cpu

Daphne is a simple utility that makes it easier to manage your system's processes. Though it successfully let us kill and debug our processes, we found its Help file less than helpful.

You can access the program's features in two ways--right-clicking on the taskbar icon or through the main user interface. The main user interface is suitably plain, making it easy to navigate. The Settings menu lets you customize the display and configure the kill menu. There is also a feature for enabling the multidesktop feature, an uncommon feature that we liked. From the interface, you can view … Read more

Intel is back, pitching its processors for gaming graphics.

The chipmaker will attempt to promote its silicon for sophisticated game effects at the upcoming Game Developers Conference in March, as it strives to make a case for quad-core processors in lieu of graphics chips from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

The pitch goes like this: "Learn how to easily add real-time 3D smoke, fog and other fluid simulations to your game without using up the GPU." That's according to an Intel Web page entitled Intel at Game Developers Conference. (The CPU is the central processing unit, or … Read more

Many optimizer packages offer a mishmash of tools seemingly tossed in a box, but this well-designed, easy-to-use optimizer will satisfy nearly any novice user's system management needs. However, although the developer's description says the free download version has no limitations, some features were disabled in our tests.

Magic Memory Optimizer launches an attractive interface that's simple to comprehend and navigate. The initial launch window displays current usage for Memory, CPU, Physical Memory, along with some settings you can configure to tweak general memory management.

This utility worked fine in our tests, although we were disappointed that the … Read more

TechTool launches a small black-and-white interface with a few buttons; its compactness reflects the utility's small feature set. It scans your system and outputs a log of its findings: basic stuff, such as motherboard and BIOS info, chip manufacturer and model and speed, system manufacturer, operating system, and so forth. All this info is already accessible from your system, so TechTool's features are redundant, but may be handy for some novice users.

TechTool performed quickly in our tests, but we had some issues. First, its output stated at the top of its report, "This user does NOT … Read more

Developers are getting smarter by making their applications more appealing through improved interface design. But good looks don't necessarily mean good performance. But in the case of this toolbox, a professional-looking interface is nicely combined with ease of use and quick performance.

Memory Improve Professional launches a nicely designed interface that's easy to comprehend and simple to navigate. The dial-based gauge displays a quick-to-grasp visual of your system's memory use.

This app's tools performed nicely in our tests. We liked that the settings for configuring this utility's performance were on the launch window, so we … Read more

This free utility brings all of your system's information under one roof for quick and easy access. For all the information that it holds, we were impressed with how easy it was to navigate.

System Spec opens with a well-designed user interface. Menu options and command buttons run across the top of the window, and your PC's information resides in the window below and in separate windows that appear when you click a command button. Initially, we found the windows a little difficult to resize because they ran off the screen, but eventually, we got them situated. All … Read more

When Apple converted to Intel in 2005 that was big. But 2008 Intel Atom converts make this look like a small-town baptism.

Overall, it was a good year for the Intel faithful despite the Wall Street financial crisis. Intel handily beat Advanced Micro Devices in the PC processor performance war. (Not coincidentally, AMD was forced to spin off its manufacturing operations to save itself.) But that really was last year's news since AMD had not been delivering competitive processors for almost two years.

The tectonic shift in 2008 came as one PC maker after another adopted Intel's new … Read more

On Tuesday, an industry consortium ratified the OpenCL 1.0 specification, a standard that started as an Apple proposal but has gained many supporters, including graphics chip companies Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

OpenCL, or Open Computing Language, is essentially an open industry standard for 3D graphics and computer audio and is meant to extend the capabilities of the graphics processing unit (GPU).

Not surprisingly, graphics chip companies have been quick to pick it up, including Nvidia and AMD's ATI graphics unit, which both made separate announcements Tuesday, along with the broader announcement from The Khronos Group consortium.

OpenCL … Read more

SpeedFan isn't overly complicated, but if you don't understand the information it offers, I strongly recommend you research it before proceeding. If you do know the difference between your Vcore and Vsb, it presents some useful system details. SpeedFan's tabbed interface isn't hard to navigate, but let's face it: most users won't be able to make head or tail of the data this utility provides. The program's system-tray icon tells you the temperature of your PC's hard drive, and you can receive information on voltage and fan speeds.

The utility can display … Read more