Tom's Hardware

‘Shockingly real’ AI Santa is free to use, will put Mall Santas everywhere out of jobs

Tavus has created a new AI-powered Santa at santa.tavus.io so you can have what it says is a ‘shockingly real’ conversation with Santa without going to see a mall Santa. The AI Santa is backed by Y Combinator, Sequoia, and Peter Thiel. While the call is free, there’s bound to be a monetization scheme somewhere… Read more

Ventiva’s Ionic Cooling Engine has no fans but is quieter, higher performance, and more efficient than Frore AirJet according to TechTuber teaser

Tech enthusiast Dave2D has drawn the IT community’s attention to an intriguing up-and-coming laptop cooler company, Ventiva. Through its Ionic Cooling Engine (ICE) solid-state cooling technology, Ventiiva could be set to revolutionize laptop cooling, and early testing results shared by Dave2D seem extremely promising. Like other solid-state coolers (which are a pre-existing technology but incredibly… Read more

Entire Intel Core 200 laptop lineup leaks out — Intel prepping to launch 22 new mobile CPUs next month at CES 2025

The beans have been spilled regarding Intel’s Core 200 family of CPUs as data aggregator momomo_us has detailed the entire family across a series of tweets at X. The data misses out on key specifications such as core counts, but most of that information has been covered in the past. On that note, the leak… Read more

Dual Intel Arc B580 PC details shared — they will be used alongside an Nvidia Titan Xp for fast FluidX3D simulations

Reddit user u/ProjectPhysX shared his PC build on r/pcmasterrace, showcasing two Intel Arc B580s used for running simulations on FluidX3D. The system, which has a Build/Battlestation flair, also has an Nvidia Titan Xp 12GB, giving it a total of 36GB of VRAM. But despite the three GPUs connected, u/ProjectPhysX surprisingly only uses an 800-watt PSU… Read more

Nintendo Switch 2 design seemingly leaked by carrying case maker — similar aesthetics but with a larger screen and Joy-Cons

Several legitimate-looking leaks of the Nintendo Switch 2’s final design have surfaced this past week. Still, these culminated yesterday with Dbrand’s unexpected release of a full 3D render of a Nintendo Switch 2, albeit with a version of the Dbrand Killswitch carrying case for handheld PCs redesigned for Switch 2. Speaking to The Verge on… Read more

PlayStation 5 transformed into a laptop for $2,750 — Chinese modders made Sony’s console more portable with a 17.3-inch 4K display weighing over 9 pounds

Chinese modders have made Sony’s PlayStation 5 portable (Credit: VideoCardz) in a laptop-esque battery-less form factor at Weibo. BBook AI has a massive 17.3-inch display and a rather chunky build reminiscent of old bulky gaming laptops. It weighs over 9 pounds, but it is visually a real head-turner. The BBook AI Original Edition’s 3D-printed chassis… Read more

There’s a budget GeForce GPU selling in China that not even Nvidia knew it made — RTX 4010 turns out to be a modified RTX A400 workstation GPU

(Image credit: Nvidia) According to Nvidia, the RTX 4010 doesn’t exist, yet one YouTuber could buy one and use it mostly without issue. The video by Budget-Builds Official shows off the graphics card that purports to be an RTX 4010. How the YouTuber obtained the card is strange; Budget-Builds Official found the GPU on an… Read more

Intel Arrow Lake-H and AMD Krackan Point laptops emerge at retailers — preliminary listings indicate that manufacturers are gearing up for launch next month

Preliminary listings at Australian and Greek retailers (credit: Huang514613 at X) reveal that Asus’s next wave of laptop offerings—powered by AMD’s Krackan Point and Intel’s Arrow Lake-H processors—is on the horizon. Many rumors suggest that AMD and Intel plan to unveil their next-generation mobile offerings next month at CES 2025. AMD is expected to showcase… Read more

Overclocking Arrow Lake: How I set world records, plus simple tips to push your Core Ultra to the limit

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) Intel’s Arrow Lake has tremendous memory overclocking potential — as I’ll outline below. I was able to set the world memory overclocking frequency record at an insane DDR5-12666 — and some dead-simple tuning tips can help improve performance even for regular builds. However, the new chip design presents plenty of challenges… Read more

US to patch loopholes that allow China to buy banned AI GPUs from other countries — new regulations include national quotas on GPU exports and a global licensing system

Chinese entities have obtained advanced Nvidia GPUs for AI and HPC applications despite U.S. restrictions through an advanced underground smuggling network from third-party countries. The U.S. government is unhappy about this, so it plans to implement new regulations to limit Chinese companies from acquiring these AI GPUs from intermediary countries. The rule will purportedly go into effect… Read more

TSMC shares deep-dive details about its cutting edge 2nm process node at IEDM 2024 — 35 percent less power, or 15% more performance

(Image credit: TSMC via IEDM) TSMC revealed additional details about its N2 (2nm-class) fabrication process at the IEEE International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) earlier this month. The new production node promises a 24 to 35% power reduction or 15% performance improvement at the same voltage, and 1.15X higher transistor density than the prior-gen 3nm process…. Read more

Qualcomm fires back at Intel’s claims of high laptop return rates — the company says Snapdragon X PCs are within ‘industry norm’ for returns

Late on Friday, Qualcomm reacted to a claim by an interim Intel co-CEO that the return rates of Qualcomm Snapdragon X-based PCs were high as customers were unsatisfied with their systems due to software incompatibilities. Qualcomm (via CRN) denied the claim and said that return rates of Snapdragon X-powered computers are within industry norms, saying customers are happy with… Read more

Intel tempers expectations for next-gen Falcon Shores AI GPU — Gaudi 3 missed AI wave, Falcon will require fast iterations to be competitive

Having dumped its Xe-HPC GPU accelerators in favor of Gaudi, and still missing its own sales goals with its Gaudi 3 AI accelerator, Intel is pinning its AI hopes on its next-gen Falcon Shores GPU platform. However, interim co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus said this week that Falcon Shores will be a new start requiring fast iteration, rather than… Read more

Minisforum’s AM5 mini-PC gets Ryzen 9 9950X upgrade for $919 — adding 64GB RAM and 2TB SSD pushes the price tag to $1,199

(Image credit: Minisforum) Amidst the chaos of October, Minisforum launched the MS-A1 AM5 mini-PC with both barebones and a Ryzen 7 8700G configuration— but earlier this morning, Minisforum also added a new variant with Ryzen 9 9950X. Compared to other mini PCs, which usually don’t come in alternative barebones forms, MS-A1 may be the most… Read more

Nvidia revives LAN party after 13 years to celebrate RTX 50-series GPU launch — GeForce LAN 50 is a 50-hour LAN party across four different cities

Nvidia is hosting its first LAN party in over a decade to celebrate the RTX 50 series debut at CES 2025. The LAN party (dubbed GeForce LAN 50) will start on January 4 at 4:30 pm PT and end right before Nvidia CES Jensen Huang gives his opening speech at the CES event in Las… Read more