Moto’s chunky gamepad arrives August 25th

Motorola has announced the release date and price of its gamepad Moto Mod. On sale August 25th, the attachment costs $80 and is only available through Verizon.

The gamepad has dual control sticks, a D-pad, four physical action buttons and shoulder buttons. It also packs a 1035mAh battery that the company claims can give your phone up to eight hours of additional charge. Because it connects directly to the phone and not through Bluetooth, users shouldn’t experience any gaming lag and it’s compatible with the Moto Z line of phones including the Moto Z2 Force and Z2 Play. However, at approximately nine inches wide and an inch deep, it’s a little on the bulky side.

Motorola also just recently launched its $300 360-degree camera mod and is working on an Alexa mod. Other planned attachments include a battery extender, a charging adapter for mods and a wireless charging back.

The gamepad is available for preorder through Verizon now.

Via: The Verge

Source: Verizon

Car ownership could decline thanks to Uber and Lyft

While it may seem logical that people will own fewer cars as ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber gain more traction, there hasn’t been a way to study any potential effect. Then Uber and Lyft left Austin, Texas for about a year. A group of researchers from University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and Columbia University found that the presence of ride-sharing companies can change car ownership behavior, which could eventually lead to fewer personal cars in the future.

41 percent of those surveyed used their own cars to get around, while nine percent bought a car to cover Lyft and Uber’s absence. Only three percent took public transit while 42 percent of respondents went with local ride sharing companies that filled the gap while Lyft and Uber were gone. Austin residents didn’t rush to sell of their personal automobiles when the companies returned to the city, of course, but the study shows that personal car ownership could actually decrease as ride-sharing and autonomous vehicle usage increases.

Via: The Verge

Source: Reuters

Gnarbox turns your phone into a 4K video editing studio

It’s an overcast day in San Francisco, and there’s a drone buzzing high above the city. I’m with Tim Feess, the young co-founder of Gnarbox: a rugged portable video editing tool that pairs with an app on your phone and works with multiple cameras and memory cards. Clouds might be lingering over the skyline, but Feess is unperturbed. He’s confident that we can make a video of our afternoon that I’d not only be pleased with, but would find a cinch to create. He brings the drone down and we decide to find a more colorful spot to fly.

The promise is simple: a mobile video editing device that would handle video from multiple sources (DSLR/GoPro/drones etc) and offload all the hard work — like handling 4K video editing — from your phone, but keep the simplicity of an app. It was popular enough to earn Gnarbox over $500,000 (from nearly 3,000 backers) on Kickstarter. That was two years ago though, and mobile video editing has come a long way since. Perhaps the real question is whether that promise is still relevant in 2017?

In the past, video editing was something you consciously “did.” You opened a dedicated application, probably on your desktop, and got to work. Once you were done, you exported your project, closed the app, and sent your video wherever it was going (Vimeo, YouTube, to a client, physical media etc.). Now, there’s a generation for whom video editing is more about deciding what filter to use, and how many emojis to add to an Instagram story. The app this latter group are using is probably the same social network they are posting it to.

Gnarbox (yes, that name probably seemed a good idea at the time) helps both these groups achieve their goal. Inside the small, rugged black box is a mini PC with its own (1.9GHz, quad-core) processors, a dedicated GPU, 128GB storage, WiFi, two SD card slots (full-sized and micro) and three USB ports. There’s no display — just two feedback LEDs — but that’s where your phone comes in.

In the app, you’ll see every video currently on the Gnarbox, browsable by device (internal storage, memory card, USB drive and so on). All the video previews and edits you do on the phone are really happening on the Gnarbox — but it feels as if all the files are right there on your handset. Making edits is simple: just swipe down when you want to set a start point, repeat for the end point and then swipe up to send that “clip” to your reel. Repeat, add color adjustment and other effects, re-order to your liking, add music and export. You can now switch your phone off — the exporting and encoding also happens on the Gnarbox.

Feess hopes that the ability to handle 4K video and RAW images will entice pro users and that the app-based interface and ease of use will appeal to serious mobile/social video producers. At $299, the proposition definitely needs to have some sort of return, whether that’s a stunning snowboarding edit uploaded to a client right on the mountain, or a “how did they do that” cut live from back stage (in the influencer VIP, not real VIP area) at Coachella.

I’m neither on a mountain or at a huge music festival. By now we’re crossing the Golden Gate bridge, and I’m recording the traverse with my GoPro hanging out the car window. We briefly stop at a viewing point crowded with tourists, before heading to the only beach nearby that AirMap says we can launch the drone on. Essentially, we’re condensing what those Golden Gate happy-snappers might do over a few days into an afternoon.

The rugged coastline of the northern peninsula makes for some dramatic shots and a good contrast to the brick-and-mortar maze of the San Francisco skyline. With all our shots in the bag, Feess wants me to make an edit, without him guiding me. He goes to put some kit back in the car, while I sit on a bench and tinker with the app.

Gnarbox has about seven staff right now, but to look at the app you’d think the team was bigger. It’s not quite as polished as iMovie on iOS (which edits 4K, but not easily from multiple sources), nor does it quite have the flow of something like GoPro’s Quik. But the guts are there, and Gnarbox is improving the app almost weekly.

Sometimes I go to drag a clip with my finger and it sticks where it is, or I tap “back” and end up somewhere I wasn’t expecting. But accomplishing my edit isn’t hard, and the video I end up with isn’t bad for 10 minutes and no real agenda in mind. (you can see it below).

One thing I do notice is that my (already not great) phone’s battery is slipping away faster than normal. A common problem with WiFi-based accessories. The Gnarbox also gets a little warm to touch. Feess assures me this is how you know it’s working, and that the heatsink is right under the housing; it’s never too hot. There’s also a slight hiccup at the end while we try and export the video from the box to my phone. This takes a few attempts, but we eventually get it to work. I’m on Android, and perhaps my phone is too full. After I delete some files, the transfer goes ahead.

It’s one thing that a product works, but it’s another that it solves a real problem that people have. I can see how this would be useful for certain pro video producers. Those that find themselves out in the field and don’t want to bust out a laptop. I can also see that less demanding users might appreciate the ability to work fast with their files. It does double-duty as a hard back up for one. Skaters that shoot in 4K, but want an edit for sharing right away, for example, have everything they need here.

Then there’s me. I have drones and a few GoPros. I take them out often, and then, well, usually nothing happens after that. The files sit on the memory card until once every few months I have a spurt of creative motivation and at least get as far as transferring them to my PC. I can easily see how a Gnarbox would go some way to dissolving that invisible wall between my camera and my hard drive. A problem GoPro, in particular, has been trying to solve for a long time — culminating in QuikStories and its auto editing feature. GoPro’s going after the most casual user though; Gnarbox is hoping to lure in heavier users.

In the few weeks since Gnarbox has been on the shelves, the user experience has improved dramatically. The number of firmware updates since that launch suggests that Gnarbox is following the Valley habit of shipping something that works now, and build on it from there. It’s a risky strategy, but with smaller companies like Feess’, it’s easier to be nimble.

The very first time I used Gnarbox (immediately after launch a month or so ago) I hit one roadblock and quietly put it back in a drawer. After today, I can see this being something I reach for every time I head out with a camera. Even more so once key features, like using videos recorded with your phone, are added (you can do it right now, but it’s a workaround).

For me, though, the best feature of products like this is the inspiration it stirs. Between my GoPro, phone and drone I have enough lightweight gear to record vacations and day trips in ways not imaginable just a few years ago, but I rarely get that far. While adding another $299 piece of kit to that might mean more outlay, and one more thing to charge, if it results in me actually doing something with those videos — and it really feels like it might — then that spend suddenly seems like a pretty decent investment.

Source: Gnarbox

Netflix takes on JFK in ‘The Crown’ season two December 8th

Netflix has announced the premiere date for season two of The Crown — December 8th — and has released the season’s first trailer. The season begins with the British army fighting an illegal war in Egypt and ends with a scandal that takes down Queen Elizabeth II’s third prime minister.

This will be Claire Foy’s last season playing the queen as the series plans to use different actors throughout the six-decade storyline that it aims to cover. Michael C. Hall and Jodi Balfour are new faces this time around, depicting John F. Kennedy and wife Jackie. Matthew Goode is also a new addition and he plays Princess Margaret’s husband Antony Armstrong-Jones, aka Lord Snowdon.

The first season of The Crown won two Golden Globes and two SAG awards and has been nominated for 13 Emmys including outstanding cast, outstanding drama series and lead actress in a drama series.

You can check out the season two trailer below.

Source: Hollywood Reporter, Netflix

‘Are Aligned’ turns VR into a party game anyone can enjoy

There’s no doubt that VR can be an isolating experience. When you’ve got a headset and headphones on, you’re effectively blocked out from the world. That’s something developer Danny Dang wants to fix with Are Aligned, a virtual reality party game he developed during Viacom Next’s Music + VR Fellowship. He’s hoping to recapture the magic of a party mainstay like Twister by merging together VR with a game anyone can hop into on a whim.

The concept is simple: One player wears an HTC Vive, while up to four others hold plastic balls in different colors (which contain small Vive Tracker accessories). The person in the Vive, who can see where all of those players are in VR, then has to direct everyone to place their toy balls in specific locations, represented by large floating orbs in virtual space. As you can imagine, hilarity ensues.

Like any great party game, Are Aligned is all about communication. The VR wearer has to be incredibly clear about where everyone needs to go; just pointing people to a specific spot isn’t enough. Meanwhile, the players have to pay attention to all of the instructions, hold their toys in place, and avoid colliding with each other. It never gets to a point where you have to balance your limbs precariously, like Twister, but there is plenty of running around, especially when the key location ends up in an odd spot, like along a floor.

Are Aligned shares something else with beloved party games: It’s incredibly easy to pick up. It takes a few minutes to get the hang of things when you’re the VR lead, but for everyone else, it’s just a matter of holding their toy balls and following instructions. I saw several groups run through the game while having a blast during Viacom’s demo day, with little downtime to learn the ropes.

During my own play-through, I was struck by just how polished the game was. Its graphics were simplistic, but clear enough for me to understand what I needed to do while wearing the VR headset. It also handled motion tracking very well; it’s a great example of the unique experiences developers can build with HTC’s Vive Tracker. On the non-VR side, I thought it was clever how the plastic ball mould housed the tracker. It feels like a toy, not a piece of high-tech equipment, which is key to getting players comfortable with the game.

As he was developing the game, Dang says he learned to kill his darlings. “Don’t settle for the first working version,” he said during his demo presentation. “Keep pushing until it breaks, then bring it back.” The game’s polish came from plenty of experimenting. Originally, he had the non-VR players where wrist straps that held the Vive Trackers, but he quickly realized that was a bit cumbersome. It made more sense to make the trackers more toy-like and approachable.

Looking ahead, Dang doesn’t have any plans to release the game publicly. The game’s audience is fairly small at the moment, since you’d need a Vive and several trackers to experience it. As it is, Are Aligned is an intriguing demo that shows off the potential for multiplayer VR to move out of headsets.

Snap is still struggling to add new users

Snap Inc just dropped its second-ever quarterly earnings report, and the picture is as bleak as expected. The young company continues to struggle to grow its pool of users, despite adding new features in the past few months like the Snap Map and launching its stable of original shows. Its revenue for the year is about $181 million, but overall it reported losses of about $193 million after taxes.

Just like it did last quarter, Snap added a measly percentage of new daily active users (DAU) — just 4 percent (or 7 million new users) this period compared to 5 percent (8 million new users) the first quarter of the year. Its total DAU now stands at 173 million, which is still a far cry from Instagram Stories’ 200 million users as of April this year.

It’s likely that Snapchat is seeing growth slow because of the aggressive copying of its features from rivals Instagram and Facebook. But a recent acquisition could prevent future ripoffs. Snap’s earnings call is happening in just 20 minutes, and we will update this post once we hear more about its plans for the rest of the year.

Source: Snap

It’s saliva! A new ultra-thin battery is powered by spit

Why it matters to you

This unique battery tech could be useful in places where on-demand power is hard to find.

Having your smartphone run out of battery power at a crucial moment can make you mad enough to spit. Fortunately, new research coming out of Binghamton University, State University of New York suggests that could one day be the perfect solution. That’s because members of the electrical and computer science department have developed the next step in microbial fuel cells (MFCs): a paper-like battery that’s activated by saliva.

“[We have developed] a disposable, easy-to-use, and portable biobattery that can generate power from bacterial metabolism,” Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi told Digital Trends. “This battery is ready to operate with human body fluids like saliva for on-demand power generation for other disposable low-power applications, such as biosensors. The battery includes specialized bacterial cells called exoelectrogens, which have the ability to harvest electrons externally to the outside electrode. For long-term storage, the bacterial cells are freeze-dried until use. This battery can be used even in challenging environmental conditions like desert areas. All you need is an organic matter — such as saliva — to rehydrate and activate the freeze-dried cells.”

As it turns out, this isn’t the first time we’ve written about the use of saliva in tech. Previously we’ve discussed smart mouthguards and even smartphone apps that are designed to monitor health and diagnose infections through small saliva samples. However, this is the first time we’ve written about saliva-powered batteries.

Binghamton University

While we hope to never live in a world in which our fellow commuters start the day frantically spitting (or worse) onto their iPhones to charge them up, as Choi points out, this technology could be extremely useful in certain extreme settings.

Right now, the bacterial electricity produced isn’t close to enough to power a phone. Testing of the device by the team demonstrated that it can achieve a power density of several microwatts per square centimeter, meaning that it can currently power an LED light using a single drop of spit. That means the technology is more likely to find use in powering low-energy disposable diagnostic devices in developing countries. But that’s not to say the tech won’t expand in the future.

“We are improving the power to have more applications,” Choi said. “Folding or stacking paper batteries will connect them in series or parallel for further power enhancement.” This could allow the researchers to expand the power of the batteries from a few microwatts into hundreds, or conceivably more.

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies.

Watch out, Skype! We tried Discord’s new video chat, and it’s awesome

In Redmond, Washington, a banshee was heard keening in the night. This morning, a somber quiet fell upon the Skype offices in Luxembourg. A chill wind rises, and grim tidings are on the lips of videoconferencing companies the world over. Discord’s video chat functionality is here, and it’s fantastic.

Clad in glimmering armor, violet banners snapping in the wind, the Discord development team gathers. They come bearing video chat and screen sharing, two features which will be rolling out to 5 percent of registered Discord users today, with that pool expanding in the coming months. We sat down for a hands-on demo of new Discord features which could — as prophecy has foretold — put an end to Skype’s reign of terror.

Witness me

What sets Discord apart from the competition is its emphasis on real-world use.

Okay, maybe we’re being dramatic. But who likes using Skype or Zoom? Nobody, that’s who. Not because there’s anything wrong with the branding, or the companies behind them. It’s just that neither app provides a good user experience, and both apps are at times reluctant to facilitate video conferencing — their sole purpose in this world.

Discord aims to change all of that with a pair of new features, video chat and screen sharing. What sets Discord apart from the competition here is its emphasis on real-world usability.

First up, video chat. All you do to get started is create a group direct message, and click the video icon. That’s it. Everyone in the chat will see the video, and currently up to ten users can video chat at once — but Discord CTO Stansislav Vishnevskiy warns quality will take a hit after the first five users.

Limiting the number of callers is a necessity at this point, in part because of the way Discord handles video chat. It puts a priority on security.

“Rather than go with peer-to-peer connections, which are easier to implement, Discord will continue using its client-server functionality,” the Discord team explained, “That way, users stay secure.”

The Discord team has done the impossible: They’ve made a video chat app that offers a seamless user experience.

By using a client-server architecture, you’ll connect to the server to communicate, rather than connecting directly to everyone else, which can sometimes compromise security or privacy. A client-server setup prevents that, with Discord’s servers acting as the intermediary.

The same is true for the other big feature in today’s Discord update — screen-sharing.

Anyone can now video chat with one another, and they’ll be able to stream their gameplay to small groups of friends.

It’s not unlike Steam’s screen-sharing functionality. During our hands-on it was quick, crisp, and very easy to setup — which sets it apart from Steam’s often-temperamental broadcasting feature. You can even switch to screen-sharing during an existing video chat, to show friends what you’re currently playing.

“Basically, the source can come from your webcam or your screen, and you can flip between them seamlessly during a call,” said the Discord team.

Discord the Conqueror

If you’ve ever tried to set up a video call in Skype, Facetime, Zoom, or any of the other video chat apps and services out there, you’re well aware of what a pain it can be. Adding participants can mean having to quit and re-start the video call, and you may have to send around a long conference call code to make sure everyone can connect. Then, once connected, reliability is an issue. It’s not great.

People will migrate to the best service, and that’s now Discord

Discord’s thinks it has the superior option, but knows there’s a lot of technical hurdles that make video conferencing a difficult feature to handle.

“Compared to voice data, video data is a behemoth, and transmitting it across the intertubes takes way more bandwidth,” the Discord team said,

“We’re doing this test to see how our servers handle the increase in bandwidth — we want to iron as much as we can before launching to everybody. We’re suckers for quality and want to make sure we end up launching the most polished experience we can.”

The Cwn Annwn howl for Skype

Simplicity is the real accomplishment here. There’s an elegance to Discord’s solution we haven’t seen elsewhere, and that’s the component that has been missing from other video chat and teleconferencing solutions.

Just getting a three-way video call up and running with an app like Skype, Facetime, or Zoom can be an exercise in frustration. Getting it right on the first go is a small miracle. Discord eliminates that uncertainty by streamlining the whole process.

Just click. That’s it. Discord changed the game for voice chat apps by offering a single-click solution, and it’s that design philosophy which makes the new video chat functionality stand apart from the rest. You don’t need to create a separate contact list, or juggle a bunch of separate apps and web services. You just fire up Discord, use your existing contact list, and drop into a call. It’s that simplicity that made Discord easy to recommend on our list of the best chat apps.

That’s the simple reason why Skype, Zoom, and others should be worried. Discord’s solution is better. Full stop. People will almost always migrate to the app with the best service — and as of today, that’s Discord.

Want to drive for Uber or Lyft but need a car? Rent one from GM’s Maven Gig

Why it matters to you

Need a car for just a week or so? Rent it through Maven Gig, the car-rental service, which caters to the gig economy.

Want to drive for Uber or Lyft but don’t have a car to call your own? Maven Gig wants to help.

The weekly car-rental service from GM is looking to supply the vehicles for the 21st-century gig economy, in which an increasing number of workers are making a living not at a desk, but rather on the move. Beginning Thursday, freelance drivers — those who drive for ridesharing services or deliver goods for companies like Postmates or GrubHub — will have access to Maven Gig vehicles throughout Los Angeles. Reservations for these cars can be made through the Maven app, which provides potential renters with such information as vehicle availability, pricing, and location. Pickup date and time can also be scheduled through the app.

“Freelancers want freedom and flexibility, and Maven Gig provides both,” GM said in its announcement. The car-rental service allows renters to rent cars when they need them, without the hassle of a long-term lease. So if you only need a car for a week, that’s just fine. The flat weekly fee covers insurance (minus the deductible), unlimited miles, and regular maintenance — all you need to pay for is gas. Prices start at $189 a week plus tax.

The most popular car in the Maven Gig program is the slightly more expensive Chevy Bolt EV, which comes in at $229 plus tax. More than 100 of these electric cars are currently available in LA, and that number is expected to double by the end of 2017. GM claims Maven Gig Bolt EVs have driven 1.4 million all-electric miles in California since February, saving an estimated 50,000 gallons of gas in the process. So not only is this good for the gig economy, but it’s good for the planet, too.

L.A. is the first new launch city for the rental service. Maven Gig will be made available in Boston, Phoenix, Baltimore, and Detroit, and Washington, D.C., in the coming months as well.

“We are committed to bringing Bolt EVs to all Maven Gig markets. Drivers want the Bolt EV because of cost savings, as well as helping with energy and environmental goals,” said Rachel Bhattacharya, chief Growth Officer for Maven. “The freelance economy is growing, and Maven Gig is growing along with it to provide transportation solutions for freelance drivers.”

AMD vs Intel: Does Threadripper mean it’s time to root for the underdog?

When you decide to build a PC for the first time, or the first time in a long time, you are embarking on an epic journey into the unknown. There are hundreds, even thousands, of different components to choose from, but the first and most important question you should ask yourself is a simple one: AMD or Intel?

Yes,  like Apple vs Microsoft or Quake vs Unreal Tournament, AMD vs Intel is one of the great debates for PC users. One of these two companies, these two purveyors of finely-wafered silicon, will produce the beating heart of your new PC. Intel and AMD are just as different from one another as the products they produce, however, so let’s dig into the details to find out which one would be the best choice for your new PC.

Intel vs AMD: Value

With cost being such a major factor in PC building, choosing the right CPU often comes down to finding the one that offers the best bang for your buck. Just looking at price, AMD’s chips are generally cheaper than comparable Intel chips. Low-end, dual-core AMD Sempron, Athlon, or A-series dual-core processors start at about $30. In comparison, a low-end Intel chip, like the G3930 dual-core processor will cost around $40.

You’ll find similar pricing as you climb the performance ladder, with Intel’s offerings almost always coming in a little higher than AMD’s.

This is the typical scenario that most PC enthusiasts have been used to for the better part of a decade, but AMD’s new Ryzen CPUs shook up that formula when they debuted early in 2017. At the top of the consumer-focused end of AMD’s spectrum, the new Ryzen 7 1800X stands out. It’s an eight-core behemoth with a turbo-clock of 4.0 GHz, and even for $460, it’s among the least expensive eight-core processors on the market today. The Ryzen 7 1700 is even more affordable, at $300. In comparison, Intel’s most affordable octo-core costs $600.

Although not aimed at most consumers, new Intel Core i9 and AMD Threadripper CPUs offer even more performance and continue to shake up the traditional bang for buck dynamic of the processor market. Intel’s currently available i9-7900X offers 10 cores, with 20 threads, and a boosted core clock that maxes out at 4.3GHz. Its price tag is set at $1,000.

In comparison, AMD’s previewed Threadripper 1950X has 16 cores with 32 threads and a boosted core clock that reaches 4.2GHz with extended frequency range (XFR) overclocking. Its price is also $1,000. More cores at the same price gives AMD the edge in most scenarios.

What does all that mean for you? In short, it means that the age old Intel vs AMD contest is much more competitive than it’s been in years and offers much more choice for the consumer. Both companies are producing processors that are within striking distance of one another on nearly every front — price, power, and performance. Intel chips tend to offer better performance per core, but AMD is compensating with more cores at a given price.

Intel vs AMD: Gaming

Gaming is one area where picking a CPU can get tricky. AMD offers many processors which are sold as APUs, which means they combine the processor with Radeon graphics on the same chip. These offer excellent value for low-end gaming. Intel also has on-die integrated graphics, but its performance isn’t up to par with AMD’s Radeon video cards in that respect.

That said, those who take their gaming seriously don’t tend to use on integrated graphics, they use an add-in graphics card. In those scenarios, Intel tends to win out in gaming performance because of the way the two chip giants build their processors. AMD’s chips, and specifically its latest Ryzen CPUs, are excellent at multi-threaded scenarios and good at running applications that support multiple cores. Intel’s chips almost offer the reverse of that, losing out in heavy multi-threaded settings, but excelling in more restricted thread settings.

Games, although much more multi-threaded today than they were in the past, still rarely use more than two to four threads, which typically gives Intel the edge — even with Ryzen’s optimizations.

That gap is less pronounced than it used to be thanks to improvements in the new Ryzen architecture though. We saw a net loss of about 10 FPS when running Civilization VI‘s internal benchmark on the Ryzen 7 1800X, compared to the i7-7700K. The gap narrowed when running a more graphically-demanding game like For Honor, with the Ryzen CPU providing an average of 109 FPS, while the Intel Core i7 averaged 110 FPS.

As for Threadripper and Core i9 — there, too, Intel has a small edge. With that said, we wouldn’t recommend either for a gaming system. Games don’t benefit from the extremely high core counts in these processors.

Ultimately, Intel chips tend to be better for gaming of today. That doesn’t mean you should count AMD out, though. It does have processors that can be a great gaming value. The Ryzen 5 chips stand out, in particular. Check out our Ryzen processor buying guide for details, including benchmarks.

Remember, though — the CPU is rarely the limiting factor in games. Springing out for a more powerful graphics card — if you can find one at a good price — will usually yield better results than doing so for a more powerful processor.

Intel vs AMD: Overclocking

One of the first figures you might look at to compare one processor to another is its clock speed — 2.7GHz, 4.5GHz, etc. It’s a good metric to compare processors, but it’s important to keep in mind it’s not a fixed figure. Boost clocks offer temporary performance gains under specific scenarios, but if you delve into the realm of manual ‘overclocking’ you can net yourself a nice bump in performance, too.

Overclocking a processor is straightforward, depending on your chosen method, but not every processor can do it. Most CPUs ship with “locked” multipliers, which prevent users from overclocking them.

Luckily, both Intel and AMD offer unlocked CPUs at a variety of price points. If you opt for an Intel CPU, look out for those with a “K” or “X” after their name. In comparison, all of AMD’s Ryzen chips support it — though not all have full support for the automated overclocking, XFR feature.

Overclocking, in general, is very much dependent on the chips themselves . In our tests, the Ryzen 7 1800X performed well after an overclock, but we weren’t able to squeeze too much extra power out of AMD’s octo-core processor. The more mid-range 1700 and 1700X chips, however, are said to be much better overclockers.

Intel’s latest generation chips that do allow overclocking are a little more even in their potential, though their maximum is very much down to luck, as some chips can go further than others. You’ll also need decent cooling for most overclocking scenarios.

If you’re buying a chip exclusively to overclock it, then Intel’s higher-end solutions have a more established overclocking scene. Ryzen and Threadripper chips have strong potential too, though, and with a host of new memory options, may be more suited for those looking to deep dive into pushing their chip to its maximum. And you can overclock affordable AMD chips, while most affordable Intel chips don’t offer that option.

AMD vs Intel: Who wins?

During an everyday workload, a top-end AMD chip and a top-end Intel chip won’t produce radically different outcomes. There are clear distinctions in specific scenarios and benchmarks, but the CPU isn’t the keystone of PC performance that it once was.

That said, AMD’s CPUs, especially at the mid-range and lower-end of the spectrum, do tend to offer slightly better value than Intel’s. Conversely, Intel chips have stronger single core and gaming performance than even AMD’s best Threadripper CPUs. In return, those looking to use applications with a heavier multi-threaded focus, should derive more benefit from a modern AMD CPU.

When it comes to choosing your next upgrade, looking at the individual performance numbers of the chip you have your eye on is still your best bet, but considering these general guidelines will give you a good foundation of where to start. Thanks to Ryzen’s leapfrogging of previous AMD chips in terms of power and value, this is the most competitive the CPU market has been in years.

Arguably, Intel is still the safe bet, especially for gamers, but AMD’s alternatives are more viable than ever. If you’ve got deep pockets too, its Threadripper chips are incredibly powerful, so keep your eyes peeled on upcoming benchmarks.

AMD’s older FX and A-Series chips, meanwhile, are not competitive with Intel, and at this point never will be. So if you’re looking to older generations of hardware for whatever reason, our Intel recommendation is far more firm.