The pandemic prompted a workforce rethink that is likely to linger long beyond Covid-19. According to Jeff Christofis from staffing service Kelly Services, nearly 90 percent of US customer service reps commuted to call centers before the pandemic. Once the smoke clears, the split between working remotely and commuting to an office will likely be closer to 50/50. Image credit: Pixabay, Karolina Grabowska

The A10-5800K’s memory bandwidth performance was 30% greater than the A8-3850’s when comparing read performance. This margin was considerably smaller – 8% to be precise – when comparing write bandwidth. Given that the A10-5800K is clocked 31% higher than the A8-3850, it’s fair to say that little has changed in terms of memory bandwidth. Furthermore, compared to Intel processors such as the Ivy Bridge-based Core i3-3220, the A10-5800K is almost 30% slower when comparing read performance and 43% when comparing write performance....

Around the same time Nvidia announced the price and launch dates of its new RTX 4000 series graphics cards this week, AMD confirmed it plans to reveal and launch its RDNA 3 GPUs on November 3. The company promises more details as the event approaches. Recent rumors suggest AMD will first release RDNA 3’s flagship card – the Radeon RX 7900 – based on the Navi 31 GPU. Navi 33 and Navi 32 GPUs are to follow....

AMD continues to make gains in market share against Intel in the x86 processor market. According to a new report from Mercury Research, Team Red in Q4 2021 enjoyed a 25.6 percent share of the overall market for CPUs built on the x86 architecture, the highest it’s seen since 2006. It’s also a 3.6 percent year-over-year increase, which isn’t bad considering the ongoing chip shortage. To put things in context, AMD has been gaining market share against Intel for 11 quarters in a row, especially when it comes to PC, console, and IoT x86 products....

The x264 HD Benchmark also uses all six cores, but at around 75% CPU utilization, which didn’t allow the hexa-core processors to provide any significant gains over the quad-core parts. Still the Phenom II X6 1100T was faster than the Core i7 930 processor in this test. TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress also failed to push all cores to the max. The Phenom II X6 processors’ CPU utilization levels sat around 55%, so the X6 1100T was just a fraction faster than the Phenom II X4 965 processor in this test....

Of course, the Radeon HD 6950 looks most impressive when compared to the GeForce GTX 470. Here the HD 6950 consumes 15% less power while on average delivering 18% more performance, but that was to be expected against the first generation Fermi-based GeForce. The Radeon HD 6950 remained relatively cool for a high-end graphics card when load testing with FurMark as it reached 82 degrees. There’s an obvious advantage when comparing against previous generation GPUs that were less efficient, while it’s in sitting in line with the faster HD 6970 and the GeForce GTX 580....

When testing Aliens vs. Predator at 1920x1200, the HD 7770 Crossfire cards delivered an impressive 65fps – 38% and 33% faster than the GTX 560 Ti and HD 6870. The HD 7770 Crossfire configuration was also 44% faster than the HD 7750 in Crossfire, which scored 45fps – 96% faster than a single HD 7750 but not enough to surpass the GTX 560 Ti and HD 6870. Having just launched on PC, AMD hasn’t optimized Crossfire for Alan Wake yet....

Core i7 Test System Specs - Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition (3.30GHz) - x4 2GB 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 7770 (1024MB) - HIS Radeon HD 7750 (1024MB) - HIS Radeon HD 6790 (1024MB) - HIS Radeon HD 6770 (1024MB) - HIS Radeon HD 6750 (1024MB) - HIS Radeon HD 6670 (1024MB) - HIS Radeon HD 6570 (1024MB) - HIS Radeon HD 6450 (1024MB) - Asus Radeon HD 5670 (1024MB) - Asus Radeon HD 5570 (1024MB) - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 (1024MB) - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 550 Ti (1024MB) - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 (768MB) - Inno3D GeForce GTS 450 (1024MB) - Inno3D GeForce GT 430 (1024MB) - Inno3D GeForce GT 520 (1024MB) - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit - Nvidia Forceware 285....

When we tested the GeForce GTX 670 we closed down with this… “The GTX 670 is today’s best value and most efficient high-end graphics card.” Our only concern was availability and that proved to be a problem for Nvidia initially. Today though, it’s relatively easy to pick one up at ~$400. AMD’s release of the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition does little to change our feelings about the GeForce GTX 670....

The Metro Redux performance was fairly impressive though the Nano did only match the GTX 980 at 4K, while it was 3fps slower at 1600p. Still the Nano was just 4% slower than the Fury, though it is worth pointing out it was also just 13% faster than the R9 390X as it as 3fps faster. Again we see weak 4K performance with just 24fps in what is now quite an old game....

In the meantime, AMD is ready to go with this Zen 3 APU, which is the successor to last year’s sleeper hit in the entry-level gaming laptop market, the Ryzen 5 4600H. The 4600H ended up as one of the most popular options among buyers in the sub-$1000 laptop market. We’ve already talked extensively about Zen 3 processors on both the desktop and most recently laptop APUs. But the basics you need to know are: the Ryzen 5 5600H is a 6 core, 12 thread processor that uses the latest Zen 3 architecture....

Probably this won’t be the best way to start the review, but we’ve got to say the 5800X looks like the least compelling processor in the new series. There’s certainly nothing wrong with an 8-core, 16-thread processor clocked at up to 4.7 GHz with high IPC. In fact, you could argue that’s the sweet spot for gamers. The problem is price. At $450, it’s just $100 cheaper than the 5900X, and while that nets you almost 20% in savings, you’re also getting 33% fewer cores....

The new Ryzen lineup initially consists of four processors set to launch on September 27. Starting at the high-end, we have the Ryzen 9 7950X selling for $700, offering AMD’s now standard 16-core / 32-thread configuration at a new 170W TDP. It’s clocked up to a whopping 5.7 GHz with a 4.5 GHz base and 80MB of L3 cache, split into 64MB L3 and 16MB L2. Next is the Ryzen 9 7900X bringing 12 cores and 24 threads at up to 5....

Handbrake is a popular application for encoding video and we’ve used it to convert a 4K H.264 video to 1080p using H.265 and recorded the average frame rate. The 1950X was 6% faster than the 7900X in this test, not a huge gain but given both CPUs cost the same amount it’s a good result for the Threadripper CPU. That said the 1920X does cost 33% more than the 7820X and yet it was just 5% faster here, so a less impressive result for AMD in that comparison....

AMD is planning to launch its Zen 4 CPUs sometime in the second half of this year, and the hype-building process began with a few hints thrown at CES 2022. At the time, the company revealed it would use a new socket with an LGA layout and the same SecuFirm2 cooler mounting system as the AM4 socket. It also hinted at a significant generational leap in performance and a different heatspreader design, but that’s pretty much all the official info we got with the roadmap announcement....

For some reason, in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst the Ryzen CPUs hit a bit of a wall, albeit at well over 100fps. Whereas the 6900K averaged 146fps, the 1800X and 1700X were limited to a 138fps average (only 5% slower). Moving to 1440p, the results tighten up as Ryzen can pretty much get the most out of a Titan XP at 1440p in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, scoring just 2% slower than the 6900K while matching its minimum frame rate....

The machines are compatible with original game cartridges and accessories, as well as wireless controllers from 8Bitdo. The Mega Sg is further compatible with the Sega CD using its edge connector, but not the 32X because it uses a patch cable to connect to the original console. The Analogue Super Nt Classic, the SF (Super Famicom color scheme) and the Super Nt Black will be available to pre-order starting October 28 priced at $199....

Trimble and Snapdragon-maker Qualcomm have announced that Trimble RTX (Real Time eXtended) GNSS technology is coming to phones using the latter’s current and previous-gen mobile chips. Trimble calls its technology a correction services platform that enables higher quality location-based user experiences with improved accuracy. RTX GNSS will allow smartphone manufacturers, service providers, and application developers that use Snapdragon SoCs to provide users with meter-level accuracy, or about 3 feet. That’s around a 5x improvement in accuracy compared to what’s available today....

It’s a 31.5-inch, 1440p curved display (1800R) with a maximum refresh rate of 144 Hz. It uses MVA technology, so we’re getting a great mix of contrast, color performance, viewing angles and response times. It supports FreeSync, which is great for those with AMD graphics cards. And if you want an AG322QCX? You’re looking at $430 when it hits the United States, which is a great price for this sort of hardware....

Apple’s latest tablet debuts with the all-new iOS 7. If you haven’t yet used iOS 7 or are new to Apple’s ecosystem, you’ll find a robust OS that’s intuitive, packed with features and easy to use. It’s not as enthusiast-friendly as Android as much of the OS is still locked down but compared to previous iterations, it’s a lot more refined and straightforward. If you haven’t done so already, I’d encourage you to check out our recent iOS 7 editorial where I take a look at several features that Apple nailed with the new OS and many that are still missing....