| AMD Cuts Prices of 8-Core FX Series Processors Posted: 02 Sep 2014 11:23 AM PDT  Watch out for falling prices
How do you steal some thunder from Intel's Haswell-E launch? There are several options, and the one AMD went with was to slash prices on several 8-core FX-8000 and FX-9000 Series processors. In addition to rolling out some significant price cuts to half a dozen CPUs, AMD also introduced three new AM3+ FX chips -- they include the FX-8370, FX-8370E, and FX-8320E, all of which are also 8-core parts. The FX-8370 is the only 125W chip out of the trio of new CPUs. It has a clockspeed of 4GHz (4.3GHz via Turbo), DDR3-1866 support, and costs $199. That's the same price as the FX-8370E, a 95W part with a 3.3GHz clockspeed (4.3GHz via Turbo) and DDR3-1866 memory support. AMD's new FX-8320E is the least expensive of the bunch at $147. It's rated at 95W and has a 3.2GHz clockspeed (4GHz via Turbo) and DDR3-1866 memory support. As for the price cuts, from top to bottom they include: - FX-9590 (FD9590FHHKWOX): 220W, 8-core, 4.7GHz/5GHz, DDR3-2133, $290 (down $86)
- FX-9590 (FD9590FHHKBOF): 220W, 8-core, 4.7GHz/5GHz, DDR3-2133, $226 (down $86)
- FX-9370 (FD9370FHHKWOX): 220W, 8-core, 4.3GHz/4.7GHz, DDR3-2133, $273 (down $21)
- FX-9370 (FD9370FHHKBOF): 220W, 8-core, 4.3GHz/4.7GHz, DDR3-2133, $210 (down $20)
- FX-8350 (FD8350FRW8KHK): 125W, 8-core, 4GHz/4.2GHz, DDR3-1866, $178, (down $19)
- FX-8320 (FD8320FRW8KHK): 125W, 8-core, 3.5GHz/4GHz, DDR3-1866, $147 (down $11)
Prices are SEP (Suggested Etail Price), meaning they should be about the same at retail. Models ending in WOX are the new liquid cooled bundled processors. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Nvidia Gets Ready for GAME24, First Ever 24-Hour PC Gaming Celebration Posted: 02 Sep 2014 10:20 AM PDT  It's about time we celebrated how awesome PC gaming is!
We love video games. Many of you reading this also love video games. And if you're a fan of Maximum PC, chances are you prefer gaming on a PC. It is, after all, the superior platform for gaming -- we love our console gaming brethren, but they'll never convince us otherwise -- so why not celebrate this hobby of ours? That's exactly what Nvidia plans to do -- the GPU maker just sent us details about GAME24, the first ever global PC gaming celebration. "The goal of this event is simple – to celebrate this thing we all love called PC gaming. GAME24 is a combination of many local events around the world, and it will all be broadcast live on the internet," Nvidia says. GAME24 will commence on September 18th at 6PM PST and last for 24 hours. Events will take place in Chicago, Los Angeles, Mission Viejo, London, Indianapolis, Shanghai, and Stockholm, along with virtual stage around the world. If you can't make it to one of the venues, you catch the broadcast on game24.nvidia.com. You'll be able to interact with the livestream at home and win prices, share gaming experiences, and more. And while this hasn't been confirmed, we've heard rumors that Nvidia might show off a new GPU during the 24-hour celebration. More details will be available on Nvidia's blog later today. In the meantime, you can register for the livestream or one of the physical locations. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 480GB SSD, Intel Core i7 4770K, and More! Posted: 02 Sep 2014 09:49 AM PDT |
| Anand Shimpi Leaves Popular Review Site to Work for Apple Posted: 02 Sep 2014 09:06 AM PDT  Making the transition from AnandTech to Apple
You may have already heard the news that Anand Lal Shimpi, the veteran tech journalist who founded the popular review site AnandTech back in 1997, is retiring from the tech publishing world. He made the announcement in a lengthy (and informative) blog post over the weekend, but one thing he left out is where the road ahead will take him. Turns out it's Cupertino -- Anand Shimpi is going to work for Apple. News of Shimpi's transition to Apple was reported by Recode, which claims that an Apple representative confirmed his hiring. However, the rep wasn't willing to provide any other details at this time, so it's unclear what his role at the Cupertino outfit will be. As for AnandTech, the former Geocities site will continue to publish content with Ryan Smith taking over as Editor in Chief. According to Shimpi, the site is in great shape with "solid" traffic and having set a number of records on the business side of things in 2013. So in other words, he's not abandoning a sinking ship, nor is his health an issue (a point he stressed in his post). "On a personal level I've made myself available to all AnandTech editors for advice and guidance, however I have fully removed myself from the editorial process. I can offer a suggestion on how to deal with a situation so long as describing the situation does not reveal any confidential information to me," Shimpi said. Shimpi isn't the first AnandTech body to end up at Apple. According to 9to5Mac, former editor Brian Klug left the site for a job at Apple building mobile processors. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Grand Theft Auto V is (Probably) Still Headed to PC Posted: 02 Sep 2014 07:40 AM PDT  Rumors of GTA V's cancellation on PC have been greatly exaggerated (or so we hope)
Given how long Rockstar Games has been dragging its feet in porting Grand Theft Auto V over to PC, it would have been easy to believe the rumor that it's been cancelled, shelved, axed, dismissed with prejudice, etc. However, don't you believe it. Not only was the rumor a bit dubious to begin with, but Rockstar put most doubt to rest by reiterating that it still plans to bring GTA V to PC. Let's backtrack a second. As our sister site PCGamer explains it, the rumor originated from Fox Weekly, which brought attention to the fact that the chairman of marketing firm Rantic was concerned about GTA V's release to PC because it's supposedly something Rockstar never wanted to do, but felt "forced" due to public demand. It's worth mentioning that Rantic was founded by one of the marketing directors for Rockstar North, hence why some people viewed the information as credible. Going straight to the source, a user posted a question on Rockstar's support forum asking if the rumors pointing to a "delay" are true. "I'm also looking forward to the PC release, however this release date has not changed," a support rep answered. "Please see our support article, 'Grand Theft Auto V Release Date on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC' for the most recent information on this topic." Here's the thing -- support reps aren't always privy to decisions made by upper management, so the safest bet in these situations is to toe the company line with a canned response. That's what the user got, along with a dated link (June) that indicates a Fall release to PC (as well as PS4 and Xbox One). That said, the original rumor wasn't all that strong to begin with, so we're mostly comfortable in viewing this as confirmation that Rockstar's plans haven't changed. Summer just ended, after all, so there's plenty of time to make good on that promise. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Netgear Announces Nighthawk X4 AC2350 (R7500) Smart Wi-Fi Router Posted: 02 Sep 2014 06:40 AM PDT  An intelligent router for modern home networks
The transition from 802.11n to 802.11ac is bringing about a fast and furious stream of new wireless routers, including new flagship models that continue to take advantage of today's streaming landscape. Netgear, a familiar name in the high-end router market, just launched its new Nighthawk X4 AC2350 Smart Wi-Fi Router (R7500) with a quad-stream Wi-Fi architecture (4x4). While the Nighthawk X4 looks similar to Netgear's previous Nighthawk, the DNA makeup is very different. This new model pairs a 1.4GHz dual-core Qualcomm Internet processor with Quantenna's 500MHz chipset for improved multi-tasking performance and blistering fast speeds -- up to 1733Mbps on the 5GHz band and up to 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. Like all router makers do these days, Netgear combines the speeds on both bands to advertise this as an AC2350 device, though as we always point out, you can't actually combine both bands into a single connection. This is the first Wave 2 router to market. It features 4x4, MU-MIMO (Multi-User MIMO) technology and something Netgear calls "Dynamic QoS." You can think of this as a new generation of QoS -- rather than treat all devices the same, the Nighthawk X4 is able to discern between different hardware and applications when prioritizing network traffic. In theory, this should lead to more stable HD streaming and less lag when gaming. "The Nighthawk X4 is designed for gamers and people who do a lot of video streaming," said Sandeep Harpalani, Netgear's director of product marketing for Retail Network Products. "We are excited to leverage the best in processing power, Dynamic Quality of Service, and dual-band WiFi technology to exceed the expectations of these demanding consumers." You'll find two USB 3.0 ports on the Nighthawk X4, along with eSATA port. Other features include Beamforming, ReadySHare, DLNA, and iTunes server support. The Nighthawk X4 is available now for $280 MSRP. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
