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Buying a Graphics Card? Here are a few things you must know!

GadgetByte

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July 10, 2019

Buying a Graphics Card? Here are a few things you must know!

Whenever you’re buying something, it’s a good idea to have some info beforehand. This it truer in case of electronics, gadgets and computer equipment. And so, here are a few things you need to look out for before buying a graphics cards. If you don’t have a PC already – take notes. And if you already have one, this info will come in handy for your next one. After all, a GPU is an expensive investment. If you want to game and have better viewing experience, these are a must, because Intel’s Integrated Graphics are as useful as a fork to have your soup. So, here’s a simple graphics card buying guide.

For the novices, let me just clarify that there are two major (or only) players in the GPU market – AMD and NVidia. Of course, there are OEMs like Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA, Zotac and a few others, with their own GPUs. But, all of them employ the same basic chip from AMD or Nvidia. The OEMs are actually responsible for making circuit boards, cooling systems alongside to market their own products.

They are allowed to tweak the chips up to a certain extent, which is a pre-established number by the chip makers. And more often than not, AMD and Intel both commission assembly plants to create completely functioning GPUs, known as reference cards. That gives the OEMs an idea on how to power, connect and cool their chips. But the reference cards usually don’t live up to or benchmark on par with the OEM’s, but they’re still available for purchase.

With that said, here are a few things you need to consider before actually buying a new shiny GPU.

Budget

It is always a good idea to start with a budget. Set aside a maximum amount of money you can spend on this particular piece of hardware. Usually, the amount to spend should account for 35-40% of the total cost (of the PC). But that’s variable to your needs, because these cards can cost anywhere from $75 yo over $1200. So, just set up your mind on how much you can spend on a GPU, the following points should take care of the rest.

Also Read: MSI Graphics Cards Price in Nepal

Specifications

It goes without saying, the specifications of a particular graphics plays a vital role in the decision-making process. But then again, if you glance upon the spec sheet for a particular GPU, there’s always an overwhelming number of variables. Take for example this complete specs sheet for the RTX 2080 SUPER over at Nvidia’s official website. There is the GPU engine specs, memory specs, display support all way to the dimensions of the graphics card itself.

This is enough for many to scratch your heads. But the good news is, you don’t need to know what each of the specs mean. All you need from the specs list is the graphics chip inside the GPU and the all the features it supports (Technology support section). For any particular chip, you can always know more about it from its benchmark charts rather than its specs sheet. So what you do here is find two graphics chips, one from AMD and one from Nvidia around your budget. Then, compare their benchmark scores and feature set.

And by feature set, we mean if it supports Ray-Tracing or Nvidia’s new DLSS technology, or if it’s G-Sync compatible. You usually find these in Nvidia cards, but AMD has a different set of advantages like Radeon Image Sharpening or Free Sync or Radeon Anti-Lag. Apart from the raw processing power of these chips, these features can help you decide on which cards you actually want.

Take, for instance, the Nvidia RTX 2060 SUPER and the AMD RX 5700XT. Both cards cost $400, and while the 5700XT smokes the 2060 SUPER when it comes to raw performance, most people will still choose the RTX 2060 because it offers hardware-level Ray-Tracing.

Also Read: Asus Graphics Card Price in Nepal

Bottlenecks

No matter how powerful your graphics card might be, it always depends on your CPU to fully utilize its potential. If your processor cannot process enough data and transfer it to your GPU, your end result will suffer. Bottlenecks can occur in many forms. Maybe your manufacturer claimed 150 fps on certain titles but your maximum fps hovers around 80 fps or maybe the game-play just isn’t smooth…

However, this goes both ways. Pairing a powerful CPU with a mediocre GPU is also not a good idea. A Core i3-8300 with a GeForce GTX 1080Ti should be a good example. According to an online bottleneck calculator, you stand to lose out on 40% of the potential performance of your 1080Ti, and that’s under the perfect circumstances. Also, if you are utilizing a 100% of the CPU, it’s going to heat up fast, and that only makes things worse.

Just do a quick bottleneck calculation and if the CPU is slightly more powerful than your GPU, it’s fine. But if the GPU is dragging your CPU down, or vise versa, and you don’t have plans of upgrading your CPU in the future, considering buying a cheaper GPU and invest the rest on upgrading your RAM or storage or even better OEM packaging.

You can check for any bottleneck issues here.

OEM Packaging

“OEMs are typically manufacturers who resell another company’s product under their own name and branding” – Webopedia.

As already discussed, the manufacturers can put their own heat sinks, circuit boards, and third-party add-ons. Even after you decide on a graphics chip, the actual buying process still has a few steps. Maybe you searched online for the particular chip only to be bombarded by a bunch of models for the graphics chips all under different models, housing, prices, and different manufacturers altogether with different specs.

Yes, that will happen, and it is probably better to look up for the reviews of the particular cards for their performance and cooling advantages. The answer to why you should not just go for the reference cards is because, OEMs can be cheaper, offer better cooling, can be overclocked, offer better build quality, offer more flexibility and will definitely look better. Plus, not all GPUs get a Founders Edition treatment.

Also Read: Asus Motherboards Price in Nepal

Compatibility

There are basically two things you need to consider in the compatibility department. The first is the power supply. A GPU requires lots of power and your PSU (Power Supply Unit) is responsible for delivering just that. Make sure your PSU has enough power throughput to support your new GPU. You can check the requirement of your GPU for the minimum wattage it needs to function. If you are buying a new CPU altogether, try and get a PSU with more than the minimum requirement so you have more flexibility for upgrades later.

There there is the casing, which may or may not fit the particular graphics card you just choose. This one is a bit hard to explain so here are a few steps I personally use when I need to recommend a casing and also the PSU. Just follow the following steps:

Go to https://pcpartpicker.com/list/
Choose your casing, GPU and PSU
Look out for any compatibility issues in their notes section
Try a different configuration to solve the issue

Conclusion

Other than that, if you are a new system builder, it’s always a good idea to run it through the above-mentioned website (this) so you don’t face any compatibility issues. The other thing not mentioned here is Nvidia’s SLI or AMD’s Crossfire. You really shouldn’t be looking at multi-GPU setup unless even the top end graphics card has failed to deliver as per your requirement. There are other uses for it but it basically can deliver anywhere from 20-90% more power as compared to a single GPU setup depending on the drivers, the card itself or the link itself.

But we still recommend, even after you have found the perfect GPU for yourself, check out a few reviews first.

Realme 3i spotted on GeekBench: Major specs revealed ahead of the launch

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July 10, 2019

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Realme 3i spotted on GeekBench: Major specs revealed ahead of the launch

Realme X is one of the most sought after smartphones right now. After creating quite a buzz in China, the handset is also launching in India on the 15th of July. But seems like there will be another one device, which will make a debut in the event. Indian e-commerce website Flipkart is promoting a Realme 3i as “Smartphones Ka Champion” (Champion of the Smartphones). So it might really be happening.

Despite the fancy teaser, we are yet to know about the features of the Realme 3i officially. But the features couldn’t remain under the veil for a long time. The phone recently appeared on GeekBench, which divulged some of the key specs of the device.

According to GeekBench, the device will feature MediaTek Helio P60 chipset. And the device which showed up on GeekBench had 4 GB of RAM. But there could be other variants when it makes its official debut. Also, the phone was running on Android Pie, like most smartphones of 2019.

However, that’s all we know from GeekBench. But owing to earlier teasers, there will be a tiny notch on the display, resembling the Realme 3. In the next teaser, Realme has also self-praised the handset as “Most Stylish Champion”, “Big Battery Champion”, “Display Champion”, and “Camera Champion”. They’re kind of tooting their own horn, but we’ll found out how these proclamations will turn out. But as far as the rumors go, the Realme 3i is expected to be an affordable variant of the Realme 3. So this device might pan out to be another value-centric budget smartphone.

Entry-level Honor Play 8 launched with a water-drop notch

GadgetByte

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July 10, 2019

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Entry-level Honor Play 8 launched with a water-drop notch

Strengthening its entry-level lineup, Honor has launched yet another affordable smartphone. Dubbed the Honor Play 8, this phone brings some modest features in the budget territory. But this smartphone is not entirely a new device. It’s basically the re-branded version of Honor 8S, which is launching really soon in Nepal.

Overview

As one would expect from an entry-level device, the Honor Play 8 also comes with a plastic back. But unlike the rest, it comes with a dual-tone finish, which gives a unique look to the device.

On the display part, the phone gets a 5.71-inch IPS LCD panel with HD+ resolution. The display has a tiny notch on top. And this minuscule notch acts as home to the 5 MP front camera. Apart from taking selfies, the front snapper also serves to use the Face Unlock feature. Since the phone doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor, the Face Unlock feature is the bio-metric security feature. Talking about the rear camera, Honor Play 8 gets a 13 MP shooter, which comes with HDR features.

Honor Play 8 Color options

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The device is powered by a Quad-core MediaTek Helio A22 processor, paired with 2 GB of RAM. You also get 32 GB of onboard memory on the phone, which is expandable up to 512 GB via a dedicated microSD card slot.

Software-wise, the phone runs on Android Pie out of the box. Honor has also added its own custom skin EMUI 9 on top. There’s also a 3020 mAh battery included. However, there is no fast charging support.

Honor Play 8 specifications:

Display: 5.71-inch LCD IPS display
Resolution: HD+ (720 x 1520 pixels), 19:9 aspect ratio @ 295PPI
Chipset: MediaTek Helio A22
CPU: Quad-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53
GPU: PowerVR GE8320
OS & UI: Android Pie (v9.0) with EMUI 9 on the top
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 32GB, up to 512TB expandable storage (Dedicated SD card slot)
Rear Camera: 13MP, f/1.8, LED flash
Front Camera: 5MP, f/2.2
Sensors: Accelerometer, proximity
Battery: 3,020mAh; Uses Micro USB Port
Colors: Blue, Black

Honor Play 8 Price & Availability

This device debuted in Russia a few months back. The device was priced at RUB 8,490 ($130/€120) at that time. But this time, the Chinese smartphone maker launched the device at an aggressive price in its home nation. The price of the device has been set at CNY 599 (~ $87). And the device is already up for purchase in China. The device is available for purchase at Vmall, TMall, JD and Suning, and on other retail stores as well.

Nokia Beacon 1: A Mesh Router capable of Dual-Band Communication

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July 10, 2019

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Nokia Beacon 1: A Mesh Router capable of Dual-Band Communication

When Nokia launched the Beacon 3 router last year, it followed a different approach with a more homely looking device instead of antennas projecting out of a box. Of course, there are others like this such as Amazon’s Eero and Netgear Orbi. But Nokia’s venture into home accessories is a new thing. And now, it launched the Nokia Beacon 1 – a similar mesh router with some limitations but new features, too!

For perspective, Nokia’s Beacon 3 is a $200 mesh-router that offers speeds of up to AC3000. The Nokia Beacon 1 is a similar mesh-router, cheaper at $129, works on the same 802.11 ac Wi-Fi standard, but is limited to speeds of only AC1200. In layman’s terms, that number refers to the maximum theoretical bandwidth (in Mbps) the router is capable of reaching.

But despite that, the Beacon 1 has some new features that enables it to make the most out of its available bandwidth. It’s Intelligent Channel Selection feature allows it to switch between available 2.4 GHz to 5 GHz channels or bandwidths. This means, that it can pick the best one with less congestion. Also, it will avoid interference with local devices like micro-waves, or some audio equipment, or such. It can identify the devices in your network and optimize their connection accordingly. For instance, if you’re streaming movies on your laptop, it can prioritize that device and choose a less congested channel. For now, this is the only affordable home router capable of switching between channels automatically.

Besides that major difference, the Beacon 1 is smaller, and only has one gigabit Ethernet LAN and one WAN port. Whereas, the Beacon 3 sports one WAN port and 3 LAN ports. In addition, the Beacon also has a Bridge mode. This comes in handy to use it as an Access point, for the router from the default ISP.

Another good thing about the Beacon devices is that they work with the Beacon app on your phone. That app makes for easy installation and also features a detailed heat map showing the network signal strength around the house. So, you can also know where the signal is the strongest or the weakest.

That’s a lot of interesting features for a home router. If only we could get such routers here in Nepal as well…

Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 215: Brings trendy features to the entry-level smartphones

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July 10, 2019

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Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 215: Brings trendy features to the entry-level smartphones

Did you know Qualcomm had 200-series chipsets? Well, they do, but are long forgotten. These Snapdragon 200-series chipsets are for entry level smartphones. But with the mid-range market expanding rapidly, the company was focusing on its Snapdragon 600 and 700-series processors. And so, after 4 years , Qualcomm announced another Snapdragon 200-chipset, the Snapdragon 215. It’s a successor to the Snapdragon 212, launched back in 2015.

So, yes, the Snapdragon 215 surely took a considerable amount of time. After such a long time, we expect significant upgrades. And it actually does.

Snapdragon 215 Overview

While the older SD212 had a 32-bit Cortex-A7 processor, the new SD215 comes with 64-bit Cortex-A53 CPU clocked at 1.3 GHz. With this switch, Qualcomm promises a steep 50% boost in performance.

On to the graphics front, Qualcomm embedded the Adreno 308 GPU. It’s the same which is also employed by the SD 425, which was targeted at budget and lower-midrange phones at its launch. With that GPU, the SD215 will deliver a 28% bump in graphics performance.

And since multiple camera setups are a trend even on low-end phones, there’s a dual ISP in the Snapdragon 215 as well. This enables it unleash new possibilities in the entry-level camera phones, too. With the new Image Signal Processor on board, the chip can handle a single 13MP camera module, or two 8MP camera modules. This means the upcoming entry-level phones might be able to capture portrait images – at hardware level. Another notable upgrade on the optics department has to be its ability to record 1080p videos. The older SD212 could only record up to 720p.

On the display side, it’s the same old story, though. The chip supports a maximum display resolution of 720p. But unlike the older SD212, which merely supports the 16:9 aspect ratio, this one can go up to 19.5:9.

Furthermore, the company managed to improve connectivity as well. The new chip comes with the support for Wi-Fi 5 (Wi-Fi ac) and Bluetooth 4.2. There is also the inclusion of NFC. That means even the upcoming entry-level devices will support the Android Pay feature. In addition, with VoLTE and EVS Voice calls (“Ultra HD Voice Calls”) support, the call quality can be expected to improve.

There surely are a lot of advancements. But even after all these years, some things haven’t changed. The first thing is the modem on this SoC. It still houses the X5 LTE modem (150/50 Mbps). Also, memory support is the same, too – LPDDR3 RAM, eMMC 4.5 built-in storage and UHS-I micro SD cards.

The Snapdragon 215 also promises a better battery life. Qualcomm has incorporated Hexagon digital signal processor (DSP), with which, users can get 10+ hours of video playback, 20+ hours of voice calls or days of music playback. However, the new chip only offers Quick Charge 1.0. The Snapdragon 212 used to support Quick Charge 2.0 charge, which used to accept power injection up to 18-watts. But the newbie can only handle power up to 10-watts. This is an odd step down, because after so much improvements, why compromise here, though?

Qualcomm Snapdragon 215 VS Snapdragon 212

	Snapdragon 215	Snapdragon 212
Fabrication	28nm	28nm
CPU	4x Cortex-A53 (64-bit, 50% faster)	4x Cortex-A7 (32-bit)
GPU	Adreno 308 (28% faster)	Adreno 304
Modem	X5 (150/50Mbps)	X5 (150/50Mbps)
Camera	13MP or dual 8MP, 1080p video	8MP, 720p video
Display	1560x720px	1280x720px
Charging	Quick Charge 1	Quick Charge 2
Connectivity	Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.2	Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1

Spotify Lite launched for countries with poor internet access and old phones

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July 10, 2019

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Spotify Lite launched for countries with poor internet access and old phones

Even if you don’t have access to Spotify, you probably know about it…unless you live under a rock! Spotify is one of the most popular music streaming sites. It also allows downloads and such but requires paid subscription (duh!). But the Swedish audio streaming app can prove to be a bit “heavy”, in terms of app size and data storage for all kinds of phones. So, following the trend of big companies to launch a lighter version of their apps, Spotify is launching the Spotify Lite.

The app is already launched, and targets those regions where Internet access is poor and people use old phones. These markets consist of regions like Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, including Brazil, Mexico, Honduras, the Philippines and India as well. The Spotify Lite app is only 10 MB in size and allows you to set a data limit. For perspective, the regular Spotify app is a 100 MB. So, you can say it also works for people with smaller data plans and older devices. So, listeners can clear their song cache if they run out of storage.

This app was in the works since mid 2018. Spotify Lite works the same as the regular one. But it’s optimized for slower connections and phones with lesser data plans. In addition, it allows users to set a data limit, and notifies once you reach the limit. It is officially available in the Google Play Store, and will work with Android versions 4.3 or above. So, this is good news for those who want to use Spotify but don’t have an expensive phone or an extensive data plan.

Also read Spotify’s Voice Controlled audio device for cars

Is Ryzen finally better then Intel? The i9-9900K vs Ryzen 3900X

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GadgetByte

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July 9, 2019

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Is Ryzen finally better then Intel? The i9-9900K vs Ryzen 3900X

It’s July 7 and we finally have an estimate, or at least, an idea of how these 3rd Gen Ryzen CPUs perform. After going through a bunch of reviews, articles, performance benchmarks; I have some interesting things to share. The reason we are using someone else’s benchmarks is that AMD didn’t provide us with any CPUs to test out. Nevertheless, that’s not going to stop us from helping you decide which your next CPU should be, given your consideration list includes the 9900k, 9700k, 3900X or the 9700X. So basically just the high-end segment.

Here are a few scenarios for you to choose from:

Gaming

Let’s start with gaming – a territory massively dominated by Intel’s 9900k and the 9700k. And it still does, given the neck to neck pricing between manufacturers. The ones from Intel still manage to push out more fps at 1080p. It comes with better boost clocks, draws more power and is slightly more expensive. Then there is the overclocking part to consider, MCE, sustained fps, the coolers you use.

Surprisingly, the 3900X and the 3700X both come with stock coolers out of the box, a trait Intel discontinued generations ago. So, the cost for a separate cooler does add up, and you could end up choosing the wrong coolers. But I think most people won’t care. You are buying a $400 to $500 CPU, so, you might as well add a cheap 120mm water cooling!

In the end, if you want a CPU strictly for gaming, I would say go for Intel. But we have finally come to a point that going for AMD with the purpose for gaming isn’t an actual deal breaker either.

Winner: Tie

Content Creation

AMD has been smoking Intel out of the park in this category for a few generations now. Programs like the Adobe Premiere Pro or After Effects love the extra core and thread counts, both within the application and plain render times. Intel still manages to perform better in single threaded performance but it doesn’t even come close in terms of multi-threaded workload. And this year, the lead has just grown further for AMD.

So, if you are someone who needs to edit lots of videos, wants minimal render times or often live stream your gameplay online, go with AMD’s 3700X or the 3900X.

Winner: AMD

Also Read: Nvidia’s new RTX SUPER cards

Plain Benchmarks

Based on a benchmark test from Forbes.com, the Cinebench R20 multi-core score for the i7-9700k was 3711 in stock and 4038 overclocked. This is basically the lowest of the bunch. After that comes the 3700X with its 4837 stock and 5217 on OC. This is already a huge leap over the 9700k and a lot closer to the i9-9900K‘s 4906 stock and 5247 OC. Granted we are looking at just the multicore for now, but it’s still overwhelmingly closer to Intel’s greatest. Completing the list is the 3900X, which comes in at a whopping 7223 stock and 7667 OC. The numbers speak for itself.

Moving on to another test performed by JayzTwoCents (very nice guy, great Youtube contents). He ran both the Cinebench R15 and Blender Benchmark (BMW) both of which puts the 3900X on top, way above the 9900K on multicore tests. The same results can be seen between the 3700X and the 9700K, which the gap between the 3700K and the 9900K has come up to a point of insignificance. As for the single core scores, the 9900K was on top followed by the 9700K while the AMD duo came out at the bottom, although by a small margin.

But at the end of the day, AMD was leaps and bounds ahead of the two Intel CPUs in terms of multicore performance while gaining just a slight lead in the single core tests. Basically, the numbers don’t lie, and AMD comes out as a clear winner here.

Winner: AMD

General Users

The first point goes to AMD on this one as they do provide you with a stock cooler. The users have always had the option to opt for an aftermarket cooler, but at least it comes in as an option. As for Intel buyers, they will have to add a cooler to the cart while buying a CPU. This makes buying an AMD both easier and a tad bit cheaper. But then again, no integrated GPUs for AMD, so you may not need to buy a cooler, but a GPU will be a must, even just to get your system going. At the end of the day, this particular aspect seems a bit pointless to compare.

Winner: Tie

Also Read: Asus Motherboards Price in Nepal

Value for Money

There is literally no competition here, AMD clearly gives you the most value for your money. You get more cores, more L3 Cache memory, as good of a feature set, and the gaming performance isn’t bad either. The 3900X even offers higher IPC as compared to the 9900k (at 4GHz). So, at least for the time being or until Intel decides to give it’s CPUs a price cut, AMD is the clear winner when it comes to value for money proposition.

Winner: AMD

Conclusion

AMD truly showed off its full potential. Starting off with the 7nm process, following that with great IPC, lots of core counts and ending it off with a really compelling price tag. It took AMD 3 generations to get here and almost a decade to finally give Intel a proper competition. While we did see Intel change its strategies to counter the 1st gen Ryzens, seems like what they did wasn’t enough. To conclude, if you are going to game, and just game on your PC, Intel’s i9-9900k or the i7-9700k might be able to push out more frame rates. But for any other task that’s not gaming, AMD is the clear winner here.

The AMD RX 5700XT and 5700 gets a price drop – Are they finally better than the Nvidia counterparts?

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July 9, 2019

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The AMD RX 5700XT and 5700 gets a price drop – Are they finally better than the Nvidia counterparts?

AMD announced two new graphics cards recently in the E3 2019. The AMD RX 5700XT and the 5700 are mid-tier graphics cards, with an impressive price tag. And that price tag got even more impressive with their price drop! Originally launched for $450 (RX 5700XT) and $380 (RX 5700), AMD managed to shock everyone at the event with a price cut of $50 for the RX 5700XT (now $400) and $30 for the RX 5700 (now $350). This comes in after Nvidia’s announcement of it’s SUPER graphics chips. But the question remains- How will these AMD cards fair against’s Nvidia’s latest?

At $400, the RX 5700XT will now take on the RTX 2060 Super while the RX 5700 will go head on with the RTX 2060. With this, the GPU market finally is getting interesting, and, in addition, new GPU buyers will heavily benefit from it.

The Feature Set

Before we get to the GFLOPs scores and the comparisons, there are a few things we should know first. The new GPUs feature new architectural improvement but we might not see the same reflection on the end user’s gaming experience. Plus there are a few things that the AMD counterpart misses out on, for instance, Ray Tracing. Be it Direct X Ray-tracing or even the Vulkan RT. Basically, there is no hardware level RT acceleration for AMD.

Also Read: You don’t need an RTX card for Real-Time Ray Tracing anymore

And couple that with the lack of tensor processing clusters for AI and machine learning. But then again, AMD’s Finewine technology does show some promise. The new cards can also output up to an 8k@60fps (Visually lossless) thanks to Display Stream Compression 1.2a. You also get Radeon Image sharpening, Radeon Anti Lag, PCIe Express 4.0 and the new open source FidelityFX. But none of these will matter for most, what will make a difference are the FPS numbers.

Benchmarks

Benchmarks can give you a clear cut idea of how the cards will perform in real life. Take for instance the scores from 3DMark TimSpy where the 5700XT scores 8911 points as compared to the 8960 of the 2060 SUPER. The 5700 follows the same with 7954 points sitting above the RTX 2060’s 7604. The same results follow across the other benchmark test with the RX 5700XT leading the pack, followed by the RTX 2060 SUPER.

Credit: JayzTwoCent

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There were even a few cases like the 3D Mark Fire Strike test where the 5700 actually beats the 2060 SUPER by a small margin. You can check out the results above, credits for the scores go to JayzTwoCents.

FPS (Frames per second) numbers

While we may not have the cards to test them for ourselves, the internet is filled with fps numbers. And all of the results reflect one thing, AMD once more did what they do best, undercut the competition. The RX 5700XT outpaces the 2060 Super and the 5700 does the same with RTX 2060. You already saw it in the benchmark scores and you are about to see it again in the fps results below:

Credit: JayzTwoCents

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This concludes it, as far as raw fps numbers are concerned AMD completely annihilates Nvidia’s offerings.

Conclusion

So did the RX 5700 and the 5700XT succeed in bending the rules? Well sort of. But it depends on who you ask, actually. If you want the most fps for your money, sure, the AMD duo should do just fine. But what if you want Ray Tracing, which, is now supported by over 5 games and is expected to finally rise soon. Then there is the DLSS, which is supposed to improve the frame rates of the said supported games. According to a recently surfaced news, over 17 games are expected to support RayTracing and almost 28 will integrate DLSS near future.

In the end, the choice is yours. Do you prefer more fps per dollar or do you want to experience the ever-growing ray tracing segment?

New OLED technology breakthrough makes your display more efficient

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July 9, 2019

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New OLED technology breakthrough makes your display more efficient

With the latest smartphone iterations, their displays are getting bigger. It seems that smartphone companies are obsessed with giving us larger displays, and we’re just accepting it. But while displays get bigger, the batteries on our smartphones don’t grow proportionately. However, a team of researchers have successfully introduced a new OLED technology breakthrough, which can make for longer lasting batteries.

The team of researchers belong to Imperial College of London. They discovered a way to make the OLED displays even more power efficient than it already is – by cutting down the present limitations of OLED. The present OLED technology is more power efficient than LCD, that’s a known fact. They can switch off pixels when not in use, giving them deeper blacks, and saving energy too.

But still, OLED displays have to add various filters to counter the glares from external light sources. That is, when you use your phones outside, they have to counter the glares by using various filters to improve readability. The filters can do that very well, but those filters also limit the amount of light that comes out of the display. Hence, the necessity to brighten up your smartphone outdoors. So, even if there is battery saving, it still wastes a significant amount of energy.

Also read How Smartphones’ displays are affecting your health

And the researchers found a solution for exactly this new OLED technology breakthrough. They found a way to control the chemistry of OLED materials (i.e. the structure) used in the display to bypass the the need for the anti-glare filter, which will extend the battery life.

They discovered that it’s possible to produce OLED displays that emit special type of polarized light, which, is not affected by external glares. So, there would be no necessity of a filter. Hence, phones wouldn’t have to brighten up the displays in external environments, making them more power efficient. In addition, this also makes for a lower carbon footprint.

This breakthrough can, very well, be the way to make screens of all kinds brighter, with better contrast and longer life. Also, this will not only help smartphones, but also TVs and smartwatches as well.

However, real life implications can be different. And we can’t be sure of the display quality just yet. So, we’re waiting for further test results. Still, this is a possible breakthrough for the smartphone world!

Apple Co-founder advises people to get off of Facebook

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July 9, 2019

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Apple Co-founder advises people to get off of Facebook

Facebook is always under some seize, one way or the other. Granted, they don’t have a great track record when it comes to privacy. Leading up from their 2016 Cambridge Analytica scandal to the one some months ago, when it was spying on people who don’t even use Facebook! And they did try to convince users about how they’re bringing new kinds of security and privacy measures in their Facebook Developer Conference 2019. But then again, there are people who trust them, and there are who don’t. And then, there are people like me who don’t trust them, and yet won’t stop using it! But just recently, Apple Co-founder, Steve Wozniak, advised people to get off of Facebook.

It didn’t happen out of the blue, though. TMZ, the celebrated celebrity online magazine had a run-in with Steve Wozniak at the National Regan Airport in Washington D.C. When questioned about certain privacy-related stuff, Steve Wozniak went on to express his views and finally advised the people to get off Facebook if they could. Steve Wozniak also deleted his own Facebook account last year.

When asked if he was worried about smart devices spying, he said he was. But there was nothing we could do to stop it. And that makes sense. With many of us using features like smart home appliances, things like Google Home and Alexa have an easy way to access our data. In our bid to stay interconnected, we might be exposing our conversations for all of them to hear. And the level of privacy we think we may have is just not there.

Wozniak even went on to say that social networking companies such as this, should give the users options. Meaning, users can pay for using the platform while the platform keeps the data secure and not sell it to advertisers. And according to various researches, the average cost for using such services ads-free would amount to only $15 a year! And in order to save that, we’re selling off our data, through which these companies make millions!

Also, he said it was smart to delete our Facebook and Instagram accounts. Of course, for many, it doesn’t matter if their information leaks. But if you’re anyone with influence or worth something, or just value your privacy, it’s very smart to do so. Of course, Facebook is only one of such sites. But it comes under constant fire, because well, they can’t seem to keep themselves out of scandals. However, Google has more data on you than anyone else. Because, with their tracking code on almost every website you visit, they have a front row seat to what you’re doing!

But getting rid of Facebook is a start, I guess. Yes, we can’t stop Google, but Facebook is a platform we willingly upload our data to. And with all of this, it’s even more difficult to trust Facebook’s cryptocurrency, Libra.

While we cannot stop doing that altogether, we can control what we upload on it. And let’s see if Mark Zuckerberg means to actually resolve such issues as he put it on Facebook Developer Conference 2019. He stated Facebook is implementing end to end encryption on Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, too, and wants to improve users’ trust in how they store data. But only time will tell if he’ll keep his word.