Darren Allan

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).

Articles by: Darren Allan

AMD Ryzen CPU rear pins

AMD’s Ryzen 9000 CPU delay is due to… typos on the chips? It seems unbelievable, but here we are

By Darren Allan published

AMD reportedly mislabels mid-range Ryzen 9000 CPUs as high-end chips – is this the reason for Zen 5’s delay to August?

An Intel Core i9-14900K slotted into a motherboard

Intel admits damage to unstable 14th-gen and 13th-gen CPUs is permanent – incoming patch is a preventative, not a cure

By Darren Allan published

New Q&A session with Intel is revealing, but likely won’t comfort owners of these processors.

An Acer Nitro 5 with RTX 3050 sitting on a desk

Nvidia looks to be revamping RTX 3050 mobile GPU with current-gen tech – and that might mean better battery life for budget gaming laptops

By Darren Allan published

Nvidia’s secret weapon for affordable gaming laptops could be… a (kind of) supercharged RTX 3050 graphics card.

A hand holding an Intel Core i9-14900K

Intel’s fix for high-end CPU crashes is coming, but a new leak suggests Team Blue could still be in hot water

By Darren Allan published

Intel’s cure for CPU crashes may not be the end of this story, as the investigation into the flaw is still ongoing.

AMD Ryzen 9000 series

AMD delays Ryzen 9000 due to last-minute discovery of problems with some CPUs – launch won’t happen until August now

By Darren Allan published

Keen to buy a Ryzen 9000 CPU? Bad news – AMD has delayed Zen 5 to August as some next-gen chips have ‘quality’ issues.

A mystery GPU with a colorful burst behind it

Nvidia RTX 5090 may not be the fastest next-gen GPU, as rumors suggest RTX Titan could rise from the grave

By Darren Allan published

The rumor mill would have us believe that Nvidia’s RTX Titan is set to make a shock return with Blackwell graphics cards.

Iiyama Vision Master Pro512 CRT monitor

Want a 700Hz gaming monitor? Dinosaur CRT display from 2002 has hit this staggering refresh rate, blowing away modern LCDs – with one huge catch

By Darren Allan published

Heads up, pro gamers – ancient CRT monitor gets cranked to a jaw-dropping 700Hz, beating out today’s top 540Hz panels.

An Intel Core i9-14900K with its promotional packaging

Intel admits ‘elevated voltage’ is primary cause of unstable CPUs – and thankfully a fix is coming soon

By Darren Allan published

The results of Intel’s long-running investigation have been revealed, and a patch for instability issues is inbound.

An Nvidia RTX 4070 Super on a purple deskmat on a desk

Nvidia RTX 5080 and 5090 may not turn up this year after all – next-gen GPUs might be launched at CES 2025

By Darren Allan published

Want to get your hands on an Nvidia RTX 5000 GPU? You might be waiting longer than you thought.

An older woman sitting on a couch and using a laptop on a coffee table

Worried your Intel laptop CPU might suffer from instability gremlins? Team Blue clarifies that mobile chips don’t have the same issue as desktops

By Darren Allan published

Intel clarifies that its laptop CPUs aren’t plagued by the instability woes that have hit Core i9 desktop chips.

Angry woman using a laptop

Windows 11 gets pushy with another pop-up – this time for Microsoft’s backup app – and all this is getting tiresome, frankly

By Darren Allan published

Latest unwelcome nag is more likely to backfire than see anything backed up.

NVIDIA GeForce NOW

Has Black Friday come early? Nvidia GeForce Now is seriously tempting with 50% off across all plans right now

By Darren Allan published

We normally only see this level of half-price deal for Black Friday, and Nvidia’s ‘summer sale’ is certainly a bargain.

An AMD RX 7900 XTX graphics card seen from an overhead angle

AMD’s next-gen driver progress makes us hopeful RDNA 4 GPUs could arrive sooner than we thought

By Darren Allan published

Hoping new value-packed GPUs from AMD will be out in 2024? We’ve just caught a hint that this could still happen.

Honor MagicBook Art 14 Detachable Webcam

Honor MagicBook Art 14 innovates with a removable webcam – and backs it up with some impressive laptop specs

By Darren Allan published

Has Honor lost the plot – or the webcam – with its new idea for a detachable camera on a laptop? We don’t think so.

AMD AM5 Ryzen 7000 Engineering Sample

Leaked AMD Ryzen 9950X benchmarks appear to show Intel how a flagship CPU is done, easily outgunning the Core i9-14900KS

By Darren Allan published

Some fresh benchmark leaks suggest a seriously fast and highly efficient flagship Zen 5 CPU.

HP CEO Alex Cho on stage

HP reveals new fastest-ever AI PC, an OmniBook laptop packing a mystery AMD CPU that’s more powerful than current Ryzen AI 300 flagship

By Darren Allan published

HP OmniBook Ultra “takes AI leadership to the next level” but we’re not quite sure what the vehicle to achieve that might be.

14-inch MacBook Pro (M3, 2023)

Apple’s rumored webcam switch in MacBook Pro M5 might be the first step towards the ‘thinpossible’ laptop dream

By Darren Allan published

We know Apple has big plans to make all its devices thinner, and a new camera could be part of this for the iconic laptop.

Windows 11 laptop showing Copilot

Windows 11 24H2 update may not turn up until late in the year – and given how many plates Microsoft is spinning, that wouldn’t surprise us

By Darren Allan published

Can’t wait for the big 24H2 update? Well, you might have to, and we can readily believe the upgrade could be delayed.

Arrow Lake CPU architecture diagram

Intel raising power safeguard for next-gen Arrow Lake CPUs has rung alarm bells for some – but we’re hopeful it’s a positive sign

By Darren Allan published

Will Intel’s next-gen processors put Core i9 stability issues firmly in the rearview mirror?

AMD Ryzen CPU

Believe it or not, AMD has already begun work on Zen 7 CPUs that are three generations into the future

By Darren Allan published

Excited about Ryzen 9000 CPUs? Forget them, AMD is already working on Zen 7 chips that won’t arrive until 2028.

A hand holding an Intel Core i9-14900K

Intel’s Arrow Lake flagship could run considerably slower than the Core i9-14900K – but don’t rule out this CPU yet

By Darren Allan published

Core Ultra 9 285K CPU still has the potential to be a substantial upgrade, and plenty of rumors are already suggesting that.

A young person using a Windows 11 laptop looking happy

Windows 11 24H2 will make updates smaller and faster to download – great news for those with slow internet, or a small SSD

By Darren Allan published

Microsoft made updates much smaller when Windows 11 first came about, and this is another move to trim things further.

Windows 11 laptop showing Copilot

Windows 11 is getting some welcome shortcuts and streamlining measures to make the desktop look tidier

By Darren Allan published

A new preview build applies some useful tweaks on top of a hidden change for the Start menu.

The Intel Core Ultra 7 badge on a laptop

Intel looks set to supercharge thin-and-light laptops to fight back at Apple, as leak shows off powerful 16-core Panther Lake chip

By Darren Allan published

Intel keeps insisting Panther Lake – which will follow Lunar Lake – is on track, and the CPUs are looking promising.

An AMD Ryzen 7 7700X in a hand seen at an angle

AMD confirms Ryzen 9000 CPUs will go on sale on July 31 – but we’re still guessing at pricing for Zen 5 chips

By Darren Allan published

Zen 5 debuts at the end of July, and it's also worth noting that the rumor about a juiced-up Ryzen 9700X didn’t come true.

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