When it comes to CPUs there are only a few options available when you are looking for the fastest performance. Up until now you could go with a Haswell CPU or if you wanted more cores The Ivy Bridge-E CPUs. AMDs has done well on the integrated GPU side of things but for pure CPU power Intel has been the only way to go. Recently Intel announced their latest refresh with their Devil’s Canyon CPUs. Today I finally have the chance to put the i7-4790k to the test and see what kind of improvement it is over the i7-4770k.  

Over the past few years AMD has invested most of their efforts into their APU line. This has paid off for them in the way of performance improvements every launch and even more importantly this focus helped them score all three of this generations gaming consoles. Considering how many of the PC games that we play today are ports from those consoles AMD is in a great position to benefit from all of the fine tuning done on their console hardware. They recently introduced their Kaveri APUs and after spending some time making changes to our CPU test suite and retesting some of the competition I finally have the chance to sit down and talk about how their latest APU performs both from a compute side of things as well as the performance of the integrated graphics processor.

Remember when everyone wanted Intel’s enthusiast CPUs? Pepperidge Farm remembers. With Ivy Bridge and then Haswell pushing the mainstream CPU lineup ahead quickly it seems like it has been ages sense the launch of X79 and with it Sandy Bridge-E. That’s not to say they still aren’t powerful, but with multiple competing launches from Intel alone the platform hasn’t exactly gotten a lot of attention. Well today we get to play a little catch up with the introduction of the Ivy Bridge-E CPUs. Specifically I’m going to take a look at the i7-4960X, their new flagship CPU. Let’s take a peek at what is new.

When it comes to building PCs, the enthusiast builds that we here at LanOC focus a lot on are only a small part of the market. A lot of builds don’t require 6+ cores and multiple GPUs. In fact a lot of people don’t need or want dedicated GPUs at all. AMD and Intel both recognize this with their focus on upgrading the integrated graphics of their mainstream CPUs and APUs. When AMD sent over their new Richland-based APUs, the A10-6800K and A10-6700, I was excited to see how they compare to previous APUs we have taken a look at and to see if the APU would be capable of any gaming without adding a dedicated GPU.

One of the most exciting parts of the year as enthusiasts is a new platform launch from Intel. For months now people have been talking about Intel’s Haswell processors and rumors and benchmarks have been flying all over the internet for weeks now. That must mean it’s finally time for us to dig into the latest Intel CPU and Chipset and see what it’s all about and put to rest all of the speculation. Today we are going to take a look at the new Intel i7-4770 and DZ87KLT-75K motherboard. Let’s find out how the 4770 compares to the 3770 as well as the Sandy Bridge E CPU’s as well.

It seemed like the virtual ink hadn’t even dried on our Sandy Bridge review and people were already talking about waiting for Ivy Bridge to come out. The same goes for our Sandy Bridge E write-up, a lot of people on the forums and at our events spoke about waiting for Ivy before making a decision. Well I can finally say that today is that day. We are going to take a look at Intel’s new Ivy Bridge CPUs, specifically the i7-3770K. We will put it up against all that Sandy Bridge had to offer along with a few Sandy Bridge E CPUs, including the competitively priced i7-3820. At the end of the day you will know what it’s all about and we will hopefully help give you the facts in your buying decision.

Intel started 2011 off with the official introduction to their highly anticipated Sandy Bridge processors. We had the chance to take a look at their mid-range i5-2500k and we loved it. The i5-2500k isn’t perfect for everyone, that’s why Intel has introduced a range of processors. Today we will be taking a look at their i3-2100 and i7-2600 to see how they stand in the grand scheme of things. While we do, we will retest the i5-2500k and put the three head to head to find out what the extra money gets you.