Microsoft has released the Shader Model 6.10 preview, included in the new AgilitySDK 1.720-preview build. This preview introduces a compelling feature related to GPU-dedicated AI engine control. According to the developer blog, Shader Model 6.10 features a new, streamlined algebra matrix API that reveals all known matrix operations for popular gaming GPUs from AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA. This means that modern GPUs have dedicated hardware for processing AI workloads, typically involving matrix multiplication and accumulation. Modern machine learning-based upscaling relies on this hardware, whether it's Tensor cores from NVIDIA, XMX cores from Intel, or AI accelerators in AMD GPUs, each with its own communication method. To unify access, Microsoft is introducing a new API from the class linalg::Matrix, which will expose all matrix operations to the shader language. This allows neural rendering operations to be executed across multiple GPUs with a single programming effort.

As the developer behind the DirectX 12 API, Microsoft is observing a significant increase in graphics features utilizing neural network-based rendering techniques to enhance user graphics. This will require more matrix units in modern gaming GPUs. To provide a unified layer of abstraction for programming and executing neural rendering operations, Microsoft hopes that Shader Model 6.10 will become the standard for every GPU maker. Interestingly, this feature is supported across all NVIDIA RTX hardware, as it includes Tensor cores. Intel support is planned for an upcoming release, with B-series GPUs expected to be compatible. Only AMD's RDNA 4-based Radeon RX 9000 series GPUs support this feature, with no support planned for older models like the RX 7000 series and below.

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.

Shortly after AMD released FSR 4, claiming that the tech was exclusive to the latest RDNA 4 GPUs, the company seemingly accidentally published the libraries that make up the backbone of the tech, revealing that there may have been a version of FSR 4 planned for RDNA 3 and RDNA 2 GPUs. While this open-sourced oops was later used by modders to bring support to the aforementioned Radeon RX 7000 and 6000 GPUs, a recent Digital Foundry interview with Sony's Mark Cerny suggests that the INT8 version of FSR 4 may have been a compatibility version of the upscaling tech that would later make an appearance as Upgraded PSSR (or PSSR 2.0) on the PlayStation 5 Pro and its RDNA 2 GPU.

According to Cerny, "FSR Redstone and the new PSSR have somewhat different implementations due to the underlying hardware, e.g. FSR Upscaling uses 8-bit floating point and PSSR uses 8-bit integer." He adds that "in practice, the same model is used, but it's trained on different data, e.g. if targeting a 2:1 fixed upscale then the training data used is just for that upscaling ratio - and that different training results in different parameters...not seeing too much difference in results, the various flavors in the updated FSR Upscaling really are rather close to the new PSSR." He also mentions that, on PC, because players are generally so much closer to their monitors than living room gamers are to their TVs, the goals of FSR and PSSR differ slightly.

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 has released its official FSR Software Development Kit version 2.2, which includes the latest set of FSR technologies. This release features FSR Upscaling 4.1 and Ray Regeneration 1.1, showcased late last week as part of the Adrenalin Edition 26.3.1 WHQL driver. The updated FSR "Redstone" SDK v2.2 introduces a much improved FSR 4.1 upscaling technology for the RDNA 4 family of graphics cards. The transition from FSR 4.0 to FSR 4.1 demonstrates that the latest version provides much finer details of game scenery, especially when objects are in motion. In the Crimson Desert game demo, grass moved by the wind appears much more detailed with FSR 4.1 compared to FSR 4.0, which previously applied a somewhat blurry effect to the grass. This improvement brings the visuals closer to native rendering.

Additionally, AMD has included Ray Regeneration 1.1 in the FSR SDK 2.2. AMD's FSR Ray Regeneration processes the noisy output that ray tracing naturally produces and cleans it up in real time, resulting in noticeably sharper and more polished visuals without requiring developers to overhaul their existing pipelines. With the update to version 1.1, it delivers much better and deeper shadows, immersive lighting, and more. You can check out the images below for comparison. The latest SDK also includes AMD FSR Frame Generation 4.0.0 in its vanilla version, as well as AMD FSR Radiance Caching 0.9.0, which is now in technical preview.

Sony recently introduced Upgraded PSSR—aka PSSR 2.0—on its PlayStation 5 Pro consoles with the launch of Resident Evil, finally unlocking the additional AI chops of the PS5 Pro's APU. If recent comments by Sony's Mark Cerny to Digital Foundry are anything to go by, PlayStation's console hardware will be following a similar trajectory to gaming PCs when it comes to these ML and AI-based features. Specifically, it seems as though frame generation will be one of the next advancements to make its way to the PlayStation platform, although it seems as though gamers will need to wait a little longer for that to be implemented—if it is implemented during this console generation at all.

Addressing a question regarding FSR Frame Generation on PlayStation, Cerny commented that "FSR Frame Generation is also based on co-developed technology...and an equivalent frame generation library should be seen at some point on PlayStation platforms." He goes on to say that frame generation will not be making it to Sony's consoles in 2026, stating that "we have no more releases planned for this year." Given that the next-generation PlayStation hardware is slated to arrive somewhere between 2027 and 2028, it almost seems likely that Sony will announce FSR Frame Generation at the same time as the PlayStation 6 with a cut-back version available for the PS5, although it's potentially possible for Sony to update the current PS5 Pro with FSR Frame Generation, since FSR Redstone was developed in partnership with Sony, to begin with. There have already been modders who have run FSR 4 Redstone Frame Generation on RDNA 3, as well, so it may be possible for the PS5's RDNA 2 APU, as well, although at the cost of a higher performance penalty.

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.

AMD is refining its RDNA 5 architecture, which is likely in its final stages of design. Thanks to a submission to the LLVM compiler, we are learning that AMD's upcoming RDNA 5/UDNA architecture features architectural changes that will enhance compute utilization, resulting in significantly higher game shader performance. The codename for RDNA 5 is GFX1310, and it now implements a full Dual-Issue VALU pipeline for Wave32. This allows vector operations (VOPs) to be issued simultaneously to the GPU's X and Y arithmetic logic unit (ALU) lanes. The new design expands the range of fused multiply-add (FMA) and other VOP instructions eligible for dual-issue and relaxes some register constraints, enabling compilers and shader code to perform more intensive floating-point work in Wave32 mode. This means the FP32 compute utilization of RDNA 5 can be much higher than before, greatly benefiting applications that are FP32-heavy, which means gamers are about to see a significant performance boost.

AMD originally implemented Dual Issue VALU in the RDNA 3 architecture with the Radeon RX 7000 series graphics cards. However, the pipeline was not fully functional, as the dual-issue implementation supported only a limited subset of VOP instructions, excluded several important FMA variants, required Wave32 mode and strict register-bank separation, and was often bypassed by compilers and not fully exposed to drivers. As a result, many shaders could not exploit X/Y pairing, and measured FP32 throughput often fell well below the hardware's theoretical peak. This was detrimental to performance and reduced compute capability, especially in applications that rely heavily on FP32 compute. This is particularly true for modern games that process vertex and pixel shaders primarily using FP32 compute. With the new RDNA 5 design, gaming performance should align more closely with theoretical compute performance.

Factory automation, physical AI in mobile robotics, and other AI-driven edge applications are rapidly evolving and driving the need for computing platforms that provide real-time AI processing, deterministic performance, and long-term reliability in always-on environments.

To meet these needs, AMD is expanding its AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Series processor portfolio. New processors feature up to 2x higher CPU core counts, up to 8x higher graphics processing unit (GPU) compute, and an estimated 36% higher system tera operations.

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.

Early access to AMD Radeon Software's "Vanguard" driver testing program has reportedly revealed a new Radeon FSR 4.1 DLL file, which is the next update for AMD's FSR 4 technology. According to the latest leak, AMD is preparing the FSR 4.1 update, which should bring some visual or performance enhancements, or both. Some Reddit PC enthusiasts are applying workarounds to run the file on RDNA 3 hardware, even though AMD officially doesn't support FSR 4 on the RDNA 3 generation due to some missing instructions on the older microarchitecture. Running these files can produce visible quality gains but are experimental, varying widely by title and system setup. Even when a leaked DLL carries a digital signature, running unofficial binaries can trigger instability, break driver integrity checks, or conflict with future official updates.

However, the enthusiast community has run the experiment and confirms that early side-by-side comparisons show small improvements in fine detail and edge definition when the leaked FSR 4.1 binary is forced into titles that previously used FSR 4.0.3. Testers describe sharper foliage and fabric textures and less ghosting. Other users report inconsistent results and artifacts, suggesting that the update is still a work in progress. We could have expected the update to land alongside AMD Software Adrenalin 26.2.2 WHQL drivers that launched today, as the DLL file was found in the beta test of the 26.2.2 driver, but since the update is still experimental, maybe the next Adrenalin update will bring the FSR 4.1 update as an official package.

AMD announced its Ryzen AI 400 series "Gorgon Point" mobile APUs based on Zen 5 and Zen 5c cores at CES 2026 earlier this year, simultaneously showing off the AM5-based Ryzen AI 400-branded desktop APUs at the same show. Now, according to a new leak by Moore's Law is Dead on X, AMD will allegedly launch the new Ryzen AI 400-series desktop processors for AM5 in the first half of 2026. MLID adds that the launch may even happen as early as Q1. He also released what he claims to be a short promotional video of an AMD Ryzen AI 400 Pro processor in an AM5 socket to lend credence to his leak.

Exact specifications for the AM5 APUs are unconfirmed, but if they're anything like the laptop counterparts, it is expected that the new APUs will launch with the same silicon as Strix Point but with adjusted power management and increased clock speeds. This means we can expect to see the Ryzen AI 400 desktop processors top out with a 12-core (4× Zen 5; 8 × Zen 5c) CPU cluster tied to a 16 CU RDNA 3.5 iGPU, and a 60 TOPS NPU.

We previously covered how enterprising gamers managed to bypass AMD's FSR 4 restrictions to get Redstone frame generation tech working on older RDNA GPUs with OptiScaler. Now, it seems as though OptiScaler has managed bypass another one of AMD's limitations that restricted FSR 4 implementations to DirectX 12 games. According to the build notes uncovered by a Reddit user u/eduhfx, OptiScaler is testing adding Vulkan support in a new test build v0.9.0-pre10. Notably, OptiScaler is using a compatibility tool to work around FSR 4's lack of Vulkan support, similarly to how Linux translates DirectX, calls to Vulkan with DXVK or VKD3D. This also means that FSR 4 on Vulkan should work on Linux systems, as well, where games often run better under Vulkan than DX12—although at the time of writing, FSR 4 w/DX12 currently has issues running on Linux due to a Mesa issue that seemingly cannot be solved by the OptiScaler team.

Added Vulkan w/DX12 support - FSR 4 VK w/DX12, FSR 2.1 VK w/DX12

Currently, known issues:
FSR 4 VK w/DX12 has issues on Linux due to missing Mesa extensions
Not interested in reports as nothing we can fix on our side as far as we know

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.

AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 technology, now known simply as FSR 4, is currently supported in many games, but not across all AMD RDNA GPU generations. In response to an inquiry from Hardware Unboxed, AMD mentioned that it is still uncertain whether official FSR 4 support will be extended to the Radeon RX 7000 series and older GPUs, as the company reportedly has "no updates to share at this time." AMD official product separation stems from its RDNA 4 architecture and the support for 8-bit floating point instructions. While the latest RDNA 4 hardware supports Wave Matrix Multiply Accumulate in FP8 format, older RDNA generations like RDNA 3 and RDNA 2 lack this hardware instruction support and can't process 8-bit floating point data in this format.

However, older Radeon GPUs can instead rely on the 8-bit integer (INT8) data formats, which Radeon RX 7000 series fully supports. AMD accidentally leaked FSR 4 INT8 on its AMD GPUOpen platform, showing that FSR 4 on older GPUs is a possibility, which is just kept hidden for now. Later on, ComputerBase tested this leaked library, finding that FSR 4 offers a balance between native image quality and FSR 3.1 performance on both RDNA 3 and RDNA 2 hardware. In tests with Cyberpunk 2077 in 4K on Ultra settings using the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, FSR 4 delivered 11% faster performance than native, but was 16% slower than FSR 3.1. Interestingly, performance may be the reason why AMD is holding these INT8 FPR 4 libraries back, but another point could be product separation.

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.

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.

MSI has officially unveiled the specifications of its new AI-centric mini PC line-up that is being debuted at CES 2026. The new line-up offers something for everyone—as long as you're looking to run local LLMs or similar AI workloads—whether you're looking for a hyper-compact x86 system powered by AMD's RDNA 3.5, a more powerful NVIDIA RTX 5070, or something more exotic with NVIDIA's new Arm-based DGX Spark platform.

Perhaps the most interesting mini PC that MSI is showing off at CES is the EdgeXpert, which is targeted at AI developers and is built on NVIDIA's DGX Spark platform. In the EdgeXpert, which was announced earlier this year, that means 20 Arm CPU cores and an AI Blackwell GPU as well as NVIDIA's NVLink C2C tech, which claims to offer "five times the bandwidth of PCIe 5.0," for improved data transfer and sharing between the CPU and GPU. According to MSI, the EdgeXpert is capable of a petaFLOP of AI performance. It also features 128 GB of LPDDR5x unified system memory and a vapor chamber cooling system.

Back in December, AMD's current RDNA 4 GPU lineup apparently showed little impact on Steam's Hardware and Software Survey results. However, as we enter 2026, data from December 2025 has been processed, and the first Radeon RX 9000 series GPU has appeared in the survey rankings. At 100+ ranking, the first AMD Radeon RX 9000 series GPU based on the RDNA 4 IP is the Radeon RX 9070 SKU, commanding a 0.22% share of all gamers participating in the survey. This is also the only RDNA 4 GPU present on the list, meaning that all the remaining SKUs are below 0.15% of the total share, hence not shown in this ranking.

For other AMD GPU SKUs, there is a slight change in the overall structure, where the RDNA 3-based Radeon RX 7800 XT is the most popular AMD gamer GPU with a 1.57% share this December. This dethrones the previous RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6600, which now stands at 1.51% of the overall group. This includes the market share of AMD GPUs on both Windows and Linux-based PCs. Additionally, this is the first time RDNA 4-based GPUs have appeared on the Steam Survey list since the initial launch in March, finally showcasing the share of the latest AMD graphics.

In our reviews of previous Lenovo Legion laptops, we've noted that they deliver a lot of bang for the buck, with devices like the Legion 5i being a great example. Now, it looks like Lenovo is planning to launch an update to its Legion gaming laptop series at CES in January 2026. Recent leaks from Windows Latest indicate that Lenovo is planning on launching AMD-powered Legion 5a and Legion 7a laptops, all of which will feature updated AMD Ryzen AI 400-series APUs and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Laptop GPUs. Prior leaks about the AMD Ryzen 400 APUs revealed that the next-gen APUs will pack both Zen 5 and RDNA 3.5 tech, with the Ryzen 9 APUs featuring up to 12 cores, while the leaked Ryzen 7 variants both packed 8 cores.

The leak confirms Legion 7a laptops equipped with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 and Ryzen AI 9 465 APUs, while the 5a laptops will come with either the Ryzen AI 9 465 or Ryzen 7 250. The Legion 7a and the Ryzen 400-series Legion 5a will lead the line-up with 16-inch, 2,560 × 1,600, 16:10 OLED displays topping out at 240 Hz (165 Hz for the Legion 5a) and 500 nits brightness. It seems as though only the Lenovo Legion 7a will feature NVIDIA G-SYNC, while the entire line-up will deliver 100% DCI-P3 coverage. All except for the Ryzen 7-powered Legion 5a will feature X-Rite calibration from the factory. The top-end Legion 7a will come with up to 64 GB of LPDDR5x RAM at 8533 MT/s, while the lower-end Legion laptops will have slower DDR5-5600 RAM and top out at 32 GB. All three laptops will seemingly also feature keyboards with 24-zone RGB and swappable keycaps, which is interesting for those interested in longevity and repairability.

Earlier in the month, Samsung's marketing team initiated their Exynos 2600 promotional campaign. At the time, official teaser material did not provide any substantial hints about the next-gen mobile chipset's technical underpinnings. Weeks later, a fresh leak has laid out the cutting-edge mobile processor's fundamentals. PhoneArt's social media post seems to confirm previous predictions about an overall 10-core design, and being based on an important in-house 2 nm node process. Today's prediction did not outline the Exynos 2600 SoC's cluster configuration, but previous outpourings have settled on a "1x Prime + 3x Performance + 6x Efficiency" internal setup. PhoneArt reckons that the prime core will reach a maximum clock frequency of 3.9 GHz. A commenter, Erencan Yılmaz, reckons that this figure should be reduced to 3.8 GHz, due to power consumption considerations when looking at a 2 nm GAA-based design.

Supposedly, max. performance core speed is 3.25 GHz, while efficiency-oriented units can only reach up to 2.75 GHz. In the past Samsung and AMD have co-developed various Xclipse integrated graphics solutions, for proprietary smartphone platforms. Industry observers expected this RDNA-based collaboration to continue into a new generation. The fresh mentioning of a mysterious "AMD JUNO" iGPU has caused some confusion—this new Team Red IP is said to be clocked at 985 MHz. Additionally, PhoneArt claims that "JUNO" supports modern APIs: OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 3.0, and Vulkan 1.3. It is plausible that "JUNO" could be a codename for the speculated "Xclipse 960" integrated graphics processor.

AMD has quietly introduced a new RDNA 4 SKU targeting lower overall GPU power consumption. According to the updated website listing, AMD has released the Radeon RX 9060 XT Low-Power GPU SKU, designed to fit within a reduced TDP envelope. With a TDP of 140 W, AMD recommends a minimum power supply of 450 W. The card features 32 Compute Units (CUs), 2,048 Stream Processors (SPs), 32 ray tracing accelerators, 64 AI accelerators, 128 texture units, and 64 ROPs, all on a die with 29.7 billion transistors. This is 20 W lower than the standard Radeon RX 9060 XT SKU, which also has 32 CUs and 2,048 SPs but operates at a 160 W TDP.

Memory and I/O specifications remain consistent for this class. The RX 9060 XT LP comes with up to 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit memory interface, supported by 32 MB of AMD Infinity Cache, and offers an advertised memory speed of up to 20 Gbps for a peak bandwidth of up to 320 GB per second. Display outputs include DisplayPort 2.1a and HDMI 2.1b. The card supports modern codecs and formats, including AV1 encode and decode, H.264 and H.265 encode and decode, and 4K HDMI support.

AMD has officially expanded its Radeon AI PRO R9000 workstation lineup with two new Navi 48-based cards built on the RDNA 4 architecture. The two models are the Radeon AI PRO R9700S and the Radeon AI PRO R9600D. Both models feature 32 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit interface, delivering a peak memory bandwidth of 640 GB/s. These additions offer a consistent hardware platform for professional customers who require larger frame buffer sizes for compute and visualization tasks.

The Radeon AI PRO R9700S maintains the full Navi 48 configuration with 64 CUs and 4,096 SPs. AMD rates the card at up to 47.8 TeraFLOPS of FP32 performance when the boost clock reaches 2,920 MHz, with a total board power of 300 W. The Radeon AI PRO R9600D, on the other hand, reduces the Navi 48 configuration to 48 active CUs and 3,072 SPs, offering approximately 24.8 TeraFLOPS of FP32 throughput at a boost clock of 2,020 MHz, while targeting a lower 150 W board power.

As we enter December, Valve has completed processing data and officially released the November Steam Hardware and Software Survey, highlighting trends in the gaming industry. Interestingly, AMD's latest RDNA 4 designs from the Radeon RX 9000 series have yet to make a significant impact on the market, indicating that many Steam survey participants are not using AMD Radeon RX 9000 series GPUs. The top spot in the GPU usage list is held by NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4060 (notebook), with the first AMD product appearing nine spots later. Valve lists this first AMD Radeon GPU as an unnamed entry, likely representing integrated GPUs or other systems-on-chip products with unconventional configurations compared to standard discrete GPUs.

The first AMD discrete GPU on the list is the older RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6600, followed by the RDNA 3-based RX 7800 XT. However, nine months after the RDNA 4 series began selling, there are no RDNA 4 GPUs present in the general survey. This could suggest that Steam gamers prefer other options or that the RDNA 4 series isn't selling well. While we don't have a definitive conclusion, the data points to a concerning trend.

Valve officially unveiled its long-rumored Steam Machine on Wednesday, a compact, cube-shaped system that combines small-form-factor PC design with a living-room console/HTPC experience. The exterior features a simple black shell with a slim LED accent, offering a blank canvas for customization. Hardware modders and skin makers have already started reimagining this canvas with themed wraps and decorative covers, available for purchase separately. The Steam Machine's tool-free magnetic front panel allows owners to easily change the device's appearance. Valve plans to release design files, enabling hobbyists to print or craft their own faceplates with different textures or airflow patterns.

Valve's engineers explored more ambitious front cover designs, including a prototype e-ink module capable of displaying system telemetry. However, the company confirmed that these experimental features will remain internal. The Steam Machine is available in 512 GB and 2 TB SSD models with microSD expansion. It combines a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 processor with RDNA 3 graphics to potentially deliver 4K gaming at 60 FPS, complete with ray tracing and FSR support. As a semi-custom GPU, it may be closer to AMD's RDNA 3.5 rather than the standard RDNA 3.