Category - Basics

2D performance in reverse? A Comprehensive Analysis | Retro Part 2 of 2

Over 13 years ago, I was concerned with the elimination of 2D hardware acceleration in Windows Vista and XP and made no friends for life with the driver team at (then) ATI in Toronto. The good thing about the two articles that hit like a bomb back then is that both AMD and NVIDIA started reacting frantically back then and also took remedial action [...]


Solving “unexplained” interrupt problems: Message-Signaled Interrupts (MSI) against sound dropouts, USB problems & Co. | Practice

If the sound card drops out or cracks, USB devices do not work or only work sporadically or the performance drops, then interrupt conflicts are usually the cause. This is something that Windows users have long since ignored out of sheer convenience, although the problem is as old as PCs and has only shifted under the colorful operating system [...]


Radeon RX Vega 56 – Is AMD’s 5-year-old “fail” with a driver hack for SAM (rBAR) still usable in 2023? Surprise!

This summer, AMD’s Vega graphics cards will celebrate their fifth birthday. Always standing in the shadow of Nvidia’s Pascal cards, the power-hungry cards were never really popular with gamers. Currently, the small models with 56 shader clusters change hands for just over 100€ on the second-hand market. Without further ado, we [...]


How we test memory kits from now on – Reference configs with all current DDR5 ICs and DDR4 G1 in synthetics and (no) games

Why there haven’t been any RAM tests from me/us for a while, why we won’t have any gaming benchmarks in our RAM tests and how we want to test RAM kits for their real differences in the future, you’ll learn in the following piece. In addition, this should serve as a basic article, which will be linked accordingly in upcoming [...]


Heat conductive paste against food, cosmetics and various lubricant – with expected unexpected results | Practice

Groundhog day, again and again. Today, I’m pushing up a classic review for you to enjoy on a cold winter Sunday, and it was a very interesting experiment. Already 12 years ago I had tested various things up to the adhesive cream for the third for their thermal conductivity. However, this time I have modified the classics a bit and included [...]


Overview and comparison of all tested CPU air and AiO water coolers

To be able to cover the higher TDP classes of processors in the future, I upgraded my testbench from a Ryzen 5 3600 to a Ryzen 9 3950X. However, so that the compact or budget coolers are not completely overtaxed, testing is done in three stages. This article serves as a reference and basis for future comparisons so that tested air and water [...]


12VHPWR adapter for NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090 – Two manufacturers, contact problems, bending radii and the human factor

The 12VHPWR adapter for the GeForce RTX 4090 is unfortunately already a kind of running gag and so the topic is meanwhile beaten by all more or less well-informed media. A little unemotional reappraisal would certainly not be a bad idea to calm heated tempers and put the whole thing back on its feet. Therefore, today’s article is not only an [...]


Infrared measurement: facts, fake or only colourful hocus-pocus? The bitter truth behind many “thermal images” and the simple reasons

In view of the “measurements” with thermal imaging cameras or equivalent smartphones that have appeared again and again lately, I want to bring last year’s article forward again today to show you the complexity of the matter and to explain why measurement is not the same as colorful imaging. One can “measure” more [...]


News Test

This is how the 12VHPWR is done correctly: Crimping instead of soldering and how to supply the GeForce RTX 4090 with power properly

First there were bent cables, then annoyed buyers of the at least 2000 euro expensive NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, no matter which model or manufacturer. The manufacturer of the 4-pin adapter from 12VHPWR to 4x 8-pin for older power supplies was also careless. And, of course, we learned something once again in the course of our investigations. Since [...]


Beginner tutorial: Plan and assemble PC air cooling properly

Yes, it’s winter again and the next hot hardware is just around the corner. Admittedly, summer is still a long way off, but it’s still getting warmer every day because the wattage of the components is also increasing so immeasurably. For a PC owner or self-builder, the topics of waste heat, cooling and ambient temperature (also [...]


The big Ryzen 7000 Memory and OC Tuning Guide – Infinity Fabric, EXPO, Dual-Rank, Samsung and Hynix DDR5 in Practice test with Benchmarks and Recommendations

AMD’s new Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs, based on the Zen4 micro-architecture, still use the same chiplet design as their predecessors, with a few small but not negligible changes. Igor already gave details about this in yesterday’s big review. Today we want to look at how to configure the new CPUs as optimally as possible and for this we [...]


Monitor sizes, panel types and special features | Part 1 Monitor basics

After a long hick-hack with my internet provider and a professional special case – the time has finally come. We’ll start with the basics on the subject of monitors. Today we’ll look at the topic of panel types, screen sizes and resolutions. However, I will not do a total deep dive into the technical level, but only go so far [...]


Fan testing 2.0: feedback, measurements and new metrics for cases and radiators using the example of a Phanteks T30

The better is the enemy of the good, and that is exactly why we have taken stock after almost 40 tested fans, evaluated the feedback from readers and added more details. Although the effort involved increases somewhat, many processes can be automated. The question of which units to base the whole thing on has kept us busy for some time. Since the [...]