• AMD has announced two new old CPUs that are on the one hand somewhat overpriced and underwhelming and on the other hand eagerly awaited by hobbyists.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The first is the Ryzen 5800X3D priced at $349.  This first appeared in 2022 priced at $449, but was taken off the market in 2024 because it competed a little too well with the newer 7800X3D.
  
  The second is the Ryzen 7700X3D, priced at $329.  This is a 7800X3D, just 10% slower.
  
  If you happen to have an unused AM4 motherboard and 64GB of DDR4 RAM sitting idle, the 5800X3D may be just what you need.  Otherwise you're probably be better off with the newer, faster 7700X3D.
  
  
  
• AMD has also updated its roadmap to confirm that the AM5 platform (the current generation) will remain current through at least 2029.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The previous AM4 platform - home to the once and future 5800X3D - was introduced in 2016, and is still viable today.

• AMD also announced global availability of its 9070 GRE, previously a China-only edition.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  This is essentially 75% of the company's flagship graphics card, the 9070 XT, trimmed from 64 cores and 16GB of RAM to 48 cores and 12GB of RAM.
  
  The only problem is the MSRP was reduced from $599 to $549, which makes it rather the opposite of a good deal.
  
  
  
• Nvidia is announcing - oh, wait, it just went official - its RTX Spark laptop chip.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  This offers up to 20 Arm CPU cores, coupled with up to 128GB of RAM and an up to RTX 5070-class integrated GPU.
  
  This is the same chip used in Nvidia's DGX Spark AI desktop, which retails for $4699, so don't expect the laptop version to be cheap.
  
  
  
• Speaking of cheap laptops, Dell's new XPS 13 starts at $699 ($599 for students).  (Liliputing)
  
  It uses Intel's low-end Wildcat Lake CPU, but one of the better ones with actually quite acceptable performance.  And unlike many competing models it has a screen on par with Apple's MacBook Neo, a 2560x1600 IPS panel covering 100% of DCI-P3 colour and a variable refresh rate from 30 to 120Hz, at a healthy 500 nits brightness.
  
  Basic model has 8GB of RAM (soldered) and 512GB of SSD.  I/O consists of two USB-C ports and...  That's it, really.  Doesn't have the Four Essential Keys either.
  
  
  
• What does have the Four Essential Keys is Lenovo's new Thinkpad T14 Gen 7.  (Notebook Check)
  
  It comes with a 6 or 8 core Ryzen processor with Radeon 840M or 860M graphics respectively - good if not great - the aforementioned keys which while not in my preferred layout are all present and unshared, and expandable memory and storage.
  
  And a 2880x1800 OLED display...  With 500 nits brightness and a variable refresh rate from 30 to 120Hz.
  
  (A word of caution with these OLED panels: They look amazing but burn-in is real.)
  
  
  
• Download all the computers.  (Virtual OS Museum)
  
  Ever wanted to see what the old days of computing were like - as early as 1948?
  
  Want to play with that Apple II or BBC Micro your parents couldn't afford?
  
  Or just want to play with a Lisp or Smalltalk workstation?
  
  It's all here. 179GB of it.
  
  
  
• Wikipedia editors are threatening a global strike where they'll stop airbrushing history.  (The Register)
  
  Oh no.

Posted by: Rick C at Monday, June 01 2026 11:34 PM (U0KBt)

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