Intel sneakily dropped support for its Arc Battlemage BMG-G31 GPU inside the latest VTune Profiler update, which has people wondering if the big card is actually gonna show up at CES after getting ghosted all year. The changelog mentions Panther Lake CPUs and the BMG-G31 together, and since Panther Lake is confirmed for the event, this could mean the beefier graphics card finally gets its reveal.
The bigger Battlemage variant is rumored to pack 32 Xe2 cores with 16GB of GDDR6 memory, landing somewhere between $300 and $400 to compete with midrange stuff from Nvidia and AMD. Intel already moved its integrated graphics to Xe3 architecture, but the standalone card still uses the older Xe2 design. Some rumors suggest four different models...
TSMC is shipping a bunch of American engineers back to Taiwan for hands-on training with 3nm and 2nm chip manufacturing since the Arizona facility can't level up without overseas experience. The company already did this back in 2021 when it sent workers abroad for a year and a half, and the timing lines up perfectly with construction kicking off for the second Arizona plant that won't hit 3nm output until late 2027.
Demand for cutting-edge wafers has gone completely nuts, with analysts saying 3nm capacity maxes out by next year. TSMC is dumping over $28 billion into three new 2nm fabs in Taiwan to keep up, and Apple already grabbed more than half the initial batch for its A20 chips. The Arizona location should get advanced packaging...
Gigabyte dropped fresh BIOS updates for Z890 boards that confirm support for the upcoming Arrow Lake Refresh chips, which Intel is branding as Core Ultra 200S Plus. The new firmware packs microcode 0x11B, and ASRock went even harder with 0x11D in their latest release. Both vendors are gearing up for the soft refresh that Intel plans to unveil at CES, featuring bumped clock speeds and better specs on select models.
The Plus lineup will handle native CUDIMM speeds up to 7200 MT/s instead of the current 6400 MT/s cap, which is a decent jump for people running high-end kits. Intel and AMD are both pushing minor refreshes since actual next-gen platforms are not hitting until late next year, and the bonkers memory shortage might delay things...
Three Fields Entertainment just put its entire staff on potential layoff after Wreckreation flopped hard at launch despite the studio grinding to fix bugs and add features players wanted. CEO Fiona Sperry said the indie dev won't see any game revenue for a while, and their publisher bailed on funding post-launch work, leaving them broke after self-funding most of the year.
The team is pushing one last update with crossplay before the holidays while desperately hoping someone swoops in to save them. This marks the second major miss for the studio after Dangerous Driving bombed back in 2019 with rough mechanics and boring tracks. The ex-Criterion devs who made Burnout can't seem to recapture that magic, and the whole situation sucks for...
Russia just yeeted Roblox off the internet after its media watchdog Roskomnadzor decided the platform was too sketchy for kids. The ban cites abuse reports, predator problems, and LGBT content that supposedly corrupts children's morals, which is pretty on-brand for Russian regulators who have been blocking games left and right lately.
Roblox put out the usual corporate speak about respecting local laws and having safety measures in place, but the platform has been drowning in lawsuits over how badly it protects minors from creeps. They recently added facial recognition for age checks on chat features, but that did not stop the hammer from dropping. Despite all the drama, the game keeps breaking player count records and outpacing...
Apple might tap Intel to make chips for the budget iPhones dropping in 2028, according to analysts at GF Securities who are building on recent claims from Ming-Chi Kuo. The company already grabbed evaluation samples of the 18A-P node and signed an NDA with Intel, with low-end M-series processors potentially shipping as early as next year. The new process supports Foveros Direct 3D stacking, which lines up with how Apple likes mixing different power setups across chiplets.
Analysts Jeff Pu and Evan Lee think the tech could end up powering non-Pro models in the iPhone 21 lineup after the anniversary iPhone 20 series lands. Intel hit around 60 to 65 percent yields on 18A back in November and is tracking toward 70 percent by year's end...
REPLACED is finally dropping after getting stuck in development hell since the E3 2021 reveal, and Sad Cat Studios has locked in a launch for the cyberpunk platformer. The 2.5D pixel-art game hits Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store, and Xbox Series X/S, with the studio confirming they are good to go after Russia's invasion of Ukraine completely derailed their timeline.
The latest trailer shows the game still has that special sauce from the original announcement, backed by a track called Dusk from the soundtrack. Director Yura Zhdanovich apologized for the delays back when they announced the spring window, saying they wanted to nail the experience instead of rushing garbage out the door. The game would have landed somewhere between 2021 and...
A dude sent his ZOTAC RTX 5070 Ti back because the fans were making weird sounds, and the company hit him with a denial after finding scratches near the PCIe slot. The card was working fine aside from the busted fans, but ZOTAC said they had limited repair tools and claimed the scratch damage was beyond fixing. They gave him two options: take the card back without any fan repair or let them trash it for free.
The whole thing feels sketchy because the user dropped $40 on shipping for a fan issue, and ZOTAC went full CSI mode on the PCB instead of just swapping the fans. The card still functions perfectly according to the owner, and he is sending it to Gamers Nexus for a deeper look. This mirrors the ASUS drama where they denied an RMA...
Tony Fadell is apparently telling people he would take the CEO gig at Apple if they offered it to him, which is pretty wild considering Tim Cook might not even be leaving anytime soon. The iPod guy has some fans inside the company who think his aggressive style could shake things up, but sources say his polarizing reputation makes him a sketchy pick. Reports claimed Cook was stepping down next year with hardware VP John Ternus as the frontrunner, but Bloomberg pushed back hard, saying Cook is staying through at least 2028.
Apple has been hemorrhaging talent like crazy lately, with the AI chief getting replaced, the design boss jumping to Meta, and the general counsel plus another VP both bailing. OpenAI has been hoovering up Apple...
