Zak Killian
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
The Geekbench suite of system benchmarks have their limitations, but they present a reasonable impression of overall performance for a wide variety of productivity, content creation, and high-performance computing tasks, and they're also cross-platform. These qualities, along with the low, low price of zero dollars...
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Intel has traditionally dominated the consumer laptop segment with its fast and compatible CPUs, but right now it's facing a three-pronged assault from Apple, Qualcomm, and even AMD, thanks to new and extremely efficient processors from all three competitors. The company needs new technology to stave off these...
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Beautiful ray-traced visuals, that is, if your PC can handle it. Chinese developer Game Science's long-awaited action-adventure title Black Myth: Wukong is finally nearing release, so the newbie studio has released a stand-alone benchmark utility that users can use to gauge whether their machines are ready for the...
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As soon as the broader discussion about the Raptor Lake stability issues began, many people were already speculating that the potential "fix" would have a deleterious effect on performance. In essence, the thought process was that Intel had achieved its chart-topping performance by pushing the chips too far along the...
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Have you ever wished you could use your smartphone as your primary PC? There are various ways to achieve that, but how about this instead: the GPD Pocket 4. This is a handheld PC with an 8.8" screen. That puts it on the high end of "phablet" size, yet still arguably pocketable. Despite the small size, it comes...
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If you've read reviews of various PC gaming handheld systems, you've probably noted that almost all of them compare the machine against the Steam Deck and come to the conclusion that using Windows is a downside. In other words, most reviews will tell you that being saddled with Windows (instead of using Linux as the...
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In case you still carried any doubts, Intel's second-generation discrete graphics products, codenamed "Battlemage," are very real and absolutely still on the way—likely later this year. As proof, allow us to show you the latest leak: a boot log from a system in the Intel GFX Continuous Integration group that clearly...
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As we noted yesterday, Intel's partners are starting to roll out motherboard BIOS updates that include the promised microcode fixes for its Raptor Lake processors. These patches should hopefully keep intact CPUs from degrading any further, although processors that are already damaged will have to be replaced. We were...
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This weekend, thousands of FPS fans, boomer shooter devotees, and many literal boomers have descended on Dallas, Texas suburb Grapevine for the yearly Quakecon event. Id Software and its parent company Bethesda like to use the event to disseminate news about their products (like last year's surprise Quake II remaster...
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After two years of driver work, Intel's current-generation Arc Alchemist discrete GPUs are competitive in their respective price brackets. The company could really use some new GPU hardware, however, if it wants to make more inroads into the PC gaming space. Fortunately, it looks like those parts are on the way, and...
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All the hype around new AMD products right now is surrounding CPUs like the Ryzen AI 300 family for mobile machines and then the Ryzen 9000 desktop CPU family launching tomorrow. One-Netbook may have just leaked another new AMD product on the way, though -- the Radeon RX 7800M, something AMD hasn't said a word...
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You probably think of 8-bit and 16-bit games as "retro", but the PlayStation 3 is old enough to vote, and that also makes it "retro" to plenty of adults right now. On the other hand, if you read that headline and the part that confused you was "Adds Ryzen 9000 Support," then let us explain.
The PlayStation 3 is an...
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There's been a lot of doom and gloom surrounding Intel lately, thanks to the much-publicized stability issues with the company's Raptor Lake processors. So, how about some good news? Intel just announced that it has working samples of both its Panther Lake mobile CPUs and Clearwater Forest server chips, meaning...
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Google has a post up on its security blog that is half advertisement and half PSA-style announcement for Android users: go into your settings and turn off the "Allow 2G" toggle. This option, added in Android 12 back in 2021, does exactly what it sounds like: it turns off support for 2G cellular networking. Why would...
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In case you missed it, just yesterday we published our in-depth review of the ASUS ROG Ally X gaming handheld with over 80 games tested. We're very fond of the machine, as it resolves nearly all of the problems with the original ROG Ally system while offering a superior gaming experience thanks mostly to an extra 8GB...
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Remember the ASUS ROG Flow Z13? We've never reviewed one, but we took a peek at them during CES in both 2022 and 2023. If you don't recall, they're kind of like the Microsoft Surface Pro, but oriented for gaming rather than productivity. They are from the "Republic of Gamers" brand, after all. The extant ROG Flow Z13...
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ASUS ROG Ally X Gaming Handheld: $799.99 at Best Buy The second gaming handheld from ASUS refines the machine significantly, fixing many issues users had with the original model. Impressive Gaming Performance Great Software Compatibility Fantastic Battery Life Outdoor-Usable Freesync Display Solid External Connectivity Drivers Only Available...
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NVIDIA's most powerful GeForce RTX graphics cards use GDDR6X memory as offers more stable signaling, in turn granting higher transfer rates—which is exactly why NVIDIA uses it. However, because the company's graphics cards are the only things that use GDDR6X memory—and the next-generation cards will use lightning-fast...
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There are basically three important characteristics for a memory technology: its latency, its bandwidth, and the power it uses. Disparate workloads have differing requirements, though. Graphics, generally speaking, cares relatively little about memory latency and will use up as much bandwidth as you can give it...
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AMD seems to like releasing technologies that aren't quite perfect out of the gate, only to release a second version that's quite good. The company did this with Precision Boost Overdrive, it did this with FidelityFX Super Resolution, and now it has done it once more with its Fluid Motion Frames feature. A new driver...
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The latest Elden Ring patch brings with it good news for weirdos who care way too much about how other people beat games, as well as big boosts for players who rely heavily on Spirit Ashes to help with the fantasy RPG's punishing combat. This patch might also make major changes to the PvP meta, as it comes with...
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All the excitement in the enthusiast scene lately has been aimed at AMD's new Zen 5-based processors. That's "Strix Point" for mobile, comprising the Ryzen AI 300 series, and then "Granite Ridge" for desktop, making up the Ryzen 9000 series, and both are launching soon—albeit not quite as soon as intended. However...
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