Arlen

That’s why you probably purchased that speedy RAM after watching some benchmark clip online where it was rendering frames more smoothly. After all, memory seems like it would be all about how many bits flow between processor and the stick every second, right? Yeah, that’s the headline number everybody throws out, typically measured in gigabytes … Read more

The loading screen stretches ahead of you like forever, seemingly unending as you press play on some sprawling open-world game. You think maybe your computer’s got a problem. But more often than not, things are simpler: Your drive is simply overloaded with a certain kind of load. Hard drives and solid-state drives is typically measured … Read more

When you shell out for a high-end NVMe drive or a graphics card, you’re paying for performance. But that hardware rely on the interface it connects through. That sleek-looking rectangle on your motherboard (the PCIe slot) actualy represents a huge array of encoding, lane, and generation rules, which define how your component perform, whether it … Read more

You buy a fan to move air, but you don’t know how much it will actualy move. You don’t really know how hard that fan will push in your case. And that’s why most cooling plans fail, there is a gap between marketing spec and thermal reality. Sure, a high RPM number sounds great in … Read more

When you bought that fancy new processor or graphics card, I’m willing to bet that it was because you wanted more computing power and you want it faster; not slower. But running hotter make the fans spin and makes the temperature skyrocket. Running hot enough can cause your computer to throttle itself back when playing … Read more

When creating a gaming rig, it’s easy to obsess over raw performance figures. You browse benchmark charts and you seek maximum average frame rate. But that’s just half the story. And often the most costly half of the problem. The other metric is efficiency: How many watts are you drawing from wall per unit of … Read more

Your rig has top-of-the-line parts, but when you’re pushing it hard, frames stutters. That’s thermal throttling; your CPU reached its temperature limit and cranked back the clock to prevent damage. Your thermal margin, the distance between where it is now and where it must stop, tells you how much more juice you have before things … Read more

While most GPU builders monitor their cards for peak frames per second or core temperatures, few pay attention to the hotspot delta. That number tells you how much different the core temperature is than the peak. It will tell you much more about your card’s health then just its temperature alone. The hotspot could be … Read more

When rendering or playing games and you notice that your CPUs is getting toasty, you might panic and think it’s time to upgrade your computer. While that’s understandable, it isn’t always right. Just because something gets hot doesn’t mean it’s running poorly; ambient temperature are irrelevant when measuring the effectiveness of a cooling system. For … Read more

When building out a gaming rig, you go all-out for high-framerates and clear visuals, shelling out big bucks on fancy components. Hours is spent arguing over which graphics card to get, what kind of CPU core counts, and which case has that cool look. And then you plug it in and turn it on without … Read more

It’s been weeks. You spent weeks researching processors and graphics cards for your new build. You spent weeks measuring clearances inside your case. You spent weeks debating RGB aesthetics until your eyes was burning out of their sockets. And then there it sits: your power supply unit. It stares back at you with its own … Read more

Your character lunges across screen as you press forward to punch. For a split-second everything is crisp. Then your opponent blocks an attack they should of blocked. Your combo’s momentum break as your confidence snaps too. It’s not a glitch in your reflexes, though. It’s network code trying to hide the inevitable delay caused by … Read more