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Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Wednesday, March 5 (game #1136).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,100 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

Enjoy playing word games? You can also check out my NYT Connections today and NYT Strands today pages for hints and answers for those puzzles, while Marc's Wordle today column covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #1137) - hint #1 - Vowels How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 2*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too).

Quordle today (game #1137) - hint #2 - repeated letters Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 0.

Quordle today (game #1137) - hint #3 - uncommon letters Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #1137) - hint #4 - starting letters (1) Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #1137) - hint #5 - starting letters (2) What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• T

• E

• B

• R

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #1137) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #1137, are…

• TRICE
• EIGHT
• BELCH
• RIPER

Some unlucky guesses ruined my great start today.

After being gifted TRICE I tore into my next most gettable word and got four letters correct, but with multiple options chose the wrong ones before finally getting RIPER (not the most obvious of possible answers) and scraping by with the final two words.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Daily Sequence today (game #1137) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #1137, are…

• DELAY
• LEAFY
• THEME
• SENSE

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #1136, Wednesday 5 March: PLEAD, TWANG, MAJOR, RISKY
• Quordle #1135, Tuesday 4 March: FLOWN, ETUDE, TOPAZ, JOKER
• Quordle #1134, Monday 3 March: FRILL, KAYAK, REBAR, WORDY
• Quordle #1133, Sunday 2 March: TUNIC, GLOSS, DEBUG, LARGE
• Quordle #1132, Saturday 1 March: DENSE, BONEY, KITTY, SMEAR
• Quordle #1131, Friday 28 February: PASTA, RAZOR, PLUMB, DROOL
• Quordle #1130, Thursday 27 February: THIEF, CHAIR, ETHER, GRIME
• Quordle #1129, Wednesday 26 February: LOVER, SPIED, VAPOR, METER
• Quordle #1128, Tuesday 25 February: TWIST, TWEAK, MEANT, CLEAR
• Quordle #1127, Monday 24 February: LEASH, LEVER, TOTEM, CREME
• Quordle #1126, Sunday 23 February: RABID, RELIC, SCRAM, BASIS
• Quordle #1125, Saturday 22 February: ETHER, SONIC, VAUNT, ROUSE
• Quordle #1124, Friday 21 February: STIFF, PRIZE, SCOWL, DONUT
• Quordle #1123, Thursday 20 February: HASTY, DRAPE, FICUS, CRAZE
• Quordle #1122, Wednesday 19 February: ABATE, TROVE, VENUE, DRAPE
• Quordle #1121, Tuesday 18 February: TAMER, SCRUB, BRICK, DRIFT
• Quordle #1120, Monday 17 February: SADLY, WAFER, LITHE, IDIOM
• Quordle #1119, Sunday 16 February: GHOUL, AFIRE, COVEN, FIERY
• Quordle #1118, Saturday 15 February: CREEP, CONDO, GRILL, FANCY
• Quordle #1117, Friday 14 February: MEDIA, ELUDE, THUMB, WIDOW

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Wednesday, March 5 (game #633).

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #634) - today's words

(Image credit: New York Times)

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• FLAT
• STONE
• PETER
• PIPER
• MARY JANE
• WATER
• SLIDE
• WEED
• PAPER
• TAPER
• PLANT
• CASTLE
• FADE
• PRUNE
• MULE
• DWINDLE

NYT Connections today (game #634) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Disappear slowly 
• GREEN: Green fingers 
• BLUE: For your feet
• PURPLE: Start with a beachy word

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #634) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: WANE 
• GREEN: DO SOME TASKS IN THE GARDEN 
• BLUE: SHOES 
• PURPLE: SAND__ 

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #634) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Connections, game #634, are…

• YELLOW: WANE DWINDLE, FADE, PETER, TAPER
• GREEN: DO SOME TASKS IN THE GARDEN PLANT, PRUNE, WATER, WEED
• BLUE: SHOES FLAT, MARY JANE, MULE, SLIDE
• PURPLE: SAND__ CASTLE, PAPER, PIPER, STONE

• My rating: Moderate
• My score: 2 mistakes

My two mistakes today came from trying to weedle out the correct four words and getting one wrong. For WANE I included SLIDE instead of TAPER and for SHOES I chose PAPER instead of MARY JANE. Paper shoes are a thing, right?

It’s weird the things you’ll convince yourself of when playing Connections. For a while I thought I was looking for drug slang, seeing as hippies love WEED, Mary Jane is jazz-era lingo for cannabis, STONE is close to 'stoned' and MULE is someone who smuggles drugs.

Meanwhile, I’m sure PETER PIPER was confused to pick a PAPER rather than a pepper.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, 5 March, game #633)

• YELLOW: PERIPHERY BORDER, EDGE, FRINGE, SKIRT
• GREEN: THINGS PEOPLE DO TO FINGERNAILS BITE, CLIP, FILE, PAINT
• BLUE: WHAT MIGHT BRING TEARS TO YOUR EYES ALLERGY, MELODRAMA, ONION, RELIEF
• PURPLE: __BALL RECREATIONAL SPORTS DODGE, KICK, PICKLE, SOFT

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don't technically need to solve the final one, as you'll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What's more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It's a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It's playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Wednesday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Wednesday, March 5 (game #367).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Strands today (game #368) - hint #1 - today's theme What is the theme of today's NYT Strands?

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Love is in the apps

NYT Strands today (game #368) - hint #2 - clue words

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• LION
• THAN
• ROPE
• LIFE
• SING
• GOING

NYT Strands today (game #368) - hint #3 - spangram What is a hint for today's spangram?

• Tinder phrases

NYT Strands today (game #368) - hint #4 - spangram position What are two sides of the board that today's spangram touches?

First side: left, 4th row

Last side: right, 4th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Strands today (game #368) - the answers

(Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today's Strands, game #368, are…

• MATCH
• LIKE
• CHAT
• GHOST
• PROFILE
• SWIPE
• MEETUP
• SPANGRAM: ONLINE DATING

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

After initially taking the theme literally and looking for app names, this puzzle revealed itself very easily and was all over quicker than a SWIPE left.

Despite having zero experience of ONLINE DATING, the terminology is commonplace and through friends and family I’ve experienced many of the perils and psychological trauma of dating apps, as well as the happiness they bring.

My friend met their partner via an app, despite years of bad mouthing them, after about five minutes of setting up his profile. Even more ridiculously lucky, it was their first time using an app, too, and his was the first picture they clicked on. They’re made for each other and I doubt they would have met any other way.

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

Yesterday's NYT Strands answers (Wednesday, 5 March, game #367)

• BEAGLE
• BOUNTY
• TITANIC
• VICTORY
• MAYFLOWER
• SPANGRAM: HISTORIC SHIPS

What is NYT Strands?

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

• ChatGPT-4.5 release for Plus users will be staggered over a number of days
• Sam Altman proposes new credit-based payment system for subscribers
• X users offer a mixture of reactions to the idea

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has taken to X to announce that the release of ChatGPT-4.5, scheduled for tomorrow, will be delayed for all users. Instead of a major release, Open AI will be rolling the product out from tomorrow for a select number of users.

ChatGPT-4.5 is the next version of the popular ChatGPT chatbot, and is slated to be its largest and best model yet. It launched last week for ChatGPT Pro subscribers, and will be released to Plus subscribers this week, just not in one go as initially planned.

In another tweet, Altman also floated the idea of changing the pricing structure of ChatGPT Plus so that your $20 doesn't guarantee you unrestricted access. Instead, Altman proposed offering a number of tokens each month to subscribers, which could be spent across its different products, like Deep Research, ChatGPT o1, Sora and ChatGPT-4.5.

we are likely going to roll out GPT-4.5 to the plus tier over a few days.there is no perfect way to do this; we wanted to do it for everyone tomorrow, but it would have meant we had to launch with a very low rate limit.we think people are gonna use this a lot and love it.March 4, 2025

Low rate limits

In his post on X, Altman states “We are likely going to roll out GPT-4.5 to the Plus tier over a few days. There is no perfect way to do this; we wanted to do it for everyone tomorrow, but it would have meant we had to launch with a very low rate limit.”

A "low rate limit" would mean restricting how much people could use ChatGPT-4.5, and it seems that a staggered rollout is OpenAI’s preferred way to stop its servers overloading from everybody trying to use the new LLM at once.

Altman continued: “So we think it's better to let people have real, long conversations with it, but that means we have to stagger people in rather than have everyone hit it hard at the same time. Hope that makes sense and look forward to seeing your feedback!”

Altman added “We think people are gonna use this a lot and love it.”

Referring to his idea of changing the payments structure for ChatGPT Plus Altman added “No fixed limits per feature and you choose what you want; if you run out of credits you can buy more. What do you think? good/bad?”

No fixed limits

While some X users responded positively, the response was generally negative with user Chubby posting, “Dislike. It discourages you from playing with the models. If you're worried about running out of credits, you'll get stingy”, and user Van Mendosa writing, ”This model adds unnecessary friction @sama People don’t want to think in “credits” or micromanage their AI usage like an arcade token system.”

Altman’s public use of X to garner user feedback on potentially massive changes to the way that ChatGPT works is unusual, but could partly be explained by the effects of sleep deprivation as he and his partner have recently welcomed a new baby into the world.

In a further tweet Altman goes on to say “Very proud of the OpenAI team for what is perhaps the most impressive scientific/technical breakthrough of recent decades.” (Here he seems to be referring to ChatGPT-4.5).

“Thought that was the thing I'd always be most proud of in life. Turns out I am now more proud of a preemie baby for learning how to eat on his own! (I realize I am getting neurochemically hacked here but idc, it's the best)."

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• The Nvidia RTX 5070 Founders Edition card will not be available today
• Nvidia has confirmed it will be coming at some point in March, 2025
• Availability is expected to be incredibly limited, as with other Blackwell cards

It's launch day for the RTX 5070 with the hotly anticipated midrange graphics card now (hopefully) available in the hands of gamers across the US, UK, and beyond. However, it's just AIBs on sale for now, as Nvidia has stated that while a Founders Edition model is coming, there's a bit of a way to go yet.

While the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 Founders Edition models shipped alongside partner variants (such as Gigabyte, Zotac, MSI, ASRock, Asus), the same cannot be said for the midrange Blackwell offering; Nvidia has confirmed the RTX 5070 Founders Edition model will be coming "later in March" with an exact date still to be determined (via Andreas Schilling on X).

According to this source, Nvidia told Schilling of the lack of Founders Edition availability just two and a half hours before the review embargo lifted. This leaves the availability of the Nvidia-made card into question. Historically, while both the Founders Edition models of the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 were technically available, they were even more ephemeral than their AIB counterparts (particularly in the US and the UK).

Traditionally, the Founders Edition models of Nvidia GPUs are most commonly found in the US through hybrid retailers (online and brick-and-mortar) such as Micro Center and Best Buy. Whereas in the UK, it's typically, only Nvidia's website (and in incredibly limited supply). We've seen the rest of the Blackwell lineup disappear from shelves near-instantly, and the same is looking likely of this one; despite (seemingly) reduced demand against the other three GPUs.

A lack of confidence for a troubled product

By all accounts, the RTX 5070 has failed to trailblaze the way that its predecessors (the RTX 4070 Super and RTX 4070) did in 2024 and 2023 respectively. We gave the latest Blackwell GPU a less-than-stellar 3-star write-up in our review, citing near-identical generational performance when compared to the RTX 4070 Super despite the jump to PCIe 5.0 and GDDR7 video memory, which were made (effectively) useless by the reduction in Compute Units and transistors overall.

The fact that Nvidia has decided to delay its Founders Edition of the cheapest card in the Blackwell lineup could be somewhat telling. It's possible it is preparing for a wider availability than was seen from the three other GPUs. However, this could be a strategic move considering tomorrow's launch of AMD's RX 9070 and 9070 XT, neither of which will feature a Reference (AMD-made) version. Could Nvidia be holding back to snipe its competition with the cheapest variants available? It's a possibility.

With all said, the RTX 5070 could be a worthwhile investment if you're upgrading from an older Ampere (RTX 30 series) or Turing (RTX 20 series) 70-class card for a massive two/three generational boost. Some partner cards may be hovering around the promised $549 mark, whereas others will inevitably be priced upwards of $600 depending on cooler size, overclocking potential, RGB, and more.

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• Samsung has confirmed that One UI 7 is finally launching in April
• A pre-release build has been available on the Galaxy S25 series since launch
• More devices will get access to beta versions in the lead-up to release

Samsung has confirmed that One UI 7 will finally see a stable release in April, four months after the updated Android wrapper was first made available alongside the Galaxy S25 lineup.

One UI 7 has shipped with the Galaxy S25 series since the new flagship handsets were released in January, but this is a pre-release build. The software is still officially in beta on most Galaxy devices.

One UI 7 is based on Android 15, which launched in October last year – this means users of some of the best Samsung Phones from recent years, like the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S23 series, will have been waiting as long as half a year to get their hands on the update.

That’s quite a bit longer than customers of competing phone brands like Google and OnePlus have had to wait – the Pixel version of Android 15 and OnePlus’ OxygenOS 15 have been available for selected devices for quite some time already.

iPhones of course run Apple’s own iOS software instead of Android, with Apple typically issuing updates to all eligible devices at the same time. This is all to say that Samsung’s One UI 7 release strategy has been pretty unconventional.

In the run-up to stable release, Samsung has enabled new One UI 7 betas for the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 6 folding phones. The Galaxy S24 series previously had access to the beta, while Galaxy S23 series users will need to wait another month according to Android Authority.

As we previously reported, there’s a chance that Google will issue Android 16 in May, which could threaten to make One UI 7 feel outdated very soon after launch – not that there’s much Samsung can do about it now.

In total, all Galaxy S handsets (including FE models) dating back to the Galaxy S21 series will get One UI 7, as will Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip models dating back to the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3. A smattering of A-series devices and Galaxy Tab tablets will also get the update – PhoneArena has handily compiled a full list.

So, now that the end of this long wait is in sight, what do Samsung fans have to look forward to? Read on for a quick recap of the five best new features in One UI 7.

Now bar

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

The Now Bar is Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Dynamic Island, but instead of a pill-shaped cutout at the top of the screen, Samsung’s implementation exists as a pill-shaped bar that’s detached from any physical hardware.

The Now Bar lives on the lock screen of your Galaxy phone, and can display notifications, playing music, or other routines like timers and bespoke uses unique to specific supported apps.

Though not as omnipresent as the Dynamic Island or other Android live notification delivery implementations like OnePlus’ Dynamic Cloud, the Now Bar is a neat new way to keep an eye on your apps and activities.

New notifications

(Image credit: Peter Hoffmann)

The way Samsung Galaxy phones handle notifications has changed with One UI 7. The Quick Settings and notifications tabs have been separated to reduce clutter, and now inhabit two distinct menus.

As Android Police notes, there’s also the new Filter Notifications tab in the settings app, that allows users to filter out minimized, old, or background notifications.

What’s more, notifications have a new look, with a rounded pill shape that fits with the rest of the newly updated UI.

Refreshed UI

(Image credit: Blue Pixl Media)

One UI 7 brings a new look to Galaxy, with refreshed stock icons, new smoother animations, and new widget styles.

There’s also a frosted glass effect found throughout the UI that gives a sense of dimension and smoothness to the overall experience, with rounded corners on most icons and tabs.

Aesthetics are, of course, subjective, but there’s no denying that One UI 7 looks sleek and modern compared to its predecessor, One UI 6, although whether it matches your personal taste is another matter.

More Galaxy AI tools

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

When Samsung revealed the Galaxy S25 series and One UI 7 at this year’s first Samsung Galaxy Unpacked showcase, the company put a strong focus on its new AI tools and features.

As SamMobile notes, some of these features will come to older Galaxy phones with the release of One UI 7 – the self-described Call Transcripts feature and Writing Assist tools are two prominent examples, and Android Police suggests that Audio Eraser could come to older handsets too.

Some new Galaxy AI features, like the Now Brief, are specifically enabled by the S25 series hardware, so we'll have a bit of a wait before we know exactly what’s coming to older Galaxy phones.

Better adaptive charging options

(Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Adaptive charging allows your phone to monitor and adapt to your personal charging schedule to best preserve your device’s long-term battery health.

Most modern smartphones offer some kind of adaptive or hard-limiting battery preservation, but One UI 7 offers Galaxy users new depth in how they approach this feature.

With One UI 7, you can choose between three charging limiters – a basic limit that stops charging at 100% and restarts at 95%, an adaptive mode that stops charging at 80% until the phone predicts you’ll soon wake up, and a hard 80% limit.

Conventional tech wisdom suggests that lithium-ion batteries are best kept at between 20% and 80% charge, so these options should help you get a few more cycles out of your phone’s battery.

There you have it: five reasons to get excited for One UI 7 as we wait for it to finally launch in April. Will the wait be worth it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Syrian soccer player Abdel Basset al-Sarout became the poster child for the Syrian revolution with his iconic protest anthems. In death, he has become its saint. But he didn't do it alone.

(Image credit: Yahya Nemah for NPR)

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Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford professor of health policy, appears before the Senate HELP committee, which will vet his nomination to become the next director of the National Institutes of Health.

(Image credit: Taylor Hill)

In an order, the justices left in place a lower court order that so far has only required the Trump administration to pay contractors for foreign aid work that has already been completed — roughly $2 billion.

(Image credit: Andrew Harnik)

• Apple is now reportedly taking the British Government to court
• Move comes after the UK Government reportedly asked Apple to build an encryption key
• Apple refused, and disabled its encryption service for UK users

The UK Government's privacy row with Apple over an alleged backdoor request continues, with reports claiming the company appealed to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, an independent court that can investigate claims made against the Security Service.

The UK Government had reportedly asked Apple to build a master key for law enforcement agencies in its end-to-end encryption (E2EE) service, Advanced Data Protection (ADP) - however Apple refused, and pulled ADP altogether.

This is believed to be the first legal challenge to any provisions in the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act allowing the break of encryptions. The tribunal will look into the legality of the UK government’s request, and whether or not it can be overruled.

Privacy concerns

The request was condemned by both privacy groups and also came as a surprise to the American government, who called the request a “clear and egregious violation of American’s privacy and civil liberties”, after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard shared “grave concern” over the implications of the request.

The case could be heard this month, but as of yet, it's not clear if there will be any public disclosure of the hearing - and it’s likely the UK Government will argue that the case be restricted due to national security concerns.

The E2EE, built by Apple, means the photos, messages, and other data of the users who chose to enable the service is protected, and cannot be accessed by anyone - even Apple.

Some campaigners have previously argued in favor of the backdoor for the UK Government, so that law enforcement agencies have access to potentially harmful materials or evidence of abuse material - but many are concerned that the creation of a ‘master key’ brings a risk of that key falling into the wrong hands.

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• Microsoft launches new Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus option
• Recovery can be 8x quicker than Cross-region Disaster Recovery
• Admins can select their preferred region for sovereignty

Microsoft has looked to up its data recovery options for users with the launch of a new Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus (DRP) offering.

The upgraded tool is designed for users requiring high-performance disaster recovery, so centers around faster recovery times, lower data loss risks and preallocated capacity.

Working much like the Cross-region Disaster Recovery solution, Disaster Recovery Plus replicates Cloud PC disk snapshots in an alternate region.

Microsoft adds an even more powerful disaster recovery option

“When it’s activated, users will be pointed to a temporary Cloud PC. During an outage, the user will have access to their temporary Cloud PC with all installed applications and settings based on the latest restore point," noted Windows 365 Cross-region Disaster Recovery (CRDR), Principal Product Manager Doug Coombs.

However, the temporary Cloud PC only serves to provide affected users with access to previously restored files, and does not act as a replacement for their primary system, meaning that no “applications, data, or other information will be preserved” – instead, users are urged to save work to OneDrive or SharePoint.

In a handy guide, Coombs confirmed users can choose from any geography or region that Windows 365 is available for their alternate region, allowing admins to consider other factors like data sovereignty.

“Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus provides enhanced disaster recovery capabilities such as a shorter Recovery Time Objective (RTO), preallocated capacity, and a shorter Recovery Point Objective (RPO) compared to Windows 365 Cross-region Disaster Recovery," he added.

Cloud PC tenants with up to 50,000 Cloud PCs in a region can expect recovery within four hours with CRDR, compared with under 30 minutes for DRP.

Windows 365 Disaster Recovery Plus is available in preview as a licensed add-on for Windows 365 Enterprise edition only, but it will be generally available by the spring.

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AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT: Two-minute review

AMD had one job to do with the launch of its RDNA 4 graphics cards, spearheaded by the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, and that was to not get run over by Blackwell too badly this generation.

With the RX 9070 XT, not only did AMD manage to hold its own against the GeForce RTX monolith, it perfectly positions Team Red to take advantage of the growing discontent among gamers upset over Nvidia's latest GPUs with one of the best graphics cards I've ever tested.

The RX 9070 XT is without question the most powerful consumer graphics card AMD's put out, beating the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX overall and coming within inches of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 in 4K and 1440p gaming performance.

It does so with an MSRP of just $599 (about £510 / AU$870), which is substantially lower than those two card's MSRP, much less their asking price online right now. This matters because AMD traditionally hasn't faced the kind of scalping and price inflation that Nvidia's GPUs experience (it does happen, obviously, but not nearly to the same extent as with Nvidia's RTX cards).

That means, ultimately, that gamers who look at the GPU market and find empty shelves, extremely distorted prices, and uninspiring performance for the price they're being asked to pay have an alternative that will likely stay within reach, even if price inflation keeps it above AMD's MSRP.

The RX 9070 XT's performance comes at a bit of a cost though, such as the 309W maximum power draw I saw during my testing, but at this tier of performance, this actually isn't that bad.

This card also isn't too great when it comes to non-raster creative performance and AI compute, but no one is looking to buy this card for its creative or AI performance, as Nvidia already has those categories on lock. No, this is a card for gamers out there, and for that, you just won't find a better one at this price. Even if the price does get hit with inflation, it'll still likely be way lower than what you'd have to pay for an RX 7900 XTX or RTX 4080 (assuming you can find them at this point) making the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT a gaming GPU that everyone can appreciate and maybe even buy.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT: Price & availability

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• How much is it? MSRP is $599 (about £510 / AU$870)
• When can you get it? The RX 9070 XT goes on sale March 6, 2025
• Where is it available? The RX 9070 XT will be available in the US, UK, and Australia at launch

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is available as of March 6, 2025, starting at $599 (about £510 / AU$870) for reference-spec third-party cards from manufacturers like Asus, Sapphire, Gigabyte, and others, with OC versions and those with added accoutrements like fancy cooling and RGB lighting likely selling for higher than MSRP.

At this price, the RX 9070 XT comes in about $150 cheaper than the RTX 5070 Ti, and about $50 more expensive than the RTX 5070 and the AMD Radeon RX 9070, which also launches alongside the RX 9070 XT. This price also puts the RX 9070 XT on par with the MSRP of the RTX 4070 Super, though this card is getting harder to find nowadays.

While I'll dig into performance in a bit, given the MSRP (and the reasonable hope that this card will be findable at MSRP in some capacity) the RX 9070 XT's value proposition is second only to the RTX 5070 Ti's, if you're going by its MSRP. Since price inflation on the RTX 5070 Ti will persist for some time at least, in many cases you'll likely find the RX 9070 XT offers better performance per price paid of any enthusiast card on the market right now.

• Value: 5 / 5

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT: Specs

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• PCIe 5.0, but still just GDDR6
• Hefty power draw

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the first RDNA 4 card to hit the market, and so its worth digging into its architecture for a bit.

The new architecture is built on TSMC's N4P node, the same as Nvidia Blackwell, and in a move away from AMD's MCM push with the last generation, the RDNA 4 GPU is a monolithic die.

As there's no direct predecessor for this card (or for the RX 9070, for that matter), there's not much that we can apples-to-apples compare the RX 9070 XT against, but I'm going to try, putting the RX 9070 XT roughly between the RX 7800 XT and the RX 7900 GRE if it had a last-gen equivalent.

The Navi 48 GPU in the RX 9070 XT sports 64 compute units, breaking down into 64 ray accelerators, 128 AI accelerators, and 64MB of L3 cache. Its cores are clocked at 1,600MHz to start, but can run as fast as 2,970MHz, just shy of the 3GHz mark.

It uses the same GDDR6 memory as the last-gen AMD cards, with a 256-bit bus and a 644.6GB/s memory bandwidth, which is definitely helpful in pushing out 4K frames quickly.

The TGP of the RX 9070 XT is 304W, which is a good bit higher than the RX 7900 GRE, though for that extra power, you do get a commensurate bump up in performance.

• Specs: 4 / 5

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT: Design

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• No AMD reference card
• High TGP means bigger coolers and more cables

There's no AMD reference card for the Radeon RX 9070 XT, but the unit I got to test was the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 9070 XT, which I imagine is pretty indicative of what we can expect from the designs of the various third-party cards.

The 304W TGP all but ensures that any version of this card you find will be a triple-fan cooler over a pretty hefty heatsink, so it's not going to be a great option for small form factor cases.

Likewise, that TGP just puts it over the line where it needs a third 8-pin PCIe power connector, something that you may or may not have available in your rig, so keep that in mind. If you do have three spare power connectors, there's no question that cable management will almost certainly be a hassle as well.

After that, it's really just about aesthetics, as the RX 9070 XT (so far) doesn't have anything like the dual pass-through cooling solution of the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, so it's really up to personal taste.

As for the card I reviewed, the Sapphire Pulse shroud and cooling setup on the RX 9070 XT was pretty plain, as far as desktop GPUs go, but if you're looking for a non-flashy look for your PC, it's a great-looking card.

• Design: 4 / 5

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT: Performance

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

• Near-RTX 4080 levels of gaming performance, even with ray tracing
• Non-raster creative and AI performance lags behind Nvidia, as expected
• Likely the best value you're going to find anywhere near this price point

A note on my data

The charts shown below offer the most recent data I have for the cards tested for this review. They may change over time as more card results are added and cards are retested. The 'average of all cards tested' includes cards not shown in these charts for readability purposes.

Simply put, the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the gaming graphics card that we've been clamoring for this entire generation. While it shows some strong performance in synthetics and raster-heavy creative tasks, gaming is where this card really shines, managing to come within 7% overall of the RTX 4080 and getting within 4% of the RTX 4080's overall gaming performance. For a card launching at half the price of the RTX 4080's launch price, this is a fantastic showing.

The RX 9070 XT is squaring up against the RTX 5070 Ti, however, and here the RTX 5070 Ti does manage to pull well ahead of the RX 9070 XT, but it's much closer than I thought it would be starting out.

On the synthetics side, the RX 9070 XT excels at rasterization workloads like 3DMark Steel Nomad, while the RTX 5070 Ti wins out in ray-traced workloads like 3DMark Speed Way, as expected, but AMD's 3rd generation ray accelerators have definitely come a long way in catching up with Nvidia's more sophisticated hardware.

Also, as expected, when it comes to creative workloads, the RX 9070 XT performs very well in raster-based tasks like photo editing, and worse at 3D modeling in Blender, which is heavily reliant on Nvidia's CUDA instruction set, giving Nvidia an all but permanent advantage there.

In video editing, the RX 9070 XT likewise lags behind, though it's still close enough to Nvidia's RTX 5070 Ti that video editors won't notice much difference, even if the difference is there on paper.

Gaming performance is what we're on about though, and here the sub-$600 GPU holds its own against heavy hitters like the RTX 4080, RTX 5070 Ti, and Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

In 1440p gaming, the RX 9070 XT is about 8.4% faster than the RTX 4070 Ti and RX 7900 XTX, just under 4% slower than the RTX 4080, and about 7% slower than the RTX 5070 Ti.

This strong performance carries over into 4K gaming as well, thanks to the RX 9070 XT's 16GB VRAM. Here, it's about 15.5% faster than the RTX 4070 Ti and about 2.5% faster than the RX 7900 XTX. Against the RTX 4080, the RX 9070 XT is just 3.5% slower, while it comes within 8% of the RTX 5070 Ti's 4K gaming performance.

When all is said and done, the RX 9070 XT doesn't quite overpower one of the best Nvidia graphics cards of the last-gen (and definitely doesn't topple the RTX 5070 Ti), but given its performance class, it's power draw, its heat output (which wasn't nearly as bad as the power draw might indicate), and most of all, it's price, the RX 9070 XT is easily the best value of any graphics card playing at 4K.

And given Nvidia's position with gamers right now, AMD has a real chance to win over some converts with this graphics card, and anyone looking for an outstanding 4K GPU absolutely needs to consider it before making their next upgrade.

• Performance: 5 / 5

Should you buy the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT? Buy the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT if...

You want the best value proposition for a high-end graphics card
The performance of the RX 9070 XT punches way above its price point.

You don't want to pay inflated prices for an Nvidia GPU
Price inflation is wreaking havoc on the GPU market right now, but this card might fare better than Nvidia's RTX offerings.

Don't buy it if...

You're on a tight budget
If you don't have a lot of money to spend, this card is likely more than you need.

You need strong creative or AI performance
While AMD is getting better at creative and AI workloads, it still lags far behind Nvidia's competing offerings.

How I tested the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT

• I spent about a week with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT
• I used my complete GPU testing suite to analyze the card's performance
• I tested the card in everyday, gaming, creative, and AI workload usage

Test System Specs

Here are the specs on the system I used for testing:

Motherboard: ASRock Z790i Lightning WiFi
CPU: Intel Core i9-14900K
CPU Cooler: Gigabyte Auros Waterforce II 360 ICE
RAM: Corsair Dominator DDR5-6600 (2 x 16GB)
SSD: Crucial T705
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower PF3 1050W Platinum
Case: Praxis Wetbench

I spent about a week with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT, which was spent benchmarking, using, and digging into the card's hardware to come to my assessment.

I used industry standard benchmark tools like 3DMark, Cyberpunk 2077, and Pugetbench for Creators to get comparable results with other competing graphics cards, all of while have been tested using the same testbench setup listed on the right.

I've reviewed more than 30 graphics cards in the last three years, and so I've got the experience and insight to help you find the best graphics card for your needs and budget.

• Originally reviewed March 2025

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