All articles tagged with #gpu
Two Chinese men staying in esports hotels swapped high-end RTX 5080 GPUs for cheaper RTX 3060s in the hotel PCs, hoping to resell the stolen cards for about half their value. A power outage and subsequent room checks exposed the swap, tying them to up to four cases worth around 80,000 yuan (~$12,000). The GPUs were recovered and returned to hotel managers after their July 20 arrests.
A retrospective roundup of ten high-profile GPUs that flopped at launch or failed to live up to their hype—from the Intel i740 to the 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000—explaining how factors like excessive price, slow performance, missing features, late timing, and design trade-offs doomed them despite strong specs on paper.
Industry sources say AMD will raise graphics-card and memory prices by at least 10% starting August, aiming to match Nvidia’s recent hikes amid strong AI datacenter demand and ongoing component shortages, signaling broader price increases for PC hardware and consoles.
AMD plans at least a 10% price hike for its RDNA4 GPUs in August due to ongoing GDDR6 memory shortages and higher memory costs from suppliers; pricier VRAM configurations are expected to carry larger premiums, while low-VRAM models like the RX 9050 4GB may see around a 10% increase. The move follows NVIDIA's pricing and aims to align the RDNA4 mid-range lineup with premium pricing, though AMD currently lacks a high-end rival to NVIDIA's top SKUs.
Rising memory costs and AI demand are pushing graphic-card prices higher, with Nvidia reportedly planning another round of GPU price hikes and AMD potentially following. The memory crunch—affecting GDDR7 and GDDR6—has already driven RTX 50-series and RX 90-series prices up and may delay mid-gen refreshes, signaling inflated GPU prices through 2027.
Taiwan’s Economic Daily News reports Nvidia plans a 20–30% price hike across its entire GPU lineup due to rising DRAM costs driven by AI and data-center demand; the changes would affect both GDDR7 and GDDR6 memory, with examples including the RTX 5090 potentially jumping from $1,999 to around $4,000–$4,500 and the RTX 5060 Ti from $379 to $569. Nvidia has not publicly announced a price increase yet, and CEO Jensen Huang has downplayed AI doom scenarios.
Primate Labs released Geekbench 7 with revamped CPU/GPU benchmarks that better reflect real-world use, adding on-device AI, image/video processing, and new workloads; the GPU bench now emphasizes machine learning and content creation, CUDA support joins OpenCL/Vulkan/Metal, multi-core testing is more selective, and media tests (AV1, Opus, Whisper) are expanded. Geekbench 7 Pro is 20% off through August 6, while the standard version remains free for personal use.
Geekbench 7 debuts with a redesigned multi-core benchmark that better mirrors real-world multi-threaded workloads and a revamped GPU benchmark focused on machine-learning and content-creation tasks, including real-time video effects, image upscaling, LUT-based color grading, path tracing, and fluid simulations. It adds new tests for RAW image processing and supports broader image formats, while expanding media workloads (audio/video encoding/decoding, Whisper, AV1, Opus) and keeping CUDA, OpenCL, Vulkan, and Metal as APIs. Available on iOS, macOS, and other platforms, with a free personal-use tier and a Pro version discounted 20% through August 6.
A Steam Machine reportedly fails with a solid red LED about 20 minutes after setup and a software update, a sign Valve confirms points to a GPU failure. Because the GPU is soldered to the motherboard, repairs aren’t simple and typically require warranty repair or a motherboard replacement rather than swapping a graphics card.
A Steam Machine reportedly shows the Red Line of Death (RLOD) about 20 minutes after powering on, signaling a GPU failure. Steam’s support notes that RLOD patterns indicate different faults, with a mid-to-right red line pointing to a GPU issue. Because these machines use a soldered GPU, repairs typically require warranty service or motherboard-level work rather than a simple card swap, which could be slow given early batch shortages. The incident adds scrutiny to SteamOS hardware, especially as multi-platform support expands and prices for the Steam Machine remain a concern.
According to Mark Gurman, Apple will skip Pro and Max variants in the M6 line to accelerate the AI-focused M7, with the base M6 shipping in iPads and entry Macs while the M7 arrives in early 2027 and its Pro/Max by late 2027 and Ultra in 2028. The M6 will gain memory bandwidth, a faster CPU, a 12-core GPU option, upgraded video encoding/decoding, and an enhanced Neural Engine for AI tasks, while the M5 Ultra remains possible but postponed.
Allbirds has pivoted from footwear to AI infrastructure, selling its shoe business and rebranding as Smartbird with Nadia Carlsten as CEO to build a mid-market, single-tenant GPU platform for enterprises and sovereign AI. The company will source GPUs from multiple vendors and tailor infrastructure for specific customers, avoiding direct competition with hyperscalers.
Google inks a cloud deal with SpaceX to access its compute capacity, including 110,000 Nvidia GPUs, for about $920 million per month from Oct 2026 through Jun 2029, a contract that could exceed $30 billion. The agreement, tied to Google’s Gemini AI efforts and SpaceX’s expanding data-center infrastructure ahead of an IPO, includes termination rights if GPU delivery is insufficient and a 90-day notice window after Dec 31.
Nvidia has unveiled the RTX Spark, a new chip designed for Windows laptops and desktops to accelerate AI workloads and boost graphics performance, signaling a push toward on-device AI capabilities and more capable Windows PCs.
NVIDIA and AMD CEOs Jensen Huang and Lisa Su landed in Taipei ahead of Computex 2026, signaling a heavy AI and consumer-tech focus. NVIDIA is gearing up for a GTC-style Taipei event on June 1 with major AI reveals, while AMD is highlighting its 2nm Venice HPC production at TSMC and plans AI-centric and consumer-ready announcements, as both prepare for a jam-packed Computex schedule in Taipei’s Nangang district and key partner meetings.