The reason I’ve recommended the Ryzen 5 1600 over the i7-7700K in the past is because it’s a much cheaper part ($215) on a more affordable platform, and it will deliver the same experience for 90% of gamers out there. So again, while the 7700K is the best option if you want the ultimate gaming experience with maximum frame rates, Ryzen makes more sense in terms of value. So Threadripper may not be ideal for gaming but it’s still capable and it’s likely much better than Intel’s Xeon Gold 6130 for example, a $1,900 16-core/32-thread server chip that operates at a base frequency of only 2....

We see a similar story when encoding with HandBrake, the 2990WX is significantly under utilized in this test, maxing out at about 30% utilization. That said under those conditions you’d expect the 2990WX to roughly match the 2950X and it fails to do so. Here the 2950X was 15% faster and I should also note it offered no real performance gain over the 1950X in this test. Meanwhile the 2990WX was only able to match the 1920X which is obviously a massive disappointment....

But there are alternatives to the PG258Q on the market for those that don’t want to spend a whopping $600 on a 24-inch display. The AOC Agon AG251FZ is one such option: it swaps out G-Sync for FreeSync, but you still get a maximum refresh rate of 240 Hz from an essentially identical panel. Its feature set is very similar to the PG258Q, and even offers a few extras at its lower price point, which is currently hovering around the $500 mark....

Gamers who don’t want noisy or stiff keys will appreciate the Cherry MX Red switches and for whatever it’s worth, this review was written using the Thunder K7, and I preferred it over the high-end membrane board I was using. If anything, the Thunder K7 is flexible with its detachable number pad, catering to lefties and righties as well as folks who can’t decide between buying a standard full size keyboard and one without a numpad....

On Thursday, anonymous sources told Bloomberg that Apple executives recently demonstrated a headset with VR and AR functionality to its board of directors. Reports over the last year have suggested that the Cupertino giant had to delay the device’s unveiling, but this presentation indicates an advanced development stage. Apple could unveil the headset late this year or early next year and launch it later in 2023. Earlier reports already provided many details of Apple’s VR and mixed reality ambitions....

This week, Apple announced iOS 16, a major update that brings on lock screen improvements, automatic security updates, passwordless logins, and more. The company says the OS update will be compatible with iPhone 8 and newer models, while previous iPhones and iPod Touch are being left behind as they’re equipped with aging chipsets. That isn’t the case with iPadOS 16, which will be available for all devices that were eligible for iPadOS 15....

There are also four microphones for far-field Siri access and support for spatial audio with Dolby Atmos. Design-wise, the new speaker looks a lot like the original with acoustically transparent mesh fabric and a backlit touch surface on top. It measures 5.6 inches wide, 6.6 inches high and weighs a touch over five pounds. The new HomePod also utilizes 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 wireless, and is compatible with iPhone SE Gen 2 and later and iPhone 8 and later running iOS 16....

Here we see that with all 8-core/16-threads placed under full load the Asrock X99E-ITX/ac consumed 5% more power than the Fatal1ty X99X Killer. Clearly the board is being more aggressive with the way it clocks the Core i7-5960X, which is what helped it deliver up to 7% more performance in a few tests. Despite being a tiny Mini-ITX motherboard with few third-party chips, the Asrock X99E-ITX/ac is still power hungry....

Scientists at Caltech’s Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at the Palomar Observatory have discovered a strange pair of binary stars. It is the “black widow” star system designated ZTF J1406+1222. On Wednesday, the astronomers published a paper on their findings in the Nature academic journal. There are a few things that make ZTF J1406+1222 unique. First, it helps to know what we’re dealing with here. Black widows are a rare class of binary star system where a dead neutron star, also known as a pulsar, rotates around a hydrogen-rich star — in this case, a brown dwarf....

Phenom Test System Specs - AMD Phenom II X4 965 (AM3) - AMD Athlon II X4 620 (AM3) - x2 Kingston HyperX 2GB DDR3-1333 (CAS 8-8-8-24) - Asus M3A79-T Deluxe (AMD 790FX) - OCZ GameXStream (700 watt) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) - Asus GeForce GTX 285 (1GB) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - Nvidia Forceware 190.38 Power consumption levels using the Core i5 750 on the Asus P7P55D Deluxe were remarkable....

It should be mentioned that Asus let me borrow this monitor for several weeks, so this review is the culmination of my thoughts from using it and integrating it into our creative workflow for quite some time now. Asus has packed in almost every feature you could think of in the ProArt PA32UC. It’s a 32-inch 3840 x 2160 IPS panel at 60 Hz with Adaptive Sync, it sports 100% sRGB color space coverage, 99....

Saturation results are good, with a deltaE of 1.88, and this follows through to ColorChecker with a deltaE of 2.31. For the best results I’d be looking for sub 1.0 results as always, but anything around that 2.0 mark is still classified as good. And as advertised, the XG35VQ does support basically 100% sRGB coverage, which is the bare minimum these days. On-Screen Display Only Calibration As always, a few OSD tweaks can improve the experience....

GFTs appear like wrapped gift boxes, but “unwrap” on a specific date to reveal a surprise. Each GFT is an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain, and the initial collection will celebrate Atari’s 50th year in business. The set of 10 GFTs will be inspired by the company’s iconic games, with each produced in a limited quantity and purchasable with a credit card or crypto. GFTs will be available to purchase from the GFT Shoppe starting February 1, 2022, and will be minted in common, rare and epic editions....

Personally, I feel that even the faster Radeon HD 5670 is barely adequate to run the latest titles using DX11 in all their visual glory. The Radeon HD 5570 scored just 44fps when testing with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat at 1440x900 using medium quality settings, negating any advantages that DX11 may offer. The Radeon HD 5570 is also one of the more powerful low-profile graphics card we have come across, a trait certainly worth mentioning....

Because we received the N3400 weeks before the Windows 7 launch, our review sample shipped with Vista Home Premium 64-bit. A quick check at some of the online retailers offering this unit shows it is eligible for a free Windows 7 upgrade now that it has become available. The first thing you’ll notice about the N3400 is its slim profile and aluminum external shell. At its thickest point, the notebook remains under the 1" mark measuring just ....

Basecamp said it was leaving cloud services because “renting computers is (mostly) a bad deal for medium-sized companies like ours.” Cloud companies were making “obscene margins” on computing resources they were renting out, and the savings promised in reduced server complexity never materialized. David Heinemeier Hansson, CTO of 37signals/Basecamp and creator of the server-side application framework Ruby on Rails, has detailed how much money the company spent on cloud services in 2022....

As you can see, Hardline isn’t particularly CPU demanding as the Core i3-4130 wasn’t a great deal slower than the FX-9590 or Core i7 processors when armed with the GTX Titan X. Overclocking won’t help Intel users gain much in the way of extra performance as an 80% increase in clock speed produced just 7% more performance. It is difficult/nearly impossible to measure the true CPU requirements of Hardline as this needs to be done in a server full of players and for obvious reasons we can’t reproduce accurate results in this situation....

Given how large the case is we didn’t find a need to remove the motherboard tray and instead dropped the Gigabyte Z97X-SOC motherboard in without first preinstalling any other components. Securing the CPU and then the massive Silverstone Heligon Series HE02 heatsink with the motherboard already in the case was easily done. There is even room to reach the motherboard’s 8-pin power connector with the HE02 heatsink installed. Speaking of power connectors, the massive Corsair AX1500i fit without having to remove any hard drive cages....

If you’re tight on cash but want a really good monitor, this is the article for you. For putting together this buying guide we narrowed down our options to displays that give you the best experience for the lowest possible price. Most of these picks end up squarely as the ‘best bang for buck’ option, while we also evaluated some outright cheap options that will get mentioned where it makes the most sense....

Bethesda is also offering active Prime Gaming subscribers the opportunity to claim the 25th anniversary bundle for Fallout 76. It’ll be available via Prime Gaming Rewards from November 2, 2022 until February 2, 2023, and includes a handful of in-game goodies. Active Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members can also nab the bundle. The window for redemption opens October 27 and runs through December 27. Bethesda additionally announced that from October 25 through November 8, Fallout 76 players can visit the Atomic Shop for a free daily item....