The Hot Take: I'm wondering if Intel is holding out on the 290K to drop after AMD's price drops in response to these chips. They're getting good response from what I've been seeing.
Intel has shared official benchmarks of its Core Ultra 7 270K Plus & Core Ultra 5 250K Plus in gaming, apps, and more, against AMD Ryzen CPUs. Core Ultra 200S Plus Are Now The Fastest Gaming CPUs From Intel, Surpassing the Core i9-14900K. For performance comparisons, Intel is pitting the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus against the Ryzen 7 9700X and the Core Ultra 5 250K Plus against the Ryzen 5 9600X. Both of these CPUs are valid comparisons based on their prices. The company also compares the performance against existing Core Ultra 200S "Non Plus" & 14th Gen CPUs [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-core-ultra-7-270k-plus-core-ultra-5-250k-plus-official-gaming-app-benchmarks/
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The Hot Take: Did they set the goal AFTER stating 32GB ram is more than enough for windows 11? I'm sorry loving my 64GB and would double it if I didn't have to sell a kidney.
A recent X post by Mikhail Parakhin, who was the former boss of Windows and Bing, revealed that years ago, Microsoft engineers had an internal â20/20 projectâ that had a goal of reducing Windowsâs idle RAM usage and installation size.
Parakhin, who had several titles at Microsoft, was replying to a post by the present Windows President, Pavan Davuluri, about Microsoftâs commitment to Windows quality, which, if you havenât heard already, is the companyâs attempt at fixing Windows 11 from the ground up.
Mikhail Parakhin talking about 20/20 project that couldâve reduced RAM usage by 20%
The then Microsoft executive expressed appreciation that Pavan Davuluri was ârestartingâ a push he and Jeff Johnson (present-day CTO at Microsoft) had started many years ago, called the â20/20 project,â which aimed to reduce Windowsâ idle memory consumption and the fresh install size on disk, both by 20 percent.
If it worked out, the idle Windows 11 RAM usage wouldâve been around 4.8GB, but unfortunately, as Prakhin said, âWe never got to finishâ.
Now, fast forward to 2026, and Microsoft is once again talking about improving performance, responsiveness, and memory efficiency. Itâs the same problem Microsoft tried to solve years ago.
Which brings up the obvious question. If Microsoft couldnât complete something as fundamental as reducing RAM usage back then, what has changed now? And more importantly, can Windows 11 become efficient, or is this just another attempt that may run into the same challenges?
Why is Windows 11 RAM usage high?
Windows 11 runs more background services than all previous versions, including telemetry systems, indexing, and security features. Components like Windows Defender run continuously, search indexing is always active, and features such as Widgets and feeds keep refreshing content in the background. Add cloud integration like OneDrive syncing, and the system is constantly doing something even when it appears idle.
Everything is preloaded, pre-indexed, and always available, which improves perceived responsiveness but increases baseline memory usage.
Web-based apps are inflating memory usage in Windows 11
Even if Microsoft optimizes Windows itself, there is a much bigger problem sitting on top of it.
A large number of popular apps today are built using Chromium-based frameworks like Electron or on WebView2 inside Windows. Apps like WhatsApp Desktop and Discord are well-known examples.
âWhatsAppâ is new version and âWhatsApp Betaâ is old UPW/WinUI in the screenshot
Even Microsoftâs own apps, including Teams, Clipchamp, and Widgets, are already using WebView2, and these come built in.
Whatâs surprising is that despite pushing AI like itâs the most important technology in the world, Microsoft is apparently ditching the native Copilot app in favour of a web wrapper.
Web apps like thus runs its own instance of a Chromium engine, along with multiple processes for rendering, scripting, and background tasks. So, a single app can easily consume hundreds of megabytes of RAM. Now imagine using them togetherâŚ
Fragmented UI stack increases overhead
Windows 11 is not based on a single unified UI framework. Instead, it uses a mix of legacy Win32 components, UWP elements, modern WinUI layers, and web-based technologies like WebView2 and React.
Microsoft developers explaining the use of React Native in Windows 11 Start menu in 2023
This hybrid approach gives Microsoft flexibility, but when different parts of the OS rely on different rendering pipelines and system resources, it leads to additional memory usage.
Microsoft has already acknowledged this problem and is now moving more components toward WinUI3, which, being a native framework, will have lower latency and better efficiency. However, this transition will take time because Microsoft developers have to rewrite core parts of the OS.
Why the original 20/20 project likely stalled
Mikhail Parakhin hasnât mentioned why the 20/20 project never got finished, but itâs safe to assume that it needed more time and resources. Reducing RAM usage in Windows requires some deep architectural changes.
To cut memory usage, Microsoft would have had to remove or rethink background services, simplify its UI stack, and potentially limit the expansion of web-based components. But at the same time, the company was adding more features, integrating cloud services, and later pushing AI experiences into the OS.
You cannot aggressively reduce system overhead while simultaneously expanding platform capabilities.
The 20/20 project likely ran into these trade-offs and became impractical without sacrificing features or slowing down development. And instead of making those compromises, Microsoft chose to continue expanding Windows.
Can Microsoft fix Windows 11 RAM usage in 2026?
In its latest Windows Insider communication, Microsoft says itâs working to lower the baseline memory footprint of Windows, which should make more available RAM for apps and smoother day-to-day usage.
Windows 11 PCs are getting a performance boost in 2026. Source: Microsoft
At the same time, Microsoft is targeting responsiveness under load. Instead of Windows slowing down when multiple apps are open, the goal is to keep interactions consistent throughout the day. That also includes improving multitasking behavior so switching between apps feels instant.
Microsoft is focusing on reducing interaction latency, improving the shared UI infrastructure, and moving more components toward native frameworks like WinUI3.
Why 2026 might be different for Windows 11
Windows is facing more public scrutiny than it has in years. Performance complaints have become mainstream conversations. Microsoft cannot afford to ignore that anymore.
Then thereâs the hardware and market pressure. Appleâs efficiency-focused chips have reshaped expectations, and the MacBook Neo has brought RAM usage into the limelight. Add to that the global rise in memory prices, and Windows 11 performance improvements become a business priority.
For the first time in years, user expectations, competitive pressure, and Microsoftâs internal priorities are all pointing in the same direction.
The post Microsoft once tried to cut Windows 11 RAM usage, install size by 20%, now itâs trying again in 2026 appeared first on Windows Latest
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By ckasprzak | TkOut
| March 23, 2026 |
Hardware
The Hot Take: This "Ai shortage" is getting nuts.
The PC hardware market is facing increasing pressure in 2026, and new data from Amazon US highlights the impact on processor sales. During the first quarter of the year, CPU sales on the platform declined by 47% compared to the same period in 2025.
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The Hot Take: Windows getting beat up on Ai, bugs and privacy. I've been playing with the idea on Linux myself, when they keep ratcheting up the intrusiveness gets more enticing by the day.
Yes, Microsoft announced it's fixing common Windows 11 complaints. But what about getting rid of that requirement to have a Microsoft account before installing Windows 11? While Microsoft didn't mention that at all, the senior editor at the blog Windows Central reports there's "a number of people" internally pushing at Microsoft to relax that requirement:
Microsoft Vice President and overall developer legend Scott Hanselman has posted on X in response to someone asking him about possibly relaxing the Microsoft account requirements, saying "Ya I hate that. Working on it...." [Hanselman made that remark Friday, to his 328,200 followers.]
The blog notes "It would be very easy for Microsoft to remove this requirement from a technical perspective, it's just whether or not the company can agree to make the change that needs to be decided."
Elsewhere on X someone told Hanselman they wanted to see Windows "cut out the borderline malware tactics we've seen in recent years to push things like Edge, Bing, ads into the start menu, etc." Hanselman's reply? "Yes a calmer and more chill OS with fewer upsells is a goal."
Q: When will we see first changes? for now it's just words...
Hanselman: This month and every month this year.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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The Hot Take: Is this why they left the consumer market? Going to a different market other than Ai to make more money with?
Micron has outlined a significant increase in memory requirements for future autonomous vehicles, with the company stating that Level 4 (L4) self-driving systems could demand more than 300GB of RAM per vehicle.
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The Hot Take: Seems like ASRock keeps leaking everyones up and coming products. But this wasn't a surprise with Intel hitting back with their own on chip memory stack.
ASRock has inadvertently confirmed the existence of AMDâs upcoming Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 processor, following the premature publication of a press release on its official website.
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By ckasprzak | TkOut
| March 23, 2026 |
Hardware
The Hot Take: Interesting new physics? He re-writing the laws of physics?
Like his promise to get a million robocabs on the road, this doesn't add up Elon Musk has put Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI in harness to build a chip fabrication outfit called "Terafab" capable of producing a terawatt's worth of computing power each year, then send most of it into space.âŚ
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The Hot Take: Only going to shoot costs up on Ai accelerators and RAM or Samsung Chips.
Samsung Electronics' labor union has voted overwhelmingly to initiate dispute proceedings following a breakdown in wage negotiations, raising concerns over potential disruptions to the supply of HBM4 memory for Nvidia's next-generation AI accelerators.
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The Hot Take: Only after weeks of articles about Linux gaming coming for your piece of the pie?
Microsoft has now confirmed itâs scaling back âupsellsâ (or ads/recommendations) in Windows 11 as part of its efforts to make the operating system a bit âcalmer.â
On March 20, Microsoft announced a major update for Windows 11 that focuses on performance and quality-of-life improvements. Microsoft said itâs making File Explorer faster, moving the Start menu to WinUI 3 from React, adding an option to pause Windows updates for as long as you want, and even cutting back Copilot in apps like Notepad.
The big release with the movable taskbar is being tested because Windows 11âs reputation has been at an all-time low for various reasons. For example, this yearâs first Windows update triggered BitLocker recovery, affected the performance of games, caused boot issues, and even crashed some PCs with a Black Screen of Death.
However, these bugs arenât the only problem hurting Windows 11âs reputation.
The primary reason is that the company has been adding Copilot to all areas of the OS, including the Start menu and even Notepad.
The Copilotification of Windows has pushed back Microsoftâs loyal audience, including enterprises, and some upset users have coined the term âMicroslop.â
Microsoft plans to reduce ads in Windows 11
The company is in damage-control mode, and itâs taking steps to win back Windows 11 usersâ trust, including plans to roll back the requirement for a Microsoft account during OOBE.
That broader reset also appears to include Windows 11âs built-in promotions.
As first spotted by Windows Latest, in a post on X, Scott Hanselman, one of the engineering leaders spearheading Windows fixes, said a âcalmer and more chill OS with fewer upsells is a goal,â which is one of the clearest signs yet that Microsoft is at least aware users are tired of being nudged toward its own services across the OS.
Scottâs statement was in response to a userâs complaint that Microsoft employs âborderline malware tacticsâ to push things like Edge, Bing, and ads into the Start menu. And itâs actually true.
For those unaware, Microsoft previously tried to show Bing Chat (now Copilot) pop-ups when it detected the default browser was Chrome.
Bing pop-up ad in Google Chrome showing after some server-side update | Image Courtesy: WindowsLatest.com
Microsoft also tried to automatically reset default browser settings and installed the Bing extension when you clicked on the Bing Chat pop-up.
The pop-up was rolled back after outrage, but itâs just one of the many examples of how ads have ruined Windows. Thankfully, Microsoft is considering reducing these upsells, but it doesnât look like the ads will disappear entirely.
âYes, a calmer and more chill OS with fewer upsells is a goal,â says Scott Hanselman, VP, Member of Technical Staff at MSFT.
Itâs not a formal product announcement, but it does suggest the company wants Windows 11 to feel less noisy and less pushy.
Windows 11 has an upsell problem
Microsoft has a history of promoting its own products as âsuggestedâ apps in Windows 11, and those efforts have multiplied with Windows 11, where there are ads for Microsoft 365, OneDrive, and even Copilot during the first setup screen (OOBE).
Likewise, if you use Chrome as your default browser, Microsoft often uses full-screen alerts to nudge you to use Edge instead.
Itâs true that you can turn off some of these ads, including the âsuggestedâ apps in the Start menu from Settings > Personalization > Start, but I wouldnât call that a real solution.
The real solution is simple: Windows shouldnât have ads because youâve paid for it when you bought the operating system or the device that came pre-installed with it. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.
The post Microsoft says itâll make Windows 11 a calmer OS with fewer upsells or ads, as it tries to win back users appeared first on Windows Latest
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