Intel’s long-awaited discrete graphics targeting gaming and content creation finally gets christened Monday with a family name, Intel Arc — a play on the concept of a story arc and architecture. Formerly known as “DG2,” and based on the HPG variant of the company’s latest generation of its GPU designs, the first chips based on …
Read More »Lori Grunin
Galaxy Unpacked: Everything Samsung announced, from Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 to Watch 4 and Buds 2
Samsung’s third Unpacked of 2021 is over, and like all events since the coronavirus spread around the world, Samsung’s latest launch was all-virtual. Foldables are the big phones of the day: Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 3, which expands outward from a phone into a tablet, and the Galaxy Z Flip 3, a clamshell design. New Galaxy Buds 2, Galaxy Watch 4 and …
Read More »AMD RX 6600 XT GPU tested: Fast performer for 1080p gaming
The latest step in the graphics card pas de deux between AMD and Nvidia is the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT GPU. It’s also the current entry-level model in AMD’s line of graphics processors for gamers specifically looking for speed or higher quality in 1080p resolution. The RX 6600 XT’s nominal $379 price and performance slots seamlessly between Nvidia’s $329 …
Read More »Nvidia RTX A2000 GPU brings ECC VRAM to small workstations
ECC memory: When ya gotta have it, ya gotta have it. And if you’re designing planes, cars, multimillion-dollar movies and more, ya gotta have it. Nvidia’s new low-profile, entry-level workstation graphics processor, the $450 RTX A2000, will have 6GB of it when the card ships in October. This is the first time the company’s made error-correcting memory, which detects and …
Read More »Apple, AMD launch Mac Pro GPU modules for RX 6000 Pro series
As of Tuesday, Apple has begun to replace the top-end Vega 2 Pro MPX Module GPU options with the newer-generation RDNA2-based Radeon Pro RX W6000X series for Mac Pros, which now lets you configure a system with up to four GPUs. Existing customers will still be able to buy Radeon Pro Vega 2 and Radeon Pro Vega 2 Duo modules, …
Read More »Razer Blade 14 (2021) review: A mighty mite of a gaming laptop
Nov 2021 Thanks to the balance of screen size and weight, I generally like 14-inch laptops better than the alternatives. I’ve never found the smaller screen size to affect my immersion in games; as much as I love me a massive desktop display, once I’m in, I’m in. So there’s a lot to love with the Razer Blade 14, which …
Read More »Intel NUC 11 Extreme Kit powers a wee beastie of a gaming PC
If you want your PC to be really small but still powerful enough to game — in other words, accommodate a full-size graphics card — things can get tough, with 10 liters a common lower bound. Intel’s NUC 11 Extreme Kit “Beast Canyon” squeezes all the gaming essentials, including an Intel Core i7 or i9 overclockable processor, room for a …
Read More »Samsung Odyssey G9 Neo QLED preorders start July 29 for $2,500
Whither Samsung’s mainstream TVs go, its monitors are bound to follow. In this case, Samsung’s updated 49-inch curved Odyssey G9 gaming monitor (model G95NA), teased earlier this year, features its Quantum HDR 2000 with a typical peak brightness of 2,000 nits and is the first to incorporate the company’s new Neo QLED screens. You can preorder it starting July 29 for …
Read More »Framework Laptop review: A functional and futureproof 13 inches
Are you old enough to remember when laptops had removable batteries? Frustrated by mainstream laptops with memory soldered to the motherboard and therefore not upgradable? The 13.5-inch Framework Laptop taps into that nostalgia, addressing one of the biggest drawbacks in modern laptops as part of the right-to-repair movement. It was designed from the ground up to be as customizable, upgradable …
Read More »Elgato Facecam tries really hard to be a pro 1080/60p webcam
Streaming-gear favorite Elgato has finally tossed a webcam at its gaming fans, the 1080/60fps Facecam. It’s the biggest challenger we’ve seen thus far for Razer’s Kiyo Pro, for the same $200 (£189), with class-leading software, including a real Mac app, that helps compensate for some of its weaknesses. It doesn’t have a built-in mic, which makes sense given that its …
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