Tom’s Hardware’s 30th Anniversary — From Intel feuds and DIP switches to 30 years of unbiased testing
Tom’s Hardware’s 30th Anniversary — From Intel feuds and DIP switches to 30 years of unbiased testing

We take a look back at the history of Tom’s Hardware as we celebrate our 30-year anniversary.

Beat the AI price surge on PC hardware — leverage Newegg combo deals, track Amazon prices, and shop refurb outlets like Woot
Beat the AI price surge on PC hardware — leverage Newegg combo deals, track Amazon prices, and shop refurb outlets like Woot

With prices skyrocketing, it’s more important than ever to follow these guidelines to help you find great deals on PC hardware.

Single-DIMM DDR5 gaming works better than you probably think — one DDR5 DIMM beats dual-channel DDR4 RAM, AMD’s 3D V-Cache chips drop less than 3% with single stick
Single-DIMM DDR5 gaming works better than you probably think — one DDR5 DIMM beats dual-channel DDR4 RAM, AMD’s 3D V-Cache chips drop less than 3% with single stick

To avoid rising RAM costs, some PC builders and OEMs have shifted toward using a single DDR5 module for gaming PCs. We test how much of a performance loss that actually represents.

AMD’s new Radeon RX 9050 is roughly 30% slower than the RTX 5050 in games, early testing shows — the cheapest 8GB RDNA 4 GPU comfortably handles 1080p gaming but doesn’t impress

The RX 9050 is slower than the RTX 5050 in every conceivable way except when the latter is constrained in some way. It performs worse in synthetic benchmarks and games but has more efficient power consumption. At 4K, it’s about 42% slower, and at 1080p it’s about 31% slower on average across various titles.

MSI promises an EXPO ULL-like boost for your existing DDR5 memory — High-Efficiency Mode brings low-latency tuning to older RAM
MSI promises an EXPO ULL-like boost for your existing DDR5 memory — High-Efficiency Mode brings low-latency tuning to older RAM

A new firmware update for MSI motherboards features High-Efficiency Mode, which offers latency tuning similar to AMD’s EXPO ULL on regular memory kits.

Samsung’s fastest SSD is back to Prime Day pricing — only $30 difference between the much faster Gen 5 9100 Pro and Gen 4 990
Samsung’s fastest SSD is back to Prime Day pricing — only $30 difference between the much faster Gen 5 9100 Pro and Gen 4 990

Returning to Prime Day pricing, Samsung’s fastest SSD, the 9100 Pro 2TB, is just $10 more than the previous PCIe generation’s champion, the 2TB Samsung 990 Pro SSD.

Modder der8auer builds 110cm 3D-printed chimney to passively cool Ryzen 7 9800X3D without fans, cuts temps by 19C — radically simple PC mod uses the ‘stack effect’
Modder der8auer builds 110cm 3D-printed chimney to passively cool Ryzen 7 9800X3D without fans, cuts temps by 19C — radically simple PC mod uses the ‘stack effect’

What if instead of relying on mechanical pressure generated by fans, you could just passively cool your PC using natural convection? That’s what der8auer managed to pull off in his new experiment using the stack effect that targets a similar pressure differential but achieves it without any fans.

Nvidia’s fastest graphics cards get US price increase at Best Buy, Amazon — Astral RTX 5080 now costs more than 5090’s MSRP, flagship card now commands more than $4,300
Nvidia’s fastest graphics cards get US price increase at Best Buy, Amazon — Astral RTX 5080 now costs more than 5090’s MSRP, flagship card now commands more than $4,300

Premium Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 graphics cards are once again selling far above MSRP, with some Asus and MSI models climbing close to $5,000.

Examining the best options for PCIe SSDs during the RAMpocalypse — capacity trumps raw speed for most tasks

High SSD speeds are helpful in many applications, but should they trump the capacity of the SSD when it comes to gaming?