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• ENGlobal updates 8-K filing with the SEC following November 2024 attack
• Firm confirms hackers hit internal data
• However there's no details about the attackers or the number of victims

Engineering giant ENGlobal has now confirmed the attackers which hit its systems in Novemeber 2024 did indeed compromise its internal documents.

In an updated 8-K form, the company said a preliminary investigation “revealed that a threat actor illegally accessed the company’s information technology system and encrypted some of its data.”

So, not only was this a data grab, this was also a ransomware attack.

No material impact

“The cybersecurity incident involved the threat actor’s access to a portion of the Company’s IT system that contained sensitive personal information," the form added. "The company intends to provide notifications to affected and potentially affected parties and applicable regulatory agencies as required by federal and state law.”

The ransomware attack hit the company pretty hard, it seems, since it added it took weeks to get back on track:

“The cybersecurity incident limited the company’s ability to access portions of its business applications that supported aspects of the company's operations and corporate functions, including financial and operating reporting systems for approximately six weeks.”

However, at the time the document was filed, all operations have been fully restored, and ENGlobal believes the attackers are no longer lurking in their network. It also said that the attack did not have a material impact, and that it’s “not reasonably likely” that it will have such an impact.

“As part of its remediation efforts, the Company is working with cybersecurity experts to reinforce its IT system, strengthen its surveillance of cybersecurity threats and prevent future unauthorized access to its IT system.”

ENGlobal is an engineering and automation services company that provides solutions for various industries, including energy, chemicals, and government. Based in the U.S., it operates globally, with approximately 500 employees, and generates annual revenue of around $100 million.

The identity of the attackers was not revealed, and we still don’t know how many people are affected by this incident.

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Spasmodic dysphonia is a rare neurological disorder that causes a strained voice. RFK Jr. says he has had the disorder for decades and treats it with Botox injections, a common treatment.

(Image credit: Rebecca Noble)

• The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra was announced on January 22 with a downgraded S Pen
• Reports then emerged that Samsung could release a separate, Bluetooth-enabled S Pen for those who wanted one
• However, Samsung has confirmed to TechRadar that this won’t be the case

After a week of conflicting reports on the matter, Samsung has confirmed to TechRadar that the Galaxy S25 Ultra will not support Bluetooth S Pen functionality.

The company’s latest flagship was announced at Galaxy Unpacked on January 22, and it was soon discovered that Samsung had axed Bluetooth compatibility from the phone’s included S Pen accessory. Then, on January 26, Android Authority spotted a Samsung blog post that included the line “Bluetooth-enabled S Pens sold separately,” suggesting Samsung would be releasing a standalone, Bluetooth-enabled S Pen for frustrated Galaxy S25 Ultra owners.

However, Samsung has now confirmed to TechRadar that this won’t be the case. The company didn’t elaborate on why its own blog post detailed a non-existent product, but it’s safe to assume that this was done in error. Sorry, S Pen fans.

Bluetooth-enabled S Pens have (or had) been a feature of Samsung’s Note and Ultra devices for over a decade. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, for instance, came with a Bluetooth-enabled S Pen that allowed users to control the phone remotely; you could use it to trigger the camera, open apps, and navigate the phone’s UI, among other things.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra's Bluetooth-less S Pen (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

As for why Samsung removed Bluetooth functionality from its latest S Pen, the company told TechRadar’s Editor-at-large, Lance Ulanoff, that it did so because so few people were using the related features. Indeed, in his Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review, Lance noted that he “didn’t miss [these Bluetooth features]” and that the S Pen remained a “worthy drawing implement,” so perhaps the company was right to allocate its resources elsewhere this year.

That said, for fans of the S Pen’s Bluetooth functionality, Samsung’s confusing messaging will undoubtedly have felt like rubbing salt into the wound.

For more on Samsung's latest smartphones, check out our hands-on Samsung Galaxy S25 review and hands-on Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus review.

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Over the last couple of years, ChatGPT has become a default term for AI chatbots in the U.S. and Europe despite plenty of viable rivals angling for a bigger piece of the market. That's part of what has made the eruption of China-based AI chatbot DeepSeek feel so seismic.

DeepSeek's rapid ascent has attracted enormous attention and usage, though not without controversy. The broad collection of user data for storage on Chinese servers is just one prominent example.

I decided to put these two AI heavyweights, ChatGPT and DeepSeek, through their paces in combining their conversational abilities with online searches, which is a particularly valuable arena.

I devised four questions covering everything from sports news and consumer advice to the best local spots for cocktails and comedy. I wanted to see how the AI assistants would perform, so I mixed specificity with vagueness in the details. I used DeepSeek's R1 and ChatGPT-4o models to answer the questions. While R1 is comparable to OpenAI's newer o1 model for ChatGPT, that model can't look online for answers for now. You can see the questions and the AI responses below.

One at a time

I also immediately discovered that while ChatGPT was happy to answer multiple questions in a single prompt, DeepSeek would search only for information on the first question and give up on the later ones, no matter how I worded the initial prompt. Right away that was a point against it. While the conversational approach of prompt and response is fine in a lot of cases, sometimes you have to ask a lot of questions for the chatbot or include multiple elements for it to consider. You can see how DeepSeek responded to an early attempt at multiple questions in a single prompt below.

(Image credit: OpenAI / DeepSeek) Counting words

Even when broken up into individual questions, the prompts for DeepSeek required a little extra work in terms of defining the amount of information I wanted to receive. Depending on the kind of question I submitted, DeepSeek would almost always give me too much information, and it was often extraneous. Worse, sometimes the very long answer would just be a filler, basically telling me to look things up on my own. ChatGPT isn't immune to similar behavior, but it didn't happen at all during this test.

And it wasn't just my own preferences, the same self-control was evident when using ChatGPT without logging in. I felt the need to handicap the test with a 65-word limit to make it worthwhile at all. With all those restrictions in place, here are the questions and the AI answers. ChatGPT's responses are on the left and DeepSeek's responses are on the right.

1. What were the highlights of last night's NBA game, and who won?

(Image credit: OpenAI / DeepSeek) 2. What’s a trendy new spot in Brooklyn for cocktails and small plates?

(Image credit: OpenAI / DeepSeek) 3. Which laptop is best for gaming with a budget of $2,000?

(Image credit: OpenAI / DeepSeek) 4. What are the best comedy clubs in New York City for catching up-and-coming comedians and who is playing at them next month?

(Image credit: OpenAI / DeepSeek) DeepSeek gets lost

With the caveats of what was necessary to make the test feasible, it's fair to say both chatbots performed pretty well. DeepSeek had some solid answers thanks to a far more thorough search effort, which pulled from more than 30 sources for each question. The cocktail bar question, in particular, was great, and the AI was proactive enough to suggest a drink to get. The basketball response was more substantial as well, though arguably, the decision by ChatGPT to keep the focus on one game, as indicated by the singular "game" in the question, meant it was paying more attention.

It was in the responses to the computer and comedy club recommendations that DeepSeek displayed its weaknesses. Both felt less like conversational answers and more like the toplines of their Google summaries. To be fair, ChatGPT wasn't much better on those two answers, but the flaw felt less glaring, especially when looking at all of the parentheticals in DeepSeek's computer response.

I understand why DeepSeek has its fans. It’s free, good at fetching the latest info, and a solid option for users. I just feel like ChatGPT cuts to the heart of what I'm asking, even when it's not spelled out. And, while no tech company is a paragon of consumer privacy, DeepSeek's terms and conditions somehow make other AI chatbots seem downright polite when it comes to the sheer amount of information you have to agree to share, down to the very pace at which you type your questions. DeepSeek almost sounds like a joke about how deep it is seeking information about you.

Plus, ChatGPT was just plain faster, regardless of whether I used DeepSeek's R1 model or its less powerful sibling. And, while this test was focused on search, I can't ignore the many other limitations of DeepSeek, such as a lack of persistent memory or image generator.

For me, ChatGPT remains the winner when choosing an AI chatbot to perform a search. Some of it may be simply the bias of familiarity, but the fact that ChatGPT gave me good to great answers from a single prompt is hard to resist as a killer feature. That may become especially true as and when the o1 model and upcoming o3 model get internet access. DeepSeek can find a lot of information, but if I were stuck with it, I'd be lost.

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• Researchers discover 10,000 compromised WordPress sites
• The sites were embedded with malicious JavaScript code
• The goal was to deliver infostealers to victims

Ten thousand WordPress websites were being used to deliver infostealing malware to victims running both Windows and macOS devices, experts have warned.

A report from cybersecurity researchers at c/side claims a threat actor likely compromised different WordPress sites using an older version of the platform (6.7.1) and with it - an older, outdated plugin. Once the sites are breached, the attackers would deploy malicious JavaScript code, which would generate a fake page in an iframe, to the visitors.

When a victim visits one of these sites, they would see an overlaid page stating they need to update their browser if they want to view the contents of the page. However, instead of downloading a patch, the victims would get either Atomic (AKA AMOS, a popular infostealer for macOS), or SocGholish (basically the same thing, just for Windows).

Stealing sensitive files

These infostealers would grab all sorts of sensitive information from the target endpoint - from passwords stored in the browser, to session cookies, cryptocurrency wallet information, and other potentially sensitive files.

Defending against these attacks requires web administrators to keep their sites up to date.

The WordPress website builder platform, for starters, should be upgraded to version 6.7, released in mid-November, 2024. The admins should then go through all the themes and plugins they have installed, and remove all the ones they’re not using. The remaining ones should then be updated, as well.

Finally, admins should look for malicious scripts and delete them. C/side claims that attackers leave a backdoor most of the time, to be able to easily return, if need be. If they do find traces of compromise, they should also review logs from the last 90 days to identify what kind of malicious activity was done.

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Looking to boost your audio quality on Zoom, YouTube, TikTok, or while gaming? We’ve got you covered.

• The GE Profile Smart Grind & Brew is a drip coffee maker with an AI assistant
• The assistant can adjust brewing settings based on the questions you ask
• It's available to buy now from Amazon for $379 (about £300 / AU$600)

Just how smart can a filter coffee machine really be? Very smart indeed, it turns out. GE Profile (the premium division of GE Appliances) has just launched the Smart Grind & Brew – a drip machine that uses Google Cloud AI to help you brew the perfect cup each morning.

The GE Profile Smart Grind & Brew is a slim machine with a built-in conical burr grinder, which means you can enjoy freshly-ground coffee without investing in (and finding space for) two appliances. It also minimizes potential mess because the ground coffee falls directly into the brew basket at the correct dosage, with no weighing or transferring.

The machine also has a built-in water filter, so you can use water directly from the tap without it affecting the flavor of your drink, and helping you get a more consistent taste.

Another particularly nice feature is the inclusion of a removable brewing stand (the part that holds the jug or cup) so the machine can dispense coffee directly into a travel mug. Combined with the built-in timer, this would make it easy to have a fresh filter coffee to take to work, minimizing the risk of caving to temptation and buying a takeaway coffee en route.

The GE Profile Smart Grind & Brew has an adjustable stainless steel conical burr grinder (Image credit: GE Appliances)

What really makes the Smart Grind & Brew different to the best drip coffee makers we've tested, however, is the SmartHQ AI Coffee Assistant, which is due to roll out to the machine with a software update very soon.

This lets you control the machine remotely using the SmartHQ smart home app, and have a "conversational AI experience" with the assistant. It also enables you to create custom profiles, receive real-time brewing feedback, and "is equipped with intuitive learning that automatically adjusts brewing based on questions asked."

SmartHQ will also let you add your coffee maker to your Amazon Alexa or Google Home smart hub, so you can operate it with voice controls.

So far, so smart

It all sounds very impressive, and the GE Profile Smart Grind & Brew is available to buy now from Amazon for $379 (about £300 / AU$600), which seems to be typical for a connected drip coffee machine.

Is there a catch? Well, although it has an insulated carafe, GE Profile doesn't mention the machine having a hotplate to keep your brewed coffee warm until you're ready for your next cup. That's the same problem I found with another high-tech drip machine I tested recently: the Fellow Aiden Precision Drip Coffee Maker. Although the Aiden could brew an excellent drink, its double-wall insulated carafe just didn't keep it warm long enough without a heat source underneath.

Hopefully that won't be quite so much of a problem with the Smart Grind & Brew, which (unlike the Aiden) is capable of dispensing coffee into other vessels, such as an insulated bottle, which will keep it at a drinkable temperature longer.

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If you're enrolled in the SAVE income-driven repayment plan, brace for potential changes.

Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe: One-minute review

The best thing I can say about the Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe is that it’ll make a good gift for younger gamers, especially if they’re into racing games on the Nintendo Switch. As a budget-friendly wheel, it performs admirably, even if it does lack features compared to many of the best racing wheels out there. Still, as a kid-friendly racing wheel, it more than gets the job done.

But is it worth considering for those looking for a new racing wheel in general? Well, its relatively low price tag makes it a decent option for first-time buyers. And with it being compatible with PC as well as Nintendo Switch, you certainly won’t be lacking in options for games.

If you’re okay with the bold Mario aesthetic (which I actually think is quite nice), you will have to contend with a relative lack of features. Build quality really takes a hit here for both the wheelbase and pedals - both certainly lacking compared to pricier wheels. There’s no force feedback to speak of, either, which may disappoint those looking for a more immersive racing experience. It does perform decently with the best racing games, but a limited 270-degree turning angle makes it somewhat ill-suited for serious racing sims.

To top it all off, even younger players may get frustrated with the Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe, as it’s simply unsuitable for play with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The wheel just doesn’t offer the pin-sharp responsiveness needed for such a fast-paced kart racer, and I found myself pining for one of the best Nintendo Switch controllers in its place.

(Image credit: Future) Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe: Price and availability

• $109.99 / £89.99
• Definitely one of the more affordable racing wheel options on the market
• A budget-friendly rate comparable to the Hori Apex racing wheel

The Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe’s $109.99 / £89.99 retail price is actually pretty fair for what you’re getting. It’s comparable to Hori’s own Apex wheel ($119.99 / £99.99). But as Nintendo Switch-compatible wheels go, you’re unlikely to find one as cheap as this without seriously losing worthwhile features.

Compared to pricier options like the Logitech G923 and Thrustmaster T300RS GT Edition, you are going to be getting a stripped-back experience here. Hori’s Mario Kart wheel is not compatible with PlayStation or Xbox systems, nor does it have desirable features like force feedback or high rotation.

Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe: Specs Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe: Design and features

• Nice Mario-themed look
• Overall cheap-feeling build
• Optional suction cups aren’t very effective

The Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe’s highlight design aspect is its overall look. Having been officially licensed by Nintendo, it bears the iconic Mario ‘M’ in the center of the wheel. The steering wheel and base both have a really tasteful red-on-black paint job that looks surprisingly smart and professional for a product primarily aimed at younger audiences.

The wheel is quite robust in terms of buttons, too. You’re getting almost a full suite here, with a d-pad, face buttons, ZL and ZR buttons as well as a pair of paddles primarily used for gear shifting.

The center of the wheel also houses the Start, Select, and Home buttons as well as a Capture button for screenshots, which is a very welcome and quite uncommon feature for racing wheels in general. A handy ‘Assign’ button also lets you map custom inputs on the fly.

(Image credit: Future)

It’s a shame that overall build quality is quite lacking, then, but this is to be expected given the relatively low price tag. While the wheel itself is adequate, the wheelbase is quite light and hollow-feeling, which ultimately makes weighing it down on a flat surface oddly difficult.

The included pedals are broadly similar to the ones included with the Hori Apex; they’re very simple and similarly cheap-feeling. If not for the flip-out footrest, the pedal base would be prone to shifting under your weight.

You’ve got two options for clamping the wheel to a flat surface. A more traditional clamp and screw are included, and these work fine if you’re going to make the wheel part of a more long-term setup.

The five included suction cups, on the other hand, simply don’t get the job done. These lock into place via slots at the bottom of the base and a twist of each is meant to secure them on a flat surface without the use of a clamp. However, they were still extremely slippery and offered little purchase for the surfaces I tested on.

You’re better off opting for the clamp option, then, as I found the suction cups to be practically useless and often dislodged themselves from their slots, despite my best efforts to lock them into place.

Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe: Performance

• Ironically not well-suited for Mario Kart
• Performs adequately on PC via XInput
• On-board buttons are perfectly responsive

If you’re just looking for a good, cheap wheel that gets the job done on PC, then the Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe definitely delivers on that front. The racing experience is by no means incredible - with a complete lack of force feedback and a relatively limited 270-degree turning radius - but it’s still perfectly serviceable.

I tested the wheel out on racing games that are lighter on sim elements like Tokyo Xtreme Racer and Forza Horizon 5, and I found it to be a great fit for them. It does start to show its limitations with more simulation-heavy fare like Assetto Corsa EVO, however, where I found I had to play with a variety of assists turned on to aid with the wheels stripped back performance.

(Image credit: Future)

While competent on PC, then, I can’t really say the same for the wheel’s namesake. It’s just not very well suited to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch. Fortunately, the wheel is compatible with the game out of the box, with no control fiddling necessary. However, the simple act of turning and drifting just didn’t feel right in the fast-paced kart racer. Stacked up against a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, Hori’s wheel just doesn’t have the quick responsiveness necessary to drive well in 150cc mode.

It is compatible with a wide variety of Switch racing games, though. So, if you own titles like Gear Club Unlimited or Grid Autosport, you might get more mileage out of it as a console wheel with these racers instead.

Should I buy the Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe?

(Image credit: Future) Buy it if...

You want a cheap wheel that performs decently on PC
If you simply don’t have the budget for a pricier, more feature-rich wheel, you may still want to consider Hori’s wheel as a cheaper alternative given it’s well-suited to sim-lite or arcade style racers.

You’re buying for a younger player
Thanks to the Mario aesthetic and a small feature set that’s easy to get to grips with, this racing wheel is actually a great fit for younger racing game enthusiasts as a first-time purchase.

You’re after a dedicated Switch wheel
Hori’s is one of the very few bespoke Nintendo Switch wheels, with the other notable one being a cheaper version from Hori itself. Out of those two, I’d say this is the one to go for if you can afford it.

Don't buy it if...

You were hoping for a better experience with Mario Kart
Unfortunately, playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with Hori’s racing wheel just isn’t very fun, and I found myself swapping back to a more traditional Switch controller after just a handful of cups completed.

Also consider...

If the Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe isn’t quite meeting your expectations or preferences, you may want to consider these alternatives instead.

Thrustmaster T248
An oldie, but a goodie. The T248 is an impressive budget model with solid build quality, good force feedback, a handy on-wheel display, and 900 degrees of rotation making it well-suited to sim racers.

Read our Thrustmaster T248 review

Logitech G920
The best Xbox racing wheel for most people (consider the identical Logitech G923 if you’re on PlayStation), boasts superb build quality, great force feedback, and a range of handy sim features. The pedals can be a little stiff, but it’s nonetheless a great mid-range option for consoles and PC.

Read our Logitech G920 review

How I tested the Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe

• Tested for one week
• Tested across Nintendo Switch and PC
• Played a variety of racing games

I tested the Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe over the course of about a week, getting to grips with the wheel and its included pedals across a wide variety of racing games. I covered racers of all kinds, from arcade-like titles including Tokyo Xtreme Racer and Forza Horizon 5 to more simulation-heavy games like Assetto Corsa EVO and Forza Motorsport. I found it to be a better fit for less realistic racers overall.

I can’t say the same, specifically, for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and it’s a shame the wheel wasn’t a good fit for its targeted game. It’s no fault of the wheel, really, as the popular kart racer is just not designed with racing wheels in mind. But it’s definitely something to keep in mind if you’re buying for a younger gamer.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed January 2025

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080: Two-minute review

At first glance, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 doesn't seem like that much of an upgrade from the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 it is replacing, but that's only part of the story with this graphics card.

Its performance, to be clear, is unquestioningly solid, positioning it as the third-best graphics card on the market right now, by my testing, and its new PCIe 5.0 interface and GDDR7 VRAM further distances it from the RTX 4080 and RTX 4080 Super from the last generation. It also outpaces the best AMD graphics card, the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, by a healthy margin, pretty much locking up the premium, enthusiast-grade GPUs in Nvidia's corner for at least another generation.

Most impressively, it does this all for the same price as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super and RX 7900 XTX: $999 / £939 / AU$2,019. This is also a rare instance where a graphics card launch price actually recedes from the high watermark set by its predecessor, as the RTX 5080 climbs down from the inflated price of the RTX 4080 when it launched back in 2022 for $1,199 / £1,189 / AU$2,219.

Then, of course, there's the new design of the card, which features a slimmer dual-slot profile, making it easier to fit into your case (even if the card's length remains unchanged). The dual flow-through fan cooling solution does wonders for managing the extra heat generated by the extra 40W TDP, and while the 12VHPWR cable connector is still present, the 3-to-1 8-pin adapter is at least somewhat less ridiculous the RTX 5090's 4-to-1 dongle.

The new card design also repositions the power connector itself to make it less cumbersome to plug a cable into the card, though it does pretty much negate any of the 90-degree angle cables that gained popularity with the high-end RTX 40 series cards.

Finally, everything is built off of TSMC's 4nm N4 process node, making it one of the most cutting-edge GPUs on the market in terms of its architecture. While AMD and Intel will follow suit with their own 4nm GPUs soon (AMD RDNA 4 also uses TSMC's 4nm process node and is due to launch in March), right now, Nvidia is the only game in town for this latest hardware.

None of that would matter though if the card didn't perform, however, but gamers and enthusiasts can rest assured that even without DLSS 4, you're getting a respectable upgrade. It might not have the wow factor of the beefier RTX 5090, but for gaming, creating, and even AI workloads, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 is a spectacular balance of performance, price, and innovation that you won't find anywhere else at this level.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080: Price & availability

(Image credit: Future)

• How much is it? MSRP is $999 / £939 / AU$2,019
• When can you get it? The RTX 5080 goes on sale January 30, 2025
• Where is it available? The RTX 5080 will be available in the US, UK, and Australia at launch

Where to buy the RTX 5080

Looking to pick up the RTX 5080? Check out our Where to buy RTX 5080 live blog for updates to find stock in the US and UK

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 goes on sale on January 30, 2025, starting at $999 / £939 / AU$2,019 for the Founders Edition and select AIB partner cards, while overclocked (OC) and more feature-rich third-party cards will be priced higher.

This puts the Nvidia RTX 5080 about $200 / £200 / AU$200 cheaper than the launch price of the last-gen RTX 4080, while also matching the price of the RTX 4080 Super.

Both of those RTX 40 series GPUs should see some downward price pressure as a result of the RTX 5080 release, which might complicate the value proposition of the RTX 5080 over the other,

The RTX 5080 is also launching at the same MSRP as the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which is AMD's top GPU right now. And with AMD confirming that it does not intend to launch an enthusiast-grade RDNA 4 GPU this generation, the RTX 5080's only real competition is from other Nvidia graphics cards like the RTX 4080 Super or RTX 5090.

This makes the RTX 5080 a great value proposition for those looking to buy a premium 4K graphics card, as its price-to-performance ratio is very strong.

• Value: 4 / 5

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080: Specs & features

(Image credit: Future)

• GDDR7 VRAM and PCIe 5.0
• Still just 16GB VRAM
• Slightly higher 360W TDP

While the Nvidia RTX 5080 doesn't push the spec envelope quite as far as the RTX 5090 does, its spec sheet is still impressive.

For starters, like the RTX 5090, the RTX 5080 uses the faster, next-gen PCIe 5.0 interface that allows for faster data processing and coordination with the CPU, which translates directly into higher performance.

You also have new GDDR7 VRAM in the RTX 5080, only the second card to have it after the RTX 5090, and it dramatically increases the memory bandwidth and speed of the RTX 5080 compared to the RTX 4080 and RTX 4080 Super. Those latter two cards both use slower GDDR6X memory, so even though all three cards have the same amount of memory (16GB) and memory bus-width (256-bit), the RTX 5080 has a >25% faster effective memory speed of 30Gbps, compared to the 23Gbps of the RTX 4080 Super and the 22.4Gbps on the base RTX 4080.

This is all on top of the Blackwell GPU inside the card, which is built on TSMC's 4nm process, compared to the Lovelace GPUs in the RTX 4080 and 4080 Super, which use TSMC's 5nm process. So even though the transistor count on the RTX 5080 is slightly lower than its predecessor's, the smaller transistors are faster and more efficient.

The RTX 5080 also has a higher SM count, 84, compared to the RTX 4080's 76 and the RTX 4080 Super's 80, meaning the RTX 5080 has the commensurate increase in shader cores, ray tracing cores, and Tensor cores. It also has a slightly faster boost clock (2,617MHz) than its predecessor and the 4080 Super variant.

Finally, there is a slight increase in the card's TDP, 360W compared to the RTX 4080 and RTX 4080 Super's 320W.

• Specs & features: 4.5 / 5

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080: Design

(Image credit: Future)

• Slimmer dual-slot form factor
• Dual flow-through cooling system

The redesign of the Nvidia RTX 5080 is identical to that of the RTX 5090, featuring the same slimmed-down dual slot profile as Nvidia's flagship card.

If I were to guess, the redesign of the RTX 5080 isn't as essential as it is for the RTX 5090, which needed a way to bring better cooling for the much hotter 575W TDP, and the RTX 5080 (and eventually the RTX 5070) just slotted into this new design by default.

That said, it's still a fantastic change, especially as it makes the RTX 5080 thinner and lighter than its predecessor.

(Image credit: Future)

The core of the redesign is the new dual flow-through cooling solution, which uses an innovative three-part PCB inside to open up a gap at the front of the card, allowing a second fan to blow cooler air over the heat sink fins drawing heat away from the GPU.

(Image credit: Future)

This means that you don't need as thick of a heat sink to pull away heat, which allows the card itself to get the same thermal performance from a thinner form factor, moving from the triple-slot RTX 4080 design down to a dual-slot RTX 5080. In practice, this also allows for a slight increase in the card's TDP, giving the card a bit of a performance boost as well, just from implementing a dual flow-through design.

Given that fact, I would not be surprised if other card makers follow suit, and we start getting much slimmer graphics cards as a result.

(Image credit: Future)

The only other design choice of note is the 90-degree turn of the 16-pin power port, which should make it easier to plug the 12VHPWR connector into the card. The RTX 4080 didn't suffer nearly the same kinds of issues with its power connectors as the RTX 4090 did, so this design choice really flows down from engineers trying to fix potential problems with the much more power hungry 5090. But, if you're going to implement it for your flagship card, you might as well put it on all of the Founders Edition cards.

Unfortunately, this redesign means that if you invested in a 90-degree-angled 12VHPWR cable, it won't work on the RTX 5080 Founders Edition, though third-party partner cards will have a lot of different designs, so you should be able to find one that fits your cable situation..

• Design: 4.5 / 5

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080: Performance

(Image credit: Future)

• Excellent all-around performance
• Moderately more powerful than the RTX 4080 and RTX 4080 Super, but nearly as fast as the RTX 4090 in gaming
• You'll need DLSS 4 to get the best results

A note on my data

The charts shown below are the most recent test data I have for the cards tested for this review and 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.

A note on the RTX 4080 Super

In my testing for this review, the RTX 4080 Super scored consistently lower than it has in the past, which I believe is an issue with my card specifically that isn't reflective of its actual performance. I'm including the data from the RTX 4080 Super for transparency's sake, but I wouldn't take these numbers as-is. I'll be retesting the RTX 4080 Super soon, and will update my data with new scores once I've troubleshot the issue.

Performance is king, though, and so naturally all the redesign and spec bumps won't amount to much if the RTX 5080 doesn't deliver better performance as a result, and fortunately it does—though maybe not as much as some enthusiasts would like.

Overall, the RTX 5080 manages to score about 13% better than the RTX 4080 and about 19% better than the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, a result that will disappoint some (especially after seeing the 20-25% uplift on the RTX 5090) who were hoping for something closer to 20% or better.

If we were just to go off those numbers, some might call them disappointing, regardless of all the other improvements to the RTX 5080 in terms of design and specs. All this needs to be put in a broader context though, because my perspective changed once I compared the RTX 5080 to the RTX 4090.

Overall, the RTX 5080 is within 12% of the overall performance of the RTX 4090, and within 9% of the RTX 4090's gaming performance, which is a hell of a thing and simply can't be ignored, even by enthusiasts.

Starting with the card's synthetic benchmarks, the card scores about 13% better than the RTX 4080 and RX 7900 XTX, with the RTX 5080 consistently beating out the RTX 4080 and substantially beating the RX 7900 XTX in ray-traced workloads (though the RX 7900 XTX does pull down a slightly better average 1080p rasterization score, to its credit.

Compared to the RTX 4090, the RTX 5080 comes in at about 15% slower on average, with its worst performance coming at lower resolutions. At 4K, though, the RTX 5080 comes in just 7% slower than the last-gen flagship.

In terms of compute performance, the RTX 5080 trounces the RX 7900 XTX, as expected, by about 38%, with a more modest 9% improvement over the RTX 4080. Against the RTX 4090, however, the RTX 5080 comes within just 5% of the RTX 4090's Geekbench compute scores. If you're looking for a cheap AI card, the RTX 5080 is definitely going to be your jam.

On the creative side, PugetBench for Creators Adobe Photoshop benchmark still isn't working for the RTX 5080 Super, so I can't tell you much about its creative raster performance yet (though I will update these charts once that issue is fixed), but going off the 3D modeling and video editing scores, the RTX 5080 is an impressive GPU, as expected.

The entire 3D modeling industry is effectively built on Nvidia's CUDA, so against the RTX 5080, the RX 7900 XTX doesn't stand a chance as the 5080 more than doubles the RX 7900 XTX's Blender Benchmark performance. Gen-on-gen though, the RTX 5080 comes in with about 8% better performance.

Against the RTX 4090, the RTX 5080 comes within 15% on its performance, and for good measure, if you're rocking an RTX 3090 and you're curious about the RTX 5080, the RTX 5080 outperforms the RTX 3090 by about 75% in Blender Benchmark. If you're on an RTX 3090 and want to upgrade, you'll probably still be better off with an RTX 4090, but if you can't find one, the RTX 5080 is a great alternative.

In terms of video editing performance, the RTX 5080 doesn't do as well as its predecessor in PugetBench for Creators Adobe Premiere and effectively ties in my Handbrake 4K to 1080p encoding test. I expect that once the RTX 5080 launches, Puget Systems will be able to update its tools for the new RTX 50 series, so these scores will likely change, but for now, it is what it is, and you're not going to see much difference in your video editing workflows with this card over its predecessor.

(Image credit: Future)

The RTX 5080 is Nvidia's premium "gaming" card, though, so its gaming performance is what's going to matter to the vast majority of buyers out there. For that, you won't be disappointed. Working just off DLSS 3 with no frame generation, the RTX 5080 will get you noticeably improved framerates gen-on-gen at 1440p and 4K, with substantially better minimum/1% framerates as well for smoother gameplay. Turn on DLSS 4 with Multi-Frame Generation and the RTX 5080 does even better, blowing well past the RTX 4090 in some titles.

DLSS 4 with Multi-Frame Generation is game developer-dependent, however, so even though this is the flagship gaming feature for this generation of Nvidia GPUs, not every game will feature it. For testing purposes, then, I stick to DLSS 3 without Frame Generation (and the AMD and Intel equivalents, where appropriate), since this allows for a more apples-to-apples comparison between cards.

At 1440p, the RTX 5080 gets about 13% better average fps and minimum/1% fps overall, with up to 18% better ray tracing performance. Turn on DLSS 3 to balanced and ray tracing to its highest settings and the RTX 5080 gets you about 9% better average fps than its predecessor, but a massive 58% higher minimum/1% fps, on average.

Compared to the RTX 4090, the RTX 5080's average 1440p fps comes within 7% of the RTX 4090's, and within 2% of its minimum/1% fps, on average. In native ray-tracing performance, the RTX 5080 slips to within 14% of the RTX 4090's average fps and within 11% of its minimum/1% performance. Turn on balanced upscaling, however, and everything changes, with the RTX 5080 comes within just 6% of the RTX 4090's ray-traced upscaled average fps, and beats the RTX 4090's minimum/1% fps average by almost 40%.

Cranking things up to 4K, and the RTX 5080's lead over the RTX 4080 grows a good bit. With no ray tracing or upscaling, the RTX 5080 gets about 20% faster average fps and minimum/1% fps than the RTX 4080, overall. Its native ray tracing performance is about the same, however, and it's minimum/1% fps average actually falls behind the RTX 4080's, both with and without DLSS 3.

Against the RTX 4090, the RTX 5080 comes within 12% of its average fps and within 8% of its minimum/1% performance without ray tracing or upscaling. It falls behind considerably in native 4K ray tracing performance (which is to be expected, given the substantially higher RT core count for the RTX 4090), but when using DLSS 3, that ray tracing advantage is cut substantially and the RTX 5080 manages to come within 14% of the RTX 4090's average fps, and within 12% of its minimum/1% fps overall.

Taken together, the RTX 5080 makes some major strides in reaching RTX 4090 performance across the board, getting a little more than halfway across their respective performance gap between the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090.

The RTX 5080 beats its predecessor by just over 13% overall, and comes within 12% of the RTX 4090's overal performance, all while costing less than both RTX 40 series card's launch MSRP, making it an incredible value for a premium card to boot.

• Performance: 4 / 5

Should you buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080?

(Image credit: Future) Buy the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 if...

You want fantastic performance for the price
You're getting close to RTX 4090 performance for under a grand (or just over two, if you're in Australia) at MSRP.

You want to game at 4K
This card's 4K gaming performance is fantastic, coming within 12-14% of the RTX 4090's in a lot of games.

You're not willing to make the jump to an RTX 5090
The RTX 5090 is an absolute beast of a GPU, but even at its MSRP, it's double the price of the RTX 5080, so you're right to wonder if it's worth making the jump to the next tier up.

Don't buy it if...

You want the absolute best performance possible
The RTX 5080 comes within striking distance of the RTX 4090 in terms of performance, but it doesn't actually get there, much less reaching the vaunted heights of the RTX 5090.

You're looking for something more affordable
At this price, it's an approachable premium graphics card, but it's still a premium GPU, and the RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 are just around the corner.

You only plan on playing at 1440p
While this card is great for 1440p gaming, it's frankly overkill for that resolution. You'll be better off with the RTX 5070 Ti if all you want is 1440p.

Also consider

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
With the release of the RTX 5090, the RTX 4090 should see it's price come down quite a bit, and if scalpers drive up the price of the RTX 5080, the RTX 4090 might be a better bet.

Read the full Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 review

Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090
Yes, it's double the price of the RTX 5080, and that's going to be a hard leap for a lot of folks, but if you want the best performance out there, this is it.

Read the full Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 review

How I tested the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080

• I spent about a week and a half with the RTX 5080
• 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 testing the RTX 5080, using my updated suite of benchmarks like Black Myth Wukong, 3DMark Steel Nomad, and more.

I also used this card as my primary work GPU where I relied on it for photo editing and design work, while also testing out a number of games on it like Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth Wukong, and others.

I've been testing graphics cards for TechRadar for a couple of years now, with more than two dozen GPU reviews under my belt. I've extensively tested and retested all of the graphics cards discussed in this review, so I'm intimately familiar with their performance. This gives me the best possible position to judge the merits of the RTX 5080, and whether it's the best graphics card for your needs and budget.

• Originally reviewed January 2024

Bandwidth and latency aren't the same thing, but they both greatly impact the quality of your home internet experience.

• New report claims OpenAI has detected evidence of distillation by DeepSeek
• Move represents a potential breach of intellectual property
• Whitehouse AI czar weighs-in on the subject

According to a new article by the Financial Times, OpenAI claims to have evidence that DeepSeek, the Chinese startup that has thrown the US tech market into financial turmoil, used the company's proprietary models to train its own open-source LLM, called R1. This would represent a potential breach of intellectual property, as it goes against the OpenAI terms of service agreement.

In the article the FT writes that a source at OpenAI claims it has evidence of “distillation” occurring, which is a technique used by developers to leapfrog on the work done by larger models to achieve similar results at a much lower cost.

The OpenAI terms of service clearly state that users cannot copy any of its service or “use output to develop models that compete with OpenAI.” David Sacks, the Whitehouse crypto and AI “czar” said in an interview on Fox that there is “substantial evidence” of distillation occurring from DeepSeek.

OpenAI statement

Speaking to TechRadar an OpenAI spokesperson said: "We know PRC based companies – and others – are constantly trying to distill the models of leading US AI companies. As the leading builder of AI, we engage in countermeasures to protect our IP, including a careful process for which frontier capabilities to include in released models, and believe as we go forward that it is critically important that we are working closely with the U.S. government to best protect the most capable models from efforts by adversaries and competitors to take US technology.”

OpenAI tells us it has observed and investigated attempts to distill its models and has responded through banning the accounts in question and revoking access.

Security concerns

Meanwhile security concerns still seem to be dogging DeepSeek, particularly around the security of user data, exactly what data is being collected, and where it is storing it.

If you or your company has issues with data being stored in China, Perplexity, the AI search engine, is now offering its Pro users access to DeepSeek using data that is only stored on servers in the US.

New registrations for DeepSeek are still temporarily paused, “due to large-scale malicious attacks on DeepSeek's services”. For the latest news on this big breaking story, see the our DeepSeek live blog.

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• Academic researchers found two new speculative execution flaws
• The pair are affecting M2 and M3 processors
• Apple has acknowledged the flaws, and said it would fix it

Apple devices powered with the M2/A15 and M3/A17 chips are vulnerable to side-channel flaws which could put user data at risk of being stolen, experts have warned.

Cybersecurity researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Ruhr University Bochum, who recently published two separate papers, detailing the two vulnerabilities called FLOP and SLAP.

These flaws, however, don’t affect power consumption patterns during cryptographic operations, but rather speculative execution, similar to what the dreaded Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities were. Speculative execution is a technique used by processors to improve performance. It involves the CPU guessing the likely path of a program (like which instruction will be executed next) and starting to execute it before the actual decision is made. If the guess is correct, it speeds up processing; if not, the incorrect results are discarded.

Practical application

Explaining their findings to BleepingComputer, the researchers said mispredictions can lead to chips performing computations with the wrong data.

"Starting with the M3/A17 generation, they attempt to predict the data value that will be returned from memory. However, mispredictions in these mechanisms can result in arbitrary computations being performed on out-of-bounds data or wrong data values," they said.

Usually, when academic researchers find computer bugs, they are mostly theoretical, or otherwise extremely difficult to pull off in a real-life scenario. For these, however, the researchers explained how a threat actor could create a malicious website, containing JavaScript code, and use it to pull personally identifiable information from the victims.

They shared their findings with Apple (in late March for SLAP, and in early September for FLOP), who acknowledged their findings and confirmed it would be working on a fix. However, it seems that the Cupertino behemoth won’t be rushing, since it doesn’t think the bugs are that big of a deal

"We want to thank the researchers for their collaboration as this proof of concept advances our understanding of these types of threats," Apple told BleepingComputer.

"Based on our analysis, we do not believe this issue poses an immediate risk to our users."

Those interested in technical details can read the in-depth analysis here. These are the same researchers that discovered the iLeakage vulnerability a year and a half ago, BleepingComputer reminds. That one, too, was a side-channel flaw.

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This burgeoning wearable tech category lets you dabble in augmented reality, virtual screens, and AI assistants right on your face.

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• iPhone SE 4 no longer tipped to get a Dynamic Island
• Instead it will more closely match the iPhone 14's design
• It will, however, get an Action button per recent leaks

A new model in Apple’s budget-friendly iPhone SE line, the iPhone SE 4, is expected to land later this year, and leaks are already teasing key design details – and the latest reports suggest that the SE 4 will miss out on the Dynamic Island, but could get the Action Button.

Starting with the bad news, rumors had suggested that the iPhone SE 4 would feature the Dynamic Island, which users of all iPhone 15 and 16 handsets, and the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, have been enjoying (or not, as the case is for our editor-at-large Lance Ulanoff).

However, that now doesn’t seem set to be the case. We reported a couple of days ago that a new leaked video had teased the return of the notch on the upcoming SE, and now display analyst Ross Young has claimed on social media that the notch is indeed returning.

The Dynamic Island reports came from another usually reliable leaker in Evan Blass, and these more trustworthy tipsters typically don’t contradict each other – especially not in the run-up to an expected product launch. However a third leaker – who goes by Majin Bu online – has explained that the confusion comes from Apple testing an SE 4 with a Dynamic Island during development before ultimately settling on the notch.

Push the button

Bu has also been sharing images and video said to show the iPhone SE 4, and in his most recent post on X he claims the phone will get an upgrade from a 4.7-inch screen to a 6.06-inch 60Hz OLED display (so with the notch it should look a lot like the iPhone 14), and the Action Button.

Having debuted on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max before making its way to all the iPhone 16 models, the Action Button is a programmable button which replaces the silence mode switch the featured on older models.

The iPhone 15 Pro Action Button (Image credit: Apple)

You can still use it to silence your phone in a hurry, but if you leave your iPhone’s ringer off anyway you can change the button to instead let you access other tools like your camera or torch – and using shortcuts you can even make the button do multiple different things based on how and when you use it.

As with all leaks we should take these notch and Action Button reports with a pinch of salt. We’ve already seen the leaked design of the iPhone SE 4 change, so there’s always a chance that it’ll change again before Apple makes the device official.

That said, based on everything we've seen and heard, the iPhone SE 4 is shaping up to be a solid smartphone with the same A18 chip found in the iPhone 16 and 8GB of RAM – both of which suggest Apple Intelligence support.

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• Logitech Spot monitors an office environment for better flow
• Poor air quality could be costing your workers' productivity
• The sensors are also built into the $7,000 Rally Board 65

Logitech has unveiled a brand-new office monitoring tool it hopes will help businesses manage their collaborative workspace better.

The new Logitech Spot tracks occupancy and environmental changes through CO2 levels, air quality, and temperature to provide real-time data for office admins.

Spot is a battery-powered device that uses a peel-and-stick base to stick to walls. It pairs via Bluetooth to CollabOS devices, like Tap Scheduler, or via Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) gateways.

Office-tracking sensor

It’s all designed with the hope of making the office a more comfortable space for workers to spend their time and better employee experience – actionable suggestions allow admins to improve the workplace while making reductions to their energy costs.

The company says the real reason workers are getting weary in the office might not be because they’re tired, but rather than inefficient use of the space available is causing air quality issues.

“In bustling workplaces, employees move in and out of scheduled or ad-hoc meetings in spaces that continuously use energy and recirculate air,” Logitech says, citing Harvard and Berkeley studies showing high CO2 levels and pollutants like dust, perfume, and aerosols can reduce cognitive function.

“Logitech Spot solves the mystery of the number of people using spaces, the quality of the air they’re breathing, and environmental factors that can impact energy consumption–arming businesses with the information they need to address these unseen barriers," noted Logitech for Business COO and GM Prakash Arunkundrum.

In the name of interoperability, Spot is also integrated with Microsoft Places and Teams, as well as other platforms like Samsung Smart Things Pro and Zoom Workplace.

Logitech has also lifted the wraps off its Rally Board 65, a new 65-inch portable all-in-one video conferencing solution that integrates Spot’s sensors within its system.

Spot will be available from the second half of 2025, and its APIs can be unlocked via the $199/year Essential or $399/year Select service plans (priced per room). The Rally Board 65 will be available from May 2025, priced at $6,999.

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• Accusations have been made around RTX 5090 review samples
• Some folks think GPUs labeled as ‘Press Build’ could be faster than retail products
• Nvidia has assured us this isn’t the case

Nvidia has denied that the RTX 5090 graphics cards sent out to press for review were in any way different to the flagship boards that’ll be sold by retailers, following online accusations that the review samples were somehow ‘binned.’

As Tom’s Hardware reports, there are markings on some review models of the RTX 5090 which say ‘Press Build’ (as seen at TechPowerUp, for example), something remarked upon by Andreas Schilling (editor at German tech site Hardwareluxx) on X.

Ian Cutress (of TechTechPotato) replied to Schilling’s comment about whether there was anything ‘special’ about these graphics cards by jokily altering the words on the RTX 5090 chip to read ‘Press Binned’ as you can see below (if you expand the post).

FTFY pic.twitter.com/i9OtTpDYBCJanuary 24, 2025

Binning refers not to throwing graphics chips in the trashcan, of course, but to the process of allocating silicon to different models of GPU (in ‘bins’ or groups). Every chip in a particular group that pertains to a certain GPU model conforms to the base level spec (silicon that doesn’t is usually repurposed in a lower bin), but some chips are actually of a slightly higher quality, and can be pushed to faster than base clock speeds.

This is why you get different levels of overclock with a certain GPU, or indeed a CPU, with more headroom in a higher-quality chip (even though it’s in the same bin) – which is referred to as ‘winning the silicon lottery’ (you got a good overclocker, in short).

So, without getting too deep into the weeds on this, the insinuation made by some folks online is that Nvidia has ensured that those better-performing chips from the top-end of the bin, as it were, have been used in review samples to get the best results for the RTX 5090.

Tom’s directly asked Nvidia if these press build RTX 5090 Founders Edition cards were “higher-performing iterations of retail counterparts” and a rep from Team Green replied to say: “Some early GeForce RTX GPUs include a top mark related to intended use [the ‘Press Build’ stamp]. Their functionality and performance are identical to retail GPUs.”

In short, the marking means nothing save for indicating that these graphics cards are models put aside for sending out to the press.

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler) Analysis: An unusual clarification, but clearly Nvidia felt it necessary

This is an odd one, and it’s unusual that Nvidia would respond to such chatter, but it’s clear Team Green felt the need to set the record straight here.

We have to take Nvidia’s assertion at face value, but of course, the difference that any such binning might make wouldn’t be that huge anyway. But even if it was, that’d be a silly route for Nvidia to take, as reviews of third-party RTX 5090 boards compared to the Founders Edition would surely look odd if there was an obvious discrepancy. Yes, Nvidia’s own boards may be well-designed and cooled, but you can be sure third-party models with more premium price tags will be, as well.

I believe that Nvidia is being up front here, and any markings are just for admin or legal purposes (guarding against reselling review boards for example). Indeed, if there was any binning going on with RTX 5090 reviews, it would surely make more sense for Nvidia not to identify those chips as ‘press samples’ so explicitly.

There are more pressing concerns on the RTX 5090, for sure, including whether you’ll actually be able to buy one on launch day (tomorrow, January 30) – as that isn’t the case with MSI’s online store, we’ve just discovered. While you will be able to pre-order an MSI RTX 5090 model tomorrow, it won’t be shipped until February 6, we’re told – and Nvidia is warning on potential stock shortages of the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080. This is a topic that’s been buzzing on the rumor mill for some time now, with a whole lot of pessimistic noises being made, unfortunately.

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