AMD’s vaunted “X3D” V-Cache technology vaulted Ryzen processors to the pinnacle of gaming supremacy when it debuted in the legendary Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Now, it arrives with extra pressure on its proverbial shoulders: Can that X3D magic help resuscitate a Ryzen 9000 lineup that’s struggled with ho-hum reviews out of the gate and dramatic performance-altering Windows updates? Spoiler alert: Absolutely. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D rocks, obliterating Intel’s new Core Ultra 9 285K in games – but that’s not all. Previous X3D generations always popped in games, but proved lackluster against its non-X3D siblings in creation workloads. Thanks to some smart tweaks to the second-gen V-Cache design, the $479, 8-core Ryzen 7 9800X3D actually gets an even bigger bump in select creator workloads than gaming, compared to its predecessor, and now sits comfortably above the 8-core 9700X for work and play. It’s a monumental moment for AMD – and a monumental beat down for Intel’s gaming ambitions. Our review of the initial Ryzen 9000 CPUs can get you caught up on crucial platform details about this generation of AMD processors. We’ve already dug into the Ryzen 7 9800X3D’s speeds and feeds, while the video embedded above dives deep into our full testing results for the chip (though you can swipe through all our benchmark graphs below). Here, we’ll explain the five key things you need to know before buying the Ryzen 7 9800X3D… which we absolutely recommend if you’re a gamer. 1. Second-gen V-Cache makes vital improvements Before we get into the benchmarks, we need to quickly talk about how AMD achieved such sterling results. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D introduces the second generation of AMD’s V-Cache technology, and it’s a winner. In previous X3D generations, the slabs of cache sat on top of the Ryzen CPU dies, which resulted in them not being able to clock as high as their non-X3D siblings due to heat concerns – and you couldn’t overclock them at all. So the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and 7800X3D were slower than their non-X3D counterparts in many non-gaming workloads. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry Say goodbye to those limitations with the 9800X3D and its new-style V-Cache. Here’s AMD describing the tweaks: “AMD has re-engineered its cutting-edge on-chip memory solution with 2nd Gen AMD 3D V-Cache technology. The 64MB cache memory has been relocated below the processor, which puts the core complex die (CCD) closer to the cooling solution to help keep the “Zen 5” cores cooler, delivering high clock rates and providing up to an average 8% gaming performance improvement compared to our last-gen generation and up to an average 20% faster than the competition. This revolutionary change in placement allows for extreme overclocking of the processor.” End result? The Ryzen 7 9800X3D has a much higher, 4.7GHz base clock speed than both the Ryzen 7 9700X and the older Ryzen 7 7800X3D, while also bumping up maximum clock speeds to 5.2GHz and also allowing you to (finally) overclock the processor. 2. A gaming legend indeed With those changes in tow, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D absolutely slaps in games – and slaps Intel’s flagship Core Ultra 9 285K around in the process. In the four games we tested, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D runs an average of 25 percent faster than the 285K at 1080p resolution. That’s a massive gulf, and it’s actually being dragged down by the results in Total War Warhammer 3, which runs similarly on every processor we tested. If you take that out, the 9800X3D runs a whopping 30 percent faster than Intel’s biggest dog. It’s 45 percent faster than the 285K in Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing off. Madness! I can’t remember the last time I witnessed a hardware beat down this relentlessly violent. If you want the single best gaming chip you can buy, the Ryzen 9 9800X3D is it. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry AMD’s newcomer also bests the company’s productivity flagship, the Ryzen 9 9950X, in gaming – no surprise there given the Ryzen 9’s dual-CCD design, which can impact gaming frame rates. Interestingly, the 9800X3D isn’t all that much faster in games than its predecessor, the 7800X3D. But that’s not the case when it comes to, well, everything but gaming. 3. Shockingly good creation chops Eight-core CPUs are the sweet spot for most folks who game and dabble in tasks like streaming and basic video editing, and the second-gen V-Cache in the 9800X3D makes it a much more compelling option for work than its predecessors. Unlike prior X3D chips, the 9800X3D is demonstrably faster than the vanilla 8-core chip in AMD’s Ryzen lineup – the 9700X, here. We tested the 9700X in both its stock 65-watt configuration, as well as with the 105W option unlocked via a BIOS update. The 9800X3D soundly trounces the 9700X’s default performance, and manages to keep its lead even when you juice the vanilla chip with abundant extra power. We haven’t seen this before, and it’s a huge feather in the 9800X3D’s cap. That’s notable. But what really drives home the point is the difference between the 9800X3D and the 7800X3D in creative workloads, especially given their neck-and-neck performance in gaming. Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry The 9800X3D is 24 percent faster than the 7800X3D in Cinebench’s multi-thread test, despite both being 8-core chips with connected V-Cache. It’s roughly 25 percent faster in Blender workloads. That leaps up to a whopping 35 percent faster during Handbrake video encodes. The torrid pace slows in Premiere Pro and Photoshop, to a still-valiant 13 and 18 percent respectively, while Davinci Resolve is the least impressive result, with the 9800X3D landing about 7.5 percent faster than the 7800X3D. These are phenomenal results, full stop, and ones that eradicate the previous caveats associated with Ryzen X3D chips. Choosing the Ryzen 7 5800X3D or 7800X3D meant you got top-tier gaming performance, but non-gaming tasks suffered compared to their vanilla siblings. That’s not the case anymore. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D outshines the 9700X in every way – and it’s often not close, especially if you’re using the 9700X’s default 65W configuration. Don’t hear what I’m not saying: If you’re a person who does heavy, crunchy creation tasks, you’re generally going to be better off going for the Ryzen 9 9950X or Core Ultra 9 285K, both of which come loaded with way more CPU cores than AMD’s new X3D vanguard and offer correspondingly higher performance (at, yes, higher prices). But the 9800X3D can easily handle what the vast majority of folks will throw at it. 4. It’s more expensive So the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the single best gaming chip you can buy, and it’s now a very solid chip for non-gaming tasks too. Excellent! But you don’t get those benefits for free. At $479, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D costs $30 more than its predecessor, and a whopping $130 more than the 9700X – an interesting price since the 9800X3D chip was only about 14 percent faster than the 9700X in our gaming tests. If you want the very best gaming performance, though, you have to pay for it. It’s also worth pointing out that the 9800X3D is $110 cheaper than Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K. AMD’s chip whups on Intel’s in games, while Intel’s shoves AMD’s chip around in multi-core workloads. 5. Should you upgrade your 5800X3D? Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry Finally, the big question: What should you do if you already own a Ryzen 7 5800X3D system? Lots of enthusiasts snatched up the legendary chip during fire sales in recent years, and were waiting to see how the Ryzen 9800X3D performed after skipping the 7800X3D. Going off the numbers alone, the 9800X3D is 25 percent faster than the 5700X3D (which is clocked 400MHz lower than the 5800X3D) in our gaming tests, and a whole lot faster than that in content creation tasks. The 5800X3D should be about 7 percent faster than the 5700X3D. On the surface, that makes the 9800X3D seem like a very fine upgrade indeed. But should you bite the bullet? For people who demand the newest technologies and the bleeding edge of gaming speed, it makes sense. If you take a step back, however, the beloved 5800X3D – which came out years ago – is just as fast if not faster than Intel’s 285K flagship. So it remains a very potent gaming chip, and the 9800X3D’s gaming uplift won’t be as pronounced at 1440p or 4K resolution, where gaming bottlenecks tend to get shifted more towards GPUs. Upgrading from the 5800X3D to the 9800X3D doesn’t just mean spending $479 on the chip, either – you’ll also need to upgrade to a new AM5 motherboard, and snag some newfangled DDR5 memory to go with it. All-in, you’re looking at a total platform upgrade cost pushing nearly $800 or more, even if you keep your existing graphics card, case, power supply, and so on. Again, if you seek the very best gaming firepower, it could make sense, and doubly so if you stream or use your PC for other demanding workloads – the 9800X3D’s content creation leap is breathtaking, and the AM5 platform supports newer technologies like PCIe 5, DDR5, and USB 4. But if you’re mostly a gamer, and the 5800X3D is still spitting out ferocious frame rates in your games of choice, saving your cash for a baller new graphics card is probably a better bang for your buck despite how fantastic the 9800X3D is. Read...

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Today, the internet has become like water and electricity, a necessity for everyday life and something we take for granted. Most people never think about routers, network cables, frequency bands, and more as long as everything works. But wireless networks — Wi-Fi — are not flawless and few users have never had problems. Common problems include weak coverage in parts of the home, devices being disconnected and having to be reconnected manually, choppy music and video playback on connected devices, and slower-than-promised speeds on large downloads. By optimizing your router’s settings and placement in your home, you can achieve a more stable and faster Wi-Fi network. Often this is enough, but otherwise there is help from different types of networking equipment. Foundry Optimal router settings Different routers offer different levels of customization for Wi-Fi settings, but the vast majority have at least the following settings: Channel width Channel width refers to how much of the available frequencies in a frequency band the communication between router and devices takes up. Narrow channels allow for more channels, which means that several different networks can operate simultaneously in the same location without interfering with each other. But wider channels mean more data can fit per transmission, resulting in a higher overall speed for connected devices — as long as the signal is strong enough. If your router can choose the channel width automatically, this is likely to give you the best results. Some routers can automatically vary the channel width to optimize the network. If you have to choose for yourself, or just want to test whether it can be useful, you can test from the top down — start with 160MHz in the 5GHz band and step down to 80- and 40MHz and see how it affects the experience of devices around the home. If your router supports the 6GHz band, you can probably push a little harder and choose the widest possible channels, but as radio is complicated, it’s always best to test the waters. Foundry Channel – manual or automatic Depending on the channel width, there are different numbers of channels to choose from. For example, with 160MHz channel width there are only three channels, while with 40MHz there are 14 in the 5GHz band. The 2.4GHz band can only use channels of 20- or 40MHz, and the normal one is 20Mz because it can fit three channels without overlap (channels 1, 6, and 11). In houses without interference, 40MHz can work. Normally, it’s best to let the router choose itself as it has a better idea of which channel has the least “noise,” but if you have coverage problems in a particular part of the house and can see that a neighbor in that direction is using the same channel as your router has chosen, you can try a different channel. TP-Link Combined or separate frequency bands Behind the scenes, Wi-Fi over 2.4GHz and 5GHz are completely separate and use different antennas, but normally the router creates a common network name (SSID) to which devices connect. Which frequency band they connect with can either be up to the device itself, chance, or the router (see below). This usually works well, but you may find it useful to choose two separate networks with separate names instead. This can be useful, for example, if you have smart home devices that only support 2.4GHz and are having trouble connecting (which is relatively common). It can also help if you have devices that insist on connecting to the 5GHz band even though the signal is weak due to an obstruction such as a brick wall or some other reason. Lower frequencies penetrate walls better, so the 2.4GHz band is often more reliable at a distance from the router. Band steering On networks that combine multiple frequency bands, devices or routers must choose which band to communicate in. Most routers have a feature called band steering that automates the selection based on various parameters. On newer routers from Asus, you can set how it should choose, but as you can see in the picture below, solid knowledge is required to do a better job than the router, if possible. The Quality of Service (QoS) function balances the network and ensures that no single device takes up all the bandwidth.Foundry If you have a specific problem, such as devices that insist on connecting on the 5GHz band even in parts of your home where the signal is so weak that the internet is slow, you can experiment with the settings. The Small Net Builder website has a good guide to Asus settings. Quality of Service gives all devices a chance Quality of Service, or QoS, is a feature found in many higher-end routers that balances the network so that no single device hogs all the bandwidth. Without QoS, a computer running Bittorrent, for example, with hundreds of active connections, can saturate the connection to the internet service provider on its own. QoS can also be used to prioritize certain types of traffic. Most typical are online games that require very short response times to mitigate lagging. Setting QoS to prioritize games reduces the likelihood that temporary spikes in network activity will cause games to hack. Video calling is also something that can benefit greatly from a QoS service in the router, as it requires both relatively short response times and a steady stream of data. Routers with large processors often do better without QoS than less well-equipped routers. Problems that can be solved with QoS are often due to something called bufferbloat, where the router queues up too many packets and can’t forward them all in a reasonable time. A faster connection won’t help, and incorrect router settings can make it worse. Bufferbloat test results from Waveform.Foundry You can test for yourself how much bufferbloat your router suffers from with tests at dslreport.com or waveform.com. Both give a rating, so you don’t need to understand all the numbers. But in case you’re wondering, it’s all about how much response times degrade when the connection is heavily loaded. Whether you have a lot of bufferbloat or not, you can try enabling QoS if your router has the feature, especially if you experience occasional problems with gaming or video calls. If you can’t find the settings for your particular router, search for “[router model] qos” and you’ll probably get both an answer to whether it has the feature at all and, if so, how to enable it. Change the order of priority in Adaptive QoS.Foundry As an example, take my newly purchased Asus router, which has a feature called Adaptive QoS. Here, I can choose one of five preset profiles that prioritize different things — gaming, streaming, general browsing, distance learning, or remote work. You can also set the prioritization order manually. I should point out, however, that Adaptive QoS is one of several features in Asus routers that require you to authorize security firm Trend Micro to collect data from you. Other router manufacturers may have other similar agreements for certain features. Netspot Map your home and find the radio shadows If you’ve tested out the best Wi-Fi settings on your router but are still having problems with slow internet, or devices occasionally losing connection in remote parts of your home, it might be time to look at upgrading your network. Before splurging on a new, more powerful router or any kind of extension, it’s a good idea to check what the signal strength is actually like in your home. There are a number of programs that can help you with this, such as Netspot. You will need a floor plan of your home and a laptop. Once you have installed the program and launched it, select the Survey tab and create a new project. Here you can upload an image of the floor plan or draw it manually. A calibration function ensures that the distances are correct, and before you start taking measurements, you can choose how large an area each measurement point should cover. I recommend the default setting. Then you simply carry the computer around to different locations in your home and let Netspot measure the signal strength. Click on the floor plan to show where you are at each measurement and on the stop button when you’re done. The results are displayed as a color chart of the floor plan, with warmer colors indicating stronger signals. Areas in blue show parts of the home where the router has difficulty reaching. Measuring many places around your home can give you a good idea of where it might make sense to place an extender, or whether a router with stronger antennas is likely to reach all corners. It can also help you spot poor router placement, and if you move it to a location that should provide better coverage, you can repeat the survey and check whether it actually did. Dmitry Didorov Reduce the load with cable connections If your problems don’t seem to be due to a weak signal, it could be that you are utilising the full capacity of your Wi-Fi network with many connected devices. If you have a large family where everyone watches a lot of streaming services, this can easily happen. An easy way to give the router and the devices that can only connect wirelessly some wiggle room is to connect desktop computers and other fixed devices with an Ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi. Televisions, games consoles, smart home hubs and media players often have a connector for network cables. If your router doesn’t have enough connectors, you can buy a cheap switch from Netgear or TP-Link, for example. A switch also allows devices connected to it to communicate directly with each other without going through the router, which can further reduce the load on it. For example, if you have a media library on a NAS device and stream from it to a TV or computer and both are connected to the switch, it can have a big effect on the speeds of the Wi-Fi network for other connected devices. Sabine Kroschel Get a Wi-Fi booster, repeater, or mesh Sometimes the only solution to Wi-Fi problems is to upgrade your hardware. There are different options depending on what you have today and what the possibilities are for running cables in your home, for example. Wi-Fi amplifier A Wi-Fi repeater extends an existing network by creating its own network with the same name (SSID). Newer models can connect either by cable or wirelessly. The latter is obviously more flexible, but offers slower speeds and longer response times as devices connected to the extension communicate with the router in two stages. TP-Link Repeater Wi-Fi repeater is the name of an older technology that is not as common today, where a radio intercepts the signal from the router and simply sends it out again. It rarely gets much better and I do not recommend it. Linksys Mesh With mesh routers, you place two or more base stations in the home, where one acts as the main unit and is connected to the broadband. They connect to each other wirelessly but do so either smarter or with separate antennas and channels so that that transmission doesn’t clash with the regular network. For those who have Wi-Fi problems with a regular router and want a simple solution, a mesh system with two or three base stations is often the simplest solution, but rarely the cheapest. Use Netspot to find the best placement of base stations, then just sit back and enjoy. Roadlight Some traditional routers now have a built-in mesh function so you can expand your network afterwards with compatible base stations. Asus, for example, has a feature called AI Mesh, while TP-Link calls its equivalent Onemesh. Both of these manufacturers are flexible with what additional devices you use as base stations, such as another regular router, a mesh router, or a dedicated Wi-Fi extender that supports the mesh system. Unlike regular Wi-Fi extenders, all devices in one of these mesh networks must be from the same manufacturer and support the mesh technology in question. One important thing to consider if you’re getting mesh is to position the base stations so that they have the best possible signal to each other. This means that their signals should overlap but not too much, and there should be as few walls as possible in the straight line between two base stations. Read...

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USB flash drives are pretty self-explanatory, aren’t they? All you have to do is plug it into your PC and it’s ready to go, whether you’re using it to transfer files, play media, or launch an app. But mistakes can happen, and these mistakes can go further than the familiar meme of always needing at least three attempts to finally get that USB connection plugged in. (Less of an issue with USB-C, but I digress.) Here are the various ways you might be using your USB flash drive incorrectly and the kinds of issues that can crop up. Further reading: How long does data last on a USB flash drive? You’re using the wrong USB port Many PCs and laptops have multiple USB ports, and many people simply assume that all USB ports are basically equal. When you need to plug in your drive, you might assume it doesn’t matter where it goes so you just stick it into whichever port is most convenient. a fast ssd that works like a flash drive SK Hynix Tube T31 USB SSD stick Read our review Best Prices Today: $61.99 at Amazon But that’s far from the truth. In fact, it can make a huge difference to how well your USB drive performs, and it’s most keenly felt when you’re transferring files. Pick the wrong port — even if your drive fits — and you could be hampering your read and write speeds. USB technology has continued to improve over many years but the shape of a USB-A port hasn’t changed. When you plug in, it could be a slower USB 2.0 port or it could be a faster USB 3.2 port. And it can be hard to tell which ports are which, so don’t feel too bad if you didn’t know. On most devices, the faster USB 3.0 ports are usually located on the rear side and have a blue inner strip inside the port. (If the port is colored green or red, it’s USB 3.1 or USB 3.2.) Slower USB 2 ports, on the other hand, tend to be on the front and have no special color. If you have a USB 3.x flash drive, make sure you use the corresponding 3.x port. Related: What ports are essential in a new laptop? Your USB drive isn’t optimized If your USB flash drive feels like it has slowed down and isn’t performing as well as it once did, you can optimize it using Windows. To do this, use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run window, then type diskmgmt.msc and click OK. This will launch the Disk Management window, where you can right-click on the USB flash drive (make sure it’s currently plugged in) and select Properties. In the Properties window, navigate to the Hardware tab, select the proper disk drive, then click Properties. Then navigate to the Policies tab and check both “Enable write caching on the device” and “Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device.” If successful, data transfers should be significantly faster. Alternatively, you can also change the file system of your USB flash drive to one that can better cope with large amounts of data. However, beware that formatting a drive will delete all the data stored on it. Related: Why your USB drive’s file system matters You aren’t removing your USB drive safely In a lot of cases, it doesn’t really matter whether you “safely eject” your USB drive before unplugging it. However, if you followed the above tips and optimized your drive, you must start ejecting it safely before removal or else the data on the drive could be lost. To safely eject a USB flash drive, open This PC in File Explorer and right-click on the USB drive in question, then select Eject. That will properly deregister the drive and make it safe to unplug. You’re tossing your “broken” USB drives What do you do when a USB flash drive begins to malfunction? Maybe files can’t be deleted anymore, or maybe the drive itself can’t be formatted. This can happen, especially with older or cheap drives. But you shouldn’t immediately despair, and definitely don’t throw it away until you’ve tried to recover it. There are ways to save the USB drive, which you can read about in our guide to reviving a broken flash drive. Read...

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USB flash drives are pretty self-explanatory, aren’t they? All you have to do is plug it into your PC and it’s ready to go, whether you’re using it to transfer files, play media, or launch an app. But mistakes can happen, and these mistakes can go further than the familiar meme of always needing at least three attempts to finally get that USB connection plugged in. (Less of an issue with USB-C, but I digress.) Here are the various ways you might be using your USB flash drive incorrectly and the kinds of issues that can crop up. You’re using the wrong USB port Many PCs and laptops have multiple USB ports, and many people simply assume that all USB ports are basically equal. When you need to plug in your drive, you might assume it doesn’t matter where it goes so you just stick it into whichever port is most convenient. But that’s far from the truth. In fact, it can make a huge difference to how well your USB drive performs, and it’s most keenly felt when you’re transferring files. Pick the wrong port — even if your drive fits — and you could be hampering your read and write speeds. Related: What ports are essential in a new laptop? USB technology has continued to improve over many years but the shape of a USB-A port hasn’t changed. When you plug in, it could be a slower USB 2.0 port or it could be a faster USB 3.2 port. And it can be hard to tell which ports are which, so don’t feel too bad if you didn’t know. On most devices, the faster USB 3.0 ports are usually located on the rear side and have a blue inner strip inside the port. (If the port is colored green or red, it’s USB 3.1 or USB 3.2.) Slower USB 2 ports, on the other hand, tend to be on the front and have no special color. If you have a USB 3.x flash drive, make sure you use the corresponding 3.x port. Your USB drive isn’t optimized If your USB flash drive feels like it has slowed down and isn’t performing as well as it once did, you can optimize it using Windows. To do this, use the Windows key + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run window, then type diskmgmt.msc and click OK. This will launch the Disk Management window, where you can right-click on the USB flash drive (make sure it’s currently plugged in) and select Properties. In the Properties window, navigate to the Hardware tab, select the proper disk drive, then click Properties. Then navigate to the Policies tab and check both “Enable write caching on the device” and “Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device.” If successful, data transfers should be significantly faster. Alternatively, you can also change the file system of your USB flash drive to one that can better cope with large amounts of data. However, beware that formatting a drive will delete all the data stored on it. Related: Why your USB drive’s file system matters You aren’t removing your USB drive safely In a lot of cases, it doesn’t really matter whether you “safely eject” your USB drive before unplugging it. However, if you followed the above tips and optimized your drive, you must start ejecting it safely before removal or else the data on the drive could be lost. To safely eject a USB flash drive, open This PC in File Explorer and right-click on the USB drive in question, then select Eject. That will properly deregister the drive and make it safe to unplug. You’re tossing your “broken” USB drives What do you do when a USB flash drive begins to malfunction? Maybe files can’t be deleted anymore, or maybe the drive itself can’t be formatted. This can happen, especially with older or cheap drives. But you shouldn’t immediately despair, and definitely don’t throw it away until you’ve tried to recover it. There are ways to save the USB drive, which you can read about in our guide to reviving a broken flash drive. Read...