nArchitects act as their own clients in the design of their family home within a forest clearing in upstate New YorkThis project was shortlisted in the 2024 AR House awards. Read about the full shortlist hereThe innate instinct that early humans had to gather around warmth was not only associated with the cold that evenings bring. The warmth also inflected a sense of privacy and enclosure that, without walls, oriented attention towards a focal point, placing the evening behind them.Nestled in a forest clearing, 60 metres from a nearby lake, the CLT House instead re-orients the inhabitants direction outwards, through large windows, towards the surrounding forest. The living areas, kitchen and bedrooms are placed towards the outer edge of the building, while the bathrooms and utilities are held within the buildings core.The floor is cut away in each of the buildings four corners to create double-height spaces. In the corner to the right of the main entrance, a bright green steel staircase leads to a view of the nearby lake, while the other three double-height corners punctuate the kitchen, living room and dining space.Rooms are not necessarily given a volume according to their function; for example, an empty landing at the top of the staircase takes up the size of a room. Empty space which is left unprogrammed has a dynamic potential. The kids invent games there, stretching a bedsheet between two chairs and playing indoor volleyball, describes co-founder of nArchitects, and owner of CLT House, Eric Bunge.CLT House under constructionCredit:nArchitectsThe CLT construction is expressed throughout the interior of the building, and is even used to create the bedroom desks. Windows are large but the openings are shallow, accommodating the thinness of the CLT structure. In contrast to the brighter living areas, the bathrooms within the core are designed with a darker palette, consisting of black terrazzo tiles with large white aggregate.The house borrows from the early vernacular construction methods of early settlements through its use of waney-edge cedar cladding. Unlike these early settlements, the building facade was constructed from prefabricated materials, taking only 11 days to build. The timber cladding was left without a finish to allow the material to mark the passing of time. Its incredible how differently each facade has reacted over time, Bunge explains. The timber facade is not only a response to the surrounding forest but also a reminder of the passage of time.A primary reference for the CLT House was an unbuilt project the architects developed in 2008 as part of Ai Weiweis Ordos 100 development in Inner Mongolia, north China, where 100 architects were invited to build a private home. Alongside their built work, nArchitects pursue questions of incompleteness and what dictates a finished project. Although the CLT House stands as a complete building, it also acts as an armature to accommodate different ways of living. It is intentionally designed as if it were a scaled basswood model, Bunge explains, so that you can complete the experience yourself.

When the old Broadway school in Chicopee Falls became neighbors with the Overman Wheel Company, an early bicycle manufacturing company, there was so much noise and distraction that the Chicopee School Committee voted to sell the school and build a new school building down the street. A triangular lot on Broadway was purchased and Springfield architect, Francis R. Richmond, was chosen to design the new building in 1894. The school was dedicated to Dr. Samuel Alvord, a Chicopee Falls resident who was first principal of the local high school and local doctor that died in 1892. The Alvord School is a great example of a Richardsonian Romanesque school building of brick and brownstone, with recessed entry within a Syrian arch and decorative terracotta tiles. The school would close in the second half of the 20th century, and today is known as the Helen A. OConnell Administration Building, a municipal office building.

AutoTraders team of tech staff is driving the company forward amid the lightning pace of digital transformation, with a technology enthusiast in the businesss driving seat.The company, which is today a digital marketplace for buying and selling cars, published its last magazine in 2013. It is now drilling into the latest technologies to make business better for its car industry customers and life easier for theirs.CEO Nathan Coe is an IT enthusiast who started his career working in mergers and acquisitions in the early 2000s when the internet was really starting to kick off.Ive kind of been born and bred on the internet and in technology businesses, he tells Computer Weekly. I was buying and selling companies, but building stuff is what I really like doing, so I pretty quickly became involved in tech and ran product and tech at AutoTrader for years.Although AutoTrader had its first website in 1995, when Coe began working there in the early 2000s, about 60% of its revenue was from its magazines. In 2007, backed by investors, the company decided to become a digital business. We ended up doing that probably more aggressively than imagined, says Coe. It published its last magazine in 2013 to become a 100% digital business.The digital transformation has happened gradually. Over time, the company introduced a mobile business, a data business, and now offers platforms for other organisations in its sector to run their businesses from.Coe says all these developments together form the digital business. Its not like those things are sequential steps, they all still exist together. We are still a web business, still a data business, still a mobile business, and we are still adding and augmenting, he says.Behind all these projects and plans sits a team of tech staff, which currently accounts for a third of the organisations total workforce of 1,200. The tech team comprises engineers, designers, product specialists and data scientists.For the past 10 years, weve been developing our data and data science capabilities so that were able to provide highly scalable, highly performant, AI-driven recommendations on the retailer sideNathan Coe, AutoTraderIts a demanding and dynamic work environment. AutoTraders website is visited by about 1.6 million people a day, who spend a combined 500 million minutes a month on it.These arent glory stats, says Coe. There are 30,000 retailers that use our platform, and on our website, weve got 440,000 or so cars, which unlike products on most e-commerce sites change every day and are all unique.This is a challenge for IT staff, who do more than 1,000 software releases every week, using agile techniques.We were early into agile, moving into it about 10 years ago. Now [we operate] continuous delivery and continuous integration, says Coe. Weve got a group of engineers that focus on the infrastructure. That means we can adapt our software, develop our software, and deliver really quickly and reliably. And importantly, we can respond and make many small changes, which reduces the risk of release and increases the velocity of innovation.It is rare in this day and age for a company so reliant on technology not to use IT outsourcing suppliers. But, according to Coe, this is the very reason the company doesnt use them.Were very, very principled when it comes to our technology and the way we do it. One of those principles is that because what we do is technology, we want full-time AutoTrader staff working on it. They are people with our culture and our values, people who stay and are not just here for a project, he says.We dont use any outsourcing providers at all. We have UK staff working in the office more than they are out of the office, in an in-person, highly collaborative environment.The organisations technology team is based mainly in Manchester, where about 750 of its 1,200 staff are based. It also has an office in London.IT recruitment at AutoTrader is heavily focused on finding staff in the early years of their careers, says Coe. We pay very well, but we dont want to just say, We pay the most so come and work with AutoTrader, because the proposition is much bigger and better than that, he says.AutoTrader also wants its retail customers and other partner firms to benefit from its IT teams output. It receives huge volumes of application programming interface (API) requests from organisations that use its platform to run their business. These include garages, lenders, retailers and insurers.Potentially, AutoTraders biggest IT project, according to Coe, is known as digital retailing, wherby it offers small organisations in the car dealing sector the opportunity to access the latest technologies through its platform.All the technology that we build to run AutoTrader, we now allow others to use to run their business off, says Coe.He says this one of the companys big goals at the moment. Now were saying, Actually, you should be able to do more than a transaction on AutoTrader, a brand that you trust.Coe says many industry customers are small and dont have big technology functions. This is not us taking interest in selling the cars, but allowing our retailers to get all the advantages of selling in an omnichannel way, adds Coe.While the company is finding answers for its customers, it is creating problems for artificial intelligence (AI) to solve.AutoTrader is currently engaged in multiple AI projects and, according to Coe, it is a good testing ground for the most discussed technology of today. He says having 440,000 cars on its site, which change frequently, is a perfect problem for AI to solve.Our products are all unique, so you need to use models to decompose the data and rebuild up to, for example, value products and tell our sellers how long they will take to sell, says Coe.But he says while AI is now being talked about by everyone, from big businesses to schools, there are different varieties, much of which is not business-ready. I think its important to rewind a little bit, because AI to people often means plugging ChatGPT into something to write an email, which we think is maybe interesting, but not a particularly intelligent use of AI. AutoTraders IT team is currently engaged in three separate projects that harness AI technology, but this is nothing new to the company.For the past 10 years, weve been developing our data and data science capabilities so that were able to provide highly scalable, highly performant, AI-driven recommendations on the retailer side, says Coe.Weve been using AI, mainly machine learning, for years, and we do that because all those vehicles are different and people want to know what the value is. Car dealers want to understand whats on the cars, what makes them stand out and how quickly they can sell them.

Many Linux distribution development teams overlook this issue, and by considering it, they might be better able to bring new users into the fold.

It could have done better. But it also could have done worse.

Destiny 2BungieDestiny 2 just laid out its grand plan for its final episodic content, Heresy, which launches next week. But in the wake of that presentation, Bungie debuted something not related to the season thematically, rather its next set of cosmetic armor, and another licensed collaboration. This one is different.This is easily Destinys biggest name collab yet, partnering with Star Wars for armor sets that well, are not just inspired by Star Wars, but in at least one instance, your Titan can now literally become a flat-out Stormtrooper. Warlocks are pretty close to the Red Guard. I think Hunters are based on Death Troopers.But yes, thats a full-on Stormtrooper in the middle, and it appears a TIE Bomber is about to be a ship you can fly around the solar system. Its the first time that Destiny 2 has gone what I would call full Fortnite, a straight-up 1:1 for skins to purchase, something Call of Duty has done a lot of the last few years. Destiny 2 has always more loosely adapted its collabs. Some past ones have been PlayStation heroes, Assassins Creed, Dungeons and Dragons and well, Fortnite itself.Destiny 2BungieIm a bit split here about this, as is the community. Some just see Star Wars and think oh thats awesome, day one purchase. Others see this as the game totally jumping the shark when it comes to its microtransactions.MORE FOR YOUIm somewhere in the middle. It does feel like something of a line to step over for an actual Stormtrooper set to be in the game now, as it makes you wonder just how on-the-nose future collaborations are going to be.Then again, Destiny 2 really allows for significant customization. Sure, I guess you could walk around as a white Stormtrooper like the movies, but you could mix and match pieces with hundreds of other options in the game, plus hundreds of shaders for further modification. Thats something that I feel will help make this perhaps not as obvious, which might be the word.It is on theme in the sense that these are characters from a sci-fi universe. And I suppose youre not just an actual named character like Hunter Darth Vader or Warlock Palpatine. Still, this really took me off guard, and it does open the door for an entirely different level of collaborations in the future. These will be available with the launch of the Heresy episode next week.Follow me , and .Pick up my sci-fi novels the and

Chinese PLA soldiers practice with FPV dronesClash Report Via TwitterChinas release of the DeepSeek chatbot has sent shockwaves through the U.S. stock market and beyond. The makers claim that the underlying DeepSeek-V3 model was trained for around $6m, a tiny fraction of the cost of rival U.S. systems, and with a tiny fraction of the computing power.This happened just after the U.S. had announced massive spending on AI infrastructure to build the sort of computing power which DeepSeeks makers say is no longer necessary. The launch has been described as Sputnik moment echoing events in 1957 when the Soviet Union shocked the world by taking a lead over America in the space race by putting the first satellite into orbit.Sputnik had obvious military implications: Americans were nervously aware of the Russian hardware now flying over their heads every ninety minutes. A Chinese lead in Large Language Models may look like a purely economic edge. But a new generation of AI-enabled drones could translate it into a military advantage.Putting An AI Crown On Drone SupremacyDJI Sky City, the global headquarters of the world's leading consumer drone marker DJI, in Shenzhen.VCG via Getty ImagesChina is the worlds largest producer of small drones. A single company, DJI of Shenzhen, commands an estimated 80% of the global consumer drone market. Although the company officially deplore military use of their product, DJI drones have become ubiquitous tools used by both sides in the war in Ukraine.MORE FOR YOULow-cost FPV drones, armed racing quadcopters, have become perhaps the most important single weapon in the ground war. These are assembled locally but many or most of the parts come from China.At present, almost all drones are flown by remote control. Skilled FPV pilots can score remarkable successes: 25-year-old Tymofiy Orel was awarded the title Hero of Ukraine for destroying 42 Russian tanks and 44 armored personnel carriers among other vehicles.In the past year or so small drones have been equipped with increasing levels of AI. In particular, U.S. makers Auterion are supplying Ukraine with Skynode-S boards, computers the size of a credit card optimized for machine-learning apps, for example locking on to a target and automatically flying the best route. Ultimately this could turn every drone operator into a Tymofiy Orel.In an address to RUSI in October, former Ukrainian Defense Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi noted how quickly the technology has evolved.When robots entered the battlefield [in 2022], there was laughter from the Western press and local generals, he said. However, by 2024, technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence, began to play a significant role in warfare.The next year is expected to see increasing numbers of AI-enabled drones on the battlefield in Ukraine. There are a number of challenges, including packing enough computing power on a small drone to run AI applications at speed, and training machine-learning systems to run reliably and efficiently.This is just the sort of technology that China appears to have gained with DeepSeek.From Virtual World To BattlefieldLLMs like DeepSeek have surprising applications including drone warfareGetty ImagesDeepSeek is based on a Large Language Model (LLMs), a specific type of AI trained on large amounts of text and excels in carrying out conversations in natural language. This might seem a world away from the challenge of flying a drone, but researchers have shown how LLMs can enhance drone operations. Much of this research comes from China.A 2024 paper provides a good overview of the field -- Large Language Models for UAVs [Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles]: Current State and Pathways to the Future, was written by Shanghai-based researchers who describe how LLM integration with drones can improve autonomous data processing and rapid decision-making.While they carefully avoid specific applications, the authors note that LLMs are exceptional at identifying specific objects, individuals, vehicles, or activities in video streams or images, providing detailed insights crucial for military and civilian surveillance operations.This translates into an ability to carry out complex commands like see if there are any vehicles on the track by the river or "fly at low altitude to the enemy position and approach from the South. The LLM allows the drone to accept orders, then report what it sees in natural language: no moving vehicles on the track, one burned-out truck as previously reported or there was no fire from the enemy positions, but heat sources show they are occupied.As well as communicating with humans, LLMs enable the drones to talk to each other in natural language. A group of drones can share findings and co-ordinate their actions based on their mission, and distributing tasks without human intervention. A reconnaissance drone might assign attack drones to specific targets, then send follow-ups on the ones which are not destroyed.Another Chinese paper from 2024 takes this further Manned and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Cooperative Combat Framework Based on Large Language Models describes work using LLMs to make fully autonomous aerial unmanned combat aircraft a reality. They envision a single human fighter pilot with a collection of robotic wingmen who react at machine speed and communicate in human language. Again, they leverage the planning and problem-solving abilities of the LLM to make it an effective pilot, able to respond rapidly to unexpected situations. (It would be weird but not surprising if the drones imitated human practice and gave themselves callsigns like Maverick and Iceman).Leveraging The DeepSeek AdvantageDeepSeek is claimed to have specific advantages over other LLMs, in particular that it is resource-efficient, meaning it needs less computing power than other models and suitable for edge applications like drones rather than data centers. In addition, the developers claim to have achieved results rapidly with less training data than comparable models.We do not know how capable DeepSeek really is. But a powerful, low-cost system that can be deployed on drones would be a useful asset for China at this point.China has the worlds biggest drone manufacturing base. They have a wealth of information about using these drones in combat with the tactics and techniques worked out by Ukraine and Russia in a war which has cost them nothing. And they have recently being developing their own drone combat units equipped with what look like low-cost commercial drones.Add LLM capability to the mix and China seems to hold all the cards for building an unbeatable drone force. Warfare is becoming increasingly a matter of drone vs drone. In the long run, the software may turn out to be the deciding factor as victory will go to the side with the smartest drones.

The GeForce RTX 5080 is Nvidia's new $1,000 GPU offering, coming in at half the price of the RTX 5090 with, unsurprisingly, half the specs. You get half the cores, half the memory bus, half the VRAM, and almost half the memory bandwidth.Nvidia has created a massive gap between the 5080 and 5090, clearly aiming to upsell gamers on the much faster and far more expensive RTX 5090 for those who can afford one. Additionally, this approach leaves them plenty of room to release more costly GeForce 50 Super series cards within the next 12 months, addressing the obvious VRAM limitations present in much of the Blackwell lineup. So that's fun.In terms of specifications, the RTX 5080 is only a minor upgrade over the RTX 4080 Super, which it is set to replace. The GeForce RTX 5080 features just 5% more cores, clocked a mere 3% higher. The only meaningful upgrade is the shift to GDDR7 memory, which on the same 256-bit wide memory bus boosts bandwidth by 30% thanks to its 30 Gbps memory speed Dj vu? You might as well call this the RTX 4080 Ti Super.GeForce RTX 5090GeForce RTX 4090GeForce RTX 5080GeForce RTX 4080 SuperGeForce RTX 4080Price $US MSRP$2,000$1,600$1,000$1,000$1,200Release DateJanuary 30, 2025October 12, 2022January 30, 2025January 31, 2024November 16, 2022ProcessTSMC 4NDie Size (mm2)750 mm2608.5 mm2378 mm2379 mm2Core Config21760 / 680 / 19216384 / 512 / 17610752 / 336 / 12810240 / 320 / 1129728 / 304 / 112L2 Cache (MB)96 MB72 MB64 MBGPU Boost Clock2407 MHz2520 MHz2617 MHz2550 MHz2505 MHzMemory Capacity32 GB24 GB16 GBMemory Speed28 Gbps21 Gbps30 Gbps23 Gbps22.4 GbpsMemory TypeGDDR7GDDR6XGDDR7GDDR6XBus Type / Bandwidth512-bit / 1792 GB/s384-bit / 1008 GB/s256-bit / 960 GB/s256-bit / 736 GB/s256-bit / 717 GB/sTotal Board Power575 W450 W360 W320 WThe previous-gen RTX 4080 Super likely wasn't heavily memory-limited, so the improvements here are expected to result in only a modest performance gains. Of course, we're about to dive into the numbers to confirm this.RTX 5080 vs RTX 4080 ThermalsBefore diving into the blue bar graphs, let's take a look at how Nvidia's Founders Edition version of the RTX 5080 handles thermals compared to the RTX 4080 FE. For this test, we used The Last of Us Part I running at 4K with maxed-out settings.After an hour of load inside an enclosed ATX case, the RTX 5080 reached a peak GPU temperature of 63C remarkable, given how quiet and compact this graphics card is. The fan speed peaked at 1,400 RPM and was virtually inaudible over our already very quiet case fans.The cores maintained an average clock speed of 2,655 MHz, with an average GPU power draw of 266 watts. Meanwhile, the memory temperature peaked at 72C, operating at a frequency of 2,500 MHz for a transfer speed of 30 Gbps.By comparison, the RTX 4080 FE peaked at 62C, with a memory temperature of 74C and fans spinning at just over 1,300 RPM. It's clear that the RTX 5080 design is more efficient, at least in terms of physical size. However, when ignoring the size difference, the thermal performance between the two cards is nearly identical.So, while the new FE model delivers great results in terms of thermals and efficiency, the real question is: how does it perform in terms of FPS? Let's find out.Test System SpecsCPUAMD Ryzen 7 9800X3DMotherboardMSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi (BIOS 7E49v1A23 - ReBAR enabled)MemoryG.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6000 [CL30-38-38-96]Graphics CardsGeForce RTX 4070 GeForce RTX 4070 Super GeForce RTX 4070 Ti GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super GeForce RTX 4080 GeForce RTX 4080 Super GeForce RTX 4090 GeForce RTX 5080 GeForce RTX 5090 Radeon RX 7700 XT Radeon RX 7800 XT Radeon RX 7900 GRE Radeon RX 7900 XT Radeon RX 7900 XTXATX CaseMSI MEG Maestro 700L PZPower SupplyMSI MPG A 1000G ATX 3.0 80 Plus Gold 1000WStorageMSI Spatium 1TB M470 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2Operating SystemWindows 11 24H2Display DriverNvidia GeForce Game Ready 566.36 WHQL AMD Radeon Adrenalin 24.12.1Gaming BenchmarksMarvel RivalsStarting with Marvel Rivals at 1440p, the new RTX 5080 achieved 108 fps, making it just 8% faster than the 7900 XTX and 14% faster than the 4080 Super. It was also only 9% slower than the 4090, which isn't bad considering it should cost significantly less. Now, let's check out the 4K results.At 4K, the 5080 looks slightly more impressive, now showing a 16% lead over the 4080 Super and a 12% advantage over the 7900 XTX. While it is faster, the improvement isn't particularly significant in this scenario.S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of ChornobylNext, we have S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, where the 5080 is only 4% faster than the 4080 Super at 1440p and just 3% ahead of the 7900 XTX.Moving to 4K doesn't change much. Here, the new 5080 is 4% faster than the 7900 XTX and 9% faster than the 4080 Super, resulting in unimpressive gains.Counter-Strike 2The 5080 struggles in Counter-Strike 2, coming in 4% slower than the 4080 Super at 1440p and a significant 13% slower than the 7900 XTX.At 4K, the 5080 recovers slightly, beating the 4080 Super by a mere 5%, but still trails behind the 7900 XTX by 8%, making for a poor showing.God of War RagnarkThe God of War Ragnark results were also disappointing. At 1440p, the 5080 was just 4% faster than the 4080 Super and again fell behind the 7900 XTX, though only by a few frames.The 4K results are more promising, with the 5080 pulling ahead of the 7900 XTX by 9% and the 4080 Super by 8%. However, for a next-generation product, this is still a letdown though at least in this case, it was faster.Delta ForceFor some reason, the new GeForce 50 series GPUs perform particularly poorly in Delta Force. At 1440p, the 5080 was 10% slower than the 4080 Super and 12% slower than the 7900 XTX an abysmal result.Even at 4K, it remained behind both the 4080 Super and 7900 XTX. Although the gaps were reduced at this resolution, the overall performance remained poor.Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2The Space Marine 2 results are better, but still, the RTX 5080 was only 6% faster than the 4080 Super at 1440p and 18% faster than the 7900 XTX.At 4K, we see a 21% improvement over the 4080 Super, making it one of the better results so far. The 5080 was also 27% faster than the 7900 XTX, which is at least a more competitive showing.Star Wars Jedi: SurvivorPerformance in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is also disappointing. At 1440p, the 5080 was just 2% faster than the 7900 XTX and 5% faster than the 4080 Super.The 4K results are more favorable, but even then, the 5080 was only 15% faster than the 7900 XTX and 19% faster than the 4080 Super. While a 19% lead is a step in the right direction, it's still a modest gain for a new generation.A Plague Tale: RequiemA Plague Tale: Requiem delivers more reasonable gains compared to most other titles tested. The RTX 5080 was 15% faster than the 4080 Super at 1440p and 18% faster than the 7900 XTX.Oddly, however, at 4K, the RTX 5080 was only 11% faster than the 7900 XTX and 15% faster than the 4080 Super disappointing, as the margins didn't expand relative to the 1440p results.Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom LibertyEven in Cyberpunk 2077, performance remains underwhelming. At 1440p, the RTX 5080 was just 9% faster than the 4080 Super and 7% ahead of the 7900 XTX.Moving to 4K helped the 5080 slightly, but it was still only 10% faster than the 7900 XTX and 16% faster than the 4080 Super. Disappointingly, these are among the better margins we've seen for the new 50 series GeForce GPU.Dying Light 2 Stay HumanIn Dying Light 2, the 5080 was 12% faster than the 4080 Super at 1440p and 11% ahead of the 7900 XTX another underwhelming result.At 4K, the margins grew slightly, with the 5080 being 18% faster than the 7900 XTX and 20% faster than the 4080 Super. While these are some of the largest gains we've seen so far, they still fall short of expectations for a new generation.Dragon Age: The VeilguardDragon Age delivers only modest gains, with a 9% uplift over the 4080 Super at 1440p and a 15% increase over the 7900 XTX.The 4K results aren't much better, showing just a 16% improvement over the 4080 Super and an 18% gain over the 7900 XTX. While it's not nothing, these results are highly underwhelming for a next-generation product especially given how long we've waited for it.War ThunderIn War Thunder at 1440p, the 5080 only manages to match the 4080 Super. However, this still makes it significantly faster than the 7900 XTX, as Radeon GPUs perform poorly in this title when using the default DX11 mode. Performance is considerably better with DX12, but for now, that API remains labeled as "beta" and is not the default.At 4K, the RTX 5080 is just 3% faster than the 4080 Super and 12% ahead of the 7900 XTX, making for yet another set of unimpressive margins.Marvel's Spider-Man RemasteredPerformance in Spider-Man Remastered is disappointing. While 1440p results may be somewhat CPU-limited, this is not the case at 4K, yet the 5080 still only manages to match the 4080 Super and 7900 XTX.Hogwarts LegacyNext up is Hogwarts Legacy, where at 1440p, the 5080 is just 12% faster than the 4080 Super but actually 5% slower than the 7900 XTX.Increasing the resolution to 4K provides some improvement, with the 5080 now 22% faster than both the 7900 XTX and 4080 Super arguably the most impressive margin we've seen so far.The Last of Us Part IMoving on to The Last of Us Part I, the 5080 was only able to match the 4080 Super at 1440p, making it 6% slower than the 7900 XTX.At 4K, it managed to match the 7900 XTX and was 7% faster than the 4080 Super another disappointing result.Star Wars OutlawsThe Star Wars Outlaws results are equally disappointing. At 1440p, the 5080 was just 3% faster than the 4080 Super, though it did hold a 16% advantage over the 7900 XTX.At 4K, the 5080 was only 5% faster than the 4080 Super and 17% ahead of the 7900 XTX.StarfieldFinally, in Starfield, the 5080 was just 2% faster than the 4080 Super at 1440p while trailing the 7900 XTX by 2%.At 4K, it inched ahead of the 7900 XTX by a mere 3%, making it 8% faster than the 4080 Super. Ultimately, these are mostly single-digit gains, but let's move on to examine the average performance across the 17 games tested.Performance SummaryAlthough we didn't go over the 1080p numbers in detail, here's the average data for those interested. Essentially, the GeForce RTX 5080 only managed to match the 4080 Super at this resolution. It seems the Blackwell architecture struggles slightly more than previous generations at lower resolutions, and this isn't always due to a CPU bottleneck.At 1440p, we're looking at a mere 4% performance increase for the RTX 5080 over the 4080 Super just 4% on average or 5% over the 7900 XTX. That said, it's still better than the 2% uplift we saw from the 4080 to the 4080 Super, so perhaps things are improving after all.At 4K, the results don't improve much. Sure, the 5080 was, on average, 11% faster so at least we hit double digits but that's still quite underwhelming for a next-gen GPU. Compared to the original RTX 4080, it's only 14% faster, and when stacked against AMD's nearest competitor, it offers just an 8% gain over the 7900 XTX.Power ConsumptionThe good news is that power consumption is quite reasonable, at least based on our 1440p testing. Here, the 5080 consumed anywhere from 4% to 19% less power than the 4080 Super and significantly less than the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.Ray Tracing PerformanceUnfortunately, the RTX 5080 doesn't offer anything particularly impressive when it comes to ray tracing, delivering only an 11% increase over the 4080 Super at 1440p in Metro Exodus. However, this did make it nearly 50% faster than the 7900 XTX. As we always say, if you care about RT performance, a GeForce GPU is the way to go.At 4K, the results are similar, with the 5080 showing a 14% improvement over the 4080 Super.RT - Alan Wake IIThe Metro Exodus results are not an anomaly. In Alan Wake II at 1440p, there is very little difference between the 4080 Super and the 5080 in RT performance.At 4K, there is some separation, but even then, the 5080 only pulls ahead of the 4080 Super by 12% a highly underwhelming result.RT - Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom LibertyThe Cyberpunk 2077 results tell the same story, with the 4080 Super and 5080 delivering comparable performance at 1440p.At 4K, using quality upscaling with the ultra ray tracing preset, the 5080 averaged just 50 fps, making it only 6% faster than the 4080 Super.RT - Marvel's Spider-Man RemasteredIn Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, there was no performance difference between the 5080 and the 4080 Super at either 1440p or 4K, with both tested using DLSS quality upscaling.RT - Dying Light 2 Stay HumanWe saw a 9% uplift in Dying Light 2 at 1440p for the 5080 over the 4080 Super, which, surprisingly, is one of the better RT gains observed so far.At 4K, the margin extended slightly to 10%, but at least the 5080 was 55% faster than the 7900 XTX.RT - Black Myth: WukongWith ray tracing enabled at 1440p using quality DLSS upscaling, Black Myth: Wukong averaged just 70 fps an 11% improvement over the 4080 Super. The 4K results followed the same pattern, making for highly disappointing gains, with no CPU bottleneck to blame for these results.Ray Tracing Performance SummaryThe GeForce RTX 5080 and 4080 Super delivered nearly identical performance with ray tracing turned on at 1080p, making the 5080 nearly 80% faster than the 7900 XTX.At 1440p, the 5080 was just 5% faster than the 4080 Super, while Radeon GPUs remained largely irrelevant in this category.Finally, at 4K with quality upscaling, the RTX 5080 was, on average, 9% faster than the 4080 Super. So much for improved RT performance.Cost per FrameMSRPIn a perfect world where GPUs sold at MSRP or perhaps not so perfect when we're talking about $1,000+ products if MSRP applied across the board, the RTX 5080 wouldn't look terrible. However, it certainly doesn't feel like a next-generation product, offering 11% better value than the RTX 4080 Super.For many months, the 4080 Super was readily available at its $1,000 MSRP, so this isn't anything new. Essentially, if you wanted this level of performance from a 16GB GeForce GPU, you could have gotten it a year ago.Retail PricingSupporting that point, if we look at the best pricing from mid-2024 many of which were available for most of the year if the RTX 5080 launches at $1,000, it will offer just an 8% improvement in value over a product that could have been purchased at least six months earlier.Furthermore, if ray tracing isn't a priority, the 7900 XTX arguably presents a better value. However, if the price difference is only $100, the RTX 5080 is likely the better buy. That said, considering how much older competing GPUs like the 7900 XTX and 4080 Super are, the 5080 remains an underwhelming release.What We LearnedSo there you have it the GeForce RTX 4080 Ti Super. Actually, it's probably not even that good.In terms of cost per frame, the 4080 Super offered nearly 20% better value than the 4080, whereas the RTX 5080 appears to be, at best, just 10% better value than the 4080 Super. Some may argue that the RTX 5080 should be compared to the original 4080, but that's nonsense.The RTX 4080 was essentially a failed product and that's not even referring to the "unlaunched" AD104 version. The $1,200 RTX 4080 we ultimately received was a disappointment, and most gamers agreed by not buying any. This led to stock sitting on shelves, forcing Nvidia to release the 4080 Super, which was essentially the same GPU in terms of performance but with a $200 price cut.Given that, it only makes sense to compare the RTX 5080 with the 4080 Super. Once you do, it quickly becomes clear that there's very little new on offer. Features like multi-frame generation can be useful, but they are highly situational. For the most part, you're not missing out on much, and the most exciting DLSS 4 features will be available on previous RTX GPUs anyway (which is great).GeForce 30 Series Owners Take NoteFor those still using GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs and holding out for nearly five years, the RTX 5080 is 67% faster than the RTX 3080 but comes with a 43% price increase. Adjusting for inflation, that price increase is closer to 20%. If we recalculate cost per frame with inflation in mind, the RTX 5080 has improved by 28% relative to the 3080.So, after all this time, it's not exactly an amazing upgrade. Without question, the 5080 comes with a premium, and a similar performance jump could have been achieved at least six months ago with the 4080 Super.Closing ThoughtsLooking back at the flagship GeForce RTX 5090, it delivers a somewhat disappointing gen-on-gen boost, providing approximately 30% more performance for what will be at least a 25% price increase. However, since this is more of a "price is no object" product, value can be overlooked to some extent in favor of raw performance. We just wish there was more to it.Now, if you consider that was underwhelming, then what should we make of the RTX 5080?If the RTX 5080 launches slightly above $1,000 and closely aligns with the 4080 Super in terms of value, then it really doesn't matter which one you buy. Of course, you might as well get the 5080 since it's newer, but beyond that, there's no compelling reason to choose it and certainly no reason to pay a premium.For the RTX 5080 to avoid the same fate as the original 4080, sitting on shelves unsold, it simply cannot be priced above $1,000. Hopefully, its MSRP will be more reasonable than how the 5090's shaping up. However, once reviews go live, we'll get a clearer sense of how the community feels and it's unlikely to be well received.Shopping Shortcuts:Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 on AmazonNvidia GeForce RTX 5090 on AmazonAMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX on AmazonNvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super on AmazonNvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Super on AmazonAMD Radeon RX 7800 XT on AmazonAMD Radeon RX 7900 XT on Amazon

Forward-looking: Do 1 in 83 seem like high odds? They usually would, but as those are the chances that a newly discovered asteroid will slam into the Earth in 2032, you'd be forgiven for wishing that second number were a lot higher. Asteroid 2024 YR4 was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on December 25, 2024, when it was around 515,116 miles away from Earth.Half a million miles away doesn't sound like the asteroid is anything to worry about. But it has a rating of three on the Torino risk scale. This means that an asteroid or comet has a 1% or greater chance of impacting Earth, causing localized destruction. This rating is used for objects that are large enough to cause significant regional damage if they were to impact.Asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 1.2% chance of hitting our planet in 2032. The object is 180 feet across, around half the size of a football field, and if it were to hit us, the impact speed would be an estimated 10.76 miles per second.While the impact wouldn't be world-ending, the asteroid-launcher website suggests that the damage could be significant. With New York as the impact site, calculations show it exploding 2.8 miles above ground with the force of 12 megatons of TNT. 3.4 million people would die from the fireball, and almost 7 million people would receive second- or third-degree burns. Buildings within 5.4 miles would collapse, and nearly all trees within 8 miles would be knocked down.NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Center for Near Earth Object Studies writes that Asteroid 2024 YR4 has six possible impact events between 2032 and 2074. The one with the highest likelihood of impact will be on December 22, 2032.There is some good news, though. Level three on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale has the caveat that "Most likely, new telescopic observations will lead to re-assignment to Level 0," which is no hazard rating. // Related StoriesEarthSky notes that the only asteroid ever to have a higher score on the Torino scale was 99942 Apophis, which briefly had a rating of 4 on the Torino Scale in late 2004. It is now rated zero on the scale, though it wiped out most of humanity on August 23, 2029, in id Software's FPS Rage.

Nvidias RTX 5090 is almost here, but the January 30 release date doesnt necessarily mean immediate availability on the shelves. So far, it seems like stock levels will be highly limited for a while, which prompts some retailers to get creative. One Japanese retailer is now hosting a lottery, and the prize is a ticket that allows you to spend $2,000 and more on Nvidias best graphics card. Meanwhile, even MSI confirms that availability is going to be pretty scarce.The store, called Goodwill Nagoya Osu, said that itll begin selling the RTX 5090 on January 31, but you cant just walk in and shell out some of your hard-earned cash on a GPU. Youll have to gamble and hope for the best. Sales begin at 11 a.m., but only those who are lined up outside the store at 10.20 a.m. will be given a ticket. This peculiar ad was spotted by VideoCardz.Recommended VideosCamping outside a store is no news to a GPU enthusiast, as weve seen people setting up tents outside of Micro Center a couple of days ago. Thats a much longer wait, but at least those shoppers wont have to rely on luck to let them spend $2,000 and get their hands on Nvidias latest graphics card. However, we have also seen the lottery system used in the U.S. before during the GPU shortage, so its not that unusual we just havent had to deal with these types of shortages for a while now.Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming RTX5090,RTX50801/3111GPU102010201/3023 pic.twitter.com/sWUh0p9nOa GOODWILL (@GW_Nagoyaoosu) January 29, 2025All of these somewhat extreme measures can be traced back to the limited stock weve been hearing about for the last week or so. It appears that at launch, the RTX 50-series will be hard to come by. While Nvidias Founders Edition is likely to be available, there may not be enough GPUs to meet the demand which is definitely saying something, given how expensive the card is going to be.Third-party cards are a gamble its hard to say which retailer and which manufacturer will have good availability on launch day. As reported by StinceBuilt, MSI has confirmed that itll be delaying the shipment of its RTX 5090 graphics cards, and the GPUs will not be available until February 6. Preorders will still open on January 30 as planned, though.What about the RTX 5080? Will that card be in stock? Check back tomorrow as well make sure to keep you posted on where to buy an RTX 5090 and an RTX 5080 on launch day.Editors Recommendations