2.5 Geeks: Radeon RX 6700 XT Revealed, Intel SSD 670p Review And More

In our latest episode of HotHardware’s 2.5 Geeks, we discuss the just-announced AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT and how it will impact PC gamers and the GPU market when it goes on sale in a couple of weeks, we’ll talk about a new family of SSDs from Intel with some interesting performance characteristics that target mainstream users, and run down some of the hottest topics from the news in the last week... Show Notes: 02:14 - Biden’s $37B Chip Stimulus Executive Order Could Help GPU And Console Shortages 09:04 - Intel DG2 Desktop Gaming GPU Rumored Specs Include Up To 512 EUs And 16GB VRAM...

2.5 Geeks: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Review, Apple M1 Macs Eating Their SSDs And More

by Marco Chiappetta - Fri, Feb 26, 2021

In this episode of the HotHardware's 2.5 Geeks livestream, Dave, Marco and Chris will be running down our review of NVIDIA's newest GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, we'll dig deeper into the odd behavior of Apple M1 Macs seemingly eating their soldered SSDs alive, and we'll hit some of the recent big headlines in too... Show Notes: 07:14 - Legendary 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 Gets Modern Revamp In Amazing Reverse Engineering Effort 09:32 - Surge In Carjackings Has A Chicago Politician Calling For A Grand Theft Auto Game Ban 13:31 - AMD Investigates USB Flakiness With PCIe 4 And...

2.5 Geeks LIVE: Samsung SSD 980 Pro, Galaxy S21, Building A Personal Cloud, Intel Alder Lake

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, Feb 18, 2021

In this episode of HotHardware''s Two And A Half Geeks, Dave, Marco and Chris will be kicking around Samsung's fast SSD 980 Pro 2TB PCIe 4 SSD, the Galaxy S21 flagship phone, how to build a personal cloud with a Terra Master NAS, Intel's next gen Alder Lake processor architecture and more... Show Notes: 03:14 - Samsung SSD 980 Pro 2TB Review: Flagship PCIe 4 NVMe Storage 17:18 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G Review: Packed With Features And Value 29:10 - How To Build Your Own 56 Terabyte Personal Cloud (NAS) 36:40 - Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs Rumored For Fall Unveil With Another Big IPC Performance...

2.5 Geeks: Dell XPS Desktop Special Edition, Fast ADATA SSDs, Intel Xe HPG GPU Lives And More

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, Feb 11, 2021

In this episode of 2.5 Geeks, Marco, Chris and Dave will be looking at Dell's new XPS Desktop Special Edition PC with GeForce RTX 30 muscle, Fast PCIe 4 SSDs from ADATA, Intel's Xe HPG discrete gaming GPU that's now up and running in the lab, and discuss Intel 11th Gen Rocket Lake-S motherboard compatibility... Apologies For The Audio Sync Issues!  Show Notes: 06:40 - Dell XPS Desktop Special Edition 8940 Review: A Sleek Gaming Rig 18:29 - ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 And S50 Lite Review: PCIe 4 Speed Or Value 27:29 - Intel's Next-Gen XE HPG Gaming GPU Teased Running 3DMark Mesh Shader Test 39:15...

2.5 Geeks: Deciphering RTX 30 Laptops, Alienware m15 R4, Ryzen 5000 Optimization And More

by Marco Chiappetta - Fri, Feb 05, 2021

In this episode of Two And A Half Geeks we'll discuss the dizzying array of GeForce RTX 30 laptop GPU SKUs, how to sift through them, and our experience with the new Alienware m15 R4 with GeForce RTX 3070. We'll also share key Ryzen 5000 desktop CPU performance optimization tips and discuss AMD's new Ryzen 5000 Mobile CPU platforms as well... Show Notes: 06:34 - AMD Ryzen 5000 Mobile Explored: The Future Of Zen 3 Laptops 17:47 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop Performance: What To Expect 27:31 - Alienware m15 R4 Review: A GeForce RTX 30 Series Invasion 33:12 - NVIDIA's Dizzying Array Of GeForce...

2.5 Geeks: Talking Premium And Gaming Laptops With Intel And MSI

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, Jan 21, 2021

On this episode of 2.5 Geeks we have special guests Fredrik Hamberger, Intel's General Manager of Premium and Enthusiast Laptop Platforms and Derek Chen, MSI's Global Sales and Marketing Director, joining us to talk about their collaboration to bring new exciting machines to market, like the Intel Tiger Lake powered MSI Prestige 14. Join us as we dig into the nitty-gritty of premium laptop design and development... Support HotHardware -- Like & Subscribe Show Notes: 06:25 - MSI Prestige 14 EVO Review: Great Performance And Value 39:30 - Intel Takes Fight To AMD With Bevy Of New Mobile And Desktop...

2.5 Geeks: Epic Games Launcher Bug, MSI GeForce RTX 3080, Yoga i7, Cyberpunk 2077, Giveaways & More!

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, Dec 31, 2020

In this episode of HotHardware's 2.5 Geeks we'll be talking about that piggish little Epic Games Launcher that was just patched, MSI's BEASTLY custom GeForce RTX 3080 SUPRIM X, Lenovo's sweet and economical Yoga 7i laptop with Tiger Lake, Cyberpunk 2077 multithreading fixes and CPU/GPU performance, and details of TWO active GIVEAWAYS we have going on right now... Show Notes: 05:43 - Nokia 8 V 5G UW Review: Too Little, Too Late 06:30 - Realme 7 5G Review: A Great 5G Phone That’s Also Affordable 07:44 - Epic Games Launcher For Windows Caught Spiking Ryzen CPU Temps, Phoning Home Even When Idle...

AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Zen 3 Brain Transplant Yields Huge Performance Gains

by Dave Altavilla - Tue, Dec 15, 2020

There was little question, when we took a deep dive look at AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X in our launch day review, we came away thoroughly impressed. Not only did AMD deliver on its promise of a significant performance lift in many areas, versus its previous gen Ryzen 3000 series, but we also realized better power consumption characteristics for even better performance-per-watt results than we expected. But let's take a step back. You might recall that a little over a year ago, we trucked on down to scenic Kenilworth New Jersey to meet with our buds at Maingear for a very special all-AMD...

2.5 Geeks: Radeon RX 6900 XT, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, Snapdragon 888, Apple M1 And More

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, Dec 10, 2020

In this episode of HotHardware's 2.5 Geeks the guys will be discussing AMD's new beastly Radeon RX 6900 XT, NVIDIA's cost-efficient and snappy GeForce RTX 3060 TI, Qualcomm's exciting new Snapdragon 888 processor for smartphones and Apple's potent M1 Arm core processors for a new generation of Macs... Please Remember To Like & Subscribe To HotHardware On YouTube Show Notes: 07:26 - LG Wing Review: A Solid 5G Phone With A Wild Twist 10:12 - Build A Great Gaming PC With HotHardware's 2020 DIY System Guide 12:35 - Qualcomm Claims Big Snapdragon 888 Performance And Feature Gains For Next-Gen...

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ Review: Dex Empowers Productivity

by Ben Funk - Wed, Nov 11, 2020

Tablet PCs running Google's Android mobile OS have largely been relegated to the budget sector. For the most part, options are limited to Amazon's Fire HD series these days, with slower budget SoCs and a handful of small tablets with even slower processors. Those systems without exception are stuck on older versions of Android, and Amazon's tablets don't even offer Google Play support. The exception to these low-end doldrums is Samsung, which designs and manufactures a wide variety of tablets powered by more modern versions of Android on platform hardware that is more current and capable. Samsung's...

2.5 Geeks: AMD Ryzen 5000 Unleashed! Let's Break It Down

by Marco Chiappetta - Fri, Nov 06, 2020

In this latest episode of HotHardware's Two And A Half Geeks webcast we take a deep dive look at AMD's Zen 3-based Ryzen 9 5950X 16-core and Ryzen 9 5900X 12-core processors, using all of the data from our recent review. We discuss performance benchmarks, power and thermals details, availability, overclocking and much more... Please Hit Our YouTube Channel -- Like And Subscribe! Additional AMD Ryzen 5000 and Zen 3 Coverage: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X And 5900X CPU Review: Zen 3 Dominates AMD Ryzen 5600X, 5800X And 5900X Spike To The Top Of Amazon's Best-Selling Processors List AMD Ryzen 5000 Zen 3 CPUs...

2.5 Geeks: GPU Battle Heats Up! Let's Talk Radeon RX 6000 & GeForce RTX 3070

by Marco Chiappetta - Fri, Oct 30, 2020

In this latest episode of HotHardware's Two And A Half Geeks, we'll be diving into the renewed GPU war between AMD and NVIDIA and discuss the just-announced Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6900 XT "Big Navi" GPUs from AMD, along with our full NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 review. We even sneak in some retro discussion while answering questions from the live chat, complete with some pictures of a BitBoys graphics card you may not have seen before. Enjoy -- and don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel! Show Notes: 05:17 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Review: Breakout Performance At $499 23:29 -...

2.5 Geeks: NVIDIA Reflex, Intel Iris Xe Max GPU, Throttling iPhones And A Winner!

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, Oct 22, 2020

In this episode of HotHardware's Two And A Half Geeks, we'll be taking a close look at NVIDIA's Reflex technology, the first sighting of Intel Iris Xe Max DISCRETE graphics, and throttling iPhones in UL's latest cross-platform graphics benchmark. We also announce the winner of our killer gaming system giveaway with EK Fluid Gaming! Show Notes: 02:25 - Google Pixel 5 Review: Refined And Feature-Rich With Caveats 08:37 - Acer's Swift 3X Is The First Tiger Lake Laptop To Flex Intel Iris Xe MAX Discrete GPU 16:10 - 3DMark WildLife Benchmark Shows iPhones Thrashing Androids But Apple Throttles Hard...

Samsung T7 Portable SSD Review: Blazing Fast, Portable Storage

by Chris Goetting - Wed, Oct 21, 2020

Earlier this year, Samsung unveiled the privacy-minded Portable SSD T7 Touch. This external USB-C storage device delivered high capacities up to 2TB and impressive read-write speeds over USB 3.2 Gen 2. Its headlining feature, however, was an integrated fingerprint reader to effortlessly unlock the drive’s AES 256-bit encryption. Not everyone needs this one-touch access to their files though, and would prefer a more straightforward external storage solution. For these users Samsung has released a non-touch variant of the T7 to shed some cost, but keep the rest of the goodness intact. Samsung...

2.5 Geeks: AMD Ryzen 5000 Unveiled, Google Pixels, 5G iPhonery, Retro Ryzen eMachines Revival And More

by Marco Chiappetta - Fri, Oct 16, 2020

 On this episode of HotHardware's Two And A Half Geeks podcast, we'll be talking up AMD's recently announced Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000 series processors, Google's new Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 Android smartphones, the latest 5G Apple iPhones, a vintage eMachines system reborn with Ryzen and Radeon firepower and details of our EK Fluid Gaming PC giveaway, which is winding down... Show Notes: 05:08 - Apple Unveils 5.4-Inch iPhone 12 mini Starting At $699, iPhone 12 Pro Rocks LIDAR And Dolby Vision HDR Video Capture 14:09 - Google Pixel 4a 5G Review: Big Screen, Great Camera And Value 23:12 - Rage...

2.5 Geeks: Alienware m15 R3, Tiger Lake ZenBook, Qualcomm Branded Phones, EKFG Rig And More

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, Oct 08, 2020

On this episode of HotHardware's Two And A Half Geeks, we'll be talking Tiger Lake retail laptops from ASUS, EK Fluid Gaming's awesome liquid cooled, all-AMD 270 Conquest gaming PC (and we're giving one away!), Alienware's m15 R3 gaming laptop, the potential for Qualcomm-branded Snapdragon gaming phones, MSI scalping RTX 3080/90 cards and more... Show Notes: 04:20 - Qualcomm To Launch Its Own Premium Snapdragon Branded Phones That Will Raise The Bar 13:23 - MSI Caught Red-Handed Scalping GeForce RTX 3080/90 Cards On eBay At Exorbitant Prices 19:30 - Alienware m15 R3 Review: A Quieter, Powerful...

2.5 Geeks: Talking GeForce RTX 3090, RTX 3080 And More With NVIDIA's Tony Tamasi

by Marco Chiappetta - Fri, Sep 25, 2020

On this episode of HotHardware's Two And A Half Geeks, Tony Tamasi, NVIDIA VP Of Technical Marketing will joined us for some lively banter about the beastly GeForce RTX 3090, the GeForce RTX 3080, all things Ampere and more... Time Stamps: 00:55 - Introduction 04:38 - Explaining the enhancements made to Ampere 08:19 - Why go all in with Ampere, this generation? 10:00 - Was the new cooler a function of Ampere's higher power? 12:47 - What's special about Samsung's custom 8nm process? 14:20 - Roadmap Question, Will there be anything below 3070? 15:02 - Why SLI and multi-GPU are less of a focus 18:05...

2.5 Geeks: GeForce RTX 3080 Unleashed And Sold-Out! Intel Tiger Lake Roars!

by Marco Chiappetta - Fri, Sep 18, 2020

On this episode of HotHardware's Two And A Half Geeks podcast, we'll be taking a look at the MONSTER performance of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3080, in addition to chatting about our review of a custom RTX 3080 from Palit. We'll also be looking at performance of Intel's ferocious new Tiger Lake CPU that will bring serious gains to laptops soon... Show Notes: 07:49 - Intel Tiger Lake And Xe Graphics Benchmarks: Laptops Will Roar 27:45 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Review: Ampere Is A Gaming Monster 47:08 - Palit GeForce RTX 3080 GamingPro OC Review: Big, Custom Ampere...

TONOR Q9 USB Microphone Kit Review: Affordable, Quality Audio

by Chris Goetting - Thu, Sep 10, 2020

This is undoubtedly the year of video conferences and virtual meetings. Perhaps nothing makes one of these conferences more insufferable than someone’s scratchy, low-quality integrated microphone -- and the last thing you want is for that scratchy mic to be yours. Fortunately, upping your microphone game can be very easy. You do not need to dive into the expensive world of audio interfaces, mixers, and XLR cables to see a massive improvement. The TONOR Q9 USB microphone kit we'll be showing you here provides everything necessary to step up your audio production quality for a very attractive...

2.5 Geeks: Under The Hood Of Ampere, AMD Zen 3 And Big Navi Dates, Lakefield Vs Snapdragon

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, Sep 10, 2020

On this episode of Two And A Half Geeks, we'll be peeling back the lid on NVIDIA's Ampere GPU architecture, and also looking at the new Reviewer's Toolkit from NVIDIA that arrived just in time for our GeForce RTX 30 series review efforts. We'll also be chatting about Intel Lakefield vs. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx in ultra-low power laptops and more… Show Notes: 05:18 - Microsoft's Xbox Series S Entry-Level Next-Gen Console Officially Announced At Just $299 07:54 - Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 SSD Family Listed With Blazing Fast 7,000MB/Sec Read Performance 09:40 - Radeon RX 6000 And Zen 3 October...

2.5 Geeks: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30-Series Ampere, Intel Tiger Lake 11th Gen Core Launch And More

by Marco Chiappetta - Thu, Sep 03, 2020

On this episode of HotHardware's Two And A Half Geeks, we're going to discuss NVIDIA's brand new GeForce RTX 30-Series based on the Ampere architecture, Intel’s new branding and just-announced line-up of Tiger Lake-based 11th Gen Core mobile processors, and more... Show Notes: 03:50 - Microsoft Boldly Outs DirectX 12_2 Feature Support For AMD Big Navi, Intel Xe-HPG And Qualcomm GPUs 07:03 - DJI Mavic Air 2 Review: A Powerful Drone For Any Skill Level 08:54 - TeamGroup Targets Data Hoarders With Massive 15.3TB QX Consumer SSD 12:09 - NVIDIA Ampere GeForce RTX 3090, RTX 3080 And 3070 Debut...

DJI Mavic Air 2 Review: A Powerful Drone For Any Skill Level

by Brandon Hill - Fri, Aug 28, 2020

DJI brought a lot to the table with its original Mavic Air that launched back in 2017. It was a step up from DJI's entry-level Spark, but not quite as feature-packed and robust as the Mavic Pro. In other words, Mavic Air struck a nice balance in between the aforementioned product bookends with respect to performance, features, and price. And unsurprisingly, it became one of DJI's most popular drones as a result. As you might expect, DJI needed to follow up on the original Mavic Air with a worthy successor, and we have that now with the aptly-named Mavic Air 2. The Mavic Air 2 bests...