Alibaba Cloud has launched Qwen Image 2.1, an open-weight image generation model with only 7 billion parameters, small enough to run on older consumer GPUs like the RTX 3090. The model adds native transparent-background generation and can combine up to 10 reference images into a single consistent output, and Alibaba's own benchmarks claim it outperforms closed models including Google's Nano Banana 2.0. Unlike its predecessor, the new licensing terms bar commercial resale without a separate agreement from Alibaba.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-23
Australian PC builder Aftershock PC has launched the Cherry Bloom, a liquid-cooled gaming desktop featuring 70 handcrafted titanium-alloy cherry blossoms that mechanically unfurl as the system heats up, with no motors or electronics involved. The system, built in an APNX V2 case, includes an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU, 64GB of DDR5 memory, a 1300W power supply and an RTX 5080 GPU, and sells for roughly $14,150 (about £10,650), excluding shipping.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-23
Aftershock, working with Zotac, has released the Cherry Bloom PC, a prebuilt gaming computer priced at roughly AU$19,995 (about $14,200). It pairs an RTX 5080, Ryzen 9800X3D, 64GB of DDR5-6000 RAM, a 2TB PCIe Gen4 SSD and a 1300W Platinum PSU with 70 handcrafted titanium-alloy cherry blossoms that open when the system heats up and close as it cools, all visible through a 270-degree case window.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-23
General Instinct released InstinctFlash, an open-source inference framework that speeds up robotics 'world-action' models like LingBot-VA and pi05 on Nvidia's Jetson Thor edge computer, RTX 4090 and RTX 5090 GPUs. The company reports benchmarks showing up to a 33.78x speedup over standard PyTorch inference, achieved through FP8 quantization, reduced sampling steps, and custom acceleration kernels, with no measured drop in task performance on real robots.
github.com
· 2026-09-22
Walmart is selling MSI's Gaming Trio GeForce RTX 5090 for $4,299 as part of its GeForce Week promotion, a price well below the $8,000+ third-party listings currently common for the card. The RTX 5090 remains Nvidia's top gaming GPU, still selling far above its original $1,999 MSRP due to scarce supply and demand from AI workloads.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-22
Newegg is selling the ABS Cyclone Aqua gaming desktop for $1,199.99 after applying the code SSF73826, down from a list price of $1,699.99. The build pairs an Intel Core i7-14700F with 32GB of DDR4 RAM, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and a Zotac RTX 5060 Solo GPU with 8GB of VRAM, aimed at 1080p gaming.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-22
CyberPowerPC's SLC8500WST prebuilt pairs AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor with Nvidia's RTX 5080 Founders Edition graphics card, 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, all for $2,299 at Walmart. The CPU and GPU alone typically cost over $2,000 when bought separately, making the bundled memory and storage essentially free by comparison.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-21
AX Gaming, an Inno3D subsidiary, has unveiled a seasonal limited-edition GeForce RTX 5070 12G graphics card decorated with anime artwork, maple leaf motifs, and ARGB lighting. The standout addition is a scent-emitting component the company calls 'e-sports aromatherapy,' claiming users can detect an autumn-like fragrance even when the card is powered off.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-21
A hands-on test of the 256GB M5 Ultra Mac Studio found it capable of running large local AI models, including Qwen3.8-Flash-Next, fast enough to power personal assistant apps like Open Minis and Hermes Agent without cloud costs. The reviewer compared it against the prior M3 Ultra Mac Studio and a gaming PC with an RTX 5090, noting the Mac's smaller size, lower noise, and unified memory architecture as key advantages despite the 5090 retaining a memory-bandwidth edge.
macstories.net
· 2026-09-21
Developers of the open-source PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 identified a workaround for a bug in Nvidia's GPU drivers that was limiting performance. Testing on Red Dead Redemption's Blackwater boat scene showed frame rate gains of 20% on an RTX 3080 setup and 25% on an RTX 5090 setup, while Gran Turismo 5 saw up to 37% faster performance and lower VRAM usage. AMD GPUs were unaffected, suggesting the issue is specific to Nvidia's drivers.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-21
Prominent hardware leaker Kopite7Kimi says Nvidia's next-generation RTX 60 series, built on the Rubin architecture, won't launch until 2028 at the earliest, later than the previously rumored late-2027 window. Nvidia declined to comment, saying it doesn't discuss rumors or unannounced products.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-21
Prominent leaker Kopite7kimi now expects Nvidia's Rubin-based RTX 6000 series to launch in 2028, later than his earlier forecast of late 2027. This aligns with a similar prediction from leaker Kepler_L2, who also expects AMD's RDNA 5 Radeon 10000 series to slip to 2028, though AMD's smaller 'AT2' GPU remains on track for next year.
techspot.com
· 2026-09-21
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