In a nutshell: Despite Nvidia losing fans over the last few years as its focus on gamers diminishes (or disappears), the company’s GPUs have dominated the sales charts. But that status quo is starting to change: Amazon’s top 10 best-selling GPU list is an even split between Team Red and Team Green, with the highest position held by a Radeon 9000-series card. Meanwhile, in Germany, AMD is the one that’s dominating sales – at least at one retailer.

The rise of RDNA 4 was highlighted by TechEpiphany on X.

– TechEpiphany (@TechEpiphanyYT) September 6, 2026

The Amazon best-selling list has changed slightly since the post, but the Radeon RX 9070 XT is still the top GPU. This Gigabyte version is priced at $749, which, of course, is considerably higher than the GPU’s $599 launch MSRP.

The other AMD cards in the chart are an Asus model of the 9070 XT, an Asrock 9070, and an Asus 9060 XT. Nvidia also holds four positions with its RTX 5070, RTX 5060 Ti, and two RTX 5080 models.

Things appear even more favorable for Lisa Su’s firm in Germany. The figures, which come from Mindfactory, show AMD accounting for almost 56% of all GPUs sold over the last week, while Nvidia holds a 40% share. Again, the RX 9070 XT is the most popular card by far, followed by the RX 9060.

It’s worth remembering that Mindfactory has a reputation for favoring AMD, offering promotions, discounts, and bundles featuring its products, which help push up sales figures. The store’s AMD cards have outsold Nvidia’s in the past.

However, these charts do illustrate the impact of the memory crisis on the graphics card market. All GPUs are more expensive, but AMD’s are often cheaper than equivalent Nvidia cards.

The other reason is likely simple availability. The Amazon chart shows three AMD cards in stock, while Nvidia only has one – a Gigabyte RTX 5080 for a colossal $1,599, and that’s with a 6% discount.

Only one company dominates the Steam survey GPU chart

TechEpiphany’s claim of AMD “dominating everywhere” might be a bit of an exaggeration, but there are signs of consumers opting for its cards because of the cheaper prices – or just buying them because there are no Nvidia alternatives. The most valuable company in the world still has GPUs in almost 73% of Steam survey participants’ machines, compared to AMD’s 18.6%, so we’re not seeing a red revolution just yet.

Create a strong password policy by prioritizing length and uniqueness, blocking compromised passwords, allowing password managers and autofill, removing arbitrary complexity and expiration rules, and requiring MFA for important accounts. Deploy the policy with a managed password vault, secure recovery procedures, and tests that confirm the written rules work in every covered system.

Quick Take

These requirements follow current NIST authenticator guidance. They are a security baseline rather than proof that a particular policy satisfies every law, contract, or industry framework.

Prerequisites and Ownership

Identify the accounts in scope

Inventory the systems that accept passwords before writing the rules. Include workforce accounts, customer accounts, administrator access, cloud services, remote-access tools, shared credentials, and legacy applications. Record which systems use single-factor authentication, MFA, or single sign-on.

Keep machine credentials in a separate category. API keys, database secrets, certificates, service-account tokens, and CI/CD credentials require secrets-management controls rather than an ordinary employee password vault. A dedicated article on business secrets management should cover those systems.

Assign responsibility

Name a policy owner, identity-platform administrator, security reviewer, help-desk recovery owner, and departmental access approver. A policy without named owners tends to fail at exceptions, recovery, and offboarding rather than during ordinary password creation.

Document technical constraints

Record each system’s minimum and maximum length, supported characters, MFA options, password-history rules, breached-password screening, paste and autofill behavior, recovery process, and session controls. Legacy systems that cannot meet the baseline should enter a documented exception process with compensating controls and a retirement or remediation date.

Step-by-Step: Create the Password Policy

1. Define which accounts the policy covers

   State whether the policy applies to employees, contractors, administrators, customers, service providers, and shared accounts. Classify higher-risk accounts such as email, identity-provider, financial, cloud-administrator, source-code, and password-vault accounts.

   Where possible, replace shared accounts with individually attributable accounts. If sharing is unavoidable, use a managed vault that records access and lets administrators revoke membership.

   Expected result: Every covered account type has an owner, risk classification, authentication method, and exception status.

2. Set length and input requirements

   Require at least 15 characters when a password is the only authentication factor. NIST permits passwords used only as part of an MFA process to be shorter, but they must contain at least 8 characters. Organizations may adopt a longer minimum when users can rely on a password generator.

   Permit passwords of at least 64 characters. Accept spaces and broad character sets, process the entire submitted password, and never silently truncate it. Systems that mishandle spaces or long generated values should be corrected or documented as exceptions.

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   Expected result: Users can create long passphrases or generated passwords without encountering unnecessary input restrictions.

3. Remove mandatory composition rules

   Do not require every password to contain a prescribed mixture of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Current NIST rules prohibit these composition requirements because users commonly satisfy them with predictable patterns.

   Symbols remain acceptable when a generator selects them or a service requires them. The policy should not imply that a short password becomes safe simply because one letter was replaced with a familiar symbol. NIST’s public password creation guidance prioritizes length and recommends long passphrases when a password must be created manually.

   Expected result: Users can choose long, usable passwords without following predictable formatting recipes.

4. Replace scheduled expiration with event-driven changes

   Do not force users to change passwords every 30, 60, or 90 days without evidence of risk. Require a change when a password is known or suspected to have been disclosed, appears in relevant breach data, was transmitted insecurely, or may remain known to someone whose access has ended.

   A password change must be accompanied by session revocation when an attacker could already be signed in. Changing the secret alone may not invalidate active browser sessions, application tokens, or remembered devices.

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   Expected result: Password changes respond to compromise and access changes rather than an arbitrary calendar.

5. Block weak and compromised passwords

   Compare new and changed passwords against a blocklist containing commonly used, expected, and compromised values. Include context-specific choices such as the organization’s name, service name, username, and predictable derivatives.

   Explain why a proposed password was rejected and ask the user to choose a genuinely different value. Do not reveal whether another person uses that password. Avoid enormous blocklists that create excessive false rejections without meaningfully improving protection against rate-limited online guessing.

   Expected result: Users cannot enroll values that attackers are likely to guess early or already possess from breach collections.

6. Add controls around the password

   Require MFA for email, identity-provider, financial, remote-access, cloud-administrator, source-code, and password-manager accounts. Prefer phishing-resistant methods such as passkeys or hardware-backed security keys where the service and user environment support them.

   Rate-limit or progressively delay failed attempts. Monitor suspicious logins, protect account recovery, avoid knowledge-based questions as a sole recovery method, and provide a way to revoke sessions after suspected compromise. The OWASP authentication guidance treats password controls, MFA, recovery, session handling, and login monitoring as connected parts of account security.

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   Expected result: A guessed or disclosed password is harder to convert into persistent account access.

7. Require password-manager-compatible login forms

   Allow users to paste and autofill credentials. Use standard password fields and avoid scripts or form designs that block managers. NIST requires verifiers to allow password managers and autofill and recommends permitting paste when autofill interfaces are unavailable.

   Do not interpret clipboard blocking as a security control. It can push users toward shorter passwords they can type manually or toward storing credentials in insecure notes.

   Expected result: Users can generate, store, and enter unique credentials without weakening them for convenience.

How to Choose a Password Manager

Select a manager by deployment fit, recovery design, security controls, and usability rather than by the length of its feature list. The NCSC buyers guide emphasizes that an unusable manager will leave insecure workarounds in place.

Evaluate the following capabilities before deployment:

• Protection of credentials and metadata at rest.
• Who controls or can recover the vault’s decryption key.
• MFA, passkey, and approved-device support.
• Recovery options and the people authorized to use them.
• Secure sharing without revealing passwords in email or chat.
• Role-based administration, audit records, and offboarding controls.
• Restrictions or alerts for bulk export.
• Supported browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices.
• Update delivery and the provider’s vulnerability-disclosure process.
• A practical method for leaving the service without permanent lock-in.

Browser and device managers can be appropriate when convenience and ecosystem integration matter most. A reputable standalone manager may fit mixed-device environments or teams requiring advanced sharing and administration. The NCSC’s updated password-manager guidance recommends evaluating reputation, device security, recovery, MFA, and platform needs instead of assuming one type fits everyone.

How to Deploy and Use the Password Manager

1. Protect the vault account

Create a long, unique primary passphrase that is never used elsewhere. Enable the strongest practical MFA and secure every registered device with updates, automatic locking, and a local PIN or biometric unlock.

Store recovery keys or emergency instructions separately from the vault. Avoid circular recovery in which the only way to access the email account is through the vault while the only way to recover the vault is through that email account.

2. Import credentials carefully

Some managers migrate credentials through a CSV file. That export may contain readable usernames and passwords. Create it only on a trusted device, import it immediately, verify that the records arrived, and delete the exported file from the original folder, recycle bin, cloud synchronization, and temporary storage.

Do not perform a vault migration over an unfamiliar hotspot. Review the precautions in this public Wi-Fi security guide before accessing sensitive accounts away from a trusted connection.

3. Replace reused passwords in risk order

1. Secure the password-manager account and its recovery channels.
2. Change email and identity-provider credentials.
3. Change banking, payment, payroll, and financial credentials.
4. Change administrator, cloud, source-code, and remote-access credentials.
5. Change shopping, social-media, subscription, and lower-impact accounts.

Do not change dozens of accounts without confirming that each new password was saved. Keep the old session open until the new credential has been tested in a separate private window or another approved device.

4. Configure generation and autofill

Generate a different random password for every compatible service. Match the site’s supported length and character rules while avoiding needless manual edits. If autofill does not appear, check the exact domain before searching the vault and copying the password.

Autofill may help resist phishing because a manager should associate credentials with the legitimate domain. It is not infallible. Users must still inspect unusual addresses, subdomains, redirects, and browser warnings.

5. Configure team sharing and offboarding

Store business credentials in organization-controlled collections rather than personal vaults. Grant access by role, assign an accountable owner, review membership, and remove access promptly when someone changes roles or leaves.

Revoking vault access prevents future retrieval, but it cannot make a password unknown to someone who already viewed or copied it. Rotate credentials when a departing user could retain them. Teams protecting software repositories should connect this process to the controls in the guide to preventing source-code theft.

Verify That the Policy Works

Test the deployed controls instead of assuming a written setting was applied consistently.

Record exceptions and failed tests with an owner and target correction date. Repeat the checks after identity-platform changes, password-manager migrations, or major policy revisions.

Failure Modes and Troubleshooting

Operational Limits and Edge Cases

• Concentrated value: A vault makes unique passwords practical, but a successful vault compromise can expose many accounts. Protect the primary account and registered devices accordingly.
• Compromised endpoints: Malware or someone using an unlocked computer may capture credentials after the vault decrypts them. A password manager does not replace device protection. Organizations can evaluate those controls separately in this endpoint protection guide.
• Recovery trade-off: Recovery improves availability but creates another path that an attacker may target. Document who can recover a vault and what evidence is required.
• Shared accounts: A vault improves sharing, but individual accounts remain preferable because they provide attribution and cleaner revocation.
• Offline access: Emergency recovery material needs physical protection, named custodians, and periodic verification.
• Phishing: Passwords themselves are not phishing-resistant. Adopt passkeys where appropriate and evaluate the differences in a future passkeys versus passwords guide.

Key Takeaways

Frequently Asked Questions

It’s a little more than three months until Grand Theft Auto 6 rocks the video game industry, and other than two trailers, little of the game has been shown by developer Rockstar Games. The first real look at maybe the most hotly anticipated game ever is coming soon, but fans will need a Netflix account to watch it first.

GTA 6 will make its debut on the streaming service on Aug. 27, Rockstar Games announced Thursday, in what’s likely an extended preview of the game. Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look will premiere first on the streaming platform at 12 p.m. PT (3 p.m. ET) and then on a new GTA 6 YouTube channel at 6 p.m. PT (9 p.m. ET) the same day.

The developer didn’t provide any additional details about this GTA 6 preview or how long it will be. There was also no info provided on this partnership between the game company and Netflix, and whether it signalled an ongoing retlationship. It’s an unprecedented move to have the game first shown on a paywalled streaming service.

Rockstar Games didn’t immediately respond to a request for additional comment.

“Grand Theft Auto reveals have become cultural moments in their own right. The anticipation and fandom around Grand Theft Auto 6 is unprecedented, and we’re honored that Rockstar Games has partnered with us to debut the next part of the Grand Theft Auto story with Netflix members first,” Brandon Riegg, Netflix’s vice president of nonfiction series, said in a statement. “It’s a reflection of what we hope Netflix is becoming: a place where the most ambitious storytelling, from any medium, can find the biggest possible audience.”

Netflix and Rockstar Games have had a close working relationship in recent years. Back in 2023, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy made its debut on Netflix Games.

The streaming platform has had its ups and downs with gaming since it started offering mobile games in 2021. Back in April, the company introduced an ad-free gaming platform for kids called Netflix Playground, but in July, Netflix removed more than 20 games from its service. There are still more than 100 games on Netflix Games, according to its site, including Sonic Mania Plus, Red Dead Redemption and WWE 2K25 Netflix Edition.

GTA 6’s release date is set for Nov. 19, and it will launch on the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles for $80.

Oscar Gonzalez

Contributing writer

Oscar Gonzalez is a Texas native who covered video games, conspiracy theories, misinformation and cryptocurrency.

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For astronomy enthusiasts, August 2026 will be a month to remember. Some of the most spectacular celestial phenomena—including ones that are easy to observe without telescopes or other specialized equipment—will all occur during the same week.

It’s a great time to get your viewing plans together and start refreshing your weather app to see whether the skies will be clear where you are to catch all the happenings in the heavens.

Perseid Meteor Shower

The Perseids are among the most spectacular meteor showers of the year, along with the Geminids in December and the Quadrantids in January. Every August, Earth passes through the trail of particles left behind by Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. As the fragments enter the atmosphere at high speed, they produce an intense meteor shower.

In 2026, activity will peak during the night of Wednesday, August 12, and extend into the early morning hours of the following day. It will coincide with the new moon. That means the sky will be exceptionally dark, offering prime viewing conditions.

The Perseids appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus. In reality, the meteors can streak across any part of the sky, but locating that constellation with the help of a stargazing app can make it easier to know where to look for the best chance of catching streaks across the night sky.

Solar Eclipse

The main astronomical event of the month will be a total solar eclipse. Not everyone will get a glimpse, though, with the path of totality crossing sliver of Spain, Portugal, Iceland, and Greenland. Areas outside those locations will still be treated to a partial eclipse.

The timing will be particularly dramatic, with totality set to occur at sunset on August 12. The Sun’s low position above the horizon will offer an unusual—and photogenic—scene.

This will be the Iberian Peninsula’s first time seeing a total solar eclipse in more than a century. Madrid is in the path of totality as are regions that include Galicia, Asturias, Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands. In the rest of the country, the eclipse will be partial.

Those outside the eclipse path will also be able to follow the event. Agencies such as NASA and the European Space Agency will broadcast the event live. The main piece of advice for those trying to observe it: Do not under any circumstances stare directly at the sun.

Planetary Alignment

As if the solar eclipse and the meteor shower weren’t enough, in the early morning hours of August 12, an alignment of six planets will also occur. Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune will form an apparent line in the sky.

Observing this alignment is more challenging than watching the meteor shower given the faintness of some of the planets. However, if atmospheric conditions are favorable, it will be possible to see Mercury, Mars, and Saturn with the naked eye near the horizon shortly before sunrise. To observe Uranus and Neptune, you’ll need a telescope.

Lunar Eclipse

August 27 will close out the month with a partial lunar eclipse that will cover up to 96 percent of the moon’s disk. Unlike solar eclipses, which only cuts a very narrow path across the Earth’s surface, lunar eclipses can be seen from much larger regions of the planet. On this occasion, it will be visible across virtually the entirety of the Americas, from Canada to Argentina.

Also unlike this month’s solar eclipse, observing this one will require no special eye protection. Simply find a dark spot, away from light pollution and, if possible, with a clear horizon. The only protection you might need is from the cold, particularly if you’re in the southern hemisphere given the season.

This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.

Bottom line: Uber is moving quickly to put robotaxis on its main app, backed by a large cash pile and new approvals for real-world testing. The company plans to spend about $10 billion over the next few years to deploy 120,000 autonomous vehicles. It expects to run robotaxi services in at least 15 cities this year, putting it in direct competition with Alphabet’s Waymo and Tesla as they all push to turn self-driving technology into a commercial service.

Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the spending is possible because Uber is generating strong cash flow from its core business. In the second quarter, the company produced a record $2.8 billion in free cash flow. Over the past 12 months, free cash flow has reached about $10.1 billion as bookings continue to grow. “We’re investing from a position of strength, as we accelerate our cross-platform strategy at a global scale and build the world’s largest platform for autonomous vehicles,” he said. “Our ambition is clear: to become the world’s leading commercialization platform for autonomous mobility.”

Instead of building a single in-house autonomous driving system, Uber is trying to become the main platform that connects multiple AV technologies to riders. The company shut down its own autonomous vehicle program in 2020 during a cost-cutting push. Over the past year, it has shifted to working as an intermediary for AV startups around the world.

That includes agreeing to invest in vehicle fleets and taking equity stakes in companies such as Zoox, Rivian, and Lucid, a change from its earlier asset-light approach. Uber is also sending out hundreds of sensor-equipped vehicles to collect driving data for its partners, who use that information to train and refine their self-driving systems.

One of the key partnerships is with Wayve, a UK-based autonomous driving company focused on software that can handle complex city streets. On Wednesday, Uber said Wayve had received permits from Transport for London to launch a commercial robotaxi service with a supervising driver behind the wheel. “I believe that it’s the UK’s first license for AV technology to operate and a big step forward for the UK,” Alex Kendall, Wayve’s chief executive, told the Financial Times, adding that the approval should allow the two companies to offer rides to Londoners in “a matter of weeks.” Transport for London said it had cleared 15 of Wayve’s modified Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles to operate with a safety driver while the technology is tested on public roads.

Uber’s push into robotaxis comes as investors are still debating how autonomous vehicles will affect its core ride-hailing business. The stock is down 13% in 2026 as some shareholders worry that robotaxis could disrupt the existing model that relies on human drivers. Uber is arguing that its base of more than 200 million customers and its ability to route trips across different services will give it an advantage as AVs become more common.

Balaji Krishnamurthy, Uber’s chief financial officer, said the company will keep using its balance sheet to back growth projects, including AVs and international expansion. He pointed to Uber’s €13 billion offer for German delivery group Delivery Hero as part of that strategy. Uber has already paid about $4 billion for a 37% stake ahead of a formal bid, a move that would open access to faster-growing markets in Europe and the Middle East if the deal goes through.

The next test for Uber will be whether its platform-based AV strategy can turn technical progress into dependable services on busy city streets. The Wayve permits in London and robotaxi launches in other cities will bring Uber’s autonomous vehicle partners to more riders and regulators. The industry must still prove that driverless transport can be safe, scalable, and profitable.

• Microsoft is eating humble pie over its unrealistic RAM recommendations
• It has deleted articles that pushed 32GB as an ideal or ‘no-worries’ loadout
• Apple is also feeling the heat in the RAM crisis, with rumors that it’s struggling to secure an alternative source of memory supply from China

There are some fresh twists with the RAM crisis hitting some big tech companies, as Microsoft has backtracked on its previous memory recommendations, and even Apple is apparently finding it difficult to cope with the scarcity of memory.

Let’s discuss Microsoft first, and as Windows Latest pointed out, the company has been busy backpedalling on previous memory recommendations now that the RAM crisis – which just keeps getting worse – has made those suggestions look foolish.