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Processors: Buying Advice, Tips, and News
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Whether you're upgrading your desktop PC or building a new one, choosing the right processor is the most crucial and complex choice you will make. Let's simplify it! Here's how to make sense of AMD's and Intel's lines, backed by dozens of our deep-dive reviews.

Intel's 13th and 14th generation Core desktop CPUs are causing PCs and game servers to repeatedly crash, according to Alderon Games, which says it's 'swapping all our servers to AMD.'

By Michael Kan

The US export ban on advanced chips hasn't stopped dozens of chip-smugglers from bringing GPUs into China from other countries to resell them.

By Kate Irwin

The funding is intended to help foster tech innovation in rural, industrial, and lower-income communities and conduct research from battery development to quantum computing to medicine.

By Kate Irwin

ByteDance is reportedly developing a 5-nanometer AI chip that TSMC will eventually produce.

By Kate Irwin

The smuggled CPUs, estimated to be worth $1.5 million, were stashed in secret compartments.

By Michael Kan

Amid heated competition with AMD and Qualcomm, Intel reveals more about 'Lunar Lake,' its upcoming chip for AI PC laptops, including a surprising production partner.

By Michael Kan

AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm take different approaches to making their AI PCs stand out.

By Michael J. Miller

Chinese tech firms like MetaX and Tencent-backed Enflame create less advanced chips so that TSMC can keep producing them.

By Kate Irwin

Qualcomm makes some big promises in Taipei, arguing that PCs will be 'reborn' once the first Snapdragon X Elite laptops arrive on June 18. See the CEO keynote in capsule form.

By Michael Kan

Amid a more contested laptop processor market than ever, Intel's next-gen mobile CPUs promise to bring the AI heat and drop power consumption drastically. Here's the skinny on the coming silicon.

By John Burek

In Taipei, AMD introduces new Ryzen chips for laptops and desktops and changes up the naming scheme for its processors to highlight AI-related performance.

By Michael Kan

Making sense of the new Ryzen mobile chips debuting at Computex requires an all-new decoder guide. Here it is.

By John Burek

Ryzen 9000 is based on new microarchitecture and backed by fresh chipsets. Plus: AM4 is 'The Socket That Would Not Die,' with two more new XT-class chips for it coming soon.

South Korea's nuclear safety authorities investigate Samsung after two semiconductor workers were exposed to radiation and hospitalized.

By Kate Irwin

Recent Intel and Qualcomm processor efforts, built around high-speed and low-power cores, look like winners. Where's AMD's take on the concept?

Along with new Surface tablets and laptops, Microsoft announces new AI capabilities for its own software and third-party apps. Here are the top announcements from today’s pre-Build event.

By Michael Muchmore

Intel has teased new, early details of its next-generation "Lunar Lake" AI-ready processors, with some sizable performance claims throwing shade on Qualcomm's coming Snapdragon X chips.

By Matthew Buzzi

The PC makers are prepping Windows 11 laptops built with Qualcomm's Snapdragon Elite X chips.

By Michael Kan

Buying the right processor for PC gaming might seem complicated—especially with AMD's multiple Ryzen families and Intel's many Cores and "Lakes." Here's everything you need to know, plus our top picks based on PC Labs' deep-dive CPU reviews.