By ckasprzak | TkOut
| September 12, 2026 | GPU, Hardware
The Hot Take: I just don't see how this is the case with the prices are in the twilight zone of prices... Just trading Ai column for GPU Gaming column? Me thinks so.
Discrete graphics card shipments for desktop PCs in Q2 2026 totaled 12.5 million units, the highest number since Q1 2022 despite record-high prices and cratering shipments of desktop CPUs, according to findings from Jon Peddie Research. The result highlights a broader trend that shows that unit sales of standalone GPUs for gaming have so far remained immune to rising prices, perhaps because gamers are expecting even higher prices in the coming quarters.The industry shipped 12.5 million standalone graphics cards for desktop PCs in the second…
The Hot Take: Feeling the heat from Intel? USA companies perfected this manufacturing before you, can't take the heat get out of the kitchen!
The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) next-generation 1.4-nanometer production could kick off in April, suggests a new report in the Taiwanese press. TSMC's 1.4-nanometer process technology, also called the 14A manufacturing node, will succeed the firm's 2-nanometer technology. According to the details, TSMC's 1.4-nanometer facility in Taichung could enter trial production in April 2027, with mass production expected in the second half of the year. TSMC Submits Application To Build Two Temporary Offices At Taichung…
The Hot Take: Interesting, given the warranty stances on OC's.
Following an early access period that included over 60,000 participants, auto-overclocking tool Hypertune has released its Gaming Performance Engineering platform, which is built on top of Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) SDK and developed in partnership with Intel. The company claims the utility can boost frame rates by up to 60%, though you shouldn't expect that as the norm. The tool includes automated CPU and GPU overclocking, as well as customizable Windows features, network optimization, and game-specific optimizations. Go deeper with…
The Hot Take: Microsoft is just skirting a max exodus from windows for sure.
An opportunity exists for Microsoft to enter into the goodwill of millions of Windows 11 users, but it just seems like time after time, the software giant continues to throw away these chances. After promising to introduce improvements to its operating system, including making the platform more efficient for 8GB RAM systems, the company takes two steps backward by displaying ads on your desktop. Using the Bing Wallpaper app, Windows 11 users are reporting that a fullscreen ad for a collection of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films appears…
The fates appear to have turned benevolent towards Intel, especially as its multi-year strategic pivots are now finally on the cusp of paying financial dividends, as evidenced by the chipmaker's rapidly expanding EMIB-T capacity as well as its hefty lead against Samsung and TSMC on high-NA EUV technology. UBS now believes Intel can easily meet MediaTek's growing TPU-related demand for EMIB-T advanced packaging, replete with the ability to package over 2 million substrates by 2028 According to UBS, the wider industry is becoming increasingly…
The Hot Take: Intel is making headway fast to get back to the top of the manufacturers for sure.
Intel announced on Monday that it had processed more than one million 300-mm wafers using its High-NA EUV scanners, less than two and a half years after its first tool was assembled. For now, the company intends to use industry-standard 6-inch photomasks, which can expose 26×16.5 mm half-fields and therefore require field stitching for larger chips. However, Intel is also working on larger 6×12-inch photomasks that would enable High-NA EUV scanners to expose full 26×33 mm fields without stitching.One million High-NA wafersIntel's one million…
By ckasprzak | TkOut
| September 9, 2026 | CPU, Hardware, x86
The Hot Take: Are we going to have a third player in the x86 market? Reminds me of the days Cyrix 686's back in the day if so. Would help push competition and Intel with an injection of licensing cash.
The mystery deepens around an x86 implementation from a corporate entity other than AMD and Intel and has been making some very intriguing changes for coming from a seeming start-up. Beyond 16 tile and 32 tile AMX implementations that already surpass Intel's current Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) capabilities in shipping Xeon CPUs, new disclosures were made today concerning Advanced Performance Extensions (APX), Flexible Return and Event Delivery (FRED), and even x86S as the effort that Intel previously stopped for cleaning up the x86…
The Hot Take: Intersting move, I haven't looked into how low level Rust gets compared to C++. Something I need to do I guess.
Phoronix reports:
AMD is building out what they are describing as an "elite" team of developers for driving Rust code "deep into the GPU stack" from firmware to drivers, shader compilers, and other GPU software in Rust. AMD Senior Fellow Harsh Meno posted this week to LinkedIn about this new effort...
And note this AMD job posting that's active for hiring a software development engineer to work on Rust code...
"We are building next-generation systems software for AMD GPUs with Rust as a core technical direction. The…
The Hot Take: Interesting, is the bubble about to pop?
The latest quarterly figures show a recovery in PC graphics shipments, although the improvement is uneven across the market. Published on September 3, the report puts second-quarter 2026 shipments at 75.