The Full Nerd: Dead Ryzen CPUs, SteamOS rising, & scented thermal paste

Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardcore hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. In it, we dive into the hottest topics from our YouTube show, plus interesting PC hardware news from across the web. This week, we’re sleepy and jetlagged post-Computex, but full of hot takes about what was on the show floor. (Plus sidetrack into a mini-rant or two.) Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox every Friday? It’s a great way to catch up on the nerdy PC news you’ve missed during the week. Sign up on our website! In this episode of The Full Nerd… In this episode of The Full Nerd, our usual crew of Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, and Will Smith wrap up the big news from Computex and the best from the show, ponder the release of SteamOS, and answer viewers’ burning questions! Alex Esteves / Foundry You could say Computex was sleepy, but not a snoozefest. For chip news, the biggest reveal was Intel’s next-gen Panther Lake, which Adam got to see in demos. You can expect to see it in 2026—though not in desktop PCs. For socketed parts, carrying on the mantle falls to Nova Lake, which also is expected to be a 2026 release (and likely a fall one at that). Still, AMD threw enthusiasts a bone. FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 upscaling tech is getting updates on June 5m alongside the release of the Radeon RX 9060 XT. More substantial feature improvements will come in the second half of the year as well, in the form of FSR Redstone—and it looks set to challenge Nvidia’s lead in ray tracing performance. Oh, and there’s also a new 96-core, 192-thread Threadripper Zen 5 chip coming.

May 30, 2025 - 19:20

The Full Nerd: Dead Ryzen CPUs, SteamOS rising, & scented thermal paste

Welcome to The Full Nerd newsletter—your weekly dose of hardcore hardware talk from the enthusiasts at PCWorld. In it, we dive into the hottest topics from our YouTube show, plus interesting PC hardware news from across the web.

This week, we’re sleepy and jetlagged post-Computex, but full of hot takes about what was on the show floor. (Plus sidetrack into a mini-rant or two.)

Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox every Friday? It’s a great way to catch up on the nerdy PC news you’ve missed during the week. Sign up on our website!

In this episode of The Full Nerd…

In this episode of The Full Nerd, our usual crew of Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, and Will Smith wrap up the big news from Computex and the best from the show, ponder the release of SteamOS, and answer viewers’ burning questions!

Alex Esteves / Foundry

You could say Computex was sleepy, but not a snoozefest. For chip news, the biggest reveal was Intel’s next-gen Panther Lake, which Adam got to see in demos. You can expect to see it in 2026—though not in desktop PCs. For socketed parts, carrying on the mantle falls to Nova Lake, which also is expected to be a 2026 release (and likely a fall one at that).

Still, AMD threw enthusiasts a bone. FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 upscaling tech is getting updates on June 5m alongside the release of the Radeon RX 9060 XT. More substantial feature improvements will come in the second half of the year as well, in the form of FSR Redstone—and it looks set to challenge Nvidia’s lead in ray tracing performance. Oh, and there’s also a new 96-core, 192-thread Threadripper Zen 5 chip coming.