Techreport

Along with its refreshed Coffee Lake chips, Intel announced an update to its Skylake-X CPUs for the X299 platform yesterday morning. While the underlying architecture of these parts is the same as the first round of Core i7 and Core i9 CPUs for the platform, quite a bit has changed in the way Intel manufactures and packages those CPUs.As with Intel's unlocked mainstream desktop parts, one of the loudest complaints about Skylake-X CPUs regarded the effectiveness of the paste-type thermal interface material the company began using in lieu of solder on its first run of those chips. Indeed, we've rarely found ourselves limited by the underlying silicon when overclocking our Skylake-X CPUs—the wall has ...Read more...

The are some people that think that bigger is always better, or simply that more is more. G.Skill clearly employs folks who abide by that ethos, as evidenced by its 64-GB Trident Z RGB DC dual-channel kits. The memory maker says it's worked with Asus to develop a "customized PCB solution" that lets it produce high-speed 32-GB DDR4 modules using existing DRAM packages—in this case, 32 chips with 1 GB (8 Gb) of capacity apiece.The sticks are taller than your standard DIMMs, but otherwise look like ye olde Trident Z RGB modules. The idea is to ...Read more...

A new motherboard party wouldn't be complete without Asus, and the company has no less than sixteen new motherboards to show off. From the glorious excess of the Maximus XI Extreme to the workstation-focused WS Z390 Pro down to the mainstream Prime Z390-P, Asus probably has a board that'll suffice for anyone building around an Intel ninth-gen CPU. Without further ado, let's take a peek. ...Read more...

We were a bit let down when we found out that the supposedly range-topping Z370 chipset had missed out on some of the fancy new features in the H370, B360, and H310 chipsets. If you feel the same way, then you'll be delighted to hear that Intel's new Z390 chipset packs in all of those features, including native USB 3.1 Gen 2 and CNVi Wi-Fi support. A new chipset means new motherboards, and MSI is leading the charge with a grand total of ten boards for you to plant eighth- and ninth-gen Intel CPUs on.Dedicated MSI fans are probably the only ones who will recall that MSI segments its gaming boards into "Enthusiast," "Performance," and "Arsenal" families. That's still true, but using full words is apparently way too old-school for MSI. Instead, the company ...Read more...

Gigabyte is cooking up a whole batch of Z390 motherboards in its Aorus, Gaming, UD, and Designare ranges. Right now, we're going to take a good look at the Aorus lineup, from the most-featured models down to the barest. The absolute highest-end models in the Z390 Aorus range are the Xtreme and Xtreme Waterforce, but there's very little information about them just yet. We do have the skinny on the core of the Aorus lineup—namely, the Master, Ultra, Pro, and Elite variants. Let's get started.The company says its goal for the boards in its falcon-themed series was to let ninth-gen CPUs with unlocked multipliers achieve 5-GHz clock speeds "without any VRM concerns." Gigabyte goes on to say that the VRM setups in the lineup run 5-10° C cooler than those of its competitors, both with and without heatsinks. The higher-end Aorus boards have fin-stack heatsinks with heatpipes underneath ...Read more...

At its Performance Unleashed event this morning, Intel announced three new product families. For most PC builders and enthusiasts, the trio of ninth-generation CPUs for Intel's 300-series LGA 1151 platforms will likely be of most interest.The long-rumored and long-leaked Core i9-9900K is Intel's first 5-GHz CPU to ship in volume, and it'll bring eight Skylake cores and 16 threads to Z370 and Z390 motherboards. The ninth generation of Core desktop CPUs also marks the long-requested return of solder ...Read more...

At its Performance Unleashed event this morning, Intel announced three new product families. For most PC builders and enthusiasts, the trio of ninth-generation CPUs for Intel's 300-series LGA 1151 platforms will likely be of the greatest interest.The long-rumored and long-leaked Core i9-9900K is Intel's first 5-GHz CPU to ship in volume, and it'll bring eight Skylake cores and 16 threads to Z370 and Z390 motherboards. The ninth generation of Core desktop CPUs also marks the long-requested return of ...Read more...

The Tech Report is on site at Intel's Performance Unleashed launch event, and we're going to try to live-blog the thing. Keep this page open for all the latest updates....Read more...

Intel is launching some new products today, and we're on site to learn all about them. If you're interested in following along, the company will be livestreaming the event from its newsroom.There has never been a better time to own a desktop PC! Tune in to our ...Read more...

Friday afternoons aren't usually fertile ground for big news. Today's a little different, though. Out of the blue, AMD told the world when the previously announced Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX and 2920X chips will be ripe for the picking. The red team's also letting the Dynamic Local Mode cat out of the bag soon. Let's rehash some basics first.Model ...Read more...

Our wannabe fictional overlord Josh Pozzolo (aka sweatshopking) just reviewed Microsoft Windows 10's October 2018 update, and he pretty much likes it. I've installed it myself on my main box with nary a hitch, and I've enjoying some of the new features. Unfortunately, not every Windows 10 user is experiencing that kind of smooth sailing after the upgrade to build 1809. It seems that the update freed up a little too much hard drive space for some people, by way of deleting their documents. ...Read more...

For a good while now, Dell's Alienware sub-brand has been selling three models of laptop: the simply-named Alienware 13, Alienware 15, and Alienware 17. While those machines are attractive and speedy, we probably wouldn't describe them as "svelte." They may not be bulky desktop replacements, but they're not exactly lean, either. For folks seeking gaming performance in a slim package, Dell's just revealed the Alienware m15 slim gaming laptop.

This won't be news to GeForce Experience users, but Nvidia's just dropped a new driver for its graphics processors. GeForce driver version 416.16 brings support for the Windows 10 October 2018 update. This release also adds and modifies SLI and 3D Vision profiles for a handful of games, and it includes the usual pack of bug fixes. The real interesting news this time around, though, is that this is the first driver to enable RTX technology on GeForce graphics cards of that same name.

Unless you're reading this website by pure happenstance, it's pretty likely that you're familiar with the Supermicro name. You may have ordered some of the company's server hardware at some point, in fact. If you're even mildly concerned with data security, you may want to step on over to Bloomberg and read the site's latest feature article. The publication claims it has testimony from many sources, including "six current and former national security officials" plus insiders at Amazon and Apple, asserting that a massive US government investigation is ongoing regarding hardware backdoors installed in some Supermicro server motherboards used by as many as 30 U.S. companies. ...Read more...

By Crom's rocks, it's hot out there. The south of Europe and the Iberian peninsula in particular are sort-of-enjoying a second summer. That's not entirely desirable, though, no matter how nice it is to go out with just a t-shirt. Most of the country is on high alert for the chance of forest fires. Pine and eucalyptus smell real nice, but not when they reach your nostrils by way of smoke. Anyway, I'm sitting here in my office with the AC on and a ton of deals in hand. Let's check them out. ...Read more...

Today is a farce.

Not content with making green-on-black mice, keyboards, headsets, and random sundries, Razer is turning its fangs towards home networking. The company's let the sleek-looking Razer Sila router out of its cage, all set with mesh networking capability and a gazillion antennas. ...Read more...

Intel just released a new graphics driver right on time for the Windows 10 October 2018 update. The driver is numbered 25.20.100.6323 and adds support for the WinML machine learning framework and HDR10 output for laptop internal displays. As usual, this latest release also adds game-specific support for a few titles and fixes a few bugs.Driver 25.20.100.6323 is a full WDDM 2.5 driver with support for DirectX 12 Shader Model 6.3 as well as HDR10 output. Some Intel IGPs already supported ...Read more...

Howdy, folks! There's a chance you noticed that a feature update to Windows 10 is downloading to your machine. Yesterday, Microsoft pulled a fast one and announced the Windows 10 October 2018 Update along with its Surface Pro 6, Surface Laptop 2, and Surface Studio 2 machines. ...Read more...

It's definitely Surface day today. Along with the Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2, Microsoft announced the new desk-bound Surface Studio 2 at its event today. The existing machine was already impressive, so let's see what's new this time around. ...Read more...

Almost out of nowhere, Microsoft announced a couple new devices in its Surface range at a closed-door event today. The software-and-hardware giant has pulled back the curtain on the Surface Pro 6 and Surface Laptop 2. Let's take a look at each of them in turn.According to Engadget's live blog of the event , probably the biggest hardware change between the previous-generation devices is the upgrade to eighth-generation mobile Intel Core processors. Referring to the Surface Pro 6, Microsoft reportedly said that change alone ...Read more...

Some reversals are just fantastically great to watch. Much like any of Jean-Claude Van Damme's characters in his '80s movies (complete with a 10-time repeat of a roundhouse kick), prices for solid-state drives have bounced back from the depths of unattainability and into the limelight. We can foresee gerbils upgrading and buying rigs left and right. Along with SSDs, here's today's selection of deals. ...Read more...

Cooler Master's Cosmos cases have long captured the imagination of many a high-end builder, and the company's Cosmos C700M is the ultimate expression of its modular design philosophy so far. ...Read more...

I hate mowing the lawn, but closing gaps like this is very satisfying. Is that weird?

It all started with a red light. You see, the primary FreeSync display in the TR labs, an Eizo Foris FS2735, has a handy multi-color power LED that flips over to red when a FreeSync-compatible graphics card is connected. I was setting up a test rig today for reasons unrelated to graphics-card testing, and in the process, I grabbed our GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition without a second thought, dropped it into a PCIe slot, and hooked it up to that monitor.The red ...Read more...

Update 9/30/18 3:22 AM: After further research and the collection of more high-speed camera footage from our G-Sync displays, I believe the tear-free gameplay we're experiencing on our FreeSync displays in combination with GeForces is a consequence of Windows 10's Desktop Window Manager adding some form of Vsync to the proceedings when games are in borderless windowed mode, rather than any form of VESA Adapative-Sync being engaged with our GeForce cards. Pending a response from Nvidia as to just what we're experiencing, I'd warn against drawing any conclusions from our observations at this time and sincerely apologize for any misleading conclusions we've presented in our original article. The original piece continues below for posterity.It all started with a red light. You see, the primary FreeSync display in the TR labs, an Eizo Foris FS2735 , has a handy multi-color power LED that flips over to red when a FreeSync-compatible graphics card is connected. I ...Read more...

Lately, rumors have been swirling that Intel is facing the potentially enviable prospect of more demand for its products than it can supply. This morning, interim CEO Bob Swan confirmed that thanks to strong growth in Intel's data-centric businesses and unexpected growth in the client PC market for the first time since 2011, the company is facing "pressure on [its] factory network." As a result, Swan says the company is prioritizing production of its Xeon and Core processors "to serve the high-performance segments of the market."As a result of that strategy, Swan concedes that supply of Intel products is "tight," especially in its entry-level PC chips. To take the edge off this supply pressure, Swan says that Intel plans to ...Read more...

In the era of the iPhone, I've long wanted a pro-grade camera that lets me capture high-quality pixels, edit them to taste, and share them with the world—all without pulling out a phone. Many companies have tried putting Android guts in camera bodies—the Samsung Galaxy NX being perhaps the closest implementation of what I'd want—but those efforts have generally not taken off. Today's SLRs and mirrorless cameras instead use tacked-on connectivity features like SnapBridge to wirelessly move images into the connected world by way of smartphone apps. ...Read more...

The PC hardware deals just keep coming this week. I wasn't expecting much when I paged through Newegg's latest circular this morning, but the e-tailer served up quite a few compelling discounts that we just couldn't ignore. Enjoy. ...Read more...

This photo is crushing it.

Hot on the heels of the red team, Nvidia has released a fresh driver for GeForce cards ahead of a couple major game launches. Release 411.70 prepares GeForce gamers for the best performance in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Forza Horizon 4, and FIFA 19. The latest version of EA's soccer simulator hits the pitch tomorrow, while Assassin's Creed Odyssey will be available to the general gaming public October 5 and Forza Horizon 4 will disturb the peace of the English landscape October 2.

Uh, hi, folks. I'm currently hating hard on life since I am the recipient of a massive truckload of flu symptoms. I feel I've been hit with said truck, and it's taking everything in my power to not keel over. Only the sustenance of PC hardware deals is keeping me alive. It's almost as if collecting them is my purpose in life. Take a look at what we have in store today. ...Read more...

AMD's driver team has had a busy September, and the company isn't letting off the gas as we close the month. Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.9.3 girds the red team's cards for Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Forza Horizon 4. AMD says gamers looking to step into ancient Greece by way of Odyssey will enjoy a 3% performance boost over its 18.9.1 drivers on RX 580 cards at 1920x1080, and as much as 5% better performance versus older drivers with the RX Vega 64 at 2560x1440.

Gigabyte has already revealed its first custom takes on the GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti, but it was only a matter of time before more extreme versions of those cards emerged from the company's Aorus division. Now, a product page for the Aorus RTX 2080 Xtreme 8G has hit Gigabyte's web site, and as we've come to expect from Aorus pixel-pushers, the results are tantalizing. ...Read more...

Way back in the day, Fujifilm made a series of fixed-lens medium-format rangefinder cameras that came to be known as "Texas Leicas" for their resemblance to a classic Leica M scaled way up. Now, the company is bringing back some of that magic with its GFX 50R, a mirrorless camera that tries its best to remain compact while housing a larger-than-full-frame 43.8-mm by 32.9-mm sensor with a 51.4-megapixel resolution. ...Read more...

Oculus has long offered a way for budding VR users to dip a toe into virtual worlds with its Go headset, but that pair of goggles offers only rudimentary tracking mechanisms and control of virtual environments. At its Oculus Connect 5 conference today, the company bridged the gap between the Go and the Rift with the Quest headset. The Quest is a standalone visor that offers inside-out tracking, the full range of Touch hand controls, and a new twist from Oculus hardware: the potential to go beyond single-room virtual experiences thanks to Insight, a technology that the company says allows its Guardian barriers to handle multiple rooms. ...Read more...

A mousepad isn't often an item that requires all that much thought for the average user. Some folks, like myself, are more particular and prefer a specific type of surface that's more or less grippy depending on one's mousing habits. If you can't decide on whether you want your pad rough or slick, Cooler Master's two-faced Masteraccessory MP860 may be the right item for you. ...Read more...

By now, everyone and their dog has read our reviews covering Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 graphics cards. Their performance potential is pretty massive (particularly with DLSS in play), but the prices they command aren't quite as appetizing as their pixel-pushing prowess. We figure that more than a few of you are eyeing the GeForce RTX 2070 as a potential buy, but there's been no word on its release until now.Beautiful any way you look at it.

I was never into comic books, but I'm glad we have them to thank for various awesome movies and games.

Hullo, my dear gerbils! It's exceedingly warm around here at 33°C, and I'm stuck at my desk fishing out deals from the vast swaths of online prices. The things I do for love. While all worthwhile deals in our posts are appetizing by definition, we have a few today that are more than a little nuts. Check'em out. ...Read more...

More and more external SSDs are bringing desktop-class performance to portable enclosures, and HyperX is getting in on the game with its Savage Exo. This external bit bucket pairs 3D TLC NAND media with a USB 3.1 Gen 2 interface for sequential speeds of up to 500 MB/s for reads and 480 MB/s for writes. ...Read more...

AMD's Open Capture and Analysis Tool, or OCAT, is an indispensable tool in gathering frame-time data for modern games. The company has just posted a heads-up about a new build of OCAT, version 1.2, that adds a range of useful capabilities to the tool. ...Read more...

Right now, most gerbils are probably talking about Nvidia's high-end GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 graphics cards. Those pixel-pushers command pretty high prices, though, and we figure that more than a couple of you are waiting for the more sensibly priced RTX 2070. Asus knows that, and it's displaying its stable of GeForce RTX 2070 cards to the world. ...Read more...

Amazon's Echo devices are already a part of many an abode. It seems like the strategy behind the company's latest announcement could be described as "have Alexa everywhere," though. The e-tailer has revamped most of its existing Echo lineup and announced a bevy of automation devices: the Echo Auto for cars, the Fire TV Recast set-top box, an Echo subwoofer, a voice-controlled Smart Plug, the Stick Up Cam Wired security camera, and (drum roll, please) an AmazonBasics Microwave with Alexa built in. ...Read more...

A literal punch to the gut to complement Nvidia's $1,200 figurative one.

We're no strangers around here to Intel's Optane range of devices, and the SSD 905P series clan just got bigger, in both senses of the word. The boys in blue are talking up capacious new takes on Optane SSD 905P devices in both add-in card and U.2 form factors. ...Read more...

A fair day to thee, gerbils. All the hubbub on the interweb right now is about Nvidia's RTX graphics cards, and it's not likely to die anytime soon. Despite the undeniable speed of Nvidia's new offerings, we bet that value-conscious buyers are wondering how the new release will affect component pricing. Have no fear, for we're here twice a week with deals posts to answer that particular question. Have a look at today's selection. ...Read more...

Many TR readers have likely received a package or two from Newegg over the years, and its deals make regular appearances in our round-ups. Partially because of the company's frequent showings in our deals posts, beware: if you ordered anything from the site over the past few weeks, you'll probably want to contact your bank or credit-card provider and get a new set of account credentials.In an unfortunate turn for the e-tailer, a group of hackers was able to insert malicious code into its checkout page and make off with ...Read more...

Say, gerbils. Did you have any idea that Nvidia just released some new graphics cards? Yeah, I was pretty surprised too. The folks in green have released version 411.63 of their GeForce drivers with support for GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 graphics cards in advance of tomorrow's official launch for the general public. ...Read more...

We bet that more than a few fine folks frequenting this fantastic site will probably be hit by a wave of nostalgia after reading this bit of news. Riding on the coattails of Nintendo, Sega, and Atari, Sony's set to release the PlayStation Classic, a minified take on the much-loved original PlayStation console, all ready to go with preloaded games. ...Read more...