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https://www.pcworld.com en-us Sun, 18 Apr 2021 00:29:27 -0700 Sun, 18 Apr 2021 00:29:27 -0700 How to protect your COVID vaccination card digitally: Dos and don'ts Fri, 16 Apr 2021 16:35:00 -0700 Alaina Yee Alaina Yee On April 19, everyone in the United States aged 16 and older becomes eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine appointment. After you get jabbed, you’ll receive a comically old-school 3-inch by 4-inch paper card as proof of your immunization status. You can protect that piece of cardstock by sticking it into an inexpensive badge holder* (Amazon sells a pack of 10 with a resealable zipper for $10 ), but that doesn’t ward off the possibility of misplacing or outright losing it. You should have a digital copy as backup. And make it a good one: It should be clear, sharp, and easy to read. You may need it as proof of vaccination or as a way to recall appointment details when trying to replace a lost card. And because your vaccination card displays sensitive personal information that can be used for identity theft, a digital version should also be kept secure. To read this article in full, please click here ]] https://www.pcworld.com/article/3615456/how-to-protect-your-covid-vaccination-card-digitally.html#tk.rss_all Smartphones Scanners Cameras A perfect storm: Why graphics cards cost so much now Fri, 16 Apr 2021 13:10:00 -0700 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos It’s a bleak time to be a PC gamer. Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 30-series and AMD’s new Radeon RX 6000-series graphics cards blaze new performance trails compared to last generation’s disappointing offerings—but most people have no chance of getting their hands on either, especially not at a sane price. New graphics card stock drops disappear in minutes, if not seconds, at online retailers, often at crazily high prices. Many of those cards reappear shortly thereafter on resale sites like Ebay and Craiglist for twice their suggested price, or more. Here’s a very tangible recent example. AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT launched at $480 in mid-March. We said that in a sane GPU market, the price was about $100 too high for the performance offered. Sapphire said it would charge $580—an additional $100 premium—for its fantastic, custom-designed Nitro+ variant . When the Nitro+ 6700 XT actually hit the streets at Newegg, however, it cost a whopping $730 and still sold out in no time. The card is currently going for over $1,000 on Ebay . Most people have had more success claiming a vaccine shot than a new GPU this year, unbelievably enough. To read this article in full, please click here ]] https://www.pcworld.com/article/3612693/a-perfect-storm-why-graphics-cards-cost-so-much-now.html#tk.rss_all Graphics Cards Nvidia AMD Gaming Nvidia GeForce Experience Studio drivers optimize creative apps with one click Fri, 16 Apr 2021 13:07:00 -0700 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos Nvidia’s Studio drivers for GeForce GPUs revolve around creative applications rather than games, but they just swiped a nifty trick from the company’s Game Ready drivers anyway. The April Studio drivers, released this week to coincide with Nvidia’s GTC 2021 conference , added a one-click optimization option for creative apps in Nvidia’s GeForce Experience. It’s pretty darn cool for people who use the best graphics cards for both work and play. To read this article in full, please click here ]] https://www.pcworld.com/article/3615196/nvidia-geforce-experience-studio-drivers-optimize-creative-apps.html#tk.rss_all Graphics Cards Graphic Design Tools Nvidia Best power banks: The top portable chargers for your phone Fri, 16 Apr 2021 11:51:00 -0700 Jason Cipriani Jason Cipriani Anyone who uses a smartphone knows the importance of carrying a backup battery pack. But try searching for one on Amazon, say, and you’re likely to feel overwhelmed by the vast number of options. Besides the various charging specs, ports, and even cables you have to consider, there are a ton of competing brands. How are you supposed to know which ones actually live up to their promise? We’ve done the legwork for you, evaluating a wide range of power banks from different manufacturers, costing different prices, and some offering unique features. Our testing is extensive, too, subjecting the packs to real-world usage (read about our testing process in detail below). Our picks below reflect a range of needs. (You might also be interested in our our roundup of USB car chargers if you spend a lot of time in transit.) To read this article in full, please click here ]] https://www.pcworld.com/article/3236420/best-power-banks.html#tk.rss_all Mobile Mobile Phone Accessories Enterprise Holidays Holiday Shopping 2020 Small and Medium Business The best laptops: Premium laptops, budget laptops, 2-in-1s, and more Fri, 16 Apr 2021 09:30:00 -0700 Melissa Riofrio Melissa Riofrio The dogpile of new laptop technologies—AMD’s Ryzen 5000 and Intel’s Tiger Lake CPUs, plus Nvidia’s RTX 30-series mobile GPUs—are leading to a welcome rain of faster, better portable PCs, the latest of which we’ve just started reviewing. It’s still a tight market, as pandemic-fueled sales remain strong . But if you yearn for the latest and greatest, this is your time. Keep reading for the latest news and reviews. (Psst: We also have a list of all the laptops available with RTX 30-series .) To read this article in full, please click here ]] https://www.pcworld.com/article/2854456/the-best-pc-laptops-of-the-year.html#tk.rss_all Laptops The Full Nerd ep. 173: Ryzen 5000G APUs look great, Nvidia's GPU crunch continues Fri, 16 Apr 2021 08:00:00 -0700 Brad Chacos Brad Chacos In this episode of The Full Nerd, Brad Chacos , Alaina Yee , and Adam Patrick Murray discuss long-anticipated AMD Ryzen APUs that you might be able to buy soon, and Nvidia graphics cards that you won’t. We kick things off with AMD’s Ryzen 5000G processors , the first Ryzen APUs announced in two years. They check a lot of the boxes enthusiasts have been asking for, offering integrated Radeon graphics clocked at up to a blistering 2GHz and as many as eight Ryzen cores—bursting through the former 4-core maximum—but it’s not quite all sunshine. Fast PCIe 4.0 SSDs won’t hit full speeds with these chips, and they’ll be coming to prebuilt systems first before launching in DIY retail form later this year. To read this article in full, please click here ]] https://www.pcworld.com/article/3615657/the-full-nerd-ep-173-ryzen-5000g-apus-look-great-nvidia-gpus-look-late.html#tk.rss_all Computer Components AMD Nvidia What are the new Surface Edition chips in the Surface Laptop 4? Fri, 16 Apr 2021 07:00:00 -0700 Mark Hachman Mark Hachman Microsoft has released more information about the custom-built Ryzen Surface Edition processors found within the Surface Laptop 4, allowing potential buyers to compare them to the 11th-gen Core chips also being offered for this product line. Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 4 includes two Ryzen chips: the Ryzen 5 4680U Surface Edition, and the Ryzen 7 4980U Surface Edition. These are semi-custom processors, co-developed by AMD and Microsoft, and they required some specialized engineering. They’re not sold by AMD, and can’t be found in any other laptops. Because of the advance development time, they’re built on AMD’s older Zen 2 architecture , rather than the Zen 3 foundations of the new Ryzen 5000 Mobile chips. To read this article in full, please click here ]] https://www.pcworld.com/article/3615231/what-are-the-new-surface-edition-chips-in-the-surface-laptop-4.html#tk.rss_all CPUs and Processors Microsoft Surface Laptops AMD Intel Microsoft No sacrifices necessary: Be Quiet's Silent Base 802 has plenty of room for all your components Fri, 16 Apr 2021 03:30:00 -0700 Alaina Yee Alaina Yee Much of the internet adores small form factor cases, but the appeal of a good old-fashioned mid-tower can’t be denied. No difficult choices, no need for restraint—you can stuff in nearly all the components your heart might desire. Such is the allure of the Be Quiet Silent Base 80...