TechSpot Features

We can say upfront that this article is in no way buying advice, but we're testing purely for the science of it. For the unaware, IPC (instructions per cycle) provides a good indicator of how fast a processor is, so with that in mind we're putting Intel and AMD's latest CPU architectures to the test running at a flat 4GHz.

Google's Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL have commanded the phone camera throne since launch, producing astonishingly good photos that are unsurpassed by rivals of a similar era such as the iPhone X and Samsung Galaxy Note 8. In 2018, a new challenger has appeared in the Samsung Galaxy S9+ packing an upgraded camera system in an attempt to retake the crown.

Just because you don't have access to the fanciest gear around doesn't mean you have to play subpar games. Even if you're on a potato computer or low-end PC, there's plenty out there for you to enjoy. Here are some of Kotaku's top picks for quality games that should run on almost anything.

Apple users: Did you know that you can't buy Kindle books from the Kindle app on your iOS device? In fact, you can't purchase them from the Amazon app either. Even if you're an Amazon Prime member and you want to download a free book. Nah, not possible. But there's a workaround.

If you're interested in replacing your desktop monitor with a 4K TV and want to know what to buy, you've come to the right place. Maybe you aren't quite sure where to start or could use a hand in narrowing your search. Whatever the case, this guide is intended to help steer you in the right direction.

To play Far Cry 5, Ubisoft recommends that you have a Core i7-4770 or Ryzen 5 1600 processor along with a GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 290X -- fairly heavy recommendations. Benchmarking the game has been made easy by its built-in benchmark which appears to do a good job of replicating the kind of performance you can expect to see when playing the game.

Along with our recent editorials on why it's a bad time to build a gaming PC, we've been revisiting some older GPUs to see how they hold up in today's games. But how do you know how much you should be paying for a secondhand graphics card?

Cryptocurrencies, ICOs, magic internet money---it's all so damn exciting, and you, the eager developer, want to get in on the madness. Where do you start? I'm glad you're excited about this space. I am too. But you'll probably find it's unclear where to begin. Blockchain is moving at breakneck speed, but there's no clear onramp to learning this stuff.

In 2012 I wrote an article about leaving Facebook. I've kept this stance for about five years now, but an accumulation of several small things during this time have had me questioning whether or not abandoning the social network was the brilliant idea I once thought it was.

If it's been a while since you've bought portable flash memory, you might be surprised by the broad availability and affordability of high speed, high capacity microSD cards. Commonly used to expand the storage in devices ranging from smartphones to drones, microSD cards are becoming more frequently purchased than any other SD form factors, although full sized cards remain popular among digital camera owners.

Continuing along with revisiting some of our favorite old graphics cards, today we'll be checking back in with the Radeon R9 280X, which is also to say that we're checking back in with the 7970 GHz Edition, both of which are essentially a factory overclocked Radeon HD 7970, so we'll technically be revisiting that, too, the very same card we first reviewed in December 2011!

At a time when graphics cards are extremely overpriced, AMD's new Ryzen APUs offer an affordable means of building a basic gaming PC. But we've been keen to see if the APU holds its ground against bargain priced second-hand GPUs. Today we're going to find out.

We're a few weeks into 2018, MWC is now behind us, and we're starting to get a good look at the trends in mobile technology that will dominate discussion throughout the year. Based on what we've seen from announcements, trade shows and product launches so far, here are six trends to watch in 2018.

In the 20+ years since the Fallout franchise was introduced to the world, all of the games have been met with praise---which means that ranking them isn't easy. It's especially difficult to pit the games against each other when you consider that the post-nuclear franchise underwent a genre change.

After recently retesting the GeForce GTX 580 eight years after its release, we thought it would be interesting to check back in on the GTX 680, another old friend that was released about six years ago as Nvidia's latest and greatest graphics card and a successor to the aforementioned 580.

We've learned most of what there is to know about AMD's new Vega-infused CPUs, but those of you thinking about buying the Ryzen 3 2200G or Ryzen 5 2400G after seeing how it competent it is as a budget gaming platform may be asking yourselves whether the chip would be best installed on an A320 or B350 motherboard.

Although 5G may seem like just another wireless generational upgrade, touting more speed and less latency, the years-long migration will require an expansion of cellular networks worldwide to include millions of new antennas that will become the backbone of IoT and its billions of sensor-laden devices, from smart dust to smart cars.

Next time you play a video game, look down at the controller in your hand. Is it comfortable? Does it work well with the game you're playing? Are your fingers all being used efficiently? If you could change one thing, what would it be?

Today we'll be overclocking AMD's Ryzen 3 2200G to the max with a $20 air cooler. Now, you might be questioning the idea given this is a $100 APU that already ships with the more than decent Wraith Stealth. However, we've been keen to see how much more can be extracted from the APU...

Unlike a typical discrete graphics card, most integrated graphics solutions like the one on AMD's new Raven Ridge desktop APUs don't have their own dedicated memory. Instead AM4 motherboards let you set the video memory somewhere between 64MB and 2GB. Let us explain what that means.

If you've looked into purchasing a TV in recent years, you've been perhaps overwhelmed by the jargon and conflicting information. Indeed, there's a lot of misinformation out there, so to help you filter it out, we've debunked some commonly held beliefs about buying a TV.

You play games, but your significant other does not. It's a common scenario that can be a point of contention in an otherwise healthy relationship. Here's a guide on how to introduce your significant other to the wide world of gaming. Remember---compromise is key.

Today we are investigating two commonly asked questions about gaming laptops: what's the performance like on battery and how long do these laptops last in games? We'll also explore if battery life can be extended in any way; and do less powerful systems last longer?

Best known as the immutable database that runs underneath cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, blockchain is poised to play a critical role in every industry imaginable as businesses seek ways to cash in on the distributed ledger technology's promise of enabling a "trustless" consensus to validate transactions.

Today we're checking out Final Fantasy XV CPU performance using the new standalone benchmark released ahead of next month's PC launch. The reason we want to look at CPU performance first is because the game is extremely CPU intensive, far more so than we were expecting. Developer Square Enix recommends gamers pack at least a Core i7-3770 or FX-8350, that's significantly more firepower from Intel, but we'll look into that shortly.

Today we're turning our clocks all the way back to November 2010 to revisit the once mighty GeForce GTX 580, a card that marked the transition from 55nm to 40nm for Nvidia's high-end GPUs and helped the company sweep its Fermi-based GeForce GTX 480 under the rug.

In the first part of this series we looked at DDR4 memory, then in part two focused on graphics cards. Those were the two big ones for sure. For the final installment of our series, we're looking at the whole picture. We're not just talking about other components but the product cycle and timing for building a new gaming PC in early 2018.

You've probably seen our coverage and tests over the past few weeks on the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities, or more specifically the performance drops you can expect from the patches that address these issues. We've already covered what you can expect on modern desktop systems, however today we'll be diving into the mobile side of things to see how Meltdown and Spectre patches affect ultraportable laptops.

If you've grown tired of answering those annoying browser prompts every time a website wants to show you notifications or know your location, you can turn the messages off forever with a few clicks in every major browser.

We're hardly two weeks into 2018 and it's been a wild ride for the tech industry already. Just as we thought graphics card pricing was settling down, it has skyrocketed higher than ever. We discuss the reasons why this scenario has provided the perfect storm for holding off on your next GPU upgrade.