This one will be short and sweet. So remember how there are apparently no more RTX 5090s available most anywhere, even though Nvidia's Senior Vice President just said that the company definitely hasn't stopped making them? If you had been saving up for Nvidia's greatest card, there's still hope for you. Best Buy has an MSI Infinite ZS in stock with an RTX 5090 ensconced within for $7,599, making for roughly $5,300 for the RTX 5090 and $2,300 for the rest of the PC.

Yes, over five grand is definitely a lot to ask for a graphics card, but it's worth ponying up the cash if you want the best gaming card in recent years (and likely future, too). Besides, it's not like these will be in stock anytime soon (if ever), and they were commanding $7,500 or more in stores before they vanished.

The rest of the PC around the humongous card is equally powerful. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D ($670) is probably the best desktop CPU in the current market, offering a high core count of 16 cores and 32 threads, fast clocks with a 5.7 GHz turbo speed, and 128 MB of cache. It'll run games and heavy applications with equal aplomb.

That chip sits atop an MSI B840-VC motherboard ($250 est.) with PCIe 5.0 support thanks to its AMD B840 chipset. An MSI CoreLiquid 360mm CLC ($110) keeps the processor cooled. There are 32 GB of RAM ($450 est.) on tap — though MSI doesn't mention the speed, 6000 MT/s is a good, reasonable guess for a high-end machine.

The machine is powered by an unspecified MSI 1300W Gold PSU ($170 est.), and all the hardware sits inside a MSI MEG Prospect 700RL case ($250 est.). A Windows 11 Home license currently sets you back about $130. For those keeping track at home, the PC core goes for over $2300. There are no weak spots we could find, too — pre-builts often skimp on one of their core parts, but there are no shortcuts here.

HyperX has decided to toss its hat in the ring of open-back gaming headsets with its newest, the Cloud Alpha Air. It's definitely not the first open-back headset we've seen in the past few years — others include the $200 Corsair Virtuoso Pro, the $180 Turtle Beach Atlas Air, and, of course, the $900 Audeze LCD-GX. The Cloud Alpha Air is at least somewhat budget-friendly at just $149.99.

The Cloud Alpha Air is a wired over-ear open-back gaming headset designed for comfort and immersion. It features dynamic 40mm drivers with a frequency response range of 20 - 20,000 Hz and a special "HyperX Bass Tube" to keep the low end present without compromising the open-back design. And, like other HyperX headsets (which are some of the best gaming headsets we've tested), it's extremely lightweight and easy to wear for hours at a time.

Design and Comfort of the Cloud Alpha Air

The Cloud Alpha Air is a wired over-ear (circumaural) open-back headset with a detachable boom microphone. It has large, plastic oval-shaped earcups with metal grilles attached to a padded steel headband. It's a fairly lightweight headset — HyperX has its weight listed at 9.6 ounces (272g) without the boom mic attached (the boom mic is listed at approximately 0.42 ounces / 12g), but we found the headset weighed closer to 10 ounces (283g) (the boom mic, however, weighed closer to 0.07oz / 2g), and came in at just under 10.6 ounces (300g) with both the boom mic and cables attached. This still makes it one of HyperX's lightest headsets — slightly lighter than the HyperX Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless and Turtle Beach's Atlas Air open-back headset.

The Cloud Alpha Air's earcups are pretty roomy, with thick memory foam padding covered in soft ultrasuede material. The earcups tilt and swivel a little, but they're not as flexible as the earcups on many gaming headsets — and they don't swivel flat. The headset features a steel headband with leatherette-covered padding at the top and metal-reinforced yokes, so that explains the rigidity. The earcups are independently height-adjustable, with about an inch of extension for a maximum inner headband measurement of approximately 12 inches (300mm).

I found the Cloud Alpha Air to be very comfortable, despite the headband's relative rigidity, since the whole package is pretty lightweight and well-padded. However, I can see users with larger heads having problems with the top of the headband, as the padding did press on my crown slightly.

This is a wired headset, so there aren't a lot of ports or on-ear controls. The left earcup has two 3.5mm jacks, one for the detachable boom mic and one for the primary audio cable, as well as a microphone mute button, and the right earcup has a volume wheel.

The Cloud Alpha Air is wired, but the wires are detachable, and it comes with everything you need in the box to plug it into various devices. The main cable is a standard 4-foot (1.2m) 3.5mm, and it comes with two extension cables: a 4.5-foot (1.37m) 3.5mm to USB-C extension (with a USB-C to USB-A converter attached) for plugging it into a PC or console, and a 3.5-foot (1m) PC extension cable with separate audio and microphone jacks. That gets you about 8 - 8.5 feet of cable when you're plugged into your PC, which is decent — though I would personally prefer single long cables instead of the extension system, as the extension system means there's a weight (where the cables connect) in the middle. The cables are braided and seem high-quality, if a bit heavy. The headset also comes with its detachable boom microphone in the box, as well as a thick drawstring carrying bag for keeping everything together.

Specs

Audio Performance of the Cloud Alpha Air

The Cloud Alpha Air features dynamic 40mm neodymium drivers, with a frequency response range of 20 - 20,000 Hz (still pretty standard for gaming headsets, despite several companies coming out with premium models that have wider ranges).

Music sounds very good on the Cloud Alpha Air. The headset has a mostly neutral sound profile, with bright, detailed highs, a full, present mid-range, and solid but not overly powerful bass. It definitely has a wider sound stage than its closed-back counterparts, though it's not quite as wide or as open as some open-back headsets (such as the Audeze LCD-GX). Mid-range-heavy songs such as K-931's Lonely World and Enya's Orinoco Flow sounded especially dynamic. The headset has a built-in "HyperX Bass Tube" designed to maintain powerful bass, despite its open-back style. This works decently well — while I still found bass to be more powerful on closed-back headsets such as the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro, the bass was definitely present (and fairly detailed — I could hear the full run of the bass drum in Lorde's Royals).

Games sound even better on the Cloud Alpha Air, thanks to the open-back design. Games with multi-layered audio environments, such as Uncharted 4 and God of War: Ragnarok, really stood out on the headset — I could hear every individual creature in jungles and make out conversations with (possibly unrealistic) clarity in cities. Directional audio was also very good, though I would probably still opt for a closed-back headset for competitive first-person shooters where the direction of footsteps and gunshots is paramount. But you can't beat open-back headsets for exploring an open world (and for being able to hear things happening in the real world).

Microphone of the Cloud Alpha Air

The Cloud Alpha Air has a detachable 10mm boom microphone with a unidirectional polar pattern. It sits at the end of a 3-inch flexible metal gooseneck you can bend toward your mouth for better pickup, and the arm has a small red indicator light near the microphone end that lets you know when it's muted. It's the same microphone found on HyperX's other premium headsets, including the Cloud III S Wireless and the Cloud Alpha 2 Wireless.

The mic performs about as well as expected — it's good for a headset mic, but it's definitely still a headset mic. My voice was clear and full-sounding over both voice chat and in recordings. But the mic's pickup was pretty low by default — for other HyperX headsets I've been able to adjust the gain in its Ngenuity software, but I wasn't able to get Ngenuity to recognize the Cloud Alpha Air (I imagine if it had recognized it, it would have been adjustable, however). Hopefully this is fixed in a software or firmware update soon.

The mic mute button is easy to press, and the indicator light is a nice thought — but it was too low and too dim to be useful to me (I had to keep moving the mic up to see it, which seems like it sort of defeats the purpose of having an unobtrusive indicator light). I also had the same issue I did with the mute mic button on the HyperX Cloud III wired headset, where pressing the mute button caused a noticeable blip in my recordings.

Features and Software of the Cloud Alpha Air

The Cloud Alpha Air is supposed to be configurable with HyperX's Ngenuity peripheral software, which should let you do things such as tune the EQ and adjust the microphone's input gain. But, again, I couldn't get any version of Ngenuity to recognize the Cloud Alpha Air.

Bottom Line

If you've been thinking of getting an open-back gaming headset, the Cloud Alpha Air might be the headset you've been waiting for. As long as you don't mind the wires, it's an excellent headset for the price — it's comfortable, lightweight, and it sounds great whether you're listening to music, watching movies, or gaming. While I couldn't get it to connect to Ngenuity, I honestly don't count that as much of a point against it — peripheral software often causes more headaches than it's worth, especially for a headset that's mostly analog to begin with.

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5090, undeniably one of the best graphics cards of our time, vanished overnight without a trace and is now selling for $8,500 on Amazon. In a recent development, Reddit user DallasGrave showcased a custom quad 8-pin power conversion kit designed for the notorious melting 16-pin (12VHPWR) power connector and the later 12V-2x6 revision. This invention, an upgrade over a previous mod, could reduce the risk of power-related meltdowns.

Unlike the endless stream of aftermarket adapters designed solely to prevent 16-pin power meltdowns, DallasGrave's iteration is more like a power-conversion kit. The direct-mount kit sits above the graphics card and uses a custom harness soldered to the graphics card’s PCB power rails. The quad 8-pin power conversion kit bypasses the 16-pin connection and redistributes the massive power draw more evenly across four conventional 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

Each 8-pin PCIe power connector can deliver up to 150W, so all four combined in this custom configuration match the 16-pin connector’s maximum capacity of 600W. However, this configuration addresses concerns with the 16-pin power connector, which channels 50A through a small, tightly packed set of pins. The power-conversion kit instead spreads the load across four 8-pin PCIe power connectors, which are physically larger and allow a wider pin pitch.

While 8-pin PCIe power connectors are not entirely immune to melting or other power-related failures, such incidents are far less common than issues with 16-pin power connectors. The 16-pin power connector is significantly more compact than a single 8-pin power connector and carries 4X the wattage, so it is more prone to higher current density and heat buildup.

According to PCI-SIG specifications, each of the six power pins inside the 16-pin power connector is rated for a maximum current of 9.5A. This means that, in theory, the power connector's total capacity reaches up to 684W or 57A. For example, 600W (50A) requires each power pin to carry about 8.33A, which is already close to the recommended safety limits.

By contrast, a standard 8-pin PCIe power connector contains three power pins. Combining four of these connectors in tandem provides 12 power pins. When distributing a 50A load across 12 pins, each pin carries just 4.17 amps, about half the current per pin of the 16-pin power connector design. This lower current per pin dramatically reduces wire and terminal temperatures and lowers the risk of heat-related damage.

The quad 8-pin power conversion kit tricks the sense pins on the 16-pin power connection into recognizing the full 600W. However, the Redditor claims they have tested the kit for up to 800W with a shunt mod. The beauty of the kit is that users can use it as a standalone power source or alongside the native 16-pin power connector, essentially acting as a parallel load spreader.

DallasGrave is developing a custom backplate that will enhance the power conversion kit's visual appeal. Notably, it is not limited to the GeForce RTX 5090 or any specific brand. According to the Redditor, they are preparing a range of models for production that cover nearly every variant on the market, including Nvidia’s Founders Edition. However, the creator has not yet revealed key details such as the official release date, pricing, or installation logistics.

Over the past several years, MOZA Racing has become one of the most recognizable names in sim racing, earning a reputation for producing high-quality racing wheels and peripherals. Founded in 2012 by a group of automotive engineers and sim racing enthusiasts, the company initially focused on manufacturing and selling videography equipment before entering the sim-racing market.

More recently, MOZA has expanded into the world of flight simulation, bringing the same focus on build quality and performance that has made its racing products so popular. Today, we’re taking a look at the MOZA AY210 Force Feedback Base and MFY Yoke. We’ll be putting both products through their paces in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, testing them across a variety of challenging flight scenarios to see how they perform in the cockpit.

Inside the Box

While you can purchase the base and the yoke separately, they also come in a bundle. With the bundle, you get both the yoke and the base in the box, along with a toolkit and user manual. The base comes with a power cable and a USB Type A to Type B cable.

MOZA also sent us a couple of table clamps for the yoke to secure it to our test setup. The clamps are sold separately.

Customization

The base and yoke feature several programmable buttons and switches, but the real depth of customization comes from MOZA Cockpit Software. The software provides an impressive range of options for fine-tuning the yoke to your preferences. You can adjust individual settings to create your ideal feel, or choose from one of MOZA’s presets or community-created profiles.

Build Quality

The base is constructed from aluminum alloy, giving it a sturdy, durable, and premium feel. An aluminum quick-release mechanism allows you to swap yokes quickly while keeping them securely attached.

Under the hood, the AY210 is powered by a 280 MHz processor and features a 15-bit high-resolution magnetic encoder. This is designed to provide precise and responsive inputs across the full range of motion, whether you’re making small, delicate adjustments or larger, more aggressive inputs. Combined with MOZA’s proprietary active force-feedback system, the AY210 is designed to deliver a high level of control while adding another layer of immersion to the flight experience.

The MFY Yoke features a premium build made from high-quality synthetic engineering thermoplastic and ergonomic design that closely replicates the feel of a yoke found in a real commercial aircraft.

How Does it Feel?

The star of the show is undoubtedly the force feedback. With up to 9 Nm of torque and 210 N of push force, the system adds a level of immersion that simply isn’t possible with conventional yokes that lack force feedback.

When flying the PMDG 737, the yoke gives the aircraft a noticeably heavier feel through the control column, closely mimicking what we experienced in a 737 simulator. As airspeed increases, the yoke becomes progressively harder to deflect in both pitch and roll, accurately reflecting the aerodynamic forces acting on the aircraft.

But the force feedback goes far beyond simply simulating control forces. You can feel the vibrations from the engines, as well as the movement of the flaps and spoilers. After takeoff, the yoke conveys the increasing resistance of the airflow as the aircraft accelerates. Approaching a stall during a climb produces a noticeable buffet through the controls, while landing provides feedback as the wheels make contact with the runway.

The AY210 also replicates the movement of the aircraft's controls when the autopilot is engaged, with the yoke moving under the control of the autopilot servos.

All of these effects work together to create a remarkably convincing connection between the aircraft and the controls. It’s a level of immersion that most other yokes simply cannot replicate.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Testing

We tested the AY210 Force Feedback Base and MFY Yoke in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 primarily using the PMDG 737-800. While the iFly 737 MAX is a great addon with a superb flight model, especially in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, it is not yet natively built for MSFS 2024. As such, it does not handle wind and turbulence effects entirely well in MSFS 2024. We wanted to stick with MSFS 2024 because of its more realistic flight dynamics. We also tested the yoke with the PMDG 777. For our tests, we used the latest 737 NG and 777 profiles from Tonyaviation on Flightsim.to. Tony is a real-life pilot with experience in the 737 and 787. The 787 and 777 share many of the same flight characteristics.

We tested the base and yoke in three different scenarios:

1. Basic maneuvering. Flying at 5,000 feet, we performed gentle turns and pitch changes to evaluate the precision of the base during small, accurate control inputs.
2. Turbulent approach. We performed an approach into Las Vegas under hot, windy conditions with strong updrafts and downdrafts. This scenario required larger, more frequent control inputs to assess how the base handles turbulence and rapid corrections.
3. Curved approach. Finally, we flew the RNAV Visual approach to Runway 1R at San Francisco International Airport. This approach is available in MSFS 2024 if you use the Navigraph database, but it is missing the RF leg between the waypoints KLAUS and SQIRL, so we added it to the navigation database of the PMDG 737 and 777 ourselves. The procedure features a sweeping right-hand arc that continues until roughly one mile from the runway threshold, requiring the aircraft to remain in a turn at very low altitude. The approach demands precise tracking of the flight path while also requiring a smooth, accurate transition to the runway centerline after the final waypoint. This scenario tested both the precision and responsiveness of the AY210 Base.

Basic Maneuvering

Basic maneuvering feels precise and smooth with the right settings. That last part is important, however, because the AY210 does not necessarily deliver this experience out of the box. Based on our previous experience with a 737 simulator, even with significant pitch input, the control column should maintain a smooth and consistent feel throughout its movement. With the AY210, we found that the motion could feel less natural and “sticky” unless Pitch Friction Correction was enabled in the MOZA Cockpit Software. Fortunately, this setting significantly improves the feel, giving the control column a response that is much closer to what we experienced in a 737 simulator.The 280 MHz processor and 15-bit high-resolution magnetic encoder also contribute to the AY210’s precise and responsive inputs. We were able to make accurate turns and precisely set our desired descent rate, with even small control inputs translating smoothly and predictably into the simulator.

Turbulent Approach

Here, we perform our usual turbulent approach, landing in Las Vegas during the summer. The combination of extreme heat, strong winds, and thermals along the approach path can create significant turbulence, making for a much less stable approach. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is able to replicate these conditions through its Live Weather system, providing a challenging environment for testing the AY210.

The level of immersion provided by the AY210 is simply incredible. Through the force feedback system, you can feel the effects of wind and turbulence directly through the yoke, rather than relying solely on visual cues or the aircraft’s instruments. This provides useful feedback that helps you anticipate and make the necessary control corrections. The AY210 handled these conditions exceptionally well, accurately conveying the changing forces throughout the approach and giving us a much better sense of how the aircraft was responding.

Curved Approach

The RNAV Visual approach to Runway 1R at San Francisco International Airport contains an RF leg between the final two waypoints – KLAUS and SQIRL – which is a sweeping right-hand arc. The AY210 was responsive and precise throughout, allowing us to follow the arc all the way to SQIRL, at which point we were able to accurately align with runway 1R and perform a smooth landing.

By comparison, the Thrustmaster TCA Boeing Yoke felt noticeably jerkier throughout the approach. The two products are also in completely different price tiers, so this is not necessarily a direct or entirely fair comparison. However, the TCA Boeing Yoke is a popular choice among simmers flying Boeing aircraft in Microsoft Flight Simulator, making it a useful reference point. The difference was immediately noticeable, and the AY210’s ability to provide smoother, more natural control while conveying the effects of turbulence is a clear example of what you gain from its more premium design and force feedback system.

Bottom Line

The MOZA AY210 Force Feedback Yoke Base delivers one of the most immersive experiences available in desktop flight simulation. It comes at a premium price, but after spending time with the AY210, it is genuinely difficult to go back to a yoke without force feedback. The combination of realistic feedback, precise control, and the level of detail conveyed through the yoke adds an entirely new dimension to the flying experience.

It is not without its flaws. Some of the force feedback effects could be stronger, while the control column can feel slightly unnatural and “sticky” out of the box. Fortunately, both issues can be addressed to some extent through the extensive customization options in MOZA Cockpit Software.

Overall, the AY210 is an impressive piece of hardware. For those willing to pay the premium, its force feedback and overall level of immersion make it a compelling upgrade for any serious home cockpit.

Last week, gamers still holding any hope that the GPU market would somehow stabilize had their hopes dashed. A while after Nvidia reportedly put the RTX 50 Super series on hold, rumors started flying that production of the already-rare RTX 5090 was stopping, likely to use precious silicon manufacturing capacity for more AI accelerators. Now, the company's senior VP Jeff Fisher reportedly said that card was not discontinued and would continue to be shipped. The statement comes after a myriad of websites, including Tom's Hardware, have asked the company for official comment, but to no avail.

The information comes from Taiwanese websites including 4Gamers and SJTV, which both are quoting a purported post-event interview where Fisher offered a brief explanation of the situation. According to the VP, supplies of the GPU are limited, but Nvidia is seemingly going all out to get the product to market (paraphrased from the Taiwanese reports).

"The supply chain (capacity) is indeed somewhat constrained, but NVIDIA is doing everything it can to get the product on the market. Although there are other variants of the RTX 5090 (chip), production has not been discontinued, and NVIDIA will continue to ship, which is very important," Fisher reportedly said to 4Gamers.

He also reportedly reiterated a common quote from Nvidia execs, stating that without GeForce, Nvidia wouldn't be where it is today, and likewise, the AI market wouldn't exist as it does today.

The claim that the card isn't gone after all merits some spot-checking, so we did a cursory browse of the common retailers. At Amazon, RTX 5090s are selling for about $8,500, but from third-party sellers. Best Buy has a grand amount of naught cards on offer, while Newegg lists 5090s for about $7,300, but from what are likely Chinese sellers, judging by the shipping time. The ever-famous U.S. tariffs would likely add quite a chunk of change to that price tag, too. Finally and perhaps most poignantly, the card remains absent from Nvidia's own marketplace and Micro Center as of this writing.

Some would say that these statements are nothing but a means to keep the company in gamers' minds, even though gaming-related revenue is now a vanishingly small piece of Nvidia's ever-larger money pie.

Jensen's firm isn't the only one seemingly keeping up appearances, as Intel has repeatedly stated that its long-awaited refresh of consumer GPUs isn't dead, and last year AMD said it still intends to deliver "the best mainstream gaming GPUs on the market." Yet there are no new GPU launches from any of the three, and their quarterly launch figures keep doubling down on AI.

We reached out to Nvidia for comment on the situation and received no reply.

With the ongoing DRAM and NAND memory crisis, finding a good storage deal has become increasingly difficult. However, we found a solid offer for anyone looking to expand storage on their Nintendo Switch 2. The SanDisk 512GB GamePlay microSD Express card is currently $98 at Walmart, well below its regular price of over $120. It is also one of the lowest prices we’ve seen for this card in recent months, making it a particularly good time to pick one up.

• Check out this deal on Walmart

The SanDisk GamePlay microSD Express card is officially licensed for the Nintendo Switch 2. It uses a PCIe interface and the NVMe protocol to deliver read speeds up to 880 MB/s, write speeds up to 650 MB/s, and sustained writes of 220 MB/s. This makes it significantly faster than traditional microSD cards and fully compatible with the Switch 2, since older microSD cards cannot be used to store or play games.

SanDisk claims the card is built to withstand tough conditions, with protection against water, extreme temperatures, humidity, drops, shocks, magnets, X-rays, and wear and tear. It also includes a special ThermAdapt feature that helps keep devices from overheating, with a specially designed enclosure and controller that uses dynamic adaptive thermal management.

For Switch 2 owners who prefer buying digital games, the Sandisk GamePlay microSD Express card at $98 is a worthwhile upgrade if you are running short on storage. The 512GB capacity should provide plenty of room for additional titles, game updates, and downloadable content, so you don't have to constantly delete games to make space for new ones. If you have been waiting to expand your console’s storage without spending considerably more, this deal is definitely worth considering.

An AI lab that specializes in gathering real-world data wants to partner with homeowners to record how skilled laborers do their jobs to train AI robots. HUMXN said it will subsidize plumbing, electrical, HVAC, air-duct cleaning, and carpet cleaning, allowing people who need these services to get them for free in exchange for letting someone in with “wearable capture technology” work inside their home.

“The next generation of AI is going to need more than text and images from the internet. Robots need to understand how skilled people interact with the physical world. Home-service technicians perform millions of highly technical tasks every day. We are creating a way for homeowners and service companies to benefit financially from the value of that expertise,” HUMXN founder Thomas Unise said.

He also added, “There are millions of skilled workers performing incredibly complex tasks every day, but very little of that expertise exists in a format that AI systems can learn from. We want to build the infrastructure that connects that knowledge with the companies building the next generation of intelligent machines while making sure the people creating the value participate in the economics.”

HUMXN said it’s difficult to capture skilled workers' natural movements in lab settings. By working with homeowners, it could capture data across “different homes, equipment types, problems, technicians, and environments.” It would also give AI models insight into how technicians get the job done—from examining the situation and testing systems to choosing the right tools, responding to changing conditions, and determining whether the job was completed successfully.

The lab says its system would let homeowners get qualifying work done on their property for free while still ensuring service professionals get paid. On the other hand, HUMXN essentially pays residents for the right to record on their premises to gather real-world training data. The company is launching its program in three cities—Minneapolis, Chicago, and Miami—to gather data from places with very different climates. If you live in one of these cities and need something done or repaired at home, you can check whether you qualify on the HUMXN Free Home Service webpage.

HUMXN’s effort to pay for training data is refreshing, after many AI labs, including Meta, Nvidia, and OpenAI, have been accused of stealing data to train their models. But the next generation of AI likely can't be trained on just text, images, and video scraped from the internet, so companies like these may be forced to pay for data generated from real-world activities.

This week, we've published a swath of news and features over on Tom's Hardware Premium. So, if you're not subscribed yet and wondering what you might be missing out on, we've got you covered. To read any of the articles listed here, be sure to arm yourself with a subscription to get access.

First up, we dug into Intel's EMIB and Foveros packaging roadmaps, as they continue to mature, and found new customers looking to cash in on building a more sophisticated offering. Intel's ultimate goal? To build system-in-packages the size of just 12 reticles using both EMIB and Foveros Direct 3D. We map out how the company plans to get there in our exhaustive report.

• Analyzing Intel's EMIB and Foveros advanced packaging roadmaps — how Intel plans to scale chips in every direction

Over the past month or so, we saw the debut of DLSS 5 and Multi Frame Generation on older graphics cards. Both features are officially locked down to Blackwell-based GPUs only, but amidst spiraling prices and the curious disappearance of the RTX 5090 from store shelves, modders have taken it upon themselves to port these newer features to older GPU architectures. We had the opportunity to sit down with two such modders to learn more about how both Multi-Frame Generation and DLSS 5's neural rendering capabilities made it over to older GPUs.

• Meet the modders porting ringfenced DLSS features to older GPUs — how DLSS 5 and Multi-Frame Generation were unlocked for older architectures

Earlier, we alluded to the fact that new consumer PC hardware is becoming much more expensive to purchase when compared to just a few years ago. So, our resident deals guru, Stewart Bendle, took it upon himself to take a look at the market overall and discovered that, in all likelihood, you're not going to find the best deals on online storefronts. However, the best place to buy your new PC components is limited to whether or not you'll have a suitable brick-and-mortar Micro Center location near you. We pore over the bundles and deals that may make a trip more worthwhile than you might initially think.

• The internet isn’t the best place to find upgrades for your computer — brick-and-mortar stores still reign supreme thanks to bundled deals

While those articles clear things out for all of the features we've published on Tom's Hardware Premium this week, we've also got a slew of deep news analysis stories that subscribers can enjoy.

To start things off, ASML posted a record quarter this week, posting $13 billion in revenue, claiming that demand continues to outstrip its own supply when it comes to delivering its advanced lithography machines. The company is working on expanding supply, as demand continues to soar.

• ASML reports record $13 billion quarter, vows to expand capacity as demand for lithography equipment soars — customers eager to secure orders in 2030 as demand is expected to outstrip 2027 and 2028 supply

Googlebooks have officially landed. But where do they sit in the wider ecosystem of devices in 2026? And is it even a good idea to purchase one? With the premium offerings nearing MacBook Air territory, we muse on the awkward timing, spec choices, and pricing of Google's new class of device.

• Googlebooks are as poorly timed as Valve’s Steam Machine, and may suffer a similar fate

Speaking of new classes of device, the DGX Spark and Ryzen AI Halo platforms both take direct aim at local AI enthusiasts. But, since these devices have launched, prices have skyrocketed. Now, Sipeed is entering the arena with a competitor of its own. Named Maixstation, the device promises Spark-like performance, based on chinese silicon and 128GB of LPDDR5X at a much lower price than the current DGX Spark equivalent. We have all the details, including lofty performance claims, all of the specs, and much more.

• Sipeed reveals Chinese-made DGX Spark and Ryzen AI Halo rival, expected to cost $3,999 — MaixStation pairs Axera’s AX8860P with 128GB of LPDDR5X at 273 GB/s, with promising local AI performance claims

SK hynix is reportedly set to place an in-house core, named a Hynix Transaction Processing Unit (H-TPU) in its SSD controllers to ease the load put on Arm cores. The benefits to using the new core, the company claims, is that they use less power, and free up the core Arm cores to work on other tasks, while the H-TPU works on repetitive operations.

• SK hynix to place custom tiny CPU cores in its SSD controllers to ease Arm load as drive speeds rocket — each H-TPU reportedly draws 2.5% of a CPU core’s power

Ukraine has targeted Russian Yandex data centers in the latest development in the conflict between the two nations in recent weeks. While bot traffic and online disinformation were distrupted, it also highlights just how fragile Russia's public services are, if data can simply evaporate due to less disaggregated infrastrucutre.

• Ukrainian drones hit Russian data centers, disrupting Russian apps and services — attacks highlight the fragility of the country's digital services

Of course, the world of AI continues to disrupt industries, and sometimes, itself. A few weeks ago we broke down TypeSafe's Jev, a decision model that spits out decisions based on the probability of its inputs. But, in the weeks following, companies have rushed to make its own decision models, and the provenance of the original idea of a decision model like Jev has been called into question.

Elsewhere, mathematicians are warning to not use AI when working and in research, as OpenAI posted 722 manuscripts and proofs in the field, which the community now has to qualify. This is an unprecendented event within the mathematics community, and the burden of non-artifically-generated proof lies in the research community itself.

• Jev-like decision models are flooding the AI market, after researcher claims TypeSafe copied their research — Microsoft, OpenAI among companies releasing lightweight 'System One' AI models
• AI causes uproar in mathematics as experts warn against sharing research with LLMs after OpenAI shares 722 manuscripts and proofs — professor argues that the field must focus on building community over raw solutions

To gain full access to the articles we mention above, as well as unlock Bench, you'll need to purchase a Tom's Hardware Premium subscription. Your support goes a long way in helping us to publish deeper, more insightful articles that might not otherwise be covered.

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), which maintains the International System of Units (SI), has voted to expedite the retirement of the leap second, moving forward the date from 2035 to May 20, 2027, an adjustment that could wreak havoc on computer systems, which expect a consistent 60 seconds every minute.

The leap second is occasionally added to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to ensure that it remains in-sync with the Earth’s rotation. Our planet’s movement isn’t a constant one revolution every 24 hours owing to forces applied by the atmosphere, the oceans, its core, and even the Moon, and according to BIPM [PDF], these changes mean a 30% probability of needing a “negative leap second” by 2035.

A positive leap second adds an extra second in the year that it’s applied — for example, clocks went to 23:59:60 on Dec. 31, 2016, before switching to 00:00:00 on Jan. 1, 2017. This could spell trouble for machines that haven’t been updated to accommodate this, especially as leap seconds aren’t applied at a constant scale, meaning programmers cannot pre-program events like these, unlike leap years, which usually happen every four years. What’s more concerning is that the opposite of a positive leap second has never been done before. “A negative leap second has not previously been applied, and it is considered to pose a high risk of causing anomalies and disruption to critical infrastructures that are largely unprepared,” the BIPM said. It also estimated that the required investment to prepare for this event to be “similar to their preparations for the millennium bug.”

Leap seconds have also historically caused problems for websites and tech companies, with Reddit famously crashing after the 2012 addition of a leap second. While a leap second will likely not affect a desktop PC, especially if the Time Service server it relies on is updated, the BIPM is still worried that national critical infrastructures like transportation, energy distribution, telecommunications, and even space projects could descend into chaos if it enforces a negative leap second. So, instead of spending money upgrading software and replacing incompatible hardware within the next 10 years, the international standards body instead opted to scrap it altogether and replace it with the leap hour next year.

The group says that this would ensure long-term continuity for UTC, which is expected to remain in sync with TAI for several centuries. This also means that you no longer have to manually adjust your clocks every few years or so to exactly match this Raspberry Pi Pico atomic clock. While a time jump of an hour might be shocking for many people if and when it happens in the distant future, the BIPM recognizes that something similar already exists globally. “In many countries, there are differences of more than one hour between local apparent solar time and civil time due to the choice of time zone,” the organization wrote. It also added that “changes of an hour are regularly introduced when daylight-saving time is used.”

Taiwan is expanding its list of controlled exports to include AI servers and the latest chips in a move to align its policies with the U.S.’s trade bans. Bloomberg reports that after the export controls take effect, anyone caught smuggling these items will be criminally charged under the Foreign Trade Act, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and/or a fine of around $92,500.

“Going forward, some of our measures on controlled items will correspond to American ones because we have made quite some commitments in the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade,” Taiwan Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin said. The two parties signed the trade deal earlier this year, which saw the U.S. cutting tariffs on Taiwanese goods down to 15% in exchange for direct investments in the U.S. tech industry, among others.

The U.S. has long been trying to stamp out the smuggling of advanced Nvidia chips into China. One of the biggest cases that U.S. authorities have prosecuted so far includes three Super Micro employees, including its co-founder Yih-Shyan “Wally” Liaw, who are accused of smuggling $2.5 billion worth of AI servers. A few months after this revelation, Taiwanese authorities raided Super Micro’s Taipei offices in connection with the Nvidia B300 smuggling probe, which eventually led to the indictment of nine individuals related to the case.

Since Taiwan doesn’t treat AI chip exports to China as a crime before this new set of export controls is enacted, people violating the chip bans would have to be charged under other laws. This is what Singapore did when it arrested suspected Nvidia AI GPU smugglers — because it doesn’t have a law that prohibits the export of advanced AI chips to China, it instead charged the individuals with fraud and money laundering.

The expansion of the Foreign Trade Act will be one of the strictest measures that the Taiwanese government has put into place against exports to China, which is something that it has been considering earlier this year. This move will likely please Washington as it pressures other countries to take more steps in its controlling the flow of advanced AI chips into China. However, it will also likely provoke Beijing, which has already condemned Taipei after it applied export restrictions on Huawei and SMIC last year.

OpenAI recently released a misalignment report on its GPT5.6-Sol coding agent after it stole cryptocurrency from an account it didn’t own. It didn’t have enough funds for the smart contracts needed to execute its tasks, so it wrote a script that looked for accounts with public seed phrases that had enough funds to pay the gas fees, finished its task, and didn’t report that it took funds from an account it wasn’t assigned to without authorization.

Thankfully, this all happened on the Sepolia test network, which uses Sepolia ETH, simulated ETH in a simulated Ethereum network for cryptocurrency app development; it doesn’t actually have any monetary value. The report states, “The assignment asked it to update the trading calculator and database behavior, and to replace placeholder contract addresses with working deployments on Sepolia.” The final task required the agent to deploy smart contracts, a task that required gas fees paid in Sepolia ETH. It wasn’t supplied with a funded wallet, nor was it permitted to use funds from another account it found.

Either way, the agent was determined to complete its task and wrote a script to look for common developer recovery phrases and check the balances of the accounts, finding 362 addresses, with one having enough Sepolia ETH to deploy the contract. The CoT (chain of thought) even admitted: “Private key public, funds could be stolen anytime. [...] We can deploy!” After that CoT, it didn’t immediately spend the funds to complete its task; in fact, it was still trying to justify “stealing” the funds. It said, “But using public known key/funds ethically? Funds on a known public dev mnemonic are effectively abandoned/test ETH; Sepolia valueless. We can use [amount redacted] to deploy task. Fine.”

The agent found its justification and executed the task. However, in its final response, it only reported that it successfully executed the tasks it was asked; it didn’t explain how, nor did it explain how it found exposed accounts and used the funds without permission, possibly because it had already justified it and needed no further explanation. It probably didn’t realize that it was going rogue since it knew it was in a test environment, just like Anthropic’s internal research model for cybersecurity got out onto the internet and hacked three real companies, thinking it was part of the training.

The decomp.dev community that tracks and centralizes game decompilation progress is shutting down its public index and leaderboard, claiming in a site update that the acceleration of AI has damaged the decompilation community. The creator, who goes by @encounter, points to abuses related to AI usage, such as AI helping forks “finish” others’ projects and a general attitude of rushing to complete PC ports, often with little regard to quality. Simply banning AI-assisted projects is a difficult task, as not all of them have the same standards, and @encounter feels it shouldn’t be the role of one hobbyist to decide what does and doesn’t stay on the leaderboard.

The decision was made because AI greatly speeds up decompilation “in a significant way,” especially with human guidance, but misuse of the technology has broken the community aspect. AI has made the progress percentages on decomp.dev easier to push up. As a result, the site’s index and leaderboard are now “causing more harm than good,” as the competitive spirit has been corrupted. The scene has become “a hollow numbers game” where people throw AI usage at things “to make number go up.”

The site was created in 2024 “as a way to centralize matching decompilation progress” and to grow a community around it. Each project page shows game progress with its history. The goal of matching decompilation is to have hand-written source code that could compile back to the same machine code as the original game. The site’s creator is a GitHub maintainer of decomp-toolkit, a GameCube and Wii decompilation toolkit, and objdiff, a local diffing tool for decompilation projects.

Matching decompilation used to be a “brutally difficult, time consuming [sic] task,” taking years for many games. Better tools and community knowledge sped up the progress. AI worked its way in through the years, but results were generally mixed. Things changed earlier this year with Claude Opus 4.6 and GPT-5.4, which seemed to know the community’s tools without being told; encounter writes that it was “clear that the models were being trained on matching decompilation.” However, the models’ results still needed “a significant amount of human cleanup,” and the cost per task was “prohibitively expensive relative to the results.”

More recent models, with OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra specifically named, are much better at handling complex directions and at writing natural code and are “exceptionally good permuters.” The models can stay on task longer, finish tasks more quickly, and in general operate more cheaply. However, applying the models without guidance means that the code can compile to the same machine code but wouldn’t pass as the original developers’ work. Humans learning to apply the technology better is a pattern in this space, as Maurice Heumann’s Modern Warfare 2 decompilation project showed; in that case, Heumann’s agents tried to cheat the byte-for-byte check itself, but then Heumann adapted.

The projects, which are open source and welcome contributors, have been tainted by “bad actors” who abuse that openness. Some original projects avoid AI for legal or ethical reasons, and AI forks may put “little to no effort” into contributing back. Because AI has improved, anyone with an AI subscription can now create ports that work “at a basic level,” using tools “written by talented humans.” This allows opportunists to race out half-working decompilation ports. Ports can be fun, but decompilation is “primarily for research,” and the creator calls out YouTubers, dubbed “Sloptubers,” and subreddits like r/decomps for falsely synonymizing “decomp” and “PC port.”

The site was originally built “to gamify decompilation,” a fun way to stay motivated back when “every fraction of a percent took real human effort.” While the widening of the community has had positive aspects, it has also brought “slop,” which is admittedly “hard to define, and even harder to moderate,” so an outright ban on AI-assisted projects isn’t practical. Judging and policing “hundreds of projects” is too difficult a task. AI-generated code has made headlines in other open source areas, such as with Linux.

Existing projects, some of which have achieved 100% decompilation progress, such as Super Smash Bros. Melee and Animal Crossing, will keep on reporting, and their pages and history will remain. However, no new projects may join, and nobody may rebuild the site from its code. There is no successor named, and no shutdown date. Decompiling goes on, and AI is making it even faster, but the percentage scoreboard is gone.

The Xbox 360 has been cracked open multiple times over the years, and almost every time Microsoft's updates plugged whichever hole let hackers through. The first method was modded DVD firmware in 2006, a hypervisor hack followed in 2007, and a wiring hack exposing JTAG debugging ports was revealed in 2009. The longest-lasting physical hack was 2011's CPU force-reset exploit. That maneuver needed specialized hardware along with a voltage-glitching chip, but an enterprising techie showed how it can be performed nowadays with the assistance of a Raspberry Pi Pico, costing all of $4 (or about 5€ / £5). The crack marks the culmination of a nine-year effort by the modder.

To get the elephant out of the room, yes, just last week the PeerPressure Xbox 360 persistent soft-mod was released. But we're here to talk signals and wires. The aforementioned reset exploit involves sending a teeny weeny tiny signal directly into the CPU's reset pin. You'd think this would do what it says on the label, but what happens instead is that the CPU executes the current instruction incorrectly.

Naturally, someone figured out how to leverage that to run any code on the CPU, thus completely bypassing Microsoft's impressive and frankly rather effective layers of cryptography within the console. Sending said signal for an effective hack, though, requires spectacularly precise timing with a resolution down to nanoseconds, and glitch-chips may even require several attempts to get a successful "latch."

Joshua Kennedy, a Scottish hacker, bought a Matrix Coolrunner Rev D modchip board back in 2017 to hack his console this way, but it required soldering wires, NAND, and programmers, and patience. He once tried rolling his own programmers using an old PC's parallel port (a common substitute), but never got the project off the ground and shelved the idea.

Fast-forward to 2026, and a new tool presented itself: the highly successful Raspberry Pi Pico, a highly capable microcontroller-on-a-stick, whose price starts at all of $4. Armed with this, he started the procedure. He connected the Pi Pico to the NAND interface header on the console to be able to dump the console's NAND flash firmware — a task easily accomplished with just some wiring and the PicoFlasher utility. Although the post doesn't mention it, Kennedy likely took the NAND data, patched it with XeLL, and reuploaded it.

He moved on to download Octal450's Timing Files, a set of mini-programs triggering the glitch chip at the best possible timing to try and reset the CPU. These are necessary because the window of opportunity is different across every hardware revision of the Xbox 360. Enlisting the Pi Pico once again, he uploaded the timing files to the Matrix Coolrunner, and presumably ran the rest of the hack process. And thus the task was complete, and "a project that defeated [Kennedy] in 2017 was made trivial in 2026 by a £5 microcontroller."

X-Bow Systems, a solid rocket motor (SRM) manufacturer specializing in additive manufacturing (AM), has secured a deal with Leidos to develop and build rocket boosters for the U.S. Army’s Low-Cost Containerized Munition (LCCM) project. According to 3D Printing Industry, the LCCM is one of the Department of War’s programs under the “Arsenal of Freedom” initiative, which aims to rebuild the United States’ defense industrial base.

“Modern conflict is decided by how many rounds you can put downrange, not how exquisite each one is,” X-Bow founder and CEO Jason Hundley said. He also added that collaborating with Leidos would allow it to “turn out combat-ready rocket motors at production scale, fast.” Even though X-Bow Systems is a relatively new company, having been founded in 2016, it has already successfully produced over 2,100 combat-ready rocket motors. This means that it has the experience and expertise to produce the rocket engines in the numbers that the U.S. Army requires.

While conventional manufacturing methods still offer several advantages over 3D printing, the latter is still more effective when dealing with the complex geometries that some SRMs require. It’s also a faster solution when you need to iterate designs multiple times, which is why X-Bow can create and build new designs in a matter of days, instead of the months or years that it takes traditional defense contractors to prototype and test rocket motors.

Other companies have been experimenting and working with 3D-printed SRMs — Chromatic 3D Materials has completed a successful static-fire test of its 3D-printed rocket propellant earlier this year, while Indian startup Othisis successfully demonstrated its cryogenic rocket engine in August. One 3D-printing enthusiast was even able to create a DIY MANPADS for under $100.

3D-printing technology isn’t limited to rocket motors, either. Another startup secured a $30 million contract to prototype 3D-printed jet engines for the USAF for drones and other long-range weapons, while the U.S. Navy has started 3D-printing drones and parts aboard aircraft carriers. Some U.S. Army troops have also started 3D-printing ‘Dragoon Bombs’ and paired them with in-house assembled drones for anti-personnel and anti-light-armor missions at distances of up to 12 miles.

Drones and 3D printing have been around for decades, but the war in Ukraine is the first time that we see these technologies deployed at such a scale on the battlefield. It also demonstrated that their innovative use could help a smaller force to withstand the brunt of a larger military. This is probably why larger militaries like the U.S. and Japan are looking at these technologies for more cost-effective weapons.

ASML launched a Lego kit version of the TWINSCAN EXE:5000, the world’s first High-NA EUV machine, in December 2024. Since ASML only sells products like these to employees, the company canceled orders from non-employees, making the kit even more desirable for collectors. Current eBay listings show a Buy It Now price between $500 and $700, which is significantly higher than the $230 that the company asks for on the official website. However, X user @lithos_graphein shared a recreation of the kit available on Rebrickable, which added some tasteful modifications.

“A friend of mine fell in love with the ASML employee-exclusive Lego TWINSCAN EXE:5000 set and asked me to recreate it. While the original Lego version already looked impressive, I made some modifications to better capture the details of the real machine,” NightHawk11991 said in the description of the MOC (My Own Creation). “Using photos my friend took of the actual equipment, I designed this custom MOC to enhance its accuracy. I also added some interior details, including vacuum pumps, a laser emitter, reflectors, and more. Additionally, the silicon wafer tray can slide out for added functionality!”

The ASML TWINSCAN EXE:5000 MOC requires 152 unique parts and a total of 810 bricks. While this may not be the biggest build you can get from Lego or find on the Rebrickable MOC website, it’s still a rather significant build, with @lithos_graphein saying that it took them about a week to complete it. You can build and complete this project yourself, with PDF instructions available for free on the Rebrickable website. If you’re missing a Lego part to finish the build, you can also purchase it separately, although you might have a bit of a hard time looking for rarer parts included in the project.

@lithos_graphein is also the same one who was able to get their hands on a rare ASML Special Edition Monopoly board, which was released in 2007, after they traded an official ASML Lego kit for the board game. Company-commissioned merch like this is often given or offered to employees, meaning the average shopper wouldn’t be able to purchase it brand new unless they have a relative working in that company who buys it for them. Other semiconductor companies that have sold merch like this include TSMC and SK hynix, with resellers who were able to get their hands on company swag and sell it online for as much as $16,700.