I feel fairly confident in saying most people reading this review probably have no idea who or what INTUAURA is, and I was in this same position a few months ago. INTUAURA is a new Chinese IEM brand that is barely three years old, although its founder has been in this industry for longer and has such a great reputation that his brand is already an OEM for others, including some that you may well have heard of. INTUAURA is his way of showcasing what can be done with pure analog tuning of a single dynamic driver, and then getting that extra bit on top with digital signal processing (DSP). I had heard of INTUAURA thanks to Linsoul suddenly stocking a new brand, and all of them seemed intriguing. There were no review samples available, and of course I had no direct contact with the brand either. Skip forward to late September at the Shenzhen International Audio Show, and INTUAURA’s founder approaches me directly and invites me to come try out his IEMs. He was clearly confident of his offerings, and I went through four of them before giving my feedback, in addition to saying which one was my favorite. He offered a review sample on the spot, and only when I got back to the hotel did I realize this happened to also be the most expensive one in his current product lineup. Of course I felt bad, but he insisted I take it and do a review to help spread word on his brand. So here we are as promised to him, and thanks again to INTUAURA for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp!
We’ve seen DSP IEMs before, with the likes of the MOONDROP x Crinacle DUSK arguably being the most popular recent entry. INTUAURA, thanks to its own design and manufacturing factory cities, aims to bring DSP to the masses, but also uses it at the flagship levels—because why not take advantage of something at your disposal? DSP makes all the more sense with single-driver IEMs, especially those using dynamic drivers, given it’s not easy to balance out tuning for the entire 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency range while also maintaining a good sense of technical/subjective aspects such as bass impact and dynamism, soundstage and imaging, and detail retrieval. Today we put INTUAURA’s current flagship, the Lakeview, to the test. It uses a custom dynamic driver made specifically for the set by a high-end driver supplier that has worked with the likes of Sennheiser and Bang & Olufsen, paired with two individual Type-C to 4.4 mm DAC/amp dongles that have EQ profiles built into them. This makes for the easiest implementation of DSP from a consumer point of view—no need to worry about buggy apps, far easier than setting up your own custom EQ profiles, and always available to you thanks to being stored on the dongles. They also double up to act as sources, allowing you to use the Lakeview with digital audio outputs from a phone or laptop on the go, while also providing the analog tuning from the IEM cable. There’s a total of three available tonalities here to go through thus, so let’s get this review started with a look at the product specifications in the table below.
Specifications
INTUAURA Lakeview In-Ear Monitors
Shell:
Resin shells with hand-drawn decorative faceplates
Cable:
16-strand analog cable + two 4-strand DSP cables, all with high purity copper conductor
Driver Unit:
Single 10 mm dynamic driver
Frequency Response:
5 Hz–50 kHz
Sensitivity:
126 dB/Vrms @1 kHz (+/-3 dB)
Impedance:
15 Ω (+/-5%)
Cable Connectors:
4.4 mm TRRRS (Type-C w/dongle adapter) to source + two 0.78 mm 2-pin plugs to IEMs
HIFIMAN has been busy lately, real busy even. Earlier this year we saw the release of the new planar magnetic flagship Susvara Unveiled, which brought with it a new driver concept involving the removal of the outside grilles. This effectively exposed the drivers, making for a fully open-back set which should not have any sound wave reflections off the grille that can otherwise detract from your listening experience. Of course that also meant the Susvara Unveiled required more care and attention in use, and came with magnetic veil covers to help protect the drivers when the headphones were not in use. I thought the Susvara Unveiled were absolutely fantastic and more of a specialist set than the original Susvara, meeting my music library and preferences with ease even if the $8000 was a lot to cough up. Then late September came and HIFIMAN brought out the HE1000 Unveiled for nearly a third the cost of the Susvara Unveiled. This was the unveiled take on the HIFIMAN HE1000se, and we were beginning to see a welcome trend in terms of more filled-out mids that lended favorably to vocals, as well as a generally tamer and smoother treble. The HE1000 Unveiled is also far less concerning in use thanks to the drivers being less exposed, yet I was left asking myself—will this unveiled driver technology trickle down further?
It did not take much longer for HIFIMAN to do it, and just a few weeks ago we saw the launch of the brand-new Arya Unveiled. This helps explain why the likes of the Arya Organic and HE1000 Stealth have been heavily discounted lately, not to mention the Arya Stealth from a few years ago that is a great buy at its current price—no doubt going to be discontinued soon. The Arya Unveiled looks quite similar to the HE1000 Unveiled, both with the teardrop-shaped ear cups that we’ve seen in multiple HIFIMAN headphones before, and having unveiled drivers on the outside in a manner that I do feel more comfortable using compared to the Susvara Unveiled. That said, the black chassis, headband, suspension band, and ear pads combined with the silver drivers on the outside do make me think this is the best looking HIFIMAN headphones ever made—a subjective take, but one that I am sure others agree with. This also suggests that perhaps the Arya Unveiled is using the Arya Stealth as the base platform as opposed to the Arya Organic that has a bass shelf which alone generated many fans of the product. Let’s see if the drivers being unveiled result in a similar effect here too, which may well make this the best HIFIMAN release of the year given it’s also the most affordable of the unveiled trio. Thanks to HIFIMAN for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp, as we begin this review with a look at the product specifications in the table below.
Specifications
HIFIMAN Arya Unveiled Headphones
Materials:
Aluminium frame, plastic ear cups, hybrid ear pads, protein leather and steel headband
Transducer Principle:
Open-back, over-ear, planar magnetic
Frequency Response:
8 Hz–65 kHz
Sensitivity:
94 dB/mW
Impedance:
27 Ω
Cables:
Dual 3.5 mm TRS from headphones to 6.35 mm (1/4″) connector to source
Maono’s product page for the PD400X microphone contains some bold claims, like the one that 45% of SoundCloud and 40% of YouTube content creators pick it for their podcasting and live streaming endeavors. While I find that very hard to believe, I do have to admit that the company’s name occasionally comes up on the r/audioengineering subreddit, so I approached this review with an open mind. Maono provided me with the sample of the microphone, which I thank them for, and kindly ask them to forgive me that the review took so long to put to proverbial paper. The company also sent me their BA92 microphone arm, a natural pairing for the PD400X, so we’ll take a look at it as well.
The Maono PD400X is a dual input dynamic microphone, equipped with a USB-C input for simple plug & play connectivity, and a XLR input, aimed toward users who own a separate audio interface and are looking for more versatility (and potentially better audio quality). The “duality” of the PD400X is its defining feature, also expressed through its mounting options. You can utilize the aluminium mount, affixed to the body of the microphone, to attach it to any microphone arm with a standard 3/8″ or 5/8″ thread, or you can simply slap the supplied table stand on it, and put the microphone in front of your keyboard. It appears Maono is aiming to provide a microphone that “grows” with its owner – you can start by putting it on the table and connecting it to a free USB port of your computer or smartphone, and eventually level up to a microphone boom arm and a dedicated audio interface.
Specifications
Capsule: Dynamic
Polar Patterns: Cardioid
Frequency response: Not specified
Sensitivity: -51 dBV (XLR) / -8.5 dBFS/Pa (USB)
Sample Rate/Resolution: 24-bit/48 kHz
SPL: > 130 dB
Ports: USB-C, XLR, 3.5-mm headphone out (direct monitoring)
Cables: 1.5 m USB-C to USB Type-A, 1.6 m XLR
Supported platforms: Windows, macOS, Android
Dimensions: 85 x 220 mm
Weight: 734 g (microphone only) / 1.04 kg (mic with stand)
Arbiter Studio is a peripherals company based in the US, whereas Vancer is a peripherals company based in China. For their first mouse release, Arbiter Studio has joined forces with Vancer. The result of this collaboration is the ambidextrous AKITSU, which manages to weigh no more than 39 g. Similarly to the Finalmouse UltralightX, this weight is achieved by utilizing a carbon fiber composite for the shell, along with hexagonal holes across most of the top, sides, and bottom of the mouse. For the sensor, PixArt’s PAW3395 capable of 26,000 CPI sees use, coupled with custom Huano switches for the main buttons. In wireless operation, polling rates of up to 8000 Hz are supported, at which setting up to 12 hours of battery life are cited, and up to 60 hours at 1000 Hz. The feet are made of pure PTFE, and a replacement set along with a set of grip tape are included with the mouse. Configuration is done either conveniently through a web driver or through buttons on the mouse, and the dongle has an LCD showing the current CPI step, polling rate, and MotionSync setting, along with battery charge level.
Many thanks go to FineMax, who kindly provided the review sample.
KiiBOOM is, in the brand’s own words, a collective of hobby enthusiasts from all over the world with varied interests, including of course China where it is actually based out of. I first heard of the brand a couple of years ago when it first launched and a representative from KiiBOOM helped clarify that KiiBOOM will cover both keyboards (Kii) and audio (BOOM), which works nicely for the review categories I cover here. In fact, KiiBOOM even had two IEMs as its debut products, although they have already been discontinued to no surprise of anyone who’s familiar with the ruthless IEM industry operating out of China currently. I’ve tried out a few KiiBOOM keyboards recently when I was in Shenzhen, and one interested me enough to agree for a full review.
The KiiBOOM Loop75 is, as the name suggests, a 75% form factor keyboard. It uses a full aluminium chassis, although there’s a twist here which you will see on page three of this review. KiiBOOM also has a dedicated volume knob—almost a must-have for keyboards lately—with a gasket mount design and open-source firmware support too. The Loop75 comes in two color options, with the red/black seen above and KiiBOOM sending the blue version in for a closer examination. It offers hybrid wireless connectivity with RGB lighting and hot-swappable switches, which should help anyone who wants to try different switches from the first-party ones used on the keyboard. Note that some places add a space in the product name, referring to the keyboard as Loop 75, but that’s still the exact same keyboard we have here. Let’s begin the review with a look at the product specifications in the table below. Thanks to KiiBOOM for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp!
Specifications
KiiBOOM Loop75 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard
Layout:
82-key, 75% form factor in a modified US ANSI layout
TechPowerUp is ready for the next generation of graphics cards that are about the hit the shelves in 2025. The new year promises to be action-packed for the PC hardware industry, particularly PC graphics. NVIDIA is expected to launch its next-generation GeForce RTX 50-series Blackwell. AMD is planning its Radeon RX 9000 series RDNA 4. Intel already made a stab with its Arc B580 Battlemage, and is likely to launch more GPUs in this series. Testing this avalanche of graphics cards isn’t easy, it entails well over 100 tests per graphics card, and each new GPU launch has half a dozen custom designs from board partners. The most crucial part of the testing process is the Test System, and making sure it’s of the right configuration.
For our graphics card reviews, the Test System is a gaming PC set up to provide a consistent platform for all graphics hardware being tested. Choosing a good processor for gaming is key, as is picking the right amount of system memory, the right motherboard, and the right storage to ensure all the tests load in a flash, without hiccups, consistently. After taking a close look at what both Intel and AMD have to offer with their Core Ultra 200-series Arrow Lake and Ryzen 9000 Zen 5, we have decided to make the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D the heart of our Test System, but we’re also making other hardware changes.
Our game tests include Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Baldur’s Gate 3, Black Myth Wukong, Counter-Strike 2, Cyberpunk 2077, DOOM Eternal, Dragon Age Veilguard, Elden Ring, F1 24, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War: Ragnarök, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon: Forbidden West, Like a Dragon 8, No Rest for the Wicked, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill 2, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, Starfield, Star Wars Outlaws, and The Last of Us Part One. We will add more game tests over the course of 2025, and replace older ones as we see fit.
To prepare for the arrival of next-gen graphics cards, starting in January 2025, we retested all existing graphics cards on the new machine, and so we decided to present the performance numbers of these cards as an appetizer.
Hardware
Below are the hardware specifications of the new 2025 H1 GPU test system.
As mentioned before, with the 2025 GPU Test System we’re making the change to AMD Ryzen processors after many, many years of Intel. With the disappointing launch of Arrow Lake Core Ultra 200 Series, and the various platform difficulties, switching to Ryzen was easy. Shortly after Intel’s launch, AMD came out with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which 1-up’s gaming performance across the board, and it’s running on the battle-tested AM5 platform. So, as soon as the CPUs went on sale we ordered one, and failed—stock evaporated within minutes. Thanks to help from AMD and Mindfactory Germany we were able to still secure one of these highly sought-after CPUs and were able to start setting up the rig.
Earlier in 2024, we switched to MSI motherboards for our GPU Test System, and we’ve been having an excellent experience with them. That’s why it was an easy choice to go with the MSI X870E Carbon. This board gives us PCI-Express 5.0 support for the GPU x16 slot, and we can still run Gen 5 on the SSD without compromising on GPU bandwidth—let’s hope that we’re actually seeing Gen 5 capable graphics cards next year—we’re ready. I also like the POST code indicator on the board, so that it’s easy to see boot progress and diagnose any issues swiftly. The slot is metal-reinforced and looks like it can take quite some abuse over time. Even though I admittedly swap cards hundreds of times each year, probably even 1000+ times, it has never been any issue—insertion force just gets a bit softer, which I actually find nice. Last but not least, the cover on the board ensures that all those graphics card changes can’t scratch the board near the left side (has happened to us in the past).
We’ve been using Thermaltake TOUGHRAM for several years now, and it has served us very well. This time we’re using a 2x 16 GB kit running at 6200 CL28, with manual primary timings and slightly increased voltage. In our previous Raptor Lake system, we used DDR5-7200 memory. For the Ryzen system, we’re intentionally reducing the memory speed to DDR5-6200. However, we’re making sure that the memory controller runs at a 1:1 ratio. On AMD, this setup improves memory performance compared to a slower ratio, which might allow for higher memory speeds but would also increase latency within the memory controller.
Our cooling setup remains unchanged: the Arctic Liquid Freezer III paired with Arctic MX-6 thermal paste is a tried and tested combo that works very well. What definitely helps is that the Liquid Freezer uses an offset for mounting, to ensure the cold plate is better aligned with the actual heat sources on Ryzen processors.
No change in case either, the darkFlash DRX70 Mesh offers plenty of length for even the biggest graphics card, which could be relevant when we start testing RTX 5090 custom designs. I also like that the case has a vertical mount option for the GPU, so we can get you clear shots of the RGB options these cards offer.
Seasonic has been our go-to choice for the GPU Test System for like a decade. While our previous Seasonic Vertex GX 850 W has been perfectly sufficient for everything we ever threw at it, including overclocking RTX 4090, we wanted to be ready in case GPU manufacturers go crazy. That’s why I upgraded to a Seasonic Focus GX 1000 W, which on top of the added power delivery capability features a semi-passive mode, which helps keep noise levels down in the lab during those long benching sessions.
Software
Windows 11 was updated to 24H2
The AMD graphics driver used for all testing used is 24.10.1 WHQL. While that might seem old, the problem here is that the next release, 24.12.1 wasn’t until Dec 5th, at which point we were half-finished with testing Radeon cards.
All NVIDIA cards use 566.14 WHQL. Here, too, near the end of all testing, NVIDIA released 566.36, but that version is the first version that introduced the NVIDIA App, which turns out is slightly problematic and costs a bit of performance in some setups.
Intel GPUs were tested with 101.6314, thanks to a leading release cadence from Team Blue. Additionally, the Arc B580, which came out just a few days ago, uses the 101.6252 press driver.
Games
This time I asked the community if they had feedback/ideas for the game test selection. While no huge revelations came out of it, it does give me a sense of what’s important to you guys.
The following titles were removed:
A Plague Tale Requiem: getting old, not very popular, even though it brings a unique engine to the test mix
Avatar: Replaced by Star Wars Outlaws, which uses the same engine
Cities Skylines II: Bad game/engine resulting in very low performance, despite promises no major performance improvements, not very popular
Dead Space: Replaced by Dragon Age: Veilguard, which uses the same engine
F1 23: Replaced by F1 24
Lord of the Fallen: Replaced by other UE5 games
Remnant II: Replaced by other, newer, UE5 games
Spider-Man Remastered: Getting old, making space for other titles, Insomniac engine still represented by Ratchet and Clank, which is newer
The following titles were added:
Black Myth Wukong (UE5)
Dragon Age: Veilguard (Frostbite)
F1 24 (EGO 4.0)
Ghost of Tsushima (in-house engine, Nixxes port)
God of War Ragnarök (in-house Jetpack engine)
Silent Hill 2 (UE5)
Warhammer: Space Marine 2 (Swarm engine)
Stalker 2 (UE5)
Star Wars Outlaws (Snowdrop)
All other games have been updated to their latest available version
I considered Final Fantasy 16, but decided against it because it’s not a big commercial hit, and the engine is quite rare. We have three UE5 games in the mix now, which gives it quite some weight for the averages, but that’s reasonable I think, considering that so many games are using it already and more will come out in the near future.
No plans to add Call of Duty, because of the always-online nature, which enforces game patches that mess with performance—at any time. Also, the way Activision Blizzard is distributing it as a single title with DLCs for every game and multiple restarts just to launch the game is terrible.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2025 launch was a disaster, they also rely too much on online, so nothing that I can test reliably.
Indiana Jones is interesting, ID engine, Vulkan, requires RT hardware. It came out too late though, but I’ll include it in next retest, in the RT titles list, replacing DOOM Eternal.
Just like in previous years, The Witcher 3 runs the DX11 version, as permanent inclusion, to represent performance in DirectX 11.
I considered dropping Hogwarts Legacy, which is getting kinda old, but decided against it, so that it can represent Unreal Engine 4, which is still very popular. I picked Hogwarts, because it is the most successful (offline single-player) Unreal Engine 4 game.
The full list of games now consists of: Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Baldur’s Gate 3, Black Myth Wukong, Counter-Strike 2, Cyberpunk 2077, DOOM Eternal, Dragon Age Veilguard, Elden Ring, F1 24, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarök, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, Like a Dragon 8: Infinite Wealth, No Rest for the Wicked, Ratchet and Clank, Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill 2, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, Starfield, Star Wars Outlaws, The Last of Us Part 1, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Ray tracing
Only relatively small changes here. Of course every game was updated to the newest version, and new titles are F1 24 (replacing F1 23) and Silent Hill 2.
GPU Compute
While not included in the B580 reviews, I have plans to expand GPU Compute testing with a test that runs GPT2 or a similar large-language model. I will keep Blender, Topaz Video AI and Stable Diffusion, just update them to newer versions.
Gaming performance results are on the next page. If you have more questions, please do let us know in the comments section of this article.
To monitor aficionados, EIZO needs no special introduction. The Japanese manufacturer’s products are widely used in professional settings, including the video and photo-editing industries, medical institutions, air traffic control, and other industrial applications. The company also offers two product lines for more traditional office environments (FlexScan) and home users (Foris). However, the Foris line seems to be largely forgotten, as EIZO’s official website lists only a single Foris product – which is currently sold out. In this review, we’ll be taking a closer look at the FlexScan EV3240X, a premium 4K business monitor equipped with a variety of interesting features.
The FlexScan EV3240X features a 31.5-inch IPS panel with a native 4K resolution and a 60 Hz refresh rate. While the refresh rate might seem underwhelming, office monitors—especially higher-end models—are typically designed with other priorities in mind. These include ergonomics, above-average connectivity, and low power consumption. Based on the FlexScan EV3240X’s spec sheet, EIZO’s monitor seems to excel in all these areas. The panel is fully adjustable, and it offers two upstream and three downstream 5 Gbps USB ports, including a USB-C port with DisplayPort Alt Mode and 94 W Power Delivery. There’s also an integrated gigabit Ethernet port. High picture quality is universally desired, regardless of the intended use, so we approach the review expecting the FlexScan EV3240X to perform well in that aspect. It better, given its European price of €900, which climbs to nearly $1,900 in the US due to high import fees.
Team Group is a well-known Taiwanese hardware manufacturer with a long history of catering to the needs of enthusiasts and gamers from all over the globe. Their lineup includes DRAM memory and solid-state drives, and Team Group also offer various memory cards and USB thumb drives.
As Gen 5 SSDs push the boundaries of speed and performance, one pressing concern arises: heat. These drives are capable of delivering extreme read and write speeds, but the heat they generate can quickly throttle performance and shorten lifespan. The Team Group T-FORCE Dark AirFlow I SSD Cooler aims to solve this problem by providing efficient cooling for your M.2 NVMe SSDs.
Unlike traditional M.2 heatsinks that use a solid metal slab, the Team Group T-FORCE Dark AirFlow I is designed with two heatpipes connected to a stack of aluminium fins, enhancing heat transfer and dissipation. It also includes an active fan that connects to the motherboard’s fan headers, allowing for RPM control, so it doesn’t run super-loud like some SATA-powered fan solutions we’ve seen in the past. This enables users to adjust the cooling performance for optimal balance between temperature
The AirFlow I is sold for around $25, which is a bit on the higher end of SSD cooling solutions, but considering that you’ll probably pair it with a $200+ SSD, it’s not a huge amount.
Montech is the house brand of Telon Co., Ltd., a Taiwanese company that has been around for over 30 years. Montech started out in the domestic market before slowly expanding overseas, and this happened simultaneously with an aggressive marketing campaign that has resulted in several product reviews on TechPowerUp already. These include cases, CPU coolers, fans, and a keyboard too, with the MKey TKL showcasing what Montech has planned for its keyboard lineup. Today we continue this with an examination of its latest keyboard—the MKey PRO.
While the Montech MKey comes in TKL and 100% sizes, the new MKey Pro is a 75% form factor keyboard. Montech is being consistent with the colors though, offering this in the same two colorways as the other keyboards from 2023. The blue/white version is called “Freedom,” with the darker color referred to as, well, “Darkness.” If you have seen my previous review of the MKey TKL, the MKey PRO will not be very different with the solid feature set on offer. This includes the use of a gasket mount design, south-facing LEDs, hot-swappable switches, and a multi-functional wheel. This PRO version goes further with hybrid wireless connectivity and Gateron’s newer G Pro 3.0 switches in addition to having open-source firmware with QMK and VIA support. If that’s got your attention then let’s get started with this review which begins with a look at the product specifications in the table below. Thanks to Montech for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp!
Specifications
Montech MKey PRO Mechanical Keyboard
Layout:
81-key, 75% form factor in a modified US ANSI layout
