How to solve today's Wordle.SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesLooking for Thursdays Wordle hints, clues and answer? You can find them here:TGIF! Its the last day of the work week. The weekend is almost here. Its also 2XP Friday for all you Competitive Wordle players out there. Double your points, good or bad, and let the chips fall where they may!I wonder if you could somehow incorporate Wordle and poker into a game? I suppose that would be tricky, though a friendly bet on a daily Wordle might be interesting. Anyways, lets solve todays!How To Solve Todays WordleThe Hint: Garlic, separated.The Clue: This Wordle ends with a vowel.Okay, spoilers below!...The Answer:Today's WordleCredit: Erik KainWordle AnalysisEvery day I check Wordle Bot to help analyze my guessing game. You can check your Wordles with Wordle Bot right here. I picked a very similar word (FLAKE) to my opening guess yesterday (FLAME) without really meaning to, but Im glad I did. I had just 20 remaining solutions and two green boxes. I decided to go with all new letters for my second guess, SCION, which slashed that number down to just 1: CLOVE for the win!Competitive Wordle ScoreToday's Wordle BotCredit: Erik KainI get 1 point for guessing in three and 0 for tying the Bot. Double that for 2XP Friday for 2 points! Huzzah!How To Play Competitive WordleGuessing in 1 is worth 3 points; guessing in 2 is worth 2 points; guessing in 3 is worth 1 point; guessing in 4 is worth 0 points; guessing in 5 is -1 points; guessing in 6 is -2 points and missing the Wordle is -3 points.If you beat your opponent you get 1 point. If you tie, you get 0 points. And if you lose to your opponent, you get -1 point. Add it up to get your score. Keep a daily running score or just play for a new score each day.Fridays are 2XP, meaning you double your pointspositive or negative.You can keep a running tally or just play day-by-day. Enjoy!Todays Wordle EtymologyClove (spice): Derived from Old French clou de girofle ("nail of the clove tree"), with clou meaning "nail" due to the spice's shape. Clou comes from Latin clavus (nail). The word was shortened to clove in English by the late Middle Ages.Clove (past tense of cleave): Comes from Old English clufan, the past tense of cleofan ("to split or divide"), related to Proto-Germanic kleuban and Proto-Indo-European gleubh- (to tear apart). This is also where the term clove of garlic is derived.Let me know how you fared with your Wordle today on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog where I write about games, TV shows and movies when Im not writing puzzle guides. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.

Niantic founder and chief executive John Hanke speaks during an interview in San Francisco on ... [+] November 5, 2019. - Pokemon Go maker Niantic on November 6, 2019 moved closer to turning the world into a giant game board in a fun mix of fantasy and reality. San Francisco-based Niantic opened the door for outside developers to build titles to add to its current lineup of mobile games which includes Pokemon Go, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Ingress."We think there are adventures everywhere waiting to be discovered," Niantic founder and chief executive John Hanke said at a press briefing. (Photo by Glenn CHAPMAN / AFP) (Photo by GLENN CHAPMAN/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty ImagesNiantic in talks to sell Pokemon Go to Scopely Inc. for approximately $3.5 billion. Keep in mind, Niantic doesnt own Pokemon, so even though it generates billions every year, it is expensive to operate, and the company doesnt keep enough of the dough. Founded by John Hanke, Niantic has a history rooted in geospatial data visualization, contributing to the development of Google Earth and Google Maps before venturing into AR gaming. Despite the initial success of titles like Ingress and Pokmon Go, the company has faced challenges, including layoffs and project cancellations, due to the slower-than-expected growth of the AR market and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Niantics future focus appears to be on enhancing spatial intelligence through large-scale machine learning models, leveraging data collected from its gaming applications to build detailed 3D maps of the world.Its executive management team is led by Prabhu Narasimhan (L) executive chairman of Brahma, along ... [+] with Namit Malhotra, founder of Prime Focus and global chief executive officer (CEO) of DNEG, and Thomas Graham (R), CEO of Metaphysic and president of Brahma.BrahmaBrahma Acquires Metaphysic to Expand AI-Driven Content Creation.Furiosa and Alien: Romulus, will now integrate into Brahmas AI-native product suite for video, image, and audio creation. Brahma plans to expand beyond film into enterprise AI content solutions. Tom Graham, the current CEO of Metaphysic, will initially serve as President of Brahma and later transition to CEO once the integration is complete.The AI Pin. HumaneMicrosoft's new Majorana 1 quantum computing chip. MicrosoftMicrosoft Unveiled the Majorana 1 chip, a significant advancement in quantum computing. Quantum computing is a new kind of computing that uses qubits instead of regular bits. Unlike traditional bits, which are either 0 or 1, qubits can exist in multiple states at once. This makes quantum computers powerful enough to tackle problems that overwhelm normal computers, like simulating molecules for drug discovery or breaking encryption. The chip, detailed in a Nature paper, has eight topological qubits made from indium arsenide and aluminum. Microsoft isnt rushing to commercialize it. Instead, theyre focusing on long-term research, aiming for a million-qubit systema scale where quantum computing could truly transform technology.Alpha 3D's home page. Alpha 3DAlpha3D, an AI-driven 3D asset creation platform, has acquired MoonlanderAI, known for its AI-based game development tools.This acquisition establishes the first platform-agnostic XR user-generated content community, enabling creators to produce and deploy 3D content across various platforms seamlessly. Alpha3D's technology allows users to convert 2D images or text into 3D models swiftly, serving over 550,000 users and partnering with companies like Nvidia and Google. Financial terms for Alpha3D's acquisition of MoonlanderAI have not been publicly disclosed. However, Alpha3D has previously raised 2 million in funding from investors, including Curiosity VC, former Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Rivas, and Sebastian Borget, cofounder of The Sandbox.This illustration photo created in Los Angeles, California, on December 5, 2023, shows Rockstar ... [+] Games' Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer played on computer screens. The first trailer for "Grand Theft Auto VI" was officially released ahead of schedule December 4, 2023 due to a leak, touting a 2025 release for the next chapter of the massively successful video game franchise. (Photo by Chris DELMAS / AFP) (Photo by CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty ImagesThe REPLIKKANT editor and REPLIKANT Chat are destinef to meet. REPLIKANTReplikant Chat Brings AI Characters To Life. Replikant launches AI-powered 3D animation tool, Replikant Chat, enabling real-time animated AI characters, lip sync, and camera control.A model enjoying her Loomis AI smart glasses. ShrageLoomos AI Glasses Take Aim At Metas Ray-Bans With AI-Powered Wearable. Loomos AI Glasses, powered by GPT-4o, challenge Metas Ray-Bans with 4K photos, AI voice assistance, and long battery life, aiming to redefine AI wearables.'Gorilla Tag' Sequel 'Orion Drift' Launches in Early Access Next Week on Quest. Another Axiom, the studio behind the VR hit Gorilla Tag, is launching its sequel, Orion Drift, in early access on February 25th for Quest 2 and newer devices. The game supports up to 200 players in a social VR space, featuring activities like 'Drift Ball,' reminiscent of low-gravity handball, and various mini-games. Orion Drift will be free to play."Thief Simulator VR: Greenview Street" has surpassed 310,000 units sold on the Meta Quest platform since its July 2022 release. Priced at $20, this milestone suggests potential revenue exceeding $6 million, excluding periodic discounts and additional paid expansions. It is also available on PlayStation VR2.This column is the script for the news segment of our AI/XR Podcast, hosted Charlie Fink, professor, author, and the writer of this weekly column, with Ted Schilowitz, former studio executive and co-founder of Red Camera, and Rony Abovitz, CEO of Synthbee AI, and founder of Mako Robotics and Magic Leap. This week our guest is Naeem Talukdar, CEO and co-founder of Moonvalley. We can be found on Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube.What Were ReadingSigns Were In a New Era of XR (Mike Boland/AR Insider)

Competition in the AI industry remains tough, and OpenAI has proven that it is not taking any coming challenges lightly. The generative AI brand announced Thursday that it services 400 million weekly active users as of February, a 33% increase in less than three months.OpenAI chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap confirmed the latest user statistics to CNBC, indicating that the figures had not been previously reported. The numbers have quickly risen from previously confirmed stats of 300 million weekly users in December.Recommended VideosThe AI company has seen unexpected competition in the Chinese startup, DeepSeek, which is marketing AI services of comparable power run by open-source models. However, Lightcap told CNBC that the growth of the companys flagship product, ChatGPT has been a natural progression as it gains more features, and more people become familiar with the service. Ahead of the introduction of DeepSeek, OpenAI already had heavy competition from other notable brands such as Google, and its Gemini language model family. However, in addition to a loyal consumer base, OpenAI has also been able to leverage partners in the enterprise space.Lightcap said the company has seen its enterprise business double since September 2024, to 2 million paying customers. The executive noted employees will recommend ChatGPT to their organizations after using the tool as an enthusiast. The company includes Uber, Morgan Stanley, Moderna, and T-Mobile as some of its largest accounts.We get a lot of benefits, and a tailwind from the organic consumer adoption where people already have familiarity with the product. Theres really healthy growth, on a different curve, he told CNBC.Additionally, developer usage has also doubled in the last six months, with the use of the o3 reasoning model increasing times four. Developers independently utilize available code and models to create their own products and services.Despite the shakeup it has brought to the industry, Lightcap spoke positively about DeepSeek, nothing that its inception speaks to the power of AI models and how much the technology has become a staple in the everyday.The Chinese company notably affected the stock valuation of several companies. Additionally, details surfaced indicating that DeepSeek used an illegal method called distillation to extract data from OpenAI to train its own models.Other figures show that OpenAIs services didnt flounder amid the media frenzy surrounding DeepSeek. Similwarweb stats from late January indicated that DeepSeek saw peak daily visits of 49 million, while ChatGPT remained the leading AI tool with 139.3 million daily visits in the same timeframe.OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman stated in a recent Reddit AMA that the company dropped the ball in terms of open-source development, but also added that it is not the brands highest priority. Notably, the company launched ChatGPT as an open-source research project, but it has become more proprietary over time. Without giving much detail, Altman, along with other OpenAI executives, suggested that the company has plans to make older AI models open source in the future.Editors Recommendations

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsTraining Day (2001)Jackie Brown (1997)Misery (1990)When a Marvel movie opens in theaters, it goes to No. 1 nine out of ten times. Captain America: Brave New WorldBrave New Worldwill top the charts again, but Osgood Perkins The Monkey could open to over $20 million.Its a good weekend for indoor activities, like heading to the theater. However, many of you will have some downtime this weekend. Instead of spending money, download aFAST service and stream thousands of movies for free. Our suggestions are an Oscar-winning crime thriller, an early Tarantino project, and a psychological horror.Recommended VideosWe also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max,andthe best movies on Disney+.RelatedWarner Bros. PicturesKing Kong definitely had nothing on Denzel Washington in Training Day, Antoine Fuquas crime thriller based on David Ayers script. Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) is a rookie cop with the LAPD assigned to work with Detective Alonzo Harris (Washington), a veteran narcotics officer. Hoyt will likely get promoted if Harris gives him a good recommendation at the end of the shift.Within a few minutes, Jake learns that Alonzo does not obey the letter of the law. Alonzo believes he is the law and takes advantage of his power. Jake witnesses Alonoz abuse his power but remains helpless for fear of demotion. The cat-and-mouse thriller culminates with the ultimate showdown of good and evil. Training Day is on Washingtons Mount Rushmore of characters, as his larger-than-life portrayal of a dirty cop led to the Oscar for Best Actor.Stream Training Day for free on Tubi.Jackie Brown Official Trailer #1 - (1997) HDFor Quentin Tarantino, Jackie Brownwas an abrupt departure from the graphic violence depicted inReservoir Dogs andPulp Fiction. To this day,Jackie Brownis probably Tarantinos sweetest movie. Dont worry, its still a crime thriller infused with Tarantinos signature dialogue and pop culture references. Based on Elmore LeonardsRum Punch,Jackie Brownstars Pam Grier as the titular flight attendant working as a drug smuggler for Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson).ATF agent Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton) and LAPD detective Mark Dargus (Michael Bowen) catch Jackie with the drugs and money and threaten her with jail time. However, the feds cut Jackie a deal to help them bust Ordell. Unbeknownst to the cops, Jackie agrees to help Ordell smuggle the money. Tired of working for others, Jackie plans to double-cross both parties and keep the money for herself. Shell need some help from the kind bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster), who is infatuated with Jackie.Stream Jackie Brown for free on Pluto TV.Columbia PicturesMiseryis not for the faint of heart. There are stalkers, and then theres Annie Wilkes inMisery, Rob Reiners adaptation of the Stephen King novel. While traveling through a snowstorm, novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) crashes his car and badly injures himself. Annie (Kathy Bates), a nurse, finds an unconscious Paul and drags him to her secluded cabin.When Paul regains consciousness, hes immobile due to his broken legs and busted shoulder. Annie offers to help Paul regain his strength and keep him safe until he recovers. Annie is also a Sheldon superfan who loves hisMiserynovels. As Pauls health improves, he slowly learns Annie has no intention of letting him walk out the door. Paul must secretly devise an escape plan, but hell have to do it in confidence because if the sadistic Annie finds out, shell violently intervene.Stream Misery for free on Tubi.Editors Recommendations

Online speech FTC investigates tech censorship, says its un-American and may be illegal "Tech firms should not be bullying their users," Chairman Andrew Ferguson says. Jon Brodkin Feb 20, 2025 4:20 pm | 76 Credit: Getty Images | Jacques Julien Credit: Getty Images | Jacques Julien Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe Federal Trade Commission today announced a public inquiry into alleged censorship online, saying it wants "to better understand how technology platforms deny or degrade users' access to services based on the content of their speech or affiliations, and how this conduct may have violated the law.""Tech firms should not be bullying their users," said FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who was chosen by President Trump to lead the commission. "This inquiry will help the FTC better understand how these firms may have violated the law by silencing and intimidating Americans for speaking their minds."The FTC announcement said that "censorship by technology platforms is not just un-American, it is potentially illegal." Tech platforms' actions "may harm consumers, affect competition, may have resulted from a lack of competition, or may have been the product of anti-competitive conduct," the FTC said.The Chamber of Progress, a lobby group representing tech firms, issued a press release titled, "FTC Chair Rides MAGA 'Tech Censorship' Hobby Horse.""Republicans have spent nearly a decade campaigning against perceived social media 'censorship' by attempting to dismantle platforms' ability to moderate content, despite well-established Supreme Court precedent," the group said. "Accusations of 'tech censorship' also ignore the fact that conservative publishers and commentators receive broader engagement than liberal voices."Last year, the Supreme Court found that a Texas state law prohibiting large social media companies from moderating posts based on a user's "viewpoint" is unlikely to withstand First Amendment scrutiny. The Supreme Court majority opinion said the court "has many times held, in many contexts, that it is no job for government to decide what counts as the right balance of private expressionto 'un-bias' what it thinks biased, rather than to leave such judgments to speakers and their audiences. That principle works for social-media platforms as it does for others."The Chamber of Progress said online platforms compete by adopting different approaches to content moderation and that the FTC is undermining its pro-competition mission "by attacking content moderation." The industry group's website lists 35 corporate partners including Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta.FTC seeks comment until May 21The FTC issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public comment until May 21. "Tech platform users who have been banned, shadow banned, demonetized, or otherwise censored are encouraged to share their comments in response to the RFI," the FTC said. "The FTC is interested in understanding how consumersincluding by potentially unfair or deceptive acts or practices, or potentially unfair methods of competitionhave been harmed by the policies of tech firms."Meta announced in January that it was ending a third-party fact-checking program that has spurred many conservative complaints. Some studies have disputed Republican claims that tech platforms are biased against conservatives."In sum, when there are political asymmetries in misinformation sharing (in either direction), platforms will face a substantial trade-off between reducing the spread of misinformation and being politically balanced in their enforcement... If one political, social or demographic group shares more misinformationbe it liberals, conservatives or some other groupit is not possible to be maximally effective in combatting misinformation without preferentially taking action against members of that group," said an October 2024 analysis in Nature.Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has also slammed Big Tech firms for alleged censorship. He claims that "Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel," along with fact-checking groups and ad agencies that "helped enforce one-sided narratives."The Carr-led FCC could act on Trump's calls to reinterpret Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides legal protection for platforms that host and moderate third-party content. Carr has already launched investigations of news organizations accused of bias against Trump and conservatives.Jon BrodkinSenior IT ReporterJon BrodkinSenior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 76 Comments

may the odds be ever in your favor Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti review: An RTX 4080 for $749, at least in theory It's hard to review a product if you don't know what it will actually cost! Andrew Cunningham Feb 20, 2025 3:57 pm | 35 The Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. Credit: Andrew Cunningham The Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. Credit: Andrew Cunningham Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreNvidia's RTX 50-series makes its first foray below the $1,000 mark starting this week, with the $749 RTX 5070 Tiat least in theory.The third-fastest card in the Blackwell GPU lineup, the 5070 Ti is still far from "reasonably priced" by historical standards (the 3070 Ti was $599 at launch). But it's also $50 cheaper and a fair bit faster than the outgoing 4070 Ti Super and the older 4070 Ti. These are steps in the right direction, if small ones.We'll talk more about its performance shortly, but at a high level, the 5070 Ti's performance falls in the same general range as the 4080 Super and the original RTX 4080, a card that launched for $1,199 just over two years ago. And it's probably your floor for consistently playable native 4K gaming for those of you out there who don't want to rely on DLSS or 4K upscaling to hit that resolution (it's also probably all the GPU that most people will need for high-FPS 1440p, if that's more your speed).But it's a card I'm ambivalent about! It's close to 90 percent as fast as a 5080 for 75 percent of the price, at least if you go by Nvidia's minimum list prices, which for the 5090 and 5080 have been mostly fictional so far. If you can find it at that priceand that's a big "if," since every $749 model is already out of stock across the board at Neweggand you're desperate to upgrade or are building a brand-new 4K gaming PC, you could do worse. But I wouldn't spend more than $749 on it, and it might be worth waiting to see what AMD's first 90-series Radeon cards look like in a couple weeks before you jump in.Meet the GeForce RTX 5070 TiRTX 5080RTX 4080 SuperRTX 5070 TiRTX 4070 Ti SuperRTX 4070 TiRTX 5070CUDA Cores10,75210,2408,9608,4487,6806,144Boost Clock2,617 MHz2,550 MHz2,452 MHz2,610 MHz2,610 MHz2,512 MHzMemory Bus Width256-bit256-bit256-bit256-bit192-bit192-bitMemory Bandwidth960 GB/s736 GB/s896 GB/s672 GB/s504 GB/s672 GB/sMemory size16GB GDDR716GB GDDR6X16GB GDDR716GB GDDR6X12GB GDDR6X12GB GDDR7TGP360 W320 W300 W285 W285 W250 WNvidia isn't making a Founders Edition version of the 5070 Ti, so this time around our review unit is an Asus Prime GeForce RTX 5070 Ti provided by Asus and Nvidia. These third-party cards will deviate a little from the stock specs listed above, but factory overclocks tend to be inordinately mild, and done mostly so the GPU manufacturer can slap a big "overclocked" badge somewhere on the box. We tested this Asus card with its BIOS switch set to "performance" mode, which elevates the boost clock by an entire 30 MHz; you don't need to be a math whiz to guess that a 1.2 percent overclock is not going to change performance much.Compared to the 4070 Ti Super, the 5070 Ti brings two things to the table: a roughly 6 percent increase in CUDA cores and a 33 percent increase in memory bandwidth, courtesy of the switch from GDDR6X to GDDR7. The original 4070 Ti had even fewer CUDA cores, but most importantly for its 4K performance included just 12GB of memory on a 192-bit bus.The 5070 Ti is based on the same GB203 GPU silicon as the 5080 series, but with 1,792 CUDA cores disabled. But there are a lot of similarities between the two, including the 16GB bank of GDDR7 and the 256-bit memory bus. It looks nothing like the yawning gap between the RTX 5090 and the RTX 5080, and the two cards' similar-ish specs meant they weren't too far away from each other in our testing. The 5070 Ti's 300 W power requirement is also a bit lower than the 5080's 360 W, but it's pretty close to the 4080 and 4080 Super's 320 W; in practice, the 5070 Ti draws about as much as the 4080 cards do under load. Asus' design for its Prime RTX 5070 Ti is an inoffensive 2.5-slot, triple-fan card that should fit without a problem in most builds. Credit: Andrew Cunningham As a Blackwell GPU, the 5070 Ti also supports Nvidia's most-hyped addition to the 50-series: support for DLSS 4 and Multi-Frame Generation (MFG). We've already covered this in our 5090 and 5080 reviews, but the short version is that MFG works exactly like Frame Generation did in the 40-series, except that it can now insert up to three AI-generated frames in between natively rendered frames instead of just one.Especially if you're already running at a reasonably high frame rate, this can make things look a lot smoother on a high-refresh-rate monitor without introducing distractingly excessive lag or weird rendering errors. The feature is mainly controversial because Nvidia is comparing 50-series performance numbers with DLSS MFG enabled to older 40-series cards without DLSS MFG to make the 50-series cards seem a whole lot faster than they actually are.We'll publish some frame-generation numbers in our review, both using DLSS and (for AMD cards) FSR. But per usual, we'll continue to focus on natively rendered performancemore relevant for all the games out there that don't support frame generation or don't benefit much from it, and more relevant because your base performance dictates how good your generated frames will look and feel anyway.Testbed notesGaming testbedCPUAMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D (provided by AMD)MotherboardAsus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero (provided by AMD)RAM32GB (2x16GB) G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB series (provided by AMD), running at DDR5-6000Power supplyThermaltake Toughpower GF A3 1050 WCPU cooler360 mm MSI MAG CoreLiquid I360CaseMontech XR ATX Mid-tower with three 120 mm cooling fans installed and side panel removedOSWindows 11 24H2 with Core Isolation on, Memory Integrity offDriversNvidia RTX 5090: Beta driver 571.86Nvidia RTX 5080: Beta driver 572.12Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti: Beta driver 572.43Other Nvidia cards: Game Ready Driver 566.36AMD cards: Adrenalin 24.12.1We tested the 5070 Ti in the same updated testbed and with the same updated suite of games that we started using in our RTX 5090 review. The heart of the build is an AMD Ryzen 9800X3D, ensuring that our numbers are limited as little as possible by the CPU speed.Per usual, we prioritize testing GPUs at resolutions that we think most people will use them for. For the 5070 Ti, that means both 4K and 1440pthis card is arguably still overkill for 1440p, but if you're trying to hit 144 or 240 Hz (or even more) on a monitor, there's a good case to be made for it. We also use a mix of ray-traced and non-ray-traced games. For the games we test with upscaling enabled, we use DLSS on Nvidia cards and the newest supported version of FSR (usually 2.x or 3.x) for AMD cards.Though we've tested and re-tested multiple cards with recent drivers in our updated testbed, we don't have a 4070 Ti Super, 4070 Ti, or 3070 Ti available to test with. We've provided some numbers for those GPUs from past reviews; these are from a PC running older drivers and a Ryzen 7 7800X3D instead of a 9800X3D, and we've put asterisks next to them in our charts. They should still paint a reasonably accurate picture of the older GPUs' relative performance, but take them with that small grain of salt.Performance and powerDespite including fewer CUDA cores than either version of the 4080, some combination of architectural improvements and memory bandwidth increases help the card keep pace with both 4080 cards almost perfectly. In most of our tests, it landed in the narrow strip right in between the 4080 and the 4080 Super, and its power consumption under load was also almost identical. Benchmarks run at 4K. Benchmarks run at 4K. Benchmarks run at 1440p. Benchmarks run at 1440p. Benchmarks with DLSS/FSR and/or frame generation enabled. Benchmarks with DLSS/FSR and/or frame generation enabled.In every way that matters, the 5070 Ti is essentially an RTX 4080 that also supports DLSS Multi-Frame Generation. You can see why we'd be mildly enthusiastic about it at $749 but less and less impressed the closer the price creeps to $1,000.Being close to a 4080 also means that the performance gap between the 5070 Ti and the 5080 is usually pretty small. In most of the games we tested, the 5070 Ti hovers right around 90 percent of the 5080's performance.The 5070 Ti is also around 60 percent as fast as an RTX 5090. The performance is a lot lower, but the price-to-performance ratio is a lot higher, possibly reflecting the fact that the 5070 Ti actually has other GPUs it has to compete with (in non-ray-traced games, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX generally keeps pace with the 5070 Ti, though at this late date it is mostly out of stock unless you're willing to pay way more than you ought to for one).Compared to the old 4070 Ti, the 5070 Ti can be between 20 and 50 percent faster at 4K, depending on how limited the game is by the 4070 Ti's narrower memory bus and 12GB bank of RAM. The performance improvement over the 4070 Ti Super is more muted, ranging from as little as 8 percent to as much as 20 percent in our 4K tests. This is better than the RTX 5080 did relative to the RTX 4080 Super, but as a generational leap, it's still pretty modestit's clear why Nvidia wants everyone to look at the Multi-Frame Generation numbers when making comparisons.Waiting to put theory into practice Asus' RTX 5070 Ti, replete with 12-pin power plug. Credit: Andrew Cunningham Being able to get RTX 4080-level performance for several hundred dollars less just a couple of years after the 4080 launched is kind of exciting, though that excitement is leavened by the still high-ish $749 price tag (again, assuming it's actually available at or anywhere near that price). That certainly makes it feel more like a next-generation GPU than the RTX 5080 didand whatever else you can say about it, the 5070 Ti certainly feels like a better buy than the 5080.The 5070 Ti is a fast and 4K-capable graphics card, fast enough that you should be able to get some good results from all of Blackwell's new frame-generation trickery if that's something you want to play with. Its price-to-performance ratio does not thrill me, but if you do the math, it's still a much better value than the 4070 Ti series wasparticularly the original 4070 Ti, with the 12GB allotment of RAM that limited its usefulness and future-proofness at 4K.Two reasons to hold off on buying a 5070 Ti, if you're thinking about it: We're waiting to see how AMD's 9070 series GPUs shake out, and Nvidia's 50-series launch so far has been kind of a mess, with low availability and price gouging both on retail sites and in the secondhand market. Pay much more than $749 for a 5070 Ti, and its delicate value proposition fades quickly. We should know more about the AMD cards in a couple of weeks. The supply situation, at least so far, seems like a problem that Nvidia can't (or won't) figure out how to solve.The goodFor a starting price of $749, you get the approximate performance and power consumption of an RTX 4080, a GPU that cost $1,199 two years ago and $999 one year ago.Good 4K performance and great 1440p performance for those with high-refresh monitors.16GB of RAM should be reasonably future-proof.Multi-Frame Generation is an interesting performance-boosting tool to have in your toolbox, even if it isn't a cure-all for low framerates.Nvidia-specific benefits like DLSS support and CUDA.The badNot all that much faster than a 4070 Ti Super.$749 looks cheap compared to a $2,000 GPU, but it's still enough money to buy a high-end game console or an entire 1080p gaming PC.The uglyPricing and availability for other 50-series GPUs to date have both been kind of a mess.Will you actually be able to get it for $749? Because it doesn't make a ton of sense if it costs more than $749.Seriously, it's been months since I reviewed a GPU that was actually widely available at its advertised price.And it's not just the RTX 5090 or 5080, it's low-end stuff like the Intel Arc B580 and B570, too.Is it high demand? Low supply? Scalpers and resellers hanging off the GPU market like the parasites they are? No one can say!It makes these reviews very hard to do.It also makes PC gaming, as a hobby, really difficult to get into if you aren't into it already!It just makes me mad is all.If you're reading this months from now and the GPUs actuallyare in stock at the list price, I hope this was helpful.Andrew CunninghamSenior Technology ReporterAndrew CunninghamSenior Technology Reporter Andrew is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, with a focus on consumer tech including computer hardware and in-depth reviews of operating systems like Windows and macOS. Andrew lives in Philadelphia and co-hosts a weekly book podcast called Overdue. 35 Comments

Meta approved a plan that would allow executives to earn a bonus of up to 200% of their base pay.The move comes the same month the company aims to reduce its workforce by about 4,000 employees.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said the company is targetting low-performing employees.Meta approved a plan that could give company executives a bonus of up to 200% of their base salary, according to an SEC filing submitted on Thursday.The company said in the filing that the bonus plan provides "variable cash incentives" designed to "motivate its executive officers to focus on company priorities and to reward them for company results and achievements." The plan would increase the bonus package from 75% to 200% of its base pay, the company said.The bonus boost would not apply to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. This is not an uncommon practice since chief executive compensation can be structured differently, focusing more on stock options.A Meta spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The bonus boost comes amid another round of layoffs this month at Meta, targeting 5% of its workforce which would amount to nearly 4,000 employees.Zuckerberg said the cuts were meant to target "low-performers" as company looks to streamline its operations in "an intense year" and invest heavily in artificial intelligence.But some workers who were fired previously told Business Insider that they were caught off guard by the move because they had recently been given an "At or Above Expectations" ratings in Meta's midyear reviews in 2024."When I received the email I was surprised by it mostly because I have a very solid performance history and no indicators of the last six months of performance problems," one worker impacted by the layoffs said."Simply because someone had a history of meeting or exceeding expectations, does not mean they continue to consistently meet the bar," a Meta spokesperson previously told BI in an email. "Employees at Meta have always been held accountable to a goal-based culture of high performance."

Investors misinterpreted DeepSeek's AI advancements, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said.DeepSeek's large language models were built with weaker chips, rattling markets in January.Huang emphasized the importance of AI post-training in a pre-taped interview released Thursday.Investors took away the wrong message from DeepSeek's advancements in AI, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at a virtual event aired Thursday.DeepSeek, a Chinese AI firm owned by hedge fund High-Flyer released a competitive, open-source reasoning model named R1 in January. The firm said the large language model underpinning R1 was built with weaker chips and a fraction of the funding of the predominant, Western-made AI models.Investors reacted to this news by selling off Nvidia stock,resulting in a $600 billion loss in market capitalization. Huang himself temporarilylost nearly 20%of his net worth in the rout. The stock has since recovered much of its lost value.The dramatic market response stemmed from investors' misinterpretation, Huang said in Thursday's pre-recorded interview, which was produced by Nvidia partner DDN and part of an event debuting DDN's new software platform, Inifinia.Investors have raised questions as to whether trillions in spending on AI infrastructure by Big Tech firms is needed, if less computing power is required to train models. Jensen said the industry still needs computing power for post-training methods, which allow AI models to draw conclusions or make predictions after training.As post-training methods grow and diversify, the need for the computing power Nvidia chips provide will also grow, he continued."From an investor perspective, there was a mental model that the world was pre-training and then inference. And inference was: you ask an AI a question, and you instantly got an answer," he said at Thursday's event. "I don't know whose fault it is, but obviously that paradigm is wrong,"Pre-training is still important, though post-training is the "most important part of intelligence. This is where you learn to solve problems," Huang said.DeepSeek's innovations energize the AI world, he said."It is so incredibly exciting. The energy around the world as a result of R1 becoming open-sourced incredible," Huang said.Nvidia spokespeople have addressed the market reaction with written statements to a similar effect, though Huang had yet to make public comments on the topic until Thursday's event.Huang has been defending against the growing concern that model scaling is in trouble for months. Even before DeepSeek burst into the public consciousness in January, reports that model improvements at OpenAI were slowing down roused suspicions that the AI boom might not deliver on its promise and Nvidia, therefore, wouldn't continue to cash in at the same rate.In November, Huang stressed thatscaling is alive and well; it has simply shifted from training to inference. Huang also said Thursday that post-training methods are "really quite intense," and models will keep improving with new reasoning methods.Huang's DeepSeek comments may serve as a preview for Nvidia's first earnings call of 2025, scheduled for February 26. DeepSeek has become a popular topic of discussion on earnings calls for companies across the tech spectrum, from Airbnb to Palantir.Nvidia rival AMD was asked the question earlier this month, and CEOLisa Su said DeepSeek is driving innovation that's "good for AI adoption."

Is the PlayStation Portal a sign of things to come? (Sony)The Friday letters page tries to pick five new characters for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DX, as one reader recommends playing Warframe.To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.ukHandheld limitationsWith all the talk of Nintendo Switch 2 and next gen Xbox at the moment I notice were not getting any rumours or leaks about the PlayStation 6. Sony admitted they were making a new console and then they implied it would be a portable, or at least one model was, and that was it.I would very much like to know what they are planning and when it will be released. I know that seems an obvious thing to say and everyone else is probably thinking the same thing, but I am very concerned that all consoles are becoming portables and I dont want that.The reader the other day saying hed like a Switch 2 without a screen seems to be thinking the same thing, but I do not want to go backwards in terms of graphics. Theres no way you can get something the power of a PlayStation 5, let alone anything with more power, in a portable, so whats the point?Yes, portables might be fashionable at the moment but as nice as the Steam Deck is Id always rather play on an actual PC, if I was at home. With a portable only PlayStation 6 everything is limited by it being a portable and that sounds like a terrible idea to me.ZappEarly leapSo the theory is Xboxs big next gen leap is something to do with AI, but what exactly? Are we expecting people to be telling their Xbox 5 to make a game based on a bunch of keywords and then youre going to play it?I dont know about anyone else but I got bored playing around with AI after a couple of hours, once I realised it wasnt really listening to you and everything it made was trash. Even assuming it works better than that in the future who would want to play that compared to a proper game?I get its a buzzword and everything at the moment, but I cant help thinking of Kinect and how Microsoft basically ruined the technology by putting the product out too early, convincing everyone it didnt work, and then never going back to it again.AlgoUnreliable narratorI do laugh at these people trying to call other Luddites, over Microsofts AI plans and then saying the same thing about game developers. I know I would certainly take the opinion of some nobody in the comments section of a website compared to someone whose actual business is making video games and who is specifically calling it all out as nonsense.I think the simplest takeaway is the one about Microsoft just trying to impress investors and shareholders. I dont know what a $3 trillion company needs to do that for, but I get the feeling that a lot of execs just like to pretend theyre busy, no matter how dumb the idea is theyre pushing.The reason I especially hate this AI push is that has no one actually used AI before? Its rubbish. Whether its Google or ChatGPT or whatever it just makes things up and mixes up facts like a politician on election night. I wouldnt trust a word anything AI told me and I certainly wouldnt want it making my games and putting the actual talent out of a job.ZebedeeEmail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.ukImpulse purchaseIm beginning to think that being bought out by a giant company is not in fact a good idea after all. All these people that are going to be affected by NetEase (who Ive never heard of until this week) and you just know theres going to be more because of their non-answer as to whether there will be.Bungie seemed to last about five minutes before Sony had the knives out for them and the first one Microsoft shut down was the one they really needed: a Japanese developer with a critical hit already under their belt.Buyouts can work but it only seems to be for smaller developers that can actually benefit from the companys expertise, Im thinking Insomniac for Sony and Monolith Soft for Nintendo. Its the shopping spree approach that seems to be poison and I wouldnt be surprised if that comes around to bite Microsoft (or more accurately the people they employ) on the ass before too long.Grackle Yasuke Simulator not a Ubisoft game (HistoryAccurateDevelopers)Quick and dirtyAs awful as all this AI rubbish is going to be, especially for anyone paid to be a game developer, I do like the idea of this Assassins Creed Shadows parody. I dont imagine its been made with AI but it looks like it, with lots of off-the-shelf graphics and whatnot, so if they couldve used AI to build it probably wouldve looked even nicer.GC has said before that you cant really do anything topical with video games because they take so long to make but AI-made games could allow for this and Im okay with that. Especially if theyre going to be parodies, so the characters having the wrong number of fingers or the backdrops being visual slop doesnt matter.Dont get me wrong, I dont want AI anywhere near games Im going to pay 70 for, but if theyre used for a new genre of quick and dirty games, that are clearly labelled as such, Im okay with that.DunstableGC: Actually, it has been made with AI, according to the Steam listing.Late to the partyRead in your article on the beat free shooters, that no one has recommended Warframe.In that case. This is a recommendation.Its as fully featured and expansive as any triple-A title. Watch out for spoilers though as you will find out yourself, following the questline, that they are huge.Fairly steep learning curve and hundreds of hours of content, factions to gain favour with. Years and years of content.Theres the option to speed up game play via in-game currency (paid or traded for in-game) but no actual need to spend a penny ever.Four open worlds each with unique feels and mechanics.Would be interested to see if you guys think its worth a full review.JamesGC: The game is 12 years old, so were not sure theres much to be gained by that.Nintendo DS MaxI saw this video recently could they? Would they? Is it April yet?big boy bentGC: If we were Nintendo wed certainly want to do this, after seeing the video. But who knows whether theyve actually thought of it or not. The turning upside down trick is certainly suspicious though.https://twitter.com/jard_dog_/status/1891556106444378211Making the cutI think its fair to assume that there will be a Super Smash Bros. game on Switch 2 and Im very happy for that to be just a remaster of Ultimate, with new features, upgraded graphics, and a few new characters. But what new characters?They had five in their last DLC pack so if you assume maybe two are from new Nintendo games we currently know nothing about, who should be the others? Its actually very difficult because theyve basically run out of major, and even most minor, Nintendo characters, with the only good suggestion Ive heard being Nell from Advance Wars.So you need characters from third party games that are also associated with Nintendo consoles, or at least have appeared on them. But while games like Mass Effect and Assassins Creed technically count, I dont think that would really work.I would love to see Master Chief, and I think thats a real possibility, but as much as Crash Bandicoot and Lara Croft would be cool Ive certainly never played any of their games on a Nintendo format. Interested to know what others think but how about Bomberman, Ryu Hayabusa, and Shantae?KorbieInbox also-ransCan I just say that the Bloodborne is absolutely phenomenal. Like, better than most movie soundtracks phenomenal. It is an absolute crime that this game is being buried, never to be seen again, by Sony.GrantGC: You can say that and know that you are correct.I would love to know what that so-called Xbox creator actually did imagine for the future of the format. I can assume its not this, but he never actually said. Easy to say what you shouldnt do, a bit harder to offer constructive advice I think.LonnieMore TrendingEmail your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.ukThe small printNew Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Readers Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.You can also leave your comments below and dont forget to follow us on Twitter.ArrowMORE: Games Inbox: When will Fallout 5 be released? 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How Astro Bot and the next 3D Mario will shape the Nintendo Switch 2GameCentralPublished February 21, 2025 1:00am What will influence the next 3D Mario game? (Nintendo/Sony Interactive Entertainment)A new 3D Mario is almost guaranteed within the first year of the Nintendo Switch 2 but what form will it take and does it have anything to do with Donkey Kong?As a rule, it is impossible to predict Nintendo and yet thats not been entirely true for the Nintendo Switch 2. Many guessed that the console would still look similar to the original and it was correctly predicted Mario Kart would be one of the first games to appear, as there hasnt been a wholly new entry in over a decade. They seem like easy guesses in hindsight but when trying to understand Nintendo nothing is easy.And yet, there are also a few other things that can, more or less, be taken for granted. It seems very likely that Metroid Prime 4 will be a cross-gen game, for example, and given its popularity in Japan its hard to imagine there wont be a Splatoon 4 this year. But also, its very obvious that Nintendo will want a new Super Mario platform game on the system sooner rather than later.Often, new Super Mario games have been launch titles, with classics such as Super Mario World and Super Mario 64, but thats not always the case. Super Mario Odyssey was released in October, after the Switch 1s March launch, and given how closely Nintendo seems to be following the same formula for their new console its easy to imagine them launching the Switch 2 with Mario Kart 9 and then having a new Super Mario out in time for Christmas.Will there be a new Donkey Kong game on Nintendo Switch 2?That is only a guess though as its been over seven years since Super Mario Odyssey and the team responsible (Nintendo EPD) has produced no other similar title since, so theoretically they couldve been working on a follow-up all this time.Thats not very likely but there have been rumours dating back to at least 2021, that EPD is working on a new 3D Donkey Kong. If true, it seems this may have been intended for the 40th anniversary of Donkey Kong (which is also the 40th anniversary of Mario) but thanks to the pandemic that important milestone was never even acknowledged by Nintendo.Its unclear what form a new Donkey Kong game might take, especially given hes had a recent makeover starting with his appearance in the Super Mario Bros. movie that is closer to his original look and less like his 90s era Rare design. The Rare influenced Donkey Kong Country Returns was recently remastered, so Nintendo hasnt completely retconned the old games, but his new look can clearly be seen in the Mario Kart Nintendo Switch 2 footage.The last 3D Donkey Kong game was Rares extremely flawed Donkey Kong 64 in 1999 and its very unlikely EPD will be looking to make anything similar themselves.A better guess, and an approach theyve taken with many of their classic franchises recently most obviously Zelda would be something more reminiscent of Donkey Kongs original appearance. But, of course, in that he was the villain and never moved from his spot atop a half-built skyscraper.There have also been rumours of a more traditional 3D Mario game that will be an early release for the Switch 2 and theres no reason to think thats not true. Although its certainly impossible to guess what theme or gimmick it might have. Astro Bot provided some unexpected competition for Nintendo (Sony Interactive Entertainment)What will be interesting is whether it tries to reflect the success of Astro Bot in any way. The developers of Sonys exclusive went out of their way to acknowledge their debt to Nintendo, in their The Game Awards acceptance speech, but for many that have never played a modern 3D Mario game Astro Bot is their only experience of a modern, high quality 3D platformer.Mario games are much more mechanically complex than anything in Astro Bot, so its going to be very interesting to see if Nintendo leans into that, as a point of difference, or if they pull back and try and make something easier and simpler.This will be the first time Nintendos had any serious competition, in terms of platformers, since the Mega Drive era and their response to that is going to be very interesting, especially as Sony has already said it wants to make more family friendly games.Will there be a new 3D Super Mario on Nintendo Switch 2?There is another theory though and while it has nothing to back it up, other than the unexpected remake of Mario Vs. Donkey Kong last year, it is a compelling idea: what if the new 3D Mario and the rumoured new Donkey Kong were one and the same game?More TrendingThat is how things started off with the original coin-op, after all, and it would be interesting if perhaps you switched control between both or there was some sort of co-op element. Or perhaps its a single-player game in the style of Bowsers Fury, which featured Mario running and jumping as usual, while also being menaced by an almost unstoppable, and much larger, foe.Bowsers Fury was only ever included with the remaster of Super Mario 3D World and felt very much like an experiment that hadnt quite made it to the status of a full game. Coincidentally, it was released in 2021, when the first rumours of a new Donkey Kong game emerged, so who knows.Well, Nintendo knows, obviously, but theyre not saying anything until the Nintendo Direct on April 2 and perhaps not even then if the game is further out than currently assumed. The chances of anyone guessing what Nintendo are up to are very low but the one thing you can be certain of is that a 3D Mario game, of some sort, is on its way and that it will almost certainly be worth waiting for. Super Mario Odyssey what will its follow-up be like? (Nintendo)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy