APC August 2022

BEN MANSILL Wishes he still had his first ever PC, a 386DX/25. Never throw away your favourite toys, people. In this issue of APC you’ll find a very useful guide to making Windows 11 a bit better. For anyone that’s recently upgraded, we understand some aspects of the new OS came as a rude shock. There’s much to be loved about Windows 10 (and 7 – it’s still good!), and with our guide it’s easy (and a bit of fun) to tweak away and get 11 just-right. Everyone loves a great read, and I hope you enjoy our AMD history feature. It’s an incredible story and it’s an ongoing and fascinating tale that’s still unfolding. We’ve all been witness to AMD’s Ryzen miracle, and how it not only brought supreme multi-core performance…

1 ASHAMPOO UNINSTALLER 10 Uninstall programs without leftovers. Ashampoo UnInstaller 10 deletes programs without leftovers and allows you to install, test and remove software without worries. Four deletion methods ensure a more thorough removal than is possible with Windows’ default means. This includes unwanted programs, e.g snuck into your system through nested installers or internet-based sideloading. Ashampoo UnInstaller 10 is the ultimate solution against this type of spyware/malware programs and eliminates them all! Getting rid of no longer or never wanted browser extensions is equally easy, even for those little “helpers” that browsers themselves can’t or won’t list. Download link: www.apcmag.com/exclusives 2 ASHAMPOO SNAP 12 Windows screenshot app for images and videos. Ashampoo Snap 12 captures anything you see on your screen as images or videos. Aside from regular screenshots, the program also supports timed captures,…

APC is Australia’s oldest consumer technology magazine – having been consistently in print for forty years, since our first issue way back in May 1980 – and we take that heritage and responsibility very seriously. While our focus is obviously on the personal computer the very definition of the PC has changed and shifted markedly since the early 1980s. As such, we touch on many other areas of tech, too, from smartphones and apps to peripherals, accessories, and beyond. We have two goals: to find the best modern tech and to help you make the most of it. We’re also an open church in terms of platforms. We know most people aren’t wed to a single brand’s products and use a variety of devices. And, like you, APC’s journalists want to…

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. officially introduced its N2 (2nm class) manufacturing technology, its first node that will use gate-all-around field-effect transistors (GAAFETs), at its 2022 TSMC Technology Symposium. The new fabrication process will offer a full-now performance and power benefits, but when it comes to transistor density, it will barely impress in 2025 when it comes online. When it comes to performance and power consumption, TSMC’s nanosheet-based N2 node can boast of a 10 to 15 percent higher performance at the same power and complexity as well as a 25 to 30 percent lower power consumption at the same frequency and transistor count when compared to TSMC’s N3E. However, the new node increases chip density by only around 1.1x compared to N3E.…

EVGA has begun cutting the cord on its GPU Queue program for good as graphics card inventory returns to normal. With the recent cryptocurrency mining crash and the reduction of GPU prices, it was inevitable that EVGA would no longer need the GPU queue order for buying and selling goods. As a result, we fully expect EVGA to delete the queue at some point. But that will depend entirely on when EVGA receives enough volume for every single graphics card product it sells. This is yet another good sign that GPU prices are hurtling down to MSRP, and now is the best time to buy a modern gaming GPU if you don’t want to wait for next-generation GPUs.…

All is not well in crypto land. Bitcoin is the lowest it’s been in two years, and at the time of writing continues to drop. The CEO of Coinbase has warned of a crypto winter and laid off 1,100 staff. The latest news is that the days of profitably mining Ethereum with GPUs could be behind us now as well, depending on where you live and how much you pay for electricity. Cryptoslate has highlighted the fact that the falling Ethereum price, combined with increasing energy prices, has made it unprofitable to mine the cryptocurrency for the first time since 2020. Basically, you simply won’t make money at the current price of Ethereum given the price of electricity. To prove the point, they use an overclocked Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 capable of…