At Qualcomm’s annual tech summit in Maui which took place recently, the company introduced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, a chip that will soon power the mightiest of Android smartphones. Obviously, this flagship mobile platform delivers a wide array of performance and efficiency improvements, plus cool new features...Read more...
XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT: $949 - $979 (expected) The new XFX MERC 310 Radeon RX 7900 XT offers higher clocks and beefier cooler than AMD's cards, but that results in a larger form factor and higher price. Faster Than AMD's 7900 XT Good Overclocker Rigid, Well Built Useful Accessory Bundle BIG Card...Read more...
Radeon RX 7900 XT & 7900 XTX: Starting At $899 The new RDNA 3-based Radeon RX 7900 series is a massive upgrade over the previous generation, but still faces stiff competition from NVIDIA. Strong Performance Competitive Pricing Powerful Display Engine Massive Amounts Of Memory Manageable Form Factors Ray...Read more...
If you weren't a PC gamer when the original Portal released in October of 2007, you probably don't realize the immense impact that the game had. Debuting as part of The Orange Box package, along with the complete version of Half-Life 2 as well as Team Fortress 2, it was arguably the dark horse of the set. Striking...Read more...
Solidigm P41 Plus: Starting At $82.99 The Solidigm P41 Plus is an affordable, DRAM-less PCIe 4 Solid State Drive, tuned for low queue depths and mainstream computing workloads. It offers good throughput at very attractive price points. Excellent cost per gigabyte Strong low queue depth performance PCIe 4.0 class transfer speeds with...Read more...
Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Gen 1 - Starting MSRP: $1,218.50 Lenovo's latest AMD-powered ThinkPad has been endowed with Ryzen 6000 for great performance and it is built from sustainable materials too. Great Performance Lightweight At 2.76 lbs Typical Fantastic Keyboard Accurate 16:10 1200p Touch Display Very Quiet With Great Surface Temps...Read more...
Kioxia XG8: Starting At $XXX A new NVMe controller and the latest 3D NAND combine to make a very solid product for OEM markets. It won't officially come to retail channels, though. Excellent sequential throughput Very good latency and IOPs at high queue depths Solid performance in system drive workloads Mediocre latency...Read more...
AMD Ryzen 7000 Series - Starting At: $250 (7600X), Ryzen 9 7950X - $699 AMD's Zen 4-based Ryzen 7000 series processors are a major upgrade over the previous generation and the updated platform offers a host of benefits. Excellent ST Performance Rich Feature Set Big Gains Gen Over Gen Available Upgrade...Read more...
Intel NUC 13 Extreme - Starting at $1179 ($1549 w/ Core i9-13900K) The new Intel NUC 13 Extreme is the fastest, most powerful NUC yet, but it's also the largest. Ultra High Performance Relatively Quiet Supports 3-Slot GPUs Easier To Build Pushing The Limits Of SFF Price Premium Intel has consistently updated and upgraded its...Read more...
Qualcomm had a lot of new technology to roll out at its annual Snapdragon Summit this year in Maui, HI. The company teased a new custom CPU core, announced a hardware platform for smart glasses, and of course, unveiled its latest flagship Snapdragon Mobile Platform—the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This new Arm-based...Read more...
Before you know it, 2022 will be drawing to a close, and that means a new wave of smartphones will be on the horizon, driven by a new Qualcomm silicon platform. Many of the next-gen flagship devices due to arrive next year will likely run on Qualcomm's latest mobile platform, the just-revealed Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This...Read more...
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080: Starting At $1,199 The new GeForce RTX 4080 leverages the same architecture as NVIDIA's flagship, but features a smaller GPU a nd targets a lower price point. Strong Performance Good Overclocker Relatively Power Friendly Latest Feature Set BIG Partner Boards Power Dongle Price Premium A...Read more...
Throughout the period encompassing the Radeon HD 7000 series, the Radeon Rx 200 series, Rx 300 series, Polaris, Fury, and Vega, AMD struggled with efficiency. Its GPUs were powerful, and had brute-force might to spare, but that didn't always translate into the top-shelf gaming performance the company would have liked to have offered. Ever...Read more...
Minisforum HX90G Mini PC - Starting MSRP barebone $799, as tested $909 Minisforum's latest Mini PC is an all-AMD mobile processor affair. It is a compact and portable unit that outperformed most gaming laptops using similar hardware, and at a compelling price. Solid 1080p Gaming Compact size Easy...Read more...
AMD has just officially launched its 4th generation of EPYC server CPUs. Codenamed Genoa, these EPYC 9004 series processors are built using the same Zen 4 DNA powering the company’s Ryzen 7000 series of consumer desktop CPUs. The central story behind these processors is the same as ever—larger core...Read more...
Today, AMD held its Together We Advance_Gaming launch event for its new RDNA 3-based Radeon 7000 series GPUs. AMD is first introducing two high end GPUs, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and the Radeon RX 7900 XT. Radeon RX 7900 XTX (left) and RX 7900 XT (right) These cards are set to battle it out with NVIDIA’s new Ada...Read more...
Logitech G502 X Plus: MSRP $159 (Currently $139) The new Logitech G502 X Plus is a versatile, customizable, lightweight, high-performance mouse, that's loaded with features and offers both wired and wireless operation. Excellent sensor (Hero 25K) Comfortable design Easy to customize via software Satisfying...Read more...
Google Pixel Watch - Starting At $350 Google’s Pixel Watch is an excellent Wear OS smartwatch that integrates tightly into Google’s ecosystem but suffers a bit from sub-par battery life. However, the Pixel Watch finally gives us a solid Apple Watch alternative for Android users. Excellent design Gorgeous screen...Read more...
It wasn't all that long ago that we had our first experience with Intel's 4th-generation Scalable Xeons, code-named Sapphire Rapids, and checked out some live benchmarks. In the demonstration, Intel put its pre-release silicon up against the current best from AMD, a server with a pair of Milan-based EPYC 7763 64-core...Read more...
Intel Core i9-13900K - $589, Intel Core i5-13600K - $289 More cores, more cache, higher frequencies, and a refined design and manufacturing process boost the performance of Intel's 13th Gen Core processors significantly. Excellent Performance Single Thread Leadership More Cores And Cache Same Socket As 12th Gen...Read more...
Samsung SSD 990 Pro: Starting At $169 A new, more efficient controller and fresh V-NAND boost Samsung SSD 990 Pro series performance to over 7.4GB/s, while consuming less power. It's a win-win. Excellent Sequentials Top-Notch PCMark Score Cool, Low-Power 8nm Controller Better At Low Queue Depths Mediocre 4K Transfers Trails At High Queue...Read more...