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Despite the obvious benefits of electric cars, Toyota spent the last decade insisting hydrogen would win out in the end. But, as the company announces its third generation fuel cell system, you can tell its finally ready to tacitly admit defeat: the new cell is designed for industrial applications, where hydrogen clearly always made more sense. The new cell is designed to meet the particular needs of the commercial sector, focusing on durability equal to a diesel engine. Its a lot more fuel efficient, cheaper to make and outputs twice as much power while sitting in the same footprint as the second-generation model. Given Toyotas love of shrinking its engine technology, that size wasnt a factor here is enormously telling of where it envisions these cells being used. Toyota could never make the economic or technological argument for hydrogen cars as a better option than electricity (the Mirai, Toyotas flagship hydrogen EV, has managed to sell just 28,000 models since its 2014 birth). But for heavy duty vehicles, where battery weight and power are more pressing concerns, hydrogens flaws turn into assets. Trucks, construction vehicles, trains, ships and backup generators less at risk from the lack of general-purpose hydrogen infrastructure are welcome homes for fuel cells.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/toyota-kinda-sorta-gives-up-on-hydrogen-cars-151059624.html?src=rss
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It's honestly difficult to remember the simpler days of video card shopping, before crypto fanatics, supply chain issues and pandemic demand pushed GPUs far beyond rising manufacturer prices. Ideally, I'd like to tell you that NVIDIA's $549 RTX 5070 and $749 RTX 5070 Ti are more reasonable alternatives to the $2,000 RTX 5090 and $1,000 5080. But card makers and retailers have already pushed RTX 5070 prices far beyond those MSRPs. Our review unit, the ASUS 5070 Ti Prime, is currently selling for $900 at Best Buy and $750 at Newegg (we'll see how long that lasts). And of course, it's out of stock at both stores. While I can't guarantee the actual cost for any RTX 5070 Ti card, I can say this: they'll definitely be solid 4K performers for far less than the RTX 5080 and 5090. But if you're not desperate for an upgrade, it's worth waiting a few months for inventory and prices to stabilize. Hardware Based on its specs and (hopeful) pricing, the RTX 5070 Ti currently offers the best balance between performance and value in NVIDIA's lineup. It features 8,960 CUDA cores and 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM, well below the 5080's 10,752 CUDA cores, but at least those cards have the same amount of memory. The cheaper 5070 comes with just 12GB of VRAM, which could be a problem when gaming in 4K. Our ASUS 5070 Ti card is fairly nondescript, with three fans, a plastic frame and a standard heatsink design. You can choose between performance and quiet BIOS modes, which only changes how aggressive the fans are. Its 2.5-slot design makes it tiny enough for small form-factor cases, though I noticed it was actually slightly larger than the RTX 5090 Founders card. RTX 5090 RTX 5080 RTX 5070 Ti RTX 5070 RTX 4090 Architecture Blackwell Blackwell Blackwell Blackwell Lovelace CUDA cores 21,760 10,752 8,960 6,144 16,384 AI TOPS 3,352 1,801 1,406 988 1,321 Tensor cores 5th Gen 5th Gen 5th Gen 5th Gen 4th Gen RT cores 4th Gen 4th Gen 4th Gen 4th Gen 3rd Gen VRAM 32 GB GDDR7 16 GB GDDR7 16 GB GDDR7 12 GB GDDR7 24 GB GDDR6X Memory bandwidth 1,792 GB/sec 960 GB/sec 896 GB/sec 672 GB/sec 1,008 GB/sec TGP 575W 360W 300W 250W 450W The 5070 Ti could also easily fit into more gaming rigs without requiring a power supply upgrade. It has a peak power draw of 300 watts, compared to the 5080's 360W and the 5090's whopping 575W. That means the 5070 Ti should be able to run comfortably with an 850W PSU, without needing to make the leap to a massive 1,000W unit. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget What really makes this GPU special, though, is that it fully supports multi-frame generation in DLSS 4, NVIDIA's AI upscaling technology. That allows the GPU to generate up to 3 frames with AI for every frame rendered in real-time. It also lets NVIDIA claim that the 5070 can match the speeds of the $1,599 RTX 4090. While you could argue those frames are just "fake" to make benchmarks look better, my time with the RTX 5070 Ti and 5090 has shown that they do lead to a smoother gameplay experience. On top of multi-frame generation, other DLSS 4 features are also trickling down to earlier NVIDIA cards. As I noted in my 5090 review, "RTX 40 cards will be more efficient with their single-frame generation, while RTX 30 and 20 cards will also see an upgrade from AI transformer models used for ray reconstruction (leading to more stable ray tracing), Super Resolution (higher quality textures) and Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing (DLAA)." Devindra Hardawar for Engadget In use: A capable 4K gaming GPU First things first: The RTX 5070 Ti is only slightly faster than the 4070 and 4070 Ti in most benchmarks. The new card is 17 percent ahead of the 4070 Ti in the 3DMark Timespy Extreme test, and 21 percent faster than the 4070 Ti Super in Speedway bench. The difference is even smaller in raw computing and rendering tasks: The 5070 Ti scored a mere 8 percent more than the 4070 Ti in the Geekbench 6 GPU benchmark. None 3DMark TimeSpy Extreme Geekbench 6 GPU Cyberpunk (4K RT Overdrive DLSS) Blender NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti 12,675 238,417 153fps (4X frame gen) 7,365 NVIDIA RTX 5090 19,525 358,253 246fps (4X frame gen) 14,903 NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super 11,366 220,722 75fps (1x frame gen) 7,342 NVIDIA RTX 4070 8,610 N/A 45fps (1x frame gen) 6,020 But, of course, actual gaming performance matters more than benchmarks. And if you're playing something with support for DLSS 4, you'll certainly notice some improvements. Dragon Age: The Veilguard held a steady 200fps in 4K with 4X multi-frame generation, ray tracing and graphics settings maxed out, On the 4070 Ti, I typically saw between 90fps and 100fps with those same graphics settings and DLSS 3.5's single frame generation. Now, I can't actually say the game looked twice as smooth on my Alienware 32-inch QD-OLED monitor, but it definitely looked silky over the hours I've tested. There weren't any weird upscaling artifacts, those frames felt real. It's also worth noting the RTX 5090 clocked 240fps in Dragon Age with the same graphics settings. Perhaps my CPU held it back a bit (I'm running a Ryzen 9 7900X), but the 5070 Ti's performance was still remarkably close while being a much cheaper GPU. Cyberpunk 2077 also played like a dream in 4K in ray tracing overdrive mode with multi-frame gen, reaching 150fps on average. That's well below the 5090's stunning 250fps figure, but it's still impressive for a game that used to bring powerful rigs to their knees. Cyberpunk also hit 230fps in 1,440p with those same settings, which also upscales beautifully to 4K screens. For games without DLSS 4, like Halo Infinite, the 5070 Ti was still a solid performer, reaching an average of 140fps with maxed-out graphics and ray tracing. In comparison, the 5090 hit 180fps on average. Even if you're lucky enough to have a 240Hz 4K monitor, I'd bet even demanding gamers would be just fine with the 5070 Ti's speeds. But if you care more about framerates than resolution, it'll still have you covered. I saw 220fps in Halo Infinite in 1,440p, and 320fps in 1080p. The ASUS 5070 Ti typically idled between 30C and 35C, and it quickly reached up to 65C under load. Its fan array isn't as sophisticated as the 5090 Founder's card, but it still managed to cool down the card below 40C in around 15 seconds. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget Should you buy the RTX 5070 Ti? Simply put, the RTX 5070 Ti handled just about everything I threw at it, and I didn't find myself missing the 5090 too much (aside from bragging rights). Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to test the RTX 5080, but given its high cost, it's still something I'd have trouble recommending to anyone. The real question for gamers right now is: Do you need the RTX 5070 Ti's 16GB of VRAM and higher CUDA count? If you're aiming to play in 4K most of the time, it'll be worth having more than just the 5070's 12GB of RAM. Games are becoming more complex every year, so it likely won't be long before you'll actually need 16GB of VRAM to play 4K games comfortably. But if you're living the 1,440p life, then 12GB will likely be enough for years to come. DLSS 4's multi-frame gen is the biggest draw for NVIDIA's 50-series cards, and it's mostly useful for 4K gaming. So if you're happy with your 40-series GPU and don't need to push a 4K 240Hz monitor to its limit, there's not much reason to upgrade. For 30- and 20-series owners though, your patience will be rewarded. As I mentioned before, it's still worth waiting a few months to see how prices settle. If you're lucky enough to score the RTX 5070 Ti for $750, go for it. But it's far less compelling at $900 or above. At that point, you're just way too close to the 5090's $1,000 MSRP. We're still waiting to see how AMD's upcoming RDNA 4 Radeon 9070 and 9070 XT GPUs will perform, but they're being positioned as direct competitors to the 5070 and 5070 Ti. AMD finally has DLSS-like AI-powered upscaling coming this year, so the difference between its cards and NVIDIA's may be slimmer than usual. But NVIDIA also has a dramatic head start, and it'll likely take a while for AMD's Fluid Motion Frames technology to catch up on multi-frame generation. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget Wrap-up: A great 4K card... if you can get it close to $750 The RTX 5070 Ti won me over in ways I didn't expect. I knew it would be a tad faster than the 4070 Ti Super, but with the addition of multi-frame generation, it's also a far more capable 4K card. And it's definitely more future-proof than the 5070, since it has 16GB of VRAM like the 5090. While I think the $549 5070 remains the most intriguing entry of NVIDIA's new family, it's nice to see that there's something for sensible enthusiasts between that and the $1,000 5090. And yes, it's still strange to call a $750 video card "sensible."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/nvidia-geforce-5070-ti-review-a-sensible-4k-powerhouse-for-749-140023082.html?src=rss
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Chinese game publisher NetEase has laid off Marvel Rivals development team members including the game director, Kotaku reported. Some of those let go expressed surprise and dismay at the move considering that the team-based PVP shooter has consistently been in the top ten on Steam since its December debut. A large part of the Marvel Rivals development team is located in China, but only North American layoffs were reported. It's not clear yet how many people were let go. "This is such a weird industry," wrote game director Thaddeus Sasser on LinkedIn. "My stellar, talented team just helped deliver an incredibly successful new franchise in Marvel Rivals for NetEase Games... and were just laid off." I dont get it, man, wrote game artist Del Walker on Bluesky. You make one of the most successful LIVE service titles of the generation, despite the world telling you LIVE service is dead - and still get laid off? What are we even doing at this point." Marvel Rivals currently sits at number six on Steam's top seller list and just had its first big content update for Season 1 that happened at nearly the same time as the layoffs. The game has received solid reviews for its Marvel lore and straightforward gameplay and has reportedly been very successful in its first month. It has been one of the rare good stories in terms of live service games, following announcements from Sony that some of its titles in development had been scrapped. There are concerns that more layoffs may be coming from China-based studios in response to US tariffs. In a statement to VentureBeat, however, NetEase denied that it is eliminating its foreign investments and overseas gaming studios. "For 2025, we have an extensive pipeline of titles in development, feature a variety of genres, including FragPunk, Ananta and more," NetEase said in the statement. "[However] as part of our investment strategy, we started scaling down two of our studios at the end of 2024. This decision was based purely on business evaluations and not influenced by other factors. And this represents only a small portion of our overseas studio portfolio." This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/marvel-rivals-team-hit-with-layoffs-despite-huge-success-of-game-133002120.html?src=rss
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The US government could impose hefty tariffs on automobile, chip and pharmaceutical imports. According to Reuters and CBS News, President Donald Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate that the tariffs on auto imports, specifically, will be "in the neighborhood of 25 percent" and that he'll reveal more details about them on April 2. That's the day he's bound to get reports from members of his cabinet outlining options on duties for different imports across industries. When the president was asked how he could ensure that the European Union wouldn't retaliate by imposing the same levies on US imports, the president reportedly reiterated that the bloc signaled it would lower tariffs on US cars. During the press briefing, the president also said that he's imposing similar tariffs on imported semiconductors and pharmaceutical goods. He said the government could collect 25 percent in taxes, or higher, for those imports and that they will "go very substantially higher over course of a year." It doesn't sound like the president will announce new taxes on chip and pharmaceutical imports in April, though. He said he wants to give companies in those industries "a little bit of chance" to build factories in the US so that they can avoid the new tariffs. To note, Reuters previously reported that the US government is looking to renegotiate the CHIPS and Science Act deals closed by the Biden administration. The program seeks to give semiconductor manufacturing a boost in the US by awarding grants to companies building foundries on US soil. But Trump previously criticized the initiative and argued that increasing tariffs would compel chip companies to build factories in the US without the government having to shell out any money. Trump admitted that prices could go up in the US due to the higher tariffs on foreign goods, but the president believes it'll only be a short-term problem and that they will benefit the country's economy in the future.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/trump-plans-to-impose-25-percent-tariffs-on-automobile-and-semiconductor-imports-130044480.html?src=rss
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AI hardware startup Humane has given its users just ten (10!) days notice that their Pins will be disconnected. In a note to its customers, the company said AI Pins will continue to function normally until 12PM PT on February 28. On that date, users will lose access to essentially all of their devices features, including but not limited to calling, messaging, AI queries and cloud access. The FAQ does note that you'll still be able to check on your battery life, though. Humane is encouraging its users to download any stored data before February 28, as it plans on permanently deleting all remaining customer data at the same time as switching its servers off. The company says it will refund customers who are still within the 90-day return window, so long as they submit by February 27. It also notes that users who opted to wait for a replacement for the devices combo fire hazard and Charge Case will now be refunded the portion of [their] original purchase price that was allocated to the Charge Case. In the original recall note, that amount was $149 if ordered separately or $129 if ordered as part of the Complete System bundle. Todays discontinuation announcement was brought about by the acquisition of Humane by HP, which is buying the companys intellectual property for $116 million but clearly has no interest in its current hardware business. The AI Pin was famously panned at launch by a broad section of reviewers, including our own Cherlynn Low, who called it, the solution to none of technologys problems. HP says the acquisition will bring Humane's "engineers, architects and product innovators" to a new team called HP IQ, which it describes as an "AI innovation lab focused on building an intelligent ecosystem across HPs products and services for the future of work." Good luck with that! The New York Times reported last June that Humane was seeking a $1 billion buyout after only receiving 10,000 orders, and cited HP as an interested company. Another seven months of reality has apparently persuaded Humanes founders to settle for a far lower figure.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/all-of-humanes-ai-pins-will-stop-working-in-10-days-225643798.html?src=rss
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