Hard-On-Tech

Nvidia is reportedly still planning fabled RTX 50 Super series for 2026, leak claims — lineup could now include a potential 'RTX 5060 Super' with 12GB of VRAM

By ckasprzak | TkOut | June 8, 2026 | GPU, Hardware, Nvidia
The Hot Take: We'll see, they keep teasing it. But i feel they don't feel they have milked that Ai money cow enough to drop new hardware yet.

For almost a year, the RTX 50 Super series has been part of the rumor mill, but with the AI boom snatching production lines, causing memory prices to skyrocket, hype for the lineup had died down. Now, a potential RTX 5060 Super with 12GB of VRAM is apparently in the works, with the 50 Super series as a whole allegedly getting "back on track."

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Intel Next-Gen LGA 1954 Socket For Nova Lake Makes Online Appearance For The First Time

By ckasprzak | TkOut | June 4, 2026 | CPU, Hardware, Intel, x86
The Hot Take: Interested to see if they catch up on the new platform.

Intel and its partners have prepared for the Nova Lake launch, and even though we are months away, we might witness more leaks like these. Intel Socket LGA 1954 Spotted in Taipei, Intel's Platform for the Next-Gen Nova Lake-S Processors With Dual Retention Design The LGA 1954 socket appeared out of nowhere in Taipei, and it's probably the first time we've seen a real one. The user @laurentschoice posted a pic of an LGA 1954 socket, mentioning that it was spotted in Taipei. It might be one of the early samples, prepared by some motherboard vendor, but it's not clear […]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-next-gen-lga-1954-socket-for-nova-lake-makes-online-appearance-for-the-first-time/

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Intel says 'something has to give' with memory prices - company says it 'will continue to make sure that there are products which can take care of older memory technologies'

By ckasprzak | TkOut | June 3, 2026 | CPU, Hardware, Intel, x86
The Hot Take: Following AMD with releasing DDR4 chips again? We'll have to wait and see. This RAM crunch is getting horrible for sure.

Intel sat down with Tom's Hardware at Computex 2026, and the company says it recognizes the importance of Raptor Lake and DDR4 platforms as the memory crunch continues.

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Chinese military has been acquiring Nvidia chips, even post-Washington export controls, research claims — multiple institutions linked to the PLA asked for Nvidia AI chips, according to publicly available documents

By ckasprzak | TkOut | June 3, 2026 | GPU, Hardware, Nvidia
The Hot Take: Tell me something I didn't know already. Why else would the GPU market go crazy prices wise?

A business-intelligence researcher said that the Chinese military has been actively acquiring Nvidia AI chips, even after the U.S. put export controls on them. Public documents show that some institutions ask for these chips either through the specifications they demand or by directly asking for Nvidia chips by name.

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Diamonds are MSI’s best friend

By ckasprzak | TkOut | June 3, 2026 | Cooling, GPU, Hardware, MSI
The Hot Take: Yeah looks like that CZ market is going to get a new avenue of revenue soon enough. Hoping the prices can be kept down is my only concern.

MSI has shown off new cooling and power tricks for future Nvidia RTX graphics cards. The outfit has said that since the company is not expecting a major gamer GPU launch this year, it used the gap to show what might land on future Nvidia RTX cards and what it will have to come up with to match. MSI said that it is working on three main areas for its next designs: cooling, power delivery and the PCB. The cooling work includes new fans, heat pipes, thermal pads and baseplates, all dressed up as an advanced thermal architecture. The fan design uses ultra-thin metal blades rather than the usual plastic jobs. MSI says the seven-blade all-metal design can deliver up to 40 per cent better airflow. The trick is a high-rigidity metal structure packed into a 0.8mm blade, which should resist deformation at higher speeds. Thinner blades give more effective airflow area, while wider paths reduce resistance during high-speed operation. MSI is also working on advanced spiral-groove heat pipes. These increase contact area compared with conventional heat pipes, which should help shift heat away from the GPU more efficiently. The company has added diamond-composite thermal pads for memory modules to improve heat dissipation. There is also a diamond-copper composite baseplate, with a diamond-copper layer stacked between two copper layers. MSI says this creates a high-conductivity path from the GPU to the heatsink. All these parts come together in a fully integrated cooling module. One early design was shown as a next-generation Gaming Trio graphics card. MSI displayed it on an existing RTX 5090 32GB GPU, although it remains a prototype rather than a finished retail card. The final version is expected to arrive with future Nvidia GPUs, so for now, it is more engineering peep show than shopping list. MSI is bringing its Safeguard technology directly to high-end graphics cards. The feature first appeared on the company’s MPG power supply line. The same protection and control, handled through software and hardware, will now work from the 16-pin connector on the graphics card. That means users will not need a compatible PSU to get the feature working. MSI is still validating the technology with more power supplies and is expected to give it a new name. The company is also adding server-grade reusable fuses, called eFuse, to future GPUs. These are designed to protect the card from electrical damage using an internal gate-based reset mechanism. The company says the fuses are resettable and reusable, with a short-circuit response of about 200ns. That should help long-term reliability, although anyone who has watched 16-pin connector drama will know reassurance is doing plenty of work here. MSI showed the design on its RTX 5090 SUPRIM Safeguard card. As with the cooling module, these technologies are intended for future graphics cards rather than the shelves today. It all points to GPU makers preparing for more power, more heat and more expensive lumps of hardware that need not cook themselves while running the next AI-slathered benchmark.  

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Epstein files are cracking Gates’ image

By ckasprzak | TkOut | June 3, 2026 | Microsoft, Software
The Hot Take: Wondering if this will break more people off into Linux. We'll have to see how/if Microsoft boots him off the board and starts distancing themselves from their pedo founder.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has taken another battering after the Justice Department released files detailing his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. In a February town hall with Gates Foundation staff, Gates admitted to two affairs referenced in Epstein’s emails. Some people familiar with the matter said they heard about the admission with disbelief, although they should not have been too surprised, as during his divorce proceedings, allegations linked to more than 20 affairs had come up. The Justice Department files show Epstein knew about some of Gates’s extramarital relationships. A Gates spokesperson said he was not involved in any illegal activities with Epstein and accepted it had been a mistake to meet him. “Gates has apologised for that mistake and is voluntarily speaking with the House Oversight Committee [in June] to answer questions about his interactions with Epstein. Gates supports the release of all the Epstein files in hopes the victims can get the justice that they deserve,” the spokesperson said. But according to the Wall Street Journal, Gates has been given the cold shoulder by Microsoft, the outfit he co-founded and still looms over like a corporate ghost. He usually hosts a dinner at his Washington state home tied to Microsoft’s annual CEO summit. Weeks before the May event, his team was told it would be better not to do it this year. A Volish spokesman said: “While it didn’t work out this year, we’ve already extended an invitation for Bill to attend the CEO Summit next year.” There was more awkwardness at TerraPower, the nuclear outfit Gates founded. After the Epstein files release and Gates’s admission of affairs, TerraPower chief executive told staff he had spoken to Gates’s private office and “it is clear it doesn’t involve TerraPower.” Several current and former TerraPower employees found that a bit puzzling. One of the women Gates referred to as a past affair, a “Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities,” had close ties to TerraPower. She worked at TerraPower from 2010 to 2012, according to her LinkedIn page, and her name was in the company’s internal system. She was featured in a 2011 magazine article about her work at TerraPower, including a photo shoot with Gates. The Gates spokesperson said he did not have “an inappropriate relationship with any employee of TerraPower.” A person familiar with the matter said the brief affair happened after she worked at TerraPower, so that clears that up. Bill Gates, Jeffrey Epstein, Microsoft, Gates Foundation, TerraPower, Netflix, Tremolo Productions, Gates Ventures, Justice Department

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