Last week we saw a nice little semi-rugged ultraportable (or notelet, as I like to say) introduced by Dell, and although it seemed just a little underpowered for the price, its build quality might make up for it. And here we have another ultraportable, an Inspiron, showing up on Dell Singapore. Powered by the newest mobile AMD chipset and Neo processors and the usual better-than-netbook-but-not-quite-notebook specs, it seems like a perfectly decent little fellow. → Read More
AMD reps have been seen zooming around the Apple campus, taking meetings and presumably hawking their wares. With the recent MacBook Pro update proudly proclaiming the power of the Core i5 and i7 processors inside, and the work with Intel and NVIDIA to produce seamless hybrid graphics acceleration, it seems a rather odd time to be window-shopping with other vendors. But Apple has always been coy about its hardware choices, since whatever is in Apple’s products shares Apple’s cachet to an extent, and they are well aware of the value that represents. So what’s going on here? Is Apple jumping ship, or just teasing in order to get a rise out of Intel and NVIDIA? Maybe a little of both. → Read More
Yesterday we learned that Intel tore it up during the first quarter of 2010. Good for them, but what about longtime rival AMD? Turns out they’re doing nicely as well, with record quarter revenue and signs of general recovery for the semiconductor business. I won’t get into the details (check the Register) but it looks like the daring footwork done over the last couple years is paying off for the underdog semiconductor company. → Read More
Oops! Looks like someone accident let some information out early. AMDs “Thuban” processors will be out next month, and there wasn’t a whole lot of information out there until recently. Turns out that somebody talked. Well, at least someone’s BIOS talked. → Read More
AMD is finally looking to get into the netbook game for real. Forget about the thin-and-light NEO chipset that’s been out for a while—we’re talking about an honest, netbook-specific chipset based on the company’s Fusion initiative that’ll blend power-sipping CPUs with ATI graphics. The platform will draw between 10 and 15 watts of power and will be designed for screens 12 inches and smaller. → Read More
AMD is wrapping up their 40 year anniversary party, and they are finishing it up in a big way. Previously, AMD gave away some processors and graphic cards. This time, they are giving away some consoles. → Read More
Not that you guys need to hear everything about the paydowns and “outstanding senior notes,” but you might like to know that AMD isn’t going to bite the dust any time soon. With $1.2bn in Intel blood money going straight into debt reduction, the other chipmaker should be able to continue making hardware for years. That’s good, because I’d hate to see them lose while they’re ahead in the graphics game. → Read More
A while back I went to a fun overclocking event held by AMD, where there was a lot of vapor, some exploding burritos, and some overclocking that got tantalizingly close to 7GHz. It was just an arbitrary number, and they broke a bunch of other records, but they couldn’t quite hit that last target. But a few months and I can only guess how much liquid helium later, they nailed it. → Read More
Water cooling is where it’s at, currently. Any gamer will tell you that keeping your PC cool is critical for making sure you computer runs smoothly and effectively. The issue is, it’s a pain in the butt to set up. It looks like Cool IT intends to help us with that problem. → Read More
Not content to sit back and let Intel have all the ultra low voltage fun, AMD’s low voltage Congo platform is apparently due in the coming weeks – late October or early November, according to DigiTimes. → Read More
Some day, I too will have three identical monitors for gaming purposes. It’ll have to be in my game cave once I retire as an eccentric millionaire, though. Don’t have room for it here. That’s probably a good thing, though, since I also don’t have the money required, and besides that there are still a few quirks to be worked out. Not to mention the fact that the best games are barely playable on current hardware, since you have to run them at resolutions like 7680×1600. → Read More
Do you remember the days when video cards were only as large as your hand? I personally remember installing a TNT2 — and at the time, I thought that was big. Now you’ve got dual-GPU monsters like the just-leaked 5870 X2 coming out which, in addition to taking up two PCI-e slots and requiring a secondary power source, are nearly a full foot long. Not that you’d be buying one unless you’re rich as Croesus and have a case as long as the Nile, but no matter what you’d have to choose your motherboard carefully, since not everyone designed the layout planning on accommodating a damn sub sandwich. → Read More
The more my games stutter and the more my HD content skips frames, the more I think about that wonderful day when I shall put together a beautiful new system with all new hardware. The trouble is that Intel’s got the processor thing locked down and AMD has the lead on graphics. I don’t really want to mix and match, but the pull of the Radeons might prove to be too strong. That new 5800 series is looking mighty fine, sir, mighty fine. They didn’t drop all of a sudden as some hardware is wont to do, and the rumored specs have been around for a while, but of course, we don’t comment on rumors here at CrunchGear. Too much integrity. → Read More
AMD just revealed a processor for their “Mainstream Desktop Platform” that will be going for less than a bill. There are cheap processors out there already, but this is a full-featured, quad-core 45nm part, not some cut-rate piece of garbage. Sure, the Athlon II X4 620 isn’t going to set any speed records, but it’s part of the excellent AMD ecosystem. Paired with a similarly low-cost video card, you’ve got a really low-cost machine that’s capable of HD playback, upscaling, and all the stuff that were pie in the sky for budget setups not too long ago. → Read More
Those of you who run multiple monitors know the freedom it gives as well as the pain of configuration. While I’ve arrived at a sort of compromise with NView in how my desktops work, I wouldn’t say it was particularly easy (and sometimes the backgrounds freak out). AMD’s new DirectX 11 cards are shipping with a tool called Eyefinity, which allows multiple monitor setups to be handled natively as “Single Large Surfaces,” appearing as a single display to the OS.
The best part is: only one GPU required. → Read More
I know, you like posts with pictures in them. Well, too bad! AMD’s new ultrathin platform isn’t quite ready for its close-up yet. If you remember last year, they introduced the dv2 with HP as the first entry in their ultrathin platform, and I liked pretty much everything but the trackpad and the fact that it came with Vista.
The new ultrathins are going to be better, faster, stronger… and more expensive. I find that disappointing because the $750 price point on the dv2 (and major lead over all Atom-based netbooks) made it easy to recommend — who knows if I’ll be able to do the same with the next generation. → Read More
AMD is sort of becoming the Mac of PC hardware. That is to say, they perform well, but in the end want it to be about a final user experience, not a piecemeal selection of parts and capabilities. In this spirit of simplicity, they’re shifting the bulk of their merchandising over from Turion and X4 and all that to three labels under the brand name “Vision.”
It reminds me of when they simplified their gaming line under “Game!” On that note, it’s not clear what the fate of Game! was, but it doesn’t seem to be present in the current lineup. It’s more of a desktop thing, really, so I’m not surprised either way. → Read More
While I was sliding down bannisters and having -160° alcohol poured on my hands, the AMD camera crew and the overclockers we were all there to see were putting together an honest-to-god documentation of the event.
I forgot to post it a few weeks ago when it came out, so it’s not exactly breaking news, but if you’re interested in how these guys did their incredible overclocks using exotic cooling materials, there’s a lot more info here than in our little film. → Read More
AMD CEO Dirk Meyer recently revealed that his “company is currently developing a platform that features lower-power, smaller-sizes, more complete functionality, and a cheaper price than Intel’s Atom for netbooks,” according to DigiTimes. Sounds great. The fact that AMD owns ATI should make for an awesome mish-mash of processors and graphics. So let’s start rolling these things out, eh?
Whoops, not so fast. The platform won’t be ready until next year. → Read More
Don’t count AMD as being out. In response to the ever growing netbook/small laptop market, AMD has announced their new CPU “Congo”, along with putting it into the updated HP Dv2 which is coming out on June 10th. We liked the original Dv2 — however, adding a little more grunt to it with the improved AMD processor can only be a good thing. → Read More
