“Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” swings onto PC, bringing the next chapter in Sony’s acclaimed superhero game series. Following the success of its predecessors, this highly anticipated sequel expands the open-world action of New York City, allowing players to step into the suits of both Peter Parker and Miles Morales as they face new threats, including the formidable Venom.
The game features an expanded open world, enhanced traversal mechanics, and deep character-driven narratives, promising the ultimate superhero adventure. Now optimized for PC after being a Sony PS5 exclusive for more than a year, players can enjoy stunning visuals, customizable settings, and cutting-edge performance, bringing the excitement of being Spider-Man to a whole new level.
Spider-Man 2 is developed by Insomniac Games, the renowned studio behind the previous Spider-Man titles and many other Sony game PC ports. Powered by the company’s own, in-house “Insomniac Engine,” the game delivers breathtaking visuals, fast-paced action, and a richly detailed open-world New York. On the PC version you get support for various levels of ray tracing, but RT can be disabled, too. There’s also support for NVIDIA DLSS Ray Reconstruction, Upscaling and Frame Generation, AMD FSR Upscaling and Frame Generation and Intel XeSS Upscaling.
This review will evaluate the performance of Spider-Man 2 across a wide range of contemporary graphics cards, compare image quality settings, and analyze the game’s VRAM usage to provide insight into the hardware requirements needed for an optimal experience.
For the past decade we’ve seen the power envelopes of CPUs and GPUs being pushed further and further to maximize performance, while at the same time the same components have gotten much more effective at conserving power when not fully loaded. This wide power consumption gap between a lightly loaded and a fully loaded system. In combination with intelligent fan controls, this makes it possible to have a near silent machine when doing light office work that turns into something that makes you put on your headphones on when you start your game.
With power supplies getting more and more efficient we have also benefited from semi-passive operating modes. While some models have fairly conservative fan ramp up profiles, others will turn up the fan RPMs quite rapidly. So if noise is something that you absolutely want to minimize, you can either carefully pick the PSU that has the best acoustic real world performance, or to be 100 % sure, pick a power supply that’s completely fanless and will remain silent even delivering its maximum rated power.
Today we’re looking at the Cooler Master X Silent Edge Platinum (850 W)—a fully passive power supply, which, at least on paper looks like a great option for a really powerful single-GPU rig. With advertised 80 Plus Platinum efficiency levels, ATX 3.1 support and an industry leading 15-year warranty, there’s not much more one could ask for. Does that translate into excellent real world performance? We’ll see. But for now let’s start with the vendor-provided specification summary.
MSI debuts its new Vanguard line of graphics cards with the GeForce RTX 50-series, and we have with us the MSI RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC graphics card, in its Launch Edition collector’s package. The new Vanguard line of graphics cards are positioned between MSI’s SUPRIM line of halo-segment custom design graphics cards, and its more popular Gaming X series. The company retired the Gaming Z series with the advent of SUPRIM, so I guess you could call Vanguard the spiritual successor to the Gaming Z. The MSI Vanguard series combines aspects of both SUPRIM and Gaming X. From the SUPRIM you see hints of titanium gray metal alloy embellishments on the cooler shroud. The backplate has a matching brushed-aluminium appearance, and from the Gaming X series, it has certain sporty elements, such as carbon fiber surfaces and acrylic RGB LED lighting diffusers. Under the shroud, the Vanguard features many of the cooler innovations MSI introduced with the SUPRIM series this generation.
The GeForce RTX 5080 is NVIDIA’s latest enthusiast-segment graphics card, designed for maxed out gaming at 4K Ultra HD, with ray tracing enabled. The flagship RTX 5090 from last week does the same thing, but faster, and has other use cases such as AI development and content creation, thanks to its much larger video memory and memory bus. The RTX 5080 squarely targets gamers looking for a 4K gaming experience, with a few allied workloads on the side, such as game streaming. If compare the specs sheets of the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080, you’ll find that the latter is almost half the card the RTX 5090 is, and is yet squarely an enthusiast-segment GPU. The RTX 5080 debuts the new GB203 silicon, which is the second largest to implement the GeForce Blackwell graphics architecture. With this generation, NVIDIA is holding on to the process node, so these chips are built on the same NVIDIA 4N silicon fabrication node that the company codeveloped with TSMC, based on the foundry’s 5 nm EUV node.
The GeForce Blackwell graphics architecture introduces a revolutionary new concept in consumer 3D graphics, called Neural Rendering. The company figured out a way to combine objects created by a generative AI with conventional raster 3D graphics, just like it discovered a way to combine real time ray traced objects with RTX late last decade. You already know the ability of popular generative AI models to create photorealistic images and video, so you know this technology has immense potential. GeForce Blackwell GPUs have the ability to accelerate generative AI and render 3D graphics in tandem, thanks to a new hardware scheduling component called the AI management processor. The architecture also introduces the ability for 3D applications to directly access the Tensor cores, and NVIDIA worked with Microsoft to standardize this at the DirectX API level.
The new Blackwell SM features concurrent FP32 and INT32 capability on all 128 CUDA cores, the previous generation Ada SM only has INT32 capability on half its cores. The 5th Generation Tensor core puts on FP4 data format capability to step up throughput by trading in precision. The 4th Generation RT core has the hardware groundwork for Mega Geometry, letting ray traced objects have exponentially higher polygon counts. DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation are this generation’s other major highlights. DLSS 4 introduces a new Transformer based AI model replacing the CNN-based one, for all its subcomponents, namely, super resolution, ray reconstruction, and frame generation. This model is more accurate, and hence steps up image quality in every performance tier. Multi Frame Generation gives the GPU the ability to use AI to draw not just one succeeding frame to a conventionally rendered one, but four such succeeding frames, effectively quadrupling frame rate. It relies on the new Flip Metering component of the Blackwell Display Engine to achieve this.
Blackwell implements many technological firsts for the company. It’s the first gaming GPU to use the PCI-Express 5.0 x16 host interface, the 12V-2×6 power connector, and feature an ATX 3.1 + PCIe 5 CEM power architecture. It’s also the first generation to implement the new GDDR7 memory standard, which doubles efficiency over GDDR6. The Blackwell display engine implements DisplayPort 2.1b with UHBR20 on all ports. When used with DSC, it enables 8K high refresh-rates with a single cable. You can see where this is going with DLSS 4 MFG.
The GeForce RTX 5080 maxes out the GB203 silicon, enabling all 84 SM, which works out to 10,752 CUDA cores, 336 Tensor cores, 84 RT cores, 336 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. It also features all 64 MB of the on-die L2 cache, and two sets of NVDEC and NVENC video accelerators that support 4:2:2 formats for AV1 and HEVC. The chip features a 256-bit wide GDDR7 memory bus, which drives 16 GB of memory. NVIDIA is running this memory at 30 Gbps on the RTX 5080, yielding 960 GB/s of bandwidth—a 34% increase over that of the RTX 4080.
The MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Vanguard SOC, as we said, combines the cooling innovations of the SUPRIM series, with the aesthetics of both the SUPRIM and Gaming X series. The new Hyper Frozr cooling solution comes with a vapor chamber plate making contact with the GPU and memory, which conveys heat to a cluster of heat pipes that have been flattened to a cuboidal shape for better contact with the vapor chamber. From here, the heat is spread across a large aluminium fin-stack with wavy edges that increase turbulence for better heat dissipation. The cooler relies on a trio of MSI’s StormForce fans, the same exact ones found in the company’s RTX 5080 SUPRIM graphics card which we are also reviewing today. There are two sub-variants of the RTX 5080 Vanguard, SOC and OC, we’re reviewing the SOC, which comes with a higher factory overclock of 2730 MHz on both the Gaming and Silent BIOSes, compared to 2617 MHz reference. The Launch Edition is a special package that includes a puzzle toy based on Lucky, MSI’s dragon mascot. MSI is pricing this card at $1230, a $230 premium over the $999 baseline.
NVIDIA only just kicked off its GeForce RTX 50-series Blackwell generation last week, and we already have our second GPU from series, the new GeForce RTX 5080. We have many of these cards with us to review, but today we bring you the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition, their de facto reference design. The RTX 5080 is being launched as the generation’s second-best graphics card, and does many of the same things as the RTX 5090, but at a much lower price-point. NVIDIA recommends the RTX 5080 for maxed out gaming at 4K Ultra HD—the same use-case its predecessor the RTX 4080 was launched at. You get half the amount of memory as the flagship RTX 5090 at 16 GB, even the memory bus width is half of it, at 256-bit, and yet there’s plenty of muscle in this card for gamers to play today’s and tomorrow’s games at 4K UHD.
The GeForce RTX 5080 debuts NVIDIA’s second silicon from the GeForce Blackwell generation, the GB203. This is a physically smaller chip than the GB202 powering the RTX 5090—in fact it’s half its size. What’s interesting though, is that the RTX 5080 maxes out all available SM on the GB203. If NVIDIA has to release an “RTX 5080 SUPER” next year, it would have to tap into the much larger GB202. In case you missed it, NVIDIA is building Blackwell on the same exact foundry node as the RTX 40-series Ada from October 2022, the TSMC 4N, which is a specialized variant of the 5 nm EUV node that the foundry co-developed with NVIDIA. The GB203 has similar transistor counts and die-size to the AD103 silicon powering the RTX 4080.
The new GB203 silicon physically has 84 Blackwell streaming multiprocessors (SM) across 7 GPCs, and the RTX 5080 has all of them enabled. This works out to 10,752 CUDA cores, more than the 10,240 that the RTX 4080 SUPER comes with. It also comes with 336 Tensor cores, and 84 RT cores. The TMU count is 336, while the chip has 112 ROPs. The shared L2 cache size is unchanged from the previous generation at 64 MB. Memory bandwidth is where the RTX 5080 gets a significant upgrade over the RTX 4080. While the bus width is the same 256-bit, it drives newer GDDR7 memory chips, and NVIDIA picked memory speeds of 30 Gbps, yielding 960 GB/s of memory bandwidth (a 34% increase over the RTX 4080). The media and display engines of the RTX 5080 see generational updates over the RTX 4080, too, you get two each of the latest Blackwell NVDEC and NVENC accelerators. The display engine supports DisplayPort 2.1b with UHBR20, and HDMI 2.1a.
The new GeForce Blackwell graphics architecture lays the hardware-level groundwork for neural rendering, a revolutionary new concept in consumer 3D graphics, where generative AI plays a participatory role in the core rendering stack, and not just part of the DLSS Super Resolution feature, where it helps reconstruct details in upscaled frames. Just as NVIDIA discovered a way to combine certain real-time ray traced elements with classic raster 3D, it found a way to combine objects created by a generative AI with raster 3D. The company worked with Microsoft to standardize this in the DirectX 12 API, letting 3D applications directly access Tensor cores. The GPU also runs generative AI and 3D graphics rendering workloads in tandem thanks to a new hardware scheduler component called the AI Management Processor (AMP).
Blackwell also introduces DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation. DLSS 4 replaces the CNN (convoluted neural network) based AI models driving Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction, and Frame Generation, with a new transformer based AI model that improves image quality at every performance tier. The updated AI models are available to even the RTX 40-series, RTX 30-series and RTX 20-series GPUs in games that implement DLSS 4, however Multi Frame Generation (MFG) is exclusive to the RTX 50-series. MFG is a technology that leverages AI to draw not just the frame after a conventionally rendered frame, but up to three succeeding frames. It requires the new Flip Metering hardware of the Blackwell display engine, which is what makes MFG exclusive to this generation.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition features an identical-looking design to the RTX 5090 Founders Edition we reviewed last week, down to the same length, height, and 2-slot thickness. You wouldn’t be able to tell the two apart installed until you pay attention to the decals on the backplate. This card features the same Double Flow Through thermal solution where the PCB is shrunk down to the bare minimum size and relocated to the center of the card, relying on breakaway PCBs for the display and PCIe I/O. The design allows for airflow from both fans to flow through heatsink fins of the cooler, venting out the back of the card. This cooler did wonders with the RTX 5090, which has a TGP of 575 W, and so it’s only going to do better with the RTX 5080 and its 360 W TGP. NVIDIA is pricing the RTX 5080 Founders Edition at $999, which is also the starting price for this SKU.
Softears, formally known as Softear Acoustics, is a Chinese IEM brand that was conceptualized in 2014, with a studio started in Shenzhen in 2017 before moving to Chengdu in 2019 where it operates an independent R&D lab and its own production facilities—not too different from FiiO’s industrial park that we visited recently. If some of this sounds familiar to you then you are probably too involved with IEMs and may need to take a break for your own mental health. Jokes aside, some of this story is also shared by MOONDROP, arguably the most famous IEM brand among the younger audiophiles today. Both MOONDROP and Softears operate out of the same industrial park and share some resources too. I understand that MOONDROP’s CEO invested in Softears early on with the goal of helping the latter be a higher end, R&D-centric brand that puts out more premium products. In return, MOONDROP might use a Softears-developed driver in its IEMs or have some Softears personnel help with the R&D and manufacturing of some products. Softears is even considered as a sister brand of MOONDROP in this regard, although it operates fairly independently when it comes to its own products. This is also why I’ve had no issues getting MOONDROP samples in for review, yet had to wait until today for our first Softears product review.
One of my goals attending the Shenzhen International Audio Show recently was to finally meet Softears. The brand had a booth at the show—in a completely different section from MOONDROP, for anyone wondering—and had a few different products for people to try out. The Enigma, which is Softears’s new flagship, immediately got my attention and it was easily one of the best IEMs I’ve tried at the show. Understandably, Softears was reluctant to send out the expensive Enigma for review, but they did offer the brand’s previous release in the form of the Studio4. This set released in March 2023, making it almost ancient in a world where IEMs release and get discontinued within a calendar year at times, if not sooner. However, this is part of what makes Softears different from the norm—its IEMs have a longer product life cycle and get supported far beyond your typical IEM brands even contemplate. This also means any Softears product has undergone a longer R&D phase too, with a clear purpose that needs to be fulfilled before it is deemed ready.
The Studio4 is a four balanced armature driver set that is developed with studio recording, music mixing, and stage monitoring in mind. It’s effectively an IEM analog of the Sennheiser HD 490 PRO we saw recently, and has a different role to play. Yet it has quickly become a favorite among audiophiles for its sound signature and tuning to where you will see the Studio4 near the top of many reviewer/influencer ranking lists, and it often gets recommended by the average IEM enthusiast too. I heard the Studio4 at Shenzhen and was immediately interested as a result of its comfortable fit and clean, yet engaging sound. Knowing that show floor conditions can be tricky, I of course agreed to their offer of a review sample to be able to try this out under familiar conditions. Note that there is also a newer “Starry Version” of the Studio4 that released recently, using clear resin shells and a sparkly blue faceplate, which seems to be exclusive to HiFiGo as of the time I write this review. Both versions should be otherwise identical elsewhere, including the sound which matters more, so this review should be representative of either in those metrics. Thanks to Softears for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp, and let’s begin this review with a look at the product specifications in the table below.
Specifications
Softears Studio4 In-Ear Monitors
Shell:
3D-printed medical-grade resin shells and faceplates
Cable:
Four-strand cable with oxygen-free copper conductor
Driver Unit:
Four balanced armature drivers
Frequency Range:
5 Hz–40 kHz (1/4′ free field, -3 dB)
Sensitivity:
123 dB/Vrms @1 kHz
Impedance:
12 Ω @1 kHz
Cable Connectors:
3.5 mm TRS plug to source + two 0.78 mm 2-pin plugs to IEMs
We have with us the ASUS ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5090 OC graphics card, which debuts the new ROG Astral brand for ASUS. Designed to provide the best of ASUS thermal engineering and industrial design, the ROG Astral brand is positioned a notch above the ROG Strix brand, providing the company’s best air cooling solution, a premium set of materials, and the new Quad Fan Force arrangement of no less than four fans. Aesthetically, ROG Astral graphics cards pair well not just with ASUS ROG Strix series motherboards, but also the more premium ROG Maximus and ROG Crosshair lines. The GeForce RTX 5090 is designed to crunch through any of today and tomorrow’s games with maxed out settings, at 4K Ultra HD.
The Blackwell graphics architecture powering the RTX 5090 introduces neural rendering, a breakthrough new concept where generative AI works more collaboratively with classic raster 3D graphics. You’ve had a taste of generative AI, and its ability to conjure up photorealistic images and videos. Now imagine AI drawing parts of your 3D scene in real time, complete with geometric detail and ray tracing effects. Making this possible is API-level standardization that allows games to access Tensor cores, and the ability for the GPU to accelerate a generative AI model and render games in tandem, thanks to a new hardware scheduling component called AMP.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect about Blackwell is that GPUs in its generation do not introduce a new foundry node, all chips in the RTX 50-series are built on the existing TSMC 4N process, which is an NVIDIA-specific variant of the 5 nm EUV node. Whatever generational improvements in efficiency you see are purely thanks to advances made by the graphics architecture itself, and a re-architected power management system.
The RTX 5090 is based on the GB202 ASIC, a massive 750 mm² slab of silicon featuring over 92 billion transistors, 192 Blackwell streaming multiprocessors, a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 interface, and a mammoth 512-bit GDDR7 memory interface, belting out 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. The trend across the RTX 50-series is large increases in bandwidth thanks to GDDR7, because neural rendering and the new DLSS 4 Multi Frame Generation are memory sensitive technologies. The RTX 5090 is carved out of the GB202 by enabling 170 out of those 192 SM, and enabling 96 MB out of the 128 MB on-die L2 cache available. This results in 21,760 CUDA cores, 680 Tensor cores, and 170 RT cores, across 11 GPCs, and this doesn’t even max out the GB202. The card comes with 32 GB of 28 Gbps GDDR7 memory.
The Blackwell graphics architecture introduces a new generation streaming multiprocessor with concurrent FP32 and INT32 capability across all its 128 CUDA cores, shader execution reordering with awareness for neural shaders, and the new 5th Gen Tensor core that’s capable of FP4 data formats for 32x the throughput of the original Tensor core. The new generation RT core has the hardware groundwork for Mega Geometry, the ability to give ray traced object significantly higher poly counts, or those many triangles onto which rays should interact with. DLSS Multi Frame Generation is a technology that uses AI to predict not just every other frame following a conventionally rendered one, but up to three frames following it, effectively quadrupling frame-rates (or at least the smoothness of output).
The ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090 OC doesn’t just come with a heavy cooling solution that fits into the dimensions of the previous generation RTX 40-series ROG Strix graphics cards, but also dials things up a notch with the introduction of a fourth fan arranged along the tail end of the backplate where you normally expect a cutout to be, for airflow from the third fan to go through. This fourth fan acts as a “pull” fan, increasing the overall airflow volume of the heatsink by around 20%. There’s plenty of tastefully executed dual-tone surfaces, rich metal alloy textures, and ARGB LED lighting. Innovations you expect from ROG Strix series cards are also here, such as dual-BIOS, case fan headers, and ARGB headers. ASUS is giving the RTX 5090 a factory overclock of 2580 MHz compared to the 2410 MHz reference GPU Boost frequency. The cooling solution is tasked with ensuring higher boost frequency residency and lower noise. Since this is the company’s most premium air-cooled custom design RTX 5090, ASUS is pricing it at USD $2,800, an astounding 40% premium over the NVIDIA baseline price.
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 5090 is the fastest graphics card ever released. It comes with a whopping 32 GB VRAM, and support for multi-frame generation, which achieves hundreds of FPS easily. We also managed to disassemble the card, and our review includes performance testing without upscaling or frame generation, too.
Logitech is one of the largest peripherals company in the world, and has been so for well over a decade now. In fact, if you were to ask me who the largest non-OEM (Dell, HP etc.) peripherals entity was, I’d guess Logitech immediately. It is so large that we actually have multiple brands within Logitech, including the mainstream Logitech/Logi, Logitech G (Gaming), Ultimate Ears, Jaybird, Astro Gaming, Blue Microphones, Streamlabs, and others that have since been wholly absorbed by the giant company that exists today. Despite all this, we have only had a grand total of two Logitech keyboard reviews on TechPowerUp until now—the Logitech Craft in 2017, and the old-yet-incredible (for the time) Logitech G15 nearly two decades ago. It’s time to change this, and I figured we should start with some of Logitech’s consumer line keyboards.
Today we take a closer look at the Logitech Wave Keys, a keyboard released last year and part of the brand’s Ergo Series of peripherals. The Wave Keys, as with many other components including the famous Logitech vertical mice, were designed and developed with data from the Logi Ergo Lab, with the goal being to put out fairly affordable ergonomic keyboards and mice. We’ve seen our fair share of ergonomic keyboards here, most of which tend to use mechanical switches and are highly specialized. Many are even split into two or more pieces, with support for tilting, tenting, how far you move the split pieces apart, and even how you angle them so your hands are more naturally facing into the keys. These tend to cost in the hundreds of dollars though, and many simply prefer lower profile membrane switch keyboards regardless. This is where the likes of the Logitech Wave Keys comes in, and being sold in three colors—graphite, off-white, and rose—further helps fit this into your lifestyle. Thanks to Logitech for providing a sample to TechPowerUp, and we begin with a look at the product specifications in the table below.
Specifications
Logitech Wave Keys Wireless Keyboard
Layout:
100-key, 96% form factor in a modified US ANSI layout, other options based on your region
Material:
ABS plastic case and keycaps
Macro Support:
No
Dimensions:
376 (L) x 219 (W) x 30.5 (H) mm
Weight (including batteries):
750 g / 1.65 lbs
Wrist Rest:
Yes, integrated
Anti-ghosting:
6-Key rollover
Media Keys:
Available as a layered function
Cable Length:
N/A
Software:
Yes, Logi Options+
Switch Type:
Membrane switches
Lighting:
Indicator lights only
Interface:
2.4 GHz, Bluetooth LE
Warranty:
1-2 years depending on region
Packaging and Accessories
The Logitech Wave Keys ships in a large and slim product box, which already tells you what to expect from the keyboard itself. We see a clean packaging with a black base and green accents, as expected from a Logitech/Logi product. On the front is a large render of the keyboard, and this presumably will match the color of the keyboard inside too, with the brand logo and product name also seen here. Salient features and product specifications are found on the back to go with more renders of the keyboard as well as a reminder to perhaps pair this with an accompanying Logitech Ergo mouse too. There are seals on the side to help keep the contents in place during transit, as seen above.
The keyboard comes with paper wrapped all around for added protection, and a large quick start guide underneath walks you through the setup. Logitech also has a more detailed step-by-step guide online, in case you need more help. The pre-paired low profile 2.4 GHz USB dongle, which Logitech calls the Logi Bolt USB Receiver, is found in a cutout in the cardboard box itself, and that’s it for the unboxing experience!
Closer Examination
The Logitech Wave Keys is nearly a full-size keyboard, although I’d classify it more as a 96% form factor unit owing to how it has the arrow keys integrated with the alphanumeric section and a separate number pad cluster to the right. There are 100 keys in total, be it the US ANSI or in the UK ISO version I have here, which means you lose 4 or 5 keys compared to the full-size equivalent. With the US layout, those would be Print Screen, Scroll Lock, Pause/Break, Insert, and Menu. However, it’s not as trivial as simply getting used to a keyboard with everything else included, as the Wave Keys takes liberties in where and how these other 100 keys are placed. The arrow keys are an obvious hurdle for touch typists, and there’s also the Fn key placed to the left of the space bar. The various rows are also shaped to accommodate the staggered columns placed at a more natural typing angle for your hands, meaning the keycaps near the top on either end of the alphanumeric cluster are longer than those at the bottom. These keys are also placed on a gentle curve, as opposed to the number pad that is straighter, albeit with curved corners. Your hands would be more naturally positioned towards the middle of the left cluster of keys thus, and the integrated wrist/palm rest is meant to be used during typing. This is a generously-sized wrist rest with soft foam padding that works quite well too, and the end result is a keyboard which is fairly broad but shorter than a typical 100% keyboard. Your hands are thus more likely to be placed in line with your shoulder width for better ergonomics, and you will also now have more room to the left or right of the keyboard for the mouse.
I have the Wave Keys in the graphite colorway, which feels more black than anything else. The other two colors are white and pink, so you can choose what works better with the rest of your desk/lifestyle. There’s a Logi logo at the top with an indicator light above to denote when the keyboard is on and connected. The bezels are generally small, except when the keys curve inward of course. The keycaps are opaque—there are no LEDs here for backlighting anyway—and the primary legends are placed in the middle on the top surface. Secondary legends push them down as applicable, and we also have some keyboard specific legends that shift the primaries to a diagonal corner. This mixing takes away from an otherwise clean and uniformly designed keycap set, although personally I am not a big fan of omitting the capital letters on the modifier keycaps. You will also note the Wave Keys supports both Windows and macOS, hence the dual OS legends in the bottom row, in addition to mobile devices that use Android/ChromeOS/iOS etc.
Turning the keyboard around, we see the case is composed of two pieces—both are injection molded ABS plastic in the same black color. The bottom panel is also quite large to also accommodate the space taken by the integrated wrist rest, which itself is multiple layers glued into the top panel. Despite the larger size, the Logitech Wave Keys is quite light at ~750 g. There’s a sticker in the middle with some basic keyboard specs and the usual certification logos. Two thin, long rubber pads at the top corners and four circular rubber pads elsewhere help provide friction against the resting surface and prevent the case from getting scratched. We also see a set of two keyboard feet at the top for a total of two elevation angles, and these come with rubberized bottoms too.
The side facing away from the user and near the indicator light/logo is where you will find a small on/off switch to turn the keyboard on, although you will also have to pull out the plastic tag near the battery compartment that keeps the batteries from draining before you start using the keyboard. The Logitech Wave Keys does not have any wired connectivity, meaning the batteries are critical here. I am pleased thus to see the use of two standard AAA size batteries, with Logitech even providing two good quality non-rechargeable batteries in the keyboard to get you going. Also note the cutout alongside which can easily store the 2.4 GHz USB dongle, I am not sure why it came separately placed in the cardboard box, thus risking someone missing it or even accidentally losing it during unboxing.
A look from the side shows the built-in elevation of the keyboard, which I would classify as low-medium profile at ~30.5 mm tall without the feet raised. You are meant to use the integrated wrist/palm rest on the keyboard here anyway, and this is also why the keys adopt a flat profile to minimize your fingers from going up and down too much. There is some contouring along the sides as previously mentioned, but otherwise this is a pretty easy keyboard to start typing on, which gets quite comfortable too when you are used to it. The Wave Keys uses membrane switches with very little to see beyond this point, even the keycaps are not easily replaceable even if you had aftermarket options to begin with. This is why it’s a bit of a shame that Logitech is using ABS keycaps with laser-etched legends that are more prone to wear, although the brand says there is a UV coating applied for added durability.
Software and Performance
The driver for the Logitech Wave Keys, and other recent Logitech/Logi-branded peripherals, is aptly named Logi Options+, and the latest version, 1.85.655119 at the time of this review, can be downloaded from this page. The installer is 34 MB in size, and the installed drivers take up slightly over 440 MB, although an optional plugin can add another ~300 MB on top. As seen above, there are hardly any options available during installation, so I definitely would have liked Logitech to show the terms of service as well as provide an option to choose the installation path. System utilization is otherwise minimal, and it is fairly obvious that the software has matured to its current stable state.
Once installed, you are prompted to open the software, and you would want to have the keyboard switched on and connected here. If you are using Bluetooth, then also make sure the corresponding Easy-Switch key (F1-F3) is active for the device you have Logi Options+ installed on. The Logitech Wave Keys allows for up to three Bluetooth connections on top of the 2.4 GHz connection. The software prompts you to go through a tutorial, which is handy if you are unfamiliar with the device or the customization features. This can be pulled up later also, and we see similar such tutorials for other features too, including Smart Actions—routines and macros—as well as an AI prompt builder that pulls up ChatGPT. I can already see the comments coming out about this, so all I will say is these are easy to ignore and you can even disable the latter. Click on the virtual keyboard and now you see the home page dedicated to Wave Keys, with the current battery level and connection status also seen in the program. One thing to note here is that the function key row is per default set to the assigned secondary functions, such that you do not need to hold Fn to actuate them. There are a grand total of 13 keys you can remap, and the video above showcases the various options available. Easy-Switch allows you to quickly change the client, and the keyboard settings are fairly explanatory, including allowing you to check and update the device firmware if available. Note that Logi Options+ will also enable an OSD for various functions, including Caps Lock on/off, which has been a Logitech feature for years now and seems divisive for most of that time too.
There is the basic 6-key rollover USB here out of the box in either Bluetooth or 2.4 GHz mode, as Aqua’s test confirms. This is fine with me considering the wireless nature of the keyboard as well as its target market. Similarly, no key chatter was detected on all the keys using Switch Hitter, and seen above are all the functions with dedicated keys on the base layer. This 100-key unit obviously gives you nearly everything you can expect on a keyboard, with only five keys missing from the standard 105-key UK ISO layout as previously discussed. As usual, the R. Win key is replaced by a Fn key so it’s not reflected above. Having the pre-programmed functions on the keyboard help bring back those missing functions in addition to providing some more to enhance your user experience too. I appreciate the keyboard has keycap legends for these, although these are primarily symbols that are not easily identifiable. Logitech should ideally have included a quick start guide in the box itself to explain what the various key combinations do, with the current best solution being the online setup guide and the FAQs page.
The Wave Keys is wireless only, and thankfully uses easily replaceable AAA-sized batteries. The provided ones are rated to run for as long as three whole years of active use, and I must say after ~2 weeks of using the keyboard in both Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz modes for 5+ hours daily—the software still said it was at 100%. Suffice to say this is a keyboard that you will not really have to worry about for battery life. Charging is a non-factor too, simply replace the dead/low charge batteries with fresh ones and you are good to go in a few seconds. Connectivity was flawless in either mode, although I recommend using the 2.4 GHz option, if you can, to allow for lower latency and a more durable connection too. The other selling point is the ergonomic design, which feels like a decent place to start out if you want to explore ergonomic keyboards. The angled keys in the alphanumeric section, in addition to the curves used for the key banks, help guide your fingers more naturally to a general resting point that increases typing efficiency. You don’t get any tilting or tenting though, and I would have rather seen straight columns rather than the staggered ones, let alone with the uneven sizing going from the top row to the bottom one. The end result is a steeper learning curve than you might expect, with touch typing being optimistic to achieve even after two to three days. You are likely to keep looking down at the keycap legends to re-orient your fingers in the beginning, and there may well be some frustration early on as you get over the unforced errors and slower typing speed too. If you are going from a standard TKL or 100% keyboard to this, then the uneven spacing between the keycaps, their non-standard positioning, and the keys feeling more bunched up together are also going to be speed bumps to negotiate. The arrow keys were the biggest issue for me, and I really wish Logitech had gone with the more commonly used 96% layout here. These were harder to reach here with my thumbs thanks to the awkward location, and I was unintentionally moving my hands further than I’d like. With time things do get better though, and the keyboard can help lower the chances of poor typing posture-related medical issues.
As always, the sound of a keyboard is based on more than just the switch type. So when comparing sound clips, consider the keyboard as a whole. In this case, I have provided above an example sound clip of me typing on the Logitech Wave Keys keyboard sample at ~90 WPM as it comes out of the box with these membrane switches that provide some tactile feedback. For context, you can find sound clips from other keyboards here, including those with tactile switches. I did bottom out constantly here, which is inevitable with membrane switches as the dome collapses inward upon actuation. The lower profile case combined with the membrane switches makes for a reasonably quiet keyboard, and I feel there are some damping materials included too given the relative absence of higher-pitched pings. Anyone who feels mechanical keyboards are too tall and/or loud will find this interesting thus, and this is besides the other features mentioned above. The Logitech Wave Keys comes in three colors and costs $59.99 from the Logitech store in the USA, with this UK ISO version comes in two colors and goes for much more by comparison at £69.99 (inc. VAT)—you do get a lot more languages/layouts from the Logitech store in Europe, yet I can’t help but feel Logitech owes the rest of the world better price parity compared to the USA.
Established in 2004, Pwnage is a US-based peripheral company. After the magnesium-made StormBreaker, Pwnage once again turns to somewhat exotic materials for the StormBreaker Max CF. Similarly to the Finalmouse UltralightX, a carbon fiber composite is used for the shell, albeit of a different composition. While the top of the mouse still features cutouts similarly to the StormBreaker, the sides are solid now, and the StormBreaker Max CF is 5% larger than the StormBreaker. Yet, at 47 g, the StormBreaker Max CF manages to be 4 g lighter than the original StormBreaker. For the sensor, the Pwnage XERO sees use, which is a PixArt PAW3950 whose CPI range has been extended to 36,000 CPI. Optical switches from Omron (D2FP-FN2) are utilized for the main buttons, and much like on the StormBreaker, the sensor position may be adjusted vertically. For both wired and wireless operation, true 8000 Hz polling is supported, and at 1000 Hz, Pwnage advertises up to 90 hours of battery life. The feet are made of pure PTFE, and replacement sets are included with the mouse. Configuration is done conveniently through a web driver. The StormBreaker Max CF is available in black or platinum, as well as limited edition colors of Nacho, Carnage, Ninja, and Frostfire.
With 80 Plus Gold power supplies slowly but steadily becoming the new mainstream, 80 Plus Platinum is the next logical efficiency level that vendors strive to achieve. Because, let’s face it, having your PSU certified at a higher efficiency is one of the more universal comparison metrics that vendors tend to use. While this does not tell the full story about the PSU’s abilities, the 80 Plus testing standard is not just about efficiency, but also keeping within the ATX spec for at least a few of the key parameters. The problem is, increasing efficiency by a couple percent, often requires a significantly more complex PSU design, which in turn can greatly increase the cost, making consumers think twice before choosing a high-end unit.
Although more vendors are introducing high-end units, NZXT joined the trend last summer with the release of their most efficient and highest output model to date—the Platinum certified 1.5 kW C1500. It is a unit that aims at the most demanding users, building serious workstations or multi-GPU setups. With ATX 3.1 support and a 10-year warranty it does seem like a future-proof product. Let’s start with the specification overview.
