CES 2020: The chips, laptops, and badass gear PC enthusiasts need to know about

A glimpse into the future.

- BRAD CHACOS

Another CES is in the books, and this time around, the annual techstravaganza served as a harbinger for the disruption aimed at PCs in 2020. Things are about to get funky, friends.

AMD opened a new front in the war against Intel, Intel fired shots at AMD and Nvidia, and monitors were being pushed to blazing-fast new limits left and right. Laptops embraced newfound form factors. Desktops got weird. Heck, we even saw a détente in the battle between consoles and PC gamers in bold, badass fashion.

We were there to capture it all. Here’s a recap of the CES 2020 reveals that PC enthusiasts need to know about. Hit those links for deeper details throughout.

AMD VS. INTEL VS. NVIDIA

Let’s start with the heavy hitters powering the chips inside the PCs you buy.

After claiming desktop dominance from Intel (go.pcworld.com/dkdm) for the first time in a long time in 2019, AMD came out swinging at laptops at CES 2020. The company revealed Ryzen 4000 laptop processors (see page 12) at its keynote, built using the same 7nm process that made 3rd-gen Ryzen and Threadripper CPUs so great, with both energy-efficient U-series and gaming-ready H-series processors planned. Get this: AMD says it’s introducing “the best laptop processor ever built,” and claims that its top-tier H-series chip can outpunch even Intel’s desktop Core i7-9700K in some scenarios. Hot damn.

AMD also revealed pricing, speed, and release date info for its monstrous 64-core Threadripper 3990X (go.pcworld.com/64cr). It’ll cost $3,990, appropriately enough, when it launches on February 7. We also chatted with Ryzen development leader David McAfee for further insights into Threadripper 3990X (go.pcworld.com/390x) and Ryzen 4000 (go. pcworld.com/mb40), as well as Anandtech’s Dr. Ian Cutress for how Ryzen 4000 squares up against Intel (go.pcworld.com/squp) in laptops.