TechPowerUP NEWS

[NextPowerUP]

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a leading brand in gaming PC components, gaming laptops, and Hi-fi audio products, announces the launch of the iGame GeForce RTX 5060 Series graphics cards which consists of three variants: the RTX 5060 Ti (16 GB and 8 GB variants) and RTX 5060 graphics cards. The COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 5060 Series features the Advanced, Ultra W, and Battle Ax models and also compact dual-fan models with the Ultra W DUO and NB DUO models.

Powered by NVIDIA Blackwell, GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs bring game-changing capabilities to gamers and creators. Equipped with a massive level of AI horsepower, the RTX 50 Series enables new experiences and next-level graphics fidelity. Multiply performance with NVIDIA DLSS 4, generate images at unprecedented speed, and unleash creativity with NVIDIA Studio.
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[NextPowerUP]

Dear Sleepers, These are exciting times, we're closing in on launch, and we've just initiated a major preview beta where hundreds of journalists and content creators are playing the early parts of the game and will be releasing their coverage on April 25th. These past few weeks we've been steadily gearing up, releasing the Character Creator & Benchmark Mode back in February, starting pre-orders in March, and continuing to release new livestreams, videos, and details to keep you informed.

We want to thank everyone who has shared in our excitement. It's been a joy reading all your comments across the various community channels. Our ongoing Persistent Closed Beta is also continuing in full force, with regular updates, and the feedback we've been collecting from beta testers has been invaluable in making sure we can launch a quality game. We have a very active Discord going with our beta testers where our developers can interact directly with them to ensure we collaboratively make Dune: Awakening a better game.
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[NextPowerUP]

Chinese hardware enthusiasts and AI researchers are rolling out custom versions of NVIDIA's latest flagship GPU, the GeForce RTX 5090D "Blackwell" variant for China. Originally intended as a special model that complies with US export regulations, the RTX 5090D is proving to be an excellent choice for smaller AI labs. Building on the trend set by specialist firms modifying the RTX 3090 and RTX 4090, these teams have taken the GB202 chip and mounted it on new PCBs with blower‑style coolers better suited to AI server racks than gaming rigs. Instead of large fans and complex heatsinks, each card uses a dual‑slot blower design that pushes hot air straight out the back of the chassis.

The power connector has also been moved to the rear bracket, making it easier to stack cards in clusters without cables getting in the way. Each unit still packs 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, although the maximum power draw remains unconfirmed. While previous "D" series cards topped out around 450 W, with Blackwell, this figure might approach 575 W, similar to the regular RTX 5090. This blower cooler could be undersized for a near‑600 W TDP, but with undervolting and underclocking, it may operate with stability over long workloads. Given that Chinese AI labs are struggling to acquire enough GPU capacity, some smaller labs and university researchers are possibly far away from getting enough compute resources for their work. So, repackaging these GPUs into workstation bodies is the only choice to get some acceleration in the hands of the masses.

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[NextPowerUP]

Sapphire Technology has given a sneak peek of its new PULSE A620AM WIFI motherboard. This board uses the AMD A620A chipset, comes in an microATX size, and has two slots for DDR5 memory. The PULSE A620AM WIFI boasts a 6+2+1 phase power system, with an aluminium heatsink that covers the VRM left-side area. Sapphire's tests show that the board "keeps steady and runs at consistent speeds when using high-end processors like the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 7 9800X3D at full load."

For extras, this board lets you overclock DDR5 memory up to 7200 MT/s, has one PCIe 4.0 x16 slot and one PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, comes with two M.2 storage spots, and includes built-in Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 support. On the back of the Sapphire PULSE A620AM WIFI board, you'll find one HDMI port, one DisplayPort, four USB 2.0 ports, one PS/2 port for keyboard and mouse, two USB-A ports, one RJ45 Ethernet port, two Wi-Fi antenna plugs, and three audio jacks. IT Home reports that the board "will hit online stores starting April 21" at what they call a "budget-friendly price". Judging from the aesthetics and features, Sapphire PULSE A620AM WIFI motherboards are oriented toward users on a tight budget. Until the official release, we just have to wait and see Sapphire's vision of a "budget-friendly price".

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[NextPowerUP]

LIAN LI Industrial Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of chassis and PC accessories, unveils the LANCOOL 207 Digital, a clever approach to rethinking the layout of an ATX case. It is now equipped with a 6-inch customizable LCD to personalize and monitor CPU and GPU temperatures, etc. The chassis maintains an optimized front-mounted PSU design, pre-installed high-performance fans, and extensive cooling support, the LANCOOL 207 Digital offers a sleek and functional solution for PC builders at an affordable price of $109.99.

The LANCOOL 207 Digital features a 6-inch LCD seamlessly integrated into the front panel's base, providing both functionality and personalization. The screen boasts a 720x1600 resolution, a 60 Hz refresh rate, and a brightness of 500 nits, ensuring crisp and vivid visuals. Controlled through L-Connect 3 software, users can monitor their system's CPU, GPU, and fan performance metrics at a quick glance. They also can select from dynamic backgrounds and pre-made displays that are fully customizable with personal videos or background images to match their setup's aesthetic. In addition to customization, the display also serves as a secondary screen via a USB connection, offering added versatility for multitasking or system monitoring. In Offline mode, the LCD remains functional even when the system is powered off, displaying the time and date for continuous utility.
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[NextPowerUP]

NVIDIA's latest GeForce 576.02 WHQL driver, released on April 16, which brought support for the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, appears to deliver unexpected performance gains for several "Blackwell" GeForce RTX 50 series GPUS in UL's 3DMark Steel Nomad benchmark. ComputerBase community users with RTX 5070, 5070 Ti, and 5080 GPUs reported three to eight percent score uplifts after upgrading, prompting ComputerBase to verify these claims under controlled conditions. Their independent testing confirms that the RTX 5080 jumps from 8,094 to 8,550 points (a 5.6 percent boost), the RTX 5070 Ti climbs from 6,463 to 6,932 points (7.3 percent), and the RTX 5070 improves from 4,838 to 5,242 points (8.4 percent).

By contrast, the flagship RTX 5090 sees only a marginal lift from 14,032 to 14,117 points, which is well within standard test variance, while the RTX 5060 Ti remains essentially unchanged at roughly 3,530 points, likely because it launched with an up-to-date driver. When evaluating other popular UL benchmarks, namely Speed Way and Time Spy, ComputerBase observed no measurable uplift from driver version 576.02. In fact, some Time Spy runs dipped slightly, underlining that the anomaly appears confined to Steel Nomad's specific workload. It's important to note that synthetic benchmarks do not always translate directly to in-game performance. Historical data from ComputerBase's GPU suite suggests Blackwell cards sometimes outperform their synthetic gains in actual titles, but results vary by engine and title. Besides RTX 5060 Ti support and a strange performance increase, the 576.02 WHQL fixes a host of game‑specific crashes, stutters, aliasing, and stability issues across titles like Fortnite, Overwatch 2, Hellblade II, Control, and more.

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[NextPowerUP]

ASUS today announced the new ASUS Chromebook CX14/CX15 series of powerful yet budget-friendly 14-inch and 15-inch laptops. The series features a stylish and sustainable premium design, and the laptops are also available with Chromebook Plus options for enhanced performance and Google AI experiences.

The series features an exciting range of seven colors—with five choices for CX14 and five for CX15—and three different surface finishes. The eco-conscious construction uses 30% recycled plastics.
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[NextPowerUP]

You might know Canva for its flashy templates and social-friendly visuals, but when it comes to creating professional diagrams or flowcharts that actually mean something to your boss, Microsoft Visio quietly reigns supreme. And now, it's cheaper than ever—just $14.97 for a lifetime license via StackSocial (reg. $249.99).

Visio is the diagramming tool professionals turn to when a wall of bullet points just won't cut it. Whip up flowcharts, org charts, floor plans, and network diagrams in a matter of minutes. It's like Canva, but for engineers, project managers, and data nerds who need to communicate clearly and get stuff done.

Get a Microsoft Visio lifetime license for $14.97 (reg. $249.99) while this deal is still live. No subscription, no fluff, just pro-grade visuals made easy.
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[NextPowerUP]

Team Group Inc., the leading global memory and storage provider, continues to refine its diverse storage portfolio with the launch of the Team Group X2 MAX USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 Portable SSD and S5 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Flash Drive. Designed to provide a complete personal storage solution, both products feature an ultra-compact design with versatile capacity options to meet a wide range of user needs.

The Team Group X2 MAX USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 Portable SSD supports USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 and delivers transfer speeds of up to 1,000 MB/s for a lightning-fast and seamless user experience when managing large files, transferring multimedia, and editing high-resolution photos and videos. Featuring both dual Type-A and Type-C connectors, the X2 MAX ensures broad compatibility across a wide range of devices, including the latest PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, enabling seamless access to AAA games. With up to 2 TB of storage and weighing only 12 g, the X2 MAX eliminates the need for additional adapters or cables. The high-capacity, high-performance portable device allows users to easily store and access 4K video, high-resolution photos, and multimedia files anytime, anywhere.
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[NextPowerUP]

MSI unveiled its new lineup of AI gaming desktops featuring NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards, from the powerful RTX 5090 to the recently released RTX 5060 Ti and RTX 5060. The GeForce RTX 50 Series significantly enhances both gaming and AI task performance in these new systems. Gamers can expect higher frame rates in demanding titles, while content creators will benefit from faster rendering times and improved AI-assisted workflows.

The integration of NVIDIA DLSS 4 technology is a standout feature across the lineup. DLSS 4 delivers significantly faster frame rates and superior image quality for all RTX 50 Series systems, ensuring MSI gaming desktops provide responsive gameplay and immersive visual experiences. These advancements allow the new gaming systems to deliver exceptional performance in the latest titles while handling demanding AI tasks with ease.
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[NextPowerUP]

Speed running scientists and challenge hunters, rejoice. After years of crafting, your invitation to Bionic Bay is now available on Steam and PlayStation 5. It began with a chance meeting on Reddit, and now the Bionic Bay story continues with you, our trusted Research Participants. In Bionic Bay you'll master the art of teleportation, control the very fabric of time itself, manipulate gravity and navigate a path filled with dangers. Our team will provide you with the tools you'll need to traverse this intricately crafted pixel art world. But don't let the stunning visuals fool you, this is no slow-moving narrative crawl. The best way to navigate Bionic Bay is with fast movements, precise controls, exceptional timing, puzzle solving intuition and just maybe a little bit of luck.

What you've seen in the Bionic Bay demo is just the beginning. Bionic Bay v1.0 includes 23 painstakingly created levels, with an increasing challenge to simply stay alive through your journey. Importantly, however, the path can be as helpful as it is dangerous, and Research Participants will need to judge the way ahead accordingly. In addition to the main game, we've also developed the Bionic Bay Online mode, with a dedicated build for speed runners and those hungry for a challenge. In this demanding arena, you'll have the opportunity to customize your own scientist, and claim your place on our transient and global leaderboards.
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[NextPowerUP]

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB graphics card design received little fanfare when review embargoes lifted mid-way through the working week. Reportedly by official instruction, involved board partners sent out 16 GB samples to evaluators. Multiple Western outlets are currently attempting to source GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB cards—on their own dime—including TechPowerUp. As mentioned in his conclusive rundown of PALIT's GeForce RTX 5060 Ti Infinity 3 16 GB model, W1zzard commented on this situation: "personally, I'm very interested in my results for the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB, which I'm trying to buy now." The ever reliable harukaze5719 has already stumbled upon one such review. Yesterday, Carbon-based Technology Research Institute (CBTRI) uploaded their findings onto the Chinese bilibili video platform.

Two ASUS options were compared to each other: an 8 GB Hatsune Miku Special Edition card, and a better known property: PRIME RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB. In most situations the two variants perform similarly. A clear difference was demonstrated when CBTRI's lab test moved into a DLSS 4 with Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) phase. Both harukaze5719 and Tom's Hardware noted a significant gulf—the latter's report observed: "in Cyberpunk 2077, for example, the RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB inexplicably performed worse than the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB at native 1440p resolution. While enabling MFG helped improve performance, pushing it to 4x delivered underwhelming results, with the 16 GB version providing 22% higher performance than the 8 GB card." Rumors have swirled about the late arrival of GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8 GB cards at retail; potentially a week after the launch of 16 GB siblings. As evidenced by early results, potential buyers should consider paying a little extra ($50) for a larger pool of VRAM. Team Green's introductory material outlined starter price tags of $429 (16 GB) and $379 (8 GB).

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[NextPowerUP]

Today Canonical announced the release of Ubuntu 25.04, codenamed "Plucky Puffin. Ubuntu 25.04 delivers the latest GNOME 48 with support for triple buffering and an improved install and boot experience. The introduction of a "devpack" for Spring expands toolchain availability in Ubuntu. Advancements in silicon enablement with Canonical's partners deliver performance improvements for AI workloads on Intel GPUs, and support for confidential computing on AMD SEV-SNP.

"Plucky Puffin combines the very latest in open source desktop technology with a focus on making high quality developer tooling readily available on Ubuntu. Ubuntu 25.04 delivers performance improvements across Intel GPUs, and a new purpose-built ISO for ARM64 hardware enthusiasts. Our increasing support for confidential computing with AMD SEV-SNP makes Ubuntu the target platform to deploy AI workloads securely and at scale on both public clouds and private data centers.", Jon Seager, VP of Ubuntu Engineering at Canonical
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[NextPowerUP]

Weapon systems live, awaiting orders...Your army is ready, Commander! Tempest Rising Early Unlock is now available for all players who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition. We want to thank you all for supporting our game since we first announced it way back in 2022. We read every comment, and the excitement we've seen from RTS players around the world has kept us motivated throughout development. Also, a special thank you to all the players and other developers in the community who played Tempest Rising at live events, tried out our demos, and participated in our Closed Beta; your passion for RTS games was clear, and the feedback you gave us was invaluable during development! We hope you enjoy Tempest Rising as much as we enjoyed making it!

Double Time!
If you have not pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition, but are now considering playing early, don't worry, there's still time. Or maybe you're looking to get access to the Commander Pack items, like the Commander Main Menu backdrop. You can still purchase either edition before April 24 and still get the early bonuses for each! Below, you will find a brief breakdown of the Early Unlock information.
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[NextPowerUP]

Digital Foundry's Oliver Mackenzie and a member of the Resetera video game discussion forum have alerted the wider community to a small change within the text on several of Nintendo's Switch 2 product web presences. Mackenzie's social media post included a comparative screenshot; showing before and after conditions; Digital Foundry's Canadian correspondent provided comment: "some weird stuff going on at Nintendo. Looks like they've changed their US website to no longer mention VRR support for TV play? Only HDR and 120 Hz support get a call-out." Additional press coverage has put spotlights on Nintendo's Japan and Canada websites; both regional offices have scrubbed "VRR" (variable refresh rate) from Switch 2 promotional material. At the time of writing, Nintendo of Europe and UK's hardware feature sections still showcase an unadulterated description: "bring games to life with a larger 1080p screen—or connect to a TV and play in up to 4K resolution. Support for HDR, VRR, and frame rates up to 120 FPS let you enjoy brilliant colour, clarity, and smooth gameplay."

Video Games Chronicle and a few other news sites have reached out to Nintendo for comment regarding this confusing situation. The Switch 2 maker is notorious for its guarded stance when discussing technical details—as evidenced recently, by a top employee deflecting responsibility in NVIDIA's general direction. Mackenzie reckons that VRR support—when paired with compatible televisions and monitors—could be added post-launch (June 5). It is possible that Nintendo's engineering department has removed this feature from its day one bag of tricks. Meanwhile, the Switch 2's surprisingly capable integrated display is expected to arrive without any technological compromises.

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