Another week, another NVIDIA industry rumor—and unfortunately, this one seems likely to be true, even if it may be worse for some end customers. If the reports are indeed true, NVIDIA will be focusing shipments of its GeForce RTX 5060 Ti and 5070 Ti GPUs to the 8GB models in order to maximize cards shipped during the ongoing RAM shortage.
This year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas has officially ended, and with the HotHardware crew back home, it's time to look back on the trip and highlight some of our favorite, stand-out products. As is usually the case, CES 2026 was packed with an array of new technologies, from high-powered AI accelerators to low-power...
Talk about a monumental security lapse: American retail giant Target has found its proprietary source code exposed on the dark web, as current and former employees close to the matter confirm the authenticity of the nearly 900GB data leak that has the company (and not mention the cybersecurity world in general) on high alert.
The breach
NASA and the Department of Energy have officially embarked on an ambitious goal to plant a nuclear reactor on the Moon's surface by 2030, which when completed, will have enough output to power multiple lunar households for up to 10 years.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright (left) and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (right) meet at
Recent auditing by the folks at market research firm Omdia indicates that the PC market rebounded last year and finished the last quarter of 2025 especially strong. A likely reason for the strong finish is a rush to get ahead of looming price increases caused an AI-driven shortage of memory chips. There's still time to get ahead, though, withMeta and Ray-Ban owner EssilorLuxottica are discussing doubling or even tripling their smart glasses production capacity, Bloomberg reports.
Just under a year ago, when revealing that 2 million units of Ray-Ban Meta glasses had been sold so far, EssilorLuxottica told investors that it planned to increase annual production capacity to 10 million units by the end of 2026, citing the "great success" of the product.
Then, in its Q3 investor call in October, EssilorLuxottica said that its smart glasses business was doing "exceptionally well", to the point where it now accounted for more than a third of its revenue growth, telling investors that it was accelerating the timeline for the 10 million annual production capacity.
The French-Italian giant EssilorLuxottica is the largest eyewear company in the world by far. It owns iconic brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley, Oliver Peoples, and Persol, and has exclusive licenses with major fashion companies like Prada, Armani, Burberry, and Chanel. It also owns Sunglass Hut, and has more than 18,000 retail stores in total worldwide.
Meta has so far partnered with EssilorLuxottica for six smart glasses products:
Now, Bloomberg reports that Meta and EssilorLuxottica are discussing doubling this production target to 20 million annual units, with the possibility of tripling it to 30 million if future demand justifies it.
According to Bloomberg, Meta is hoping to build on its lead in the smart glasses market and expand its footprint before competition from Apple and Google arrives.
Google has repeatedly teased smart glasses with a HUD at events like TED and I/O, and announced last year that it's working with the eyewear companies Gentle Monster and Warby Parker on Gemini smart glasses, and will work with Kering Eyewear in the future. Multiple South Korean news outlets have reported that Samsung plans to launch a Meta Ray-Ban Display competitor this year, powered by Google software, a similar strategy to the Galaxy XR headset.
Meanwhile, in October Bloomberg reported that Apple moved staff off the cheaper and lighter Vision headset project to prioritize shipping smart glasses sooner. Apple's first glasses could be revealed as soon as this year ahead of a release in 2027, the report claimed.
UploadVRDavid HeaneyMeta and EssilorLuxottica's reported discussions come as Meta laid off over 10% of Reality Labs, its smart glasses, VR, and "metaverse" division, including the entirety of three of its VR game studios. The company previously confirmed "shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables", and reducing spending on VR content to increase investment in smart glasses production capacity seems to be this strategy in action.
Helldivers 2 has easily been one of PlayStation’s most successful live-service projects, with the co-op focused shooter selling well over 10 million copies and continuing to see a dedicated player base thanks to strong communication and consistent updates – including one which reduced the game’s file size on PC by 85%. Coming next week, the team at Arrowhead have now announced Helldivers II’s latest update, with the Redacted Regiment Warbond launching on the 20th of January.
Making the announcement via the PlayStation Blog, Arrowhead Game Studios community manager Katherine Baskin unveiled and detailed the Redacted Regiment Warbond.
Available from the 20th of January, this Premium Warbond (which can be obtained through gameplay as well) offers a wide variety of new equipment focused equally on stealth and destruction including:
With Battlefield 6 Season 2 being delayed from its planned 20th of January release date, now is as good a time as any to hop back into Helldivers II.
KitGuru says: What do you think of the latest Warbond? What’s your go-to tactic in Helldivers II? Let us know down below.
The post New Helldivers II Warbond brings stealth armour, C4 explosives and more first appeared on KitGuru.Following on from its official announcement at CES 2026 last week, today Nvidia's new DLSS 4.5 technology is going live to all RTX gamers via an update to the Nvidia App.
If you missed our initial coverage last week, Nvidia announced DLSS 4.5 at CES 2026, introducing what the company calls a ‘2nd generation transformer model' for DLSS Super Resolution. This follows on from the 1st generation transformer model that arrived with DLSS 4 and the launch of the RTX 50-series.
Despite some eagle-eyed comments suggesting the official update had been delayed, DLSS 4.5 is rolling out to everyone with an update to the Nvidia App, available now. The technology is backwards compatible with older DLSS versions, so users can adjust the DLSS Override setting within the Nvidia App to make use of 2nd gen transformer upscaling with Presets L and M.
It's worth clarifying that while the DLSS 4.5 suite includes both the Super Resolution update and a new MFG 6X mode, along with Dynamic Multi Frame Generation, the latter two features aren't arriving just yet, and are slated for release in the Spring.
You can read more about DLSS 4.5 on Nvidia's official blog. The Nvidia App should automatically update when you next open it, or you can manually access the latest version on Nvidia's website HERE.
KitGuru says: Have you tried out DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution already – what do you think?
The post DLSS 4.5 officially released with the latest Nvidia App update first appeared on KitGuru.There’s no denying that Battlefield 6 has been a huge success, with EA’s latest FPS entry selling in excess of 10 million copies and going on to dethrone Call of Duty for the first time possibly ever. That said, since its launch, sentiment surrounding the game has cooled down somewhat. As a result, EA have now announced that they will be delaying Season 2 in order to “keep our promise” to the community.
Making the official announcement via a blog post, the team at Battlefield Studios confirmed that BF6’s second Season has been delayed from its original release date – that being the 20th of January.
While we did not get any specifics, the team stated that “During our ongoing development, we've continued to review community feedback and, in order to keep our promise, determined that our best path forward is to extend Season 1 and give ourselves extra time to further polish and refine Season 2.”
Season 2 of Battlefield 6 is now scheduled to go live on the 17th of February. That said, in order to make up for this delay, BF6 will receive a Season 1 Extension Update on the 20th of January; introducing “new weekly challenges, a Bonus Path, and a continuation of the Season 1 Battle Pass until the start date of Season 2.”
With this delay, Season 1 of Battlefield 6 will now last nearly 4 months, and given that Season 1 was already relatively content-light it will be interesting to see how player numbers will evolve over the next 4 weeks. The full blog post including recent patch notes can be found HERE.
KitGuru says: What do you think of Battlefield 6’s post-launch support so far? Are you waiting for Season 2? Can BF6’s player numbers recover? Let us know your thoughts down below.
The post Season 2 of Battlefield 6 delayed until mid-February first appeared on KitGuru.New data from Geekbench has surfaced for Intel's unannounced “Arrow Lake Refresh”, branding the upcoming performance bump as the “Plus” series. While these chips weren't mentioned during Intel's CES 2026 keynote, the new leaks suggest that both desktop (LGA-1851) and mobile (HX) refreshes are right around the corner.
The desktop flagship, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus (via Benchleaks), appeared on a Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Tachyon Ice motherboard paired with 48 GB of DDR5-8000 memory. The benchmark results indicate a meaningful performance uplift over the existing 285K, achieved through clock-speed increase rather than architectural changes or core-count increases. The chip maintains the 24-core (8P + 16E) layout but has a reported maximum boost frequency of 5.8 GHz. In the single-core test, it scored 3,456 points, which makes it about 8% faster than the 285K. As for the multi-core score, the upcoming CPU saw a 9% increase over its predecessor, scoring 24,610 points.
The refresh also extends to high-performance laptops and small-form-factor systems. The Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus (via Benchleaks) has been spotted in an Acer Predator Helios 18 AI (model PHN18-I71). However, unlike the 290K Plus entry, this processor wasn't running at full power, reaching a max clock speed of around 841 MHz. That's quite a bit lower than the 5.x GHz we expect from this CPU. As one would expect, the scores were abysmally low and not worth comparing with other CPUs.
Despite no official announcement at CES 2026 last week, we're expecting these chips to still be announced relatively soon. The first entries of an Arrow Lake refresh CPU date back to October 2025, and since then, we've already seen other mentions of these CPUs here and there. So it's looking increasingly like just a matter of time before they become official.
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
KitGuru says: Even if these CPUs won't magically make Intel relevant again, they should still offer more performance than Intel currently has.
The post Intel Arrow Lake Refresh has been benchmarked in Geekbench first appeared on KitGuru.
Google is accelerating its hardware timeline once again, according to new reports suggesting the mid-range Pixel 10a could arrive on retail shelves as early as mid-February 2026.
According to retail leaks, the Pixel 10a will be dropping on February 17, pushing the launch forward by a full month compared to the Pixel 9a, which debuted in
Acer has filed individual lawsuits against all three major wireless carriers in the United States, including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. According to Acer, the three carriers collectively infringed on half a dozen U.S. patents "covering key advancements in cellular networking," and now it's taken them to court after failing to reach a licensing
There have been plenty of twists and turns in NVIDIA's ongoing efforts to resume AI chip shipments to China, the latest of which involves a de facto ban by Beijing. In what could be a move to bolster China's bargaining power, people who are purportedly familiar matter told Reuters that Beijing has instructed customs agents not to permit NVIDIA'sIf you have ever wondered what it would be like to play The Witcher 3 with friends, well, there's now a mod for that. The “Witcher Online” has just been launched by rejuvenate, accumulating thousands of downloads already.
For a title that has recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, the ability to finally explore the continent of The Witcher 3 as a group is a game-changer. The mod (via DSOG) attempts to turn the game into a persistent, social RPG offering full campaign support, combat, movement, and gear sync. The mod also uses dedicated servers instead of peer-to-peer setups, allowing players to play with strangers or friends or to find groups.
To sell the online experience, the modder integrated and synchronised several other popular immersion mods. That includes “Custom Player Characters”, which allows you to break away from being a Geralt clone by personalising your own Witcher, and “Chill Out”, for players to share activities like fishing, sitting at taverns, smoking, or even sleeping. Moreover, you'll also need “Community Patch – Shared Imports” as a dependency, as it allows importing classes and attributes to avoid conflicts with other mods.
Since this is a massive fan-made project rather than an official CD Projekt Red update, you'll probably find bugs and issues with the mod. Moreover, you'll need a legit copy of the game on GOG, Steam, or Epic running version 4.04 (Next-Gen).
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
KitGuru says: Even if the rumoured DLC for Witcher 3 doesn't arrive, at least fans can have some fun playing the game online.
The post New Witcher 3 multi mod lets you play online first appeared on KitGuru.ID-Cooling is updating its low-profile and budget mainstream lineups with various models. The cooling manufacturer has unveiled the IS-77-XT Black, a direct competitor to the low-profile elite, alongside a refreshed SE-XT V2 series that maintains its ultra-aggressive pricing. However, the most surprising addition to their catalogue is the Frost X55, a high-conductivity thermal paste available in five fragrances.
The IS-77-XT Black is a 77 mm-tall top-down cooler designed for Mini-ITX builds. Despite its compact footprint, it features a nickel-plated copper base and six 6 mm heat pipes, allowing it to tame CPUs with a TDP up to 150W. This cooler comes equipped with a slim 120 mm PWM fan capable of 65.2 CFM. Notably, the cooler is designed with 100% RAM clearance in mind. It supports two fan mounting configurations, allowing PC builders to choose between a downward intake (push) and an upward exhaust (pull).
For the mainstream segment, the SE-214-XT (4x heatpipes) and SE-903-XT (3x heatpipes) have received a “V2” overhaul. These refreshed models utilise Heatpipe Direct Touch (HDT) technology and a revised folded-fin stack to improve structural integrity and thermal dissipation, allowing them to be rated for up to 220W. While the only SE-903-XT V2 announced is the ARGB variant, the SE-214-XT V2 lineup has five: Black, Plus (two fans), ARGB, ARGB White, and Auto RGB (OEM only). All models use AS-V2 PWM fans (varying sizes) rated for noise levels up to 29.1 dB(A). The SE-214-XT V2 also introduces a new top cover that conceals the copper heatpipe terminations, giving the budget cooler a more premium look that matches modern blacked-out aesthetics.
Lastly, we have the scented Frost X55 thermal paste. While its primary selling point is a high thermal conductivity of 16.2 W/mK, ID-Cooling is leaning into the “lifestyle” aspect of PC building by offering the paste in five scent variants: Core (unscented), Poma (apple), Bella (strawberry), Viola (floral), and Luna (fresh). The paste is non-conductive and non-corrosive, specifically engineered to resist the “pump-out” effect common in high-pressure mounts, ensuring it remains stable on the die for several years.
Pricing for some of these parts has already been disclosed: the SE-903-XT V2 Black costs $14.99, the SE-214-XT V2 ARGB costs $18.99, and the SE-214-XT V2 Plus costs $19.99.
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
KitGuru says: ID-Cooling continues to be a contender in the “bang for buck” category. As for the scented thermal paste? It's undeniably a gimmick, but if the 16.2 W/mK rating holds up well, it might just be the best-smelling way to drop your temps.
The post ID-Cooling refreshes budget lineup and launches… scented thermal paste? first appeared on KitGuru.
Meta says Supernatural will no longer receive any "new content or feature updates".
While we reported Armature, Twisted Pixel and Sanzaru Games joining the list of studios shut down by Meta, another product acquired by Mark Zuckerberg "will no longer receive new content or feature updates", according to a note posted to the official Supernatural group on Facebook.
Subscribers of the $10/month VR fitness app can still log in and interact with the ghosts of their coaches, like the laugh track on an old TV show, but the trainers who defined the fitness service – humans like Leanne Pedante credited by some of the service's users for saving their lives – will not be making new appearances in Quest headsets.
UploadVRIan Hamilton"What the fuck," wrote one user on the official Supernatural Community group with 60 upvotes. "I am so sorry for all the amazing coaches who are losing jobs and the people in the background. And so upset that the only thing I've consistently loved for exercise is ending. What happens when song license is over?"
Another comment with more than 600 upvotes: "If you're no longer updating the content, there should no longer be a yearly fee. If content is and will remain static, there should be a one time charge."
"As a user since the beginning, I feel like my heart's been ripped out!" wrote another.
Meta directed subscribers with questions to email support.
Article updated after publication to clarify that Supernatural's existing content will remain available.
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