News

Asus ROG Chimera: new monster with 17.3” and 144 Hz display

by

Asus has announced another of those devices that are not suitable for all audiences. This is the new Asus ROG Chimera laptop, a monstrous 17.3-inch gaming laptop that stands out for its screen, with 144 Hz refresh rate and equipped with NVIDIA G-Sync technology to provide the best gaming experience to date.

With the ROG Chimera we should leave aside the term “laptop” and use “mobile game station”, as we have often commented with laptops of these dimensions and weight, and although the manufacturer has not yet specified it, it’s a very large and heavy device that will be difficult to take it from one place to another, or use it on your lap.

Asus ROG Chimera

That said, the Asus ROG Chimera has an Intel Core i7 7820HK with factory overclocking, running at a 4.3 GHz in Boost mode. It is accompanied by an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 desktop graphics card, also overclocked to run at 1974 MHz, which will also be responsible for managing the refresh rate of the screen with G-Sync technology. Of course, although Asus has not specified, we understand that the screen, despite having 144 Hz, is IPS, since its response time is 7 ms GtG.

Read more

Our readers speak: Mid-range or high-end graphics?

by

When we assemble a PC or update an existing configuration we have the option of choosing high-end or mid-range graphics cards, a decision that can end up being rather complicated , especially if we have a decent budget.

The decision is important because it affects not only user experience when it comes to playing our favourite games, but also the upgrade cycle which we will be subjected to.

If we opt for a high end graphics card it is very likely that we won’t have to upgrade for up to four or five years if it our monitors native resolution doesn’t change. On the other hand if we chose a mid-range graphics card it’s is very likely that we will have to upgrade sooner (between two and three years).

Read more

Here they come: Intel Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X with 18 cores for home PCs

by

Today is the day that Intel officially launched its new high-performance HEDT platform for enthusiasts. Two architectures join forces for the first time during the launching, Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X, besides unveiling the Core i9 lineup, a new Intel X299 chipset and the new LGA-2066 socket with a 55 pin increase in contrast to the the previous LGA 2011.

Intel Skylake-X

Not every Skylake-X processor announced will arrive right away. Actually, the company has postponed the most interesting models’ arrival to the domestic market: Core i9 chips with 12, 14, 16 and even 18 cores and prices from $1,200 to $2,000.

Intel Skylake-X

In fact, the models that Intel launched today are an improvement on the models already existing in its Broadwell-X lineup, with models ranging from 4 to 10 cores. The first i9 to hit the market will have precisely 10 cores, the 10-core Core i9-7900X with 20 threads and a speed of up to 4.5 GHz.

Read more

The best antiviruses of 2017 for Windows 10 according to AV-TEST

by

Even though Windows Defender keeps improving its preinstalled antivirus protection on Windows 10 PCs, other ‘complementary’ software are certainly key to keep your PC’s security at a maximum. Therefore, freeing us from malware threats, evidently, although in some cases it would mean sacrificing our PC’s performance ever so slightly. AV-TEST has analyzed several antivirus software for Windows 10 and they have come up with a ranking showing the best ones of 2017.

Read more

Is it technically possible to keep scaling down manufacturing processes?

by

https://pc4u.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Wafers.jpg

You already know that Moore’s law is practically dying: reducing lithography and increasing the number of transistors on chips keeps getting more complicated. Manufacturers, especially TSMC, Samsung and Intel, are working incessantly to keep reducing lithography by using new techniques on manufacturing processes, but it is clear that we are very close to the possible limit.

Currently, the main manufacturers are already producing 14 nm manufacturing processes (Intel’s Kaby Lake and AMD’s Ryzen, to name a few), although Intel has already planned its next generation (Cannon Lake) scaled to 10 nm while hinting at having something ready for next year at 7 nm. Meanwhile, TSMC already has its 10 nm process read and it has plans for a 5, and even a 3 nm, lithography, going as far as to anticipate a 2 nm lithography. Do not bother asking for AMD because it currently is the most realistic manufacturer: they have just started with the 14 nm process and it hopes for 7 nm by 2020.

https://pc4u.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/AMD.jpg

Certainly, we are talking long-term. Getting an actual 7 nm manufacturing process by next year or by 2019 would be quite an achievement, and the plans for 5 nm by 2020 seem pretty far away from what was originally expected. Let’s not talk about 3 and 2 nm: let’s face it, they will not be here any time soon.

Read more

You can start upgrading to Windows 10 Creators Update on April 5th.

by

Windows 10 Creators Update, the new and highly anticipated version of Windows 10, is almost upon us. Microsoft is already finalizing the arrival of this new update to be able to release it definitively next April 11, however, because its launch will be progressive, the company has been wanting to offer newer, faster and easier ways to update, without relying on Windows Update, like how it is the Windows Update Wizard 10 tool that can access this new version early.

Microsoft has already confirmed that its new update, Windows 10 Creators Update, will officially arrive to all users next April 11, however, they also said that it would not be released to everyone at the same time, instead opting to do it in “waves “, forcing some to wait up to several months to start enjoying the new update.

Read more

AMD Ryzen 7 1800X vs Intel Core i7-6900K under Sniper Elite 4

by

We have here the first reliable performance test of an AMD Ryzen CPU, specifically the Ryzen 7 1800X, with 8 Zen cores and 16 threads at a Base/Turbo frequency of 3.60/4.00 GHz with a TDP of 95W and a price of 499 dollars, which was faced with the Intel Core i7-6900K, consisting of 8 Broadwell cores with 16 threads at Base/Turbo frequencies of 3.20/4.00 GHz with a TDP of 140W and a price close to 1021 dollars.

https://pc4u.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/AMD-Ryzen-7-1800X.jpg

To fight this duel, the game Sniper Elite 4 was used accompanied by a CrossFire configuration of two Radeon RX 480. For the test to reflect the most reliable performance possible, the character was positioned exactly at the same point on the map with the camera focusing on the same point, revealing how, with both PCs running the game at 4K resolution, the Ryzen 7 1800X is a 6.6% faster, while the average running game translates to be a 6.7% more powerful average, not bad having 45W less TDP and costing practically half.

Read more

First RYZEN 7 1700X performance tests beat the Core i7 6850K

by

The VideoCardz guys have made a complete round of performance tests of the RYZEN 7 1700X, a processor that will make place just under the AMD series, that as we know will be the RYZEN 7 1800X.

Such processor counts with eight cores and sixteen threads at a base frequency of 3,4 GHz and 3,8 GHz in turbo mode, which can be increase if combined with a motherboard with a B350, X370 o X300 chipset. Its price has been leaked and it will be $389.

Read more

Apple suspends the LG UltraFine 5K, “the best monitor” for MacBook Pro

by

Apple began to sell last October the LG UltraFine 5K, which itself proclaimed as “the best monitor” for users that want to work with external displays from the MacBook Pro 2016.

LG UltraFine 5K

Is extremely weird for Apple to recommend and sell a product that isn’t part of its brand, but it has an explanation. In the last hardware conference, there was only room for the MacBook Pro 2016. Apple didn’t introduce any updates for the Mac Mini, Mac Pro or MacBook Air and neither a monitor of their own to reopen its Cinema Display series as it was rumored.

Read more