Enthusiasts building their own PCs are accustomed to keeping up with latest drivers, especially when it comes to things like graphics cards. Motherboard BIOS updates are also critical to get the most out of your hardware and improved compatibility.
Last week we checked out the new GeForce GTX 1650 for the first time and we were disappointed that it was no rival for AMD's RX 570. We've since tested the 75-watt model lacking an external PCI Express power connector and have to admit we're pleasantly surprised.
In this first part of our "Future of Tech" series, we'll call some predictions about the next generation of PCs. Rather than dreaming far into the future, we'll try to go for the practical and feasible... evolutionary steps that we could easily see happen in the next five to fifteen years.
Mortal Kombat 11 builds upon the story and game mechanics established in Mortal Kombat X beautifully, for the most part. The game's story is even more involved and engaging. The fighting feels more deliberate and calculated. MK 11 lets players create their own fighting styles, picking and choosing which moves they wish to include.
The perfect PC chassis is a bit of a misnomer. Plenty of cases over the years have been highly regarded as being great, trend-setting or iconic, but one size does not fit all. This article aims to help you construct that shortlist of options and steer your search in the right direction.
Based on the TU117 die the new GeForce GTX 1650 still includes all of the new Turing shader innovations that improve performance and efficiency. The TDP is just 75 watts, meaning it doesn't require external power, making it the fastest graphics card available that won't need external PCIe power.
We all think of the CPU as the "brains" of a computer, but what does that actually mean? What is going on inside with the billions of transistors to make your computer work? In this new four-part mini series we'll be focusing on computer hardware design, covering the ins and outs of what makes a computer work.
Dell's UltraSharp U4919DW is a 49-inch monitor with a 5120 x 1440 resolution, giving it a 32:9 aspect ratio. This display is equivalent to two 27-inch 1440p displays side by side without a bezel in-between. So if you were planning to run with a dual-screen 1440p setup, something like the U4919DW might be a better choice.
During this year's GDC, Nvidia announced that GTX graphics cards would be getting basic ray tracing support with a driver update. For putting together this test we took the most powerful Pascal GPU we had on hand - the Nvidia Titan X - and pitted it against Nvidia's RTX line-up in the three games that support ray tracing thus far.
Intel's been having some trouble competing with the wave of Ryzen processors, forcing the chip maker to be a little more creative. Today we have the Intel Core i5-9400F on hand, which is basically a refreshed i5-8400 with a 100 MHz clock speed boost, no integrated graphics and a lower price point.
Sean Murray, lead developer of No Man's Sky, has seen the best and worst of it since the game's incredible first trailer was shown in 2013. But after a failed launch, No Man's Sky has flourished in recent years. While he won't release sales figures, Murray said that "last year we sold the kind of numbers a AAA game would be happy with at launch," using the industry jargon for big budget games.
Here are our recommendations for the best gaming laptops you can buy right now, discussing the different options and alternatives. Our categories are a mixture of price points and use cases that cover most of what we believe PC gamers will be interested in getting.
When we recently updated our Best CPUs feature, we noticed that access to affordable first-gen Ryzen processors remains an attractive option for many. The Ryzen 7 1700 is a standout option for an 8-core/16-thread part selling for $160, meaning you can either buy the R7 1700 or the R5 2600 at the same price.
It's hard to say how Fortnite is turning out because it keeps turning into something else. Skins and storylines come and go. Landmarks appear and disappear. Weapons are added and removed. Recently, a mysterious excavation site appeared, but it was dug up and abandoned by the time I got there the next day. There's never a perfect time to say what Fortnite is.
Recently we've looked back at the GeForce GTX 980 Ti and the GTX 960, both popular GPUs from yesteryear. Those features have been warmly welcomed, but besides the overall positive responses what we noticed in common in your feedback was the request to test the GeForce GTX 970, which was the performance/value offering of the time and a GPU some of you are still rocking in today's games with some success.
It's been over a decade but we can finally declare solid state drives are not only mainstream, but they're a commodity. Fast storage will hopefully only get faster but today's best choices are only differentiated by how extreme you want to go and how willing you are to pay for the very best.
When we recently tested the new GeForce GTX 1660 we noted that Nvidia was making a bold claim in the review guide saying that the 1660 was a whopping 113% faster than the GTX 960, making it a perfect upgrade option for owners of the old mid-range Maxwell GPU.
Today we're taking a look at another gaming laptop, the brand new Alienware m15, which is the company's portable laptop offering to rival systems like the MSI GS65 Stealth, Gigabyte Aero 15 and Razer Blade. Historically we haven't been huge fans of Alienware's chunkier laptop designs, but the m15 is one of the best we've seen from the company so far.
Pranks are awesome. They are one of those few things in life that most people can unequivocally agree on being great. Pranks are in the same league with cat videos, candy, and free stuff - everyone loves 'em. You're a tech-savvy individual, and it's time that your pranks showed that. We've got some ideas...
In Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the thread between life and death is tenuous. As the One-Armed Wolf, a loyal shinobi seeking to save a young noble with a cursed bloodline, you traverse a feudal Japan so saturated with the remnants of war that the idea of mortality becomes fickle.
To say there are a ton of laptops out there is an understatement. As is the case with smartphones, within a given segment or budget often there isn't much that differentiates them---other than components and small design changes. But with Asus' latest ZenBook Pro, there's one element that really makes it stand out from the crowd: a touchpad that's also a touchscreen.
Many hardcore computer users might consider themselves above learning new tricks, but there are always new ways to sharpen your skills on the PC and we bet that you will find at least one useful thing here that you didn't know before.
The Asrock DeskMini A300 is a tiny PC that takes advantage of Ryzen processors. Almost every custom designed mini PC that we've seen to date has used Intel inside and while Intel CPUs are very good, they aren't the best choice for this kind of system. At least if you want to game or do any kind of 3D work, for that AMD's Ryzen APUs are unrivaled.
The top-of-the-line MSI GS75 Stealth 8SG is a slim and light portable gaming system sporting a 17.3" 1080p 144Hz ISP display, an RTX 2080 Max-Q GPU, Core i7 CPU, 32GB of dual-channel memory and a dual 512GB SSD setup in RAID 0. It's a beastly gaming laptop worth checking out.
If you've got some $200 to spend on a new CPU and you want something that can handle any and all tasks you throw at it with maximum efficiency, the Ryzen 5 2600 series is a must-have. But should you buy the Ryzen 5 2600X or the non-X 2600?
