Since June, hardware requirements of Windows 11 have been a hot topic—the necessity of having TPM 2.0 and the supported CPU list that leaves out some PCs mere three years old. Fortunately, it looks like the hopes that Microsoft will get more pragmatic about this have come true and the company will allow the new OS to be run on older PCs that do not make the cut officially. But it is going to take an extra bit of work. Read more “MS allows Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, with caveats”
Since the last processor test (including) we have changed the way we evaluate the overall or average performance of all games. You suggested to us in the discussion half a year ago that it would be better for all games to have the same weight. However, the right time to incorporate this new calculation came only recently. So how do we actually do it and why is it better than before? Read more “HWC’s testlab #1: New average CPU score measuring method”
It seems that CPU coolers compatible with AMD AM4 will also fit nicely on the upcoming AM5 socket. And that’s with no modifications or the need for new components. This is indicated by an information leak from the technical documentation with details about the future AMD socket. Its construction changes significantly and is therefore particularly remarkable that the same range of mounting holes for coolers and other hardware is maintained. Read more “Future AMD AM5 socket will likely support current coolers”
Phanteks has released a 120-millimeter fan with an atypical thickness of 30 mm. Thanks to such a profile, the rotor with the same cross-section can have a larger blade area. And since the blade shape on the new Phanteks fan resembles that of the Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM, there was immediate speculation about “the new king” and so on. However, this may not be so clear for several reasons. Read more “Thicker fan, better properties? Phanteks has a 30 mm fan”
Last week we’ve covered a leaked Intel processor roadmap showing Arrow Lake, Lunar Lake and Nova Lake processors that are to arrive after Alder Lake, Raptor Lake and Meteor Lake. We said to take it with a grain of salt, as that was the first time the Arrow and Nova codenames have shown up. But shorty after, more information on Arrow Lake has come up that could prove its existence. Looks like the mobile will pack a very fast iGPU. Read more “Intel Arrow Lake processors – high performance iGPU with 320 EU”
Intel will release new Alder Lake desktop processors in three months—with a powerful new architecture and hybrid big.LITTLE approach for the first time. These CPUs, finally manufactured on 7nm process (originally 10nm Enhanced SuperFin), should have significantly better energy efficiency. But it looks thir power needs will go up despite this. Intel is increasing the currents required from PSUs, which could mean higher power draws. Read more “Alder Lake may have a higher power draw. PSU recommendations”
Until midnight yesterday, you had a chance to sign up for a giveaway to win the Celsius+ S28 Prisma liquid cooler. Thank you not only for your generous participation, but also for your nice comments. Based on your messages, quite remarkable statistics have been created about what cases and processors you own. For curious readers, we will also reveal this secret in the article. But of course, firstly the announcement of the winner. Read more “Giveaway results: The winner of the Fractal Design liquid cooler is…”
Didn’t it work out for you in the first summer giveaway? Never mind, there is a new opportunity to win something valuable. We’re talking about the Fractal Design Celsius+ S28 Prisma. All you have to do is write down whether you could use this liquid cooler with a 280 mm radiator—due to its cooling capacity, but most importantly its dimensions. However, you cannot fit in every case, but if you can, it won’t collide with anything… Read more “Giveaway: Liquid cooler from Fractal Design. Can you use it?”
Reports that AMD was to unveil a new and so far the cheapest graphics card with RDNA 2 architecture on Friday turned out to be true and AMD has announced Radeon RX 6600 XT. Full specifications has been revealed, but with a price a bit higher than what has been leaked. The card using the new Navi 23 GPU should offer higher performance and a slightly lower power draw than Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060, but for a price 15% higher. Read more “Radeon RX 6600 XT with Navi 23 revealed: specs, price, benches”
We have exclusively come across an information leak, which indicates that some of the upcoming ROG Strix graphics cards will have a cooler from Noctua. The headline could easily have a tabloid undertone “we’re first to know!”, but on the contrary, we will approach this thing with humility. There is little information and it is rather about clues. But it seems that the question at the moment is not IF, but WHEN. Read more “Noctua seems to be working on a cooler for Asus Strix graphics”
Last week we’ve had reports of the big.LITTLE Intel Alder Lake processors reaching surprising performance: with just 8 “big” cores out of the total 16, they are said to surpass the 32-threaded Zen 3 in Cinebench R20. Now we the specs of all three 125W unlocked models, with clocks and power draw in boost, aka PL2. Looks like 10nm process will finally lower the power consumption compared to the 14nm CPUs—but not by much. Read more “Specs of Intel Alder Lake 125W ‘K’ processors leak: clock rate, PL2”
A remarkable fan—TL-B12 Extrem—has appeared among the products on Thermalright.com. It will be one of the few options with very high speed and therefore high static pressure and air flow. According to specifications, it even defeats the industrial variant of the Noctua NF-F12 fan (iPPC-3000 PWM) in some aspects. However, the TL-B12 Extrem could be cheaper. Read more “TL-B12 Extrem: New fan by Thermalright with 3,150 rpm”
Last month we had tentative reports of possibly improving situation in graphics card market, which is afflicted by shortages and high prices this year—largely due to the return of cryptocurrency bubble and the resulting Ethereum mining obsession. The crisis seems to really be on its way out. Prices continue to fall, in Germany they’re already at lowest levels since February. And their decline is pretty fast too. Read more “Graphics card prices fall sharply, now lowest since February”
A new thermal paste has been introduced – Pactum PT-4. Its specifications are admirable, considering the lower price range. The thermal conductivity is more than double that of the previous Pactum PT-2. At least on paper. It could finally be a real competition for the Arctic MX-5. Particularly the application of the PT-4 should be comfortable for its low viscosity. Read more “Low price, high thermal conductivity – SPC Pactum PT-4”
Data on the performance of two of Intel’s gaming graphics cards with the DG2/Xe HPG architecture have been leaked: cheaper cards could compete with the GeForce GTX 1650 to GTX 1650 Super, mainstream cards with 448 EU are expected to be just behind the RTX 3070. Which means that a full-fat version with 512 EU could be even faster. Intel thus could have a chance to take hold in a large parts of the gaming graphics market. Read more “Leak shows performance of 1024 and 3584 shader Intel Xe GPUs”
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