Mostly what I do here at PC Gamer is wait for my colleagues to post about their tech issues in Slack and tell them to install Linux in response. Webcam broken? Linux. Frame drops? Linux. Distant relationship with your father? Linux can fix that. I am unfathomably, incandescently popular and no one wants me to be quiet.

A common response to my implorations goes something like this: "I'm waiting for SteamOS." Well, stop waiting for SteamOS. SteamOS is here. Amid the hubbub of yesterday's Steam Machine hardware announcements, Valve slipped in a surreptitious little software note too: as of SteamOS 3.8, you can now officially stick Valve's Linux distro on whatever hardware you want, with the caveat that it's gotta be running an AMD GPU, at least for now.

• We're keeping track of all the Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals here

This was not, to be clear, a rank impossibility before yesterday. In fact, our Dave James stuck an older version of SteamOS onto a Framework laptop last year. But now you've got Valve's actual, official blessing, and hopefully a slightly easier time of it.

The notice was tucked in at the end of the Steam Machine's FAQ, where Valve writes, "we are continuing to work toward enabling SteamOS to be used on more hardware than just ours. In fact, with the newly-released SteamOS 3.8, you can run the same code and operating system as Steam Machine on your own living-room PC using whatever PC parts you want… Right now, only AMD GPUs are supported, but we're working on expanding support for the future." Valve's working on support for additional GPUs, though, but I suspect we might have a while to wait.

As any Nvidia owner on Linux (hello, that is me) will know, team green drivers can be a bit of a faff. Where pretty much every AMD owner on Linux will default to using the very good, open-source Mesa drivers—you usually don't even have to do anything; they'll just install by default—Nvidia's driver situation for its modern cards is a hybrid of open-source and proprietary tech. While there are totally open-source Nvidia drivers out there—the Nouveau project—they're not up to snuff for games.

The short and tall of which is that I and my RTX 4080 are gonna have to wait to take SteamOS for a test run (you can always install Bazzite, with its out-of-the-box Nvidia support, for a similar experience), but hey—if you're an AMD user, you can check out Valve's guide to installing SteamOS right now, and embrace the sunlit uplands of Linux on the desktop.

After accidentally dropping its source code on GitHub last year and kicking the door wide open for modders, AMD has done something exactly what it promised to: It's added support for FSR 4.1 to Radeon RX 7000-series graphics cards in its latest Adrenalin drivers.

The 26.2.2 driver set doesn't come with many other goodies (game support for Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced and Doom: The Dark Ages | Revelations), but I don't think many Team Red fans will care all that much, because FSR 4.1 is considerably more noteworthy. Compared to FSR 3, the quality of the AI-powered upscaling and frame generation is clearly superior and almost on par with Nvidia's DLSS 4.5 suite.

Back in May, AMD promised it would bring its best FSR algorithms to RDNA 3 cards in June, and true to its word, that's exactly what it has done. Unless a game has native support for FSR 4.1, you'll need to enable it via an override in Adrenalin (which does require the game to have a native FSR 3.1 implementation).

Something else worth noting is that RDNA 3-based FSR 4.1 is likely to be less performant than the RDNA 4-based one. I say 'likely' as I've not had the chance to test it yet, but simply going on the fact that the matrix operations ability of RX 7000 cards is far lower than that of RX 9000 ones, something has to give.

That means you're either going to get the same kind of performance uplift but not quite the same visual fidelity, or vice versa, when comparing FSR 4.1 on a Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 7800 XT, for example. Don't misunderstand me: Switching on FSR 4.1 with an RDNA 3 card will still give a performance boost, but the end result won't be quite as impressive as it is on an RDNA 4 one.

Still, it'll be nicer on the eyes than FSR 3.1, no matter how different it all is. And if you have an RX 6000-series graphics card, then it's worth noting that AMD said that it'll bring FSR 4.1 to that platform next year. Yes, that's a long ol' wait, but given how yucky prices for PC parts are right now, I should imagine a good number of RDNA 2 users will be clinging on to those cards for a good while longer anyway.

You might wonder what was so specific about the June date for RDNA 3 FSR 4.1, and now that the Steam Machine has been released, we know exactly why: Valve is working with AMD to add the fancy algorithms to its little box of underwhelm, although "coming soon" is the only commitment we've got for a release date.

The day is here: Wider humanity has gotten its hands on the Steam Machine. Our own Steam Machine review is live, and with it, we've finally got confirmation of the Steam Machine's pricing scheme. The SteamOS-powered gaming box starts at a hefty $1,049.

In its slate of Steam Machine launch announcements, Valve has acknowledged that the price is higher than originally hoped due to the ongoing AI-driven supply crisis in computing components. But it's also provided an explanation for why it isn't subsidizing the Steam Machine's sale price, as videogame console manufacturers traditionally do: It would be a betrayal of Valve's reverence for a free market ecosystem—or at least its idea of one.

In a statement provided to The Verge, Valve said subsidizing Steam Machine hardware "might seem like an easy solution" for bringing prices down, but "it doesn’t align with our beliefs about how healthy ecosystems are built."

"If there’s anything we’re religious about at Valve, it’s our belief that open systems are better in the long run, for ourselves and customers. The openness of the PC ecosystem in particular has enabled it to be the primary driver of hardware and software innovation, because anyone with an idea for a way to do something better was able to take a shot at it."

It's common practice for console makers to strategically sell hardware at a loss, relying on the customer's additional purchases to drive profits. For example, Nintendo is reportedly selling the Switch 2 for less than it costs to produce with the expectation that the loss will be offset by following sales of exclusive game releases that can't be played elsewhere, subscriptions for online services, and accessories.

As a result, while Nintendo might be able to offer its customers a lower entry price by subsidizing the Switch 2, Valve says the practice creates an ecosystem that's ultimately worse for the consumer.

"When companies sell their hardware under cost for competitive advantage, or buy exclusive content for it, they’re doing that to build a more closed system, one where you don’t get to choose what software you want to use," Valve said. "We don’t want that for PC hardware, and we don’t think you should want it either. You shouldn’t feel like you have to buy Valve hardware; you should be able to view it as just one option alongside all the devices for playing games, and select the one that makes sense for you."

Valve reiterated that philosophy in its own Steam Machine launch announcement, where it rejected characterizing the Steam Machine as a console due to the associated connotations of a closed-off ecosystem.

"The traditional console model is to sell hardware at a loss and make up the revenue with subscription services or by selling games that are locked-in to the hardware. We think this can make sense for a single business in the short term but that open ecosystems are better for customers over the long term," Valve said in the Steam news post. "PC gaming's history proves this: The openness of the PC gaming space has enabled it to be the primary driver of hardware and software innovation for decades."

While Valve does have a bent towards promoting open ecosystems—its contributions to the general viability of Linux gaming through Steam Deck and SteamOS development being a strong example—we shouldn't necessarily accept its posture of libertarian benevolence at face value.

It is, after all, the operator of a platform that many developers characterize as having a monopoly over PC game distribution, through which it demands a 30% commission on game sales—a higher percentage than its competitors. While Valve claims to champion an open market, its higher commission fees aren't without implications for consumers: The sustainability of a game development project is a much different question for developers and publishers when accessing the vast majority of PC gaming customers, who rely on Steam as their primary or exclusive source of games, means losing almost a third of your sales in platform fees. If that percentage was lower, the selection of games on Steam would likely look very different.

I have no trouble accepting the business strategy of not wanting to sell computer hardware at a discount. But when we're told it's for our sakes, it's best to treat the claim with a healthy amount of skepticism.

The Steam Machine is finally here, with pre-orders now live, so long as you can get lucky in the reservation system lottery that is. And, honestly, we're kinda underwhelmed with the thing, beautiful wee companion cube though it is. Though that's more the fault of the AI apocalypse hoovering up all the memory and making the price of the Steam Machine utterly prohibitive for the entry level PC gamers it was originally aimed at. But Valve is still committed to improving the system, and has announced ahead of launch it is working directly with AMD to bring FSR 4 support in for the Steam Machine and its RDNA 3-powered GPU.

"We’ve been working with AMD on FSR 4 support for Steam Machine," we're told by Valve, "and can confirm that it will be coming soon."

Unfortunately that's all it's saying in regards to an actual release date, but then AMD itself has been rather cagey about when it's going to be getting FSR 4 support opened up beyond the original RDNA 4 target GPUs. Back in May AMD said it would be bringing FSR 4's machine learning-based upscaling to RX 7000-series graphics cards in July, but notably said during Computex that no decision had been made about whether it would be opened up to the RDNA 3.5 GPUs housed in its Ryzen AI Max APUs or the chips powering the latest AMD-powered gaming handhelds.

Which seems to suggest that July launch date is very much just for the RX 7000-series graphics cards alone and not a blanket level of support for the RDNA 3 architecture and above. That would also explain why Valve would have to be working directly with AMD to ensure its semi-custom 28 CU RDNA 3 GPU is going to get support for the improved upscaler in FSR 4.

"We can’t say more about timing," Valve notes, "but are excited for you to test it on your Steam Machine press units once it’s available. It should offer a significant improvement in upscaling graphical quality."

While the improvement in upscaling quality will definitely be a benefit for the Steam Machine, it's a double-edged sword of a feature. The Steam Machine's relatively weak GPU component needs upscaling and frame generation to be able to cope with modern games at decent graphics presets and at the sort of resolutions you'll want to see on a modern TV in your living room. So, chances are almost every game you play on the Steam Machine will want to be using upscaling.

That means it's a win that you'll get the best image quality AMD can muster for that upscaling experience. However, the machine-learning model of the improved FSR 4 upscaler is more performance intensive, especially for hardware that it was not initially designed for, namely RDNA 4 GPUs. And when performance is at a premium with the Steam Machine, that little bit extra hardware overhead for FSR 4 could mean that it's not an automatic on for some users, and could just be another balancing act owners are going to have to juggle with their new PC console.

The other thing to note is that FSR 4 support is not natively enabled in a whole lot of games right now. The list of supporting titles for FSR Redstone (inc FSR 4, AKA FSR Upscaling) looks extensive on first glance, but only around 20-odd have it natively built in; all the other games on the list need to have it enabled via the Adrenalin Driver software. How those games can get FSR 4 enabled in SteamOS is going to be interesting to see, if it happens at all.

Valve has announced the price of a Steam Machine, its new SteamOS-powered gaming PC. There are a few options available—two storage capacities and with/without a Steam Controller—and if you're still interested after seeing the price, you can sign up for a chance to buy one from today.

• 512 GB: $1,049 USD / 1,509 CAD / 1,039 EUR / 879 GBP / 1,609 AUD / 4,389 PLN
• 2 TB: $1,349 USD / 1,919 CAD / 1,359 EUR / 1,149 GBP / 2,109 AUD / 5,739 PLN

• 512 GB w/ Controller: $1,128 USD / 1,628 CAD / 1,108 EUR / 938 GBP / 1,728 AUD / 4,698 PLN
• 2 TB w/ Controller: $1,428 USD / 2,038 CAD / 1,428 EUR / 1,208 GBP / 2,228 AUD / 6,048 PLN

Both 2 TB models come with two additional faceplates, red fabric and solid walnut, which are attached with magnets. Though you could as easily make your own, as Valve tells us it will be releasing the CAD files.

The bundle with a Steam Controller is better value than buying one separately: it costs $99 on its own, but adds only $79 here. Not to mention availability of the Steam Controller is shaky, and you may end up having to wait until 2027 to purchase one individually.

Availability for the Steam Machine is also likely to be quite poor. Due to the ongoing memory crisis, Valve admits that some components it had originally intended to use in the PC have increased in price. Furthermore, some were altogether unavailable to purchase "at any price".

"More than anything else, this impacted our launch quantity," Valve says.

To deal with this limited launch quantity and to avoid a system which "tends to reward bots", Valve is rolling out a randomised reservation system for the Steam Machine. Similar to those for the Steam Deck and Steam Controller, wherein a user registers their interest in the product to purchase at a later date, where the Steam Machine reservations differ is in how the queue is formed.

Here's Valve's explanation:

• Starting right now, you can sign up for the Steam Machine model/bundle you're interested in
• If you're busy now, no problem: You can sign up anytime before Thursday June 25th at 10 a.m. Pacific.
• At that time, we will close signups and do a one-time randomization to determine the reservation order

After that one-time randomisation, Valve will let you know whether you successfully reserved a unit or were put into the waitlist for further units down the line. Valve hopes to have got through the reservation queue by the end of the year, which means those on the waitlist may be waiting a very long time indeed, likely into 2027 and beyond.

Valve explains that it felt it had a "good understanding" of how costs might change over time when it first started sourcing parts in 2023. This all changed with the memory crisis.

"Over the past year or so, that has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components," Valve says. "There are a variety of reasons, all of which are affecting hardware products everywhere. The overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable. So the prices we're sharing today reflect the state of the world for manufacturing; or, more accurately, it reflects the price the components as we've secured them over the past 6 months."

It's that final line that gives me pause. Most PC gamers will likely have experienced price hikes for components and systems over the past eight months or so, especially with RAM but increasingly SSDs, too. Manufacturers have since warned of further sticker shock to come, as stockpiles of components dwindle and they are forced to buy new parts at further inflated prices. If Valve is delivering a price that's based on stock over the past six months, should the next six months be any worse, I think this leaves the door open to a price rise later on.

Valve recently increased the price of the Steam Deck due to increased component costs and 'global logistical challenges'.

We've heard mixed reports on RAM and SSD availability. There's been some suggestion that RAM prices may have levelled off since earlier in the year, but SSDs are still going up, but also reports from those in the know that prices are likely still to rise yet.

Valve also explains why it isn't "subsidizing" the price of the Steam Machine, ie putting some of that sweet, sweet Steam cash into making an affordable PC—profits be damned. The company's answer, it's not what PC gaming is about.

"When companies sell their hardware under cost for competitive advantage, or buy exclusive content for it, they're doing that to build a more closed system, one where you don't get to choose what software you want to use.

"We don't want that for PC hardware, and we don't think you should want it either. You shouldn't feel like you have to buy Valve hardware; you should be able to view it as just one option alongside all the devices for playing games, and select the one that makes sense for you."

For now, your best shot at a Steam Machine in 2026 is to sign up for that reservation system before June 25. Then cross your fingers and toes for an email landing you in the right queue and not on the waitlist.

It's finally here. The much-anticipated Steam Machine, a mini gaming PC designed for your living room, is in my possession—and it's a lovely device to behold. It's sleek, futuristic, and very, very Valve. I've been testing it thoroughly over the past week, and I'm sure you're anxious to know the results. Have all my mini gaming PC Christmases come at once?

Well, not quite. Because while Valve's attempt to bring PC gaming to your TV—and thereby the masses—has plenty of admirable qualities, it's got one giant caveat hanging over it: The price.

The 2 TB, Steam Controller-included Steam Machine bundle in my possession costs $1,428 (£1,208 / AU$2,228). The controller-less 2 TB variant is $1,349 (£1,149 / AU$2,109), while the 512 GB version, again without controller, is $1,049 (£879 / AU$1,609). Add a controller to the 512 GB variant, and you're looking at $1,128 (£938 / AU$1,728).

Much has been made over the Steam Machine's delayed launch and increased price tag, brought on by the ongoing memory crisis crippling the consumer electronics market right now. But holy moly, that's a lot of money for a mini gaming PC. Especially one with internals that, in 2026, feel underpowered before it's even officially released.

The RDNA 3-based GPU inside the Steam Machine has left me feeling, if I'm honest, rather deflated. It's certainly possible to drop the settings, bump up the upscaling, and squeak some smooth gaming performance out of the little black box. But the drawbacks feel like a step too far when you're paying this sort of cash.

The idea might be to bring the PC gaming experience to your living room, but if that experience includes smooth frame rates in demanding games, you're going to have to make some major compromises. And, because of its Linux origins, it hasn't been a flawless experience getting some of those games to run properly to begin with, either.

I want to get excited about the Steam Machine, I really do. It's a fascinating piece of design, and an admirable attempt to bring PC gaming from your desktop to your couch in one bite of the cherry. But like so much hardware these days, it's been hampered with a price tag that, given what you actually receive, feels like far too much to pay.

Steam Machine features

The Steam Machine is, by default, a black cube. Measuring 15.2 x 15.6 x 16.2 cm, its top is a touch smaller than a handspan. Or mine, at the very least. Underneath the removable magnetic front face plate (two extras are included in the box with the 2 TB bundle) is a small panel consisting of a power button on the right hand side, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and a microSD card slot.

Above them lies an RGB strip, which by default lights up in blue while you're gaming or downloading, and turns off at idle. Around the back are two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port rated to 10 Gbps, and a 1 Gbps ethernet connection. For display options, you've got a choice of a DisplayPort 1.4 connection, or an HDMI 2.0 port.

And of course, it can be bundled with a Steam Controller, which is a sizable symmetrical-style unit with twin TMR thumbsticks, eight face buttons, four rear grip buttons, two trackpads, haptic rumble, gyro controls, and a 35+ hour battery life. It's perhaps not the prettiest of objects, but as our Jacob found in his review, it sure is comfortable. Useful, too.

On the outside, the Steam Machine is a very unassuming little device, which is certainly by design. It's the internals, however, where things get really interesting.

Under the hood lies a semi-custom AMD Zen 4 CPU with six cores and 12 threads, alongside 16 GB of system RAM. The GPU is also a semi-custom AMD RDNA 3 job, with 8 GB of dedicated GDDR6 VRAM, 28 compute units, a sustained max clock speed of 2.45 GHz, and a 110 W TGP.

Being a semi-custom GPU, it's difficult to make a direct comparison with existing RDNA 3 graphics cards—although the budget RX 7600 XT from the same generation features 32 compute units and a similar game clock speed.

The Steam Machine comes in two different storage flavours: 512 GB and 2 TB. I've got the 2 TB model, which provides plenty of storage for many, many games. Should you opt for the 512 GB variant, you'll want to keep an eye on install sizes.

Speaking of games, the Steam Machine makes use of SteamOS 3, an Arch-based Linux implementation with the KDE Plasma interface, allowing you to directly interface with your Steam library and the storefront. Steam Deck users will be very familiar with this design, although there are of course more options to tweak in the settings menus for the Steam Machine itself. More on that later.

For connecting to the outside world, beyond the already-mentioned ethernet port you also get a 2x2 Wi-Fi 6E connection and Bluetooth 5.3 support. The Steam Controller connects via an integrated 2.4 GHz wireless adapter, although requires the included puck or cable to be used for pairing on initial setup.

It's pretty impressive to think of the sheer amount of hardware and connectivity options Valve has crammed inside such a relatively small chassis design. Especially when you consider that, in terms of cooling, air is moved by a single 120 mm fan around the back.

As our Jacob found when he held a caseless prototype model, inside is a substantial heatsink which obscures the motherboard almost entirely, distributing heat away from all of the internal components.

Overall, the Steam Machine feels… solid. More solid than I was expecting, actually, despite its reasonable 2.6 kg weight. Given the form factor, you could easily shove it in a decently sized backpack to take around a friend's house. Although the design here is definitely specced to fit within an under-TV living room unit—where it'll live, faceless and mysterious, next to your other consoles and set-top boxes.

Steam Machine performance

And so we reach the first major sticking point. The Steam Machine 2 TB bundle is, in essence, a $1,428 mini gaming PC. As a result, it's only fair the little black cube goes up against our gaming PC benchmark suite in competition with similarly-priced machines.

Put aside the tidy form factor, the SteamOS experience, and the delightful "Valve-ness" of the thing for a second. If you're buying one of these, you're going to want your games to run well, and for it to deliver comparable performance to a gaming PC you could have spent your cash on instead.

And I'm not going to sugar-coat it—the benchmarking results are a little ugly.

Gaming benchmarks

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (1440p Ultra)Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Medium)Cyberpunk 2077 (Quality upscaling, 1440p RT Medium)Baldur's Gate 3 (1440p Ultra)Black Myth: Wukong (1440p Very High)Black Myth: Wukong (Quality upscaling, 1440p Very High)Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

21

17

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

44

38

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

33

25

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

28

24

015304560

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	21 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	44 Avg FPS, 38 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	33 Avg FPS, 25 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	28 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

16

12

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

32

26

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

24

19

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

26

23

010203040

Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Medium) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	16 Avg FPS, 12 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	32 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	24 Avg FPS, 19 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	26 Avg FPS, 23 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

28

20

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

86

69

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

60

49

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

81

74

0255075100

Cyberpunk 2077 (Quality upscaling, 1440p RT Medium) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	28 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	86 Avg FPS, 69 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	60 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	81 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

46

26

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

59

42

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

60

40

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

57

24

015304560

Baldur's Gate 3 (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	46 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	59 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	60 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	57 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

20

16

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

26

20

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

23

17

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

17

13

07.51522.530

Black Myth: Wukong (1440p Very High) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	20 Avg FPS, 16 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	26 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	23 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	17 Avg FPS, 13 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

31

26

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

37

33

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

48

42

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

27

17

015304560

Black Myth: Wukong (Quality upscaling, 1440p Very High) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	31 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	37 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	48 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	27 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

45

30

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

52

36

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

53

36

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

50

31

015304560

Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	45 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	52 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	53 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	50 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS

Yes, that's a 28 fps average result in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p Medium RT, with Quality FSR enabled, no frame gen. RDNA 3-era graphics hardware usually struggles with ray tracing, and the Steam Machine's 28 CU semi-custom GPU is no exception.

It's particularly shocking when you compare it with the AtomMan G1 Pro, an RTX 5060-equipped (albeit with 1 TB of storage) mini PC currently available for around $10 more, which manages 58 extra frames on average at the same settings.

Similarly, the Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora benchmark gives the Steam Machine some serious trouble, resulting in a 21 fps average at Ultra settings. Compare that with the G1 Pro, which churns out over double the frame rate. In fact, even the RTX 4060-equipped Lenovo Legion Tower 5i manages a respectable 33 fps result at the same settings, which goes to show roughly where we're at.

That's not to say the Steam Machine gets completely trounced in every benchmark. It beats one of our custom, Intel Arc B570-equipped PC builds in Black Myth Wukong, both with and without upscaling. If we were to build that PC today, it would be slightly more expensive than the Steam Machine 2 TB bundle—mostly due to the beefy Core Ultra 265K CPU and pricey RAM.

Still, you could save some money with a weaker CPU and (slightly) cheaper RAM, and get very similar gaming performance. Again, the RTX 4060, Intel Core i5 14400F-toting Legion Tower 5i powers ahead of the Steam Machine in Black Myth (with upscaling enabled) quite convincingly. That's a budget gaming PC with last-generation components, no two ways about it. And it's got the little Steam Machine thoroughly licked across almost all of my benchmarks.

Steam Machine real-world testing

It's important to remember that the Steam Machine is designed for your living room TV, which these days is likely to be a 4K-native model. So, putting our comparative benchmarks aside for a second, I decided to jump into three relatively demanding (and very popular) PC games at 4K resolution, and see how far I had to drop the settings to get a mostly-solid 60 fps.

In the case of Cyberpunk 2077, I managed to get a 58-61 fps average by dropping the settings to Medium (no ray tracing), bumping FSR into its Performance mode, and enabling 2x frame generation. That means the base frame rate is still trundling away at somewhere around the 30 fps mark, even with the upscaler working at its hardest.

Which means added latency, and some messy visuals. It's not a straight-up bad experience at these settings, but you can definitely see the FSR/frame gen combo struggling with details and fast movement on a regular basis. Could I play Cyberpunk 2077 like this? Sure, I guess. Would I feel good about it, having dropped $1,000+ on a new piece of hardware? Hmm. Pass, I think.

In the case of the newly-released (and fairly well-optimised) Forza Horizon 6, you can forget ray tracing if you want 60 fps at 4K. At this point, that's probably no surprise. However, you can just about keep things smooth with a combo of FSR Performance and High settings.

There's the occasional dip into the low 50s in downtown Tokyo, but it's plenty playable. Cutscene characters look a bit fuzzy, though, and given that frame gen in this game is an Nvidia-only option, you'll need to drop things further if you want higher/more consistent frames.

And then there's Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Night. At Medium settings, with FSR set to Performance and with frame generation enabled, you can indeed live your best Batman life at 4K 60 fps. Just about. Again, there's the odd dip, and the base frame rate is pretty low, so the extra latency is definitely palpable.

And again, FSR in all its older iterations looks rough around the edges at Performance settings. Valve says it's working on FSR 4 support for the Steam Machine, but for now, older FSR is what you get as an AMD-specific option.

You might be finding this all a bit obvious. The Steam Machine isn't particularly powerful, so why would I expect high resolution and 60+ frames from my tiny under-TV box? Well, Valve said as much when it first unveiled the Steam Machine last year, stating that 4K60 in your Steam games was its benchmark. And 4K TVs are pretty much the standard at this point. While you can drop the res below native, you're really not going to want to if image quality is a concern.

And as for smooth frame rates? It's sort of PC gaming's thing, man. Especially when you're spending proper PC gaming money.

Can the Valve box deliver in the demanding stuff? Sometimes. As long as you're prepared to make some pretty major compromises in the upscaling, frame generation, and settings departments.

Steam Machine software

First time setup involves attaching the included power cable (and the rather meagre 1.8 metre HDMI cable), booting up the box, and connecting the Steam Controller via the wireless puck. After entering your Wi-Fi details and your Steam account login (and adjusting your screen scaling, which I'll go into below) you're then presented with the SteamOS interface, after any incidental updates.

Anyone who's used a Steam Deck (or indeed, the Steam interface in general) will feel like they're in familiar territory here. A press of the central Steam Controller button opens up a side menu to access your Library or the storefront itself, while also providing a litany of options menus. More still can be accessed with the three-dot button at the bottom of the input device.

One slight hang-up I experienced involved connecting the Steam Controller to the Steam Machine itself, so I could ditch the wireless puck. The menu system is a little obtuse, as the settings appear to want you to shutdown the controller while connected to the puck, boot it up, disconnect it, and then hold down a combination of buttons and bumpers to pair it with the internal connection while booting it up again. A three finger job.

I think. It took a few goes, and I'm not quite sure which combination I used to eventually cause it to pair. In fact, if I had one overall critique of the Steam Machine software experience, it's that the option menus often feel overly complicated.

Some are simple toggles, others are drop down menus, some are sliders, some are in strange orders, some are accessed with one button, some another… it's all a bit much when you're trying to lie back on the couch and game.

The onboarding process has other quirks, too. This could be user error, but on first setup I adjusted the scaling to fit my particular (ancient) 1080p TV, which the Steam Machine merrily ignored once I was booted into the OS itself. This led to much head-scratching as I figured out how to adjust it again from within the slightly unclear (and now poorly scaled) menu options.

Switching over to my 4K monitor, SteamOS seemed to recognise the native resolution immediately, and displayed the appropriately-scaled menus. I then jumped into several games, only to find the resolution maxed out at 1080p. According to Valve, this 1080p default is deliberate Steam Machine behaviour, designed "to ensure a good gameplay experience out of the box."

Though I thought this was supposed to be a 4K-ready device?

After some hunting around in the SteamOS menus, I discovered a secondary resolution option under the Advanced Display settings that was set to "default" in a dropdown menu. Adjusting this manually to the native resolution of my 4K screen allowed me to select higher resolutions in games. It had me stumped for a good 10 minutes or so, though, as the main resolution scaling settings didn't do the trick.

I've had the odd game-specific issue, too. Baldur's Gate 3, for example, repeatedly crashed on boot—until some searching revealed a similar issue with the Steam Deck. The fix is to enable a Proton experimental setting in the Compatibility menu, which handily works for the Steam Machine, too.

So, does Valve's new box provide a seamless PC gaming experience? Well it hasn't for me, I have to say. And while this sort of tweakery is common for those of us who do battle with the PC gaming gods—especially those of us who run Linux operating systems on the regular—I had hoped for a smoother ride from a living room-first machine. Valve says it's working on various aspects of the interface for a better experience, but for now, it definitely feels like a work in progress.

Steam Machine aesthetics

Opinions will vary here, but I'm a big fan of the Steam Machine's design. There's something high-tech, slightly ominous, and very Valve about the aesthetic. It looks and feels like an ancient artifact you'd find in a sci-fi shooter, some sort of key that unlocks a machine designed to bring about the end of the universe. I'm riffing here, but if you pick up one for yourself, you'll see what I mean.

Should the all-black, all-knowing cube design not be to your tastes, there's always the option to swap out the faceplates. These are attached with small magnets at all four corners to the front of the chassis, and pull themselves into place with a meaty thock.

Something I accidentally discovered is that, such is the force of the magnets, you can stack two together at once, although a single plate locks smoothly in line with the front I/O panel below. My top-end 2 TB Steam Machine bundle includes two extra plates, one covered in red fabric, and the other with a wood finish.

Tapping my finger against the latter, it appears to be an actual piece of tree—rather than a cheap walnut-style veneer. Very nice indeed, if you're into that sort of thing.

My main point, however, is just how unassuming the Steam Machine looks when tucked among my other set-top boxes and routers, even with a jazzy face plate attached. It looks like it'll blend in just about anywhere, and the front LED strip can be configured in a multitude of ways. You can set it to pulse through the RGB spectrum to deliver a gaming PC-like aesthetic, or you can turn it off entirely, among other options.

At which point, you may end up forgetting you've got a Steam Machine under your TV at all. It's well-sized enough that I don't think anyone will have a problem integrating it into their setup with ease.

As for the controller? Well, it's a sizable beast, that's for sure. Still, with an all-black, relatively muted design, I don't think your average non-gamer would notice much of a difference between this and a standard Xbox controller unless they picked one up.

Temperatures and noise

The Steam Machine is quiet. I mean, really, really quiet. The single, geometry-optimised 120 mm fan at the back does an admirable job of moving large amounts of air at whisper-like levels, so much so that I don't think you'd notice it at full pelt over any other ambient noise.

Temperatures

Gaming TemperaturesIdle temperatures

Avg CPU Temp (°C)

Max CPU Temp (°C)

Avg GPU Temp (°C)

Max GPU Temp (°C)

Steam Machine

68

74

65

69

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

89

91

77

67

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

64

76

67

71

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

57

81

66

71

0255075100

Gaming Temperatures Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	68 Avg CPU Temp (°C), 74 Max CPU Temp (°C), 65 Avg GPU Temp (°C), 69 Max GPU Temp (°C)
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	89 Avg CPU Temp (°C), 91 Max CPU Temp (°C), 77 Avg GPU Temp (°C), 67 Max GPU Temp (°C)
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	64 Avg CPU Temp (°C), 76 Max CPU Temp (°C), 67 Avg GPU Temp (°C), 71 Max GPU Temp (°C)
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	57 Avg CPU Temp (°C), 81 Max CPU Temp (°C), 66 Avg GPU Temp (°C), 71 Max GPU Temp (°C)

CPU (°C)

GPU (°C)

Steam Machine

38

41

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

51

38

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

29

30

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

37

46

015304560

Idle temperatures Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	38 CPU (°C), 41 GPU (°C)
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	51 CPU (°C), 38 GPU (°C)
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	29 CPU (°C), 30 GPU (°C)
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	37 CPU (°C), 46 GPU (°C)

It runs relatively cool, too. Certainly much cooler than the AtomMan G1 Pro when you crank it up to its top whack, which is significantly noisier, too. Valve has clearly prioritised refinement when it comes to both the Steam Machine's size and sound, which is a good instinct to follow when it comes to a living room-friendly box.

Steam Machine value

When the Steam Machine was first announced, we on the PC Gamer hardware team took a look at the specs and all came to the same rough conclusion. It's relatively low-powered, it's designed for your living room, and it's gunning for a position next to your other consoles. Therefore, it'll have to be reasonably priced.

That was in the before times, of course. Back when cheap memory modules were abundant, and the idea of a $550-$600 base-level Steam Machine seemed quite possible. Then the AI server market hoovered up all the manufacturing capacity, the consumer market got stuffed, and we've been living in a world of ridiculous pricing ever since.

Given all this, on the surface, the $1,049 Steam Machine 512 GB seems almost reasonable. Let's put it this way, it's not as highly-priced as we feared, given everything that's going on at the moment and the recent price hike of the Steam Deck. But the unfortunate truth is that budget gaming PCs—while being much larger, noisier, and more unwieldy than Valve's magic box—can still be found for the same sort of figure.

A perusal of our cheap gaming PC deals page reveals several 1 TB-equipped, RTX 5060-toting models for under $1,000. And, as I've shown with the AtomMan G1 Pro, anything with Nvidia's current-gen budget card is likely to give the Steam Machine a good thrashing in the performance stakes.

Speaking of which, the AtomMan machine can be found (at the time of writing) for $1,439 at Amazon. That's pretty pricey for a mini PC, but it does come with a beastly laptop CPU, said RTX 5060, and 32 GB of RAM. You only get a 1 TB SSD, it's true. And like the PCs above, it doesn't have an included controller, nor a couch-native SteamOS interface.

But it's only $11 more than the top-spec Steam Machine 2 TB. And Steam Big Picture mode in Windows works great for gaming on your TV. As for the controller? A suitable model doesn't cost a whole lot extra (particularly if you go for something budget-yet-brilliant, like the GameSir Nova Lite).

I just can't square the Steam Machine's performance with any idea of consumer value. I really can't. The first question you need to ask yourself as a hardware reviewer is this: Would I buy one?

And despite the little black box's lovely design, excellent controller, and sheer curiosity value, the answer is no. Not when I can still pick up a regular gaming PC for the equivalent cash, with much better overall gaming performance.

Because, when it comes to the PC gaming experience, I think you should ask yourself what it means to you. To me, it means better graphics than consoles. It means higher frame rates. It means flexibility, and it means spending more money in return for a better experience when I actually play the games.

Having a neat little PC gaming box tucked away underneath your TV is all well and good, on paper. But when it feels underpowered (and internally outdated) right out of the gate, while still costing north of a grand for the base-level model? I'm simply not sure it makes much sense.

I've just finished reviewing the Steam Machine, Valve's TV-friendly gaming PC for the masses. I think that was the initial idea, at least. Unfortunately, Valve's magic box has, thanks to the memory crisis, ended up with a price tag that simply doesn't add up.

For those who haven't heard, the base-level, 512 GB, non-Steam Controller-including Steam Machine retails for $1,049. Add a controller into the mix, and it comes in at $1,128. Back when we first took a whirl at predicting Steam Machine pricing, our average guess was around $525 for the base model.

Oh, how wrong we were. To be fair to myself, Valve, and my hardware team colleagues, this was back in November of last year. The pre-RAMpocalypse times, as we now call them. Before the AI server market swallowed memory module manufacturing capacity, and consumer electronics began to climb rapidly in price.

We adjusted our guesses more recently, and actually came kind of close, for the most part.

Still, the final pricing has me all hot and bothered, even if it's not far off what we eventually predicted. Because the Steam Machine, thanks to some lower-spec internal components now sold for high prices, represents poor value—and I feel like it deserves more than that.

And I haven't even got to the 2 TB model I reviewed yet, which is $1,349 without a controller, and a wallet-trembling $1,428 with one. That's a huge sum of money for a machine that struggles against budget gaming PCs, some of which come from the previous generation.

Gaming benchmarks

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (1440p Ultra)Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Medium)Cyberpunk 2077 (Quality upscaling, 1440p RT Medium)Baldur's Gate 3 (1440p Ultra)Black Myth: Wukong (1440p Very High)Black Myth: Wukong (Quality upscaling, 1440p Very High)Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

21

17

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

44

38

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

33

25

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

28

24

015304560

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	21 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	44 Avg FPS, 38 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	33 Avg FPS, 25 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	28 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

16

12

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

32

26

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

24

19

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

26

23

010203040

Cyberpunk 2077 (1440p RT Medium) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	16 Avg FPS, 12 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	32 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	24 Avg FPS, 19 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	26 Avg FPS, 23 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

28

20

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

86

69

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

60

49

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

81

74

0255075100

Cyberpunk 2077 (Quality upscaling, 1440p RT Medium) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	28 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	86 Avg FPS, 69 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	60 Avg FPS, 49 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	81 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

46

26

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

59

42

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

60

40

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

57

24

015304560

Baldur's Gate 3 (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	46 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	59 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	60 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	57 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

20

16

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

26

20

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

23

17

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

17

13

07.51522.530

Black Myth: Wukong (1440p Very High) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	20 Avg FPS, 16 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	26 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	23 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	17 Avg FPS, 13 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

31

26

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

37

33

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

48

42

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

27

17

015304560

Black Myth: Wukong (Quality upscaling, 1440p Very High) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	31 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	37 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	48 Avg FPS, 42 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	27 Avg FPS, 17 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Steam Machine

45

30

AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX

52

36

Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F

53

36

Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

50

31

015304560

Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition (1440p Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Steam Machine	45 Avg FPS, 30 1% Low FPS
AtomMan G1 Pro | RTX 5060 | AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX	52 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
Lenovo Legion Tower 5i | RTX 4060 | Intel Core i5 14400F	53 Avg FPS, 36 1% Low FPS
Custom PC #11 (issue 413) | Arc B570 | Intel Core Ultra 7 265K	50 Avg FPS, 31 1% Low FPS

It's not like the Steam Machine makes up for its shortcomings with a completely smooth user experience, either. It feels, at the time of writing, a little half-baked. I still found myself hunting through the settings menus to configure it properly on my home TV. I still had to enable compatibility game settings to get past some Linux… quirks.

It's got crunch, in places where, for the money, I'd hoped it would be more refined. It's virtually a premium product now, after all. But it doesn't quite feel like it in terms of the overall user experience. And it doesn't run demanding games like it, either.

In many ways, this isn't Valve's fault. The Steam Machine's diminutive, RDNA 3-graphics powered specs sheet clearly indicates that it should have been affordable, and was designed with a lesser price in mind. It should have been a lightweight, somewhat-entry-level machine that lives underneath your TV, capable of running indie games with little issue, and demanding ones if you were prepared to make significant compromises. For reasonable money.

I'd be pretty keen on it then, even with its flaws. Something deep within my heart wanted another Steam Deck-like PC gaming hardware moment. A budget machine with just enough go (and just enough convenience) to make it attractive. Another entry point into this expensive hobby of ours. A people's champion.

But no, it's got RAM modules. And an SSD. And therefore, it needs to be much pricier now than it was supposed to be when it was first specced out, if Valve is to make any money on it at all.

As a hardware reviewer, my job is to provide consumer advice. There's no point in recommending that you, the reader, buy something simply because it's interesting—without taking into account the value you get for your money. And at this price, the value proposition simply doesn't add up.

In some sense, I don't think my take on all this really matters. The Steam Machine will sell, I'd put good money on that. There are enough well-heeled enthusiasts out there to swallow up whatever launch stock Valve has on offer, even if it ends up being more of an executive-level desk toy than the great equaliser the rest of us might have hoped for.

It won't be a catastrophic failure for Valve, of that I'm fairly certain. But, given all of the above, the Steam Machine has, to my mind, become a damning representation of where we are in regards to PC gaming hardware in 2026.

We now live in a world where we're paying serious sums for meagre specs. And given that the memory crisis is expected to rumble on (and perhaps even worsen) into 2027 and beyond, this may be just the beginning of our woes.

I hate that. I hate that the AI-demand behemoth is pricing out average gamers from reasonably priced hardware, and reasonable hardware upgrades. I hate that I'm forced to give an interesting, if flawed, machine a lower score because it simply doesn't make any value-based sense—whereas for the right price, it just might.

Valve has worked really hard on the Steam Machine, and that's obvious to see. Even if it does feel underpowered, and a little rough around the software edges. But when all's said and done, I simply wouldn't spend this much money on one. And that, as much I wish it wasn't the case, is the truth.

You can now sign up for a chance to buy a Steam Machine. Yes, a mere chance, not a preorder, as Valve is doing something different with the launch of its Linux-powered cube. Rather than forming an orderly queue, it's taking names, throwing them in a hat, and drawing them out at random to decide who gets a reservation and who gets lumped on the waitlist.

The Steam Machine starts at $1,049 for the 512 GB model, and if you're still interested in purchasing one after hearing the price, you're going to want to take heed of the new reservation process. It's different to what Valve has done in the past, and for good reason.

"In an effort to improve the purchase experience and limit resellers, we're implementing a reservation system," Valve says.

• Starting right now, you can sign up for the Steam Machine model/bundle you're interested in.
• If you're busy now, no problem: You can sign up anytime before Thursday June 25th at 10 a.m. Pacific.
• At that time, we will close signups and do a one-time randomization to determine the reservation order.

"Based on the reservation order, you will receive an email on June 25th indicating one of two things:"

• You've been added to the reservation queue and a Steam Machine has been reserved in your name.
• You've been added to the waitlist and we'll let you know when more units become available.

In theory, this deters bots from hammering the reservations faster than any real human and securing units for resellers to sell at inflated prices. It also means that it's become a lottery for all involved.

By signing up on June 25, you give yourself the best chance of purchasing one before the end of the year. Those lucky enough to make it into the reservation queue will begin receiving emails asking them to make their purchase from June 29.

If you miss this date, you'll be added to the back of the waitlist and presumably in for a long wait.

Valve has said it intends to get through the reservation queue by the end of 2026. That means those on the waitlist are unlikely to be able to purchase a Steam Machine before 2027—unless people drop out of the queue without purchasing one, in which case the offer extends to whomever is next in line. Those offered a unit will have 72 hours from receiving their notification email to checkout before Valve passes it onto the next person in the queue.

What you need

To make your initial sign up, you have to have a few things in order:

• a Steam account in good standing
• made a purchase on Steam prior to April 27, 2026.

There's also a limit of one per household. Valve says it will check payment information, shipping address, and other information to remove duplicate entries. So if you're in shared accommodation with a bunch of fellow PC gamers, looks like you'll have to share your Steam Machine, too.

Each region has its own sign-up list. These are North America, United Kingdom, European Union, and Australia, which Valve is organising directly. Valve's official distributor, Komodo, will be dealing with orders in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

So, why the new system? Why not just do what it did with the Steam Deck and have a first-come, first-serve system?

Valve says it's both because of resellers and lower availability than it would have liked for components used in the Steam Machine.

"Over the past year or so, that has changed quickly and significantly, most visibly for RAM and storage components… the overall effect is that our original goal for the price of Steam Machine is no longer viable," Valve says in an FAQ.

"Price wasn't the only thing impacted by all of this: availability was as well. We found we couldn't source some of our components at all, at any price. More than anything else, this impacted our launch quantity."

We've heard this before: memory chips are a precious commodity right now and they're being sucked out of the market before ever reaching us consumers by big businesses with even bigger bank accounts. Even the biggest companies are feeling the heat. Valve is no small fry, but it's nowhere close to the size of OEMs like Dell, HP, or similar. Everyone's scrambling for whatever the major memory manufacturers can give them, which isn't enough.

When a manufacturer is this honest about availability concerns from the get-go, that usually means things really are tough out there. This launch is going to be a very long, drawn out affair from the sounds of things. Make sure you're there before June 25 for the best chance at a Linux console this year, or be prepared to be patient. Heck, as Valve points out in its FAQ, you could always build your own Steam Machine with SteamOS 3.8 as a shortcut.

Good luck.

There's part of me that feels like I've somewhat fallen for the sunk cost fallacy of VR. I've always liked VR headsets, but don't think I've quite got the same value out of them as I did with the very first one I owned in lockdown at the start of 2020. That is, until now.

After buying myself a Meta Quest 3, I thought, "This time, I'll recapture that feeling". I thought the years since really being a big VR would deliver me a trove of awesome games, and there are certainly some standout offerings like Asgard's Wrath and Batman: Arkham Shadow (both of which were helped by Meta, which has seemingly jumped ship from VR gaming), but nothing quite willed me to strap the headset on my face every single day.

That was, until the start of 2026, when I thought I'd fully try committing to VR exercising as an experiment and commitment to my future health. One thing I can say right off the bat is that I became less adventurous after the first month. Where I tried a decent few apps and exercises in January, I basically stuck to my FitXR subscription and used that almost exclusively. Any other VR exercises I did were just a welcome consequence of playing VR normally.

Even now, I coudn't call FitXR the best way to VR exercise, simply because I haven't tried enough other ways to know. In the same way that I picked my local gym when I signed up and called it a day, with exercising, I'm looking for convenience. I'm looking for something to slot into my day, a quick fifteen minutes at lunch, or ten minutes to wake myself up.

And wake me up, it does. I find VR's immersiveness not only engaging, but I willingly pushed far beyond where I would in a normal exercise. I found myself panting and sweaty after half-hour sessions, and I would previously struggle much more to get there with simple callisthenics or walking. A gym is always an option, but I think the public, social element of it has always made me a touch too self-conscious to fully go for it. I don't mind an exercise so tough it leaves me on the floor, in the comfort of my own home. And that's before mentioning the trek home after the gym.

The convenience of VR is its biggest selling point to me. If I have a spare ten minutes, I can simply throw it on and go for a little while. More formal exercise requires a level of preplanning that ends up eating up more of my time than I often plan for.

It does have its defined downsides, though. Despite paying hundreds for my Meta Quest 3, I'm still paying around $10 a month for my subscription, and though it's cheaper than a gym, I don't get any of the equipment that a gym membership affords me. As well as this, there's nothing quite as distinctly uncomfortable as a sweaty faceplate.

I find a wipe-down and air out, and maybe a spare faceplate does the job, but it's still a bit messier than I would otherwise like. But I knew going in that I'd have to push through uncomfortability. And I've done a lot of that over the last half a year.

I've woken up with sore legs because I've decided to take on a course with a lot of jumping, or found my arms sore because I wanted to push it with a hard HIIT exercise. And I've managed to find some joy in that. I've found myself liking a little burn in my leg because it feels like a sign of how much exercise I've done.

I set myself a few rules before I went into this whole experiment, to make sure I had some consistency. My ground rules were pretty simple a few months ago. Apple has an exercise function, where you can make 'rings' and you fill those rings by doing a pre-structured amount of exercise. It has a red ring for movement, a green ring for exercise, and a blue ring for standing.

I tend to finish the red and blue ones naturally, but the green one, at 30 minutes a day, is something I consciously have to fill. And that is what VR is for. But if, somehow, I manage to fill that on a normal day, I promised myself I would still exercise. I simply couldn't let the headset get dusty because I happened to take a few flights of stairs at work, or felt like going for a hike. These ground rules have pretty much stayed the same ever since.

I have missed days. I have forgotten about it, found myself away from the headset for a few days, or simply been too lazy. But I've been holding myself accountable with my own health, and know that I'm a little too cheap to pay the subscription and let it go to waste.

Since the start of January, I've lost around 35 pounds, and though I think a part of that is the VR exercising, another big part is that I simply don't want all my effort to go to waste. I don't want to strap the headset on my head nearly every day and not feel healthier. So I started eating better this year. I started tracking my progress. And I've tried to be as honest with myself as possible when I'm making progress and why.

Recently, I haven't made as much progress. I took things pretty lax around my birthday, I found it harder to will myself to exercise in the British summer heat, and hay fever has sapped my energy, but most importantly, I just became a tad complacent with it. But in a sense, that's the joy here. I hold myself accountable, and the shame of returning to the gym after an absence doesn't really exist. I simply got back onto the VR horse without a second thought.

And this is all before mentioning that I have fun exercising now. I make a regular habit of activating the passthrough mode on my headset, popping something on the TV and doing some combat exercises while watching anime or listening to a podcast. Yes, I know it's dorky to watch a shounen battle scene whilst pretending to punch the air with a big screen slapped onto my eyeballs, but I can be as much of a nerd in my headset as I like, and I can feel better while doing so.

Effectively, the VR headset exercises almost every day have been a way to remind me of how conscious losing weight and getting healthier has to be for me. I have to stay aware of it, and need to keep pushing if I want to reach my goals. And my goals right now are simply to feel better. They are to be able to do long hikes, to go for a run, to exercise and feel like I'm putting in less effort than before. VR has given me a fun, stress-free avenue to improve my life little by little, and I'll continue doing it for as long as it stays that way.

If we did one of our weekly polls on which game platform/store is your favourite, I would be very surprised if anything other than a miniscule minority of readers selected the Epic Games Store. I barely ever use the thing and even I know it's not the most enjoyable experience. But that might not be the case for much longer, as there's a big update coming.

We first reported on plans for a technical overhaul of the Epic Games Store in February. Epic Games Store GM Steve Allison told us at the time that the improvement is "pretty profound."

New slides out of Unreal Fest, posted on X by Pirat_Nation, describe a complete redesign of the launcher, and the big claims are that the "ground-up rebuild" will lead to a "5x faster cold start (average)" and "6.5x faster systray restore to library (average)." In other words, much quicker to boot up, either from the system tray or cold.

I thankfully have a small enough library on the platform that it isn't too sluggish, but I've heard some real terror tales from colleagues with bigger libraries. Our Jacob (different Jacob) wrote about the phenomena back in 2023 when comparing to the Heroic Launcher.

I have no reason to doubt him, either, given the general difficulty I have using the app. For example, launching games on-press rather than displaying more info, and popping up a separate window for downloads.

Other changes shown on the slides include:

• Personalised game recommendations on the home page
• Quick-access categories for easier single-page browsing
• Product detail pages tailored to each player, "connecting players to the game's community, story, and their own progression"
• Patch notes on the game's storefront

We reported in February that there are plans to test "community and forums around some of the top games on the store" and add player profiles, avatars, private messaging, voice chat, and game-independent parties.

According to Pirat_Nation, the Epic Games Store will also get cross-region game gifting, publisher-funded coupons, and a tool to check how games will run on your system.

A lot of this of course sounds very similar to how Valve does things on Steam, and that's not a bad thing in my books. For one, most PC gamers use Steam and it's what they're used to. And second, well, it's just a better design. If you click a game page, for instance, you want to be able to access anything relevant to that game, whether it's patch notes, reviews, or whatever else.

Let's just hope the new rebuild lands before too long and follows through on what its promises. I'll be particularly keen to see how actual in-app navigation feels in terms of snappiness. Launchers are tools after all, not products in themselves—they should keep out of the way as much as possible.

As a Brit, I know London for many things: the always slightly too warm but no less incredible 'tube' transport network, all the times I've overheard my fellow Brits mistake the Houses of Parliament for 'a big church,' and black snot. Okay, maybe that last one was oversharing. Anyway the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, wants to add esports to that list.

Khan has been in Tokyo, Japan this week and visited the Red Bull Gaming Sphere alongside London-based esports company Fnatic yesterday. The Mayor expressed he wants to make London the "the esports capital of the world" in a post about the visit on X.

The Mayor also wrote, "London is ready to level up and lead the world in esports." A London Assembly press release goes on to elaborate on these ambitions, explaining that "Esports has grown into a multi-billion global industry over the last decade, and is predicted to grow from $2 billion to nearly $10 billion by 2033."

London itself has already seen big wins from esports events, with the 2024 League of Legends World Championship Final at the O2 apparently contributing £12 million to the local economy, and the 2025 Blast Premier London Open at OVO Arena Wembley generating £30 million. As such, London City Hall has commissioned a report to explore how exactly the capital can get a slice of that lucrative pie.

London also wants to leverage esports as a way to increase "opportunities for young people" too, of course. In addition to persuading more big events to bring their money to London, the report recommends "expanding access to esports careers through schools, apprenticeships and training providers," and "bringing together universities and employers to build partnership and talent pipelines."

Okay, let me dispense with the badly veiled cynicism: As much as I want to bring as many people into games as possible, I feel conflicted about the city going all-in on esports when I know there are plenty of young people in London (and the wider UK) whose basic needs are simply not being met. Obviously, PC gamers can care about more than one thing at a time—we are pro-multi-taskers, after all—and it's entirely possible we can enjoy a bit of esports as a treat while we also make efforts to eradicate child poverty.

But looking to the niche industry of esports as a good source of opportunities for young folks feels short-sighted at best. For one thing, many esports stars enjoy shorter careers than other sports professionals, with many retiring in their 20's. With 1.01 million people aged between 16 to 24 neither in education, employment, or training in the UK, I'm not completely convinced that esports is the play to make at this point in the game.

For years, Logitech's egg-shaped G305 has been a budget beast, offering a comfortable feel, decent sensor, and solid shape at a reasonable price. It was so good, in fact, that it was our pick for the best budget wireless gaming mouse until the copycat Mchose G3 V2 Pro showed up. Incredibly, it claimed a spot on top of the budget gaming mouse hill for eight entire years.

Almost as if it were perturbed for losing that spot, Logitech has just launched a refresh, the G305 X Superlight, with an upgraded sensor and ever so slightly different look. Now it's got RGB that shines through a translucent patch in the base, to match the look of the G316 X 98 gaming keyboard.

But, in return for those upgrades, you are paying more money now, so it doesn't just need to be better to actually be better. It instead needs to be better for the money. Okay, I'll stop saying "be better".

That's all before mentioning that, like almost every bit of PC gaming gear, the competition has gotten fierce over the years. Logitech doesn't just need to compete with itself; it has to throw hands with a dozen other mouse brands to come out victorious.

At 59 grams, the G305 X Superlight has a pleasant feel to it. It's not very weighty at all, but there's certainly enough that it gives some resistance as I use it. The skates give resistance, too, and I'm not a fan of them. They catch just a little, sticking more to my mouse pad than I'd like. It definitely feels like more of a subjective thing, but I would like a light mouse to glide more in use, especially in snappy first-person shooters.

As well as this, I can hear a defined scratching sound with the mouse skates (we had the same problem with the Protoarc EM25 recently), which doesn't appear to do damage but can be quite annoying. Once I really started to take note of it, the mouse actively annoyed me, which is a bad sign for long-term use.

I even found myself cautious of making wide motions because it was loud enough to distract. You should be able to fix this by replacing the skates with after-market ones, but that's something you really don't want to have to do with a mouse just to get it feeling okay, especially a budget one.

One thing that I do appreciate about this mouse is its tiny visible screws on the bottom. You can get in there and replace the battery, should you want to, and easy access is a good thing, as far as repairability is concerned.

Speaking of internals, Logitech's Hero sensor is still potent. You are getting a max DPI of 44,000 here, and it's snappy and responsive enough to handle high DPIs well. It also technically supports 8,000 Hz polling, but you have to buy an optional receiver to actually use that. If doing this means getting a cheaper mouse, I actually think making 8,000 optional is a fairly smart play. It's a niche polling rate that most won't see the benefit of.

In shooter Mouse: PI for Hire, I had no problems blasting away all the baddies, and the easy-to-access DPI switch on the top of the mouse means I can flit between sensitivities with ease. The switches are satisfying to click and produce a rather loud noise in response.

I almost never found myself double-clicking, though I think part of that is the comfortable shape. It's a sturdy shell (get it? Because of the egg thing), and though it's plastic, it's certainly strong plastic. The round base means that I am often encouraged to squeeze the sides with the bottom of my palm. It's a comforting hold that feels very natural in play. I'd say it's better suited to small hands, thanks to its tiny frame, but I didn't particularly mind it with my fairly big hands, either.

At just under 60 grams, it's relatively light, though again, those skates just let it down somewhat. On a heavier frame, I can see the appeal of more catchy skates, but I really want the G305 X Superlight to feel breezy in use.

One thing I always try to test with gaming mice is Counter-Strike 2, as its short time to kill makes precise, quick aiming so important. For the most part, the G305 X performs admirably here. The sensor never cut out, and shots are easy to make.

The G305 X's specs are almost approaching competitive esports level, and that's certainly nice to have at this price point, though there will always be some compromises. For instance, moving from it to my daily driver, the 8BitDo Retro R8, it has a better sensor but worse polling, and the R8's skates gave me instant relief when I swapped. And the R8 does all of this, with an included charging dock and great aesthetics, for $30 less. I didn't realise until I'd swapped mice how much the skates impacted my enjoyment of the G305 X.

The G305 X is impressive in more than one way, though. Its 35-hour battery life is certainly quite strong. It's also the type of mouse you can just throw in a bag and bring places. I know, as I've done that. It's sturdy, light, small and comes with a small compartment on the bottom for the 2.4 GHz connector. This means it's a very neat little package.

And that package is partly so neat because of its subdued aesthetic. I've had my hands on the black one, and outside of the RGB strip at the top, it's all very understated. It looks clean on a desk and doesn't distract much from the screen. Its rounded base is not only comfortable but looks neat too.

But Logitech aren't even the only one doing that egg shape anymore. I recently had the chance to test out the rather impressive Mchose G3 V2, which comes in at less than half the price, and honestly, I'd be picking that instead if it were my cash. The 12,000 DPI in the G3 V2 is lower, but you get the same base polling, a stronger battery life, the exact same weight, and its Omron mechanical switches are very pleasant too.

That's before mentioning the G3 V2 Pro, which is around ten dollars more than the standard G3V2, comes with an upgraded sensor, and packs a 26,000 max DPI. Mchose's mouse feet are also substantially better, to me.

The G305 X Superlight does seem like a noticeable improvement over the standard G305 on paper, and in practice, it's a solid mid-range device with strong stats, a solid feel, and a clean look. However, the G305 has partly stood the test of time because you'd always find it on sale, and thanks to a price bump, the G305 X doesn't actually feel like a no-brainer upgrade, especially when the market is more vibrant, varied, and interesting than ever before.

The Dutch company ASML is the only company to make the world's most advanced chipmaking machines. Those machines have only ever gone to US or US-friendly companies such as TSMC, Intel, Samsung, and so on. The Chinese chipmaking market hasn't had access to them—perhaps until now, that is.

According to the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, there are concerns that one of ASML's best machines might have made its way into China (via Bloomberg). Those are, reportedly, concerns that Lutnick has raised to the company's senior leaders in private meetings.

ASML, however, denies this, saying that none of its EUV machines—extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, which use high-frequency light to trace circuits onto silicon wafers—are in China.

Bloomberg's anonymous senior US administration officials say they have evidence that ASML isn't being completely truthful here; evidence such as, for instance, that EUV tools have been exported to China. This evidence was not shown to Bloomberg.

The semiconductor machine company tells Bloomberg: "ASML regularly engages in transparent and open dialogue with government leaders globally. We recognize the national security considerations behind export control regulations in the US and the Netherlands, and we’re fully committed to complying with all applicable regulations."

ASML also says it has previously "refuted several unfounded rumors regarding non-compliance with export controls concerning China which were inaccurate and damaging to our reputation."

It would be a big deal if China did have an EUV machine from ASML, because this would move them a lot closer to the chipmaking ability of companies in the Western market like TSMC. ASML's CEO had previously said that China was 10–15 years behind the West in its chipmaking capabilities (via Tom's Hardware). The country had been blocked from getting new ASML machines because the US made sure the Netherlands restricted exports of them.

That hadn't stopped China from trying to play catch-up, though. For instance, late last year, Reuters sources reported that China now has a prototype EUV machine thanks to ex-ASML workers reverse-engineering ASML ones. These sources, however, reportedly said that China's machine is crude compared to ASML's, and it's doubtful there will be a working chip produced from it for at least the next couple of years.

Given ASML's reported adamancy that there is no EUV machine from the company in China, a small part of me wonders whether this prototype machine could be responsible for the mix-up. At any rate, with none of the US gov's supposed evidence in the open, it's hard to say.

AMD and TSMC have enjoyed a very close working relationship ever since the former spun off its chip-making facilities into a separate business in 2008. Its latest Ryzen desktop processors, which comprise two or three chiplets, are made entirely by TSMC, but if one report is to be believed, future CPUs could well be made by the Taiwanese firm's biggest rival: Samsung.

That's according to Nikkei Asia (via Jukan on X), which claims that "AMD…is in talks to build some future CPUs with Samsung from 2028." Although the report says this snippet comes from "one source with knowledge of the situation," the publication explains that the discussions are due to capacity constraints.

As things currently stand, AMD employs various TSMC node options for its products. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D, for example, has two chiplets under its heatspreader: a Core Complex Die (CCD) that's made on N4P and an Input/Output Die (IOD), which is fabricated on the cheaper N6 node.

The former node is heavily used by AMD, with all of its Ryzen AI 300 and 400-series laptop APUs also being fabricated on N4P, as well as its latest Radeon GPUs, but it also uses TSMC's N3 process to make some of its Zen 5c chips.

What we do know for sure is that AMD will be using TSMC's cutting-edge N2 process node for its next generation of Epyc server-grade processors, and while this is no guarantee that all Zen 6 chips will spring from these wafers, Nikkei Asia's remark suggests that this could well be the case.

Given its higher cost and relative newness, TSMC's N2 will probably be more restricted in capacity than N4, for example, and rather than limit its supply of consumer-grade processors to meet the demand of the AI market, it would seem that AMD is exploring the possibility of using the next best thing, i.e. one of Samsung's process nodes.

The question to consider here is just what processors the South Korean chip giant would make. To my mind, there are two main contenders: low-end APUs and the IOD for Zen 6 processors.

Budget-level CPUs are often just rebadged older products, occasionally with a mild architectural tweak or two, so they don't need to be made on the very smallest and most expensive of process nodes. AMD's IODs house a lot of analogue circuitry (to handle the interchiplet Infinity Fabric, DDR5 memory, PCIe, USB, etc), which doesn't scale particularly well with process node shrinks.

In other words, both are suitable to be used on a 'bigger', and thus cheaper, process node, and Samsung's 4LPP system would seem to be an ideal candidate. But why not just use TSMC's N4? After all, once Zen 6 launches in force, surely the demand for that process node will reduce in favour of N2?

Well, possibly not, because Nvidia uses it for all its Blackwell AI chips and while it wants everyone and their grandparents to be using its Vera Rubin products, the current generation of megachips will still be in high demand by the time AMD releases its next series of processors.

However, the talks might not be about older process nodes at all, as rumours were floating around last year that AMD might use Samsung's 2 nm system, in conjunction with TSMC's similarly named node, for its future chips. We could possibly see two 'types' of Zen 6 CCDs: cutting-edge TSMC ones for Epyc processors, cheaper and slightly slower Samsung ones for Ryzen CPUs.

Then again, it might not actually be about wafer capacity and instead just be a simple matter of cost. With the global memory crisis causing DRAM and NAND flash prices to rocket through the stratosphere, the PC industry is somewhat in decline at the moment, with a reduction in shipments across every sector bar data centers (which is very much doing the opposite).

AMD and all its rivals will be considering every possible option to reduce the cost of making processors, and if Samsung is broadcasting that it can significantly undercut TSMC, you can certainly see why chip firms would be lining up to discuss using their services.

For PC gamers, none of this really matters, of course. Regardless of how potent or poor the next generations of CPUs or GPUs turn out to be, they're not going to be cheap enough to offset the fact that DDR5 memory kits and SSDs are now between three and five times more expensive than they were this time last year.

Valve is struggling to meet demand for its Steam Controller. The trackpad-equipped gamepad quickly sold out when it released in early May, and ever since there's been a reservation system similar to the one once used for Steam Deck.

And people have been using it, to such an extent that Valve has needed to upgrade the system to manage expectations regarding when you'll actually get one. "When we launched Steam Controller last month, we quickly saw that initial demand exceeded our expectations," Valve writes in an update.

"We have no plans to stop making Steam Controller. But as we look at the current demand compared to how many we know we can make by the end of the year, we want to manage expectations as much as we can with regards to when folks can expect to receive their order."

To get to the point: if you're not in the queue already you probably won't get a Steam Controller until 2027. One of my colleagues based in the United States joined the queue today and their "estimated order availability" is 2027. It's the same for me in Australia.

According to Valve the reservation page now shows one of three estimated shipping windows, including "by September 2026", "by December 2026", and "in 2027", with more specific timing for the latter to come later. If you joined the queue already you can revisit the page and it'll show you which of those three categories you fit in.

Still, I do wonder how many of those in the queue have decided they're definitely going to buy a Steam Controller. It's possible to reserve your place without placing a deposit, so there's really no harm in registering your interest even if you're not committed to making the purchase. When something is in such hot demand, it's probably smarter to make the reservation than to not, because what if you change your mind between now and next year? What if the Steam Machine proves so mindblowing that the Steam Controller becomes an essential piece of kit?

Whatever the case, once your ticket is called you have 72 hours to make the purchase before you lose your place in the queue. With Steam Machine and Steam Frame seemingly imminent, I'd be very surprised if we don't see the same situation with those.

This is not the first time the idea has been mooted. And the source here is either about as authoritative as it gets or as unreliable as humanly possible, depending on how you look at it. But President Trump says that Apple has agreed to make chips with Intel in the USA.

Specifically, in a Truth social post Trump said, "First, we helped bring in Nvidia, and they agreed to build their first level Chips with Intel. Next, Elon agreed to build his TerraFab, the largest Chip Factory in the World, designed together with Intel’s Technology team. And, finally, Apple has agreed to work with Intel to design and build its Chips in America."

It should be said that there is, as yet, no official confirmation of any of this from the companies concerned. Indeed, that includes not only Trump's claim that Apple has agreed to make chips with Intel, but also with Nvidia.

Nvidia and Intel are very much on-the-record about a collaboration. But thus far, that's about combining Intel CPUs with Nvidia GPUs. Exactly how those chips get made hasn't been detailed. Nor, inevitably, are there any specifics regarding chips Intel might make for Apple.

That said, there have been rumours for some time that Apple could use Intel's fabs to make certain chips. Much of the coverage suggests that Apple could choose Intel to make lower-cost chips, perhaps for mainstream iPhone and MacBook models, while the really high-performance, cutting-edge stuff for Pro models remains at TSMC.

Almost any deal with Apple would clearly be a huge win for Intel and its nascent customer fab business. Unsurprisingly, Intel's stock price leapt up 7% following Trump's announcement on Truth Social.

Equally unsurprisingly, Trump called out Intel's stock price gains of late, saying, "We decided to help Intel in exchange for 10% of their shares. Is that too much or, too little? They were worth around 100 Billion Dollars when we made our offer. Now they are worth over 600 BILLION DOLLARS! Nine months, and they’ve increased in value over HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS. America’s stake is now over 60 Billion Dollars. When was the last time a President made America money?"

For now it's unclear what, if anything, Intel and Apple have agreed. If there is an agreement, it will no doubt be years before the first Apple chips flow from Intel's fabs. Any deal may well be contingent on the performance—or yields—of Intel's new 18A and 14A nodes. If it's not good enough, Apple may have an exit written into the deal.

So there may be a deal. But it doesn't necessarily follow that there will definitely be chips. As ever, watch this space.

Though I do wear glasses and I'm intrigued by the idea of techie wearables on paper, I'm far from all-in on AR glasses. Still, depending on how Qualcomm's fresh chip geared towards augmented and virtual reality headgear is implemented, I can see myself changing my mind.

Qualcomm has just revealed the Snapdragon Reality Elite, a SoC it pitches as enabling "longer-lasting, sleeker, and cooler devices." The Reality Elite will debut in the Xreal Project Aura, offering "better optical see-through, improved power efficiency, and better hand and head tracking" on the Android-based XR wearable.

But Qualcomm doesn't just have its eye on smart glasses with this chip, citing a number of performance boosts for VR headsets specifically. Compared to its XR2 Gen 2 chip that you'll find inside the Meta Quest 3, the Reality Elite purportedly enjoys "up to 60% higher GPU performance, up to 30% increase in CPU performance, and up to 160% higher NPU performance, giving developers greater flexibility to push immersive XR experiences further."

A Reality Elite-based VR headset could offer gaming at "up to 4.4K per eye at 90 frames per second," while a more straightforward XR wearable will enjoy "enhancements to video see‑through (VST) [that] reduce latency and improve image quality, helping digital content blend more naturally with the physical world." Valve's VR headset, the Steam Frame, might feel just a little bit underpowered in comparison.

Now, this wouldn't be a tech announcement in 2026 without an AI angle. The Snapdragon Reality Elite doesn't buck that trend, instead touting "up to 48 TOPS" (that's 'trillions of operations per second,' and Qualcomm further breaks it down as a measurement of AI performance here).

In the press release, Qualcomm says the beefed-up performance will "enable everything from photorealistic avatars with Gaussian Splatting and LLM‑based agents to real‑time large vision model (LVM)–driven object generation that brings dynamic digital content into the user’s environment," allowing an XR experience to supposedly respond to a user in real-time.

Besides maxed out machine-learning, the Snapdragon Reality Elite also takes aim at more practical aspects of XR wearables. For one thing, the chip aims to deliver "up to 20% longer battery life," while also being an "up to 12 degrees Celsius cooler chipset under load." In theory, that should allow for thinner, lighter, and cooler smartglasses frames. Snap's just announced Specs uses two unnamed Snapdragon chips, though perhaps those bulky frames should've been left to cook just a little bit longer.

I recently had the chance to test two different Melgeek keyboards at the same time. They are the space-themed Centauri 80 and the black and gold Real 81. Though they're made by the same company, they couldn't be more different in approach.

The Centauri 80 is heavy, flashy, with a built-in OLED screen, and it costs $360. The Real 81, on the other hand, is more practical at $140, or at least as practical as you can get from a competitive gaming keyboard.

If I could compare it to keyboards I've tried before, I'd say it's a similar feel and design to Lemokey, specifically the Lemokey L4. It's small but blocky and a little chunky. It's the type of keyboard you could throw into a backpack, but you probably wouldn't want to because it's pretty heavy. Still, I don't think I'd fear it breaking on the train.

It also comes with many of the features you would want out of a competitive keyboard. It can go all the way up to 8,000 Hz (should you have the reaction speed for that to matter), and its keys are all rapid trigger capable, which means they can register presses and unregister presses based on a specific actuation. In practice, this means being able to stop walking quicker or button bash more effectively.

Immediately, it's a more attractive package for the average gamer than the Centauri 80. Where the Centauri shows up in the looks department and feels impressive, the Real 81 is simpler in approach. It doesn't have any gimmicks and comes in at a reasonably competitive price.

Naturally, I still wouldn't call $140 cheap, or even budget, but the Gamakay x NaughShark NS68 sits in a league of its own for 8,000 Hz pricing. And Gamakay give up build quality in return for that super cheap price point. $140 feels about right for the keyboard I've had my mitts on, factoring specs and build.

In the looks department, the Real 81 has a few flourishes, with a gold trim and a small LED bar down the bottom right, but it's not too flashy either. It's all black otherwise, and the keys have a dark gold lettering.

Unfortunately, like the Centauri 80, the Real 81 is quite hard to make out in a dark environment. If I don't have at least a light on in the room, I have to rely mostly on feel to make out where the keys are. This isn't a huge problem for me, as I'm fairly familiar with where to put my hands, but it's still an odd issue to have. Keys are, thankfully, well spaced and easy to get to, though.

The RGB underneath keys does look pretty good, and that's because its keys are translucent. It even has per-key RGB, which can be adjusted in Melgeek's own software. That software can also be used to set custom controls, which does help make up for the lack of any media buttons on the keyboard itself. You can download that software, or use it on the web, and the web app is super solid. I like that customisation is straightforward and easy here. The Real 81 is simple to use out of the box and doesn't even require software, past the first update.

As far as typing feel is concerned, the Real 81 performs okay. Keys are a tad springy for my liking, and are less smooth than I would have hoped. I feel like I'm simply putting in a little more effort than I expect when trying to bash them down in a flurry for a piece of news. Mine came equipped with Melgeek's Honey magnetic switches, and Honey is an apt name, as they just feel a tad sticky. The space bar and caps lock also have an uncomfortable clack feeling, which is less nice than the somewhat muted sounds of the rest of the keyboard. I wouldn't say it's bad, as far as sound is concerned, but just inconsistent.

Melgeek employs a 5-layer sound-dampening gasket mount to help flatten that sound, and it's mostly rather satisfying. The majority of keys have a 'tick' sound that's just quite enough that it hasn't bothered my partner on a late night when inspiration has suddenly struck me. The feel of the keys would certainly send me to bed before the sound would, anyway.

In games, the Real 81 does perform pretty well, though. Keys are responsive and super quick in Counter-Strike 2, and I can stop walking nearly instantaneously. Your reticule is smaller when standing still in Counter-Strike 2, so this feels like a boon to me. I'd say competitive games overall perform quite nicely. The slightly tougher keys are actually pretty solid in the likes of Battlefield, where a stray misclick is rather common.

In more casual single-player games, I find the Real 81 does its job, but it's less comfortable to use after a few hours than other keyboards I've had my hands on. That's because the springy keys just require a bit more effort. Longer gaming sessions feel ever so slightly tiresome.

I noticed this after a few hours with roguelite city builder Super Fantasy Kingdom, where I just wished I could control it all from my mouse, as the combination of its hardy keys and my leaned posture made it feel like a little more effort than necessary.

Most keyboards have to make compromises, but I can't help but feel like Melgeek's compromises are by accident here. It's a solid set of competitive keys, but not amazing for everyday typing. It has vibrant RGB and gold lettering…which you will struggle to see in the dark. It has a solid dampening solution that works well… but not on every key.

The Real 81's monkey paw curls on almost every good side, and there's certainly enough good to outweigh the bad points, but there's still far more bad than I was expecting. Or hoping for.

According to one PC peripheral YouTuber, some of the best gaming mice on the market that use the latest sensors aren't sticking at the DPI they're set to (via MouseCast). At least, not when moved at a very slow speed.

An X user noted the problem a couple of years ago, pointing out the problematic feature in the firmware for some popular mouse sensors: the PixArt PAW3395, PAW3950, and PAW3399. Designed to prevent stationary cursor jitter, the 'DPI downshift' feature (as the X user phrased it) apparently works by throttling higher DPIs down to a lower one for when velocity is very low.

The potential problem with this is that one might intentionally be moving the mouse very slightly and very slowly, in which case the DPI will be lower than you've set it to and you'll get a slower movement than you might expect.

The YouTuber, pandahling, explains that there are three kinds of DPI downshift you might see. One that's binary, where it downshifts to a threshold (usually 7,500 DPI) when above this DPI and at very low velocity. The second type is caused by a profile switch in the firmware which changes things somewhat but still means that most DPI settings will be subject to downshift at low velocities.

The third kind of DPI downshift is much more slight, but apparently affects every these sensors at every DPI setting, not just at high ones. The YouTuber notes that all four PAW3950 mice they bought recently suffer from this one, as well as the Viper V4 Pro, the best gaming mouse on the market, which uses a newer, custom PixArt sensor.

The mice tested were found to have a 2–5% downshift in DPI, except for the Viper V4 Pro which was found to have a much higher 8–10% downshift. All only when at very low velocity, of course.

The graph above, from Pandahling's video, shows MouseTester results for the Viper V4 Pro at 800 DPI and 8K polling.

The vertical line on the left represents when the mouse moves quickly, and the slope on the right represents it moving the same small distance but very slowly. As you can see, there are fewer 'counts' of deviation from a stationary position when the mouse is moved slowly, which means there are fewer inputs registered by the mouse.

In other words: very slow movement means a decrease in DPI. That's why the slope ends lower on the right than it started on the left. The same distance has been travelled, but there were less dot/count registers on the slow return journey, and MouseTester therefore assumes that it hasn't returned to its starting spot.

I use a mouse with a PAW3950—the Zowie EC2-DW—and haven't noticed any problems, even when making small and slow micro-adjustments when holding an angle in Counter-Strike. But I only play at a low DPI of 800—if it's good enough for CS2 pros then it's good enough for me. And the PAW3950 seemingly doesn't suffer quite as much as the Viper V4 Pro reportedly does from this third type of DPI downshifting that occurs even at lower DPIs.

I must say, I'm not sure just how much of an effect such slight downshifting would have in practice given I don't tend to move my mouse gradually at a very low velocity—I'll have to try it out once the Viper V4 Pro is back from its merry travels at the PC Gamer offices. But one recommendation for those with an affected sensor, unless the manufacturer has fixed it in a firmware update, might be to keep your mouse DPI at least below 7,500 to make the first two types of more dramatic DPI downshift less likely.

At its State of Unreal event in Chicago, Epic Games officially unveiled Unreal Engine 5.8, and one of its key new features is Lumen Lite: a scalability setting that targets the use of ray-traced global illumination for the Nintendo Switch 2, with the goal of 60 fps. As the feature also works for PCs, I thought I'd dive in and check out just what the fuss is all about. Or if indeed any fuss ought to be made.

By default, the Unreal Engine editor gives developers a simplified way of checking out various graphics settings to see how they affect performance and visual quality. There are 11 separate options that can be tweaked, but the new Lumen Lite mode only affects global illumination (GI) and reflections, as these are the main things that Epic's ray tracing system affects.

In older versions of UE, switching to 'Medium' GI and reflections fully disables Lumen, but in the latest release, the same setting enables Lumen GI, though reflections are still screen-spaced, i.e. SSR. Ray-traced global illumination is normally the preserve of the 'High' or 'Epic' settings, so to make it more performant for low-end GPUs, Lumen Lite replaces a key stage in the lighting process with something quicker but lower in quality than the usual system.

I first caught a glimpse of this in action via Skydek's YouTube channel, earlier this year, and the end results looked really promising, as Lumen Light was giving up to 40% more performance for very little difference in visual quality. But watching the demo, set in a fairly simple environment and using software Lumen, I kept wondering how much of a difference it would make when hardware Lumen is used and in a graphics-heavy scenario.

To that end, I fired up Unreal Engine 5.6 and 5.8, and used Epic's Electric Dreams Environment demo to see Lumen Lite in action. Now, as I'm merely a UE hobbyist, I did nothing more than install all the assets for each UE build and check out the performance in the viewport.

This is very much a 'worst-case scenario' or, if you prefer, a 'Nick is rather lazy' scenario, as the displayed performance is not even remotely representative of how it would all be in an actual game, and I've just clicked a few buttons, rather than directly adjusting the code for the graphics settings and then building the full demo.

Anyway, let's set the scene, as so to speak, by seeing everything in action in Unreal Engine 5.8, using Epic scalability and materials. It's not the very highest setting you can use, but in the case of Lumen, it's for targeting consoles at 30 fps. I've used a Core Ultra 270K Plus with a GeForce RTX 4080 Super, so not console-like at all, but as you can see, it certainly looks great, albeit with a rather low frame rate.

Now, let's take a look at the same situation and settings, except with 'Medium' used for GI and reflections, i.e. Lumen Lite. The first thing you should notice is that the performance is roughly 25% better, and the overall lighting is pretty good. Only the screen space reflections spoil the picture somewhat, but that's what you get for not using ray tracing in those areas.

Before you get your pitchforks out over the fact that Epic says that Lumen Lite is "twice as fast as Lumen High quality", it's worth noting that only the GI and reflections processing is twice as fast. What we're seeing here is that everything else in the UE editor viewport demo is exceptionally heavy, which is why there's only a 25% uplift, rather than a 100% one.

I was keen to compare UE5.8 and Lumen Lite to UE5.6, as that iteration was notable for targeting more performance across the board, and since 'Medium' GI and reflections in this version just disable Lumen altogether, I'd expect to see a big difference in the frame rate for a notable loss in visual fidelity. Well, that's exactly what I got. In fact, it's quite remarkable just how bad it looks compared to using Lumen, with heavy flickering across almost all objects.

So I tried it all again, switching to 'High' GI but leaving reflections SSR-based by using the 'Medium' setting. Notice the immediate improvement in how it all looks? More importantly, can you see that the use of Lumen GI doesn't hurt the performance too much?

Of course, this is all on a high-end gaming PC, not a Switch 2 or a handheld device like the Steam Deck or ROG Ally. The former has more than enough resources to hand for the ray tracing part of the whole rendering chain to not be a problem, as demonstrated by the difference between Lumen Epic and Medium quality above.

But it did make me wonder whether Lumen Lite is a little bit unnecessary, and that a healthy dose of good old-fashioned optimization will be just as good. If I were a Switch 2 developer, I'd probably say, "No, Lumen Lite is very necessary and a great idea," because I only have to worry about two hardware configurations: docked and handheld mode.

When it comes to making PC games, it's a whole different kettle of fish, and while Lumen Lite might be useful as the default mode for 'Steam Deck' settings, every other hardware config really needs careful tweaking to account for the differences between the numerous models of AMD, Intel, and Nvidia GPUs that can support Lumen (software or hardware).

If a studio is going to dedicate the necessary time and resources to doing all of that, then they probably won't use Lumen Lite and instead will fine-tune things by hand, so to speak. However, now that we're in a period where many studios are being shut down and hardware costs are ballooning, any game devs using UE5.8 will probably just stick to the basics because of time and cost constraints.

Epic almost certainly added Lumen Lite on the basis of feedback from developers, looking for a quick and simple solution to ray-traced lighting on the least capable hardware. Well, they've got exactly what they asked for, and it is genuinely useful. I just fear that the 'one-click solution' is going to be heavily used instead of what we'd all like to see.

After a standard spell in beta, the latest iteration of SteamOS—Valve's Arch-based Linux distro for use on Steam Deck, Steam Machine, and Steam Frame—has hit the big three-eight. Or, well, three-point-eight. SteamOS 3.8 is out, is what I'm saying, and if you turn your face to the wind and inhale, you can detect the first notes of upcoming hardware.

Specifically, the Steam Machine, for which SteamOS 3.8 brings "initial support," as well as support for waking a SteamOS device from sleep via a connected Steam Controller. Alas, no word on the Steam Frame in these patch notes, but consider me as eager as ever to get my hands on Valve's living room box, presuming the RAM crisis has not made it cost $5,000 dollars.

But this is a pretty big release even excluding the GabeCube stuff. I'll stick the full patch notes down below, but there are a number of tweaks and new features that leap out to me as a longtime Deck user. Chief among them is that yer Deck now defaults to Wayland rather than X11 in desktop mode.

Those are two different display servers for Linux desktops—the gubbins that make your GUI function when you're not working straight in the virtual console like god intended. To cut to the chase: X11 is the old one (and as such, tends to have greater compatibility and work better for some particular tasks, at least for now) and Wayland is the new one (though it's been out in some form for nearly 20 years)—it's more secure and generally a bit more dextrous for most tasks.

So swapping to Wayland-by-default means that SteamOS has reduced "several cases of reduced performance in Desktop Mode compared to Game Mode" on your Steam Deck, desktop mode also has better scaling on TVs, support for external HDR displays, and support for VRR displays. The kind of stuff you might care about if you were making an OS for a device that's expected to live underneath people's TVs.

There are also new BIOSes for the LCD and OLED Decks, which will be installed as part of the general 3.8 update when you run it. The LCD one, sorry to say, isn't too exciting, save that it adds preliminary support for device hibernation. OLED, though? Valve's updated the Deck so that the charging LED now respects your device charging settings. If you set your Deck to top out at 80% charge for battery health reasons, then the LED will turn green—meaning fully charged—when it reaches that point, rather than remaining standard 'charging' white for eternity.

All good stuff, then. Here are the full patch notes for your perusal.

General

• Updated Arch system base
• Initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware
• Added support for waking from sleep via connected Steam Controller
• Substantially improved speed of future OS updates on high-speed connections
• Improved support for screen casting in Game Mode (e.g. OBS/Discord)
• Fixed dropdown menus not appearing in some games
• Fixed excessive trackpad sensitivity on certain early Steam Deck LCD models
• Improved support for games that attempt to open PDF files in external viewers
• Fixed an issue where video output could become frozen while using Remote Play
• Fixed a possible session crash when using Game Recording with certain "Maximum video height" settings
• Fixed an issue affecting certain titles (such as "SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide") where the game window could have an incorrect position
• Fixed closing certain titles (such as "STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor™" and Starfield) resulting in a session crash
• Improved support for certain USB racing wheels and USB devices that boot in a non-standard mode
  • Frequently these are devices that appear as USB storage devices with a driver installer, and must be switched to their normal mode by the OS
• Steam Deck controller firmware updates now display update progress on the splash screen
• Fixes issue on specific Steam Deck revisions where firmware updates could render the left controller inoperative for that session
• Numerous stability and security updates

Display / Performance

• Updated graphics driver with performance and stability fixes
• Added preliminary support for HDMI VRR for devices with native HDMI output
• Fixed an issue where "Allow Tearing" wouldn't have the intended effect in certain configurations
• Improved VRR frame pacing
• Fixed FSR badge remaining off in the performance overlay, even if it was actually active
• Fixed a case where per-app performance settings would intermittently fail to apply when launching a game
• Added missing graphics features needed for titles such as "Crimson Desert"
• Fixed an issue on certain TCL TVs where the display may remain blank using the Steam Deck Dock when VRR is enabled (requires a Dock firmware update)

Bluetooth / WiFi

• Fixed a case where WiFi performance could become degraded until the device was put to sleep or manually reconnected
• Re-re-enable Bluetooth Wake for Steam Deck LCD
  • Fix for more spurious wake issues that were present in earlier attempts

Audio

• Detect HDMI channel count and expose surround configuration if available
• Add a setting to allow using Bluetooth headset mics (Bluetooth playback quality will be worse while capture is active)
• Restore internal audio device on reboot if set to "Off" in desktop mode
• Increase suspend timeout for HDMI devices so initial audio isn't cut off after a few seconds of inactivity
• Fixed a bug with switching input devices when a wired headset is plugged in
• Fixed an issue where audio underruns could be experienced after sleep/resume
• Fixed a bug on Steam Deck OLED where rebooting would occasionally cause a loss of speaker output until rebooted again
• Fixed a case where FPS limits would fail to apply when downscaling games from a higher resolution

Accessibility

• Added an option to force mono audio output

Desktop Mode

• KDE Plasma updated to version 6.4.3 from 6.2.5, and now uses wayland by default

  • Fixes several cases of reduced performance in Desktop Mode compared to Game Mode

  • Improved support for rotated displays

  • Better scale factor out of the box on TVs

  • Adds support for external HDR displays

  • Adds support for VRR displays

  • Adds support per-display scale factor

  • For more information, see Plasma release announcements

  • https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.3.0/

  • https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.4.0/

• Keyboard layout and language are now obeying Game Mode settings

• Improved windowing behavior for games running in Proton

• Fixed a bug in Desktop Mode causing previously open applications to not be remembered when using the 'Return to Gaming Mode' shortcut to logout

• Fixes for experimental nested desktop mode

• Fixed Desktop Mode night color settings inappropriately remaining active when switching back to Game Mode

System Firmware

• Includes Steam Deck LCD BIOS v133

  • Security updates

  • Added "Memory Power Down" setup option

  • Preliminary support for hibernation

• Includes Steam Deck OLED BIOS v114

  • Security updates

  • Charging LED now changes color when charge limit is reached, rather than only at 100%

Non-Deck

• Improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms

• Greatly improved video memory management on discrete GPU platforms

• Fixed a compatibility issue with the SteamOS chainloader that could cause a boot failure on some desktop systems with recent UEFI firmware

• Power button short and long presses now supported across a wide variety of devices

• Improved controller support for OneXPlayer F1 series, GPD Win 5, GPD Win Mini, Anbernic Win600, OrangePi NEO, and Lenovo Legion Go

• Added controller support for OneXPlayer X1 series and Lenovo Legion Go 2

• Added system and controller firmware update support for the Lenovo Legion Go 2

• Added preliminary charge limiting support for Legion Go, Legion Go S, and Legion Go 2 - currently only accessible in Desktop Mode

• Added controller RGB LED color settings for the Lenovo Legion Go 2

• Added controller, TDP control, and speaker audio support for the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally series

• Reduced handheld controller input latency from 5-8ms to 100-500us

• Night mode, color vibrance, and color temperature sliders in Steam now work on Z2E and later AMD APUs

• Seamless boot fixes for Z2E and later AMD APUs

• Automatically handle internally rotated display for some third-party handhelds

• Improved motion control support for handhelds with BMI260 IMUs

• SD card reliability improvements for some third-party handhelds, including ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, Legion Go 1, Legion Go S, Legion Go 2, and MSI Claw

• Fixed washed out colors for Zotac and OneXPlayer handhelds with OLED

• Fixed some GPU hangs on Phoenix APU devices (Tales of Arise, Octopath Traveler II)

• Fixed ASUS ROG Ally power consumption from fingerprint reader while shut down

• Fixed trackpad losing functionality after sleep/resume on the Legion Go

• Fixed spurious wake-ups when using a Logitech Bolt receiver

• Add controller support for MSI Claw devices (A1M, 7 AI+ A2VM, 8 AI+ A2VM, A8 BZ2EM)

• Add controller support for OneXPlayer APEX and X1 series.

• Improved gyro response for devices that use AccelGyro3D (Legion Go 1, Claw A1M)

• Fixed a system crash on international Asus ROG Xbox Ally models

• Fix Bluetooth not working on some Intel handhelds

• Add initial firmware for upcoming Intel handhelds

Developer

• Desktop Mode now uses Wayland by default

  • X11 support may still be selected via Steam developer settings, or via `steamosctl`

• Updated Linux kernel to 6.16

• Steam now uses steamos-manager to query available desktop sessions and trigger desktop session switching

• Added support for setting the desktop password in developer settings

• Initial support for running as a Virtual Machine guest (virtio guest drivers)

• Added support for third-party devices to trigger the SteamOS boot menu via EFI variable

• Added `custom-update` verb to `atomupd-manager` for easier testing of specific builds

• System reports now include more audio debug information

• Initial support for LAVD CPU scheduler via `steamosctl set-cpu-scheduler lavd`

In the UK, the Online Safety Act now requires that websites verify the age of its users through checks often carried out by third-party vendors. Personally, I'm trying to avoid handing over either scans of my government ID or face as long as possible and, so far that's resulted in me being locked out of my Bluesky DM's. Though not ideal, it's easily remedied by hopping onto a VPN—though future restrictions could mean I'll have to rethink that strategy.

The UK government is considering an Australia-style ban on social media for under-16s, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying that the ban could take effect as soon as spring next year. As for the much nearer future, Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told BBC Breakfast earlier this week, "We will make further statements in July about VPNs and further restrictions."

To be clear, no specific restrictions have yet been announced and Kendall sounded somewhat cautious about an outright ban during a parliament debate that took place the same day. "I have commissioned further research about their usage. There are really important issues to balance here," she says. "Many people want to use VPNs for privacy—that is important—but we know that some children use them to get around restrictions. I will come back to that in July in our response to the consultation."

So, we'll have to wait until next month for anything definite, but it's hard not to feel like a full ban on VPNs is already on the table. If that does come to pass, more than the contents of my Bluesky inbox will be at stake.

Utah in the US has already tried to implement a full VPN ban (though this was postponed until September after Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, challenged the law in court). The Electronic Frontier Foundation criticised the Utah's proposed ban back in May, saying, "The legal risk could push the site to either ban all known VPN IPs, or to mandate age verification for every visitor globally. This would subject millions of users to invasive identity checks or blocks to their VPN use, regardless of where they actually live."

In other words, the UK could just be the next domino after Utah, potentially setting off a chain reaction that affects users around the world. Obviously, VPNs are used for more than getting around age verification checks to clap eyes upon your direct messages or 'adult material.' As a journalist, VPNs can also be a hugely valuable tool to protect my privacy online.

Age checks themselves can be a privacy nightmare in themselves, with the security breach that exposed the personal info of 70,000 Discord users last year being one case in point. To quote Evin McMullen, co-founder of age verification provider Privado ID, many age verification methods "are over exposing data to prove a simple point." Our Jacob spoke to McMullen as well as a number of other age verification specialists to explore some of the alternatives to our current privacy nightmare.

On one hand, I do understand some of the thinking behind the UK's planned ban more broadly—I won't pretend that having completely unfettered internet access in my youth was only ever beneficial. However, as I've written about before, I'm sceptical that age verification checks or other attempts to seemingly quarantine children online is the route to take. To echo the words of my wider PC Gamer colleagues in this group piece, instead of locking the kids out of online communities, perhaps world governments should make any attempt at all to better regulate social media giants.

That we're in something of a crisis when it comes to PC storage and memory prices isn't news. But the pricing and specifications of SanDisk's new gamer-focused SSDs for PC and console are still pretty shocking.

The dubious fun kicks off with the SanDisk Optimus GX 7100X. It's a PCIe Gen 4 M.2 drive rated up to 7,250 MB/s for reads and 6,900 MB/s for writes. And it has a list price of $800 for the 2 TB config. The only other model is a 4 TB drive for $1,580. Ouch.

The drive is at least based on TLC NAND, rather than cheapo QLC memory, and comes with a five-year warranty. But still. Currently, SanDisk is offering the drive at a "discount" on its website, with the 2 TB model slashed to $630.

That's quite a bit off the MSRP, but it's still very silly money for a 2 TB Gen 4 M.2 drive, even in the current climate. Currently on our Prime Day SSD deals page, you can snag a 2 TB WD Black SN8100, which is an uber-fast Gen 5 drive, for $386, making the SanDisk drive look hopelessly over priced.

Is there anything that justifies the incredible $800 sticker price and still-silly $600-plus sale price? Well, it's "officially licensed" for the Asus ROG Xbox Ally consoles. But to the best of my knowledge, a generic Gen 4 SSD works fine in the Xbox Ally, so I'm not really clear on the real benefit there. I don't think there are even warranty implications for the Ally.

As if this wasn't bad enough, I give you the SanDisk Optimus GX PRO 850P. This little beauty, another M2.2 SSD, kicks off at 1 TB. So, you might hope it's a bit more accessible. Yes, and yet no.

The 1 TB model has a list price of—wait for it—$475. The 2 TB model? That's $950. And this, ladies and germs, is still a Gen 4 drive, rated at 7,300 MB/s for reads and 6,600 MB/s for writes.

Again, there's a lower current "sale" price for the 1 TB model of $380. But that is still bananas for a 1 TB Gen 4 drive. Yes, that pertains even now in the AI-fuelled memory and storage crisis. And again, our Prime Day SSD deals page shows the way forward here, with the WD Black SN7100 1TB yours for $189.

The Optimus GX PRO 850P is also "officially licensed", this time for the Sony PS5 console, which still doesn't carry much more meaning given the PS5 should work with any 4-lane PCIe Gen 4 M.2 NVMe drive in capacities between 250 GB and 8 TB.

It has a chunky looking heatsink which is presumably optimised for the PS5's thermals. But, still, it's very hard to fathom where the money is going. For the record, SanDisk will do you an Optimus M.2 drive with PCIe Gen 5 support, the Optimus GX PRO 8100. That lists at a scarcely believable $525 for the 1 TB model, $350 on "sale."

The latter actually makes this Gen 5 1 TB drive cheaper than the Gen 4 1 TB Optimus GX PRO 850P in terms of current offered pricing on SanDisk's website. But, whatever. The best one can suggest in all this is that SanDisk knows where the market is headed and has decided to get out ahead of it with these hugely inflated MSRPs.

Presumably they'll look "normal" in a few months and while other drive makers are crank up their prices, SanDisk can style out some strictly true "discounts" at these remarkably high prices. Oh well!

The FCC has just made public some exhibits for the left Steam Frame controller (via SadlyItsBradley). We've known the FCC ID 2AES4-1013 refers to the left controller for the upcoming Valve VR headset for a while, but we now have iFixit-style teardown pictures of it, courtesy of Valve itself.

Things could presumably still change, but the main takeaway is that it looks like the controller could actually be pretty repairable.

The pictures show internals made of multiple little PCBs, rather unlike the Index's giant, finnicky PCB chunk that requires a soldering iron for some repairs. It looks like the new controller will have plenty of threaded screws, too, and everything looks pretty easy to access.

This isn't too surprising, given we were very impressed with the new Steam Controller's repairability. Our Jacob Ridley did a teardown of the Steam Controller and concluded: "Valve has shown it cares about repairability in the past and that holds true for the Steam Controller... Many parts of the Steam Controller should be an easy replacement with minimal fuss, especially once spare parts are available to purchase."

Regarding the Steam Frame more generally, Valve has been sticking to its summertime launch goal, and a recent shipping manifest suggests that Frame imports are already arriving in Valve's US warehouse. The new FCC filings are just further evidence of a hopefully imminent launch.

We still don't know how the headset will be priced, however. One thing to note on this front is that it's a standalone device, meaning it has to have memory so it can, well, run games—16 GB of LPDDR5, no less. In other words, it won't be immune to the RAMpocalypse.

Still, every little helps, and not having to fork out for a whole new controller if anything goes wrong would be a nice way to potentially keep costs a little lower, even if indirectly.

Occasionally in hardware and technology reporting, I'm left to wonder if everyone else is in on a joke I'm not privy to. Today is one of those days. Snap, the company behind the instant messaging app Snapchat, has just unveiled its own augmented reality glasses.

Called Specs, the frames are pitched partially as an alternative to looking down at your phone screen all day, and a pair will set you back $2,195.

The goal was arguably to contain some serious hardware grunt inside a wearable, but the result is a pair of seriously chunky frames—not just to contain components but also likely to stop the whole thing from overheating. Let me set up the punchline: In this CNBC clip, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel describes Specs as both capable and "highly wearable," while the dorky-looking frames visibly crush down his ears.

Now that's a real howler. But before we completely dismiss this wearable effort, let's get into a few more choice details. For one thing, the lenses are apparently built to feel like "a 24-inch desktop monitor when you're working, or a 115-inch home cinema screen placed about 10 feet away when you're watching a movie." For another, the main selling point of Specs is that it's an all-in-one device, "with no puck and no tether," unlike some other major players' AR glasses projects we've seen recently.

Part of the frame's bulk can be attributed to the fact that it's housing not one but two Snapdragon processors. "One is dedicated to computer vision and the other is dedicated to running Lenses," Snap writes, "Together, they enable fast hand tracking, low latency, and responsive interactions that help digital content feel anchored in the real world. Specs deliver 7-millisecond motion-to-photon latency, verified through advanced robotic measurement systems."

In terms of battery life, you can expect a measly four hours of mixed use, "including audio and video playback, Lenses, AI assistance, Bluetooth notifications, and more." That said, the included charging case can offer four additional charges while out and about, holding a total of 20 hours of battery life. That's…still not great—though you could argue it avoids becoming yet another easy punchline.

What's perhaps less laughable for Snap itself is the hit its share price took when it revealed Specs. The original unveiling took place on June 16, and you'll notice a decline into today. This caps off six straight sessions of losses, according to Seeking Alpha. To be clear, I'm not faulting Specs' all-in-one ambitions on paper—it's more the fact that in practice, Snap is trying to deny a reality we can all see very obviously bearing down on its CEO's ears.

Valve's Steam Hardware survey is no stranger to data anomalies. And yet it remains an undeniable source of interest and intrigue if you're into PC hardware. So, here's the latest twist. AMD's Radeon 9070 XT is subject to an implausibly big upgrade in terms of its user numbers in the latest survey for May, suggesting that there's been a change in the way the 9070 XT's data is collected or tagged.

In previous Steam Hardware Surveys, the 9070 XT has essentially been Sir Not Appearing in This Data. It simply didn't figure. But suddenly, here it is in the latest survey with 1.33% of Steam users, placing it 23rd among discrete GPUs.

Valve lists the top 100 entries, which currently reaches down to the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT on 0.17%. The point here is that it's highly implausible that the 9700 XT has gone from zero in previous months to suddenly representing 1.33% of Steam gamers. It's not like it's just gone on sale.

Now, you could write this off as another Steam data anomaly that's likely to vanish in future surveys, like the fairly frequent anomalies in the survey caused by Chinese Lunar New Year. However, there's another data point in the new survey that likely reveals what's actually going on.

The listing in the survey for generic "AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics" GPUs has dropped from 2.37% share in April to 0.90% in the new May data. That's a drop of around 1.47% and suspiciously close to the 1.33% the 9070 XT picked up over the same period.

Odds are, then, that either Valve has made changes to the way it collects data to better identify AMD GPUs. Or AMD has tweaked its driver software to the same ultimate effect. In other words, 9070 XTs that were being lumped into that generic Radeon category are now being counted properly.

The slight remaining gap between the loss of share of the generic Radeon class and the 9070 XT's gains can be easily accounted for by several factors. There may be other GPUs that have also benefited from the data collection changes (though not the vanilla RX 9070, which was in the previous few surveys and has not leapt up the ranks this month).

At the same time, presumably not everyone with and AMD GPU has updated to the latest drivers. So, that could play a part. Whatever, this new survey data seems much more likely to be accurate.

For some time now, AMD's latest RDNA 4 GPUs including the RX 9070 XT have ranked highly in various sales charts, most obviously on Amazon where a Gigabyte 9070 XT currently ranks as the most popular, which is about as mainstream as it gets. So, the idea that RDNA 4 and the 9070 XT in particular had gained so little traction with Steam gamers was hard to understand.

That's true even if you operate under the assumption that most graphics cards are sold as part of pre-built rigs. Anyway, suffice to say that the 9070 XT has now been installed in something more closely resembling its rightful place in the Steam Hardware Survey and we can all relax. Until the next anomaly gets our data antennae twitching.

Courtesy of the RAMpocalypse, companies are raising prices for their memory-loaded products left, right, and centre. Apple products, however, had previously remained mostly (though not completely) untouched. No longer, though, as the company CEO Tim Cook tells the Wall Street Journal.

"Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable. We’re doing our best to mitigate the huge increases that are being passed to us, and we’ve been trying to shield our customers from the increases, but the situation has become unsustainable."

This is not your usual shortage, he explains: "This is a hundred-year flood. I’ve never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years."

Cook told the WSJ that both storage and memory are problems, but regarding DRAM specifically, he said:

"There’s less supply at a time when consumers want devices and the memory guys are passing along huge price increases. We definitely need memory pricing and supply to return to reasonable levels for consumer products. That’s the bottom line."

He also explained that the company is open to taking a hit to keep prices low:

"We’re willing to use our balance sheet to help be a part of the solution. Obviously, more capacity is needed."

That's one of the benefits of being a big company like Apple and having a sizeable profit margin: you can take supply cost increases on the chin and keep your products priced as they were. To an extent, anyway—it seems Apple is now finally admitting it cannot keep things as cheap as they were.

To be clear, the company hadn't managed to keep everything completely normal until now. Not too long ago, Apple discontinued its entry-level Mac Mini model, effectively raising the minimum price you could spend to get a cheap Mac desktop.

That being said, the actual prices for the models that were being sold stayed the same. And there was the launch of the MacBook Neo, of course, which is a cheap laptop compared to Apple's usual pricing, and seemed like a small bastion inside the wider PC market, which kept (and keeps) raising prices. One thing that's probably helped is the fact that Apple software makes very good use of memory, meaning not as much actual capacity is usually needed.

But the good times are no longer, and there's no silver bullet to fix it all, unfortunately. Cook also told the WSJ that it won't be trying to make its own memory and storage facilities: "We can’t do everything. We know what we’re good at."

At any rate, new fabs take a long time to spin up, even for players already in the chip fabrication game. And on that front, we've got a while to go until the big players finish their new ones. Until then, it'll likely be a game of 'grin and bear it.'

It's been six years since Epic first launched Unreal Engine 5, and at its State of Unreal event in Chicago today (head to 1h 40 mins in the above video) and in a separate blog post, we got our first look at what the next major release will offer to games, film, TV, and more industries. And it turns out that the biggest direction for the changes in the new engine came from Fortnite and UEFN.

If you're unfamiliar with the latter, it's basically a version of Unreal Engine 5 that's somewhat simplified and pared back to allow anyone to make levels or entire games for Fortnite. It's hugely popular and honestly very simple to use. I introduced my partner to it a few months ago, and despite having no experience in game development whatsoever, she created a fully functional Fortnite map and game mode within a day.

The sheer usability of UEFN is core to the changes in Unreal Engine 6, and when I talked to Epic at last year's State of Unreal event in Orlando, it explained that the separation between UE and UEFN would eventually go, with the two combined into a single package and offering the best of both worlds.

In the words of Tim Sweeney, it's "UE 5 plus UEFN equals UE 6, plus some more cool stuff on the way." The idea behind the merge is to allow developers to create something and then ship across every possible platform/store at the same time, including Fortnite itself. The unification also involves bringing APIs and code together across all of the various additions that Epic has for UE, such as MetaHumans.

That said, Fortnite isn't really going to be the showcase for Unreal Engine 6; that honour goes to Rocket League, and the very first glimpse of it all was dropped last month at the Paris Major event of the RL Championship Series.

Perhaps the most significant change in Unreal Engine 6 is the move to open standards for tools, code, APIs, etc. This isn't something that can be wholesale implemented overnight, and I suspect that not every element will be open in this manner, but the end goal is to give developers (games or otherwise) an easier path to getting content and code out to Epic's and external ecosystems.

Epic didn't say anything about specific features in the keynote, so no idea if there will be a major change to Lumen, for example, but it did say that UE6 is targeted for release at some point in 2027 ("2027-ish" was the exact phrase, though the blog post says "Early Access release at the end of 2027").

It also said a few things about Verse, the scripting language used in UEFN, and how the gameplay programming model in UE6 will be shifted to that language (though C++ will still be there underneath it all). Directly related to that will be something called Scene Graph, which will replace the current gameplay framework used in UE5. That will be built entirely on Verse, and with it, Epic plans to "build a full distributed software transactional memory system" for huge, interactive live worlds.

That won't mean anything to gamers, but for developers, it means that their "game code can be written as if it were running on a single machine without needing to coordinate custom networking code all over the place."

And naturally, AI is going to become a bigger feature of Unreal Engine, with the first step being taken in the new UE5.8 release and its MCP server plugin. That system will let you set up any LLM you want to use and give it various tasks to perform, from simple code refactoring all the way up to generating a full 3D scene that you can then tweak as required.

There's more to all of this, of course, but there's not quite enough information yet to glean any insight as to whether the step from UE5 to UE6 will be as dramatic as the jump from v4 to v5 was. My feeling is that it won't be, from a PC gamer's perspective at least, but game developers will probably relish the thought of having an Unreal Engine that's easier to use and quicker at producing the content required.

It's probably fair to say that Unreal Engine is probably the most comprehensive tool around for creating games, animations, and video effects. And, with the launch of UE 5.8, it's becoming even more extensive and even a little bit more AI-friendly. Whether you're just an Unreal Engine hobbyist like me, or a full-time game developer, you can download version 5.8 right now via the Epic Games Launcher.

Even if you don't plan on using any of the new features (of which there are a lot), it's always worth trying out the latest release just for bug and performance fixes. But what's actually new? The headline acts in UE5.8 are the introduction of Mesh Terrain and Procedural Vegetation Editor (PVE). Both are experimental features at the moment, but the former should be of great interest to anyone creating big, open-world terrains, as the tool basically generates full 3D meshes for you.

PVE is somewhat similar, except that instead of creating landscapes, it produces vegetation (trees, bushes, reeds, grass, etc) from scratch, with the procedural system working in line with meshes already present in the world. For example, let's say you had a crumbled old archway in a forest, PVE will 'grow' trees around it, accounting for the natural source of light and competing vegetation.

Complementing these are MegaLights, which first appeared in experimental form in UE5.5 (but is now "production-ready"), an experimental fog screen space scattering feature, and perhaps most interesting of all, Lumen Lite. This is a mode for Lumen global illumination that Epic claims to be twice as fast as Lumen High Quality, while still preserving "much of the visual impact".

The release notes for UE5.8 specifically mention that "games that rely on global illumination for artistic purposes can run on Nintendo Switch 2 at 60 fps," so it's blatantly obvious what platform it was developed for. However, since it's also supported on PC, UE-powered games of the future could well offer this as a graphics option for low-end hardware users.

Tucked away, almost at the end of the new version details announcement—which blessedly includes improvements to shader compiling—is one more experimental feature, an MCP plugin. With this, you can implement any LLM of your choice to "connect to and understand both the engine and your project." In other words, if you want to use AI to create assets or code, carry out tests or refactoring tasks, then you should be able to hand that over to the LLM easily enough.

Epic left the note about this feature after everything else, and I suspect that's because AI is hardly flavour of the month in the world of PCs and gaming right now. After all, Epic already has a section of PC gaming fandom that takes a dim view of Unreal Engine games, whether you believe that's the fault of Epic or a given game's developers themselves, and AI-use is another PC gaming bug bear.

Anyway, because of the consternation about AI in gaming—from being the primary cause of the horrendous price increases for DRAM and SSDs, as well as the endless controversies over its use in games—the inclusion of this plugin is likely to draw ire from some quarters.

The thing is, many game studios will have to rely increasingly more on AI for certain workloads if they hope to stay afloat. With the likes of Microsoft and numerous other companies about to swing a sword of Damocles across all their gaming divisions, studio heads will be looking at every avenue that will result in them having a future.

I'm not suggesting that game devs must use AI, nor am I saying that the inclusion of the LLM plugin (specifically an MCP server) with UE5.8 is a good or bad thing; it's simply a sign of our times. One can argue that Unreal Engine's feature set is sometimes a little too far-forward in reach (console and mainstream PC hardware still isn't quite good enough to cope with an all-in Lumen and Nanite game at high fps), but this minor plugin is very much a 'here-and-now' thing.

Whether you're coding or simply looking for an important file on your desktop, a single typo can create an outsized amount of frustration. Thankfully, Microsoft is working on a number of improvements for Search within Windows 11, including the ability to see through your typos.

The Insider Experimental Preview Build 26300.8687 for Windows 11 that dropped last week introduced the 'more forgiving' version of Search. Microsoft explained then, "Search is better at handling typos, dropped letters, extra letters, and partial words for apps. Queries like 'utlook' can still find Outlook" (via Windows Latest).

On top of that, Search will also prioritise local files over web results in the future. Previously, in response to a hastily typed query, Search had the mocking habit of returning a Bing result with the spelling corrected. Thankfully, Microsoft's partner director of design, March Rogers, said on X, "If you want you can turn off web suggestions entirely."

Most normie Windows 11 users would have to wait a bit before enjoying improvements first rolled out in an Insider preview build. However, I'm rocking OS build 26200.8655 (an older, non-Insider build that dropped earlier in June) and when I type something arcane like 'pwerp,' Search already knows I mean 'PowerPoint'.

That said, when I tried another of Windows Latest's typo tests, I found Search really wasn't sure what to make of 'tskm' in my version of Windows 11.

Search's improved typo parsing and more locally focused results are definitely small improvements in the grand scheme of things. But both contribute to making Windows 11 that much more usable, as well as Microsoft's stated recommitment to making the OS better.

User experience counts for a lot, after all. It's just as well Microsoft has decided to pump the brakes on answering every design question with features like Copilot, as I don't feel all that confident in the spelling abilities of AI.

I'm feeling a little sheepish because I spent a decade in higher education studying philosophy and have also spent a lot of time online over the years, and yet I had never heard of the philosophy game, or more aptly, the Wikipedia philosophy phenomenon. I'll let the Wiki page explain it:

"The Wikipedia philosophy phenomenon, sometimes called the 'Philosophy Game', is the tendency that English Wikipedia articles' first hyperlink, when clicked in a chain, will end in a loop at the article 'Philosophy'."

In other words, go to any Wikipedia article, click the first link, rinse and repeat, and you'll end up at the article for Philosophy. Of course, you can continue from there, but you'll just end up taking a detour through language, communication, meaning, and so on, and then—you guessed it—looping right back to the philosophy page.

In Wikipedia's recent YouTube video where Matthew Prebeg demonstrates the phenomenon, it's explained as being to do with abstraction and categorisation. There are all kinds of complications with categorising things. For instance, many things can be considered of the same type despite individual members of the category not sharing a single feature—they instead have overlapping similarities, or family resemblances, which Prebeg explains.

He also explains how our categorisations can be to do with abstraction. For instance, "this exact chair, right now" is "a wooden kitchen chair", which is a "chair", which is "seating", which is "furniture", which is an "object", which is "matter." But the problem with this, as he explains, is that there are different ways to categorise things, and different ladders of abstraction to climb. For instance, you might instead abstract to 'sitting' and then to 'bodily movement'.

What's interesting is that the Philosophy Game shows us how, at least in the context of an online encyclopedia, we tend to do this in practice. And most importantly, to my biased brain at least, it shows that no matter how we decide to embed our understanding of concepts, it's always philosophy that underlies it.

Somewhat ironically, one philosophical debate is on the nature of philosophy—what philosophy is—but my own favourite definitions always involve fundamentality: philosophy deals with what is most fundamental. Often it's split into three or four areas: epistemology (the study of knowledge), metaphysics (the study of reality), ethics (the study of morality), and logic (the study of correct, formal reasoning). These four areas essentially underlie all other areas of knowledge or study, meaning they are more fundamental.

I like to imagine philosophy as a very annoying child that asks 'why?' to every answer you give them. Eventually, you'll reach points where you don't immediately have a good answer—say, 'Why do you believe the external world really exists?'—and then you've entered the domain of philosophy. Ie, a level where most people are content assuming there are no answers and it's all far too abstract.

With this in mind, it's not too surprising that (almost) all roads (on Wikipedia) lead to philosophy. Just think of each first link as the annoying child asking 'why?', or more aptly, 'what's that?' Eventually, it will end up asking something very fundamental and philosophical, and you'll be on that philosophy page once again.

Another interesting thing about the Philosophy Game is that it could be considered a kind of experimental philosophy. This is a new and somewhat controversial philosophical methodology that looks to use empirical research and data to come to philosophical conclusions. Philosophy is usually informed by empirical research and data, but experimental philosophy looks to make this contribution more direct.

At any rate, play the Philosophy Game at your own peril. You might be left asking the perpetual 'why?' like me.

Processors seem to be one product category, along with displays, where there are glimmers of hope for us gamers amidst the RAMpocalypse. From an Nvidia chip with good gaming performance to new handheld chips from Intel and even the promise of some Intel-Nvidia collab chips that could also be great for handhelds, there are definitely things to be excited about. And now we can add chips made on Intel 18A-P to that list.

Going by the Intel presentation screenshots shared by Hardwareluxx, Intel's next version of its 18A process, 18A-P, could deliver a nice chunk of extra performance—or power saving, depending on which way you go—essentially for free. Free, that is, in the sense that it's "backwards compatible to Intel 18A", meaning no need for new fabs, machinery, or even chip designs.

The process is now in "risk production", which is essentially the limited production stage that occurs before mass production. It should be at least a few more months before mass production begins in earnest.

Intel's slides refer to 18A-P as "the first performance enhancement in the Intel 18A family" and describe the following highlights:

• "18% lower power at iso-performance
• 9% fully routed block level performance at iso-power
• 20–40% improved thermal resistance
• 10–30% improved Via resistance at perf critical layers"

In other words, compared to the same chips on 18A, chips on 18A-P should deliver 9% improved CPU performance for the same power, or 18% less power consumption for the same performance. Plus improved thermal resistance and "Via resistance", meaning less performance impact from backside power delivery.

Intel's 18A process is used to make Panther Lake chips for laptops, and we've already been pretty impressed with those—thus why we're excited for new Arc G3-series chips for handhelds, which are Panther Lake-based.

It's unlikely 18A-P will be used for these mobile chips given they're already in full swing, but they could be used for future product lines. Perhaps a Panther Lake refresh—the same chips but with a slight bump to performance sounds nice. Or more reasonably, perhaps Intel's upcoming Nova Lake desktop chips, as it would make sense for the more power-hungry CPUs to use the new and more efficient process.

There's a chance it could all be timed well for that upcoming Intel-Nvidia collab, too. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

When it comes to desktop wallpaper, I often go with an illustration by Finnish artist Heikala. Making your own wallpaper, not unlike conjuring the visual arts, is a skill. As such, it's no wonder that many go looking for pre-made backdrops on Steam Workshop—though cybersecurity firm and anti-virus creator Kaspersky warns this has become yet one more avenue to be leveraged by bad actors.

Security researchers have found that malware is being pushed out in the guise of packages for animated desktop wallpapers. A Kaspersky press release claims that multiple infected Workshop wallpapers were downloaded thousands of times via Wallpaper Engine on Steam.

Now, I'm sure you're curious as to which wallpapers are affected—is there potentially a visual theme that unites them? Well, Kaspersky did include a number of screenshots involving blushing anime women, which perhaps says it all.

Wallpaper Engine offers a number of formats, including animated and interactive desktop scenes. Kaspersky adds, "The application-based wallpaper feature allows executable programs to run directly on a user's Windows computer, allowing attackers to distribute malicious software under the guise of legitimate content."

As for how the attackers snuck in their malware alongside the weeaboo wallpapers, Kaspersky highlights two different methods. One route involves bundling malicious executables inside the wallpaper package, whereas another sees bad actors hide "malware inside password-protected archives, with passwords embedded in archive names or configuration files." Once installed, the application-based wallpaper would automatically trigger the malicious payload inside.

"For example, one of the malicious wallpaper samples discovered in December 2025 appeared to function legitimately at first, launching an embedded desktop game without any visible signs of compromise," Kaspersky elaborates, "In the background, however, the wallpaper deployed the DarkKomet backdoor and installed a modified library designed to target Steam users: it harvested account information and hijacked active Steam sessions."

Steam users based in China and Russia appear to have been the primary targets of the malware distribution campaign, though folks living in Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, Vietnam, India and Canada have also been affected. As far as Kaspersky's security researchers can tell, the campaign is less of a coordinated effort and appears to be the work of "multiple independent threat actors." Be safe out there, my fellow weebs.

When the Nvidia CEO isn't busy basking in the adoration of fans at Computex Taiwan, it seems he might spend his time considering how to shift social norms. In what direction, you ask? Why, using AI more, of course.

That's what he told the Associated Press when the interviewer asked whether AI itself concerns people or "the absence of social structures to adapt to something happening so fast."

Jensen responded that "it's a combination of all that" but also emphasised that new social norms are needed: "You have to deal with regulation, technology, you have to deal with social norms."

He gives the example of automobiles and initial concerns over the harm they could do to people, especially children. But we changed social norms so that now kids are warned not to play in the street, there are laws surrounding speed, and so on.

However, when asked what social norm should be changed for AI, the answer isn't particularly satisfying: "The first thing is that I would advocate that everybody use AI. Just go engage it."

I'm not entirely sure that this response would traverse the analogy bridge over to automobiles very well. I can't imagine 'just use a car' would have been very convincing, back in the day. And I'm not sure how keen Huang would be on actually analogous shifts in norms and regulations, such as one akin to speed limits but for AI.

Huang says that, unlike pretty much any other technology, AI is free and easy to use, which is true enough on the surface. However, those 'free' tiers of AI aren't actually free. AI uses and inflates the price of technology that already exists. It's also subsidised by higher paid tiers, funny money inflating a ballooned market, and of course (and apologies for getting a little technical here) a metric s***ton of energy.

In other words, 'free' my arse.

I also can't help but wonder whether there's an element of worry in Huang imploring people to actually use AI. After all, if people don't actually use the technology, eventually that lack of end-user demand will catch up with AI companies, and in turn with the company that gives them their AI hardware: Nvidia.

As it stands, Nvidia is extremely profitable, but the companies that buy from Nvidia aren't. We'll just have to see how long it can last—markets are funny things.

As a console interloper hailing from the PlayStation side of the tracks, I have a soft spot for controller rumble and haptics. It would appear I'm in good company, as a wild Sony patent exploring a fresh avenue for tactile feedback right there in your gamepad has just been published.

The patent in question concerns reactive buttons that can both soften and harden (via Cheat Happens). In theory, this would offer different tactile sensations by altering button hardness in real-time, depending on either the in-game situation or, ahem, personal preference (steady on).

I've definitely complained about 'squidgy' controller face buttons and D-pads in the past, so what's the appeal here? Well, the patent pitches a couple of use-cases, including a terrifying 'finger grab' effect that could grip your thumb tip should you, say, get grabbed while wading across yet another poisoned swamp in a Souls game.

Alternatively, this feature could be used to hold your thumb in place and prevent slippage. I'm not exactly jazzed about potentially having to pry my thumbs away from my gamepad for whatever reason. That said, there's a potential accessibility argument here, with the adaptable buttons changing shape to accommodate palms, wrists, elbows, and so on.

The tech could achieve this shape-shifting effect either through fluid-filled membranes or 'magnetoviscoelastic elastomers'. Not completely dissimilar to magnetic tech you'll already find in your controllers and keyboards, this could cause the reactive buttons to soften or harden depending on the magnetic field strength.

In many ways, the idea of reactive buttons feels like a natural follow-on to the DualSense's detailed haptics. While you can use the DualSense over both a wired and Bluetooth connection on PC, you'll be looking to sources other than Sony for haptic support. I wrote about just one of the unofficial options available, DSX+, yesterday.

Odds are, if we ever do see these reactive buttons on a DualSense successor, Sony won't be the party to bring it to PC; the company has doubled down on making the PS5's tentpole releases, like God of War Laufey, console exclusives, so it seems likely this reactive tech will follow a similar path into the walled garden of PlayStation.

If you're on a budget, now is really not the time to upgrade your gaming rig's storage. The memory supply crisis is driving up the price of SSDs, meaning many will have to make do with what they've already got for as long as possible. Even older games can still have large file sizes, especially if they're enjoying a fresh lick of path-traced lighting. Thankfully though, RTX Remix 1.5 may make juggling your backlog a little easier.

Just in case you've not ventured out from under your cool mossy rock since 2004, RTX Remix is Nvidia's attempt to refine the dated visuals of yesteryears' games. The open-source modding platform allows users to update the look of their favourite games with generative AI tools, neural rendering tech, and ray tracing. Unfortunately, all of that fresh tech tends to expand the file size of a 20 year old game. The latest update addresses that file size creep.

RTX IO is Nvidia's high-performance storage tech, which introduces a number of improvements including cutting down game file sizes. The company says, "Thanks to [the RTX Remix 1.5] update, file sizes have dropped significantly: Portal with RTX has been reduced from 25 GB to 17 GB, while Half-Life 2 RTX has shrunk from 80 GB to 50 GB."

This compression is now available inside the RTX Remix packaging workflow. On top of whittling down game file sizes, RTX IO also reduces CPU overhead and speeds up loads.

The 1.5 update introduced a number of other improvements, including 'smooth normals' so that lower poly geometry looks less obvious with a path-traced lighting mod. Speaking of lighting, modders will also enjoy easier to use viewport light controls. Apparently, "existing light manipulators are easier to manage through a unified viewport lights menu, with persistent toggles for manipulator visibility and intensity controls."

Now, RTX Remix wouldn't be an Nvidia product without at least one more look-in from AI integration (in case you're still living in 2004, the data centre segment of Nvidia's business made $75.2 billion last quarter alone). The company writes, "Because [the modding] pipeline relies heavily on defined, manual steps, it is perfect for an AI agent to lend a hand."

Specifically, Nvidia published a selection of "text-based instruction files that provide specific functional context to AI coding agents" called 'RTX Remix Skills'. The argument is that letting an AI agent handle some of the technical heavy lifting lowers the barrier to entry for human wannabe modders who are not well-versed in either C++ or Python code languages. I'm all for making the technical more accessible…but I'm also incredibly wary of AI agents sticking their metaphorical foot in modders' work.

The RAMpocalypse whooshes ever on, and while it can sometimes be hard to put into perspective exactly what that means, sometimes an insider gives a little insight. To this end, Silicon Motion VP Nelson Duann recently told Tom's Hardware that the retail SSD market is all but kaput.

"The retail SSD market has almost disappeared... The controllers we sell to module makers are now largely ending up in SSDs that are shipped to PC OEMs. The reason is that OEMs cannot obtain enough NAND directly from memory manufacturers, so they are increasingly sourcing SSDs from module makers instead."

In other words, where OEMs (think Dell, HP, and so on) would usually bulk-buy NAND from memory makers and turn it into bona fide PC storage themselves (with the help of other bulk-bought parts like microcontrollers), they are no longer doing this. Instead, they are buying SSDs from module makers (think Samsung, SanDisk) because of the increased demand for AI servers.

This means more module maker SSDs like the kind you and I get in our gaming PCs are going to OEMs, which means less in the retail SSD market. And Duann is here suggesting that this is to such an extent that the latter market has almost disappeared.

This has apparently been occurring "since late last year and into this year."

As end-users, we don't get to see all the stock and inventory gubbins that DRAM, SSD, and memory controller companies do. But we do see retailer prices and out-of-stock labels, and it probably goes without saying at this point that things aren't looking good from an end-consumer perspective.

While NAND makers are doing better than they ever have done and SSD companies are purchasing memory from them years in advance, little ol' gamers like you and I are being faced with ever-more expensive storage.

RAM, of course, hasn't been faring any better. RAM and SSD maker Team Group recently gave us all a stark recommendation: "If you need memory, we recommend purchasing it as soon as possible."

Normally, I'd consider that a simple case of 'company encourages people to buy its products', but while that is almost certainly what's going on to an extent, it also rings true—the two things can be true at the same time. The situation doesn't seem like it will improve any time soon, and even if the company was mainly referring to RAM, with Silicon Motion's revelation here, it looks like Team Group's recommendation was apt for storage, too.

Between online video calls, streaming, content creating, and messing with music, I really appreciate a good microphone for my PC setup. Once upon a time I'd be hard pressed to find a high-quality USB mic, but with many gamer brands stepping into the space great PC mics have become more commonplace.

What I haven't seen before is an exceptional quality PC mic that can also switch over to XLR interface for analogue use like Rode's NT1 5th generation release.

Rode may not be super familiar to gamers, but for those into music production and other content creation, the brand is a household name. Known for putting out excellent recording options, Rode has often been revered as delivering audiophile quality, often a bit cheaper than some of the other contending brands like Sony. The NT1 5th Generation microphone is yet another example of this, but in a mic that's so flexible you can use it for basically anything you can dream of.

Unboxing the mic is a neat experience as it's immediately obvious by the heft that this is a premium product, which you'd want for $259 USD. There's a lot more metal than I'm used to, including an aluminium body and full mesh over the actual mic portion.

The box also includes a shock mount, pop filter, and USB C and XLR cables that are thicker than the oceans (seven Cs) so it's usable straight out of the box. There's no stand, but it'll work with the standard threading for anything you already own. I've also had success on a box with a hole cut out for the cable and simply holding the mic.

The first thing I noticed when recording is how low the sound floor is on this microphone. Being a large-diaphragm cardioid condenser microphone, it is designed to pick up every little noise, but I also realised that my voice wasn't coming across as much louder than many ambient noises around me. Still I was impressed with the plug and playability across every device I tried it with. This noise gate issue isn't ideal for things like streaming but that's where Rode's free software comes in.

While there are no controls on the microphone itself, when plugged in via USB you get access to extra functionality through the free Rode Central app. This lets you set a gain input to raise the volume so your voice is crystal clear as well as manage the high pass filter to get rid of those background noises and it works a treat. Using it I managed to get my stream sounding like this in only a few tweaks.

Rode offers a few other apps to do even more, but for most this is probably all you'll need to play with. Though, after all this tampering I was worried about clipping, but that's another thing this mic handles wonderfully.

As low as the sound floor is, the ceiling appears to be just as high with a frequency range from 20Hz to 20kHz which outdoes our current fav mic the Shure MV6. Rode boasts that the NT1 5th Gen is an unclippable mic, and under the right circumstances they might be right. It's pretty hard to make this thing clip without the gain turned up a fair bit. If you're using Rode's suite of apps you can even recover sounds when this happens or alter them. The pop filter and mount also do a great job of keeping harsh sounds away, and the microphone itself is dead quiet which makes for very clean recordings.

This is partially because of high quality the recordings are, but also just thanks to the classic sound this mic offers. It really does have a lovely warm tone to it, which has been loved by singers since Rode started offering the NT1 mic. This same timbre applies to spoken voice, so if you're a streamer who values the tone of your talk, this will likely bring out the best in it. Though it's worth noting there's no native mute button on the physical mic, so you may need to setup a digital option.

The lack of on-mic controls seems odd, but it's because this isn't a mic designed for PC gaming, it just happens to be one that works excellently with it.

Instead, this mic is designed to be plugged into other things that control it which can take some setting up, but it also allows you to take this mic to different projects with different settings held to the computer, rather than accidentally layering things onto the microphone. It keeps it clean, so when you take this mic to a gig and plug it in via XLR you don't have to worry about your gamer settings getting in the way.

It does mean this isn't the right choice for many gamers. Most would be fine with something a fraction of the price like the budget friendly Amazon Basics USB Condenser Microphone or even a midrange option like NZXT's Capsule Elite.

But if you're a gamer who in any way dabbles in other content creation this could be the answer for you. It's a steep price difference, but the NT1 5th Gen almost feels like getting multiple mics in one package. By no means does it seem unfair for a studio quality mic with massive range, a fair bit of customisation, and the ability to use it wherever you want.

If you were waiting for GTA 6 to drop when it should have done on May 26 (well, on console at least), you were probably more than a little perturbed by its delay to *checks watch* no time soon, i.e. November. That's to allow Rockstar to "finish the game with the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve." Frustrating, but fair enough, we can wait.

But if you aren't content waiting, what's to do? 'Nothing at all' is what probably comes to most people's minds. But not Ziwen's. No, that would be far too simple for the AI start-up entrepreneur, who has decided to "beat the real GTA 6 to launch" (via X user Fashion Ruined My Life).

"Day 1 of building GTA 6. Still feels fake typing that out. Upgraded to Claude Max 20x just for this... No studio, no publisher. Just whoever shows up... The goal: beat the real GTA 6 to launch. Ambitious, probably stupid, doing it anyway. If you can model, code, build levels, or write music and lore, come join. Looking for a couple contributors to cook this."

This is it; this is what the brave new world of AI and vibe coding has brought us. The sheer brass, the gall, the bravery to stand up and say, 'I will make GTA 6, and I'll do it before November.' I love it. I hate that I love it, but I do.

I won't spoil the whole journey, which is of course still ongoing, but just to give some teasers for Ziwen's project:

After progressing from day one's Tic-Tac-on-a-field, day two takes a Roblox-esque character to a Roblox-esque world with jittery floors.

Day four involves a cinematic with alligators falling from the sky. And gameplay of a character doing his best impression of Edward Cullen in daylight.

Day six—the latest update as of the time of writing—is more of the same, but there's a "real main menu", a loading screen, and the "whole front-end wired end to end."

Things are already at a point where they're requiring development to get a little more serious, though:

"We've been building in Godot the whole way, it's starting to show its limits on the AAA stuff. So this week I'm going to go test Unity to see if we can get the actual game into AAA stuff as well. For a game built by a loop of agents, the only question that matters is which one they can read, edit, and push on their own. Godot's good at that. Unity might be better, with way more assets off the market. I'm going to find out... I'll report back which engine they build faster in."

Godspeed, Unity. May the AI agents treat you well.

When I buy a new phone, it's not going to be, say, the Ayaneo Pocket Play or one of those pricey RedMagic gaming smartphones with the ridiculous refresh rate. For the sake of both my wallet and my soul, I'm looking at a less capable bit of kit. Thankfully, an unexpected source is now offering a throwback mobile phone with one eye on modern software flexibility.

Enter Commodore, of all classic computing brands, with the Callback 8020. The $500 flip phone sports that classic clamshell look without all of the same drawbacks associated with using actual vintage hardware (via Tom's Hardware). For starters, this Linux-based phone works with 99% of Android apps, but social media and even web browsers are blocked at a system level. Instead, it comes pre-loaded with "a modest selection of classic and modern, mindful Commodore 64 games"—plus Snake.

You can still sideload some apps using APK installer files, though that does go against the phone's philosophy. "For so many in the rapidly growing digital minimalism and dumbphone communities, app 'screen time' timers, grayscale modes, and 'I’ll just be more disciplined' were not enough," The company writes, "If the temptation is always in your pocket, it keeps winning."

The company continues, "Callback removes the trap door, so you can keep the useful parts of a phone without carrying the whole attention economy around with you. Think of it as a trusted friend who helps you keep a promise to yourself. Not by judging you, but by quietly sidelining the things you already decided you do not want in your day."

The Callback 8020 is pitched as a privacy-first phone, sans sneaky data-sharing (to quote the official website, "Finally, a phone that minds its own flippin’ business"). There's also zero AI within the phone's custom software, which was designed by the Sailfish OS team.

The phone's bespoke OS means you won't have easy access to the Google Play store, with apps instead available via the Commostore app store. I guess the Callback is a phone that 'minds its own business' right up until it tells you what you can and can't do.

Users can request certain apps be whitelisted for the Commostore. It's oddly reminiscent of the 'walled garden' approach that has earned Apple its fair share of criticism for years—though as our James put it, the Commostore isn't so much a walled garden as a bush. The app store's offerings may one day include a select number of AI apps, though the company stresses, "We like apps that explicitly vow not to scrape and train on copyrighted creators’ work without permission."

While I appreciate the Callback 8020 pitching up halfway between a smart and a dumb phone, I'm not sure the system-level social media block would work for me; for my sins, as a journalist, it does help to be able to open my emails or DMs no matter where I am. There's still plenty else to love, like the Callback 8020's removable 1550mAh battery, or its choice of "swappable back covers in gloriously techno-optimistic colors."

However, when it comes to a flip phone that balances both looks and capabilities, my one true love remains the Samsung Galaxy Folder2. Unfortunately, that 2017 phone is no longer smart enough to keep up with my daily demands…but the Callback 8020's MediaTek Helio G81 SoC is potentially still wise enough to change my mind about whether this throwback deserves a place in my heart. If you're already in love, you can sign up to the waitlist here and get $50 off the Commodore Callback 8020 when pre-orders go live June 30th.

I know, I get it. I've waxed lyrical quite a lot recently about Phanteks' current line of cases. It's genuinely becoming mildly problematic from a tech journo standpoint. But I do think the company's on to a bit of a winning streak with its latest line-up of big metal boxes that we put very expensive memory into. The XT View Matrix is another golden boy in big P's arsenal, and for good bloody reason.

By definition, technically, this isn't really a new chassis. Phanteks launched the XT View back in 2024 to pretty broad acclaim. In fact, I wrote about it in Maximum PC magazine back in the day, and, to plagiarize myself, it was frustrating to write about because it was almost too good. Bit of an inside-line here, but tech journalism on the whole? Generally a lot easier to write a review when you've got things to complain about.

Back then, this thing rocked in at just $80 or so. It had broad compatibility with AIOs, supported E-ATX, and more impressively came with an extraordinary amount of shiny, shiny lights baked in it as well. You got two 120mm RGB reverse blade intake fans, one 120mm exhaust, and a full-size 16-inch ARGB light strip tucked away nicely down by the side of that glass window, chucking up some gorgeous internal illumination directly into your machine. Oh, and that's all controllable via a single button on the front I/O (or integrated into your mobo's RGB header of choice).

Good news is, that's all still there.

So, what's new? Massive dot-matrix configurable LED strip hidden behind a beautifully clean mesh panel situated along the external PSU cover (and breathe). Better yet, the price is still ridiculous. The XT costs £80 in the UK and $120 in the US (thanks, tariffs). That is utter madness for what you're getting here. This is the best budget PC case of the year, I have no doubt. Although that comes with one minor caveat.

Now, let me talk the positives before I get to that. The XT View Matrix? Beautiful. Paint job? Lush. Glass panels? Multiple. Glistening with a seamless edge. RGB fans? Check, check, check. And then you get to the matrix strip.

It's hidden behind a stunning piece of grey mesh canvas that absolutely looks the part. If you've seen a modern fabric gaming chair, same stuff basically. And I've never stroked a PC case more in my entire life. I know that sounds ridiculous. It's not exactly a sentence I thought I'd be writing after 11 years in this profession, but here we are. It's so soft.

But it's the panel behind it that's most controversial. Purely down to taste. Like it's 2001 all over again, and we're all pretending we're Dominic Toretto in that film with all the cars in it.

Now, I built in this thing, set it all up, got the beauty powered on, stuck the RGB lighting to what I liked, then called in arguably the second most well-experienced tech reviewer I know, my long-time fiancée. I went, "phwoar, look at that, that's bloody sick, ain't it?" She responded, and I quote: "I hate it, it looks like the pc case equivalent of a crushed velvet sofa". Thanks Dani.

She has a point, though, as much as I hate to admit it. Take a quick glance at this thing, configured how you like it, and there's this semblance of gauche about it that's sort of hard to ignore. You can, of course, configure it all up in Phantek's NexLinq software quite easily, and it'll showcase date, time, hardware temps, loads, etc., but it is such a bold addition to the overall aesthetic, you'll either love it or hate it, and honestly, I'm torn now.

Panel shenanigans aside, the build process is generally super easy. Chuck your motherboard in, then your power supply, get all that wired up first (trust me, you'll thank me when it comes to CPU power), then pop your cooler in and finally your graphics card, and you're good to go. There's plenty of space around back, and plenty of cable tie-off points too, with a comfortable number of mounting locations for those inevitable 2.5-inch SSDs we're all going to be dusting off in the coming months.

I'm also convinced someone at Phanteks made an error in the shipping manifests when they built these things, because the accessory box came with no less than 30 cable ties (that's not hyperbole, I can confirm, I counted them). Which makes a big difference in the build process, compared to the time I had with the Silverstone FLP02 I reviewed last month, and its two included ties.

So any other negatives then? Aside from the do-or-die display? Well, it really could use a GPU anti-sag bracket built in somehow or included somewhere, and my one and only major complaint is that, with the included fans, the cables are a bit "eugh", to say the least. You can daisy-chain them, but that does mean you've got random headers popping out near the 24-pin ATX motherboard connector and the rear I/O, which looks a bit awkward.

Otherwise, though, it's a stellar piece of work, and for the cash, you won't be disappointed. Good news doesn't stop there either. If you have the View but want the display, Phanteks sells it separately, and if you're like future Mrs Storey, and detest it with every fiber of your being, the stock model is still available too, without it.

Intel and Nvidia are on the record regarding plans to combine graphics chiplets from the latter with CPUs from the former. When this is going to happen, however, now that's a question.

And the answer, according to a new leak, is early 2028 and maybe just in time for a launch at the CES show that year. Even more exciting, the new chip is set to have stiff competition from both Nvidia itself and AMD, perhaps heralding a new era of high-performance handheld PC gaming.

Tech journalist Erdi Özüağ claims that, "according to Intel's current roadmap, the targeted date for next-generation processors featuring Nvidia graphics units is the first quarter of 2028, and if plans do not change, the CES 2028 show could serve as the launch event."

That's not all that far away and, at the rate things are going in the stand-alone graphics card market, could align with new desktop GPU generations. Indeed, an early 2028 launch would make it very likely that Intel processors with Nvidia chiplets would get the upcoming Rubin graphics architecture.

Nvidia recently revealed that a Rubin-based version of its own new RTX Spark CPU-GPU superchip will be launched in 2028. It's not known when RTX Rubin desktop graphics cards, perhaps to be branded the RTX 60 Series, will arrive. But the latest rumours point to late 2027 or early 2028, which does indeed line up with this new "leak."

If this information is accurate, 2028 could be the year that APUs or chips combining CPU and GPU in a single package make a really big impact on PC gaming. These APUs are the class of chip used in handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally, of course. Along with these new Intel-Nvidia chips, we'll have Nvidia's own second-gen RTX Spark offering in 2028.

It's possible AMD could also launch new APUs in 2028, codenamed Grimlock Point and Grimlock Halo. Those APUs are not actually next-generation, which are the Medusa Point and Medusa Halo chips due later this year or in 2027, but the generation after that.

There are various rumours around what silicon production nodes all these chips will be using. By 2028, TSMC's upcoming N2 node will be quite mature and its A14 silicon could even be an option. Meanwhile, Intel's 14A node will supposedly be in full production by 2028.

Whatever, it seems safe to say that all of these new APUs will at least benefit from significantly more advanced silicon than anything available today. And that should allow both a high transistor budget for more performance and better efficiency.

So, it's pretty exciting to think about the levels of performance and battery life that might be possible in a handheld PC when all these new APUs come online in 2028. Indeed, 2028 is also a plausible launch date for the second coming of Valve's super-popular Steam Deck handheld.

Just like the OG Deck, Steam Deck 2 is likely to get custom silicon. Valve has spoken repeatedly about wanting, essentially, to wait for a really major advance in both performance and efficiency before releasing a follow up to the Steam Deck. And it very much looks like 2028 could be the year that such technology finally becomes available.

Watch this space, but 2028 could well be the year that handheld gaming makes a big leap forward. Let's just pray that the memory crisis is more or less over by then, otherwise these fab new devices might be too expensive to really matter.

SteelSeries' original Arctis Nova 7X Wireless was one of my favourite gaming headsets when it launched a few years ago, so I was certainly very excited to see what had changed with this flashy second-gen model to hopefully keep it towards the top of my own headset rankings.

Having tested this shiny new model for the last couple of weeks, I've been simultaneously surprised and disappointed at what's changed. On one hand, the list of changes isn't that substantial, with things such as improved battery life and added support for SteelSeries' Arctis companion app, which I'll get into more in a minute, while the fit and finish and audio drivers inside haven't changed one iota as far as I can tell.

Depending on your perspective, it's either laziness or refinement—for me, I'm going to be positive and choose the latter.

The fact is that there wasn't anything wrong with how the original Arctis Nova 7X Wireless sounded, so cocking about with it for this second-gen model would have been a bit of a shock to the system if you're already coming from the original. It means we're still getting the excellent all-round audio I liked so much from the previous model, which is characterised by more low-end grunt than typical headphones, helping its chops for listening to my movable feast of rock tracks from Marillion, Rush, Steven Wilson and others, plus adding a more immersive quality for explosions and gunfire in Counter-Strike 2.

Moreover, we're still getting some lovely detail retrieval and a crisp mid-range that helps to accentuate details such as footsteps in Counter-Strike and well-handled vocals in mellower tracks from the likes of Jimmy Buffett or James Taylor, helping to make the Arctis Nova 7X Wireless Gen 2 a versatile headset for music, games and more besides.

There is also quite a wide soundstage for a set of closed backs (open back and wired cans at this price, such as the new Sony Inzone H6 Air, will be stronger, though) with good imaging for things such as footsteps, distant chatter and gunfire or nearby grenade explosions in CS:2.

Likewise, SteelSeries has retained the same retractable ClearCast Gen 2 microphone as the original model, which I liked for offering clear and decently clean comms with surprisingly decent body and noise rejection, and it's much the same story with the Arctis Nova 7X Wireless Gen 2. Of course, a dedicated USB or XLR microphone will provide you with better definition and a fuller sound, but in a pinch, this headset mic is perfectly cromulent.

Where this headset has upped its game, especially, is on the front of software support, which is evidently where SteelSeries has spent a lot of its time. SteelSeries GG handles desktop duties for customisation of things such as the EQ and surround sound settings, plus it comes with over 200 game-specific presets to optimise the headset's sound for whichever game you're playing.

What is new with the Arctis Nova 7X Wireless Gen 2 is that it'll also work with SteelSeries' Arctis companion app, which I've used with some of its other, more recent headsets. This sizes down the desktop app into an even lighter and slicker medium, providing a lot of the same presets and such that can be quickly selected before you jump into a mobile or console game. There isn't more granular EQ control in the companion app, though, which is a little bit of a shame.

On the point of connectivity, this -X suffixed model maintains its edge as the model variant of this headset that'll work with the most things. It connects either via Bluetooth or the bundled 2.4GHz wireless USB-C receiver, allowing it to work with both modern Xbox and PlayStation consoles, PC, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, Android and iOS mobile devices, VR and more besides. That's a lot of devices; oh, it'll also work with both simultaneously if you're a power user, and you can connect via 3.5 mm wired to boot.

The Arctis Nova 7X Wireless Gen 2 also benefits from increased battery life over its predecessor, promising up to 54 hours over the 2.4 GHz receiver and up to 42 hours over Bluetooth—connected via both means, it'll go for up to 38 hours. By contrast, the original could only muster up to 38 hours over 2.4 GHz and up to 26 hours over Bluetooth. In my testing, I found SteelSeries' claimed improvements to be about right, getting about 50 hours or so on a charge before I needed to charge it back up again.

If you're caught in a pinch, there is a 15-minute fast charge available via USB-C that takes you back to six hours' worth of run time, while a full charge will take around 90 minutes if you can wait a little longer.

I'm a big fan of the new magenta colourway that my sample of the Arctis Nova 7X Wireless Gen 2 shipped in. There are more conventional colour choices available with black and white, but for an added splash of colour, it looks fantastic, perfectly matching the QcK Heavy mousepad and SteelSeries Aerox 3 Wireless Gen 2 rodent, which I also have knocking around.

The fit and finish of this headset haven't changed much from its predecessor, though. This means we're getting a hard-wearing plastic finish for the outer chassis at a price I'd expect to see a little more metal, although it feels reasonably sturdy. The earcups are made of a breathable fabric and feel decently roomy around my ears, alongside providing decent passive noise isolation for a headset with no ANC. They also fold flat for easy stowage.

SteelSeries' classic suspension headband also makes a return with a semi-elastic suspension strap with some adjustment with the pins on either side to make it looser or tighter depending on the size of your noggin. By default, the headset felt on the smaller side, so I adjusted it to the next level to get a more comfortable fit, a better seal and a more optimal clamping force. It doesn't clamp down too much on your head and is quite pleasant.

The dedicated multimedia controls are well distributed across both earcups and take the form of tactile buttons and wheels. On the left, you'll find a volume wheel and a microphone mute button, while on the right, there's a game and chat mixer dial, plus dedicated power and Bluetooth pairing buttons. Intriguingly, the volume dial on the headset works independently of the system-wide volume, so you’ve got that little bit of extra control.

I think it's fair to think of the Arctis Nova 7X Wireless Gen 2 as a further optimisation of a headset that worked especially well the first time around, rather than an outright reinvention. After all, it still sounds good with powerful and surprisingly precise audio, is decently comfortable and has some of the most versatile wireless connectivity you'll find on any gaming headset, beating out the likes of the wired-only Sony Inzone H6 Air and the Logitech G522 Lightspeed.

SteelSeries has made upgrades where it matters, such as extending the battery life, adding a fetching new colour option and adding in some new software options to complement the versatile connectivity on offer. I appreciate that this is still quite an expensive set of cans at £180/$200, but I think you'll be hard-pressed to find a more versatile wireless headset than these in 2026.

Forthcoming Steam Frame aside, It's been a while since we had anything actually shake up the VR space with any kind of scale. But if "insider reports" that the usually reliable VR leaker SadlyItsBradley (Brad Lynch) relays are anything to go by, we could have some greatly improved VR headsets in the pipeline thanks to industry movements towards more Micro-OLED tech.

That pipeline isn't too short, unfortunately, as Lynch explains that mass production won't be here for a couple of years:

"Insider Reports are indicating that Samsung Display has initiated talks with equipment suppliers to build a fab that can produce these ultra-high brightness Micro-OLED displays. SDC will order the equipment this year, install it in 2027, with mass production starting in 2028."

Our Jacob Ridley got to try out Micro-OLED tech earlier this year in a Pimax VR headset. And the long and short is that he found it really impressive, preferring it to traditional QLED optics. That one was using a Sony panel with a lower vertical resolution but still-high pixel-per-degree clarity of 53 thanks to reduced FoV.

While he noticed a little more glare than usual, it wasn't too distracting and has the benefit not only of the usual vibrancy of OLED, but also of being crystal clear and having no discernable screen door-ing at all. The only real downside is the extra few-hundred dollars slapped on top.

Micro-OLED's quality mostly comes down to the sheer pixel density that is possible because the light-emitting diodes are put into silicon rather than glass as would usually happen with an OLED. Manufacturing on silicon wafer substrates can be much more precise, so the number of pixels per inch can be orders of magnitude higher with a Micro-OLED than with a standard high-density PC monitor.

It's a process that's still very much in its infancy, even if it has been used in some places, such as for the Apple Vision Pro and the aforementioned Pimax headset. Sony has been the big player in this space until now, but it seems Samsung is pushing to get things up and running too.

With displays being one healthy bastion during a global memory and storage crisis, it's good to hear news like this, even if any big projected industry shifts are still a couple of years out.

Viewsonic has taken the wraps off a new 24-inch 4K monitor in what is likely to be a world's first. We've seen plenty of 4K monitors before, of course, just not in this relatively compact form factor.

Strictly speaking, the Viewsonic VX24G26J-4K measures 23.8 inches across its panel diagonal. But that puts it firmly in the 24-inch class. Combined with the 3,840 by 2,160 pixel native resolution, the result is a pixel density of 188 DPI.

That's well beyond the 140-ish DPI of a 32-inch 4K monitor and even a fair step up from the 163 DPI of a 27-inch 4K panel. However, in terms of currently available PC monitors, 5K 27-inch monitors like the Asus ROG Strix XG27JCG remain the pixel density kings at 218 DPI.

If you're wondering what the gaming relevance of all this is, well, that's a fair question. However, the new Viewsonic VX24G26J-4K is being pitched as a gaming monitor, rocks a refresh rate of 160 Hz and is also rated at 1 ms for response. So, this is a decently quick panel.

The benefits for gaming are still questionable. For sure, the heightened pixel density will make for sharper images. The extent to which you'd actually notice those extra crispy visuals actually in-game, on the other hand, that is a little dubious, especially compared to a 27-inch 4K monitor, which most would argue is plenty sharp enough for gaming.

More likely, this monitor will appeal to someone who wants really high-quality font rendering in a smaller package than was previously possible. That said, one intriguing possibility, given the 24-inch form factor and 4K resolution, is a 1080p alt mode using pixel doubling and running at a much higher refresh rate.

On paper, that would make for a 1080p 24-inch gaming panel, which is the preferred form factor for really serious esports types, that could switch into a higher resolution mode for day-to-day computing with nice fonts and crisp visuals instead of the blocky, pixellated experience you normally get on the Windows desktop from 24-inch gaming monitors.

However, as far as we can see, there's no mention of dual-mode support on Viewsonic's website. Indeed, it's only listed on Viewsonic's Chinese website (via TFT Central) for now, so perhaps that early listing isn't complete. But if it's accurate, this seems like an opportunity missed.

Whatever, what we definitely don't have right now is pricing right. However, this monitor is part of Viewsonic's value-oriented VX range and lacks USB-C connectivity, so it's likely to be relatively affordable. There's no word on when the Viewsonic VX24G26J-4K will get a broader release outside China, but we'd expect to see it land later this year.

Amidst a sea of other companies' AI-related tech, Noctua graced us with some new, bona fide PC hardware at this year's Computex. In addition to a particularly exciting pumpless liquid cooler, the company also unveiled its first regular AIO cooler in collaboration with Asetek. And as of today, it's now available to buy.

It's called the NL-LC1 and is based on the Asetek Emma V2 platform. The fans are, of course, Noctua's, but in addition to this, the beige-and-brown company has created a pump cover that's designed to absorb noise and keep things nice and quiet. As someone with an occasionally rather noisy AIO pump, I can definitely imagine the benefit.

"Leveraging a three-layer acoustic soundproofing structure and the tuned-mass damper effect, the NL-PNA1 reduces both air-borne noise and structure-borne vibrations, which can yield significant improvements in pump acoustics."

Sounds complicated, but looking at the diagram, it just looks like a lot of very specifically tailored foam. Noctua is a dab hand at spending a ton of time tailoring things to get acoustics just right, so I don't doubt they've done the job here, though we'll have to see and hear it in person to be sure (TechPowerUp is pretty impressed with it, but we'll have our own first-hand thoughts up on the cooler before long).

This pump cover comes with a magnetically attaching metal faceplate by default, but that can be swapped with a mini fan (sold separately) if more cooling is required.

The radiator fans are the NF-A12x25 G2 and NF-A14x25 G2. The former is, we reckon, the best PC fan on the market, so you won't hear any complaints here. It outperforms all other fans we've tested in balancing stellar airflow with low noise levels.

When combined with the AIO, these fans apparently "utilise a speed-offset to avoid undesirable harmonics phenomena such as periodic humming or vibration build-up due to beat frequencies."

So, what's the downside? Well, the 360 mm version costs $250, the 240 mm one costs $220, and if you need a 420 mm version, that will cost you $280.

Those are some very steep prices, even compared to some other high-end AIOs like the Be Quiet! Light Loop. Let's just hope those quietening design choices really are as effective as we'd hope.

Framework has posted another blog post detailing its price updates, and the bad news is that storage prices are going up. However, the modular laptop specialist says DDR5 prices have remained "stable." That immediately begs the question: Have RAM prices peaked?

Regarding SSD prices specifically, Framework says, "the biggest change for the month is on storage. We’ve consumed most of our inventory of drives we brought in earlier at lower costs across most capacities. The new costs we are sourcing drives at are substantially higher, and the weighted average inventory cost drives us to need to set higher prices."

Framework doesn't say exactly how much it is putting SSD prices up in the blog post. However, as a guide, it is currently charging $135 for a Sandisk SN7100 500 GB drive with its Framework 13 laptop, $265 for the same drive model in a 1 TB configuration and $505 for the 2 TB option.

The situation concerning storage, meanwhile, is bad enough that Framework is pausing production of its own Storage Expansion Cards.

"We also use NAND flash in our Storage Expansion Cards, and see the costs jumping massively there. The costs have increased to a level that we’ve paused production of the 250GB Storage Expansion Card for now rather than build new inventory at a price many times higher than the original. We’ll continue to sell through the remaining inventory that we have on hand, and we hope to be able to restart production as we find alternative NAND sources."

As for DDR5 memory for the same laptop, the situation is pretty grim. You're looking at $160 for a single 8 GB stick of DDR5-5600. You can double that for two 8 GB SoDIMMs, or pay $235 for a single 16 GB stick. Yuck.

Framework says it has also had to put the price up on the 128 GB version of its Desktop PC, which now comes in at $3,449, and that's before you've added any storage. Yikes.

Still, if DDR5 prices from Framework are mostly unchanged, might this signal that the memory crisis has peaked? It's probably too early to call that.

"This month, DDR5 costs have remained stable, and we’ve been able to keep pricing the same month over month," Framework says. In other words, there's no change this month. But we'd want to see that remain the case for many more months to come before assuming that the price rises are over, let alone that prices are finally coming down.

I spent a decent chunk of my early career writing about all things PlayStation. But despite all of that, I wouldn't call Sony's DualSense controller my go-to gamepad for PC gaming. Well, the latest DSX beta update might just make it a real contender.

Traditionally, you can use a DualSense controller on PC via a wired connection or over Bluetooth via an extra adapter. What a faff! Furthermore, there's no official support for the pad's detailed haptics on PC—so the team behind DSX are now extending unofficial support over both Bluetooth and wired connections. The v3.2 Beta 01update adds "Virtual DualSense with Audio support, allowing games to send native DualSense audio and haptics through DSX over Bluetooth or USB" (via WCCFTech).

There is a catch, though. The update post notes that haptic and controller-based audio support will require "DSX+ to create a virtual DualSense as it always has been." Essentially, that means you're going to have to pay $7.99 for the base software on Steam, and then another $3.99 for the DSX+ 'DLC'. In short, paying over 10 bucks for functionality that's standard on PS5 does feel a wee bit cheeky to me. That said, small teams providing unofficial support like this have gotta eat too.

This update also introduces the handy option to launch the controller software manually outside of Steam. Neat! This does use "a 28-day ownership cache" system, though, so you'll still need to futz with Steam at least once a month to continue enjoying support. To enjoy this functionality alongside haptics support, you'll need to set up access to the DSX Beta branch via Steam anyway.

I've not yet had a chance to go hands-on with DSX's haptic support, so I can't comment on how refined the feedback feels on PC versus console. But given that Sony has u-turned on bringing its tentpole releases to PC, such as God of War: Laufey, the case could be made that this unofficial haptic support comes a little too late. Still, if you're curious about what you're missing, this could be a great excuse to finally pick up 2023's Returnal (we've even got a robust beginner's guide).

I'm also fond of all the subtle haptics that have since been added to the PS5 version of Final Fantasy XIV Online, though there's no guarantee you'd get this in the PC version of the game. In my humble opinion, the best showcase for the DualSense's haptics are the last two AstroBot games. Unfortunately, Astro's Playroom—a game which I've heard at least one game developer describe as 'the five-hour hand massage'—was a free pack-in release for the increasingly expensive PlayStation 5 console, so it feels like the bot has a snowball in Hell's chance of ever making it PC-side.

As a PlayStation girlie, I'd kind of already accepted I'd be stuck with unrefined rumble at best on PC. It's a shame Sony has missed a trick by not offering official haptic support on PC itself, but it's also unsurprising given their doubling down on PS5 exclusives. Still, when a major player closes a door, you can bet a small team with a fraction of the resources will crack open a window. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to chill out in a rainy, forested corner of Atropos and soak up some DualSense ASMR.

If the thought of buying an office chair from an AI-focused company is giving you pause for concern, then let me allay those fears now. The Autonomous ErgoChair Ultra 2 is a good chair that's well-built, comfortable, and genuinely fine to use for a full day of work, followed by a night of gaming. It's not perfect, and the price tag doesn't quite match what you're getting, but those are criticisms that can be cast at any gaming chair these days.

I am getting ahead of myself, though, so let me start with the basics. Autonomous has designed its chair with the 'all-day PC enthusiast' very much in mind, and the ErgoChair Ultra 2 (sometimes listed as the Chair Ultra V2) ticks off every box you'd expect for such a product, such as 4D adjustable arms and an expansive seat.

One difficulty with reviewing chairs, office or gaming, is that there is a considerable degree of subjectivity to it all, rather like with keyboards and mice. What's comfortable or convenient for one person can be awkward and annoying for someone else, so it's worth knowing my own specifications before I discuss those of the Autonomous chair.

With a height of 184 cm (72.8 inches) and a weight of 68 kg (149.9 lbs), I'm the human equivalent of a giant stick insect, all arms and legs, and not much in the way of any padding around my posterior, if you catch my drift. I generally avoid mesh chairs, favouring dense foam ones, because they often lack enough support for my bony frame.

The ErgoChair Ultra 2 is the first mesh chair I've used where I've had no problems with back or seat comfort, and in the case of the former, the flexible spine helps by no small degree. Rather than using a rigid steel or aluminium frame, Autonomous designed a polymer structure that looks like alien cartilage.

That holds the seat back in place but also permits it to twist and flex slightly, and along with the polymer back itself, the whole thing does a good job of supporting my frame. There are no dials, knobs, or levers for adjusting anything: You just sit back, and the whole thing effectively moulds to, and fully supports, your shape. By not using metal here, the chair is also quite a bit lighter and easier to move about than your average gaming chair.

A similar approach has been used for the seat, in that underneath the foam pad, there is an array of polymer 'springs', though it's not quite as supportive as I'd like. I can sit all day in the ErgoChair Ultra 2 without too much issue, but I'd prefer a few more centimetres of foam in the pad. As it is, the seat doesn't feel as plush as the back, even though it's very spacious.

One function I do appreciate about the Autonomous design is that the seat depth is adjustable. Simply pull out a handle in the seat base, and the whole thing can easily slide back and forth by a few inches, giving taller people more thigh support. The only thing I don't like about this system is that shuffling the chair around while sitting in it causes the seat to 'clunk' about. That movement is only very small, but it does reduce the overall feeling of sturdiness.

Speaking of which, while the overall build quality is very good, the 4D adjustable armrests let down the package a touch. They're altered for height by pressing a small catch on the underside, but everything else (lateral and horizontal location, rotation) is done by simply pushing or pulling the rest into the desired position.

That's very easy to do, but it's actually too easy, and if you grab or lean on the armrests to move the chair about on a thick carpet, the rests will quickly slide out of position. Conversely, the height adjustment is quite stiff, and the arms tend to stick a little in the housing. A dose of silicone spray helped, though a better design would remove the problem altogether.

If you've just spent a good amount of time setting up the arms to suit your needs, you'd be rather annoyed that you'd have to do this all over again, simply because you needed to move the chair by pushing on the arms. On a smooth floor, tiled or laminated, this doesn't happen, but if your office/gaming den is carpeted like mine, it's something to be aware of with the Autonomous chair.

The armrests can be tightened up, and Autonomous provided me with a guide on how to do it: essentially, you need to fully dismantle them, screw down the respective bolts more firmly, and then reattach everything. Not a convenient solution, but at least there is a solution. They will still be 'light' to reposition, though that's an intended design.

There are a couple of rough edges on parts that have been manufactured using injection moulding, too. Nothing to cause any harm, and unless you look for it, you're unlikely to notice it. But it's just one more thing that takes a little bit of shine off the Autonomous' otherwise high levels of quality.

More so when you consider it costs $499. That's not super expensive for the market sector Autonomous is targeting, but neither does it have the playing field to itself. For example, ThunderX3 and Flexispot both make excellent mesh office chairs and are highly competitive on price and features. Meanwhile, the ErgoChair Ultra 2 doesn't sport footrests, and if you want a headrest, then you'll need to spend $50 more for the Plus model.

With $75 to $100 knocked off the price tag, you'd have no reason at all to complain, and I'd recommend the Autonomous ErgoChair Ultra 2 without hesitation. At a dollar shy of five hundred bucks, however, I'd suggest that you weigh up the chair's strengths—flexible back support, low weight, adjustable seat depth—against your specific needs and what the competition offers first.

There's no shortage of great chairs to choose from these days, after all.

E-waste is a massive environmental problem. So are current data center plans, if recent reports are to be believed. However, a team of researchers from the University of California, San Diego, have come up with an intriguing idea: They plan to use 2,000 Google Pixel smartphones to build a cloud computing data center with already-existing tech.

According to a Google Research blog post, on average, people replace their smartphones every four years (via Hothardware). However, many modern (yet outdated, in terms of our constant desire for shiny new things) examples have processors, memory, and storage chips that are relatively powerful, particularly when you chain them together.

That's wasted hardware, and an ecological concern when you think of the extra carbon emissions created by manufacturing their replacements. By putting the existing chips to good use, it prevents them from going to landfill—and might even negate the need for new hardware in certain applications.

The post's authors say that the single-threaded performance of a modern smartphone's processor cores is on par with (or better than) many multicore server chips. However, modern servers are made up of dozens of multithreaded processor cores with access to a huge amount of memory, whereas a typical older smartphone only has a handful of cores and around 8-12 GB to play with.

Not only that, but recycled smartphones have a lot of extra components that would be inefficient (or hazardous) to deploy en masse, like the batteries and displays.

So, the first step is to remove everything but the motherboard and the attached chips (which represent the most embodied carbon of all the components), before chaining them together to create a server cluster for university usage, targeting relatively lightweight applications.

The phones are orchestrated together by Kubernetes, an open-source system for managing containerized applications. Each has a Linux distro installed, bypassing Android systems that wouldn't be suitable for mass-server deployment, like memory-saving features.

While the current iteration seems to be pretty small-scale, the eventual 2,000-phone data center is planned to be used for grading and research applications within the universities' existing software infrastructure.

"Early experiments show that even a moderately-sized cluster of 20 phones is capable of supporting peak submission rates for a 75+ student class, with grading latencies below the default AWS backend," say the researchers. "A 2,000 phone deployment will be capable of supporting a hundred such classes at once."

The post's authors say that Google will be supporting the project, and that the aim is to provide "hundreds of researchers and students with low-cost, low-carbon cloud computing, reducing the need for newly manufactured hardware and their associated emissions."

Which is such a neat idea, I'd like to see more officially supported projects like it in future. In my own home, I can think of at least five smartphones sitting in drawers doing absolutely nothing, all of which contain chips that could be used for something useful.

And while plugging them back in would of course lead to unused chips drawing power from the grid once more, I suppose it beats them being trampled by bulldozers at my local dump at some point in the future. Although it must be said, I doubt this work will do much to offset the ecological concerns around Google's own huge data center plans in the near future.