JayzTwoCents (4.11M subscribers)

October 15, 2024

Video length: 32m 20s

Well the Intel Core Ultra CPUs are here. We kick off coverage with the Core Ultra 9 285K CPU and test Productivity, Gaming, Thermals, Voltage, Power Draw and overall performance... is this CPU worth it? Maybe... Maybe not....

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In a post on his X account, Joswiak says we should make sure to "Mac your calendars" because Apple has "an exciting week of announcements ahead, starting on Monday morning."

Previous rumors have claimed that Apple will be revealing a bunch of Mac computers with its most recent in-house M4 chips inside. Those products may include a lower-end 14-inch MacBook Pro notebook, along with new higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros that will have more powerful M4 chips. Apple is also rumored to announce a new version of its all-in-one iMac with an M4 chip.

Perhaps the most interesting rumor concerns the reported plays for a new version of the Mac mini computer. Previous unconfirmed reports claim that this new version will be the smallest Mac that Apple has ever made and that its size could be close to the dimensions of the Apple TV set-top box.

The rumored Mac mini refresh will reportedly be sold in two versions. One will have a lower-end M4 chip while the other will have a more powerful version of that same chip that will support more RAM and have a faster GPU.

Apple decided to announce and launch another new product, a new version of the iPad mini tablet, earlier this month. It looks like next week will concentrate completely on Apple's new Mac lineup.

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Intel's new flagship desktop processor has some unusual quirks. It uses the Core Ultra Series 2 naming system even though Series 1 never spread outside of mobile chips, and this generation's big focus is undeniably on power efficiency rather than raw power.

It's not that I'm denying the potential of Intel's top-end Core Ultra 200S desktop processor with its 125W base TDP and huge 24-core, 24-thread split, but aiming for 'comparable' performance against its last-gen Core i9 processor 14900K wasn't likely to excite some gaming fanatics in its target audience.

So, if the Core Ultra 9 285K is launching alongside the Ultra 5 245K at the same MSRP as its intended replacement with much-needed power efficiency improvements in a world where custom-built desktops almost pull more wattage than an average space heater, is it the smarter choice? At the very least, we're moving away from the microcode instability disaster that tainted Intel's 13th/early 14th Gen processors with a fresh start for enthusiasts — here's what I found in my testing.

Core Ultra 9 285K: Price, availability, and specs

Intel's new IHS is slightly taller despite the upgrade to a more compact 3nm process node.

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

Intel is launching five SKUs of its Core Ultra Series 2 desktop processors, though two are -KF variants that remove the internal graphics (iGPU.)

 

At its top end, Intel suggests an MSRP of between $589 and $599 for the Core Ultra 9 285K. As with most enthusiast-grade PC components, actual prices often inflate around their launch day, with initial listings for the Ultra 9 285K moving closer to $629.99.

 

Intel primarily compares the new Core Ultra 9 285K to its last-gen Core i9-14900K desktop chip with the same $589-$599 MSRP and 125W base TDP.

 

While the Ultra 9 285K has a lower 24 thread count than the 32 threads on the 14900K, the former features more cache and higher clock speeds and is built on TSMC's more compact N3B (3nm node) process rather than Intel 7 (10nm node.)

 

All the codenamed Arrow Lake-S chips in Core Ultra Series 2 use a brand-new LGA1851 socket, moving away from LGA1700 used by Intel Core 12th, 13th, and 14th Gen chips — this means mandatory motherboard upgrades or a total overhaul for PC builders to support the new Intel 800 chipset. However, many CPU coolers remain compatible with a socket adapter.

Intel Core Ultra Desktop Processors (Series 2)

CPU	Cores (P+E)	Threads	L3 (Smart)	MSRP
Core Ultra 9 285K	24 (8+16)	24	36 MB	$589
Core Ultra 7 265K	20 (8+12)	20	30 MB	$394
Core Ultra 7 265KF	20 (8+12)	20	30 MB	$379
Core Ultra 5 245K	14 (6+8)	14	24 MB	$309
Core Ultra 5 245KF	14 (6+8)	14	24 MB	$294

 

Moving to a new Intel 800 chipset meant none of my in-house motherboards were compatible with the Core Ultra 9 285K processor. Intel's engineers recommended a range of components from various brands during my testing period, so I opted for parts that I deemed the best fit for this high-end CPU. These aren't mandatory, and more Z890 motherboards are hitting retailers during the week of Intel's Core Ultra 200S launch, but I found this combination to be perfect for my needs.

Recommended hardware

Core Ultra 9 285K: CPU benchmarks

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

Running each CPU-centric benchmark multiple times to record the best score shows the Core Ultra 9 285K performing in line with Intel's expectations or slightly ahead. Without any overclocking, besides activating a DDR5-6000 XMP profile for the accompanying 32GB of RAM, a test in Geekbench 6 shows the Ultra 9 285K coming out on top with its burst performance benchmark, ahead of AMD's high-end Ryzen 9 9950X, which runs at a higher 170W base TDP with more L3 cache.

 

Comparing the Core Ultra 9 285K to its Core i9-14900K predecessor shows a healthy uplift in multi-core performance and even higher in single-core testing, with Intel even beating AMD's 9950X in the single-core side of a sustained CPU stress test within Cinebench 2024. It's the same story for single-core comparisons against the 9950X in CPU-Z's benchmark, and though I don't have the numbers for a 14900K comparison, there's evidence for an assumed win.

 

Comparing the Core Ultra 9 285K to its Core i9-14900K predecessor shows a healthy uplift in multi-core performance and even higher in single-core testing.

The only unexpected result comes in 7-Zip's benchmark, showing the 125W Core Ultra 9 285K falling behind the 170W Ryzen 9 9950X and even the 120W Ryzen 9 9900X. Both AMD processors were tested with the same NVMe SSD, so the raw compute performance falls in Team Red's favor regarding .7z file decompression. At face value, without any BIOS-level tinkering or other overclocking efforts, Intel has managed a decent generational bump over the 14900K.

 

Testing Intel's NPU in Geekbench AI scores 8,560 (Single Precision), 8,285 (Half Precision), and 12,828 (Quantized) with OpenVINO, which is tricky to compare to scores of 3,000 (Single), 18,746 (Half), and 26,031 (Quantized) from the Core Ultra 7 258V Lunar Lake mobile chip inside an ASUS Zenbook S 14 (UX5406S) since AI computing benchmarks are new territory, but the NPU 3 tile is a long-awaited addition for Intel's desktop chips.

Is the Core Ultra 9 285K good for gaming?

Leading up to the Core Ultra 9 285K release, Intel has been transparent about expectations for gaming.

(Image credit: Intel)

 

Sourcing a Z890 motherboard within a week of the Core Ultra 200S processor samples meant I focused primarily on synthetic CPU-centric benchmarks, like Geekbench 6 and Cinebench 2024, for the initial draft of this review. While I don't have unique in-game benchmark data for the Core Ultra 9 285K, its test results imply it should be at least capable. Still, games behave much differently from productivity software, making better use of a larger L3 cache on processors like AMD's 7000X3D range.

 

Based on Intel's in-house data, the Ultra 9 285K should provide an average of 173 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077's benchmark while running at 1080p with a 'High' graphics preset. Comparing that to the 251 FPS average delivered by the 7800X3D using the same RTX 4090 GPU and a 168 FPS average on the Ultra 9 285K in Shadow of the Tomb Raider against 286 FPS on the 7800X3D strongly 'suggests' that AMD's 3D V-cache still delivers an edge in gaming.

 

While Intel tops the charts for raw productivity computing, the Core Ultra 9 285K isn't some unexpected king of gaming, and it never claimed that it would be. Intel has been clear throughout its Core Ultra 200S messaging that the goal was to provide lower temperatures with better energy efficiency and "comparable or better performance in gaming" against its previous-gen Core i9-14900K. So, yes, it's good for gaming but not the best.

Core Ultra 9 285K: iGPU benchmarks

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

Intel opted to include a modified version of its Arc Xe-LPG tile carried over from codenamed Meteor Lake mobile chips. This LPG Plus variant supports eXtended Matrix Extensions (XMX) for proper hardware-enabled upscaling using its XeSS upscaling tech. It's a reassuring list of specifications, but the integrated graphics don't offer much capability outside of everyday productivity and video rendering in real-world testing.

 

Testing in 3DMark's Time Spy scenario places the Core Ultra 9 285K somewhere between AMD's Radeon 680M and 780M graphics chiplet used in its Ryzen mobile processors. While I'd never expect any self-respecting enthusiast to entirely rely on an integrated graphics chip to run demanding PC games, it's less enthusing to know it wouldn't act as much of a reliable failsafe if your discrete GPU were to fail or otherwise be unavailable.

 

Unfortunately, there currently isn't a Core Ultra 9 285KF (no iGPU) variant, so it's not like you can forgo the integrated graphics and save some cash. You'll at least benefit from Intel Quick Sync encoding wherever it's available if you dabble in compatible video editing suites and other apps handling video codecs. Still, there's nothing thrilling about this iGPU, especially considering the massive Xe2 improvements made on Lunar Lake.

Core Ultra 9 285K: Competition

AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X had topped our benchmark results before it was dethroned.

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

Competition for the Core Ultra 9 285K depends entirely on the intended audience. If you're looking for a processor that'll feed your productivity first and gaming is more of an after-work pastime, then Intel has AMD beat by crushing even the Ryzen 9 9950X. Even if the performance benchmark results were more of a neck-and-neck situation, the 9950X sells for around $710 against the (inflated) $630 of the Ultra 9 285K.

 

On the other hand, hardcore gamers won't find the breakthrough performance they might be craving in the Core Ultra 9 285K. With the Ryzen 7 7800X3D selling for around $476 and a mysterious Ryzen 9000X3D chip coming in November to undoubtedly challenge the king-of-hill status in PC gaming, opting for Team Red's 3D V-Cache makes more sense.

 

Now that the dreaded microcode bug affecting 14th Gen processors has been fixed as well as it can be, I could tentatively recommend a last-gen Core i9-14900K at a ~$443 discount price, but it's not exactly at the top of my list. Personally, my PC usage is skewed in favor of productivity over gaming far more than in my younger years, so power efficiency is appealing to my custom desktop that's running all day long — but gamers generally don't care as much about performance per watt.

Core Ultra 9 285K: Should you buy?

ARCTIC's Liquid Freezer III 360 kindly provides a compatible LGA1700/1851 socket mount.

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

You should buy this if ...

✅ You want an ultra-efficient high-end CPU.

 

✅ You're upgrading from Intel 12th Gen CPUs or even earlier.

You should not buy this if ...

❌ You're a hardcore gamer craving the highest framerates.

 

❌ You only dabble in demanding software suites or creative apps.

 

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Buying the absolute top-end processor in a new CPU range doesn't happen by accident, and it's hardly a chip that an enthusiast would pick up without at least a shred of research. Thankfully, it's a pretty clear performance picture when glancing at the Core Ultra 9 285K as it tops my benchmark performance charts against its AMD Ryzen rival, the 9950X, and offers 'comparable' gaming performance to its previous-gen counterpart, the Core i9-14900K.

 

With that in mind, it's unlikely to tempt any enthusiasts with an Intel processor on the LGA1700 socket. It'll require a motherboard upgrade to support this new LGA1851 replacement, but if you're running a low-end 12th Gen chip and really want to see a performance bump, you will. Otherwise, the Ultra 9 285K appeals to those ultra-creative types who skipped the cursed 12th and 13th Gen since it can handle intensive number-crunching without cooking the CPU.

 

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Marketing an entry-to-mid-level desktop processor is tricky since it usually comes with strong competition against previous-gen CPUs that enjoy significant price drops for comparable performance. That felt like it would be true for Intel's new Core Ultra Series 2 chip, the Ultra 5 245K.

While it's not the absolute cheapest SKU in its range, that title is saved for its KF variant that skips the integrated graphics; the Core Ultra 5 265K isn't too expensive considering its specs.

This 14-core, 14-thread CPU should come in at a $309 MSRP, though it's closer to $329 on launch day, thanks to the usual price inflation shenanigans that new components always seem to experience.

Still, it's primarily a modern-day counterpart to Intel's 14th Gen Core i5-14600K, which launched at $319, so the price makes sense. Whether it's worth a motherboard upgrade to adopt the new LGA1851 socket versus sticking with discounted chips from the last gen is debatable — so here's what I think.

Core Ultra 5 245K: Price, availability, and specs

Intel might have moved to a compact 3nm process node, but we get more contacts with LGA1851.

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

The Core Ultra 5 245K launches alongside five Intel Core Ultra Series 2 desktop processor SKUs, with two acting as -KF variants without internal graphics (the iGPU.)

 

Officially, Intel recommends an MSRP between $309 and $319, with the first Core Ultra 5 245K listing selling for $328.99 at Newegg.

 

It's technically slightly cheaper than the $319 to $329 launch MSRP of its last-gen counterpart, the Core i5-14600K, though it now sells for as low as $255 at Amazon.

 

The 125W base TDP remains the same from the 14600K to the Ultra 5 245K, while the core/thread count drops from 14c/20t to 14c/14t for the new Core Ultra 200S chip with a focus on performance-per-watt efficiency instead.

 

However, Intel now includes an NPU in its Arrow Lake-S chips running at 13 TOPS, dedicated to running AI tasks in the background. Plus, it marks a shift from the LGA1700 socket used across Intel's Core 12th, 13th, and 14th Gen to a new LGA1851 socket, so you'll need a motherboard upgrade to use the latest Intel 800 chipset. Thankfully, many CPU coolers designed for LGA1700 are still compatible with LGA1851.

Intel Core Ultra Desktop Processors (Series 2)

CPU	Cores (P+E)	Threads	L3 (Smart)	MSRP
Core Ultra 9 285K	24 (8+16)	24	36 MB	$589
Core Ultra 7 265K	20 (8+12)	20	30 MB	$394
Core Ultra 7 265KF	20 (8+12)	20	30 MB	$379
Core Ultra 5 245K	14 (6+8)	14	24 MB	$309
Core Ultra 5 245KF	14 (6+8)	14	24 MB	$294

 

Testing both this Core Ultra 5 245K and the high-end Core Ultra 9 285K meant I needed to quickly source a brand-new motherboard sample from a list of recommendations passed over from Intel's team. ASRock's excellent Z890 Taichi motherboard had the quickest delivery time, so I chose it mainly for convenience, and it doesn't necessarily reflect the demands of this entry-level CPU. Otherwise, the Teamgroup RAM and Arctic CPU cooler performed flawlessly and are easily recommended.

Recommended hardware

Core Ultra 5 245K: CPU benchmarks

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

Considering it looked like a spec drop at first glance with fewer threads, the Core Ultra 5 245K performs relatively well against its last-gen counterpart, the Core i5-14600K, as it scores comparable results in benchmarks or moves slightly ahead. Before I even booted it up, I had half expected the Ultra 5 245K to place closer to AMD's power-efficient Ryzen 5 9600X, but Intel ended up with a position just above its $359 Ryzen 7 9700X in almost every test.

 

Burst processing test results from Geekbench 6 show the Core Ultra 245K demonstrating a decent generational leap over the 14600K in single-core and multi-core performance. It also outperforms the gamer's favorite Ryzen 7 7800X3D, though that shouldn't be a surprise since AMD's X3D chip never fared brilliantly with productivity testing by design.

 

The Core Ultra 245K demonstrates a decent generational leap over the 14600K in single-core and multi-core performance.

In sustained stress tests with Cinebench 2024, you can see the astronomical multi-core performance lead taken by the Core Ultra 9 285K and the $280 price difference that comes with it. Still, the single-core score is almost level with AMD's Ryzen 7 9900X, a processor selling for around $429 with a closely comparable 120W TDP. However, just like the Ultra 9 285K, something about 7-Zip's benchmark doesn't play well with Arrow Lake-S and the Ultra 5 245K drops below its 14900K predecessor.

 

Overall, you're getting a well-rounded, productivity-first processor with a dedicated NPU that performs slightly ahead of its last-gen counterpart in a more efficient manner with cooler temperatures. That's great news for builders on a budget since you can opt for more lightweight thermal solutions rather than the gigantic ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 360 I used with my sample. Still, the expense of at least buying a new 800-Series motherboard is unavoidable if you want to try Intel's new desktop generation.

Core Ultra 5 245K: iGPU benchmarks

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

Part of the appeal of building a custom PC with parts ranging from the entry-level to the mid-range is that you can fall back on integrated graphics and save up some cash for discrete graphics cards, which are often the most expensive components. It's rarely an option to rely on an iGPU for serious gaming, though AMD managed an incredible effort with its Ryzen 8700G processor. However, testing Intel's modified version of the Xe-LPG tile from Meteor Lake chips shows it doesn't stand much chance.

 

The new Xe-LPG Plus tile supports hardware-enabled XeSS upscaling tech, which can help with real-time game rendering if the developer supports it. A test in 3DMark's Time Spy benchmark places the Core Ultra 5 245K and Ultra 9 285K between AMD's Radeon 680M and 780M graphics and far below the ASUS ROG Ally X gaming handheld that's designed to keep games running at lower resolutions and cut back on graphical fidelity. So, it's definitely not for gaming, but it'll help with Intel Quick Sync encoding support if your chosen video editing apps implement it.

Core Ultra 5 245K: Competition

AMD's Ryzen 7 9700X is a close rival with a similar demand for mandatory DDR5 RAM.

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

 

If you're looking at the Core Ultra 5 245K as a potentially affordable entry into an all-new generation of PC technology like PCIe 5.0 and ultra-fast DDR5 RAM, it has a couple of potential rivals for a similar price point. First, the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is a 65W chip with an 8-core, 16-thread configuration and 32MB of L3 cache, selling for around $327 at Amazon and providing a fluctuating line across the spec sheet but scoring reasonably close to the Ultra 5 245K.

 

However, if you're moving from an AM4 socket with older AMD Ryzen processors or absolutely any Intel processor in its history, you'll need to buy an AM5 motherboard to support the new 7000, 8000, or 9000 Series desktop chips — at this point, every choice has hidden costs. Still, boards using Intel's last-gen LGA1700 socket are cheaper and should continue to drop in price, so picking up a Core i5-14600K for around $255 is a solid option.

 

It helps to have a reasonable expectation of what you want from a processor, so you can aim for something similar to the Core Ultra 5 245K benchmark results and work around your budget to build a fully working desktop PC rather than a single processor and nothing to attach it to. We're past the microcode bug that affected Intel's 14th Gen, as long as you apply all available updates and patches, so sticking with the previous-gen will be particularly appealing to gamers who weren't treated to much of a jump for this range of Arrow Lake chips.

Core Ultra 5 245K: Should you buy?

Intel has my heart for making it much easier to clean thermal paste from its tall and skinny IHS.

(Image credit: Ben Wilson | Windows Central)

You should buy this if ...

✅ You want affordable access to modern component standards

 

✅ You're migrating across 2-3+ older CPU generations

You should not buy this if ...

❌ You need a high-performing gaming CPU on a budget

 

❌ You're already running 13th or 14th Gen Intel processors

 

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Again, appealing to the custom PC-building crowd who are firmly stuck with a strict budget is no easy task, especially when your shiny new processor demands an all-new motherboard to accommodate a similarly new LGA1851 socket. Still, Intel offers a relatively affordable avenue for those craving PCIe 5.0-compatible storage, expansion cards, and integrated Thunderbolt 4 ports as standard with the Core Ultra 5 245K, pushing slightly ahead of its last-gen Core i5-14600K predecessor.

 

There's no great shift in gaming performance, just like its high-end Core Ultra 9 285K sibling, but that was never Intel's plan anyway. In line with the Core Ultra 200S range, the Ultra 5 245K runs cool with a focus on performance-per-watt efficiency and introduces its NPU to offload background AI tasks. Whether that appeals to you depends mostly on your chosen software suite, but it's undoubtedly capable in productivity apps, and it's a great option for this new generation.

 

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Building on the success of the Raspberry Pi AI Kit and AI Camera, Raspberry Pi today announced the new Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ as part of its AI product lineup. The latest AI HAT+ features the same Hailo AI accelerator technology as the Raspberry Pi AI Kit.

The AI HAT+ comes in two variants offering different performance capabilities. The 13 TOPS model will cost $70 and features the same Hailo-8L accelerator available in the recently released Raspberry Pi AI Kit. The 26 TOPS model will cost $110 and is powered by the Hailo-8 accelerator.

While the Raspberry Pi AI Kit uses an M.2 connector, the Hailo accelerator chip is directly integrated into the main PCB in the AI HAT+ for improved thermal dissipation. Also, the AI HAT+ uses PCIe Gen 3.0 mode to deliver 26 TOPS AI performance. With 26 TOPS of performance, developers will be able to perform object detection, pose estimation, and subject segmentation simultaneously on a live camera feed.

Raspberry Pi confirmed that both versions of the AI HAT+ are backward compatible with the AI Kit and are fully integrated into Raspberry Pi’s camera software stack. This allows developers to run post-processing tasks, including object detection, image segmentation, and pose estimation. All models built for the Hailo-8L accelerator can be used with the Hailo-8.

Since the Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ supports popular frameworks like TensorFlow and PyTorch, developers can easily build different AI-powered applications.

Naush Patuck from Raspberry Pi wrote the following regarding the AI HAT+ launch:

After an exciting few months of AI product releases, we now offer an extensive range of options for running inferencing workloads on Raspberry Pi. Many such workloads – particularly those that are sparse, quantised, or intermittent – run natively on Raspberry Pi platforms; for more demanding workloads, we aim to be the best possible embedded host for accelerator hardware such as our AI Camera and today’s new Raspberry Pi AI HAT+.

You can order the new Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ here.

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Gamers Nexus (2.29M subscribers)

Oct. 24, 2024

Video Length: 38m 50s

The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU just launched. This review of the Intel 285K CPU includes gaming benchmarks, looking at some of the best gaming CPUs in 2024, power efficiency comparisons of Intel vs. AMD, workstation and Adobe application benchmarks, and more. This benchmark focuses on the Intel Ultra 9 285K vs. AMD R7 7800X3D in gaming, the 285K vs. 14900K, 14700K, and 9950X in production and efficiency, and also features AM4's 5700X3D, alongside nearly 30 other CPUs. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K releases on October 24, 2024, and has an MSRP of $590, but we found it typically higher. Its value is poor versus the 7800X3D in gaming and challenged by the 9950X in production. AMD is expected to launch its AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU on November 7, 2024

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On October 18, Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman published a message to the Linux kernel mailing list showing that a handful of Linux developers in the MAINTAINERS file had been removed.

His explanation was vague. "Remove some entries due to various compliance requirements," Kroah-Hartman wrote. "They can come back in the future if sufficient documentation is provided."

Mailing list participants pushed back, asking for further explanation about the removed names, all of which appear to be Russian and most of which are associated with a Russian (.ru) email address. Russia is currently subject to US government sanctions related to its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and other concerns.

Those dropped from the maintainer list oversee various Linux drivers that provide interoperability with hardware from vendors like Acer and Cirrus Logic.

Torvalds responded to the mailing list challenges in the style for which he's become famous by attributing the blowback to Russian trolls.

Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct presentation will kick off at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm UK, with it being viewable across Blizzard's YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok portals. During the show, the company has something planned for fans of almost every Warcraft series it has:

"It’s a big year for the Warcraft universe and whether you’re a Hearthstone fan, you’ve joined the chaos in Warcraft Rumble, ventured into the world of Azeroth for the first time in Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, or you’re a World of Warcraft player, there’s something for everyone in our Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct stream."

Following the Direct, a "World of Warcraft: 20 Years of Music" concert broadcast celebrating the music of the series over the decades will also be streamed:

Produced by Helvepic and filmed live in Switzerland the concert was performed by the 21st Century Orchestra and three choirs—Tale of Fantasy, Ardito, and the Madrijazz Gospel, this sweeping 190 performer ensemble will take you on a musical adventure through time and emotion.

Blizzard is teasing multiple surprises to happen during the show too, but doesn't really give any more pointers, only adding that "you won’t want to miss a moment." Fan speculations on what these surprises are already building, with some even thinking that new game announcements may be in the cards.

The company has already announced three major expansions to continue World of Warcraft storyline, with development being led by Chris Metzen. The first in The Worldsoul Saga trilogy of expansions, The War Within, landed in August of this year.

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While the new content of Patch 4.0 was received well by the community, the new balance changes were criticized overwhelmingly, with many even going as far as to review-bomb the game on Steam. Today, the studio revealed that a brand-new update is imminent with rollbacks and fresh tweaks that will give all the power back to players' hands.

"No matter the feedback, we’re grateful that you feel so passionate about Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2," says Game Director Dmitriy Grigorenko in a statement. "The key takeaway for me, personally, is that I forgot that once the game comes out, it's no longer a dev's game. It's yours first and foremost."

To make sure these kind of updates do not catch the playerbase and developers off guard again, Saber is implementing a public test server program to let some of the community try out changes before they are rolled out to everyone. The program should go live in early 2025.

According to Saber, the hardest difficulty the game offered at launch, Ruthless, had a 60% win rate in September. Following later patches though, the win rate had climbed to over 80%, prompting some players to say the game was becoming too easy. This had led to the latest changes that increased enemy spawns across all difficulty modes, which triggered the mass of negative feedback.

"Your feedback made it clear that the game had become more intense and stressful on lower difficulties, and this was never our intention." adds Grigorenko. "As I’ve personally emphasised in interviews, Space Marine 2 is all about the power fantasy, and Patch 4.0 negatively impacted it for many of you."

Other changes in this upcoming update include substantial buffs to the entire Bolter family of weapons in Operations, removal of the Tight Formation system that required players to stick close together, increased armor in the Ruthless difficulty, and other tweaks.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Patch 4.1 lands on Thursday, October 24 across all platforms. Read the complete changelog here.

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SAN FRANCISCO—On Tuesday, TED AI 2024 kicked off its first day at San Francisco's Herbst Theater with a lineup of speakers that tackled AI's impact on science, art, and society. The two-day event brought a mix of researchers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, and other experts who painted a complex picture of AI with fairly minimal hype.

The second annual conference, organized by Walter and Sam De Brouwer, marked a notable shift from last year's broad existential debates and proclamations of AI as being "the new electricity." Rather than sweeping predictions about, say, looming artificial general intelligence (although there was still some of that, too), speakers mostly focused on immediate challenges: battles over training data rights, proposals for hardware-based regulation, debates about human-AI relationships, and the complex dynamics of workplace adoption.

The day's sessions covered a wide breadth: physicist Carlo Rovelli explored consciousness and time, Project CETI researcher Patricia Sharma demonstrated attempts to use AI to decode whale communication, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. outlined music industry adaptation strategies, and even a few robots made appearances.

The shift from last year's theoretical discussions to practical concerns was particularly evident during a presentation from Ethan Mollick of the Wharton School, who tackled what he called "the productivity paradox"—the disconnect between AI's measured impact and its perceived benefits in the workplace. Already, organizations are moving beyond the gee-whiz period after ChatGPT's introduction and into the implications of widespread use.

Sam De Brouwer and Walter De Brouwer organized TED AI and selected the speakers.

Benj Edwards

 

Linguist Jessica Coon presenting at TED AI 2024.

Benj Edwards

 

Project CETI researcher Patricia Sharma presenting at TED AI 2024.

Benj Edwards

 

Jerome Monceaux. founder of Enchanted Tools, and the Mirokaï robot.

Benj Edwards

 

Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, shared a "survival guide for human creativity."

Benj Edwards

 

Ethan Mollick presenting at TED AI 2024.

Benj Edwards

 

Drawing from research claiming AI users complete tasks faster and more efficiently, Mollick highlighted a peculiar phenomenon: While one-third of Americans reported using AI in August of this year, managers often claim "no one's using AI" in their organizations. Through a live demonstration using multiple AI models simultaneously, Mollick illustrated how traditional work patterns must evolve to accommodate AI's capabilities. He also pointed to the emergence of what he calls "secret cyborgs"—employees quietly using AI tools without management's knowledge. Regarding the future of jobs in the age of AI, he urged organizations to view AI as an opportunity for expansion rather than merely a cost-cutting measure.

Some giants in the AI field made an appearance. Jakob Uszkoreit, one of the eight co-authors of the now-famous "Attention is All You Need" paper that introduced Transformer architecture, reflected on the field's rapid evolution. He distanced himself from the term "artificial general intelligence," suggesting people aren't particularly general in their capabilities. Uszkoreit described how the development of Transformers sidestepped traditional scientific theory, comparing the field to alchemy. "We still do not know how human language works. We do not have a comprehensive theory of English," he noted.

Stanford professor Surya Ganguli presenting at TED AI 2024.

Benj Edwards

 

Jakob Uszkoreit presenting at TED AI 2024.

Benj Edwards

 

Max Jaderberg said AlphaFold has already saved over "1 billion years" of research time, folding proteins in seconds when it used to take years.

Benj Edwards

 

Physicist Carlo Rovelli presenting at TED AI 2024.

Benj Edwards

 

Turkish pianist Ayşedeniz Gökçin played an AI-composed piece in the style of Chopin.

Benj Edwards

 

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman in Conversation with Julia Boorstin of CNN.

Benj Edwards

 

Yves Behar and Christoph Kohstall spoke about how Kohstall built a robot called "Mona" in his Palo Alto garage.

Benj Edwards

And refreshingly, the talks went beyond AI language models. For example, Isomorphic Labs Chief AI Officer Max Jaderberg, who previously worked on Google DeepMind's AlphaFold 3, gave a well-received presentation on AI-assisted drug discovery. He detailed how AlphaFold has already saved "1 billion years of research time" by discovering the shapes of proteins and showed how AI agents are now capable of running thousands of parallel drug design simulations that could enable personalized medicine.

Danger and controversy

While hype was less prominent this year, some speakers still spoke of AI-related dangers. Paul Scharre, executive vice president at the Center for a New American Security, warned about the risks of advanced AI models falling into malicious hands, specifically citing concerns about terrorist attacks with AI-engineered biological weapons. Drawing parallels to nuclear proliferation in the 1960s, Scharre argued that while regulating software is nearly impossible, controlling physical components like specialized chips and fabrication facilities could provide a practical framework for AI governance.

ReplikaAI founder Eugenia Kuyda presenting at TED AI 2024.

Benj Edwards

 

Paul Scharre presenting at TED AI 2024.

Benj Edwards

 

Ben Zhao showing headlines related to art school closings.

Benj Edwards

 

Ben Zhao showing headlines related to art gallery closings.

Benj Edwards

 

ReplikaAI founder Eugenia Kuyda cautioned that AI companions could become "the most dangerous technology if not done right," suggesting that the existential threat from AI might come not from science fiction scenarios but from technology that isolates us from human connections. She advocated for designing AI systems that optimize for human happiness rather than engagement, proposing a "human flourishing metric" to measure its success.

Ben Zhao, a University of Chicago professor associated with the Glaze and Nightshade projects, painted a dire picture of AI's impact on art, claiming that art schools were seeing unprecedented enrollment drops and galleries were closing at an accelerated rate due to AI image generators, though we have yet to dig through the supporting news headlines he momentarily flashed up on the screen.

Some of the speakers represented polar opposites of each other, policy-wise. For example, copyright attorney Angela Dunning offered a defense of AI training as fair use, drawing from historical parallels in technological advancement. A litigation partner at Cleary Gottlieb, which has previously represented the AI image generation service Midjourney in a lawsuit, Dunning quoted Mark Twin saying "there is no such thing as a new idea" and argued that copyright law allows for building upon others' ideas while protecting specific expressions. She compared current AI debates to past technological disruptions, noting how photography, once feared as a threat to traditional artists, instead sparked new artistic movements like abstract art and pointillism. "Art and science can only remain free if we are free to build on the ideas of those that came before," Dunning said, challenging more restrictive views of AI training.

Copyright lawyer Angela Dunning quoted Mark Twain in her talk about fair use and AI.

Benj Edwards

 

Ed Newton-Rex argued that all training data needs to be licensed.

Benj Edwards

 

Perplexity AI founder Aravind Srinivas at TED AI 2024.

Benj Edwards

 

Dunning's presentation stood in direct opposition to Ed Newton-Rex, who had earlier advocated for mandatory licensing of training data through his nonprofit Fairly Trained. In fact, the same day, Newton-Rex's organization unveiled a "Statement on AI training" signed by many artists that says, "The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted." The issue has not yet been legally settled in US courts, but clearly, the battle lines have been drawn, and no matter which side you take, TED AI did a good job of giving both perspectives to the audience.

Looking forward

Some speakers explored potential new architectures for AI. Stanford professor Surya Ganguli highlighted the contrast between AI and human learning, noting that while AI models require trillions of tokens to train, humans learn language from just millions of exposures. He proposed "quantum neuromorphic computing" as a potential bridge between biological and artificial systems, suggesting a future where computers could potentially match the energy efficiency of the human brain.

Also, Guillaume Verdon, founder of Extropic and architect of the Effective Accelerationism (often called "E/Acc") movement, presented what he called "physics-based intelligence" and claimed his company is "building a steam engine for AI," potentially offering energy efficiency improvements up to 100 million times better than traditional systems—though he acknowledged this figure ignores cooling requirements for superconducting components. The company had completed its first room-temperature chip tape-out just the previous week.

Guillaume Verdon of Extropic talking about "physics-based intelligence."

Benj Edwards

 

Stanford professor Surya Ganguli presenting at TED AI 2024.

Benj Edwards

 

The Day One sessions closed out with predictions about the future of AI from OpenAI's Noam Brown, who emphasized the importance of scale in expanding future AI capabilities, and University of Washington professor Pedro Domingos spoke about "co-intelligence," saying, "People are smart, organizations are stupid" and proposing that AI could be used to bridge that gap by drawing on the collective intelligence of an organization.

When attended TED AI last year, some obvious questions emerged: Is this current wave of AI a fad? Will there be a TED AI next year? I think the second TED AI answered these questions well—AI isn't going away, and there are still endless angles to explore as the field expands rapidly.

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Apple already allows EU users to delete native apps such as Calculator, Calendar, Music, and Notes. However, with iOS 18.2, EU users can now get rid of the App Store itself. In addition, they can also delete more of the native apps from their iPhones. This allows iPhone and iPad users to own their devices and make them function as they like. Do note that the iOS 18.2 update is still in beta and it started rolling out to developers on Wednesday.

Reportedly, iOS users after installing the iOS 18.2 beta update in the EU can delete the App Store, Camera, Safari, Messages, and Photos. This change is to comply with DMA'a articles requiring tech companies to allow users to uninstall any app they want. In the EU, Apple users can now download third-party app stores to replace the native App Store, based on their preference. Notably, the company has introduced a new button in the Settings app for those who would like to get back to the App Store after deletion.

Additionally, with iOS 18.2, global iPhone users are also getting some changes. Apple has added a new menu within the Settings app that makes it easier to change the default apps on the iPhone or iPad. Users now get the option to set default apps for email, messages, calls, web browser, password manager, and keyboard. On top of this, iOS 18.2 is also adding multiple new features, which were teased for months.

Source and images: MacRumors

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When the Raspberry Pi 5 launched last year, it received good reviews for significantly faster performance compared to previous models. However, users quickly realized expanded functionality through features like the new PCI Express port was equally exciting. This port allows additional hardware like Ethernet adapters, graphics cards, and SSDs to be connected directly to the Raspberry Pi 5 for enhanced capabilities.

SSDs are considerably faster than microSD cards commonly used with Raspberry Pi devices. For those seeking maximum performance, booting and running the Raspberry Pi OS from an SSD is optimal. The new Raspberry Pi branded SSDs are designed specifically for this use case. According to the Foundation, they offer minimum read and write speeds of 40,000 and 70,000 IOPS respectively, depending on capacity.

"If no-compromises performance is your goal, you’ll want to run Raspberry Pi OS from an SSD, and Raspberry Pi SSDs are the perfect choice," Raspberry says.

The 256GB SSD starts at $30 when purchased individually or $40 as a kit bundled with the M.2 HAT+ adapter needed to connect it. The larger 512GB model retails for $45 alone or $55 in a kit. Both drives are in stock now, with the 512GB variant available to pre-order shipping by late November.

It is worth noting that the Raspberry Pi 5 starts at $60 for the 4GB RAM variant, while opting for 8GB RAM costs $80. The Raspberry Pi 4 and its cheaper variants also remain in production.

The M.2 HAT+ converts the Raspberry Pi's PCI Express interface to the standard M.2 M-key socket. Of course, several third party adapter manufacturers offer similar compatibility options.

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In a blog post, the developer says The Cursed update takes place in what it calls a "twilight realm". In this case, spaceships cannot warp between star systems by themselves. Instead they have to use an ancient portal network to get to where they want to go. Hello Games added:

In regular No Man’s Sky play, Travellers must steel themselves against a variety of environmental hazards such as extreme temperatures, radioactivity, and toxic atmospheres. The Cursed, however, pits you against a single, more insidious threat: the weakening of the boundaries of reality. Your exosuit comes fitted with a specialised Anomaly Suppressor; maintain it to stay firmly in this reality.

That Anomaly Suppressor is a defense against this reality's strange alien "spectral anomalies" They can follow you around, but if the Anomaly Suppressor starts to weaken they could begin to attack your player character.

Of course, players can pick up some in-game rewards during The Cursed update including an exclusive space ship, the Boundary Herald, that has a retro flying saucer look to it. The Cursed update event will last for about two weeks in the game.

Hello Games also mentioned briefly in its blog post that it continues to work on its next major game Light No Fire. That game which was first announced in December 2023 during the Game Awards, will take place on a fantasy version of Earth that the developer claims will be a "truly open world, with no boundaries, at a scale never attempted before." Hello Games has not revealed any more details on Light No Fire since that first teaser.

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in a post on the game's website. Capcom says the open beta will include access to the character creation tool, along with the first cinematic and two monster hunts. One will let players take part in the Chatacabra hunt while also getting some tutorials. The other will have players try to defeat the alpha of the Doshaguma pack. It added:

You can use an SOS Flare during either quest. Use an SOS Flare to play with other players online, or to call for help from NPC Support Hunters—up to three of whom can join your party at once. Multiplayer also features crossplay support letting you connect with players across different platforms.

If you are a PS5 player with a PlayStation Plus subscription, you will get access to the Monster Hunter Wilds beta first, from Monday, October 28 at 8 pm Pacific time (5 pm Eastern) to Wednesday, October 30 at 7:59 pm Pacific (4:59 pm Eastern).

Then, all PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Steam) players will be able to download and play the open beta starting Thursday, October 31 at 8 pm Pacific time (5 pm Eastern) to Sunday, November 3 at 6:59 pm Pacific (3:59 pm Eastern).

If you want to get the PC version here are the minimal and recommended hardware requirements:

Minimal

 

• Resolution - 1080p
• Frame Rate - 30 fps
• OS - Windows10 (64-bit Required)
• Processor - Intel Core i5-10600, Intel Corei3-12100F, AMD Ryzen 5 3600
• Memory - 16GB
• Graphics - Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super; AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
• VRAM- 6GB
• Storage - 140GB SSD, DirectStorage supported

 

Recommended

 

• Resolution - 1080p (FHD)
• Frame Rate - 60 fps (with Frame Generation enabled)
• OS - Windows 10 (64-bit Required)
• Processor - Intel Core i5-11600K, Intel Core i5-12400, AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, AMD Ryzen 5 5500
• Memory -16GB
• Graphics - Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 AMD Radeon RX 6700XT
• VRAM - 8GB
• Storage - 140GB SSD, DirectStorage supported

The game will also support Nvidia DLSS 3.5 and AMD FSR 3.0 frame rate and upscaling technologies. The full version of Monster Hunter Wilds is due for release on February 28, 2025.

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Huawei's Ascend 910B chip is perhaps the company's most advanced chip and is also being used to train AI models. When TechInsights found TSMC's chip within the Ascend 910B, it informed TSMC about the discovery, after which TSMC also notified the U.S. Commerce Department about it.

The U.S. government had banned Huawei with conducting any business with a U.S. company in May 2019, and also placed it in a trade restriction list, which meant that other companies like TSMC should have a license by the U.S. before trading with Huawei, or any other Chinese company. This made it hard for Huawei to continue making advanced chips, and it mostly relied on China's own chip company, the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC).

TSMC said in a statement that it hadn't supplied any chips to Huawei since mid-September 2020, which could mean that Huawei might have stocked the chips before the U.S. curbs came in.

There has been a significant increase in the demand for chips made by TSMC ever since the rise of artificial intelligence. Training AI models require powerful hardware, like Nvidia Blackwell chips, and the U.S. has made sure that China doesn't get access to the advanced manufacturing capabilities via its export controls.

The Department of Commerce has said that it is aware of a potential violation of the U.S. export controls but did not comment on whether an active investigation is going on or not. TSMC said that it is aware of any active investigation by U.S. authorities.

Source: Reuters

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The conflict arose when Qualcomm acquired Nuvia, a startup developing custom ARM-based CPUs. In 2022, Arm filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm and its subsidiary Nuvia for breaching license agreements and trademark infringement. Arm claimed that Qualcomm attempted to transfer Nuvia licenses without Arm's consent, a standard restriction under Arm's licensing agreements. Arm alleges in its lawsuit that Qualcomm's continued development after the termination of the licenses constitutes a breach of the license agreement.

Currently, Arm is revoking the license that allowed Qualcomm to use Arm's intellectual property for chip design. According to Bloomberg, Arm has issued Qualcomm a mandatory 60-day notice of the architectural license agreement's cancellation. Without this license, Qualcomm cannot create its own chips based on Arm's architecture. This could significantly disrupt the smartphone industry, where Qualcomm ships hundreds of millions of processors annually. Additionally, many major automakers rely on Qualcomm chips for their latest vehicles.

Qualcomm responded to Arm's license cancelation with the following statement:

“This is more of the same from ARM – more unfounded threats designed to strongarm a longtime partner, interfere with our performance-leading CPUs, and increase royalty rates regardless of the broad rights under our architecture license. With a trial fast approaching in December, Arm’s desperate ploy appears to be an attempt to disrupt the legal process, and its claim for termination is completely baseless. We are confident that Qualcomm’s rights under its agreement with Arm will be affirmed. Arm’s anticompetitive conduct will not be tolerated.”

Following the Nuvia acquisition, Qualcomm abandoned ARM's Cortex CPU designs in favor of its own Nuvia Phoenix-based Oryon CPUs in chips designed for PCs, smartphones, and cars. While using ARM's CPU designs, Qualcomm generally lagged behind Apple's performance. However, thanks to the Nuvia acquisition and the custom Oryon CPUs, Qualcomm has been able to surpasse Apple chips performance in the smartphone and PC markets. If Qualcomm fails to negotiate with Arm, it may be forced to discontinue Oryon CPUs in its latest processors.

The outcome of this legal battle holds significant implications for the future of Qualcomm and the broader tech industry. It remains to be seen whether Qualcomm can negotiate a resolution with Arm or if it will be forced to abandon its custom CPU designs. The resolution of this dispute will likely shape the competitive landscape of the processor market.

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JayzTwoCents (4.11M subscribers)

October 22, 2024

Video length: 15m 44s

Launching along side Arrow Lake from Intel is the new DDR5 CU-DIMM spec... what is it? And is it something you should care about?

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In a recent message on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) public inbox, Torvalds has been spotted showing his frustration about processor vulnerabilities as he said that he was "pretty damn fed up with buggy hardware and completely theoretical attacks" as he feels it is the job of the hardware vendors, the likes of Intel, AMD or Nvidia, to do better in finding theoretical attacks and vulnerabilities due to certain unaddressed and underlying hardware issues.

He wrote:

Honestly, I'm pretty damn fed up with buggy hardware and completely theoretical attacks that have never actually shown themselves to be used in practice.

 

So I think this time we push back on the hardware people and tell them it's *THEIR* damn problem, and if they can't even be bothered to say yay-or-nay, we just sit tight.

 

Because dammit, let's put the onus on where the blame lies, and not just take any random shit from bad hardware and say "oh, but it *might* be a problem".

 

Linus

If you are wondering, Intel's Kirill Shutemov, a senior Linux software engineer, provides additional context on what the issue is about:

LAM brings own speculation issues that is going to be addressed by LASS. There was a patch to disable LAM until LASS is landed, but it never got applied for some reason.

Intel introduced LAM or Liner Address Masking with its 12th Gen Sapphire Rapids chips to improve memory safety by masking the metadata-containing memory pointer address. AMD's Upper Address Ignore (UAI) also works in a similar fashion and was introduced with the Zen 4 architecture or Ryzen 7000 series.

However, utilizing LAM makes a CPU vulnerable to speculation attacks also called SLAM (short for side-channel attacks via LAM) and Shutemov says it can be mitigated with the help of LASS or Linear Address Space Separation that provides hardware-based address-space isolation. (AMD just released a new Windows chipset driver to protect against similar attacks.)

This is not the first time Linus Torvalds has complained against hardware companies over vulnerabilities. Back in 2023, the faulTPM CPU flaw on AMD Ryzen chips irked him so much that he labelled it as the "stupid fTPM hwrnd thing" and simply wanted to disable it and be done with.

Source: LKML (link1, link2)

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In a blog post offering an update on the site's status, it said that other features like borrowing and reviewing content, and its interlibrary loan service are still not available. It added:

The safety and integrity of the Internet Archive’s data and patrons remain our top priorities. As the security incident is analyzed and contained by our team, we are relaunching services as defenses are strengthened. These efforts are focused on reinforcing firewall systems and further protecting the data stores.

The organizers of the non-profit Internet Archive site took it down, along with other sites under its umbrella, earlier this month after hackers breached its servers. They ended up accessing 31 million accounts, including personal info like user names, email addresses, and encrypted passwords.

Since then the site's team has been working to restore its services. Last week, it brought back the popular Wayback Machine site, which lets users check the past content on websites, both current and shut down. Currently, the Wayback Machine site is also in a read-only mode. Also last week, another site run by Internet Archive, Archive-It, was brought back online, but again in a read-only mode.

At the time of this writing, there's no word when full services, including the uploading of new content, will be enabled on the Internet Archive site or its sister sites.

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Titled Legacy Awaits, update 38 brings some fresh features, fixes up a whole lot of bugs, unlocks previously gated content that was exclusive to promotions, and adds a whole bunch of outfits for players to find in the wild.

The major additions include water resistance now affecting vehicles when they travel through lakes and waterways, quickly accessing community inventories, changing zombie spawning mechanics for noises, and more. Here are the improvements the studio detailed:

• Water will Slow Vehicles - Water resistance will now reduce vehicle speed while travelling through lakes and waterways. Be sure to choose the right vehicle type for the job as each handles differently. A 4x4, for example, will outperform a Sports Coupe in the water.
• Community Inventories - While over in the base, you can now access individual Survivors' inventories from the Community screen, allowing you to quickly view or equip their items, transfer items between you, or store their gear (including rucksacks) into base storage. No more hunting around the base to find the Survivor you need!
• Zombie spawning has been removed after certain noise events - Failed search crashes and door slams will no longer spawn new zombies. These noise events will now simply attract already existing zombies to the location.
• We’ve reduced the distance at which characters automatically attempt to climb down from ledges. Additionally, characters will no longer attempt to climb down unintentionally whilst the player is aiming, which could often lead to some frustrating moments.
• Rucksacks can now be deposited at claimed Landmark Outposts.

Aside from a whole lot of new outfits for survivors that can be looted from containers across maps, Undead Labs is making previously timed-exclusive items available to all players too. These include wearables from various crossovers like Age of Empires II and Sea of Thieves, as well as items from seasonal content updates like Halloween and Christmas.

"While you’ve enjoyed State of Decay 2 for many years, you may have heard that we are also hard at work on the next evolution of the franchise," said the studio in its last blog post regarding the future of the series. "Our ambition is to make the greatest zombie survival sim in the franchise, and to do so, we’ll be shifting our focus and resources to making the upcoming third installment, State of Decay 3."

Find the complete changelog for Update 38 — Legacy Awaits over here, which goes over a number of additional gameplay balance adjustments, as well as a whole lot of key bug fixes reported by the community.

State of Decay 3 does not have a release date attached to it yet, but it did receive a new trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase earlier this year with tiny snippets of gameplay. Undead Labs has been working with Obsidian Entertainment and other studios for the upcoming entry, which will also feature advanced co-op features and a world that's much further into the zombie apocalypse than before.

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Spare me. There’s nothing I want less than a bunch of memes of Jesus-as-a-shrimp, pie-eating cartoon cats and other A.I. slop added to all the clickbait already clogging my feed. But there is a silver lining: Our legal system is starting to recognize this shift and hold tech giants responsible for the effects of their algorithms — a significant, and even possibly transformative, development that over the next few years could finally force social media platforms to be answerable for the societal consequences of their choices.

Let’s back up and start with the problem. Section 230, a snippet of law embedded in the 1996 Communications Decency Act, was initially intended to protect tech companies from defamation claims related to posts made by users. That protection made sense in the early days of social media, when we largely chose the content we saw, based on whom we “friended” on sites such as Facebook. Since we selected those relationships, it was relatively easy for the companies to argue they should not be blamed if your Uncle Bob insulted your strawberry pie on Instagram.

Then, of course, things got a little darker. Not everything Uncle Bob shared was accurate, and the platforms’ algorithms prioritized outrageous, provocative content from anyone with internet access over more neutral, fact-based reporting. Despite this, the tech companies’ lawyers continued to argue, successfully, that they were not responsible for the content shared on their platforms — no matter how misleading or dangerous.

Section 230 now has been used to shield tech from consequences for facilitating deadly drug sales, sexual harassment, illegal arms sales and human trafficking. And in the meantime, the companies grew to be some of the most valuable in the world.

Then came TikTok. After the wild popularity of TikTok’s “For You” algorithm, which selects bite-size videos to be fed to the passive viewer, social networks are increasingly having us watch whatever content their algorithms have chosen, often pushing to the sidelines the posts of accounts we had actually chosen to follow.

As annoying as this development has been, it could be beneficial in the fight to gain more control of our online lives. If tech platforms are actively shaping our experiences, after all, maybe they should be held liable for creating experiences that damage our bodies, our children, our communities and our democracy.

In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that TikTok was not immune to a legal challenge regarding its algorithm, which disseminated dangerous videos promoting a “blackout challenge” showing people strangling themselves until they passed out. TikTok delivered a video of the challenge to a 10-year-old girl named Nylah Anderson, who tried to emulate it and killed herself.

Placing the video on Nylah’s feed “was TikTok’s own ‘expressive activity,’ and thus its first-party speech,” Judge Patty Shwartz wrote. The judge, writing for a three-judge panel, rejected the company’s defense that the video was made by a third party and thus protected by Section 230. (TikTok has petitioned the Third Circuit to rehear its case with a broader panel of judges.)

In a similar vein, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia ruled last month that Meta could not use Section 230 as a shield against a lawsuit by the district’s attorney general alleging, among other things, that the company’s “personalization algorithms” were designed to be addictive for children, as are other harmful features such as infinite scroll and frequent alerts. There are additional pending cases across the globe alleging tech-company culpability for the distribution of nonconsensual A.I.-generated nude images, hate speech and scams.

The issue is likely to end up at the Supreme Court. In July, the justices returned two challenges to state laws that restrict the power of social media companies to moderate content to lower courts, without addressing the implications for Section 230. Justice Clarence Thomas, though, has repeatedly signaled that he is eager for a chance to whittle away at Section 230’s protections.

If the court holds platforms liable for their algorithmic amplifications, it could prompt them to limit the distribution of noxious content such as nonconsensual nude images and dangerous lies intended to incite violence. It could force companies including TikTok to ensure they are not algorithmically promoting harmful or discriminatory products. And, to be fair, it could also lead to some overreach in the other direction, with platforms having a greater incentive to censor speech.

My hope is that the erection of new legal guardrails would create incentives to build platforms that give control back to users. It could be a win-win: We get to decide what we see, and they get to limit their liability.

In the meantime, there are alternatives. I’ve already moved most of my social networking to Bluesky, a platform that allows me to manage my content moderation settings. I also subscribe to several other feeds — including one that provides news from verified news organizations and another that shows me what posts are popular with my friends.

Of course, controlling our own feeds is a bit more work than passive viewing. But it’s also educational. It requires us to be intentional about what we are looking for — just as we decide which channel to watch or which publication to subscribe to.

This brings me to a very different kind of lawsuit. A professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst named Ethan Zuckerman is suing Meta, arguing that Section 230 gives him the right to release a tool that helps Facebook users to control their feeds.

I hope he succeeds. Giving power back to the users would not only be good for us as citizens, and it would also test the tech companies’ longstanding argument that the problems with social media is what we are doing to ourselves — not what they are doing to us.

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Update 1.1 to the game makes the camera controls more responsive, and also adds edge scrolling and cursor lock. Meanwhile, the Frostbreaking element that expands buildable areas can now be performed across any cell instead of being limited by connections.

Construction canceling while mid-way, color-coded district outlines for better visual clarity, immersive Frostbreaking visuals with visible nomads, and other quality of life updates are here. Autosaves are now adjustable too, and they can even be disabled outright. A better cartography view, and ongoing research being highlighted on the Idea Tree and its button are included as new changes on the update as well.

The studio says improving performance has been a key focus in its post-launch update direction. This includes "large-scale optimizations" and updated "DirectX libraries" are a part of these changes. A whole lot of bug fixes, including one for the "macOS audio stack overflow crash" have also landed.

"This update is yet another early testament to the power of community's feedback," adds 11 bit studios. "We are committed to continually improving Frostpunk 2, and your input is crucial in shaping the future of New London. If you believe Frostpunk 2 is heading in the right direction with these changes, we would love for your voice to be heard."

Frostpunk 2 update 1.1.0 is now available to owners of the game across Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG. Find the complete patch notes for the update here. The game is also coming to Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 platforms sometime in 2025. The studio announced last month that it has already recovered its production and marketing costs after selling over 350,000 copies just a few days into its launch.

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AMD has finally revealed the launch date of its upcoming Ryzen 9000 processors with stacked 3D V-Cache. At the moment, details are scarce, and all the official information we have is the launch date. If you want the latest Ryzen 9000X3D chip, mark November 7 on your calendar.

AMD's teaser does not provide much information about the upcoming processor, except for the launch date and the general facts about the AM5 platform and the Zen5 architecture, such as PCIe Gen 5.0 and DDR5 memory support. However, according to multiple rumors, AMD will launch its next-gen X3D processors with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D reportedly features eight cores and 104MB of L3 cache, with the maximum clock reaching up to 5.2GHz. This chip should tame the criticism that the initial Ryzen 9000 lineup faced after reviewers discovered that the previous-gen Ryzen 7000X3D models offer better game performance. However, as leaked MSI slides revealed, the gaming performance uplift over the previous-gen X3D models is not going to be mind-blowing.

The news about the launch of Ryzen 9000X3D processors comes short of Intel's launch of Core Ultra 200S chips, which should debut on October 24. Interestingly, Intel already confirmed that its latest processors are slightly slower than AMD's Ryzen 7000X3D processors. It is quite possible that for many, sticking to the more affordable Ryzen 7000X3D models will be a better option money-wise.

If you do not care about AMD's Ryzen 9000X3D processors, you might be tempted to get its latest Ryzen 9000 chips, which are now up to $50 off. The discount applies to the Ryzen 9 9950X ($50 off) and the Ryzen 9 9900X, Ryzen 7 9700X, and Ryzen 5 9600X ($30 off).

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What you need to know

• The U.S. Army wants Microsoft to reduce the cost of IVAS militarized augmented reality headsets to "be substantially less than" $80,000 per unit, which is the current project cost.
• IVAS has faced several delays and challenges for several years, but Microsoft's deal with the U.S. Army regarding the headsets could be worth almost $22 billion.
• Microsoft discontinued HoloLens 2 recently and the company's mixed reality efforts are largely dead.

When Microsoft discontinued HoloLens 2 and announced end of support for the mixed reality headset, many asked if the announcement would affect the tech giant's planned military headset. Microsoft clarified at the time that it is "fully committed" to its Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), even after discontinuing HoloLens 2. While Microsoft is committed to IVAS, it appears the U.S. Army may have some hesitations. That is, unless Microsoft can lower the cost of individual IVAS units.

Microsoft needs to get the cost of an IVAS headset to "be substantially less than” $80,000, as highlighted by a report by Bloomberg. That figure is the current projected cost of an individual IVAS unit. Microsoft's current deal with the U.S. Army could be worth up to almost $22 billion, but several hurdles have to be cleared before things continue.

The U.S. Army has been testing IVAS, and initial tests were not great. Soldiers experienced headaches and nausea during testing, but things have since improved. Army acquisition chief Doug Bush said that testing" is going much better than the first time around" and that "a lot of problems have been fixed." Those comments were made during the annual Association of the US Army conference last week.

Bush also shared the unit costs will be "a key factor next year when senior leaders make decisions about going into production."

IVAS units are militarized augmented reality helmets that can provide soldiers powerful insights in real time, such as issuing warnings for threats. The headsets also include night vision and are much more durable than commercial or enterprise augmented reality systems. Those specs and the cost of developing IVAS add up. Bloomberg highlighted that the display, battery, and chest unit of an IVAS unit cost $41,824 (as outlined by budget documents for the project). The rest of the cost is related to engineering, software support, and working with the Army.

While IVAS units are expensive, Microsoft is looking into ways to reduce costs. "We are going through the program to identify where we can reduce costs," said Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Mixed Reality Robin Seiler.

"It’s a fairly complex system, so when you look at cost reduction you have to look at it from a component level, from a labor level and from your supply chain," she added.