Hey, I know you've been quietly weeping because you have a job and a cat and you weren't able
to fly to Taiwan to get all your Computex news, but we've got something for you right here.
Come on. It's good. AMD has finally announced their Ryzen 9000 series of CPUs will be dropping
in July, as well as some other goodies during their opening keynote at Computex in Taiwan.
AMD claims the new chips offer an average performance gain of 12% over last generation,
while also being more power efficient. So far, so AMD. According to Team Red's numbers, the
flagship Ryzen 99950X apparently outperforms Intel's current Core i9-14900K flagship by an
average of 11% in gaming and 21% in productivity tasks, which I don't do, I procrastinate.
The 9000 series will fit into AMD's AM5 CPU socket, and it seems future chips will as well,
while AMD previously stated that they will support AM5 until at least 2025.
They've now upped that commitment to at least 2027, but that doesn't mean that they forgot about
UAM4 users. No, AMD has also announced they'll be launching two brand new Ryzen 5000 desktop
CPUs three and a half years after originally launching the 5000 series. And even if you're
looking to upgrade to AM5, AMD's newly announced X870 and X870e motherboard chipsets also support
older Ryzen 7000 and 8000 chips, providing a little upgrade path for you once AM4 stops
being supported. I mean, it's eight years old, it's lived a full life, but yeah, just like kids and
dogs. In even more CPU news, AMD teased their Zen 5 powered Epic server processors, but didn't get
into too many details, but mentioned it would be compatible with their existing SP5 socket
that their current Epic chips use, and that it will apparently decimate Intel Xeon processors.
AMD also also admitted to changing its mobile CPU naming scheme again, confirming the rumored
Ryzen AI 300 series name. AMD claims they're starting at 300 because it's the third generation
of mobile chips to come with an NPU, but leaks and rumors point to them just wanting a bigger
number than Intel's core Ultra 200 series. Guys, it's not the size of your processor,
it's how you use it. It's the motion of the ocean, baby. It's the squequency of the frequency.
I'll keep that in. NVIDIA's rivalry with AMD is causing the company to do some very petty things. For starters,
while AMD was the opening keynote for Computex, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wong organized his own keynote
speech, which he gave the day before the event actually started. Computex even added Jensen's
presentation to the official event calendar to really rub it in. Adding insult to injury was
that NVIDIA didn't really have anything to say, at least not for your average gamer and tech
enthusiast. Jensen teased Rubin, the company's next AI chip architecture, before Blackwell has
even shipped to customers. There was a lot of talk about what AI could do, some of it downright
frightening. After initially debuting NVIDIA's ace technology as a way to create more interactive
video game NPCs, Wong now imagines digital humans as something that will revolutionize other industries
like making digital customer service agents, digital healthcare workers, and other replacements for
human jobs. Hopefully not mine. There was some news for consumers. The company teased RTX AI PC
laptops that will eventually enable co-pilot plus features thanks to power efficient systems on a
chip. What that means is these laptops use AMD CPUs. NVIDIA just didn't want to say that on their own
site, but they admitted as much to the verge. NVIDIA also claimed that its GPUs could technically run
co-pilot plus features themselves, but it wouldn't be as efficient. Just take the L, dude.
There are also some maybe positive AI developments from NVIDIA. Their geosys chatbot can give you
tips on the game you're playing or even optimize your graphic setting for you. Still no word on an
AI that can help me find a new job after I get replaced by another AI. In order to access the
quick bits, please click this checkbox to confirm you're not a robot. If you fell for that, please
click this box to let us know. Qualcomm also had a keynote at Computex where they teased bringing
Snapdragon X to desktop. CEO Cristiano Aman said the company's SOCs will bring co-pilot plus to
all PC form factors. The news was so exciting that Mac guy Justin Long came out of computer
ad retirement to riff on the Mac commercials he starred in 20 years ago. Long also spoofed his
Mac ads for Intel three years ago. Sure, Qualcomm is arguably about to kill x86, the CPU architecture
that put Intel on the map, but at least Intel can take solace knowing they made a mediocre ad
parody first. ASUS has finally revealed full specs for its ROG Ally X Windows handheld, which
sports more RAM, more storage, and a bigger battery than the original Ally. It also replaced the weird
ROG XG mobile port with an additional USB 4 port and has an extra vent to help with thermals,
and while those are all cool things, what's less cool is ASUS still not confirming the cause of the
original Ally's SD card reader issue or how many units were affected by it. So you may want to
remain cautious unless your favorite handheld game is called ASUS Support Line 2 Phantom Liberty.
Sony will be launching a PSVR 2 to PC adapter on August 7th, likely for around 60 bucks. The
PSVR 2 natively uses a single USB-C cable, but the adapter will allow it to connect to PC via a
DisplayPort. DisplayPort cable, not included. The adapter likewise includes USB and HDMI for
screen capturing and sharing. There are a few caveats. The headset won't have adaptive triggers,
eye tracking, or HDR on PC. On the bright side, this might actually help Sony move its giant,
embarrassing mountain of unsold headsets currently gathering dust in a warehouse somewhere.
Sony's new ACE headphones, their first ever, are due to launch in two days. They're apparently
well designed, comfortable, and sound great. Which they'd better. That's like Sony's whole thing.
The headphones can switch seamlessly between two connected Bluetooth devices,
but some audio files have been disappointed to learn that they can't connect directly to Wi-Fi,
despite containing a Wi-Fi chip, likely a compromise to preserve battery life.
Sadly, that could have been the killer feature to distinguish them from other premium headphones,
especially after the baffling own goal that was neutering the Sonos app four weeks before a major
product launch. And a Google employee was apparently behind several leaked Nintendo announcements.
404 Media got their hands on internal Google database full of privacy and security incidents
from between 2013 and 2018. One of those incidents involved a Google contractor using admin privileges
to download and watch an unreleased, privated Nintendo trailer on YouTube. This contractor then
shared a screenshot with a friend who posted it on Reddit. What a friend. In Google's investigation
of the incident, they determined the leak was non-intentional. These things happen,
you see an image of Yoshi, your vision goes black, and you're longer in control of yourself.
We've all been there. But you should control yourself by coming back on Wednesday for more
tech news. You're compelled.