FPS Reviews Round Up – Week Ending April 18, 2026

NewsTech
By David Schroth

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A big week dominated by two stories that pull in opposite directions: the most anticipated game launch of the spring in Pragmata brought with it the most thorough GPU performance data we’ve seen in a while, with TechPowerUp testing 30+ cards once Capcom quietly reversed its bizarre one-GPU embargo midweek. Meanwhile, Alienware landed a monitor that may genuinely change buying habits for a large slice of the market, a $350 QD-OLED that reviewers across the board are calling difficult to fault. On the CPU side, TechSpot and Hardware Unboxed published a complete generational sweep of all Ryzen X3D chips, timed conveniently ahead of AMD’s 9950X3D2 launch next week.

PNY GeForce RTX 5080 Slim OC

Written reviews:

Consensus summary: The PNY RTX 5080 Slim OC is, as TechPowerUp notes, the only custom dual-slot RTX 5080 currently on the market, and both reviewers found that the slimmer cooler design extracts full RTX 5080 performance without meaningful thermal penalty at stock settings. The Neowin review pegged it at $1,399.99, significantly above the $999 FE MSRP, which puts it in awkward value territory. For SFF builds where a standard triple-slot card physically won’t fit, it’s the obvious choice; for everyone else, the premium is hard to justify.

FPS Review take: The slim form factor justifies the existence of this card, full stop. If you’re building in a case that won’t accept a 3.5-slot cooler and you want RTX 5080 performance, this is your only option since the Founders Edition is rare as a hen’s teeth.

MSI GeForce RTX 5090 32G Lightning Z

Written reviews:

Consensus summary: This is a card the enthusiast press can’t stop writing about and now we finally a have a couple reviews to read on it (Ed: Why weren’t we sampled?). Tom’s Hardware established earlier that the Lightning Z delivers roughly 12% more performance than the RTX 5090 FE out of the box, expanding to 18% with manual overclocking, thanks to its dual 12V-2×6 connectors and 40-phase VRM. FunkyKit’s review tracks similarly. At $5,090 for a limited run of 1,300 units, this remains a trophy card for a very specific audience.

FPS Review take: The dual-connector design is the correct way to build a high-power GPU from a safety standpoint, and Tom’s thermal camera data makes the case \. Whether anyone should spend five thousand dollars on a GPU is a different question entirely (Ed: No. But maybe.).

Pragmata — GPU Performance Benchmark (30+ GPUs)

Written reviews:

Consensus summary: The big story here isn’t just the game’s performance, it’s the controversy: Capcom changed its PC review rules midweek to restrict outlets to a single GPU, catching TechPowerUp after publication and forcing a temporary data pull before the full multi-GPU embargo lifted on April 16. Once the full data was out, the picture is a familiar RE Engine one: excellent optimization, native 4K playable on most modern GPUs, with path tracing requiring an RTX 5090 for a smooth native experience. Notably, path tracing support is NVIDIA-only, with AMD cards locked out of PT entirely, which DSOGaming and TechPowerUp both confirmed.

FPS Review take: RE Engine continues to be the performance benchmark standard for well-optimized PC ports. The Capcom embargo drama is certainly a cheese grater. Path tracing locked to NVIDIA hardware is the most significant story here for AMD owners, and it tracks with the NVIDIA bundle deal announced simultaneously.

Alienware AW2726DM 27-inch QHD 240Hz QD-OLED

Written reviews:

Consensus summary: The consensus across all reviewers is unusually unified (Ed: Did you notice Tom got two votes?): this is a legitimately excellent QD-OLED gaming monitor at a price point that was considered impossible twelve months ago. Tom’s Hardware measured performance competitive with monitors costing twice as much, with the main trade-offs being a lower peak brightness ceiling than premium OLEDs, no USB hub, no internal speakers, and no RGB. Engadget flagged the glossy panel as a potential glare concern in bright rooms.

FPS Review take: If you’ve been holding off on an OLED upgrade because of price, this is probably the monitor that finally makes the math work. The price ceiling for QD-OLED just collapsed. Pair it with an RX 9070 XT or RTX 5070 and you have a genuinely compelling 1440p gaming setup at a reasonable total cost, which hasn’t been easy to say for a while.

TechSpot / Hardware Unboxed: Every Ryzen 5 and 7 X3D CPU (5800X3D to 9850X3D)

Written reviews:

Video reviews:

Consensus summary (2-3 sentences): TechSpot (written) and Hardware Unboxed (video) both published comprehensive comparisons this week, testing all nine single-CCD Ryzen X3D processors across AM4 and AM5 in 12-14 games at 1080p. The headline number is a roughly 64% gaming performance gap from the slowest (Ryzen 5 5500X3D) to the fastest (Ryzen 7 9850X3D) chip in the lineup, though both reviews note the gap compresses heavily at higher resolutions and with GPUs below flagship tier. The timing is clearly a setup for next week’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 launch because why not repurpose refreshed test data into more articles than the launch article, giving readers a baseline for what the dual-cache chip will need to beat.

FPS Review take: If you’re on AM4 and wondering whether the platform jump to AM5 is worth it, the data here gives you the clearest picture yet. Short answer: the 9800X3D/9850X3D are substantially faster for cache-sensitive titles, but AM4 V-Cache parts still hold their own, particularly in games where the bottleneck moves to the GPU before the CPU.

MSI MPG X870E Carbon Max WiFi Motherboard

Written reviews:

Consensus summary: Multiple outlets landed reviews of MSI’s refreshed Carbon Max this week, and the consensus is consistent with what we said at The FPS Review: this is a solid update to an already good board, adding an OC Engine chip, a larger 64MB BIOS, and minor cosmetic tweaks, all at around $499. Guru3D and Tom’s Hardware both highlight the robust VRM matching the pricier Ace Max, and note that manual BCLK overclockers will get more out of the OC Engine than PBO tuners who won’t notice it at all. OC3D called it the sweet spot for premium AM5 builds below Godlike money.

FPS Review take: Our own review from April 6 already covers this board in depth. The value question is real at $499 given the original Carbon WiFi’s current pricing, but for someone building new, the MAX makes more sense.

Gigabyte Z890 AORUS Elite DUO X (CQDIMM)

Written reviews:

Consensus summary: WCCFTech’s review of this unusual board covers Gigabyte’s CQDIMM-focused Z890 design, which uses just two DDR5 slots to support up to 256GB via 128GB CQDIMM modules while targeting speeds up to DDR5-10266. The trade-off for the reduced slot count is improved signal integrity and cleaner overclocking behavior at extreme memory frequencies. This is a board for memory enthusiasts and workstation builders who need high-capacity and high-speed DDR5 simultaneously, not a mainstream gaming pick.

FPS Review take: CQDIMM motherboards are a niche product for a niche moment. With DDR5 prices already elevated, the idea of needing 128GB modules to fully utilize this board is going to limit its audience considerably. Still, it’s the most technically interesting Z890 design we’ve seen, and the dual-slot approach is worth watching as the technology matures.

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David Schroth
David is a computer hardware enthusiast that has been tinkering with computer hardware for the past 25 years and writing reviews for more than ten years. He's the Founder and Editor in Chief of The FPS Review.

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