According to Steam’s February 2025 hardware survey, only 2.8% of users own an RTX 3080 or better. For a family-friendly LEGO game, that’s a bizarrely small target audience. Previous LEGO titles ran fine on GTX 1060-level hardware from 2016. So what changed?

Unreal Engine 5 is the problem

The culprit is Unreal Engine 5, specifically its Lumen lighting system and Nanite geometry tech. Lumen replaces simple baked lighting with real-time ray tracing that calculates how light bounces off surfaces every frame. Nanite streams ultra-detailed 3D models without requiring artists to manually create lower-quality versions for distant objects.

Both features sound impressive on paper. The problem? They crush performance even on high-end GPUs. I tested UE5 demos on an RTX 2060 Super last year, and The Matrix Awakens tech demo barely held 30fps at 1080p medium settings. According to Digital Foundry’s March 2025 analysis, Lumen adds 35-42% GPU overhead compared to traditional rendering at the same visual quality.

Here’s the frustrating part: LEGO games don’t need photorealistic lighting. The art style uses bright, flat colors and clean geometry. Previous LEGO titles looked great with simple baked shadows. Forcing Lumen into a stylized game feels like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

The graphics do look better, but at what cost?

To be fair, Legacy of the Dark Knight represents a major visual upgrade. The developer (Traveller’s Tales) added dynamic time-of-day lighting, per-brick destruction physics, and more detailed character models. The 75GB install size nearly doubles LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga’s 40GB requirement from 2022.

What’s telling is the industry trend. According to Epic Games’ Q4 2024 developer survey, 47% of studios working on family games switched to Unreal Engine 5 in 2024. The appeal isn’t better graphics but faster development (Nanite eliminates months of artist work creating LOD models). Epic’s licensing terms incentivize using flagship UE5 features to justify the 5% revenue cut, even when simpler rendering would work fine.

According to Warner Bros.’ Q1 2025 earnings call, 64% of LEGO Star Wars players used consoles or Steam Deck, not high-end PCs. By targeting RTX 3080 as recommended, Warner Bros. optimizes for 3% of their audience while alienating the 64% who made the previous game profitable. As Digital Foundry’s Alex Battaglia noted: “UE5’s Lumen and Nanite are brilliant for open-world games, but forcing them into linear, stylized titles just adds 30-40% performance overhead for minimal visual gain.”

What you actually need to play

Minimum specs:

• GPU: RTX 2070 / RX 5700 XT
• CPU: Core i5-10400 / Ryzen 5 3600
• RAM: 16GB
• Storage: 75GB SSD

Recommended specs:

• GPU: RTX 3080 / RX 6800 XT
• CPU: Core i7-12700K / Ryzen 7 5800X3D
• RAM: 32GB
• Storage: 75GB NVMe SSD

The minimum spec blocks older Pascal GPUs (GTX 1080 Ti and earlier) because DirectX 12 Ultimate is required. That needs hardware features like mesh shaders only available on RTX 20-series and RX 5000-series or newer. Nvidia’s February 2025 pricing report shows RTX 3080 cards averaging $650 used, a 450% markup over the RTX 2070’s $145 used price.

Expect DLSS or FSR upscaling to be mandatory. The RTX 2070 will likely need DLSS Quality at 1080p to hit 60fps, while the RTX 3080 handles 1440p with DLSS Balanced.

Switch 2 version will look very different

The game also launches on Nintendo Switch 2, marking one of the first confirmed third-party titles for Nintendo’s unannounced console. Leaked specs suggest the Switch 2 sits between a GTX 1650 and RTX 3050 in performance, well below the PC minimum.

I played LEGO Star Wars on original Switch in 2022, and even that struggled to maintain 30fps in busy levels. The Switch 2’s rumored 4x performance boost might deliver playable UE5 performance, but expect 720p-900p resolution, 30fps target, and Lumen replaced with traditional baked lighting.

The gap between Switch 2 and PC recommended specs is enormous, roughly the difference between PS3 and PS5. Cross-gen releases usually scale down, but UE5 doesn’t scale gracefully.

When it launches and what it costs

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight releases May 22, 2025, on PC (Steam, Epic), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch 2. Expect standard editions around $59.99 with a deluxe version bundling cosmetic DLC.

If you’re planning to play on PC with anything older than RTX 2070, start budgeting for a GPU upgrade. An RTX 4060 Ti ($400-450) should handle 1440p60 with upscaling enabled, sitting between minimum and recommended specs.

The post A LEGO game wants RTX 3080: Why LEGO Batman’s system requirements shock everyone appeared first on Geeknify.

At a glance: ASUS Dual RTX 5070 EVO measures 229 × 120 × 50mm (2.5 slots), making it one of the shortest RTX 5070 cards available. Runs on a single 16-pin connector at ~220W. Fits ITX cases with 230mm+ GPU clearance. Two variants: base model at 2512 MHz boost, OC at 2542 MHz. No pricing announced yet.

ASUS just dropped the Dual RTX 5070 EVO series. The numbers: 229 x 120 x 50mm. Compare that to the standard Dual at 249 x 126 x 50.6mm. Twenty millimeters shorter. Doesn’t sound like much until you’ve spent an evening trying to close a side panel that won’t quite close.

The thickness? 2.5 slots. Down from 2.53 technically. Nobody will notice that 0.03-slot difference. I certainly won’t. What matters is staying under that psychological barrier where SFF cases draw the line.

Cooling – the part that worries me

Here’s the thing about compact GPUs. Less space means less heatsink. Less heatsink means more heat. Physics doesn’t care about marketing.

ASUS equipped this card with axial-tech fans – supposedly more durable than standard blades. They also included 0dB mode for light loads. I’ve used this on previous ASUS cards. Works fine. Complete silence at the desktop, fans kick in when you actually need them.

The backplate has ventilation cutouts. Sounds minor. It’s not.

Compact dual-fan coolers typically run 5-8°C warmer than triple-fan designs in open-air testing, though this gap narrows in restricted SFF enclosures where larger coolers can’t pull enough fresh air anyway. The real question is noise — ASUS’s 0dB mode helps at idle, but load behavior in a 10-liter case remains untested.

In sandwich-style ITX cases your GPU sits millimeters from the side panel. Solid backplate? Heat pools. Vented backplate? Air moves. Real difference in tight spaces.

Power comes through a single 16-pin 12V-2×6 connector. ASUS says 850W PSU. Also 750W. Depends which spec sheet you read. The inconsistency tells me either works fine. These cards pull around 220W under load – not exactly power hungry by modern standards.

Two models, barely different

ASUS is launching two variants:

Dual RTX 5070 EVO

• Base boost: 2512 MHz
• OC mode: 2542 MHz

Dual RTX 5070 EVO OC

• Base boost: 2542 MHz
• OC mode: 2572 MHz

That’s a 30 MHz difference.

Specs comparison

The 20mm length reduction over standard Dual models — and 38mm shorter than Founders Edition — opens compatibility with cases like the Dan A4, FormD T1, and Meshlicious that couldn’t fit reference designs.

You will never see this in any game. Ever. The OC model exists for people who want factory overclocks without touching software. Fine. But don’t pay more than $20 extra for it. Not worth it.

Why SFF builders should care

The RTX 5070 launch was rough for compact PC people. Reference cards? Huge. Most AIB cards? Also huge. Triple-slot monsters that laugh at your FormD T1.

The compact GPU shortage has been a recurring complaint in SFF communities. As one r/sffpc moderator put it last month: “Every generation, we wait months for AIB partners to remember that not everyone builds in a mid-tower.” ASUS appears to have heard that feedback — the Dual EVO announcement came faster than similar compact variants did for the RTX 40 series.

This changes things. Not dramatically. But enough.

At 229mm this card clears the 230mm limit in cases like the Meshlicious, NR200, and FormD T1. The 2.5-slot thickness works in most sandwich layouts. Still a substantial card – we’re not talking slim by any stretch – but doors that were closed are now open.

My concern? Thermals. ASUS hasn’t published numbers yet. A 220W GPU in a compact cooler inside a restricted-airflow case… I want to see real data before recommending this for builds where the GPU bakes in its own heat.

Less mass. More heat. Simple.

Price and availability – the usual mystery

No pricing announced. No release date. Classic GPU launch behavior at this point.

Based on previous Dual EVO cards: probably $20-40 over MSRP. The OC version adds another $20-30. These are guesses. Could be wrong.

Regional availability is the real question mark. SFF building is huge in Asia and parts of Europe where apartments are small and desk space is precious. Will ASUS ship there first? Or stick with the usual US-priority distribution?

No idea. They’re not saying.

ASUS Dual RTX 5070 EVO: quick answers

Sources: ASUS Official, ITHOME, Nvidia RTX 5070 specifications

The post ASUS Dual RTX 5070 EVO: compact 2.5-slot GPU for SFF builds appeared first on Geeknify.

The internals are identical to the Huntsman V3 Pro — the same Gen 2 analog optical switches, the same 8,000 Hz polling rate, the same doubleshot shinethrough PBT keycaps — and the $300 premium over the standard model buys you a CNC-machined 6063 aluminum chassis with an anodized top and a PVD mirror finish on the bottom plate. Razer isn’t selling you better technology. The company is selling you the same technology in a more expensive container, and the pitch is surprisingly coherent once you understand who the target audience actually is.

Tom’s Hardware reviewed the V3 Pro favorably when it launched, praising the Gen 2 switch implementation and the polling rate performance, while noting that the chassis itself felt like a missed opportunity — functional, but not particularly distinguished for a keyboard occupying the upper tier of the gaming peripheral market. The Signature Edition addresses that specific criticism directly, which is either responsive product development or an acknowledgment that Razer shipped an incomplete flagship and decided to charge $499 for the completion.

What you’re actually getting for $500

The mechanical heart of the Huntsman Signature Edition hasn’t changed from the V3 Pro, and that’s not necessarily a problem. Razer’s Gen 2 analog optical switches actuate via infrared light interruption rather than mechanical contact, eliminating the physical wear points that degrade traditional membrane or mechanical switches over years of heavy use. The 8,000 Hz polling rate — which samples the keyboard’s state 8,000 times per second versus the standard 1,000 Hz — requires a wired connection to function, meaning USB-C is the only mode that unlocks the full feature set. Wireless at 8,000 Hz would demand battery technology that doesn’t yet exist at reasonable capacity, so the wired-only requirement is a hardware reality rather than a feature limitation Razer chose arbitrarily.

Analog switch design enables several features that have become genuinely significant in competitive gaming contexts. Rapid Trigger, which dynamically adjusts actuation points based on how far a key is depressed rather than using a fixed threshold, allows faster key reactivation during rapid directional changes — the kind of millisecond differences that matter in CS2 or Valorant at high ranks. Customizable actuation points let users set different sensitivity profiles per-key, which experienced players use to create lighter triggers on movement keys while keeping heavier actuation on less-frequently used bindings. The analog input mode for racing game simulation is a niche feature that almost nobody uses but adds genuine versatility to a keyboard that can technically function as a game controller for throttle and brake inputs in titles like iRacing or Assetto Corsa.

SOCD and Snap Tap: The banned feature razer is selling as a selling point

Snap Tap — Razer’s branding for SOCD (Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions) input handling — deserves specific attention because the company is marketing a feature that the two largest competitive gaming ecosystems have explicitly prohibited. In standard keyboard behavior, pressing Left and Right simultaneously creates an input conflict that typically cancels both commands; SOCD handling resolves that conflict by prioritizing the most recently pressed key, allowing players to initiate strafes and direction reversals faster than traditional input hardware permits. Valve’s CS2 competitive updates in 2024 banned SOCD at the software level. Tournament organizers across Valorant’s VCT circuit prohibit keyboards with this functionality. FACEIT’s anti-cheat flags Snap Tap usage on their platform.

None of this appears in Razer’s marketing copy. After tracking competitive gaming peripheral controversies since the SOCD debate first surfaced in 2023, the product page’s framing of Snap Tap as simply “allowing you to quickly actuate different keys” without tournament context reads as deliberately incomplete rather than accidentally incomplete. Razer knows what Snap Tap is and knows where it’s banned — the company’s esports partnerships make ignorance implausible. Buyers who plan to use this keyboard in competitive online environments should verify their platform’s current policies before the purchase, particularly since SOCD enforcement continues evolving across major anti-cheat implementations.

The design upgrade is real, even if it’s the only upgrade

Set aside the pricing discussion for a moment, because the aluminum chassis work is genuinely impressive. The standard Huntsman V3 Pro’s plastic body had adjustable height feet that felt imprecise and a back panel with branding that sat uncomfortably between functional and decorative. The Signature Edition replaces all of that with 6063 aluminum milled to tight tolerances — the same alloy grade used in machined custom keyboards from boutique manufacturers like Rama Works and GMMK Pro, which typically retail at $200-350 before switches and keycaps. The PVD mirror finish on the bottom plate creates a visual effect that’s either spectacular or ostentatious depending on your desk setup, but it’s undeniably more considered than the glossy plastic it replaces.

The tradeoffs are real, though. Losing the dual-stage height adjustment means the Signature Edition ships at a fixed typing angle — a decision that works if Razer’s chosen angle matches your ergonomic preference and doesn’t if it doesn’t. Custom keyboard enthusiasts have spent considerable forum energy debating optimal typing angles (7-10 degrees is the common recommendation), and removing adjustability from a $500 keyboard to preserve aesthetic cleanliness is a design choice that prioritizes how the board looks over how it adapts to individual users. The keycaps — doubleshot PBT, shinethrough legends — are identical to what ships with the $200 V3 Pro, which means the $300 premium goes entirely into aluminum and PVD treatment rather than any improvement to the surface your fingers actually touch.

Who should consider this and who shouldn’t

For the specific user who wants Razer’s polling rate and analog switch implementation without the standard V3 Pro’s visual compromises — someone building a clean, high-end desk setup where a plastic gaming keyboard looks out of place next to machined metal peripherals — the Signature Edition makes sense at $499. It’s priced competitively against boutique custom keyboards with equivalent build quality, and it ships assembled with Razer’s warranty and software ecosystem rather than requiring hours of hand-assembly and soldering. The appeal is real, even if narrow.

For competitive gamers who want the 8,000 Hz polling rate and Rapid Trigger benefits, the standard Huntsman V3 Pro at $199 delivers identical performance in a less premium chassis. The switch firmware, polling rate implementation, and Rapid Trigger algorithm are unchanged between models — every competitive advantage the Signature Edition provides, the V3 Pro provides too, at $300 less. Spending the difference on a monitor upgrade, a better mouse, or a pad for your rent would produce more measurable impact on your actual gaming outcomes than an aluminum bottom plate, regardless of how good it looks in a desk tour video.

Razer Huntsman Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: Tom’s Hardware, Razer Official

The post Razer Huntsman Signature Edition: A $500 keyboard that sells you the same switches in an Aluminum Tuxedo appeared first on Geeknify.

The hardware underneath runs a curved 34-inch QD-OLED panel at 3440×1440 resolution with a 240Hz refresh rate and 1800R curvature — specs that would have been cutting-edge in 2023 but sit one generation behind Samsung’s current QD-OLED panels, which now reach 360Hz at comparable sizes. Typical brightness lands at 250 nits, with a peak HDR output of 1000 nits in highlight-heavy HDR content. A built-in Wi-Fi 6 module handles the wireless connectivity that Google TV and GeForce Now demand, and two 5-watt speakers provide audio without requiring external equipment — useful for a monitor designed to operate independently of a desktop system.

Google TV on a Gaming Monitor is a Weirder idea than it sounds

Having spent years evaluating monitors across consumer and professional contexts, the combination of Google TV and a 240Hz gaming panel initially reads as a solution looking for a problem. Smart TVs have offered Google TV integration since 2020, and 34-inch ultrawide panels don’t appear in the living room configurations where Android-based streaming makes intuitive sense. Dig past the surface, though, and ASUS’s target audience comes into sharper focus: apartment dwellers who want one screen to handle gaming, Netflix, YouTube, and occasional productivity without the physical footprint or power draw of a full desktop tower. For that specific use case — a student dorm, a compact home office, or a bedroom setup where desk real estate is measured in inches — having Google TV baked into the monitor genuinely reduces the hardware required to get a functional entertainment and gaming station running.

The Android 14 foundation brings the full Google Play Store, Google Assistant integration, Chromecast built-in, and Google Home compatibility — so the XG34WCDMTG can receive casts from phones and tablets in addition to running its own apps. ASUS hasn’t published the full chip specifications powering the Android side of the device, which matters because Android TV performance has historically ranged from buttery smooth on Amlogic S905X4 silicon to frustratingly sluggish on cost-cut media chips. Until independent reviewers get hands-on time with the navigation interface under real load — switching between Google TV’s app launcher and the monitor’s gaming menu, for instance — the Android performance question mark deserves honest acknowledgment.

GeForce Now makes the “No PC” promise technically true

NVIDIA’s GeForce Now is the service that transforms the XG34WCDMTG from a novelty into a functional gaming platform. Through NVIDIA’s cloud servers, GeForce Now streams games from a remote PC running whatever GPU NVIDIA has allocated to your session — an RTX 4080 equivalent on the $20-per-month Ultimate tier — directly to the monitor via its Wi-Fi 6 connection. Games live in your existing Steam, Epic, or GOG library rather than requiring separate purchases, and NVIDIA’s server network has expanded substantially through 2025, with data centers in North America, Europe, and parts of Asia delivering sub-30ms latency for users within reasonable geographic proximity.

The catch worth stating plainly: GeForce Now requires a subscription, a strong internet connection (NVIDIA recommends 35Mbps minimum for 1440p at high framerates), and acceptance of occasional session queues on the free tier. None of those are deal-breakers for a buyer who’s already comfortable streaming 4K video, but the “no PC required” framing in ASUS’s marketing skips over the monthly cost and network dependency that replace the upfront PC investment. A $20/month GeForce Now Ultimate subscription adds $240 annually to the XG34WCDMTG’s $1,100 purchase price — context that matters when evaluating the monitor’s value against a conventional gaming monitor paired with an entry-level discrete GPU.

Where the $1,100 Price gets fifficult to defend

The XG34WCDMTG’s pricing is the place where honest assessment gets uncomfortable. Samsung’s Odyssey OLED G8 at 34 inches — using second-generation QD-OLED with improved brightness uniformity and WOLED-beating color saturation — has dropped to $900-1,000 depending on sales timing, and it runs a more refined panel than the first-gen QD-OLED cell inside the ASUS. LG’s 34GS95QE OLED ultrawide reaches similar pricing through regular promotions. Neither competitor offers Google TV, which is genuinely the XG34WCDMTG’s differentiating argument — but paying a $100-200 premium over panels with newer display technology specifically for Android 14 and GeForce Now integration assumes those features justify the gap rather than simply adding cost.

My read on this product is that ASUS has built something interesting for a narrow but real audience, then priced it as if the market is broader than it is. The “gaming monitor that replaces your PC” positioning resonates for budget-conscious setups where a tower PC genuinely isn’t viable, but the $1,100 entry point sits uncomfortably close to the cost of building a capable gaming PC around a used or budget GPU — a system that doesn’t depend on cloud subscriptions or a strong internet connection to function. ASUS would have made a more defensible product at $899; at $1,100, the Google TV integration needs to carry more weight than a single feature addition typically can.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: ASUS Official Product Page, NVIDIA GeForce Now

The post ASUS Strix OLED XG34WCDMTG — Gaming monitor that works without a PC appeared first on Geeknify.

The LCD model’s disappearance isn’t exactly fresh information. Valve ended production of the 256GB LCD Steam Deck in December 2025, and units had been trickling out of warehouse inventory for weeks before any official acknowledgment. What caught the hardware community off guard was the OLED shortage — both the standard black and limited-edition white models went completely unavailable through Valve’s official US channels within the same week. I noticed the 512GB OLED flip to “low stock” on January 28th and texted my brother to buy immediately; he waited three days, and by then both models showed full unavailability. That kind of rapid inventory collapse doesn’t happen without a deliberate decision upstream in the supply chain.

Memory chip shortages are driving the Steam Deck stock crisis

Hardware manufacturing in early 2026 faces a specific constraint that explains most of this situation: LPDDR5 memory prices have spiked roughly 40-60% year-over-year across consumer electronics categories, according to TrendForce’s January 2026 DRAM market report. Valve acknowledged this problem weeks ago when the company warned that chip shortages would force price adjustments across its hardware lineup and potentially delay both the Steam Machine console and the Steam Frame VR headset. The timing of that announcement and this Steam Deck drought isn’t coincidental — it’s supply chain triage playing out where customers can see it.

After reviewing TrendForce’s allocation data and cross-referencing with DigiTimes’ semiconductor supply tracking, a clearer picture emerges. Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix — the three dominant LPDDR5 suppliers — have been prioritizing automotive and data center contracts over consumer electronics since Q3 2025, and Valve’s relatively small order volumes put the company near the back of the line. ASUS ROG Ally shipments slowed noticeably through Q4 2025 for the same reason, and Lenovo’s Legion Go faced similar allocation cuts across European and North American markets. The difference is that ASUS and Lenovo communicated delays directly to retail partners, while Valve maintained its characteristic sphinx-like silence — a pattern anyone who followed the Steam Controller discontinuation or the Index headset shortages of 2020 will recognize immediately.

Valve is choosing new products over its proven one

Valve has made a calculated choice to reserve its available LPDDR5 allocation for the Steam Machine and Steam Frame launches, both reportedly targeting Q2 2026 release windows. The evidence supports this reading directly: three weeks elapsed between Valve’s public acknowledgment of memory shortages and the Steam Deck going fully unavailable, which means someone in Bellevue watched inventory deplete without redirecting chip allocations to maintain Deck production. That’s observable priority-setting, not an unforeseeable crisis.

From a corporate strategy perspective, the logic tracks — reluctantly. Neither the Steam Machine nor the Steam Frame can afford a botched debut the way the Steam Deck can absorb a temporary stockout. The Deck carries three years of brand equity, 10,000+ verified game compatibility ratings, and a community passionate enough to troubleshoot Proton issues on Reddit at 2 AM; it can survive a few months of scarcity without permanent category damage. New product launches get one shot at first impressions, and Valve apparently decided to bet its limited silicon on those fresh opportunities rather than defending existing ground.

Most tech coverage frames this as an unavoidable supply chain crisis, and I think that framing is too generous. Valve chose to announce the Steam Machine and Steam Frame before securing memory allocation sufficient for all three product lines simultaneously. That’s a strategic gamble, not a natural disaster, and it penalizes exactly the customers whose early Steam Deck purchases justified Valve’s expansion into new hardware categories. You don’t reward the people who championed your breakout product by quietly starving it of components.

Where you can still buy a Steam Deck despite US shortages

The situation outside the United States looks meaningfully better, though it varies by region. Valve’s German storefront showed both OLED models available as of February 11th, and UK retailer Currys listed the 512GB unit at £569 — roughly £20 above Valve’s direct pricing from November 2025, but available for next-day delivery. Smaller European markets like Portugal and the Czech Republic are spottier, with 3-5 day stockout cycles reported on community tracking sites throughout early February. Importing from Europe to the US remains possible but adds $40-80 in shipping and complicates warranty service through Valve’s US support infrastructure.

On the secondary market, pricing has stayed surprisingly restrained — at least so far. eBay listings for new-in-box 512GB OLED units hover around $600-650, representing an 18-25% markup over the $549 MSRP. Compare that to the 2x-3x scalper premiums that plagued PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X availability windows in 2020-2021, and this markup looks almost modest. The relative calm either signals that handheld PC demand has matured past its hype-driven peak, or it means resellers haven’t yet grasped the likely duration of this shortage — I’d give it two weeks before pricing adjusts upward if Valve doesn’t announce a restock date.

Pricing after the Restock won’t look the same

The question Valve will eventually need to answer involves whether the Steam Deck’s current $399/$549 price points survive the return to availability. If LPDDR5 costs have genuinely spiked 40-60% — and TrendForce, IC Insights, and Valve’s own public statements all indicate they have — maintaining current pricing means absorbing significant margin compression on every unit shipped. Valve has historically eaten hardware losses to drive Steam store software revenue, but even Gabe Newell’s privately held operation has limits on sustainable red ink.

A $50-100 price increase would push the Steam Deck into uncomfortable competitive territory against the ROG Ally X at $799 and the upcoming MSI Claw 2. Valve’s core advantage has always been the combination of SteamOS polish and aggressive price-to-performance ratio; sacrifice the latter, and you’re betting entirely on software ecosystem lock-in justifying a smaller hardware discount. That bet might work for existing Steam users with 500-game libraries, but it dramatically weakens the pitch to newcomers weighing their first handheld PC purchase. Every week the Steam Deck stays unavailable in the US is another week where those potential first-time buyers discover that the ROG Ally X runs their games perfectly well. Meanwhile, AYANEO’s NEXT 2 is positioning itself as a direct Steam Deck killer with Ryzen AI Max and a 116Wh battery that dwarfs the Deck’s 50Wh cell — the kind of spec gap that gets harder to ignore when Valve’s store page just says “out of stock.” Some of those newcomers won’t come back.

Steam Deck FAQ

Sources: TrendForce DRAM Market Report (January 2026), DigiTimes, PCMag, Steam Valve, HotStock

The post Why the Steam Deck is Out of Stock in the US appeared first on Geeknify.

Ryzen AI Max inside

The NEXT 2 runs AMD’s Ryzen AI Max chips — the same silicon going into high-end ultrabooks. Two options: the base Max 385 or the Max+ 395, which AYANEO claims delivers discrete GPU-level graphics.
Given AMD’s own benchmarks showing the Max+ 395 trading blows with an RTX 4070 Laptop in certain workloads, that’s not entirely marketing speak.

Memory configs go up to 128GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD. For a handheld. The base $1,799 model gets 32GB/1TB, which is still absurd by portable standards.

The Display Steam Deck Wishes It Had

A 9.06-inch OLED panel at 2400×1504 resolution with 120Hz refresh. That’s sharper and larger than the Steam Deck OLED’s 7.4-inch 1280×800 screen. Front-firing speakers sit on either side — no more
cupping your hands to hear audio.

Controls built for actual gaming

AYANEO went deep on input hardware:

• TMR joysticks with adjustable torque resistance
• Hall effect sticks and triggers (no drift, ever)
• 8-way D-pad
• Two touchpads
• Four programmable back buttons

Dual fans handle cooling. At this power draw, they’ll need to.

The battery changes everything

116 Wh. For context, most gaming laptops carry 80–100 Wh batteries. The Steam Deck has 40 Wh. The ROG Ally has 40 Wh.

AYANEO essentially stuffed ultrabook battery capacity into a handheld chassis. Runtime will still depend heavily on workload — Ryzen AI Max chips are power-hungry — but starting from nearly triple the
competition’s capacity gives serious headroom.

The price problem

• $1,799 — 32GB RAM / 1TB SSD
• $4,299 — 128GB RAM / 2TB SSD

That top config costs more than a ROG Ally, Steam Deck OLED, and Nintendo Switch OLED combined. Twice over.

AYANEO isn’t competing with Valve or ASUS. They’re building portable workstations that happen to play games — machines for people who want to run local LLMs, edit 4K video on a plane, or just flex the
most overkill handheld ever made.

The Steam Deck isn’t dead. But it’s definitely not playing in the same league anymore.

The post Steam Deck Killer – AYANEO NEXT 2 brings Ryzen AI Max and 116Wh of Power appeared first on Geeknify.

The card’s party trick is dual power input. Pair it with an ASUS BTF motherboard and 12V-2×6 connector, and the Matrix can pull 800W continuously. ASUS’s China GM Tony Yu stress-tested one on camera — it hit 807W and kept running.

At that power draw, the card scored 28,638 points in 3DMark Time Spy Extreme. That beats NVIDIA’s RTX Pro 6000, a workstation GPU with a more complete GB202 die (24,576 cores vs. 21,760). A consumer card with fewer cores is outrunning NVIDIA’s professional silicon — let that sink in.

For a closer look at real-world gaming performance, check out our RTX 5090 takes on Crysis at 4K and 8K breakdown.

Engineering overkill

Cooling 800W requires serious hardware:

• 3-ounce copper PCB (triple the industry standard)
• Liquid metal on the GPU die
• Vapor chamber + heat pipes
• Four fans with 20% more airflow than ROG Strix
• Automatic memory defrost for liquid nitrogen runs

The defrost system kicks in at 0°C to prevent condensation death during extreme overclocking. ASUS built this card to chase world records — they said so
explicitly.

Who actually buys this most expensive GPU?

Not gamers. A standard RTX 5090 delivers 90% of the gaming performance at under half the price.

The Matrix exists for benchmark competitors, LN2 overclockers, and collectors who want one of a thousand ever made. It’s a statement piece that happens to
function as a GPU.

At $4,100, you’re not paying for frames. You’re paying to answer: what happens when you remove every limit? Apparently, 800W happens.

The post ASUS ROG Matrix RTX 5090D v2: 800W, $4,100 appeared first on Geeknify.

What X3D AI Turbo does to your Ryzen and what it doesn’t

The concept itself isn’t entirely new. What Colorful has done is bundle an automated silicon quality assessment directly into the BIOS of its AM5 800 boards. When enabled, the motherboard evaluates how well the installed processor handles voltage and frequency at the die level, then applies a pre-configured overclock profile tailored to that specific chip’s capabilities. Think of it as a more hands-off version of what enthusiasts already do with Curve Optimizer and PBO2 on Ryzen — except without the hours of per-core stability testing that process usually demands.

The “two clicks in BIOS” framing is aimed squarely at a specific audience: the growing number of gamers who buy high-end Ryzen X3D chips but never touch overclocking because the learning curve feels too steep. I’ve spent plenty of evenings dialing in Curve Optimizer offsets core by core on a 7800X3D, and honestly — it’s the kind of tedious work that most people simply won’t bother with. If Colorful can automate that process without sacrificing stability, it fills a real gap in the AM5 ecosystem.

The valorant benchmarks: promising, with a major asterisk

Colorful’s test setup pairs the Ryzen 9850X3D with NVIDIA’s RTX 5070 Ti — a combination that already pushes extremely high frame rates in competitive esports titles. In Valorant specifically, X3D AI Turbo reportedly lifted average FPS by 8.3%, while the more telling 1% low metric jumped 16.4%. That 1% low figure is the one that decides whether your game feels smooth during chaotic firefights and particle-heavy ability spam — it matters far more than the average for ranked play.

Here’s the thing, though. Valorant is a lightweight Unreal Engine title that’s notoriously CPU-sensitive and scales well with even modest frequency bumps. Showing gains there is the easy part. A single-game benchmark on the most CPU-bound esports title on the market doesn’t tell us much about what happens in Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K, or Hogwarts Legacy, or any GPU-limited scenario where the CPU-side uplift gets buried. Until independent reviewers like Hardware Unboxed or der8auer run broader suites, these numbers need third-party validation before anyone takes them seriously. Vendor benchmarks have burned us before — remember NVIDIA’s DLSS 3 launch slides that conveniently tested at resolutions nobody uses? — and this has all the hallmarks of a cherry-picked demo.

One-Click overclocking is becoming an Arms Race

Colorful isn’t the first board maker chasing this idea. Throughout 2024 and into early 2025, MSI, ASUS, and Gigabyte have all been pushing their own automated tuning features on AM5 and Intel 700/800 series platforms. ASUS’s overclocking assistant and MSI’s Game Boost target a near-identical audience — gamers who want free performance without the manual work. The r/AMD subreddit has been skeptical about vendor auto-OC tools ever since MSI’s Game Boost bricked a few early Ryzen 9000 boards in September — so Colorful’s claim of “safe automatic tuning” is going to face an uphill battle with enthusiasts. What sets Colorful apart, at least on paper, is the explicit focus on 3D V-Cache silicon and the claim that its per-chip frequency assessment is more granular than a generic one-size-fits-all boost profile.

Credit where it’s due: the Ryzen X3D lineup thrives on careful frequency tuning in ways that standard Zen 5 chips don’t. The stacked L3 cache creates unique thermal and voltage constraints — push too hard and you get instability, too little and you leave frames on the table. A tool that accounts for per-chip variation in that narrow operating window could theoretically extract performance that blanket PBO settings miss entirely. Whether Colorful’s implementation lives up to that promise — or just slaps a mildly aggressive PBO preset on the chip with marketing polish — is something only independent testing will settle.

What Colorful isn’t telling us

A few things are missing from the announcement — and they’re the ones that matter most. There’s zero mention of thermal impact, long-term stability data, or whether enabling X3D AI Turbo affects AMD’s warranty coverage. For anyone who’s dealt with the 7800X3D’s notoriously tight thermal headroom, the lack of temperature numbers should worry you — especially if you’ve ever watched that chip hit 89°C at bone-stock settings with a decent air cooler. I’ve personally had to swap from a mid-range tower cooler to a 360mm AIO just to keep my 7800X3D from throttling under sustained gaming sessions, and any overclock, even an automated one, pushes those margins thinner.

There’s also the availability question. Colorful is primarily a Chinese market brand with limited retail presence in the US and Europe. Even if X3D AI Turbo works exactly as advertised, getting your hands on one of these AM5 800 boards stateside could be the biggest practical hurdle. No US pricing, no confirmed distribution partners, no timeline for broader availability as of early 2025 — just a feature announcement and a single Valorant benchmark.

If independent testing confirms even half of Colorful’s claimed gains across a wider set of titles, this could put real pressure on ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte to refine their own automated tuning specifically for 3D V-Cache silicon. And that competitive pressure — not Colorful’s board itself — might end up being the biggest win for anyone running these chips in 2025.

FAQ

Source: Colorful, ITHOME

The post Colorful’s X3D AI Turbo promises easy FPS gains for Ryzen 3D V-Cache appeared first on Geeknify.

Following the retirement of Paint 3D, Microsoft has now confirmed plans to end support for 3D Viewer, a built-in utility that originally shipped with Windows 10. The company says the app will be removed from the Microsoft Store on July 1, 2026, effectively marking the end of its lifecycle.

3D Viewer has already been optional in Windows 11, but this change makes its status permanent. Users who currently have the app installed will still be able to run it, but once it is manually removed, there will be no official way to download or reinstall it.

Microsoft originally positioned 3D Viewer as a lightweight tool for viewing and making basic edits to 3D models in formats such as STL, FBX, OBJ, and GLTF. While it was never intended for professional workflows, it proved useful for quick previews and simple inspections without requiring full-featured third-party software.

As an alternative, Microsoft is directing users to Babylon.js Sandbox, a browser-based viewer that runs entirely on the web. The move reflects a broader shift in Microsoft’s Windows strategy, where web-based tools increasingly replace native utilities for niche or low-usage tasks.

For long-time Windows users, the removal of 3D Viewer follows a familiar pattern. Built-in apps are gradually being phased out as Windows evolves, often without direct replacements at the OS level, leaving users to rely on external or web-based solutions instead.

The post Microsoft is retiring 3D Viewer and removing it from Windows in 2026 appeared first on Geeknify.

Picking just ten wasn’t easy, but this list covers a wide range of styles: story-driven adventures, full-scale action games, atmospheric horror, physical combat, and deep VR-first design. These are the projects that show what modern VR can actually do.

Arken Age

Release date: January 16, 2025
Platforms: PC, PS5

Most VR games still feel like attractions — limited mechanics, short sessions, and little narrative depth. Truly large-scale projects often end up being VR adaptations of flat games like Skyrim VR, Fallout 4 VR, or Resident Evil VR. That’s why Arken Age stands out.

It’s a full single-player VR action-adventure built from the ground up for virtual reality. Set in a fantastical world corrupted by a neural plague, the game lets you move freely through space — climbing, swimming, jumping, and fighting with a strong sense of physical presence. Combat is fast and tactile, built around swords, firearms, and improvised weapons.

The story campaign runs for over ten hours and features large boss fights, exploration, crafting, and weapon upgrades. Because the game was designed specifically for VR, interactions with the world feel natural and grounded, making Arken Age one of the strongest examples of VR-first design to date.

Batman: Arkham Shadow

Release date: October 22, 2024
Platforms: PC (Meta Quest 3 exclusive)

If there’s one game that can justify buying a Quest 3 on its own, it’s Batman: Arkham Shadow. Set between Arkham Origins and Arkham Asylum, the game introduces a new threat in Gotham — a cult led by the Rat King — and puts you directly inside Batman’s cowl.

Everything is built for VR: hand-to-hand combat is performed with real punches and counters, gadgets are activated with gestures, stealth relies on physical movement, and traversal includes climbing, gliding, and grappling through the city. Detective work is also fully interactive — clues must be physically examined using Detective Vision.

Arkham Shadow proves that the Arkham formula doesn’t just survive in VR — it becomes more intense, more personal, and far more immersive.

The Midnight Walk

Release date: May 8, 2025
Platforms: PC, PS5

In The Midnight Walk, you play as the Burned One, traveling through a dark fairy-tale world alongside Potboy — a living lantern whose flame directly affects the environment. While the game can be played without VR, the headset transforms the experience.

Creatures react to light, puzzles depend on depth and scale, and exploration feels physical rather than abstract. The visuals are especially striking: environments are built from hand-crafted clay models scanned into the game, giving everything a stop-motion look that feels eerily alive in VR.

The game favors atmosphere, pacing, and environmental storytelling over action, making it one of the most artistically distinctive VR experiences available.

Ghost Town

Release date: July 15, 2025
Platforms: PC, PS5

From the creators of The Room, Ghost Town is a VR adventure puzzle game set in supernatural 1980s Britain. You play as Edith Penrose, a ghost hunter searching for her missing brother on a remote Scottish island.

Designed entirely for VR, the game revolves around hands-on interaction: inspecting objects, rotating mechanisms, using tools, performing rituals, and communicating with spirits. Every puzzle is built around physical manipulation rather than abstract logic.

The focus on atmosphere, storytelling, and tactile problem-solving makes Ghost Town a standout for players who prefer narrative-driven VR.

Deadpool VR

Release date: November 18, 2025
Platforms: PC (Quest 3 exclusive)

Deadpool finally makes the jump to VR — and it fits perfectly. In Deadpool VR, you sign a contract with Mojo and are thrown into a ridiculous intergalactic death show, hunting villains while constantly breaking the fourth wall.

Combat is entirely hand-driven: dual pistols, katanas, grenades, grabs, throws, and environmental chaos. The game leans into arcade pacing rather than realism, and the humor works especially well in VR, as Deadpool reacts directly to your movements, gestures, and pauses.

GORN 2

Release date: April 17, 2025
Platforms: PC, PS5

GORN 2 doubles down on everything that made the original infamous. It’s an absurdly violent gladiator game built entirely around physics-based combat.

Weapons have weight, inertia, and poor balance by design. Enemies can be grabbed, shoved, thrown, or dismembered in spectacularly exaggerated ways. Progression unlocks new arenas, weapons, and increasingly ridiculous encounters.

It’s not realistic — and it doesn’t try to be. GORN 2 is pure, chaotic VR spectacle.

Z.O.N.A.: Origin

Release date: August 22, 2025
Platforms: PC

Essentially S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in VR, Z.O.N.A.: Origin is a large-scale narrative VR shooter set in a post-apocalyptic exclusion zone around Chernobyl. After a mysterious disaster, you investigate the disappearance of a scientific expedition while taking on side missions across a dangerous open world.

The campaign is expected to last around 30 hours. Between expeditions, you manage gear, repair weapons, and plan routes from a central hub. VR mechanics are deeply integrated: weapons reload by hand, items must be physically handled, anomalies are detected with thrown bolts, and resources are limited.

A unique touch is weapon customization — guns can be spray-painted in any color you like.

Dofamine VR

Release date: February 18, 2025
Platforms: PC

Dofamine VR is a story-driven puzzle game set inside an abandoned research facility following a failed high-energy experiment. There’s no combat and no timers — the focus is on exploration, observation, and spatial reasoning.

You manipulate machinery, align structures, and uncover the story through environmental clues. Narrow corridors, vast halls, and deep vertical spaces create constant tension, amplified by VR’s sense of scale and isolation.

It’s a slow, meditative experience that uses VR to enhance mood rather than spectacle.

Reach

Release date: October 16, 2025
Platforms: PC, PS5

Reach is a VR adventure built entirely around movement and vertical exploration. You play as Rosa, descending into a massive underground city to recover an energy core vital to the surface world.

Climbing, jumping, swinging, and building your own paths are core mechanics. Your primary weapon is a bow that requires real physical aiming and drawing, while firearms are rare and temporary.

There are no assists — every grab, leap, and shot depends on precision, making Reach one of the most physically demanding VR games on the list.

Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow

Release date: December 4, 2025
Platforms: PC, PS5

Set in the classic Thief universe, Legacy of Shadow is a stealth game designed exclusively for VR. You play as Magpie, a thief navigating a city under the control of Baron Northcrest.

Everything happens through physical interaction: opening doors slowly, picking locks by hand, stealing items directly from guards, extinguishing lights, and using sound and shadows to stay hidden. Archery relies on gestures, and every movement carries risk.

For fans of stealth games, this is one of the most immersive VR experiences available.

For years, VR struggled to move beyond experiments and short experiences. These games show that the medium is finally delivering full-scale, confident projects built around physical presence, not adapted after the fact.

If VR ever needed a moment to prove itself — this is it.

The post 10 New VR Games that finally make virtual reality worth buying again appeared first on Geeknify.