Zak Killian
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
China has had a thriving game industry for a fair while now, but the country hasn't produced many developers that can stand alongside the giants of Japan, Europe, and the US. Well, now there's at least one more: Game Science, developers of new mega-hit action RPG, Black Myth: Wukong. Based around the character of Sun...
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We've never seen the source, but we can safely assume that Microsoft Windows' codebase is an absolutely sprawling spaghetti code mess. We say that because the venerable OS still includes elements dating all the way back to Windows 95. One of those is the venerable Control Panel; while earlier versions of Windows had a Control Panel, they weren't
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If you've ever rebuilt a PC, you know the struggle: the GPU is locked in the slot, and you can't get your fat adult fingers down next to the oversized CPU cooler you installed to press the retention lever down. In the words of many classic infomercials, "there has to be a better way!" Some motherboard manufacturers...
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Zen 5 is out, and AMD Ryzen 7000 Zen 4 processors are distinctly last-generation now. Only, a lot of reviewers produced benchmark data that makes Zen 5 look less like a step and more like a stumble. AVX-512 performance is fantastic, and the chips do well in Linux overall, but Windows numbers, particularly in gaming...
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These days, virtually every monitor—certainly every gaming monitor—supports at least some form of variable refresh rate technology. NVIDIA's G-SYNC was the pioneer, but AMD's FreeSync is far more ubiquitous largely due to its lower costs and less stringent requirements. Essentially, FreeSync simply requires a monitor...
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When we talk about technological advancements in video games, there are a few things that always spring to mind: new rendering techniques or paradigms, advanced physics simulation, or perhaps new ways of presenting the game, like streaming. There's an area where nothing has really changed in 40 years, though, and...
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So the reviews are out, the dust has largely settled, and the conclusion of the community is that AMD's Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 processors are more of an iterative step than a groundbreaking leap forward. Some reviews have found excellent performance gains from Zen 5, though. Linux-focused benchmark sites like...
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Before the launch of AMD's Zen 5 CPUs, many people remarked that Intel's Raptor Lake woes had left AMD with a competitive "opening" against rival Intel. However, given the modest performance and efficiency gains over the previous-generation Zen 4 parts in client workloads, the narrative has now shifted, with some...
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This one's important, so let's get right to it: a new security flaw in all versions of Windows opens the door for a wormable remote code execution vulnerability. That means it can be exploited by an automated worm with zero user interaction required, and it gives the remote attacker the ability to execute code on the...
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When people talk about the AI race, most folks' thoughts immediately go toward large language models powering functions like ChatGPT or Google Assistant. There's a lot more going on in the AI space than just language models, though. Before convincingly-human language models became commonplace, everyone was obsessed...
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The Geekbench suite of system benchmarks have their limitations, but they present a reasonable impression of overall performance for a wide variety of productivity, content creation, and high-performance computing tasks, and they're also cross-platform. These qualities, along with the low, low price of zero dollars...
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Intel has traditionally dominated the consumer laptop segment with its fast and compatible CPUs, but right now it's facing a three-pronged assault from Apple, Qualcomm, and even AMD, thanks to new and extremely efficient processors from all three competitors. The company needs new technology to stave off these...
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Beautiful ray-traced visuals, that is, if your PC can handle it. Chinese developer Game Science's long-awaited action-adventure title Black Myth: Wukong is finally nearing release, so the newbie studio has released a stand-alone benchmark utility that users can use to gauge whether their machines are ready for the...
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As soon as the broader discussion about the Raptor Lake stability issues began, many people were already speculating that the potential "fix" would have a deleterious effect on performance. In essence, the thought process was that Intel had achieved its chart-topping performance by pushing the chips too far along the...
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Have you ever wished you could use your smartphone as your primary PC? There are various ways to achieve that, but how about this instead: the GPD Pocket 4. This is a handheld PC with an 8.8" screen. That puts it on the high end of "phablet" size, yet still arguably pocketable. Despite the small size, it comes...
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If you've read reviews of various PC gaming handheld systems, you've probably noted that almost all of them compare the machine against the Steam Deck and come to the conclusion that using Windows is a downside. In other words, most reviews will tell you that being saddled with Windows (instead of using Linux as the...
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In case you still carried any doubts, Intel's second-generation discrete graphics products, codenamed "Battlemage," are very real and absolutely still on the way—likely later this year. As proof, allow us to show you the latest leak: a boot log from a system in the Intel GFX Continuous Integration group that clearly...
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As we noted yesterday, Intel's partners are starting to roll out motherboard BIOS updates that include the promised microcode fixes for its Raptor Lake processors. These patches should hopefully keep intact CPUs from degrading any further, although processors that are already damaged will have to be replaced. We were...
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This weekend, thousands of FPS fans, boomer shooter devotees, and many literal boomers have descended on Dallas, Texas suburb Grapevine for the yearly Quakecon event. Id Software and its parent company Bethesda like to use the event to disseminate news about their products (like last year's surprise Quake II remaster...
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After two years of driver work, Intel's current-generation Arc Alchemist discrete GPUs are competitive in their respective price brackets. The company could really use some new GPU hardware, however, if it wants to make more inroads into the PC gaming space. Fortunately, it looks like those parts are on the way, and...
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All the hype around new AMD products right now is surrounding CPUs like the Ryzen AI 300 family for mobile machines and then the Ryzen 9000 desktop CPU family launching tomorrow. One-Netbook may have just leaked another new AMD product on the way, though -- the Radeon RX 7800M, something AMD hasn't said a word...
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You probably think of 8-bit and 16-bit games as "retro", but the PlayStation 3 is old enough to vote, and that also makes it "retro" to plenty of adults right now. On the other hand, if you read that headline and the part that confused you was "Adds Ryzen 9000 Support," then let us explain.
The PlayStation 3 is an...
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