Key Takeaways A bill has been introduced that plans to verify the ownership and location of regulated processors and advanced AI tech. This would require companies like Nvidia, AMD, and Intel to embed location tracking functions into regulated products. This bold move appears highly questionable and could have long-term consequences on global trade. The US is planning to introduce legislation that would make it mandatory for manufacturers of high-performance AI processors to add geographical location tracking to their products. This is reportedly being done to stop advanced AI components from falling into the hands of China.  Remember, the US government has already placed several export restrictions on advanced AI chips, including Nvidia’s H100 and A100. However, this geographical tracking takes things a notch higher. As per reports, US officials are worried about increasing instances of AI tech smuggling, which means these chips ultimately end up in China in one way or another. The recently launched Hunyuan-Large AI model was also reportedly trained on Nvidia H20 GPUs, which are export-controlled. This reconfirms America’s fear of China using illegal channels to source these chips. This is why Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas has introduced a bill that would allow the Commerce Secretary to impose location controls on these companies. The bill covers high-performance AI processors, including the GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 5090, as well as other AI chips. The companies will be required to embed tracking technology in all high-end processor modules, including products that have already been developed. Companies will have six months to comply with these requirements after the bill is enacted. The US also suspects that China might procure these restricted chips from other export-free countries on the US list. That is why the bill aims to meticulously verify the ownership and location of regulated processors. In a nutshell, the US government has banned the export of certain products to China, and the products that are allowed to be exported will now be embedded with live location tracking. Location Tracking Might Be a Bit of an Overkill If this bill comes into force, a one-year study will be conducted jointly by the Department of Commerce and the Department of Defense to explore additional protective measures. The departments will also conduct annual assessments for three years after the bill becomes law. If the additional measures are considered appropriate, the Department of Commerce will work on them to finalize rules within the next two years. This means location tracking isn’t really the final nail in the coffin. The US might be planning to launch more such control measures in the next few years. While one can understand the rationale behind tracking the location of each US-made chip, this seems to be a bit of overkill. After all, such a ‘dictatorship’ move can be detrimental to free trade in the technology space. Companies like Nvidia, AMD, and Intel will have to spend billions to incorporate this technology, and even after that, they will have little control over whom they can sell to. It’s as good as the government tightening its control on these companies, which are essentially becoming playthings for the US government in the overall global foreign trade policy. Today, the US has a problem with China, so it’s implementing such draconian measures. Tomorrow, if there is a conflict between the US and the UK or the US and the EU, who’s to say that the government will not use this law to twist arms? Nvidia is expected to be hit the hardest. 13% of Nvidia’s total sales come from China, which is around $17 billion as of January 2025. Plus, the tech giant is already sitting on orders worth $18B in the current year. Image Credit – Finchat_io on Threads Furthermore, the company is already planning to export a downgraded version of the H20 chip with lower computing power, which will fall outside the purview of the proposed export controls. However, the US might very well block this move or require location tracking on these chips as well. Another issue with the proposed bill is the time period of the tracking. When does it stop? Does it stop at all? This could result in massive privacy scares, as retail customers using these trackable, tech-embedded products would, at all times, have their location exposed to the US authorities.  US Export Regulations Are in a Mess The US export policy is currently as confusing as it has ever been. With arbitrary tariff rate increases, export bans, and now location tracking, the US is leaving no stone unturned to ensure artificial intelligence supremacy. However, this is based on the assumption that China is totally reliant on the US for AI development, which is far from the truth. For instance, Huawei’s 910C GPU offers the same level of performance as Nvidia’s H100, which was released in 2022. To put it simply, China seems to be just three years behind the US when it comes to AI technology. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has also said that China is very close to the US. Plus, now that China has finally started to produce US-comparable chips, it may start catering to the global chip market and export its homemade AI chips to other countries. In that case, these strict regulations may backfire on the US, and it may end up losing a sizable chunk of the global market to China. So, this begs the question of whether such an extensive and restrictive export policy is actually needed. We have already seen how DeepSeek was built for a fraction of the cost of other AI models. So, China may catch up with the US sooner than expected. For now, we’ll wait to see if and when this bill comes into force. The concerned companies may also put forward their reservations, and clauses may be worked out before being set into writing. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide. A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Key Takeaways The US and China have agreed to lower tariffs, with the US now charging a 30% tariff, whereas China will charge 10%. Actual prices may not come down in the long run, but we may see an increase at a much lower pace. Lower tariffs may also not see massive domestic production shifts, so the trade deficit may close more slowly than expected. After a long-fought tariff war, the US and China seem to have reached an understanding. The two countries’ representatives met at Geneva and decided to lower the tariffs for 90 days. The US agreed to bring down its tariffs from 145% to 30%, while China will now only impose a 10% tariff on US goods instead of the previous 125%. It’s worth noting that the 30% tariff by the US comprises a 10% universal tariff imposed by Trump on all countries and an additional 20% tariff for failing to curb fentanyl flows by the Chinese. Trump used the entire tariff weapon to reduce the US’s massive $295.4B trade deficit with China as of 2024. He accused China of taking ‘unfair advantage’ of the US for years. This is also the largest trade deficit the US has had with any trading partner. Will Lower Tariffs Lead to Lower Prices? One important thing to understand is that while the tariffs have been reduced, the overall average effective tariff still stands at 17.8%, which is the highest since 1934. Even if you consider the shift in consumption due to the increased tariffs, the average tariff rate would come to 16.4%, the highest since 1937.  This means that consumers might not actually see lower prices. At most, we might see slower price increases. Companies like Nvidia have already pumped up the prices of their components and products by 10 to 15%. Acer has also announced a 10% price increase as a result of the tariffs. Also, a lot of products have already been shipped to the US, effective with the 145% tariff rates. Almost 12,000 containers with products for companies like Amazon, Ikea, Tractor Supply, and Home Depot have hit the shores of the US. The PC hardware inventory turnover is 30-90 days on average, which means that the price changes may be deferred by almost six weeks. So, it might take some time for the reduced tariffs to come into effect. Even then, you can expect the prices to be more than in the pre-tariff era. This will also depend on the time required to get rid of the high-tariffed inventory sitting on the US shelves. Fast-moving consumer goods usually have a faster inventory turnover, which means you can expect a price drop soon. However, high-value products like PCs may sit on the shelves for a good couple of months. The expectation of reduced prices is also based on the assumption that no further escalations will occur. This is only a 90-day pause, and the tariff scenario remains somewhat uncertain. The overall average price levels are expected to increase by 1.7% in the short run. This means that the average American household may lose $2,800 in purchasing power when compared to 2024. Even after consumption adjustment, the loss stands at around $2,300. Production Moving Back to the US? In the wake of increasing tariffs, several companies have announced moving production back to the US to save costs. For instance, Nvidia said that it will move $500 billion worth of AI server supply chain to the US. Along with partners like TSMC, Foxconn, Wistron, Amkor, and SPIL, Nvidia plans to set up AI servers and server assembly plants in the US. Apple, too, has announced a $500 billion investment in the U.S., including a Houston manufacturing facility. Trump even went on to say that he talked with Tim Cook after the tariff reduction announcement, and ‘he’s going to be building a lot of plants in the United States for Apple.’ Trump also hinted that the actual value of these investments may be way more than $500 billion. It’s worth noting that these announcements were made when the tariffs were as high as 145%. In such a situation, it wasn’t possible for these companies to shift the entire increase in cost to the customers through price hikes. For instance, Apple said that it would lose $900 million as a result of the tariffs. However, now the situation has eased off massively, with the tariffs standing at just 30%. So, do these manufacturers still have the motivation to shift production units to domestic shores? Sure, 30% is still nothing to sniff at, but a part of this cost can be passed on to the customers while the rest can be recovered through better production planning and cost-cutting. Bottom Line All in all, this seems to be a Catch-22 situation for Trump. The entire point of imposing heavy tariffs was to lower imports and encourage domestic production. While tariffs as high as 145% met these purposes, a 30% tariff may not deter the US manufacturers. However, increasing tariffs beyond a certain point would essentially bring trading to a halt between the US and China, which doesn’t serve the purpose either. So, it now all comes down to how well Trump can negotiate with the US companies. His talks with Cook seem to be reassuring as of now. We’ll know in due course whether production sees a ‘differentiable’ shift in the next few months. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide. A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Key Takeaways Nvidia is set to release a downgraded version of its H20 AI chips for the Chinese market to overcome export restrictions. Recent AI models from China prove that it has overcome the performance of substandard AI chips through advanced machine learning. China may also be circumventing export restrictions directly through stockpiling and illegal means. Nvidia is planning to introduce a downgraded version of its H20 AI chip to cater to the Chinese market. Recently, Trump had imposed a licensing requirement for the export of these chips to China. However, Nvidia doesn’t seem to be in the mood to let go of its huge Chinese market. After all, China accounts for 13% of the company’s total sales, amounting to $17 billion in revenue as of January 2025. And, in only five months, the company is sitting on $18 billion worth of H20 orders – a considerable part of which can go down the drain because of the export regulations. However, no company would want a huge chunk of its revenue to be taken away for domestic production. Hence, Nvidia seems to have found a workaround for these export restrictions. The exact details of what capabilities the company plans to downgrade haven’t been made public yet. The chips are set for a July launch, and Nvidia has already intimated major customers like Tencent. However, with Trump keeping a keen eye on which AI tech gets into the hands of the Chinese, the US government might block this move. China Bypassing US Circumventions The question we’re asking is, do export restrictions even work? There are a lot of assumptions about China circumventing export controls introduced by the US. However, a report titled ‘Whack-a-Chip: The Futility of Hardware-Centric Export Controls’ by Ritwik Gupta, Leah Walker, and Andrew W. Reddie provides concrete evidence of export control violations. In May 2024, Tencent released the HunyuanDiT text-to-image diffusion model, which was reportedly run and trained on Nvidia A100 GPUs. In September last year, Tencent introduced the GameGen-O diffusion transformer model, which was also believed to use high-end, export-restricted Nvidia GPUs. The research paper reverse-engineered these models by analyzing representative code signatures. Interestingly, the training scripts show Nvidia Collective Communications Library (NCCL), which is only compatible with Nvidia GPUs. This rules out the use of AMD tech or any other third-party GPUs. Next, both models support bfloat16, which is only available with the Ampere microarchitecture, such as Nvidia 30XX, 40XX, A100, and other GPUs. This also rules out the possibility of using older GPS. More importantly, the training scripts show Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) configurations over InfiniBand. Again, RDMA is only supported on Nvidia’s data center GPUs, such as the H100, H20, and A100. Consumer GPUs, such as the RTX 3090, do not allow for this configuration. Lastly, the training scripts were also tweaked to include Advanced Network Parameter Tuning and bonded interfaces. Such customization is only possible if the researchers had physical access to the hardware, which points to in-house clusters and not off-the-shelf solutions. All this research points to the possible use of Nvidia A100 or H100, which directly violates the US export restrictions. How Is China Circumventing Restrictions? Whenever an export restriction is placed, it takes around a few weeks (or even months) to come into effect. This gives the parties involved a lot of buffer time to stockpile the restricted goods, i.e., Nvidia AI chips. So, it’s quite possible that China might have pre-ordered and accumulated a sizable quantity of the export-restricted tech before the restrictions actually came into force. A second theory is that the country may be accessing these chips through illegal black markets operating both within and outside its domestic borders. There have been cases of individuals caught smuggling electronic parts, but there’s still no concrete evidence for these accusations. Another source for these chips could be third-party entities and shell companies registered outside of China. For this, the US needs to place strict background checks and due diligence procedures to prevent the chips from falling into the hands of the Chinese. Nvidia’s Modified Chips Can Be a Boost for China Another important question for the US to ponder is whether these downgraded chips would stop China from developing advanced AI models. You only have to look back at the recently launched Hunyuan-Large open-source LLM model from Tencent. This AI model delivers state-of-the-art performance and competes directly with Meta‘s Llama 3.1, DeepSeek V2, and Mixtral-8x22B. The project’s README suggests that it was entirely trained on Nvidia H20 GPUs. The H20 model complies with all US export controls and only offers 75% of the performance when compared to the Nvidia H100. So, technically, using it should not have resulted in an AI model as powerful as the Hunyuan-Large. However, China has been using advanced machine learning techniques to overcome the shortcomings of these chips through its whack-a-mole approach. For starters, it uses Mixtures-of-Experts – an architecture that activates only parts of the model per training step. This helps achieve the same accuracy as monolithic models on limited hardware. Tencent also used mixed-precision training with the help of bfloat16. Mixed precision training can train models up to 2.5x faster than full precision training when using advanced GPUs such as Nvidia A100. Similarly, by using Quantization, these models can be converted to a lower bit representation, which speeds up training with minimal loss of accuracy. Other techniques include large VRAM usage, sharded training, and efficient GPU communications. This suggests that an inferior version of the H20 chip would make no difference to China. It has already developed advanced architecture to customize the configuration of such chips and squeeze out the best performance. Nvidia might just be aware of this and playing into the hands of the Chinese to save its revenue. Remember, the company has already been under pressure since the release of DeepSeek. It’s an AI model developed at just a fraction of the cost of premium US-made models like ChatGPT and Gemini. If the Chinese can figure out large-scale cost optimization of high-performance AI models, the demand for Nvidia’s overly expensive AI chips may fall drastically. Therefore, the company is trying all it can to ensure sales are not impacted. What remains to be seen is whether Trump would allow such circumvention of export rules or if the US is aware enough of these Chinese techniques. Only time will tell. Read more: Nvidia plans to establish $500 billion worth of domestic production chain Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide. A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Key Takeaways OpenAI’s new app build shows signs of ‘weekly’ and ‘lifetime’ plan introductions. Weekly subscriptions may help OpenAI expand its user base to include budget-conscious users. There’s no official confirmation from OpenAI, as these are just observed speculations. OpenAI may be planning to introduce weekly and lifetime subscriptions to its ChatGPT AI model. An X user named @M1Astra spotted some interesting strings in the latest ChatGPT app build with mentions of words – ‘weekly’ and ‘lifetime.’ Interestingly, we also spotted a string that reads ‘Upgrade to Plus,’ which means that these subscriptions may be introduced for ChatGPT Plus. Of course, all of this is just speculation as of now and may not materialize anytime soon. Still, this highlights the fact that OpenAI is trying to come up with new tactics to capture the market. After all, its current free plan is not sufficient for most casual users, while the $20/month Plus plan is admittedly too expensive for the average user. The ‘weekly’ plan hits just the sweet spot in this regard. It’s perfect for people with limited AI needs. For instance, students might get the weekly plan while working on university assignments. This way, they won’t have to pay for the entire month’s subscription or worry about cancellations. However, the ‘lifetime’ plans make little sense to us and to the wider audience who reacted to the news. AI is a rapidly developing technology with new applications being found every day. We don’t think that even OpenAI can confidently say what its products will look like five years down the line. In such a dynamic landscape, would you want to be stuck with a ‘lifetime’ subscription with no surety of updates? Read more: OpenAI pushes for democratic AI – and we think it could be a marketing gimmick. OpenAI’s Huge Cost Recovery Path OpenAI has pumped billions of dollars into its revolutionary ChatGPT AI model, releasing various variants over the last four years. It recently raised a $40 billion investment round led by SoftBank. No doubt, the investment is humongous, and as it happens in every capitalistic economy, the price has to be ultimately paid by the end user. However, the time seems to be running out for ChatGPT in the face of increasing cost competition. DeepSeek gave it the biggest reality check by developing an AI model just as good as ChatGPT (if not better) for a mere $1.6 billion. This left OpenAI and other frontrunners with a big question: How will we justify the billions of dollars pumped into data centers and research facilities? The weekly subscriptions may be an effort to speed up its cost recovery while there is still time. While we talk about cost, it’s not wise to overlook the quality aspect as well. Of course, OpenAI has a massive early mover advantage and a pool of data that other companies do not. This gives it a ‘quality’ edge over other competitors. However, if you think from the perspective of a layman who doesn’t know about technical configurations, it will ultimately boil down to cost. And this is where OpenAI’s weekly subscriptions may help it out. Sure, other companies may follow suit and introduce their own versions of flexible subscriptions. But once again, OpenAI will have the first-mover advantage and may add massively to its user base. For now, we wait for official updates, if any, from OpenAI. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide. A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Key Takeaways OpenAI has introduced ‘OpenAI for Countries’ to help other nations develop their own data centers and customized ChatGPT solutions. This is part of the company’s $500B Stargate project, which focuses on AI development in the US. OpenAI has focused a lot on the development of democratic AI across the globe, but we believe it’s worth digging into its intent behind the project. OpenAI has introduced ‘OpenAI for Countries,’ a new initiative aimed at fostering democratic AI infrastructure worldwide. Through this program, OpenAI will partner with governments to enhance local data center capabilities, empowering nations to harness data responsibly and fully comply with democratic standards. The AI giant also plans to develop and provide customized ChatGPTs to various countries, which will help improve education and healthcare. These AI products will be customized per a particular country’s needs and will also be available in local languages for easy accessibility. With this, OpenAI plans to ‘seed a healthy national AI ecosystem,’ which creates jobs and revenue in countries worldwide. For the initial part of the project, OpenAI plans to pursue 10 such partner countries. Focus on Democratic AI Interestingly, in its blog post, OpenAI has focused a lot on the democratic development of AI worldwide. The firm defines democratic AI as technology that aligns with a country’s democratic vision and values, such as fairness, accountability, transparency, and inclusion. In other words, a technology as powerful as artificial intelligence should not be controlled by a few corporations or the government. If a few autocratic corporations or governments come to regulate AI, they may use it to control information and as tools for manipulation, misinformation, and even surveillance. That’s why the people must have a say in developing AI products so that they can build AI ‘by the people, of the people, and for the people.’ OpenAI wants to achieve that with its new ‘OpenAI for Countries.’ What’s in It for OpenAI? By launching ‘OpenAI for Countries,’ the company strengthens its global presence and establishes a key role in shaping the future of AI governance. This collaboration with national governments allows OpenAI to expand its infrastructure, ensure compliance with regional data laws, and solidify its leadership in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. Moreover, the initiative opens doors to new partnerships and market opportunities, positioning OpenAI as a trusted partner for countries navigating the complexities of AI integration. The AI giant also plans to develop and provide customized ChatGPTs to various countries, which will help improve education and healthcare. These AI products will be customised as per the needs of a particular country and will also be available in local languages for easy accessibility. With this, OpenAI plans to “seed a healthy national AI ecosystem,” which creates jobs and revenue in a country. For the initial part of the project, OpenAI plans to pursue 10 such partner countries. Increasing Global Pressure OpenAI may be feeling the heat of increasing global competition and the deglobalization of artificial intelligence. Mistral AI is a great example. This French startup launched Le Chat Enterprise, an AI assistant specifically built for enterprise use. Using this, enterprises can build a complete searchable knowledge base by connecting various platforms, such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Google Calendar, Gmail, and SharePoint. The assistant also shows quick preview files with auto summaries and improved personalized answers. You can also build custom AI agents and connect with your enterprise libraries and apps without any coding. This unlocks a new degree of customizability among enterprise users with complete control over implementation. Le Chat Enterprise is also privacy-friendly and can be deployed on the private cloud with strict ACL adherence. Moreover, Le Chat Enterprise is built on the Mistral Medium 3 model, which performs better than ChatGPT’s 4-o models. It beats ChatGPT on various parameters, such as coding, instruction following, math knowledge, and long context. The best part is that the model delivers such performance at a cost of just $0.4 per million input tokens as compared to ChatGPT’s $10 per 1 million input tokens. Just 4% of the cost of ChatGPT. Remember, not long back, DeepSeek shook the entire US AI industry by building an AI model at just a fraction of the cost of ChatGPT. It shattered the myth that AI models must be expensive and require trillions of dollars of investment. And now, we’re increasingly seeing AI models costing less than ChatGPT and offering at-par performance. No wonder OpenAI is worried and wants to expand to other global locations before companies like Mistral AI or DeepSeek get there. The ‘Nice Guys’ Gimmick We have a question: Why is OpenAI the guardian of AI, and why does it think it has the authority to decide what other countries should do with AI tech? Isn’t the fact that a single company is trying to control artificial intelligence applications anti-democratic in itself? While no one wants AI to turn evil in the hands of anyone, should we just assume that OpenAI isn’t the company that may turn artificial intelligence into a weapon? After all, Sam Altman’s ‘Tools for Humanity’ project scanned millions of people’s eyes in exchange for just some ‘fugazi’ cryptocurrency, which may or may not bring any real wealth. Even if it does, the fact that a single corporation has the personal iris scans of millions is pretty bone-chilling. What’s more, it was OpenAI that used Scarlett Johansson’s voice for ChatGPT’s voice, even though she expressly denied permission. And let’s not forget that Altman turned a non-profit organization into a for-profit one at the cost of losing top OpenAI executives. Dario Amodei, the former VP of research, left OpenAI because they shifted away from their initial mission of developing a ‘safe and ethical AI.’ Tom Brown, former engineering lead, also left the company for similar reasons. Jack Clark, former policy director, left because the company’s culture was becoming less open and receptive to critical risk discussions. More famously, Jan Leike, who co-led the company’s Superalignment team, resigned in May 2024 upon disagreement with the company’s core priorities and safety guardrails around AGI. There are other examples, where employees have left OpenAI because it was (and maybe is) overlooking safety while developing AI products. Ironically, people have left OpenAI because the company has become less democratic and more authoritarian. So, it’s pretty easy to see why we think that OpenAI speaking about the democratic development of AI could be a marketing gimmick. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide. A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Key Takeaways Windows 10’s Deadline Is Looming: Microsoft will end support for Windows 10 in October 2025, potentially leaving over 200M devices without updates or security patches.  Linux as a Viable Successor: Modern Linux distributions like Mint and Pop!_OS offer a user-friendly, efficient alternative that works well on older hardware left behind by Windows 11’s strict requirements.  The End-of-10 Project Pushes Back: Grassroots initiatives are helping users switch to Linux, offering practical guides, support networks, and real-world repair options to extend the life of aging PCs.   On October 14, 2025, Microsoft will pull the plug on Windows 10 for good.  No more updates. No more security patches. Just you, your aging PC, and the digital equivalent of a ‘Good luck out there.’  And unless you want to pay hundreds for extended support or upgrade to Windows 11 (which your old hardware probably hates), you’re in trouble.  But maybe–just maybe–that trouble is a blessing in disguise.  What if you switched to something different instead of shelling out more cash for an OS that increasingly feels like a rented billboard?  Something that doesn’t serve ads, doesn’t nag you for a Microsoft account, doesn’t preinstall Solitaire and endless bloatware, and doesn’t treat you like a confused toddler whenever you want to delete a file?  Yes, we’re talking about Linux.  You Bought Windows, But Did You Really?  Let’s talk about ownership – or rather, the illusion of it. You didn’t really buy Windows 10. You bought a license to use it, under Microsoft’s ever-changing rules.  And now those rules say it’s dead. Try running Windows 10 in 2026 and see how it feels. Unsupported, vulnerable, and alone.  Meanwhile, your PC – still chugging along fine – becomes collateral damage in a corporate lifecycle decision. Doesn’t that feel wrong? It’s like buying a car, and five years later, the manufacturer remotely disables the engine and says, ‘Time to buy a new one, champ.’  The Bloatware Nightmare Windows 10’s legacy isn’t just about support dates. It’s also about bloat – and lots of it.  Preinstalled games, ‘helpful’ tips that link to Bing, AI features you didn’t ask for, OneDrive pop-ups, background processes you don’t understand, and ads. Yes, ads – in your OS that you paid for.  As PewDiePie, a surprise Linux convert and evangelist in 2025, put it in his YouTube video about switching to Linux:  Windows talks to me like I’m a baby. ‘You want Candy Crush? You want to use Bing? – PewDiePie He’s not wrong. And he’s not alone. More and more people are discovering that Linux can turn their Frankenstein laptops back into sleek, fast machines – no corporate babysitting required.  Linux: Not Just for Bearded Hackers Anymore  Back in the day, switching to Linux meant living in a command-line bunker, fighting for Wi-Fi drivers, and crying in Bash lines while obsessing over what distribution to try next Saturday. But today? It’s a different world. Well, except for the obsessive distribution switching. That one’s even stronger nowadays… Modern Linux distributions like Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, and Ubuntu have made the jump surprisingly friendly. You can click, drag, install apps from software centers, and even ignore the terminal if you really want to (though we advise you to get comfortable with it, the things it can do…). Source: PewDiePie And gaming? It’s real now. Thanks to Valve’s Proton compatibility layer and the success of the Linux-powered Steam Deck, you can actually play Elden Ring on Linux. And Baldur’s Gate 3, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, The Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered, and any recent title you can think of. Proton translates Windows game code so it can run smoothly on Linux, and it’s constantly being improved. Extremely few games still need tweaking or specific Proton versions to work well (and you’ll find a solution online in no time). With Steam Play, many AAA titles now work out of the box, and tools like Lutris and Heroic Game Launcher make it easier than ever to manage your game library – including games from Epic and GOG.  And it’s not standing still. The latest SteamOS 3.7.5 beta adds early support for non-Steam Deck handhelds like the ASUS ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go, signaling broader Linux gaming adoption. SteamOS now runs on a newer Arch base with updated kernel and Mesa drivers for better performance. KDE Plasma 6.2.5 upgrades the desktop interface, while Bluetooth audio and controller support have been improved with features like battery indicators and wake-from-sleep across more devices. The days of ‘Linux is only for spreadsheets and servers’ are long gone. It’s a gamer’s paradise in 2025. Project End-of-10 – A Lifeline for the Left Behind One group trying to make the transition easier is the End of 10 project. Their mission is to help people stuck on aging Windows 10 hardware move to lightweight Linux systems instead of buying new PCs.  It’s not just about ideology. It’s about accessibility, sustainability, and giving people real options.  E-waste is a growing issue, and ditching a perfectly usable laptop because Microsoft won’t support your OS anymore is, frankly, absurd. Plus, if your computer isn’t good enough for Windows 11, it’s probably perfect for Linux. Microsoft’s latest OS has strict requirements – like TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and newer CPUs – that leave a lot of perfectly functional hardware out in the cold.  But Linux doesn’t care about any of that. Most modern Linux distributions run smoothly on older machines (and could probably boot on a toaster), giving them a second life instead of a trip to the recycling bin. The project also lists local Linux-friendly repair shops and beginner events in several countries, helping users make the leap with real-world support.  And it’s not just for tinkerers – the goal is to make Linux approachable even for people who’ve never strayed beyond the Windows Start menu. While that’s a bit far down the line, especially if you go in blind, the fact this option exists is invaluable for Windows 10 refugees everywhere. What You Gain When You Switch Here’s the kicker: Linux gives you back control. You choose what’s installed. You choose when and how to update. You don’t need to sign in with a cloud account just to change your wallpaper. And don’t wake up to find your taskbar now has a new AI assistant whispering Bing search results. One that you didn’t ask for. You decide what your system does – and what it doesn’t do.  Want a desktop with zero background tracking? Done. Want to disable automatic updates entirely or schedule them on your terms? No problem. Want to remove every trace of software you don’t use, right down to the last package? You can – a quick ‘sudo’ in the terminal will wipe off every earthly trace of the intruder. If you know, you know… Customization is also next-level. You can make your desktop look like macOS, Windows, or something that looks like it was pulled straight from a sci-fi control panel.  Source: u/Haletran on Reddit You can bind your own shortcuts, set up multiple workspaces, change every icon, or strip the interface down to pure function. The OS is what you want it to be, at all times. It’s not just fun – it’s truly empowering. You’re not a passenger anymore. With Linux, you’re in the driver’s seat, and the car’s flying to Mars. Linux Isn’t Perfect Let’s not sugarcoat it, Linux isn’t a magic fix.  Some software, like Adobe’s suite, simply doesn’t work natively. Sure, there are open-source alternatives – for example, you can use GIMP instead of Photoshop – but they come with a learning curve.  Source: GIMP  And sometimes, things do break (oh yes, do things break). Driver issues, hardware compatibility quirks, terminal commands that feel like spells from a fantasy novel.  But here’s the difference: on Linux, the tools to fix it are in your hands (though, in the spirit of honesty, you’re going to struggle until you get the hang of it). On Windows, you mostly reboot and hope for the best.   Windows 10 Is Dead. Long Live Your Computer! The end of Windows 10 doesn’t have to mean the end of your PC. You can keep using your current machine, and even improve its performance by switching to an operating system that’s more efficient and less restrictive.  Whether you’re an experienced user or just curious about alternatives, Linux is a solid option worth exploring.  You don’t need to commit right away. You can start with dual-booting or run it from a USB stick to test the waters. Unlike some modern operating systems, Linux doesn’t push unnecessary software, require a cloud account, or limit how you use your device.  You don’t have to be a programmer to benefit from a system that gives you more control – just someone open to trying something new.  And if it works for you, it might just become your go-to setup.  Anya Zhukova is an in-house tech and crypto writer at Techreport with 10 years of hands-on experience covering cybersecurity, consumer tech, digital privacy, and blockchain. She’s known for turning complex topics into clear, useful advice that regular people can actually understand and use.  Her work has been featured in top-tier digital publications including MakeUseOf, Online Tech Tips, Help Desk Geek, Switching to Mac, and Make Tech Easier. Whether she’s writing about the latest privacy tools or reviewing a new laptop, her goal is always the same: help readers feel confident and in control of the tech they use every day.  Anya holds a BA in English Philology and Translation from Tula State Pedagogical University and also studied Mass Media and Journalism at Minnesota State University, Mankato. That mix of language, media, and tech has given her a unique lens to look at how technology shapes our daily lives.  Over the years, she’s also taken courses and done research in data privacy, digital security, and ethical writing – skills she uses when tackling sensitive topics like PC hardware, system vulnerabilities, and crypto security.  Anya worked directly with brands like Framework, Insta360, Redmagic, Inmotion, Secretlab, Kodak, and Anker, reviewing their products in real-life scenarios. Her testing process involves real-world use cases – whether it's stress-testing laptops for creative workloads, reviewing the battery performance of mobile gaming phones, or evaluating the long-term ergonomics of furniture designed for hybrid workspaces.  In the world of crypto, Anya covers everything from beginner guides to deep dives into hardware wallets, DeFi protocols, and Web3 tools. She helps readers understand how to use multisig wallets, keep their assets safe, and choose the right platforms for their needs.  Her writing often touches on financial freedom and privacy – two things she strongly believes should be in everyone’s hands. Outside of writing, Anya contributes to editorial style guides focused on privacy and inclusivity, and she mentors newer tech writers on how to build subject matter expertise and write responsibly.  She sticks to high editorial standards, only recommends products she’s personally tested, and always aims to give readers the full picture.  You can find her on LinkedIn, where she shares more about her work and projects.  Key Areas of Expertise: Consumer Tech (laptops, phones, wearables, etc.) Cybersecurity and Digital Privacy PC/PC Hardware Blockchain, Crypto Wallets, and DeFi In-Depth Product Reviews and Buying Guides Whether she’s reviewing a new wallet or benchmarking a PC build, Anya brings curiosity, care, and a strong sense of responsibility to everything she writes. Her mission? To make the digital world a little easier – and safer – for everyone.  View all articles by Anya Zhukova Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Home Cheating Ourselves: When AI Replaces Thinking Instead of Supporting It News Cheating Ourselves: When AI Replaces Thinking Instead of Supporting It 8 min read Published: May 7, 2025 Key Takeaways Research shows that the increasing use of LLM tools like ChatGPT has led to reduced critical thinking and higher cognitive offloading. Students using these tools fail to understand the reasoning behind a problem and end up scoring less than students who do not use any such tools. AI platforms like Cluely encourage people to ‘stop thinking’ and instead cheat on everything, including exams and jobs. There’s a need for smarter AI tools like Khanmigo that aid the thinking process instead of replacing it. AI in education and teaching has been a debated topic for quite a few years now. While some advocate actively for AI learning tech, only a few can see the slow death of human intellect and critical thinking abilities in the hands of AI. In this article, we’ll unwrap the effects of artificial intelligence on human thinking and cognitive offloading. Sit tight because this could be a brain-melting one. Why Think When You Can Prompt? Let’s start with a simple example of a college assignment. Before AI wasn’t more than just an odd combination of two English alphabets, you’d actually have to dig in the internet for information, read through tons of stuff, and then compile the whole assignment together. This required skills like research, summarizing, understanding, thinking, and even rephrasing. Cut to now, where you can just type in your assignment details on ChatGPT and let it churn out content while you sit back and scroll through Instagram or TikTok. You have a computer-generated, human-like assignment ready within a matter of minutes. The need to think, learn, and compile has gone for a toss, leaving no room for critical thought or understanding. During our research for this article, we found ourselves genuinely wondering why students are resorting to such shortcuts. Well, one possible reason could be that education today is largely viewed as a set of tasks you need to complete to get a certificate. That’s about it. The ‘willingness’ to learn new things seems to be dying among new-age students. People are submitting LLM-generated assignments simply because they think the very act of writing up a project is not important or value-adding to their educational pursuit. The Changing Education Landscape Research at the University of Pennsylvania titled ‘Generative AI Can Harm Learning’ throws more light on the matter. The experiment divided children in a Turkish high school into two categories: one with access to ChatGPT and another without. Students who used ChatGPT solved 48% more mathematical problems correctly during practice. However, when a test was conducted on the same topic, students who had no access to any LLM tool scored better. The children who had used ChatGPT while solving their practice problems ended up scoring 17% less. What does this teach us? ChatGPT or any other LLM model can help you just ‘complete a task.’ However, it adds little value to your overall intellect and doesn’t contribute much to the learning spectrum. In other words, students who used ChatGPT simply copy-pasted the answers provided by the tool without understanding the process behind the solution. Some argue that we already have technology like spreadsheets and calculators that automate such ‘mundane’ tasks. Why don’t we eliminate those and do stuff manually for the sake of ‘learning’? Well, a key differential is that you still need to understand the formulas being used on a spreadsheet to be able to produce any usable output. It’s you who runs a spreadsheet with different formulas. A spreadsheet or a calculator does not alter the way we think; these tools still require us to use our intellect and our critical decision-making thought process. However, AI tools are completely different. Instead of helping us think, they end up thinking on our behalf. The very essence of being human is the ability to process information and ponder upon things from a critical point of view. At the risk of sounding overdramatic, AI could be the death of human thinking. Increasing Cognitive Offloading: Outsourcing Thinking Another study titled ‘AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking’ studied the correlation between cognitive offloading and the use of AI tools. Cognitive offloading is the practice of reducing mental work by offloading the task to external tools, which in this case are AI apps. The research shows that younger participants (17-25) exhibit the highest use of AI tools and also the lowest critical thinking scores. Cognitive offloading was also the highest among this age group. In contrast, older participants (46 and above) exhibited low AI tool usage and higher critical thinking scores. It’s important to understand here that even the younger participants have gotten their hands on AI tools only in the last couple of years. They haven’t had the access to these tools throughout their childhood or early adolescence, unlike the present generation. Even then, we are seeing low critical thinking and high cognitive offloading among this age group. We can extrapolate these results to the current batch of students who rely entirely on these AI tools for education. It might be possible that if the research is done five years down the line again, these students might get even lower critical thinking scores than the current batch. The same study shows a strong negative correlation between the use of AI tools and critical thinking. This means that the more people use these tools, the lower their critical thinking skills and scores are. Plus, there was a strong positive correlation between AI tool use and cognitive offloading. So, the more people use AI tools, the more they tend to throw away their ability to think critically. AI Is Making Cheating the New Fad Enter Cluely. It’s an advanced AI assistant with a tagline that reads, ‘Let’s Cheat on Everything.’ Unfortunately, that’s what it’s literally meant for – cheating the human intellect. What’s more concerning is Cluely’s ad campaign, which shows two people on a date. The guy is wearing some sort of smart glasses, which tell him what to say next. It listens to responses from the girl and curates the ‘perfect reply.’ The guy can be seen lying about his age, job, and preferences in the video. What’s more shocking is how blatantly the brand says, ‘We built Cluley so you never have to think alone again.’ While this may sound fun to some people, it’s pretty bone-chilling to think where such tech might eventually take us. If the death of critical thinking and problem-solving wasn’t scary enough, there’s also the chance of AI killing our ability to have genuine human connection and conversation. Algorithmic LLMs like Cluely do not want to improve the human experience but rather replace it. Eventually, it’d just be two computer programs dating each other in human skin. Ana de Armas from Blade Runner 2049 is depressing, if you really think about it. The scarier part is that Cluely is not a backyard school project. It’s a real AI tool that has raised $5.3 million in seed funding. AI: A Double-Edged Sword Not everything is as grim as it looks. AI and education have surely changed the way young minds learn. Earlier, we had to dig in several pages of a textbook to understand complex equations and theorems. Now, human-like AI tools have been developed that gamify the whole learning experience and break down complex topics into small, actionable lessons. Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, showed us the positive sides of AI in education two years back in a TED Talk when he unveiled Khanmigo, an AI learning assistant. Unlike LLMs that blurt out the answers to any question, Khanmigo gives students a hint about the math problem and encourages them to solve it themselves, still allowing them to think on their own. A lot of our concern about AI in education is that students won’t learn how to write or think. Khanmigo solves this problem to an extent. Instead of writing ‘for’ you, this AI assistant ‘writes with you.’ For example, if you want to write a story, it will direct you to write the first two lines, after which it will add another two lines and repeat the process until you have the full story. Khanmigo doesn’t kill creativity but rather stimulates it. This is a perfect example of how AI should be used in education. Rather than using it to offload our cognitive thinking, it should be used as a stimulus to human thought and the learning process as a whole. The bigger question is, whose responsibility is it to ensure learning stays a human experience? To put it bluntly, companies are not going to stop producing LLM tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude simply because they’re stifling human thinking. There’s money to be made, so goodbye moral responsibility. Therefore, a large part of the responsibility falls on teachers, parents, and students themselves. Guardians should regulate the kind of AI tools a child has access to. At the same time, students should become more self-aware of the long-term harm caused by replacing their thought process with an AI prompt. While tools like Khanmigo can become effective in the learning process, ‘feed me the answer’ kind of AI tools can kill human creativity and critical thinking. The choice is yours. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide.  A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors. More from News View all View all

Home Nvidia Driver Issues Are Still a Mess – And Gamers Are Fed Up  News Nvidia Driver Issues Are Still a Mess – And Gamers Are Fed Up  7 min read Published: May 7, 2025 For years, Nvidia was the safe bet.  You paid more for the green team, but you also got more. Better drivers, fewer headaches, smoother gameplay.  That reputation is starting to slip, and lately, it feels like Nvidia is less interested in fixing the problems that made its latest GPU launch one of the worst in company history. It’s not just a rough patch – there are real problems here. Let’s talk about the drivers. Everything Is Broken (Still) It’s been months since Nvidia launched the RTX 50 series, and the driver situation has gone from bad to worse.  At launch, most reviews didn’t catch the issues because the early drivers were actually more stable.  Then came the updates, and with them, pure chaos. System crashes, black screens, display flickers, and games kicking you back to the desktop. And for the unluckiest of users? Full system reboots. It was like an upgrade turned into a nightmare. Gamers Nexus (GN) took a deep dive into the chaos, rigorously testing various games and setups to replicate the issues. And replicate they did. Frame Generation, Nvidia’s big new feature? More often than not, this was the culprit. G-Sync? Sometimes it made things worse. DLSS? Yep, that was in the mix too. “We encountered reboots when loading into the game… we faced a game crash along with a driver error.”  Gamers Nexus reported their findings after testing Cyberpunk 2077 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider with driver version 572.83. The result? A mess of crashes, flickers, and performance issues.  The punchline? When they rolled back to the old 566.36 driver from December 2024, everything ran smoothly again; issues disappeared like magic. Not exactly the smoothest experience for users. Talk about a downgrade.. Reddit’s Had Enough Gamers have been sounding the alarm for a while.  In one of the most active threads on r/pcgaming, titled ‘Get it together Nvidia,’ people share horror stories of games becoming unplayable, PCs refusing to wake from sleep, and hotfixes making things worse instead of better. It’s not just the RTX 50 series cards either. Older GPUs, including the 40 and 30 series, are equally as affected.  And while the exact triggers vary from setup to setup, the problems are widespread enough that this clearly isn’t just user error or a few isolated cases.  Driver Roulette Troubleshooting Nvidia’s current drivers is like playing roulette with your display settings.  Dual monitors? Better check which one is set as ‘main’ in Windows. Running G-Sync? Might want to turn it off. Using DisplayPort? Swap the cables and ports. Lower your refresh rate. Disable Frame Gen. Disable DLSS. Try again. GN even discovered that simply switching which monitor was plugged into which port could cause or solve crashes. Not even Nvidia seems to understand why. But hey, just keep trying stuff until something works, right?  This would be funny if it weren’t so exhausting. A Pattern of Neglect Here’s the uncomfortable truth: Nvidia’s focus isn’t on gamers anymore. Not really. Not like it used to be.  The company is raking in record profits, thanks to AI GPUs flying off the shelves to big enterprise clients. Meanwhile, gaming revenue, once the shining star, has taken a backseat.  Sure, it’s still a solid contributor, but let’s face it: it’s no longer the main event. The real action’s in AI now, and gaming is just an opening act. You could practically feel the shift during the ‘paper launch’ of the RTX 50 series. It was like the company was too busy counting AI profits to give the gaming crowd the fanfare they were hoping for. Prices were steep, but it barely mattered – hardly anyone could buy a card. Stock vanished instantly, and many models weren’t expected to be restocked for weeks, even months. The cards were announced with splashy headlines but were unavailable to the average buyer. It felt more like a placeholder launch to keep up appearances than a proper rollout.  Nvidia checked the box, moved on, and left gamers hitting refresh on retailer pages. And now, with the driver mess dragging on for months, there’s still no meaningful fix in sight. Hotfix after hotfix has done little to solve the core problems.  Even recent attempts, like the 576.02 bug fix driver update, haven’t done much to restore user confidence or stability.  At one point, Nvidia put out a statement basically saying their drivers are super complicated, and fixes sometimes just sit around waiting for a big release.  So, they push out hotfixes with minimal testing and hope for the best. It’s all very ‘we’re doing our best, please be patient’, which would be fine – if the patient weren’t already on fire.  AMD and Intel, Here’s Your Chance The irony in all this? AMD’s drivers, which used to be the punchline, have been relatively stable lately. And Intel, after a rocky Arc launch, seems to be making steady progress.  Nvidia, the brand that used to sell on its rock-solid software experience, is now the one putting out buggy messes and hoping no one notices.  If AMD and Intel want to claw back some market share, now’s their shot. But it has to come with consistent driver support, clear communication, and an understanding that gamers are not just a checkbox on a spreadsheet. Nvidia built its empire on that understanding. But empires can crumble. The Bigger Problem This isn’t just about one bad launch or a few buggy drivers. It’s about a shift in priorities.  Source: Nvidia Nvidia is chasing bigger fish now. AI servers, data centers, and autonomous vehicles. Gaming? That’s nice, but it’s no longer the mission. That’s fine, from a business perspective. But if Nvidia wants to keep its gamer base from jumping ship, it needs to act like it still cares.  That means investing in driver QA again. That means rolling out real fixes, not just band-aid hotfixes. That means communicating transparently about what’s broken, what’s being fixed, and when we can expect it. Because right now, gamers are stuck in a loop of trial and error, waiting for a fix that may never come. What Can You Do? If you’re dealing with any of these issues, your best bet (for now) is to roll back to driver version 566.36.  Use Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to do a full clean uninstall, then install the older version.  Disconnect the internet while doing it, so Windows doesn’t sneak in another update. Swap monitor ports.  Turn off Frame Gen and G-Sync. Basically, revert your shiny new GPU to a simpler time.  Yes, it’s a pain. But until Nvidia gets its act together, we’re all stuck playing tech support for a product that was supposed to just work.  Nvidia’s Gamer Legacy Is on the Line This is not a small hiccup. It’s a systemic failure from a company that used to pride itself on polish. Nvidia’s name meant stability, performance, and premium. Today, it’s starting to mean something very different. They’ve got the AI billions. Now it’s time to spend a few of them on fixing what used to make Nvidia great: gaming that actually works.  Anya Zhukova is an in-house tech and crypto writer at Techreport with 10 years of hands-on experience covering cybersecurity, consumer tech, digital privacy, and blockchain. She’s known for turning complex topics into clear, useful advice that regular people can actually understand and use.  Her work has been featured in top-tier digital publications including MakeUseOf, Online Tech Tips, Help Desk Geek, Switching to Mac, and Make Tech Easier. Whether she’s writing about the latest privacy tools or reviewing a new laptop, her goal is always the same: help readers feel confident and in control of the tech they use every day.  Anya holds a BA in English Philology and Translation from Tula State Pedagogical University and also studied Mass Media and Journalism at Minnesota State University, Mankato. That mix of language, media, and tech has given her a unique lens to look at how technology shapes our daily lives.  Over the years, she’s also taken courses and done research in data privacy, digital security, and ethical writing – skills she uses when tackling sensitive topics like PC hardware, system vulnerabilities, and crypto security.  Anya worked directly with brands like Framework, Insta360, Redmagic, Inmotion, Secretlab, Kodak, and Anker, reviewing their products in real-life scenarios. Her testing process involves real-world use cases – whether it's stress-testing laptops for creative workloads, reviewing the battery performance of mobile gaming phones, or evaluating the long-term ergonomics of furniture designed for hybrid workspaces.  In the world of crypto, Anya covers everything from beginner guides to deep dives into hardware wallets, DeFi protocols, and Web3 tools. She helps readers understand how to use multisig wallets, keep their assets safe, and choose the right platforms for their needs.  Her writing often touches on financial freedom and privacy – two things she strongly believes should be in everyone’s hands. Outside of writing, Anya contributes to editorial style guides focused on privacy and inclusivity, and she mentors newer tech writers on how to build subject matter expertise and write responsibly.  She sticks to high editorial standards, only recommends products she’s personally tested, and always aims to give readers the full picture.  You can find her on LinkedIn, where she shares more about her work and projects.  Key Areas of Expertise: Consumer Tech (laptops, phones, wearables, etc.) Cybersecurity and Digital Privacy PC/PC Hardware Blockchain, Crypto Wallets, and DeFi In-Depth Product Reviews and Buying Guides Whether she’s reviewing a new wallet or benchmarking a PC build, Anya brings curiosity, care, and a strong sense of responsibility to everything she writes. Her mission? To make the digital world a little easier – and safer – for everyone.  View all articles by Anya Zhukova Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors. More from News View all View all

Key Takeaways Mass shipment of Huawei’s 910C GPUs is expected to start by the end of this month. The 910C uses two 910B processors and is reportedly as fast as Nvidia’s H100. The company is also testing its latest Ascend 910D chips. Huawei’s 910C GPU may start mass shipments by the end of May. The 910C chip can be described as more of an architectural breakthrough than a technological victory. It combines two 910B processors to achieve double its predecessor’s computing power and memory capacity. More interestingly, and something that should be concerning for the US, is that the 910C claims to achieve the same level of performance as Nvidia’s H100, which came out in 2022. The US has now, for years, been trying to restrict the access of AI-ready chips to China through various restrictions. The H100 is also banned from export to China. However, it has taken China just three years to catch up with Nvidia. You can argue that China is still three years behind the US. However, it’s important to understand that the difference is closing down rather rapidly, and China is not too far behind. The US’s bans have only boosted domestic production of AI chips in China, with companies like Huawei, Moore Threads, and Iluvatar CoreX at the forefront of innovation. What’s more, China is already testing the new Ascend 910D chip, which will reportedly be more powerful than the H100. So, America’s plan to cut China off from the AI race doesn’t look like it’s working. If anything, it’s motivating Chinese firms to accelerate growth in the semiconductor industry. The US May Have Dug Itself a Hole The Biden-sanctioned AI diffusion rule is set to come into force on May 15. This will restrict the export of advanced AI chips to countries around the world by dividing them into various tiers. Where the US and its allies can have exclusive access to the latest AI tech, countries like China have been banned from importing these semiconductors. Other countries in tier 2 will only be able to import these chips up to a certain limit. This has been done so that China cannot get its hands on US-made AI chips. However, in doing so, the US may have dug itself a big hole. Apart from directly restricting China, the rule also places caps on other countries that the US suspects may export these chips to China, thereby placing an indirect export restriction. However, it’s not difficult to see that this may turn out to be counterproductive. As mentioned earlier, China can now produce Nvidia-comparable AI chips. So, countries needing them will import them from China instead of the US. Not only has this killed the huge Chinese market for US companies, but it has also sabotaged other global markets for them. Imagine a scenario where no such restrictions were placed and the entire global market could freely choose between advanced chips from Nvidia, AMD, and those from Chinese companies. Buyers who preferred a higher-quality chip would’ve chosen Nvidia, while those a bit budget-conscious may have gone with AMD. However, now that there are strict restrictions on who can get what, these countries will have no choice but to go for Huawei (or other Chinese manufacturers’ chips), which opens a whole new market for China. China’s AI growth could have been restricted with fair competition as well, given that the US tech giants are ahead regarding technology access and innovation. Chinese Cars and DeepSeek You don’t have to look too far behind to see what China is capable of. It has grown tremendously in the automatic cars segment in the last 5 years. For instance, the BYD Seal is often compared to the Tesla Model 3 and can go from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.8 seconds. Similarly, the NIO ET7/ET5 models are comparable to the Tesla Model S (ET7) and Tesla Model 3 (ET5), respectively, with a range of up to 1,000 km and autonomous driving features. DeepSeek is another fabulous example. China built an AI model as good as ChatGPT and Gemini at an astonishingly low price. Simply put, China isn’t one to procrastinate on innovation. The question, therefore, is whether the US can really ‘afford’ to cut China off in the AI-tech race. Everything we mentioned above suggests otherwise. It’s just a matter of time before China develops its own version of Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture and its B100 and B200 AI chips. And unlike the US, China won’t close down its markets for the world. This essentially means that the country can become the next powerhouse of AI chips, which is something that would hurt the US big time. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide.  A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Key takeaways: OpenAI queries Musk’s ties to a bill that could upend its for-profit restructuring. Experts are calling on regulators to prevent the move. This is part of broader concerns over how this could impact the development, ethics, and security of generative AI across the board. OpenAI is querying a group behind a bill that had the potential to threaten its for-profit restructuring plans, asking if they have ties to former co-founder Elon Musk. According to OpenAI’s lawyer, and as reported by POLITICO, arguments expressed in a letter by the Coalition for AI Nonprofit Integrity shared similarities with those made by Musk in court.   The group, founded by nonprofits, researchers, and consumer advocates, campaigns for preserving nonprofit integrity in the AI sector. The coalition denies receiving financing from Musk. According to a spokesperson, it’s a ‘grassroots’ organization funded from various sources, including relatives of Suchir Balaji, the late OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died last year. Where’s all of this going, and what’s going to happen? Let’s dig in! Sam Altman’s Letter Goes on the Attack OpenAI’s letter makes two demands: A meeting with the coalition’s president, Jeffrey Mark Gardner A disclosure of the coalition’s sources of funding, which are unpublished in tax documents due to its recent incorporation This follows the group’s move in February to support the original bill, which could have halted OpenAI’s for-profit restructuring plans then and there.  However, the author has since amended it, citing the need for more time to work on it. To date, no other indications about a Musk connection have appeared, with the group gathering support from important industry figures, including the godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton. This letter is the latest addition to an ongoing court battle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. Musk, who initially co-founded OpenAI with Altman before leaving to set up rival xAI, is challenging the company’s plans to switch to a for-profit model.  His argument? This would mean OpenAI deviates from its original mission to benefit the public. Musk isn’t alone in his views, either.  A letter to the Attorneys General for California and Delaware, signed by over 30 former OpenAI staff members and Nobel Prize winners, urged the regulators to prevent OpenAI from restructuring to a for-profit entity. This led the Attorney General for California to launch a probe. Why Are So Many Experts Against OpenAI’s For-Profit Restructuring? Moving from a nonprofit entity to a for-profit structure often means de-prioritizing safety, research, and development. The aforementioned letter, revealed to the public on April 23, claims that the move would ‘eliminate essential safeguards’ that protect against AGI. More on AGI Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) — systems that can outperform humans in understanding, learning, and applying knowledge across various tasks — could be the most powerful technology on the planet when it arrives.  It’s a world-changing technology, but it also comes with serious risks, which are potentially more severe under a for-profit company’s control, argue experts. A for-profit entity is focused on generating profit for its shareholders. And profit could take priority over safety, ethical concerns, or benefits to society. Added pressure to bring AGI to market first could also mean cutting corners in its development, particularly with regards to safety. And then again, OpenAI could one day decide to develop military-grade AGI purely for profits, saying goodbye to its initial society-first goals. Experts also argue that any AGI technology will likely remain proprietary to its creator. This will make it harder for the public, researchers, and regulators to develop safeguards and scrutinize its development closely.  Top talent is also likely to be drawn to for-profit companies with the promise of more competitive compensation, so nonprofits will find it harder to compete (unfair competition, anyone?) A network of neon lights above a highway, showing AGI at the heart We could also posit that industry norms could shift if the move to a for-profit structure were validated. Other AI startups could start doing the same. This could mean that for-profit firms come under less ethical scrutiny if it’s seen as commonplace for companies in the sector. It could also result in fewer investors for nonprofit entities as more resources go toward for-profit entities. This would make it harder for nonprofits to compete in an expensive and competitive industry. On the other hand, some say that safety and ethical concerns won’t suddenly disappear in a for-profit organization, with public pressure and the long-term risks of AI pushing to highlight these.  AI research organizations and advocacy groups would continue to push for the responsible development of AI across the market, regardless of whether companies are nonprofit or for-profit. While that’s certainly true, will profit be too much of a temptation? OpenAI Should Be Held Accountable to Its Initial Purpose: Benefiting Humanity There’s the inherent risk that OpenAI — or any AI startup moving to a for-profit structure — could become a monopoly, with vast control over society and the economy. Which makes the irony palpable, considering OpenAI was founded to combat this very monopoly. In December 2015, the AI startup was launched when Google seemed on the brink of creating AGI. CEO Sam Altman believed that if a commercial company developed AGI, it would harm the public. The company’s founding announcement in its Articles of Incorporation stated: Our goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained in a need to generate financial return. Since our research is free from financial obligations, we can better focus on a more positive human impact. – OpenAI Mission Statement As President Greg Brockman stated, OpenAI’s initial purpose wasn’t to develop AGI at all:  The true mission isn’t for OpenAI to build AGI. The true mission is for AGI to go well for humanity… our goal isn’t to be the ones to build it; our goal is to make sure it goes well for the world. – President Greg Brockman According to OpenAI, gaining a competitive advantage is the main reason behind the move. But the company’s recent track record shows worrying patterns of seeming carelessness. Statistics show that OpenAI rushed through safety testing to ensure a product met its release schedule. It also slashed its safety testing time, making testing processes ‘less thorough, with insufficient time and resources dedicated to identifying and mitigating risks.’ Is It Time for Regulators to Step In? So, should regulators step in to prevent OpenAI’s proposed restructuring? Many experts are in absolute agreement that this should happen. Speaking to Time, UC Berkeley computer science professor Stuart Russell says that as a nonprofit, OpenAI can be shut down if it deviates from its mission. This is sort of like an off-switch, he explains. Moving to a for-profit entity means, ‘basically, they’re proposing to disable that off-switch.’ If a for-profit restructuring occurred, board members would need to weigh the company’s original mission against profits for its shareholders.  Futuristic cityscape with US and Chinese flags, representing AGI competition Then there’s OpenAI’s argument that everyone would benefit if it builds AGI before a Chinese company. While this is true at its core, there are other organizations at the forefront of AI.  If it retains its nonprofit status, there’s no reason why it couldn’t offer its resources, compute, and talent to the US government or other US-based organizations to ensure America remains ahead of Chinese competition. The letter proposes that regulators protect the charitable purpose of OpenAI at a ‘potentially pivotal moment’ in the development of AGI, safeguarding the public. It also demands answers to fundamental questions, such as how a for–profit restructuring benefits humanity and the greater good.  The plan of action outline suggests that, if and when OpenAI creates AGI, it ‘should belong to the nonprofit entity. Their sole responsibility is to ensure it is used responsibly for the benefit of humanity. It should not be owned or controlled by a commercial entity or its investors.’ It’s easy to see why tensions are running high in the court case between Musk and OpenAI. And even higher between the ChatGPT creator and those staunchly opposing the company’s planned restructuring. With OpenAI now querying Musk’s ties to the coalition challenging its for-profit plans, we’ll need to wait and see how this debate will unfold. Paula has been a writer for over a decade, starting off in the travel industry for brands like Skyscanner and Thomas Cook. She’s written everything from a guide to visiting Lithuania’s top restaurants to how to survive a zombie apocalypse and also worked as an editor/proofreader for indie authors and publishing houses, focusing on mystery, gothic, and crime fiction. She made the move to tech writing in 2019 and has worked as a writer and editor for websites such as Android Authority, Android Central, XDA, Megagames, Online Tech Tips, and Xbox Advisor. These days as well as contributing articles on all-things-tech for Techreport, you’ll find her writing about mobile tech over at Digital Trends. She’s obsessed with gaming, PC hardware, AI, and the latest and greatest gadgets and is never far from a screen of some sort.Her attention to detail, ability to get lost in a rabbit hole of research, and obsessive need to know every fact ensures that the news stories she covers and features she writes are (hopefully) as interesting and engaging to read as they are to write. When she’s not working, you’ll usually find her gaming on her Xbox Series X or PS5. As well as story-driven games like The Last of Us, Firewatch, and South of Midnight she loves anything with a post-apocalyptic setting. She’s also not averse to being absolutely terrified watching the latest horror films, when she feels brave enough! View all articles by Paula Beaton Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Home Xiaomi’s Google-Free HyperOS Could Reshape Android – and Break the West’s Tech Monopoly News Xiaomi’s Google-Free HyperOS Could Reshape Android – and Break the West’s Tech Monopoly 7 min read Published: May 3, 2025 Key Takeaways China’s Android Rebellion: Xiaomi, Huawei, and BBK are reportedly building a Google-free HyperOS 3, signaling a major push to escape U.S. tech dominance in smartphones and beyond. Hardware Meets Sovereignty: A successful HyperOS stack could accelerate China’s shift toward self-sufficient hardware – think Chinese OS + Chinese chips, with no reliance on Google, Qualcomm, or Intel. The Next Battlefront – PCs and Beyond: If HyperOS expands to ARM-based laptops or smart devices, it could challenge Western platforms in emerging markets and fragment the global tech ecosystem. Privacy Pitch vs. Trust Gap: While a de-Googled phone might appeal to privacy-conscious users in the West, widespread adoption will hinge on overcoming deep-rooted fears of Chinese surveillance. It started as a quiet rumor, but it has big implications. According to recent reports, Xiaomi is working on a Google-free version of its HyperOS mobile operating system.  Even more interesting: it’s allegedly getting help from Huawei and BBK Electronics, the Chinese giant behind brands like Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus. If true, this could be the start of something much larger than a software update. It might be the next big battle in the global tech war.  So what does this all mean, and why should you care?  The Big Idea: Android Without Google Most people think of Android and Google as inseparable. After all, when you buy an Android phone, you expect to get Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, the Play Store, and all the rest.  But Android is actually open-source. Anyone can take the core system – called AOSP (Android Open Source Project) – and build their own version.  That’s what Amazon did with Fire OS. And that’s what Xiaomi may now be doing with HyperOS 3.  The idea isn’t entirely new. Huawei, after being banned from using Google services in 2019, had no choice but to go it alone.  It launched HarmonyOS in China, which is now running on hundreds of millions of devices. But HarmonyOS never really made a splash outside China.  The question is: can HyperOS 3 do what HarmonyOS didn’t? The Silent Alliance and Hardware Implications This rumored collaboration between Xiaomi, Huawei, and BBK hints at something deeper than just a software experiment.  It suggests a strategic move by China’s top tech firms to build an ecosystem independent of American tech giants. You could call it Android-with-Chinese-characteristics.  Each company brings something to the table: Huawei has experience with building non-Google services, BBK has global hardware reach, and Xiaomi has a solid international brand with growing markets in Europe, India, and Latin America. But here’s where it gets really interesting for the hardware crowd: this isn’t just about phones.  If this ‘Google-free Android’ stack works, it could accelerate a full-stack Chinese tech ecosystem – Chinese OS, Chinese chips, Chinese firmware. No Qualcomm, no Intel, no Google.  Huawei is already doing this with its Kirin processors, and the company recently revealed plans for its own AI inference chips. That’s one end of the hardware spectrum.  Source: Huawei On the other end, we’ve got Chinese firms releasing ARM-based laptops.  Huawei and Honor already ship their own laptops with custom chips. It’s not crazy to imagine a world where HyperOS evolves into a Linux-style fork that runs on ARM laptops – pushed not just as a mobile OS, but as a desktop replacement too. Could HyperOS Become the China-First PC OS? Let’s play this out. Xiaomi already makes tablets. Huawei has laptops. If HyperOS is modular and lightweight enough, could it become a full-blown PC operating system?  Source: Xiaomi Think of it like Chrome OS, but backed by a unified hardware-software strategy controlled entirely from within China. That raises new questions for Western hardware players. If this model scales, what happens to Qualcomm’s modem business?  What happens to Intel’s position in the PC world if ARM-based HyperOS laptops start flooding into markets like Southeast Asia, Africa, or Latin America? How does AMD respond if AI workloads start running on homegrown Chinese inference chips instead of Nvidia GPUs? We’re not saying x86 is dead. But the global tech stack is splintering, and HyperOS could become a key wedge in that split. Why Now? The timing makes sense.  U.S.-China tech tensions are not going away. The U.S. has banned exports of advanced chips to China – a move that may be backfiring by accelerating China’s push to develop its own AI hardware and ecosystem. China has responded by doubling down on ‘digital sovereignty’ and tech self-sufficiency. For Chinese companies, building a Google-free OS isn’t just a backup plan – it’s a survival strategy. But there’s more to it. The world is starting to question Big Tech’s control over data and digital infrastructure.  Governments in Europe are introducing laws to regulate Apple and Google. Antitrust cases are piling up. Even ordinary users are getting tired of being tracked, nudged, and monetized.  So maybe a Google-free Android isn’t just a political necessity. Maybe it’s a market opportunity. Could It Work in the West? Here’s the big question: could a Google-free phone actually succeed outside China? In theory, yes. There’s a growing niche of users who don’t want Google in their lives. They use privacy-focused phones like the Librem 5 or the Fairphone. They rely on apps like Signal and Firefox. They avoid Google Maps and search with DuckDuckGo. But that’s a small crowd.  Source: Purism Most people want convenience over control. They want their banking app to work. They want Netflix. They want Uber. And let’s be honest, most people don’t want to fiddle with APKs or sideload apps from sketchy websites. For a Google-free phone to work in the West, it would need a smooth, seamless experience. It would need its own app store, cloud backup, navigation, voice assistant, and maybe even payment system. That’s a big lift.  But if anyone can pull it off, it’s probably Xiaomi. They’ve got the scale, the R&D, and the marketing chops. And they already make some of the best value-for-money phones on the planet.  The App Gap Problem Here’s where things get tricky. Even if Xiaomi nails the user experience, there’s still the app gap. Remember Windows Phone? It was fast, sleek, and easy to use. But it died because it didn’t have the apps people wanted. Instagram came late. Google didn’t support it. Developers ignored it.  A de-Googled HyperOS would face the same challenge. Without Play Services, many Android apps simply won’t run. Some rely on Google’s APIs for location, push notifications, and more. That’s a technical wall that’s hard to climb.  Huawei tried to solve it with its own app store and APIs, but developers didn’t follow in large numbers.  Xiaomi, with help from BBK and Huawei, might do better. But they’ll need to win over developers – and that takes time, money, and a huge user base. Privacy and Control: The Pitch to the West Still, there is one card HyperOS could play in the West: privacy. Imagine a phone that doesn’t feed your data into Google’s advertising machine. No personalized ads. No constant tracking. Just a clean, fast phone that respects your privacy. That’s the dream for a certain type of user. Think Europe – where GDPR rules and digital privacy actually matter. Think tech-savvy millennials who run ad blockers and use VPNs. Think parents who don’t want their kids’ data harvested.  Of course, there’s a catch. Would Western users trust a Chinese OS more than they trust Google? Trust Issues This is the elephant in the room. Even if HyperOS is technically great, even if it respects privacy, even if it’s backed by a strong ecosystem – would Western governments allow it? Huawei has already been banned from 5G infrastructure in many countries. TikTok is facing bans and restrictions. There’s deep suspicion about Chinese tech and surveillance. So Xiaomi and friends would need to do a lot of work to build trust. That could mean open-sourcing parts of the OS. It could mean hosting data in Europe. It could mean third-party audits. But it won’t be easy. The Next Tech War Might not Be Over Chips The more you look at it, the clearer it becomes: the next tech war might not be over chips. It might be over platforms. HyperOS 3 might never replace Android as we know it. But it doesn’t have to. Even if it only succeeds in China, it will still matter. It will mean that the world’s largest smartphone market runs on a completely separate OS, outside Google’s control. That alone is a tectonic shift. And if it does break through in other markets – in Europe, in India, in Latin America – it could challenge the Android/iOS duopoly for the first time in years. We might be witnessing the start of the ‘Splinternet’ on smartphones – and now, potentially on PCs too – a world where different regions run on different software stacks, with different values and different gatekeepers. It might sound dystopian. But it might also be the competition the tech world badly needs. Anya Zhukova is an in-house tech and crypto writer at Techreport with 10 years of hands-on experience covering cybersecurity, consumer tech, digital privacy, and blockchain. She’s known for turning complex topics into clear, useful advice that regular people can actually understand and use.  Her work has been featured in top-tier digital publications including MakeUseOf, Online Tech Tips, Help Desk Geek, Switching to Mac, and Make Tech Easier. Whether she’s writing about the latest privacy tools or reviewing a new laptop, her goal is always the same: help readers feel confident and in control of the tech they use every day.  Anya holds a BA in English Philology and Translation from Tula State Pedagogical University and also studied Mass Media and Journalism at Minnesota State University, Mankato. That mix of language, media, and tech has given her a unique lens to look at how technology shapes our daily lives.  Over the years, she’s also taken courses and done research in data privacy, digital security, and ethical writing – skills she uses when tackling sensitive topics like PC hardware, system vulnerabilities, and crypto security.  Anya worked directly with brands like Framework, Insta360, Redmagic, Inmotion, Secretlab, Kodak, and Anker, reviewing their products in real-life scenarios. Her testing process involves real-world use cases – whether it's stress-testing laptops for creative workloads, reviewing the battery performance of mobile gaming phones, or evaluating the long-term ergonomics of furniture designed for hybrid workspaces.  In the world of crypto, Anya covers everything from beginner guides to deep dives into hardware wallets, DeFi protocols, and Web3 tools. She helps readers understand how to use multisig wallets, keep their assets safe, and choose the right platforms for their needs.  Her writing often touches on financial freedom and privacy – two things she strongly believes should be in everyone’s hands. Outside of writing, Anya contributes to editorial style guides focused on privacy and inclusivity, and she mentors newer tech writers on how to build subject matter expertise and write responsibly.  She sticks to high editorial standards, only recommends products she’s personally tested, and always aims to give readers the full picture.  You can find her on LinkedIn, where she shares more about her work and projects.  Key Areas of Expertise: Consumer Tech (laptops, phones, wearables, etc.) Cybersecurity and Digital Privacy PC/PC Hardware Blockchain, Crypto Wallets, and DeFi In-Depth Product Reviews and Buying Guides Whether she’s reviewing a new wallet or benchmarking a PC build, Anya brings curiosity, care, and a strong sense of responsibility to everything she writes. Her mission? To make the digital world a little easier – and safer – for everyone.  View all articles by Anya Zhukova Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors. More from News View all View all

Key Takeaways USB flash drives are no longer popular among everyday users as far as data storage and transfer solutions are concerned. Top reasons for this include rising market penetration of cloud storage solutions and better and more affordable external hard drives. Interestingly, fast internet speeds and rising storage spaces in mobile phones have also contributed to the decline of USB sticks. USB flash drives, USB pens, or USB sticks – whatever you call them – are slowly but steadily exiting our lives like they never existed. But they did! There was a time not more than just a decade ago when USB flash drives were the go-to devices for data storage and transfer. We’ve obviously moved on to faster and cheaper solutions, but it could be worth dipping our toes in nostalgia on this slow Friday evening and reflecting on how far we’ve come as a tech-savvy generation. In this article, we’ll take a look at all the factors responsible for a decline in the popularity of USB flash drives among everyday ‘techies’ like you and us. Reason #1 – Rise of Cloud Storage Solutions There’s no arguing that cloud services have revolutionized how we store and manage data. Cloud storage allows us to access our data on the internet without requiring a physical infrastructure (such as a USB flash drive).  Just think about the usability these services offer: you could be anywhere in the world and only need an internet-enabled device to access your data stored on Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, or iCloud. It’s no wonder the cloud storage industry is expected to reach a whopping $639.40 billion by 2032 at a CAGR of 21.7%.   Also, cloud storage is cheaper than USB flash drives. A monthly pricing scheme cranks up their appeal, too. For instance, Google Drive costs just $1.99/month (or $20 on an annual subscription) for 100GB, whereas even a budget-friendly 128GB USB stick today will put you back at least $15. Cloud storage also provides the benefit of scalability. Anytime the existing amount of storage starts running out, you can increase your storage by simply subscribing to a new plan. Compare this with USB flash drives, where if you initially purchased a 128GB stick, you’d have to buy a new one for expanded storage needs. Reason #2 – External Hard Drives Got Bigger and Cheaper The second biggest reason behind the declining popularity of USB flash drives is the rising usability of external hard drives, i.e., HDDs and SSDs.  They offer much more storage (up to 4TB) than your average USB stick, making them ideal for storing large chunks of data, such as 4K videos and games. They’re particularly great for backups, thanks partly to their durability, which USB flash drives lack. While HDDs still offer the best value proposition for those who are only after the largest storage space possible, SSDs have seen a tremendous rise due to their lightning-fast speeds.  Finally, for the amount of storage either of these two offers, their costs are still comparable to USB sticks of similar sizes. Reason #3 – Almost Everyone Has Access to Fast Internet Now In 2015, the average global internet connection speed was just 5.6 Mbps. As of June 2024, however, the global average internet download speed is 93.93 Mbps. But you don’t need these facts and figures to believe the internet has gotten faster for all of us. Why is this important? Earlier, when only a select few had access to decent internet speeds, they would become the download hubs (think offline PC games, movies, and songs) for the entire community. And USB flash drives were crucial because that’s what folks used to transfer the downloaded data. Today, however, almost every single person has access to speedy internet. We don’t need to rely on ‘that friend’ for our download needs anymore. This internet self-sufficiency also resulted in a decrease in the need to transfer data, which consequently impacted the craze for USB flash drives among everyday groups and communities. Reason #4 – Modern Mobile Phones Are Genuine Storage Solutions The iPhone 6 launched in 2014 with just 4GB worth of storage in its base model. It didn’t come with expandable storage, either. Cut to 2025, and the iPhones now offer up to 1TB of internal storage. Moreover, even mid-range Android phones offer at least 128GB-256GB storage on their entry-level models. Also, let’s not forget that 10-15 years back, a lot of people were using dumb phones, which had even less storage. This is noteworthy because mobile phones have offered a direct replacement for USB flash drives. Want to send 10GB worth of movies from your laptop to your friend’s? Just copy it to your phone and then onto their laptop when you visit them next. Of course, fast internet speeds mean that you can also just send the files over the internet. The bottom line here is that there’s really no significant advantage of using a, say, 64GB USB stick over your mobile phone. In fact, we’d argue that you’re less likely to forget your phone when you step out of the house. Final Thoughts It’s worth noting, though, that USB flash drives are still very relevant today, just not as an everyday solution. The average user now relies on cloud storage and external hard drives. They’re still popular among businesses and old-school individuals who prefer local, pocketable storage solutions that they know will securely store their data for years to come – no recurring subscriptions, no maintenance, no hassle; just the vigilance to not lose them. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide.  A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Editor’s Note: This is a legacy article, originally published September 19, 2014. While pricing and availability details may be outdated, the test results and analysis remain accurate and relevant. You won’t believe how much data can be written to modern SSDs. No, seriously. Our ongoing SSD Endurance Experiment has demonstrated that some consumer-grade drives can withstand over a petabyte of writes before burning out. That’s a hyperbole-worthy total for a class of products typically rated to survive only a few hundred terabytes at most. Our experiment began with the Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB, Intel 335 Series 240GB, Samsung 840 Series 250GB, and Samsung 840 Pro 256GB, plus two Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB drives. They all surpassed their endurance specifications, but the 335 Series, 840 Series, and one of the HyperX drives failed to reach the petabyte mark. The remainder pressed on toward 1.5PB, and two of them made it relatively unscathed. That journey claimed one more victim, though—and you won’t believe which one. Seriously, you won’t. But I’ll stop now. More Context on What We’ve Done To celebrate the latest milestone, we’ve checked the health of the survivors, put them through another data retention test, and compiled performance results from the last 500TB. We’ve also taken a closer look at the last throes of our latest casualty. If you’re unfamiliar with our endurance experiment, here are the basics: SSDs are based on NAND flash memory with limited endurance, so we’re writing an unrelenting stream of data to a stack of drives to see what happens. We pause every 100TB to collect health and performance data, which we then turn into stunningly beautiful graphs. Ahem. Understanding NAND’s limited lifespan requires some familiarity with how NAND works. This non-volatile memory stores data by trapping electrons inside minuscule cells built with process geometries as small as 16 nm. The cells are walled off by an insulating oxide layer, but applying voltage causes electrons to tunnel through that barrier. Electrons are drawn into the cell when data is written and out of it when data is erased. The catch—and there always is one—is that the tunneling process erodes the insulator’s ability to hold electrons within the cell. Stray electrons also get caught in the oxide layer, generating a baseline negative charge that narrows the voltage range available to represent data. The narrower that range gets, the more difficult it becomes to write reliably. Cells eventually wear to the point that they’re no longer viable, after which they’re retired and replaced with spare flash from the SSD’s overprovisioned area. Since NAND wear is tied to the voltage range used to define data, it’s highly sensitive to the bit density of the cells. Three-bit TLC NAND must differentiate between eight possible values within that limited range, while its two-bit MLC counterpart only has to contend with four values. TLC-based SSDs typically have lower endurance as a result. The Casualties (Results) As we’ve learned in the experiment thus far, flash wear causes SSDs to perish in different ways. The Intel 335 Series is designed to check out voluntarily after a predetermined number of writes. That drive dutifully bricked itself after 750TB, even though its flash was mostly intact at the time. The first HyperX failed a little earlier, at 728TB, under much different conditions. It suffering rash of reallocated sectors, programming failures, and erase failures before its ultimate demise. Counter-intuitively, the TLC-based Samsung 840 Series outlasted those MLC casualties to write over 900TB before failing suddenly. But its reallocated sectors started piling up after just a few hundred terabytes of writes, confirming TLC’s more fragile nature. The 840 Series also suffered hundreds of uncorrectable errors split between an initial spate at 300TB and second accumulation near the end of the road. So, what about the latest death? Much to our surprise, the Neutron GTX failed next. It had logged only three reallocated sectors through 1.1PB of writes, but SMART warnings appeared soon after, cautioning that the raw read error rate had exceeded the acceptable threshold. The drive still made it to 1.2PB and through our usual round of performance benchmarks. However, its SMART attributes showed a huge spike in reallocated sectors: Over the last 100TB, the Neutron compensated for over 3400 sector failures. And that was it. When we readied the SSDs for the next leg, our test rig refused to boot with the Neutron connected. The same thing happened with a couple of other machines, and hot-plugging the drive into a running system didn’t help. Although the Neutron was detected, the Windows disk manager stalled when we tried to access it. Despite the early warnings of impending doom, the Neutron’s exit didn’t go entirely by the book. The drive is supposed to keep writing until its flash reserves are used up, after which it should slip into a persistent read-only state to preserve user data. Is… That What Happened? As far as we can tell, our sample never made it to read-only mode. It was partitioned and loaded with 10GB of data before the power cycle that rendered the drive unresponsive, and that partition and data remain inaccessible. We’ve asked Corsair to clarify the Neutron GTX’s sector size and how much of the overprovisioned area is available to replace retired flash. Those details should give us a better sense of whether the drive ran out of spare NAND or was struck down by something else. For what it’s worth, the other SMART attributes suggest the Neutron may have had some flash in reserve. The SMART data has two values for reallocated sectors: one that counts up from zero and another that ticks down from 256. The latter still hadn’t bottomed out after 1.2PB, and neither had the life-left estimate. Hmmm. Although the graph shows the raw read error rate plummeting toward the end, the depiction isn’t entirely accurate. That attribute was already at its lowest value after 1.108PB of writes, which is when we noticed the first SMART error. We may need to grab SMART info more regularly in future endurance tests. Now that we’ve tended to the dead, it’s time to check in on the living… Two Keep on Truckin’ The Samsung 840 Pro and second Kingston HyperX 3K both reached 1.5PB with little drama. They also completed another unpowered retention test. After writing 1.5PB, the drives were loaded with a 200GB test file and then left unplugged for over a week. Both subsequently passed the MD5 hash check we use to verify data integrity. A second hash check is integrated into Anvil’s Storage Utilities, the application we use to write data to the drives. This test is configured to verify a smaller 720MB file after roughly every terabyte of writes, and there haven’t been any inconsistencies yet. The Results Let’s examine the survivors in greater detail, starting with the 840 Pro, which continues to accumulate reallocated sectors. The burn rate has slowed slightly since the initial uptick, but over 3400 sectors have been compromised so far. At 1.5MB each, that’s about 5GB of flash lost to cell degradation. According to the SMART data, less than 40% of the flash reserves have been consumed. There’s still plenty on tap to cover future failures. The wear leveling count is supposed to be related to drive health, but it ran aground after just 500TB, and the 840 Pro has been fine through a petabyte of writes since. The health indicator in Samsung’s SSD Magician utility software has given the drive a “good” rating since the beginning of the experiment, which seems like a more accurate assessment. Then again, the same utility gave the 840 Series a clean bill of health even after the drive had suffered hundreds of uncorrectable errors. Practical limits restrict our experiment to one example of each SSD, but we have two HyperX 3K drives. One was tested like all the others, with randomized data that can’t be compressed by the DuraWrite mojo in SandForce controllers. The other has been getting a lighter diet based on the Anvil utility’s 46% incompressible setting. You can probably guess which one is still alive. We can measure the effectiveness of SandForce’s compression scheme by tracking host writes, which come from the system, and compressed writes, which are committed to the NAND. The host writes are identical for both HyperX configs, but the compressed writes are not. The HyperX 3K writes much less to the flash with the partially compressible payload. 1.5PB of host writes translates to only 1.07PB of compressed writes. On the other setup, compressed writes are slightly higher than host writes due to write amplification. (The sequential transfers that dominate the endurance test have relatively low amplification, at least compared to the more random workloads typical of client systems. DuraWrite’s effectiveness in this particular scenario isn’t necessarily indicative of how the scheme will perform with other workloads.) If compression were the only factor in the remaining HyperX’s survival, the drive would have hit the wall around 1.1PB, when it reached the same volume of compressed writes that crippled its twin. The built-in health indicator even suggested the end was coming around that mark: But the flash in this particular SSD has proven surprisingly resilient. Just 12 sectors have been reallocated through 1.5PB, a far cry from the thousands accrued by the other HyperX. Our sample size isn’t large enough to confirm which result is the outlier. Chip-to-chip variance is common in semiconductor manufacturing, though. Some dies are simply better than others, whether it’s the clock speeds that CPUs can attain or the write/erase cycles that NAND can survive. The two HyperX SSDs arrived at the same time, and we used the highly scientific “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” method to determine which one got the partly compressible workload. If that drive also had a few cherry chips under the hood, it got lucky twice—and should probably buy a lottery ticket. Digging deeper into the SMART data reveals that the surviving HyperX hasn’t been entirely flawless. We didn’t notice it at the time, but the drive reported two uncorrectable errors between 900TB and 1PB of writes. Those episodes occurred during the same span as the first two reallocated sectors, though we can’t know for sure if the two are related. In any case, uncorrectable errors are very serious. They can corrupt data, crash applications, and even bring down entire systems. The program and erase failures aren’t as critical. In those cases, the drive should be able to move on to another sector without risking the user’s data. Performance may suffer, but only momentarily. Speaking of performance, the next section explores whether any of the SSDs lost a step over the last stretch. Performance We benchmarked all the SSDs before we began our endurance experiment, and we’ve gathered more performance data after every 100TB of writes since. It’s important to note that these tests are far from exhaustive. Our in-depth SSD reviews are a much better resource for comparative performance data. What we’re looking for here is how each SSD’s benchmark scores change as the writes add up. With only a few exceptions, all the SSDs have performed consistently in these tests. The Neutron GTX stumbled with sequential reads a second time before it died, but it didn’t skip a beat elsewhere. Unlike our first batch of results, which was obtained on the same system after secure-erasing each drive, the next set comes from the endurance test itself. Anvil’s utility lets us calculate the write speed of each loop that loads the drives with random data. This test runs simultaneously on six drives split between two separate systems (and between 3Gbps SATA ports for the HyperX drives and 6Gbps ones for the others), so the data isn’t useful for apples-to-apples comparisons. However, it does provide a long-term look at how each drive handles this particular write workload. The 840 Pro and compressed HyperX react differently to Anvil’s stream of randomized files, but their behavior hasn’t changed over time. The Samsung’s write speeds continue to oscillate from one run to the next. The Kingston’s writes remain smooth and steady apart from the brief spikes associated with the secure-erase performed before each benchmarking round. Unlike the other drives, the Neutron GTX actually sped up slightly as the writes piled up. Its average speed fell off a cliff toward the end, though. Here’s a tighter crop of its final steps versus the other failures: All the SSDs slowed before deaths, but none as dramatically as the Neutron. No wonder it couldn’t carry on. On to 2PB Our SSD Endurance Experiment has claimed many victims since it began over a year ago. We’re not done yet, but we’ve already learned some valuable lessons. For example, modern SSDs appear to have more than enough endurance for typical client workloads. All six of our subjects wrote hundreds of terabytes without issue, which is far more data than even most power users will need to write during the useful lives of their drives. When SSDs exceed their write/erase tolerance, failure can manifest in different ways. Most of our casualties at least provided warnings of their imminent demise, including the latest victim, Corsair’s Neutron GTX. That drive didn’t enter the read-only mode it was supposed to assume when running out of steam, but it still wrote 1.2 petabytes without generating any errors. Pretty impressive. Among the survivors, the Samsung 840 Pro seems to be on track to outlast its rivals. The drive has reallocated thousands of sectors to circumvent worn-out NAND, but its SMART attributes suggest substantial reserves are still available. There have been no errors thus far. In a sense, the 840 Pro has already won. The only other survivor, the Kingston HyperX that we’re testing with compressible data, has suffered a couple of uncorrectable errors to date. Those hiccups haven’t been enough to cause a complete failure, but they have left a black mark on the drive’s permanent record. That record already had an asterisk to denote the fact that SandForce’s DuraWrite compression scheme has dramatically reduced the amount of data actually written to the flash. The 840 Pro and remaining HyperX are already on their way to 1.6PB. We’re committed to killing them both, and we may have to write a lot more data to achieve that goal. Stay tuned for the next chapter. Geoff Gasior, a seasoned tech marketing expert with over 20 years of experience, specializes in crafting engaging narratives that connect people with technology. At Tech Report, he excelled in editorial management, covering all aspects of computer hardware and software and much more. Gasior's deep expertise in this field allows him to effectively communicate complex concepts to a wide range of audiences, making technology accessible and engaging for everyone View all articles by Geoff Gasior Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Editor’s Note: This is a legacy article, originally published in January 2002. While pricing and availability details may be outdated, the test results and analysis remain accurate and relevant. Today, both Intel and AMD are unleashing brand-new processors on the world, and both companies aim to claim the title of “fastest PC processor.” The most significant advances come from Intel. The company is launching its Pentium 4 “Northwood” chip at 2.2GHz. With higher clock speeds and a larger L2 cache, Northwood might just give the Pentium 4 a decisive performance lead for the first time ever. AMD isn’t standing still, however, and its Athlon XP 2000+ is primed to defend its turf. Will it succeed, or will Northwood’s stratospheric clock speeds finally make the competition succumb? Read on to find out. Pentium 4 Northwood The chip code-named Northwood is Intel’s second incarnation of the Pentium 4 processor. The Pentium 4 “Northwood” isn’t fundamentally different from the original Pentium 4 “Willamette,” but there are a couple of significant changes to the chip. The Pentium 4 “Northwood” 2.2GHz First, Intel has changed the manufacturing process used to fabricate the chip. The first Pentium 4 chips were manufactured using Intel’s 0.18-micron fab process, which used conventional aluminum for the chip’s interconnects. Northwood is made on Intel’s new 0.13-micron process, which features copper interconnects with a low-K dilectric material that reduces crosstalk. Intel claims its 60-nanometer transistors are the world’s smallest and fastest in volume production, as well. The Pentium III converted to this new manufacturing process several months ago, and the Pentium 4 is just now making the move. A wafer of Willamette (left) and a wafer of Northwood (right). Though the wafers were pulled at different stages of production, you can see (If you squint) that quite a few more Northwood chips fit on a wafer Extreme close-up: the Northwood die This so-called die shrink does several things for the Pentium 4. Northwood is smaller, runs cooler, and requires less power than Willamette. The Pentium 4’s die size shrinks from 217 square millimeters to 145 square millimeters. Because Intel can fit more chips on a wafer, Northwood should be cheaper to manufacture. The process shrink should also enable Northwood to run at even higher clock frequencies with ease. The die shrink also made room for Intel to increase the size of the Pentium 4’s on-chip level 2 cache from 256K to 512K. This extra cache takes the Pentium 4 from 42 million transistors to 55 million. The jumbo-sized L2 cache ought to help Northwood tackle the Pentium 4’s big bugaboo: low clock-for-clock performance. A larger cache should help keep the P4’s deep instruction pipeline fed, increasing the number of instructions per clock (IPC) the chip can execute. Intel is introducing Northwood at two initial clock speeds: 2.0GHz and 2.2GHz. In order to differentiate the Northwood 2GHz from the older Pentium 4 “Willamette” 2GHz, Intel is calling the Northwood 2GHz the “Pentium 4 processor at 2.0 ‘A’ GHz.” The “A” designation will conjure up warmly remembered visions of the Celeron 300A for old-timers like me, while the rest of you will probably be wondering why Intel couldn’t come up with a better name than “2.0 ‘A’ GHz.” The Athlon XP 2000+ The Athlon XP 2000+ is simply AMD’s latest speed ramp of the Athlon XP. Like all Athlon XPs, this new one gets a model number that’s independent of its clock speed. The previous top speed for the Athlon XP was the 1900+ model, which runs at 1.6GHz. The Athlon XP 2000+ runs at 1.67GHz. The Athlon XP 2000+ A close-up of the Athlon XP 2000+ core The Athlon XP hasn’t yet undergone the die shrink to 0.13 microns. Like Northwood and unlike Willamette, however, the Athlon XP is made with copper interconnects, which AMD has been using on Athlon chips for quite some time now. AMD has plans to take the Athlon line to 0.13 microns this quarter; that chip is code-named Thoroughbred. However, even without the die shrink, the Athlon XP is only 128 square millimeters. Because Athlon XPs are made up of only 37.5 million transistors, they’re much smaller than the Pentium 4—even smaller than die-shrunk Northwood. All other things being equal, Athlon XPs ought to be cheaper to make, as well. Don’t be fooled by the Athlon XP’s relatively pokey 1.67GHz clock speed. There’s a reason AMD puts that model number label on its CPUs; they perform quite a bit better, clock for clock, than the Pentium 4. What to Watch for in the Test Results I’ll tell you now that this is going to be a very tight contest, so it’s important to keep the relative benchmark scores in perspective. All of the processors we’re testing today are exceptionally fast, so they’re often held back by other components in our test system, like memory, video cards, or hard drives. Not only that, but the processors themselves perform quite similarly, which should be no great shock given the healthy competition right now between Intel and AMD. All told, you’ll see a lot of tests where the results are within a few percentage points of one another—or less. Although we run our tests multiple times and average the results to limit variability, many of these results are close enough that the differences may not matter. Either the variance between the results is within the margin of error, or, more commonly, the real-world difference between one score and another is negligible. Keep that in mind. That’s not to say that none of the differences matter. They often do. Some of the performance differences are rather pronounced. And every bit of performance counts, especially in a grudge match like this one. That said, there are a few interesting matchups here. For starters, you’ll want to keep an eye on how the Pentium 4 Willamette 2GHz stacks up against the 2GHz Northwood. The Northwood ought to be faster in many tests thanks to its larger L2 cache, but in other places, that extra cache may not help much. Some software routines won’t fit into a 256K L2 cache, but they’ll fit fine into Northwood’s 512K L2 cache. Those routines should run faster on Northwood. Next, we’ve tested the Pentium 4 chips with both DDR SDRAM and RDRAM. These two types of RAM are vying for supremacy on the Pentium 4 platform, and the odds are very good that DDR SDRAM will win that battle in terms of sales. You may want to keep an eye on how those two types of memory perform. Finally, there’s the main event: the Athlon XP 2000+ versus the 2.2GHz Northwood. Can the Northwood’s extra speed and cache help the Pentium 4 finally overcome the Athlon? We’ll see. Our Testing Methods As ever, we did our best to deliver clean benchmark numbers. Tests were run at least twice, and the results were averaged. Our test systems were configured like so: Athlon XP Pentium 4 DDR Pentium 4 RDRAM Processor AMD Athlon XP 1800+ AMD Athlon XP 2000+Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0″A”GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHzIntel Pentium 4 2.0GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.0″A”GHz Intel Pentium 4 2.2GHz Front-side bus 266MHz (133MHz double-pumped) 400MHz (100MHz quad-pumped) 400MHz (100MHz quad-pumped) Motherboard Epox EP-8KHA+ Abit BD7-RAID Intel D850MD Chipset VIA KT266A Intel 845 Intel 850 North bridge VT8366A 82845 MCH 82850 MCH South bridge VT8233 82801BA ICH2 82801BA ICH2 Memory size 256MB (1 DIMM) 256MB (1 DIMM) 256MB (2 RIMMs) Memory type Micron PC2100 DDR SDRAM Micron PC2100 DDR SDRAM Samsung PC800 Rambus DRAM Graphics NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500 64MB (Detonator XP 21.83 video drivers) Sound Creative SoundBlaster Live! Storage IBM 75GXP 30.5GB 7200RPM ATA/100 hard drive OS Microsoft Windows XP Professional OS updates None The test systems’ Windows desktops were set at 1024×768 in 32-bit color at a 75Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests. We used the following versions of our test applications: SiSoft Sandra Standard 2001te Compiled binary of C Linpack port from Ace’s Hardware ZD Media Business Winstone 2001 1.0.2 ZD Media Content Creation Winstone 2001 1.0.2 POV-Ray for Windows version 3.1g (multiple compiles) Sphinx 3.3 ScienceMark 1.0 LAME 3.90 SPECviewperf 6.1.2 MadOnion 3DMark 2001 Build 200 Quake III Arena 1.30 Serious Sam v1.05 All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. Memory Performance We’re going to start off with memory tests because, well, that’s how we generally start things off. Also, these tests are a little more theoretical than the rest, so we’ll get them out of the way before we move on to the real contest. First up is the modified version of the Stream memory benchmark that’s included in SiSoft’s Sandra. This test measures memory bandwidth, which is one component of memory performance. The results break down nicely into three separate groups. As expected, the RDRAM systems are fastest here. The Pentium 4 DDR systems are next, and you can see there’s no difference between Willamette and Northwood here; they’re all talking to the same memory over the same bus, so the memory bandwidth is nearly identical. Finally, the Athlon XP systems can’t transfer quite as much data to memory as the Pentium 4 systems. On some memory-intensive tasks, the Pentium 4 will have the advantage. However, that’s only half the story. RDRAM memory’s extra bandwidth comes at a price of higher memory latencies. DDR-based systems are much quicker at accessing memory in smaller chunks, which helps them compare well against RDRAM-based systems despite the bandwidth disparity. The more interesting test here is Linpack, which can give us a nice visual look at Northwood’s L2 cache in action. Here’s how the results look: If you’re not familiar with a Linpack graph, watch closely. The X axis is the size of the data matrix Linpack is processing, and the Y axis is the calculation speed measured in megaflops. If data fits into a processor’s cache, the CPU can process that data much faster. As the size of the data matrix grows, the calculations will get progressively slower. This graph shows us several things. First, you can see that Northwood’s L2 cache is quite a bit larger than Willamette’s. Willamette’s performance begins to drop off once we get into matrices of about 192K in size, while Northwood peaks at about 384K. Not only that, but the extra cache helps Northwood’s peak performance climb much higher than Willamette’s can. Next, notice that the Athlon XP’s effective cache size is greater than 256K. Although the Athlon XP has a 256K L2 cache, its L2 cache doesn’t replicate the contents of the L1 data cache like the Pentium 4’s does. You can even see that the Athlon XP’s 64K L1 data cache is much faster than its L2 cache. The Athlon XP’s exclusive L2 cache gives it an effective cache size of 320K. However, the Athlon XP’s L2 cache is measurably slower than Northwood’s. Now the intriguing bit: the Athlon XP shows us all of its 256K L2 and 64K L1 data cache in Linpack. Performance doesn’t drop off sharply until the matrix size hits 320K. The Northwood, however, peaks at about 384K—well below its 512K L2 cache size. I expect the difference here has something to do with the way these two chips manage their respective caches. Business Winstone 2001 Business Winstone has been around forever, and this latest version still does a decent job of showing us how a system performs in common office applications. Did I mention that we had some very close results? The Northwood at 2.2GHz is fastest all around, but only when paired with RDRAM. Of the DDR-equipped systems, the Athlon XP 2000+ is fastest—but just barely. Content Creation Winstone 2001 Business Winstone’s companion test is a little more intensive. It measures performance in applications like audio editing, page design, and image processing. Here, the Athlon XP takes a decisive lead. Northwood is just a tick faster than Willamette, though. POV-Ray 3D Rendering POV-Ray is a freeware software ray-tracing program that creates high-quality 3D scenes. It’s also a very useful measure of a processor’s performance, particularly on floating-point math. Our POV-Ray tests use the original release of POV-Ray 3.1, plus Steve Schmitt’s recompiled versions, just to see what difference the various compilers and compiler settings can make. This time, we’re using an updated version of Steve Schmitt’s recompiled POV-Ray. Although there are two flavors of recompiled POV-Ray, including one specifically optimized for the Pentium 4, we’re only using the generic “PIII” version, which runs fine on both the Athlon and the Pentium 4. Unfortunately, some folks have reported getting buggy output from the P4-specific binary, so we’ll have to skip it. The Athlon XP dominates in POV-Ray, finishing the render a full 80 (and a half) seconds before the 2.2GHz Northwood—and the gap’s over two minutes with the unoptimized binary. Athlons have always excelled in floating-point math, so this result is not a big surprise. LAME MP3 Encoding LAME is the encoder of choice around Damage Labs for high-quality output, so this test holds some interest for me. More speed for MP3 encoding is always good. It’s mighty close yet again, but the Athlon XP 2000+ comes out on top. Quake III Arena The crown for Quake III performance changed hands when we tested the Athlon XP 1900+ a while back. Before then, Quake III was definitely Pentium 4 territory. Can Northwood recapture the crown? Most definitely. Three different Northwood configurations outpace the Athlon XP 2000+. However, the older Willamette 2GHz can’t beat the Athlon XP 1800+. Serious Sam If Quake III seems old and musty to you, Serious Sam ought to be more up your alley. The Athlon XP takes this one on a walk. Serious Sam has always run especially well on an Athlon, and the newest, fastest Athlon XP is no exception. 3DMark 2001 This test’s top spot has changed hands more often than most Euro notes. It seems like every time a new NVIDIA driver, chipset, or processor hits the streets, we’ve got a new 3DMark leader. The Pentium 4 2GHz held the lead last time out. Can the Athlon XP pull into the lead? Not exactly. Northwood at 2.2GHz is faster, but it’s extremely close overall. The big story is how much faster Northwood is than Willamette—about 500 points at the same clock speed. SPECviewperf Workstation Graphics Viewperf measures performance in workstation-class 3D applications like CAD/CAM and 3D modeling tools. Some of these tests are limited almost entirely by our GeForce3 graphics card, but a few of them are still interesting. This should come as no surprise: in those tests where the graphics card isn’t the performance bottleneck, it’s a toss-up. The Athlon XP is faster in some, and the Pentium 4 systems are faster in others. Speech Recognition The Sphinx speech recognition tests came to us via Ricky Houghton, who works in a speech recognition effort at Carnegie Mellon University. They’re based on Sphinx 3.3, which is an advanced system that promises greater accuracy in speech recognition. However, our past tests have shown that Sphinx 3.3 still can’t quite run fast enough on a standard PC to handle tasks in real time; it seems to be limited primarily by memory bandwidth, but faster CPUs do help performance, as well. What we’re after here is for our speech recognition test to execute faster than real time, which would help make Sphinx 3.3 workable in real-world applications. For a while now, I’ve hoped that Northwood might take us past that threshold. Unfortunately, not even Northwood at 2.2GHz can take us into the Promised Land. Regardless, all of these processors are very close. Maybe we can make it happen yet with a little tweaking, eh? ScienceMark On to Tim Wilkens’ computational benchmark, ScienceMark. This suite of tests measures number-crunching ability by running some computationally intensive scientific equations. Like 3DMark, ScienceMark then spits out a composite number denoting a system’s overall score in the suite. The Athlon XP 2000+ is an absolute monster in scientific computing—Godzilla in a lab coat. However, the individual tests show the Pentium 4’s strength, as well. The Athlon XP is fastest in the QMC and Liquid Argon tests, but Primordia is dominated by the Pentium 4. Overclocking As you’ve already seen, the Pentium 4 2.2GHz and the Athlon XP 2000+ are the fastest x86 processors on the planet. They have achieved benchmark scores that have never been seen before. They have forever upped the ante in the performance market. Virtually any power user would be completely satisfied with the power of these just-announced chips. Naturally, we had to try to overclock the rot out of them. Of course, overclocking isn’t as easy as it used to be. Granted, Intel has had its multiplier lock in place for ages, but AMD always gave you a pretty easy out. With the Slot A Athlons, it was the Golden Fingers cards (R.I.P.), and with the Socket A Thunderbird Athlons, a mechanical pencil was all you needed to achieve overclocking bliss. The Athlon XP, however, changed all that. While it’s still technically possible to unlock the Athlon XP, it’s much more difficult, and as a result, it’s likely that even many enthusiasts will now give up on multiplier control and pursue an easier overclocking method. That method, of course, is bus overclocking. Many enthusiasts’ boards allow for bus speed control via the BIOS. Although it is less versatile without multiplier control, bus overclocking can still reap substantial rewards. This is because when you raise the bus speed, you’re overclocking not only the processor, but also the RAM, PCI bus, AGP bus… You get the idea. The downside is that when you overclock a large number of components, there’s a higher chance that one of them will hit a wall and stop your fun. We overclocked both the 2.2GHz Pentium 4 and the Athlon XP 2000+ to the highest stable speed we could find. The Pentium 4 tests were conducted with the Abit BD7-RAID, while the Athlon XP tests used the Epox EP-8KHA+. First, we’ll go over the speed increases we realized, then we’ll take a look at a subset of our earlier benchmarks, comparing “stock” speed to top stable overclocked speed. The Pentium 4, unsurprisingly, was an overclocking beast, topping out with a top stable bus speed of 118MHz (stock is 100MHz). That gives us a processor speed of 2596MHz, nearly a 400MHz gain. The Athlon XP didn’t get quite that large a jump, but it still nailed down a pretty impressive increase of its own, going from 133MHz bus to 142MHz bus. Processor speed went from 1667MHz to 1775MHz. Now let’s see what that extra speed will get you. We’ll start with the Sphinx speech recognition test. Pushing the 2.2GHz Pentium 4 to the limit finally breaks the real-time barrier for the Sphinx speech recognition test. And not by a little bit, either; we can see that the increase in bus speed really allows the Northwood to stretch its legs and blast through the magic 1.0 mark. The Athlon XP, meanwhile, posts minuscule gains here. It’s likely that some other component is creating a bottleneck here, as the extra hundred or so megahertz provides hardly any benefit. Once again, we see the Pentium 4 utilizing its increased bus speed to great effect, gaining nearly 35 frames per second. The Athlon XP does better with its increased bus, but not to the same extent. Of course, it’s important to remember that the Pentium 4 system—both in bus speed and processor speed—gained relatively more than the Athlon XP. The trend continues in the final test, as the Pentium 4 gains a lot of performance from its overclocked bus. The Athlon XP scores are basically a draw; though the overclocked system technically scored lower, the differences are statistically insignificant. Conclusions Performance-wise, it’s a toss-up. I would like to declare one of these processors the clear winner, but that’s just not possible. The Athlon XP 2000+ and Pentium 4 2.2GHz are locked in a dead heat for the title of “fastest x86 processor.” Pentium 4 2.2GHz (left) and Athlon XP 2000+ (right)That’s significant progress for Intel, because AMD has held an almost-constant performance lead for well over a year now. With the introduction of the 845 chipset with support for DDR memory and now Northwood, the Pentium 4 platform has finally come into its own. The die-shrunk Pentium 4 is primed for Intel to crank up the clock, and our overclocking exploits show Intel has the headroom to do so at will. The P4 platform’s high-speed bus and ample memory bandwidth will allow significant performance gains as clock speeds ramp, too. As for AMD, they have managed to hang on to a share of the performance title even as Intel has introduced a much-improved Pentium 4. AMD’s ability to compete with Intel over the past few years has been unprecedented and impressive. However, AMD is facing significant challenges ahead. The Athlon XP will have to transition to 0.13-micron production before too long, and more importantly, the Athlon XP needs a faster system bus in order to take advantage of faster forms of memory, like DDR333. As consistently as AMD has executed on its plans, however, I find it hard to doubt they will meet these challenges. Heck, there’s probably enough headroom in the current, 0.18-micron Athlon XP for clock speeds as high as 1.8GHz. Finally, there is the little matter of price. Intel’s pricing for the new P4 chips is like so: Pentium 4 2.2GHz – $562 Pentium 4 2.0 “A” GHz – $364 AMD’s prices, meanwhile, are a little more modest: Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67GHz) – $339 Athlon XP 1900+ (1.60GHz) – $269 Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53GHz) – $223 Athlon XP 1700+ (1.47GHz) – $190 Athlon XP 1600+ (1.4GHz) – $160 Obviously, the Athlon XP offers a better price-performance ratio. For enthusiasts looking to build their own PCs, the Athlon XP is probably still the way to go. For those of you looking to buy a PC from a large OEM like Gateway or Dell, it’s hard to say. AMD’s lower prices might let you get more PC for the money. However, Intel traditionally offers steep discounts to OEMs, so shop carefully. Scott Wasson is a veteran in the tech industry and the former Editor-in-Chief at Tech Report. With a laser focus on tech product reviews, Wasson's expertise shines in evaluating CPUs and graphics cards, and much more. View all articles by Scott Wasson Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Editor’s Note: This is a legacy article, originally published March 4, 2008. While pricing and availability details may be outdated, the test results and analysis remain accurate and relevant. I’ve had a computer hooked up to my television for as long as I’ve had a living room. What would eventually be called a home theater PC had humble beginnings, starting its life tasked with simply playing movies and MP3s before eventually morphing into a personal video recorder and an occasional game box. Before long, living room gaming duties were offloaded to consoles, allowing years to pass with nary an upgrade to my media PC. So long has it been since I last cracked the case that a thin blanket of dust has draped itself across the system’s internals, making the now-vintage hardware look all the more old and decrepit. The HTPC market has exploded since I last built one. What was once an expensive accessory confined to enterprising geeks and do-it-yourself enthusiasts has moved into mainstream living rooms. And thanks to the relatively modest requirements of multimedia playback and recording, even today’s budget hardware is up to the task—hardware like AMD’s new 780G integrated graphics chipset. What I’ll be Covering Here The latest fruit borne of AMD’s purchase of ATI packs a DirectX 10-compliant graphics core pulled from a Radeon HD 2400 graphics card, decode acceleration for HD DVD Blu-ray movie playback, second-generation PCI Express, Hybrid CrossFire, a new SB700 south bridge, and a Phenom-ready HyperTransport 3 processor link. All that’s coming to motherboards that should cost less than $100. Alongside it, AMD is introducing a new energy-efficient Athlon X2 4850e with a 45W TDP and $89 price tag. On paper, it looks like we have the recipe for a killer home theater PC or mainstream desktop. But has AMD nailed the execution this time around? We’ve run the 780G and 4850e through a grueling array of tests in order to find out. New Hotness All Around The 780G is a new chipset from its integrated graphics processor through the north bridge and all the way down to the south bridge. Of those components, the IGP is perhaps the most exciting. Dubbed the Radeon HD 3200, the integrated graphics core is ripped directly from the RV610 graphics processor that powers the Radeon HD 2400 series—a chip that was released just eight months ago. That’s incredibly quick trickle down from budget GPU to integrated graphics chipset, making this the first IGP we’ve had that’s really in step with the current generation of discrete GPUs. Because it’s a member of the same graphics family as AMD’s discrete GPUs, the Radeon HD 3200 is also eligible for Hybrid Graphics configurations. The chipset’s GPU can be teamed with a single graphics card—in this case, either a Radeon HD 3450 or 3470—to improve performance in 3D applications. Hybrid CrossFire only delivers performance gains when GPUs of relatively similar horsepower are combined, which is why the Radeon HD 3200 IGP will only work in conjunction with the HD 3400 series of discrete GPUs. What’s Included? Within the integrated Radeon HD 3200 graphics processor lies a unified shader architecture that spreads 40 stream processors across two shader SIMDs. Also included are single-texture and ROP units capable of handling four texels and pixels per clock, respectively. The vertex and texture caches are shared to save die area (they’re separate with most other R600-based designs), but the Radeon HD 3200 is still very much a DirectX 10-class part. If you think of the new Radeon HD 3800 series as a V8, the 3200 is essentially a single piston—one that runs at an impressive 500MHz and has access to up to 512MB of system memory. Thanks to the 780G north bridge chip’s HyperTransport 3 link, which scales up to 1.8GHz with AMD’s current Phenom processors, the Radeon HD 3200 enjoys a very fat pipe to two channels of DDR2 memory at up to an effective 1066MHz. Motherboard makers can also equip the 3200 with dedicated memory of its own, an addition that AMD says can improve performance by 10-15%. Such support for local memory in an IGP isn’t actually new, but it’s a capability rarely exploited by motherboards that show up in retail. AMD claims tier-one mobo makers are, er, onboard to take advantage of it this time around, though. The 780G block diagram. Source: AMD HyperTransport bandwidth is apparently so important to the Radeon HD 3200 that AMD recommends a 1.8GHz link—currently available only with Phenom—to make the most of the graphics core. The 3200’s post-processing engine for high-definition video playback actually requires the 1.8GHz HT link that Phenom provides. You don’t need a Phenom to take advantage of the Radeon HD 3200’s other video decoding capabilities, though. The integrated GPU’s enhanced Universal Video Decoder (UVD) block is capable of handling decoding duties for high definition Blu-ray movies, and if you’re a fan of the new Betamax, it’ll do HD DVD too. High-definition-ness is carried all the way through to the HD 3200’s outputs, which include not only VGA and DVI, but also HDMI and even DisplayPort. HDCP is supported, as well, and the 780G is smart enough to be able to route S/PDIF audio through its HDMI output. There’s MORE to Love We’ve spent a lot of time on integrated graphics, but it’s not the only element of the 780G’s new hotness. The north bridge also gets 26 lanes of second-generation PCI Express connectivity, should you want to add a discrete graphics card of your own. 16 of those lanes are reserved for an x16 link, while six are distributed across x1 links meant for expansion slots and onboard peripherals. The remaining four links are reserved for the chipset’s north bridge-to-south bridge interconnect. Follow the interconnect south, and you’re greeted by AMD’s eagerly anticipated SB700 south bridge chip, which ultimately arrives with a bit of a whimper. The SB700 may be new silicon, but in many ways, it’s just more of the same. Take the chipset interconnect, for example. The 780G has four lanes of PCIe 2.0 reserved for its chipset link, and while the SB700 can match its northern neighbor’s lane count, those PCI Express lanes come from the previous 1.1 generation. This caps north-south bridge interconnect bandwidth at 2GB/s—half of what it could have been with a top-to-bottom PCIe 2.0 implementation. We quite literally see more of the same in the SB700’s Serial ATA controller. The port count here is up to six, but they’re basically six of the same ports you get on the old SB600. Drives can be configured in RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays, but RAID 5 remains unavailable. This omission is notable because if you’re a little paranoid about data loss, a three-drive RAID 5 might be a decent solution for a home theater PC. On the USB front, the SB700 is up to 12 ports, this time with a dual-channel controller AMD says is faster than what can be found in the SB600. A couple of USB 1.1 ports are also included, apparently at the request of notebook makers who use them for various widgets. The prospect of 780G notebook applications leads us nicely to the chipset’s party piece: its power consumption. A very advanced—at least in chipset terms—55nm fabrication process is used to manufacture the chipset’s north and south bridge components, bringing idle power consumption for the chips down to what AMD claims is less than one watt each. Gigabyte’s GA-MA780GM-S2H Mobo — 780G in the Flesh Manufacturer Gigabyte Model GA-MA78GM-S2H The 780G chipset arrived in our labs riding aboard Gigabyte’s new GA-MA780GM-S2H motherboard. You can already find this board for sale online, albeit from only one vendor at the moment. Still, it’s selling for roughly $100, which is quite affordable considering the board’s payload of features and the fact that it’s such a fresh release. As one might expect, the GA-MA780GM-S2H continues Gigabyte’s tradition of entirely too long and convoluted motherboard names. The board is built for a Micro ATX form factor that will squeeze nicely into smaller enclosures while still providing a couple of PCI and PCI Express expansion options, including an x16 slot if you want to skip out on the chipset’s integrated graphics or take advantage of its Hybrid CrossFire capability. Gigabyte’s board designers have done a reasonably good job with the board’s layout, given the Micro ATX form factor’s restrictive dimensions. Longer double-wide graphics cards will block access to some of the SATA ports, but that’s hard to avoid when there’s limited board real estate to work with. At least the board’s chipset coolers won’t get in the way. Low-profile heatsinks cover the chipset’s north and south bridge components with nary a fan in sight, which bodes well for this motherboard’s suitability for silent desktops and home theater PCs. Such modest cooling also reflects well on the 780G’s power consumption. Around the port cluster, the Gigabyte board packs an impressive array of video outputs. You won’t find any DisplayPort goodness here, but VGA, DVI, and HDMI ports are all present. There’s also an S/PDIF audio output courtesy of one of Realtek’s swanky ALC889A codec chips. The ALC889A is about as high-end as Realtek’s HD audio codecs get; it actually supports DTS Connect encoding that allows users to pass multi-channel audio over a single digital connection. Firewire and External Serial ATA connectors make an appearance in the port cluster, as well, with the latter fed by the same SB700 south bridge that powers the internal SATA ports. Four USB ports are also provided, alongside onboard headers for eight more. And, of course, there’s a single Gigabit Ethernet port. Since the 780G lacks integrated networking, GigE duties are handled by a Realtek 8111C networking controller that happily sits on the PCI Express bus. One More Thing… To coincide with the 780G chipset launch, AMD is taking the wraps off its new Athlon X2 4850e processor. Fabbed on a 65nm process, the 4850e has the same 2.5GHz clock speed and 1MB L2 cache as the Athlon X2 4800+, but with a TDP of just 45 watts. The 4850e isn’t available online just yet, but AMD says the chip will sell for only $89. That’s essentially the same price as the existing Athlon X2 4800+, so the new chip’s lower power consumption won’t cost you any extra. AMD is adamant that performance is consistent between the two chips, as well. Asus’ P5E-VM HDMI Motherboard. Introducing the G35 Express Manufacturer Asus Model P5E-VM HDMI With Nvidia’s next-gen GeForce 8200 integrated graphics chipset not quite ready for prime time, the 780G’s primary competition will come from Intel’s G35 Express. This latest IGP chipset from the blue team features a GMA X3500 graphics processor with a unified shader core whose roots can be traced all the way back to the GMA X3000 found in the G965 Express chipset. Like the X3000, the X3500 has eight scalar shader execution units and a 667MHz core clock speed. The X3500 is DirectX 10-compliant, too, with support for Shader Model 4.0 and OpenGL 2.0. This IGP also packs a Clear Video decode engine that can offload some elements of the HD video playback process. The G35 Express is more of a refresh than a brand-new chipset, though, and it shows. Digital video outputs like DVI and HDMI are only supported through auxiliary sDVO (Serial Digital Video Output) chips, and PCI Express is limited to gen-one connectivity. Intel’s block diagram for the G35 even calls for the chipset to include south bridge components from the old ICH8 family. Asus has been a little more enterprising with its G35-based P5E-VM HDMI, pairing the G35 Express north bridge with the very same ICH9R south bridge chip you’ll find on high-end P35 and X38 boards. The result is a Micro ATX motherboard with many of the bells and whistles one might expect from a full-size ATX model. The P5E-VM uses a much larger north bridge cooler than we saw strapped to the 780G, but it’s still a fanless and therefore silent design. Asus favors PCIe over PCI, equipping the board with a pair of PCIe x1 slots and only a single PCI slot. That actually makes sense given that Asus is now making PCI Express sound cards. Installing a double-wide graphics card will cost you one of the x1 slots, though. Longer double-wide cards will also interfere with a number of the board’s SATA ports—apparently par for the course within the Micro ATX form factor’s relatively cramped proportions. In fact, the board is so crowded that Asus has moved a handful of components onto a little riser card that sits just above the top PCIe x1 slot. This card houses an ASMedia Technology ASM4136 chip, which, according to what little information is available on the wide world internets—and then mostly in speculative forum discussions—is some sort of video processing decoder likely tied to the board’s HDMI output. You won’t find quite the bounty of ports on the P5E-VM that we did on the Gigabyte board, but there’s plenty to like here, including VGA and HDMI video outputs. DVI output is supported, as well, although only through an HDMI-to-DVI adapter that Asus includes in the box. The board has a full range of analog audio outs and a coaxial S/PDIF output courtesy of Realtek’s budget ALC883 codec. As one might expect, the P5E-VM features Gigabit Ethernet, but through a PCIe-based Atheros L1 networking controller rather than more common chips from Marvell or Realtek. Firewire and USB make the cut, as well, but External Serial ATA is conspicuously missing. What’s in a Micro ATX BIOS? Micro ATX models are rarely revered for their tweaking and overclocking options, so we poked around the BIOSes for our Asus and Gigabyte boards to see what we could find. Much to our surprise, these boards are pretty well equipped if you want to get your hands dirty and fiddle around. Bus Speeds FSB: 400-800MHz in 1MHz incrementsFSB strap: 200, 266, 333MHzPCIe: 100-150MHz in 1MHz incrementsDRAM: 533, 667,800MHzHT:200-500MHz in1MHz incrementsHT Link: 200MHz-2.6GHz in 200MHz incrementsPCIe: 100-200MHz in 1MHz incrementsVGA core: 150-1100MHz in 1MHz increments Asus P5E-VM HDMI Gigabyte GA-MA78G-S2H Bus multipliers CPU: 6x-10x (Pentium E2180) CPU: 5x-25x (Phenom 9600 BE) DRAM controller frequency: 5x-16xDRAM: 2,2.66,3.33,4,5.33 Voltages CPU: 1.1-1.7V in 0.0125V increments DRAM: 1.8-2.44V in 0.02V incrementsPLL: 1.5-1.8V in 0.02V incrementsFSB termination: 1.2-1.5V in0.02V incrementsNB:1.25-1.71V in 0.02V incrementsSB: 1.05, 1.2VCPU: +0.025-0.6V in 0.025V increments DRAM: +0.1-0.3V in 0.1V incrementsNB: +0.1-0.3V in 0.1V increments Monitoring Voltage, fan status, and temperature monitoringVoltage, fan status, and temperature monitoring Fan speed control CPU, chassis CPU Both offer all the usual memory timings with a decent array of overclocking options, to boot. Front-side bus and HT clock speeds are available in ranges that should be more than ample for most folks. You can even tweak CPU and chipset voltages, although there are more overvolting options on the Asus board than on the Gigabyte. Temperature-based processor fan speed control is really a must-have feature for home theater PCs, so it’s good to see it making an appearance in both BIOSes. The Asus board offers temperature-based fan speed control for its system fan header, which is a nice little perk. Neither board exposes BIOS-level control over target temperatures or fan speed profiles, though. If you’re planning on plunking a Phenom into the GA-MA78GM-S2H, you’ll be happy to know that its latest F3C BIOS revision includes a switch to disable AMD’s TLB workaround. AMD has instructed motherboard makers not to include such a switch in their BIOSes, but Gigabyte and others don’t appear to be heeding that request, which suits us just fine. You should also be able to disable the TLB patch using AMD’s OverDrive software, which is fully compatible with the 780G chipset. Specifics on Specifications To cover all the little details we haven’t had the chance to discuss yet, I’ve compiled a handy spec sheet that sums up the Asus P5E-VM HDMI and the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H. Asus P5E-VM HDMI Gigabyte GA-MA78G-S2H CPU support LGA775-based Celeron, Pentium 4/D, Core 2 processorsSocket AM2+/AM2-based Athlon, Phenom processors North bridge Intel G35 Express AMD 780G South bridge Intel ICH9R AMD SB700 Interconnect DMI (2GB/s) PCI Express x4 (2GB/s) Expansion slots 1 PCI Express x16 2 PCI Express x11 32-bit/33MHz PCI1 PCI Express x16 1 PCI Express x12 32-bit/33MHz PCI Memory 4 240-pin DIMM socketsMaximum of 8GB of DDR2-667/800/1066 SDRAM4 240-pin DIMM socketsMaximum of 16GB of DDR2-667/800/1066 SDRAM Storage I/O Floppy disk 1 channel ATA/133 via JMicron JMB3686 channels 300MB/s Serial ATA with RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 supportFloppy disk 1 channel ATA/1335 channels 300MB/s Serial ATA with RAID 0, 1, 10 support Audio 8-channel HD audio via Realtek ALC883 codec 8-channel HD audio via Realtek ALC889A codec Ports< 1 PS/2 keyboard 1 PS/2 mouse1 VGA1 HDMI6 USB2.0 with headers for 6 more1 RJ45 10/100/1000 via Atheros L11 1394a Firewire viaVIA VT6308P with header for 1 more1 analog front out1 analog bass/center out1 analog rear out1 analog surround out1 analog line in1 analog mic in1 digital coaxial S/PDIFoutput1 PS/2 keyboard 1 PS/2 mouse1 VGA1 DVI1 HDMI1eSATA4 USB2.0 with headers for 8 more1 RJ45 10/100/1000 via Realtek 8111C1 1394a Firewire viaTexas Instruments TSB43AB23 with header for 1 more1 analog front out1 analog bass/center out1 analog rear out1 analog surround out1 analog line in1 analog mic in1 digital TOS-Link S/PDIFoutput There isn’t much to see here, although it is worth noting that the Gigabyte board claims to support up to 16GB of memory. We don’t even want to know how much a 4GB DIMM is going to cost you, though. Suffice to say it’s probably several times that of the motherboard itself. Notice that Asus and Gigabyte differ in their choice of FireWire providers. Asus chose VIA’s VT6308P, while Gigabyte opted for a Texas Instruments chip. We’ll see in a moment how the performance of these two implementations compares. Our Testing Methods With the 780G and Athlon X2 4850e launching on the same day, we thought it appropriate to test the two together as a low-cost integrated graphics platform. To fill out our G35 Express board, we have a dual-core Pentium E2180 that costs about as much as the 4850e should when it touches down on store shelves. Do keep in mind that our G35-based Asus board, which seems to be the only G35 offering widely available in North America, costs $30 more than Gigabyte’s 780G board. Integrated graphics motherboards based on AMD chipsets have traditionally cost less than those from the Intel camp. We conducted all of our performance testing with the boards running their integrated graphics. Additional game tests were run with a Radeon HD 3450 graphics card on each board and in a Hybrid CrossFire configuration with the 780G. All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged. Processor Intel Pentium E2180 2.0GHz AMD Athlon X2 4850e System bus 1066MHz (266MHz quad-pumped)1GHz HyperTransport Motherboard Asus P5E-VM HDMI Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H Bios revision 0405 F3C North bridge Intel G35 Express AMD 780G South bridge Intel ICH9R AMD SB700 Chipset drivers Chipset 8.3.1.1009 AHCI 7.8.0.1012IGP 15.7.3Chipset/IGP 8.470.0.0 AHCI3.1.1540.38 Memory size 2GB (2 DIMMs) Memory type Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5 DDR2 SDRAM at800MHzCorsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5 DDR2 SDRAM at742MHz CAS latency(CL) 4 4 RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) 4 4 RAS precharge(tRP) 4 4 Cycle time(tRAS) 12 12 Audio codec Realtek ALC883with 1.87a driversRealtek ALC889Awith 1.87a drivers OS updates KB936710, KB938194, KB938979, KB940105 Thanks to Corsair for providing us with memory for our testing. 2GB of RAM seems to be the new standard for most folks, and Corsair hooked us up with some of its 1GB DIMMs for testing. All of our test systems were powered by OCZ GameXStream 700W power supply units. Thanks to OCZ for providing these units for our use in testing. Finally, we’d like to thank Western Digital for sending Raptor WD1500ADFD hard drives for our test rigs. The Raptor’s still the fastest all-around drive on the market, and the only 10K-RPM Serial ATA drive you can buy. We used the following versions of our test applications: SiSoft Sandra Standard 2008 13.12 WorldBench 6.0 Beta 2 TCD Labs HD Tach 3.01 Call of Duty 4 1.4 RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.06 NTttcp CASE Lab Euler3d CFD benchmark multithreaded edition Intel IOMeter v2004.07.30 Crysis 1.1 Enemy Territory: Quake Wars 1.4 Half-Life 2: Episode 2 CPU-Z 1.41 CyberLink PowerDVD 7.3 The test systems’ Windows desktop was set at 1280×1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests. All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. Memory Performance Memory subsystem performance doesn’t always track with real-world applications, but it’s a good place to start with integrated graphics chipsets that cannibalize a portion of system memory and therefore bandwidth. The Athlon X2’s integrated memory controller works wonders here, providing heaps more bandwidth and much lower access latencies than Intel’s G35 Express. Memory controllers don’t always handle four DIMMs gracefully, so we popped an additional two memory modules into each system for another round of tests. With a full complement of memory modules installed, the performance picture really doesn’t change much. The 780G platform is way out ahead again, and it actually offers better memory performance with four DIMMs installed than with two. By contrast, our G35 boards offers a little less bandwidth and higher access latencies when we fill its DIMM slots. The following latency graphs are a little indulgent, so I won’t be offended if you skip them. They show access latencies across multiple block and step sizes, painting a fuller picture of memory controller performance with each chipset. I’ve arranged the graphs in order of highest latency to lowest. Yellow represents L1 cache, light orange is L2, and dark orange is main memory. Our G35 system’s Pentium E2180 processor may have a bigger L2 cache than the 780G’s Athlon X2 4850e, but as we move to block sizes that spill over into main memory, the AMD platform’s significantly lower access latencies come into play in dramatic fashion. STARS Euler3d Computational Fluid Dynamics Few folks run fluid dynamics simulations on their desktops, but we’ve found this multi-threaded test to be particularly demanding of memory subsystems, making it a good link between our memory and application performance tests. Despite scoring better in our memory subsystem tests, the 780G actually lags behind the G35 Express in Euler3d. Keep in mind, of course, that these rival platforms are backed by entirely different processor architectures. WorldBench WorldBench uses scripting to step through a series of tasks in common Windows applications. It then produces an overall score. WorldBench also spits out individual results for its component application tests, allowing us to compare performance in each. We’ll look at the overall score, and then we’ll show individual application results alongside the results from some of our own application tests. The 780G is two points off the pace set by the G35 Express in WorldBench. Can it steal a win in any of the suite’s individual application tests? Not through WorldBench’s multimedia editing and encoding apps, which show the G35 Express consistently ahead. The gap in Photoshop performance is particularly striking. However, the 780G makes some headway with WorldBench’s Firefox and multitasking test, topping the G35 twice. And twice more through WorldBench’s 3ds max tests. Here we get our first look at integrated graphics performance, with the 780G finishing the DirectX test in nearly half the time it takes the G35. Nero and WinZip favor the G35 platform, though. These tests have shown themselves to be more sensitive to disk controller performance than the others, suggesting that SB700 may have to shoulder some of the blame here. Gaming We’ve had more than one game developer decry integrated graphics as the bane of their existence, and it’s easy to see why. With today’s latest titles, you have to back off most in-game detail levels and drop the resolution way down to get frame rates that are even close to what we’d consider playable. Crysis just isn’t the same with a low graphics detail setting, and the others don’t look so hot, either. But I suppose it’s impressive that an IGP can run such recent titles at all. Even the G35 Express managed to slog through Crysis without obvious visual artifacts, although it inexplicably wouldn’t launch the multiplayer component of Call of Duty 4, which is necessary to run our custom timedemo. The P5E-VM had problems with CoD 4 with a Radeon HD 3450 graphics card, as well, and not even reinstalling the game would get it to launch in Vista. Note that we have several sets of results here. Naturally, we’ve tested the 780G and G35 with their integrated graphics. Both platforms were also tested with a discrete Radeon HD 3450 graphics card. The 780G was also tested in a Hybrid CrossFire configuration with the Radeon. Finally, we’ve thrown in some results with the 780G’s integrated graphics backed by the 1.8GHz HyperTransport link offered by a Phenom 9600. The first thing to take away from these results is just how completely the 780G’s integrated graphics core outclasses the G35 Express. Settings that deliver reasonably playable framerates on the 780G reduce the G35 to little more than an embarrassing slideshow. Throw in a Radeon HD 3450, though, and the 780G and G35 are well matched. At least until you enable Hybrid CrossFire. When we use Hybrid CrossFire to combine the integrated graphics processor’s abilities with the Radeon’s firepower, the 780G’s performance rises by a modest margin in most games. Integrated graphics performance does improve if we add a Phenom to the equation. However, it’s hard to say how much of the framerate boost is due to the Phenom’s faster HyperTransport link rather than its additional computational prowess. HD Video playback With HD DVD essentially dead, we confined our video playback tests to Blu-ray movies with the highest bitrates we could find for each of the format’s three encoding types. For MPEG2 encoding, we settled on Nature’s Journey, which is packed with ridiculously gorgeous loops of nature scenes. On the AVC front (otherwise known as H.264), the highest bitrates we could get our hands on came with the fast zombie flick 28 Days Later. We had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for VC-1, eventually settling on Click. For whatever reason, an Adam Sandler comedy is encoded with a higher bitrate than other VC-1 movies. We used PowerDVD 7.3 for playback and enabled hardware acceleration within the application. CPU utilization was logged for 60 seconds of playback with each movie, and the results were averaged. Movies were played back in fullscreen mode with the desktop resolution set to 1920×1440 to make things as difficult as possible for the IGPs. In addition to providing results for the 780G and G35 Express, we’ve also thrown in some numbers from a Radeon HD 3450 running on the 780G platform. That should give us a good idea of how integrated solutions compare to a discrete graphics card with full decode capabilities. Between our integrated graphics platforms, the 780G exhibits much lower CPU utilization than the G35 Express. More importantly, the AMD chipset’s playback was buttery smooth throughout. The same can’t be said for the G35 Express, whose playback of MPEG2 and AVC movies was choppy enough to be unwatchable. We only observed smooth video playback on the G35 with VC-1 content, which not-so-coincidentally also delivered the lowest CPU utilization for the Intel platform. While the 780G’s playback prowess is no doubt impressive, we actually expected lower CPU utilization—something along the lines of what we saw with the Radeon HD 3450. Swapping in a Phenom reduced CPU utilization by a little more than half, but that’s to be expected since Phenom also doubles the number of processor cores. HQV Video Quality The HQV benchmark is a DVD designed to test the image quality of televisions, monitors, and DVD players with a series of specific feature tests. It can also be a handy tool to evaluate how a graphics card’s video processor handles tasks like de-interlacing, motion correction, antialiasing, and film cadence detection. We tested the standard definition version of HQV using PowerDVD 7.3. AMD scores a perfect 130 here, nailing each and every one of the HQV tests. The G35 Express doesn’t fare as well, managing a score of only 70. I’m not entirely happy with how that score reflects the G35’s actual performance, though. HQV’s tests rely on arbitrarily subjective scoring, and in many of its tests, flickering problems on the G35 that degraded the overall viewing experience didn’t actually meet the criteria for a lower score. Serial ATA Performance The Serial ATA disk controller is one of the most important components of a modern core logic chipset, so we threw each platform a selection of I/O-intensive storage tests using a Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD. Testing was conducted with the SB700 running in AHCI mode, which is necessary for Native Command Queuing, using the latest drivers supplied by AMD. AMD’s older SB600 south bridge had numerous problems running in AHCI mode. It required a Vista hotfix to work properly, and you’d need an external storage controller to get the operating system installed. The hotfix, fortunately, isn’t required with the SB700. However, if you want to get Vista running in AHCI mode, you have to first install the OS in IDE mode, then swap the hard drive to an auxiliary storage controller running on the same system, switch the SB700 to AHCI mode and install the necessary drivers, and then move the hard drive back to the south bridge. It’s ridiculous to ask users to jump through hoops just to enable AHCI. AMD should have worked closer with Microsoft to prevent a documented problem with an old South Bridge chip from afflicting the new SB700. IOMeter We’ll begin our storage tests with IOMeter, which subjects our systems to increasing multi-user loads. Testing was restricted to IOMeter’s workstation and database test patterns, since those are more appropriate for desktop systems than the file or web server test patterns. The SB700’s Serial ATA controller really is more of the same. Like the SB600 before it, the SB700 appears to have problems scaling performance as the number of simultaneous I/O requests increases. We only tested with a single driver revision here, but it’s the latest one. Clearly, our G35 Express board’s ICH9R south bridge is doing a much better job handling IOMeter workloads. As you can see, response times are much lower on the G35 than with the 780G, particularly as the number of simultaneous I/O requests scales up. At least CPU utilization is reasonable for the 780G, although given its poor throughput, that’s not saying much. We’ve seen driver revisions that fix the SB600’s performance scaling problems have a detrimental impact on CPU utilization, and since the two share essentially the same SATA underpinnings, we’d expect similar results from the SB700. HD Tach We used HD Tach 3.01’s 8MB zone test to measure basic SATA throughput and latency. HD Tach doesn’t hammer drives with multiple I/O requests, which suits the 780G just fine. Burst and read speeds are pretty close between the 780G and G35, with the latter pulling out ahead in the average write speed test. The write speed test is an interesting anomaly, since we’ve seen numerous chipsets that correctly support Native Command Queuing exhibit performance similar to the G35’s with our Raptor hard drive. The 780G is a hair quicker than the G35 in HD Tach’s random access time test. We’re talking tenths of a millisecond here, so make that a fraction of a hair. CPU utilization results are within HD Tach’s margin of error in this test. USB Performance Our USB transfer speed tests were conducted with a USB 2.0/Firewire external hard drive enclosure connected to a 7200RPM Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 hard drive. We tested with HD Tach 3.01’s 8MB zone setting. AMD has done well in bolstering the SB700’s USB performance. The new South Bridge is a little slower than Intel’s best in our burst and sustained read speed tests, but much quicker when it comes to writing, with competitive CPU utilization. PCI Express Performance We used ntttcp to test PCI Express Ethernet throughput using a Marvell 88E8052-based PCI Express x1 Gigabit Ethernet card. These two boards’ PCI Express GigE throughput is all but identical, although the AMD platform has an advantage in CPU utilization. The 780G system also has two cores running at 2.5GHz, while G35’s dually is clocked 500MHz slower at 2GHz. PCI Performance To test PCI performance, we used the same ntttcp test methods and a PCI VIA Velocity GigE NIC. I’m at a loss to explain this one, folks. For whatever reason, our G35 Express board doesn’t get along with the older VIA networking card we use for PCI throughput testing. This particular card has delivered much better performance on other motherboards that use the exact same ICH9R south bridge, so I’m more inclined to write this off as an odd motherboard incompatibility rather than a flaw in the G35 chipset. Forget about the CPU utilization results, too; with such disproportionate throughput, we can’t draw many conclusions here. Despite the 780G’s obvious throughput lead, 650 Mbps isn’t particularly impressive. We’ve seen this card pushing 730-840Mbps on other platforms, making me wonder if perhaps the SB700 has inherited its predecessor’s pokey PCI performance characteristics. Power Consumption We measured system power consumption, sans monitor and speakers, at the wall outlet using a Watts Up Pro power meter. Power consumption was measured at idle and under a load consisting of a multi-threaded Cinebench 10 render running in parallel with the “rthdribl” high dynamic range lighting demo. Results that fall under “No power management” were obtained with Windows Vista running in high-performance mode, while those with power management enabled were taken with Vista in its balanced performance mode. Our 780G system consumes much less power at idle than its G35-based rival, particularly when Cool’n’Quiet is free to throttle the processor’s clock speed. That alone drops power consumption by eight watts, slipping our 780G rig below the 50-watt mark, and more importantly, 20 watts below the best our G35 Express platform can do. Crank up a combined CPU and GPU load, though, and the G35 Express sips five fewer watts than the 780G. Motherboard Peripheral Performance Core logic chipsets integrate a wealth of peripherals, but they don’t handle everything. Firewire and audio are farmed out to auxiliary chips, for example, and so is networking. To provide a closer look at the peripheral performance you can expect from the motherboards we’ve tested today, we’ve compiled Ethernet, Firewire, and audio performance results below. We’ve used motherboard rather than chipset names here because these performance characteristics reflect the auxiliary peripheral chips used on each board rather than the performance of the core logic chipset. NTttcp Ethernet performance Throughput (Mbps) CPU utilization(%) Asus P5E-VM HDMI941.34021.53 Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H944.293 18.72 GigE throughput is pretty close, with the Gigabyte board holding a small advantage in CPU utilization. Keep in mind that we’re talking about the utilization of two completely different processors. HD TachFirewire performance Read burstspeed (MB/s) Average readspeed (MB/s) Average writespeed (MB/s) CPU utilization(%) Asus P5E-VM HDMI 32.8 28.9 21.7 0.3 Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 42.1 37.6 24.2 2.7 The Gigabyte 780G board’s Texas Instruments Firewire chip proves much faster than the VIA controller on the Asus G35 board. Burst and sustained read speeds aren’t even close between the two boards. RightMark AudioAnalyzer audio quality Overall score Frequency response Noise level Dynamic range THD THD + Noise IMD + Noise Stereo Crosstalk IMD at 10kHz Asus P5E-VM HDMI 4 5 3 3 3 1 3 4 3 Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 3 5 1 1 3 1 3 4 3 RightMark Audio Analyzer favors the Asus board, although only slightly. A poor showing by the Gigabyte in RMAA’s noise level and dynamic range tests drags down its overall score. Conclusions AMD’s 780G integrated graphics chipset lives up to its potential, delivering an incredibly complete platform for mainstream desktops and home theater PCs within a surprisingly modest power envelope. With a little help from an energy-efficient Athlon X2 4850e, the 780G’s idle power consumption is nothing short of a revelation. And it’s not like the chipset has sacrificed features and performance in the name of power efficiency. The 780G packs in a DirectX 10-class integrated graphics core, PCI Express 2.0, loads of expansion ports and display output options, and a very impressive video decoder capable of smooth 1080p Blu-ray playback in any format, with even a budget CPU. In addition to its potent video decoding capabilities, the 780G’s Radeon HD 3200 graphics core offers the best 3D performance we’ve seen from an IGP—not that we expected any less from what is essentially an eight-month-old budget GPU squeezed into the 780G’s north bridge. Never before has integrated graphics come this close to delivering the kind of experience you get with a discrete graphics card. That said, the experience still isn’t close enough if you want to play the latest games and have them look even remotely like they’re supposed to. We had to drop resolutions all the way down and scale in-game detail levels way back just to get playable frame rates. Hybrid CrossFire helped, but it didn’t do enough. The 780G’s graphics core may beat Intel’s GMA slideshow by miles, but if you want to really experience games, we recommend biting the bullet and buying a proper graphics card. The 780G’s case is further helped by Gigabyte’s excellent implementation in the GA-MA78GM-S2H. You get a lot of board for only $100, including passive chipset cooling, a great array of expansion ports, a fast Firewire chip, and surprisingly decent BIOS tweaking and overclocking options. Gigabyte even throws in a switch to disable AMD’s TLB erratum patch should you wish to drop a Phenom into the board without incurring a severe performance penalty. The 780G isn’t perfect, though, and our enthusiasm for the chipset is tempered by an SB700 south bridge that feels more like a die-shrunk SB600 than a brand new chip. The fact that AMD has allowed AHCI problems that afflicted the SB600 to persist in the SB700 comes across as more than just a little sloppy, particularly given the hoops one has to jump through just to install Vista in AHCI mode. Mainstream desktops and home theater PCs may see little benefit from the Native Command Queuing support that AHCI mode provides, but it’s a feature that should work properly. And it just doesn’t. Even though it falls short of perfection, AMD’s 780G is still the best integrated graphics chipset we’ve ever tested and a perfect platform for do-it-yourself home theater PCs. Intel’s integrated graphics performance just doesn’t measure up, and while Nvidia’s upcoming GeForce 8200 should provide stiffer competition, it’s not ready yet. Geoff Gasior, a seasoned tech marketing expert with over 20 years of experience, specializes in crafting engaging narratives that connect people with technology. At Tech Report, he excelled in editorial management, covering all aspects of computer hardware and software and much more. Gasior's deep expertise in this field allows him to effectively communicate complex concepts to a wide range of audiences, making technology accessible and engaging for everyone View all articles by Geoff Gasior Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. 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Home Those 27-inch IPS Displays from Korea are for Real Reviews Those 27-inch IPS Displays from Korea are for Real 22 min read Published: May 2, 2025 Editor’s Note: This is a legacy article, originally published July 25, 2012. While pricing and availability details may be outdated, the test results and analysis remain accurate and relevant. If you frequent other PC enthusiast-focused corners of the web, you may have heard the whispers about the new breed of monitors being sold in Korea under various brand names for astonishingly low prices. They sound almost too good to be true: expansive 27″ displays at the formidable resolution of 2560×1440 selling for peanuts, between $300 and $400, well under half the price of a similar display from the likes of Dell. Not only that, but they’re purportedly based on LCD panels that use IPS technology, the standard for high-end displays. IPS panels typically offer much better color reproduction and much wider viewing angles than the cheap TN panels that have dominated the low end of the monitor market—and nearly the entire laptop market—for several dark, sad years. (One day, we will look back on the TN’s panel dominance and, heh, be unable to make out the image.) Although I already have some very nice 30″ displays here in Damage Labs for testing and productivity, I should have known from the outset that I was destined to rendezvous with one of these 27″ monitors. After all, I evidently can’t stop talking about the benefits of big displays, high-megapixel gaming, and IPS panel technology. Fittingly, then, friends and acquaintances kept asking me about the Korean monitors, until finally one morning, I received yet another IM asking my opinion of an eBay listing and couldn’t stop myself. I ordered the sucker straight up, without even consulting the forum threads for advice on which brand to get. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into at the time, and really, I still don’t know entirely. There are forum threads packed with information about these monitors, but they don’t tend to cite sources for any of that info. I’m sure there’s good documentation in Korean, but I don’t read the language, so it’s hard to say. That leaves us with all sorts of interesting hearsay about these displays. They say the panels themselves are manufactured by LG, a major name in the business. They say the same panels are used in Apple’s Thunderbolt-enabled Cinema Display. They say if you order one from the right seller, it will arrive at your house, riding a unicorn made of bacon, in order to deliver it. When you hook it up and turn it on, the monitor will shoot rainbows directly into your rods and cones, triggering a fit of ecstasy unprecedented in human history. At least some of that info is probably correct. For instance, I can confirm the bit about the rainbows personally. Other details may not be accurate. What matters most is the basic proposition, and I can tell you from first-hand experience that it’s very real: these are truly excellent panels at a ridiculously, embarrassingly low price. I’d say every self-respecting PC enthusiast should get one, except there are some real risks you’ll want to consider before scouring the eBay listings and pressing the “Buy it now” button. First Things.. First I ordered my monitor via an eBay listing. The monitor is a “First” brand, model FSM-270YG LED. The deal is laid out there: you pay $337 for the monitor, and express shipping worldwide is included. A tracking number will be provided, and the monitor should arrive within three to seven days. I had some trepidation about buying something from some anonymous dude on the other side of the globe, but the seller had overwhelmingly positive feedback, so I doubted there would be a better source. The buying experience was a little shaky at first. The listing promised a tracking number, but I didn’t receive one, even though the eBay status of the item changed to “shipped.” Then the monitor didn’t arrive within the seller’s stated delivery window, leaving me to sweat it out for a weekend before it showed up the following Monday in the hands of our local postman. Fortunately, when the monitor did arrive, it was almost exactly as described in the eBay listing, with a sticker plastered across the front to confirm the basics: LED backlight, IPS panel tech with wide viewing angles (178° in either direction), and 2560×1440 resolution. The connections around back are dead simple, with a single input for a dual-link DVI cable and audio in/out (since this monitor has internal speakers), along with a power input coming from the external power brick. New-fangled input types like DisplayPort and HDMI are nowhere to be found. The stand on this puppy is solid enough, and it tilts through a decent range. It doesn’t pivot left to right, but the base is small enough and the monitor’s light enough, so I don’t mind. There’s no height adjustment, which is a bummer. Also, the potential to combine three of these things into a triple-display array makes me wish the stand would allow it to pivot into a portrait orientation, but that’s a capability even my expensive Dell 30″ monitors lack (though at least one Korean brand offers this feature.) You may be able to pull off some more exotic display configs using the four threaded mount points on the back of the monitor, which are purported to be compatible with VESA mounting hardware. Along those lines, the flat, bottom portion of the monitor’s base can be removed with a single thumbscrew. The clear plastic stalk that fits into it, though, seems to be there to stay. I haven’t sorted out how one would go about removing the stalk for a wall-mount setup, though it must be possible. The monitor comes packaged with a solid-seeming dual-link DVI cable roughly five feet in length. The inclusion of a dual-link cable is important because any DVI cables you happen to have lying around are probably single-link only, if your spare parts bin is anything like typical. Dual-link DVI is fairly rare, but it’s required to support this monitor’s native resolution. Since this is a Korean-market product, it ships with a different style of power connector than you’ll probably need. Fortunately, the seller thoughtfully included a travel adapter with a North American-style plug in the box with the monitor. Then again, I didn’t actually need it, since the three-prong connector in the power brick is compatible with any PC-style power cord. So… How is it? You’re probably ready for me to tell you about the rainbows of ecstasy shooting into my eye sockets, and I can testify, when I first turned on the display, that’s pretty much what happened. The visual impact upon firing up this baby is formidable. The pixel pitch is smaller than almost any other desktop display I own, and the glossy anti-glare coating on the screen doesn’t diffuse light like the coating on most older monitors. The result is awesome crispness and definition. The colors really pop, too, with none of the fakey over-saturation and lack of subtlety you’ll find on most TN panels. My eyes immediately began soaking up the fluid, crystalline eye candy and transmitting its sweetness to my brain. If you don’t want to be tempted to buy one of these things, do not look at one in the face. Since my neurosis requires me to pick apart anything good and find its flaws immediately, my very next task was to fire up the LCD tester tool and use the all-white and all-black image tools to check for dead or stuck pixels. After all, getting a panel full of dead pixels is one of the great risks of ordering an LCD monitor from the other side of the world. Returning it would be a huge, expensive pain in the rear. Plus, the scuttlebutt is that these panels are secondary stock, the ones rejected by Apple and such due to imperfections. True or not, I dunno. The eBay listing for my monitor outlined the apparent Korean-market standards for dead pixels, and they sound fairly solid: if there’s more than one bad pixel in the center region of the screen or more than five elsewhere, the display won’t pass muster. Still, one never knows. Now, I don’t want to overstate the risk here. A few dead pixels in an array of 3.7 million of ’em isn’t really that big of a deal. Plus, as far as I’m concerned, every pixel on a TN panel is a bad pixel. A slightly gimpy IPS display is still a vast improvement over what most folks use every day. We must keep these things in perspective. With that said, I’m very happy to report that this monitor has, believe it or not, zero dead pixels. As far as I can tell, there’s not a single dead or stuck sub-pixel on the entire panel. Of course, that happy news didn’t divert me from searching for a deal-killer problem. Heck, I came prepared. You see, shortly after I mentioned on Twitter that I’d ordered one of these monitors, my friend Jeff Atwood of StackOverflow and SuperUser fame decided to order three of them on my “recommendation.” Vaguely terrified, I tried to explain that my review was still forthcoming, but he wasn’t dissuaded. Then, two of his monitors arrived before mine, and he reported something jarring: the buttons on the front of the display, presumably intended to adjust the picture, appeared to do nothing. Whoops. The complete lack of brightness control, combined with a standard-issue too-high default brightness, made this problem a total show-stopper for him. By the time my monitor shipment arrived, all I could hope for was that somehow, both of his were broken, but mine wouldn’t be. No such luck. Once I had the display connected, I immediately attempted to adjust the picture with the control buttons. Although the power light flashed when I held down a button, nothing else appeared to happen. The listing had promised an “easy & convenient OSD,” but no on-screen display was evident at any point—not when I pushed the buttons, not when I powered on the display, not even when there was no DVI signal attached. And yes, the default brightness seared my retinas, locking in their flavorful juices. The ecstasy rainbows were on overdrive, too powerful for my biological systems to withstand over time. Worse, I couldn’t decipher the markings on the apparently faulty buttons to discern what they were originally intended to do. The labels are entirely in Korean, as is the product manual. I futzed around with using the video card control panel to tweak the display brightness, but that’s a patchwork solution at best, since the panel is simply dampening the output of a too-bright backlight. You’re sacrificing the display’s dynamic range by modifying the brightness in software, and in my experience, you can only drop the brightness by about 10% before quality is obviously sacrificed. In a last-ditch effort to redeem the situation, I contacted the eBay seller to see what he had to say for himself: I received the 27″ LCD monitor in good condition, except the control buttons on the front panel don’t work and the on-screen display doesn’t appear. Is there a way to adjust the brightness and contrast on this monitor? How can the user access the OSD? His reply was enlightening. thanks for the message… you are worrying about the control button of the monitor(OSD)..the front side, there is the button of the brightness, volume, and on/off button..the second and third buttons are about the brightnessand the fourth and fiveth are about the volume,there is not the other function of the osd..it is automately ajust itself.. not only this monitor but also all of 2560 X 1440 monitor doing like thisand if you have anymore troblue please contact me!!!have a nice day!!!! Now I had a map to the supposed button functions, which was an important start. Also, his message revealed that he equated the monitor’s control buttons with the OSD. This dude clearly had no idea that the acronym “OSD” stands for “on-screen display.” What’s more, there’s evidently no need for an OSD with menus to navigate, since the only available adjustments are brightness and volume. I don’t consider that a big problem since my Dell 3007WFP-HC also lacks an OSD and tuning controls, and it has been exemplary in everyday use for years. The color tweaks in video card control panels can handle the rest of the adjustments one might need. There was still the small matter that pressing the buttons on the front of the display didn’t, you know, appear to change anything. But I was on the trail of this mystery. My next step was to connect an audio source to the back of the monitor and see whether the volume controls would work. I fired up some music and twiddled with volume buttons, and at first, nothing seemed to be happening. However, once I held the volume-down button long enough, the speaker volume seemed to decrease. Excited, I mashed the volume-up button and held it, and the sound level rose. Control at last! I fairly quickly realized that the flashing power LED above the buttons was an indicator: the faster or slower it flashed, the higher or lower the volume. At the end of the range, the light glowed solid blue. Armed with a sense of how the buttons worked, I was soon adjusting the display brightness up and down, as well. I was able to dim the display to an acceptable level for the cave-like Damage Labs, and it wasn’t even at the lowest possible setting. I contacted the seller with my thanks and suggested he remove the term “OSD” from his future listings for this monitor. He seemed to understand and thanked me, and I gave him a nice rating on eBay, in spite of the snafu in the listing. With that issue settled, I was free to use the monitor without worrying about show-stopping problems. Or was I? Versus my Big Dell Next, I set up the new monitor directly next to my 30″ Dell for some quick comparisons. I should say here that I had no intention of delivering a data-rich review of this thing. The guys up north have the fancy colorimeter that produces color temperature and gamut readings. Here in Missouri, I figured the hillbilly approach would do. My plan was simply to eyeball the Korean 27″ versus the best display on hand and tell you what I saw. If you’re thinking it’s unfair to stick a $300 monitor next to one that costs a grand and do a direct comparison, well, you’re probably right. Side by side, the Dell has some strengths that make it clearly the better display. Although I like the smaller pixel pitch on the 27″ monitor, the big Dell’s larger screen area is an obvious win, as is the 16:10 aspect ratio that grants it some additional vertical pixels. Sitting at the Windows desktop with TR pulled up in a browser window, I see that Dell’s default color tuning looks superior to my eye. Whites on the 27″ panel have a little too much green or yellow in them, and no amount of tuning in the Nvidia color mixer allowed me to reach a compromise that looked as good as the Dell’s defaults. Also, to my surprise, I found that I prefer Dell’s matte anti-glare coating. I have long been an advocate of glossy anti-glare coatings for laptops, because they extend battery life and improve sharpness over matte coatings. In this case, however, the Dell very effectively diffuses reflections from the lone window and overhead lights in Damage Labs—reflections that the 27″ panel shows all too clearly. I really enjoy the razor-sharp pixel clarity afforded by the glossy coating, but in this environment, the downside is hard to ignore. Of course, your mileage may vary. This is a pretty straightforward trade-off, after all, between sharpness and glare reduction. Having said all of that, the biggest takeaway from my side-by-side comparison wasn’t that the Dell was superior; it was how incredibly narrow the gap is between the two displays, given their respective prices. The 27-incher may not be as large, but it still gives you that sense of freedom that comes with expansive display real estate. And you wouldn’t notice any weaknesses in the 27″ monitor’s color tuning or temperature without seeing the two displays side by side. When I moved the Korean monitor to another table against an adjacent wall, any sense of iffy white balance evaporated instantly. First FSM-270YG backlight bleed. Dell 3007WFP-HC backlight bleed. Here’s a look at the amount of backlight bleed on the two screens. The FSM-270YG has a little more white soaking through in the top right, top left, and bottom right corners. However, Dell has more bleed overall, particularly down the center of the panel. (Please forgive the reflection in the shot of the 27″ monitor. That’s a small sliver of a window that’s mostly covered. I couldn’t get rid of it entirely, and rather than move the display around, I figured I’d leave it in as an illustration of the reflections you may see with the glossy coating.) Overall, both displays are relatively decent on this front. The Korean cheapie doesn’t come out looking bad at all. My respect for the 27″ IPS panel grew when I stepped through Lagom LCD test patterns alongside the Dell. Both monitors offered near-ideal performance in most of the patterns, especially those intended to tease out problems caused by analog display connections or post-processing routines running on an ASIC built into the monitor. That’s no surprise because both connect via DVI, and (as far as I can tell) the 27″ monitor lacks an internal chip for image scaling or OSD tuning, just like my older Dell 30″ does. The two monitors also exhibit generally excellent performance in the color contrast, gamma, and gray gradient patterns, with no apparent banding in the latter. In the tests where the two displays really diverged, the FSM-270YG tended to outperform the Dell. The 27″ display offered near-ideal performance in the tests of both black levels and white saturation. Differing gray levels were consistently discernible among the patterns of near-black and near-white shades. The Dell handled the black level test well, but it suffered in the white saturation test, where near-white colors tended to melt into one another. Using a digital camera and an on-screen timer to capture differences in the response times between the two monitors in clone mode proved to be tricky. Generally, as you can see above, they looked to be approximately equal. However, not all of the pictures I took showed synced timers, despite the fact that I was using a very fast shutter speed. The gap between the displays tended to vary. With some experimentation, I found that the monitor acting as the source display was usually ahead of the clone. The largest gap between the two was about 16 milliseconds, or the length of a single display refresh interval. The fact that these two monitors are in a dead heat in response times comes as little surprise, since they both appear to lack an internal chip dedicated to scaling or other forms of image processing. Such chips enable all sorts of nice features, but they’re also one of the primary contributors to input lag. We haven’t measured these displays’ input lag in absolute terms, but we suspect they are substantially faster than your average LCD, by virtue of the fact that they don’t have an internal scaler or ASIC. (Neither one even scales up the 1920×1080 input from a single-link DVI connection to a full-screen resolution correctly.) This, er, non-feature should make them both excellent for gaming use, and the Dell 30″ has definitely proven its worth on that front over the years. From what I’ve seen so far, this 27″ wunderkind is just as good. And you won’t likely miss the scaler, since Radeons and GeForces both have excellent built-in image scaling that can be controlled via software. By the way, if you’re not sold on the prospect of high-megapixel gaming, perhaps the image above will give you a sense of things. That’s a shot from Trine 2 at 2560×1440, and you can click to pull up the full-sized image. Many games these days, including this one, will run fluidly at this resolution on a single, reasonably decent video card. Having a monitor like this for gaming is a massive upgrade that should last you for years. Geoff said, in his recent article on triple-display gaming, that he’d rather have three smaller, two-megapixel displays than a single large monitor like this one. The important thing to know about his opinion on this matter is that it’s wrong. He just hasn’t spent enough quality time with the right Korean import. Then again, I’m sure the multi-monitor fanatics will suggest that buying three of these 27″ displays and running them in a wrap-around layout would be an even better option than a single display. Can’t exactly dispute that notion. A Few More Discoveries After comparing the FSM-270YG to my pricey Dell 30″ monitor, I was pretty well sold on its value proposition. Unfortunately, I uncovered a couple more quirks of note in further use. First, I discovered that this monitor doesn’t support HDCP, the copy-protection scheme for high-def digital displays. Even the Dell 30″, with no scaler ASIC, offers HDCP support. What that means is that certain copy-protected content, including commercial Blu-ray discs and some protected cable TV programs, can’t be played back on this display. For some folks, that omission may be a show-stopper, particularly if you use your computer for movie watching or the like. If, like me, your desktop computer use is confined to productivity and gaming, it’s probably never going to be an issue. It does seem kind of a shame, though, since the built-in speakers are actually halfway decent, as long as you don’t need thumpy bass. (Or, you know, any other sort of bass, really.) I had considered using the VESA mounts to put this baby on my bedroom wall as part of a media center extender setup. Without HDCP support, that’s not gonna happen. The next quirk didn’t become obvious until I sat down to bang away on this review. I figured I should write the review using the monitor as my main display, a cheesy provision that I often apply to these tasks. In this case, the cheese turned out to be, er, fruitful, in a strange but potentially tasty mix of metaphors. I usually edit with a triple-window setup: notes in one window, my editor in the next, and the web page layout in the third. Initially, I dialed back the monitor’s brightness so the white backdrops of the windows weren’t blinding. Then, as I moved windows around from left to right, arranging everything, I noticed something odd. As I dragged it from left to right, the editor window went from just-right white to too bright. I grabbed the window again and pulled it around. Over on the right side of the screen, its brightness was ideal. When I slid it to the left, it became too bright again. Futzing with the display brightness and altering the ambient light conditions was no help. This monitor simply has a problem with uniformity in its white levels, and the difference is pretty pronounced from one side of the screen to the other. Worse, now that I’ve seen it, I can’t un-see it. This is easily the display’s biggest weakness, in my book. Is it a show-stopper? Nah, probably not. You’d never notice it when gaming, and some folks probably wouldn’t notice it in any event. This issue isn’t as a big a problem as, say, the everyday operation of a normal TN panel. Still, it’s an annoying quirk, one that I’ve not really noticed in any other LCD display I own. So What’s the Verdict? Even with those last couple of quirks uncovered, I still feel like I won this thing in a drawing or something. $337 for a display of this quality is absolutely worth it, in my view. You just need to keep your eyes open to the risks going into the transaction, risks I hope I’ve illustrated in the preceding paragraphs. In many ways, grabbing a monitor like this one on the cheap from eBay is the ultimate tinkerer’s gambit. It’s risky, but the payoff is huge: a combination of rainbow-driven eye-socket ecstasy and the satisfying knowledge that you paid less than half what you might pay elsewhere for the same experience. I’m now fighting the temptation to repeat the purchase a couple more times to assemble a triple-screen array. If I don’t do that, I’m liable to order up a different brand of monitor based on the same panel, possibly the one with a matte anti-glare coating. Other models offer even more exotic possibilities. Some folks have actually been “overclocking” their monitors, ramping the refresh rates up from the default 60Hz to twice that. That prospect is… awe-inspiring. 120Hz refresh rates would be perfect for gaming. Also, recently, listings for 30″ Korean displays for under $700 have been popping up on eBay. They’re presumably the same sort of deal, only with higher stakes. If you don’t want to go the eBay route, you may be able to pay a little more to grab one of these monitors at MicroCenter. Our local store is selling the Auria EQ276W for $399, and it currently has “10+” in stock. Paying a little more for retail should at least grant you the ability to return a monitor with too many dead pixels. The story keeps unfolding, too. You can find info about the various brands and models, along with overclocking procedures and other recent developments, in various forum threads around the web. Or you might want to hold off a bit. Surely, these panels will go mainstream in time. I expect that, eventually, we’ll see this class of monitor selling from major brands here in the States for something closer to $600, complete with English documentation, solid warranty coverage, precisely engineered backlight diffusion, HDCP support, and all the rest. But you have to ask yourself: where’s the fun in that? Scott Wasson is a veteran in the tech industry and the former Editor-in-Chief at Tech Report. With a laser focus on tech product reviews, Wasson's expertise shines in evaluating CPUs and graphics cards, and much more. View all articles by Scott Wasson Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors. More from Reviews View all Reviews Haswell Overclocked: The Core i7-4770K at 4.7GHz Geoff Gasior 11 minutes ago View all

Key Takeaways Pebble Founder Eric Migicovsky started a new YouTube podcast on Thursday and demoed the new Pebble Core 2 smartwatch. The smartwatch comes with a bigger screen, a waterproof speaker, an adaptable backlight for night use, and a potential AI agent integration. Eric also plans to develop a native API for developers working to expand the PebbleOS ecosystem with new apps and widgets. The new smartwatch is still on track to launch in July 2025, Eric confirmed. Great news for Pebble smartwatch fans — Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky launched his new ‘Tick Talk’ podcast yesterday and demoed the highly anticipated Pebble Core 2 Duo. Wearing a white version of the smartwatch in his YouTube video, Migicovsky offered a first look at some of its features. At first glance, the Core 2 Duo (not to be confused with Intel’s processors) doesn’t look any different from the Pebble 2 launched in 2016.  But a closer look shows a slightly bigger screen, a waterproof speaker, and a silicone strap with a ‘strap keeper’ to keep it from flapping around when worn. Source: YouTube Much of the work on the watch is currently happening on the software side, focusing primarily on the Pebble recovery firmware. Aside from that, Migicovsky said they’re also writing the drivers for the vibrating motor, accelerometer, and backlight. ‘I wanna make the backlight a little bit less bright at night or when you’re in a dark area. I think we’ve got a little bit of tuning on the light sensor for the new watches,’ he added in his Tick Talk podcast. Overall, though, he said he only has a very short to-do list regarding new features on the Core 2 Duo smartwatch. For one, he wants to create a native API that will allow developers to create small widgets to display information on the main watch face (such as the weather and calendar events).  He also wants to integrate Beeper into the smartwatch, which is an app he created that allows you to access all your chats from different messaging services. ChatGPT for the Core 2 Duo Smartwatch? Migicovsky also discussed the possibility of having AI voice agents on the smartwatch. He mentioned Bobby, a Google Gemini AI integration created by Catherine Berry, that lets you ask quick questions or get small bits of information.  This potential integration would make great use of the Core 2 Duo’s built-in speaker. ‘You could actually have an AI speak output to you without having to look down at your wrist,’ said Migicovsky. He added that having an AI agent on the watch helps him keep the phone in his pocket, especially when hanging out with his kids. Following his experience using AI agents like Bobby on his smartwatch, Eric declared himself ‘cautiously optimistic’ about potentially integrating AI into the PebbleOS – a promising sign for Core 2 Duo’s development down the line. Pebble Core 2 Duo: Still On Track to Launch in July With the US and China currently locked in a bitter tariff war, the Pebble smartwatch founder revealed that he ‘picked a really difficult time to get back into manufacturing hardware.’ However, he assured fans that the team is still on track to start shipping the Core 2 Duos in July 2025. He added that the tariffs won’t affect buyers outside the US, since the smartwatches are being manufactured and shipped directly from China. Source: Repebble.com It’s a different story for US-based customers, who will be affected by the hiking tariffs on China-made products imported into the country.  Eric explained that those in the US aren’t getting the full tariff amount yet since US President Donald Trump paused the reciprocal tariffs on China-made goods.  But since Migicovsky isn’t sure how long the pause is going to last, he said that they’re trying to get the Core 2 Duo manufactured as quickly as possible. A Return to a Simpler Era of Smartwatches Compared to today’s more highly capable smartwatches — with touchscreens, sleep and step tracking, and built-in heart rate monitoring — the Core 2 Duo seems like a poor buy with its simple black and white e-paper display.  Essentially, Core 2 Duo is more of a watch than a smartwatch.  But that’s where the beauty and uniqueness of the Core 2 Duo and the Pebble watches of old lie. They’re built mainly to tell you the time, although in a more fun way, with over 10K apps and watch faces. When asked why he wears smartwatches, Migicovsky shared in his podcast that he likes having one because it tells time. ‘But a smartwatch (like the Pebble) is even better at that because when you travel, it changes time zones. You could see multiple time zones. It’s just a better watch in general.’  He added that he likes getting notifications without having to look at his phone or computer all the time. And then there’s the fun factor that Pebble smartwatches are known for.  ‘I have this watch face on my wrist right now, […] an octopus holding an ice cream cone. There’s no one in the right mind who would ever make an actual watch that looks like that. But […] I downloaded it off the Pebble App store […]. I love that whenever I look down at my wrist, I just smile,’ Migicovsky said. It seems that many long-time Pebble fans agree. Source: YouTube Overall, the Core 2 Duo is a welcome change for those looking for a more basic smartwatch without the clutter of features like GPS tracking or other monitoring features. With over 2M first-generation Pebble watches sold in 2017 and $12.7M raised for the Pebble 2 and Time 2, there may still be a place for this kind of tech on people’s wrists. As technology continues to evolve—from the return of 'dumbphones' to faster and sleeker computers—seasoned tech journalist, Cedric Solidon, continues to dedicate himself to writing stories that inform, empower, and connect with readers across all levels of digital literacy. With 20 years of professional writing experience, this University of the Philippines Journalism graduate has carved out a niche as a trusted voice in tech media. Whether he's breaking down the latest advancements in cybersecurity or explaining how silicon-carbon batteries can extend your phone’s battery life, his writing remains rooted in clarity, curiosity, and utility. Long before he was writing for Techreport, HP, Citrix, SAP, Globe Telecom, CyberGhost VPN, and ExpressVPN, Cedric's love for technology began at home courtesy of a Nintendo Family Computer and a stack of tech magazines. Growing up, his days were often filled with sessions of Contra, Bomberman, Red Alert 2, and the criminally underrated Crusader: No Regret. But gaming wasn't his only gateway to tech.  He devoured every T3, PCMag, and PC Gamer issue he could get his hands on, often reading them cover to cover. It wasn’t long before he explored the early web in IRC chatrooms, online forums, and fledgling tech blogs, soaking in every byte of knowledge from the late '90s and early 2000s internet boom. That fascination with tech didn’t just stick. It evolved into a full-blown calling. After graduating with a degree in Journalism, he began his writing career at the dawn of Web 2.0. What started with small editorial roles and freelance gigs soon grew into a full-fledged career. He has since collaborated with global tech leaders, lending his voice to content that bridges technical expertise with everyday usability. He’s also written annual reports for Globe Telecom and consumer-friendly guides for VPN companies like CyberGhost and ExpressVPN, empowering readers to understand the importance of digital privacy. His versatility spans not just tech journalism but also technical writing. He once worked with a local tech company developing web and mobile apps for logistics firms, crafting documentation and communication materials that brought together user-friendliness with deep technical understanding. That experience sharpened his ability to break down dense, often jargon-heavy material into content that speaks clearly to both developers and decision-makers. At the heart of his work lies a simple belief: technology should feel empowering, not intimidating. Even if the likes of smartphones and AI are now commonplace, he understands that there's still a knowledge gap, especially when it comes to hardware or the real-world benefits of new tools. His writing hopes to help close that gap. Cedric’s writing style reflects that mission. It’s friendly without being fluffy and informative without being overwhelming. Whether writing for seasoned IT professionals or casual readers curious about the latest gadgets, he focuses on how a piece of technology can improve our lives, boost our productivity, or make our work more efficient. That human-first approach makes his content feel more like a conversation than a technical manual. As his writing career progresses, his passion for tech journalism remains as strong as ever. With the growing need for accessible, responsible tech communication, he sees his role not just as a journalist but as a guide who helps readers navigate a digital world that’s often as confusing as it is exciting. From reviewing the latest devices to unpacking global tech trends, Cedric isn’t just reporting on the future; he’s helping to write it. View all articles by Cedric Solidon Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Home Trump Wants to Restrict Export of AI Chips – It’s a Move That Can Backfire News Trump Wants to Restrict Export of AI Chips – It’s a Move That Can Backfire 5 min read Published: May 1, 2025 Key Takeaways The US government may remove the tiered system adopted by the Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion for AI chip export. A country-specific agreement model may be adopted instead. The new policy will require countries to get a license to import US-made AI chips beyond a certain quantity. The Trump administration is mulling over discarding the Biden-issued framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion (FAID) and replacing it with a country-specific agreement model. Now, the objectives of both these systems are the same, i.e., to restrict the global access of US-made advanced semiconductors. The US obviously doesn’t want advanced AI chips to be concentrated in the hands of rival nations, who may end up outperforming it in artificial intelligence innovation and development. To achieve this, the FAID has divided the globe into three tiers: Tier 1: This consists of 18 key US partners, such as the Five Eyes, major NATO allies such as France, Germany, and Italy, and critical semiconductor ecosystem partners such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. These countries could freely import advanced AI chips from the US. Tier 2: Around 120 countries in this tier were subjected to the validated end-user program, where caps would be placed on the number of semiconductors they could import. Tier 3: Countries like Russia, China, and North Korea were banned entirely from importing these chips. The FAID is due to be imposed from May 15. However, the Trump government hasn’t backed it yet. And now, there are plans to do away with this system altogether. Reason Behind the Shift Instead of pre-defining the quantity of semiconductors each country can import from the US, the Trump administration wants to move to an individual agreement system where the US has a different understanding with each country. Besides the fact that the ideologies of the two governments (the Biden and the Trump governments) do not match, there’s another reason for this proposed change. Individual agreement puts more bargaining power in the hands of the US and lets it micromanage access to advanced semiconductors throughout the world. These AI chips will also be crucial in trade discussions and negotiations with the US. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the US government has understood its power in the form of these AI chips, and it does not want to squander it by enforcing FAID. A crucial point to note is that China and Russia had no impact on this proposed policy switch, since they were already in the restricted category under FAID. The US government now wants to have the upper hand in trade discussions with other countries as well. Experts say this change would hit tier two countries in the FAID the hardest. Under FAID, these countries could have imported around 1,700 of Nvidia’s H100 chips without any express licensing requirement. However, the proposed change wants to bring this number down to just 500, beyond which countries would require a specific license and express agreement. To put it more philosophically, this is a classic example of why the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. Why This Move Could Backfire? This entire exercise is being done to maintain America’s supremacy in artificial intelligence. However, it could easily backfire and put Trump on the back foot. Imagine if a developing country like India is restricted to only 500 advanced AI chips from the US. What would it then do? Explore other markets! A search that would eventually take them to China. China is a close competitor of the US in artificial intelligence. As per Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, China isn’t too far behind the US when it comes to AI chip development. China is right behind us. We’re very, very close. – Jensen Huang Remember, not a long time ago, China shook the entire world by releasing DeepSeek. It’s an AI model built at a fraction of the cost of premium models like ChatGPT. Not to mention that it also claimed to outperform them. Nvidia shares tanked 17% in a single day, and investors lost $589B. The reason was simple: DeepSeek built something as powerful as ChatGPT (or Gemini) without an extravagant infrastructure cost and, most importantly, the advanced US-made AI chips. Who’s to say that China can’t do the same with AI chips as well? Reportedly, Huawei’s 910B AI chip claims to outperform Nvidia’s A100. Research by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University found these two chips to be ‘roughly comparable.’ For all we know, it’s just a matter of time before China develops its own version of the H100 chips as well. Going by its track record, it may also do it at a cheaper cost. Now, the US can gatekeep its AI chip tech all it wants, but it may not be able to kill China’s innovation and fast-paced development. Other countries will turn to China for AI chip needs, and the US may be left behind with expensive semiconductors and lose out on the cost battle. What’s to Come Next? There are still a couple of weeks before the FAID comes into force. This gives the government plenty of time to think of an alternative and its repercussions. Even if no policy decision is made as of now, FAID can certainly be put on hold until the brainstorming is done. However, as we have seen with the whole tariff fiasco, other countries certainly won’t sit quietly and watch. They may retaliate with their own export-restrictive policies, which could trigger a fresh trade war. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide.  A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors. More from News View all View all

Key Takeaways Hyte Halts U.S. Shipments: California-based PC case maker Hyte paused its U.S. shipments due to the financial strain caused by Trump’s 145% tariffs, which made doing business in the U.S. unfeasible. Impact Across the Industry: Hyte is not alone—other tech companies like 8BitDo, Anbernic, and even Nintendo have also suspended shipments to the U.S. due to the tariffs. Uncertainty and Increased Costs: The unpredictability of future tariff changes is causing widespread stress, with many manufacturers facing higher costs and limited U.S. availability of products. Long-Term Consequences for U.S. Consumers: If the tariffs remain, U.S. consumers could see fewer product options, higher prices, and limited availability, potentially ending the era of affordable PC building. California-based PC case manufacturer Hyte halted its shipments to the United States last week, citing the heavy impact of President Trump’s 145% tariffs, making it financially unfeasible for the company to continue operating in the U.S. market. Hyte, the sister brand of iBuyPower, counted the US as its number one region, with around 65% of its revenue in America. In an interview with Gamers Nexus on April 23, the company said it is halting some product shipments to focus on the EMEA region.  In a spreadsheet shared in the GN YouTube documentary, the case maker revealed that its profit margins on its Y40 case were just 5% (or around $5). Any tariff increase meant it would sell at a loss unless it raised prices, which it announced on March 27. That means relying on its existing US inventory, but what about when that runs out? If Trump nixes the tariffs or Hyte develops a new sourcing strategy, things could be dire. Hyte’s Product Director, Rob Teller, confirmed the news in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session last week. Speaking of the decision’s impact on US inventory, he said: “As for our normal library, we will be reducing our SKU count and quantity being brought to the US.” He added that this could make finding Hyte products in retail stores harder and affect US consumers’ configurations, colors, or models. Speaking to Steve Burke of Gamers Nexus, Teller said: “If you tried to buy a product from me today, I could not afford to sell it to you.” Although the company will continue to bring in products with open customer pre-orders, everything else is paused or diverted to other regions. The difficulty in forecasting what the Trump Administration will do next regarding tariffs is at the heart of the situation, with changes on a near-daily basis. Companies that do most of their business with the US, like CyberPower, a California-based prebuilt PC manufacturer that relies on the US market for around 80% of its business, will be hit hardest. PC cases may not face the 145% tariffs, but manufacturers are still being hit with a 20% tariff on Chinese imports and a further 25% tariff on products derived from aluminum. Manufacturers of PC components haven’t been so lucky.  Components such as liquid coolers, PSUs, and fans are not exempt from the tariffs and face the full 145% charge on imports from China, which were announced on April 10, 2025. Less than 24 hours later, several OEMs paused laptop shipments to the US, including Lenovo, HP, and Dell, according to Commercial Times.  It’s also worth noting that video game consoles and accessories aren’t exempt from the tariffs, as these are listed as toys rather than technology under current trade classifications. Gaming & PC Manufacturers Pause US Shipments Hyte isn’t alone in its decision to pause US shipments. Gaming controller company 8BitDo also suspended shipments from its Chinese warehouse at the end of April (h/t Polygon). The company posted a statement on its website explaining that the halt is temporary, with only products from US warehouses available for shipping to the United States. Chinese retro handheld manufacturer Anbernic also released a statement advising that it was halting US shipments from April 21.  Nintendo pulled US Switch 2 pre-orders over the tariffs, though these reopened on April 24 at the originally announced $450 price.  However, in a press release, the company confirmed that accessories for the new console: “Will experience price adjustments from those announced on April 2 due to changes in market conditions.” It also acknowledged that future price adjustments were possible “depending on market conditions.” Image credit: 8BitDo Elsewhere, there were unconfirmed reports that Razr had ceased laptop sales to the US after consumers found themselves unable to purchase laptops on the Razr site at the start of April.  It seems like the Razer Blade 16 is now available to US customers again, as reported by Notebookcheck — though it’s the only model available in the US.   Even tech giants like Apple have felt the impact, with reports indicating that the company urged its suppliers to ship premium devices to the U.S. ahead of the April 9 deadline. Companies obliged to honor customer pre-orders will take a financial hit too, absorbing unexpected tariffs for orders placed before these were introduced. Many companies still shipping to the US have raised their prices, including the Chinese electronics brand Anker.  According to Reuters, over 120 of the company’s products on Amazon saw an average 18% increase since April 3. Best Buy CEO Corie Bary told consumers to expect higher prices, while China-based e-commerce companies Temu and Shein released statements announcing their price hike plans from April 25. Why is Trump Implementing Tariffs on Imports? We’ve seen plenty of online discussions about tariffs and thoughts on the Trump Administration’s goal of bringing manufacturing back to the US. Ultimately, high tariffs will never drive companies back to US production.  Opening a US factory isn’t viable for most companies, especially small businesses — it’s simply cheaper and more efficient to operate in China or other countries.  A Redditor on r/hardware pointed out that even if companies did open US factories, the raw materials to make cases and components would also need to be manufactured in the US to avoid tariffs. Right now metals, screws, and glass are all usually imported. Is This the Death of Affordable Computing? But what does this all mean for consumers in the US? As Gamer Nexus’ documentary put it succinctly, could it be “the death of affordable computing?” It will almost certainly change the annual upgrade/obsolescence cycle prevalent in the industry. Image credit: Samsung Memory on Unsplash While affordable computing (and gaming) may not be completely doomed just yet, the actions taken by PC case and component manufacturers in the coming months are likely to significantly impact stock levels both in retail stores and online.  This could result in fewer consumer choices and higher prices across the board. In the long run, if President Trump doesn’t reverse the tariffs, the U.S. could face fewer options for components and cases, rising costs, and limited availability.  This may mark the end of building your PC at a competitive price, which would seriously blow manufacturers in both the tech and gaming sectors. Ultimately, it could spell the end for U.S. companies, especially smaller brands or those without a presence in other markets. Paula has been a writer for over a decade, starting off in the travel industry for brands like Skyscanner and Thomas Cook. She’s written everything from a guide to visiting Lithuania’s top restaurants to how to survive a zombie apocalypse and also worked as an editor/proofreader for indie authors and publishing houses, focusing on mystery, gothic, and crime fiction. She made the move to tech writing in 2019 and has worked as a writer and editor for websites such as Android Authority, Android Central, XDA, Megagames, Online Tech Tips, and Xbox Advisor. These days as well as contributing articles on all-things-tech for Techreport, you’ll find her writing about mobile tech over at Digital Trends. She’s obsessed with gaming, PC hardware, AI, and the latest and greatest gadgets and is never far from a screen of some sort.Her attention to detail, ability to get lost in a rabbit hole of research, and obsessive need to know every fact ensures that the news stories she covers and features she writes are (hopefully) as interesting and engaging to read as they are to write. When she’s not working, you’ll usually find her gaming on her Xbox Series X or PS5. As well as story-driven games like The Last of Us, Firewatch, and South of Midnight she loves anything with a post-apocalyptic setting. She’s also not averse to being absolutely terrified watching the latest horror films, when she feels brave enough! View all articles by Paula Beaton Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Home HP Agrees to $4 Million Settlement for Deceptive Advertising News HP Agrees to $4 Million Settlement for Deceptive Advertising 4 min read Published: April 20, 2025 Key Takeaways HP agrees to a $4 million settlement to end a lawsuit that accuses it of deceptive advertising tactics. The settlement covers all administrative costs, lawsuit expenses, and compensation to aggrieved consumers. A similar case has also been filed against Amazon for mis-advertising its Fire TV. HP has agreed to enter into a $4 million settlement to rest the allegations that it had resorted to deceptive pricing on its website to defraud customers. The lawsuit alleged that HP has misused strike-through pricing by showing a higher crossed price in the name of special deals or discount prices. However, these striked-out prices were nowhere close to the original or recent price of the products. The Lawsuit’s Backstory The lawsuit was filed by Rodney Carvalho, who purchased a desktop PC from the company’s website for $899.99. The PC was advertised as $100 off as against the original price of $999.99. However, a year later, when this lawsuit was filed, Rodney found out that HP never actually sold that particular model for $999.99. Later, Mark Maher also joined the lawsuit, and together they filed a class-action lawsuit against HP. The $4 million settlement amount includes compensation for affected customers, attorney fees, administrative costs, and service awards to lead plaintiffs. The compensation will only be provided to eligible customers, i.e., those who purchased HP laptops, desktops, keyboards, or mice between 5 June 2021 and 28 October 2024. The exact compensation per plaintiff can range from $10 to hundreds of dollars, depending upon the product that was purchased. A very interesting angle to the settlement is that HP does not require admitting to any wrongdoing. The settlement appears to us as hush money to sweep the matter under the carpet. This means that there will be no legal repercussions for the misleading selling tactics followed by the company. Had the matter gone to court, there might have been a higher penalty or restrictions on doing so again in the future. However, with this settlement, there’s no guarantee that HP won’t do it again. Although the final approval is still due for hearing on August 21, 2025, it’s more or less a formality now. Aggrieved members are also required to submit the claims by June 9 to be eligible for the compensation. Another rather uncomforting condition of the settlement is that the plaintiff and their attorneys are not allowed to speak to the media or issue press releases unless required by law. The question we’re asking is: If there’s nothing to hide or admit, why would HP place such a condition? Not Just a One-off Case This HP case is just one of many such instances and dangers of online marketing and shopping. Sellers often resort to surge pricing to lure in customers, especially during the holiday seasons. Recently, Dell was also fined AU$10 million for overstating discounts on bundled monitors. Allegedly, the company was charging customers more for bundle purchases as compared to purchasing those items separately. Amazon is also facing a lawsuit for fake limited-time discount offers on its Fire TV products. Such deceptive pricing also affects fair competition in any industry. Imagine two companies selling laptops for $500 each. However, the first company advertises its laptops as $800 and slashes the price to offer them at $500. This gives the company an edge because customers think that their laptops are worth $800 (and hence are of superior quality), which was never really the case. Although this case is now a lost cause for the consumers at large, we hope that some of the other lawsuits bring out a definitive law against such advertising malpractices. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide.  A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors. More from News View all View all

Home Seagate Research Shows Hard Disks Have Lower CO2 Emissions than SSDs News Seagate Research Shows Hard Disks Have Lower CO2 Emissions than SSDs 3 min read Published: April 19, 2025 Key Takeaways New research shows that hard disks produce less CO2 than SSDs or LTO Tapes. The report also lays down three ways for a sustainable future: building energy-efficient tech, recycling, and shared responsibility. However, making the switch isn’t easy considering the benefits of SSD storage. As per reports, global carbon emissions have increased from around 25 billion tonnes in 2001 to close to 38 billion tonnes in 2023 – a whopping 52% increase since the turn of the century. The same report says that the CO2 emissions haven’t peaked yet, which means there’s more to follow.  While only industrial-level regulations can bring about a noticeable change, Seagate has shared vital research that says hard drives are better than SSDs when it comes to carbon emissions in light of increasing data center needs.  With AI growing at never-before-seen speeds, the demand for data centers will increase by a whopping 165% by 2030, which will ultimately lead to more carbon emissions. However, using hard drives rather than SSDs can cut down the emissions. Here’s what the research found: Storage MediaEmbodied Carbon by product (Kg CO²)Embodied Carbon per TB (CO²/TB)Embodied Carbon per TB per Year (CO²/TB/Year)Hard Drives29.7<1<0.2SSD4,91516032LTO Tape482.66<0.6 As the figures suggest, SSDs are a no-go for the environment, emitting the highest embodied carbon by-product, per TB, and CO²/TB/year. On the flip side, hard drives are the most environmentally friendly. The report also shares three strategic pillars for a sustainable future: Building energy-efficient tech like HVAC systems and liquid/immersion cooling technologies can reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption. Reusing, repairing, recycling, and refurbishing storage equipment can increase its lifespan and help reduce e-waste. Collaboration across the entire value chain with shared responsibility among suppliers, vendors, and service providers. The Real-Life Problem While it seems pretty straightforward in theory, switching to hard drives is more difficult than you think. For starters, HDD storage devices are slow since they use magnetic spinning disks to read and write data.  Whenever a data request is made, the disk needs to spin to the right position to be able to retrieve that data, which slows down the whole process. This isn’t ideal for AI tools and products, which rely on instant data retrievals. Plus, with HDDs, data can get scattered over time besides being more prone to physical wear and tear.  SSDs, on the other hand, use flash memory without any moving parts, allowing instant data retrievals. They also use parallel reading and writing techniques, meaning the process is almost instant. At the end of the day, it’s a simple question: Why would tech companies switch to a slower and outdated storage method? Would the fact that it leads to lower CO2 emission be enough to make the switch? Well, it wouldn’t take a genius to guess that the answer is a big fat NO. OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, or DeepSeek won’t just wake up tomorrow, read the Seagate report, and become environmentalists. A more practical solution is to innovate a better SSD prototype that emits less CO2 without compromising its benefits. Seagate is already working on bringing NVMe technology to hard drives, which uses the PCIe interface for faster data transfers. This also allows direct and quick data access required for tech-heavy AI industries. NVMe also enables direct data access from storage to GPU, without any involvement of the CPU, leading to better latency. However, an immediate solution is, unfortunately, not in sight right now, and we might still be 2-3 years away from a major breakthrough. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide.  A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors. More from News View all View all

Home Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti Reviews Are In, and It’s Better Than We Expected News Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti Reviews Are In, and It’s Better Than We Expected 5 min read Published: April 18, 2025 Key Takeaways The RTX 5060 Ti 16GB outperforms the RTX 4060 Ti thanks to DLSS 4, MFG, and increased VRAM, so overall a strong generational gain. The pricing remains uncertain amidst the ongoing tariff war and potential supply issues. While it doesn’t surpass the RTX 4070 Ti, the 5060 Ti is a good upgrade from older 20/30 series. Nvidia has finally launched the RTX 5060 Ti, and first impressions suggest that it’s not as bad as people thought it would be. The GPU delivers good performance at the right price and with the right features. At the official MSRP ($429) the 16GB variant delivers good value for money, especially when compared to its predecessor. The 8GB variant isn’t made available for general review. However, the only difference between the two seems to be memory capacity. So, the only data available right now is regarding the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, and we think Nvidia knew it would make good headlines and planned for it to go out alone. Talking about performance, the 5060 Ti 16GB offers roughly: 19% generational uplift at 1080p 22% better than 4060 Ti at 1040p and 54% at 4K The credit for these performance gains goes to the increased 16GB VRAM and GDDR7 memory. This is compared to the RTX 4060 Ti, which features 12GB of VRAM. However, despite the bump in memory, the 5060 Ti doesn’t quite outperform the 4070 Ti across the board. Although the two GPUs are close on 1080p games, the 4070 Ti pulls ahead on 1440p and 4K games thanks to its raw power and memory speed, leading to more consistent native frame pacing. You can, however, close the performance gap with the help of the new card’s leaving DLSS 4 and MFG features. That said, the 5060 Ti consistently outperforms the 4060 Ti. It uses double the VRAM and faster GDDR7 memory. The RTX 5060 Ti delivers a higher FPS on almost all games like Cyberpunk 2077, Forza Motorsport, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and Black Myth: Wukong at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. The 5060 Ti is closest to the AMD RX 7700 XT in terms of performance, with the former having a slight edge in RT-heavy games. Again, thanks to DLSS 4 and MFG. We do feel the need to stress that both chipsets have more than 8GB of VRAM, so they can compete with one another. Pricing for the 5060 Ti 16GB Version With an official MSRP of $429, this is Nvidia’s most affordable 16 GB GPU yet. But MSRP becoming shelf-price is a distant dream due to supply chain constraints and the current tarrif war. Although we’re not entirely sure you’ll be able to get your hands on it at that price, anything below $500 would be a steal and generally a strong value acquisition. Image credit: bestvaluegpu.com For instance, the RTX 5070 Ti has been selling at a $200 premium above its MSRP, at around $950. Similarly, the RTX 5080 is only available at above its official MSRP of $400, and the RTX 5090 currently costs you twice the MSRP… if you’re lucky. Going by these trends, it’s highly unlikely that the RTX 5060 Ti will be available at $429, but if you happen to stumble across one at $500 or less, you it’ll be good value for money. All in all, Nvidia has done a good job with pricing here. The 16GB 5060 Ti is available at $429, while the 8GB Ti variant costs $379. Obviously, paying $50 extra for double the memory should be a no-brainer… but they know that. The 5060 Ti is also 22% cheaper than the RTX 5070 at launch prices. Should You Buy the Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti? Here comes the million-dollar question: should you buy the new RTX 5060 Ti? Well, a large part of the answer depends on what price you’re able to get the GPU. If you can source it at around $450, it’s undoubtedly a great purchase, seeing as it offers better performance than the 4060 Ti with DLSS 4 and MFG. You’ll see a notable difference, especially if you’re upgrading from older 20/30 models. The 16GB variant is also future-proof and performs well on demanding games like Black Myth: Wukong and Indiana Jones. All of this applies to the 16GB variant of the 5060 Ti. 8GB VRAM GPUs will have very different benchmark results and will likely not be future-proof. Many modern games require at least 12GB of VRAM, and the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB and the RTX 5060 8GB may not deliver the goods. Maybe Nvidia is aware of this, and that’s why they haven’t provided these two variants for reviews. Plus, their launch date is also delayed for some odd reason. These models may quietly hit the shelves sometime in May without a review schedule. Innocent buyers, tricked by the 16GB reviews, may end up buying these 8GB sub-standard GPUs. Also check out: Nvidia releases biggest bug-fixing driver update Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide.  A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors. More from News View all View all

Home Microsoft Acknowledges Outlook Classic Bug and Offers a Temporary Fix News Microsoft Acknowledges Outlook Classic Bug and Offers a Temporary Fix 3 min read Published: April 18, 2025 Key Takeaways Microsoft has acknowledged that there’s a bug in Outlook Classic that slows CPUs by 30-50%. The company has offered a temporary workaround by shifting to the Semi-Annual Channel. This issue is six months old, but Microsoft hasn’t offered a permanent fix so far. Microsoft has acknowledged a bug in its Outlook Classic software, which spikes CPU usage by 30%-50%. The problem has persisted since November 2024, with several users complaining of a slow system and an abnormal increase in CPU usage when they type emails. Users have reported that disabling spell-check and graphic acceleration also didn’t help. One user even said that the temperatures of their i9-14900HX CPU reached 95 degrees Celsius when they opened the ‘New Message’ tab. However, Microsoft didn’t offer a long-term fix for the problem. Only a stopgap fix. Users can switch to the Semi-Annual Channel, where this problem hasn’t been observed. The issue appears to be specific to the Current, Monthly Enterprise, or Insider channels. Here’s how you can do it as a home user: Open Command Prompt (ensure you’ve selected the ‘Run as administrator option’) Type the following command: reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\office\16.0\common\officeupdate /v updatebranch /t REG_SZ /d SemiAnnual Once you’ve added the registry key, select File > Office Account > Update Options > Update Now to switch. If you’re running an organization, Microsoft has published a detailed guide on how you can update the channel using Group Policy, Office Deployment Tool (ODT), Configuration Manager, Microsoft Intune Administrative Templates, and the admin center. Meanwhile, the company has said that the Outlook team is investigating the issue. Why No Fix? The problem has been around for more than six months now, and it’s quite odd that a tech behemoth like Microsoft has been sitting on it. Is the problem that complex, or is there something under the sheets? Well, it’s a known fact that Microsoft wants to do away with its Outlook Classic product and have users shift to the new Outlook for Windows. However, the company has gone on record to say that it will offer support for Classic until the end of 2029. Those two commitments don’t align well, do they? Users won’t ‘willingly’ shift to the new Outlook because it lacks some features offered by the Classic version. For instance, there are no multiple mail profiles, shared mailboxes, custom forms, or SharePoint calendar sync with the new Outlook. Microsoft Outlook Classic custom forms Plus, many features, such as offline support, the Notes module, and .PST support, are only partially available. So, why would users want to switch to an inferior product? Could it be possible that this whole ‘CPU-slowing bug’ thing is a strategy to push users to the new product? Well, these are just speculations, and we’ll never reach the bottom of this theory. It may be possible that Microsoft will release a permanent fix soon and put these theories to rest. For now, we’ll have to wait for the next development on this issue. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide.  A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors. More from News View all View all

Key Takeaways Nvidia has released a new 576.02 driver update, fixing 40 issues, including black and blank screen complaints. This is Nvidia’s largest bug fix ever, solving issues on the RTX 50 series chips as well as those on the 5040 and 5030 series chips. The update is also driver-ready for the new GeForce RTX 5060 Ti GPUs released on April 16. Nvidia has released the GeForce Game Ready Driver version 576.02, which fixes more than 40 general bugs and gaming issues users have been facing on its RTX 40 and 50 series GPUs.  This is one of the most comprehensive lists of fixes we’ve seen with a driver release, including a fix for the notorious black screen. We’ve counted at least 13 such black/blank screen fixes in this update. The ‘black screen’ issue is addressed in the ‘General Bugs’ segment of the official update release, which includes a total of 25 fixes. Some other issues solved include: System hard hangs with 572.16 driver loaded with the RTX 50 series Higher DPC latency Compute Shader ‘error’ failure General system stability issues The update solves 15 gaming bug issues, including random crashes on Fortnite, stuttering when using VSYNC on Overwatch 2, crashing when using Smooth Motion in Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga and The Last of Us Part 1, and frame generation issues in DLSS 4 games. Problems with the Nvidia RTX 50 Series Ever since their launch in January, the Nvidia RTX 50 series GPUs have been plagued with issues. The most common were the black/blank/blue screen and system crashes. These issues popped up after the introduction of DLSS 4 and the 572 driver series, but this latest update seems to have fixed them.  DisplayPort 2.1 issues were also common with the 50 series, including unstable link rates on certain monitors and blank screens on others.  Using DLSS 4 frame generation and G-SYNC on high refresh rates when playing games also led to random blackouts. However, users could disable G-SYNC to deal with the issue, only a temporary fix. These problems also spilled over to the GTX 40 and GTX 30 GPU versions, which forced users to switch back to older drivers released in December last year. However, Nvidia has finally addressed these issues with the latest 576.02 release. This driver is also game-ready for Nvidia’s newly launched RTX 5060 Ti (both 16GB and 8GB variants). The 5060 Ti is also Nvidia’s cheapest 16GB GPU offering to date and costs $429. However, it doesn’t seem to be ready for the RTX 5060 as of now. A Long Overdue Update It seemed as if Nvidia had put its gaming GPUs on the sidelines with all its focus on AI chips. With issues popping up more frequently than ever, its reputation took a significant hit. It was high time Nvidia returned to its core SKU and resolved the issues plaguing its GPUs. And that’s exactly what it has done.  However, this still doesn’t overshadow the fact that Nvidia seems to be pushing its new RTX 5060 Ti sets, especially the 8GB variants, without proper review exercises and with potentially over-hyped marketing. We’ve seen a lot of tech reviewers who were highly surprised that Nvidia didn’t just opt for 12GB of VRAM instead. That said, the new 576.02 driver update must bring in some relief to gamers and, hopefully, confidence in the 5060 Ti GPUs as well. Fingers crossed! Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide.  A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Handheld gaming consoles are about to see a wave of exciting developments, with the imminent arrival of the Switch 2 in June and rumors of the Steam Deck 2 coming in 2026. Right now, chip giant AMD is considered the pack leader, with its graphics chips used in handhelds from the ASUS ROG Ally to the Steam Deck and the Lenovo Legion Go. Nvidia, on the other hand, dominates the cloud gaming market, with Nvidia GeForce Now available on handhelds like the Razer Edge and Logitech G Cloud. PC players also tend to gravitate towards Nvidia, and it’s ahead in aspects like neutral rendering. With Nvidia’s T239 chip expected to appear in the Nintendo Switch 2, could AMD’s hold on the market falter? Nintendo Switch 2: Tech Specs and Nvidia’s T239 Chip Nintendo has always played its cards close to its chest when it comes to its tech specs, but we do know a bit about the hardware for the upcoming Switch 2: The handheld will feature an Nvidia SoC, with hardware-accelerated ray tracing and machine learning capabilities (DLSS). That chip is the T239, according to reputable PC leaker kopite7kimi (h/t Eurogamer) and may share the same GPU architecture as the T234 processor used in Nintendo’s Nanodev kit — the Ampere architecture in RTX 30-series cards. We can also expect a 128-bit memory interface, 1536 CUDA CoreGPU, and the processor to measure 200mm² — though that’s still bigger than the Steam Deck SoC. Nvidia claims the T239 chip provides “up to 10x the graphics performance of the Nintendo Switch”. That means 3.9 teraflops of performance in docked mode and 1.5 teraflops in handheld mode, compared to 4 teraflops in the Xbox Series X and 1.6 teraflops in the Steam Deck. Teraflops (TFLOPs) are a unit of one trillion floating-point operations per second, and are a critical measurement in graphics rendering for games. Generally speaking, more teraflops mean faster performance and improved graphics. The T239 chip is built on Samsung 8nm technology, compared to the Steam Deck’s 162mm² processor’s 7nm process, also used in PS5 and Xbox Series consoles dating back to 2020. Image Credit – Samsing Electronics It will pack RT cores for real-time ray tracing, a variable 120Hz refresh rate via Nvidia G-Sync, and Tensor cores to power DLSS, Nvidia’s AI-based frame generation and resolution scaling. These are nothing new to PC gamers, but seeing them appear in the Switch 2 is still thrilling. AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, Street Fighter 6, and Elden Ring have already been confirmed for the Switch 2. Tom’s Guide says the handheld’s “gameplay response times are snappy and tearing is non-existent,” with only the smallest signs of ghosting visible around characters and objects. The Switch 2 will also run at a higher power level, delivering up to 4K resolution when docked, thanks to the dock’s built-in fan. In contrast, the Steam Deck is limited to its maximum wattage in handheld mode, though there are workarounds. AMD Boosts Visuals and Performance with FSR 4 While Nvidia focuses on raw performance claims, AMD prioritizes visual enhancement and performance optimization with its FSR 4 technology. Launched on March 6, 2025, FSR 4 is an upscaling technology that improves frame rate for smoother gameplay on less powerful hardware or at higher resolutions. Perfect for handhelds, then. Image Credit: Carota Design According to Digital Foundry, AMD’s FSR 4 is a major improvement over FSR 3 on the OG Steam Deck and Nvidia’s DLSS 4. The problem is, you can only get it on RDNA 4 desktop GPUs. However, if rumors are true, we could soon see it on the Steam Deck 2. The rumored AMD Ryzen AI Z2 chip could bring better frame generation with its NPU through its AI capabilities. According to leaker Hoang Anh Phu on X, the chip will reportedly use RDNA 3.5. If FSR 4 is ported to RDNA 3.5, that could lay the grounds for better image quality and performance on the Steam Deck 2. Valve has confirmed there will be no Z2 Steam Deck, and the company isn’t thinking about new hardware until 2026 at least. Is Nvidia on the Road to its Own Handheld? AMD rivalry aside, Nvidia’s sidestep into handhelds could pave the way for the graphics giant to launch its own portable gaming device A 2024 leak from YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead (h/t Gamesradar) revealed that the company was “getting serious about making more handheld gaming devices with their graphics IP”. We’ve heard rumors that Nvidia could partner with Intel to make a premium gaming handheld. We could even see a streaming device linked to GeForce Now, or Nvidia could make a version of the T239 for inclusion in PC handhelds. As for whether Nvidia has the goods to go head to head with AMD, we’ll need to wait and see what Valve has in store when the Steam Deck 2 lands next year. Paula has been a writer for over a decade, starting off in the travel industry for brands like Skyscanner and Thomas Cook. She’s written everything from a guide to visiting Lithuania’s top restaurants to how to survive a zombie apocalypse and also worked as an editor/proofreader for indie authors and publishing houses, focusing on mystery, gothic, and crime fiction. She made the move to tech writing in 2019 and has worked as a writer and editor for websites such as Android Authority, Android Central, XDA, Megagames, Online Tech Tips, and Xbox Advisor. These days as well as contributing articles on all-things-tech for Techreport, you’ll find her writing about mobile tech over at Digital Trends. She’s obsessed with gaming, PC hardware, AI, and the latest and greatest gadgets and is never far from a screen of some sort.Her attention to detail, ability to get lost in a rabbit hole of research, and obsessive need to know every fact ensures that the news stories she covers and features she writes are (hopefully) as interesting and engaging to read as they are to write. When she’s not working, you’ll usually find her gaming on her Xbox Series X or PS5. As well as story-driven games like The Last of Us, Firewatch, and South of Midnight she loves anything with a post-apocalyptic setting. She’s also not averse to being absolutely terrified watching the latest horror films, when she feels brave enough! View all articles by Paula Beaton Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Key Takeaways Nvidia has announced three new 5060 series GPUs. The 8GB variants aren’t available for critic reviews, raising suspicion of an underperforming product. Nvidia claims 2x faster frame rates, which we and other critics found misleading. Nvidia just announced the launch of three new graphics cards: the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB, and the RTX 5060. Both variants of the RTX 5060 Ti will be available from April 16, whereas the RTX 5060 will come out sometime in May. The RTX 5060 Ti is priced at $429 – the lowest Nvidia has ever gone for a 16GB GPU. This is also about 22% cheaper than the RTX 5070 when it launched at $549. The 8GB variant of the Ti model is priced at $379, whereas the RTX 5060 will cost $299. This is where things start to get a bit damp. It’s not obvious to many why anyone would prefer the 8GB variant for just a $50 price difference. This may have been done purposefully to downplay its 8GB 5060 series GPU variants. We have another reason for this school of thought. Usually, Nvidia GPU launches are preceded by a full-fledged review schedule, where different reviewers are handed out samples before the official release. However, that’s not the case this time around. Nvidia seems to have specifically blocked the supply of the 8GB Ti variant for reviews. So, only the 16GB variant will be reviewed by various tech houses. Also, although the official release mentions April 16 as the official release date for both variants, the 8GB version may come out a ‘few weeks’ after the 16GB one. It seems like Nvidia wants to shift the spotlight to the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and ‘protect’ the 8GB variants from reviewers’ wrath. You’d ask, why the ‘wrath’? Well, the 8GB GPU variants do not have enough VRAM to handle the requirements of modern games. This leads to lower texture quality, stuttering, and poor performance. Although you can still play games at 1080p on these GPUs, they aren’t future-proof. This is why industry experts and gamers suggest 12GB GPUs. Nvidia is aware of this. The whole ‘protecting the 8GB variant’ play is being done because they know they’ve built a substandard product that will be bashed by reviewers, affecting its sales. Instead, Nvidia wants to push the 16GB variant, get positive reviews on it, and then put the 8GB 5060 GPUs on the store shelves. Now, innocent buyers who are oblivious to the specifications may end up buying the 8GB versions since they’re cheaper, only to find they’ve been scammed. Performance Performance-wise, the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GPU seems to offer the best value for gamers. It’s 20% faster than the RTX 4060 Ti and 30% faster than the 3060 Ti variant. Plus, after adjusting for inflation, it offers 15-20% lower cost per frame than the RTX 4070 and is 33% cheaper than the RTX 3060 Ti. The 8GB Ti variant offers similar core performance. However, less VRAM is a significant bottleneck that can affect performance on various modern games. The RTX 5060 is also claimed to be 20-25% faster than the RTX 4060 and 30% faster than the RTX 3060, with a 40% lower cost per frame. However, the VRAM drops from 12GB on the RTX 3060 to 8GB on the RTX 5060, which makes it an overpriced GPU at this price. Nvidia’s Marketing Gimmick In addition to the review and price blunder Nvidia has made with this launch, another laughable marketing gimmick is going around. Nvidia claims that the new 50 series GPUs offer 2x the frame rates of the previous models. Good, right? Nope. Nvidia has, very smartly, used the words ‘frame rate’ instead of ‘performance.’ And even in doing so, the numbers are way off. The official launch page says that the frame rate on the 5060 Ti is 171 compared to the 4060 Ti’s 87, and the latency is down from 48 to 47. However, if you look at the small font of caveat at the bottom (something you may need a microscope for), it says that this performance was achieved on DLSS Quality Mode and by using the max frame gen level supported by each GPU. As you might already know, DLSS uses AI to upscale a lower-res image to make it look like a higher-res one. So, Nvidia claims that Wukong runs at 102 FPS in the new GPU. However, in reality, the render rate is below 30 FPS – a sick marketing joke. This also isn’t the first time Nvidia has tried to deceive users. They had earlier said that the 5090 GPU variants would render twice the performance of the 4090 series, which was never the case. That’s all we could muster from the one-page official Nvidia release, and it isn’t looking like a great release for what is the ‘leading AI chip manufacturer.’ We’ll have to wait for all the GPUs to hit the stores and see how they perform in real-world settings. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide.  A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

US-based nonprofit corporation MITRE announced on Tuesday, April 15, that a looming service disruption could impact the global cybersecurity landscape. In a letter addressed to its board members that was leaked on the decentralized social media platform Bluesky, MITRE Vice President and Director of the Center for Securing the Homeland Yosry Barsoum said that its federal contract is set to expire today, April 16.The contract allows the organization to operate, develop, and modernize its highly regarded Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) repository. This helps identify, catalog, and share known cybersecurity threats to keep systems and data secure. The letter didn’t specify the reason for the contract’s expiry. However, it could be related to the US government’s cost-cutting measures led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Agency.This impacts sectors like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) budget, which is the MITRE CVE program’s primary sponsor. The budget cut may also explain MITRE’s announcement that it will cut 442 jobs effective June 3.Rise in Security Threats Expected Established in 1999, the CVE system is a cornerstone of cybersecurity as we know it, enabling governments, researchers, and organizations worldwide to identify, track, and patch security threats efficiently. It was pivotal in tracking some of the biggest cyber threats in history, including the ransomware WannaCry and SolarWinds Sunburst, a cyberattack on the US federal government. Without funding, the program’s ability to operate would be severely compromised, potentially causing widespread global consequences. If CVE is not picked up by anyone else, sharing threat intelligence and developing critical security patches would slow down significantly. This gap could be exploited by bad actors, from individual hackers to state-sponsored groups, thus increasing the risk of successful cyberattacks. It would also complicate the coordination between different entities. Security researcher Lukasz Olejnik said on X that: This would result in a situation where “no one will be certain they are referring to the same vulnerability. Total chaos, and a sudden weakening of cybersecurity across the board.” – Lukasz Olejnik via X This development could also harm US national security on an even broader scale. The reduction in CISA’s budget will impact MITER and the agency’s ability to provide adequate cybersecurity and infrastructure protection. Like MITRE, CISA is set to cut its workforce, which may impact 1300 people. What’s Next for MITRE’s CVE Program While Barsoum added that the ’government continues to make considerable efforts to continue MITRE’s role in support of the program,’ it’s uncertain how long this will last. Not all is lost, though. If the program goes offline, its historical CVE records will still be available on GitHub. Plus, a global network of CVE Numbering Authorities (CNA) can continue to assign vulnerabilities with CVE IDs and publish CVE records.These CNAs include tech giants Apple, Google, and Microsoft which regularly issue CVE IDs and deploy patches. Despite that, MITRE’s central role in the CVE program cannot be dismissed entirely.In a LinkedIn post, Patrick Garrity, a security researcher at cybersecurity intelligence platform VulnCheck, also revealed that it has proactively reserved 1,000 CVEs for 2025 in response to the uncertainty at MITRE. Garrity commented that: “VulnCheck is closely monitoring the situation to ensure that both the community and our customers continue to receive timely, accurate vulnerability data,” As technology continues to evolve—from the return of 'dumbphones' to faster and sleeker computers—seasoned tech journalist, Cedric Solidon, continues to dedicate himself to writing stories that inform, empower, and connect with readers across all levels of digital literacy. With 20 years of professional writing experience, this University of the Philippines Journalism graduate has carved out a niche as a trusted voice in tech media. Whether he's breaking down the latest advancements in cybersecurity or explaining how silicon-carbon batteries can extend your phone’s battery life, his writing remains rooted in clarity, curiosity, and utility. Long before he was writing for Techreport, HP, Citrix, SAP, Globe Telecom, CyberGhost VPN, and ExpressVPN, Cedric's love for technology began at home courtesy of a Nintendo Family Computer and a stack of tech magazines. Growing up, his days were often filled with sessions of Contra, Bomberman, Red Alert 2, and the criminally underrated Crusader: No Regret. But gaming wasn't his only gateway to tech.  He devoured every T3, PCMag, and PC Gamer issue he could get his hands on, often reading them cover to cover. It wasn’t long before he explored the early web in IRC chatrooms, online forums, and fledgling tech blogs, soaking in every byte of knowledge from the late '90s and early 2000s internet boom. That fascination with tech didn’t just stick. It evolved into a full-blown calling. After graduating with a degree in Journalism, he began his writing career at the dawn of Web 2.0. What started with small editorial roles and freelance gigs soon grew into a full-fledged career. He has since collaborated with global tech leaders, lending his voice to content that bridges technical expertise with everyday usability. He’s also written annual reports for Globe Telecom and consumer-friendly guides for VPN companies like CyberGhost and ExpressVPN, empowering readers to understand the importance of digital privacy. His versatility spans not just tech journalism but also technical writing. He once worked with a local tech company developing web and mobile apps for logistics firms, crafting documentation and communication materials that brought together user-friendliness with deep technical understanding. That experience sharpened his ability to break down dense, often jargon-heavy material into content that speaks clearly to both developers and decision-makers. At the heart of his work lies a simple belief: technology should feel empowering, not intimidating. Even if the likes of smartphones and AI are now commonplace, he understands that there's still a knowledge gap, especially when it comes to hardware or the real-world benefits of new tools. His writing hopes to help close that gap. Cedric’s writing style reflects that mission. It’s friendly without being fluffy and informative without being overwhelming. Whether writing for seasoned IT professionals or casual readers curious about the latest gadgets, he focuses on how a piece of technology can improve our lives, boost our productivity, or make our work more efficient. That human-first approach makes his content feel more like a conversation than a technical manual. As his writing career progresses, his passion for tech journalism remains as strong as ever. With the growing need for accessible, responsible tech communication, he sees his role not just as a journalist but as a guide who helps readers navigate a digital world that’s often as confusing as it is exciting. From reviewing the latest devices to unpacking global tech trends, Cedric isn’t just reporting on the future; he’s helping to write it. View all articles by Cedric Solidon Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Home Tariffs Temporarily Lifted on Certain Smartphones, Laptops and Chips: A Reprieve for US Electronics Industry News Tariffs Temporarily Lifted on Certain Smartphones, Laptops and Chips: A Reprieve for US Electronics Industry 4 min read Published: April 15, 2025 Key Takeaways The Trump Administration temporarily rolls back planned tariffs on certain electronics from China. Beneficiaries are major electronic brands like Apple that rely heavily on Chinese manufacturing. The decision reduces the threat of price hikes and could mean price stability for the time being on items such as iPhones. Good news from the US seems to be in short supply these days. But some good news did drop last week with the announcement by US Customs and Border Protection that US tariffs are temporarily being lifted on electronics coming out of China. Tariffs seem to be the only thing on every politician’s lips these days, whether it’s the Trump Administration imposing punitive tariffs on other countries or others retaliating with their own tariffs. ‘Trade war’ has been frequently uttered by the media. The White House’s U-Turn is (Hopefully) The Consumer’s Gain China was the worst hit, with tariffs as high as 145%, which would have meant laptops surging in price by as much as 45%. A new iPhone would have set you back well over $2K.  This would have been a serious problem for Apple, whose iPhone manufacturing plants are nearly all based in China, with 80% of the iOS devices coming from there going to the US. But the White House’s decision to quietly and temporarily pause most of the China tariffs hopefully means that when you buy your next iPhone in the next few months, you won’t have to take out a bank loan.  That said, if you plan on buying things like motherboards, you should know that China is still being charged a 20% tariff on those. The tariff exemptions don’t cover everything. The Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, went to great pains to stress that the tariff relief was only temporary, with new separate tariffs likely coming in a few months.  Nobody will be fooled, though, by the decision to relax the tariffs. By imposing sky high prices, Washington DC more or less made the cost of electronics prohibitive.  Some companies, such as Nintendo, were already raising prices by 10% in anticipation of the tariffs coming down the line. What Was Not on the Exemption List is More Telling Than What Was on it The tariff exemptions took effect retroactively on April 5th at 12.01 am. A huge list of electronics now spared from the executioner’s axe was issued, all with vague-sounding HS numbers (Harmonized Tariff Schedules). But what those corresponded to was telling, especially if we think back to the tech CEOs that contributed to the inauguration fund and/or campaign. A variety of them donated $1M apiece – Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sam Altman, to name four – who will now benefit from much-needed electronic components being exempt from China tariffs. Some of the biggest, most notable electronics included in the reprieve were smartphones, semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, LED lights, and flat panel displays. And many, many more. In other words, the backbone of the worldwide electronics industry, producing devices needed the world over. But saying that, what was not included in the exemption list was startling – laptop cases, motherboards, and PSUs. So some price hikes may still be coming if these components are still hit by the tariffs. Some Are Unhappy About the China Tariffs Decision As usual, though, when one side celebrates a win, the loser glowers and starts complaining. In this scenario, the losers are US-based businesses such as Apple. These manufacturers have already spent a small fortune moving their operations back to the US. Apple was committed to a $500 billion investment plan to bring some of its manufacturing back to the US from China. Similarly, Nvidia plans to do the same with a domestic production chain. But with China’s tariff bill now down to 10%, those US manufacturers have suddenly got a serious competitor again in the rear-view mirror. Big Tech Gets a Reprieve – But Will They Drop Their Prices Now? Now that tech companies like Acer will no longer be looking down the barrel of the tariff gun, will they drop their prices again? That’s the real test. Companies are usually loath to drop prices once they’ve raised them. But with tariff relief potentially only for a few months, companies like Apple may have to start investing in more diverse supply chains. The uncertainty in the months ahead may intensify the pressure on these companies, not alleviate it. Mark O'Neill is a tech journalist and editor with 20+ years of experience. He first cut his teeth at MakeUseOf.com, where he rose to become the managing editor for eight years, developing a site from 9,000 monthly subscribers to 500,000+ a month. Over the years, he has covered many subjects, such as reviewing hardware and software for both Windows PCs and MacOS, and even dipping his toes into Linux now and then to keep life interesting. His past writing credits include PC World, XDA, Android Authority, and Teramind. With all of his work, Mark has a clear game plan to educate readers on the subject and make them better informed. He also tests these systems in his personal time, building automated systems and making sure that what he says is accurate and that it works. This commitment to excellence has made Mark a trusted voice in whatever he writes. Although he likes to use a Mac as his primary machine, Mark also uses a Windows PC and a Linux laptop loaded with Ubuntu. If he doesn't know something, he researches it and makes himself an authority on the topic. Check out Mark's LinkedIn profile and his website at markoneill.org View all articles by Mark O'Neill Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors. More from News View all View all

Key Takeaways Nvidia plans to shift $500B worth of AI server supply chain to the US. It has partnered with companies like TSMC, Foxconn, Wistron, Amkor, and SPIL. This is a direct positive effect of import tariffs imposed by Trump. Other companies might follow suit. Trump’s tariff was met with severe criticism from business leaders worldwide. However, the positive impacts of these levies have started to come through. Nvidia, the world’s leading AI chip producer, has announced its plans to build $500 billion worth of AI servers in the US. Until now, a large part of Nvidia’s operations have been based in Southeast Asia. However, imposing tariffs would make it infeasible for the tech giants to sustain overseas production units. Hence, the switch. Nvidia and partners such as TSMC, Foxconn, Wistron, Amkor, and SPIL will build a complete AI server supply chain in the US. This includes a plant in Texas to build AI servers and server assembly plants in Dallas and Houston. It’s worth noting that this will be the first time Nvidia will assemble its AI product within the States. The line is expected to be operational in the next 12-15 months. Another partner, TSMC, has already started the production of Blackwell processors in Phoenix. SPIL and Amkor will establish packaging and testing operations in Arizona – something that’s currently done in Taiwan. Donald Trump said that this is a direct result of the tariff imposition. D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria also said that Nvidia would have never considered moving manufacturing to the US if not for Trump and his tariffs. The CHIPS Act, which provides financial assistance to companies for domestic chip production, can also be a factor at play here. Nvidia may be eyeing up a sizable chunk of the grant by moving its production onshore. What Does This Mean for the US? For starters, domestic manufacturing won’t be as cheap as getting it done in Taiwan, owing to the high labor costs in the US. However, the benefit outweighs the costs of this move. It’s no secret that AI tech will be at the forefront of the tech industry in the next decade. Whoever controls AI tech controls global markets. Right now, this power isn’t with the US, something a giant won’t be comfortable with. Considering the omnipresent tension between the US and China, China is the last country the US would want controlling AI production. A leading AI company like Nvidia pulling out of the Southeast Asia production line can have far-reaching impacts. It puts the US back in the lead. Imagine $500B worth of production shifting to domestic shores. It creates more employment, saves shipping costs, and gives Nvidia more control over production and packaging. More importantly, this can also start a domino effect, with other companies following suit. Apple has already made similar commitments in February to establish domestic manufacturing. So, this $500B number can swell up to a few trillion in the next five years. It will surely rattle China, but that’s precisely what the US may be after. Nvidia will use its own in-house technology, like Omniverse and Issac GR00T, to improve every step of the production chain. With more automation and robotization, the actual costs of assembled systems are also expected to go down in the long run – a win-win situation for the company. Cross-Border Tensions Another interesting angle to the whole development is the China-Taiwan-US relations. Now, Taiwan considers itself an independent state, whereas China considers it a part of the ‘China One’ region and wants it to come back to mainland China, by force if not by will. The US, however, doesn’t officially recognize Taiwan as independent. For the US, this means cutting ties with or disrupting manufacturing in Taiwan is as good as an economic attack on China itself. China, too, may not be too impressed with this decision and may retaliate in some way or the other. Krishi is a seasoned tech journalist with over four years of experience writing about PC hardware, consumer technology, and artificial intelligence.  Clarity and accessibility are at the core of Krishi’s writing style. He believes technology writing should empower readers—not confuse them—and he’s committed to ensuring his content is always easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth. Over the years, Krishi has contributed to some of the most reputable names in the industry, including Techopedia, TechRadar, and Tom’s Guide.  A man of many talents, Krishi has also proven his mettle as a crypto writer, tackling complex topics with both ease and zeal. His work spans various formats—from in-depth explainers and news coverage to feature pieces and buying guides.  Behind the scenes, Krishi operates from a dual-monitor setup (including a 29-inch LG UltraWide) that’s always buzzing with news feeds, technical documentation, and research notes, as well as the occasional gaming sessions that keep him fresh.  Krishi thrives on staying current, always ready to dive into the latest announcements, industry shifts, and their far-reaching impacts.  When he's not deep into research on the latest PC hardware news, Krishi would love to chat with you about day trading and the financial markets—oh! And cricket, as well. View all articles by Krishi Chowdhary Our editorial process The Tech Report editorial policy is centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written by real authors.

Key TakeawaysReddit has launched a few new content tools that will make it easier for users to connect and contribute across the platform.These tools will help in finding the right communities to post and ensuring that your content does not violate any guidelines.The features are available on both mobile and desktop to users worldwide.On Thursday, Reddit launched a new set of content moderation and analytical tools that will help create a better experience for its users online and boost engagement.These tools are designed to help users find communities, contribute new posts, and ensure that they dont break any community guidelines. This will be especially helpful for new users who might not know where or how to post.Reddit is dedicated to enhancing user contributions and community interactions, paving the way for innovative experiences. Rosa Catal, Senior Director AI & Machine Learning at RedditLets quickly take a look at the new changes Reddit has made.Post CheckThe first feature is Post Check which runs an automatic check on content to ensure its well within the community guidelines. Sometimes a user might have accidentally broken a rule, which would cause the post to be removed later.You can access this feature from the little wand icon on the bottom left corner of your screen. The tool will highlight the parts that are against the rules, making it easier for you to fix them.In case your post is removed because of community guidelines issues, you can now easily post it to a different subreddit. The platform itself will recommend which other communities you can post it on without violating their guidelines.Another feature addition is Community Suggestions. If you are unsure about the community where you should make a post, this feature will be handy.Once you click on the drop-down menu from the Pick a Community option, it will suggest the most relevant communities based on your posts content. This will help you connect with the right audience and increase engagement on your post.Sometimes you might not be able to contribute to a community because of some other criteria that you dont meet. In that case, Reddit will help you understand how you can overcome it.For example, if you are unable to contribute because of low karma points, this new feature will notify you about the same and tell you that you can increase your karma points by commenting and posting on the platform.Post InsightsLast but not the least, Reddit has also introduced Post Insights which will give you better information on how your post is doing in terms of views, shares, and upvotes. This in turn will help you understand which kind of content does well and which does not.The best part is that Reddit went for a global rollout. These features are now available to all Reddit users both on mobile and desktop.These features are the latest in the line of Reddits growing number of innovative tools. The platform has been heavily investing in new technology to keep up with its rivals.In December, it launched a new feature called Reddit Answers (which is still in beta mode and only available in the US), which summarizes community discussions.Add Techreport to Your Google News Feed Get the latest updates, trends, and insights delivered straight to your fingertips. Subscribe now! Subscribe now Vlad is Techreport's in-house Executive Editor. With over a decade of experience in tech content, he's passionate about computer hardware, an advocate of online privacy, and strongly believes in the open-source, scarce-money nature of cryptocurrency. When hes not working, hes traveling with his partner and their cat, learning Python, or reading good books. He never owned a PC he did not build. View all articles by Vlad Melnic Our editorial processThe Tech Reporteditorial policyis centered on providing helpful, accurate content that offers real value to our readers. We only work with experienced writers who have specific knowledge in the topics they cover, including latest developments in technology, online privacy, cryptocurrencies, software, and more. Our editorial policy ensures that each topic is researched and curated by our in-house editors. We maintain rigorous journalistic standards, and every article is 100% written byreal authors.