Type of site | Technology website |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Owner | PC Perspective Publications LLC |
URL | pcper |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Optional |
Launched | 2004 |
Current status | Active |
PC Perspective (often shortened to PCPer) is a web site dedicated to news and reviews of personal computing and gaming hardware. [1] PC Perspective specializes in hardware that is most relevant to home users and enthusiasts. The site also has an active online community, a weekly podcast, and founder Ryan Shrout was the co-host of TWiT.tv's This Week in Computer Hardware. [2]
PCPer was founded by Ryan Shrout in 2004. [1] Shrout previously ran the AMD motherboard centric Amdmb.com, Athlonmb.com, and K7M.com websites. [3] [4]
PC Perspective was originally located at pcperspective.com, but quickly moved to pcper.com.
The PCPer website publishes news and reviews of consumer computing and gaming hardware, [5] [6] [7] which has been highlighted in Forbes, [8] [9] [10] PC World, [11] [12] Ars Technica, [13] [14] [15] [16] and Anandtech. [17] At the editor's discretion, products with exceptional reviews may be given Silver, Gold, or Editor's Choice awards. [18] PCPer has also been noted for purchasing professional level products in order to infer the performance of consumer products based on the same microarchitecture, [19] [20] and livestreaming benchmarking of new products. [21]
The PCPer website also hosts a leaderboard of suggested components for computers at various price points. [22]
PCPer also partnered with Polygon in 2016 on the construction and evaluation of computers for virtual reality gaming. [23]
Due to consulting done by some PCPer staff on products, some PCPer reviews include disclosure statements describing the consulting and review relationship and any potential conflict of interest. [24] With the departure of PCPer staff involved in private consulting and the transfer of ownership on January 1, 2019 to individuals not involved in any form of private consulting, the PCPer review disclosures statements have remained under the justification of providing readers with relevant information about published reviews. [25]
PCPer hosts a weekly podcast discussing the weeks technology news and reviews. Video podcasts have been produced since at least 2010, [26] with a successful Indiegogo fundraising campaign supporting production equipment. [27] PCPer also began in July 2017 to host a weekly video series answering reader's questions, [28] after reaching a set support level on Patreon. [29]
Ryan Shrout was the regular co-host of TWiT.tv's This Week in Computer Hardware with Patrick Norton [2] with other PCPer editors co-hosting as-well. [30] Sebastian Peak took over co-hosting duties when Shrout went on to work for Intel. [31]
Founder Ryan Shrout is also a consultant, [32] analyst for MarketWatch [33] [34] and contributor to EE Times, [35] [36] [37] [38] and CNBC, [39] [40] [41] and other publications; [42] often discussing technology related news. Shrout has also co-hosted The Tech Analysts podcast, discussing technology topics, with Patrick Moorehead since 2017. [43] [44]
In October 2018, Shrout announced he would leave PCPer and join Intel as the company's Chief Performance Strategist. [45] [46]
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactured its own processors, the company later outsourced its manufacturing, a practice known as going fabless, after GlobalFoundries was spun off in 2009. AMD's main products include microprocessors, motherboard chipsets, embedded processors and graphics processors for servers, workstations, personal computers and embedded system applications.
The Tech Report is a web site which used to be dedicated to covering personal computing technology and culture. The Tech Report specialized in hardware and produced a quarterly system build guides at various price points, and occasional price vs. performance scatter plots. Tech Report also has an online community and used to have an active podcast. Some of the site's investigative articles regarding hardware benchmarking have been cited by other technology news sites like Anandtech and PC World. The site went through ownership change and major redesign in middle of 2019 after which the site's focus and content went through significant changes, no longer specializing in hardware or producing any system guides, podcasts and no longer being focused on computer technology.
The AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), formerly known as Fusion, is the marketing term for a series of 64-bit microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), designed to act as a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) on a single die. APUs are general purpose processors that feature integrated graphics processors (IGPs).
Unified Video Decoder (UVD), previously called Universal Video Decoder, is the name given to AMD's dedicated video decoding ASIC. There are multiple versions implementing a multitude of video codecs, such as H.264 and VC-1.
Not to be confused with Nintendo Gamecube.
TrueAudio is the name given to AMD's ASIC intended to serve as dedicated co-processor for the calculations of computationally expensive advanced audio signal processing, like e.g. convolution reverberation effects and 3D audio effects. TrueAudio is integrated into some of the AMD GPUs and APUs available since 2013.
AMD PowerTune is a series of dynamic frequency scaling technologies built into some AMD GPUs and APUs that allow the clock speed of the processor to be dynamically changed by software. This allows the processor to meet the instantaneous performance needs of the operation being performed, while minimizing power draw, heat generation and noise avoidance. AMD PowerTune aims to solve thermal design power and performance constraints.
Zen is the codename for a family of computer processor microarchitectures from AMD, first launched in February 2017 with the first generation of its Ryzen CPUs.
The Radeon 400 series is a series of graphics cards made by AMD. These cards were the first to feature the Polaris GPUs, using the new 14 nm FinFET manufacturing process, developed by Samsung Electronics and licensed to GlobalFoundries. The Polaris family initially included two new chips in the Graphics Core Next (GCN) family. Polaris implements the 4th generation of the Graphics Core Next instruction set, and shares commonalities with the previous GCN microarchitectures.
Zen is the codename for the first iteration in a family of computer processor microarchitectures of the same name from AMD. It was first used with their Ryzen series of CPUs in February 2017. The first Zen-based preview system was demonstrated at E3 2016, and first substantially detailed at an event hosted a block away from the Intel Developer Forum 2016. The first Zen-based CPUs, codenamed "Summit Ridge", reached the market in early March 2017, Zen-derived Epyc server processors launched in June 2017 and Zen-based APUs arrived in November 2017.
Socket AM4 is a PGA microprocessor socket used by AMD's central processing units (CPUs) built on the Zen and Excavator microarchitectures.
Radeon Pro is AMD's brand of professional oriented GPUs. It replaced AMD's FirePro brand in 2016. Compared to the Radeon brand for mainstream consumer/gamer products, the Radeon Pro brand is intended for use in workstations and the running of computer-aided design (CAD), computer-generated imagery (CGI), digital content creation (DCC), high-performance computing/GPGPU applications, and the creation and running of virtual reality programs and games.
AMD Radeon Instinct is AMD's brand of deep learning oriented GPUs. It replaced AMD's FirePro S brand in 2016. Compared to the Radeon brand of mainstream consumer/gamer products, the Radeon Instinct branded products are intended to accelerate deep learning, artificial neural network, and high-performance computing/GPGPU applications.
Ryzen is a brand of multi-core x86-64 microprocessors designed and marketed by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for desktop, mobile, server, and embedded platforms based on the Zen microarchitecture. It consists of central processing units (CPUs) marketed for mainstream, enthusiast, server, and workstation segments and accelerated processing units (APUs) marketed for mainstream and entry-level segments and embedded systems applications.
Zen+ is the codename for a computer processor microarchitecture by AMD. It is the successor to the first gen Zen microarchitecture, first released in April 2018, powering the second generation of Ryzen processors, known as Ryzen 2000 for mainstream desktop systems, Threadripper 2000 for high-end desktop setups and Ryzen 3000G for accelerated processing units (APUs).
The Radeon RX Vega series is a series of graphics processors developed by AMD. These GPUs use the Graphics Core Next (GCN) 5th generation architecture, codenamed Vega, and are manufactured on 14 nm FinFET technology, developed by Samsung Electronics and licensed to GlobalFoundries. The series consists of desktop graphics cards and APUs aimed at desktops, mobile devices, and embedded applications.
Raja M. Koduri is a computer engineer and executive for computer graphics hardware. He is currently the chief architect and senior vice president of Intel's architecture, graphics and software (IAGS) division. Before Intel, he worked as the senior vice president and chief architect of the Radeon Technologies Group, the graphics division at Intel's competitor AMD. He was born in Kovvur, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh in India.