This week, we have news regarding an unusual transaction between two x86 license holders: Intel and Centaur Technology. The transaction is reportedly worth $125M, and will see Intel take on some of Centaur Technology’s development talent. Though we suspect there’s more to the deal than that; we’ll just have to wait and see.

Additionally, we have a new AMD RDNA 2 GPU to discuss, one aimed at cloud offerings and virtualization. EVGA has also reported that the company suffered a massive loss thanks to a stolen shipment of RTX 30-series cards, and is warning that such cards will not be honored in terms of warranty service nor will they be eligible to be registered. 

Elsewhere, we have news from Cadence on PCIe 6.0 IP and test silicon, new PSUs from Asus with 12-pin PCIe 5.0 connectors, and more. Find the news video and article below, as usual.  

This week, we have news regarding the looming Alder Lake, and how Alder Lake-S CPUs will require updated mounting kits for CPU cooler compatibility. Alder Lake will see the arrival of the new LGA1700 socket, and a slightly different shape for the CPU itself, as well as a reduced package height. Also in Intel news, the company has made good on its previous declaration to tape-in its 7nm Meteor Lake compute tiles this quarter, which overall bodes well for Intel’s recently realigned 7nm process. 

In other news, there’s talk of Dynamic Flash Memory (DFM) as a potential alternative to DRAM, Valve’s reported Switch-like gaming handheld, Windows news, an update on PCIe 6.0, and more. 

At GN, we reviewed Cyperpower’s Gamer Xtreme i3200BST, and detailed how it almost didn’t suck. We also took a look at the Yeston RX 6700 XT Sakura graphics card, and detailed some big upcoming changes at GamersNexus.

It’s been a busy week, as we have news on several fronts in the industry. There’s news of Steam's hardware survey, the discovery of several GeForce RTX 3090 models making use of a blower-style cooler disappearing from market, and Nintendo Switch 2 rumors.

We also have some news on Intel being handed a massive $2.18 billion bill for patent infringement, TSMC’s 3nm still on track for risk production this year, and reports of Texas semiconductor fabs still idling.  

At GN, we recently dug into the best PC cases of 2021 so far and tore down the EVGA RTX 3060 XC Black. We also covered AMD’s announcement of its RX 6700XT, so be sure to check that out.

There's nothing quite as validating as finding out that your hobby is featured in a political misspending and wire fraud case and, for many hardware enthusiasts, that day came when a US politician was found guilty of illegally spending campaign money on over $1300 of Steam games. In the meantime, though, we've got news on AMD RX 5500 XT listings in China, AMD CPU marketshare growth via Steam Hardware Survey, NVIDIA saying that more FPS = more kills, and more.

The Steam Summer Sale is upon on us, and we’ve put together a list of some of the best deals. This year’s Summer Sale runs from June 22nd to July 5th, so there is time to pick up these or any other games that might be of interest.

As 2016 comes to an end, Steam is hosting their annual Winter Sale from now until January 2nd at 10AM PST. Steam’s annual Autumn Sale ran this year from November 23rd to 29th, so if you missed out on that, this is probably the last chance to get some savings for the year. Then again, Steam does sales routinely -- careful use of the wishlist means you’ll get notifications as items go up for sale throughout the year.

For today, we have a list of some of our best PC games of 2016 as well as some titles from 2015 that are discounted significantly. As these Steam sales come to a close, we will just be arriving in Las Vegas for the year’s Consumer Electronics Show, so do follow closely for that! News will ramp-up significantly post-Xmas.

Here is the shortlist:

As the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals start to wind down, we will begin to take a look at some games that are among the most popular on Steam. Some of these games were greatly reduced on the Autumn Sale, and while that sale has ended, Steam usually hosts a Winter Sale -- that’ll be coming up shortly.

For today, we’ve got a list of some of our top PC games for 2016 (including previous releases and sales). All the below games are available on Steam. This year's game releases felt a little lighter in the AAA category versus last year; at least, when considering last year offered GTA V and The Witcher 3 in rapid succession, but active sales have revived last year's titles alongside a couple major indie hits for 2016.

Here is the shortlist:

Software publisher and game development studio Bethesda has silently rolled-out its alpha version of the “Bethesda.net” launcher, posted alongside card game Elder Scrolls: Legends. Plans for the launcher are yet undisclosed and the store front isn't active, but a key code redemption link indicates that Bethesda will soon be moving product through its store.

This is not a departure from Steam (at least, not yet), but is almost certainly a move to bypass the revenue share with Valve. Bethesda isn't the first publisher to explore this route. EA's Origin took the more extreme approach, simultaneously launching its storefront and completely removing its games from Steam. Ubisoft's uPlay doesn't do this, but buying a Ubisoft title on Steam will invariably launch the uPlay launcher, which then requests a sign-in – and that game may request its own sign-in, in case two weren't enough. GOG Galaxy is perhaps the least offensive in its authentication practices and most neutral, but is still closely related to CD Projekt Red.

It's an interesting world where global video game industry revenue out-grosses that of the incumbent movie and music entertainment industries. In an unprecedented cross-over, Valve today announced its partnership with Lionsgate (NYSE: LGFO) to bring “more than 100 movies” to Steam. Among the selection is the Hunger Games series, Ender's Game, and the Saw series. From our first look, we're only seeing 70 total films – but there are supposedly at least 31 more on the way.

The past week in game news saw some contradictions in initial RollerCoaster Tycoon World plans, Steam controller 3D print customization, Battleborn's beta, and Hyper Light Drifter's launch. Big news in various segments of the gaming market, all covered in our weekly recap that's embedded below.

RollerCoaster Tycoon World is up first (RCTW) – an easy topic, given our extensive coverage history of the game's tumultuous development pipeline. Developers nvizzio and publisher Atari have given in to the Early Access model, making available RCTW for $50 pre-purchases. More on this and other weekly news topics in this video: