Zak Killian
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
Moving up a tier in a product stack means you're typically supposed to get a better-performing part, right? Well, at least in the case of the MSI Claw and its Intel Core Ultra processors, that may not always be the case. Testing the two variants of the MSI Claw against the two variants of the ASUS ROG Ally, at least...
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Do you have a Socket AM4 system, dear reader? If you're reading this, there's a solid chance you've at least had one in the past even if you don't right now. Launched eight-and-a-half years ago, the Socket AM4 platform has been enormously successful for AMD, and it continues to persist into 2024 with new CPU releases...
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It's well known among enthusiasts that AMD's Ryzen processors benefit tremendously from high memory clocks, especially in multi-threaded applications. This isn't down to the memory bandwidth increase (although that can help), but more about the increased clock rate for the CPU's Infinity Fabric. That means that the...
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When we originally wrote about OpenAI's Sora back in the middle of February, we noted that the AI video model would be used by some independent creators before it became available to the public. The idea is that OpenAI wanted to assess whether the model had any real value before opening it up to the public, likely...
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AI image generators typically work through a process known as "diffusion". Basically, the model that's generating the image starts with a very vague, blurry picture, and successive sampling steps refine the image until it's sharp and realistic—or at least, as real as the model can get for what you've prompted...
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When Dragon's Dogma came out in 2012, much of the world was still preoccupied with Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls Part V: Skyrim. It was a difficult time to be releasing an open-world fantasy RPG. In combination with the reality that the game had major performance issues on consoles and that it was not available on PC...
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There's been a ton of chatter about a potential successor to the PlayStation 5 lately, thanks to myriad leaks that are so legitimate they've prompted Sony to start an investigation into exactly how they might have occurred. We wrote about the supposed PS5 Pro leaks yesterday; you can read about them here.
With...
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Did you know there's a Steam sale on? That's right—the 2024 Steam Spring Sale has been on for the better part of a week, and it runs until noon tomorrow. In contrast to the last few Steam sales, some of the discounts this time around are surprisingly deep. Whether you've been waiting to snap up some older titles at...
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Do you have a Windows-based gaming handheld? Unless it's an MSI Claw, it almost certainly uses AMD Ryzen mobile hardware. In that case, you might want to hold off on your Windows Updates for a while—assuming you have configured your system with that capability. If you haven't, then you're probably experiencing reduced...
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Some people have claimed that AI is a fad, or a flash in the pan. It's easy to understand the perspective; the hype around the explosion of generative AI feels similar to the hype around previous fads, like 3D TVs or the metaverse. AI isn't a fad, though. It is already transforming every single part of the tech...
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Before we get into today's news, we should set the stage: Pocketpair is a small Japanese game developer with a few minor successes under its belt. Most people, particularly outside of Japan, have probably never heard of any of Pocketpair's previous games, like Unity-engine survival-craft title Craftopia or the rather...
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It's only really in the last decade that small form factor builds have come into their own. Time was that building a small PC meant using meager hardware and forgoing fancy expansion cards. Now that everything is integrated onto the motherboard or the CPU package itself, and thanks to the proliferation of compact...
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When DOOM came out in 1993, Id Software had all kinds of companies coming around asking to license the engine to use it in various types of software for which it was completely unsuited. John Carmack said that vendors of CAD programs and home designers wanted to make use of his amazingly-performant 3D engine, but...
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Things have been rough in the AAA gaming space over the last few years, and arguably the last decade. There's been a lot of turnover, as a good number of legendary studios have closed their doors and many others were shuttered before they even got a chance to shine. A high rate of turnover combined with a failure to...
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Maingear ZERO Legendary Boost Gaming PC: As Configured - $3,389 @ Maingear The culmination of over a decade of design, Maingear's ZERO moves critical connectors to the back of the motherboard, giving it the cleanest looks of any computer we've reviewed to date. Beautiful Build With Back-Side Connectors Unconventional...
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Intel has said very little yet about its Lunar Lake processors, but they are definitely real and on the way. We know this not only because Intel has demoed it on stage, but because we've seen several early leaks of the chips. A new note today from a known leaker offers a tantalizing glimpse at the multi-threaded...
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The top-end Ada Lovelace graphics processor, the AD102, sports a 384-bit memory interface. In combination with 21-Gbps GDDR6X memory, this nets the Geforce RTX 4090 a grand 1008 GB/second of memory bandwidth. The lower-end GPUs weren't so fortunate, though. AD103, the chip behind the RTX 4080, drops a full third of...
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Did you read our post last month about NVIDIA's Chat With RTX utility and shrug because you don't have a GeForce RTX graphics card? Well, don't sweat it, dear friend—AMD is here to offer you an open-source option that runs on just about anything. Known as LM Studio, it's a frontend that can download and run large...
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Back in the day, before the ubiquity of discrete graphics cards with powerful programmable engines, 3D games used what we now term "software rendering." This means that the graphics renderer ran purely on the system's CPU, rather than benefiting from dedicated hardware acceleration. This practice persisted longer than...
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TAITRA, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, has just announced that Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger will deliver a keynote speech at Computex Taipei. Gelsinger is scheduled to go on stage June 4th, and the release from TAITRA says that he will "detail how Intel's AI portfolio ... unlocks new possibilities in the...
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If you're not a PlayStation gamer, there's a good chance that you may not have heard of this game. Ghost of Tsushima is an open-world pseudo-historical action-adventure game set in 13th-century Japan during the Mongol invasion. It was developed by Sucker Punch, the studio previously known for the Sly Cooper and...
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Dell Precision 7875 Tower Workstation: As Configured - $31,065 at Dell.com Dell's Precision 7875 Tower Workstation is a regular-sized PC that packs in server-class power, giving it the capability to dunk on previous-genn systems in rendering, scientific computing, and of course, machine learning workloads. Incredible...
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