How to overclock your GPU

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Although upgrading to a brand new graphics card is arguably the best way to improve your PC’s 3D rendering ability, you can eke out a little more performance from your existing card with overclocking. Much like a CPU, a graphics card contains chips that with the right tweaks can work harder and faster. That can mean better benchmark results and higher frames per second in your favorite games.

Although still a little intimidating and certainly not friendly to your graphics card’s temperatures, learning how to overclock your GPU is easier today than it’s ever been. You just need the right tools, the right steps, and plenty of patience.

A word of warning

Overclocking anything, be it your CPU, graphics card, or memory, has inherent risks. They are relatively low, but they are important to consider so that you’re well informed before starting. Overclocking anything involves the process of forcing it to perform at a faster rate than it was manufactured to do so. That means you are pushing it harder and by working faster, it will get hotter and it may become less stable. That could result in crashes in the short term and over the long term, could reduce the lifespan of your particular hardware.

There’s a chance that overclocking your hardware may void your warranty too. Many manufacturers allow it, as graphics cards will throttle up and down during general usage anyhow. However, serious tweaks like playing with voltages or flashing your graphics card’s BIOS are more likely to impact any warranty you have. The best bet is to double check with your manufacturer whether what you’re doing affects the warranty before beginning.

Although we will do our best to guide you along the path to a faster, more powerful graphics card, Digital Trends accepts no liability for any problems you run into with your hardware along the way.

Overclocking a graphics card is also only recommended for desktop PC users. Although in some cases you can overclock laptop GPUs — including Intel HD chips — it’s not usually recommended due to temperature concerns.

Step 1: Get ready

Before you can actually get started overclocking your GPU, you need to get everything ready. The first step, if you don’t know already, is figuring out which graphics card you have. To do so, you can take a look at the card itself, or the packaging if you still have it. If that doesn’t work, right-click your desktop and click either the Nvidia or AMD graphics settings link, followed by “My Rig” or “System,” respectively.

If you’d rather use a manufacturer agnostic solution, GPUZ can tell you everything you need to know about your graphics card.

Once you know exactly which graphics card you’re running, you should update to the latest graphics drivers. You can find those on Nvidia and AMD’s websites. Upgrading them will likely require a reboot, so make sure to come back to this guide when you’re done, or read on before continuing.

Before starting the overclocking proper, you’ll also want to download some useful tools to help you along. First, you’ll want to download the overclocking tool we’re going to be using for this guide: MSI Afterburner. Although AMD has its own Wattman alternative and there are several other popular third-party tools, Afterburner works for just about every graphics card and offers a full suite of features.

You’re also going to need a benchmark to test the stability of your new graphics card. A proven, lightweight benchmark is Unigine’s Valley. We also like Furmark for its built in temperature readout, but it’s more of a synthetic test. If you have any games with built in benchmarks you may want to have those installed and to hand, so that you can see what effect your new overclocks have on performance.

If you haven’t cleaned your PC in a long time, this is also a good time to do so, as any extra dust in your system can heavily contribute to GPU temperature spikes during overclocking. It’s not a mandatory step but is certainly advisable before you get started.

Step 2: Establish baselines

The next step in your overclocking journey is establishing baselines. You want to know your system’s standard clock speeds (for both the core and memory), as well as its standard operating temperatures (both idle and load) and its standard performance.

To find out those figures, close down any applications that are already running and startup MSI Afterburner. Although you can customize the look of Afterburner to how you see fit, to make sure we’re all on the same page about the location of different elements, locate the cog “Settings” button and click it. Use the top-tab navigation arrows and select “User Interface.” Then in the “User interface skinning properties” heading, use the drop down to select “Default MSI Afterburner v3 skin,” and click “OK.”

If you need to, use the temperature settings to convert readouts to Celsius or Fahrenheit depending on your preference.

The graphs on the right-hand side will tell you most of what you need to know at this point. The top one is for your graphics card’s core temperature. It can run anywhere up to 176 degrees Fahrenheit without much difficulty, but anything beyond that gets dangerous for your hardware and can result in crashes or even damage, so it’s important to be aware of your GPU’s temperature at all times during overclocking and subsequent testing.

The other figures to be aware of are core clock and memory clock. Those are the figures that we’re going to be tweaking during overclocking. The “Min” numbers on those graphs are the idling speeds, while the “Max,” figures are the ones that your graphics card will typically use when it’s working hard at rendering a game or benchmark. That’s what we want to raise to improve performance.

The final number(s) to find out before we start overclocking for real, is an idea of your graphics card’s performance. Run the Valley benchmark you downloaded earlier using the “Extreme HD” preset, or with everything at maximum quality, fullscreen, and at “System” resolution.

Note: Press “F9” during the demo to begin the benchmark.

If you want to note down some additional performance numbers before beginning, you may also want to run Futuremark’s 3Dmark, or any modern game with its own built-in benchmarking utility, like Shadow of Mordor or Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Step 3: Slow and steady

Overclocking might be easier today than ever before, but that doesn’t mean you should rush into it headfirst. Overclocking is most successful when you take your time and take precautions along the way. Make sure that during your baseline benchmarking that Afterburner’s temperature graph doesn’t show any dangerous peaks. Anything over 176 degrees Fahrenheit would suggest your cooling isn’t strong enough for overclocking.

Also make sure that in the Afterburner window the “Apply overclocking as system startup,” box isn’t ticked. That forces your newly designated clock speeds to startup with Windows and you don’t want that until you have found a stable overclock.

If you have some temperature headroom, start up the Valley stress testing application again, but this time run it in “Windowed” mode. In the Afterburner window, raise the power limit to its maximum percentage — that lets your GPU draw as much power as it needs for the settings you put into it and avoids any automated throttling. It will not affect the voltage put through your chips.

Make sure Valley is running and return to the Afterburner window. Using either the slider or by typing in the number yourself, raise your clock speed by 10MHz. Once that’s done, reopen the Valley window and watch for any visual “artifacts.” These are visual signs that your graphics chip is working too hard and can manifest as tiny blocks of miscolored pixels, or large shard-like bands of color. If you don’t see any of those after a minute or two, return to the Afterburner window and repeat the process.

Repeat that time and again until you see artifacts, or until Valley itself crashes. If you push things too far, you may see a black screen as your graphics driver crashes or your entire system reboots. Don’t fret, you just went too far. Dial things back a couple of steps (20Mhz or so) and run Valley again. This time let it run through a couple of loops. If everything is stable you’ve found a safe maximum for your GPU.

Once you have found the limit for your core, note down that value, reset the clock to its default and perform the same process on the memory clock. This time you’re looking for artifacts that represent as solid blocks or blobs of color. Again, once you’ve reached the limit, roll back a couple of steps and perform a longer stability test. Once you’ve found your limit, note it down and reset everything.

Step 4: Bring it all together

Now that you have your individual maximums for both core and memory clocks, it’s time to combine them. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to use the full maximum overclock for both at the same time, as both put additional stress on your graphics card, but it’s possible. Your best bet is to start at the bottom again though and raise both values together. Know what the maximum is and be ready for artifacts and crashes as you approach it. As before, once you find the limit, roll back a step or two and perform longer stability tests. You can then raise one or the other individually if you like, to see if either, in particular, was the cause of the stability issue.

Once you have your stable dual-maximum overclock for both core and memory, it’s time to perform some real stability testing. Let the Valley test run through several times in a row, play some games for a few hours — and keep a keen eye out for problems. If you encounter any, scale back the clocks a single step and start again.

Although this process can seem arduous, it’s the final big step in making sure your system can run at these clocks all day, everyday. Once you’ve found it, you can — if you like — use Afterburner to trigger these settings every time your PC boots up.

You now have a permanent GPU overclock. To find out how much of an improvement you’ve made, run all of your gaming benchmarks again and see what your new scores are compared to the old ones.

Hopefully, that boost should keep you gaming at your favorite resolution and detail settings for longer. At least until the GPU prices come down.

What about voltage?

One of the ways in which you can increase stability and viability of some core clocks is by increasing the voltage pushed through the chip, otherwise known as Core Voltage and abbreviated in Afterburner as “mV.” Increasing voltages is disabled in Afterburner by default as it has a much greater impact on your system than other settings. Increasing voltages can reduce the lifespan of your graphics card and even damage it irreparably if used irresponsibly. It can also lead to a large increase in the amount of power your graphics card draws, reducing the card — and by extension, your system’s — efficiency.

Although Afterburner has its own limits that are unlikely to allow you to stress your card too much, because every card is different, if you want to try out mV adjustment, do a quick Google search for your particular card to find a safe limit. You can enable voltage adjustments in the Afterburner settings menu.

With that said, use it much the same way you would frequency adjustments. Raise it in small amounts to see if it allows for a more stable overclock — or increased clocks. Watch your temperatures closely and if you encounter any problems, scale it back. Make sure to test for stability as you did with all previous changes.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best graphics cards
• How much RAM do you need? It’s probably less than you think
• Gaming without a GPU has never been easier, here’s how we did it
• Nvidia’s latest software update helps protect your system from ‘Spectre’
• AMD vs. Intel: How does tech’s oldest rivalry look in 2018?

Tooth-mounted sensors track your diet and health from inside your mouth

SilkLab, Tufts University
SilkLab, Tufts University

High-tech wearables are everywhere, from our wrists to our pets to our … mouths?

Engineers at Tufts University have created tiny sensors that attach to teeth. It’s not a fashion statement, though it could very well someday become one. Instead, the wireless sensors are designed to monitor health and dietary habits, relaying data about sugar, salt, and alcohol intake to a wearer’s mobile device. It’s like a little nutritionist in your mouth that keeps tabs on every time you cheat on your diet.

If the eyes are windows to the soul, the mouth is a doorway to our health. The food that passes through it has a direct effect on our overall health, and a bunch of biomarkers can be picked up from our spit. With their tooth-mounted biosensor, the Tufts team aims to take measurements from inside the mouth, recording what’s been eaten and how the body has responded.

To do so, they sandwiched biosensors between layers of gold, which act like a little antenna, collecting and relaying physiological data.

“I think the best way to think about it is a little Ziploc bag,” Fiorenzo Omenetto, a Tufts engineer who led the research, told Digital Trends. “Each side of the bag has an antenna and inside the bag there is a “sensitive element.’” These sensitive elements can respond to things like pH and glucose, transmitting measurements either wirelessly, through radio frequencies, or physically, for example by changing color and shape. “Calibrating all of these responses and changing material combinations allows for detection of what is happening in the oral cavity, for example, or on the surface of teeth,” Omenetto said.

In a paper published last week in the journal Advanced Materials, the researchers discuss how the tooth-mounted wearable could be used for both medical and lifestyle purposes, helping both patients and people who just want  to live healthier.

“While we are aware about what we ingest, we may indulge or deal with overeating pathologies,” Omenetto said. “On the other hand, sampling and monitoring analytes in the oral cavity could help in a number of ways, from monitoring dental health to monitoring physiological states, such as fatigue, through saliva sampling. Obviously, the latter applications require device refinements in terms of sensitivity and specificity to the analytes of interest.”

The device is less obtrusive than previous in-mouth wearables, but it’s still far from discreet, thanks to gold outer layers that give wearers the look of a cyberpunk pirate. Omenetto admits he and his team didn’t design it to be inconspicuous, but said you could always wear it on a molar.

Editors’ Recommendations

• How to clean your camera sensor safely
• Swallow this ingestible gas sensor to spill the secrets of your angry gut
• The OnCore smart golf ball can take your game to the next level
• The Smart Putter wants to help improve your golf game
• Want to shoot like a street photographer? The compact Panasonic GX9 is your tool

‘Far Cry 5’ beginner’s guide: Tips and tricks for taking down a doomsday cult

After numerous entries set in foreign and often exotic lands, Ubisoft’s Far Cry series takes American players closer to home — a fictional Montana county overrun by a doomsday cult called the Project at Eden’s Gate — in its latest entry. Despite the change of setting, if you’ve played a Far Cry game, you probably know what you’re in for in Far Cry 5: Wide open spaces, dastardly evil, a mix of over-the-top action and realism. It’s essentially a hodgepodge of ideas and mechanics from previous entries, with some new stuff thrown in here and there. Still, whether you’re a series veteran or a first time Far Cry player, there are some things you should know and do to restore order in Far Cry 5‘s Hope County.

Definitely complete John’s region first

Hope County is split into three regions, each one controlled by one of Joseph Seed’s underlings — John, Faith, and Jacob. Before your showdown with Joseph, you must liberate each region by completing a wide variety of missions. The game suggests you travel to John’s region early on, but you technically can do whatever you like. That said, we recommend starting with John. Jacob’s region requires the grappling hook, while Faith’s is crawling with not just regular cult members, but also rabid “angels” — cultists who have been drugged into acting like zombies. You’ll want to have purchased a health upgrade perk or two before wading into that bloodbath.

You can bounce around from region to region if you like, but we chose to complete them one by one for the most part.

Stuck on a story mission? Move on

A sizable number of story missions are technically optional. You will be thrust into and have to complete some of them, but many others can be skipped. Story missions accrue the most resistance points (usually 600, but sometimes 900), but you will also gain resistance points from liberating cult outposts, completing side missions, destroying cult property, and saving people from the cult. Do try and complete as many story missions as possible, but if you’re stuck on one, feel free to move on. We spent two frustrating hours trying to steal a cult tanker in John’s region only to accidentally blow it up or lose track of it every time. We eventually reached 13,000 resistance points and took down John without ever bringing that tanker back to Fall’s End.

Important perks to purchase

You’ll probably finish the game without accumulating enough perk points to acquire all 50 perks, but these perks should definitely be on your radar when you have points to spend:

• Health boost 1-4: Increases health to 150, 200, 250, and, finally, 300 percent.
• Grapple: It comes in handy and only costs one measly point.
• Parachute: So you don’t die while walking off a cliff.
• Additional holster: Lets you carry two long guns and a pistol.
• Weapons collector: Lets you carry three long guns and a pistol.
• Leadership: Unlocks a second squad slot.
• Journey pack: Expands medkit storage from three to five.

Take the time to be stealthy at cult outposts

At each cult outpost, there are two or three alarm towers. Each has speakers at the top of the pole and a yellow radio receiver at the bottom. If you run into an outpost guns blazing, one of the cultists will sound the alarm and call for reinforcements. But if you disable the alarms before being spotted, no backup cultists will come to help them. The alarms are always located around the perimeter of the main building. It doesn’t require expert stealth to disable them, but keep an eye on your visibility meter, which fills as you get closer to a cultist’s line of sight. Disabling the alarms means that you only have to deal with a handful of enemies instead of many more, which come successively in waves (often carried by trucks with mounted guns).

Consult your map, mark waypoints, travel fast

The large, mountainous terrain of Hope County can get confusing to navigate. The roads wind in every direction, breaking off from concrete to gravel to dirt. It’s easy to get spun around and not realize that you’re trekking ground you’ve already covered. Be sure to check your map consistently, but also set waypoints — even when you have the flashing cursor on your compass pointing you in the direction of your next mission. When driving with a waypoint on, a stream of arrows point you in the right direction the whole way.

Also, don’t forget to fast travel. You won’t unlock a fast-travel spot every time you complete a mission, but you will unlock quite a few throughout each region. You can save time getting to your next mission by opening your map and fast-traveling to a spot

You can’t save ’em all, but you should save some

Eden’s Gate has inflicted its perverse might all across Hope County. The county is teeming with cultists — on roads, in the trees, in and around almost every building you discover. And when you encounter them, you’ll often find that the cultists have the folks of Hope County prisoner. You’ll frequently come across people on their knees, hands bound behind their back, with an armed cultist or two looming over them. Apart from an early story mission in John Seed’s region that asks you to save 14 civilians from the cult, you don’t technically have to save these random folks. You should save at least some of them, though. Once saved, civilians are a chatty bunch. Sometimes they reveal “Prepper Stash” locations — areas with stockpiles of weapons and cash — and other times they offer up side missions. You also get 50 resistance points for each hostage you free. While certainly not a lot, the points chip away at the 13,000 mark needed to face off with each region’s boss.

Craft before entering mission areas

Nothing is more annoying than entering a building littered with cultists only to realize that you are all out of molotov cocktails to set them ablaze. To craft items, simply open your weapon wheel (L1 on PlayStation 4, LB on Xbox One) and hold the PS4’s triangle (Y on Xbox One) over items that can be crafted. We’re mainly talking explosives — proximity mines, remote detonated explosives, and molotovs. Crafting doesn’t take very long and it can become a quicker process with a perk. When you have feverish cultists and deranged “angels” swarming around you, simply tossing a premade explosive ensures that you can keep your eyes on the action instead of the weapon wheel.

Don’t forget to loot bodies

Each time you down an enemy, you can loot their body by getting close and pressing the PS4’s square (X on Xbox One). You’ll always get ammo, usually some crafting materials, and some spare cash. If you loot consistently, you should always be flush with ammunition and crafting supplies to make explosives.

You shouldn’t need to buy ammunition from shops. The only necessary items we bought were medkits from time to time.

Almost always travel with a squad

Throughout your adventure, you’ll unlock nine specialists who will eagerly stand by your side during missions. You’ll also find civilians willing to work with you for a fee (you can hire up to three at a time). While regular civilians and specialists serve the same purpose, we found no real reason to bring on hired guns rather than the specialists. The basic benefit of having a helper at your side is that it lessens your workload and diverts some attention off of you. We found that when entering story mission areas or cult outposts, it was extremely beneficial to have a human sidekick on foot with us, because when you’re out of health, they can run over and revive you (which they do quickly and efficiently). Your preference of companion may vary based on your play style, though.

Here are the nine specialists:

• Grace Armstrong: Sniper
• Jess Black: Bow attacks
• Sharky Boshaw: Explosive attacks
• Hurk Drubman Jr: Homing rockets that shoot down planes and blow up land vehicles
• Nick Rye: Pilot of plane equipped with bombs
• Adelaide Drubman: Air support via chopper, can also deliver a chopper to you
• Boomer (dog): Tags enemies for you, occasionally fetches weapons from dead cultists
• Peaches (cougar): Silently takes down enemies, remains hidden in grass
• Cheeseburger (bear): Mauls cultists, forces attention on himself

We stuck with Jess Black in the early going since she moves quietly and uses a bow to stealthily dispose of enemies. You can spend six perk points on the Leadership perk, which lets you travel with two allies at a time. We recommend utilizing the second slot for an ally who specializes in taking down enemy aircraft. After you liberate one section of Hope County, lots of activity hoccurs overhead. Planes and choppers circle the air trying to find you. Assign Adelaide, Hurk, or Nick to your second slot to take care of the aerial attacks. We found that Adelaide takes out aircraft quicker than Nick from up above, but Hurk can also heal you when you’re down. So it’s a personal choice, but one that saves you from having to carry around a rocket launcher of your own.

Your squad members are assigned to either left or right on the d-pad. Although fairly capable without being given direction, you can tell them to go to a certain point by pressing their assigned button.

Hunting and fishing aren’t really necessary

Other than for a few missions and when unlocking Cheeseburger, hunting and fishing are not essential. You can sell bear, wolverine, deer, moose, and other animal skins for cash, but unless you are getting attacked by an animal, taking them out isn’t really worth the ammunition. It often takes more bullets to take out an animal than a cultist, and the monetary rewards are modest.

Headshots

This one sounds obvious. Aiming for the head always downs enemies quicker in first-person shooters, but when dealing with a couple types of enemies in particular, headshots really, really help. VIP Cultists (they have red cursors over their heads) withstand more bullets than the average enemy, and spraying a clip into their midsection sometimes isn’t enough to take them down. Several well-placed shots to the head? That’s a different story. Similarly, the angels in Faith’s region act like zombies, and the quickest way to keep them from seemingly rising from the dead is to put a bullet in their noggin.

Editors’ Recommendations

• ‘Far Cry 5’ Review
• The script for the pilot episode of Netflix’s ‘Witcher’ is finished
• Fassbender, Hasselhoff, and now Schwarzenegger sign on for ‘Kung Fury’ sequel
• Get ‘Far Cry 3: Classic Edition’ for free with purchase of ‘Far Cry 5’ season pass
• ‘Far Cry 5’ brings back the series’ map editor, and it’s deeper than ever

‘MLB The Show 18’ batting guide: How to hit like a pro

MLB The Show 18 is the most authentic baseball video game you can play: It has realistic ball physics, true-to-life player models, and deep on-field action that will keep players learning and improving for months to come. It’s also unquestionably a pitcher’s game, with the man on the mound having a clear advantage over batters, even on lower difficulty settings. This might discourage newer players from stepping up to the plate and attempting to drive in some runs, but by following a few basic tips and being patient as you learn the ropes, you will be running up the score in no time. Here is how to master hitting — and scoring — in MLB The Show 18.

The basics of batting

Unlike comparable baseball series such as the now-defunct MLB 2K games, you aren’t going to pick up on pitches as soon as they leave the pitcher’s hand and crush them over the outfield fence in MLB The Show 18. You have to get used to seeing the ball cross the plate, and recognize over time where a curveball will end up compared to a slider or a fastball. Before you even swing the bat, warm up by turning on a quick offline match and letting the pitcher throw several pitches in a row. Just watch carefully and try to guess which of them are strikes before the umpire says so.

Once you have begun to get a feel for discerning balls from strikes, it’s time to use that bat. There are several different control schemes you can choose from in MLB The Show 18, and though your personal preference should ultimately be the deciding factor in your decision, we recommend the “pure analog” option. With this control scheme, you flick the right analog stick forward to initiate a normal swing, and for a more powerful swing, you first pull the right stick back before flicking it forward. You don’t need to worry about swinging at a particular area of the strike zone, as some of the other control options require. It’s also the only option that really replicates the feeling of swinging a bat, which may help you time your swings precisely.

Holding down the triangle button will cause your batter to attempt a bunt. If you do so as the pitcher is going into his windup, this will be a traditional “sacrifice” bunt designed to move runners ahead to second or third base. Should you wait until the ball is leaving his hands, it will be a running bunt, designed to get a hit. Neither are guaranteed to put the ball in play, and releasing the button before the ball crosses the plate will cause you to pull the bunt back.

How to dominate the pitcher

It might seem like the opposing team’s pitcher is unstoppable at times, but you have plenty of tricks up your sleeve that you can use to get the better of them and knock a ball into the outfield. With a little practice, you’ll even go up to the plate expecting to get a hit rather than merely hoping for one.

Don’t swing too early

One of the most common mistakes you will run into in MLB The Show 18 is swinging too early at pitches, particularly changeups and curveballs. These are significantly slower than pitchers’ fastballs, with a difference as great as 15 mph, and if they’re thrown right down the middle of the strike zone, it’s just instinct for your eyes to light up as you take a big hack. However, if you’re positive that the pitch thrown is off-speed, force yourself to wait an extra split-second longer before pulling the trigger. This will result in the ball being hit in fair territory instead of being pulled foul — or missed entirely — and you need to capitalize on these opportunities when you get them.

Force the pitcher to make mistakes

You will have the urge to swing at the first pitch you see in your early at-bats, but this is setting your batters up for failure. Pitchers will attempt to hit the corners of the strike zone with their pitches in early counts, meaning that even if you make contact, you will often hit a ground ball to a fielder in the infield or pop a ball up.

Instead, unless the first pitch you see is right down Main Street, take it. If it’s a strike, you will need to be ready to swing at the next pitch, but if it’s a ball, you now have the advantage. Work the count into a “hitter’s count like 2-0 or 3-1 whenever you have the ability. These counts typically force pitchers to three more hittable pitches so they can avoid a walk, giving you the opportunity to do some real damage.

The power swing is overrated

You will be able to hit plenty of home runs in MLB The Show 18 if you time your swings well and take advantage of poorly located pitches, and you will never have to use the power swing to do it. It’s a great tool to use when you need to hit the ball into the outfield in order to complete a sacrifice fly or you want to avoid hitting into a double-play, but the power swing has a significant disadvantage. Using it will shrink the gold-colored “sweet spot” hitting zone, making it less likely that you will actually make contact with the ball.

If you must use the power swing, make sure you are using it with fewer than two strikes. If you’re down to your last strike, even if you’re at risk of ending the inning with a double-play, you need to focus on making contact with the ball. Ironically, it’s your power hitters who should use the power swing the least — stars like Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge can still absolutely tattoo the ball with the normal swing.

How to score your runners

Getting on base is, of course, only half the battle. You also need to get your runners around the bases and to home plate in order to actually score runs, and this requires just as much practice and care as hitting does in MLB The Show 18. Here are a few tips you can use to get even the slowest baserunners across home plate.

Tag up

With a runner on third base and fewer than two outs, a sacrifice fly can often put another run on the board for your team. If you hit the ball far enough into the outfield, the game will often give you the option of pressing the L1 button in order to automatically make your runners tag up and advance.

Though aggressive baserunning isn’t always the best strategy, it usually makes sense to test the outfielders’ throwing arms and take the extra base. Even if you’re on second base, tagging up and heading to third will put you in position to score on an infield hit or a screaming line-drive that drops right in from of the right fielder.

Keep your attempted steals to a minimum

Even the worst catchers in the MLB are still pretty darn good at their job, and you will find this out quickly if you attempt to swipe a bag in MLB The Show 18. By pressing L1, you can take a small lead off the base with all of your runners, while pressing L1 and the button corresponding to an individual runner’s base will make only that player lead off. The same rules apply for stealing bases, which is done with the L2 button — tapping it will signal to your runners to steal, while holding it and then releasing it will cause them to take off in time with when the trigger is released.

The problem is that catchers tend to have very strong and accurate arms, and pitchers will notice your aggressive leads and will attempt to pick you off at first base. With absolute speedsters like Billy Hamilton, swiping bags on a regular basis makes sense, but it’s not worth the risk with most players.

But utilize the hit-and-run

One baserunning play can be the bane of a pitcher’s existence — the hit-and-run. By sending a runner as if he were stealing but intentionally making contact with the ball at the plate, the runner can advance from first base to third base on a simple single into the outfield. If your team is short on power hitters, this play can help to make up for your lack of extra-base hits.

If you have a slower batter at the plate, the hit-and-run can also be used to avoid a double-play. With this strategy, it isn’t necessary to take a lead off first base — just send your runner when the pitch is thrown and make contact with the ball. Your runner should be at second before a play is made, preventing a double-play and putting them in scoring position.

For more tips on batting in the MLB The Show series, check out our batting guide for last year’s game, as well.

Editors’ Recommendations

• ‘MLB The Show 18’ Review
• New scoring system gives you a reason to replay ‘Destiny 2’ Nightfall strikes
• From ‘E.T.’ to ‘Baby Driver,’ these are the best movie soundtracks of all time
• Stealth Core Trainer Professional review
• DuckDuckGo’s new app, browser extension grade websites on their privacy

Apple iPad (2018) hands-on preview

Research Center:

Apple iPad 9.7-inch (2018)

Not so long ago, Apples in the classroom meant computers (in addition to a fresh piece of fruit for the teacher). As recently as five years ago, Apple had a good grip on the education market, with several large institutions announcing plans to hand out iPads for students to use in the classroom. Then came the Chromebook, which today owns about 60 percent of the education market. And Microsoft, which last year rolled out an ambitious effort targeting classrooms with including Windows S, augmented reality, and custom software for educators.

What’s a little old tech behemoth to do?

At an education-focused event in Chicago, Apple announced its answer: An iPad. But the spotlight fell on the iPad’s support for the Apple Pencil, as well as a bevy of new software designed to foster collaboration in the classroom. Why an iPad, and not a new Macbook? Just think of Apple’s latest ad, which features a precocious child making the most of her iPad throughout her day. It ends with her asking, “what’s a computer?” Point made, Apple: The company clearly thinks tablets are sufficient for the education market. As Apple’s demos showed, you can do a lot with a tablet and a pencil.

Look and feel

So how does the $330 iPad look? Not to be snarky, but it looks like an iPad. The new product, which carries a lower $300 price for the education market, is identical to last year’s model, although the internal specs have been bumped up.

It’s still a 9.7-inch Retina screen, but the new iPad includes an A10 Fusion chip (the same powering the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, a front-facing HD camera, Touch ID, 32GB of storage, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p HD video, and up to 10 hours of battery life. There’s also up to 200GB of free iCloud storage for students, which is a significant upgrade from the previously-allocated 5GB. As usual, the new iPad has LTE options at a higher price that lets customers connect to wireless data plans.

The aluminum body is well-built, but visually not much has changed. Touch ID is still around, likely because the components that make Face ID work on the iPhone X are likely still too expensive to throw into a budget device. The biggest addition, other than the minor specification bump we mentioned, is support for the Apple Pencil, which until now has been restricted to the iPad Pro lineup.

The software

More interesting are the apps announced, including updates to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote to support the Pencil (which still costs $100). Beyond that, Apple talked about software to allow educators to completely control the experience in the classroom – students won’t be allowed to log on to Twitch and waste the afternoon. Instead, the educator controls not just which app can be launched but what features within the app can be used. It’s a powerful way to counter arguments that students will simply waste time given a digital distraction device like a tablet, and we saw this in action in one classroom demo.

The company clearly thinks tablets are sufficient for the education market.

Then there’s Apple’s reassertion of the importance of the Everyone Can Code program and the Swift programming language. Demos showed us how to control robots and drones using drag-and-drop programming on the new iPad. Physical keyboard? Who needs a keyboard? The Swift Playgrounds coding app also now lets kids play around with augmented reality so they can be exposed to AR and its capabilities at a young age. Third-party AR apps can even teach kids how to virtually dissect a frog, so there’s a lot of potential here and it’ll be interesting to see how the classroom changes as these technologies become even more popular.

Apple also discussed new easy log on programs to make individual iPads more interchangeable, something IT teams should appreciate. But is it enough? Google has a very strong lock on the education market now, thanks to affordable products and software that really moves the needle on collaboration. Apple’s $300 iPad is the same exact price as last year’s iPad (with the discount for educators), but our favorite budget Chromebook, the Asus Chromebook C202, is just $225 – a price sure to make a principal smile.

Jeremy Kaplan/Digital Trends

In terms of pushing the needle, Microsoft’s Mixed Reality vision of the future seems more ambitious. Will anyone take Redmond up on their ideas? We’ll see. Mixed Reality has been a mixed bag to date, and Apple’s AR plans are nearly as impressive.

Ultimately, there’s a fresh polish on Apple for the classroom – now let’s see what the fruit of its labors tastes like. The new iPad ships this week. You can buy it for $330, but educators can nab it for $30 less.

Apple iPad 9.7-inch (2018) Compared To

Eve Technology Eve V

Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017)

Asus Transformer Pro T304

Amazon Fire HD 8 (2017)

Xiaomi Mi Pad 3

Apple iPad 9.7

Samsung Galaxy Tab S3

Dell Venue 8 7000

Apple iPad Air 2

Lenovo ThinkPad 10

Apple iPad Mini 2

Microsoft Surface 2

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (8-inch)

Dell XPS 10

Acer Iconia Tab A700

How to overclock your GPU

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Although upgrading to a brand new graphics card is arguably the best way to improve your PC’s 3D rendering ability, you can eke out a little more performance from your existing card with overclocking. Much like a CPU, a graphics card contains chips that with the right tweaks can work harder and faster. That can mean better benchmark results and higher frames per second in your favorite games.

Although still a little intimidating and certainly not friendly to your graphics card’s temperatures, learning how to overclock your GPU is easier today than it’s ever been. You just need the right tools, the right steps, and plenty of patience.

A word of warning

Overclocking anything, be it your CPU, graphics card, or memory, has inherent risks. They are relatively low, but they are important to consider so that you’re well informed before starting. Overclocking anything involves the process of forcing it to perform at a faster rate than it was manufactured to do so. That means you are pushing it harder and by working faster, it will get hotter and it may become less stable. That could result in crashes in the short term and over the long term, could reduce the lifespan of your particular hardware.

There’s a chance that overclocking your hardware may void your warranty too. Many manufacturers allow it, as graphics cards will throttle up and down during general usage anyhow. However, serious tweaks like playing with voltages or flashing your graphics card’s BIOS are more likely to impact any warranty you have. The best bet is to double check with your manufacturer whether what you’re doing affects the warranty before beginning.

Although we will do our best to guide you along the path to a faster, more powerful graphics card, Digital Trends accepts no liability for any problems you run into with your hardware along the way.

Overclocking a graphics card is also only recommended for desktop PC users. Although in some cases you can overclock laptop GPUs — including Intel HD chips — it’s not usually recommended due to temperature concerns.

Step 1: Get ready

Before you can actually get started overclocking your GPU, you need to get everything ready. The first step, if you don’t know already, is figuring out which graphics card you have. To do so, you can take a look at the card itself, or the packaging if you still have it. If that doesn’t work, right-click your desktop and click either the Nvidia or AMD graphics settings link, followed by “My Rig” or “System,” respectively.

If you’d rather use a manufacturer agnostic solution, GPUZ can tell you everything you need to know about your graphics card.

Once you know exactly which graphics card you’re running, you should update to the latest graphics drivers. You can find those on Nvidia and AMD’s websites. Upgrading them will likely require a reboot, so make sure to come back to this guide when you’re done, or read on before continuing.

Before starting the overclocking proper, you’ll also want to download some useful tools to help you along. First, you’ll want to download the overclocking tool we’re going to be using for this guide: MSI Afterburner. Although AMD has its own Wattman alternative and there are several other popular third-party tools, Afterburner works for just about every graphics card and offers a full suite of features.

You’re also going to need a benchmark to test the stability of your new graphics card. A proven, lightweight benchmark is Unigine’s Valley. We also like Furmark for its built in temperature readout, but it’s more of a synthetic test. If you have any games with built in benchmarks you may want to have those installed and to hand, so that you can see what effect your new overclocks have on performance.

If you haven’t cleaned your PC in a long time, this is also a good time to do so, as any extra dust in your system can heavily contribute to GPU temperature spikes during overclocking. It’s not a mandatory step but is certainly advisable before you get started.

Step 2: Establish baselines

The next step in your overclocking journey is establishing baselines. You want to know your system’s standard clock speeds (for both the core and memory), as well as its standard operating temperatures (both idle and load) and its standard performance.

To find out those figures, close down any applications that are already running and startup MSI Afterburner. Although you can customize the look of Afterburner to how you see fit, to make sure we’re all on the same page about the location of different elements, locate the cog “Settings” button and click it. Use the top-tab navigation arrows and select “User Interface.” Then in the “User interface skinning properties” heading, use the drop down to select “Default MSI Afterburner v3 skin,” and click “OK.”

If you need to, use the temperature settings to convert readouts to Celsius or Fahrenheit depending on your preference.

The graphs on the right-hand side will tell you most of what you need to know at this point. The top one is for your graphics card’s core temperature. It can run anywhere up to 176 degrees Fahrenheit without much difficulty, but anything beyond that gets dangerous for your hardware and can result in crashes or even damage, so it’s important to be aware of your GPU’s temperature at all times during overclocking and subsequent testing.

The other figures to be aware of are core clock and memory clock. Those are the figures that we’re going to be tweaking during overclocking. The “Min” numbers on those graphs are the idling speeds, while the “Max,” figures are the ones that your graphics card will typically use when it’s working hard at rendering a game or benchmark. That’s what we want to raise to improve performance.

The final number(s) to find out before we start overclocking for real, is an idea of your graphics card’s performance. Run the Valley benchmark you downloaded earlier using the “Extreme HD” preset, or with everything at maximum quality, fullscreen, and at “System” resolution.

Note: Press “F9” during the demo to begin the benchmark.

If you want to note down some additional performance numbers before beginning, you may also want to run Futuremark’s 3Dmark, or any modern game with its own built-in benchmarking utility, like Shadow of Mordor or Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Step 3: Slow and steady

Overclocking might be easier today than ever before, but that doesn’t mean you should rush into it headfirst. Overclocking is most successful when you take your time and take precautions along the way. Make sure that during your baseline benchmarking that Afterburner’s temperature graph doesn’t show any dangerous peaks. Anything over 176 degrees Fahrenheit would suggest your cooling isn’t strong enough for overclocking.

Also make sure that in the Afterburner window the “Apply overclocking as system startup,” box isn’t ticked. That forces your newly designated clock speeds to startup with Windows and you don’t want that until you have found a stable overclock.

If you have some temperature headroom, start up the Valley stress testing application again, but this time run it in “Windowed” mode. In the Afterburner window, raise the power limit to its maximum percentage — that lets your GPU draw as much power as it needs for the settings you put into it and avoids any automated throttling. It will not affect the voltage put through your chips.

Make sure Valley is running and return to the Afterburner window. Using either the slider or by typing in the number yourself, raise your clock speed by 10MHz. Once that’s done, reopen the Valley window and watch for any visual “artifacts.” These are visual signs that your graphics chip is working too hard and can manifest as tiny blocks of miscolored pixels, or large shard-like bands of color. If you don’t see any of those after a minute or two, return to the Afterburner window and repeat the process.

Repeat that time and again until you see artifacts, or until Valley itself crashes. If you push things too far, you may see a black screen as your graphics driver crashes or your entire system reboots. Don’t fret, you just went too far. Dial things back a couple of steps (20Mhz or so) and run Valley again. This time let it run through a couple of loops. If everything is stable you’ve found a safe maximum for your GPU.

Once you have found the limit for your core, note down that value, reset the clock to its default and perform the same process on the memory clock. This time you’re looking for artifacts that represent as solid blocks or blobs of color. Again, once you’ve reached the limit, roll back a couple of steps and perform a longer stability test. Once you’ve found your limit, note it down and reset everything.

Step 4: Bring it all together

Now that you have your individual maximums for both core and memory clocks, it’s time to combine them. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to use the full maximum overclock for both at the same time, as both put additional stress on your graphics card, but it’s possible. Your best bet is to start at the bottom again though and raise both values together. Know what the maximum is and be ready for artifacts and crashes as you approach it. As before, once you find the limit, roll back a step or two and perform longer stability tests. You can then raise one or the other individually if you like, to see if either, in particular, was the cause of the stability issue.

Once you have your stable dual-maximum overclock for both core and memory, it’s time to perform some real stability testing. Let the Valley test run through several times in a row, play some games for a few hours — and keep a keen eye out for problems. If you encounter any, scale back the clocks a single step and start again.

Although this process can seem arduous, it’s the final big step in making sure your system can run at these clocks all day, everyday. Once you’ve found it, you can — if you like — use Afterburner to trigger these settings every time your PC boots up.

You now have a permanent GPU overclock. To find out how much of an improvement you’ve made, run all of your gaming benchmarks again and see what your new scores are compared to the old ones.

Hopefully, that boost should keep you gaming at your favorite resolution and detail settings for longer. At least until the GPU prices come down.

What about voltage?

One of the ways in which you can increase stability and viability of some core clocks is by increasing the voltage pushed through the chip, otherwise known as Core Voltage and abbreviated in Afterburner as “mV.” Increasing voltages is disabled in Afterburner by default as it has a much greater impact on your system than other settings. Increasing voltages can reduce the lifespan of your graphics card and even damage it irreparably if used irresponsibly. It can also lead to a large increase in the amount of power your graphics card draws, reducing the card — and by extension, your system’s — efficiency.

Although Afterburner has its own limits that are unlikely to allow you to stress your card too much, because every card is different, if you want to try out mV adjustment, do a quick Google search for your particular card to find a safe limit. You can enable voltage adjustments in the Afterburner settings menu.

With that said, use it much the same way you would frequency adjustments. Raise it in small amounts to see if it allows for a more stable overclock — or increased clocks. Watch your temperatures closely and if you encounter any problems, scale it back. Make sure to test for stability as you did with all previous changes.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best graphics cards
• How much RAM do you need? It’s probably less than you think
• Gaming without a GPU has never been easier, here’s how we did it
• Nvidia’s latest software update helps protect your system from ‘Spectre’
• AMD vs. Intel: How does tech’s oldest rivalry look in 2018?

Best Smart Thermostats for Amazon Echo in 2018

It’s a trick question! If there’s a Skill, there’s a way. But it’s still worth knowing what you can (and can’t) say to Alexa to control your thermostat.

One of the things you need to know about Amazon Echo — actually, I’m talking about Alexa here — is that in a good many ways, it’s hardware agnostic. You can hook all sorts of things into Alexa via Amazon’s “Skills,” and, for the most part, it shouldn’t really matter what sort of hardware it’s hooking into.

A thermostat is a thermostat. You turn it up and down. Lights are lights. On, off, color, whatever. Sprinklers turn on and off and run on schedules. The brand and exact hardware really shouldn’t matter — you build in functionality through the API, or Application Programming Interface, which we all know and love here as a “Skill.” (Google has “Actions,” Nest has “Works with Nest,” etc., etc.)

Exactly what you can say to a particular device may vary a little bit, but by and large Alexa is going to be smart enough to figure out what it is you’re trying to do without requiring too many specific keywords. (That gets us into the whole natural language processing thing, which is another post for another time.)

So what’s the best thermostat to use with Amazon Echo? Whatcha got? I’ve used a Nest ($248 on Amazon) in my home and an ecobee ($249 on Amazon) in the office. Those are the two more popular smart thermostats, and each has its merits. There’s the design of the actual thermostat itself. (I tend to prefer Nest there for its simplicity and the dial over a touchscreen.) There’s the design and usability of the app that goes along with it. (Again, Nest wins out here for me because ecobee seems like it’s trying a little too hard.)

But those are personal things. The good news here is that if you like ecobee more than Nest and want to use it with Alexa, it’ll work just fine. One really doesn’t work any better for me than the other when it comes to using your voice to control them.

One major caveat here, though, is that the ecobee 4 has a really neat feature in that Alexa is already built in. The thermostat has microphones that are waiting (and willing) for you to use your voice to control it. So you don’t even need an Amazon Echo to control it — the thermostat takes care of everything. That’s pretty cool.

All that said, let’s take a look at what you can actually say to each thermostat through Alexa.

What you can tell Alexa to do with Nest

First, Nest says to make sure you know the name of your Nest. If you’ve named it “Living room,” you’ll tell Alexa to “change the living room to 72 degrees.” You won’t say “Set the thermostat to 72 degrees.” And that’s fine. “Thermostat” is a silly name.

And with that, here’s what you can actually say to it.

• Ask what the temperature is at the thermostat?
• Ask what the thermostat is set to.
• Set the Nest to a specific temperature.
• Increase or decrease by a specific number of degrees. (You can say “warmer” or “colder,” too.

There are third-party skills, too, that let you add even more functionality. Check out Voice Thermostat Controller for even more.

See Nest Thermostat at Amazon

Nest E lets you talk to Alexa even cheaper

There’s nothing quite like a full-blown Nest Thermostat, of course. But the Nest E is really close. It’s got a different sort of look to it, but it’s 90 percent the same, as far as the tech goes. (And I’d argue that you probably won’t miss the difference anyway.

The display is more muted, so it’s not going to call quite as much attention to itself as its big brother. But you get the same smarts — the ability to learn how you like things — and the exact same integration with Amazon Alexa.

The really important part? The $169 price tag.

See at Nest

What you can tell Alexa to do with ecobee

Like you’ve probably guessed by now, using ecobee with Alexa is pretty much the same as using it with Nest. Here’s what’s available via your voice:

• Ask for the current temperature at the ecobee.
• Ask what the ecobee is currently set to.
• Set the ecobee to a specific temperature.
• Increase or decrease the temperature by a specific amount.
• Or just say “increase (or decrease) the temperature” to move it by 2 degrees.

See ecobee at Amazon

Pretty simple for both devices. For more (and because things change), be sure to check out the individual skills at the links below.

• ecobee Skill for Amazon Alexa
• Nest skill for Amazon Alexa

Updated March 2018: Updated with Nest E.

Amazon Echo

• Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
• All about Alexa Skills
• Amazon Echo review
• Echo Dot review
• Echo Spot review
• Top Echo Tips & Tricks
• Amazon Echo vs. Google Home
• Get the latest Alexa news

See at Amazon

This $13 power strip has three AC outlets and three USB ports

Perfect for all situations.

Using coupon code CLEVER77 you can drop the price of this surge protector down to just $12.99, which is a $4 savings. The strip has three AC outlets and three USB plugs, making it easy to charge just about any gadget you may have laying around.

It offers a 3.1A output so your devices will charge on the quick side, and it will automatically turn off if it gets to hot to prevent any issues from affecting the gear plugged into it.

See at Amazon

OnePlus 6: News, Rumors, Release Date, Specs, and more!

This is everything you need to know about the OnePlus 6!

OnePlus has been on a cycle of releasing two smartphones per year: a major release in the spring, and a minor tweak of that previous phone in the fall. It’s nearly spring 2018, which means it’s nearly time for another OnePlus phone. Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming OnePlus 6!

The design

The OnePlus 5T was the first time the company increased the size of its displays, and it looks like there will be more refinements coming with the OnePlus 6. The 6 will keep the stretched out design, but will add a notch up top, similar to… some other phones you may have seen. In addition to a high-quality display, OnePlus is also expected to move to a glass back, hopefully including Qi wireless charging in the process.

According to the image, the fingerprint reader will still be mounted on the rear of the phone, though earlier rumors suggested there would be an in-display fingerprint sensor. The dual cameras are still present, though this time in the center instead of the upper left. Of course, this is a leaked image and should be taken with a grain of salt until the official announcement is made.

Not too long after that first photo was shared, Evan Blass shared the above one on Twitter – further confirming much of what we were already expecting. The dual cameras are positioned in a vertical fashion, the fingerprint sensor lies below them, and there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack (yay!).

However, unlike the previous photo, Blass’s shows the back of the OnePlus 6 to have a textured, wood-like finish. OnePlus experimented with a lot of different back materials with the OnePlus One in 2014, and finishes like Sandstone White and Lava Red for the 5T show that the company is trying to stand out with its design. I’m guessing this isn’t the only special back material we’ll see for the 6, and it’ll be exciting to see what else OnePlus has up its sleeve.

More: OnePlus 6 supposedly leaks with iPhone X notch and glass back

Specifications

Of course, a phone isn’t just a pretty external design. The internal hardware needs to be up to snuff to push pixels and take all of our lovely Instagram photos. Fortunately, it seems the OnePlus 6 will be up to the task. Early benchmarks suggest the phone will ship with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845, the same chip that will likely be found in every other flagship device this year. Benchmarks have been gamed in the past — so take this all with the same grain of salt as before — but it’s a safe bet for OnePlus to include all the latest internal hardware with the OnePlus 6, just like they’ve done in previous generations.

A new image recently popped up revealing numerous specs for the OnePlus 6, and while we can’t confirm any of the information presented, it does allow us to build the following spec sheet:

More: Exclusive: OnePlus 6 has 19:9 notched display, Snapdragon 845, top benchmarks

The software

We haven’t seen any leaks for specific software features coming with the OnePlus 6, but it’s safe to expect the same vanilla Android style that OnePlus has used since 2014. OxygenOS is a known quantity at this point, featuring a few key improvements over what ships in Google’s Pixel line. There will surely be an Open Beta for users who like to live on the bleeding edge and try new features at the cost of stability. Expect a true dark theme, expect gesture controls and a few other little niceties that add up to a great software experience.

Price and availability

This is still up in the air at this point, but we can make an educated guess based on OnePlus’ previous devices. The OnePlus 5 retailed for $479, while the OnePlus 5T goes for a cool $499. It’d be nice if the OnePlus 6 kept that same price, but another small price increase isn’t out of the question.

That same leaked image mentioned above suggests that the OnePlus 6 will cost as much as $749, but it’s unclear what currency this is representing. The same post compares the OnePlus 6 against the iPhone X and Galaxy S9+ with $1517 and $1200 price tags, respectively, so either way, we can probably expect OnePlus’s next flagship to cost a good deal less compared to most other OEMs.

As for availability, the OnePlus 3 was released in June of 2016, and the OnePlus 5 in June of 2017. Some early reports suggest we may see an earlier release this year, but June is a safe bet.

Stay tuned for more!

This is what we know — and a bit of what we’re guessing — about the OnePlus 6 for now. We’re expecting an earlier than normal release this year, so stay tuned for more coverage!

OnePlus 5T and OnePlus 5

• OnePlus 5T review: Come for the value, not the excitement
• OnePlus 5T specs
• Should you upgrade from the OnePlus 3T?
• OnePlus 5T vs. Galaxy S8: Beast mode
• All of the latest OnePlus 5T news
• Join the discussion in the forums

OnePlus
Amazon

Updated 3/27/18 – Added new photo from Evan Blass.

Best text messaging apps for Android as of March 2018

There are plenty of great text messaging apps to choose from, and these are some of our favorites.

Text messaging is a big part of phone use for many people, and while all phones come with native messaging clients, they… they can suck. Some native text messaging apps don’t handle MMS the way we’d like. Some native text messaging apps are laid out poorly. Thankfully we have the option to use one of many, many third-party SMS clients — some of which are minimal messaging apps, and others that offer features above and beyond the rest.

Textra

A long-time favorite, Textra is a clean-looking SMS app with plenty of features for hardcore users. Textra offers a slew of customization options with various theme colors, notifications, and per-contact settings. Want to make your text messages look like iMessage? Textra can look amazingly like an iPhone. Want to set special colors and notification tones for texting your boyfriend versus texting your parents? Textra is there to help. There’s built-in SMS scheduling, quick replies, improved group messaging, SMS blocking and more.

Download Textra (Free, in-app purchases)

Android Messages

Android Messages is the rebranded version of Google’s Messenger app, and it features a simple interface and plenty of features for the average user without going overboard with bells and whistles. It also supports Google’s RCS features, which allow for iMessage or WhatsApp-like features like read receipts and larger file transfers as long as your carrier supports it. If you’re just looking for a dependable, simple text messenger that will work well, support RCS, and do MMS right, Android Messages has got you. Messages has also implemented Android Oreo’s notification settings to allow you to set individual notification tones and settings on a per conversation basis.

Download Download Android Messages (free)

Pulse SMS

Pulse SMS is an interesting and very, very customizable text messaging app in its own right, but that’s not the real draw for Pulse. No, no, Pulse is a text messaging app that helps bring your text messages to all your other devices, too, from tablets to computers. For users who are chained to a computer all day anyway, Pulse helps you avoid tearing your eyes away from your big, productive screen to your phone, where it’s easy to be distracted by notifications that new series are on Netflix, and your lives are refilled on that game you’re about to level up on.

Pulse is a paid subscription (or larger one-time fee) for the ability to text from any of your devices, and if you’re someone who is texting all the time and wants to use more than just your phone, Pulse will pay for itself quickly. And if that’s not what you’re after, Pulse is still a top-notch texting app that’s easy to navigate. Pulse, like Messages, has implemented Android Oreo’s notification settings to allow you to set individual notification tones and settings on a per conversation basis.

Download Pulse SMS (Free, in-app purchases)

Mood Messenger

Mood Messenger wants to be a fusion of web messengers and text messengers, and it’s certainly a tantalizing idea. If you have enough people who actually use Mood to use it as a WhatsApp alternative, great for you, but for the rest of us, Mood is still worth a look as a solid SMS app with an interesting UI, dedicated themes, and excellent developer support. Mood also had the option for a Quick Compose persistent notification with a user-selected group of contacts so that they can quickly rattle off a quick text without having to go to the full app, and it is the easiest app to set custom notification tones for contacts in.

Download Mood Messenger (Free)

Your favorite?

What are some of your favorite text messaging apps? Hit up the comments and let us know!

Updated March 2018: We’ve updated this app to reflect the changes Android Oreo brought to messaging notifications for some apps and do a little spring cleaning.