There's Intel and AMD on the x86 side, with Apple and Qualcomm making Arm-based processors on the other. We break down the advantages and drawbacks of each to help you pick the right chip for your needs and budget. Alan Bradley CNET Contributor Alan ...

AMD's new-for-2026 Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor kicks up the clocks and packs the same extra-fast cache in an effort to outpace the well-regarded Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

Fire up the 2013 remix of the Eagles "Desperado". Listen to the beat: That's 60 beats per minute, or to an engineer, 1 Hertz (Hz). Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" is around twice that. It sounds fast, but Hertz are slow. One Kilohertz (KHz) is 1,000 cycles a ...

Intel’s new desktop CPUs are radically different than the Intel CPUs you’re used to. Today marks the launch of Arrow Lake, the company’s latest architecture for desktop processors, formally sold as the Core Ultra 200S Series. According to Intel’s ...

I knew this was coming — I just didn’t expect it to happen quite just yet. It turns out that some of the best processors are on their way toward retirement, because eight-core CPUs are slowly becoming the go-to, leaving their six-core counterparts in ...

TL;DR: Apple's new M5 processor powers the latest MacBook Pro, Vision Pro headset, and iPad Pro with up to 10 CPU and GPU cores, delivering 15% faster multi-threaded performance, 30% higher memory bandwidth, and 45% improved ray tracing. Enhanced AI ...