What a ride it has been. The hype train has been grinding these rails for over a year it seems, and now the destination has finally been reached. In this article we will look at what different reviewers have to say about the R7 1800X, AMD’s new flagship Ryzen CPU, and compare it to what Intel’s i7-6900K has to offer.
AMD have a new player in the game…
With the AMD Press Event details now available to the world, with videos and articles confirming the many (oh so many!) performance and price leaks to be correct, we take a look at the first big leap forward from AMD in five years with the shiny new Ryzen 7 series. On March 2, the Ryzen 7 1800X, 1700X, and 1700 will challenge Intel’s 6- and 8-core CPU lineup at very competitive price points. Now we wonder: Is Intel worried?
[Edit: Since writing this article, Intel has announced price drops of their CPUs in response to Ryzen. So, in short: Yes, they are worried! Now read on to understand why.]
Build a PC or buy a console? The debate rages on…
With the release of the PlayStation 4 Pro over the holidays, the debate over the performance needed for 4K gaming on PC has been fierce. With games like Last of Us Remastered running in the PlayStation 4 Pro’s 4K 60 FPS mode, it is a testament to the level of optimization that can be achieved when working to a single specification. Yet what sort of performance can a PC builder get for the same $400?
Kaby Lake continues its takeover our CPU recommendations.
Kaby Lake has now replaced all of the Skylake CPUs except for some low-end Skylake Celerons in our Minimum tier. (Since H210 motherboards are not out yet, we cannot find suitable motherboards for Kaby Lake Celerons.)
2017 is set to bring us some interesting new developments in PC hardware technology. Let’s talk about possibly the most interesting technologies on the horizon from AMD: The Ryzen CPUs and AM4 Motherboards.
Kaby Lake is the first CPU series under Intel’s new Tick-Tock-Tack strategy (a.k.a Process, Architecture, Optimization). Previously, Intel would shrink it’s last generation’s CPU (a Tick), and then introduce a new microarchitecture at that size in the next generation (a Tock). Now Intel shrinks a CPU (Tick), makes a new microarchitecture (Tock), then “optimizes” it. What does “optimize” mean? That is left up to the reader to decide, as “optimize” is not defined by Intel.
Ladies and gentlemen, it has begun! We’ve have been waiting a year for Black Friday sales, and Newegg’s current Black Friday deals are great!
These sale prices are guaranteed to be the best prices on these parts through Black Friday, which means you can safely buy them now without worrying about a better deal showing up on Black Friday.
We’ve gone through Newegg’s current pre-Black Friday deals, and picked out the best deals on PC components.
These sale prices are guaranteed to be the best prices on these parts through Black Friday, which means you can safely buy them now without worrying about a better deal showing up on Black Friday.
Our Minimum, Entry, and Modest tiers have been updated with Intel’s Skylake Celeron and Pentium CPUs. These are cheap, low-tier CPUs that are decent for a tight budget.
What is the best high-end CPU? The 3 best consumer-grade options are the Broadwell-E i7-6900K and i7-6950X, and the older Haswell-E i7-5960X. We previously recommended the i7-5960X over the newer i7-6900K in our build guide for NVIDIA’s GTX 1080, because of the older CPU’s superior overclocking potential. Here we will compare the pros and cons of these CPUs in more detail, so that you can make the best choice.