Technologies

AMD and Sony Tease Next-Gen Graphics, Possibly for a PS6

The YouTube video for Project Amethyst teases three new graphics technologies. It’s about more than just the next console, though.

AMD and Sony jointly teased AMD’s approach to improving its future graphics hardware performance in a video posted to YouTube this week: compression, aggregation and dedication. Compressing all the data in the graphics pipeline for lower memory overhead, aggregating the compute units that process the data for faster matrix multiplication (key to improving AI performance, including upscaling) and finally adding dedicated silicon to handle ray and path tracing acceleration, necessary to bump up visual quality.

Sony’s involvement immediately sent everyone’s heads into PlayStation 6 rumorspace: AMD’s chips power Sony’s PlayStation consoles, and that’s pretty much the only place where the two companies intersect, at least for the moment.

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AMD powers almost all consoles, from the Xbox to the Steam Deck, with the Nintendo Switch line one of the few exceptions (it’s based on Nvidia chips). It’s also in laptops and the company’s own graphics cards. If you want to game on a laptop that won’t blow your budget, better integrated graphics are always in your best interest.

The three new technologies teased in the AMD video are:

Radiance Cores: My testing over the years has shown that AMD has long lagged Nvidia with respect to ray tracing performance (which is not just for pretty reflections — it improves lighting significantly), and that’s at least partly because its processing takes place in its main compute unit cores, which are optimized for processing other types of graphics. So ray tracing bogs your frame rates down a lot. And the one-core-one-ray-trace-unit architecture limits the amount of processing you can throw at it to improve. The Radiance Cores handle the ray tracing acceleration separately, similar to the way Nvidia’s RT cores do.

Neural Array: Matrix multiplication is the key algorithm for accelerating AI processing on-device — it’s what Tensor cores handle, for example — and these days, upscaling is driven by AI-heavy, machine learning-informed algorithms, like Nvidia’s DLSS and Intel’s XeSS. Upscaling is important because it’s a major way to run at higher resolutions without taking a performance hit, and in many ways is at the center of a suite of technologies for improving image fidelity and performance. AMD’s version is FidelityFX Super Resolution, and its next-generation of the technology, FSR Redstone (likely part of RDNA 5), will need those arrays, as well as Sony’s variation of it, PSSR.

Universal Compression: The less compressed your data is, the more memory it takes to process and the slower it moves through a pipeline. Traditionally, graphics processors have stuck to compressing only the biggest memory hogs, starting with textures, in part because there was a performance cost to inserting it into the processing pipeline. But silicon is so much faster than it used to be that it likely makes sense to use it for all the graphics data, which is how Universal Compression works. Even if performance is a wash, it probably means less memory is required, an important factor for 4K and higher gaming as well as prices.

This tease is the first of probably a zillion for both new technologies in the PS6 and AMD’s RDNA 5, and I’d expect to hear a lot more about it at CES in January 2026, if not sooner. I’ve reached out to AMD for more details, but didn’t immediately hear back.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Dec. 31 #668

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Dec. 31, No. 668.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle could be a challenge. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: One good turn deserves another.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: A merry-go-round does this.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

CIRCLER, LORD, TOUT, TOUR, ROUND, WHAT, RIOT

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

CIRCLE, SPIN, ORBIT, WHIRL, PIROUETTE, ROTATE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is ROUNDANDROUND. To find it, start with the R that’s three rows in from the far left, down three letters and wind around.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Dec. 31

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 31.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

It’s New Year’s Eve, and today’s Mini Crossword offers a couple of fun clues looking back at the past year. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Many a participant in the 2025 «6-7» trend
Answer: KID

4A clue: Like 2025, to the French?
Answer: FINI

5A clue: The last one was minted in 2025
Answer: PENNY

6A clue: The O’s in XOXO
Answer: HUGS

7A clue: «Real» ones became required in 2025
Answer: IDS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: No ___ (2025 protest)
Answer: KINGS

2D clue: Travelers’ lodgings
Answer: INNS

3D clue: Home project inits.
Answer: DIY

4D clue: Drake and Kendrick Lamar had a high-profile one
Answer: FEUD

5D clue: The 2025 Super Bowl champion Eagles, on scoreboards
Answer: PHI

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Dec. 31, #464

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Dec. 31, No. 464.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

It’s New Year’s Eve, and two of today’s Connections: Sports Edition categories look back on the past year in sports. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Lights, camera, sports!

Green group hint: Best in their sport.

Blue group hint: College sports sites.

Purple group hint: Team names are hidden.