Gaming

ASUS ROG Flow Z13 Windows Tablet

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The 2025 ASUS ROG Flow Z13 features AMD’s Strix Halo processor, which is truly a great mobile processor with excellent integrated graphics.  This device is a bit chunky for a tablet, but if you like the form factor, this is certainly a great option.  This device also has integrated memory so both the CPU and GPU parts of the APU can share the same RAM.

Starting at $2000, these are not budget or value devices.  These are targeted at gamers who want top notch mobile specs in a portable form factor.  These should also be usable for mobile video editing and other intensive applications.  You probably won’t miss having a discrete graphic cards and if you need something more powerful a desktop or large laptop would likely suit you better.

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AMD Ryzen 9950X3D and 9900X3D

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We all knew these models were coming so it’s nice to have them finally announced:

Model Cores/Threads Max boost TDP L3 Cache
Ryzen 9 9950X3D 16/32 5.7GHz 170W 144MB
Ryzen 9 9900X3D 12/24 5.5GHz 120W 140MB

 

Price has not yet been announced but they won’t be cheap. The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 4.2 GHz 16-Core AM5 Processor is presently listed at $700 at B&H Photo.  Unfortunately, we’re not expecting these to be that much faster than the 7000 series equivalents.  Perhaps 10% at best.  But we would be happy to be wrong on this front.

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Nvidia RTX 5000 Blackwell Series

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Rumors seem to be indicating that we might see the Nvidia RTX 5000 Blackwell cards in 2024.  We certainly hope this is true.  Not much is known about these cards yet although we are seeing several sources say there could be a 40% generational improvement which would be quite significant.

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AMD Navi 44 and 48 Video Card Information Leaks (RDNA 4)

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Finally some reliable information has come out about AMD’s next generation of video cards.

What we’ve learned:

  • Monolithic dies via TSMC 4NP (all this really means is that they got slightly better dies than NVIDIA has right now)
  • We’re seeing boosting of between 3.0-3.3 GHz
  • FP8 and matrix hardware now present
  • RDNA 4 will be ready for Q4 of 2024, however the marketing team will decide when these will ultimately launch (possibly 2025)
  • Navi 41 and 42 to have GDDR7 memory

We’re always happy to see anyone compete against NVIDIA as they’re the kind of company that needs competition to keep them from bad behavior.

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ASUS ROG STRIX XG259QNS 1080P 380 Hz Monitor

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The ROG Strix XG259QNS was announced on February 5, 2024 by ASUS.  This 24.5″ 1080P IPS panel monitor is clearly target at gamers with its refresh rate of 380Hz and a response time of up to 0.3ms.  The brightness is adequate but not amazing at 400cd/m².  We wish it had HDMI 2.1 instead of 2.0.

The price is not known yet but the current XG259QN monitor with very similar specifications sells for $450 presently.  We also don’t know the release date but we expect it soon.

See ASUS’s specification page about this monitor for more information.

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AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D Reviews Begin to Roll In

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Image of a boxed AMD CPU

If you already have an AMD AM4 platform system or you’re trying to build a good budget gaming system then the $250 AMD Ryzen 5700X3D is a strong contender.  It beats out an Intel i5-13600KF on gaming benchmarks.

The 5800X3D costs 20% plus more and has a 15% performance advantage or so over the 5700X3D in gaming.  For most people’s use cases the 5700X3D should be more than fine and they won’t notice that 15% less.

It is a strange release this far into the AM4’s life cycle but we are not complaining!

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