It’s easy to look strictly at the type of CPU and GPU you have when evaluating the kind of performance you’re likely to get in PC games. But beyond that lies another important stat, the CPU cache. Here’s why it’s so important in gaming and why it pays to maximize it. What is the CPU cache? The CPU cache is a high-speed memory unit located around the CPU that is used to store frequently accessed data and instructions from the main memory. The proximity of the cache so close to the CPU means that data can be retrieved a lot quicker than from the RAM memory itself, so having more cache can greatly speed up and improve the CPU’s performance. What’s the cache’s role in PC gaming? The above process applies to when you’re gaming too. Your PC’s CPU cache stores frequently used game data and instructions from the game you’re playing. By doing so, it allows the CPU to retrieve and process this information more quickly than if the CPU has to continually access your PC’s RAM. The CPU cache is important for reducing latency, maintaining consistent frame rates, and preventing stuttering in games. This is especially the case when playing triple-A games that have high computational demands for things like complex physics. Without enough cache, your GPU is forced to wait on your CPU to process instructions, which can create a bottleneck that will slow down your game. The type of game information stored in CPU cache can vary and include anything from AI algorithms to textures, models, or the instructions for rendering graphics. The more data a game has to process, the more useful it is to have a higher amount of cache that will keep your game running smoothly. Further reading: The truth about PC gaming on SSDs vs. HDDs, tested with real data How much CPU cache do you need? How much CPU cache you need for optimal performance depends on the type of game you’re playing and other factors like the number of cores in your CPU. As mentioned, you’re going to want more cache to run triple-A titles with a lot of data. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry In fact, having more cache is even more important than having more CPU cores when your CPU has a lot to process; this has been shown to be the case in testing. In one test the testers demonstrated how a 67 percent increase in L3 cache netted a corresponding 18 percent increase in a CPU’s performance, while a 67 percent increase in the same CPU’s core count only netted a 6 percent increase in performance. As a guide, the following cache sizes are suitable for most modern PC games: L1 cache: 64KB per core L2 cache 256KB per core L3 cache: 32MB to 96MB As you can see there are different levels of CPU cache denoted by the letter L and their corresponding number.L3 cache is generally the most important kind of cache for PC gaming, since it can store a larger pool of data that is often shared among the CPU cores, so you’ll want to pay most attention to how much L3 cache a CPU has. How do you get more CPU cache? As for obtaining more CPU cache, you can’t just go out and buy new cache and install it like you can RAM. Instead, the best way to get more cache is to upgrade your CPU, or if you’re building a new rig, to choose a CPU that has the most higher-level cache as possible. The amount of cache a CPU has can be the standout difference between two CPUs with very similar specs. For example, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D are both high-end processors from AMD’s 7000 series with the same maximum boost clock speeds of 5.6GHz, but the Ryzen 9 7900X3D has 128MB L3 cache compared to the Ryzen 9 7900X’s 64MB L3 cache. The Ryzen 9 7900X3D’s additional cache and the fact that it sports AMD’s 3D V-cache technology means it performs better than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X in cache-sensitive games. For that reason, you’re going to want to compare the cache from different CPUs before you buy, as well as read a few benchmarks to get an overview of performance. Further reading: Why I never buy the best gaming hardware for my PC Read...

NVIDIA`s CEO Jensen Huang has unveiled bold strategies for AI and chip development, predicting a future with dual factory types and enhanced autonomous vehicle technology. Read...

According to one late 2024 survey conducted by the Game Developer Collective, over half of the game developers surveyed consider the VR market to be stagnant or in decline. Worse still, barely a quarter still believe the market is growing. Among developers not currently working on VR projects, fewer than half see any possibility of their studio investing in VR in the future. Even Apple’s entry into the market doesn’t seem to have made much of an impression on those surveyed. Meanwhile, research firm Omdia reported that sales of VR headsets dropped by 10 percent in 2024, with further decline expected in 2025. The big studios don’t seem to have an appetite for VR. Despite the success of Half-Life: Alyx, Valve has yet to release anything else, instead focusing on multiplayer ventures like Counter-Strike 2 and Deadlock as well as hardware like the Steam Deck. Alyx was in 2020 and was only available on PC VR devices. Even Apple has failed to drive much developer interest with its Vision Pro headset. What’s the problem here? Well, while technological limitations tend to ease and shrink over time, that doesn’t seem to be the case with virtual reality. It’s hard enough to pack a ton of processing power into a portable device, but VR headsets need to be extra lightweight and comfortable. There’s also the optical technology, which still has a way to go before we reach ultra-realistic immersion. Battery life is a concern, as is the susceptibility of some to VR motion sickness. There’s also the need for ample physical space, with high-end PC-based setups requiring enough room to deploy external sensors. But even simpler options—like the Meta Quest 3 or PSVR2—can still be impractical in a smaller apartment or living room. There simply isn’t always space to wield a lightsaber or move around freely. Despite constant technological advances and the involvement of major players, virtual reality still seems to struggle with the same problems today as it did years ago. Developers are reluctant, sales are falling, and the lack of major game releases makes it difficult to attract a wider audience. Will VR ever be the revolution once promised? Or will it remain an expensive niche for enthusiasts only? Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Fastest PCIe 5.0 HMB SSD to date Affordable for PCIe 5.0 Good warranty and TBW rating Cons Pricier than PCIe 4.0 HMB, but not a lot faster in real-world operations Our Verdict The Addlink G55H is the fastest DRAM-less PCIe 5.0 SSD we’ve tested to date, albeit by a very narrow margin. But first place is first place, and it’s an affordable entry point to the latest standard in storage bus technology. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Addlink G55H SSD Retailer Price Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket So, PCIe 5.0 DRAM-less, host memory buffer SSDs are now a thing — the Addlink G55H being the latest such beastie. It’s also the fastest I’ve tested, though you’d be hard pressed to spot the difference — even in our charts. But a win is a win, so put the G55H on your short list for PCIe 5.0 NVMe that doesn’t break the bank. Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best SSDs for comparison. What are the Addlink G55H’s features? The G55H is the latest DRAM-less PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD to pass through our portals. DRAM-less means the drive is a host buffer memory (HMB) implementation using system memory for primary caching duties. The G55H’s Phison E31T controller will use a portion of the 218-layer NAND for secondary caching by writing it at first as single-bit SLC (Single Level Cell), then later natively as three-bit TLC (Triple Level Cell). Addlink warranties the G55H for five years, and the drive is rated for 600TBW per 1TB of capacity. In other words, you can write up to 600TB to the 1TB drive without it turning read-only. Note that TBW is not always a real hard limit, with read-only kicking in only when there are no more over-provisioned (extra) NAND blocks to replace worn out ones. How much does the Addlink G55H cost? The 1TB G55H is $121.44 and the 2TB version $221.44 on Amazon at the time of this writing. Apparently, the price setters like straight percentages. I see this as a refreshing break from the tedious 99 cent psychological assault. More salient to the review, those prices are pretty darn decent for a PCIe 5.0 HMB SSD at the moment. Around $20 cheaper than the competing Corsair MP700 Elite when we checked for this article. Of course, SSD pricing is always in flux, so shop around. How fast is the Addlink G55H? The G55H is plenty fast, ranking sixth overall out of all the NVMe SSDs we’ve tested — including PCIe 5.0 SSDs with DRAM. The margin between the G55H and DRAM designs is actually rather large in synthetic benchmarks — however, in the real world so far… not so much. You may notice in the charts below that the numbers are extremely similar to those of the other two drives listed — the PNY CS2150 and the Corsair MP700 Elite. That’s because they’re basically the same drive. Same Phison controller, same type of NAND. The CrystalDiskMark 8 sequential numbers look almost as if we’d chopped off the bars with a knife they’re so close. The G55H barely squeaked by the competition to a victory. The story was a bit different in the CrystalDiskMark 4K tests with the Corsair MP700 Elite pulling slightly ahead of the PNY CS2150 and G55H. Rising back to the top, the G55H was several seconds faster than its rivals with our 48GB transfers — a tad more than the two seconds we consider the margin of error in this test. In the 450GB write, the G55H again lost out to the MP700 Elite, and by a noticeable, if not stunning margin. If two out of four victories went to the MP700 Elite by larger margins, you might wonder why it ranked lower overall than the G55H. That’s because our AS SSD results, though not generally published, are also part of the overall formula. The G55H scored higher in those than its rivals, but in total, the differences between these three drives are so narrow as to be well within our test’s margin of error. Note that while PCIe 5.0 shows much higher numbers on synthetic benchmarks than PCIe 4.0, that performance difference rarely manifests itself without software optimized for NMVe’s queues — which does not include Windows. Or a whole lot of anything else for that matter. Should you buy the Addlink G55H? I can’t think of a reason not to buy the G55H if you’re set on a PCIe 5.0 SSD — it’s every bit the drive its two current rivals are. But put in purely financial terms, you’re paying nearly twice as much for PCIe 5.0 as PCIe 4.0 with little current real-world benefit, though there may be in the future. My advice is that if you are set on PCIe 5.0, you let current price be the determining factor in which of these three HMB drives you choose. Read...

Buying goodies from a trendy food truck can get expensive. But I’ll bet that even the most desperate TikTok foodie hasn’t dropped more than a grand at once on something they can’t actually eat. But you can if you’re attending Nvidia’s GPU Technology Conference (GTC), where the company is selling its RTX 5080 and 5090 graphics cards from a pop-up “food truck” sales stall. Don’t everybody rush to San Jose at once. The impossible-to-find cards will only be sold to GTC attendees—apparently alongside merch shirts and puffy vests—who are already paying more than a thousand dollars for the cheapest ticket to see the newest industrial hardware from Nvidia and its partners. And no, those passes don’t get you any discounts on the cards, some of which are from AIB partners and not the Founder’s Edition GPUs that are going for nearly mythical retail prices. Even Nvidia only has a couple thousand cards on hand—1,000 each for the RTX 5080 and 5090, according to Tom’s Hardware. They’re being sold in small batches at random times. One Twitter/X post from yesterday says that the store will sell 90 of them for the next 30 minutes. GTC continues today and tomorrow, showing off mostly AI and industrial products, including some new Nvidia-branded desktops and mini PCs. The people who actually buy these cards will be mostly developers or otherwise poised to use them for something other than PC gaming. That said, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if some of the cards sold at the show pop up on eBay or Craigslist right afterward. After all, flipping a hot item might just cover a first-class ticket home. Read...

Far be it from me to tell the most valuable company on the planet what to do. But Nvidia, you do realize that your whole schtick is graphics cards, right? You know, GeForce, those chunky go-fast gadgets you’ve been selling for 25 years or so, to let people play video games? Because based on some recent news, they don’t seem to be the company’s biggest focus. New Nvidia-designed Arm desktops After a couple of months of graphics card launches that have been frustrating at best and a complete retail disaster at worst, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took to the stage at the company’s self-branded GPU Technology Conference. Now, to set the proper tone for a bit of admittedly entitled whinging, Nvidia has rebranded the initial portion of this yearly event as an “AI conference,” so it’s hardly surprising that AI computing is the lion’s share of the two-hour keynote talk. Even so, I can’t help but feel a little miffed that Huang fawned over new Nvidia-branded desktop computers it’ll be selling directly to the AI industry and individuals. The DGX Spark mini-PC and DGX Station desktop are based on the new Grace Blackwell AI-focused GPUs. This sort of setup was previously available only in datacenter hardware. The specs for the larger DGX Station aren’t available yet, but the Blackwell GPU in the smaller Spark (previously revealed as Project DIGITS) will be paired to a custom Arm CPU. Nvidia Despite being loaded with up to 128GB of memory and 4TB of storage, this thing isn’t going to make a good fit as a conventional desktop — and at a $3000 pre-order price, it wouldn’t find many buyers anyway. Nvidia is positioning both the DGX Spark and DGX Station as all-in-one solutions for running local AI models, along with a token mention of “researchers, data scientists, robotics developers, and students.” Nvidia will be partnering with Asus, Boxx, Dell, HP, Lambda, and Supermicro to manufacture and sell both desktops “later this year.” Didn’t Nvidia use to sell graphics cards? Again, it’s not as if it’s illegal or even distasteful to for Nvidia to branch out into other markets beyond gaming chips for PCs, or even beyond gaming entirely (remember that Nvidia powers the Nintendo Switch with Tegra mobile chips, after abandoning the smartphone market over a decade ago). And Nvidia hardware is in a lot of things you might not expect, including connected cars, medical devices, and other industrial hardware. But as a PC gamer myself and an advocate for other gamers, I can’t help but feel a little betrayed. While retailers, AIB partners, and scalpers are eating good on the scarcity of new GeForce cards, Nvidia is preparing entirely new product lines for the AI industry. And not just the “big iron” hardware that’s made it an unstoppable juggernaut of tech over the last few years, relatively small, targetted devices for individual users. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry Nvidia can make both, of course…but even a big green giant only has so much chip production capacity. I don’t have any empirical evidence to prove it, but I’m not the only one who feels like the woefully inadequate supply of new RTX 50-series graphics cards has something to do with all these new industrial chips and brand new Arm processors being made for customers with even deeper pockets. It doesn’t help that Nvidia has been evasive, if not entirely deceptive, in addressing its supply issues as RTX cards vanish from shelves the second they arrive. Nvidia jumped from one peak to the next by riding the crypto boom right into the AI boom. And while recent developments have caused it to look more like a bubble, Nvidia stock is still more than double what it was at the beginning of 2024. The cold calculus of profit suggests that the company is far more concerned with AI, for the present if not the future, than it is with PC gaming. As my grandpa used to say, make hay while the sun shines. Opportunities for AMD and Intel But that focus can’t help but alienate PC gamers, and it sure doesn’t help that Nvidia seems to be making a lot of money off of that, too. It creates an opportunity for the competition. If AMD can’t make infinite money off the AI industry, it can sure sell some graphics cards, especially to the large chunk of PC gamers who can’t afford four figures for a new GPU. While Nvidia still dominates to the point of monopoly for discrete graphics, recent sales data indicates that AMD is clawing back some market share, especially in markets like Japan and Taiwan. And if AMD is making a play for the mid-range, newcomer Intel is doing the same thing for the budget space with its second generation of Arc cards. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry Nvidia announcing new AI PCs isn’t necessarily at the expense of its ability to deliver gaming GPUs. But it isn’t happening in a vacuum, either…and Nvidia is failing to deliver gaming GPUs. If you’re considering an upgrade or a new purchase, maybe give the competition a try. It’s not as if Nvidia even needs a desktop GPU monopoly anymore. And if the AI bubble bursts, and the company is no longer flush with cash…a little ego bruising might be good for it when it decides that it wants to sell graphics cards to PC gamers after all. Read...

Lemongrass has launched new services to streamline businesses` transitions to the SAP Business Technology Platform, enhancing digital infrastructure and investment returns. Read...

As AI technology surges in adoption, the demand for data storage capacity skyrockets, posing challenges in scaling data centres and ensuring sustainability. Read...

As worker demands transform, the ASUS ExpertBook P5 emerges as the solution to support modern productivity and flexibility in an evolving workplace. Read...

Patented AirPump flossing technology enables clever portable water flosser. Read...