YouTuber ETA Prime built an all-AMD PC (Ryzen 7 9800X3D, RX 7900 XTX, 32 GB DDR5) and dual-booted Windows 11 Pro and SteamOS 3.7.17 to run Cyberpunk 2077, Borderlands 4, Forza Horizon 5, Spider-Man 2, and Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K Ultra. Results vary by title: Cyberpunk 2077 nearly identical (84 FPS Windows 11 vs 85 FPS SteamOS), Borderlands 4 favors Windows (74 vs 69), Forza Horizon 5 favors Windows (191 vs 157), Spider-Man 2 edges SteamOS (111 vs 103), and Red Dead Redemption 2 leads Windows (96 vs 88). The test highlights that Linux/SteamOS gaming is viable today but performance is game-dependent, with a dual-boot setup offering flexibility to choose the best-performing OS per title while preserving Windows ecosystem access.
Intel's Panther Lake, revealed at CES 2026, features impressive integrated graphics based on Xe3 architecture, promising performance that rivals entry-level discrete GPUs and surpasses AMD's offerings, with strong gaming and ML capabilities, especially in mobile and handheld devices, signaling a significant advancement in energy-efficient gaming performance.
A Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 equipped with Intel's Core Ultra X9 388H processor and built-in Arc B390 GPU can achieve up to 190 fps playing Battlefield 6 at 1080p on high settings, thanks to Intel's XeSS3 AI upscaling and frame generation, demonstrating significant advancements in integrated graphics performance.
NVIDIA announced DLSS 4.5 at CES 2026, featuring a new Transformer-based upscaler for improved image quality and reduced ghosting, along with enhanced multi-frame generation capabilities that can achieve up to 6x performance uplift, bringing high-resolution, high-refresh-rate gaming closer to mainstream gamers.
The Asus ROG Strix G16 (2025) offers a balanced gaming laptop with a powerful Ryzen 9 9955HX3D processor and RTX 5070 Ti graphics, featuring a 16-inch 240Hz display, solid build quality, and good performance, though it lacks OLED and has some port and battery life limitations.
The Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS is the standout handheld gaming device of 2025, praised for its user-friendly SteamOS, solid performance with AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, ergonomic design, and ease of setup, making it a top choice for portable gaming enthusiasts.
The Intel Core Ultra 5 225F, a budget CPU priced around $160, offers limited gaming and productivity performance, trailing behind comparable AMD and Intel models, making it an unappealing choice unless heavily discounted.
Bazzite, a Linux-based gaming OS similar to SteamOS, is gaining popularity among gamers, especially after Windows 10's end of life, with around 50,000 weekly users. While Linux gaming has improved significantly thanks to Proton, limitations like anti-cheat restrictions and lack of native support for certain software remain. Despite these challenges, Linux's growth in gaming highlights its increasing viability as an alternative to Windows for gamers.
The article compares the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with five other Android phones—OnePlus 15, ZTE Nubia Red Magic 11 Pro, iQOO 15, Vivo X300 Pro, and OPPO Find X9 Pro—highlighting that these devices outperform the Galaxy S25 Ultra in various aspects such as benchmark scores, battery capacity, charging speed, gaming features, and camera capabilities, making them more powerful options for different user needs.
The Intel Arc B580 generally outperforms the Nvidia RTX 5050 at $250 in 1080p gaming, thanks to its larger VRAM and better scaling in many titles, despite the RTX 5050's superior upscaling quality with DLSS 4. The B580's 12GB VRAM offers more future-proofing and consistent performance in VRAM-intensive games, making it a better choice for most gamers despite Nvidia's driver stability and upscaling advantages.
OnePlus is preparing to launch a new Turbo series of smartphones in 2026, featuring potentially massive 9,000 mAh batteries aimed at enhancing gaming and performance, with initial leaks suggesting these devices will be large, high-performance phones possibly exclusive to China.
Testing reveals that the Steam Machine's 8GB of graphics RAM may limit gaming performance, especially with ray-traced games, and Valve is working on software updates to address these issues, but some performance bottlenecks are expected due to RAM constraints.
The Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection for PS5 faces significant input lag issues, with tests showing around 108ms delay, which is much higher than on PC and Xbox Series X|S. Digital Eclipse has acknowledged the problem and is working on a hotfix to improve responsiveness, but the current lag may only significantly impact hardcore players.
Amazon is offering the Asus GeForce RTX 5070 at a record low price of $584, providing high-end gaming performance with 12GB GDDR7 memory, Ada Lovelace architecture, and DLSS 3.5, making it an excellent upgrade for gamers seeking 4K gaming and future-proof features.
Testing shows that running Bazzite, a Linux-based OS, on the ASUS ROG Ally Xbox results in faster start-up, better sleep performance, and higher frame rates in games compared to Windows, suggesting Linux may be a superior choice for this device in some cases.
