Latest news with #graphicscards
Digital Trends
24-05-2025
- Digital Trends
4 graphics cards you should consider instead of the RTX 5060
Nvidia's RTX 5060 is finally here, and many people hoped it'd put up a fight against some of the best graphics cards. Does it really, though? Reviewers are split on the matter. Alas, I'm not here to judge the card. I'm here to show you some alternatives. While Nvidia's xx60 cards typically become some of the most popular GPUs of any given generation, they're not the only option you have right now. The RTX 5060 might not even be the best option at that price point. Below, I'll walk you through four GPUs that I think you should buy instead of the RTX 5060. Recommended Videos Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 I'm not sure whether this will come as a surprise or not, but based on current pricing and benchmarks, the GPU I recommend buying instead of the RTX 5060 is its last-gen equivalent. The RTX 4060 is one of the last RTX 40-series graphics cards that are still readily available around MSRP. I found one for $329 at Newegg, and it's an overclocked model, meaning slightly faster performance than the base version. However, you might as well just buy a used RTX 4060 if you find it from a trustworthy source, as that'll cost you a whole lot less. The RTX 5060 and the RTX 4060 have a lot in common. Spec-wise, they're not at all far apart, although Nvidia's newer Blackwell architecture and the switch to GDDR7 VRAM give the newer GPU a bit more oomph. But, unfortunately, both cards share the same 8GB RAM — an increasingly small amount in today's gaming world — and the same narrow 128-bit bus. Some reviewers note that the RTX 5060 isn't far ahead of the RTX 4060 in raw performance. The newer card gets the full benefit of Nvidia's Multi-Frame Generation, though. Overall, they're pretty comparable, but if you can score a used RTX 4060 for cheap, I'd go for it. AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (or the RX 9060 XT) I wasn't a big fan of the RX 7600 XT 16GB upon launch, and I still have some beef with that card. Much like Nvidia's options, AMD equipped its mainstream GPU with a really narrow memory interface, stifling the bandwidth and holding back its performance. Still, in the current climate, I'll take that 16GB with the 128-bit bus over a card that has the same interface and only sports 8GB VRAM. The cheapest RX 7600 XT 16GB costs around $360, and you can find it on the shelves with ease. But it's the same scenario here — if you can find it used from a trustworthy source, it might be worth it, assuming you're on a tight budget. The state of the GPU market as of late has made me appreciate second-hand GPUs a lot more. The RX 7600 XT is slower than the RTX 5060, and it'll fall behind in ray tracing, but it gives you plenty of RAM where Nvidia's card offers very little. That alone makes it worthy of your consideration. AMD's upcoming RX 9060 XT could be a great option here, too. I expect it to offer better ray tracing capabilities than the RX 7600 XT, and it'll have the same $300 price tag as Nvidia's RTX 5060. Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB If your budget is a little bit flexible, you could go one level up and get the RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB of RAM. Unfortunately, the cheapest options are at around $479 right now, which is well over the MSRP and a whopping $180 more than the RTX 5060. However, for that price, you'll get yourself a GPU that's better suited to stand the test of time. With 16GB of video memory and the full benefit of GDDR7 RAM, the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB offers an upgrade over the last-gen version. It's not perfect by any stretch, though. Reviewers put the GPU below the RX 9070 non-XT, the RTX 5070, and even the RTX 4070 when you consider pure rasterization. This means no so-called 'fake frames,' which is what Nvidia's DLSS 4 delivers. That leaves the RTX 5060 Ti in an odd spot. Basically, if your budget can stretch to it, the RX 9070 and the RTX 5070 are both better cards; they're also a lot more expensive. Intel Arc B580 Less demanding gamers might find an option in Intel's Arc B580. Upon launch, the GPU surprised pretty much everyone with its excellent performance-per-dollar ratio. The downside? That ratio is now a lot less impressive, because unexpected demand and low stock levels brought the price of the Arc B580 far above its $250 recommended list price (MSRP). The Arc B580 is a little bit slower than the RTX 4060 Ti, so it'll be slower than the RTX 5060, too. It also can't put up a fight as far as ray tracing goes. But it's a budget-friendly GPU and a solid alternative to the RTX 5060 if you'd rather pick up something else this time around. My advice? Wait it out It's not a great time to buy a GPU. The more successful and impressive cards from this generation, such as AMD's RX 9070 XT or Nvidia's RTX 5070 Ti, keep selling above MSRP. Those that aren't quite as exciting may stick around MSRP (which is where the RTX 5060 sits right now, mere days after launch) … but that doesn't make up for their shortcomings. Given the fact that reviews of the RTX 5060 are still pretty scarce, I'd wait it out for a week or two. Read some comparisons, check out the prices, and then decide. Gambling on a GPU just because the previous generations were solid doesn't work anymore, and that's now clearer than ever.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel launches $299 Arc Pro B50 with 16GB of memory, 'Project Battlematrix' workstations with 24GB Arc Pro B60 GPUs
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Intel has announced its Arc Pro B-series of graphics cards at Computex 2025 in Taipei, Taiwan, with a heavy focus on AI workstation inference performance boosted by segment-leading amounts of VRAM. The Intel Arc Pro B50, a compact card that's designed for graphics workstations, has 16GB of VRAM and will retail for $299, while the larger Intel Arc Pro B60 for AI inference workstations slots in with a copious 24GB of VRAM. While the B60 is designed for powerful 'Project Battlematrix' AI workstations sold as full systems ranging from $5,000 to $10,000, it will carry a roughly $500 per-unit price tag. Image 1 of 5 Image 2 of 5 Image 3 of 5 Image 4 of 5 Image 5 of 5 Intel has focused on leveraging the third-party GPU ecosystem to develop its Arc Pro cards, in contrast to its competitors, who tend to release their own-branded cards for the professional segment. That includes partners like Maxsun, which has developed a dual-GPU card based on the B60 GPU. Other partners include ASRock, Sparkle, GUNNR, Senao, Lanner, and Onix. Both the B50 and B60 GPUs are now being sampled to Intel partners, as evidenced by a robust display of partner cards and full systems on display, and will arrive on the market in the third quarter of 2025. Intel will initially launch the cards with a reduced software featureset, but will add support for features like SRIOV, VDI, and manageability software in the fourth quarter of the year. Image 1 of 4 Image 2 of 4 Image 3 of 4 Image 4 of 4 The Intel Arc Pro B50 has a compact dual-slot design for slim and small-form-factor graphics workstations. It has a 70W total board power (TBP) rating and does not have external power connectors. The GPU wields 16 Xe cores and 128 XMX engines that deliver up to 170 peak TOPS, all fed by 16GB of VRAM that delivers 224 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The card also sports a PCIe 5.0 x8 interface, which Intel credits with speeding transfers from system memory, ultimately delivering 10 to 20% more performance in some scenarios. The B50's 16GB of memory outweighs its primary competitors in this segment, which typically come armed with 6 or 8GB of memory. The card also has certified drivers that Intel claims deliver up to 2.6X more performance than the baseline gaming drivers. Intel shared a slew of benchmarks against the competing Nvidia RTX A1000 8GB and the previous-gen A50 6GB, but as with all vendor-provided benchmarks, take them with a grain of salt (we included the test notes at the end of the article). In graphics workloads, Intel claims up to a 3.4X advantage over its previous-gen A50, and solid gains across the board against the RTX A1000. It sports similar advantages in a spate of AI inference benchmarks. Image 1 of 4 Image 2 of 4 Image 3 of 4 Image 4 of 4 The Intel Arc Pro B60 has 20 Xe cores and 160 XMX engines fed by 24GB of memory that delivers 456 GB/s of bandwidth. The card delivers 197 peak TOPS and fits into a 120 to 200W TBP envelope. This card also comes with a PCIe 5.0 x8 interface. Intel supports multiple B60 GPUs on a single board, as evidenced by Maxsun's GPU, with software support in Linux for splitting workloads across both GPUs (each GPU interfaces with the host on its own bifurcated PCIe 5.0 x8 connection). Intel's benchmarks again highlighted the advantages of the B60's 24GB of memory vs the competing RTX 200 Ada 16GB and RTX 5060Ti 16GB GPUs, claiming this can impart gains of up to 2.7X over the competition in various AI models. Intel also highlighted the advantages of higher memory capacity in model size, context, and concurrency scaling. Image 1 of 6 Image 2 of 6 Image 3 of 6 Image 4 of 6 Image 5 of 6 Image 6 of 6 The Intel Arc Pro B60 will primarily come in pre-built inference workstations ranging from $5,000 to $10,000, dubbed Project Battlematrix. The goal is to combine hardware and software to create one cohesive workstation solution. However, the per-unit cost will be in the range of $500 per GPU, depending on the specific model. Project Battlematrix workstations, powered by Xeon processors, will come with up to eight GPUs, 192GB of total VRAM, and support up to 70B+ parameter models. Intel is working to deliver a validated full-stack containerized Linux solution that includes everything needed to deploy a system, including drivers, libraries, tools, and frameworks, that's all performance optimized, allowing customers to hit the ground running with a simple install process. Intel will roll out the new containers in phases as its initiative matures. Intel also shared a roadmap of the coming major milestones. The company is currently in the enablement phase, with ISV certification and the first container deployments coming in Q3, eventually progressing to SRIOV, VDI, and manageability software deployment in Q4. Image 1 of 12 Image 2 of 12 Image 3 of 12 Image 4 of 12 Image 5 of 12 Image 6 of 12 Image 7 of 12 Image 8 of 12 Image 9 of 12 Image 10 of 12 Image 11 of 12 Image 12 of 12 Intel's partners had multiple Project Battlematrix systems up and running live workloads in the showroom, highlighting that development is already well underway. One demo included a system running the full 675B parameter Deepseek model entirely on a single eight-GPU system, with 256 experts running on the CPU and the most frequently used experts running on the GPU. Other demos included running and finding bugs in code, an open enterprise platform for building RAGs quickly, and a RAG orchestration demo, among others. As noted above, the Intel Arc Pro B50 and Intel Arc Pro B60 will arrive on the market in the third quarter of 2025. Image 1 of 16 Image 2 of 16 Image 3 of 16 Image 4 of 16 Image 5 of 16 Image 6 of 16 Image 7 of 16 Image 8 of 16 Image 9 of 16 Image 10 of 16 Image 11 of 16 Image 12 of 16 Image 13 of 16 Image 14 of 16 Image 15 of 16 Image 16 of 16
Digital Trends
21-05-2025
- Digital Trends
Best of Computex 2025 awards: The tech that impressed us the most
Although Computex 2025 is still far from over, the biggest announcements have already been dropped, and this year's event turned out to be quite exciting. From graphics cards to laptops and monitors, there's plenty of options for a tech enthusiast to dig into, and some — if not most — of these new innovations are already available, or will be soon. Out of all the thrilling new tech that companies such as AMD, Asus, Acer, and MSI announced, what impressed us the most? Below, you'll find the new releases that scored our Best of Computex 2025 award. AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT The GPU market has been rough lately, with graphics cards — while overpriced — still flying off the shelves. At a time like this, any GPU is a welcome launch, and AMD delivered by announcing its mainstream graphics card, the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT. The GPU sports 32 RDNA 4 compute units (CUs), 32 hardware ray tracing (HW RT) accelerators, 64 HW AI accelerators, and 821 peak AI trillions of operations per second (TOPS). For gamers, the more important metrics are the VRAM and the boost clock speeds, and the RX 9060 XT serves up plenty of both. It comes in two variants, one with 8GB and one with 16GB VRAM, and with a maximum frequency of 3.13GHz – and it'll be available from partners including Gigabyte and Acer. Although AMD has yet to disclose the memory bus width for the RX 9060 XT, I'm expecting either 128-bit or 192-bit for both versions. The total board power (TBP) sits at 150 to 182 watts, so this GPU will fit nicely into mainstream builds. HP OmniBook 5 Series HP has just unveiled its OmniBook 5 Series laptops, built on Qualcomm's Snapdragon X and X Plus processors. The range includes the 14-inch and the 16-inch OmniBook 5, both of which come equipped with stunning OLED displays. However, HP's biggest selling point lies in its battery life claims, and that's exactly what piqued my interest. HP says that its new laptop lineup has 'the world's longest battery life in a consumer AI PC notebook.' The company promises to deliver up to 34 hours of battery life with these new Snapdragon-powered laptops. This, combined with OLED displays and snappy chips, should make for an interesting notebook indeed. Aside from the specs, the HP OmniBook 5 Series surprised me with its pricing. Starting at just $799 for the 14-inch model and $849 for the 16-inch counterpart, these laptops will be affordable for what they can offer, and that's good news in today's climate. MPG 271QR QD-OLED X50 MSI has a new QD-OLED monitor up for grabs, dubbed the MPG 271QR QD-OLED X50 (gotta love monitors and their easy-to-remember names). MSI equipped this one with its 3rd-gen QD-OLED panel, which should result in some stunning contrasts and true-to-life colors. The panel delivers 99% DCI-P3 color coverage and comes with two important certifications, the VESA ClearMR 21000 and the DisplayHDR True Black 500. This is a 27-inch 1440p monitor, which means it could rival some of the best gaming monitors, and then there's also the up to 500Hz refresh rate with a 0.03ms GTG response time. OLEDs aren't immune to burn-in, though, and MSI is aware. It decked out this one with the AI Care Sensor, which will turn off the monitor when you're not in front of it, and will adjust the settings in real-time to protect the display panel from damage over time. MaxSun Arc B60 Pro We first heard of a potential 48GB VRAM Arc Battlemage GPU just last week, and we now know that it became a reality, although not quite in the way leakers predicted. The GPU in question is not made by Intel itself, but it's made by one of its partners, Maxsun. The company stitched together two of the new, Computex-bound Arc Pro B60 GPUs to create one monster of a graphics card. The new GPU, now dubbed the Intel Arc Pro B60 Dual 48GB Turbo, is a dual-chip solution that delivers 48GB of video memory and twice the compute power of the BMG-G21 chip. This is the same silicon as what we can find in the consumer-grade Arc B580 GPU, but in this dual-chip solution, it's definitely an AI graphics card. Asus ROG Strix Ace XG248QSG Asus now holds the world record for the fastest gaming monitor, although just barely. The new Asus ROG Strix Ace XG248QSG goes overboard on the refresh rates in the best way possible. Tom's Guide pointed out that this monitor is 100 times quicker than the average human blink, which does sound a bit redundant, but hey — in esports, every second (or millisecond) matters. Other than the mind-boggling 610Hz refresh rate and speedy response time (0.1ms), the new Asus monitor is pretty standard, with a 1080p resolution and a 90% DCI-P3 color gamut. Samsung OLED TVs NVIDIA G-SYNC Compatibility If you're a console gamer, odds are you're playing on a TV instead of a gaming monitor. Good news — Samsung's premium OLED TVs will now feature compatibility for Nvidia's G-Sync. This will allow these TVs to synchronize their refresh rates with the frame rates that your GPU (or your console) is able to put out, resulting in a reduction in screen tearing and stuttering. Samsung has also added support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, which is an update from the base-level FreeSync support Samsung's been offering for years. On top of that announcement, Samsung also offers Motion Xcelerator technology to improve the visuals and clarity for TV gamers. Razer Blade 14 The Razer Blade is, almost without fail, included on most lists of the best gaming laptops. This year's edition, fresh off the press at Computex, sports more than just an update in hardware, though. The new Blade is the thinnest laptop Razer has ever designed, measuring a mere 15.7mm at some points. Tom's Hardware reports that it only weighs 1.63kg, meaning 3.5lbs, which makes it remarkably easy to carry around for a gaming laptop. Although the Razer Blade 14 is now slimmer than ever, Razer has still found a way to upgrade the cooling system, decking the laptop out with a new 'Thermal Hood' design and a large vapor chamber. Battery life-wise, we're looking at up to 11 hours, although I could see that number dropping drastically during certain games. The new 14-inch blade comes with an OLED display and a 2,880 x 1,800 resolution. On the inside, you'll find some of Nvidia's latest GPUs, such as the RTX 5060 and the RTX 5070, and AMD's Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU. Asus ROG Falcata Asus' new mechanical keyboard is certainly something new. The ROG Falcata is a split gaming keyboard, meaning that you can — quite literally — tear it in half and decide where each part goes. This could mean a boost to ergonomics when typing, but more importantly, it can let you place certain parts of the keyboard in a way that aligns with your gaming needs, perhaps even getting rid of the right-hand side entirely so that your mouse gets more desk real estate. As XDA Developers pointed out, the ROG Falcata is the first of its kind in the sense that it's a pre-built keyboard that comes with both a split design and magnetic switches. Aimed at competitive PC gamers, the keyboard sports Hall Effect (magnetic) ROG HFX V2 switches and a ROG Hall Sensor. It also offers a 2.4GHz connection and an impressive 8K polling rate. MSI Claw A8 Gaming handhelds are a booming market, and most of them run on AMD hardware. However, MSI has always gone against the grain with its Claw console, decking it out with Intel chips. Not this year, though. At Computex 2025, MSI unveiled the new Claw A8, this time equipped with the Ryzen Z2 Extreme. Switching the AMD could be a big move for MSI, putting the device in direct competition with some of the best gaming handhelds. Aside from the new AMD-powered insides, the Claw A8 also features an 8-inch display running at 120Hz with a 1080p resolution, a massive 80Wh battery, and a whopping 24GB of RAM. The 24GB is actually a step down from the Intel Lunar Lake version of the Claw, which featured 32GB, and it will not be upgradeable. That's a shame, but I'm still excited to see the Ryzen Z2 Extreme in action in the new Claw. Acer FreeSense smart ring Perhaps the most unexpected (for me, at least) announcement at Computex 2025 this year came from Acer. I'd have expected the standard mix of laptops, monitors, and the like, but a smart ring? Alas, that's what we're getting, in the form of the Acer FreeSense smart ring. The new wearable arrives in a market saturated with rivals such as Oura or Samsung. Acer's take on a smart ring delivers what you'd expect from a device of this type, including sleep monitoring, biometric tracking, and health insights. Starting at $199, it's going to be fairly affordable as far as smart rings go. It'll be available in sizes ranging from 7 to 13, and you can pick between a matte black or a rose gold finish.
Gizmodo
21-05-2025
- Gizmodo
AMD's Radeon RX 9060 XT Could Do Budget GPUs Better Than Nvidia
In the battle of the low-end, 60-class graphics cards, AMD wants to see if it can pull off the same sucker punch of price and performance it gave Nvidia during the launch of its mid-range GPUs. The graphics card maker offered the first, sparse details on its Radeon RX 9060 XT graphics processors late Tuesday at Computex. The card may offer enough power for your PC to hit solid gaming performance at 1440p resolution, similar to the $450 Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, on cheaper gaming rigs. The real inflection point of this latest card will be whether you can actually buy it for its base price. The Radeon RX 9060 XT is the step down in GPU performance from the RX 9070 that AMD launched back in March. It's based on the same RDNA 4 microarchitecture of the mid-range cards, but with 32 of the company's latest compute units compared to the 56 on the higher-end card. The GPU comes with two options: one with 8 GB and another with 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM. The version with more memory will be better for your rig long-term, especially if you plan to hook your PC up to a 1440p monitor and run the latest, more graphically intensive games. AMD did not offer us the full range of specs, which makes it hard to pin down just where this GPU will land in terms of raw performance compared to Nvidia's latest cards. While the number of RDNA 4 compute units—the core clusters on AMD cards that process the thousands of calculations necessary for graphically intensive tasks—offers a vague impression of performance compared to the RX 9070, AMD didn't provide any charts to compare FPS between games. The GPU runs on a 3.13GHz boost clock and has between 150W and 182W of board power compared to the 2.54 GHz clock and 304W board power on the company's Radeon RX 9070 XT. Without a price tag, it's impossible to judge how much of a step down the latest card is compared to the RX 9070. AMD didn't offer any word on a non-XT variant, either. The card will require a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, the same as its other cards. AMD doesn't craft its own GPUs and instead relies on AIC (add-in card) makers to produce its cards. We'll update this article if AMD announces details on price or availability during its Computex keynote. The crown jewel of AMD's current lineup of graphics cards is the RX 9070 XT. AMD made headlines when it set the suggested sale price of the GPU at $600, only $50 more than the 9070, but it packs enough performance to get playable framerates out of multiple intensive games at 4K with a fair amount of ray tracing settings turned up. Unfortunately, because of a combination of tariffs and stock woes, the 9070 XT ended up priced at over $800 and as high as $1,000 at some online retailers. We've seen prices fluctuate regularly over the past several months, but a near 20% price inflation to what should be a mid-range card is simply too much to stomach. However, the lower-end GPUs are faring better. The RTX 5060 Ti MSRP is set at $450, and the lowest price we've seen so far is $480. The $300 RTX 5060 is sitting closer to $320 from some AIC makers like Gigabyte. A fair number of Nvidia's lowest-end GPUs are currently listed as 'Out of Stock' or 'Coming Soon' on sites like Newegg and Best Buy. Those buying a lower-end GPU are more price sensitive than people who can drop $2,000 on an RTX 5090 without blinking. AMD has even more impetus to set a price people can afford, and make sure it can keep costs level when the card finally hits store shelves.
Digital Trends
14-05-2025
- Digital Trends
Pairing the RTX 5090 with a CPU from 2006? Nvidia said ‘hold my beer'
Nvidia's best graphics cards are often paired with expensive CPUs, but what if you want to try a completely mismatched, retro configuration? Well, that used to be impossible due to driver issues. But, for whatever reason, Nvidia has just removed the instruction that prevented you from doing so, opening the door to some fun, albeit nonsensical, CPU and GPU combinations. The instruction in question is called POPCNT (Population Count), and this is a CPU instruction that also prevents Windows 11 from being installed on older hardware. Its job is counting how many bits are present in a binary number. However, as spotted by TheBobPony on X (Twitter), POPCNT will not be a problem for Nvidia's latest graphics cards anymore. UPDATE: Recent NVIDIA drivers no longer require the POPCNT CPU instruction, this means old CPUs such as the Intel Core 2 Duo will be able to install the latest NVIDIA drivers without any issues. And yes, that also means you could possibly pair an RTX 5090 with Core 2 Duo now. 😏 — (@TheBobPony) May 12, 2025 The latest drivers remove the requirement for the CPU to support the POPCNT instruction. These days, every single CPU supports it, so you have to go really far back to find one that doesn't. Some of the last notable CPUs that didn't support POPCNT were Intel's Core 2 series, meaning iconic chips like the Intel Core 2 Duo from 2006, and AMD K10, meaning Phenom, Phenom II, and Athlon II. Starting with the Nehalem architecture (Core i7-920 and newer), Intel's been supporting POPCNT; AMD added support with Bulldozer, meaning CPUs like the FX-8150. Looking back at the specs of these CPUs makes me nostalgic. The Intel Core 2 Duo was built on a 65nm (and later 45nm) process node and offered two cores and two threads; a far cry from the CPUs we see today. It had 2MB to 6MB of shared L2 cache and maximum clock speeds ranging from 800MHz to 1,333MHz. Not much to write home about. Recommended Videos And yet, if you for some reason feel compelled to, you can now pair one with an Nvidia RTX 5090, all thanks to this new driver update. With the removal of POPCNT, you can use Nvidia's latest graphics with just about any CPU. Previously, trying to do so would've caused what TheBobPony refers to as a 'soft brick,' meaning your PC would get stuck in a boot loop until it finally got rid of the driver that made it crash and launched Windows Recovery mode. Realistically, no one's going to buy an RTX 50-series (or even an RTX 20-series) GPU to pair with a CPU that's nearly 20 years old, but it's pretty cool that that's now a possibility. I would like to see how such a PC would perform. CPU bottleneck, anyone?
