CPU

New Surface ad wants you to think that your Mac “ain’t fast enough”

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 15, 2016

It's been only three days since Microsoft's advertising department unleashed a new ad salvo at Apple's direction in the form of a commercial for its Surface Pro 4 tablet/laptop hybrid and now it's posted yet another video to conveniently reiterate its message ahead of iPhone 7's launch tomorrow. Titled “Power of Touch”, the 30-second commercial doubles down on the ”the Mac lacks a touchscreen” theme.

Not only does Microsoft poke fun of the fact that Macs are long overdue for a refresh (yours supposedly “ain't fast enough” lately), but also disses the Mac for not shipping with a detachable keyboard or a stylus.

Read More

Apple Watch Series 2 tech specs

Anthony Bouchard ∙ September 8, 2016

The Apple Watch Series 2, which was announced at yesterday's keynote, is Apple's answer to improving on what was already one of the best-selling smartwatches on the market today.

In this piece, we'll recap all the technical specifications of the new Apple Watch lineup.

Read More

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus tech specs

Anthony Bouchard ∙ September 8, 2016

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are Apple's latest and greatest handsets that will be going on pre-order Friday, September 9th, and will be available for official purchase starting on September 16th.

Of course, before you go out and buy something new, it's always great to do a little research on the hardware specs. In this piece, we'll recap the specs of both Apple's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

Read More

Weight, size, and battery life: iPhone 7 vs iPhone 6s

Anthony Bouchard ∙ September 7, 2016

Apple's iPhone lineup just got even better as of Wednesday's product unveiling. Not only are the devices super fast, more power-efficient, and available in new finishes, but they also come with a slew of new finishes that owners of previous-generations of iPhone will drool over.

In this piece, we'll compare the iPhone 7 to the iPhone 6s so you have an idea of the differences in size, weight, and even their expected battery life.

Read More

iPhone 7 could provide at least 33 percent faster CPU performance than iPhone 6s

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 5, 2016

Alleged GeekBench CPU scores posted back in the summer suggested modest performance gains for the iPhone 7’s A10 chip versus the iPad Pro's A9X processor, but were debunked as fake soon after.

Today, genuine-looking results of the GeekBench 4 synthetic benchmark of the iPhone 7's CPU were posted on the website of PrimateLabs, the company that makes and sells the GeekBench suite.

According to the published data, the iPhone 7 could have its CPU performance boosted by at least one third, or about 33 percent, versus the iPhone 6s.

Read More

Japan’s SoftBank is buying iPhone CPU supplier ARM for a reported $32 billion

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 18, 2016

Japan's carrier SoftBank has announced it will be purchasing British fabless semiconductor maker ARM Holdings plc for a reported $32 billion, which is around a 43 percent premium on its closing market value of $22.25 billion on Friday. ARM confirmed the deal (PDF download) on Monday.

According to the statement, ARM's board is expected to recommend shareholders accept the offer. Apple is an investor in ARM and licenses its technology as a basis for custom CPU designs for its own A-series chips which power iOS devices.

Read More

New MacBooks offer 90 percent faster SSD write speeds, Skylake CPU up to 20 percent faster

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 6, 2016

Apple today announced a second-generation twelve-inch MacBook which brings speed increases across the board thanks to the use of Intel's latest Skylake chip platform, PCIe-based flash storage and a speedier 1,866MHz RAM.

The Verge took the new machines briefly for a spin. Having put the new MacBook through its paces in Primate Labs' $0.99 Geekbench 3 benchmarking app to measure the performance of the new Intel CPU and using the free Blackmagic Disk Speed Test app for benchmarking disk I/O operations, the publication was able to determine just how performant the updated flash storage and Intel's new Skylake CPU are.

Read More

This phone packs in a 10-core processor, 10-LED camera flash, 3D Touch clone and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 13, 2016

With each passing day, Chinese handset vendors are getting better at their game, producing phones with great technical specifications that often outperform flagship devices from the likes of Samsung, but cost half as much. Take, for example, Meizu, a Chinese consumer electronics company, which has built a new phone with some impressive hardware specifications.

Their new Pro 6 smartphone was just announced this morning: it has the world's first ten-core mobile processor, a 21-megapixel rear camera with a small ring two-tone flash consisting of 10 LEDs, a first for any smartphone, and a clone of Apple's 3D Touch.

Read More

Why and how to stress test your Mac fans and CPU

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated April 11, 2022
How to stress test Mac CPU and fan

As rare as it may be, your processor or CPU cooling fans can fail, and there is a really easy way to test your Mac's hardware with the Terminal app that comes with macOS to ensure everything is working right.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to stress test your Mac using Terminal so you can ensure all your processor's cores are working up to snuff and your cooling fans aren't grinding or failing to cool your Mac as they should.

Read More