Hardware News

Valve's upcoming Steam Frame VR headset could end up carrying an even steeper price tag than previously expected. According to Valve insider Tyler McVicker, the standalone headset may launch for as much as $1,500 (approximately €1,290 / £1,120), a significant jump from his earlier estimate of around $1,100. The Steam Frame marks Valve's return to the VR market following the retirement of the Valve Index. Unlike its predecessor, the new headset is designed to function as both a standalone device and...

Microsoft's latest Xbox price increase has officially gone into effect, and for gamers in Europe and the UK, the news is even worse than expected. While the company announced worldwide price hikes back in June, it only revealed the updated US pricing at the time. Now that retailers have refreshed their listings, the full extent of the increases in other regions has become clear. The Xbox Series X 1TB with a disc drive now costs €799.99 in Europe, up from...

Buying a new Radeon graphics card may soon become even more expensive. According to a new report from Chinese industry outlet Board Channels, cited by VideoCardz, AMD has informed its board partners that the cost of Radeon GPU kits will increase by at least 10% starting in August, marking another round of price hikes as the industry continues to struggle with rising memory costs. The increase applies to AMD's GPU kits, which combine the GPU die and its allocated VRAM...

Sony isn't backing away from its controversial decision to phase out physical PlayStation game discs. After announcing earlier last month that disc production for new PlayStation releases will end in January 2028, the company has now confirmed it still intends to follow through despite widespread criticism from players. The topic came up during Sony's latest earnings Q&A after an investor asked about the backlash surrounding the move. Speaking through a live interpreter, Sony Chief Financial Officer Lin Tao said...

Valve has rolled out another major update for the Steam Machine, bringing AMD's latest FSR 4.1 upscaling technology to the system while also sharing fresh details on hardware availability. The company says reservations continue to move forward every day, with everyone currently in the reservation queue expected to receive a chance to purchase a Steam Machine before the end of the year. The biggest addition is support for FSR 4.1, which is now available through the...

As the most powerful and premium gaming-oriented NUC produced by the company so far, the new ROG NUC 16 Edition 20 was developed to mark the 20th anniversary of ASUS's Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand. Despite measuring just three liters in volume, the ROG NUC 16 Edition 20 packs enough power to rival many full-sized gaming desktops. Buyers get Intel's Core Ultra 9 290HX processor alongside an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU equipped with 24GB of GDDR7 memory....

Microsoft's plan to make Xbox a more open gaming platform could come with an unexpected downside. While support for storefronts like Steam would give Project Helix a major advantage over Sony's rumored PS6, a new report suggests that level of openness could also drive the console's price significantly higher. According to Windows Central's Jez Corden, Microsoft is still weighing just how open its next-generation Xbox should be. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has repeatedly described Project Helix as...

ASRock may have just let the cat out of the bag. The company has quietly added two unannounced Radeon RX 9050 graphics cards to its website, giving us an early look at what appears to be AMD's next entry-level RDNA 4 GPU. The listings, first spotted by VideoCardz, reveal both 8GB and 4GB versions of the card, although AMD has yet to officially acknowledge either model. The RX 9050 is positioned below the Radeon RX 9060 and RX 9060 XT,...

Valve's upcoming Steam Frame VR headset may be heading toward an even higher launch price, as another key component supplier is reportedly preparing to raise prices. After already dealing with surging costs for memory and storage, the company could soon be paying more for the headset's processor as well, adding further pressure ahead of its expected release later this year. According to a Bloomberg report published on June 26, Qualcomm has notified customers that a broad range of Snapdragon...

Valve's steep Steam Deck price increase may be taking a much heavier toll than initially expected. While the company raised prices to counter soaring component costs driven by the ongoing AI-fueled chip shortage, new estimates suggest the strategy has dramatically reduced demand, leaving the handheld selling far fewer units than it did before the increase. The latest figures come from Boiling Steam, which once again analyzed Steam's Global Top Sellers chart to estimate hardware sales. The publication previously used...

The latest generation of Windows gaming handhelds continues to push integrated graphics to new heights, but those gains are arriving alongside increasingly premium price tags. AMD's Ryzen Z2 and Z2 Extreme APUs have already raised expectations for portable gaming, and Intel is now aiming to move the goalposts again with its Panther Lake platform. Early performance figures suggest the flagship Arc G3 Extreme processor, powered by the integrated Arc B390 GPU, is capable of running many games at 1080p...

Valve has yet to reveal official sales figures for its newly released Steam Machine, but early estimates suggest the premium gaming PC may be off to a much stronger start than many expected. Given its high price tag, there was widespread skepticism ahead of launch over whether the hardware could attract enough buyers, yet its position on Steam's best-seller rankings paints a surprisingly positive picture. As is typical for Valve, the company has remained silent on hardware sales. Even years after...