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Tech News
With DDR5 memory, NVMe SSDs and GPUs all seeing sharp price increases online, Micro Center's roughly 30 U.S. brick-and-mortar locations are reportedly offering better value through bundled component deals than major online retailers like Newegg, Amazon and Best Buy. The report notes an Nvidia RTX 5090 currently sells for $6,549.99 from a third-party Amazon seller, far above its $1,999.99 launch MSRP.
A Reddit user posted photos showing Japanese retail prices for Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics cards running 5.66% to 41.1% higher than equivalent Amazon US listings, with the RTX 5060 Ti 8GB showing the steepest markup. The comparison, converted at current exchange rates, found RTX 5080 cards averaging a 12.71% premium over US pre-tax prices, with the gap narrowing to under 4% when an 8.5% US sales tax is factored in. Notably, the RTX 5090 was absent from the Japanese listings entirely.
Techspot revisited its long-running investigation into Nvidia GPU driver overhead, finding that in CPU-limited gaming situations AMD's Radeon RX 9070 XT can outpace Nvidia's far more powerful RTX 5090. The outlet traces this back to earlier tests showing Nvidia drivers demand more CPU processing power than AMD's to translate game instructions into GPU commands, creating bottlenecks on weaker processors.
Nvidia will roll out an updated DLSS 5 model starting with an NBA 2K27 patch on October 16, claiming it doubles rendering performance and increases overall frame rates by up to 40% while cutting 4K VRAM usage by 20%. The company says all future DLSS 5 titles will use this faster model by default, with Hogwarts Legacy gaining support on November 5, Where Winds Meet also receiving it, and classic games getting neural rendering via RTX Remix from October 23.
The Financial Times reports that Chinese tech companies purchased more than one million Nvidia gaming and workstation GPUs over the past year to cover a shortfall in AI computing capacity. Citing industry insiders, the report says domestic AI chip output has roughly doubled but still falls nearly 1.5 million units short of demand exceeding 5 million chips. Buyers are reportedly repurposing export-compliant Nvidia models like the RTX Pro 6000D, RTX Pro 5000 and RTX 5090 for simpler AI workloads such as prefilling.
Unverified leaks from sources MEGAsizeGPU and Hongxing2020 claim Nvidia will stop producing the GeForce RTX 5090 and redirect all GB202 chip supply toward its RTX Pro Blackwell-based professional and data-center cards. Hongxing2020 says a factory notice points to a replacement 24GB RTX 5080 model, with China-specific RTX 5090 'D' variants also reportedly affected. Nvidia has not confirmed or denied any of these claims.
Ray tracing is a rendering technique that simulates realistic lighting, shadows and reflections by tracing light rays, in contrast to older rasterization and screen-space reflection methods used in non-RT titles. According to Steam Hardware Survey data cited in the piece, NVIDIA's RTX 5070 is currently the most-used graphics card, indicating many PC gamers now own hardware capable of handling ray tracing. The author, who uses an RTX 5090 with DLSS 4.5 Multi Frame Generation, says gamers on older cards like the RTX 3060 or Radeon RX 6600 XT should disable ray tracing and prioritize stable frame rates instead.
According to leaked factory notices cited by hardware leakers @hongxing2020 and @Zed__Wang, Nvidia has stopped producing GB202 chips for consumer RTX 5090 graphics cards, including Chinese 'D' variants. The notice claims the RTX 5080 24GB will become the new top consumer GeForce model, with the RTX 5080 16GB being discontinued. Nvidia has not confirmed the claim and typically does not comment on rumors.
Dell is selling an Alienware desktop with an Nvidia RTX 5090 GPU and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D CPU for $7,499, which is less than the current combined retail cost of those two components alone. The build also includes 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a 2TB SSD, a 1500W power supply, Wi-Fi 7, and liquid cooling, with a 64GB RAM configuration also discounted.
Reddit user DallasGrave, reportedly affiliated with cooling company Grave PC, detailed a mod that solders a pickup PCB to the RTX 5090's 12VHPWR header and routes power through an added dual eight-pin board, spreading current across three cable sets. The user says a card modified this way ran at 550W for 48 hours with cable temperatures staying under 40°C, and plans to offer the conversion as a paid service with warranty, with a PNY-branded version also in the works.
Reddit user DallasGrave, linked to GRAVEPC.com, posted images of a custom module screwed onto an RTX 5090 that splits current across additional wires to reduce 12VHPWR connector temperatures. The fix involves soldering extra connections to the power rails on the card's PCB and routing them through the external distributor. He stated GRAVEPC, a PNY partner, plans to sell a PNY-specific version of this modified card with full warranty coverage, though it isn't yet listed on the site.
German utility SWK Energie has introduced an electricity plan called meinGAMING, marketed toward gamers and other high-consumption households, using influencer promotion from streamers like Limcube. The company says the plan is worthwhile for households using over 2,500 kWh annually, whether from gaming rigs, EV charging, or many devices running at once. It carries a higher base price than standard plans, so SWK advises against switching unless a household actually meets that consumption threshold.