Finding an in-demand graphics card at retail price—or at least the price originally announced by the manufacturer at launch—is hard. Sometimes it’s effectively impossible. And if you’re hunting for Nvidia cards, the MSRP might just be completely irrelevant soon, according to unverified reports from the GPU industry. Germany-based YouTuber Roman “der8auer” Hartung, who’s been doing reliable reporting on graphics cards and their manufacturers for years, said as much in his latest video. Hartung is also the CEO of performance cooling supplier Thermal Grizzly, so he knows his stuff. He reports on an Nvidia program that offers discounts to add-in board (AIB) partners like Asus and Gigabyte, specifically so they can sell at least some graphics cards at the prices Nvidia sets when it announces new products. At the best of times, those MSRP cards are a small sliver of what actually gets sold. But according to Hartung, the program (“OPP” or possibly “Open Price Program”) has been shut down. He cites two industry sources, but does not name them. The mechanisms behind retail price, the way it’s inflated by companies, and how those companies agree to sell cards at MSRP are complicated. But the idea is that Nvidia offered discounts and/or after-sale rebates to companies to incentivize cards sold at those “low” prices. And again, this information is coming from behind the curtain—we don’t have a way to independently confirm that OPP exists, though it does match the general state of the GPU industry for the last decade or so. But now? The state of the industry is chaos. Memory prices are getting insane—including the chips that Nvidia has to supply from companies like Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix—and demand for both memory and GPUs to power “AI” data centers is out of control. There’s some waffling at the moment over whether Nvidia is canceling some consumer-grade graphics cards, especially those with lots of RAM at (relatively) low prices, like the 16GB RTX 5060 Ti and 5070 Ti. Supplies are vanishing, though, and scalpers are making bank. Hartung expects Nvidia to shift production to the much more expensive RTX 5080, and even that card may rise much higher in price as the better-reviewed 5070 Ti and 5090 become impossible to find. Hartung estimates a 40 to 50 percent price increase for the RTX 5080, even before scalpers come into the equation. We can’t confirm Hartung’s statements, but it only makes sense that Nvidia would prioritize its limited output of GPUs (and the momory that comes with them) to the most profitable sector: AI. That leaves regular consumers like you and me in a lurch if we want any recent gaming hardware… or just general hardware at all. Read...

Microsoft’s Copilot “AI” system isn’t exactly a smash hit among its users. While the company has rebranded at least some of the features as enhancements for gaming, PC gamers don’t seem to be taking to it any better. The latest software update for Asus’ ROG Ally series of handhelds— notably the only ones with Xbox branding—let you ditch it entirely. “Remappable Gaming Copilot and Push-to-Talk” is the feature highlighted in the latest update to Armoury Crate SE, the Asus software that handles a lot of the in-between stuff for its gaming hardware. “Added the ability to remap Gaming Copilot and Push-to-Talk under the ‘Action’ section of the keymap configuration menu,” reads the relevant entry. This effectively lets you remove Gaming Copilot from the interface, normally bound to a long-press of the Library button. The update comes along with BIOS updates and Armoury Crate SE 2.1.20.0, according to Windows Central, which also includes fixes for standby mode, UI scaling, and Xbox 360 controller emulation. I’m not seeing the official changelog from Asus directly, or any place to download it. (Normally these appear on this support page.) The ability to remap the Gaming Copilot feature and effectively ignore it is an interesting move from Asus, especially since it was the first company to partner with Microsoft on its official push for Windows 11 handhelds. Over the last two years, Microsoft has been… a bit pushy when it comes to Copilot “AI” features, and users haven’t embraced it with open arms. Between that, a seemingly forced migration from Windows 10 to Windows 11, and longstanding resentment as Windows itself becomes chock-full of advertising and features no one asked for, Microsoft isn’t really winning fans at the moment. The timing for Asus’ update is interesting, too: just yesterday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was all but begging people to use “AI” in general and Copilot in particular… which is probably a coincidence. Meanwhile, Valve’s Steam Deck is still incredibly popular (in this admittedly small niche), and the company is pushing a new wave of hardware to expand its PC gaming dominance into the console space where the Xbox brand is actively retreating. Read...

The privately run patient portal used by some general practices detected the breach in the early hours of December 31. Read...

The prime minister has confirmed the general election will take place on 7 November. Read...

The prime minister has confirmed the general election will take place on 7 November. Read...

The prime minister has confirmed the general election will take place on 7 November. Read...

Spokesperson Jamie Duncan said no patients have been affected and there is no risk to the general public. Read...

At least 30 people have been struck down by the illness since last Friday. Read...

Do you need 16GB of memory in your graphics card or can you make do with just 8GB? If recent leaks and reports are accurate, you may not have a choice soon. Nvidia is reportedly emphasizing 8GB models over 16GB versions, and Asus may have just straight-up halted the production of the 16GB RTX 5070 Ti. A post on Chinese forum Board Channels, reported by VideoCardz, says that Nvidia is reducing shipments of the 16GB version of the RTX 5060 Ti and the RTX 5070 Ti. The former has been far better received than the 8GB version of the same card, and the 5070 Ti with 16GB of memory has likewise reviewed much better than the 12GB 5070. In the same vein, YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed reports that supplies for Nvidia cards with 16GB of memory and more are in short supply. “Asus, the largest Nvidia AIB partner, explicitly told us [the RTX 5070 Ti] is currently facing a supply shortage, and as such, they have placed the model into end-of-life status. This means Asus has no plans to produce 5070 Ti models from this point forward — what is currently on store shelves is it from them.” Bleak. We were finally starting to see graphics cards edge towards retail prices again. I was able to buy an RTX 5070 Ti at below retail during Black Friday less than three months ago. That same card is now almost $1,000, over $200 above retail. Both of these statements are unconfirmed, though I personally trust Hardware Unboxed not to spin the story. The first and most obvious culprit would be the ongoing RAM crunch, which affects consumer graphics cards as much as anything else. Nvidia is also a supplier of GPUs to the “AI” industry, and would naturally shift its most crucial output to business customers buying incredibly expensive chips. The company announced six new data center chips at CES. CES used to stand for “Consumer Electronics Show.” The company’s keynote made zero mention of consumer products, instead relegating new DLSS 4.5 and G-Sync Pulsar to a separate announcement. PC gamers were already feeling constrained by low-memory cards as far back as 2022, when Nvidia cancelled a 12GB variant of the RTX 4080. There have been similar concerns over whether the upcoming Steam Machine revival can compete with consoles with only an 8GB AMD card. General computers are facing the same crunch: Laptop makers may go back to 8GB of RAM for mid-range laptops, even as more and more users really need 32GB. It looks like anyone who has less than a four-figure budget for their next GPU might need to scale back their expectations of graphical power. Thanks, “AI!” Read...

The state attorney general urges xAI to take action over the `shocking` material as Musk denies the allegations. Read...