• AMD reveals its Ryzen AI 400 series at MWC 2026 as the successor to the Ryzen 8000G range
• These chips have been refocused on AI, with an NPU that hits 50 TOPS
• It means a desktop PC will qualify for Windows 11's Copilot+ features

Over at MWC 2026 AMD has revealed new Ryzen AI processors designed to bring a powerful NPU – and Copilot+ (AI) features – to desktop PCs.

As TechSpot flagged up, the Ryzen AI 400 series (which comes alongside Pro variants for businesses) is built with Zen 5 CPU cores (as with Ryzen 9000), along with an RDNA 3.5 integrated GPU and an XDNA 2-powered NPU for accelerating on-device AI tasks.

The idea is to provide a relatively wallet-friendly all-in-one processor for more budget-oriented PCs which don't have a discrete graphics card, bringing in the ability to use AI features with an NPU that's rated at 50 TOPS. That's fast enough to qualify as a Copilot+ PC and to access Windows 11's AI trappings therein, such as Windows Studio Effects for improving video chats.

The flagship model is the Ryzen AI 7 450G, which offers eight cores (16 threads), 24MB of cache, and boosts up to 5.1GHz, packing Radeon 860M graphics. The latter is RDNA 3.5 and has eight Compute Units (CUs).

There are also Ryzen AI 5 chips, the 440G and 435G, which have six cores (12 threads) and boost up to 4.8GHz and 4.5GHz respectively (with 22MB and 14MB cache). They step down to a Radeon 840M integrated GPU with four CUs, but all chips have the full-fat NPU with (up to) 50 TOPS.

The TDP of these processors is 65W, but they also come in low-power versions (GE models) that only use 35W.

According to TechSpot, AMD (and other sources) have said that these Ryzen AI 400 desktop models won't be sold as boxed standalone products, at least not initially – they'll be for PC makers (OEMs) instead.

In other words, you'll likely only be able to buy prebuilt machines with these CPUs, with those PCs expected to debut in Q2 2026. However, later on, these chips should be available directly on retailer's shelves.

Analysis: It's all about that AI

As mentioned, these processors are targeted for budget builds with no GPU, or mini PCs, or indeed office computers (there are Ryzen AI Pro 400 versions as mentioned). If you're wondering where they fit in AMD's range of silicon, they're replacements for the old Ryzen 8000G offerings.

So, they could theoretically be Ryzen 9000G chips, but due to the new AI slant – and that much more powerful NPU for the desktop – AMD has rejigged the naming to reflect this.

These chips are mainly designed for efficiency (particularly the power-sipping GE variants) and the ability to run AI tasks swiftly, or indeed running (modest) LLMs (Large Language Models) locally.

That isn't an exciting prospect for many folks, though, and a good deal of the early online feedback very much reflects this. The Ryzen AI 7 450G flagship will make a decent enough effort at casual gaming, but there's been some disappointment around the chip's performance levels in that respect, too. Mainly because the integrated GPU has fewer CUs than its flagship Ryzen 8000G predecessor, and so isn't much of a step forward. (It's architecturally more advanced, of course, being built on RDNA 3.5, which means a refreshed RDNA 3).

Would you rather have had the extra chip space put into a powerful NPU so you can have Copilot+ offerings in Windows, or would you have rather had the effort put into a juicier integrated GPU for a machine that could handle a bit more gaming as well as office work?

We'll have to see how pricing shakes out with the prebuilt PCs that turn up with Ryzen AI 400 processors inside, but obviously the likes of Lenovo, HP and Dell are going to struggle keeping a lid on price tags with the RAM crisis still very much making life miserable for anyone looking at buying (or upgrading) a computer.

TechRadar is on the show floor for this year’s MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona, Spain, and we’ll be covering the latest news from some of the biggest names in mobile, computing, fitness and more.

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• A Redditor bought a 32GB Corsair RAM kit for $300
• They ended up being sent 10 of those kits
• That's a total of 320GB of RAM, or $3,000 worth of memory (actually more going by current pricing)

We're seeing a distinct increase in scams around RAM sales of late — now that DDR5 is so expensive, it's inevitable — but here's something that worked the other way around, and very much in favor of the buyer this time.

As posted on Reddit, somebody ordered a Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM kit with a 32GB capacity, paying $300 for the privilege.

What they received, though, was a box of 10 of these 32GB kits, which of course is worth $3,000 — based on the price apparently paid, anyway, which seems cheap. (If we look at Newegg in the US right now, for example, the cheapest Corsair Vengeance DDR5 kits I can see are around $400, so this pile of RAM is actually selling for quite a bit more than three grand in theory).

We must, of course, be careful as to whether this is a genuine story or one that's been fabricated to grab some attention. Obviously, there's no real proof, although the photo of the stack of RAM kits in the box looks genuine enough — but that's all we can really go on here.

So, arm yourself with a whole lot of seasoning, but while this kind of error is doubtless very rare, it can happen — albeit not usually on this scale.

Analysis: warehouse woes?

Assuming this is a genuine tale of an order fulfilment slip-up, how might such a mistake occur? Clearly there's been an error in the inventory system somewhere, and as the other Redditors discussing the incident conclude, it's likely a mistake in the warehouse where a staff member scanned the box of 10 kits as a single item – and nobody further up the chain thought to double-check on this.

Whatever the case, the reality for most of us is that buying RAM is now a miserable affair, especially DDR5 – and you're way more likely to run into a scam than any kind of mistake like this.

That said, these things do happen, and there's another poster in the Reddit thread who claims that a friend received five RAM kits when they ordered one – and contacted Amazon to let them know about the mistake. Apparently: "Amazon customer service basically told him to keep them as it was their mistake, he was offering to send 4 back and they just told him it didn't matter."

As for what the Redditor who was sent these 10 kits is going to do, they say: "I'm selling to the community for under the new inflated msrp."

As another Redditor put it, "My dude is out here Robin Hoodmaxxing", and that's an understandable sentiment given just how painful RAM pricing has got – but of course there could be other potential ramifications (pun not intended) with this approach to the seller's mistake.

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• Micron has unveiled faster new GDDR7 video memory
• It runs at 36Gbps compared to 32Gbps for the initial incarnation of GDDR7
• This memory also comes in 3GB modules rather than 2GB, which is an important step forward for graphics card VRAM capacity

Micron has released a new type of GDDR7 memory for graphics cards, which is the firm's fastest such RAM yet.

Tom's Hardware reports that Micron issued a press release detailing the new GGDR7 memory, which offers a speed of 36Gbps. For perspective, the first GDDR7 modules that hit the market — and arrived on consumer GPUs with the RTX 5000 series from Nvidia — were 32Gbps modules. (Although they were run slower than that, at 28Gbps in most cases, for better thermals and stability).

Another key step forward with Micron's new GDDR7 is that it uses 3GB modules rather than 2GB (and a 24Gb density). You can only fit so many memory chips on any given graphics card — based on the bus width of the board, the lanes that link the memory to the GPU chip itself — so going from 2GB to 3GB modules allows for loading up more video RAM and a higher overall capacity.

As Micron notes: "Modern games are pushing GPU architectures harder than ever."

The firm expands on that: "As game environments expand and visual assets grow, memory capacity becomes critical to maintaining seamless, artifact-free experiences. Micron's new 24Gb density enables up to 96GB of graphics memory, giving GPUs significantly more space for high-resolution textures, expansive worlds, and advanced visual effects."

Essentially, the maximum video RAM loadout with these chips on a consumer graphics card with a 512-bit bus (as seen on the RTX 5090) is now 96GB, rather than 64GB with 2GB modules. (Note that this maximum involves using chips front and back of the board in a 'clamshell' configuration, a more complex and costlier endeavor, which is why Nvidia ran with a spec of 32GB with just modules on the front.)

Analysis: looking to the future

Right here and right now, this doesn't mean a whole lot to gamers, of course. Currently we're all more worried about the scarcity of existing forms of video RAM pushing up the prices of graphics cards slowly but surely.

And while it may seem odd to see 96GB of VRAM mentioned in relation to gaming – and to be fair, it is odd — Micron is really just promoting the benefits of 3GB modules more broadly. It's a boast of 'up to' 96GB, and the effects will be felt across whole GPU product stacks, including the likes of 128-bit affordable GPUs that have 8GB now, but could be configured with 12GB using 3GB modules. That's an important upgrade which avoids the aforementioned complications of a 'clamshell' design to increase video RAM capacity.

Micron should have angled its press release better in this respect, but instead wanted to go with an eye-catching 96GB figure, I guess — marketing is often a 'numbers game' in that respect.

At any rate, for the mentioned reasons, it's good news to see a bolstered form of GDDR7 from another memory chip maker. And I say another, because there are two other big forces in this arena, Samsung and SK Hynix, and both already have faster takes on GDDR7 that run at up to 42.5Gbps and 40Gbps respectively.

However, 36Gbps is still a more than respectable speed boost, and as I already mentioned, Nvidia hasn't even pushed to get the top speed out of the initial GDDR7 incarnation, which offered 32Gbps. As noted, all the initial Blackwell GPUs that used GDDR7 ran at 28Gbps, and just the RTX 5080 differs – and even that graphics card only pushed to 30Gbps. (A move that was implemented to make up for its much leaner memory bus compared to the RTX 5090.)

It is also noteworthy that Micron spends some time considering gaming angles in its press release, and this new GDDR7 could well be what we see in Nvidia's next-gen graphics cards. That could be true not just for RTX 6000 GPUs, but also for AMD's next-gen graphics cards. (Team Red stuck with GDDR6 in RDNA 4 this time around).

There is another possibility, though, and that's the rumored RTX 5000 Super refreshes employing this Micron VRAM. I wouldn't rule that out, as these GPUs are supposedly really beefing up memory loadouts. On the subject of these cards, the latest speculation insists that Nvidia's Blackwell Super revamps won't arrive this year (as previously hoped). So, whatever the case, it's likely we're quite a long way out from seeing this faster GDDR7 memory in consumer graphics cards.

Mind you, in the current climate, with the RAM crisis making matters difficult for graphics card makers, talk of scope for expanding VRAM loadouts feels rather pointless at best. Hopefully this isn't a situation that'll persist for too long, but the general indicators right now aren't good – certainly not for this year.

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• A couple of new job adverts from Nvidia have been spotted
• They are for software engineers to work on Nvidia GPU drivers in Linux
• It's a hint that Nvidia is getting more serious about making Linux a better alternative for PC gamers — though there's speculation it could be about something else, too

There are some exciting hints that Nvidia is working on making its graphics drivers better for Linux, as well as beefing up support for Proton, the translation layer that facilities playing Windows games on Linux (and handhelds like the Steam Deck).

VideoCardz highlighted a couple of job adverts that were flagged up by a hawk-eyed Redditor.

The first position is for a senior software engineer to work on optimizing Vulkan driver performance for Nvidia, and working on Proton games is mentioned specifically in this ad.

Another advert is for a Linux graphics senior software engineer to work on developing and testing professional and consumer Linux GPU drivers for Nvidia's graphics cards.

While two jobs aren't exactly what you might call the start of a big drive to make Linux better for gamers, they're nonetheless a telling sign that this is the way Nvidia might be heading in the future. As one Redditor commented in the above thread: "Linux is going to prime time for PCs. This is just a clue."

Analysis: driven by ulterior motives?

Should Microsoft now be quaking in its boots, then? Well, arguably that's already happening anyway, after the broad groundswell of negative reaction that emerged last year, as 2025 rolled on and Windows 11 became increasingly about AI. But more specifically on the gaming front, this latest apparent Nvidia move could be regarded as an additional worry for Microsoft in terms of defending any challenge to the dominance of Windows for PC gamers.

Nvidia long neglected its graphics drivers with Linux in the past, and this was famously a weak spot for those with a GeForce GPU who were thinking about migrating away from Windows to a Linux distro. However, the official driver situation has improved a lot in recent times — and this is a sign that Nvidia is going to embark on even more serious work to knock its Linux graphics drivers into better shape.

That would, of course, be a big win for Linux, as would any additional work on the gaming front for the likes of Proton. Valve has already been pushing hard in that direction after the launch of the Steam Deck, and we've seen some big leaps with Proton game compatibility in recent times, too.

However, as some of the commenters on Reddit point out, this potential move may not necessarily be about improving Linux for PC gamers with Nvidia GPUs. Rather, it could be about Team Green working for its own benefit to switch over to Linux servers with GeForce Now game streaming. Moving away from Windows to Linux in this respect could have some big advantages for Nvidia — in terms of not paying fees to Microsoft for starters – but it also poses problems too (support for anti-cheat games on Linux is the obvious one).

At any rate, even if there is a financial ulterior motive in terms of cloud gaming behind Nvidia improving Linux, gamers running one of the various flavors of Linux will still benefit from these changes — and that's the important part.

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• New rumor suggests laptops with Nvidia's new CPUs could arrive in the first half of 2026
• These are the long-rumored N1 and N1X processors, which are Arm-based
• There'll be notebooks from Dell and Lenovo, plus other vendors, too

If you're wondering when laptops will start shipping with Nvidia's new Arm CPU inside, the latest rumor suggests the initial models will debut in the first half of this year.

A report from the Wall Street Journal (via VideoCardz) claims that Dell and Lenovo are working on laptops with Arm CPUs from Nvidia – built in collaboration with MediaTek – that "could come in the first half of this year".

That suggests an arrival in the next four months or so, and this info comes from sources in Nvidia's supply chain.

These are the long-rumored N1 and N1X CPUs, in case you were in any doubt. The report notes that the hope is that Nvidia's silicon can help to make notebooks both lighter and thinner, while maintaining a long battery life.

That, of course, fits the bill very well for an Arm chip, with these processors excelling at achieving new heights of battery longevity in thin-and-light laptops.

Dell and Lenovo are mentioned specifically, but the WSJ notes that other laptop manufacturers will be on board with Nvidia's Arm CPU, as you'd expect – though perhaps the first devices will be from the mentioned vendors.

Analysis: strong Arm tactics

While Arm has its strengths – as noted, certainly in power efficiency – these laptops have their weaknesses when running Windows 11, too. Namely, compatibility issues around some software and particularly games, though a lot of meaningful strides were taken in smoothing over gaming on an Arm notebook last year.

An Nvidia-powered Windows on Arm laptop could be pretty exciting, then, as a thin-and-light capable of coping with mainstream gaming relatively well with its integrated graphics. Because, naturally, the GPU is going to be one of Nvidia's strong points here, with previous rumors that the graphics core count could be up there with the RTX 5070. Although note that doesn't mean actual performance will be – we've got to be realistic around the scope with integrated graphics, given thermals and so forth.

There's also the issue of driver quality in Nvidia's favor, which is a shakier area for the Adreno GPUs in Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips (which will be Team Green's rival in the realm of Windows on Arm notebooks).

Regarding the rumored timing, there are concerns about the RAM crisis, which is making everything difficult in the PC world and extending to storage memory chips, too, and how that might interfere with Nvidia's launch plans.

Previous rumors suggested a Q1 2026 launch for these N1X laptops, but that never seemed all that likely, as Nvidia didn't even mention the devices at CES 2026 (and if they were close at hand, Team Green surely would have done).

I'm not sure about a launch in the first half of 2026, either, at this point. The WSJ seems rather tentative in its phrasing with the rumored timeframe, so it sounds far from certain. From a betting perspective, I'd give Q3 the same odds as Q2 here, given the current PC climate, but we shall see.

Furthermore, there are other notable questions here. What about the rumored desktop incarnation of Nvidia's new Arm CPU? And indeed, remember Nvidia's separate collaboration, away from MediaTek, in which the firm is providing integrated graphics for Intel CPUs (among other plans) – how does that fit with this Arm masterplan? 2026 is sure to be a revealing year for Nvidia, but I'm not convinced those revelations are anything like imminent yet.

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• Lenovo has warned its partners of March price hikes for select products
• The price hikes are a result of the ongoing RAM crisis
• Lenovo is yet another company to be hit by the RAM crisis in 2026

The RAM crisis is spiraling out of control, with multiple PC hardware manufacturers, companies, and resellers forced to implement price hikes – and unfortunately, the latest victim is a renowned consumer PC brand, Lenovo.

As reported by CRN, Lenovo has warned its partners of upcoming price hikes for select products, including consumer PCs, in March, due to the RAM crisis caused by the ongoing AI boom.

Partners have been encouraged to place orders on or before February 28 to stay aligned with "current pricing assumptions," specifically stating that orders received on February 28 that aren't shipped by March 31 "will need to be repriced", further highlighting Lenovo's urgent push for partners to avoid March's pricing adjustments.

Lenovo's North America VP and Channel Chief, Wade McFarland, stated: "Pricing is influenced by both order and timing and fulfillment timing, and Lenovo reviews pricing periodically in response to evolving market conditions."

Regarding those price increases and orders for its wide range of hardware, Lenovo stressed, "We've absolutely had to adjust and continue to adjust [terms]. There's no way around it."

It's quite clear that the impact of the RAM crisis is substantial for Lenovo, and it won't be long before consumers see price changes on its devices, likely including the Lenovo Legion Go 2 handheld gaming PC.

Consumers should act fast too

It's now easy to say that the current state of the PC hardware market is unprecedented, with demand for memory from AI datacenters causing almost a total collapse in stability.

Prices are higher than ever before as the crisis is forcing manufacturers to rethink strategies, and Lenovo joins the likes of Valve, which is facing memory and storage shortages and has its Steam Deck OLED handheld intermittently out of stock as a result.

While Lenovo's urgent message is to its partners, it's also one consumers should consider. Prices for its handhelds, laptops, and consumer PCs are likely going to see major price increases, and now may be the only chance to beat the inevitable impact.

The market is a chaotic state of affairs, and now the only question we can ask is how much worse can the RAM crisis possibly get?

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• DDR5 RAM prices appear to be dropping in Europe
• Price tags have eased by around 10% to 15%, albeit that evidence is a limited snapshot of the market
• On the downside, Chinese RAM — which some hoped would be an affordable alternative — isn't looking so good

There's a hopeful sign that RAM prices might be finally dropping — although there's also a more negative piece of news that's crept in to balance that out somewhat.

First off, the good news, which as Tom's Hardware reports is that the prices for DDR5 RAM appear to be easing in Europe.

The tech site noticed a claim on Reddit, showing a graph of the price of an 'average' 32GB kit of DDR5 memory in the EU — which all sounds very vague, but points to a drop of about 10% (roughly) in price since the start of February.

Seemingly this graph is from price-comparison data compiled by Tweakers.net, a Dutch tech site, and there are anecdotal observations in the Reddit thread that this is what's happening in Europe.

Tom's also did its own quick check of five popular (big brand) DDR5 memory kits at Amazon Germany (using CamelCamelCamel price tracking), finding that a couple of products had indeed dropped quite considerably — by around 12% to 15% — since early February.

So, there does appear to be an easing of prices at some major retailers over in Europe, which is good to see. Tom's also looked at the US market, and found some evidence of much smaller price drops, but nothing that you'd read much into (yet).

While that's something of a welcome relief, then, Wccftech also spotted a more pessimistic sign, as flagged by Chinese tech site IT Home.

As you may be aware, there's some hope that more affordable RAM from Chinese manufacturers might step in as a relatively wallet-friendly option for western buyers if imported — but this isn't likely to happen, we're told.

In fact, KingBank, one of the big RAM makers that uses memory chips from CXMT — which was recently highlighted as a potential cost-friendly savior for the overinflated RAM market in the west — has jacked up its pricing to levels similar to what we've seen in Europe and the US.

Wccftech notes that a KingBank 32GB DDR5 kit on JD.com now runs to the equivalent of over $500, meaning it's pretty much the same price as the big brands in the US. You may still be able to score a decent price on DDR4 memory, perhaps, in the near-term — although with all the risks that buying from the likes of AliExpress entails.

Analysis: peak pricing reached?

While the Chinese RAM news is far from great, I'll take any positivity at all frankly, and the glimpse of memory prices in Europe now falling is very much welcome.

Okay, so this is probably more about prices reaching such a peak that buyers are increasingly holding off buying — in other words, a reflection of a wobble in demand, and a refusal to get drawn into panic buying, rather than a bolstering of available supply that's easing RAM prices in Europe.

But the net effect is still that prices are coming down, rather than heading inexorably upwards at a ludicrous pace, and I'll take any solace I can get here. We need to keep watching prices going into March, of course, to see whether this downward trend might continue — albeit with a gentler decline maybe, but any further drops will still be a positive sign that perhaps the market is starting to settle down (finally).

I can't say I believe that'll happen with any conviction, mind you – but you never know, especially if buyers are going to get more stubborn about trying to wait this out. The problem with that tactic, of course, is that the RAM crisis isn't predicted to go away any time soon, and the likelihood is that it'll continue into and throughout 2027, if the sentiment of various analyst firms is on the money.

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• Chinese RAM is available on AliExpress and other third-party sellers at slightly cheaper prices
• Not all options are cheaper than mainstream RAM kits in the west, though
• This is not a solution to the RAM crisis, but it's an alternative some people may want to explore

The RAM crisis feels relentless for consumers looking to buy PC memory, with high prices across the board for RAM kits from mainstream manufacturers – but fortunately, there's something of a possible temporary solution.

As reported by PC Gamer, an alternative to a traditional mainstream brand (like Corsair or Kingston, for example) in some regions is to buy Chinese RAM at AliExpress, Temu, or other third-party online sellers.

Essentially, you're importing a RAM kit made for the Chinese market, and that idea has suddenly got a lot more appealing due to the skyrocketing prices for RAM sticks from mainstream US and European brands.

The good news is that RAM kits like Cusu and Dudga (which you've likely never heard of) are available to ship to other regions at slightly lower prices compared to the mentioned mainstream offerings.

For example, 16GB of Cusu's 3200MHz DDR4 RAM (2 x 8GB sticks) is available at AliExpress for around $120 / £80 / AU$135. That's discounted due to a sale, mind you, and so Chinese RAM options aren't a silver bullet to completely solve pricing issues.

However, they are a viable alternative for those who don't mind importing, and I've noticed that third-party sellers like AliExpress feature big discounts fairly often.

To put the above price in perspective, a Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR4 kit features similar specifications but costs $159 / £158 / AU$199.

This isn't a solution to the RAM crisis

To make one thing clear, not all Chinese RAM modules on AliExpress or similar Asian marketplaces will have cheaper pricing than kits being sold in the west. Indeed, I've spotted a fair number of options that are actually priced equivalently (or even more) to what's available with existing mainstream options like Corsair RAM.

That said, if you hunt for a bargain in Asia, you've got a better chance of finding a compelling discount. But you must also remember that there's risk as well as reward to be found here.

It's important to note that while these Chinese RAM kits share similar specifications to those we're familiar with, there's no guarantee they will perform as well as they should. AliExpress isn't the most reliable vendor compared to buying directly from mainstream RAM makers or reputable retailers like Amazon or Best Buy.

Further remember that support will be an issue with a product shipped from Asia, should anything go wrong with the RAM.

For those reasons, I would suggest proceeding with caution if you're considering a purchase along these lines, but this is undeniably one way to escape the RAM crisis without overpaying.

Mind you, it's always possible the RAM crisis might settle down, and mainstream prices could drop lower. There's even some tenuous evidence this could be happening, but whether it'll continue is entirely another matter.

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• The Asus ROG Xbox Ally X's price has increased in Japan and Australia, amid a RAM crisis
• The handheld's price appears to be gradually increasing across multiple regions
• Neither Asus nor Microsoft has confirmed why the price increases have occurred

The ongoing RAM crisis is taking the entire PC hardware market by storm, with prices skyrocketing and manufacturers forced to rethink their launch strategies, notably Valve and its Steam Machine — and we may already be looking at the next victim.

As reported by PC Gamer, the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X's price in Australia has increased by AU$200, from its original AU$1,599 ($999 / £799) retail price, to AU$1,799. This is very similar to the recent price increase in Japan by 30,000 yen, which places the handheld's price at 169,800 yen for consumers.

Neither Microsoft nor Asus has confirmed why these price increases have occurred, but it's worth noting that the lower-tier ROG Xbox Ally is still at its original price in both Australia and Japan, which features 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage space.

Meanwhile, the Ally X features 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and based on those specs, we can infer that the reason for the price hike in both regions is likely due to the memory and storage shortages.

Valve is the latest to be impacted by the shortages, with the Steam Deck OLED now out of stock intermittently in multiple regions. We've also seen that Sony is reportedly delaying the launch of the PS6 to 2029, while Nintendo is considering a Switch 2 price increase, all of which are a result of the RAM crisis.

It's not a coincidence then that the ROG Xbox Ally X's price has suddenly increased in Australia and Japan in the same week, particularly for the model using more RAM and storage. Those higher-tier components will naturally be more sought after by both consumers and AI data centers, and are more costly for manufacturers to produce due to the shortages in the PC hardware market.

Unfortunately, that spells potential bad news for other regions outside of Japan and Australia.

Price hikes in other regions beckons

PC hardware has seen price hikes across the board since the start of 2026, and the impact from the memory and storage shortages seems to be hitting multiple regions at a breakneck pace, with no signs of stopping.

I'm willing to bet that other regions are next in line for price hikes on the ROG Xbox Ally X, and these issues may very well last throughout 2026, as the AI bubble (which is why RAM kits are so expensive now) continues to grow.

The RAM crisis also has the potential to encourage scalpers, particularly with upcoming and current systems like the Steam Machine or the Steam Deck OLED, respectively, as the latter is still in stock in the UK and other regions. The crisis is a messy situation for all companies, manufacturers, and consumers, which appears to be getting worse each day with new reports of halts in production, unprecedented price hikes, and shortages.

The sooner the AI bubble bursts and shortages aren't as prevalent, the more stable the market will become — but judging by the current state of affairs, that's not happening any time soon.

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• ComputerBase ran a comparison between DLSS, FSR and native 4K
• Readers watched videos of all three and voted for the best image quality
• Nvidia's DLSS came out top by far, with FSR falling behind it, and native rendering too — but we need to be careful about what conclusions we draw

Which is best for image quality: Nvidia's DLSS, AMD's FSR, or not using any upscaling at all, and running your games at native 4K resolution? If you thought native was the best choice, well, think again — because a vote held by a tech site has crowned Nvidia the clear winner here.

Tom's Hardware flagged up the intriguing test conducted by ComputerBase, with the readers of the German website being presented with three side-by-side videos.

These showed off DLSS 4.5, FSR 4 (Redstone), and native 4K, and viewers were asked to vote for the video that offered the best image quality. Both upscaling techs were running in 'quality' mode (rather than 'performance'), and native 4K had TAA applied (temporal anti-aliasing, which smooths out jagged edges).

Six games were involved here, with votes registered over two weeks. This was a blind test — meaning the videos were presented unlabelled, so biases towards AMD or Nvidia could be set aside — and readers had to choose which they thought looked best.

This was purely judged on image quality, and you could only pick a winner (no second places). However, if you couldn't tell any real difference between the choices, you could vote to say it was a tie and they were all equivalent.

The end result was a big victory for Nvidia, with DLSS snagging 48.2% of the total vote (6,700 opinions were registered, by the way). Native rendering was in second place with 24% of respondents preferring that, with FSR lagging considerably behind on 15%.

Around 12.8% of those who took the test effectively abstained, as they couldn't see any meaningful difference between the three.

The following games were tested: Anno 117, Arc Raiders, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Forbidden West, Satisfactory, and The Last of Us Part II.

Breaking down the results for the individual games showed some clear wins for Nvidia, which notably secured 60.9% of the vote in Satisfactory, and 56.3% in Horizon Forbidden West.

Nvidia won with every single game, although the worst result for DLSS, which was in Cyberpunk 2077, still beat out native rendering (just). Here Nvidia picked up 34.4% of the vote versus 32.4% for native 4K, with AMD hitting its lowest percentage at just 10.6%.

Interestingly, Cyberpunk 2077 was something of an outlier in that it was the only game to have considerable doubt around respondents' assessments of the best quality, with 22.6% being unable to make a call, and voting them all equivalent. With all the other games, the abstainers were in the 8% to 12% ballpark, meaning roughly one in 10 — but in the case of Cyberpunk 2077 approaching one in four gamers were unable to tell.

AMD's best result was for The Last of Us Part II where FSR captured 25.3% of the vote, but it was still in last place here, falling just behind native rendering on 25.9%, with Nvidia winning with 40.9% of the vote (its weakest showing aside from Cyberpunk 2077).

Analysis: a measure of just how good upscaling has become

This is a really interesting set of stats, and it shows just how much upscaling has supercharged contemporary GPUs in terms of producing a better-looking image than native rendering at 4K — and of course a frame rate boost, too. (Although 'quality' obviously doesn't provide the same boost as 'performance' for DLSS or FSR).

It also reflects the broader sentiment you'll find online, which is that DLSS is the reigning monarch of the upscalers. However, AMD has received considerable acclaim for the strides it has taken forward with FSR 4, but that doesn't come across clearly here.

As ComputerBase points out, though, we need to be careful about concluding that AMD FSR is worse than native rendering based on these results, as only one pick was made — for the best quality — and second or third place weren't taken into account. Having a full picture of rankings in that respect could have changed the overall findings.

It's also worth noting that the videos weren't simply uploaded to YouTube, but ComputerBase readers had to download them from the site and watch them via Nvidia's ICAT player. This was to ensure a higher level of quality for the footage and avoid YouTube's various compression antics, which would have watered down the comparison here.

This is clearly a big win for Nvidia, then, and a healthy prod for AMD in terms of needing to catch up more than Team Red has managed so far with the release of Redstone.

From browsing various online forums, you'll see that there are already a lot of gamers sold on the benefits of Nvidia DLSS over and above native rendering — but this test underlines just how good Team Green's tech is in terms of providing a more detailed, superior image quality.

If you're wondering where Intel's XeSS got to in this comparison, it was likely ruled out due to running the tests at 4K — and the lack of an appropriate high-end Intel Arc GPU in that regard — plus the fact that a fourth solution would've complicated matters considerably for ComputerBase (and the viewers judging). Discrete Arc graphics cards are, of course, very much a niche proposition anyway.

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• A new report estimates GPU prices are up by 15% globally over the past three months
• Higher-end Nvidia graphics cards have been hit the hardest by price hikes
• The US is suffering from some of the most eye-watering price increases

If you needed any confirmation that GPU prices are rising, a new report shows that graphics cards are definitely getting more expensive across the globe – particularly for some Nvidia models.

As VideoCardz highlighted, TechSpot compiled some statistics which involved tracking 14 GPUs (from AMD, Intel and Nvidia) across 10 regions globally, using local price comparison websites to find the cheapest products from retailers in those countries. Only prices for models in stock and available to buy were used, as you might imagine (sold-out cheap GPUs aren't any good to anyone).

TechSpot collected the initial data on pricing in November 2025, before graphics card pricing started to spike – a side-effect of RAM shortages, which hit video memory too, of course. The second set of data was gathered this month, providing a roughly three-month snapshot of the rising costs of GPUs across the globe.

Overall, there's been a 15% increase across all models and regions on average. To put that another way, a graphics card that was $300 a few months ago now costs $345.

Nvidia graphics cards are clearly the hardest hit by price inflation here. It probably comes as no surprise to you that the RTX 5090 is the worst offender, as we've already observed that the asking price for this flagship Blackwell GPU has gone through the roof since the start of 2026 (and it was already pricey).

TechSpot estimates the overall increase for the RTX 5090 globally to be 31%, although in the US it's particularly hefty at 40% (it's actually 50%, or just over, in India and Poland).

The situation with Nvidia's RTX 5080 is almost as bad, with a 25% increase, the same as the RTX 5070 Ti. Again, in the US, the inflation of those two GPUs is around 40%, a good deal heftier than in many other countries.

Lower-end Nvidia models aren't faring quite so badly with inflation. RTX 5060 models are only up 10 to 11%, which isn't so terrible (especially not when compared with the RAM price rises out there, of course). The RTX 5070 is up 14%, but there's a notable outlier: the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB is up by 22% globally.

Away from Team Green, the increases with AMD GPUs are not nearly as bad. The worst offender on the Radeon side of the fence is the RX 9060 XT 16GB, which is up by 15% worldwide, certainly an unwelcome jump. RX 9070 models are only up by 7 or 8%, though, which is relatively palatable.

There are some more uncomfortable shifts in the US retail market, mind, with the 9070 XT up by 21% in the last three months, and the 9060 XT 8GB has jumped by 20%. So that's quite brutal in both cases.

As for Intel, the Arc B580 has seen its price rise by 11% globally, but the B570 has only witnessed inflation to the tune of 4%.

Analysis: a worrying future?

Theories have been floating around about Nvidia prioritizing AI GPUs over gaming (GeForce) models since the supply of VRAM got shakier, and this evidence appears to back up those notions. Obviously, we can't read too much into this, but whichever way you slice and dice these stats, Nvidia's graphics cards are very much hit by the worst of the increases, particularly at the higher-end of the GPU scale.

The RTX 5090 remains at a ludicrous price in the US, frankly, with the cheapest model at Newegg currently maintaining an asking price of $3,600. (Meaning that buying a whole prebuilt Alienware PC with an RTX 5090 inside is only about 25% more expensive, and you're getting a whole lot of matching high-end kit for the additional premium, including some seriously expensive RAM, naturally).

The rumor that supply is dwindling with the RTX 5070 Ti – which has 16GB of VRAM – and also the RTX 5060 Ti with that same video memory loadout, appears to be backed up by what TechSpot observes here. Those GPUs are up strongly in price (25% and 22% respectively), suggesting that stock could be getting leaner – which would cause prices to rise due to demand.

All of this is grist for the rumor mill theory that Nvidia's graphics cards with higher VRAM loadouts are suffering as AI GPUs (with whopping memory pools) need to take priority, as they make a lot more in the way of profit for Team Green.

The worry here is what the future holds, and whether this kind of rise is going to be sustained – or indeed spread more to AMD's RDNA 4 GPUs. With no signs of the RAM pricing crisis abating, the knock-on effects for graphics card makers are likely to continue to be felt perhaps even more keenly as this first half of 2026 progresses.

Building a PC has certainly become a miserable business, with the huge hike in the cost of system RAM, along with storage following a similar upwards pricing trajectory, and now GPUs are causing a bit of extra chaos in the mix.

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• Valve has confirmed the Steam Deck OLED's stock woes are indeed due to the RAM crisis
• The Steam Deck OLED is out of stock intermittently in some regions
• The Steam Machine may be in danger of another delay, an unaffordable price point, or low availability at launch

Valve is currently working on its upcoming Steam Machine device, which is a hybrid gaming PC and console and slated for early 2026, but many of us have been concerned that the memory crisis could scupper those launch plans. Unfortunately, a recent development regarding the Steam Deck confirms our suspicions.

On the Steam Deck store page, Valve has admitted that the Steam Deck OLED is out of stock intermittently in some regions, "due to memory and storage shortages", as we previously predicted. Both the 512GB and 1TB OLED models are currently out of stock in some regions, specifically the US, with the LCD model having been discontinued a while back.

While the RAM crisis being the driving force behind stock woes isn't a huge surprise, it's potentially bad news for Valve's future hardware plans, especially as it could force the company to also discontinue the Steam Deck OLED, without having a Steam Deck 2 in the works.

More worryingly, though, it places the upcoming Steam Machine in danger of another delay, an unaffordable price point, or low availability. The console-like mini PC has already faced some scrutiny due to its 8GB VRAM GPU, which is arguably insufficient for modern gaming.

With the current memory and storage shortages, Valve likely won't be able to replicate selling at a loss like it did with the Steam Deck.

Valve is damned either way

If Valve decides to launch the Steam Machine at a high price (I now expect it to be at least $1,000), it's not going to sit well with most consumers. However, if Valve still manages to keep prices within a reasonable range — or in other words, sell the Steam Machine at a loss — the financial strain may be more damaging to the company than ever, due to the unstable PC hardware market.

It leaves Valve in a position where an indefinite delay of the Steam Machine may be the best option; to avoid the RAM crisis from impacting its retail price, but all signs suggest the memory shortage isn't slowing down, or rather, it's only just getting started.

However, the intermittent stock supply of the Steam Deck OLED actually hints at Valve temporarily halting the handheld's production and prioritising its inventory for the Steam Machine, particularly in the storage capacity department.

This is the worst time for Valve to launch the Steam Machine, especially since the Steam Frame is also slated for an early 2026 launch. Valve has earned its reputation as a consumer-friendly company, and I doubt that unaffordable pricing for the Steam Machine will completely change that.

However, I'm certain it will rub some consumers the wrong way, and the RAM crisis could once again cause pain for PC gamers looking forward to new tech.

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• MSI's RTX 5090 Lightning can only be bought via a lottery system in the US
• Some buyers are therefore taking advantage of this and reselling the GPU for between $8,000 to $15,000 on eBay
• It's cheaper to buy the RTX 5090 Lightning from the UK and pay for shipping and import, but however you dice it, you'll be down a small fortune

Ever thought about dropping the best part of ten grand on a GPU? If you are mulling a purchase of MSI's latest Nvidia graphics card – which is a new premium spin on the Blackwell flagship – you better prepare for a wallet-destroying price.

VideoCardz spotted that MSI's RTX 5090 Lightning Z graphics card is priced at truly eye-watering levels for buyers in the US, who would be better off importing the GPU from the UK.

The catch with the RTX 5090 Lightning is that it's a limited-edition graphics card, with not many more than 1,000 units having been made for global distribution to the buying public. In the US, the extra tricky bit is that the Lightning can only be purchased via a lottery, meaning you must win the opportunity to buy this graphics card at its retail price, which is $5,090 (see what they did there?) in the US.

So, predictably, what has happened is that those who've won the chance to buy the RTX 5090 Lightning have done so, but with the aim of trying to resell the GPU on eBay (or other marketplaces) to those who really want this card, but failed to win the aforementioned lottery.

As you can imagine, the markup on the Lightning is a nasty one, with current eBay prices ranging from $8,000 to $15,000.

Now, as VideoCardz points out, for GPU enthusiasts in the US, there's a better approach here rather than buying one of those products listed on eBay, which is to look at UK retailers instead (where there isn't a lottery system).

At the time of writing, Overclockers UK – one of the big custom PC makers and component sellers in the country – has MSI's RTX 5090 Lightning in stock and ready to ship for £5,000. For a buyer in the US, that works out at around $6,800 currently, so even after shipping and import costs, it's still going to be a good deal cheaper than forking out $8,000 (or indeed a lot more).

Analysis: ride the lightning – or don't, and buy a whole RTX 5090 gaming PC instead

Granted, in the scenario presented, there are support issues if things go wrong with the GPU for a US buyer using a UK retailer. But then there'd be support issues with an eBay seller anyhow (some of which are abroad anyway, so for example, one of those RTX 5090 Lightning graphics cards is shipped from Germany).

Of course, there's a bigger issue here though, which is simply: why on earth would you want to pay so much for a GPU anyway, even a flash RTX 5090? True, the RTX 5090 Lightning is doubtless a sterling overclocker (it is "built to sustain 1000W loads with absolute stability"), and it's a stunning-looking creation (with a built-in 8-inch display, no less).

But the prices floating around are just ludicrous, as is the recommended retail price frankly, wherever you can manage to get the GPU at that level (not in the US, as noted). $5,090 is still over 40% more expensive than the most affordable RTX 5090 at Newegg currently (which is $3,600 – and yes, prices have shot up with the flagship in general). And unless you're a really hardcore overclocker – or just want supreme GPU bragging rights – that's a seriously painful premium for the Lightning even at MSRP.

More to the point, for five grand you can pick up an entire gaming PC with top-spec components including an RTX 5090. Again, at Newegg, you can buy a liquid-cooled gaming rig built around the MSI Ventus RTX 5090 and Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor with 32GB of DDR5 RAM (which is also seriously pricey these days) and a 2TB SSD.

Or a liquid-cooled Alienware Area-51 PC (as pictured above) can be configured with the same spec for the CPU (the Intel 285K), GPU (RTX 5090) and RAM (32GB), plus a 1TB SSD, priced at $4,650 at the time of writing, which is 10% under the cost of MSI's RTX 5090 Lightning. I know which purchase I'd be making – none of the above, but if I did have that kind of budget for my PC gaming, it'd be the Alienware machine, for sure.

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• Corsair has new packaging for its DDR5 RAM
• Some kits are in a sealed plastic clamshell rather than a cardboard box
• Lower-tier RAM still comes in the old box, but a security label is being added

Corsair has introduced countermeasures with its product packaging designed to foil scammers who are stealing memory sticks by swapping them out for old RAM modules and returning these fakes to retailers.

Tom's Hardware highlighted a Corsair blog post in which the memory manufacturer explains that it has changed the packaging for some of its RAM.

With Corsair's Vengeance DDR5 RAM kits with two sticks (for example, a 32GB kit which consists of a pair of 16GB modules), the company has switched to using a sealed plastic clamshell rather than a cardboard box. This is with its RGB memory, and also the plain DDR5 sticks with no fancy lights.

This means the RAM is clearly visible to the buyer before they purchase the item, and indeed it's easily inspected by staff at retailers to help combat incidents of fake returns, as mentioned at the outset. Corsair notes that people are switching products out for 'non-genuine modules', which are usually ancient (effectively worthless) RAM from an old PC, or even just dummy RGB lighting modules as seen recently (see the image below).

As an additional measure, the clamshell packaging has a 'tamper-evident belly label' so you can clearly see if it's been opened before.

Analysis: clamshells and security labels are likely to become more prevalent

It's a sorry state of affairs, really, but this is where the RAM crisis has led us. DDR5 RAM has become so ridiculously expensive that it's as much of a target now as seriously pricey high-end graphics cards. (These have famously been victims of similar return-related scams, where buyers have ended up purchasing a GPU box that has a rock in it, or a lump of metal, or perhaps a bag of rice).

So, it's not surprising that Corsair has taken action in this way with these pricier products in their most common variant (dual-stick RAM kits, because you want your memory split into two modules for the fastest operating speeds).

In case you were wondering, Corsair's lower-tier RAM modules still come in a traditional paper box format. However, the memory maker clarifies that these will get a security label on the box for some additional protection from scammers, in an update that's seemingly rolling out soon.

The new packaging for DDR5 modules is already here, and indeed has been in place for over a month, so you may have caught sight of it in retailers (as this Redditor did a couple of weeks back).

Not everyone is a fan of this clamshell plastic packaging, mind, as sometimes it really isn't easy to get into, degenerating into quite a struggle if you only have a flimsy pair of scissors to try to carve your way into the pack. Also, plastic is not an ideal choice in terms of the environment. Corsair does make it clear that these cases are made from recycled materials, though, and I think it's a fair enough move to try and outfox the scammers, especially given the kind of expenditure consumers are making to grab a good DDR5 kit these days.

It's entirely possible that other RAM makers may implement similar moves to help combat scammers.

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• Valve's Steam Deck OLED is out of stock in the US, and reportedly in some regions in Asia
• The RAM crisis appears to be the culprit, as Valve is likely facing memory and storage shortages
• Valve is yet to officially confirm why its OLED handheld is out of stock

As Valve continues to prepare for its upcoming Steam Machine 'console-style' PC and the Steam Frame VR headset, concerns about pricing and availability are growing – and a recent development may not do much to ease fears.

Valve's Steam Deck OLED is currently out of stock in the US, and apparently in Japan too, as reported by Tom's Hardware. This includes the LCD model that was discontinued in December 2025 (for US consumers), and is on the verge of leaving the market in all regions once stock finally runs out.

While Valve hasn't confirmed why stock for the Steam Deck OLED has suddenly dried up, we can infer that the ongoing RAM crisis may be the culprit – or at the very least, that it's having a significant impact on the matter.

There's a significant memory shortage for many PC manufacturers, ultimately driving up the cost of production for devices like the Steam Deck OLED, as demand for RAM has skyrocketed due to the rapid expansion of AI data centers.

It's also worth noting that stock in the US for the Steam Deck OLED was stable in the latter half of 2025 and earlier in January this year, until a sudden major drop in February. The sudden shift to no stock is a telltale sign that the RAM crisis has either forced Valve to reconsider pricing for the OLED models or push for a bigger production focus on the Steam Machine – or worse, an early sign of the Steam Deck OLED's discontinuation.

While Valve hasn't directly commented on the Steam Deck stock issues yet, the RAM crisis is confirmed to be a direct cause of the Steam Machine's recent delay, as Valve is taking its time to consider pricing and availability, citing 'memory and storage shortages' (no surprise there).

It's not a reach, then, to suggest that Valve's beloved handheld could be facing the same issues right now, especially since the PC hardware market is in such an unstable state. We've seen the likes of Microsoft and Sony forced to increase prices for the Xbox Series X | S and PS5 consoles, respectively, but this was seemingly for different reasons (including the recent US tariffs imposed by Donald Trump), as Sony recently stated that it has 'secured stock' of PS5 units and won't be raising the price due to RAM shortages... not yet, anyway.

With the Steam Machine's release still slated for early 2026, Valve should be sharing updates soon on pricing and availability, which should finally address consumers' concerns about affordability. However, the Steam Deck OLED's lifespan on the market might finally be in question, especially if this memory shortage continues.

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• John Carmack has shared an idea for using fiber rather than RAM
• This is a vision of the future for replacing RAM modules in AI workloads
• While it's highly theoretical and a long way off, there are other possible nearer-term solutions to reduce AI's all-consuming appetite for RAM

John Carmack has aired an idea to effectively use fiber cables as 'storage' rather than conventional RAM modules, which is a particularly intriguing vision of the future given the current memory crisis and all the havoc it's wreaking.

Tom's Hardware noticed the cofounder of id Software's post on X where Carmack proposes that a very long fiber optic cable – and we're talking 200km long – could effectively fill in for system RAM, at least when working with AI models.

Carmack observes: "256Tb/s data rates over 200km distance have been demonstrated on single-mode fiber optic, which works out to 32GB of data in flight, 'stored' in the fiber, with 32TB/s bandwidth. Neural network inference and training [AI] can have deterministic weight reference patterns, so it is amusing to consider a system with no DRAM, and weights continuously streamed into an L2 cache by a recycling fiber loop."

What this means is that said length of fiber is a loop where the needed data (normally stored in RAM) is being "continuously streamed" and keeping the AI processor always fed (as the AI model weights can be accessed sequentially – this wouldn't work otherwise). This would be a very eco-friendly, power-saving way of completing these tasks, too, compared to traditional RAM.

As Carmack points out, this is the "modern equivalent of the ancient mercury echo tube memories", or delay-line memory, where data is stored in waves going through a coil of wire.

It's not an idea that's feasible now, but a concept for the future, as mentioned – and what Carmack is arguing is that it's a conceivable path forward which possibly has a "better growth trajectory" than we're currently looking at with traditional DRAM.

Analysis: flash forward

There are very obvious problems with RAM right now in terms of supply and demand, with the latter far outstripping the former thanks to the rise of AI and the huge memory requirements therein. (Not just for servers in data centers that field the queries to popular AI models, but video RAM in AI accelerator boards, too.)

So what Carmack is envisioning is a different way to operate with AI models that uses fiber lines instead. This could, in theory, leave the rest of us free to stop worrying about RAM costing a ridiculous amount of cash (or indeed a PC, or a graphics card, and the list goes on with the knock-on pricing effects of the memory crisis).

The problem is that there are a lot of issues with such a fiber proposition, as Carmack acknowledges. That includes the sheer quantity of fiber needed and difficulties around maintaining the signal strength through the loop.

However, there are other possibilities along these lines, and other people have been talking about similar concepts over the past few years. Carmack mentions: "Much more practically, you should be able to gang cheap flash memory together to provide almost any read bandwidth you require, as long as it is done a page at a time and pipelined well ahead. That should be viable for inference serving today if flash and accelerator vendors could agree on a high-speed interface."

In other words, this is an army of cheap flash memory modules slapped together, working massively in parallel, but as Carmack notes, the key would be agreeing on an interface where these chips could work directly with the AI accelerator.

This is an interesting nearer-term proposition, but one that relies on the relevant manufacturers (of AI GPUs and storage) getting their act together and hammering out a new system in this vein.

The RAM crisis is forecast to last this year, and likely next year too, potentially dragging on for even longer than that with all sorts of pain involved for consumers. So, looking to alternative solutions for memory in terms of AI models could be a valuable pursuit towards ensuring this RAM crisis is the last such episode we have to suffer through.

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• Nova Lake flagship is rumored to hit 700W of power consumption
• That's a fleeting peak-wattage figure, though (and still just a rumor)
• The reality may be that the next-gen flagship is more of an enthusiast CPU than it has previously been – but that won't necessarily reflect on the lower tiers of Nova Lake

Intel's next-gen flagship desktop processor has been rumored to reach eye-opening levels of power consumption – although there's a lot to unpack here, and we shouldn't be panicking about CPUs eating monstrous amounts of wattage just yet.

First of all, the rumor itself – and it is just a rumor – comes from a regular hardware leaker on X, Kopitekimi7, as flagged by VideoCardz.

The top Nova Lake processor, which is rumored to have 52 cores (and is an unlocked 'K' model that can be overclocked, which is why the leaker refers to it as 'NVL-K'), apparently reaches a power consumption of over 700 Watts at "full-load".

I'll come back to exactly what that means in a moment, but obviously it's a huge figure, remembering that this is the power being piped to the CPU, and only that (not the full system load of wattage across all the PC's components, as somebody on X asked for a clarification about).

If you're wondering how the Nova Lake desktop flagship has 52 cores, it's because most of them are efficiency cores, or low-power (tiny) cores – there are 32 and four of these respectively, plus 16 performance (normal) cores.

This Core Ultra 9 flagship is supposedly a dual-chip model, meaning those cores are split across two chiplets – as already seen with AMD's top desktop CPUs – and Nova Lake has Big Last-Level Cache (bLLC) which is essentially Intel's equivalent to AMD's 3D V-Cache (X3D models).

Analysis: it's too early to start fretting about 'Supernova Lake' heat levels

Okay, so what's going on here, and what could it mean for the average PC buyer (or upgrader) when Nova Lake turns up? (These desktop chips might debut later this year, or possibly in 2027 – Intel hasn't confirmed exactly when, though we should get some silicon in 2026, but it could be the laptop variants for all we know).

The figure floated by Kopitekimi7 – which may or may not be accurate, it should be noted – is 700W under full load, which the leaker clarifies is with power limits removed. In other words, this is theoretically the absolute limit of power that can temporarily peak with the CPU (known as 'PL4'), which, crucially, is a momentary load, not a working level of wattage.

Of course, you still need a PC with a motherboard and power supply (plus CPU cooling) that can deal with such a fleeting surge. And on top of that, we can compare this to the PL4 of Intel's Raptor Lake flagship processor, which saw a peak of 314W – so this is a good deal more than double that.

In effect, this is a hint that Nova Lake could be more power-hungry than we expected. However, I wouldn't go leaping to conclusions yet, because we don't know if this leak is accurate. And even if it is, the rest of Nova Lake may not be built along those lines.

Remember, this is a dual-chip flagship with a lot of cores, and it's a processor that looks to be more in HEDT (high-end desktop) territory – a very expensive CPU aimed at enthusiasts who need a processor to do seriously heavyweight work.

The average consumer or gamer won't be looking at this Core Ultra 9 flagship, then – even less so than would normally be the case with an Intel flagship. They'll be much better served by the Core Ultra 7 model, which is rumored to be a single chiplet CPU, and that configuration may work better for gaming with the bLLC cache setup, too.

So, what this points to more than anything is an even more heavyweight, pricier flagship coming with Nova Lake. Away from that top-end CPU, it's possible Nova Lake could be more efficient in terms of power consumption, and in fact I'd bet on that. I don't think Intel is going to retread old ground – as seen with Raptor Lake (and its refresh), where power envelopes were pushed very (too) hard – with its brand-new Nova Lake desktop range built to try and take the initiative back from AMD's Ryzen silicon (following a string of desktop mishaps on Intel's part).

For high-end PCs, though, the Nova Lake flagship could be a handful for a power supply to deal with when paired with a power-hungry GPU like an Nvidia RTX 5090, for example.

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• Ayaneo announced the Next 2 handheld's specifications and price
• The new gaming handheld will cost up to $4,299, and its early bird price is $3,499
• The Next 2 will be available via Ayaneo's Indiegogo campaign this February

Gaming PC hardware is taking a huge hit thanks to the ongoing RAM crisis, with rising prices and even the delaying of the highly anticipated Steam Machine. Unfortunately, it appears as though things are only just getting started.

Handheld brand Ayaneo has revealed a wealth of new information about its upcoming Next 2 handheld gaming PC including the fact that it will cost $4,299 / around £3,160 / AU$6,130 for a 128GB RAM and 2TB storage model. That's more than an RTX 5090!

Its early bird price is set at $3,499 / around £2,570 / AU$4,990, for consumers who want to save a little by backing the Indiegogo campaign.

The Ayaneo Next 2 is a beefy handheld gaming PC, equipped with AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, a 116WH battery, and a 9-inch OLED display. Those specifications are almost equivalent to those of a budget gaming laptop, as the Max+ 395's performance is similar to that of an RTX 4060.

While the Ayaneo Next 2 was always expected to be an expensive handheld – since all Ryzen AI Max+ 395-powered handhelds are – the $4,299 retail price tag could be a step too far, even for consumers willing to pay high prices for handheld devices, and it's largely due to the RAM crisis.

It's not just the 128GB model either, as the base model matches the RTX 5090's $1,999 MSRP, equipped with the less powerful Ryzen AI Max 385 processor and 32GB of RAM.

A model with the AI Max+ 395 has 64GB of RAM, which isn't needed for handheld gaming (and certainly not 128GB), but consumers will have to pay $2,699 to get their hands on it.

If RAM prices continue to skyrocket, there's a high chance Ayaneo's listed retail prices won't stick once it officially launches too.

Analysis: 128GB of RAM isn't necessary for handhelds

The RAM crisis isn't going anywhere any time soon, and Ayaneo hasn't made it any easier by using high RAM configurations. Most mainstream handhelds run perfectly fine with 32GB of RAM (some even with 16GB), which is why the push for 64GB and 128GB seems like complete overkill.

The AI Max+ 395 APU, 9-inch OLED display, and 116WH battery are already enough to make the Next 2 a niche device, with a high price, but the addition of 128GB of RAM makes it unattainable, even for consumers willing to spend big bucks for portable gaming.

Nvidia's RTX 5090 is hardly available at any retailer store, and the third-party options are all far above the $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$4,039 MSRP, with some almost costing $5,000 on Best Buy. That same amount can net a consumer a brand-new desktop gaming PC, which is a better option over both the Next 2 handheld and RTX 5090 GPU.

It wouldn't surprise me if new handhelds in 2026 end up creating 8GB RAM configurations, because the PC hardware market looks like it's only going to get worse at this rate.

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• Rumor suggests Nvidia has a 'very high-end RTX 50' GPU in the works
• It could be an RTX 5090 Ti, or RTX Titan, arriving in Q3 of this year
• Nvidia producing a supercharged RTX 5090 seems very unlikely, though, for a number of reasons

A new rumor claims that Nvidia might have an RTX 5090 Ti in the pipeline, but I doubt that very much – if there is a new heavyweight GPU waiting in the wings, it's surely not one aimed at gamers.

VideoCardz noticed that French tech site Overclocking.com published this speculation, apparently after a lot of deliberation about whether to air it at all (understandably – and note that the site expresses its own disbelief about this purported plan of Nvidia's).

The rumor is that in Q3 of 2026 Nvidia is planning to launch a "very high-end RTX 50 series card", meaning either an RTX 5090 Ti, or maybe an RTX Titan to sit at the top of the GeForce range.

We're told that the design process and early work on manufacturing this graphics card is already underway.

According to Overclocking.com, five or six reliable sources – all from different companies (and indeed separate countries) – have insisted that this new RTX 5000 GPU is incoming. This follows similar chatter which the French site says it heard back at CES 2026, last month, but disregarded because it seemed too fanciful a notion given the RAM crisis.

Analysis: an RTX 5090 Ti seems very unlikely to say the least

Frankly, I find this rumor is still too much of a reach, certainly the contention that there's going to be an RTX 5090 Ti, which is one of the mentioned possibilities. This just doesn't make any sense.

For one thing, Nvidia has apparently canned any possible RTX 5000 Super refreshes for this year, and indeed any gaming graphics cards at all, if several reports elsewhere on the rumor mill are to be believed.

Why? Because video RAM is scarce – as is all memory these days – and therefore pricier, so consumer GPUs loaded up with VRAM like an RTX 5080 Super or 5070 Super would be a drain on Nvidia's RAM resources. That's memory which would be far better deployed with heavyweight AI GPUs, which are much more profitable – and an RTX 5090 Ti would surely be expected to load up with more VRAM than ever.

Also consider that the RTX 5090 itself is already stupidly pricey at retail, having suffered a painful bout of price inflation since 2026 began. So how much would an RTX 5090 Ti cost? And also bear in mind that the reason the 5090 is so pricey is because of supply limitations; so again, why would Nvidia bring out a Ti version in this climate?

On top of all these reasons is the simple truth that gamers don't really need an RTX 5090 Ti. Enabling the full loadout of cores on the GB202 chip (which powers the 5090) wouldn't be a huge jump in performance (around 10%), especially considering what cost that might come at (as already noted). Really, the RTX 5090 is plenty powerful for any PC gamer, anyway.

If this rumor is true, it will surely be an RTX Titan (which is floated as the other possibility here) or similar heavyweight model aimed at prosumers, not consumers or gamers. And given the VRAM situation, it seems unlikely that Nvidia would even bother taking this tack, as the French site admits – but seemingly, this is the current plan.

Even if we assume this is correct, and Nvidia is indeed exploring a design around such a top-end RTX 5000 board, there's no guarantee it will come to anything — these concepts can be toyed with and then abandoned relatively late in the day.

In summary, then, do not expect an RTX 5090 Ti for later this year – and I'm all too willing to believe the rumors that we won't get any new GeForce gaming GPUs from Nvidia at all in 2026.

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• Counterpoint Research has published a new report on RAM pricing
• It predicts that PC RAM will nearly double in price this quarter
• On top of that, a PC maker has sounded alarm bells about rising component prices – and it's one of many

If you were keeping your fingers crossed for some more optimistic news about the RAM crisis – because we've had glimmers of that, lately – then those hopes will be dashed, I'm afraid, by the latest developments which are distinctly negative.

The main point of interest here is that we have a new report from Counterpoint Research which observes that memory prices have nearly doubled in Q1 2026 so far, compared to the same period in the final quarter of 2025.

The firm informs us: "Memory prices have risen by 80%-90% QoQ in Q1 2026 so far, according to the February issue of Counterpoint's Memory Price Tracker, marking an unprecedented and record-breaking surge."

That's not comforting language, of course, and while we're told that the primary force behind these huge price hikes is the increase in the cost of server RAM, memory modules for PCs have experienced a very similar rise.

Counterpoint singles out DDR4 RAM for laptops (SoDIMMs), of which one 8GB stick witnessed a price rise of 35% in Q4 2025 (quarter-on-quarter), with a currently estimated leap to a 91% increase for Q1 2026 compared to the previous quarter.

Server RAM will end up at 98% more in this quarter, and even NAND modules for storage are going to see a major leap in Q1 2026 – a predicted 100% quarter-on-quarter increase in fact. Nasty.

Analysis: industry-wide memory misery

Counterpoint is essentially telling us that all kinds of memory is going to be hiked in price in a big way this quarter, from PC RAM to server RAM, to HBM (High Bandwidth Memory, top-end modules for AI use), and indeed through to NAND for SSDs. As the analyst firm puts it in a nutshell: "the market is witnessing a full-throttle upward trend across all segments."

Meanwhile, we're hearing much the same story from other analyst outfits – like TrendForce, which is predicting that DRAM pricing is going to rise by 50%, or possibly a bit more, in Q1 of 2026.

Nearer to ground level in this components crisis, PC makers are also warning of hard times ahead for RAM costs, and the latest in that respect is PowerGPU, a custom gaming PC builder in the US.

Tom's Hardware noticed that PowerGPU posted on X to say that "we just got word that SSD and other part prices have gone up again" and to "expect price increases by early next week" on the firm's PCs. Presumably those 'other parts' are RAM, of course, and possibly GPUs too which are facing their own issues due to the scarcity of video memory.

It all sounds rather ominous, and PowerGPU's statement adds to the heap of such warnings from various PC makers we've received late last year and during these early stages of 2026.

While there have been some more positive glimmers around the RAM crisis recently, as noted at the outset – like a snapshot of DDR5 pricing levelling off – the overall sentiment is very much negative, with forecasts of not just more price increases, but huge ones. Whether that's 50% or 100% spikes during this current quarter – take your pick from the pessimistic predictions – it seems like we're in for a lot more pain, whether buying standalone RAM or PCs (or indeed graphics cards).

It's likely that PC makers are going to try to find ways to at least partially mitigate this RAM price misery, which could mean relying on lesser memory configurations with laptops – turning the clock back to use more 8GB loadouts – or indeed creative fudges such as Maingear's BYOR or 'Bring Your Own RAM' concept.

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