is a welcome change to the baseline that should result in fewer unhappy users.

DDR4 and DDR5 are not compatible with each other, despite how similar they look. Memory manufacturers will still stock both varieties for a bit, and they have similar product names, so always double-check you’ve got the right type for your motherboard. All AMD AM5 motherboards use DDR5, while Intel’s 12th generation supports both.

The two are physically almost identical, and the only visual indicator on most sticks of RAM will be the notch in the pins at the bottom. On DDR5 this notch will be directly in the center, while it’s slightly offset on DDR4. The shifted notch should prevent you from installing the wrong type of memory when building a new computer, but only if you line it up first and see that it doesn’t fit.

Faster Speeds

While the sticks may look the same, there are way more horses under the hood. The standard for DDR4 chips technically maxed out at 3,200 MHz, which is the new starting point for DDR5. We’ve only seen a few examples of the top end, but DDR5 supports speeds all the way up to teetering on 8,000 MHz. Don’t expect to put memory like that in your gaming rig any time soon though; most consumer DDR5 RAM tops out around 6,400 MHz.

Overclocking has improved as well, with Intel updating XMP (eXtreme Memory Profile) to 3.0 for DDR5. Where XMP 2.0 supported just two profiles, the newest version boasts five. Three are set by the memory manufacturer, with two more for you to tweak and edit your own settings. Intel hosts spreadsheets with settings from common manufacturers if you’re curious what those profiles look like.

You may have noticed that, despite overall higher clock speeds, the latency on DDR5 memory is a bit slower than DDR4. That doesn’t tell the whole story though, and as memory manufacturer Corsair explains, “DDR4 usually has a CAS latency of 16, while DDR5 will have a CAS latency of at least 32. However, because of its faster clock speeds, the newer standard has better performance overall.” In other words, it takes more cycles to complete a task, but those cycles are much faster than before.

The Real Nerdy Stuff

There are a few other changes to the standard for DDR5 that don’t really impact which sticks you slot in your particular PC.

DDR5 memory should use less power overall than DDR4, although not in a way that will let you get away with a smaller power supply. Instead, it gives manufacturers and overclockers more voltage headroom to push for even higher speeds. Each stick of DDR5 memory has its own power management chip now too, rather than the motherboard handling power distribution. Again, probably not something that will matter to most people, but it should result in a more consistent experience when using XMP profiles.

You also get increased bandwidth thanks to a big change to the basic architecture of a memory DIMM. Where each DDR4 module relied on a single 64-bit channel, DDR5 has two 32-bit channels. When combined with the increased speed and efficiency, memory manufacturer Crucial says “users can get up to 2X the system bandwidth compared to DDR4 for next-gen, multi-core CPUs.”

Some manufacturers also mention Error Correction Code, or ECC, which is now present on DDR5 memory. This is a little bit different from the ECC on DDR4, which was an extra module present on chips intended for server or commercial use. Instead of helping a bunch of different memory chips communicate reliably, it corrects errors on the individual banks before sending it off to the motherboard. Commercial memory maker ATP has an in-depth explainer on the reasoning for this tech that goes beyond the scope of what’s needed for your gaming computer, if that’s of interest.

Too Much to Remember?

If you’re building a new PC, it’s extremely likely your motherboard will support DDR5, so that’s what you should buy. The only reason you'd need DDR4 memory for a new build is if you're specifically using old parts to keep costs down. It's more likely you'd be hunting for DDR4 because you're upgrading an existing system.

In the early days of the launch, you might’ve paid almost twice as much for DDR5 over DDR4, but prices have settled with more widespread adoption, and they’ll look recognizable to anyone who bought memory before the update.

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By this time, just about everyone who's wanted to explore the galaxy in Bethesda's latest game, Starfield, has done just that. Whether you dove in at launch or after Shattered Space was released, you most likely had a pretty good time joining the ranks of pirates, finding ancient artifacts, or building your own Clippy ship.

Coming in under decent reviews, Starfield is an open-world/space RPG created under the direction of Todd Howard and Bethesda Game Studios. Their first original IP in decades, it was unable to surpass the likes of Skyrim or Fallout, but still found an audience that plays to this day. So why wasn't it as successful?

There are plenty of reasons players might be able to point to as to why Starfield isn't as booming as Skyrim. Not every one of those grounds for dislike is legitimate, but some hold merit. A small one I know some players were bothered by was the lack of gore or dismemberment found in previous games like Fallout.

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.

With the end of Windows 10 support coming very soon, Microsoft is doubling down on Windows 11 and its latest Copilot+ PCs. The company stated that 2025 is the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh. Microsoft expects that nearly 80% of businesses will update their PCs by the end of 2025 and that 70% of customers will update their PCs in the next two years.

Dell and AMD also offered their reasoning as to why customers should ditch Windows 10 in favor of newer devices with Windows 11.

Windows 10 is not the only Microsoft product scheduled to kick the bucket in October 2025. Microsoft revealed that certain Teams Rooms devices won't be able to update to Windows 11 once the mainstream Windows 10 support is over. Those include Lenovo Hub 500 (i5-7500T), HP Slice G2 (i5-7500T), HP Elite Slice (i5-7500T), Yealink NUC – NUC7i5DNKE (i5-7300U), and more.

As usual, we finish the Windows 11 section with some odd stuff. You might know that Windows 11 requires a minimum of 4GB of RAM. However, enthusiasts made it possible to run the OS with 22 times less RAM than necessary. Here is Windows 11 with just 184MB of random access memory.

If that is not enough, here is a former Microsoft software engineer who helped ship various Windows versions, pedaling Windows 11 piracy on the internet and claiming that Microsoft does not care.

Windows Insider Program

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

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.

Microsoft is preparing an update for its Surface lineup, namely its Business side. Earlier this week, the company published a teaser on LinkedIn, notifying users about the upcoming January 30 event. There, Microsoft promises to unveil a "major announcement from Surface for Business."

At CES 2025, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, and Intel announced a bunch of new hardware. To begin with, Nvidia unveiled the RTX 5000 Series for desktop computers and mobile devices. The desktop lineup consists of four models: the RTX 5070, the RTX 5070 Ti, the RTX 5080, and the RTX 5090. The latter is obviously the most interesting, but the RTX 5070 offers some impressive performance, which Nvidia compares to the RTX 4090.

In addition to the new graphics card, Nvidia announced DLSS 4, the next generation of its super sampling tech. Besides impressive performance uplifts, DLSS 4 is available on older graphics cards, all the way down to the RTX 2000 Series (with limited features, though).

Moving on to Intel, we have the full lineup of Core Ultra Series 2 processors. The series consists of various models with V, HX, H, and U suffixes that indicate different specs and capabilities for different device form factors.

Qualcomm also announced new processors. One processor, to be precise. The Snapdragon X lineup has expanded into a lower tier to pave the way for $600 Copilot+ PCs. The new Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) model is an eight-core SKU with slightly lower clocks than the most affordable Snapdragon X Plus mode. Still, it has the same GPU and NPU, ensuring even performance in AI tasks across the lineup.

Finally, we have AMD with its latest Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor. The newest chip with stacked 3D V-Cache offers some serious performance uplifts over its predecessor and Intel-made processors. The 9950X3D is made for desktop users, but those on the mobile side also have a bunch of new chips to look ahead to, including one with a 3D cache. One of those mobile processors boasts significant horsepower in AI tasks, and AMD even says it beats the RTX 4090, Apple M4 Pro, and Intel Core Ultra 9.

For gamers, AMD unveiled ML-powered FidelityFX SR 4, but this tech will only be available on the upcoming RX 9000 Series GPUs. Plus, AMD announced the next Ryzen Z2 chip for handheld devices.

Microsoft's Bing also received some updates this week. Users noticed that the search giant started disguising itself as Google to prevent users from using Bing as a shortcut to the rival service. This questionable practice sparked outrage among customers, and Microsoft rolled back this terrible decision shortly afterward.

Mozilla has updated Firefox to version 134. It is now available for download with hardware acceleration for H.265 on Windows, improved popup blocking, and more.

Other notable updates include the following:

• Microsoft Outlook for Mac is getting more Copilot integration in the coming update

• Microsoft to pump $3 billion into India-based AI and cloud infrastructure

• PowerPoint gets SRT file support for captions and subtitles

• Microsoft rolled back the latest Bing Image Creator update after user backlash

• Microsoft takes legal action against bad actors using AI for sophisticated exploitation

• Google Drive now supports differential sync for faster file uploads

• Microsoft fixes OneDrive freezes on macOS, offers affected users a workaround

   

And here are the newest drivers released this week:

• Surface Studio 2+, Surface Pro 9 (Intel), Surface Laptop Go 3, and Surface Laptop 4 (Intel) received new firmware with audio improvements and security fixes.

Reviews are in

Here is hardware and software we reviewed this week

We had plenty of reviews published this week. Robbie Khan reviewed the KTC H32S25E, an affordable 32-inch 1440p 240Hz monitor with a VA panel and VRR support. Besides solid specs, it offers minor ghosting and good performance. However, it is still a VA panel, so look out for VA glow, backlight bleed, no HDMI 2.1, and poor viewing angles.

Another review from Robbie this week is the NYXI FLexi, a solid controller with great stick latency, customizable layouts, stable connection, and great build quality. Just be aware of the cheap vibration, lack of trigger locks, and low polling rate over Bluetooth. Great controller overall, with a final rating of 8/10.

Steven Parker took a look at the Beelink EQ14, an affordable Office-class mini PC with the latest Intel Twin Lake N150 processor. This bare-bones machine is cheap, efficient, and has all the necessary ports for modern computing.

Finally, we compared the performance of Windows 11 versions 23H2 and 24H2 to help you decide whether you should update to the latest release, which, to be honest, is not the best one in terms of bugs and various known issues. The results are likely to surprise you.

On the gaming side

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

Microsoft is starting its gaming year with a new Developer_Direct event. It will happen on January 23 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET time. Expect to see DOOM: The Dark Ages from id Studios in Richardson, Texas; South of Midnight from Compulsion Games in Montreal, Canada; as well as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from Sandfall Interactive in Montpellier, France. An unknown game is teased as well.

Forza Motorsport received its 16th update. Turn 10 Studios kicked off 2025 with a BMW-focused update. In addition to BMW-themed events and rewards, the update brought balancing changes for the Featured Multiplayer Spec Series, namely tuning adjustments to several existing cars.

Microsoft announced that the next wave of Xbox Game Pass titles will be coming soon to the service. They include UFC 5, Diablo, Road 96, Rolling Hills, and more. Note that six games will leave the subscription as well, so check them out here.

If you own a Steam Deck and you would like to play unsupported games (or games that are unreachable for the handheld specs), you will be able to do that using a native GeForce NOW app for the Steam Deck, which is coming soon.

On the hardware side, we have a new, slightly cursed controller. If you wanted an Xbox-branded DualSense gamepad, the latest creation from Hyperking is just for you. Just look at it... Yikes!

As for the official hardware from Microsoft, there are rumors that Microsoft will unveil the next-generation Xbox in 2026, and the next Call of Duty will be its day-one launch title.

Other gaming stories from this week include the following:

• Microsoft Rewards on Xbox gets an overhaul, adds Quests to PC Game Pass

• Microsoft is bringing Xbox Cloud Gaming to LG Smart TVs

   

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Gamers Nexus (2.39M subscribers)

Video length: 23m 17s

January 12, 2025

00:00 - MORE CIRCLES

01:39 - MSI Vanguard, SUPRIM, Gaming Trio

06:47 - ASUS Astral, LC, Strix, TUF 5090

12:05 - Gigabyte Water Block 5090, Master, Windforce

15:45 - PNY RTX 50 Series

17:08 - Zotac Solid, Infinity RTX 5080 and 5090

17:27 - Galax EX Gamer

18:00 - Palit GameRock and... ThunderMaster

18:29 - Gainward Phantom

19:12 - Inno3D Brutally Obsessed

19:49 - Maxsun Waifu GPU

20:14 - Colorful Vulcan, Ultra W

20:36 - RTX 50 Water Blocks

21:13 - Cooler Master's Unexpected RTX 5090

21:33 - Unloading the Clown Car

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AMD is changing the naming scheme for Radeon GPUs (again) as it is moving to the new Radeon RX 90_0 series from the previous RX 7_00 series and the company explained in its press deck why that is.

However, there were no concrete details on pricing and performance and hence we had to rely on leaks for that. IGN sneakily managed to benchmark the RX 9070 (non-XT) at a CES booth on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and the card seemed to perform really well against RX 7900 XTX, 7800 XT, and 6950 XT.

Following that, alleged 3DMark DirectX 12 and Ray Tracing benchmarks also leaked for the 9070 XT and once more, RDNA 4 appears to be outputting very respectable performance. We compared the purported leaked scores vs Nvidia's RTX 4070, 4070 Ti and more, as well as AMD's 7700 XT, 7900 XTX, and more.

Obviously, leaks and rumors can never be trusted fully but they may just have become a lot more credible following an interview with AMD's Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions Frank Azor.

In the interview with PCWorld, Azor stated that the Radeon division is planning to reveal more details of its new card in just a few weeks. Hence, it looks like AMD would hold a separate launch event for RDNA 4 and also added that it wanted to see what Nvidia was up to with the new RTX 5000 series GPUs.

About the performance bit, Azor said:

What I'll tell you also is any performance that you've seen prior to CES has not been accurate, so those rumored performance leaks that are out there and things, those are not accurate. ...

 

You're going to get better performance than most of the leaks that I've seen, if not all of the leaks that I've seen. You'll get better performance actually out of the card, how much better?! I'm not going to tell you.

Again, Frank Azor reiterated AMD's strategy this time of building a mid-range focused product with RDNA 4 and that it is not going to be a "$1000 graphics card." It would also be stupid of AMD to do such a thing given that the RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti respectively start at $549 and $749.

Azor also added some details about how the Radeon team is achieving this level of performance. Most of the developmental effort in RDNA 4 is around enhancing the AI compute throughput. Aside from that, ray tracing will also see some healthy improvement this time which is much welcomed from an AMD card given that Nvidia and even Intel are outdoing it. Rasterization performance though has taken a back seat:

You're gonna see a little bit of improvement in rasterization, as you would expect.You're going to see a lot of improvement in ray tracing, and you're going to see an enormous amount of improvement in AI compute capabilities.

AMD explained that AI was the most important bit this time due to its upcoming ML-based FSR 4 upscaler meant to compete directly against Nvidia DLSS and Intel XeSS.

Finally, the company assured that this time it is looking into criticism and feedback on last gen products (RX 7000 series) seriously as it is trying to get the price-to-performance right for its 9000 series GPUs. If you recall, while the 7900 XTX was praised by reviewers, its cut-down sibling, the 7900 XT failed to impress as much as it was priced too close to the XTX and thus offered worse value.

As AMD says, if the 9070 XT and 9070 are priced appropriately according to their performance and value, we could potentially finally see an actual "Nvidia killer" from the Radeon team, well not in terms of raw performance, but in terms of value.

If you are not familiar, there was a rumor back in 2019 that AMD was designing an "Nvidia Killer" that was meant to take down even GeForce's best. Sadly for Team Red and its fans, that never panned out.

Source: PCWorld (YouTube)

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At CES this year, we saw concept cars, gaming devices, smart glasses, and of course, AI was everywhere, like Samsung's Vision AI and this wearable that sticks to your head.

What's a CES without a device with an out-of-this-world display? So here's a rundown of some of the devices with the most interesting display tech shown at CES, in no particular order.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable Laptop

Lenovo showcased a laptop with a rollable display. This laptop, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable, costs $3,499 (yes, it's not just a prototype), and expands vertically from 14 inches to 16.7 inches.

Now, if you're wondering, "Haven't I heard of this before?" you'd be right. The last time Lenovo showcased this display tech, it was at the 2023 Mobile World Congress (MWC). Back then, it was just a concept.

The rollable display is made possible thanks to Samsung Display, with plans from the company to mass-produce these panels in April this year.

LG's Bendable 5K2K OLED Gaming Monitor

LG gave us a look at the UltraGear GX9 series, which featured a monitor with a 45-inch bendable 5K2K OLED display. If you don't like the curvature of the display, no worries. You can keep the screen flat if you like; it is bendable, after all.

KOORUI's "World First" 750Hz Gaming Monitor

Still on the theme of monitors, KOORUI has introduced the G7, a gaming monitor with an impressive 750Hz refresh rate. They say these monitors will be mass-produced this year. The 24.5-inch model uses a TN panel but overcomes the usual color limitations of TN panels by incorporating advanced Quantum Dot (QD) film technology.

Samsung Foldable and Slidable OLED Displays

This list would be incomplete without Samsung. Displays are something it excels at, so much so that they supply the displays in iPhones. At CES, we saw an 18.1-inch foldable touchscreen monitor that unfolds to offer the screen size of two tablets and folds into a 13.1-inch laptop display.

The Slideable Flex Duet, an 8.1-inch OLED panel that expands to 12.4 inches, the Slidable Flex Solo, a 13-inch OLED panel that extends to 17.3 inches, and the Slidable Flex Vertical, a 5.1-inch OLED screen that extends to 6.7 inches.

These are some of the most interesting display tech showcased at CES this year. Which one are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments.

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Google announced the update in a recent Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap. For those unaware, differential sync is when the app only syncs modified parts of a file, not the entire file. This feature significantly reduces synchronization time when you work with big files, plus it saves bandwidth when on metered networks.

Local files now sync to Google Drive faster

 

We’ve added support for differential uploads to Google Drive, which means when large files are edited, Drive for desktop will now upload only the parts of the file that changed. This highly-requested feature results in much faster Drive syncs.

 

Visit the Help Center to learn more about uploading files & folders to Google Drive.

According to Google, differential sync in Google Drive is now available to Rapid and Scheduled Release Domains, all Google Workspace Individual subscribers, and those with personal Google accounts. If you want to get started with the Google Drive client on Windows or macOS, head to the official website.

Google Drive is not the only cloud storage provider with differential sync support. In fact, Google is quite late to the party in this regard. Microsoft completed the rollout of differential sync in OneDrive back in April 2020.

You can find other changes and new features that Google brought to Google Workspace here. In addition to differential sync, Google introduced the ability to use Gemini to interact with PDF files, improved mentions in Google Chat, eSignature requests for PDF documents, and more.

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According to Apple's annual proxy filing on Friday, Tim Cook earned $74.6 million in 2024, marking an 18 percent increase compared to his last year's compensations. Back in 2023, Cook took home $63.2 million.

Going further into the details, the Apple CEO has received $3 million in base salary and $58.1 million in stock awards. Cook has also earned a performance bonus of $12 million. Another $1.5 million is spent on insurance premiums, security expenses, 401(k) plans, and air travel expenses.

While Tim Cook's 2024 compensation is 18 percent up from last year, it still falls short compared to his 2022 salary package. In 2022, Cook earned a staggering $99 million, setting an all-time record among the Big Tech CEOs. Tim Cook also hopes to earn his stunning paycheck this year, with Apple's board of directors confirming that it "made no changes to the amount or structure of Mr. Cook's 2025 total target compensation."

Apple's retail chief, former chief financial officer, chief operating officer, and general counsel have also earned $27.2 million in 2024 for their contribution to the company.

Apple's annual shareholders meeting, scheduled for February 25, is set to be a battleground. Shareholders have called for the cessation of Apple's DEI programs, citing potential discrimination against employees and legal ramifications. However, Apple's leadership has firmly rejected the proposal, arguing that it "restricts Apple's ability to manage its own ordinary business operations, people and teams, and business strategies."

With the inauguration of Donald Trump scheduled for January 20, some tech firms, including Meta and Amazon, have already started scaling back on their DEI programs.

Via: Bloomberg

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AMD Ryzen 9800X3D is, without doubt, the greatest CPU ever made for gaming. It follows what now can be called a rich legacy of CPUs that are AMD Ryzen 5800X3D and AMD Ryzen 7800X3D.

Both of them have been bestsellers. Now even Ryzen 9800X3D has become a bestseller.

However, it suffers from shortages worldwide. AMD has given a surprising answer to it.

9800X3D Shortages Due To Demand & Intel

In an interview to Tom’s Hardware, AMD has given many reasons behind the shortage of Ryzen 98003XD processors.

The first reason AMD executive Frank Azor has given is that the demand for Ryzen 9800X3D is little higher than forecasted. He also says that the demand for the Ryzen 7800X3D and Ryzen 9800X3D has been unprecedented.

The another reason, he says, is that while AMD knew they made a great product, they didn’t know that their competitor (Intel) had made a horrible product.

He’s most likely referring to how bad Intel Arrow Lake performs in its reviews. It’s the first CPU series we have seen that has seen performance regression when compared to previous-gen CPU series.

Interestingly, Tom’s Hardware tested newer updates which Intel claims fixes the performance, but Tom’s Hardware found it to decrease the performance further.

It means no one is buying Intel Arrow Lake and hence more people are buying AMD Ryzen 9800X3D processor.

AMD also explains how it takes longer to make X3D CPUs. It says that while normal CPUs are produced from wafer to final product within approximately a year, X3D CPUs takes a quarter (three months) more to fully ramp up the production.

It explains how it builds the CPU core chips, besides creating the X3D cache chip, then stacks them on top. All this adds up and takes a considerable time.

AMD adds that new Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D CPUs will not help reduce the shortages either as people prefer 8-core X3D CPUs like 9800X3D, 7800X3D and 5800X3D over the 16-core and 12-core ones 10 to 1.

It also says that the company is working hard to catch up with the higher demand.

Tom’s Hardware also contacted Intel whether it has any answer to the AMD’s X3D CPUs, to which Intel declined to reply, saying that they don’t speak about unannounced products.

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As ever, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opened its doors to the public in the earliest weeks of 2025, but not before allowing the media to sneak in beforehand. Our team traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, to get face time with manufacturers and go hands-on with the latest technology from each, including cutting-edge laptops, gaming handhelds, and practically everything else that runs (or supports) Windows.

Practically every brand you could think of was in attendance one way or another, and our eager Windows Central colleagues split up in search of the most exciting technology that could shake up the industry throughout this year. After all, iterating on specifications is fine, but showcasing interesting and unique devices will always catch our eye and often win awards. On that point, let's hand out our 15 awards for CES 2025, separating the latest winners by category.

Best laptop: ASUS Zenbook A14

Paul's Hardware (1.5M subscribers)

January 10, 2025

Video length: 7m 24s

0:00 Welcome to Lexar at CES 2025

0:21 Lexar Ares RGB 2nd Gen DDR5 Memory (RAM) & CUDIMMs

2:27 Lexar NM1090 Pro PCIE Gen5 SSD

3:51 Lexar PCIE Gen4 NM790 8TB and NQ780 QLC SSD 4TB

5:01 Lexar MicroSD Cards - Play Blue, Play Pro, Silver Plus for 4K UHD

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With the change, Assassin's Creed Shadows will now be released on March 20, 2025. Players will be waiting a little over an extra month to jump into the shoes of Yasuke and Naoe to experience this Japan-set stealth RPG entry.

"While we've already made remarkable strides, we believe a few additional weeks are needed to implement that feedback and ensure an even more ambitious and engaging day-one experience," says a social media post by Assassin's Creed franchise boss Marc-Alexis Coté regarding the latest delay. "We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our incredible fans and dedicated teams for your unwavering support since our announcement in September to further refine and polish Assassin's Creed Shadows."

The last delay arrived during a tough period for Ubisoft. A financial update revealed that its other big release of 2024, Star Wars Outlaws, had not met sales expectations. This was what largely prompted the delay of the new RPG, with the company wanting a more polished launch product to entice the masses.

Major changes were happening within the company, and it even killed its PC store exclusivity program, making sure that Steam gets all Ubisoft games on day one going forward. Coté recently said that Assassin's Creed Shadows will need to change the narrative surrounding the company about having less-than-stellar launch products.

"We remain committed to delivering a high-quality, immersive experience fostered by ongoing dialogue between our players and development teams," Coté added today.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is now coming out on March 20, 2025. It is hitting PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect), Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.

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The outage started at approximately 10:00 AM ET, with Proton users unable to connect to their accounts, including ProtonVPN, Proton Mail, Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, Proton Pass, and Proton Wallet, due to networking issues.

"Investigating - We are currently experiencing intermittent network issues affecting some of our users," reads the Proton status page.

"We are working to fully restore services as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience." 

While most of the services have been restored, Proton says that Proton Mail and Proton Calendar continue to suffer outages.

When attempting to connect to ProtonMail, some users still experience error messages stating, "Something went wrong. We couldn't load this page. Please refresh the page or check your internet connection."

Update 1:09 PM ET: Proton has restored connectivity to Proton Mail at 12:37 PM EST and BleepingComputer can confirm that the service is restored.

Proton is now working on restoring connectivity to Proton Calendar.

Update 3:04 PM ET: Proton said all services were restored by 1:27 PM ET.

BleepingComputer contacted Proton to learn more about the outage and will update our story if we get a response.

This is a developing story

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JayzTwoCents (4.16M subscribers)

January 10, 2025

Video length: 15m 48s

With how powerful components are getting and the high demand for clean power, it may be time to upgrade your PSU... here is why.

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Paul's Hardware (1.5M subscribers)

January 10, 2025

Video length: 12m 00s

0:00 Welcome to ASUS at CES 2025

0:23 ROG Crosshair X870E Apex, ROG Maximus Z890 Hero BTF

3:20 ROG Ryujin 4 AIO Liquid Cooler

4:05 New Intel B860 and AMD B850 Motherboards

6:19 ASUS RTX 50 Series GPUs - ROG Astral RTX 5090, Astral LC

8:50 ROG Strix / TUF / Prime Gaming RTX 5070, 5070 Ti

10:56 ROG NUC 2025 - with up to an RTX 5080

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Paul's Hardware (1.5M subscribers)

January 9, 2025

Video length: 15m 05s

0:00 Welcome to Gigabyte at CES 2025!

0:25 Aorus Radeon RX 9070 XT Elite and RX 9070 Gaming OC

2:29 Aorus RTX 5070 Master, Eagle Black/White, Gaming OC

5:27 Aorus RTX 5080 Aero OC, Master, Windforce

7:06 Aorus RTX 5090 Gaming OC, Master, Xtreme Waterforce

9:41 Motherboards - B850 Aorus Elite Wifi7 Ice, Aorus Gaming X Wifi6E

11:00 Workstation Mobos - W790 AI Top, TRX50 AI Top, Z890 Xtreme AI Top

12:29 OLED Monitors - MO32U, MO272Q, FO27Q5P 500Hz

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The company said that the improved D0 stepping on the Broadcom BCM2712 application processor allows for memories higher than 8 GB to be used, enabling this new variant. Raspberry Pi was contacted by Micron, which offered it a single package using eight 16 Gbit LPDDR4X dies, which made the 16 GB model feasible for the very first time.

Raspberry Pi is pitching this latest model to power users and for those running professional applications. With the higher memory, it makes it easier to run larger operating systems like Ubuntu and even allows you to run large language models locally.

For anyone considering whether to buy one of these upgraded models, but concerned about the specs of the device overall, here are some more details:

• Processor: Broadcom BCM2712 2.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU
• Graphics: VideoCore VII GPU with OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan 1.2 support
• Memory: LPDDR4X-4267 SDRAM (options: 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB)
• Display: Dual 4Kp60 HDMI output with HDR
• Storage: microSD card slot with SDR104 mode support
• Connectivity:
  • Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi
  • Bluetooth 5.0 / BLE
  • Gigabit Ethernet with PoE+ support
• USB Ports: 2 × USB 3.0, 2 × USB 2.0
• Expansion: PCIe 2.0 x1, 40-pin GPIO header
• Power: 5V/5A USB-C with Power Delivery support

The new model is available for purchase now, just go to the Raspberry Pi 5 product page and press the buy button. You'll then be able to find approved retailers around the world who you can buy this computer from.

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Latest update: Don’t rush to pre-order the 5000 series, and if you want to change graphics cards above 4060, sell them immediately. The world has changed... It has completely changed...

Thus the person is suggesting that users who are on Nvidia's RTX 40 series GPUs and are looking to upgrade to RTX 50 series should change their plans, citing purported information about the performance of AMD's RX 9070 XT.

The user posted some screenshots a few hours ago about an alleged RX 9070 XT's scores on 3DMark's Speed Way and Time Spy Extreme synthetic benchmarks only to delete them later. However, others on the thread managed to screenshot the results, and it certainly looks pretty impressive overall, at least compared to the kind of expectations that have been set so far.

First up we have 3DMark's DX12-based Time Spy Extreme, where the purported 9070 XT has scored 14558 points. This is roughly 50.4% faster than the RX 7800 XT we have, which does around 9680 points. The 7900 XTX manages around 15259 points on average.

In terms of an Nvidia comparison, this is ahead of an RTX 4080 SUPER, although bear in mind that Radeon does do better in Time Spy than GeForce.

The other leaked score is in Speed Way, a more modern ray tracing benchmark, and here the alleged RX 9070 XT has managed 6345 points, which is 59% better than our 7800 XT's score as the latter produced around 3988 points.

This is right on par with the average 7900 XTX, which scores around 6348, and quite a bit behind the RTX 4080, which does 7243.

Here's a comparison of all the scores including Nvidia RTX 4090, 4080, 4070 Ti, and 4070, as well as AMD's 7900 XTX, XT, 7800 XT, and 7700 XT. They are color coded in red (for Radeon) and green (for GeForce) and the darker the shade, the more powerful the GPU:

Besides the scores, the leaker also published supposed screenshots of GPU-Z, although that shows the specs of the GPU as well as things like core boost clocks. The image shows boosts of over 3GHz or 3000 Mhz, which are in-line with AMD's own statements of optimized CU for higher IPC and better clocks.

However, the GPU-Z software seemingly misidentifies this supposedly real 9070 XT as a 7800 XT but that is certainly possible given that it is an unreleased product.

The sensor data of this mysterious card when running the FurMark stress test was also shared:

As you can see, the alleged AMD 9070 XT appears to consume 329 watts though it is expected from a power virus stress test like FurMark, and AIB partners are prepared with high-power variants of the RX 9070 XT since there are several examples of three 8-pin power connector models shown off so far at CES 2025.

Source and images: Chiphell via 0x22h, Wukongmyth

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In a surprising turn of events, Microsoft has decided to temporarily pause the construction of a $3.3 billion data center in Mount Pleasant. Wisconsin Public Radio reports the tech giant is still on track to complete the project's first phase by 2026. However, it's unclear when phase two of the project will commence because it's under design review to establish how new technologies will affect the company's data center design.

While speaking to The Register, a Microsoft spokesman indicated:

"We have paused early construction work for this second phase while we evaluate scope and recent changes in technology and consider how this might impact the design of our facilities. We anticipate that this process will last months."

According to The Information, the $3.3 billion data center was supposed to be used by OpenAI to facilitate its sophisticated AI advances and foster the development of a cutting-edge supercomputer.

Interestingly, Microsoft's decision to temporarily pause the construction of the $3.3 billion data center, which could potentially bolster OpenAI's advances in generative AI following the recent announcement of its plans to invest up to $80 billion in building data centers to foster its own AI advances in 2025 and beyond.

As you may know, Microsoft's multi-billion dollar partnership with OpenAI ships with an exclusive clause that limits the ChatGPT maker to Microsoft's computing power and compels them to work closely with the company on new AI advances.

OpenAI has reportedly been trying to renegotiate its deal with Microsoft, perhaps for more computing power at a significantly lower rate. Top Microsoft executives have also raised concern over the tech giant's overreliance and dependence on OpenAI for its AI tech and smarts.

In a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Ellen noted that "Neo 2 is coming late 2025." In a subsequent post, Ellen revealed that the "Mini 5 and Neo 2 are scheduled simultaneously" according to this source. Previous rumors have suggested that the DJI Mini 5 will be the successor to the Mini 4 Pro. Based on previous information, the DJI Mini 5 could purportedly weigh the same as the Mini 4 Pro, i.e., under 250 grams.

This is good news for those who carry drones with them wherever they travel, as the under 250-gram weight means the DJI Mini 5 won't require registration or paperwork in some countries. As reported by Gagadget, the new DJI drone could bring an upgraded camera, improved stabilization, and better battery life than that of its predecessor.

Ellen has been tracking the development of the DJI Mini 5 drone. And in a previous post, he suggested that the rumored DJI Mini 5 will feature LiDAR sensors and ventilated motors that will be more powerful than the one found in the Mini 4 Pro. It seems like DJI has found a solution to integrate all these advanced features while keeping the weight under 250 grams.

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Get ready! Join us at the Microsoft AI Tour in NYC for a major announcement from Surface for Business. Mark your calendars and don't miss out! https://msft.it/6049o0iVH

The announcement post leads to the "Microsoft AI Tour in New Your City" page describing the upcoming event.

Microsoft is expected to unveil a couple of new Surface computers for business customers, namely the Surface Laptop 7 for Business and the Surface Pro 11 for Business. Both should feature Intel's just-announced Lunar Lake processors. The Surface Laptop 7 for Business with one of Intel's latest processors leaked on a Chinese marketplace in October, giving us a close and detailed look at the upcoming device.

The latest consumer lineup of Surface devices consists of Snapdragon-powered Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. The Surface for Business lineup offers the Surface Pro 10 and the Surface Laptop 6 with Meteor Lake processor, which does not qualify as Copilot+ PC devices. Therefore, it makes sense for Microsoft to announce Lunar Lake-powered devices at an AI-focused event in New York since PCs with Lunar Lake chips are eligible for the Copilot+ PC program.

Rumors say Microsoft has pretty big plans for Surface in 2025, a "year of Windows 11 PC refresh." A recent report revealed details about an 11-inch Surface device with a Snapdragon Plus processor and a Copilot+ PC refresh for the Surface Laptop Studio along with its larger 16-inch model. However, you probably should not expect those devices at a business-focused event, so look out for new models of the Surface Pro and Laptop.

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The company was also expected to talk a bit about its RX 9000 series GPUs (RDNA 4), which we, and the other media outlets, were pre-briefed about. However, it was a no-show there as a significant portion of the keynote that did not consist of any other announcements went to customer testimonies. Like, Dell, for example, discussed on stage how excited it was about all the potential future AI PC boom once Windows 10 support ended and people could no longer upgrade to Windows 11.

As a refresher, AMD has decided to change the naming scheme of its graphics cards (again) going from RX 7_00 to RX 90_0 mimicking that of Nvidia's. Early leaked benchmarks had suggested that the 9070 XT would perform somewhere around an RX 7800 XT or 7900 XT, or maybe somewhere in the middle 7900 GRE territory.

For reference, the 7800 XT is competes with Nvidia RTX 4070 (our full review), the 7900 GRE does so with the RX 4070 SUPER, and the 7900 XT trades blows with 4070 Ti. AMD's own slide seemed to suggest this was exactly what it was hoping for as well.

Although AMD did not discuss anything about its upcoming RX 9000 series GPUs on stage, the various AIB cards were there backstage on display,

IGN managed to sneakily run RDNA 4 in a game to see how it performed. The test run was done in the internal benchmark tool inside Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

As you can see above, the test was done on 4K extreme preset without any upscaling/sharpening and frame generation.

On average, the RX 9070 put out 99 FPS with a 5% low of 76 and a 1% low of 60. The benchmark also confirms that the Radeon 9070 has 16 GB of VRAM which is good to see. For comparison, a Reddit user RevolutionaryCarry57 tested their RX 6950 XT (the RDNA 2 flagship) using identical settings and it did 80, 62, and 59 FPS respectively.

However, this user had a 7800X3D CPU while the AMD RX 9070 booth PC had the new 9950X3D. Regardless, it should give us a good idea about the performance since at 4K extreme, the CPU is highly unlikely to bottleneck.

Meanwhile, an X user Ryan Abdelhay took their 7800 XT for a run using the same settings paired with a Ryzen 9800X3D, currently the fastest gaming CPU, and here the 7800 XT managed 95, 76, and 72 fps respectively.

This does bode well for the more powerful RX 9070 XT if its smaller sibling is seemingly going head-on with something like the 7900 GRE, a card that currently sells for $500 or more.

Please also keep in mind that Black Ops 6 runs extremely well on AMD hardware much like some other games may prefer Nvidia. Neowin tested the title last year and we found that the 7900 XTX was easily outperforming Nvidia's more expensive RTX 4080 SUPER.

Source and image: IGN

Update, January 8, 4.31 am PT: Another Reddit user Dry-Cryptographer904 tested their 7900 XTX on the same settings and found it to output 108, 86 and 81 FPS in Avg, 95%ile and 99%ile framerate figures. The CPU in this rig is a 7600X3D.

Here's a compilation of all the scores:

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It’s long been rumored that Nvidia is planning to break into the consumer CPU market in 2025, and we may have already had our first look at its new processor.

 

On Monday at CES, the company unveiled Project Digits, a $3,000 personal AI supercomputer powered by a new GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip. Reuters reports that yesterday Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hinted to investors and analysts that there are bigger plans for the Arm-based CPU within that chip, codeveloped with MediaTek.

 

“You know, obviously we have plans,” Huang said during an investor presentation, referring to the new 20-core desktop CPU but said that he would “wait to tell you” what they are.

 

Codeveloper MediaTek has its own ambitions, though, and Huang suggested that it may also bring the CPU to market, independent of Nvidia. “Now they could provide that to us, and they could keep that for themselves and serve the market. And so it was a great win-win,” Huang said.

 

Nvidia’s Project Digits AI computer, featuring a new 20-core Arm CPU.

Image: Nvidia

 

Project Digits itself isn’t a mass-market product, costing $3,000 and running on a custom Linux system designed specifically for AI developers. But Nvidia’s consumer CPU ambitions have been rumored since October 2023, when Reuters reported that the company, alongside rival AMD, was working on Arm-based chips to launch in 2025.

 

Qualcomm has currently cornered the market on Arm-based CPUs for Windows PCs, boosted by last year’s launch of the Snapdragon X Elite processors. Those chips provided the sort of performance and power efficiency previously only available with Apple’s MacBooks — and put real pressure on Intel and AMD’s x86 systems.

 

2024 was the year that Windows on Arm finally achieved its potential, and with increased competition from Nvidia and others, 2025 could mark a turning point in the battle between x86 and Arm.

 

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This chipset will facilitate widespread adoption of Thread and enable developers to provide more robust and responsive smart home experiences for users.

In case you may not be familiar, Thread is the foundation of the Matter smart home standard and has been around for just over a decade. It’s an IPv6-based protocol designed for low-power, battery-operated devices, which makes it perfect for the smart home scene.

Thread lets your devices talk to each other seamlessly, supporting over 250 devices on one network with a mesh architecture. That means if one device goes down or moves out of range, the network can reroute itself and keep things running smoothly.

Matter, which is built on Thread, is all about making sure smart home gadgets from different brands can work together. It makes setting up and managing your devices easier, so your home tech just works without the hassle.

MediaTek says this new chipset will integrate tri-band Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 6, and IEEE 802.15.4/Thread radios. The company also added that different devices from different manufacturers will be able to communicate with each other, thanks to the integration of the Matter standard in the new chipset.

There's also a lower power feature called Thread border router offload, which allows the main chip to enter sleep mode while maintaining connection to other devices.

This comes after our previous report suggesting that Google might be moving away from Qualcomm in favor of MediaTek for the modems in the Pixel 10 lineup.

The MT7903 is not the first time Google and MediaTek are joining forces. Last October, MediaTek announced that the Dimensity 9400 chip will support multimodality in Google's generative AI model, Gemini Nano.

MediaTek also collaborated with Nvidia to co-design a processor, which it showcased at CES this year. Jensen Huang says MediaTek will be able to sell this processor, which is featured in Nvidia's Project DIGITS, a $3,000 computer running a Linux-based OS made for AI developers.

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