Tom's Hardware

Taiwanese authorities accuse SMIC and allies of poaching engineers

Taiwan is investigating whether Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), China’s largest contract chipmaker and the world’s third largest foundry, broke local laws by secretly recruiting engineers to get experienced staff and gain insights of Taiwanese semiconductor know how, reports Bloomberg. The investigation is part of a broader crackdown on unauthorized activities by Chinese tech companies… Read more

Nvidia’s 50-series laptop launch looks bumpy: slipping ship dates, game crashes, and delayed review units

(Image credit: Shutterstock) There’s no nice way to say it: Nvidia’s RTX 50-series laptop GPU launch has been messy. For potential buyers, it’s a mix of drivers that aren’t fully baked and what we expect will be very limited amounts of stock. Behind the scenes, laptop manufacturers have seemingly been scrambling to get these things… Read more

$3,700 RTX 5090 GPUs have found new homes after sitting on US retailer’s shelves

March 30 marks the two-month anniversary of the RTX 50-series GPU launch, yet Nvidia still has not managed to mitigate its apparent supply-chain concerns that have hampered inventory and street prices since day one. A Reddit user shared an image from Micro Center Dallas, where we can see the elusive RTX 5090, one of the… Read more

Crucial Pro Overclocking DDR5-6400 C38 2x16GB Review: Deceitfully Fast

Tom’s Hardware Verdict The Crucial Pro Overclocking DDR5-6400 C38 is a very solid memory kit that appeals to both Intel and AMD CPU owners. However, savvy shoppers should check for like-priced kits with lower timings. Pros + Great overall performance + Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO support + Elegant, low-profile design Cons – Low… Read more

Intel’s board gets industry-focused as three directors will not seek re-election — badly needed shift to deeper tech experience

Intel has announced that three members of its 14-person board of directors will not seek reelection at the 2025 annual meeting on May 5, reducing the board to 11, as observed by Reuters. Two out of three directors come from the healthcare industry, and their departure marks the board’s shift to become a more high-tech… Read more

Our alternate pick for the best gaming CPU is $190 cheaper than the 9800X3D right now – pick up the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X for just $289

If you’re after the very best gaming desktop CPU, then the good news is the Ryzen 7 9800X3D from AMD is back in stock at most retailers for around the $479 MSRP list price. However, for $190 less than our top pick, you can still bag an AM5 9000-series processor with the same 8-cores and… Read more

Microsoft updates the Windows Game Bar to be more user friendly with PC Handhelds

Microsoft released several updates related to the Xbox gaming ecosystem, including enhancements for the Windows 11 Game Bar. In a recent blog post, the trillion-dollar software giant announced a UI refresh for Game Bar, its Xbox Cloud Gaming platform optimizations, and more. The Windows 10/11 Game Bar UI refresh consists of a newly “refreshed design”… Read more

More 3D Printing Leaks: Is a New Tool Changer on the Horizon?

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) Leaked photos appear to show a new collaboration between 3D printing manufacturer Snapmaker and laser company Xtool. It’s an interesting team-up, as both companies have made multifunctional devices and stand-alone lasers. Snapmaker’s last 3D printer was the impressive Snapmaker Artisan, which launched in 2022. It is a premium 3D printer with… Read more

New advanced filesystem format option found in Windows 11 preview build — ReFS supports up to 35 petabytes

The newest insider builds of Windows 11 are allowing users to create and clean install onto freshly formatted NTFS (Default) or ReFS partitions. Windows Insider sleuth PhantomOfEarth highlighted this new option, which seems to have come along with Build 27823. The arrival of ReFS, which stands for Resilient File System, should be beneficial in several… Read more

Blower-style RTX 4090 48GB teardown reveals dual-sided memory configuration — PCB design echoes the RTX 3090

Since the US imposition of sanctions prohibiting the sale of high-performance GPUs to China, indigenous manufacturers have taken it upon themselves to mitigate these limitations by modifying existing solutions. One of the results of these modding endeavors is an RTX 4090 with 48GB of GDDR6X memory, which is now becoming commonplace among local circles. Russian… Read more

Lenovo Thinkpad X9 review: The prettiest business PC

Tom’s Hardware Verdict Despite ditching the traditional ThinkPad input devices, there’s a lot to like about the X9’s design. But battery life and performance don’t help this pretty business machine stand out. Pros + Beautiful design + Excellent webcam + Pretty display + Thunderbolt ports on both sides Cons – Performance isn’t great (in this… Read more

AMD’s non-X3D Ryzen 9 9950X processor hits an all-time low in Amazon’s Big Spring Sale 2025

AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X, was the flagship Zen 5 CPU for the company’s latest Granite Ridge family of processors before the arrival of the $699 Ryzen 9 9950X3D, but, if gaming prowess isn’t your main concern, then the 9950X is still king for 16-core workloads. One of the most powerful consumer CPUs around, the 9950X… Read more

Mass production of ‘world’s first’ color e-paper display over 30-inches begins

A Chinese firm has started to mass produce a 31.2-inch color e-paper display. Local media reports (machine translation) that Guangzhou Aoyi Electronic Technology Co Ltd worked with Shenzhen Jin Yatai Technology Co Ltd to meld display, image processing, and FPGA technologies to realize this new screen which is capable of “smooth video playback” at 18… Read more

China’s SiCarrier challenges U.S. and EU with full-spectrum of chipmaking equipment — Huawei-linked firm makes an impressive debut

(Image credit: TSMC) Chinese chipmakers have been gradually shifting some of their production to tools made in China in a bid to support the local wafer fab equipment ecosystem and reduce reliance on tools produced abroad. China already has several well-known manufacturers of chipmaking tools that specialize in one or two types of equipment, which set… Read more

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang expects GAA-based technologies to bring a 20% performance uplift

(Image credit: TSMC) Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said during a Q&A session at GTC that next-generation process technologies relying on gate-all-around (GAA) transistors will likely bring about a 20% performance boost for the company’s processors, reports EE Times. However, the most significant performance uplifts for Nvidia’s GPUs are brought by the company’s architectures, as well as… Read more