One question when building or upgrading a gaming system is of which CPU to choose - does it matter if I have a quad core from Intel, or a quad module from AMD? Perhaps something simpler will do the trick, and I can spend the difference on the GPU. What if you are running a multi-GPU setup, does the CPU have a bigger effect? This was the question I set out to help answer.
Dragging Core2Duo into 2013: Time for an Upgrade?
As any ‘family source of computer information’ will testify, every so often a family member will want an upgrade. Over the final few months of 2012, I did...
135 by Ian Cutress on 1/15/2013
Intel's Quick Sync: Coming Soon to Your Favorite Open Source Transcoding Applications
Intel's hardware accelerated video transcode engine, Quick Sync, was introduced two years ago with Sandy Bridge. When it was introduced, I was immediately sold. With proper software support you...
46 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/14/2013
Intel Brings Core Down to 7W, Introduces a New Power Rating to Get There: Y-Series SKUs Demystified
For all of modern Intel history, it has specified a TDP rating for all of its silicon. The TDP rating is given at a specific max core temperature (Tj_MAX...
56 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/14/2013
Intel Haswell GT3e GPU Performance Compared to NVIDIA's GeForce GT 650M
Haswell isn't expected to launch until the beginning of June in desktops and quad-core notebooks, but Intel is beginning to talk performance. Intel used a mobile customer reference board...
253 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/9/2013
Qualcomm's Next-Gen Krait 400 & Krait 300 Announced in Snapdragon 800 & 600 SoCs
We've been hinting at this for a while, both on the Podcast and in our most recent power analysis piece, but today it's very official: Qualcomm is announcing the...
22 by Anand Lal Shimpi & Brian Klug on 1/7/2013
AMD CES 2013 Press Event Live Blog
We're live at the AMD CES 2013 press event! Keep your browser parked here for live updates!
57 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/7/2013NVIDIA's Pre-CES Press Conference: Live Webcast Starts At 8pm PST
Even though CES doesn't officially start until Tuesday, things are already kicking off in Las Vegas. The Storage Visions 2013 conference runs through Monday, and meanwhile a number of...
1 by Ryan Smith on 1/6/2013
The AnandTech Podcast: Episode 13
We're back! In our first podcast of 2013 we go over some of the best products of 2012 and Haswell/ValleyView launch schedules. Brian talks about Field Test being removed...
15 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/6/2013
Intel Launches “Centerton” Atom S1200 Family, First Atom For Servers
In recent months much has been made over the potential incursion of ARM into Intel’s tightly held server markets, and for good reason. ARM’s general focus on SoCs for...
35 by Ryan Smith on 12/11/2012
The AnandTech Podcast: Episode 12
Today's podcast covers two major topics: the rumored BGA-only version of Intel's Broadwell (2014/2015) CPU and Qualcomm's disclosures at its recent analyst day. The Broadwell BGA topic spawned a...
25 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 12/3/2012
Nintendo Wii U Teardown
When Nintendo announced the Wii U there was a lot of interest in its hardware specs. The new console could very well end up the fastest kid on the...
131 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/18/2012
The Xeon Phi at work at TACC
The Xeon Phi family of co-processors was announced in June, but Intel finally disclosed additional details about the first shipping implementation of Larrabee. In this short article we'll go...
47 by Johan De Gelas on 11/14/2012
Inside Intel's Next Unit of Computing (DC3217BY)
Back at IDF Intel gave us a hands on demo of its Next Unit of Computing (NUC), a custom form factor motherboard that fits into an Intel-supplied 4" x...
90 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/9/2012
AMD Launches Opteron 6300 series with "Piledriver" cores
Today AMD unveiled its new Opteron 6300 series server processors, code name "Abu Dhabi". The Opteron 6300 contains the new Piledriver cores, an evolutionary improvement of the Bulldozer cores. We...
22 by Johan De Gelas on 11/5/2012
Inside the Titan Supercomputer: 299K AMD x86 Cores and 18.6K NVIDIA GPUs
Earlier this month I drove out to Oak Ridge, Tennessee to pay a visit to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). I'd never been to a national lab before...
129 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/31/2012
ARM's Cortex A57 and Cortex A53: The First 64-bit ARMv8 CPU Cores
Yesterday AMD revealed that in 2014 it would begin production of its first ARMv8 based 64-bit Opteron CPUs. At the time we didn't know what core AMD would use...
116 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/30/2012
AMD Will Build 64-bit ARM based Opteron CPUs for Servers, Production in 2014
Last year AMD officially became an ARM licensee, although the deal wasn't publicized at the time. Fast forward to June 2012 and we saw the first fruits of that...
32 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/29/2012
The Vishera Review: AMD FX-8350, FX-8320, FX-6300 and FX-4300 Tested
Last year's launch of AMD's FX processors was honestly disappointing. The Bulldozer CPU cores that were bundled into each Zambezi chip were hardly power efficient and in many areas...
206 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/23/2012
AMD Q3 2012 Earnings: $157M Loss; 15% of Workforce To Be Cut
Picking up from where we left off with Intel, earnings week has continued to roll along with most of the major tech companies having reported their Q3 earnings. As...
59 by Ryan Smith on 10/18/2012
Intel Q3 2012 Earnings: $3 Billion Net Income On Weakening Market; Intel To Idle Some Fab Capacity
Intel is routinely called a bellwether of the personal computer industry, and for good reason. Not only do they supply most of the world’s CPUs but they have consistently...
30 by Ryan Smith on 10/17/2012