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Gaming laptops have become extraordinarily powerful over the last few generations. They now boast impressive CPU and graphics performance previously only possible on desktops, and a robust laptop can even have a top-tier display with fast refresh rate, too. Prices have also increased to accommodate the greater technology, though, and that may leave you wondering an important question: how long does a gaming laptop really last? Thiago Trevisan / IDG This question can actually be interpreted two different ways, so I’m going to dive deep and address both angles: first, what is the expected lifespan of gaming laptop hardware before it physically breaks down; and second, how long does a gaming laptop remain relevant before it falls behind in performance and becomes obsolete. Related: The best gaming laptops for every budget Keep reading to understand how long a modern gaming laptop can last, what factors influence longevity, and tips for what you can do to keep your own laptop alive as long as possible. How long before a gaming laptop dies? The very design of a laptop makes it more fragile and susceptible to damage and destruction. If you spill liquid on a keyboard, maybe it dies — but if you spill on a laptop keyboard, it hits the components underneath and can fry the entire device. Likewise, the hinges and display on a laptop are way more vulnerable than an external monitor. And if your laptop screen cracks, it’s not as simple as picking up a new monitor — laptop screen repairs are difficult, costly, and often times not even feasible. Pro tip: If you break your laptop screen, the silver lining is that you may still be able to salvage the laptop itself by connecting it to an external monitor and running the laptop in clamshell mode (i.e., with the lid closed) to bypass the broken display. Learn more about using an external monitor with your gaming laptop as well as using a laptop with multiple monitors. Thiago Trevisan / IDG Other components — like the trackpad, keyboard, and speakers — are less likely to break, but they still might. At least for these, you have the option of external replacements: a wireless mouse, a Bluetooth keyboard, 3.5mm speakers, USB headphones, etc. All that said, the real “problem” that drastically shortens a gaming laptop’s expected lifespan versus the lifespan of a gaming PC is heat. Excess heat degrades electronic components. That’s just science. Thiago Trevisan / IDG Think about how much more room a desktop case has versus a laptop body. All of that additional space provides greater airflow and better heat exhaustion. When you’re maxing your game settings and pushing your system to its limits, the compact and restricted nature of a laptop’s construction is going to cause wear and tear faster. Related: What to do if your gaming laptop is running hot With typical use, you can expect a gaming laptop to last about 4 to 6 years. If you take care of it, it could last up to 10 years or more; if you neglect it, it could die within 3 years. For the expected lifespan of a particular component (e.g., GPU), look for the manufacturer’s warranty duration. That’s how long the company expects it to last, so you can use that as a guideline. Any additional life is a bonus. How long does a gaming laptop remain relevant? What about with upgrades? It depends on what you mean by “relevant.” Do you want to play the latest and greatest AAA games with all the settings cranked up to max while maintaining at least 60 FPS? Then you’ll need a top-tier gaming laptop with a cutting-edge GPU, and you’ll probably want to replace it about every 1.5 to 2 years to ensure you have the fastest and most performant hardware available. Related: Why are gaming laptops so expensive? Explained But if you don’t mind gradually lowering your settings over time as your hardware begins to lag behind, and if you can tolerate a “playable” FPS in the 30 range, then you could get a high-end gaming laptop today and keep playing AAA titles for the next 5 years or so. Now, here’s the wonderful thing about having a gaming laptop: Even though laptops are generally less upgradeable than desktop PCs, you can still upgrade your laptop. When your gaming laptop can’t quite keep up anymore, you can get another year or two out of it with upgrades. First, let’s talk about what isn’t upgradeable. The CPU — likely an AMD or Intel if it’s a gaming laptop — isn’t upgradeable in laptops. There was a time when desktop CPUs were used in big gaming laptops, but those days are long behind us. If you want a better CPU, you’ll need to pony up the cash for an entirely new laptop. Some users have been known to open up their aging laptops and apply fresh thermal paste to the CPU, which can lower heat and prolong its life. Aside from that, there isn’t much you can do in the CPU department. You’re stuck with your laptop’s GPU and CPU, so choose wisely.Thiago Trevisan / IDG The GPU, or graphics card, also isn’t upgradeable in laptops. You’re stuck with whatever you choose at the time of purchase, so it’s typically wise to buy the best laptop you can afford (if you care about longevity). While you can potentially connect an external GPU to your laptop via Thunderbolt, external GPUs have limitations. However, it is an option, and it’s worth considering if you have an under-powered, older GPU. In that sense, a gaming laptop with a Thunderbolt port has more ways to prolong its relevancy. Related: Which laptop parts are worth upgrading? With those out of the way, let’s talk about the parts that can be upgraded in laptops and how well they keep your laptop relevant. The RAM, which will be of the smaller SO-DIMM variety in laptops, can usually be upgraded. Most high-end gaming laptops come with either 16GB or 32GB (with 32GB being the better option for future-proofing), but there’s often room to upgrade to a total of 64GB. Few people actually need that much RAM right now, but the option is there. Thiago Trevisan / IDG RAM upgrades are typically as easy as swapping out one module for another, or plugging a module into an empty second slot. Some more enthusiast-grade laptops even allow for RAM overclocking to eke out every bit of performance, giving it more lasting power. The next big upgrade point on a gaming laptop is the storage, typically an NVMe SSD drive in modern machines. Your choice of SSD will have a significant impact on both transfer speed and storage capacity, and some gaming laptops even have extra slots for multiple drives so you can keep them loaded with as many games as you have. If your gaming laptop has Thunderbolt or fast USB-C ports, you can even connect external drives to store games and data. This flexibility is one way to extend the practical lifespan of a gaming laptop, since the storage is upgradeable both internally and externally. A fresh Windows install can also breathe new life into a gaming laptop, removing bloat that has built up over time. Related: Why you should reset your Windows PC every year Tips to keep your gaming laptop going An old laptop’s lifespan can be stretched out if a few precautions are taken. For example, protective cases and covers can help minimize damage from dings and drops, especially during transport. But more importantly, laptop longevity really comes down to basic routine maintenance. Properly dusting the inside every few weeks or months (depending on how dusty your environment is) will keep the system clear of debris and reduce impediments to air circulation. Laptop cooling pads and stands can improve a laptop’s lifespan.Thiago Trevisan / IDG Along those lines, you should consider getting a laptop cooling pad or laptop stand, one that raises it and improves airflow. (The cooling apparatus of a gaming laptop is usually found in the bottom or backside, and they lay flat on the surface.) A simple laptop stand can improve temperatures, and thus longevity, of the machine. Some fancy cooling pads with fans also exist, which can blow cool air through during a long gaming session. Related: Are laptop cooling pads worth it? Undervolting the CPU should only be attempted by experienced users, but it can also lower thermals and improve durability. Not every gaming laptop has an unlocked CPU (which is necessary for undervolting), but for the ones that do, there are potential gains there. Apart from hardware maintenance, you can also further extend your laptop’s expected lifespan by being mindful of your gaming settings and how hard you push your machine. Thiago Trevisan / IDG Upscaling, whether through Nvidia’s DLSS 3 or AMD’s FSR 3, can be terrific for lightening the load. If your budget allows it, consider getting a GeForce RTX 40 Series laptop that supports Nvidia’s frame generation so it can punch above its weight as it ages. AMD also has its own version of frame generation that can work across more GPUs. Note: Laptop GPUs are weaker than their desktop counterparts. Even if your laptop has a GeForce RTX 4090, you can’t push it as hard as you could an RTX 4090 on a desktop. Gaming laptops have to sacrifice some performance due to design restrictions, but they make up for it with their portability and all-in-one factor. There are also several other game settings and tweaks you can make to crank out more performance without more heat, or keep the same performance while reducing heat. Learn more in our articles on vital gaming laptop settings to tweak and key settings to change in the Nvidia App if you’re a GeForce gamer. Keep using it as long as you’re happy To reiterate, a well-built gaming laptop will last you several years — both in terms of physical lifespan as well as relevant gaming performance — as long as you make a smart purchase, keep it well-maintained, and optimize your laptop setup and game settings. Thiago Trevisan / IDG When it starts to lag behind with age, you can keep it going with RAM and storage upgrades, a fresh Windows re-install, and possibly even an external GPU and external storage. Just remember that you should be able to get at least 5 years out of a good gaming laptop with typical use, as long as you’re okay with gradually lowering your standards over time. Otherwise, to stay on top of cutting-edge games with maxed settings, you’ll probably want to replace your gaming laptop about every 2 years or so. Further reading: Optimize your gaming laptop with these apps Read...

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If you’re a regular web surfer, you’re probably familiar with cookies, which are data files that are designed to remember things about you like your login information and what you’ve put in your shopping cart. That said, cookies can have an impact on your data and security. If you’re looking to better secure your data, you best listen up. Microsoft Edge offers a number of options for better data protection, but these settings are difficult to find. We’ll show you three easy ways to protect your data. Further reading: 5 ways Microsoft Edge is better than Chrome 1. Prevent third-party cookies Cookies are small text files that are copied to your PC from the websites you surf. First-party cookies can only be read by the website that set them. In online shops, for example, they are used to identify the customer’s shopping basket. Third-party cookies, on the other hand, are usually placed by advertisers. They’re used to recognize the user, which is why they’re also called tracking cookies. Microsoft To block cookies, proceed as follows in Edge: Open the menu at the top right via the three dots and select “Settings.” Click on “Privacy, Search, and Services” and take a look at “Tracking Prevention.” In the default setting “Balanced,” the browser only blocks third-party cookies. With “Strict,” all cookies are rejected. If this setting causes problems with a website, you can add it to the list of “Exceptions.” 2. Delete browser data Microsoft Depending on the cookie settings you’ve selected, you should actively delete the accumulated cookies every few weeks. Edge summarizes these functions under “Settings – Privacy, search, and services.” Click on “Select Elements to be Deleted” and define a “Time Range.” Tick the box next to “Cookies and Other Website Data” and click on “Delete Now.” Windows 11 Pro 3. Use sandbox tabs To increase security, Edge can be run in a sandboxed environment. To do this, follow these steps: Tick the “Microsoft Defender Application Guard” option in the Windows Control Panel under “Programs and Features – Enable or Disable Windows Features.” Confirm by clicking “OK” and restart Windows. Note: This option is only available in the Pro and Enterprise versions of Windows 10 and 11. You’ll find the “New Application Guard Window” entry in the top right-hand corner of the three-dot menu in Edge. This opens the browser in a sandbox from which nothing can escape. If you use it to open a malware-infected page on the Internet, the malware cannot jump over to your PC. Read...

In the last two years, Microsoft has invested a lot of money in the ChatGPT inventor Open AI and in its own AI developments. Since then, Microsoft has been equipping more and more programs with artificial intelligence, above all the Edge browser and Office programs. But AI is also finding its way into Windows. In this article, we present the new AI functions in Windows, the Windows apps, and Microsoft 365. Windows 11 Pro Artificial intelligence: Copilot Microsoft’s AI engine Copilot has been part of the operating system since Windows 11 23H2 for U.S. users, and is available via the Copilot app in the Microsoft Store for others. It can be integrated into the taskbar or simply accessed via the Start menu. The trick: The app simply links to Copilot in Edge, where the AI then runs as an independent program in its own window with a slightly different interface. However, Edge must be installed; the app will not work without the browser. You can chat with Windows Copilot and ask questions, which the AI assistant answers with the help of Bing. It displays the sources it has used. You can choose between “Creative,” “Balanced,” and “Accurate” conversation styles. However, the differences are hardly noticeable. The AI can also write letters, articles, and poems. With the help of Microsoft Designer and the support of the open AI tool Dall-e 3, Copilot can also generate images based on descriptions. Copilot is directly integrated into Microsoft’s Edge browser. You can ask the AI questions or have it summarize the currently open website.Mark Hachman / IDG The Edge browser has been equipped with Copilot since 2023. You can open the AI function via the icon in the top right-hand corner. Compared to the app, this has two advantages: Firstly, it allows you to ask questions directly about the website currently being accessed in the browser or request a summary of an online article. In the app, you can simply formulate a command such as “Summarize this article” and then add a link to the desired website. You can also activate Copilot plugins in Edge, such as Kayak for searching for flights, accommodations, and car rental, or Opentable for searching for restaurants. This is not possible in the Windows app. Further reading: The AI PC revolution: 18 essential terms you need to know Cocreator & Imager Creator: Create images in Paint The Windows drawing program Paint gets new features from time to time, most recently working on multiple layers and the AI function Image Creator were added — previously called Cocreator. Following this renaming to Image Creator, Cocreator is now available again in parallel, albeit with more advanced functions. However, most Windows users will not be able to use the new Cocreator, as it only runs on Copilot Plus notebooks (see box “AI processors in Copilot PCs”). The new Cocreator can now be found in the Paint toolbar alongside the Image Creator. The Image Creator is a slimmed-down version of the Bing Image Creator available online and Microsoft Designer. All three tools are based on Dall-e from Open AI and create images using descriptive text. You simply type in what you want to see and Image Creator creates a corresponding image. The Cocreator also works in the same way. However, while the Image Creator accesses Microsoft’s server resources on the internet, the Cocreator works locally on the computer and uses the NPU or the AI processor of the Copilot Plus notebooks. Local processing ensures better data protection, but Cocreator still requires an internet connection. Describe what you want Image Creator to create and select the desired style.Mark Hachman / IDG The Image Creator in Paint accepts your descriptions and generates images from them. You can choose between photos and different painting styles. Retouch photos with the Windows photo viewer The Windows Photo Viewer, simply called “Photos” in earlier versions, has had a generative erase function for a few months now. This allows you to selectively remove individual objects from a photo. The software fills the empty space amazingly well in the style of the image environment, the editing is often not recognizable. To do this, open the photo display by entering photos in the search field in the taskbar. In the program, click on the “All photos” icon on the left or on “Folder;” here you can add a picture directory to the program via “Add folder.” To open, double-click on an image in the preview and then click on the “Edit” button at the top left. Now select the “Delete” command and set the brush size on the right-hand side. The smaller the object to be deleted, the smaller the brush should be. Use the mouse to select the object to be deleted or the distracting area. As soon as you release the mouse button, the software starts working and retouches the photo. You can use the delete function in the Windows photo display to mark distracting objects. The software removes them and fills the space intelligently.Microsoft AI processors in Copilot Plus PCs The use of AI functions is very computationally intensive. For this reason, AI operations are currently mostly outsourced to the cloud, i.e. to the global data centers of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others. This causes potential problems with data protection, as the prompts, i.e. your queries, also end up with the IT companies and can therefore be assigned to you. At the same time, the AI operations in the data centers consume a lot of money and energy. The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge notebook is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor and thus belongs to the new class of Copilot Plus devices. Samsung This is why PCs have been developed that can also perform AI tasks locally. Microsoft certifies correspondingly powerful Windows computers with the “Copilot” logo. These new notebooks have been available since the summer, initially all models with a Snapdragon X processor from Qualcomm and Arm architecture. AMD now also offers a CPU for Copilot Plus, Intel follows with its Core Ultra 200V mobile processor. The CPUs in Copilot Plus PCs accelerate AI functions and calculations to such an extent that it is not necessary to move them to the cloud in most cases. These chips are known as Neural Processing Units (NPUs). Designer: AI functions in the Microsoft 365 apps Designer was initially only available in PowerPoint, but is now included in the Microsoft 365 word processor. You will therefore need a paid Personal or Family account to be able to use the AI functions. Corporate customers are currently excluded. With a 365 account, you can use Designer in the online version of Word and in the desktop and online versions of PowerPoint. The program appears in the “Start” ribbon in each case. In PowerPoint, give your first slide a title and call up the Designer. It suggests various design templates that match the theme of the presentation. However, this only works in English. Further reading: 9 free AI tools that run locally on your PC Advanced AI function Copilot Pro only with additional subscription If you click on “Test Copilot Pro” in one of the 365 programs under File > Account > Manage account > Account, you can play with the extended AI functions for the Office programs free of charge for one month. After that, the subscription costs $22 per month. After activation, the Copilot icon appears at the beginning of the line next to the cursor in Word. After clicking on it, you can send the AI a description of the type of text you need. For example, Copilot can write speeches on a given topic, create a template for a CV or write short stories. In Excel, Copilot automatically creates formulas and sorts, analyzes and highlights data. However, this only works in the online version of the program and the files must be stored in a Onedrive or Sharepoint folder. Although Microsoft has made improvements in the meantime, the AI in Excel is still not as good as we would like it to be. In Outlook, Copilot is also limited to the online version. There, the AI summarizes the content of emails and translates foreign-language emails into your language of choice. Copilot Pro can also compose messages itself based on a short description. Copilot Pro in the video editing tool Clipchamp and in Teams The video editor Clipchamp offers a little more AI. The tool displays the “Create video with AI” button on its start page. Click on it to call up an AI wizard, which you can use to upload the images and videos for the Clipchamp film. After asking for a few pre-settings, it combines the media into a new film. Music can also be added if required. In the online version, you will find additional functions supported by artificial intelligence. These include a text-to-speech module and a presentation coach that provides real-time feedback on camera recordings. Finally, the Teams video conferencing software has received AI support: Users can ask Copilot questions during a conference or also use it as a writing assistant that automatically formulates chat messages after a few keywords have been entered. You can also instruct the AI to summarize the content from chats and channels for you. The AI also translates foreign-language posts, which are displayed as subtitles in real time: However, “Live Captions” only runs on Copilot Plus notebooks. Microsoft waits for Recall When Microsoft announced the new AI function Recall in early summer, data protectionists expressed concerns. Microsoft Recall is supposed to take and save a screenshot every five seconds in the background. Using a timeline, users will then be able to see what they have been doing on their PC on a particular day and at a particular time. With the help of artificial intelligence, the information in the images was to be analyzed and made available for questions such as “Where did I last read something about Copilot?”. However, following protests, Microsoft has now put the project on hold for the time being. The function has now been implemented in the Insider pre-release versions. However, the function is not expected to be integrated into normal Windows before spring 2025 — and if it is, then presumably as an additional app to be installed, as with Copilot. The circle of potential users is also very limited, at least initially, because Recall requires a Copilot Plus PC. Read...

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The next generation of Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 8, is currently being developed behind closed doors. This time, the emphasis isn’t on pure speed, but instead on improving the user experience. Wi-Fi 8, known right now as IEEE 802.11bn Ultra High Reliability, still remains years away. Wireless technology is in a constant state of improvement: Each progression in the evolution of Wi-Fi takes several years to discuss, approve, and then deploy. Wi-Fi 7, the “current” standard, hasn’t even been formally ratified quite yet. But that’s not stopping the development of Wi-Fi 8 behind the scenes, and we already know some details. MediaTek’s Filogic wireless division has released some of what you can expect, with the caveat that final details won’t be nailed down until the final specification is released around Sept. 2028. The key phrase that you should think of in the context of Wi-Fi 8? Not peak throughput, but effective throughput. Wi-Fi 8 will look a lot like Wi-Fi 7 According to the Wi-Fi Alliance and MediaTek, the United States isn’t the driving force behind the wireless evolution. Instead, it’s China: The country has 650 million broadband subscribers and more than a quarter have 1Gbps broadband connections to their homes. Overall, the average connection speed is 487.6Mbps, which grew 18 percent in a year’s time. MediaTek Theoretically, 802.11bn / Wi-Fi 8 set out (Word document, via the IEEE) to provide enough wireless bandwidth to accommodate your broadband gateway supplying a few gigabits per second, and factoring in the ability of Ethernet to provide even more. EverythingRF interpreted that 2022 document, known as Project Authorization Request (PAR), as one that would provide a minimum aggregate throughput of 100Gbps. Since then, the PAR was approved in 2023, and the working group has begun hammering out more details. As of Nov. 2024, MediaTek believes that Wi-Fi 8 will look virtually identical to Wi-Fi 7 in several key areas: The maximum physical layer (PHY) rate will be the same at 2,880Mbps x 8, or 23Gbits/s. It will also use the same four frequency bands (2, 4, 5, and 6GHz) and the same 4096 QAM modulation across a maximum channel bandwidth of 320MHz. (A Wi-Fi 8 router won’t get 23Gbps of bandwidth, of course. According to MediaTek, the actual peak throughput in a “clean,” or laboratory, environment is just 80 percent or so of the hypothetical peak throughput, and actual, real-world results can be far less.) MediaTek Still, put simply, Wi-Fi 8 should deliver the same wireless bandwidth as Wi-Fi 7, using the same channels and the same modulation. Every Wi-Fi standard has also been backwards-compatible with its predecessors, too. What Wi-Fi 8 will do, though, is change how your client device, such as a PC or a phone, interacts with multiple access points. Think of this as an evolution of how your laptop talks to your home’s networking equipment. Over time, Wi-Fi has evolved from communications between one laptop and a router, across a single channel. Channel hopping routed different clients to different bands. When Wi-Fi 6 was developed, a dedicated 6GHz channel was added, sometimes as a dedicated “backhaul” between your home’s access points. Now, mesh networks are more common, giving your laptop a variety of access points, channels, and frequencies to select between. How Wi-Fi 8 will improve Wi-Fi technology MediaTek sees several opportunities to improve the coordination between access points and devices. (To be fair, we’re identifying these as MediaTek’s efforts, only because we can’t be sure that they’ll eventually be approved by the 802.11bn working group for Wi-Fi 8 as a whole.) Coordinated Spatial Reuse (Co-SR): This technology was first implemented in Wi-Fi 6 as Spatial Reuse. The problem occurred when there was a difference in transmission power between an access point “talking” to a nearby device, and simultaneously communicating with a second access point a great distance away. If the first access point reduced its power to communicate with the nearby device, it couldn’t be “heard” by the access point. Wi-Fi 8’s Co-SR is a “maturation” of the Spatial Reuse technology, and will solve the problem by allowing the access points to talk to one another and coordinate their power output, MediaTek said. “Our preliminary trials show that Co-SR could increase the overall system throughput by 15 percent to 25 percent,” MediaTek says. Congestion: the throughout killer.MediaTek Coordinated Beamforming (Co-BF): There’s a trend here: Taking earlier Wi-Fi technologies and extending them to multiple access points. Spatial nulling was a feature that was launched in 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5), which allowed the router to basically stop signaling in certain directions. By doing so, the router would send the signals to where they were requested, and avoid jamming devices that didn’t want to talk to the router. This technique attempts to solve a fairly common problem in connected households, or in a public space served by Wi-Fi: two devices that sit very close to one another. Coordinated beamforming allows the access points to talk to one another, figure out which device wants the signal and which doesn’t, and align the mesh access point to “steer” the signal away from the device that isn’t communicating to the network by basically refusing to transmit to the region in which it sits. “The throughput offered by Coordinated Beamforming (Co-BF) in next-generation MediaTek Filogic is significantly enhanced, with increases ranging from 20 percent to 50 percent in a mesh network setup with one Control AP and one Agent AP,” MediaTek said. Dynamic Sub-Channel Operation: You’re probably aware that the latest devices support for the latest wireless standards, like Wi-Fi 7. But certain devices may also have more or improved Wi-Fi antennas that allow them higher throughput. In the past, that information would be passed to the router, and stored there. That wouldn’t be a problem under most conditions. But in a scenario where a number of different devices were downloading the same file, DSO would create a dynamic scenario where a more advanced device would receive a subchannel for downloading the file, faster. The difference between the older approach and Wi-Fi 8’s DSO would be that the access point would be able to decide, “knowing” the capabilities of each device and what they were asking for, and route the data accordingly. Here, MediaTek believes that DSO could push data throughput 80 percent higher than without the technology. A common Wi-Fi scenario: As you move around your home, your wireless data rate adjusts accordingly.MediaTek New data rates: You may not be aware of what’s called the MCS Index, the Modulation Coding Scheme for Wi-Fi. It’s basically a table to help your Wi-Fi router determine what the link speed should be, so that you can actually connect and stream data without errors. If your throughput slows down as you move around your house, that’s in part due to your device and router “deciding” what connection speed your device should stream at. The problem, MediaTek believes, is that the “step” down to slower rates is too profound, and additional gradations should be introduced, such as 16-QAM with a 2/3 coding rate. The idea would not be to introduce sharp drops and increases in throughput as you moved your phone or laptop around the home, but smaller increments. Again, MediaTek believes that these finer MCS divisions can improve overall transmission rates between 5 percent and 30 percent. A change of pace Again, the evolution of Wi-Fi 8 depends on how quickly the standard moves through the regulatory process. Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) was expected to be approved this past September, and it has not, yet. Sony’s PlayStation 5 may not be approved for India because the country has yet to approve the 6GHz wireless channel that the Wi-Fi 7 standard depends upon. That would hinder Wi-Fi 8, too. The probable roadmap for Wi-Fi standards approval. MediaTek Wireless standards take about six years to develop — and impatient hardware makers rarely wait. As MediaTek notes, Wi-Fi 7 products have shipped since the end of 2023, even though the standard hasn’t been formally approved. In part, that’s because the IEEE committee in charge of the standard rarely makes dramatic changes between the approval of the draft standard and the final standard. For Wi-Fi 8, the first products are expected to be available in early 2028, even as the final approval should be due by the end of that year. It’s worth noting, however, that the race to perpetually higher and higher speeds is pausing, for now, in two different segments of the PC market. CPUs have slowed their rush toward higher clock speeds — at Qualcomm and at Intel — in favor of lower power. With Wi-Fi 8, the emphasis now appears to be on improving the overall user experience first and foremost. Read...

Thunderbolt 5. The cutting edge of I/O. All of it — monitors, a Thunderbolt 5 dock, and even a Thunderbolt 5 SSD — was perched on my desk. I was pleased, in the way only tech nerds can be when they have a piece of gear few others do. A few days later, I was more than happy to take it apart and return to a slower and more functional Thunderbolt environment. Because I am simply not sure that the Thunderbolt 5 ecosystem is ready for prime time. This isn’t an indictment of Thunderbolt 5, per se. Rather, it’s all about the headaches that can accompany not one, but a multitude of devices, all of which can interact with each other in unexpected ways. Layer on software, drivers, firmware updates, and the like, and it’s tough to point an accusing finger at any one component. This is what testing cutting-edge hardware can mean: struggling with technology that should just work, but doesn’t. Further reading: Best Thunderbolt docks 2024: Extend your laptop’s capabilities Thunderbolt 5: The next generation of I/O Thunderbolt 5 was announced about a year ago, as the next step in the evolution of the Thunderbolt I/O standard. Thunderbolt wasn’t necessarily designed for power users, but the best Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 4 docks allows users to place a pair of 4K displays on their desk running at 60 Hz. I find this extremely useful for productivity, as I can arrange several windows’ worth of email, chat, calendar, Web browsers, and more on two or more displays. Both Thunderbolt 3 and 4 provide 40Gbps of throughput. Thunderbolt 5 increases that to 80Gbps, and in certain situations up to 120Gbps, too. This extra bandwidth plays right into the gaming and productivity space, as the extra bandwidth supports up to three 4K displays at 144Hz, two 8K displays at 60Hz, or a single 1080p display at 540Hz. (Intel hasn’t nailed down the specifics of these last two resolutions). Intel is also touting the fact that Thunderbolt 5 should be able to power external GPUs, a capability that was passed over in Thunderbolt 4. The problem is that Thunderbolt 5 hardware is in short supply, period. Although some of the earliest Thunderbolt 5 docks were shown off this past January, it’s now October, and about the only dock I’ve seen announced is Kensington’s SD5000T5 EQ, which I went hands-on with a short time ago. There aren’t too many Thunderbolt 5 cables, either. But a hands-on is not a test and I was eager to obtain hardware that I could use to put the Kensington SD5000T5 through its paces: to connect it to three 4K144 displays via a laptop with Thunderbolt 5 connections and, as a bonus, to see if I could find an SSD that could run at Thunderbolt 5 speeds. I wasn’t expecting it to be easy. For whatever reason, devices with Intel’s Thunderbolt 5 host and accessory component (“Barlow Ridge,” or the Intel JHL9580 and JHL9480) have been few and far between. Docks are still scarce, as I said, and only two notebooks to my knowledge ship with a (non-integrated) Thunderbolt 5 controller, a version of the Razer Blade and the Maingear ML-17. Mark Hachman / IDG Luck favored me. The Kensington SD5000T5 remained on my desk, and Maingear agreed to send over an ML-17 for review. A colleague also was in the process of reviewing a pre-release version of OWC’s Envoy Ultra Thunderbolt 5 SSD and agreed to let me test it for a short time in trade for some benchmarking results. Everything seemed to be coming together. Thunderbolt 5 started off poorly, then got worse A few days later, I had cleared the decks of all of my current projects, and sat down to play with the next generation of I/O power. I updated the ML-17 with the necessary Windows updates, Microsoft Store updates, available firmware updates, and so on. Maingear shipped the notebook to me with the Intel Driver & Support Assistant utility updated as well, so I was pretty sure that I had the latest hardware and drivers. The first steps were fairly positive. As most gamers know, gaming notebooks include a hefty power brick terminating in either a barrel charger or the squarish power connector. One of the benefits of Thunderbolt 5, however, is its ability to supply a hypothetical power draw of 240W. Just being able to plug in the gaming notebook into the Thunderbolt 5 dock and power it up without the need for the laptop’s ungainly external power connector left me quite pleased. Well, kind of. I later discovered that the dock would power the laptop on just one of the two Thunderbolt 5 ports, however, and checking it with a USB power meter found that it delivered no more than 87W, even while gaming. Maingear’s Thunderbolt 5 ports aren’t specifically labeled as Thunderbolt 5 ports, just a generic Thunderbolt connection.Mark Hachman / IDG Power delivery of 240W requires explicit support from the laptop, dock, and cable and I wasn’t too surprised that it didn’t meet my expectations. Unfortunately, however, the trend continued. Acer graciously supplied three of its Nitro XV5 (XV275K) 4K displays for a test bed. All three displays run up to 144Hz on the HDMI port and to 160Hz on the USB-C/DisplayPort, which should have been good enough to meet the Thunderbolt 5’s promised to render an image at 144Hz on three 4K displays. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Maingear’s laptop produced an image on just two of the displays plus the laptop itself. (Thunderbolt 4 docks output to two 4K displays, plus the laptop, so I have no reason to believe my interpretation of “three displays” was incorrect.). While one laptop rendered at 4K 144Hz just fine, it was a real struggle to get the other to do the same at 1440p — it took some unplugging and re-plugging to achieve it just once, slowly. I could not consistently repeat this. (Kensington’s dock supplies three upstream Thunderbolt 5 ports. I used Kensington’s own USB-C to HDMI adapter to connect to one display, plus two uni 4K60 USB-C to DisplayPort cables — which are only rated for 1440p165, not 4K — for the others. I was hoping that three displays would light up. They didn’t). In fact, the whole setup felt pretty laggy just navigating around the laptop and via a Web browser — not something you’d expect with a top-of-the-line Intel CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU inside. I’m pretty sure the Thunderbolt connection negatively contributed. Streaming a 4K, 60Hz video stuttered badly when run on the external display that was connected to the Thunderbolt dock — well over 30 percent of the frames were lost. Playing back the same video on just the laptop itself wasn’t perfect, but it was much, much better. Maingear blamed this on the Thunderbolt 5 cable. “I haven’t tested a plethora of cables yet, but the Apple TB5 Pro cable has worked consistently for us,” Matthew Rigassio, a product development manager for Maingear, wrote in an email. “Where Thunderbolt 4 you were able to get away with a decent USB-C cable, thunderbolt 5 seems to work best with certified Thunderbolt 5 cables.” That may be true, but Kensington’s Thunderbolt 5 cable was labeled appropriately and this should be certified. And why should I need to buy an Apple cable to get my PC docking station to work? OWC’s Envoy Pro FX SSD. This isn’t the Thunderbolt-equipped Envoy Ultra I was loaned. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a photograph before I sent it back, but the design is basically the same.Mark Hachman / IDG Storage performance suffered as well When I connected the SSD, the performance of my Thunderbolt 5 test setup was just as bad. I typically run PCMark’s external storage benchmark to test a dock. My colleague Jon Jacobi prefers running storage-specific benchmarks to test the performance of the SSD directly. I prefer PCMark, whose external storage test reports the “bandwidth” of the SSD. That’s what I’m aiming for: How much data does the drive have to work with? I also test a second way, by recording the time it takes to copy a folder full of multimedia and other files from the SSD, through the dock, onto the laptop. I do all that by itself and also while streaming a 4K 60Hz video via the Internet over the Thunderbolt cable, just to see whether a background file transfer will affect performance. The experience, quite frankly, stunk. While running the PCMark test with the SSD directly connected, I recorded a score of 1,743 or 252.3 MB/s. But while connected to the dock, the SSD’s PCMark score plunged to just 1,108 or 159.3MB/s. Was that the dock’s fault or the Thunderbolt 5 connection? One of the two, most likely. When I directly connected the SSD to the laptop and copied my folder to the desktop, it took an average of one minute and five seconds. While streaming video, the same task took 58 seconds longer or two minutes and three seconds. That seemed quite extreme. Weirdly, when I connected the SSD to the dock and then performed the folder copy, it finished in 41 seconds — far faster! But performing the folder copy while streaming the video required two minutes and six seconds, again with the SSD attached to the dock. (The Internet connection was supplied by Ethernet, which remained connected. But letting the system use Wi-Fi didn’t seem to make any difference). It’s worth a reminder that when I tested the Kensington dock on a “normal” Thunderbolt 4-equipped laptop and a slower SSD, the dock performed “normally,” as well. In the past few years, we’ve seen the occasional weird result when benchmarking, such as benchmarks of mobile CPUs run on battery power that exceed the performance of the same laptop while plugged in. Still, the wildly varying results, including the heavy stuttering while playing video, told me something’s not quite right. What is it? I don’t know, which is souring me on the whole Thunderbolt 5 experience. Should you buy Thunderbolt 5? Not right now When testing a single device, a good review works to isolate the variable. Desktop CPUs are tested against the fastest GPUs possible, with common motherboards, memory, and storage (if possible), so that any differences in performance can be directly attributed to the new CPU. Maingear’s Windows 11 Settings menu reports the controller as USB4 v2, which should be essentially identical to Thunderbolt. I can’t find any specific mention of “Thunderbolt” in the Settings or in the Device Manager, just USB4.Mark Hachman / IDG In this case, I’m testing a new dock, laptop, and SSD, with new cables running between them. That’s at least three unknowns I can’t really nail down. So Maingear can accuse the cable of being faulty, while I suspect that Maingear’s hardware may be at fault. I can’t know for certain. What I am a bit suspicious about is the relative lack of Thunderbolt 5 hardware, even late in 2024. Intel has cycled through its Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake launches, and neither includes an integrated Thunderbolt 5 controller. Intel gave some good reasons for excluding it — desktop vendors prefer to “upsell” by using discrete components, for example — but the instability that I’m seeing makes me wonder if there’s something more going on. I’m not writing Thunderbolt 5 off at all. An updated driver could potentially solve this problem or it might require a more sophisticated hardware revision to Intel’s Barlow Ridge controller itself. I don’t know. For now, however I would not recommend buying into the Thunderbolt 5 ecosystem. When you buy (or test) bleeding-edge hardware, sometimes you’re the one that ends up with the cuts. Read...

There are many open source programs (aka code that’s accessible to the public) out there for both Linux and Windows. For programs and tools where that’s not the case, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) is the ideal solution for using Linux programs on Windows computers. This means that you don’t have to start Linux first and can use the Linux program in the currently active Windows. Programs in WSL run slower than under native Linux, but it’s not always noticeable. Microsoft is also continuing to work on improvements that will be incorporated into the Linux kernel. A newer kernel can therefore speed up WSL. WSL kernel and virtualization In WSL 2, the Linux kernel runs on a hypervisor (Hyper-V), similar to its Linux counterpart KVM/Qemu. The kernel offers functions to ensure communication between the guest and host systems. This concerns, for example, the shared use of the main memory and CPU management. The program code for this comes primarily from Microsoft. get windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro For Linux users, newer kernels offer support for newer hardware and performance optimizations. Microsoft also regularly optimizes the Hyper-V code in the kernel, but the hardware drivers hardly play a role in WSL because the virtual hardware always remains the same. However, there are drivers that are required for certain applications such as network block devices (nbd), which can be used to mount virtual hard disks in VHD format, for example. Install WSL and check the version Powershell, Command Prompt, and WSL can be used conveniently in the Windows terminal. It’s available by default in Windows 11, but Windows 10 users need to install it via the Microsoft Store. In Powershell, install WSL with the following code: wsl --install -d Ubuntu-24.04 To call up the available distributions, enter the code below and then restart Windows: wsl --list --online After logging in, a Linux terminal will open and notify you when the installation is complete. You will then be asked to enter a user name and password for the Linux account. Update the Ubuntu system with: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade In the Windows terminal, start Linux via the menu that appears after clicking on the arrow button next to the tabs. In Powershell, determine the WSL version with: wsl -l -v If a 1 appears in the Version column for an older installation, update the version with these two lines: wsl --set-default-version 2 wsl --set-default [Distribution] Replace the placeholder [Distribution] with the name of the distribution. Creating a new kernel for WSL 2 Step 1: Start Linux in WSL and install some developer packages with: sudo apt install build-essential flex bison dwarves libssl-dev libelf-dev libncurses-dev git Step 2: Create a working directory and download the source code (four lines): mkdir kernel cd kernel git clone https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel.git --depth=1 -b linux-msft-wsl-6.6.y cd WSL2-Linux-Kernel Adjust the kernel version if necessary. Step 3: With the following line of code, you can give the kernel its own name: scripts/config --file Microsoft/config-wsl --set-str LOCALVERSION `-custom-microsoft-standard-WSL2` If you wish, you can use this line of code to call up the configuration editor and make your own customizations: make menuconfig KCONFIG_CONFIG=Microsoft/config-wsl Configuring the WSL kernel: The kernel configuration can be edited via “menuconfig”. The entry for “Local version” helps to differentiate between kernel versions. IDG Step 4: Create the kernel with: echo `yes` | make -j $(nproc) KCONFIG_CONFIG=Microsoft/config-wsl Install the modules with: sudo make KCONFIG_CONFIG=Microsoft/config-wsl modules_install Step 5: In Windows Explorer, call up the Linux environment via the entry below Linux in the navigation area. Copy the vmlinux file from your home directory to the Windows user profile in the WSL folder (C:\Users[username]\WSL). Step 6: Under Windows, create the .wslconfig file in your profile folder. Enter these two lines into it: [wsl2] kernel=C:\Users\[username]\WSL\vmlinux Replace the placeholder [username] with your user name. In Powershell, terminate all running WSL instances with: wsl --shutdown If you start Linux in the Windows subsystem for Linux, the following command shows the version of the new kernel: uname -a Read...