We tested Intel's new chips for cash-strapped hardcore PC users and they're impressive REVIEW It's a tough time to be a PC enthusiast. Between the memory crunch and the AI boom driving up prices on storage, DDR5, and GPUs, it's gotten prohibitively expensive to build a PC. Amid this turmoil, Intel hopes to win some goodwill from budget-conscious customers with its newly announced Core Ultra 200S Plus family of …
The PC market is in the midst of an AI-fueled price crunch. Memory and storage can easily cost more than a CPU, and enthusiasts are having to make tough decisions on where to allocate their budgets.
And not forgetting the obscene cost of GPUs at the moment.
I spent all my money on a gaming PC icon -->
Can someone explain how this tool is supposed to work when an OS expects a signed binary? Any change to the binary is supposed to be blocked, right?
Another problem with enforced signing, but let's be real: how many users know enough to turn off enforced signing to run an optimized binary?
And why does the BOT only target games? If Intel wants buzz, it needs to target Firefox and Chrome.
> Presumably they are signed by Intel?
Article makes it seem like a deployed product ("alongside the installer..."). Real shame if Intel is the gatekeeper, signing on the backend and only shipping a downloader. That'd be quite different than a public beta where it only works with supported binaries for now.
> And Firefox and Chrome are moving targets. (But they are probably better optimised anyway.)
I wonder if they've even tried. Meaningfully optimized browsers would be a big deal for everyone, and a deciding factor for many orgs/users.
Intel? I have bought AMD processors ever since Intel's blatantly illegal attempts to cut off the oxygen on AMD processors by offering "special" consideration/compensation ($) to PC manufacturers to use only Intel processors. It was until very recently difficult to find top of the line AMD laptops especially from major manufacturers. Luckily for AMD Intel's numerous missteps over the last several years gave them a crack in the wall that they took full advantage of. Intel somehow still rules the roost but the are seriously straining their necks looking over their shoulder. And just to be clear, I do not want Intel to fail, I just want them to compete fairly with their competition. At this point it looks like they have no other choice which is good for everybody.
One major advantage AMD has pretty much always had is that they don't obsolete their CPU sockets anywhere near as often as Intel. That is AMD's sockets are good for 6-8 years generally, while Intel drops theirs after about 2 years.
It's also worth noting that AMD is also due for a desktop refresh, though recent reports suggest Zen 6 may not be coming to consumer platforms until next year. That still leaves plenty of opportunity for AMD to roll out their own budget-oriented parts. Maybe a 9700X3D or 9600X3D Micro Center special? Or perhaps we'll finally see that long-rumored 9950X3D2 dual 3D V-Cache dies.
It has the words Ultra *and* Plus in the name. Yeah, tracks that it's aimed at home users.
Be nice to see someone, anyone anywhere, review chips in terms of users that a) don't play video game, b) don't edi videos, c) don't use any Adobe anything. Not that it applies here so much, but that's usually the litmus test for most reviews.
