It should be noted that both new AMD processors were tested using DDR3 memory because there aren’t currently any available BIOS updates to use these processors on the AM2 platform. This should obviously take place some time after release but until then our numbers should remain valid as there is no real difference between DDR3-1333 and DDR2-1066 in terms of performance. First up we tested the processors using WinRAR in both single thread and multi-thread modes....

The Phenom II X4 965 is also multiplier unlocked, which should make overclocking painfully easy to the average user. AMD claims they are seeing better overclocking results with the Phenom II X4 965 compared to the 955 on average. In the little time we had to devote to overclocking testing we reached a solid 3.90GHz overclock which is better than the initial clock speed we got from the 955 (3....

The Phenom II X6 1100T consumed 10.5% less power than the Phenom II X4 965 at idle and it only used slightly more under full load. Meanwhile, the X6 1100T pulled 2.6% less power than the Core i5 750 and used a bit more than the Phenom II X6 1090T.

Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition (3.30GHz) x4 4GB G.Skill DDR3-1600(CAS 8-8-8-20) Gigabyte G1.Assassin2 (Intel X79) OCZ ZX Series (1250w) Crucial m4 512GB (SATA 6Gb/s) AMD Radeon HD 7970 (3072MB) Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 (3072MB) AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2048MB) AMD Radeon HD 7850 (2048MB) Gigabyte Radeon HD 6990 (4096MB) Gigabyte Radeon HD 6970 (2048MB) VisionTek Radeon HD 6950 (2048MB) Asus Radeon HD 6870 (1024MB) HIS Radeon HD 5870 (1024MB) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 590 (3072MB) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 (1536MB) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 570 (1280MB) Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti (1024MB) Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit Nvidia Forceware 295....

For the second time, the R9 290 is slower than the GTX 780 (with the first time being in Tomb Raider), though it was only 2% behind while being 15% faster than the GTX 770. The frame time performance between the R9 290 and the GTX 780 was extremely competitive with less than 1ms separating them. The R9 290 finished our testing on a high note, delivering 44.2fps in Metro: Last Light for results that work out to 6% slower than the R9 290X but 12% faster than the GTX 780 and 28% faster than the GTX 770....

In the $100 to $200 range it was all AMD as we recommended the R7 360, R7 370 and R9 380. However, the jump from the $200 Radeon R9 380 to the $300 R9 390 left a void that normally we’d expect both AMD and Nvidia to fill with something for around $250. We first caught wind of rumors about an upcoming Radeon R9 380X a few months ago, expecting it to be a new card and not a rebrand....

The peak single precision performance of the 5700 XT is down 23% compared to Vega 64 – this is a more relevant metric for compute – while the peak pixel fill-rate has been increased by 23%, and that’s what will make the 5700 XT a better gaming GPU. AMD has also done away with HBM for the new parts and instead they feature 8GB of GDDR6 memory for a bandwidth of 448 GB/s using a 256-bit wide memory bus....

Quake Champions is a game we decided to include last minute and this is the first time we benchmarked this title. Here we see some very competitive results from AMD at 1080p though things became a bit too overwhelming at 4K. Backing down to 1440p we find mixed results, AMD hard the better 1% low while Nvidia peaked a little higher. Overall performance was much of a muchness so another draw....

It all goes a bit south for AMD when testing with Watch Dogs 2 and this title has never really been kind to the Ryzen CPUs. Here the R5 1600 was 24% slower at the stock clock speeds though that rather large margin is reduced to just 9% once both CPUs are overclocked. Moving on, Prey isn’t particularly CPU-demanding. Here the 7700K, 7800X and R5 1600 all deliver similar performance, especially once they are overclocked....

The Ryzen 9 3900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor with a massive 64MB L3 cache. It runs at a base frequency of 3.8 GHz with a boost frequency of 4.6 GHz. It costs $500, placing it in direct competition with the Core i9-9900K. Then the Ryzen 7 3700X costs $330 and AMD suggests it’s taking on the more expensive 9700K. It’s an 8-core, 16-thread CPU with a 32MB L3 cache and clocks ranging from 3....

Having seen such impressive productivity performance, I had high hopes for Ryzen when it came to gaming. Please note that the gaming graphs are arranged by minimum frame rate and the Titan XP was used for testing at 1080p to reduce the GPU bottleneck. With slower GPUs or more demanding quality settings the results will even up and CPUs that lag behind in these tests will look more competitive. Anyway, Ryzen trails Skylake and Kaby Lake when it comes to gaming performance, but the margin isn’t significant, at least in Battlefield 1....

Okay well we might as well start here, the Cinebench R15 results. This is where the fun began for me, though it did quickly become somewhat frustrating. The multi-threaded score of 1624 pts for the Ryzen 7 1800X is incredible. AMD advertised 1601 pts so we are well on track here. However AMD stressed that the single-thread performance has to be hitting at least 160 pts or the CPU isn’t boosting correctly....

Okay so why was the 2990WX so disappointing in a lot of these tests? Well as I alluded to earlier it is 100% down to memory bandwidth, much more so than core to core latency or memory latency. Here we can see the sustained memory bandwidth for each processor. You’ll notice that the 2990WX is a little down on the 2950X and that’s due to the added latency the dies without memory controllers incur....

AMD’s main focus for their big multi-die chips has been the server market. The demand for Epyc Milan CPUs has been extraordinary and so the majority of CPUs that might become Threadripper parts have been going to servers since the launch of Milan almost exactly one year ago. It’s a conscious business decision, and how could you blame AMD for this? The company has always wanted to steal some of that lucrative server market share away from Intel, and they have finally managed to do it....

You should know, this article is part of our Anatomy series that dissects all the tech behind PC components. We also have a dedicated series to CPU Design that goes deeper into the CPU design process and how things work internally. It’s a highly recommended technical read. This anatomy article will revisit some of the fundamentals from the CPU series, but at a higher level and with additional content....

RAM is an astonishing feat of precision engineering, and yet it is manufactured in epic quantities every year. So let’s prep for surgery, wheel out the delivery table, and head for theatre. Time to dig right down into the very cells that make up today’s memory and see how it all works. Wherefore art thou, RAM-eo? Processors need to be able to access data and instructions very quickly, so they can keep software zipping along....

The Wall Street Journal reports that during the years before Apple’s tracking restrictions hurt Meta’s business, the companies floated ideas for Meta – then called Facebook – to share some of its revenue with Apple. Apple’s App Store would have been the primary channel for the agreement. Even before Apple started letting iPhone users opt out of tracking from advertisers – angering Facebook – tension existed between the two companies....

YouTube channels such as Max Tech and Created Tech made the discovery when testing the $1,299 base-model M2 MacBook Pro 13, which comes with a 256GB SSD. They found the read and write speeds both came to around 1,450 MB/s. That equates to about 50% slower reads (2,900 MB/s) and roughly 30% slower writes (2,215 MB/s) than the previous M1-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro with 256GB storage. Created Tech confirmed the reason behind the slower SSD in the newer MacBook Pro: the M2 machine uses a single 256GB NAND flash chip, while its predecessor features two 128GB NAND chips that work in parallel for faster speeds....

The most expensive quad-core sold today is the Core i3-8350K and we wrote that thing off the day it was released. Currently selling for ~$200, you’d be bonkers to buy it at that price. Then from AMD we have the Ryzen 3 1300X which you can also ignore for the same reason, while the R3 1200 is more sensible at $90, we suggest PC builders on a budget look to the Ryzen 3 2200G at $95 which adds a decent integrated graphics solution....

The next menu titled “OC Tweaker” is what we are most interested in. This is where almost all the system fine-tuning and overclocking action takes place. The first setting within this menu is designed for overclocking novices that want to get a little more out of their system with little trouble and at no extra cost. Dubbed “CPU EZ OC,” this allows users to overclock their processor to a predefined setting at the click of a button....