The latest data set published in the Steam Hardware & Software Survey suggests that processors with four cores are, five years after their introduction, ready to capture the top spot in gamer popularity.
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Dual-core CPUs still lead the ranking with a 46.49 percent share, but the segment has declined more than 2 points from 48.71 percent in July. In contrast, quad-core processors have climbed from 41.37 percent to 45.02 percent in the same time frame. All other core counts do not play significant roles: Single-core chips are at 5.52 percent, six-core CPUs at 1.47 percent, triple-cores at 1.39 percent and eight-cores at 0.07 percent.
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Intel dominates the Steam charts with a 73.90 percent, trending slightly up from July (72.72 percent), while AMD is down to 26.10 percent. Processors with clock speeds between 2.3 and 2.7 GHz account 40 percent of all Intel gamers (18 percent are between 2.7 and 2.99 GHz; 13 percent are between 3 and 3.29 GHz), while 25 percent of AMD gamers use CPUs with clock speeds between 3 and 3.29 GHz, and 21 percent use processors ranging from 2.3 to 2.69 GHz.
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-Written By: Wolfgang Gruener

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CAUTION: Overclock at your own risk. We do not and will not take responsibility for anything broken in the process. All overclocking referred to in this article was done after extensive research and preparation.

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I had been rocking an AMD Athlon II 630 x4 for about 2-3 years now and it was time for a upgrade. Two days later I was installing my glorious new CPU/Cooler combo into my build. The install was easy and was performed without any modifications to my case needed. After the short investment of time I booted up and immediately felt a difference. The speed was satisfying to say the least, but I craved more. I had a brand new water cooler doing exactly what my stock cooler could do, just a little bit better. It was time to test the processors overclock ability.  To overclock is to push a certain component’s limits farther than stock by increasing a variety of numbers through either BIOS or overclocking programs.
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I wish I could say that I am versed as an overclocker. Not that I don’t know my way around the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) or that I have trouble learning new things, it was just I always have ran stock cooler. Water cooling seemed expensive, and overclocking was almost taboo in my circle of friends. I ventured into the darkness anyways and came out a victor. Let’s start with my results and then I’ll explain how I got there.
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I managed to reach 4.5Ghz (a 31% increase in Mhz from the stock 3.1Ghz) when all was said and done. If anybody plans on overclocking, I highly recommend first reading THIS Bulldozer overclock guide. It will tell everything that a new guy needs to know, and even experienced overclockers might learn a thing or two. The settings i used in my overclock are HERE. The following graphs are benchmarks between my old processor, my 8120 stock, and my 8120 overclocked.
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The first graph is using CPU Mark, it is composed of 8 separate test then it gives the average score from all of them. A link to the individual explanations of the CPU Mark test can be found HERE. Upgrading from my Athlon to my FX provided a 56% increase in my CPU Mark score. The overclock of my FX from 3.1Ghz to 4.53Ghz yielded a 33% bonus. The gain in performance from stock Athlon to overclocked FX is a large 89%. That is what I call some good results.
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Super PI is a lightweight, relatively simple program. It asks the computer to figure out the value of PI from 16 thousand decimal points up to 32 million. The most widely used test is the 1 million decimal point, so I used that. Keep in mind, this is time in seconds of how long it takes to calculate on each processor. So lower is ideally better. The time decrease in percentage from my Athlon to the FX stock is 14%. From the stock Bulldozer to the overclocked, is a whopping 23%. The total increase from old to new processor is 37%
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If there are any other benchmarks you guys have in mind or just some general questions shout them out! Forest Hill Studios is ALWAYS open to new things to try and helping out. Everyone have a wonderful day ^.^.

From Mashable:

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the death of unlimited data, and AT&T’s enforcement of throttling on users who still have unlimited plans, so a senior executive at AT&T recently posted to the company’s blog detailing the extreme influx of data traffic the company has seen in recent years. According to John Donovan, a senior executive VP for AT&T, date usage on the network has increased a whopping 20,000 percent over the last five years, with usage at least doubling every year. Of course, AT&T just sold arecord number of smartphones in Q4 2011, so the company’s not expecting this trend to change any time soon. Donovan also detailed the $20 million spent on network improvements in 2011 and said the company expects to spend the same in 2012. There’s some question as to exactly how accurate these numbers are, but AT&T’s comments about its “wireless data tsunami” could be seen as an effort to deflect criticism from the caps it has been imposing on unlimited data users.

By Nathan Ingraham

The first test is with PeaceKeeper; made by FutureMark which is the same company who produces PCMark. “Peacekeeper measures your browsers performance by testing its JavaScript functionality. JavaScript is a widely used programming language used in the creation of modern websites to provide features such as animation, navigation, forms and other common requirements. By measuring a browsers ability to handle commonly used JavaScript functions Peacekeeper can evaluate its performance” – FutureMark.
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Next test is for compatibility, and measures the ability of the browser to use vaious codecs and such. There are a maximum of 7 points allowed in the compatibility test.

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The last test was Browser Mark.
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To finish this series of tests I would like to say one thing, time to switch to Google Chrome.

(Don’t forget to check out FutureMark and Browser Mark!)

Metaphors are nice right? Take your computer as an information highway. Data is flowing to and from it at a constant rate. To explain 64-bit in a few words, it essentially doubles the amount of traffic you can put on your highway. Article over right? Choose 64-bit, and be done? Not so fast. There are a lot of things to take into account before choosing 64-bit. To get a little bit more technical, the metaphorical highway is your RAM (Random Access Memory), and it only helps if you have more than 4 Gigabytes of it installed along with a 64-bit processor.
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Windows 7 is the only 64-bit operating system I feel I can recommend, due to its amazing compatibility. The problem with most 64-bit operating systems is that there are not many 64-bit programs to work alongside with. Previously, if a program was not 64-bit compatible then you were out of a program and a few bucks. Luckily times are changing. There is now a program files on 64-bit operating systems that has a spot for both 32-bit software and the 64-bit counterpart. This means that any program that is Windows 7 compatible will be installed into the right folder on its own, permitting the use of it without fail.
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This led me to my journey of trying to find a 64-bit web browser. A journey that was not easy, but worth it nonetheless. Queue entrance Waterfox. The first mainstream web browser Software Company to provide a 64-bit browser is Mozilla. A fan of Firefox any way’s, I tried it without question. I could harp all day about how much better Waterfox is as opposed to Internet Explorer, or Google Chrome; but that would be biased. It would be information I wouldn’t want to provide, as well as you guys not wanting to read. So come Monday 2/6, we will put it all to the test. We will see who manages to crawl to the top and become the winner of “The Browser Benchmark Blowout”. Try to say that three times, fast.
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UPDATE: We plan on posting the results later on this evening. Stay tuned and plan to be surprised, we sure were!

We are very excited to begin showing some of the work we have been doing with some awesome companies that gave us a chance before we had this kickass website ( Portfolio ).

Check out the Projects tab, at the top of this page, where we will be talking about current projects at the studio.

A lot has changed with Forest Hill Studios, and more will come.

We invite you to watch but one day you wont have a choice.

FHS