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MSI has announced the launch of the Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG, a powerful and ultra-compact 0.51-liter Copilot+ PC designed to deliver advanced AI capabilities and enterprise-ready connectivity for modern business environments. This device is powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, providing efficient on-device AI performance while maintaining exceptional power efficiency within a remarkably small footprint.

To enhance multitasking workflows, the Cubi NUC AI+ 3MG is equipped with dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, supporting up to four simultaneous displays to boost productivity and deliver an immersive visual experience. Additionally, it features dual 2.5G Ethernet ports, ensuring secure, high-speed networking for enterprise deployments, digital signage, and edge computing applications.
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Valve is implementing a number of new changes to its Steam platform, all aimed at enhancing the quality of the user experience for gamers. One of the latest updates involves adding a 30-day price history to all listed games. This feature will allow buyers to see if a game's price has changed recently, promoting greater transparency. Previously, gamers had to rely on third-party tools like SteamDB to track price fluctuations over time. Now, the Steam platform itself is set to include price tracking, integrating this functionality directly. This update will also highlight when a game is on discount, the percentage drop compared to its launch price, and how it compares to its price over the last 30 days. Gamers will be able to use these metrics to decide whether to wait for a Steam Sale or purchase the game immediately if it's a good deal.

Additionally, Valve is reportedly developing the SteamGPT AI system to assist with customer support queries, covering issues such as refunds, platform problems, and payment processing, among others. There is also talk of a new "Frame Estimator" tool that can predict your PC's performance before you buy a game. While Valve hasn't confirmed these features or provided a timeline for their release, these developments suggest preparations for future updates, which could be unveiled soon. Below is a sample price tracker from SteamDB for NBA 2K26 game, as we could see something similar on the main Steam platform soon.
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Elon Musk announced today on X that Tesla has completed the design of a new generation of its AI chips for Full Self-Driving (FSD). The CEO also mentioned earlier that the AI5 chip will offer performance comparable to NVIDIA's "Hopper" architecture, with two AI5 units matching the power of a single "Blackwell" processor. In late 2025, reports indicated that Samsung had achieved a significant win for its previously struggling foundry business, as Tesla decided to split the manufacturing of its new AI5 accelerator between Samsung and TSMC. The chips will be produced at Samsung's plant in Taylor, Texas, and TSMC's facility in Arizona. This decision is part of a strategy to keep the supply chain diversified and maintain chip supply under control for any demand scenario.

Samsung and TSMC are not the only partners in this project. Tesla is also sourcing DRAM chips from SK hynix, which appear to be LPDDR5X memory integrated into the package. On both the left and right sides, there are two rows of SK hynix LPDDR5X memory modules, each with three modules. This totals 12 LPDDR5X memory modules per AI5 chip. With 16 GB per module, this results in 192 GB of LPDDR5X memory per single AI5 SoC.
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In the latest Q1 2026 quarterly figures, ASML announced plans to ship over 60 EUV units this year, including both High-NA and Low-NA EUV lithography scanners. This is a significant increase from the 48 units shipped in 2025, but it doesn't break any records compared to the company's expectations for 2027. ASML predicts shipping about 80 EUV systems in 2027, driven by massive demand from memory makers. As memory has become the most sought-after commodity in AI data centers, there is simply not enough supply to meet demand. In Q1 2026, ASML reported that nearly half—45% to be precise—of its revenue came from South Korea.

While ASML hasn't provided specific data per manufacturer, we know that South Korean semiconductor makers primarily focus on memory, storage, and to a lesser extent, logic production. More than half of the quarterly shipments, at 51%, are dedicated to memory production. Companies like SK hynix and Samsung are purchasing many EUV systems to support their growing memory and storage businesses, which include the latest technologies like GDDR6, HBM3, HBM4, and DDR4/DDR5, all consumed by AI data centers worldwide. SK hynix plans to install 20 Low-NA EUV units in the next two years, all designed for HBM memory and advanced storage solutions, making SK hynix one of ASML's largest customers.
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AMD's China store on JD has just started accepting pre-orders for the upcoming Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition desktop processor. Priced at an MSRP of $899, this model is $200 more expensive than the launch MSRP of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. In China, AMD's store requires pre-orders with a deposit of 100 RMB, which counts as 300 RMB towards the final payment due to the "early bird" pre-order benefit. The final payment will be made on April 22, the planned retail launch date. Additionally, at launch, the processor will be available both as retail PIB (processor in box) packages and as part of pre-built gaming desktops by popular OEMs and system integrators. Currently, no Western stores offer pre-orders for this CPU, either in the United States or Europe. Most likely, these stores will start accepting orders on April 22. Some, like B&H, have a placeholder to notify customers when it becomes available.

The Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition is a 16-core, 32-thread processor built on the "Zen 5" microarchitecture and features 3D V-Cache technology, with stacked 3D V-Cache on both of its 8-core chiplets. This configuration results in an on-package L3 cache of 192 MB and a total cache (L2+L3) of 208 MB. In comparison, the 9950X3D has 3D V-Cache on only one of its two CCDs and relies on software-based OS scheduler guidance to ensure gaming workloads are directed to the CCD with 3D V-Cache. As a result, this new processor is more suited for productivity and workstation tasks, while the 9950X3D remains focused on gaming. Aside from the cache differences, the 9950X3D2 Dual Edition is mostly similar to the 9950X3D, except its maximum boost frequency is 5.60 GHz, which is 100 MHz lower than the 9950X3D, and it has a higher TDP of 200 W compared to the 170 W of the 9950X3D. While technically compatible with any Socket AM5 motherboard, support requires UEFI firmware updates from motherboard vendors.

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During a media tour at Lexar HQ in China, Digital Foundry spoke with Lexar's Europe General Manager, Grace Su, who explained what gamers are buying and where they are willing to compromise. Interestingly, Lexar found that, despite the pricing of DRAM and NAND Flash, users could purchase lower-capacity RAM kits without issues, while SSDs with capacities lower than 512 GB weren't selling well. Although this is not a direct comparison, when building a new PC system, you need both a RAM kit and an SSD. Based on their budget, enthusiasts often have to decide between a larger SSD or a bigger RAM kit. However, Lexar reports that users are so committed to having larger SSD space that they are even willing to revert to HDDs rather than buy an SSD smaller than 512 GB. This is understandable, considering that modern games can take up hundreds of gigabytes of space.

Currently, high RAM prices are driving PC gamers to invest considerably more in their gaming rigs to play smoothly. As 16 GB is somewhat considered the minimum for a Windows 11 system, some games and tasks are so demanding that PC DIY enthusiasts need to invest in 32 GB kits at prices that were unimaginable just a year ago. For example, we reported on the DDR4 spot market pricing, which saw the cost of a single 16 Gb module increase by about 2,200% over the past year, with only a minor 5% correction in March. We can only hope for more corrections soon so that PC gamers can finally see signs of relief, but with AI demand projected to continue rising, that seems far from reality.

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By now, the legal debacle between the founders of Subnautica developer, Unknown Worlds, and Krafton, the studio's parent company and the game's now-former publisher, is public knowledge, with the situation ultimately culminating in the ousted founder and CEO of Unknown Worlds being reinstated by a judge in a recent legal decision. Following that legal drama and a Subnautica 2 release date leak, which was heavily criticized by the returning founder Ted Gill, it appears as though Unknown Worlds has broken with Krafton as the publisher for Subnautica 2.

A quick look at the survival game's Steam Store page reveals that Unknown Worlds Entertainment is now listed as both the developer and the publisher of Subnautica 2. The same is true for the game's Epic Games Store page, where the publisher now also reads Unknown Worlds Entertainment. It's a rather curious turn of events, given the nature of the relationship between Krafton and Unknown Worlds—Krafton being Unknown Worlds's parent company—and it brings up questions about the destiny of the game developer. At this point, it's unclear who cut who loose, but it remains to be seen how Unknown Worlds will handle the launch now that there is no dedicated publisher. It probably helps that Unknown Worlds is very deep into the development process for Subnautica 2, with the studio previously commenting that the game was ready for launch in 2025 already. In March 2025, however, the studio commented that the Early Access version of the game would not be a complete experience.

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It was recently revealed that NVIDIA plans to launch a version of the RTX 5050 GPU with 9 GB of VRAM—three 3 GB modules of GDDR7 over a 96-bit bus and 336 GB/s total memory bandwidth. Now, according to a new leak by Hakuitado on the Board Channels forum (via Gazlog), NVIDIA is planning to make the same move with the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti in order to cater to budget consumers while avoiding high DRAM and BOM costs.

DRAM quantity aside, the move would also see NVIDIA decrease the bus width of the respective cards, going from 128-bit to 96-bit by using new 24 Gbit memory chips, resulting in an overall decrease in bandwidth and reduced memory performance. According to @harakuze5719 on X, the new 9 GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti GPUs are slated to launch sometime between May and June, with a Computex launch seemingly likely.

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It seems as though God of War studio, Santa Monica Studio, is slated for a busy time in the coming months and years, with recent rumors suggesting that there is another God of War game on the horizon, some even claiming that it may be announced as soon as April 2026. Not all that much is known about the new God of War game, but according to reporting by MP1st and Tom Henderson on the Insider Gaming podcast, it will not follow Kratos. Instead, the new spin-off, which does not yet have a name, will feature Týr and Faye, the erstwhile Norse god of war and Kratos's deceased wife. This suggests that the spin-off will be a prequel to the recent God of War 2018 and Ragnarök.

The reports make mention of a talking sword, which will apparently be Merlin from English legend, as well as elements from Japanese, Chinese, and possibly other East-Asian mythologies. According to Henderson, the next "mainline" God of War game was meant to be announced at an April Sony State of Play, and it is assumed that the spin-off with Faye will be the next mainline installment in the franchise. This news comes not too long after Santa Monica Studio and Sony announced that a remake of the original God of War trilogy was in the works at Santa Monica.

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On April 17, Iron Galaxy Studios published a LinkedIn post announcing its second round of layoffs in as many years. The number of workers being laid off was not specified, but the studio explains that the layoffs are necessary in order to adapt to the ongoing market conditions in the video game industry. The announcement also notes that, since 2020, the industry has changed—the way people play games and what publishers look for in games to fund—and instead of waiting for things to go back to normal, the studio has had to adjust its expectations and accept the current market as the new normal going forward.

In the post, the studio notes that "as Iron Galaxy adapts, we must make painful decisions about what we can be as a company. It's impossible for us to sustain the team size that we've carried this past year." This lack of sustainability is in spite of a round of layoffs in 2025 that saw 66 workers lose their jobs. Iron Galaxy isn't the biggest game studio in the world, but it has some heavyweight credits under its belt, including working on the Windows port for Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Knight, before Rocksteady took over development of the latter due to a buggy launch. The studio also worked on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4, which launched in July 2025. The studio also worked on a number of Nintendo Switch ports, including Overwatch, Dauntless, Apex Legends, and Metroid Prime Remastered.
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We recently reported on Microsoft renaming the Xbox Full-Screen Experience to Xbox mode and subsequently updating the gaming UI with new display options for gaming handhelds. Most recently, though, Microsoft has announced that it will be bringing that console-like UI to more devices. Many of these devices mentioned by Microsoft in the most recent update notes are powered by the same APUs and iGPUs as most gaming handhelds, where Xbox mode has been most prevalent until now, so it makes sense to keep it rolling on similarly capable devices, too.

According to a new Windows Insider update in the Canary channel (build 29570.1000), Windows Xbox mode is now available "on Windows 11 PCs, including laptops, desktops, and tablets." Gamers looking to take advantage of Xbox mode on their Windows 11 systems can access it via the Xbox app, Game Bar settings, or by pressing Win + F11. This isn't the first time we're seeing Microsoft doing something like this. Before it started testing Xbox mode on gaming handhelds, it had rolled out the Full-Screen Experience to other form factors as early as November 2025. It's unclear when this feature will reach the mainline Windows version, but it will likely not take too long, given Microsoft is feeling the pressure from the Linux-based SteamOS and the many similar desktop environments that have spun up in its wake.

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In March, it was rumored that Microsoft was testing a new Game Pass subscription tier that featured exclusively first-party Xbox Game Studios games for a lower price than the currently available tiers. Triton, which is the codename for the Xbox Game Studios-only tier, which is expected to arrive as Duet, a Netflix bundle deal, will apparently also have monthly playtime limitations.

According to a screenshot of code shared by @redphx on X, Microsoft will seemingly implement monthly time limits on game streaming and free gameplay in the Triton tier. It seems as though there may be different time limits for different games, and there may be a way to pay to extend play time. The code snippet makes mention of streaming time, game trial time, and duet time, suggesting there will also be a time limit on Netflix streaming time. At the time of writing, it seems as though the rest of the Game Pass tiers will not be limited in terms of play time, but Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma, recently commented that Xbox Game Pass has become too expensive, so it's possible that there may be other pricing adjustments or value adds coming to standard Game Pass as well.

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Pragmata has officially launched on Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series consoles after garnering a lot of hype leading up to its launch. The highly anticipated launch aside, though, it seems as though Pragmata's actual reception is a bit of a mixed bag. While the game has topped the Steam sales charts, blasting past both Windrose and Counter-Strike 2 for revenue generated, and the game has had an immensely positive impact amongst the gamers who have played it, concurrent player counts have so far peaked at just over 55,000 on launch day. It should be noted that, since this is a single-player game, it does not live and die by player counts like a multiplayer game, but high sales, positive reviews, and low player counts indicate interesting player behaviors.

The TechPowerUp Pragmata in-depth performance review is live, with performance benchmarks for over 30 GPUs, as is the handheld performance review.

On Steam, Pragmata has so far earned itself an "Overwhelmingly Positive" review rating, with 97% positive reviews. On Metacritic, Pragmata has had a rather positive reception, as well, with a Metascore of 86, putting it at 11th place on Metacritic's 2026 release ratings chart. It remains to be seen how Pragmata performs over the launch weekend, when player counts generally increase, but recent big-name launches, like Marathon, have had significantly better day-one player count figures than Pragmata has exhibited so far. Most of the reviews for Pragmata praise it for its performance, even on Linux and weaker systems, as well as the way it balances its shooter and hacking mechanics. It is also reportedly a surprisingly bug-free experience, seemingly thanks to the custom RE Engine.

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Playmaji, the company responsible for the Polymega retro game console has shared a significant update on the Polymega front, covering both a hardware revision to the Base Unit and the imminent launch of the new Polymega Remix peripheral. The Base Unit has been almost completely redesigned internally after a rough year of production challenges. The revised hardware brings more CPU cores, higher clock speeds, double the RAM, more internal storage, and quieter operation compared to the original PM01. Exact specs haven't been shared yet, but Playmaji says the new system is several times more powerful than what it's replacing. The most immediate benefit is improved N64 emulation performance. Anyone with an existing pre-order gets automatically upgraded to the new hardware at no extra cost. New pre-orders for the revised Base Unit are expected to open in early summer.

The bigger news is the Polymega Remix, which has completed mass production and is already on its way from the factory. Remix is a USB peripheral aimed at retro collectors who want the Polymega disc and cartridge digitization capabilities without buying the full console. You connect it to a Windows 11 PC, laptop, or PC gaming handheld, launch the free Polymega App, and use it to rip your physical games, CDs, and cartridges directly via Element Modules sold separately. Once digitized, the games are playable through the app at home or on the go. Intel Macs are also supported at launch, with iOS, Android, and Apple Silicon planned down the line. Remix pre-orders opened April 16 at $199, with shipping expected in May.
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You know we've hit rock-bottom with memory affordability when ASRock innovates a new memory standard to lower prices. The new "HUDIMM," or half unbuffered DIMM, is an ASRock-innovated standard. It calls for UDIMMs with half a rank of memory, populating just one of the two 40-bit sub-channels. Such a DIMM would only offer half its bandwidth even at its rated memory clock, and of course half the density. The HUDIMM standard is targeted at entry-level builds and business desktops that just want a modern platform for everyday tasks, and something to tide over the DDR5 memory crunch. ASRock partnered with Team Group to manufacture the first HUDIMM memory modules, which it tested to work on its Intel 600-series, 700-series, and 800-series chipset motherboards. HUDIMM support probably requires some UEFI firmware-level awareness of the standard, and ASRock is expected to release firmware updates for the same.

Here's the fun part—ASRock made it possible for end-users to pair HUDIMMs with regular UDIMMs that have two 40-bit sub-channels; for example, pairing an 8 GB HUDIMM with a 16 GB UDIMM, to achieve asymmetric capacities such as 24 GB, and the bandwidth of at least 3 DDR5 sub-channels. ASRock also developed HSODIMM, which—you guessed it—is a DDR5 SO-DIMM with just one sub-channel. Team Group will manufacture these HSODIMMs, and ASRock's Deskmini series mini-PCs that are based on MoD (mobile on desktop) platforms, will implement support for them. ASRock is perfectly faced to address the client computing market during the DDR5 famine; besides the HUDIMM/HSODIMM innovation, the company is developing a new crop of Socket LGA1700 motherboards with both DDR4 and DDR5 memory slots.

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