Chinese technology giants ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent, among others, are set to receive only a limited number of Nvidia chips that they've ordered. Bloomberg is reporting that, according to unnamed sources, only "some tens of thousands, or roughly 1%" of RTX Pro 5500 workstation GPUs will be delivered over the next few months.

Demand for the RTX Pro 5500 has far outstripped Nvidia's planned production. According to earlier reports, Chinese firms were suggested to have spent $35 billion on orders for over 3 million of the GPUs, far beyond Nvidia's ability to produce them. This new report suggests that amount has risen to $70 billion, at a cost of $11,000 per unit.

Chinese demand for the RTX Pro 5500 is based on its performance and its unique status for shipping. The RTX Pro 5500 has the same CUDA cores as its flagship gaming GPU, the RTX 5090, but with a boosted 84GB GDDR7 memory count, so it's a good option for AI.

Unlike the RTX 5090, or other AI-focused workstation GPUs like the H200 and B300, there are no export limits, meaning it can be shipped to China without restrictions. China is in an arms race with the U.S. to produce better AI models, with GPUs like the RTX Pro 5500 being core to its success. Nvidia has reportedly halted RTX 5090 production to pivot towards its AI-focused enterprise base.

The report suggests that Chinese developers expect a first batch of several thousand RTX Pro 5500 GPUs to be delivered by the end of 2026. In total, 700,000 RTX Pro 5500s are expected to be delivered by the end of 2027 as Nvidia increases its production, although this could change.

Tom's Hardware has approached Nvidia for comment. In a statement to Bloomberg, an Nvidia spokesman declined to comment on shipment numbers, but did criticize U.S. export controls, stating that "outdated U.S. export controls, which cover gaming products released nearly half a decade ago" continue to restrict it, along with "China's own limits on U.S. imports."

There's a CyberPowerPC gaming PC on sale right now with a $300 discount that you won't want to miss. Best Buy has slashed the price on this rig with a 9800X3D, RTX 5070, 32GB DDR5, and a 2TB SSD, bringing it down to just $2,199.

● Check out this deal at Best Buy

With this machine, you're locking in one of the best gaming CPUs out there with one of Nvidia's current-gen, mid-tier GPUs. These specs unlock serious performance for 1440p and, thanks to the power of Nvidia DLSS and multi-frame generation, you'll be able to uplift to 4K, too. Given how expensive all the major parts are becoming to buy separately, including the RAM, SSD, and a GPU, you'd struggle to build a rig with these specs at this price yourself right now.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D isn't the fastest gaming CPU on the market right now, but it's still our favorite, with performance that's hard to beat. It has eight cores, 16 threads, and a boost clock speed up to 5.2 GHz. More importantly, though, is the 96MB of L3 cache. AMD's 3D V-Cache technology drastically improves frame rates by giving the CPU more memory directly. It doesn't have to drop back down to the slower system RAM while you're gaming, making frame rates better and more stable as a result.

Coupled with the 9800X3D is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070. The RTX 5070 has 6,144 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR7 VRAM, operating on a 192-bit memory bus. As a GPU for gaming, this is a card that will smash through 1080p at super high frame rates, even on Ultra. 1440p is possible, although the most demanding games might require you to drop down a setting or two. With DLSS and multi-frame generation, though, you'll be able to push up to 4K.

There aren't many compromises elsewhere. 32GB of DDR5 RAM is a good amount for modern gaming, with 2TB of SSD storage ensuring plenty of space for a big game collection. There's liquid cooling to keep your CPU cool, too.

If you've got a little extra to spare in your budget, you might want this iBuyPower Trace gaming PC instead. It's another 9800X3D machine, but swapping the RTX 5070 for the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT in an all-white chassis. You're also getting 32GB DDR5 and a 2TB SSD here, too, and all for $2,249.99, saving $250 in total.

Both machines are serious performers in the current market. The $2,199.99 sale price for this CyberPowerPC gaming machine is a good option for 1440p and 4K gaming, but it won't last. If you want to save $300 and grab this high-spec gaming PC for under $2,200, you'll need to be quick.

China is loitering over undersea cables in “gray-zone” warfare against neighboring countries, as well as the U.S. and its allies, as it seeks to dominate the South China Sea. Several incidents, reported by Nikkei Asia, suggest the PRC is actively mapping the seafloor for vulnerabilities and using civilian research vessels to do so.

A serious incident in September, for instance, saw the Philippine Coast Guard respond to a Chinese research vessel close to an undersea cable. The vessel reportedly ignored radio contact while broadcasting a false ID before manoeuvring to evade capture. The Philippines, in response, sent its largest vessel to respond. That vessel was spotted 37 nautical miles away from the Batanes province, officially part of the Philippines but claimed by China. The incident also saw a Chinese coastguard ship intervene, with Beijing complaining of harassment afterward, according to the South China Morning Post.

There have been no confirmed reports of Chinese attacks on undersea cables, but it isn’t the first report of Chinese attempts to map the region’s undersea infrastructure. A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S.-based think tank in Washington, DC, found that Chinese research ships were spending more time loitering near cables than any other nation. Their purpose for doing so is unclear, but the report made clear that the efforts were “disproportionate.”

One thing that the U.S. is certain about, however, is that China has the capability. A U.S. congressional report from 2025 highlighted that China is actively developing techniques to cut cables, pointing out that Chinese research teams had already publicly disclosed the details of electric cutting devices that could sever armored cables as deep as 13,000ft underwater.

Ryan Claffey, a research assistant for the Center for a New American Security, a think tank that specializes in U.S. national security, believes that a coordinated response is required to stop Chinese actions in the region. Writing in the report, Claffey warns that “subsea cables are digital lifelines,” arguing that “the U.S. and its allies must protect them in peacetime to stay connected in crisis.”

The People’s Republic of China has maritime disputes with several countries in the region. It continues to hold a claim over Taiwan, which it views as a breakaway province. It also has disputes with the Philippines, as mentioned earlier, along with Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei in the South China Sea, as well as Japan in the East China Sea.

Authoritarian nations like Russia, China and Iran have all stepped up operations against undersea infrastructure in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Russia, for instance, has used fishing trawlers for nearly five years to loiter over communication cables in Europe. Iran, meanwhile, has threatened to attack undersea cables in the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. attacks it again, describing them as legitimate targets during war.

There's an eye-catching saving of $1,229 available right now on an RTX 5070 gaming laptop, thanks to Woot. This 18-inch Alienware Area-51 gaming laptop is down to $2,449.99, a 33% saving that makes it a steal in the current market.

● Grab this gaming laptop deal at Woot!

While the specs aren't easily found on the page, the images on the listing do confirm the RAM and storage you're getting with this laptop. For the CPU, it's the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX. It's a 24-core powerhouse with eight performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, with a max boost clock speed of 5.4 GHz.

This is a high spec laptop CPU that'll ensure no bottlenecks at the highest resolutions. It's also used in a couple of our best gaming laptop picks, including the best choice overall, the Razer Blade 18.

This is a laptop, so the display you're getting here is important. You're getting an 18-inch LCD display with a whopping 300Hz refresh rate. The top resolution on this panel is 2,560 x 1,600, and the specs in this build should mean you're able to use the highest graphics presets when playing at 1600p. This model is rated for 500 nits of brightness, too.

To play games at 1600p, though, you're going to need to take advantage of this Alienware laptop's Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 mobile GPU. It's not as powerful as the desktop equivalent, shipping with 8GB of GDDR7 VRAM and 4,608 CUDA cores. This GPU will make light work of gaming at 1600p, especially coupled with the 275HX.

The image carousel also confirms that you're getting 32GB of DDR5, dual channel across two modules, and rated for speeds of 6,400 MT/s. There's also a 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD included for storage, offering Gen 4 speeds, with enough capacity for a few big games alongside Windows. You also get dual USB-C Thunderbolt ports, rated for 40 Gbps for data transfer and display output, as well as an HDMI 2.1 port, 2.5Gb Ethernet, and a headphone jack. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity is included, and there's also an SD card slot if you need it, too.

The $2,449.99 sale price for this 18-inch Alienware Area-51 gaming laptop is one that won't last very long. This Woot deal is set to run out within 7 days, but the stock could well go before then. If you want an RTX 5070 gaming laptop from Dell's premium gaming brand with a huge $1,229 discount, grab this deal while you can.

As prices soar, you'll want to pick up a bargain on storage when you can find it. For a limited time only, you can pick up a 512GB Samsung P9 microSD Express card for just $99.99 at Amazon. This price brings it back down to its original MSRP and means you're saving $50 compared to its current list price. This is the perfect option for a Nintendo Switch 2 owner looking to boost their storage for new games.

● Check out this Samsung deal at Amazon

The Samsung P9 is one of the best microSD Express cards you can buy right now, delivering ultra-fast sequential read speeds of up to 800 MB/s. Those speeds mean it's a great option for installing games and playing them on your Switch 2 without gameplay lag. Write speeds aren't shared, but in this class and capacity, you can usually expect up to 300 MB/s.

You'll want the highest possible write speeds, but for a Switch 2 owner, 300 MB/s is still going to be fast enough to install new games and updates without huge waiting times. The high speeds you're seeing here will mean you won't have too big a bottleneck compared to installing directly onto the Switch 2's internal storage.

That said, these speeds make the Samsung P9 Express up to four times faster than a typical UHS-I microSD card. It also ships with features to help get the most out of your card, including Host Memory Buffer (HMB) functionality to help improve data transfer speeds, along with Dynamic Thermal Guard (DTG) support to help stop the card from overheating and limiting its performance.

microSD cards are small, so durability is an issue to think about, especially if you're handling it often. Samsung reckons this is a model that's well protected, even if you drop it in water, along with protection against extreme temperatures and even X-ray exposure. It has a 3-year limited warranty, and it supports Samsung's Magician software, so you can keep an eye on the card's health, as well as check if it's genuine or not (although that's not an issue here).

The Switch 2 is one of the first consoles to include microSD Express support, so you can use this Samsung P9 Express card's faster storage speeds compared to older UHS-I cards. The $99.99 sale price makes this 512GB Samsung P9 a brilliant bargain to pick up ahead of the holiday season, especially if you're a current or soon-to-be Switch 2 owner. It'll give you a quick-and-easy storage upgrade ahead of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's remaster launching later this week, too.

There's a brilliant discount on a high-spec gaming PC right now that'll net you 4K-ready performance. Newegg has dropped the price on this ABS Stratos II Aqua gaming PC to $2,549.99 right now, netting you a PC with a 24-core Intel CPU and one of Nvidia's best GPUs, along with a $450 saving. This discount is covered by Newegg's Black Friday price protection, so if the price drops again in the big sale, you'll get a refund for the difference.

● Check out this gaming PC deal at Newegg

Newegg owns the ABS brand, so this isn't a knock-off you're getting. It has a good set of specs for a rig that'll handle 4K gaming, shipping with an Intel Core i9-14900KF processor, along with a current-gen Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU, 32GB of DDR5-6400 memory, and 2TB of SSD storage. Given the current market conditions, these are good specs to find at this price point.

With a machine like this, you're able to ditch 1080p completely. The RTX 5070 Ti is a graphics card that has more than enough performance for gaming at 1440p and 4K, especially if you're able to tweak your graphics settings for the most performing games. It's a good option for a mid-tier build, and it comes with 8,960 CUDA cores, along with 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM.

As this Blackwell GPU is one of Nvidia's latest, you've got fully Nvidia DLSS support included. That includes multi-frame generation, which will give you an AI-generated frame rate boost in any really intensive games, especially at 4K, to make them playable.

As for the CPU, the Intel Core i9-14900KF CPU continues to be a popular choice for gaming PCs at this price point, and despite being a little older, it still packs a punch. You're getting 24 cores here, of which eight are performance cores that will give your machine the best gaming performance. The other 16 are efficiency cores, which are great for multi-threaded tasks. You'll be able to push this CPU's clock up to a massive 6 GHz, too.

Our CPU benchmarks still have a place for the i9-14900K, the same CPU but with an integrated GPU that the 14900KF here lacks. It continues to be one of the best-performing processors on sale for gamers if you're not going all-in with an AMD X3D build.

There are no compromises to be found elsewhere in this rig. 32GB of G.Skill Ripjaws M5 Neo (2 x 16GB) DDR5-6000 memory is included here, letting you leave the slower speeds of DDR4 behind. A 2TB Team Group NV5000 SSD is also included in this ABS build, so you'll have space for a good collection of games, with the NV5000 offering Gen 4 speeds.

Prices continue to rise in the PC hardware market, but the $450 discount on this ABS Stratos II Aqua rig, down to $2,549.99, is a good one. You're also able to take advantage of Newegg's Black Friday price guarantee, so if this PC drops down in price over Black Friday, you'll be able to claim back the difference. If you need a new 4K gaming PC on a budget, you'll want to pick up a rig like this one.

This Halloween weekend is the perfect time to think about buying a new 3D printer at a brilliant discount. Spooky season is nearly over, but as we hurtle towards the holiday season, the big names in the 3D printer world have slashed prices, making it even more affordable to pick up a new printer before the year is out. There are options that'll suit any skill set and experience, from total beginner to complete pro. We've put together some of the best deals you'll find on 3D printers right now, and you'll see discounts on some of the best 3D printer models out there.

● Check out Creality's 3D printer deals

● Check out Elegoo's 3D printer deals

● Check out Bambu Lab's 3D printer deals

● Check out Prusa's 3D printer deals

You'll see the biggest and best models on sale right now. There are models from Elegoo, Creality, Anycubic, Bambu Lab, and Prusa on sale, with resin and filament discounts to match, along with accessories.

You'll see the Bambu Lab H2D dropping to just $1,399, for instance. At the other end of the market, there's the Bambu Lab A1 Mini, now just $199, or the Creality Ender 3 V3 for $239. Or, you could pick up the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2, down to only $319.

These big names are running sales throughout the next few weeks as we head towards the Black Friday sales period, but just because the sales are live doesn't mean the stock will be there. If you want a bargain on a new 3D printer right now, here are the deals you'll want to look for.

Best 3D Printer Deals for Halloween

Best 3D Printer Filament and Resin Deals for Halloween

More Tech Deals

If you're looking for further savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, Gaming Chair, Best Wi-Fi Routers, or CPU Deals pages.

In a world where youth unemployment is growing as AI replaces more and more entry-level jobs, Cisco president and chief product officer Jeetu Patel is going for a different approach. According to a report by Fortune, he's given a 27-year-old ex-startup founder — brought into the company by an earlier acquisition, and previously languishing in a role five levels below — a new job to refactor 98% of the company's legacy code within 24 months.

The employee, Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, joined Cisco after it acquired EzDubs, a translation startup that Krishnamurthy helped build in 2023. While having executive experience, Patel found that "Paddy" was left "buried away in the organization doing something unstrategic."

According to the report, Patel spoke to Krishnamurthy in Cisco's office in San Francisco, where Krishnamurthy told him that he could rewrite Cisco's legacy code in a team of just two people, and that "even the most AI-forward people on [Patel's] own team weren't thinking that way."

As a result, he's now been tasked with rewriting 98% of Cisco's legacy code within 24 months, with four weeks as a proof of concept. "I've given him unlimited tokens because he's going to refactor code," according to Patel, telling him "you can go nuts."

AI coding has skyrocketed in recent months, with GitHub forced to deploy 4 million extra CPU cores and 160 petabytes of storage to cope. However, the practice is not without its pitfalls, with rogue AI agents notorious for taking unsolicited actions including deleting entire company databases, TV show edits, and production setups.

Patel hopes that there are more young hires in the Krishnamurthy mould that he can find, both in the company and externally to hire. He's looking for hires to "challenge the system and the status quo," to be "an energizer bunny that just goes and kind of revs everyone up."

Patel believes that current corporate structures work against this kind of thinking. "If you don't hire the early-in-career [workers], and you just let your workforce continue the way that they were, where do fresh ideas get injected? How do you challenge the status quo?"

He acknowledges that this will create friction, putting Gen Z employees among decades-old employees. "Tension is good.... I actually try to create tension in the teams because you want to have enough friction on the ideas. You don't want to have friction with the people and personalities."

Patel believes that a combination of experienced, scale operators at Cisco, alongside external hires and "entrepreneurial founders, CEOs and engineers who are AI-native" will bring results. "Either of these groups by themselves aren't nearly as potent as when all three work together. It's what creates magic."

Woot! has a brilliant deal right now on Nintendo's latest handheld gaming console. You can pick up the family-friendly Nintendo Switch 2, along with a free digital game code, for as low as $459 right now if you're a new Woot customer with the SAVETOBER coupon code. If you're not, you can still grab it for $479.

● Check out this deal at Woot

Woot! is Amazon's discount sister site, so you've got the full backing of the huge global retailer behind this deal. $459 is an awesome price for a Switch 2 and a free game, and the good news is, you get to choose the game. Options for you to choose include Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, or Pokémon Pokopia, which you'll need to download straight onto your Switch 2's storage.

This is a limited-time deal, with only four days left to run at the $519 sale price, but the coupon code is expected to run out tomorrow, November 1, at 11:59 pm ET, but don't expect it to be around even that long. This is a popular console, and as we approach the holiday season, this is the time that consoles like these become tricky to buy. With The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time launching in just a few days, expect to see a huge spike in demand for this console, too.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is Nintendo's second generation of its popular Switch console. It has a 7.9-inch 1080p touchscreen, designed for you to hold in your hands. That said, if you prefer the big-screen treatment, it also has a dock that'll let you play games on a TV for 4K gameplay at up to 120 fps. You're also getting Joy-Con 2 controllers, which you can use attached or detached, depending on if the console is docked or not.

There's 256GB of internal storage included here for games, but the Switch 2 does have support for microSD Express cards to boost this further. If you're planning to install a big game collection, a card upgrade might be a good option. Right now, for instance, you can pick up this 512GB Samsung P9 Express microSD card for $99 at Amazon, another limited-time deal that saves you 34% on its usual price.

As we've mentioned, you also get a free digital game with this Switch 2 deal. Buying Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, or Pokémon Pokopia separately would cost you between $69.99 and $79.99 at their usual prices, so with these discounts, you're getting a great deal.

The $459 sale price for this Woot! Nintendo Switch 2 bundle is a great option ahead of the holiday season. Don't expect to be able to wait for a better discount in a few weeks, as this is a popular console, and with a huge release like Ocarina of Time on the way, demand might outstrip supply. Just remember to use coupon code SAVETOBER before 11.59 am ET on November 1 at checkout to get the full $60 discount if you're a new customer, or $40 if you've used Woot! before.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, Nvidia's second-fastest GPU from its current generation, now costs as much as the RTX 5090 did, on paper, when it launched. Prices have reached $2,000 and higher, with most of the available stock online limited to third-party sellers. If you can find it in stock, it may end up costing you two to three times as much as it did when it launched.

The cheapest, in-stock RTX 5080 available to buy from a reputable seller online for delivery is this PNY RTX 5080 for $1,999 from Best Buy, the same price as the RTX 5090's on-paper MSRP. You might otherwise end up paying $2,299.99, at least, for this Asus ROG Astral mode at Newegg, or you could pay nearly $3000 for this Gigabyte RTX 5080 from MemoryC, now priced at $2,983.23.

Stock for the RTX 5080 is otherwise limited everywhere, with just one or two available for local pickup (in Best Buy's case), and limited options for delivery. You can also find similar in-store-only pricing at Micro Center, depending on location, which has a Gigabyte card for $1,979.99.

You'll also see a lot of the listings online from sketchy, third-party sellers.. For instance, you could pay at least $2,211.17 for this PNY RTX 5080 from a third-party Amazon seller. Empowered PC, the seller for this card, has had 81% positive ratings over the last 12 months, with 202 ratings in total.

Reputable seller or not, this price scale means you're paying significantly more than the $999 launch price for this GPU. As our GPU price tracking shows, though, this isn't an isolated case. RTX 5080 prices have, like the rest of the RTX 50-series, risen steadily since it launched. However, this is the first time that its price floor has been around the RTX 5090's launch price. That PNY RTX 5080, for instance, was being sold for around $1,500 on average back in August.

It's a bitter pill for gamers, though, that the RTX 5080 has now reached and breached the RTX 5090's launch pricing. That GPU has an MSRP of $1,999, although it'll now cost you thousands more. Prices for the RTX 5090 hit as high as $9,500 last month, but the situation is even worse today. What little stock that remains on sale online can be found for as high as $12,000.

The RTX 5080 uses Nvidia's GB203 GPU and comes with 10,752 CUDA cores, along with 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM. Unfortunately, it, like the rest of the consumer gaming GPU market, is being affected by AI. Demand for high-end GPUs hasn't stopped, but Nvidia's attention has shifted to the enterprise market. So, too, has the focus of memory manufacturers, meaning DRAM allocations and production lines that would otherwise produce memory chips for graphics cards have instead gone to feeding the demand for high-margin HBM for AI data centers.

You don't have to settle for huge price rises in the PC hardware market. Thanks to Newegg, there's a $1,250 discount right now on a 4K-capable Alienware Aurora DACT1250 gaming PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and 32GB of DDR5 RAM for $2,599.99.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

This is Dell's premium brand for gamers and, as you can expect from a premium brand, the prices are usually towards the top end. The $1,250 discount here means you'll be saving a huge sum on a gaming PC with serious firepower for 4K gameplay, putting it at a much better price than you would get elsewhere. This DACT1250 model also comes with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285 CPU and a 1TB SSD for storage.

Front and center here is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. This is one of Nvidia's newest Blackwell GPUs but, more importantly, it's the third most powerful consumer GPU of Nvidia's current-gen lineup. It has 8,960 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM, operating on a bigger 256-bit memory bus. This is a card that'll smash through 1080p with the highest frame rates, taking you up to 1440p and 4K with ease.

The VRAM boost to 16GB is important because it means your PC has the opportunity to switch up to 1440p or 4K and run games at high and even graphic presets at those resolutions. 4K, especially with ray tracing switched on, might require a few tweaks to your settings, or involve you falling back on Nvidia DLSS with multi-frame generation for an AI-helped uplift, adding extra frames into the mix for smoother gameplay. The Bench charts and our GPU benchmarks place the RTX 5070 Ti pretty highly compared to rival GPUs.

For the CPU, you're getting the Intel Core Ultra 9 285 here. It ships with 24 cores, eight of which are performance cores, which'll be good for high-performance gaming. You also get 16 efficient cores for multi-threaded tasks. Unlike the 285K, the 285 is locked, meaning you can't overclock it. You get clock speeds as high as 5.7 GHz with the performance cores in action here, though. This Arrow Lake CPU hasn't been a big hitter in the gaming world, admittedly, but the raw power of the RTX 5070 Ti is still formidable, and should help to compensate.

Elsewhere, though, you're getting 32GB of DDR5 memory, so you won't see a bottleneck as far as system RAM is concerned. There's also a 1TB SSD included here, giving you space for a few big games alongside a Windows installation on the same drive.

The $1,250 saving on this pre-built Alienware Aurora DACT1250 gaming PC is a serious bargain, and it means you'll only pay $2,599.99 compared to the original $3,849.99 list price. The RTX 5070 Ti in this build means you've got a GPU ready for 4K gaming, with specs that should keep you going for years to come.

A team of around four dozen U.S. Marines is joining a NATO-led operation in the Baltic Sea to help protect undersea internet cables and gas pipelines in the area. In a press release, the U.S. Marine Corps shared its plans to deploy a "specialized team" to support NATO's Enhanced Vigilance Activity Baltic Sentry operation. The move comes amid a backdrop of growing undersea cable interest, movements of Russia's shadow fleet, and fears of sabotage.

The U.S. Marines are being sent from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to provide "advanced expeditionary surveillance and tactical reconnaissance capabilities" to the region in support of Finnish and other NATO allies. Marines from 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, and the II Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group are joining the mission.

Capt. Johan Tillander, Chief of Operations for the Finnish Navy, explained that the "experience, skills, and systems of the U.S. Marine Corps are perfectly suited" for the operation, including "monitoring of the Baltic Sea."

While the press release stresses that the Marines are serving in a "supportive, enabling capacity," with European nations taking the lead, the Marines are there to provide "highly specialized, agile force multipliers."

Maj. Gen. Daniel Shipley, Commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa, shared that its participation shows its ability to "rapidly project specialized capabilities where they are most effective," and as a result, "ensuring we can operate seamlessly as a cohesive, lethal team to deter hybrid threats" in the area.

The U.S. deployment means that the operation will be able to "leverage... unique capabilities of Reconnaissance Marines, including small Unmanned Aerial Systems and littoral sensors, to feed vital data directly" to NATO.

The Baltic Sea is the frontline in potential assaults against European undersea infrastructure. Several attempts have been made to sabotage cables in the area, and two cables were cut between Finland, Sweden and Europe back in 2024. Meanwhile, Finland's own concerns about shadow fleet operations led it to set up a dedicated maritime surveillance center earlier this year to monitor activity in the Baltic Sea.

Russia isn't mentioned in the U.S. press release, but the authoritarian nation is one of Europe's biggest threats in the region, and has had worsening relations with European nations for several years, particularly since it went to war with Ukraine in 2022. Over 500 incidents of Russian fishing boats loitering near undersea cables in Europe have been seen in the last four and a half years, showing a persistence in mapping and identifying, if not directly interfering, with global data links in the area.

If you want to start building a new gaming PC without paying huge prices, you'll want to look at this Newegg combo deal. Right now, you can pick up the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, along with an MSI motherboard and 32GB of DDR5 RAM for $1,094.99, saving you $248.99 in total.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is one of the best CPUs you can buy for gaming, thanks to AMD's impressive 3D V-cache tech. Alongside the powerhouse 9800X3D is the budget-friendly MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk Wifi and the 32GB of G.Skill Trident X5 NeoX RAM, and you're also getting an MSI MAG Coreliquid A13 240mm AIO liquid cooler thrown in for free.

As deals go, this kit will get you part of the way towards building a 4K-capable gaming PC, although you'll need to source a GPU, SSD, case, power supply, and peripherals, not to mention a monitor. Still, the $248.99 saving isn't one to dismiss, given how expensive PC components have become in the last year, and you can put those savings towards the pricier components left to buy on your shopping list.

There are very few processors able to compete with the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. This processor, as our CPU benchmark data will show, delivers seriously good performance for gamers. AMD'S 3D V-cache technology can take much of the glory here, boosting the L3 cache capacity to 96MB. That boost means that the chip doesn't have to drop back to the slower system RAM, giving higher, more stable frame rates for longer in-game.

Specs-wise, you're getting a Zen 5 CPU with eight cores. All eight of them use the full 96MB L3 cache, with clock speeds of 4.7 GHz that can boost to 5.2 GHz. As the Bench data below confirms, at 1080p and better, the 9800X3D is a CPU that sits very, very close to the top, far ahead of Intel rivals.

You need a motherboard with an AMD AM5 socket to run this CPU, which Newegg is providing with the MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk Wifi. This is a budget-friendly board with EZ DIY features for gamers, along with three USB-C ports offering speeds of 40 Gbps. This is a gaming board with four M.2 drive slots, two offering Gen 5 speeds, along with four SATA ports. It has fast networking, with support for Wi-Fi 7 and 6Gb Ethernet. It's black, too, so it won't look out of place in a typical gaming PC build.

Coupled with the Tomahawk is 32GB of memory from G.Skill. This G.Skill Trident Z5 NeoX DDR5 RAM ships with two 16GB modules, in black but with configurable RGB lighting at the top, and offering speeds of 6,000 MT/s. It has CAS and memory timings of 36-36-36-76. Don't forget the MSI MAG Coreliquid A13 240mm AIO cooler worth $72.49 that you're getting, totally free, with this bundle to help keep your CPU nice and cool.

We've seen these Newegg combo deals sell out or get pulled quickly. If you want to take advantage of the $1,094.99 sale price for this 9800X3D bundle with an MSI motherboard and 32GB of DDR5 RAM, then you'll need to be quick. The parts will suit a high-end build for 4K gaming, and the savings you make here can be put towards a new GPU to match.

Independent 3D modeling community Open3DLab has publicly warned that a web crawler, linked to the gaming platform Roblox, mapped "almost every project" on its website, along with sister sites SFMLab and SmutBase, downloading 145.5GB of data in the process. In a blog post, Open3DLab reports that "complete copies" of 1,027 files from 712 projects were sourced in the process, which it believes were taken for "AI training purposes."

The blog post goes into the specifics of the incident, along with some changes that Open3DLab has made since to try and avoid a repeat. According to the post, Open3DLab's staff noticed a crawler "making a large number of requests to our sites and download infrastructure" on October 18. The crawler used trellis2-data-sourcing/1.0 (3D foundation model research; [redacted]@roblox.com) as its user agent, with the data coming from a single Amazon AWS address. The crawler didn't respect the site's robots.txt file or Terms of Service, which explicitly forbid scraping. It also, according to the report, ignored creator licenses for the projects, which prohibit non-commercial use.

The crawler read "practically [its] entire catalogue" of 18,926 projects in a span of 34 hours over a total of 26,429 requests. Once it was done, the crawler downloaded 1,027 files from 712 projects before it "suspended operations." Files downloaded include 364 files, or 54.8GB worth, from 224 projects hosted on SmutBase, OpenLab's sister site focused on adult content. A further 345 projects of adult-marked SFMLab projects, or 62.6GB worth, were also taken.

According to Open3DLab, the crawler's "main limiting factor" was its use of free download servers that capped speed and concurrent downloads. The scraping was detected on the same day, and blocked by the following morning. Further download attempts were detected on October 19, "neatly within office hours, only briefly pausing for an hour around lunchtime," and despite being blocked, "did not reduce its download attempts."

A final attempt on October 20, with requests tapering, "likely in an effort to test... rate limiting," was made, with requests stopping completely later that day. Open3DLab made another request at this point for comment, although without reply.

The Roblox user agent mentions "3D foundation model research." As Open3DLab's blog post notes, Roblox has been building such a model since March 2025, when it introduced Roblox Cube, its "core generative AI system" for 3D modeling for character rigging, with characters and avatars listed as future goals. Further AI tech that could build in-game models using natural language prompts, called "4D generation," was beta launched in February 2026. The email address listed in the user agent matches one of the researchers listed on the Roblox Cube research paper, according to Open3DLab, although it redacted the name here.

Noting Roblox's "track record," Open3DLab's "most likely explanation" is that the crawler was collecting "training or evaluation data" for its 3D foundation model, although it notes that it can't prove it.

Roblox is a gaming platform and game creation system with over 33 million users and billions of "game experiences" for its player base, 40% of whom are reportedly aged under 12 years old. Open3DLab is clear to state that it "doesn't think Roblox set out to collect adult content" but that "as far as [its] logs show, nobody checked," which, it believes, is "not a good position" for Roblox to be in.

Rather than spending $450 on 32GB of DDR5 all by itself, you can save a ton of money when you pick up RAM as part of Newegg's PC component bundles, $350 in this case. In this bundle, you can pick up four parts you need for $1,180.99 in a set that includes the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D with 32GB DDR5, a Gigabyte X870E motherboard, and 2TB of SSD storage.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

The discount knocks $358.99 off the combined price for this kit, meaning you're picking up RAM for the equivalent price of just $151.01. That's a massive discount compared to the current price for 32GB of DDR5 RAM, let alone this particular kit, which would cost you $509.99 if you bought it separately.

The price is even better when you include the freebies. A year's worth of McAfee isn't much to write home about, but a free MSI MAG Coreliquid A13 240mm AIO cooler worth $72.49 certainly is. That'll help you keep the 9800X3D cool, and it's totally free with this kit, too.

This is a significant haul for the price in the current market, giving you several of the components you'd need to kickstart a new 4K gaming PC build. Whether it's $358.99 you're saving, or over $431 if you include the free AIO, you're saving several hundred dollars that you can put towards a case, peripherals, power supply, or that all-important GPU purchase.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is one of the fastest gaming CPUs on the market right now, as you'll see in our CPU benchmark data, and it's still the top option in our best CPU guide. Other chips, like the 9950X3D2, have nudged ahead on performance, but with significantly higher power demands.

AMD dominates the market with its 3D V-cache chips: there just isn't a matching alternative from Intel. The extra L3 cache it provides, with a total of 96MB in the 9800X3D, means that your CPU doesn't have to revert to the slower system RAM. The result is better, more stable frame rates, and overall better gaming performance.

As specs go, you're getting a modern Zen 5 CPU with eight cores. All eight have access to the increased 96MB L3 cache, too. You get a clock speed of 4.7 GHz, which boosts up to 5.2 GHz, and a TDP of 120W. This is a CPU that won't struggle with the demands of 4K gaming with ray tracing, as long as you have a GPU able to match it.

This AM5 CPU needs a motherboard to match, and with this bundle, you're getting the Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite Wi-Fi 7. This is a mid-tier board for gamers from Gigabyte, and it comes with a set of features designed with gamers in mind. You get 12 USB ports at the back here, with two USB-C ports that give speeds of up to 40 Gbps.

You can install a whole set of M.2 SSDs here, and with the 9800X3D installed, three of them are rated for PCIe 5.0 speeds. 2.5G Ethernet and Wi-Fi 7 support is included, and the board also includes support for up to 256GB of DDR5 RAM for speeds up to 8,200 MT/s.

This bundle isn't quite that good, but you do get 32GB here. Two 16GB modules of Team Group T-Force Delta RGB RAM are included, with speeds of 6,000 MT/s, with CAS and memory timings of 38-38-38-78. Good RAM for gaming, especially with customizable RGB lighting, but it's the price that beats it all. As we mentioned, the discounts applied here mean you're getting this $500+ RAM set for the equivalent of just $151.01.

Oh, and 2TB of SSD storage is included, which'll give you plenty of space for big AAA games alongside a Windows installation. The Team Group NV5000 SSD here is an M.2 NVMe SSD with Gen 4 speeds, and it'll be a good start option in a market where, like RAM, SSDs are becoming very expensive.

This $1,180.99 Newegg combo deal for the 9800X3D, 32GB DDR5, a 2TB SSD, and a Gigabyte AM5 gaming motherboard is a real steal in the market, and one that'll save you $358.99. You won't find 32GB of DDR5-6000 RAM for anything close to the equivalent $151.01 cost you're getting it here. This is a good, core set of parts that'll help you build a new, or upgrade an existing, 4K gaming PC, with that freebie AIO from MSI to help keep it cool.

China is spending more time loitering near undersea cables in the Pacific Ocean than any other nation, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S.-based think tank in Washington, DC. The analysis compared the behavior of 200 research vessels from 47 different nations, including the U.S. and Russia, and found that Chinese vessels spent a "statistically significant larger share of time" near critical infrastructure.

The analysis, reported by Indo-Pacific Defense Forum, notes that Chinese activity was particularly suspicious in this regard. It notes that the "persistent and disproportionate activity" means that China "may be leveraging its research fleet for underwater data collection that may aid... analysis of terrain for sabotage or submarine operations."

Civilian research vessels provide a unique cover for states looking for "plausible deniability" for their research gathering activities. The report mentions the activity of a ship from the Xiang Yang Hong research fleet which, between July and October 2024, spent time near three undersea cables that connected the U.S. with Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Guam and others.

The ships move in a "lawnmower" pattern which, it notes, is associated with surveying to create accurate seafloor maps. While the ships themselves aren't part of the PRC's navy, the data they collect could be used to serve China in future conflicts.

These "gray zone research activities" continue in an era of Chinese conflict with its neighbors as it asserts territorial claims in the South China Sea against states like the Philippines and Vietnam, not to mention its claims over Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province.

It also follows a pattern of authoritarian states looking to dominate undersea infrastructure. Last week, a report in The Telegraph found 500 incidents of Russian monitoring near undersea cables over the last five years. Meanwhile, Iran has threatened to attack undersea cables in the Strait of Hormuz in the event of further assaults by the United States if conflict erupts again.

AI has forced PC component prices up with no slowdown in sight over the last year. While building your own might be expensive, pre-built gaming PCs continue to offer the best value in many cases. With that in mind, you could secure a huge $1,070 discount on an Alienware Aurora gaming PC at Newegg right now, featuring an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 and 32GB DDR5 RAM for $2,199.99.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

Dell's premium Alienware gaming brand usually comes with a price premium compared to budget or no-brand models. With this $1,070 discount applied, you're getting a rig for 4K-capable gaming at a fairer price than you would get by buying from Dell directly. Alongside the RTX 5070, this ACT1250 model ships with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF processor and a 1TB SSD.

The GPU is often the big-selling feature in a gaming PC. With the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, you're getting one of Nvidia's latest Blackwell GPUs with 6,144 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR7 VRAM, operating on a 192-bit memory bus. What that means for gaming is that you've got a card that will smash through high frame rates, even with the highest graphics presets, at 1080p.

At 1440p, you're also going to see good performance, although the most demanding games might need a drop down or two. You can also fall back to using Nvidia DLSS with multi-frame generation for an uplift, powered by AI to add extra frames into the mix for smoother gameplay, especially if you want to game at 4K. Our GPU benchmarks show that the RTX 5070 is a strong option compared to its rivals, offering slightly better performance than the RTX 4070 it replaces.

You're getting an Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF CPU with this build. This is a 20-core Arrow Lake CPU with 20 cores, with eight good-for-gaming performance cores, along with 12 efficient cores for multi-threaded work. This is locked, meaning you can overclock it, and it ships with a max boost clock speed of 5.5 GHz.

This isn't a CPU able to compete with top-spec AMD rivals, but it's a solid enough performer when you couple it with the RTX 5070's power. Elsewhere, though, you're getting 32GB of DDR5 memory, so no compromises there. There's also a 1TB SSD, leaving you enough storage for at least a few big AAA installs.

You'll be saving $1,070 with this pre-built Alienware Aurora ACT1250 gaming PC at this $2,199.99 Newegg sale price. With the RTX 5070 in this build, you've got a 4K-capable machine that'll let you play modern games for years into the future.

The UK government has outlined a set of plans for new powers and penalties to help it protect UK undersea cables during national security emergencies, the BBC reports. It follows reports that Russia is using commercial fishing trawlers to map undersea cables, with 500 incidents of Russian boats loitering above cables in the last four and a half years.

In a policy paper shared this week, the British government noted that the UK is "highly dependent" on undersea infrastructure owned by private sector companies. While the report notes that connectivity is "resilient," with "faults rarely causing noticeable disruption to data or energy availability," it's still "vulnerable to damage from accidents and potential sabotage."

As a result, the UK is consulting on changes to legislation to try and address these risks, especially as the "threats to the homeland from state actors are increasing" and "critical national infrastructure, including undersea cables and pipelines... continue to be a target."

The changes proposed include new criminal offenses. These include causing a security compromise to critical undersea infrastructure, capturing both physical and non-physical interference, including remote electronic interference, cyber activity and certain preparatory conduct directed at compromising infrastructure. There would also be further offenses linked to obstructing repairs and failing to preserve evidence, when requested.

With these new offenses, the UK government is threatening penalties on a three-tier scale. Up to 14 years' imprisonment is proposed for intentional conduct, 10 years for reckless conduct, and two years for grossly negligent conduct, along with potentially unlimited fines. It's also considering an even higher maximum penalty for more serious cases, and whether it'll apply solely within the UK's national waters or further afield.

The proposals also include new powers for government ministers. In a national emergency, UK ministers would gain powers that would allow them to order telecom companies to remove or disable services. Ministers would also be able to compel telecom companies to grant officials access to sensitive sites, including cable landing stations.

These proposals form a White Paper, the name for an official UK government policy paper for new legislation, with interested parties able to respond by online questionnaire until January 14, 2027.

UK relations with Russia, like much of the western world, have deteriorated since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, although other incidents, such as the Salisbury Novichok poisonings in 2018, have formed the backdrop of steadily worsening relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Russia has made several efforts to map and plan attacks against undersea cables in Europe. In September, reports suggested that NATO allies had foiled a Russian training exercise using a "secret weapon" against undersea cables in Norway. Meanwhile, back in January, Royal Navy attack helicopters were deployed to chase off a Russian ship loitering less than a mile from five undersea cables in UK waters, just one of the 500 incidents reported this week that have included Russian ships.

Pre-built gaming PCs continue to provide some of the best value for gamers, especially if they're discounted. With that in mind, you can pick up this ABS Stratos II Ruby gaming PC for $2,549.99 right now at Newegg. You'll be saving $450 on a machine fitted with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM.

● Check out this deal at Newegg

ABS builds are all over Newegg, which is no surprise, as the tech retailer owns the brand. As specs go, this is a rig that'll sit pretty near the top as far as performance goes. That's due to the combination of the 9800X3D, still one of the best CPUs available for gaming right now, with the RTX 5070 Ti. That GPU is current-gen and high-end, giving you a machine that'll give you high frame rates in the best games for years to come.

You'll see from our 9800X3D review why this eight-core AMD X3D chip is a formidable option for any gamer. AMD's 3D V-cache sets the scene, as this game-changing tech boosts the available L3 cache capacity to 96MB. Doesn't sound like much, but it means that your CPU doesn't have to fall back to the slower system RAM as often. That reduces latency, giving you better, more stable frame rates while you game.

The 9800X3D isn't at the very top in our CPU benchmarks anymore, but it's damn close, and it's still the top recommendation for most gamers. There isn't an Intel alternative that can truly rival the performance of an X3D chip like the 9800X3D, either. If 4K gaming with high, stable frame rates is your goal, then the 9800X3D will give you that in spades.

Alongside the 9800X3D is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. This Nvidia Blackwell GPU has 8,960 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM. This is a GPU that leaves 1080p in the dust, as this mid- to high-tier option is a 1440p and 4K powerhouse. It has the latest Nvidia tech baked in, too, including DLSS with multi-frame generation.

4K with ray tracing, supported by MFG if necessary, means you'll get high frame rates in current-gen games. Expect to use the best graphics presets, but you might need to tweak them for the most demanding games if you're playing at 4K. Luckily, 16GB of VRAM means you've got plenty of breathing room, especially compared to the lower-end RTX 5060 or RTX 5050 with 8GB of VRAM.

There aren't any compromises elsewhere in this build. You've got 32GB of G.Skill Ripjaws M5 Neo RGB DDR5 memory, split across two 16GB modules, with speeds of 6,000 MT/s. There's also a 2TB Team Group NV5000 M.2 SSD included here, offering Gen 4 speeds, with enough space for several big game installations. There's also Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connectivity, along with Ethernet, and the CPU is liquid cooled with a Bitspower 240mm AIO liquid cooler.

This $2,549.99 ABS Stratos II Ruby gaming PC is a great deal in the current market, especially fitted with the formidable combination of the 9800X3D and RTX 5070 Ti. Buying it now means you're saving $450 on its list price, but it's also the cheapest RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC you're able to buy on Newegg right now. Expect a deal this good to sell out fast.

A rare, prototype copy of Pokémon Red for the Nintendo Game Boy, originally released back in 1998, is on sale at auction, with a single bid of $25,000 currently registered so far. This prototype, spotted by Retro Dodo, is "incredibly rare" and features 32KB of readable data. According to the Goldin auction page, the cartridge has been authenticated by specialists at PSA, who examined the card. According to them, while a "complete data read" wasn't possible, the first 32KB of data was, a "technically unique" result. The PSA notes, however, that the game data is otherwise "completely identical" to the U.S. release version of the game, with PSA "expressing confidence" that the rest of the data, if it were readable, would match.

The PSA report does note two changes to the ROM's header data that don't affect the game data. According to PSA, "the difference is at offset 0x014C, which denotes the Mask ROM version and is incorrectly set to 55 when it should be 00. This has the effect of changing offset 0x014D, which is a calculated header checksum, to CB instead of 20."

This prototype development cartridge has a sticker reading DMB-MBC-16M-FLASH, with a part number DMG-(F)KGDB-01. DMB likely refers to Dot Matrix Game, the original internal codename for the Game Boy, while MBC likely means Memory Bank Controller, a custom chip that allowed games to use more than the Game Boy's 32KB ROM limit. 16M likely refers to a 16 megabit limit of flash-writable memory. Retro Dodo notes that the cartridge is longer than a standard Game Boy cartridge, too.

The auction notes that this uses a "previously undocumented" development board, although the DMG-(F)KGDB-01 part number has been seen before. The Rare Gaming Dump wiki, for instance, lists the same part number for a development cartridge from 2000. It, too, had a 16 megabit Sharp flash chip, with U1 FLASH MEMORY printed on the board. Close-up views from the Goldin auction page show an almost identical design, although the wiki entry shows a slightly different DMG-MBC3-16M-FLASH cartridge sticker.

Pokémon Red is a gaming classic that helped kickstart the global Pokémon franchise in the 1990s, along with Green and Blue. Combined with Blue, Pokémon Red is reported to have sold more than 31 million copies. There are several days left to go on this auction, so while the single bidder may secure this piece of gaming history for $25,000, it may sell for an even higher price before the auction process ends.