Stories by Brad Chacos

Why now is a bad time to buy a high-end graphics card

They aren't announced yet, but high-end, next-gen graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia appear right around the corner. You don't want buyer's remorse on an $800 purchase.

For Pac-Man's 40th birthday, Nvidia uses AI to make new levels

Nvidia's GameGAN technology created fully functional Pac-Man levels after watching 50,000 matches. Nvidia hopes the tech will eventually help developers make games faster.

The Origin PC EON17-X crams Intel's 10-core desktop CPU into a laptop

The Origin PC EON17-X laptop comes loaded with Intel's newest desktop processors and Nvidia's best graphics gear.

Adobe flips on GPU-accelerated encoding for Premiere Pro, and wow it's fast

Adobe's Premiere Pro finally supports hardware encoding support for Nvidia and AMD GPUs, letting your render H.264 and HEVC videos much faster than on the CPU alone.

AMD pivots: B450, X470 motherboards will support Ryzen 4000 after all

AMD is changing its mind about cutting off B450 and X470 motherboards from future 'Zen 3' Ryzen chips after the Internet raised a ruckus.

Don't panic: Microsoft's phaseout of 32-bit Windows won't kill 32-bit software

Microsoft's Windows 10 May 2020 Update won't be available in 32-bit form for new computers, but the change shouldn't affect you or your software.

Chrome will block ads that drain your resources: How to turn it on now

Some nasty ads hammer your CPU, battery life, and data cap. Chrome will start blocking them in August, but you can swing the banhammer today.

Nvidia releases 5 more free ray-traced Minecraft worlds

Minecraft is the surprising new standard-bearer for real-time ray tracing and Nvidia's DLSS 2.0 technology. Today Nvidia released 5 new worlds to showcase the luscious lighting effects.

Nvidia's bleeding-edge Ampere GPU architecture revealed: 5 things PC gamers need to know

Nvidia revealed its next-gen Ampere graphics architecture on Thursday in the form of the A100 data center GPU. PC gamers can glean a lot about future GeForce graphics cards from the announcement.

Ampere's coming: Nvidia CEO pulls 'world's largest graphics card' out of an oven before GTC keynote

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang pulled 'the world's largest graphics card' out of an oven in a YouTube teaser, mere days before the next-gen Ampere GPU architecture is expected to be revealed during the GTC 2020 digital keynote.

Software worth paying for: 10 programs you won't regret buying

Sure, you can stock your PC with some excellent freebies, but this software is worth paying for.

Why Microsoft needs an Xbox gaming laptop

Xbox isn't just for consoles anymore. A dedicated Xbox gaming laptop would let Microsoft flex its muscles and showcase the PC gaming innovations it's helping to drive forward.

Want free games? You need to turn on the Epic Games Store's two-factor authentication

If you want to claim the Epic Games Store's weekly free games, you'll need to protect your account first.

XCOM meets SWAT: Chimera Squad's radical tweaks make for a refreshing spinoff

XCOM: Chimera Squad tosses key XCOM design elements out the window to give the series a whole new, yet still familiar feel. It's great, especially for $20.

AMD's B550 motherboards will bring PCIe 4.0 to the masses, $99 Ryzen 3 CPU in tow

AMD announced the long-awaited B550 motherboard chipset with PCIe 4.0 support on Tuesday, along with affordable 3rd-gen Ryzen 3 processors.