Will splashing out on expensive RAM make a real difference to PC performance? And if so, how much should you buy? We supply the benchmarks and lay the details bare.
According to legend, Bill Gates once concluded that “640KB of memory ought to be enough for anyone” (a legend he’s at pains to repudiate). These days it takes more than 800 times that much RAM just to make Windows Vista work smoothly.
But as the idea takes hold that more RAM is always good, we’re increasingly seeing home systems armed with a vast 4GB of storage. Indeed, with 64-bit Vista gaining traction, we’re sure the 8GB home PC can’t be far away. Is there any need for this much memory, or is it a waste of money beyond a certain point?
This month we set out to discover the truth. Armed with a comprehensive set of benchmarks and a big stack of DIMMs, we’ve tested performance on both XP and Vista to find out how much memory you really need.
But, of course, ... More »
The first bit of “Fusion” that AMD is releasing today is an in-house designed software utility that was described to us as being able to “turn a mainstream PC into a lean, mean gaming machine.”
Essentially, this Fusion Gaming tool is a utility that automates many of the tweaks that hardcore enthusiasts carry out in order to free up system resources for the purpose of maximizing gaming performance. The utility works by temporarily disabling background services and processes, freeing up memory and CPU cycles in an effort to make games run more smoothly.
AMD demonstrated the application to us clicking the gigantic “Fusion” button on a Windows Vista desktop, which immediately shut down usually active applications such as Skype, Google Talk, as well as many other background services. The utility will not, however, override any applications that have a shutdown or save dialog, meaning that clicking the button will still allow Microsoft Word to prompt if ... More »
CustomPC writes: We recently had the chance to test Intel's latest overclocking-friendly CPU, the Core 2 Duo E8600, at Amari's labs near Watford.
Not content with merely wowing us with their Dream PCs 2008 entry - the fantastic submersion-cooled XCP - Amari provided the facilities to overclock the E8600 with liquid nitrogen.
Custom PC was aided by two of the UK's best-known overclockers from BenchTec, Sacha35 (Paul Watkinson) and Bazx (Barry Wynd), where we cooled the chip to a chilly -120°C and achieved some truly impressive clock speeds and benchmark results.
Video and speed results can be seen linked above!
AMD announced that it has started shipping the new 790GX graphics chipset targeted at gaming enthusiasts. The chipset features enhanced SB750 southbridge, ATI Radeon HD 3300 chip integration, scalable ATI CrossFireX graphics technology, and Phenom chips with higher overclocking thanks to the new 'Advanced Clock Calibration' technology.
The 790GX is slotted below AMD's existing 790FX chip, which is targeted at the high-end gaming segment. AMD claims the 790GX chip is the world's fastest motherboard GPU (mGPU), with Mark 3D Vantage entry mode scores in excess of 2900.
The new Advanced Clock Calibration technology allows 790GX chipset to overclock Phenom CPU systems at clock speeds higher than 3.0 GHz by "significant tuning enhancements" on the new SB750 southbridge for better performance. The SB750 southbridge has been introduced to the 790GX chipset for optimum performance with Phenom processor based systems.
The 790GX chip has built-in ATI Rade... More »
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I was quite interested in AMD’s Phenom quad-core CPU, that is, until I read some early reviews of the processor. Now I’ve come to the conclusion that you’d have to be a sucker to be an early adopter of AMD’s new quad-core line.
First off, four cores aren’t always better than two. Tom’s Hardware puts the Phenom 9500 and 9600 against an Athlon X2 64 6400+ and discovers that the processors are overall 8.4% and 4.3% slower than the 6400+. Now OK, the 6400+ runs at 3.2GHz while the Phenom 9500 is only 2.2GHz and the Phenom 9600 is 2.3GHz but this goes to show how low AMD have aimed with the Phenom processors.
Applications that can take advantage of the four cores (such as Pinnacle Studio 11, DivX and Adobe Premiere Pro) do show a gain, but if you’re gaming, overall performance sucks. Performance of audio and office applications is also very poor.
OK, but isn’t this the case for all quad-core CPUs? No. If instead of giving your mo... More »
By Cpasjuste, this update includes the following:
Download: PSP Custom Firmware Extender 1.5
NEWS IN VERSION 1.5
===================
- Compatible with psp slim and fat with m33 3.71 firmware.
- "5th" brightness level added for psp slim
- "Note + Volume Up" added to show buttons combo.
- Basic usbhostfs iso redirection added, usbhostfs_pc server work under linux and only in "OE isofs legacy" mode
accessible from recovery menu. The problem with windows XP must be the usb driver, maybe someone will fix it.
- Default vsh cpu speed is 222mhz, default game speed is set to 333mhz. You must set the cpu speed to default
in the m33 recovery menu for on the fly "overclocking".
- Screenshot folder is now "ms0:/PICTURE".
- Temporarily removed configuration file due to incompatibiliy probl... More »
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