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15 Jul 2025

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Nvidia is nearly doubling the FPS of RTX 40 graphics cards for free
Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50 series has been shining with cutting-edge technology since January 2025, but Nvidia is now following suit for the RTX 40 series with some upgrades. The GeForce 590.26 preview driver, which is available on Nvidia’s developer website, allows owners of Ada Lovelace graphics cards (such as the RTX 4080 and RTX 4060) to utilize Smooth Motion frame generation technology. This feature, previously reserved for RTX 50 cards, promises almost twice the frame rate in many games, reports VideoCardz. Doubled frame rates for older games Smooth Motion is Nvidia’s answer to AMD’s Fluid Motion Frames. The technology AI-generates intermediate images at the driver level, which are then inserted between two rendered frames. This makes games appear smoother without requiring developers to specifically incorporate the feature in their games. Smooth Motion is especially attractive for older games with frame rate limits and/or without DLSS support. Users on the Guru3D forums report double the frame rate in World of Warcraft, from 82 to 164 FPS. Similar leaps were achieved in Company of Heroes 3, as demonstrated by VideoCardz. In competitive and CPU-limited games, Smooth Motion unlocks noticeably smoother gameplay, even if the quality doesn’t quite match DLSS 3 Frame Generation. Only for developer accounts so far There are some restrictions on this new feature: the driver is only a preview, and it requires the Nvidia Profile Inspector from GitHub and a developer account with Nvidia to activate Smooth Motion. Without developer access, users will have to wait for the final version, which is expected to make the feature easier to access. Nevertheless, the free performance boost is a strong argument for RTX 40 owners who want more FPS without new hardware. Smooth Motion technology shows how Nvidia is extending the life of the RTX 40 series. For gamers who want to get maximum performance out of their graphics card, the preview driver is an exciting foretaste—and the final version shouldn’t be too long in coming.

July’s Windows 10 update borked the emoji panel for some users
Last week, Microsoft sent out a new update for Windows 10 with code designation KB5062554. The update was mainly to deliver several security fixes and quality improvements, but some users are now saying the new-ish emoji panel feature isn’t working properly. According to BleepingComputer, the issue is rooted in the search aspect, which is causing problems when users want to find a specific emoji. One Reddit user summed it up pretty well in this thread: After installing the July 2025 cumulative update (KB5062554), the emoji picker still mostly works — you can call it up with (Win + .) and clicking an emoji pastes it correctly — but the emoji search function is completely bricked. The moment you type anything in the searchbar you get the “We couldn’t find this one” error. Hopefully, Microsoft will fix the emoji panel in time before official support for Windows 10 updates ends on October 14th, 2025.

Static electricity fried my PC. Here’s what I did wrong
Frying a computer component with static is one of those things that very rarely ever happens. Yet it can happen, as I found out recently through personal experience — when building a new PC, I made a mistake that wound up destroying a valuable sound card. Oops. I got a firsthand taste of what it’s like to lose a component while cleaning my gaming rig and let me tell you, it’s no joke! What did I do wrong? I didn’t use an anti-static wristband, that’s what! What do anti-static wristbands do? In case you aren’t familiar with them, anti-static wristbands are made solely for the purpose of preventing electrostatic charges from zapping your PC components when you’re working on them. Static charges can be quite strong — upwards of 3,000 volts — compared to the harmless 12 volts or so normally running through your PC components, so they do pose a risk of damage. The strap consists of an elastic / fabric wristband and a grounding cord with a clip on the end. The strap goes around your wrist, while the grounding cord with clip connects to a known grounding point; in my case it would have been the metal chassis of the PC I was working on. The device acts as a kind of insurance policy for your parts, collecting the static you create as you move your body around. It delivers the charge safely to the endpoint, without damaging what you’re holding. If you have one of these on, you can be fairly confident your parts are safe. Foundry When I zapped my soundcard, I had just started cleaning my rig. I intended to put my wristband on but hadn’t quite got round to it. I made the mistake of reaching out and taking hold of the soundcard that I had laid next to my PC, while I simultaneously moved to get off a mat I was sitting on. In retrospect, I figure that motion built up a lot of static. I hadn’t grounded myself properly, and I felt the static leave my hand immediately. Static damage isn’t always obvious Even after feeling the shock, I didn’t realize my soundcard was as dead as a doornail. That realization came a bit later when I couldn’t get the part to work. Still, I must have been unlucky. I’ve read many PC builder accounts that say they’ve been building PCs for years and never lost a part to static discharge. These builders use one body part to ground themselves where that body part becomes the transistor, taking on the role of the grounding cord. Further reading: 7 advanced tools every PC enthusiast needs in their toolkit They often talk about how modern PC components are a lot tougher than they used to be to justify their use of that technique. For instance, they point to how RAM modules used to be one of the most prone to static damage, but now because of their more robust casings and heatsinks, they can resist static a lot easier than they used to, they say. While that may be true, I wonder how many of these builders are causing static damage that flies under the radar. I mean, even if they are very apt at using their body, the technique doesn’t offer continuous grounding all the way through the process, like a wristband does. Static charge can be unpredictable in the way it moves too, and even a small static charge is enough to cause damage. My damaged part was obvious, but static damage isn’t always. Rather than causing a part to fail completely, it may just damage electrical pathways or some other part of the component that will mean it still works when its installed but then that damage rears its ugly head years down the track when it suddenly fails. For me, as the saying goes, “once bitten, twice shy” — I’ve learned my lesson. I bought an anti-static wrist strap for around $5 and intend to use it when I work on my PC from now on. Further reading: I bought a mini-PC and got an impromptu lesson in cable physics