Paul Alcorn

As a teenager, Paul scraped up enough money to buy a 486-powered PC with a turbo button (yes, a turbo button). Back when floppies were still popular he was already chasing after the fastest spinners for his personal computer, which led him down the long and winding storage road, covering enterprise storage. His current focus is on consumer processors, though he still keeps a close eye on the latest storage news. In his spare time, you’ll find Paul hanging out with his kids or indulging his love of the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals.

Articles by: Paul Alcorn

Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Core i7-12700K and Core i9-12900K Face-Off: The Rise of 3D V-Cache

By Paul Alcorn published 14 May 22

We put the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, Intel Core i7-12700K, and Core i9-12900K through a six-round fight to see which gaming chip comes out on top.

AMD Gains CPU Share Amid Biggest Desktop PC Quarterly Decline In History

By Paul Alcorn published 11 May 22

The desktop PC market suffered its largest decline in history as it plunges 30 percent, but AMD managed to scrape out more share.

Intel Launches Alder Lake HX: Up to 16 Cores, PCIe 5.0, and 157W of Power

By Paul Alcorn published 10 May 22

Intel introduced its notebook workstation-class Alder Lake HX mobile processors that feature up to 16 cores, 5.0 GHz peak clock rates, and 157W of peak power draw.

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X Review: A Price Cut Disguised as a New Chip

By Paul Alcorn published 9 May 22

We put AMD's Ryzen 7 5700X through the wringer in our expanse set of benchmarks.

CPU Benchmarks and Hierarchy 2022: Intel and AMD Processors Ranked

By Paul Alcorn published 8 May 22

All of today's desktop CPU benchmarks compared, including Intel's 10th Gen Core series and AMD's Ryzen Zen 3 and Threadripper 3000.

Best CPU for Gaming in 2022

By Paul Alcorn published 7 May 22

Here are the best gaming CPUs for the money, based on our benchmarks. These processors offer the best performance in their price ranges and most are suitable for overclocking.

AMD Launches Ryzen 5000 C-Series: First 8-Core x86 CPUs for Chromebooks

By Paul Alcorn published 5 May 22

AMD introduced its Ryzen 5000 C-Series chips, marking the world's first eight-core x86 chip design for the Chromebook market.

AMD vs Intel: Which CPUs Are Better in 2022?

By Paul Alcorn published 4 May 22

We wade into the endless debate: Who makes the best CPU, AMD or Intel? Here's the blow-by-blow in ten categories.

AMD to Fuse FPGA AI Engines Onto EPYC Processors, Arrives in 2023

By Paul Alcorn published 4 May 22

AMD announced that it will add FPGA-powered AI inference engines to its CPUs, with the first models arriving in 2023.

Enermax Liqmax III 360mm ARGB AIO Cooler

Enermax Recalls Clogged Liqmax III Liquid CPU Coolers in Korea

By Aaron Klotz, Paul Alcorn published 28 April 22

C-nex Zone has issued a recall on three Liqmax III ARGB AIO liquid coolers. The issues related to poor CPU cooling efficiency thanks to impurities found inside the coolant.

AMD's AM5 Will Launch With Only DDR5 Support for Ryzen 7000, Dual-Chipset Design

By Paul Alcorn published 24 April 22

Our sources have confirmed that AMD's AM5 platform for the 5nm Ryzen 7000 'Raphael' CPUs will only support DDR5 at launch.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Review: 3D V-Cache Powers a New Gaming Champion

By Paul Alcorn published 14 April 22

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D, the world's first processor with a 3D-stacked cache, is now the fastest gaming CPU ever created.

Nvidia Claims Arm Grace CPU Superchip 2X Faster, 2.3X More Efficient Than Intel Ice Lake

By Paul Alcorn published 10 April 22

Nvidia buried a comparison of its new Arm-powered Grace CPU to Intel's Ice Lake in a GTC presentation.

Intel Comments On Alder Lake's Warping and Bending Issues, Mods Void Warranty

By Paul Alcorn published 9 April 22

Intel has commented on a chip warping issue that has plagued its newest Alder Lake generation of chips.

AMD Confirms Its GPU Drivers Are Overclocking CPUs Without Asking

By Paul Alcorn published 5 April 22

AMD has confirmed to Tom's Hardware that a bug in its Adrenalin GPU drivers is causing changes to CPU settings in the BIOS, which results in the CPU being overclocked without the user's permission.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and 5500 Review: Firing Back at Alder Lake

By Paul Alcorn published 4 April 22

We review AMD's new Ryzen 5 5600 and Ryzen 5 5500 that bring budget chips to the company's vaunted Zen 3 lineup.

Intel Core i9-12900KS Review: The Fastest Gaming Chip Ever

By Paul Alcorn published 3 April 22

We put Intel's new Core i9-12900KS through the testing wringer to see if it earns its $739 price tag.

Intel Core i5-12490F Review: China's Exclusive 'Black Edition' Gaming Chip

By Paul Alcorn published 30 March 22

Intel's elusive 'Black Edition' Core i5-12490F is a China exclusive, but we snagged a chip we found overseas and put it through our benchmark suite.

From Opteron to Milan: Crusher Supercomputer Comes Online With New AMD CPUs and MI250X GPUs

By Paul Alcorn published 28 March 22

AMD's MI250X notches big wins against Nvidia's V100 GPUs

Nvidia in Talks to Use Intel as a Foundry to Manufacture Chips

By Paul Alcorn published 23 March 22

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is open to Intel making Nvidia's chips, saying the company is in discussions with Intel about its foundry services and could use it to manufacture chips in the future.

Nvidia Unveils 144-core Grace CPU Superchip, Claims Arm Chip 1.5X Faster Than AMD's EPYC Rome

By Paul Alcorn published 22 March 22

Nvidia unveiled its new 144-core Arm-based Grace CPU Superchip at GTC 2022 along with a host of new interconnect technologies.

Watch The Nvidia GTC 2022 Keynote Here Now

By Paul Alcorn published 22 March 22

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will take to the stage for GTC 2022 to make a broad array of announcements that will likely include the Hopper GPU architecture.

AMD Launches Milan-X With 3D V-Cache, EPYC 7773X With 768MB L3 Cache for $8,800

By Paul Alcorn published 21 March 22

AMD announced the general availability of its Milan-X chips that come with a revolutionary new 3D V-Cache technology that stacks L3 cache vertically to enable up to a whopping 768MB of cache.