We’re in that exciting period leading up to the release of some of next year’s best graphics cards, and that means leaks and predictions are coming out every single day. The last few weeks have really brought into focus AMD’s next-gen flagship, which is now said to be called the RX 9070 XT. But now, more than ever, we’re seeing a lot of conflicting information about the kind of performance we can expect from the top RDNA 4 card. The latest leaks see it falling within a stone’s throw of Nvidia’s RTX 4080.
According to zhangzhonghao on the Chiphell forums (who is a frequent leaker in the CPU and GPU space), the difference between the RX 9070 XT and the RTX 4080 is just 5%. They didn’t specify which card was the winner, though, and we don’t know which games they were tested in.
This falls in line with many previous predictions about the new AMD flagship. Many previous leakers compared it to the RTX 4080, but others placed it at around the level of the RX 7900 XT — which is not at all comparable. The only leaked benchmark we’ve seen for the GPU is a Time Spy test that shows it performing slower than the RX 7900 XT, although a second test reveals that it can compete against the RTX 4070 Ti.
Safe to say, it’s all a bit all over the place.
Power：Reference 26xW，custom variant up to 330W
Gaming performance：Reference ~4080（-5%）https://t.co/JOT3IqnWgo
— HXL (@9550pro) December 26, 2024
Aside from that vague performance prediction, though, zhangzhonghao also revealed some key specs for the card. The leaker believes that the AMD version of the RX 9070 XT will feature a total board power (TBP) of around 260 watts, but models made by AMD’s partners may bump that up to as high as 330 watts. This kind of TBP is comparable to what we expect to see in the RTX 5070 Ti, but of course, that doesn’t have to mean similar performance.
The Chiphell tipster also expects the card to feature a base clock of 2.8GHz that can be boosted to anywhere between 3.0 and 3.1GHz. Those numbers are attainable with overclocking in the current generation, but are still on the higher end of the scale.
We’re just 10 days away from AMD announcing the RX 9070 XT — presumably alongside other cards from the lineup — so it’s important to take all of this with some skepticism. It won’t be long until we know the exact specs, and that’ll give us a good hint about possible performance figures.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.