TechPowerUP NEWS

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Razer entered the AI development space at CES 2026 with the Forge AI Dev Workstation, a powerful computer built to handle AI tasks locally instead of relying on cloud services. The system supports up to four professional graphics cards, either AMD or NVIDIA, alongside workstation processors from AMD or Intel, with room for eight DDR5 memory modules and multiple high-speed SSDs. After twenty years of making gaming hardware, the company is now targeting AI developers who want to avoid subscription fees and keep sensitive data on their own machines. The workstation comes with a 2000 W power supply or even dual PSUs for quad-GPU setups and industrial-grade cooling to manage demanding multi-GPU workloads.

The launch also includes AIKit, an open-source toolkit that works with over 280,000 large language models, plus a partnership with Tenstorrent on a portable Thunderbolt AI accelerator for laptop-based development. Users can daisy-chain multiple accelerator units for more performance when needed. The Forge workstation works as a standalone tower or can be rack-mounted for larger setups, letting teams scale their computing resources locally. Additionally, for smaller local AI development, Tenstorrent's Wormhole accelerator is more than enough to run LLMs with a smaller size, but for bigger work the Forge AI Dev is needed.

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At CES 2026, Razer's star of the booth was its new project for more immersive gaming experience. Called "Project Madison," it is a gaming chair designed for additional "feel" coming from the system into your body. Razer achieves that by implementing haptic feedback directly into the chair made possible by six motor actuators that respond in real time to what is happening in the game. To aid the senses, Razer even integrated speakers that can output 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound to fully immerse the gamer into the scene. For additional visual help, there is Razer Chroma RGB lighting strips along the headrest which also match with the scenes from the monitor, so the immersive experience goes up a notch.

While pricing and availability is unknown, Razer's website has a form you can submit to be notified when the chair becomes available, so it is already in production with availability nearby. Below you can see some of the photos we took.

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At the Netac booth at CES 2026, we saw a fleet of memory and storage solutions that the company has prepared for the consumer market. Starting with its Basic memory lineup, it includes DDR5 memory running up to 4,800 MT/s with capacities of up to 32 GB per DIMM. On the other hand, its older DDR4 tops out at 3,200 MT/s with the same 32 GB max capacity (per kit). However, the company has prepared even more advanced DDR5 and DDR4 DIMMs that can reach much higher clock speeds. The Shadows series includes DDR5 running up to 6,400 MT/s, while DDR4 equivalents top out at 3,600 MT/s. Netac's highest-performing DDR5 kits come in the form of Z RGB series with 8,000 MT/s out-of-the-box speeds.
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ATK Gear is known for its affordable gaming peripherals that still deliver a decent gaming experience. The latest to join that line-up of peripherals is the ATK Gear Ghost mouse, which is slated to launch on January 14, 2026. While at CES 2026, the TechPowerUp team visited the ATK Gear stand, where the new mouse was being exhibited. The Ghost units being shown off at CES 2026 came in four color variants, all of which had a metallic sheen to them, likely at least partially as a result of the forged carbon fiber.

The ATK Gear Ghost is a lightweight, wireless, carbon fiber gaming mouse that will supposedly weigh as little as 49 g and feature a fairly conventional symmetrical shape. Given the release date, it's safe to assume the units shown on the CES show floor were pretty much production units. In the photos the team managed to grab during the show, you can see the large white skates on the bottom of the Ghost. Exact specifications have not been officially released yet, but given the hardware in the most recent launches from the company, like the Dragonfly A9 Ultimate and the Blazing Sky Duckbill, it's safe to say we'll see some combination of a PAW 3950 sensor and a Nordic 54 series MCU. Despite the carbon fiber shell, which is often touted as being stronger and lighter than regular ABS, the Ghost still has holes both in the top and bottom of the mouse.
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Acer revealed its Nitro Blaze 8 and 11 Windows gaming handhelds almost exactly a year ago, at CES 2025, but the 8- and 11-inch gaming handhelds have yet to materialize as purchasable products, nor have they shown up at CES 2026. According to recent reporting by Windows Central, Acer has put those gaming handheld ambitions on hold, with a representative from the company telling the publication that while the handhelds are still part of the launch roadmap for the US, "launch plans are TBD." The representative goes on to effectively blame the US tariff situation for the delayed launch, saying that Acer is "focused on our core products."

While the Acer Nitro Blaze family has not yet been cancelled, although the devices were slated to launch in Q2 2025, its continued delays could result in diminished success, especially if Acer doesn't upgrade the internals before launch. After all, while 16 GB of RAM is certainly still enough for many games, especially when running at lower resolutions and frame rates as is common on gaming handhelds, premium devices like the ASUS ROG Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go 2, and the OneXPlayer OneXFly at the very high end, have already stepped up to 32 GB and beyond. The AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS that would have originally powered the Acer Nitro Blaze devices will also soon start to show its age.

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FL Esports, a gaming peripherals brand mostly known for making retro-inspired gaming keyboards, made an appearance at CES 2026 to show off a bunch of new gaming gear, both from the main FL Esports brand and its TNT sub-brand. At the show, FL Esports showed off a slew of new carbon fiber gaming peripherals, including a new mouse and several carbon fiber gaming keyboards. FL Esports also showed off two new gaming mouse designs at CES 2026, both featuring carbon fiber shells. Both mice featured symmetrical right-handed designs, and one mouse matched the orange and forged carbon fiber look of the T60 HE keyboard. The other mouse seems to have a regular injection molded plastic shell and a carbon fiber outer shell with a more conventional fiber layup aesthetic. Not much else is known about the new gaming mice, but you can check out photos below for a look at what's to come.

The three new TNT keyboards shown off at CES 2026, which have been previously teased but not yet launched, are the T60 HE, T68 HE, and the T87 HE—HE keyboards with 60%, 65%, and TKL layouts, respectively. According to the information presented on the showroom floor, the T60 HE, T68, and T87 HE are all tray mount keyboards, although they ship with silicone and Poron foam sound deadening material, and they are made from injection-molded, carbon fiber-impregnated plastic. The exact resin is unclear, but the combination results in a smoky translucent look with the carbon fiber striations typical of forged carbon fiber. The keycaps on both keyboards are also translucent, but the T87 HE's keycaps are similar to the typical translucent smoky set seen on keyboards like the Iqunix EZ80 Dark Side RS or the QwertyKeys Sonic65 HE. The smaller T60 HE and T68 HE, on the other hand, have the same carbon fiber look on the keycaps as it has on the chassis. All of the new carbon fiber HE keyboards boast 8 kHz polling with a 0.1 ms input delay, as well as 0.005 mm Rapid Trigger sensitivity and 0.005-3.4 mm key travel with adjustable actuation.
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OneXPlayer first announced the OneXPlayer Super X, a 14-inch AMOLED gaming tablet powered by AMD's Strix Halo APUs, in early December 2025, with a Kickstarter campaign making some bold claims about 120 W sustained performance. At CES 2026, the TechPowerUp team stopped by the OneXPlayer booth and managed to take a look at the hardware in person. The brand also revealed that the gaming tablet will be available with the newly released Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra X7 358H CPU, which should also put up almost the same GPU performance as the Radeon 8060S, thanks to the included Intel Arc B390 iGPU, but perhaps better efficiency, which will be key for a mobile gaming device.
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Gigabyte, the world's leading computer brand, announces a breakthrough introduction of the world's first CQDIMM (Clocked Unbuffered Dual In-Line Memory Module) technology at CES 2026. By leveraging the CQDIMM-supported motherboard, Z890 AORUS Tachyon ICE CQDIMM Edition, and BIOS tuning technology, Gigabyte achieves the industry-first record DDR5-7200 without compromise at full capacity with two 128 GB memory modules.

Traditionally, increasing DDR5 memory capacity has required significant trade-offs in frequency and stability. Inherent in Gigabyte's expertise in hardware and firmware design, this critical compromise is conquered. On the hardware side, Gigabyte has optimized motherboard circuit layouts to significantly reduce memory channel loading, improving signal integrity and ensuring stable operation even under heavy workloads. Complementing the hardware advancements is Gigabyte's sophisticated BIOS tuning technology. Through an optimized clock driver architecture, Gigabyte's BIOS intelligently manages timing, signal synchronization, and voltage behavior to unleash extreme performance.
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Witness Ork brutality and the loud and relentless ferocity that comes with it in our first in-game faction CGI sequence as Gorgutz, Ork Warboss of the Bad Moons unleashes a surprise attack against the Blood Ravens as they orbit the world of Kronus.

A grimdark universe of eternal conflict
Return to the RTS series' roots with deeply satisfying strategy gameplay. Take command of four unique Warhammer 40,000 factions, including the Adeptus Mechanicus in their series debut! Fight through 70+ epic campaign missions, as well as the replayable Last Stand, Skirmish and multiplayer modes.
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At CES 2026, GameSir debuted its G7 Pro 8K PC controller. Developed in partnership with Aimlabs, this is the Chinese gaming brand's first go at releasing a product that features a maximum 8000 MHz polling rate via a wired connection. TechPowerUp visited the company's booth earlier today, where two variants of the flagship G7 Pro 8K PC model were on prominent display. The fairly standard black Aimlabs Edition was positioned next to a gaudier Champion sample.

Nearby specification sheets list 2.4G wireless polling rates, proprietary Mag-Res TMR sticks, clicky hall effect micro-switch trigger stops, optical micro switch ABXY face buttons, four remappable macro buttons, and the selection of esports-grade materials. The G7 Pro controller range launched last year, in white/gray Xbox-licensed form. The latest additions do not carry any official Microsoft gaming credentials—as a result of being competitive multiplayer PC title-centric input devices.
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CAN YOU HEAR THE CROWD ROAR? We are pleased to announce Speedball will exit Steam Early Access on January 27 on January 27, following its initial launch in October 2024. Additionally, the game will launch on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 on the same day. Speedball is the revival of the iconic Bitmap Brothers franchise, first launched in 1988.

Set in the grim future of 2138, Speedball is a no-holds-barred future sport that is used by mega-corporations to distract the downtrodden masses from their miserable lives. It is the only sport that allows two cybernetically augmented teams to go head-to-head at levels of speed and violence beyond human limitations. Matches are fast-paced, explosive and unpredictable, and you will need to master high-speed passing, coordination and shooting.
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An elevation of computer memory prices—throughout late 2025 and early 2026—has prompted revisits of older generation hardware. After all, cheaper DDR4 memory offers an alternative route in the current climate. Prime examples turned up last week, when Gigabyte unveiled and launched four new AM4 socket-based motherboard models. At the end of December, ASUS was reportedly engaged in a bolstering of its AM4 motherboard production lines. Pleasingly, AMD seems to considering similar steps with its compatible Ryzen desktop processor families. Tom's Hardware gathered relevant information during a pre-CES 2026 round-table discussion.

During an interview session, David McAfee—Team Red's VP and GM of client channel business—reportedly dropped a hint about potential revivals of AM4 CPU products. In the recent past, AMD has continued to roll out (sort of) new chips based on "Zen 3" architecture. Conversely, supplies of popular SKUs—like the gaming-centric Ryzen 7 5700X3D model—have dried up. When asked about a possible older generation re-release strategy, McAfee stated that the Red Team: "(is) certainly looking at everything that (it) can do to bring more supply and kind of reintroduce products back into the (AM4) ecosystem to satisfy the demands of gamers that maybe want that significant upgrade in their AM4 platform, without having to rebuild their entire system." Elaborating a tad more, he said: "(it is) definitely something (AMD is) very actively working on." According to the TechPowerUp news archive and GPU database, Team Red's most recent new "Zen 3" desktop releases include the Ryzen 5 5600F (last September) and Ryzen 5 5500X3D (mid-2025) SKUs.

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Code Vein II, launching on January 30, is the newest entry in the dramatic exploration action RPG series, Code Vein. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, it depicts the drama of Revenants and humans who fight to defy their doomed fate. Players confront relentless foes and treacherous locations alongside a trusted partner, while their choices rewrite history and shape the destinies of both the world and its characters.

The PlayStation Blog team got a chance to go hands-on with the upcoming title, and have a chat with the game's producer, Keita Iizuka, and the director, Hiroshi Yoshimura.
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A sizeable gap—not occupied by NVIDIA's heavily rumored, and possibly tenuous GeForce RTX 50 SUPER-series—has been noticed at this week's CES trade show. During kick-off hours, the North American giant's GeForce social media quietly declared that "no new GPUs will be announced" within the four-day-long event. Graphics card industry observers have seemingly become tired of pursuing mid-generation product refreshments, and have set their sights further along Team Green's timeline. Yesterday, kopite7kimi fielded a number of queries regarding a futuristic GeForce RTX 6000 graphics lineup. Logically, these next-gen designs could leverage "Rubin" GPU architecture—already previewed as a well-known property in enterprise fields.

Speculation from last September—hinging on NVIDIA's official unveiling of their "Rubin CPX" GPU, that sports CUDA cores—lead to a theory that "GR10x" dies would form the basis of truly next-wave gaming graphics cards. In early 2026, kopite7kimi has proposed the utilization of a different set of GPU dies—identified as the "GR20x" group (or "GR200" family). Specifically, the PC hardware sleuth has pinpointed an alleged "GR212" model. They surmise that NVIDIA's "Rubin" architecture-based GeForce RTX 60-series will arrive within a second half of 2027 launch window.

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At the 2026 International CES, we went hands on with a new crop of ultra-premium custom-design GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards that launched in quick succession of each other this year, exactly 1 year following the RTX 5090's original launch. Earlier today, we also held the Inno3D iChill RTX 5090 Frostbite PRO, another such recently announced premium RTX 5090 custom-design. The GIGABYTE RTX 5090 AORUS Infinity and ASUS RTX 5090 ProArt stand out as being the first custom design implementations of NVIDIA's Dual Flow-Through cooler design that it introduced with the RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics card, the company's de facto reference design.

This design involves placing the main PCB of the card with the GPU, memory, and VRM, as a separate, centrally located component, with heat drawn from these hot components projecting along the length of the card, and fans located at both ends, push air through the cooler and out of the backplate, through cutouts. The PCB relies on additional breakout PCBs for the PCI-Express gold fingers, and the display I/O. GIGABYTE's design sees two large 120 mm fans pump air through the heatsink, with some of it being guided through the central region of the cooler. GIGABYTE has used a similar two-tone color scheme as NVIDIA Founders Edition. We can't wait to get our hands on this card to see how the cooler fares against rival custom designs.
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