AMD's Ryzen Master Game Mode is designed to boost CPU performance and offer you better gaming performance by limiting the number of CPU cores active during a gaming session. While games do benefit from additional CPU cores, that benefit tends to taper off after about 12 cores. Most games are optimized for 6-8 core CPUs, so most gamers need just 6-8 CPU cores for their gaming rig.

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on all things at the intersection of environment and technology, follow Justine Calma. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers' inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.How it startedSome stories that I've worked on as an environmental journalist still haunt me. One of the first to get under my skin happened to be about forever chemicals. Since the 1940s, forever chemicals have been commonly used by manufacturers as a way to make things resistant to water, stains, and heat. Think food packaging, nonstick pans, water-repellan …Read the full story at The Verge.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 96, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, has your inbox been as busy as mine the past few days?, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) Over the past two weeks, I've been testing this wildly customizable keyboard with an attachable trackball, reading the first Dungeon Crawler Carl and the second Dark Tower books, finally finishing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (with the help of an easy mode mod), marveling at the GeoGuessr World Championship grand final, and listening to Wombo's new album.This week, I also have for you Hol …Read the full story at The Verge.

When director Rian Johnson introduced the new Knives Out film on the third day of TIFF 2025, he exclaimed: "we're going back to church."By that he meant that Wake Up Dead Man, the latest Benoit Blanc mystery, would harken back to the origins of the whodunit, and in particular the gothic vibes of Edgar Allan Poe. And now that I've seen it, I have to say that Johnson pulled it off: the new movie has a darker and more spiritual feel than its predecessors, and yet it's still distinctly Knives Out, which is to say twisting and hilarious. I gasped a few times, as did the rest of audience, at the many reveals. I'll have a full review in the comin …Read the full story at The Verge.

Google's working on a lot of different AI tools in Google Labs, its experimental playground, but none have taken off as much as NotebookLM. And there’s one feature that deserves most of the credit for its viral success: Audio Overviews.

Samsung's smart monitor is perfect if you're looking to get something for work and entertainment. What makes this monitor different from others is that it runs software called Tizen OS. With Tizen OS, you gain access to a wealth of smart features, like your favorite streaming apps, along with Samsung's Gaming Hub.

There are plenty of good reasons to use a remote desktop tool outside of work. For starters, it grants access to your powerful home PC (or home lab) on any device from anywhere with a stable internet connection. It also means you can process remote data on a local machine without relying on cloud storage. And when your long-distance family has a thorny tech issue, it’s far easier to troubleshoot over a remote desktop session than over the phone.

It's not every day we see a huge discount on a game I haven't heard of before now. It's even rarer that the game has "overwhelmingly positive" reviews—that's a rating of 95% or higher—and yet somehow managed to slip my radar. And yet, here we are with Worldless, a game I've literally learned about five minutes ago because it's on the biggest sale Steam has ever seen. Well, I guess you learn something new every day.

Everyone basically agrees: if you want people to transition from polluting gas guzzlers to electric cars, you have to make them more affordable. The luxury EVs, with their big battery packs and fine leather interiors, are all well and good, but if you really want to move the needle on EV adoption, we need more entry-level options. And so far, we’re lacking. Volkswagen hears this, and is responding with a new lineup of small and mid-sized electric vehicles aimed squarely at the low end of the market. We’ve already seen the ID.2all — recently renamed ID. Polo and ID. Polo GTI — and ID.EVERY1 concepts. Now we’re getting a fourth concept, the ID. Cross, which VW says will get a proper reveal next year. The concept’s name invokes the ID.4’s predecessor, the ID.Crozz, from 2017. The ID. Cross introduces a new design language that VW says it “friendlier” and more approachable than its current lineup of EVs. For evidence of this, look no further than the front fascia with its narrow headlights and a slightly curved lightbar that looks like its smiling at you. The ID. Cross introduces a new design language that VW says it “friendlier”An electric counterpart to the popular VW T-Cross, the ID. Cross will be built on the automaker’s MEB Plus platform, which is an improvement over the current MEB that powers the ID.4 crossover SUV, the ID Buzz minivan, and a dozen other vehicles from Audi, Skoda, and others. This next-gen platform will have better batteries, engines, and software, VW promises — which, if you’ve ever encountered a current MEB vehicle’s software, will come as welcome news. The concept’s front-wheel drive motor spits out 155kW of power, which is the equivalent of around 208 horsepower. It has a range of 420km (260 miles) based on the more generous WLTP cycle. And it can hit a top speed of 175 km/h (108 mph). And with a ball coupling, the ID. Cross can haul up to 75 kg (165 lbs), which VW says is enough to transport two e-bikes. This new drive system will be built in Europe; if fact, VW makes no mention at all of the US market. Not surprising, considering the uneven success the automaker’s EVs have had in America. But still disappointing, considering how starved we are for fun, affordable EVs. The ID. Cross will be similar in size to the T-Cross, which is smaller than the already fairly compact ID.4 SUV. The Cross will be 4,161 mm (164 in) long, 1,839 mm (72 in) wide, and 1,588 mm (63 in) tall — with a wheelbase of 2,601 mm (102 in). The concept is perched on 21-inch alloy wheels designed specifically for the ID. Cross. That said, VW is trying to use the smallish size to its best advantage. With five people inside, the ID. Cross will have a storage capacity of 450 liters, plus 25 more liters in the frunk. The addition of a front truck is a nice surprise, considering all of VW’s current EVs have been sorely lacking in extra storage space. The interior includes fabric-covered surfaces on the dash that matches the materials used on the seats. The steering wheel features — gasp! — real buttons to control driver assist functions and more, which is notable because VW got a lot of blowback for its lack of physical controls in its current crop of EVs. The front seats can be folded flat, flush with the rear seats when stowed, to create a completely flat surface that can be used for car camping. VW says the production version of the ID. Cross will get a proper reveal next summer, after the launch of the ID. Polo and ID. Polo GTI, based on the ID.2all concept. The ID.EVERY1 — which has yet to get its production rebranded name — will be out in 2027.VW is betting that its newly “likeable” and affordable EVs will help lift its fortunes in the face of fierce competition from China, especially at the low end of the market. The German automaker, which also owns Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Skoda, Seat, and others, hasn’t had the same kind of EV success as its crosstown rival BMW, or even South Korean competitors like Hyundai and Kia. Its European sales have been a bright spot in an otherwise uneven portfolio, which may explain why the company isn’t making any commitments beyond the continent.

The Toronto International Film Festival is almost like a preview of the movie slate for the next few months — and this year I’m watching as much as possible to give you all the scoop on what’s ahead. To do that, I’ll be writing a dispatch covering every movie I’ve seen that day, which will run daily throughout most of the festival. That includes bigger movies you probably already know about, like Netflix’s Wake Up Dead Man and Frankenstein, along with hopefully some great new films you maybe weren’t aware of, like the creepy adaptation of the horror game The Exit 8.I won’t be able to see everything, of course, but I’ll do my best to bring you the most interesting stuff — and you can keep up with everything right here. Wake Up Dead Man adds a delightfully dark twist to Knives Out Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice is as bleak as it is hilarious The Exit 8 movie is even scarier than the game

It’s been over 14 years since I got my first NAS. It was a Synology, as you’d imagine for a first-time buyer, and I wanted to max out the storage alongside. As it turns out, hard drives are expensive, and student budgets aren’t particularly high. I found myself staring at the price tags of NAS-rated Western Digital Reds and silently shedding tears. Almost. Maybe. There’s got to be a more affordable way. That’s when I first came across the term ‘shucking’. Not oysters, but hard drives. The concept is extremely simple. Buy a cheap external hard drive, crack open the plastic case, rip out the hard drive inside, and slam it into your NAS. Gently. The practice seemed both thrifty and also every-so-slightly risky, as you’re letting go of your warranty. Would these drives stand the test of time in a closed-up enclosure running 24x7 for years to come? Was it worth the cost savings? Well, 14 years later, my NAS collection has grown five-fold, is packed full of shucked drives, and, guess what, those original drives are still running strong.

Visual Studio Code has become the undisputed king of code editors, winning over developers with its speed, powerful features, and vast ecosystem of extensions. But what if you could have all of that without the baggage of Microsoft’s branding? This is where VSCodium comes in. It’s not a different IDE from scratch, but rather a community-driven VS Code. It offers the same user experience while putting privacy and freedom first.