Feature Index Page 16

  • How Screwed is Intel without Hyper-Threading?

    Today we're exploring the impact disabling Hyper-Threading has on Intel processors. We've done this in the past and it's an interesting test, however there are new incentives to check this out due to the newly discovered side-channel vulnerabilities affecting Intel processors and their impact on Hyper-Threading.
    By Steven Walton on
  • Desktop vs. Laptop Gaming with the RTX 2070

    Gaming laptops have earned their place in the market and that's not up for debate. The idea is to show laptop buyers exactly how their systems will differ to a typical gaming desktop, so today's test is very simple: we've taken an RTX 2070 laptop and compared it to an RTX 2070 desktop in a range of games.
    By Tim Schiesser on
  • How CPUs are Designed, Part 3: Building the Chip

    In this third installment we explore how the physics of how transistors work, how their individual components are built in silicon, and how they are connected to create useful circuits and chips. How do you transform a pile of sand into an advanced processor? Let's find out.
    By William Gayde on
  • The Most Memorable Game Controllers from the Last 40 Years

    As video games have evolved, so have the ways that we control them. In the very early days, there were just knobs, joysticks and trackballs. Today's controllers have one or two analog joysticks and anywhere from 10 to 12 buttons. Here's our list of the most memorable console and PC controllers over the last four decades.
    By Cal Jeffrey on
  • How CPUs are Designed and Built, Part 2: CPU Design Process

    Now that we know how processors work at a high level, it's time to dig inside to understand how the internal components are designed. In part 2 we'll discuss transistors, logic gates, power and clock delivery, design synthesis, and verification.
    By William Gayde on
  • The History of Lightsabers in Video Games

    The lightsaber has been around since the very beginning of Star Wars and they've been part of many different Star Wars video games throughout the past 30+ years. They also show us how video games have improved and advanced over the last few decades. So grab your lightsaber, turn it on and wave it around.
    By Zack Zwiezen on
  • Discrete GPU on a Cheap OEM PC: Does it Make Sense?

    After testing the GTX 1650 we pledged to track down a popular OEM PC that didn't have a 6-pin PCIe power connector. This lead us to the HP Elitedesk 800 G1, a computer that most who were in favor of the GTX 1650 recommended we test with. Here we go.
    By Steven Walton on
  • The 10 Most Anticipated PC Games of 2019

    2018 was a fantastic year for the gaming world at large, but for PC gamers, it was a bit of a mixed bag. Kingdom Come: Deliverance launched in February to great success and other titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Forza Horizon 4 and Vermintide 2 were received to excellent user impressions. What's in store for 2019?
    By Cohen Coberly on
  • Update your BIOS: Utilities from Top Motherboard Makers

    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.
  • The Future of Tech: The Desktop PC

    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.
  • The Unexpected Success of No Man's Sky

    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.
    By Stephen Totilo on
  • Computer Tips & Tricks Everyone Should Know

    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.
    By Julio Franco on
  • Ryzen 5 2600X vs. 2600: Which should you buy?

    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?
    By Steven Walton on
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider: A Ray Tracing Investigation

    Critically-acclaimed game Shadow of the Tomb Raider has been updated to receive support for both DirectX ray tracing shadows and Nvidia's DLSS upscaling technology. It's been seven months since ray tracing was shown off in this title and a good six months since the game was released, but hey, the feature was added in eventually and it's a very good game, we must add.
    By Tim Schiesser on
  • The World Wide Web Turns 30: A Timeline

    The Web is turning 30 years old this month and clearly we've come a long way since Tim-Berners Lee wrote his paper proposing an information management system to facilitate information-sharing between physicists in universities and institutes around the world. Nowadays it's hard to imagine what life would be like without the web.
    By TechSpot Staff on
  • Radeon VII & GeForce RTX 2080 using Ryzen 7 2700X & Core i7-8700K

    Today we're looking at a few different hardware configurations to see if certain matchups work better than others. We're testing some popular games using the Ryzen 7 2700X and Core i7-8700K processors, pairing each with the Radeon VII, GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and RTX 2080, as all three GPUs provide a similar level of performance.
    By Steven Walton on
  • FreeSync on Nvidia GPUs Revisited

    Earlier this year we first put Nvidia's support for FreeSync monitors to the test, grabbed every FreeSync monitor we had in the office, and verified that in all cases adaptive sync worked as expected. LG recently sent us 5 of their latest FreeSync monitors, which we've used to revisit Nvidia's FreeSync support.
    By Tim Schiesser on
  • Tested: Ryzen Mobile Gets Better Drivers, Finally

    Today we're looking at the very first set of official Ryzen Mobile GPU drivers to come from AMD. Owners of Ryzen Mobile laptops have been waiting for this day for months now, so the fact these drivers are finally out is great news for the small but growing community of Ryzen laptop early adopters.
    By Tim Schiesser on
  • Are Quad-core CPUs Finally Dead in 2019?

    Today we're discussing quad-core processors, namely how relevant they are in 2019. The last time we covered this specific topic was back in 2017, so this article means to explore if these budget quad-cores are worth buying for gamers, or are they dead on arrival.
    By Steven Walton on
  • Nvidia's DLSS Second Take: Metro Exodus Investigation

    It's time for our final look into Metro Exodus, exploring the game's DLSS implementation which is exclusive to GeForce RTX graphics cards. We've been covering both ray tracing and DLSS closely, testing where it makes sense and following up as patches are released. As one of the key features on Nvidia's flagship RTX graphics card, the discussion is not only relevant but necessary.
    By Tim Schiesser on
  • Battlefield V DLSS Tested: Overpromised, Underdelivered

    Nvidia's deep learning super sampling, or DLSS, is one of the highly anticipated features present on RTX graphics cards. This month DLSS finally made its way to both Battlefield V and Metro Exodus, and as is the usual case for us, we'll be going through a full visual and performance breakdown in this article.
    By Tim Schiesser on
  • Metro Exodus Ray Tracing Benchmarked

    It's time for us to talk about ray tracing once again, this time in Metro Exodus, the latest game to integrate support for Nvidia's RTX technology. Metro Exodus looks to be a better showcase for DXR as a slower paced, open-world shooter that uses ray-traced global illumination. The game is launching with ray tracing and DLSS support from day one.
    By Tim Schiesser on
  • Best Value FreeSync Monitors for GeForce Owners

    Ever since Nvidia opened up support for adaptive sync monitors on GeForce GPUs, we've been receiving requests asking what FreeSync monitors we would recommend. The focus on this article will be on gaming and best value.
    By Tim Schiesser on
  • Is 6GB VRAM Enough for 1440p Gaming? Testing Usage with Nvidia's RTX 2060

    Today we're investigating claims that the new GeForce RTX 2060 is not a good buy because it only features 6GB VRAM capacity. The RTX 2060 offers performance similar to the GTX 1070 Ti, but that card packs an 8GB memory buffer, as did its non-Ti counterpart. In other words, the RTX 2060 is the fastest graphics card to ever to come with a 6GB memory buffer.
    By Steven Walton on
  • 10+ Tools for Finding and Deleting Duplicate Files on Windows

    We've covered many ways that you can save space on your storage drives over the years and deleting duplicate files on your system could easily result in a sizable clean out if only a few large files are found. Although Windows doesn't provide a direct solution, there are many apps that can help, so here's a quick look at them.
    By TechSpot Staff on
  • Using FreeSync with Nvidia GPUs Examined

    To the surprise of many, Nvidia has backed down from their G-Sync tower and enabled Nvidia GPU owners to use adaptive sync with a wide range of FreeSync monitors. The feature was announced during CEO Jensen Huang CES 2019 keynote and this week it's been enabled by the latest GeForce drivers.
    By Tim Schiesser on
  • Why Building a Gaming PC Right Now is a Good Idea: Good Timing, Great Hardware, Right Prices

    What a difference a year makes. It was about this time last year that we discussed why building a gaming PC was a bad idea, but thankfully a lot has changed since. You may recall, DDR4 memory and graphics card prices were through the roof a year ago. GPU availability was quite poor and on top of all that, we were at the end of a few product cycles. Fast forward a year, what's changed?
    By Steven Walton on
  • A Stroll Down Memory Lane: Best 3Dfx Glide Games

    Having a specialized 3d API was arguably both the highlight and the downfall for pioneer 3Dfx. The Glide API combined with Voodoo hardware truly enhanced the gaming experience. If you are old enough, odds are you owned a 3Dfx card and played some of these games. Let us take you a trip down memory lane and remember some of the best.
    By Shawn Knight on
  • The Ultimate Guide to Buying a Used Graphics Card

    There are many reasons why you would buy a used graphics card. First and foremost, the savings, of course. With the mining madness now over, we've been given the opportunity of buying graphics cards on the cheap. Also this past generation of GPUs also received a much longer than expected life cycle, meaning you are not getting overly old GPUs, but fairly serviceable gaming hardware.
    By Steven Walton on
  • 7 Tech Predictions for 2019

    Though it's a year shy of the big decade marker, 2019 looks to be one of the most exciting and most important years for the tech industry in some time. Thanks to the upcoming launch of 5G and foldable displays, as well as critical enhancements in AI, robotics, and other exciting areas, there's a palpable sense of expectation for the new year that we haven't felt for a while.
    By Bob O'Donnell on