We went out looking for Amazon's most popular monitor and what we discovered was Acer's SB220Q 1080p 75Hz IPS display. This monitor tops both the best selling and the most wished for monitors list, so that'd seem to indicate not only are customers buying this monitor, but they actually want it in significant numbers.
Today we're running the Radeon RX 5600 XT through more than 30 games and for comparison we have the older Pascal-based GTX 1070 and 1060 GPUs. We've also thrown in the RTX 2060 Super and RX 5700 XT for good measure, but the key takeaway for this article is to see what kind of upgrade the Radeon 5600 XT offers over the GTX 1060 when testing a huge range of games.
Consoles have come a very long way since the arrival of first-gen machines from Atari and Coleco in the seventies. Even the original PlayStation (1994) and Xbox (2001) look dated compared to today's machines, and that divide will grow even larger once the PS5 and Xbox Series X arrive at the end of 2020. But what about the future?
Today we're looking at the most expensive desktop CPU to ever exist, and shockingly it's not from Intel. The Threadripper 3990X is a 64-core, 128-thread Zen 2-based processor that AMD fully acknowledges is a special purpose processor that combines both high frequency and high core counts into a single package.
Power supply units don't break headlines like the latest CPUs do, but they're awesome pieces of technology. Let's put on our gowns, masks, and gloves, and pull open the humble PSU -- breaking down its various parts and seeing what each bit does.
Intel is developing discrete GPUs for gamers, professionals, and servers, and they're all slated for release this year or coming in 2021. Intel's cards will either be the long-awaited saviors of a stagnant market, or they'll underperform and flop miserably (no pressure, Intel PR person reading this). This is our second round of investigation into Xe.
For 2020 we've decided to take a different route for recommending gaming monitors. With such a vast array of options, we've recognized a few segments that deserve our full attention. Today's guide will cover exclusively 1440p gaming monitors which is perhaps the most mainstream and popular category.
The LG 38GL950G is the best ultrawide monitor on the market right now. Essentially it takes every feature we got with previous flagship ultrawide displays, and takes it up a notch. The resolution and panel are physically bigger, up to 3840 x 1600, offering a more immersive experience and better for productivity work.
A mysterious Ryzen 5 1600 refresh made it to market late last year. Bizarrely, AMD has released a really cheap version of the Ryzen 5 2600, but just called it the Ryzen 5 1600. Known as the "1600 AF" because of the box identification this is a Zen+ 6-core, 12-thread part that's selling for just $85 brand new.
The Radeon RX 5600 XT is a respectable product that has pushed for lower prices and better performance at $300. For that alone, we commend it. The GPU won't blow your socks off and yet it's better value than the Radeon RX 5700 and makes the RTX 2060 Super a really tough buy. Given the competition in this price range, we think AMD has done fine.
Looking back before we move forward, 2019 was a good year for PC gaming. But in spite of how excellent many of those games are, they'll have some pretty stiff competition this year. With highly-anticipated titles like Mount & Blade: Bannerlord and Cyberpunk 2077 on the release docket, 2020 is set to be one hell of a year for PC gamers.
Today we're taking a look at the performance impact having four DDR4 memory modules can have on performance in a dual-channel system, opposed to just two modules. In this scenario all modules are operating at the same frequency, use the same timings and provide the same total memory capacity.
The Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQ is a hot item at the moment and we believe this is due to a combination of factors: it's a 27-inch 1440p 165Hz IPS display, it includes a novel feature called ELMB-Sync, it's well built and price of admission is just $430.
Today we're going to review the sub-$200 graphics card market and see how it compares to what we were offered just a few years ago. We recently did this for the $400 price range and it was super interesting. The two most recent additions to this segment are the Radeon 5500 XT and Nvidia's GTX 1650 Super. Let's see how they do against previous generations.
Without properly managing heat, our electronic systems would destroy themselves or conversely, we'd be severely limiting our computing capabilities. This article will touch on the basic science of heat, how and why it is generated in electronics, and the various methods we have developed to control it.
The old value king Ryzen 5 2600 remains to this day a great CPU option. Gamers asking if they should spend some $70 more on the R5 3600, or just get the 2600, this is the article for you. It was time to get these results out.
How well do you know the components that make up your PC? Take the humble motherboard, it sits there, quietly keeping everything running, and rarely gets the same attention as the CPU or graphics card. Motherboards are remarkably important though, so let's go all Grey's Anatomy, and dissect the motherboard -- breaking down its various parts and seeing what each bit does!
#ThrowBackThursday 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.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an open-world role-playing game that casts you as a legendary and sexy monster hunter named Geralt of Rivia. Widely considered one of the best RPGs of all time, The Witcher is having newfound mainstream popularity thanks to the Netflix TV series. Check out this review for a ton of game detail and also our corresponding GPU & CPU performance test.
If you haven't heard about the Ryzen 5 3500X until now it's likely because this CPU is mostly being sold and marketed to OEMs and system integrators. Initially it was reported as an OEM-only part for China, but it turns out you can pretty much buy it anywhere, though the conditions will vary from one region to another.
Finally we can declare SSDs are not only mainstream, but they're a commodity. Fast storage will hopefully only get faster but today's best choices are differentiated by how extreme you want to go and how willing you are to pay for the very best.
#ThrowBackThursday Expanding upon all the testing we performed in our day-one 3rd-gen Ryzen coverage, today we'll be running a clock-for-clock comparison benchmark. IPC can be a good indicator of a processor's architecture efficiency, so we're pitting the new Ryzen 3900X and 3700X against Intel's Core i9-9900K.
Video game physics are something that we often take for granted. Programming physics into a game can be as simple as one or two routines, or as complex as requiring a separate physics engine to handle the computations. In this article we'll delve into the specifics of rigid body and soft body physics in games.
For the third year in a row, before the year comes to an end, lets look back at some of the worst CPU and PC graphics products released in 2019. Just like we have guides dedicated to the best CPUs and best GPUs you can buy, this is our hall of shame equivalent. Not meaning to create controversy, take this piece as informational light reading for the holidays.
