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Xiaomi XRING 01 SoC Die Shot Analyzed by Chinese Tech YouTuber
Three weeks ago, Kurnal and Geekerwan dived deep into Nintendo's alleged Switch 2 chipset. The very brave Chinese leakers are notorious for their acquiring of pre-release and early silicon samples. Last week, their collective attention turned to a brand-new Xiaomi mobile chip: the XRING 01. After months of insider murmurs and official teasers, the smartphone giant recently unveiled its proprietary flagship SoC. According to industry moles, Xiaomi has invested a lot of manpower into a special chip design entity—leadership likely wants to avoid a repeat of prior first-party developed disappointments. Despite rumors of disappointing prototype performance figures, mid-May Geekbench results pointed to the emergent XRING 01 mobile chip being up there with Qualcomm's dominant Snapdragon 8 Elite platform. Die shot analysis has confirmed Xiaomi's selection of a TSMC 3 nm "N3E" node process; also utilized by the latest Apple, Qualcomm and MediaTek flagships. Overall die size is 114.48 mm² (10.8 x 10.6 mm), with 109.5 mm² of used area; comparable to Apple's A18 Pro SoC footprint (refer to Geekerwan's comparison shot, below).
Unlike nearby rivals, the XRING 01 seems to not sport an integrated 5G modem. Notebookcheck surmised: "it is rumored to use an external radio from MediaTek. It isn't located on the actual die itself, and likely a contributing factor to why its size is so small." Annotations indicate the presence of off-the-shelf/licensed Arm CPU cores (ten in total): two Cortex-X925 units, four Cortex-A725 units, two Cortex-A725 units, and two Cortex-A520 units. Additionally, an Arm Immortalis-G925 MP16 iGPU was identified. A 6-core NPU—with 16 MB of cache—was highlighted, but it is not clear whether this is a proprietary effort or something bought in. Observers have noted the absence of SLC cache. GSMArena posited: "the Geekerwan team speculates that (Xiaomi's) omission of the SLC has hurt GPU efficiency—it's pretty fast, but it uses more power than the Dimensity GPU at peak performance. The more efficient CPU combined with the fact that the GPU rarely runs at full tilt makes for pretty good overall efficiency in real-life gaming tests." The XRING department's debut product is impressive, but industry watchdogs are looking forward to refined variants or full-fledged successors.
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PowerColor Radeon AI PRO R9700 Card Design Reminiscent of AMD's Refere
Last week, AMD introduced its Radeon AI PRO R9700 32 GB professional graphics card—representing the RDNA 4 generation's first foray into non-gaming territories. The TechPowerUp team encountered board partner variants on the showroom floor, with GIGABYTE and ASRock exhibiting samples with blower-style cooling solutions. At the time, Team Red's reference design was only visible in promotional/artistic renders. According to the company's official product page, this particular model is "not available for purchase." AMD made similar claims during the early days of—related Navi 48 GPU-based—Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 cards. Months later, Chinese hardware enthusiasts picked up physical "Made-By-AMD" (MBA) examples via murky second hand market channels.
At some point this week, PowerColor's web presences were updated with a semi-familiar sight: an almost direct interpretation of the AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 reference card. The Taiwanese AIB has removed "AI" and "PRO R9700" text from their variant's shroud design, and applied a customary "PowerColor" logo and symbol sticker onto the lone blower fan's face. VideoCardz believes that pre-announcement renders and specification leaks had caused confusion across insider networks—hence the emergence of "Radeon RX 9070 XT(X) 32 GB" rumors, within the first quarter of 2025. PowerColor did not showcase its pro-grade at the recently concluded Computex trade event—instead, company representatives were tasked with hyping up incoming custom Radeon RX 9060 XT gaming cards, and a mysterious "REVA" prototype. At the time of writing, PowerColor has not issued any Radeon AI PRO R9700-related press material. AMD and manufacturing partners are expected to launch finalized products in July.
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(PR) LIAN LI Intros the UNI FAN SL-INFINITY Wireless: One Fan, Two Des
LIAN LI Industrial Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of chassis and PC accessories, expands the UNI FAN series with the new UNI FAN SL-INFINITY Wireless. Designed for ultimate customization, the new fans feature three independently controlled lighting zones and two sides of unique styles, thanks to different dual-layered infinity mirror designs on each side. The flexible receiver can connect to either side for easy installation. An upgraded 4-pin cable ensures that the fans are instantly recognized as PWM devices in the BIOS, with a built-in tail PWM cable delivering extra power when needed. Reducing the clutter even further, L-Wireless SYNC 2.4 GHz technology enables full wireless control of ARGB lighting and fan speeds.
Limitless Lighting and Dual-Sided Design
The UNI FAN SL-INFINITY Wireless introduces three independently controlled lighting zones, allowing users to unlock new levels of customization when designing their build. Each side of the fan features a distinct double infinity mirror design, enabling users to showcase two different visual styles based on orientation. Whether facing one side or the other, the SL-INFINITY Wireless ensures stunning visuals from every angle. Lighting effects are fully customizable via the updated L-Connect 3 software.
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AMD's Export-Friendly Radeon AI PRO R9700 GPU Prepares for China Debut
According to the latest rumor mill, AMD is preparing Radeon AI PRO R9700, a new GPU designed specifically for the Chinese market. The new Radeon AI PRO R9700 GPU will feature deliberately handicapped performance parameters that comply with the most recent US export regulations while still supporting the local industry's needs for tasks such as on-device inference and model fine-tuning. To adhere to Washington's restrictions, AMD has reduced the chip's compute throughput to remain below the critical threshold for controlled exports, yet it retains 32 GB of high-bandwidth frame buffer memory and full PCIe Gen 5 connectivity. These specifications are intended to ensure efficient data transfer, and when multiple R9700 cards are deployed together, they can deliver substantial processing capability despite the lower power per card.
This China-specific strategy follows a challenging period for AMD in that region, including an $800 million charge related to its MI308 accelerator after it was blocked under earlier rules. NVIDIA has also suffered, losing an estimated $5.5 billion in revenue when its H20 series was barred, and seeing its Chinese market share drop from roughly 90 percent in 2021 to about 50 percent today. These developments have created an opening for AMD to compete on both price and supply reliability. AMD's approach mirrors NVIDIA's release of a restricted-performance version of its Blackwell-architecture B20 GPU for China. Priced more competitively than previous China-compliant offerings, the Radeon AI PRO R9700 will arrive in the third quarter of 2025 alongside NVIDIA's B20. AMD intends to present its full AI silicon roadmap at the Advancing AI Summit on June 12, positioning the R9700 as a targeted solution for enterprises and research institutions rather than for hyperscale cloud environments.
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Microsoft to Enforce Certain USB-C Features on WHCP Tested Laptops
The Type-C USB connector has made it a lot easier—at least in theory—to connect devices, but it's not without its faults, especially as it's been hard to know what capabilities both the ports and the cables deliver. The USB-IF has solved most of the issues on the cable side with clearer markings on certified cables, but that still leaves both computers and devices as a gotcha point. Microsoft has now announced that it has a new WHCP (Windows Hardware Compatibility Program) test for Windows 11 laptops that guarantees certain features from a Type-C USB port. No, it doesn't mean all new Windows 11 WHCP laptops will support USB4, which is something of a letdown, but it does guarantee that all USB-C ports on new WHCP laptops will support charging of the laptop and at least DP Alt mode for one display.
As the older USB 3.x standard doesn't support many of the features of USB4, there are several limitations to laptops that lack USB4 support, beyond just data transfer speeds over USB, such as PCIe tunnelling and Thunderbolt 3 support. However, Microsoft mandates Thunderbolt 3 support on all WHCP laptops with USB4 support. USB4 equipped WHCP laptops also have to support 15 W device charging and at least a pair of 4K 60 Hz displays via DP Alt mode. Microsoft's new WHCP testing does at least remove some of the guesswork when buying a new laptop, but until all laptops support USB4, there will still be devices with limited USB Type-C ports in the market.
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AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB Shows Up In Early Time Spy Benchmark With
AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 9060 XT has shown up in the news a number of times leading up to the expected retail launch, from AsRock's announcement to a recent Geekbench leak that put the RDNA 4 GPU ahead of the RX 7600 XT by a fair shout. Now, however, we have a gaming benchmark from 3DMark Time Spy showing the RX 9060 XT nearly matching the RX 7700 XT, and those results could still improve as drivers mature and become more stable. The benchmark results are courtesy of u/uesato_hinata, who got their hands on an XFX Swift AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16 GB and posted their results on r/AMD on Reddit.
There are a few caveats to these performance figures, though, since the redditor who shared the results was using beta drivers and a moderate GPU overclock and undervolt—cited as "+200mhz clock offset -40mv undervolt +10% power limit, I can get 3.46Ghz at 199 W". With those performance tweaks, however, the RX 9060 XT puts up a respectable result of 14,210 points in 3DMark Time Spy. For comparison, the average RX 7700 XT scores 15,452 points in the same benchmark. However, it should also be noted that the gaming PC used in the RX 9060 XT benchmark in question was powered by a rather old AMD Ryzen 5 5600 paired with mismatched DDR4-2133 RAM, meaning there is likely at least some performance left on the table, even if GPU utilization seems consistently high in the 3DMark monitoring chart, indicating there was little bottlenecking limiting the performance. The redditor went on to benchmark the GPU in Black Myth: Wukong, where it managed a 64 FPS average at stock clocks at 1080p, with most settings set to high. Applying the overclock boosted average FPS to a mere 65 FPS, but increased the minimum FPS from 17 to 23. These numbers also won't be representative of the performance for all RX 9060 XT GPUs, since we know that AMD is launching both 8 and 16 GB versions of the RX 9060 XT with different GPU clock speeds for the different memory variants
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Acer Predator BiFrost RX 9070 OC 16 GB SKU Hits Retail Two+ Months Aft
Acer was late with its contribution of custom RDNA 4 graphics card; introductory press material was issued after the fact, and potential buyers have waited a while for retail stock to reach end destinations. The Taiwanese manufacturer's opening salvo consisted of premium "Predator BiFrost" and sub-flagship "Nitro" overclocked Radeon RX 9070 XT models, but non-XT options did not launch at the same time. This morning, VideoCardz noted the availability of Predator BiFrost RX 9070 OC 16 GB cards in Japan. The company's regional office has opened its direct-to-customer order book; to the tune of 128,800 yen (including sales tax) per unit—converting to roughly ~$902 (USD).
Unlike XT equivalents, Acer's Predator BiFrost OC and Nitro OC RX 9070 models feature two 8-pin power connectors (instead of three units). Currently, the Geizhals/Skinflint price aggregator denotes stock—of both SKUs—being present at e-tailers in Germany and Austria. According to comparisons, the best Predator BiFrost RX 9070 OC deal comes in at €709 (inc. VAT), at GALAXUS. PLAYOX and Office-Partner.de offer the lowest Nitro RX 9070 OC price tags: €669 (inc. VAT), plus €4.99 processing fees. Acer has not publicly disclosed the reasons behind subsequent sluggish launches of its RDNA 4 portfolio. Curiously enough, Yeston—best known for dealing in eccentric card designs—foresaw a post-April stabilization of Radeon RX 9070 series shipments.
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CD PROJEKT RED Team Begins Cyberpunk 2 Pre-Production
CD PROJEKT RED has confirmed that Cyberpunk 2, previously known as "Project Orion," is now in pre-production. This move follows weeks of initial planning, and the development team is shifting focus toward concrete concept work. During this phase, designers and writers will refine story outlines, build environment layouts, and establish technical specifications before full production begins. One of the goals for Cyberpunk 2 is to expand beyond Night City. According to series creator Mike Pondsmith, players can expect a second city inspired by a ruined, dystopian version of Chicago. This new urban area is intended to evoke a sense of oppression and weariness yet remains rich in detail. By adding another metropolis, CD PROJEKT RED hopes to enhance the game's sense of scale and introduce new social dynamics that contrast with Night City's neon glow.
On the gameplay side, Cyberpunk 2 will deepen its focus on cybernetic enhancements. Drawing on ideas from the original pen-and-paper role-playing game, developers plan to incorporate body modifications that were not included in Cyberpunk 2077. Gamers can look forward to a broader selection of implantable upgrades, ranging from neural interfaces to advanced prosthetics. These new options should diversify character builds and provide players with more freedom when crafting their playstyles, ranging from stealthy infiltration to all-out combat. Despite the excitement, a release date remains far in the future. At this stage, only 96 developers are assigned to Cyberpunk 2, while the majority of CD PROJEKT RED is working on The Witcher 4, which is already in full production. A realistic launch window is around 2030.
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(PR) Funcom Details Dune: Awakening's Rentable Private Server System
Greetings soon-to-be-awakened, today, just about 72 hours before the floodgates open, we can finally share with you that rentable private servers will be available from head start launch on June 5th! We've previously communicated that private servers are for post-launch, but we're happy to share that progress has been faster than expected. We do, however, want to manage expectations about how private servers work in Dune: Awakening. As you know, this is not your typical survival game.
Why private servers work differently in Dune: Awakening
Dune: Awakening is powered by a unique server and world structure, something we went in-depth on in a recent blog post. In short: each server belongs to a World consisting of several other servers, and each of those share the same social hubs and Deep Desert. This allows us to retain a neighborhood-like feel to the Hagga Basin and provide persistent, freeform building, and other server-demanding mechanics you typically see in survival games. We combine this with the large-scale multiplayer mechanics you would expect to find in MMOs where hundreds of players meet each other in social hubs and the Deep Desert to engage in social activities, trade, conflict, and more.
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Microsoft Enriches Notepad with Basic Text Formatting
Microsoft has updated its most popular and most basic text editor with some new functionality. In Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels on Windows 11, Microsoft has updated Notepad to version 11.2504.50.0, introducing basic text formatting to its previously simple text editor. Now, it supports Markdown integration, featuring formatted Markdown and Markdown syntax views in the view menu, which allows users to type out Markdown syntax and view it rendered later on. While this may seem like a minor functionality improvement, it is an effort from Microsoft to enrich its basic text editor to a point where it is just enough for lightweight text editing but not close to its flagship Word text editor/processor. As you may recall, Microsoft also recently integrated Copilot, its AI assistant, into Notepad. This update, along with Copilot, will enable users to perform basic text processing with the help of AI, correcting grammar, spelling, and even Markdown syntax mistakes on the fly.
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