We've known for a while now that the upcoming Xbox Project Helix game console will be a hybrid game console, able to play both PC and Xbox games, but recently news broke that the Xbox Helix would be using an off-the-shelf AMD APU, followed by a leak from KeplerL2 on the NeoGAF forums that it would be a third-party console. The latter rumor claimed that the Xbox Helix would not be available directly to consumers from Microsoft itself, instead adopting something of a Steam Machine model—the original Steam Machine, not the 2026 reboot—and making the hardware design available to hardware partners similarly to how AMD and NVIDIA sell their GPUs to board partners who package them in their own way.

Xbox Vice President, Jason Ronald, chimed in with a response on X, saying simply that "Project Helix will be available as a 1st party Xbox console," and nothing more. While this somewhat debunks the rumor started by KeplerL2, it also leaves the door open to the possibility of third-party Helix consoles. This idea somewhat holds water, given the context of the previous rumor about the off-the-shelf APU. If Microsoft did not license the Xbox Helix design, and brands could simply buy the APU directly from AMD to make their own hardware platforms, similarly to what's been happening with other Radeon 780M-powered APUs that have been popping up in Windows gaming handheld devices since the Ryzen Z1 Extreme handhelds launched.

When Microsoft announced the next-gen Xbox Project Helix, it confirmed what had been long rumored—that Helix would be a console-PC hybrid, just like Valve's upcoming Steam Machine, able to play both PC and Xbox games. Although it has not yet been confirmed what shape this hybrid experience will take, a recent leak from insider KeplerL2 on the NeoGAF forums has potentially revealed some information about what to expect from Project Helix. While it was previously rumored that the upcoming Xbox hardware would be more powerful than the Canis and Orion APUs Sony is working on for the PS6 series, it now seems as Xbox's Project Helix console APU will feature no customization at all, making it basically a bog-standard PC, albeit a decently powerful one, at that.

This would effectively end the era of console performance back-and-forth that Sony and Xbox have been engaged in since what feels like the dawn of time. It also has a few implications for upcoming scaling methods. For starters, and this is more or less confirmed by KeplerL2, it means that tech like the upcoming FSR Diamond upscaling tech will be cross-platform, perhaps with small tweaks or different presets on a per-platform basis. It also means that the recent rumor that Microsoft was looking to return to platform-exclusive games would culminate in PC and Xbox exclusives, rather than simply Xbox exclusives, if that rumor turns out to be true. It seems as though Helix will still feature RDNA 5 graphics and Zen 6/6c CPU cores, but it will likely be similar to the situation we've seen with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme and Ryzen Z2 used by most Windows gaming handhelds in 2026.

Lenovo's Legion Go 2 recently received a stark price increase, bumping up the already expensive Windows gaming handheld from $1,349.99 to $1,999.99. Now, it seems as though the RAMpocalypse-era price increases have come for the Legion Go S, Lenovo's ostensibly budget-oriented gaming handheld models that launched at $899.99 for the Z1 Extreme version with 32 GB of RAM and $649.99 for the Z2 Go model with 16 GB of RAM. Following the price increases, the Lenovo Legion Go S, powered by AMD's Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU, 32 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB SSD, now comes in at a whopping $1,579.99 with SteamOS and $1,679.99 with Windows—although the Windows version is "discounted" to $1,049.99 currently.

Meanwhile, the Legion Go S with the Ryzen Z2 Go, 16 GB of RAM, and a 512 GB SSD is priced at $989.99. Those are the current Best Buy prices. On the Lenovo US online store, the Legion Go S with SteamOS and AMD's Z2 Go APU is listed at $1,049.99. The Legion Go S with the Z2 Go was already a tough sell, especially compared to the original Legion Go, which feature a more powerful CPU and iGPU and cost about the same used and only a little more new, at least if you could find it new. With the price increases, devices like the ASUS ROG Ally X at $899.99 are looking all the more enticing.

Intel's upcoming "Crescent Island" series of GPUs, based on the newly developed Xe3P graphics IP, will be hitting the market this year. However, it seems this IP won't be featured in the desktop Arc gaming series of discrete GPUs. According to a reliable leaker, Jaykihn, Intel will not release this GPU generation as dedicated Arc gaming graphics cards. Instead, Xe3P-based GPUs will power "Crescent Island" data center and workstation GPUs, similar to the current Arc Pro series for professional users. This leaves Arc gamers without a clear indication of when, or even if, they will receive a new gaming Arc GPU based on the Xe3 or Xe4 IP in the coming months.

Intel recently announced the Arc Pro B70 and Arc Pro B65 graphics cards, which maximize the BMG-G31 "Battlemage" Xe2 silicon but are intended for professional users only. A recent driver update added the ability to play games on these cards, but they are still primarily designed for AI workloads and professional visualization. Gamers are still seeking clarity about future updates, and the lack of recent rumors regarding an additional Arc gaming discrete GPU is concerning. Even the higher-end Arc B770, which has been rumored for some time, seems to be on hold. Upcoming events like Computex might offer Intel a chance to at least provide a teaser of what the desktop Arc GPU family will look like or if there will be any updates soon.

Intel's upcoming Core Ultra 400 Series "Nova Lake-S" desktop processors are set to launch in the second half of this year, marking what seems to be the company's most ambitious lineup yet. Recently, new rumors have emerged suggesting that Intel is also working on a "Nova Lake-S" desktop APU featuring 12 Xe3P graphics cores. This configuration is expected to deliver graphics performance similar to the Arc B390 integrated GPU found in "Panther Lake," albeit with a slight twist in the overall GPU core design. We've already covered a recent leak detailing the entire Core Ultra 400 Series "Nova Lake-S" desktop lineup, but it seems Intel is developing and testing more in its labs than initially anticipated. Readers may recall brief rumors about a variant called "Nova Lake-AX," which was rumored to feature a single compute tile with eight "Coyote Cove" P-cores and 16 "Arctic Wolf" E-cores, along with a four-core LPE island, totaling 28 cores. The iGPU configuration for this variant was said to include 48 Xe3 cores, potentially making it one of the most powerful APUs ever.

However, since the "Nova Lake-AX" appears to be on hold, Intel is preparing other solutions with less powerful GPU configurations. According to a post by Jaykihn on X, the new desktop APU would feature four "Coyote Cove" P-cores, eight "Arctic Wolf" E-cores, and four LPE-cores. This 4+8+4 configuration would be paired with 12 Xe3P cores, which are slightly different from the regular Xe3 cores used in the standard "Nova Lake-S" desktop processors. Intel's lineup is becoming somewhat confusing, but it seems the main lineup will consist of standard desktop series split into several SKUs with high core counts and bLLC, or the newly rumored SKU with more Xe3P cores and fewer CPU cores, similar to AMD's Ryzen G-Series of desktop APUs. Do note that the image below is just an illustration, and not the actual render.

The latest in a recent flurry of AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mini PCs is OneXPlayer's ONEXStation—a new AI mini PC that should be just as capable at everything from gaming to workstation and creative workflows. Aside from the already known benefits of the massive AMD APU, with its Radeon 8060S iGPU and 128 GB of LPDDR5X memory on a 256-bit bus, the new mini PC boasts a decent selection of I/O ports in an impressively compact aluminium chassis, measuring in at just 186 × 193 × 62 mm. By default, the ONEXStation will be equipped with a single 1 TB PCIe Gen 4×4 M.2 SSD, but there is a second M.2 slot easily accessible for up to 8 TB total storage.

With 13 ports in total, the ONEXStation's front I/O features dual USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, a USB4 port, a UHS-II SD card slot, and a 3.5 mm audio combo jack. There's also a turbo button that presumably boosts the fan speed for improved thermal capabilities at the cost of noise. Around back, the ONEXStation has a DC power barrel plug, a 3.5 mm audio combo jack, a 2.5 GbE RJ45 port, one USB 3.2 Type-A port, a USB4 Type-C port, one DisplayPort, an HDMI port, and dual USB 2.0 ports—the latter presumably for peripherals. It also features both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 onboard. Cooling is handled by a custom solution with three heatpipes and a tri-fan ventilation system, and OneXPlayer says the TDP can be configured to 55 W, 85 W, or 120 W from within the mini PC's software. The launch price is $2,999, but the MSRP will seemingly increase to $3,599 after the launch offer. It's worth noting that, due to current market conditions, pricing and availability of systems like those based on Strix Halo and similarly powerful SoCs, like Intel's recent Panther Lake chips, is highly volatile, with Ayaneo already having suspended pre-orders for its Strix Halo-powered Next 2 handheld and Khadas having recently bumped up the price of its Panther Lake mini PC.

Thermalright, generally known for making cooling hardware and DIY PC gear, has just announced the AI HydroNous R1, a 2.6 L mini PC powered by AMD's mighty Strix Halo Ryzen AI Max+ 395 APU and cooled by a custom closed-loop water cooling system, which is said to be able to handle up to 176 W of TPD, thanks to a 180 mm radiator. Thermalright has so far revealed the mini PC (via IT Home), but it doesn't seem as though it is commercially available just yet, at least not outside of China.

The Thermalright HydroNous R1 has a fully CNC-machined aluminium chassis decked out with a full-color 4.6-inch LCD on the front for system monitoring. The IT Home post makes mention of dual USB4 ports and 10 Gb Ethernet, but no other ports are visible in the teaser images shared by the publication. Presumably, the rest of the I/O is on the back of the tower, which itself is designed to stand upright in a vertical orientation, sucking cold air in from below and from the left side and exhausting via the right side panel, where the radiator is located.

As the previously leaked launch date of Sony's upcoming PlayStation 6 approaches, leaks and rumors abound, with many claiming that the upcoming gaming console will launch later than initially expected. Now, reputable leaker, KeplerL2, has taken to the NeoGAF forums to dispel some of the doom and gloom surrounding the launch date and potential delays of the PS6. The leaker's reasoning stems not from some insider information, but rather from a simple application of logic, asking a fellow commenter "What copium? You think AMD is gonna waste resources doing validation on something they think will get delayed?"

The reasoning seems to be that, based on information like prior leaks, that AMD has already been working on custom APUs for both the living room version and the handheld model of the PlayStation 6, and that AMD would not continue validation of those APUs if it thought there were supply constraints that would lead to a delay ahead of the console family's expected launch date. It's also possible that AMD and Sony signed the supply contracts for the Canis and Orion APUs before the current DRAM crisis was in full swing, effectively making a launch delay impossible or at least less likely. However, this would mean that the console makers would have a batch of hardware ready for launch followed by intermittent or delayed supply—at least as long as the DRAM shortage holds. There have also been rumors that Sony will be drastically increasing the price of the PS6 consoles compared to the PS5 generation, although this appears to be at least somewhat contingent on Microsoft's Xbox Helix pricing strategy.

Valve's next-generation Steam Deck 2 handheld console is reportedly planned for release in 2028, with significant manufacturing changes expected for this sequel to the highly successful handheld gaming device. According to a well-known industry leaker, KeplerL2, posting in the NeoGAF community, Valve is targeting a 2028 refresh for the second-generation Steam Deck. However, the ongoing supply chain shortages of DRAM and NAND Flash could cause disruptions to these plans, potentially leading to delays. Interestingly, this period is when the shortages are expected to start easing, so the Steam Deck 2 could still be released on time, depending on Valve's sourcing capabilities.

One of the most significant procurement shifts for the Steam Deck 2 is Valve's choice of the computing base that will power the handheld. Instead of using a semi-custom AMD APU, Valve is expected to use an off-the-shelf AMD APU that won't require any custom tuning from AMD to meet Valve's needs. This is welcome news, as the latest Steam Machine showed that Valve's reliance on a semi-custom APU solution made the hardware "obsolete" quickly while the rest of the industry advanced. With any semi-custom solution, stockpiling silicon and waiting for DRAM/NAND modules to arrive puts pressure on Valve to ship a product that is significantly underpowered or too expensive. However, with an off-the-shelf solution, Valve could use the best available option at the time of shipping and optimize SteamOS around it.

AMD's RDNA 4m graphics might be the company's most mysterious GPU IP, as they are reportedly rebranding some of their RDNA 3.5 IP to fit INT8 data types and support FSR 4 technology. We previously reported that AMD designated the GFX1170 target for RDNA 4m. However, in the latest merge request for the LLVM compiler, AMD added two new software IDs: GFX1171 and GFX1172 GPUs. These targets are not true RDNA 4 GPUs, which belong to a GFX12 branch, but rather extensions of RDNA 3. What was thought to be RDNA 3.5 has now evolved into RDNA 4m, which will power AMD's Ryzen 500 "Medusa Point" series of APUs. With RDNA 3.5 / RDNA 4m expected to be used by AMD until 2029, it makes sense for AMD to adapt RDNA 3.5 into RDNA 4m with support for FSR 4 upscaling technology.

In contrast, "Medusa Halo" will utilize AMD's next-generation RDNA 5 / UDNA GPU microarchitecture. "Medusa Point" will introduce a desktop-exclusive RDNA 4 with the new RDNA 4m variant. Although we initially lack comparisons between the two, some instruction set extensions, such as WMMA and SWMMAC instructions, indicate support in the new "GFX1170" GPU, which should be associated with the GFX11 generation, also known as RDNA 3. Currently, this is believed to be an upgraded RDNA 3 with many RDNA 4 modules, enabling FSR 4 support even on the less powerful "Medusa Point" APU.

AMD is preparing to launch its "Medusa Point" APU in early 2027. However, more benchmarks are emerging to showcase what the actual SoC can do as AMD and its OEM partners test the chip. In the latest Geekbench v6 run, AMD's 10-core, 20-thread "Zen 6" chip appeared with the AMD Engineering Sample number 100-000001713-21_N, achieving a 2,300 single-core and 13,002 multicore score while officially running at only a 2.4 GHz base frequency. In real-world operation, it ran within the range of 2.0-2.1 GHz during the benchmark. The most surprising factor is that this "Medusa Point" test system can match a 10-core, 20-thread AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 "Strix Point" APU that operates at more than double the frequency. When comparing the two, "Medusa Point" scores slightly lower in single-core performance, while the multicore score is surprisingly higher.

This phenomenon could be attributed to the fact that the "Zen 6" cores in the "Medusa Point" APU are much better performing and more optimized for the workloads that Geekbench tests. The IPC improvement target from "Zen 5" in "Strix Point" to the newest "Zen 6" could be a high single-digit to low double-digit gain on average. It is likely that the combination of new instructions and IPC improvements is what is pushing "Medusa Point" so high. Since the new APU also appeared in firmware running AVX-VNNI in FP16 precision, we might be seeing these workloads getting accelerated thanks to the lower precision of the floating-point operations. For now, the situation remains a mystery, at least until more benchmarks are available in the coming months. AMD is expected to launch this new APU around CES 2027, so we still have a lot of time before official and third-party benchmarks are released.

A fresh leak from Geekbench has surfaced listing an unannounced AMD processor with the OPN (Ordering Part Number) code 100-000001713-31. As for the platform, that is listed as Plum-MDS1, a somewhat direct hint to Medusa Point, AMD's next-gen mobile APU family based on Zen 6. The chip is a 10-core, 20-thread with a 2.4 GHz base clock, though actual test results show it running closer to 1.3-2 GHz, unsurprising for an engineering sample this early in development. Each core gets 1 MB of L2 cache, and the L3 comes in at 32 MB, up from 24 MB on Strix Point and 16 MB on Hawk Point. This is 50% more cache than the current 10-core parts like the Ryzen AI 9 365. The test system had 32 GB of memory installed, type unspecified. Benchmark numbers aren't worth reading into at this stage, as the chip spent most of the test hovering around 1.39 GHz and barely peeked above 2 GHz, well below what a final retail part on a 3 nm process would run at. Too early to draw any conclusions from the scores.

Shipping manifests from Planet3DNow linked to the "Medusa" codename suggest a 4C+4D layout, standard and density-optimized cores, though that doesn't exactly explain the 10-core count seen in Geekbench. One theory is that two additional low-power cores sit in the IO die, bringing the total to ten. The part is expected to be a 28 W TDP mobile chip for the FP10 socket. Medusa Point is shaping up to combine Zen 6 CPU cores with a mix of RDNA 5 and RDNA 3.5 graphics, plus an updated NPU. A launch around CES 2027 fits the AMD usual cadence, meaning there is likely a long wait ahead; however, this Geekbench entry confirms that testing is already happening, whether at AMD itself or at one of its early hardware partners.

Given the current state of the gaming industry, rumors have started to emerge about the next-gen gaming console launches, with previous rumors claiming that the PlayStation 6 would launch alongside a new standalone PlayStation Portable gaming handheld, and that the PS6 would have less graphical processing power than the upcoming Xbox console. In a new post on YouTube, ubiquitous leaker and industry insider, Moore's Law is Dead, claims that the PS6 Orion—the living room console—will feature 2.5-3× the rasterization performance of the PS5 and 6-12× the ray tracing performance of the PS5, or 3-6× faster ray tracing than the PS5 Pro and roughly twice the raster performance of the PS5 Pro. This is thanks to a significantly faster RDNA 5 GPU with 52-54 CUs running at around 2-3.6 GHz and delivering around 34-40 TFLOPS of theoretical performance.

The leaker also shot down rumors that recently surfaced claiming that the PlayStation 6 may be delayed to as late as 2029 due to the ongoing memory crisis, stating that the nature of memory and APU fabrication contracts make it unlikely that the PS6 will be delayed that long. Instead, we may see a brief period of increased pricing or scarcity at launch. Apparently, according to his sources, Sony has a contract with TSMC to start mass-producing the PS6 as early as Q2 2027. MLID also mentions the AMD "Canis" APU slated to arrive in the PS6 handheld console, claiming that it will feature four Zen 6c cores, two Zen 6 LP cores (for running the operating system), and 16 RDNA 5 CUs running at 1.6-2 GHz with a 15 W total board power, all being fed by LPDDR5X memory over a 192-bit bus. All of this will allegedly be targeting 1080p gameplay with a significantly higher power limit when docked. He also speculates that the handheld will feature "vastly better" ray tracing than the PS5.

AMD and Lenovo recently drew ire from the gaming community over its apparent lack of support for the original Legion Go gaming handheld, although it was subsequently revealed that ASUS had more recent updates available for the ROG Ally, which is based on the same AMD APU. More recently, it was revealed by Adam Patrick Murray on The Full Nerd podcast that Lenovo has issued a statement in response to the news reports, and that the company has confirmed it will offer support for the Legion Go at least until October 2029. Murray says that his PR contact, who clarified the state of the Legion Go's support, denounced the original comment by Lenovo support that claimed that AMD and Lenovo were no longer supporting the device as an "ugly rumor." That said, the Legion Go's support has never had the best reputation for software support, with gamers often complaining in the r/LegionGo subreddit about slow updates.

Lenovo's full statement reads:

Support for the Lenovo Legion Go (8.8", 1) has not been discontinued. Lenovo is actively continuing to support the Legion Go (8.8", 1) with necessary driver and BIOS updates and will continue to do so through October 2029. Lenovo is working in concert with AMD on driver update cadence, and new updates will be released once they have passed Lenovo's rigorous review protocols.

AMD has reportedly stopped driver updates for its Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU solution for handheld consoles, according to the latest Lenovo Korea update. This means that only after 2 and a half years, AMD is pulling support for its SoC, leaving many enthusiasts in a difficult spot. Confirmation from multiple sources are piling up as Reddit users and customers of other handheld consoles are stating that support for their specific devices, based on the Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoC, are also stuck using drivers that are several months old. For example, a user has commented that his ASUS ROG Ally non-X version based on the Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoC has been stuck with six-month-old SoC drivers from August 2025. This means that AMD has effectively placed the Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme chips into a periodic update window, with no latest driver support coming to this 2023 SoC.

However, the situation is quite complex. OEMs like Lenovo and ASUS receive drivers from AMD and test them for their specific configurations. AMD offers configurable TDP (cTDP) for the Z1 Extreme with values ranging from 9 to 30 W. This means that OEMs can get a SoC with reduced clocks and power settings to match their desired handheld designs, or simply run the most aggressive 30 W configuration that will sacrifice some battery life but deliver overall higher CPU and GPU clocks. Hence, drivers must be tested to ensure they work properly on the specific TDP configuration by the OEM before they are installed by the user. Finding the "blame" is proving to be difficult, as it could be that AMD is not bothering with new updates, or OEMs are not eager to test their specific configurations.

AMD's next-generation Ryzen 500 series of APUs, which include the "Medusa Point" and "Medusa Halo" SoCs, are slowly taking shape, and we are learning more about the integrated graphics of "Medusa Point." According to the latest compiler patches, "Medusa Point" will feature a variant of RDNA 4 called RDNA 4m, likely a mobile version designed for laptops and mini PCs. In contrast, the "Medusa Halo" will utilize AMD's next-generation RDNA 5 / UDNA GPU microarchitecture. "Medusa Point" will introduce a desktop-exclusive RDNA 4 with the new RDNA 4m variant. Although we initially lack comparisons between the two, some instruction set extensions, such as WMMA and SWMMAC instructions, indicate support in the new "GFX1170" GPU, which should be associated with the GFX11 generation, also known as RDNA 3. Currently, this is believed to be an upgraded RDNA 3 with many RDNA 4 modules, enabling FSR 4 support even on the less powerful "Medusa Point" APU.

When it comes to the overall system configuration, AMD targets "Zen 6" CPU cores for both "Medusa" variants. Both "Point" and "Halo" versions will likely differentiate with the same factors we have in the current generation APUs, which is a mix of AMD's "Zen 6" and "Zen 6c" CPU cores for the "Medusa Point," while the more powerful "Medusa Halo" will feature a uniform "Zen 6" core cluster for maximum CPU performance on that side as well. Recently, we learned that the platform will adopt LPDDR6 memory, which will increase the memory bandwidth by 50% over the standard LPDDR5X memory we see implemented today.

It's been widely reported that the next-gen Sony PlayStation 6 is in the works, with AMD once again in charge of the APU that will power gaming experiences, even if rumors suggest that the next-gen console launch may be pushed back as far as 2029. It's also common knowledge by now that RDNA 5 will power the PS6, but a new rumor that originated from prolific leaker, KeplerL2 on the NeoGAF forum, suggest that the architecture in the PS6 will not be the full-fledged RDNA 5.

The leaker does not expand on this further, other than to remind that the PS5 doesn't use the full RDNA 2 architecture either, but consoles have always used custom APUs, so the idea that the PS6 won't use the full RDNA 5 feature stack isn't unreasonable. Some have postulated that one feature that wouldn't make the cut is the NPU, since that may not get used in a modern console. It's also possible that certain productivity features or video encoders, although even a lot of the AI improvements in RDNA 4 have been marketed as gaming upgrades.

The next major refresh of AMD's Ryzen AI MAX APUs is still far away, but now we are putting together the pieces of the "Medusa Halo" APU puzzle. According to a famous leaker, @Olrak29_ on X, AMD's next-generation "Medusa Halo" APU will be complemented by LPDDR6 memory. This is one of the first LPDDR6 memory SoCs we are learning about, making it unique. Based on previous rumors, the silicon could have a 384-bit bus powering LPDDR6 memory, which would translate into massive bandwidth powering the SoC's new CPU and GPU configuration. This includes up to 24 "Zen 6" CPU cores and 48 RDNA 5/UDNA compute units for the GPU configuration. Paired with the added bandwidth from LPDDR6 memory—which these APUs greatly benefit from—"Medusa Halo" will be one of the best-performing SoCs when it launches.

Interestingly, memory manufacturers like Samsung and Innosilicon are already supplying LPDDR6 modules to customers for validation. Innosilicon's LPDDR6 modules boast an impressive speed of 14.4 Gbps, significantly faster than Samsung's initial modules, which achieve 10.7 Gbps. Innosilicon's modules offer a 1.5x increase in IO speed capability compared to the 9.6 Gbps of LPDDR5X previously available, along with improved efficiency. The latest LPDDR6 also increases the number of bits per byte of IO from 8 to 12. This results in LPDDR6's bandwidth at a single-channel 24-bit I/O speed being double that of LPDDR5X at a 16-bit single-channel. The company is reportedly collaborating with TSMC and Samsung to ensure sufficient production capacity for LPDDR6 IP, while Samsung relies on its own fabs for manufacturing memory.

Microsoft's next-generation Xbox console is reportedly taking an unconventional route by running on a customized version Windows 11 OS instead of the specialized console OS that typically powers these devices. According to Windows Central, the system will function essentially as a gaming PC that boots into an Xbox interface by default. This UI is likely similar to what the current Xbox Full Screen Experience looks and feels like, and will likely provide the same performance boost. We have already seen that Xbox FSE mode brings about a 9.3% reduction in RAM usage and about an 8.6% higher FPS due to the smaller system overhead. Users could exit that interface to access the full Windows 11 operating system, meaning the hardware would support Steam, EPIC, and other competing game stores, as well as standard PC applications alongside Xbox games.

This is Microsoft's first radical departure from the walled-garden approach that has defined console gaming for decades. What it could translate to is the first hybrid system that serves multiple purposes, from traditional gaming to running productivity suites of Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, and others, all from the same system. Teams from the Windows and Xbox divisions are reportedly collaborating closely to adapt the operating system for living room use. Microsoft is also working with hardware partners like ASUS to create multiple devices at different price points rather than releasing a single standard console. Plans for a first-party handheld device are still under consideration, though the traditional console appears to be the main focus.

At Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2026 in Barcelona, Akasa showcased its latest solutions that embed LCD screens in passively-cooled cases. There are three versions, including "Kepler," "Maxwell Pro Plus," and "Euler CMX," all of which come with an LCD screen for monitoring or providing a visual interface that a user might need. First on the list is the new "Kepler" chassis, which is a 2U rack-mountable design with support for microATX and Mini-ITX boards, compatible with either Intel LGA1851 or LGA1700 sockets, capable of running anything from 12th to 14th Generation Intel Core processors, or Core Ultra in the latest 15th Generation "Arrow Lake." The system limits the CPU TDP to 35 W, which makes sense since it is a completely passively cooled enclosure. Kepler includes a 150 W AC-to-DC converter to power the system, and there is the possibility to install up to four single-slot low-profile PCIe cards or anything that fits within four slots of low-profile PCIe space.

AMD posted its record fourth quarter revenue of $10.3 billion in 2025, and during the earnings call, the company issued some guidance on the upcoming product portfolio. During the call, AMD confirmed that Valve's Steam Machine is on track and shipping early this year, while its custom SoC division that designs processors for PlayStation and Xbox consoles will deliver an RDNA 5-based SoC for the next-generation Xbox console. While the Steam Machine specifications are confirmed, Xbox "Magnus" SoC is still largely a collection of rumored specifications. The "Magnus" SoC is rumored to feature the largest APU ever designed for a consumer console, with a 408 mm² chiplet design. Of this, 144 mm² is dedicated to the SoC built on TSMC's N3P node, while the GPU occupies 264 mm². The AMD chip is expected to include up to 11 CPU cores—three Zen 6 and eight Zen 6c—alongside a substantial GPU setup with 68 RDNA 5 compute units, four shader engines, and at least 24 MB of L2 cache. Memory might expand to 48 GB of GDDR7 on a 192-bit bus. A dedicated NPU is rumored to offer significant on-device AI performance, with reports suggesting up to 110 TOPS.

Dr. Lisa SuFor 2026, we expect semi-custom SoC annual revenue to decline by a significant double-digit percentage as we enter the seventh year of what has been a very strong console cycle. From a product standpoint, Valve is on track to begin shipping its AMD-powered Steam Machine early this year, and development of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox featuring an AMD semi-custom SoC is progressing well to support a launch in 2027.

Broadcom Inc., a global leader in semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions, today announced the industry's first Wi-Fi 8 access point (AP) and switch solution purpose-built with a unified architecture for AI-ready enterprise networks.

Building on Broadcom's first-to-market Wi-Fi 8 radios launched in October 2025, the new enterprise-grade Wi-Fi 8 AP platform is powered by a new accelerated processing unit (APU) chip, the BCM49438, designed to optimize wireless networking and AI acceleration at the enterprise edge. Additionally, Broadcom unveiled an enterprise-grade switch platform powered by a new Ethernet switch, the Trident X3+ BCM56390, with Broadcom's industry-leading multi-gigabit PHY and PoE power sourcing equipment (PSE) chips. Together, these platforms form a unified architecture that maximizes the performance, efficiency and security for the Wi-Fi 8 wireless network in the enterprise.

The first signs off an "earlier than expected" launch of Apple's futuristic M6 chip were linked to an allegedly expedited mass production cycle of Samsung Display's "8.6G OLED panels." This cutting-edge double layer design could debut on a majorly redesigned line of MacBook Pro models. A recent Bloomberg "Power On" newsletter, authored by Mark Gurman, projected a very general roadmap of forthcoming portable Mac computer products. In 2026, with possible slippages into the next year, the veteran Apple soothsayer believes that company leadership could be planning a crowded line-up of brand-new items. Within the first half, Gurman predicts launches of MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch models that pack M5 Max or M5 Pro APUs.

Further out speculative M6-powered devices are reportedly on the cards for release in 2026, but Gurman's latest forecast does not designate a particular product range as a pioneer of next-gen chip usage. In the recent past, the allegedly 2-nanometer M6 chipset has been frequently linked to the aforementioned major MacBook Pro overhaul. Gurman did not pinpoint a specific family, instead envisioning a larger picture: "one wrinkle—I think the M6 chip is potentially coming sooner than people anticipate. Not necessarily in these next laptops, but still in the near future in some configurations. Apple released the M5 processor in October in three devices. Though it might seem soon for an M6, there was only a five-month gap between the M3 and M4." In the event of Apple's MacBook Pro OLED release window slipping into 2027, M6 SoCs could be deployed in a new wave of iPad Pro (2026) tablets. The company unveiled its eighth-gen design last October.

Intel apparently has no plans to compete with the high-power iGPUs in AMD's Strix Halo APUs. This is according to Intel's Tom Petersen, who recently spoke to Club386 about the potential for a Panther Lake Halo, as it were, explaining that there are many factors currently preventing Intel from going down that route. While Intel's Arc B390 iGPU currently appears to only be outmatched by AMD's Radeon 8060S in the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and similar, it seems as though that's where Intel will stop for now, with Petersen reportedly saying that that sort of performance segment is "primarily discrete," and that those looking for that sort of performance "would be better served by a small, discrete GPU that's going to be provided by third parties."

He goes on to explain that AMD's Strix Halo APUs aren't as efficient, stating that "AMD's current product is not that competitive either, on a power or a performance-per-watt basis," and that Intel is "focused on integrated graphics performance, primarily for gaming." Much like AMD, Intel produces both integrated and discrete graphics solutions, with the latest Arc GPU rumors pointing to a workstation-grade Battlemage BMG-G31 GPU, which is supposed to arrive later this year in the form of the Arc Pro B70 GPU with 32 GB of VRAM. Currently, the Intel Arc B580 is Intel's most powerful gaming GPU, and that delivers markedly better performance than the AMD Radeon 8060S, depending on the specific workload.

AMD's RDNA 3.5 integrated graphics is poised to become one of the company's longest-running iGPUs. A slide generated by AI and shared on the Chinese Weibo forums by Golden Pig Upgrade suggests that AMD plans to use RDNA 3.5 until 2029, making it one of the most enduring versions of RDNA GPUs. Although this slide is not an official roadmap, it provides insight into the company's future plans. Golden Pig Upgrade is known for accurate information from various industry sources, lending credibility to this illustration of AMD's product strategy. According to this roadmap, most consumers buying laptops in the coming years will experience the same integrated graphics capabilities as those found in today's Ryzen AI 300 and 400 series processors.

AMD seems to be reserving architectural updates for high-end "Halo" products, potentially equipping the rumored "Medusa Halo" lineup's premium variants that use separate GPU tiles with the next-generation RDNA 5. However, standard "Medusa Point" chips are expected to maintain the existing RDNA 3.5 architecture. This approach effectively halts progress in integrated graphics for most of AMD's product line, leaving office laptops and midrange machines without significant visual performance improvements until the end of the decade. The only expected advancements in the coming years are at the CPU level, making the future "Zen 6" architecture the main attraction for midrange laptops. AMD's only chance to boost iGPU performance in the near future would be by increasing the number of compute units, either through a larger die area or a more advanced manufacturing process that allows for a denser package. However, with RDNA 5 anticipated for "Medusa Halo" and other products, this seems less likely.