I don’t mention these utilities in my reviews unless they make a meaningful difference in performance. I’m mentioning HP’s Command Center specifically because I don’t want to leave anyone with the impression that this is a slow laptop. It’s not — you just need to make judicious use of the utility. That can either be a bother or a boon, depending on how much attention you want to pay to such things. I like Command Center, because most of the time I don’t need superfast performance and appreciate cool and quiet performance more — but when I need pure speed, it’s just a mouse click away. … [Read more...] about HP Spectre x360 14 review: The convertible 2-in-1, perfected
Grail cf sl 8 0 test
Asus GPU Tweak 3 in Open-Beta, Ready for RTX 30 and RX 6000 Series GPUs
If you want to try GPU Tweak 3 out for yourself, you can download it here. GPU Tweak 3 just released to open-beta so don't expect a bug-free experience. Still, the previous iteration has been around for many years so the core functionality should be fine. GPU Tweak 3 can also work with non-Asus cards, though functionality varies. … [Read more...] about Asus GPU Tweak 3 in Open-Beta, Ready for RTX 30 and RX 6000 Series GPUs
Samsung Announces 870 EVO SSDs with 128-Layer TLC Flash
Samsung 870 EVO 2.5" 6Gbps SATA SSD Specs Capacity250GB500GB1TB2TB4TBSequential Read/Write (MBps)560 / 530560 / 530560 / 530560 / 530560 / 530Random Read/Write IOPS98,000 / 88,000 98,000 / 88,00098,000 / 88,00098,000 / 88,00098,000 / 88,000SSD ControllerSamsung MKXSamsung MKXSamsung MKXSamsung MKXSamsung MKXLPDDR4 DRAM512MB512MB1GB2GB4GBNAND FlashSamsung 512 Gbit 128-Layer TLCSamsung 512 Gbit 128-Layer TLCSamsung 512 Gbit 128-Layer TLCSamsung 512 Gbit 128-Layer TLCSamsung 512 Gbit 128-Layer TLCWarranty5 years5 years5 years5 years5 yearsWrite Endurance150TB300TB600TB1200TB2400TBMSRP$49.99$79.99$139.99$269.99$529.99 … [Read more...] about Samsung Announces 870 EVO SSDs with 128-Layer TLC Flash
Intel’s Alder Lake-S CPU Hits 4 GHz, Flaunting DDR5 Memory
The memory bandwidth test is one of the benchmarks that stand out the most. There's an improvement up to a whopping 153.6%. The logical reasoning behind the substantial uplift is that the previous Alder Lake-S was paired with DDR4 memory, while the new sample purportedly runs with DDR5 memory. … [Read more...] about Intel’s Alder Lake-S CPU Hits 4 GHz, Flaunting DDR5 Memory
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Roundup: ASRock, Asus, and Sapphire Reviewed
The good news is that performance across all of the tested RX 6800 XT cards is very close. At factory stock settings, the speediest of the cards we've tested is only 2-3 percent faster than the reference RX 6800 XT. Between the three custom cards, the performance deltas are even smaller, to the point of being effectively non-existent. But that doesn't mean the cards are all equal, as the cooling designs and other elements come into play. Here's a quick overview of the specs before we get into the individual card analysis and benchmark results. … [Read more...] about AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Roundup: ASRock, Asus, and Sapphire Reviewed