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Ryzen Versus Core i7 In 11 Popular Games

Pre-release Cinebench and Blender benchmarks showing Ryzen ahead of Core i7-6900K gave enthusiasts hope they’d have a cheaper alternative to Intel’s brawny Broadwell-E-based CPUs. And while it’s fair to say the Ryzen launch went well for AMD in comparisons of pricing and professional application performance, gaming didn’t paint the processor in a very good light at all.

We are always willing to make some concessions in the name of value, so Ryzen doesn’t have to beat Intel’s offerings across the board. It just needs to be competitive. Where that line exists for you is completely subjective. But for many, Ryzen’s frame rates are too low, even in light of its attractive pricing. And if gaming is the primary purpose for your PC, it’s hard to ignore faster and cheaper Kaby Lake-based Core i7s and i5s that serve up better results in many popular games.

Theories abound as to why Ryzen processors are struggling in gaming metrics, but some of the disparity no doubt comes from an IPC and clock rate deficit compared to Intel’s Kaby Lake design. The issue also appears to stem from AMD’s Zen architecture and how applications navigate its cache hierarchy.

The Zen architecture employs a four-core CCX (CPU Complex) building block. AMD outfits each CCX with a 16-way associative 8MB L3 cache split into four slices; each core in the CCX accesses this L3 with the same average latency. Two CCXes come together to create an eight-core Ryzen 7 processor (image below), and they communicate via AMD’s Infinity Fabric interconnect. Data that traverses the void between CCXes incurs increased latency, so it’s ideal to avoid the trip altogether if possible.

Unfortunately, threads migrate between the CPU Complexes, thus suffering cache misses on the local CCX’s L3. Threads might also communicate with other threads (and their data) running on the CCX next door, again adding latency and chipping away at overall performance.

AMD noted in a recent blog post that most games aren’t optimized for its implementation of simultaneous multi-threading, which is particularly painful due to Ryzen’s core advantage. In fact, we’ve found that disabling SMT actually improves the chip’s performance in games like Ashes of the Singularity, Arma 3, Battlefield 1, and The Division.

Ryzen represents AMD’s first attempt at an SMT technology, so teething pains on the application side are understandable. Two game developers have come forward and voiced their intention to support AMD’s implementation in future updates, and AMD says it seeded the industry with 300 developer kits to jump-start the optimization effort. There are thousands of games, though. While many existing titles probably won’t receive patches written with AMD in mind, we do hope that newer titles incorporate the code needed to run more smoothly.

According to AMD, this problem doesn’t relate to the Windows scheduler. Normally we’d say that’s a good thing, since it doesn’t depend on Microsoft to fix. But if the issue was tied to the operating system, a single update could optimize for AMD’s processors, similar to what we saw with Bulldozer in the Windows 8 days. Instead, we have to look out for improvements one application at a time.

AMD also points out that Ryzen is more competitive at 3840×2160 than at lower resolutions, such as 1920×1080. Obviously, gaming at higher resolutions shifts the bottleneck over to your GPU. So while AMD’s observation is true, it isn’t indicative of better processor performance, but rather the architecture’s weakness hidden behind a slammed GPU. Many of us use our CPUs for several years, and as we swap out for faster graphics cards, the bottleneck will start swinging back to host processing. In many ways, today’s 4K is tomorrow’s QHD.

The Socket AM4 ecosystem holds great promise, but our experience with the top motherboard manufacturers (and indeed their experience with AMD’s chipsets) has been less than ideal. We’ve received a flurry of updates in the days leading up to and following Ryzen 7’s launch. In some cases, new firmware improves performance. In others, the fix shines light on the underlying issues. General platform instability aside, we get the sense there wasn’t enough preparation pre-launch, and AMD’s partners are scrambling now as a result. But there’s hope that things will get better. AMD recently announced it’s working on an updated power profile to better accommodate normal desktop usage patterns (more on that in a bit).

In the meantime, we want to better understand the state of gaming with a Ryzen CPU. Today’s feature includes a number of popular titles and all three Ryzen CPUs. Though we’re still working on our reviews of the Ryzen 7 1700X and 1700, digging deeper on gaming, specifically, was our top priority for follow-up after publishing the AMD Ryzen 7 1800X CPU Review.

MORE: Best CPUs

MORE: Intel & AMD Processor Hierarchy

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Back up all your data—and we mean all of it—to your NAS box without installing any software

If you know anything about NAS (Network Attached Storage), you know that it’s a great centralized backup receptacle for your PCs. If you didn’t know, we just told you. Actually, the name is bit of a giveaway: NAS is storage that you attach via ethernet or Wi-Fi and access across the network. What that doesn’t tell you is that most NAS boxes have the smarts of a PC, with a full-blown app environment that includes extensive backup abilities.

But there are two things that even NAS-aware users might not realize: First, many NAS boxes are perfectly capable of backing up data from PCs running any type of operating system (e.g., Windows, OS X, or Linux) from anywhere, using nothing more than their integrated utilities. All you need to do is configure the PC to give up its data, and then use the NAS box to grab it.

Second, most NAS boxes can also sync with OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox and other cloud services to keep your mobile data backed up, too. Sadly, Apple’s iCloud is one of the few services that is not widely supported. But there are ways, and I’ll cover NAS/online syncing at the end for this article.

There are of course any number of ways to back up to a NAS box that can be invoked locally; i.e., from the PC or device you want to back up. But nearly all involve installing software or client apps or using native backup solutions. Some NAS vendors even provide their own proprietary client/server solutions. Indeed, if you want to back up whole partitions or drives to images, you can only do it from your PC.

But if you’re like me, the last thing you want is yet another program bugging you with reminders, warnings, and other messages, not to mention chewing up CPU cycles that you might want for more useful purposes. Why not just use the integrated file-sharing capabilities of computers and leverage the software on the NAS box, instead?

I’ll show you how to use the backup and sync apps on a NAS box in a bit, but first you need to select a sharing/transfer protocol and configure your computers.You have two choices: SMB (Server Message Block), which is simple to set up on PCs, or FTP (File Transfer Protocol), which can work both locally and remotely. FTP is almost universally supported by NAS boxes for remote-to-local backup, while for some reason, SMB isn’t always.

Your NAS box might choose the protocol for you. WD, for instance, only supports FTP for backing up to the box, Seagate supports SMB and FTP, while Synology doesn’t support either on many of its less-expensive boxes.

The chart below lists some of the more popular NAS box vendors and which protocols they support for remote to local backup.

Jon L. Jacobi

Not every NAS box manufacturer supports both the SMB and FTP protocols. Synology supports both, but only on its more-expensive models.

File sharing/SMB

The simplest way to back up computers on a local network is via SMB. It’s the standard network protocol for Windows PCs, and is what is used by Windows simply as file sharing. But it’s also supported by Macs and Linux PCs. In fact most NAS boxes run some form of Linux.

The basic concept here is to enable sharing for each folder on your PCs you want to back up, then simply point the NAS box to those shares and tell it to back them up. Personally, I share entire drives, then select the folders to back up using the app on the NAS box, but sharing only specific folders is fine as well. Make note of the IP address, user name and password for every PC you want to back up. Below is a step-by-step description of how to enable sharing a folder on Windows.

Setting up a Windows PC starts in the Sharing tab in the Properties dialog that pops up when you right-click on a drive or folder and select Properties from the context menu.

PCWorld

Once the dialog above is open, click on Advanced Sharing. In the dialog, check Share this folder, then click on Permissions. Depending on the folder, you might see your user name, or Everyone in the list of users.

To limit permissions to a single user:

Select Everyone, then click Remove.
To add a user (required), click on Add, and in the next dialog, type in your user name or the name of the user you’ll be logging on with from the NAS box. Click on the Check Name button make sure it’s a legitimate choice and you’ve spelled it correctly. If you have, Windows will underline it, and put the name of your PC or domain in front of it. Click Okay, and you’ll return to the previous dialog.
If all you want is to back up the drive or folder, de-select Full Control and Write, leaving Read checked.

That’s all there is to it for a Windows PC.

It’s even easier on a Mac as almost everything is already shared by default, but you need to turn on SMB sharing for the user you want to log on as before it will be accessible by the NAS box.

Apple

Setting up SMB on the Mac is easier than Windows, and most folders are already shared.

FTP

SMB is the easiest for computers on your local network, but how about your mother’s PC across town? Or even your downtown office PC? FTP, one of the oldest file transfer technologies around, is just the ticket.

Setting up your PC as an FTP server takes a few steps, but is not at all difficult. This example is based on Windows 10, but the process will be similar with other versions.

Open the Control Panel and go to Programs > Turn Windows features on and off.
Scroll down to Internet Information Services, expand it, and check the FTP box.
Make sure FTP Extensibility and FTP service are both checked.
Hit okay and the FTP server will be installed.

Microsoft

You can create FTP sites using the Windows Internet Information Services console, after you’ve enabled it under Control Panel > Programs > Add or remote programs > Turn Windows features on and off.

Close the control panel, type IIS into the search field on the task bar, and select the Internet Information Services app that will appear above.

Look in the far left column for a folder called Sites. Right-click on Sites and select Add FTP site….
In the dialog that pops up, give the site a name, such as “MomsFTP,” and browse to the directory that you want as the main source for the site. This will be the directory or folder you want to back up, although if you prefer, you could back up files from other locations to that folder as well. You can add other folders to the site later.
Hit next and from the drop-down IP menu select the IP address of the PC you’re on. If you don’t know this, look under Control Panel > Network and internet > Network and sharing center > Active Network > Connection > Details > IPV4. This assumes you’re using a normal home router and haven’t switched to IPV6.
Make sure Start FTP site automatically is selected, then select No SSL (assuming only local access from your home network), or leave it unselected if you’ll be backing up from a remote location, and again click Next.
On the next page, leave Basic security checked. Only check Anonymous access if you want everyone to be able to see the site without entering a username and password. This is probably a bad idea for most of us. The username and password will be the Windows username and password for the PC you’re setting up.
Click Finish and your site should be up and running.

To add additional folders to the site, right-click on the name of the FTP site in the column to the left (once it’s up and running), and select Add Virtual Directory. Then simply browse to the folder (or drive) you want and add it. Easy Peasy.

Note: Depending on your NAS box, you might need to switch between MS-DOS and UNIX browsing under IIS > FTP site > Directory browsing. Otherwise, folder names may not appear.

Set up your Mac as an FTP site

To enable the FTP server on MacOS, open a Terminal, paste the following at the command prompt, and hit enter:

sudo -s launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

To disable the FTP server, paste this and hit enter.

sudo -s launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

Unlike with Windows, all folders will be available by default. Yes, it’s easier than Windows once you get past using the Terminal. Note that drives and their contents are found under the Volumes folder.

Set up your NAS box to back up

Now for the fun part: Setting up the backup job on your NAS box. I don’t have the room to lay out specific instructions for every NAS box, but it basically goes like this: Open the backup program, select the local directory to receive the backup, choose the SMB or FTP protocol, browse to the IP address of the source and select the folder you want to back up to the box, and then adjust the schedule to taste.

As mentioned previously, you’ll need three pieces of information to do this: the IP address of the remote PC to be backed up (local and/or public if it’s remote), the user name for the computer, and the password for that user. The NAS box needs this information to find your PC and log on. You might also need the paths of the drives or folders you’ll want to back up, depending on whether your NAS box lets you browse the destination. Most will, with the notable exception of Netgear when using FTP.

As I mainly use a QNAP HS-251, here are the specific instructions for that box. Others will be similar.

QNAP

Once you’ve opened Hybrid Backup Sync, you’ll want to go to FTP or CIFS/SMB under the remote to local sync menu.

If you haven’t installed Hybrid Backup Sync, go the the Apps section and install it. Many other NAS boxes—such as WD’s and Seagate’s—will already have any backup features pre-installed. From the Overview page, select Sync. Yes, we’re going to do a one-way sync, which is like a mirror of your source. If you want a true backup, i.e. a point-in-time saved image, you’ll need to use other means.

Check One-way Sync and then select Sync with remote server.
Select Remote to local sync.
If you’re going to use normal file sharing, select CIFS/SMB, if you’re going to use FTP, select that.
In the Create Sync Job dialog that pops up, give the job a meaningful name such as “Office PC to NAS” and then click on the Settings button below that.
In the Add Remote Connection dialog that pops up, give the remote PC a meaningful name such as “Office-PC”, type in its IP address, the user name you want to log on as, and that user’s password. In the folder, type in the share name.
Click Test. If you entered everything correctly, and the remote PC is online, you will see Succeed. Click okay and exit.

Now it’s just a matter of selecting the Local destination folders and Remote source folders from the NAS box and the remote PC. Click Add for each pairing and then save the job.

Scheduling

If there’s anything at all tricky about using your NAS box and SMB/FTP to back up your stuff, it’s making sure that everything is on when the backup is scheduled to run. In my experience, the backup process requires so little effort on the part of the PC being backed up that it’s unnoticeable, so I set the backup for times I know I’ll most likely be using the PC.

There’s a backup running as I write and there is absolutely nothing to indicate that the operation is taking place. No slowdowns, no dialogs, no nothing. The only reason I know it’s in progress is checking with the NAS box via its web browser interface. I truly love it.

Cloud sync

All NAS boxes feature apps that will sync with online services. Which services and how many of them varies, but the most important are those used for backup by phones: Google Drive and OneDrive. Alas, Apple doesn’t allow access to iCloud from anything other than its own apps. If you’re an iPhone user, I recommend using DropBox.

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[Daily Deal] 56% off the Pugo Top Apple Watch Stand

The Pugo Top Apple Watch Stand is on offer today with a 56% discount. Get it within the next 3,5 hours for just £11.99. At 10.6 ounces, it’s heavier and more stable than most stands so that it doesn’t fall over your bedside table. The Apple Watch charger (not included) fits easily on the back of the stand and the cable is hidden. Made of aluminium, the Pugo Top Stand also has a rubber base to ensure the Apple Watch remains secure.

You may also be interested in the following offers

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Netatmo Weather Station review

If – like most of the British – you’re obsessed with the weather, and you also love gadgets, Netatmo’s Urban Weather should be right up your street. It works with an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or Android device, but even if you don’t have one of those, you can see the data on Netatmo’s website.

The kit consists of two sensors, one which stays indoors and another which resides outdoors. Information is sent via Wi-Fi to your router, and uploaded to Netatmo’s servers.

To view the data, including temperature, humidity and pressure, you can install the free app for iOS or Android. As long as you have an internet connection, the app displays the latest data from your station and can give you alerts.

Update March 2017: Netatmo has added support for Alexa to its Weather Station. Owners of both the station and an Amazon Echo (or another device with Alexa) can ask the assistant “Alexa, ask Netatmo what is the outside temperature” and get a spoken response rather than having to check the app. Just search for the Skill in the Alexa app, or ask Alexa to enable the Netatmo skill.

Below is our original review, written when the Weather Station launched in 2013.

Netatmo Weather Station review: Features and design

Both sensors look sleek in aluminium and white plastic, and the mains-powered indoor unit has a strip which glows various colours depending on its status.

The smaller outdoor sensor is powered by four AAA batteries and has a recess on the back for wall mounting (a wall plug and screw are included along with batteries). It isn’t waterproof and the manual suggests you place it under the eaves of your house. Netatmo says the batteries should need replacing only once a year, but as we’ve had only a couple of weeks of testing, we can’t verify that.

Being a keen gardener, I put it in the greenhouse at the bottom of the garden, some 40m away from the main sensor. Netatmo claims a range of up to 100m, but that’s with no obstables. I had one or two signal problems during my testing, but there were several walls between the sensors. Moving the indoor sensor so there was only one wall separating the units solved the problem.

As the units are pre-paired, that’s one less job to do and makes for very easy installation.

Once you’ve installed the app (there are separate iPad and iPhone versions), you connect your device via its USB cable to the back of the main sensor and the app detects it automatically. You then pick a Wi-Fi network, enter the password and set a name for your station.

UPDATE: The latest version of the kit has only a micro-USB connection and setup is automatic via Bluetooth instead of a wired connection. Your Wi-Fi settings are cloned from your iPhone, so there’s no need to enter a password.

With that done, can you tap the top of the sensor to take a manual reading and check everything is working.

There’s no subscription fee, so while the initial cost is fairly high, there are no subscription costs to pay.

Netatmo Urban Weather Station: apps

I used both the iPhone and iPad apps and both are pretty good. The iPhone’s smaller screen means you don’t see as much information at once, but rotating it switches to graph view and sliding the bottom portion of the main screen downwards reveals more outdoor details (such as 24-hour low and high temperatures) plus a seven-day weather forecast.

Sliding it upwards displays more details about indoor conditions such as CO2 and noise levels. Unfortunately, it doesn’t measure carbon monoxide.

Both sensors also measure humidity, but only the indoor module can sense barometric pressure.

There are some default alerts, such as when the CO2 level exceeds 1000ppm, but you can set custom alerts for any measurements.

For me, that meant I could set alerts to tell me if the greenhouse temperature got too high or too low: information that could save the loss of plants worth considerably more than the price of the kit.

You can create as many alerts as you like, and disable any or all of the default notifications.

There are plenty of uses for notifications. One of the defaults alerts you if the pressure drops more than 2mbar in an hour (an indicator of poor weather) and another warns if the indoor temperature goes below 10 degrees (alerting of a possible central heating failure).

Being able to view a graph of any measurement over time can be helpful in certain situations, but like the ability to record sound levels, may be an unnecessary frill for some.

Automatic measurements are taken every five minutes, so there’s plenty of data to pore over, and it’s easy to pinch to zoom in and out of graphs. We’d like to see an option for an absolute scale, though. Graphs automatically adjust the y-axis depending on the data, instead of starting at zero.

You can give others access to your Weather Station: all they need is the app, or to log in to the website:

If you buy more than one Weather Station, it’s easy to switch between them within the app.

Additional indoor sensors are available to buy at £59 each and can be used to monitor temperature and air quality in more than one room. Up to three can be added.

You can’t buy extra outdoor sensors, but the rain gauge is £59 from John Lewis.

Netatmo Urban Weather Station: rain gauge

The latest addition to the Urban Weather Station is a rain gauge. It isn’t quite as stylish as the aluminium sensors in the main kit: it’s made entirely from plastic.

It’s powered by a pair of AAA batteries (like the outdoor sensor) and is obviously waterproof. It uses a tipping bucket mechanism to measure rainfall: a magnet passes a solenoid and the number of tips is counted. Netatmo says it’s accurate to within 1mm/hour (measuring as little as 0.2mm/hour).

Unless you’re a farmer, you probably won’t be too bothered by accuracy, though, and if you do need accurate measurements, the gauge can be calibrated in the app.

For most people, the two main reasons to add a rain gauge to your Urban Weather Station will be to set an alert when it starts raining (so you can nip out and get the washing in) and to figure out when you need to water your garden. You can see the current rainfall in the app (or on the website) as well as cumulative rainfall.

Otherwise, apart from the novelty of being able to track when and how much it rained, there’s not much incentive to spend an extra £60 or so on the gauge.

We tested the gauge before it went on sale and the app hadn’t been fully updated from French to English, leaving us to add a Nouveau pluviometre. Once paired, you can place the gauge up to 100m away from the base station. We tested at around 25m with several walls in the way and had no signal problems. (Note: The app has been completely overhauled since the review was written.)

Graphs of rainfall over time are available when you select the gauge from the drop-down menu

Netatmo Urban Weather Station: bottom line

We’ve already mentioned that there’s no carbon monoxide sensor, and another gripe is that there’s no display on either sensor, so you can’t see the temperature without firing up the app.

Even though you can now pick it up for just under £120 it’s still a lot of money given that a basic weather station with an outdoor sensor and hygrometer can be picked up for around ten times less.

The advantage with the Netatmo, of course, is remote monitoring and alerts. If you need these features, and want to be able to track measurements over time, the price may not be such a barrier.

Add Jim Martin to your Google+ circles and follow Jim Martin and @PCAdvisor on Twitter.

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MacBook Pro latest rumours – release date, UK price and specs

In October we saw a new MacBook Pro with Touchbar, but we’re expecting another update in 2017 and it might come powered by AMD, not Intel. Read the latest rumours on the 2017 MacBook Pro specifications, price and UK launch date.

All the information you need about the new Apple MacBook Pro

By Marie Brewis | 16 mins ago

In October Apple unveiled its long-awaited MacBook Pro with a fancy new Touch Bar, but we won’t be waiting as long for the next update.New MacBook Pros with updated processors – potentially Intel Kaby Lake chips – are expected this year, . We outline the 2016 MacBook Pro UK release date, price and specification, plus new MacBook Pro 2017 rumours. See also: Best laptops 2017.

Also see: Apple October Event as it happened | MacBook Pro with Touch Bar review

When is the 2017 MacBook Pro release date?

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is predicting updated MacBooks with Intel Kaby Lake processor later this year. Kuo says new 12in MacBooks will enter mass production in Q2 (March), potentially with a new 16GB RAM model.

Meanwhile new 13- and 15in MacBook Pros will begin mass production in Q3 (July). In Q4 (September) we could see a high-end 15in MacBook Pro with 32GB of RAM as “the most significantly redesigned product this year”.

What are the rumoured specifications?

The notion of new MacBook Pros in 2017 is backed up by a new Bloomberg report. It says a new model is planned for later this year but it might herald a shift away from Intel processors. According to people familiar with the matter the chip, codenamed T310 and built ARM technology, will handle low-power functionality and work along the main Intel processor.

This move could mean better battery life as moving the ‘Power Nap’ feature to the new chip will use even less power. Apple’s ARM-based T1 chip is already in the latest MacBook Pro – see below.

But what about AMD Ryzen? An article on Arcitosh.com suggests “AMD’s new Ryzen 7 CPUs look to promise more computing muscle per watt than Intel and offer a nicer philosophical fit for Apple.”

The current MacBook Pro isn’t much faster than the model it replaced, since Apple looks to provide performance while conserving battery life. Arcitosh suggests that rather than producing its own or using Intel’s chips to look for the ultimate performance per watt, it could instead use AMD’s Ryzen CPUs.

As with Microsoft and the Surface Pro 5, Apple is apparently considering AMD for the 2017 MacBook Pro. In fact, it could be powered by the upcoming Raven Ridge APU – a combination of Ryzen chipsets for CPU and Vega-based chipsets for GPU. Raven Ridge was originally planned for 2018 but an updated roadmap shows a 2017 release instead.

Watch this space for more updates.

All about the MacBook Pro 2016

In October 2016 on the week of the Apple laptop’s 25th anniversary, Apple announced the best MacBook Pro yet. There are 13- and 15in models with new all-aluminium designs that are significantly thinner and lighter than their predecessors, just 14.9mm thin and 3lb for the 13in model and 15.5mm and 4lb for the 15in model.

The new MacBook Pros, available in Silver and Space Grey, have a two times larger Force Touch trackpad and a new context-sensitive Retina display Touch Bar that replaces the row of Function keys. Touch ID is also built-in with Secure Enclave and protected with Sapphire glass.

The new Touch Bar consumed most of Apple’s demonstration, and it does look cool. What functions it offers entirely depend on the app you’re in. For example, you might get emoji in the Messages app, favourite sites in Safari, and options to reply or delete in Mail. In Photos are useful editing controls, and we particularly like the look of the quick type function in relevant apps, which may speed up typing.

The keyboard itself has also been improved, with new second-generation Butterfly-style switch mechanisms that are more responsive and offer better travel.

The new MacBook Pro is a sixth-generation Skylake machine with a 2133MHz Intel Core i7 inside (you can opt for a Core i5 in the 13in model). There’s up to 2TB of storage via a superfast SSD, and in the 15in model AMD Radeon Pro graphics with up to 4GB VRAM (the 13in model has Intel Iris graphics).

Apple says the 15in model is 130 percent faster than its predecessor on graphics, 60 percent faster for gaming, and 57 percent faster for video editing. The 13in model, meanwhile, is 103 percent faster than its predecessor for gaming, and 76 percent faster for both video editing and 3D graphics.

The display is better than ever, now 67 percent brighter with 67 percent higher contrast and 25 percent more colours.

Each MacBook Pro is fitted with four Thunderbolt 3 ports that can go up to 40GB/s. Each of these ports can be used for power or as Thunderbolt, USB-C, DisplayPort, HDMI or VGA connections.

How much does the MacBook Pro cost in the UK?

The new MacBook Pro comes in three models, all available direct from Apple.

1. 13in MacBook Pro without Touch Bar and Touch ID, 2GHz Intel Core i5 dual-core processor, Intel Iris Graphics 540, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 2x Thunderbolt 3. Available today for £1,499 ($1,499).

2. 13in MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID, 2.9GHz Intel Core i5 dual-core processor, Intel Iris Graphics 550, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 4x Thunderbolt 3. Shipping in three- to four weeks from £1,749 ($1,799).

3. 15in MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID, 2.6GHz Intel Core i7 quad-core processor, AMD Radeon Pro 450 Graphics, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 4x Thunderbolt 3. Shipping in three- to four weeks from £2,349 ($2,399).

Want to learn more about the new MacBook Pro? Check out our in-depth guide on our sister site Macworld.

Follow Marie Brewis on Twitter.

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AMD gets defensive over criticisms of Ryzen processors

AMD has come out defending its new Ryzen processors, addressing concerns which have recently been aired on possible problems with Windows 10’s thread scheduler, and temperature-related issues.

In a blog post on AMD’s community site, the company said it had investigated reports of Ryzen suffering decreased performance levels at the hands of incorrect thread scheduling.

AMD said that: “Based on our findings, AMD believes that the Windows 10 thread scheduler is operating properly for ‘Zen’ [Ryzen], and we do not presently believe there is an issue with the scheduler adversely utilizing the logical and physical configurations of the architecture.”

The company further claimed that there’s no issue with scheduling differences between Windows 7 and Windows 10 affecting Ryzen CPUs based on the ‘limited’ available evidence, adding that any performance gaps are likely due to differences in the overall software architecture of these operating systems.

Move along

In short, regarding the whole thread scheduling controversy, AMD is saying there’s nothing to see here – move along.

From our point of view, even if there was certainly some kind of an issue, any performance hiccups caused by nuances of the operating system are likely to pale in comparison to the true problem behind the complaints of 1080p frame-rate woes – namely games which aren’t yet fully optimized for Ryzen.

AMD has previously said that 1080p performance will improve as developers get more time to optimize for Ryzen processors, and that some 300+ game devs are currently working on doing so. But this will obviously be a slow process happening over time, game-by-game.

The company also said it had investigated reports of SMT (simultaneous multi-threading) causing poorer performance in some games with Ryzen, concluding that SMT should “generally see a neutral/positive benefit” in games, and AMD has observed this across many titles.

For any outliers AMD asserted that once more, further optimization of said games should prove beneficial.

Not so hot

Finally, AMD made a statement on the temperature Ryzen processors are reported to be running at by the main sensor on the chip (the ‘T Control’ sensor).

With the Ryzen 7 1800X and 1700X models (but not the 1700), this temperature is actually reported as 20 degrees C higher than it is in reality, with this offset being implemented to ensure all processors have a ‘consistent fan policy’.

So if your chip seems to be idling at 50-something degrees C, there’s no cause for concern, as it’s actually running at 30-something as you’d expect. In the long run, temperature monitoring utilities will be patched up to read this offset, and report the correct temperature for the CPU.

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When cell phone disaster strikes, you have some options

One of the most common and saddest inquiries we get at Answer Line is how to retrieve photos and videos from a phone that’s been stolen, or that’s been dropped in water and no longer works. You may be able to save the phone or its data if you try these steps.

In case of a dead phone, you can most likely get the data back using a recovery service—at a very steep price. DriveSavers, a longtime player in the data recovery field, charges $700 to $1900 for a 128GB iPhone, depending on the amount of data involved. They’ll check whether it can be recovered for free, but birth and wedding images aside, that’s probably more than most users are willing to pay.

[Have a tech question? Send your query to answer@pcworld.com.]

In the case of theft, we’re sorry to say you’re out of luck—at least if that’s the only place your stored your files. We hope you backed them up. We’ll tell you how to make sure they’re backed up in a bit, after we cover a few tips for making the best of bad situations.

If you drop it in water

If you drop your live cell phone in water, turn it off immediately and remove the battery as quickly as possible. If it died before you could turn it off yourself, the rest of this might not work, but you can try (and start mulling over the recovery option).

After the phone is off, dry it thoroughly. Two common methods are to use a hair dryer held at a safe distance, or submerge it in a jar of rice. Once you think it’s dry, wait another 24 hours just to make sure, then cross your fingers and turn it on. If you were able to turn it off, your chances are rather good—but no guarantees.

Change account passwords if your phone was stolen

Unfortunately, if your phone is stolen, and the thief manages to unlock it, every app that you’ve signed into will be at their beck and call. You should immediately go online and change the passwords to those accounts.

Back up automatically

All the major phone operating systems offer free protection for your files: Apple with iCloud, Microsoft with OneDrive, and Android with Google Photos. As your email, contacts and calendars are most likely already part of those data ecosystems, they’re already duplicated online and on your other devices. But for reasons of privacy, you need to explicitly enable backup of your photos and videos.

If you live off of your phone, and many people do, but don’t want to enable automatic backups, you’ll need to regularly transfer photos to other storage, such as a computer, USB drive, or SD card.

Android (phone or tablet): Open Google Photos, click on the three bars representing a menu in the upper left, select Settings > Backup & sync, and make sure Backup & sync is enabled. Yes, that’s all there is to it. Previously, this was done with Google+ under Settings > Instant upload.

iPhone/iPad: Create an iCloud account if you aren’t already using one. Go to Settings > iCloud and set Photos to On. Once you’ve done that, open Photos and tap Turn on iCloud Photo Library when prompted. Alas, the iCloud Photo library is a sync library, so deleting a file from your phone deletes it from the library, and vice versa. Consider using something like Dropbox or OneDrive, which are described below.

Windows Phone: Set up a Live account if you don’t already have one. Go to Settings > Photos & camera > Auto upload and turn on the Back up photos and videos options. Note that a Windows update sometimes alters settings, so check back occasionally to make sure the options are still enabled.

DropBox and OneDrive are available for all three major phone platforms. While they don’t offer as much free storage as Google Drive, they will automatically upload your photos and videos. And, unlike iCloud, they won’t delete them when they are deleted from your phone. In the long run, this means more maintenance, but securing your memories is worth it.

Note that uploads may not be instantaneous, especially if you have them limited to uploading only via Wi-Fi, which is a smart idea if you want to limit cellular data usage.

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