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performance

Shell DCL Fluid S3
Gaming Gear

Shell introduces DLC Fluid S3 as data centers turn to liquid cooling for efficiency and thermal performance gains

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  • Shell launches new cooling fluid to meet AI data center demands
  • DLC Fluid S3 cools high-performance components like CPUs and GPUs
  • The propylene glycol blend is formulated for safety and cooling effectiveness

Direct liquid cooling is gaining traction in data centers as traditional air-based systems struggle to manage the demands of modern computing.

Shell, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, has launched a new direct liquid cooling fluid aimed at meeting the thermal demands of AI and high-performance computing.

Shell DLC Fluid S3 is a propylene glycol-based solution designed to cool high-density server hardware by directly targeting heat-generating components such as CPUs and GPUs. It meets the latest Open Compute Project PG25 standards, making it compatible with a broad range of server architectures.


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Powering the future of digital infrastructure

Data centers currently account for an estimated 2–3% of global power consumption, but Shell claims its new fluid can improve Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) by up to 27% compared to air cooling, potentially reducing the need for energy-intensive air conditioning.

The company also highlights the fluid’s extended service life, corrosion protection across a variety of metals, and fluorescent dye for easier leak detection.

“With Shell DLC Fluid S3, Shell now offers both direct-to-chip and full immersion cooling solutions, and we’re not just keeping data centers cool in the age of AI – we’re powering the future of digital infrastructure,” said Aysun Akik, VP New Business Development and Global Key Accounts, Shell Lubricants.

“Our growing range of advanced liquid cooling solutions is designed to meet the diverse needs of modern data centers both today, and tomorrow – and are backed by the strength of Shell’s global footprint, supply chain and five technology development hubs around the globe.”

We previously covered how Castrol, a major name in motor lubricants, has also entered this space and is developing dielectric fluids for immersion cooling systems.

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Best Deals On Pokemon Scarlet And Violet Ahead Of Free Switch 2 Performance Update
Game Updates

Best Deals On Pokemon Scarlet And Violet Ahead Of Free Switch 2 Performance Update

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Several Nintendo Switch games will be getting free performance updates on the Switch 2, and if there’s one game that really needs an upgrade, it’s definitely Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Early footage of the Switch 2 edition running at 60fps looks promising so far, and if you’ve been looking to start an adventure in the Paldean region, now is a good time to grab the collect-’em-all game for the new Nintendo console.

While Pokemon Scarlet and Violet did have its fair share of technical issues on Switch, the Switch 2 version will offer a higher frame rate and a larger draw distance alongside other much-needed tweaks. With those issues hopefully addressed, this should allow the game to shine and emerge as one of the best Pokemon experiences out there, as it offers a lot of fun. All the basics of a Pokemon experience are covered here, from a vast world full of unique Pokemon to the pursuit of Pokemon League glory, and for longtime fans of the series, the quality-of-life updates are very welcome.

$48 at Walmart | $52 at Amazon (was $60)

Like previous Pokemon game releases, there are some distinct differences between the Scarlet and Violet Pokemon games. Each one has version-exclusive Pokemon, different lore, outfits, and even version-exclusive outfits. For Pokemon Scarlet, the unique Legendary Pokemon is Koraidon, and some of the Pokemon that you won’t find in Pokemon Violet include Armarouge, Stonjourner, and Oranguru. Several Paradox Pokemon are also exclusive to this game’s endgame location, Area Zero, but you can trade for them with owners of Pokemon Violet.

You can get Pokemon Scarlet for $48 at Walmart or $52 at Amazon. Both of these deals are sold by third-party resellers and fulfilled by Amazon/Walmart.

$49.50 at Walmart | $50 at Amazon (was $60)

For Pokemon Violet, version-exclusive Pokemon include Ceruledge, Bagon, and Misdreavus. Your Leegndary Pokemon you encounter in the game is also different, as instead of Koraidon, you’ll befriend Moraidon. Another noticeable difference between the games is the overall theme, as Pokemon Violet leans harder into sci-fi ideas, whereas Pokemon Scarlet adopts a prehistoric motif.

Just like with Scarlet, you can save around 10 bucks on Pokemon Violet at Amazon or Walmart.

$105 (was $120)

Don’t feel like trading with other people? Then you can get both Pokemon games inside of a single bundle. Of course, this does mean that you’ll need to play through the game twice, but no one said that catching ’em all was going to be easy!

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Double Pack is up for grabs for $105 (was $120) at Walmart. Note: This deal is shipped and sold by a third-party reseller–designated by Walmart as a “Pro Seller”–with positive customer ratings.

Beyond Scarlet and Violet, 10 other Switch classics will also be optimized for the Switch 2 via free updates, but Nintendo has only provided a small number of details on what these upgrades entail. In general, most of the games on this list will look better on high-resolution TV screens and several of them will have improved frame rates.

Some of the games listed below will also be updated with GameShare functionality, which means that you can share supported games with friends and family, even if they don’t own that title. Here’s the full list, and links for where you can buy them at the best price.

Arms

Updates

  • Visuals optimized for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs
  • Frame rate optimized for Nintendo Switch 2 for smoother movement
  • HDR support

Where to buy

Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain

GameShare support

  • Up to four people can play in Party Mode
  • Share locally or share online via GameChat

Where to buy

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Updates

  • Visuals ptimized for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs
  • HDR support

GameShare support

  • Two people can play all of the courses
  • Share locally or share online via GameChat

Where to buy

Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics

GameShare support

  • Up to four people can play 34 games
  • Share locally or share online via GameChat

Where to buy

Game Builder Garage

Updates

  • Visuals optimized for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs.
  • Supports Joy-Con 2 mouse controls

Where to buy

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

Updates

  • Visuals optimized for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs.
  • Supports Joy-Con 2 mouse controls

Where to buy

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury

Updates

  • Visuals optimized for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs
  • Frame rate optimized for smoother movement on Nintendo Switch 2 (including Bowser’s Fury)
  • HDR support (Bowser’s Fury only)

GameShare support

  • Up to four people can play Super Mario 3D World
  • In Bowser’s Fury, two people can play together, with one player controlling Mario and the other controlling Bowser Jr.
  • Share locally or share online via GameChat

Where to buy

Super Mario Odyssey

Updates

  • Visuals optimized for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs
  • HDR support

GameShare support

  • Two people can play together, with one player controlling Mario and the other controlling Cappy
  • Share locally or share online via GameChat

Where to buy

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Updates

  • Visuals optimized for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs
  • HDR support

Where to buy

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Updates

  • Visuals optimized for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs
  • HDR support

Where to buy

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Updates

  • Several adjustments have been made to improve gameplay on Switch 2

Where to buy

Super Mario 3D All-Stars

Note: Super Mario 3D All Stars was originally sold for a limited time–both physically and digitally–and it has since been delisted. Only physical stock sold at a much higher price is currently available.

Updates

  • Several adjustments have been made to improve gameplay on Switch 2

Where to buy

Kirby Star Allies

Updates

  • Several adjustments have been made to improve gameplay on Switch 2

Where to buy

Kirby’s Dream Buffet

Updates

  • Several adjustments have been made to improve gameplay on Switch 2

Where to buy

Pikmin 3 Deluxe

Updates

  • Several adjustments have been made to improve gameplay on Switch 2

Where to buy

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Updates

  • Several adjustments have been made to improve gameplay on Switch 2

Where to buy



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Top U.S. Bitcoin miners report strong May performance and infrastructure growth
GameFi Guides

Top U.S. Bitcoin miners report strong May performance and infrastructure growth

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Some of the largest U.S.-based Bitcoin miners—CleanSpark, MARA, and Riot Platforms—released their May 2025 operational updates today, reporting solid gains.

All three companies reported month-over-month gains in Bitcoin (BTC) production, infrastructure development, and strategic positioning in the post-halving market.

CleanSpark produced 694 BTC in May and reached a hashrate of 45.6 EH/s, a 7.5% increase from the previous month. The company also announced it now holds 12,502 BTC, double its treasury from a year ago, with all reserves mined directly. 

CleanSpark expanded its contracted power capacity to 987 megawatts and is on track to become the first public miner to hit 50 EH/s with fully self-operated infrastructure. 

CEO Zach Bradford said CleanSpark’s infrastructure-first model is built to support scaling beyond 60 EH/s while maintaining full operational control.

MARA, meanwhile, reported its strongest month since the April 2024 halving. The company produced 950 BTC in May, up 35% from April, and earned 282 blocks—a 38% month-over-month increase. 

MARA’s BTC holdings now exceed 49,000, with its self-operated MARA Pool contributing significantly through above-average block reward “luck” and operational efficiencies. 

CEO Fred Thiel emphasized MARA’s vertically integrated model as key to driving down costs and optimizing energy use.

Riot Platforms mined 514 BTC in May, marking an 11% increase from April. In addition to mining growth, Riot is investing heavily in its data center business. 

The company finalized the acquisition of 355 acres near its Corsicana site in Texas to build high-performance computing data centers aimed at enterprise and hyperscale clients. Riot also appointed Jonathan Gibbs, a veteran in the sector, as Chief Data Center Officer to lead the development of the new platform.

Together, the three miners are adapting to the post-halving environment by doubling down on infrastructure, vertical integration, and strategic treasury management. 



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Performance Art Duo Operator 'Make Movement Collectible' With NFTs
NFT Gaming

Performance Art Duo Operator ‘Make Movement Collectible’ With NFTs

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NFTs have provided digital artists with new ways to monetize their work by introducing scarcity to the market, but other creative fields can also benefit, performance art duo Operator told Decrypt.

The performing arts have a “similar issue” to digital artists, explained Ania Catherine, who works with collaborator Dejha Ti as Operator. Prior to the advent of NFTs, Catherine said, “Digital artists were in a position of being in a service industry, working for advertising firms, the film industry, for entertainment—and then they would have their digital art on the side.”

Performance artists are in an even more challenging position thanks to the ephemeral nature of their work, she said. “You have an expensive medium to work in performance, because you need body, time, space, people, dancers—and in the end, there’s kind of nothing to sell.”

That’s historically limited performance artists to “dancing in commercials, teaching dance, or going on tour and dancing behind a musician,” in order to pay the bills, Catherine explained.

Collecting movement

NFTs change the game by enabling performance artists to create permanent, collectible pieces. “What does it look like if someone can own movement as an art object?” she said. That, in turn, enables “a form of patronage of people who use movement as an art form, who don’t want to use it for entertainment, but as real personal expression. How can we create an infrastructure where that can be actually monetized?”

Operator has applied that thinking to its artwork “Human Unreadable,” a three-act piece combining choreography, generative art, blockchain and cryptography that builds to a live performance to be presented at the end of 2026.

A Human Unreadable piece. Courtesy: Operator

“What we felt when we first started diving into crypto art was we were missing the presence of the human body,” Catherine said, adding that, “Early on, we could scroll through platforms for 20, 30 pages and never see the human form.”

Accordingly, Human Unreadable places the human form “at the core” of the artwork, with each of the 400 pieces in the collection representing an “underlying unique dance” generated by an algorithm. The work draws on computational choreography’s “rich and interesting history,” stretching back to the earliest digital art exhibitions at the ICA in 1967, she explained.

Storing human movement data on the Ethereum blockchain also presented its own set of challenges, she added. “We definitely felt that we were not supposed to be using blockchain and Art Blocks in this way,” she said, but were “a little delusional enough” to push through the roadblocks of a technology that was “not meant to communicate the body and dance.”

The end result explores and interrogates the technology behind generative art, she explained. “In the way that something can be spatially site-specific, or location-wise, site-specific, Human Unreadable is site-specific to long form, on-chain generative art.”

Operator’s perseverance has paid off, with Human Unreadable scooping the Experiential Award at the recent Digital Art Awards. It joins a brace of gongs on their shelf that includes two Lumen Prizes, a S+T+ARTS Prize and an ADC Award—“which are technically design awards,” Catherine said, “but we’ve won them for experiential design and things.”

Beyond the market

And while the NFT art market may be in the doldrums, with trading volumes crashing from a $2.9 billion high in 2021 to just $23.8 million in the first quarter of 2025, artists are still keen to explore the possibilities of the underlying technology, Catherine said.

“Artists don’t create for a market,” she told Decrypt. “They create because they have a curiosity or a question or a drive, or something hits them that just needs to come out.”

And while it’s still important for artists to “make money from the value that they’re bringing to the world through their craft,” she said, it shouldn’t be a surprise that they continue to push the boundaries. “Most artists don’t do it for the money or for the market. They often do it despite the bad conditions of those things,” she said. “Artists are always going to make art.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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TrueGPU
Gaming Gear

China’s first 6nm domestic GPU with purported RTX 4060-like performance has powered on

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Lisuan Technology, a Chinese graphics card startup, has announced via the company’s official WeChat account that its forthcoming G100 graphics card has successfully powered on, marking a significant milestone in its deployment. The G100 purports to be China’s first domestic 6nm graphics card.

As China embarked on its journey towards technological independence, a wave of industry veterans joined the gold rush. Founded in 2021, Lisuan Technology is among the youngest startups in the graphics card sector, alongside Moore Threads (2020) and Biren (2019).

Lisuan Technology has considerable backing, as it was reportedly established by industry veterans boasting more than 25 years of experience in Silicon Valley. The same can be said for Moore Threads, which was founded by Zhang Jianzhong, the former vice-president and general manager of Nvidia China.


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Little information is available regarding the G100, besides its use of Lisuan Technology’s proprietary TrueGPU architecture. In contrast to some Chinese firms that license intellectual property (IP) from sources like Imagination, TrueGPU asserts that it is an in-house architecture developed from the ground up.

Lisuan Technology previously stated that the G100 is created using a 6nm process node but did not reveal the manufacturer. Due to U.S. export restrictions, China cannot access the 6nm node, ruling out Samsung and TSMC as options. As a result, it is likely that the Chinese foundry SMIC is responsible for producing the silicon using its 6nm manufacturing process, which is also implemented for Huawei’s latest Ascend 920 AI chip.

With limited information, we can only rely on rumors regarding the specifications of G100. For example, it is claimed that the G100 provides performance similar to the GeForce RTX 4060. This claim generates significant skepticism, as the GeForce RTX 4060, despite being a last-generation product, is still regarded as one of the best graphics cards available; we have yet to see a Chinese-made graphics card rival it.

Additionally, the G100 is rumored to feature ample memory and modest power consumption. The G100 reportedly supports popular APIs such as DirectX 12, Vulkan 1.3, OpenGL 4.6, and OpenGL 3.0, suggesting that G100 could be a decent gaming graphics card.

Work on the G100 started in 2021, with Lisuan Technology originally aiming for a 2023 launch. However, financial difficulties obstructed these plans, and by 2024, the company neared bankruptcy. To support the struggling startup, Dongxin Semiconductor, its parent company, provided a substantial financial boost of $27.7 million, enabling continued development of the G100.

Lisuan Technology has successfully obtained the first G100 chips from the foundry, and they are operational. The outcomes seem to meet the startup’s expectations. As a result, the company has moved forward with software and hardware validation as well as driver optimization.

Clearly, the G100 has considerable progress ahead before reaching the retail market. It is reportedly in the tape-out phase and is currently undergoing risk trial production. Completing a 6nm tape-out requires substantial time and investment, indicating that Lisuan Technology is at a pivotal point in G100’s development. Lisuan Technology intends to deliver small quantities of G100 in the third quarter of this year. Nonetheless, given the timeline, mass production likely won’t happen until 2026.

Targeting the performance of the GeForce RTX 4060 isn’t bad; however, the G100 needs to function as a reliable graphics card right from the start. It’s unreasonable to expect Lisuan Technology’s first attempt to compete with the likes of Nvidia, AMD, or even Intel.

Creating a good graphics card from scratch demands considerable time and effort. Moore Threads has demonstrated that the software aspect is just as crucial as the hardware, given that new driver updates can significantly boost performance. We might see the first benchmarks for the G100 before the end of the year.

Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.



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A modded GTX 970 graphics card with 8GB VRAM
Gaming Gear

Nvidia GTX 970 memory mod boosts performance with 8GB VRAM upgrade

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The Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 was a promising graphics card at launch offering performance similar to AMD’s Radeon R9 290X at a more affordable price range. Ten years later, the GPU has been given a new life thanks to Brazilian modder Paulo Gomes and his team who managed to add more VRAM, doubling the original from 4GB to 8GB.

To increase the memory, the mod involved replacing the original 512MB, 7 Gbps GDDR5 memory modules with 1GB, 8 Gbps chips along with a resistor so that the GPU can recognize the higher density VRAM. By having access to 8GB of upgraded VRAM, the modder noted an improvement in Unigine Superposition benchmark showing nearly double the score.

This one-of-a-kind Asus Strix-branded RX 970 was then handed to Youtuber Peperaio Hardware to evaluate whether increasing VRAM on an older GPU translates to any improvement in gaming. Testing was done using a mix of old and new games where titles like Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA V Enhanced, and Plague Tale Requiem didn’t show any signs of improvement. The results were compared to a Gigabyte Windforce GTX 970 with 4GB of memory.


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In Cyberpunk 2077, the results varied depending on the graphics settings with an uplift of 5-15% in performance on the 8GB modded GPU. The two games that gained noticeable benefit from the increased VRAM were The Last of Us Part II Remastered with a 24% increase in frame rate and Horizon Forbidden West offering as much as 40% improvement.

Back in February last year, the same team of modders managed to repair and upgrade a defective RTX 3070 by replacing its original 8GB of GDDR6 memory with 12GB. The team soldered in new 2GB memory chips and modified the GPU’s BIOS to correctly detect and utilize the additional VRAM. After the upgrade, the graphics card operated stably and passed all stress tests, showing that the mod was technically viable and functionally solid.

The upgrade had led to a performance gain in games including Resident Evil 4 Remake, where the modified RTX 3070 delivered up to a 66% performance increase compared to the standard 8GB version. In The Last of Us Part I, performance saw a boost of around 25%, while Hogwarts Legacy ran 20% better with the extra VRAM.

Both Nvidia and AMD have continued to claim that 8GB of VRAM is sufficient for most gamers. However, real-world mods like the ones mentioned above, suggest otherwise. Even as modern titles become increasingly demanding, Nvidia went on to launch the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti in 8GB variants, while AMD has announced that its new Radeon RX 9060 XT will also be coming with 8GB of VRAM.

Follow Tom’s Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.



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Cooler Master Hyper 612 Apex
Gaming Gear

Cooler Master Hyper 612 Apex review: raising the bar for silent performance

by admin



Why you can trust Tom’s Hardware


Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

I first heard that Cooler Master’s Hyper 612 air cooler had impressive performance from users in China, but I had no idea quite how much it would impress me. Despite its medium size, it provides performance competitive with larger dual-tower air coolers. Cooler Master claims its performance is enabled by new superconducting heatpipe. And while normally I would ignore such claims as marketing fluff, the Hyper 612 Apex has the performance to back it up!

Will the Hyper 612 Apex make our list of the best CPU coolers? It certainly has the performance to warrant consideration. But the price of $79 is higher than most of the air-cooled competition, especially from tough competitors like Thermalight. Let’s take a look at the specifications and features of the cooler, then we’ll go over thermal performance with both Intel and AMD CPUs, as well as noise levels.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Cooler specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Cooler

Cooler Master Hyper 612 Apex

Colors

Black or white models

MSRP

$79.99

Radiator Material

Aluminum

Lighting

None

Warranty

5 years

Socket Compatibility

Intel Socket LGA 1851/1700/1200/115x AMD AM5 / AM4

Unit Dimensions

127 (L) x 114 (W) x 159mm (H)

Maximum TDP (Our Testing)

>245W with Core i7-14700K >242W with AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D

Today’s best Cooler Master Hyper 612 Apex deals

Packing and included contents

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The packaging features Cooler Master’s dark purple and pastel design, showcasing the product in the center. Inside, the packaging is separated into two separate parts.


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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Cooler Master Hyper 612 Apex deals

Included in the box are the following:

  • Single-tower heatsink with pre-installed fans
  • Cryofuse thermal paste
  • Mounting accessories for modern AMD & Intel platforms
  • Installation manual
  • PWM splitter cord

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Features of Cooler Master’s Hyper 612 Apex

▶️ Heatsink Design

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

At first glance, you might think this is a thick single tower cooler – but look again!

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

If you take off the top cover, it becomes apparent that the heatsink isn’t as large as it might appear – almost half of the unit’s thickness is from the fans that come with it.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

▶️ High-quality Cryofuse

Cooler Master includes its Cryofuse thermal compound with the cooler, which offers good performance only a couple of degrees away from the best pastes we’ve tested – but as you’ll see in our benchmarks below, it really doesn’t an edge from its thermal paste!

▶️ Sturdy metal backplate

For users of Intel platforms, a sturdy metal backplate is included that won’t bend under pressure.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

▶️ Six superconducting copper heatpipes

The design of this unit’s heatpipes are interesting. Cooler Master has mentioned that the company was using machine learning to improve its heatpipes in the past, and this cooler appears to be the first to utilize these advances.

(Image credit: Cooler Master)

Looking at the cross-section of the Cooler Master image above, you can see that the heatpipes have been staggered to evenly spread heat through the aluminum fins of the tower. Cooler Master makes some interesting claims about the heatpipes themselves. I’ve included one of the marketing slides below.

(Image credit: Cooler Master)

And here’s a bottom photo of the sample we were sent for testing, showing how the heatpipes are weaved for maximum heat dissipation.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

▶️ Complete RAM Compatibility, no matter the size of DDR5

Unlike liquid coolers, which generally don’t interfere with memory DIMMs on a motherboard, many air coolers overhang the DDR5 or DDR4 slots, creating compatibility concerns. This is not an issue for Cooler Master’s Hyper 612 Apex, which does not overhang them in any manner, ensuring compatibility no matter how short or tall your RAM sticks are.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Real world testing configuration – Intel LGA1700 and AMD AM5 platform

My results may differ from others because I emphasize results that are comparable to real-world use. This means that I test CPU coolers inside a closed desktop case, which increases cooling difficulty compared to other testing methods.

Many will test CPU coolers outside of a case, on an open test bench. Open benches have lowered ambient temperatures, which makes weak coolers appear stronger than they are. Some publications have also used generic thermal plates to test cooling solutions. I reject both of these methods because they don’t accurately reflect the real-world conditions where a CPU cooler is typically used.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

CPU

Intel Core i7-14700K

GPU

ASRock Steel Legend Radeon 7900 GRE

Motherboard

MSI Z790 Project Zero

Case

MSI Pano 100L PZ Black

System Fans

Iceberg Thermal IceGale Silent

My previous reviews have tested Intel’s latest platform, using the Core Ultra 9 285K Arrow Lake CPU. But we’re retiring this from our testing suite. Between BIOS changes and Windows updates, Arrow Lake’s thermal characteristics have changed in some scenarios, rendering much of our previous testing data useless.

With today’s review, we’re also testing AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D. This is a beast of a CPU, providing the best gaming and multithreaded performance on the market. It can prove quite challenging thermally when PBO is enabled for overclocking.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

CPU

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D

GPU

MSI Ventus 3X RTX 4070Ti Super

Motherboard

MSI X870E Carbon Wifi

Case

MSI MAG Pano 100R PZ

AM5 and 1851 installation

The installation of this cooler is simple for both Intel and AMD CPUs.

1. You’ll first need to apply the included backplate if you’re using an Intel CPU. AMD users will need to remove the default mounting mechanism.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

2. Next, you’ll need to install the standoffs against the mounting holes.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

3. Take the support bars and place them on the mounting standoffs, and secure them with a screwdriver.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

4. Apply the included thermal paste to your CPU. If you have any questions on how to do this properly, please refer to our handy guide on how to apply thermal paste.

5. Mount the heatsink on top of the CPU, using a screwdriver to secure the screws on each side of the tower.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

6. Slide each fan into the appropriate spot against the heatsink

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

7. Place the cover on top, and then use the included PWM splitter cable to connect the fans to your motherboard.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Cooler Master Hyper 612 Apex: Price Comparison



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TEAMGROUP
Gaming Gear

The SSD wars heat up as TeamGroup’s 64TB drive enters the arena with bold Gen5 performance promises

by admin



  • TeamGroup’s 64TB SSD aims for enterprise dominance with AI-ready specs and Gen5 speed
  • PCIe Gen5 promises speed, but real-world benchmarks will tell the true performance story
  • Massive storage meets modern AI demands, but price remains the elephant in the room

In a market where storage capacities and speeds are constantly evolving to meet the needs of AI and cloud infrastructure, another player has stepped forward with a bold offering.

TeamGroup has announced its entry into the 64TB SSD space with the T-CREATE MASTER Ai I5U U.2 PCIe 5.0 SSD, a high-capacity solid-state drive built with enterprise workloads in mind.

This launch comes about a year after Western Digital teased a similar PCIe Gen5 model for AI applications, and five years after Nimbus Data introduced the first 64TB SSD, the ExaDrive NL series.


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Enterprise-first design with next-gen performance specs

Unlike consumer SSDs competing for a spot among the best portable drives, TeamGroup’s latest entry is aimed squarely at enterprise environments.

With support for the U.2 PCIe 5.0 interface and storage capacity maxing out at 64TB, the I5U is positioned as a tool for cloud-based databases and edge computing.

According to TeamGroup, it is “designed specifically for cloud infrastructure and database applications” and optimized for the demands of “large language models” and intensive AI-driven workloads.

PCIe Gen5 has become the benchmark for future-proof performance in both consumer and enterprise sectors, but claims such as “ultra-fast PCIe Gen5 speeds with enterprise-grade endurance” should be treated with caution.

Until third-party benchmarks emerge, it’s difficult to evaluate the drive’s real-world reliability and performance.

Past efforts to identify the best SSDs based purely on theoretical throughput have often ignored key factors like thermal performance, latency under load, and sustained write consistency, all of which are critical in large-scale deployments.

TeamGroup’s entry also arrives amid a broader trend of high-capacity SSDs hitting the market. From Solidigm’s 61.44TB D5-P5336 to Micron’s 6.144TB 6550 Ion SSD, competition in the ultra-high-capacity segment is heating up.

One element that remains unclear for TeamGroup’s I5U is pricing. Enterprise-grade drives at this scale rarely come cheap, but TeamGroup is known for value-oriented options.

This raises speculation that its 64TB SSD might come closer to affordability than previous alternatives.

While it’s unlikely to ever replace the best external HDDs in terms of raw cost per gigabyte, it signals that ultra-high-capacity SSDs are edging closer to broader adoption.

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False positive
Gaming Gear

Microsoft’s Smart App Control blocks malware and has ‘lighter impact on your PC’s performance’

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With Windows 11 22H2, Microsoft introduced a new component to its security suite, aiming to prevent malicious applications, dubbed Smart App Control (SAC). This feature complements Microsoft Defender, blocking untrusted or unknown code from executing on a proactive basis. Now, in an updated blog post pushing the feature, Microsoft claims a performance boost compared to traditional AV solutions, though small print indicates you will require a fresh Windows installation to use this feature.

Traditional antivirus software, such as Microsoft Defender, adopts an “Innocent until proven guilty” approach. These solutions are largely reactive, trusting programs until their behavior triggers an alert. Microsoft Defender employs signature-based detection, behavioral checks (heuristics), and cloud protection to prevent malicious software on your system. When faced with novel (zero-day) malware or polymorphic threats, which can bypass signature checks, Defender falls back to heuristics, observing the malware’s actions until it detects suspicious behavior.

Here’s where Smart App Control enters the fray, employing a proactive methodology, operating on the principle of “Guilty until proven innocent.” It assesses the application’s security by vetting it against Microsoft’s Intelligence Security Graph (a cloud-based reputation service). If this test is inconclusive, it attempts to validate the application’s digital signature, to ensure its origin from a trusted developer. The application is blocked by Windows Security if it is predicted to be malicious in the first check or unsigned in the second check.


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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Essentially, SAC bypasses traditional behavioral checks by ensuring only verified applications can run on your system. Although Microsoft claims Smart App Control offers a performance boost over traditional antivirus solutions, it is designed to operate in parallel with Windows Defender. Unlike Windows Defender, if SAC deems a program malicious, it cannot be flagged as a false positive or whitelisted. As such, SAC is likely to be a poor fit for enthusiasts or developers, better serving enterprise systems or individuals who aren’t as tech-savvy.

To prevent such conflicts, Microsoft runs Smart App Control through an evaluation phase to determine if this feature would hinder your day-to-day activities. This is a one-way street: if SAC is deemed unsuitable for your system, it will be disabled and can only be re-enabled by reinstalling Windows. Likewise, if you decide to turn it off yourself, you won’t be able to simply switch it back on.

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Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 review: better than console performance - but not enough VRAM
Game Reviews

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 review: better than console performance – but not enough VRAM

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The RTX 5060 is here, finally completing the 50-series lineup that debuted five months ago with the 5090. The new “mainstream” graphics card is far from cheap at $299/£270, but ought to offer reasonable performance and efficiency while adding the multi frame generation feature that’s exclusive to this generation of GPUs. However, the 5060 also ships with just 8GB of VRAM, which could be a big limitation for those looking to play the latest graphics showcases.

Before we get into our results, it’s worth mentioning why this review is a little later than normal, coming a few days after the cards officially went on sale on May 19th. Normally, Nvidia or their partners send a graphics card and the necessary drivers anywhere from a couple of days to a week before the embargo date, which is typically a day before the cards go on sale. That’s good for us, because it allows us to do the in-depth analysis that we prefer and still publish at the same time as other outlets, and it’s good for potential buyers, as they can get a sense of value and performance and therefore make an informed decision about whether to buy a card or not – from what is often a limited supply at launch.

For the RTX 5060 launch, Nvidia – via Asus – delivered a card in good time ahead of its release, but the drivers weren’t released to reviewers until the card went on sale on May 19th, coinciding with Nvidia’s Computex presentation. Without the drivers, the card is a paperweight, so any launch day coverage is necessarily limited – and in many cases, graphics cards went out of stock before the usual tranche of reviews went live from the tech press. It’s a frustrating situation all around, and I doubt that even Nvidia’s PR department will be thrilled that most reviews start with the same complaint.

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5060 gets the Digital Foundry video review treatment.Watch on YouTube

Following the public release of the drivers, we’ve been benchmarking around the clock to figure out just how performant the new RTX 5060 is, where its strengths and weaknesses lie, and where it falls compared to the rest of the 50-series line-up, prior generation RTX cards and competing AMD models.

Looking at the specs, you can see that the RTX 5060 is based around a cut-down version of the same GB206 die that powered the RTX 5060 Ti. The 5060 has 83 percent of the core count and rated power of the full-fat 5060 Ti design, with an innocuous three percent drop to boost clocks and the same 448GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Unlike the 5060 Ti, however, which debuted in 8GB and 16GB models, the 5060 is only available with 8GB of frame buffer memory – a limitation we’ll discuss in some depth later. For your 16.6 percent reduction to core count and TGP versus the 5060 Ti, you pay around 20 percent less – so the 5060 ought to be slightly better value.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Monster Hunter World – 1440p resolution. We aren’t at native resolution. We aren’t on ultra settings, but both 8GB RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti see performance collapse. The 16GB RTX 5060 Ti works fine and delivers good performance – proof positive that 8GB is too much of a limiting factor for these cards. | Image credit: Digital Foundry

RTX 5070 Ti
RTX 5070
RTX 5060 Ti
RTX 5060

Processor
GB203
GB205
GB206
GB206

Cores
8,960
6,144
4,608
3,840

Boost Clock
2.45GHz
2.51GHz
2.57GHz
2.50GHz

Memory
16GB GDDR7
12GB GDDR7
16GB GDDR7
8GB GDDR7
8GB GDDR7

Memory Bus Width
256-bit
192-bit
128-bit
128-bit

Memory Bandwidth
896GB/s
672GB/s
448GB/s
448GB/s

Total Graphics Power
300W
250W
180W
150W

PSU Recommendation
750W
650W
450W
450W

Price
$749/£729
$549/£539
$429/£399
$379/£349
$299

Release Date
February 20th
March 5th
April 16th
May 19th

There’s no RTX 5060 Founders Edition, as you’d perhaps expect for a mainstream model, with various third-party cards available in a range of sizes. The RTX 5060 model we received is the Asus Prime model, an over-engineered 2.5-slot, tri-fan design that is nonetheless described as “SFF-ready” due to its relatively modest 268mm length. On top of the robust industrial design, the card features a dual BIOS with “quiet” and “performance” options – always useful. In this case however, the cooler is so large that even the “performance” option is very, very quiet. The card ships with this preset and we recommend it stays there.

Hilariously, the manufacturer product page recommends a 750W or 850W Asus power supply, though the specs page for the same model makes a more sane 550W recommendation. Regardless, you’ll be good to go with a single eight-pin power connector. In terms of ports, we’re looking at the RTX 50-series standard assortment, including one HDMI 2.1b and three DisplayPort 2.1b.

Like the RTX 5060 Ti – but not AMD’s just-announced Radeon RX 9060 XT – the RTX 5060 uses a PCIe 8x connection. That’s perfectly fine on a modern PCIe 5.0 or 4.0 slot, but potentially problematic on earlier motherboards with PCIe 3.0 slots – something we’ll test out in more detail on page eight.

For our testing, we’ll be pairing the RTX 5060 with a bleeding-edge system based around the fastest gaming CPU – the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. We also have 32GB of Corsair DDR5-6000 CL30 memory, a high-end Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero motherboard and a 1000W Corsair PSU.

With all that said, let’s get into the benchmarks.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Analysis

  • Introduction and test rig [This Page]
  • RT benchmarks: Alan Wake 2, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Cyberpunk 2077
  • RT benchmarks: Dying Light 2, F1 24, Hitman: World of Assassination
  • RT benchmarks: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, A Plague Tale: Requiem
  • Game benchmarks: Alan Wake 2, Black Myth: Wukong, Cyberpunk 2077
  • Game benchmarks: F1 24, Forza Horizon 5, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
  • Game benchmarks: Hitman: World of Assassination, A Plague Tale: Requiem
  • PCIe 3.0 vs PCIe 5.0: Black Myth: Wukong, F1 24, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
  • PlayStation 5 comparisons and DLSS 4 multi frame generation
  • Conclusions, value and recommendations

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