Nvidia’s best graphics cards are often paired with expensive CPUs, but what if you want to try a completely mismatched, retro configuration? Well, that used to be impossible due to driver issues. But, for whatever reason, Nvidia has just removed the instruction that prevented you from doing so, opening the door to some fun, albeit nonsensical, CPU and GPU combinations.
The instruction in question is called POPCNT (Population Count), and this is a CPU instruction that also prevents Windows 11 from being installed on older hardware. Its job is counting how many bits are present in a binary number. However, as spotted by TheBobPony on X (Twitter), POPCNT will not be a problem for Nvidia’s latest graphics cards anymore.
UPDATE: Recent NVIDIA drivers no longer require the POPCNT CPU instruction, this means old CPUs such as the Intel Core 2 Duo will be able to install the latest NVIDIA drivers without any issues.
And yes, that also means you could possibly pair an RTX 5090 with Core 2 Duo now. 😏 https://t.co/6GwpG9RrMP pic.twitter.com/v8h4eduVH5
Looking back at the specs of these CPUs makes me nostalgic. The Intel Core 2 Duo was built on a 65nm (and later 45nm) process node and offered two cores and two threads; a far cry from the CPUs we see today. It had 2MB to 6MB of shared L2 cache and maximum clock speeds ranging from 800MHz to 1,333MHz. Not much to write home about.
And yet, if you for some reason feel compelled to, you can now pair one with an Nvidia RTX 5090, all thanks to this new driver update.
With the removal of POPCNT, you can use Nvidia’s latest graphics with just about any CPU. Previously, trying to do so would’ve caused what TheBobPony refers to as a “soft brick,” meaning your PC would get stuck in a boot loop until it finally got rid of the driver that made it crash and launched Windows Recovery mode.
Realistically, no one’s going to buy an RTX 50-series (or even an RTX 20-series) GPU to pair with a CPU that’s nearly 20 years old, but it’s pretty cool that that’s now a possibility. I would like to see how such a PC would perform. CPU bottleneck, anyone?
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.