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The best of the freebies
We’re not saying you should install all 50 of these programs at once, but these are our recommendations for software that we feel will hopefully benefit you in some way, give you a good experience, or simply add a little entertainment to your day. And who doesn’t like a freebie?
Paying for things can get tiresome, not to mention expensive, but thankfully there are plenty of free alternatives or routes to take instead of delving deep into your pockets to buy an application. We’ve rounded up a wide range of programs here that enable you to improve your PC’s efficiency, customise your rig, get creative, or just have some fun.
The free market has rapidly changed over the last decade. Cell phones have played a huge role in this transformation, because we’ve grown to expect more and more from free services. The quality of free applications available now compared to even a just few years ago has shifted massively. For instance, triple-A title Call of Duty is now offering a fully immersive and epic gaming experience with its battle royale game mode, “Warzone,” taken from Modern Warfare – all for free. Of course, it’s a clever way to entice you into the franchise, but the free gaming market has exploded because of titles like this. It sets a bar, with high expectations for the quality of free applications and games to continue upward. The free market is an exciting area to keep your eye on, so here’s 50 of the best programs that won’t cost you a cent.
Maintenance & repair
01 TechPowerUp GPU-Z
GPU-Z is a lightweight program that tells you everything you need to know about your graphics card. It’s a quick, effortless solution to keeping tabs on lots of data in one place. You can check the GPU’s BIOS version, when the card was released, the GPU clocks, and so on. Other metrics revealed by the software include temperature, core frequency, memory frequency, GPU load, and fan speed tracking. Who wouldn’t want this data for free, and always just a few clicks away? www.techpowerup.com
02 CPUID HWMonitor
As the name suggests, HWMonitor is a hardware monitor, and focuses on the health of your PC. The application enables you to take a look at the main health sensors, such as voltage, temperature, fan speed, and so on. It’s a great place to check whether anything is a particular bottleneck if you’re experiencing performance problems. It can help you identify why these issues are occurring, and confirm whether they’re hardware-related. It’s a free, easy-to-use PC doctor, and a big part of our testing suite here at the magazine, too. www.cpuid.com
