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 could transcode content at frame rates that were multiple times faster than even the best GPU based solutions. And you could do so without taxing the CPU cores. While Quick Sync wasn't meant for high quality video encoding for professional production, it produced output that was more than good enough for use on a smartphone or tablet. Given the incredible rise in popularity of those devices over recent history and given that an increasing number of consumers moved to notebooks as primary PCs, a fast way of transcoding content without needing tons of CPU...
Intel Core i7 3960X (Sandy Bridge E) Review: Keeping the High End Alive
If you look carefully enough, you may notice that things are changing. It first became apparent shortly after the release of Nehalem. Intel bifurcated the performance desktop space by...
188 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/14/2011
Gigabyte Shows off Simplified "3D BIOS" Interface for X79 UEFI
We are getting closer to the launch of Sandy Bridge E and Intel's motherboard partners are eager to get out some early press about their motherboards. We saw a...
27 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 11/4/2011
Dell Vostro V131: A Budget Business Laptop
We’ve reviewed just about every line of laptops that Dell makes over the years, but we haven’t had a chance to look at the Vostro line until today. Vostro...
53 by Jarred Walton on 10/28/2011
Intel Releases Core i7-2700K and Cuts the Prices of Three CPUs
Intel has quietly released a new top-of-the-line Sandy Bridge CPU: Core i7-2700K. We reported the i7-2700K "leak" about a month ago, and guessed that i7-2700K will be released around...
35 by Kristian Vättö on 10/24/2011
Dell XPS 14z: Thoroughly Reviewed
Late last year, Dell announced the relaunch of their XPS brand. Since the announcement, we’ve reviewed several XPS laptops that have impressed in various ways. The XPS 15 is...
60 by Jarred Walton on 10/24/2011
ASUS Zenbook UX21 First Results: MBA-Like Battery Life Under Windows 7
FedEx dropped off our first Ultrabook this morning: the beautiful 11.6-inch ASUS Zenbook UX21E-DH71. We just got the first battery life results out of the machine and, as expected...
23 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/18/2011
ASUS' Zenbook Lineup: The First Ultrabooks Arrive October 12, Starting at $999
ASUS just announced its first line of Ultrabook PCs under the new Zenbook brand at a press event in NYC. There are a total of five models in the...
51 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 10/11/2011
Acer Aspire S3 Available This Week for $899
Acer hasn't had the best year, falling behind in global PC sales from its former perch at No. 2, just behind HP. Their announcement today that their first Ultrabook...
31 by Jason Inofuentes on 10/10/2011
ASUS G74SX: Noteworthy Updates to ASUS' G7 Series
Marking the fourth time we’ve taken ASUS’ G7 gaming series for a spin, the G74SX actually changes up the formula from the last-iteration G73Sw in some meaningful ways. Superficially...
44 by Jarred Walton on 10/6/2011
Intel Releases Two Pentium and Two Core i-series CPUs
Intel has updated their product database (ARK) with four new CPUs. Two of these are branded as Pentiums: 967 and B960. The former is a low-power model with only...
13 by Kristian Vättö on 10/5/2011
Intel Engineer Ports QuickSync Video Decoding to FFDShow
An Intel engineer by the name of Eric Gur started an AVSForum thread indicating he had begun work on enabling Quick Sync support in FFDShow's video decoder. Quick Sync...
23 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/28/2011
A Look Into Sandy Bridge-E Overclocking
Note: Most Sandy Bridge-E information is currently under embargo, but the information below comes from Bit-tech's article detailing SNB-E overclocking. Sandy Bridge-E release is getting closer and closer all the...
11 by Kristian Vättö on 9/21/2011
Counting Transistors: Why 1.16B and 995M Are Both Correct
Yesterday we published Ivy Bridge's transistor count as 1.48 billion. It turns out that was wrong as Intel's Mooly Eden accidentally read the B in billion as an 8...
26 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 9/15/2011
Intel Releases New Sandy Bridge Graphics Drivers
Amidst a full day of updates from IDF, I'd like to draw your attention to some more Intel-related news: Intel has refreshed its generic Sandy Bridge graphics driver to...
11 by Andrew Cunningham on 9/13/2011
Intel Leaks i7-2700K
Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs were launched in January and so far, the desktop i7 lineup has consisted of three SKUs: i7-2600, i7-2600K and i7-2600S. Earlier this week, Intel released...
24 by Kristian Vättö on 9/10/2011
Sony VAIO S Series: All Day Consumer Computing
You asked for it, you got it: in house, a review of Sony's longstanding 13.3" road warrior S series. It's light, has a matte screen, switchable graphics, a mainstream...
70 by Dustin Sklavos on 9/9/2011
Intel Releases New Sandy Bridge Processors
Intel has announced a total of 16 new Sandy Bridge processors today, augmenting its lineup in the mid and low-end markets on the desktop and in the high and...
28 by Andrew Cunningham on 9/6/2011
Dell XPS 15z: Sincerely Flattering
With the relaunch of their XPS branding, Dell has released quite a few interesting laptops during the past three quarters. Their latest addition to the line is the thin...
76 by Jarred Walton on 9/2/2011
HP EliteBook 8760w: Color, So Dreamy
Just over ten months ago, we had a chance to take a look at a very big, reasonably impressive mobile workstation: HP's EliteBook 8740w. It sported HP's DreamColor IPS...
83 by Dustin Sklavos on 8/25/2011
The Sandy Bridge Pentium Review: G850, G840, G620 & G620T Tested
Despite abandoning Pentium as a high end brand with the 2006 release of Intel's Core 2 Duo, Intel has kept the label around for use on its value mainstream...
110 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 8/23/2011