WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.800 Whenever you shop for electronics, it's pretty easy to get lost in a discombobulating vortex 00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:09.040 of numbers that manufacturers throw at you to try to entice you to buy their gadgets. 00:00:09.040 --> 00:00:14.600 Ah! But, there are some that are really just fluff you can more or less ignore. 00:00:14.600 --> 00:00:20.320 So what are they? Let's start out with one of the most common and most useless specifications you'll see. 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:24.040 A CPU's clock speed, usually given in gigahertz. 00:00:24.040 --> 00:00:27.880 You'll see this as being one of the first things listed for most PCs that you buy, 00:00:27.880 --> 00:00:33.320 and it's very easy to think, hmm, more gigahertz equals faster computer! 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:38.800 See here's the thing, you can't really compare clock speeds between different computers. 00:00:38.800 --> 00:00:42.720 Processors have all sorts of other differentiating factors that are more important, such as the 00:00:42.720 --> 00:00:50.800 specific micro-architecture they use. Each new generation of CPU's typically contains micro-architectural improvements in the silicon 00:00:50.800 --> 00:00:55.240 that can give you higher instructions per clock cycle, better branch prediction, and 00:00:55.240 --> 00:01:00.120 more power efficiency. All of which are more important than the raw number of gigahertz. 00:01:00.120 --> 00:01:04.200 Clock speeds only really matter when you compare chips with the same micro-architecture and 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:08.640 the same number of cores. Otherwise, you're not going to want to fret over this too much, it's kind of like how 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:13.440 a Kia Rio and an Aston Martin Vantage can both reach 100 miles per hour, but the Aston 00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:18.840 Martin is going to get up to speed much faster and be far more powerful and responsive. 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:23.000 Next up, let's talk about those eye-popping speeds that SSD companies put on their product 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:28.920 labels. It's easy these days to find SSDs that claim to give you speeds at or above 3,000 megabytes 00:01:28.920 --> 00:01:32.240 per second, but those figures can be misleading. 00:01:32.240 --> 00:01:36.560 And while it's true that the NVMe-based SSDs that boast this kind of performance are indeed 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:40.920 faster across the board than their older SATA counterparts, it doesn't mean you can 00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:46.800 completely trust their numbers either. You see, there are two main issues with just looking at that spec. 00:01:46.800 --> 00:01:51.520 Those high megabytes per second numbers refer to sequential performance, meaning it's not 00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:55.280 a good metric of performance if you spend most of your time watching videos, working 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:58.600 in Excel, or serving up spicy takes on Twitter. 00:01:58.600 --> 00:02:04.040 During typical, everyday use, the random performance, given in eye-ops, is more important, as you'll 00:02:04.040 --> 00:02:08.800 usually be accessing smaller pieces of information from different places on the drive than large 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:12.960 sequential chunks of data located in a physically contiguous spot. 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:16.800 But let's say, for the sake of argument, you do work with large amounts of sequential 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:20.760 data because you're a video editor or some such thing. 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:25.000 Even in this situation, the numbers on the spec sheet often aren't reliable. 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.680 Many SSDs have a relatively small amount of fast cache that's used when you first start 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:34.760 moving files around, but as time goes on, sometimes even after just a few seconds, speeds 00:02:34.760 --> 00:02:40.400 will drop off precipitously as the cache fills and the SSD starts using the slower portion 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:46.200 of its flash memory. This isn't to say all SSD manufacturers are dishonest, but some of them will put down 00:02:46.200 --> 00:02:50.120 a speed that you'll only realistically get for a short period of time. 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:54.360 So be sure to read independent reviews and see how long the SSD you're interested in 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:58.880 can maintain performance at or near what it says on the spec sheet. 00:02:58.880 --> 00:03:02.600 Finally, let's touch on a common letdown if you're shopping for monitors. 00:03:02.600 --> 00:03:09.400 HDR support. HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is a set of standards that can give you better contrast and clearer 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:14.440 colors. But a monitor simply saying it has HDR support doesn't tell you very much, since there are 00:03:14.440 --> 00:03:19.400 a lot of monitors out there that technically accept an HDR signal, but the picture ends 00:03:19.400 --> 00:03:23.760 up looking like absolute garbage when you turn it on. So why does this happen? 00:03:23.760 --> 00:03:28.720 The two primary culprits are when the monitor can't get bright enough, as adequate brightness 00:03:28.720 --> 00:03:33.640 is crucial for HDR to look correct, and when the monitor can't display a wide enough color 00:03:33.640 --> 00:03:38.720 gamut or give enough color accuracy to take full advantage of the HDR signal. 00:03:38.720 --> 00:03:43.520 So instead of jumping on a monitor just because it says it has HDR support, check its peak 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:50.480 brightness rating. Something that's certified for VESA Display HDR 600 or higher should at least get adequately 00:03:50.480 --> 00:03:54.760 bright with Display HDR 1000 or higher being ideal. 00:03:54.760 --> 00:04:00.560 A monitor that can cover at least 90% of the DCI-P3 color gamut is probably also a decent 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:05.560 bet. But if you really want to be sure, read reviews where an actual human being looked at the 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:10.920 screen with HDR turned on. Are there specs that manufacturers push that frustrate you? 00:04:10.920 --> 00:04:15.040 Let us know what they are in the comments and we might talk about them in a future episode. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:22.720 Talk about your frustrations. Woah, that was a tech wiki alright, thanks for watching guys, like the video, dislike 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:26.160 the video, these are options available to you, check out our other videos and comment 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:32.080 below with video suggestions. Oh and hey, don't forget to subscribe and follow, because that way, we know that you 00:04:32.080 --> 00:04:32.580 love us.