It's been an exciting and eventful year in tech, and we've kept busy as new products unfolded. In a record year for TechSpot we published 172 longer form articles, between reviews, guides and tech-related features. Here are the 10 most popular ones we published in 2015:

#10 The Best Graphics Cards for the Money: Nvidia & AMD GPUs tested and compared

Nvidia released four new GPUs in 2015 while AMD delivered eight cards if you're willing to be loose with the definition of "new" and three if you're not: Radeon R9 Fury X, Fury and Nano. We break down each price bracket where key battles are being played out to pick some bang-for-buck winners. The GPU battle awaits!

#9 Top 10 Hidden Windows 10 Features

Many of Windows 10's key features have been talked about at length, but the operating system actually comes with a lot of great features that aren't as immediately obvious.

#8 Then and Now: A decade of Intel CPUs compared, from Conroe to Haswell

Take a look back at how Intel CPUs have progressed over the years. We test and compare the original Core 2 Duo CPUs against the Nehalem-based Core i5-760 and Core i7-870, the Sandy Bridge Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2700K chips, and then the Haswell Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 parts.

#7 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Benchmarked, Performance Review

The Witcher 3 is the New Crysis. We test nineteen DirectX 11 graphics cards to find out how the game performs in both AMD and Nvidia hardware.

#6 The Best CPU for the Money: Intel Core i3-6100 vs. i3-4360, i5-4430 & AMD FX-8320E

The FX-8320E has been AMD's go-to option for budget quad-core computing without integrated graphics for a while. But the landscape has shifted on Intel's side with the arrival of its new Skylake-based Core i3 and Pentium processors. We test how the i3-6100 stacks up against the older i3-4360, as well as the i5-4430 and the overclocked FX-8320E.

#5 Grand Theft Auto V Benchmarked, Performance Review

PC gamers got their chance to play the latest entry in the Grand Theft Auto series a little late, but the PC version came with many improvements. We test the heck of it.

#4 How Much Memory Should You Get? 4GB vs. 8GB vs. 16GB Performance Tested

Today's modern games and many productivity applications can consume upwards of 4GB RAM, so there's little argument for not going with 8GB. However, the need for 16GB of memory is a hotly debated subject. How much do you actually need?

#3 Is Windows 10 Free? Yes, and No. An Explainer

In the run-up to the Windwos 10 launch Microsoft sent mixed signals about who gets a free upgrade and who doesn't. This is an overview of the different upgrade paths.

#2 Intel Core i3 vs. Core i5 vs. Core i7: What do you get by spending more?

The Core i3 is intended as an entry-level option, the Core i5 is geared for mainstream usage, and the mighty Core i7 is meant for high-end systems and enthusiasts. Many will wonder which one is right for them. That's what we try to answer here.

#1 Windows 10 vs. 8.1 vs. 7 Performance: Microsoft's latest OS put to the test

After running the beta for months, I installed Windows 10 on launch day with the impression that it was relatively fast and stable, though it remained to be seen precisely how fast it was compared to Windows 8.1 and the beloved Windows 7.