Posts Tagged Under: CPU

Arrow Lake’s Parting Shot: Better Late Than Never, Intel

Ultra 5 260K Plus, Ultra 7 270K Plus

In the beginning, the article was without sources, and void. But the sun rose upon the sleeping Intel fans, and hope stirred once more within their souls. The editor’s mouse shifted, links were copied and pasted, as shown below:

Indeed, after years and years of disappointment and ridicule, including the horrible Arrow Lake launch, Intel is getting back to form with the Arrow Lake Refresh. This refresh is made from 2 CPUs:

  1. Intel Core Ultra 5 250K Plus  (6P / 12E for $200)
  2. Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus  (8P / 16E for $300)

And how do they fare?

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AMD’s Niche CPUs: Excellent Gaming and Productivity Performance, But at a Price

Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D

A few weeks ago, AMD launched two new processors, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D. How do they fare, and will we recommend them in our PC build chart? Let us find out.

The R9 9950X3D is a $700 16-core CPU, with the “3D” denoting extra cache. The R9 9900X3D is a $600 12-core, with the same “3D” extra cache.

AMD’s goal with these 3D CPUs is the same as it was for previous 3D CPUs: Provide best-in-class gaming performance, without compromising productivity. Did they succeed?

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Intel Fumbles the Arrow into the Lake

Ultra 9 Underwater

CPUs are a duopoly. While some alternatives to AMD and Intel technically exist, their market share is so tiny that they do not appear on some statistics tracking pages. It is for this reason that we rarely talk about only Intel or only AMD. We instead compare them to one another, as they are both the only true competition to each other.

So, in today’s update article, as we turn our attention to whether there’s a place in our PC build chart for Intel’s strange new CPU release, named ‘Arrow Lake’—we also consider how this release fits into the history of the battle between two impressive (sometimes clumsy) tech giants.

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AMD Conquers the High-end CPU Tiers

AMD Ryzen 9000 CPU lineup

It has been a while, but here we are with AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series launched and ready for purchase!

AMD’s new CPU series starts with a serious set of excellent high-end CPUs. We are not going to analyze all of them individually in this post, but as a quick summary:

    • Ryzen 5 9600X: 6 cores and 12 threads for $250.
    • Ryzen 7 9700X: 8 cores and 16 threads for $320.
    • Ryzen 7 9800X3D: Also 8 cores and 16 threads, but with extra cache for $480.
    • Ryzen 9 9900X: 12 cores and 24 threads for $380.
    • Ryzen 9 9950X: 16 cores (!) and 32 threads (!!) for $550.

So, how do these new CPUs measure up? Do they belong in our chart?

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Updating CPU Performance Comparisons Nov. 18-19

Greetings.

We are updating the CPU performance information shown. Our current CPU descriptions compare performance to the old Ryzen 9 3900X. We are updating the performance numbers to be compiled from newer benchmarks, and showing performance relative to the new Ryzen 9 9900X.

As we update the CPU descriptions, you may see errors in the performance numbers, where some of the CPUs are still being compared to the older 3900X, making them look out of place. We are working on making sure that all CPU description are updated and standardized within a day or two of this post.

showing the cpu performance numbers in the cpu description that will be updated

Thank you!

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What Logical Increments Tier is Required to Run the Most Popular Steam Games?

Top Games Header

(Information on Steam’s top games were gathered for this article from Steam Charts)

Back in January 2020, I crafted a neat little piece discussing the Logical Increments tier needed to enjoy each of the top games on Steam at the time. Fast forward to now, and oh, how the scene has shifted! Back around that period, we were seeing trade tariffs causing a good bump in prices for PC hardware​. As we ventured into late 2020, high demand meant the cost of PC parts kept climbing, and 2021 brought even higher prices—especially for graphics cards due to a cryptocurrency boom. Oh, and let’s not forget, the world was just getting acquainted with Covid-19, adding a whole new level of complexity to tech market dynamics through supply chain issues.

Now, at the tail end of 2023, with prices and availability having normalized in some (though not all) component categories, and just a week left until Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s about time we take a fresh look at what Logical Increments PC building tier you’d need to dive into the most popular Steam games today. Let’s see what changed in the last few years, and whether that ol’ system still has some life in it, or whether it might be worth a little upgrade. Stick around as we unpack the current gaming demands and discuss today’s tech landscape.

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The Raptor Lake (is Barely a) Refresh

i9-14900K

I am always excited by hardware launches! The feeling of fresh, new, unexpected hardware! Progressing technology, things getting faster, or cooler, or cheaper, or all three at the same time. It is wonderful, and it is a feeling I look forward to with each launch…

Intel just launched its Raptor Lake refresh CPUs, adding a (hopefully) fresh coat of paint and renewing its Raptor Lake lineup from last year.

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PC Parts are Headed in the Wrong Direction

RTX 6090 XTX Super

Fig. 1: Our prediction of the only graphics card nVidia will release in the year 2026 (projected MSRP: $20,000)

Greetings. This article was painful to write. Every section hurt, and every section gets progressively more painful. But the truth can hurt, so read on.

The consumer PC world is headed down a bad path:

There is a major focus by PC part manufacturers to produce extremely expensive and overpowered products, with the mid-tiers and the low-end being neglected. There might be no annihilation and havoc in the personal computer sector immediately, but most consumers are unhappy. If things continue as they are, normal PC buyers may choose to opt out, shrinking the market significantly. With fewer and fewer customers in the long-term, some component manufacturers may find themselves facing their own end-of-life.

Come walk with me, friendly reader, down memory lane, and I will show you how we ended up here… and where we might be going next.

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