PCMag Australia components

DLSS 5 Officially Lands Sept. 3 With NBA 2K27, Boasts 5x Efficiency Gain

Michael Kan — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Following several leaks, DLSS 5 is about to launch officially. Amid accusations of the tech creating AI slop, Nvidia also reiterated that the feature is meant to preserve artistic intent.

It’s already been leaked and modified for over two dozen PC games, but Nvidia’s controversial DLSS 5 is ready to launch. The company will debut the AI-powered feature and its photorealistic graphics on Thursday, Sept. 3, through the game NBA 2K27.

DLSS 5 will land at …

DLSS 5 Works on RTX 30 Cards, But Performance Is Terrible

Jon Martindale — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 13:50:44 +0000

Considering it tanks RTX 5090 performance, this should come as no surprise.

Game modders have managed to get Nvidia's unreleased DLSS 5 AI beautification technology working on older RTX 40 and RTX 30 series graphics cards, with predictable results. As VideoCardz reports, one user ran it on an RTX 3080 in …

Hyte Y50 RGB Review: A Panoramic View, a Pocket-Friendly Price

Thomas Soderstrom — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 16:00:00 +0000

The $99.99 Hyte Y50 RGB is exactly the result you’d expect to see if a smart PC case designer looked at Hyte’s older Y60 and was tasked with maximizing what was possible for half the money. The quirky, distinct …

Apple Made a Massive Bet on Intel 21 Years Ago. It Changed Everything

Brian Westover — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Apple's adoption of Intel processors for Macs sent big waves through the PC industry—and made the company's move to Apple Silicon, 15 years later, an even bigger deal.

Editors' Note: Welcome to the An Apple a Day series, where we’ll share pieces of Apple content from our archives daily from now through late September. In addition to PCMag, this series will include pieces from our sibling sites CNET, Lifehacker, Mashable, …

Glow-Up or AI Slop? Nvidia's Controversial DLSS 5 Leaks Early Through Mods

Michael Kan — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:20:49 +0000
The AI-powered DLSS 5 isn't expected until the fall, but a leaked file has paved the way for the modding community to start using the feature on various PC games.
Nvidia's controversial DLSS 5, which will bring AI-powered photorealism to PC games, is expected to launch this fall. But it looks like the feature leaked early, paving the way for the modding community to experiment and add it to various games. …

Nvidia CEO: We've Achieved AGI, But It Doesn't Really Matter

Michael Kan — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 23:07:55 +0000
On an earnings call, Jensen Huang says ensuring productivity and profitability from AI use needs to be the priority amid concerns about AI overspending.
AI capable of matching or surpassing human intelligence remains a major goal for the tech industry. But to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, this artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a milestone that’s become irrelevant.
“For many tasks, we could say that we have already achieved AGI. I think all of those milestones...are …

Asus ProArt GeForce RTX 5090 32GB GDDR7 OC Edition Review: The Ultimate Creator Card

Michael Justin Allen Sexton — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 21:02:06 +0000

Be prepared for a clash between titans—except here, the titans are kin. Take the Asus ProArt GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card, which retails for $3,999. Based on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, this card is faster than almost anything else on the consumer market. The …

Apple M5 Ultra and M6 Silicon Explained: 2nm Tech, Quad-Die Chips Promise Macs Massive AI Muscle

Brian Westover — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 21:37:22 +0000
Arriving in September in Mac mini and Mac Studio desktops, Apple's new chips harness bleeding-edge manufacturing and unprecedented four-die scaling to boost local agentic AI in a big, big way.
Apple's latest M6 and M5 Ultra chips, teased Tuesday ahead of their September launch, are a generational leap forward for Apple silicon. Debuting in the updated Mac mini and Mac Studio desktops, this latest wave of silicon is a big departure …

Taiwan Indicts 9, Including Nvidia Manager, Over GPU Smuggling Case

Michael Kan — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 20:01:20 +0000
Prosecutors in Taiwan also indicted two employees of Nvidia partner Supermicro.
Prosecutors in Taiwan have indicted an Nvidia manager, along with eight others, for violating export controls and smuggling cutting-edge AI chips to China.
On Monday, Taiwan's Keelung District Prosecutor's Office announced it had indicted nine people, including a man surnamed Chang, who was a partner manager …

AMD Crosses a 30% Client CPU Market Share Against Intel

Michael Kan — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:44:07 +0000
AMD's share for both desktop and mobile CPUs has been growing, according to Mercury Research. That said, Arm-based processors have been encroaching on x86 territory.
For the first time, AMD’s share of the x86 client CPU market, covering both mobile and desktop, has crossed 30%, according to Mercury Research, which tracks the processor shipments.
AMD’s share of client CPU for x86 processors reached 30.3% in Q2 against …

Older RTX 3080 Makes a Comeback Thanks to Double Memory Mods

Jon Martindale — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 14:06:59 +0000
Would you choose to buy an RTX 3080 with 20GB of GDDR6X memory?
Classic Nvidia GPUs like the RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 3080 are making a surprising comeback in 2026. Modders have managed to upgrade memory modules on the cards, doubling their capacity from 10GB to 20GB of GDDR6X, making them better suited to modern gaming and AI workloads, as VideoCardz, the crime involved swapping in inferior RTX 3060s and leaving with the better card to …

NZXT H6 RGB Plus Review: Lots of Fans and Curve Appeal

Thomas Soderstrom — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 18:00:00 +0000

NZXT’s popular H6 midsize tower case is back with curved glass for 2026 and a new moniker—“RGB+” —replacing the “Flow RGB” of its 2024 model. Let’s get the product’s biggest confusion out of the way: “RGB+” versus “RGB Plus.” That …

Qualcomm Snapdragon C Could Unlock the $300 Laptop. Here Are the Specs

Jon Martindale — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 14:10:08 +0000
Ultra-budget laptops could make a comeback and with Windows 11, too.
Budget electronics aren't easy to find in 2026, but Qualcomm's Snapdragon C might just make $300 laptops possible again with a mix of capable performance and strong efficiency. These new chips offer eight low-power cores, ample memory support, and strong connectivity features, …

Intel CEO Teases Possible Return to Memory Business

Jon Martindale — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 17:54:19 +0000
During a recent podcast appearance, Intel CEO Lip Bu-Tan said one of his pet projects is exploring new memory architectures.
Intel CEO Lip Bu-Tan has hinted that Intel might return to the memory industry it famously exited in the mid-80s when Japanese firms rose to prominence.
During an appearance on Michael Marks' TechSurge podcast, Tan said one of his pet projects is exploring new memory architectures. He …

How Much?! Nvidia RTX Pro 6000 Will Now Set You Back $16,000

Jon Martindale — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 14:40:20 +0000
That's almost double the $8,565 launch price from March 2025.
Hey kid, you want to buy a professional graphics card? It's $16,000. That's Nvidia's pitch for anyone who wants a top-tier Nvidia prosumer GPU in 2026. Its flagship RTX Pro 6000—the full-fat version of the RTX 5090 built for AI and design work—is now priced at a staggering $16,000. That's …

RTX GPUs Prices Jump 30% Overnight, With RTX 5070 Hitting $900

Jon Martindale — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 14:22:33 +0000
The regional pricing adjustments have now reached the US.
Prices for Nvidia graphics cards have jumped overnight at some retailers as regional pricing adjustments finally impact American buyers.
Taking an average of recent Newegg prices, Tom's Hardware found that some card prices have increased by over 30%, with RTX …

Micron Customers Having Trouble Getting Replacements for Faulty Crucial Memory

Jon Martindale — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:41:17 +0000
With Micron ditching its Crucial consumer brand last year, those with existing components are having to strong-arm the company into giving them fair compensation for out-of-stock parts.
Micron memory and SSD customers are crying foul after being refused adequate refunds or replacements for faulty products. Micron claims that since it no longer has those parts in stock, it can only offer a refund for the original purchase price, even if that's several times lower than the component's …

Lian Li Vector V150 INF Review: Mirrors and Magic in MicroATX Form

Thomas Soderstrom — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0000

While many PC case makers are cutting corners nowadays to save a buck, dropping basic features and handy creature comforts, many will feel the back of the glove from Lian Li with this chassis. The veteran chassis player has decided it’s not going to play …

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition Review: The Ultimate 3D V-Cache Chip for Creators, Not Gamers

Michael Justin Allen Sexton — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0000

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition is AMD’s most powerful 3D V-Cache processor to date, equipped with more 3D V-Cache chips than any desktop CPU before it for an additional 128MB of performance-boosting cache. The 9950X3D2 also likely takes this technology to its current limits …

At QuakeCon, Nvidia Has a Crazy Idea: Selling Its GPUs for Their Launch Prices

Jon Martindale — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 16:05:52 +0000
You know it's bad when this seems like a great deal.
Buying a graphics card at its recommended retail price is tough in 2026, so Nvidia is at QuakeCon with boxed GPUs ready to sell at their MSRP. That's $999 for an RTX 5080 and $1,999 for an RTX 5090—prices we haven't seen since early …

Anthropic Reportedly Wants to Make Its Own AI Chips for Claude

Jon Martindale — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 16:19:24 +0000
Anthropic tells Business Insider it will 'co-design' the hardware and models.
Following in the footsteps of Google, Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI, Claude developer Anthropic is reportedly building a new team to design its own custom AI chips, Business Insider reports.
For most companies designing their own chips, this solves two key problems: a demand for chips that has …

Most PC Gamers Are Now Playing With More Than 8GB of VRAM

Jon Martindale — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 14:25:59 +0000
The RTX 3060 is once again the most popular card, according to the July Steam Hardware Survey.
For the first time, the monthly Steam Hardware Survey shows a majority of gamers are playing on systems with at least 10GB of VRAM.
Not having enough VRAM has been a problem for PC gamers for much of this console generation, but it's become far …

Here's How AMD Zen 6 Could Help Eliminate Gaming Frame Rate Stutters

Jon Martindale — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 18:10:06 +0000
Maximizing core performance could ensure that the ones being used get the full power budget.
AMD's next-generation Zen 6 could be stellar for gaming, and not just because of its higher instructions per cycle (IPC), 7GHz clock speed, or masses of added cores.
Hydra OC tool creator Yuri Bubliy, better known as 1usmus, …

Lian Li x DAN Cases B4-mATX Review: This MicroATX Chassis Is a Real Shape-Shifter

Thomas Soderstrom — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 18:00:00 +0000

Small-form-factor enthusiasts know that when this combination happens—Lian Li does the manufacturing, and DAN Cases does the designing—magic usually follows. The third collaboration between the Taiwanese PC case kingpin and the German hardware designer, the $69.99 Lian Li x DAN Cases B4-mATX is no exception. …

First RX 9050 Tests Suggest It's Much Slower Than RTX 5050

Jon Martindale — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:19:48 +0000
Take some results with a pinch of salt, though.
Unsurprisingly, the first benchmarks for the RX 9050 graphics card are unimpressive. Although there are some discrepancies in testing methodology that need to be considered, the results show the new AMD card as substantially slower than Nvidia's RTX 5050, VideoCardz reports.
The RX 9050 was unveiled …

MacBook Neo Is Big Win for Apple's Mac Revenue, But Memory Crunch Looms

Michael Kan — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 22:46:07 +0000
Outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook warns during an earnings call that memory prices are expected to increase even more during the current quarter.
The affordable MacBook Neo helped Apple’s Mac business reach new revenue records, despite the ongoing memory shortage. However, CEO Tim Cook warns that memory costs are expected to continue rising.
“Mac delivered its best June quarter yet,” Cook said in an

Samsung Thinks the RAM Crisis Will Only Get Worse Next Year

James Peckham — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 14:44:32 +0000
Samsung also used its latest earnings call to tease a Galaxy Tab S12 and Galaxy S26 FE.
Samsung's latest earnings call was a rollercoaster ride, revealing stellar results fueled by its memory business, alongside the first-ever loss for its mobile division due to rising costs.
Samsung doesn’t expect the RAM crisis to improve anytime soon, given the long production times for memory technology. Jaejune Kim, head of sales …

When Will It End?! Qualcomm Price Hike Confirmed, May Drive Gadgets Higher

James Peckham — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:58:53 +0000
New processor pricing changes will likely impact smartphones, wearables, laptops, and more.
UPDATE (7/30): Qualcomm has now confirmed plans to increase prices on Sept. 1, with CEO Cristiano Amon telling CNBC, “Cost went up, prices are going to go up." He also notes how Qualcomm believes this may be reversed in the future, saying, "It’s a temporary, short-term …

AMD May Be Reviving GPUs With 4GB RAM. Who's Going to Buy That?

Jon Martindale — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:16:09 +0000
A 4GB ASRock RX 9050 briefly appeared online before being taken down, but it says something about how major GPU manufacturers see the next couple of years playing out.
UPDATE 7/31: According to Wccftech, the 4GB version is real but exclusive to OEMs. "The Radeon RX 9050 4GB was developed specifically for a partner system designed to deliver strong overall value for entry-level gaming customers," AMD says. "There are currently no plans to sell the …

Nvidia Employee Reportedly Detained in Taiwan Over AI Chip Smuggling

Michael Kan — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:21:22 +0000
Taiwan prosecutors are investigating how Supermicro AI servers, known to contain cutting-edge Nvidia GPUs, were illegally exported to China.
Law enforcement in Taiwan has reportedly detained an Nvidia employee as part of an investigation into AI chip smuggling to China.
On Tuesday, Taiwan's Keelung District Prosecutor's Office announced new progress in its efforts to trace how high-end servers from US company Supermicro, an Nvidia partner, …

Gamer Pairs RTX 3090 With RTX 3050 to Offload Frame Generation Work

Jon Martindale — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 13:25:35 +0000
Could dual-GPU PCs make a comeback thanks to AI enhancement?
Gamers have been offloading frame generation duties to a second GPU, and the performance results might be worth it—if you have an old GPU lying around, that is.
In one example cited by Tom's Hardware, a gamer paired an RTX 3050 with an PC case usually means at least a $100 spend. Want lots of install flexibility, including where you put your ports and how you orient the chassis? Probably also three figures. Cooler Master says: Can we interest you in a …

AMD Spills Details on Next-Gen Epyc CPUs

Jon Martindale — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 16:48:42 +0000
AMD is splitting Zen 6 Epyc into four classes: Venice SP7, Venice SP8, Venice-X, and Verano. These high-powered Zen 6 CPUs offer different core count configurations and power limits.
AMD CEO Lisa Su officially unveiled the company's next-generation Epyc CPUs at the Advancing AI 2026 event in San Francisco on Thursday, including details on the core layout, the new socket designs, memory support, feature sets, and more.
AMD it's made a comeback in 2026, and it holds up better than you might expect, according to VideoCardz.
The RTX 3060 12GB was originally released over five years ago …

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D vs. Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus: The Winner of This CPU Face-Off Shocked Me

Michael Justin Allen Sexton — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 19:39:26 +0000
AMD's flagship 3D V-Cache desktop processor is still the current PC-gaming champ, but Intel's surprisingly affordable challenger mixes up the whole buying equation.
In the Red Corner: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D was its top consumer processor up until its recent AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 release, and it is arguably still the best option in AMD’s consumer processor lineup. It comes equipped with 16 …

AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D vs. Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus: AMD Wins Games, Intel Wins Everything Else

Michael Justin Allen Sexton — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 17:56:58 +0000
One CPU tops the gaming charts. The other crushes it in productivity, integrated graphics, and overall value. Here's why Intel's Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is the smarter buy for most PCs—and when the popular Ryzen 7 9850X3D makes sense.
The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D: The Frame-Rate Chaser's Dream
The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D is the most recent Ryzen 7 processor to feature AMD's much-lauded 3D V-Cache, housed in a "chiplet" (in essence, a module on the processor). The 3D V-Cache claim to fame is that …

Nvidia Pitches DLSS 5 Again, Promises to Preserve 'Artistic Intent'

Jon Martindale — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 14:53:27 +0000
A DLSS 5 demo at GTC earlier this year got the thumbs-down from gamers who didn't like the Instagram-like filters it seemed to apply. But Nvidia is back to make a case for the tech once again.
Nvidia this week offered more details on DLSS 5, which uses AI to add photorealistic graphics to games. At the SIGGRAPH event in Los Angeles, Nvidia demonstrated DLSS 5's three models and how each uses a multi-step process to preserve the integrity of the game's visuals …

China's CXMT Wants to Use RAM Crunch Momentum to Dominate Consumer DDR6

Jon Martindale — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 15:38:43 +0000
Chinese memory could become far more commonplace in the years to come.
Chinese memory firm CXMT was late to the party with DDR5, but it's using this moment as a springboard to become a major player in consumer DDR6 memory when it launches in the next few years, WCCFTech reports.
Even though