VERDICT
An accomplished games machine and potent, extensively connected multitasker, this PC gets almost everything right
THE RELATIVE NEWNESS of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX graphics cards means that there aren’t a great deal of pre-built, RTX-based PCs to compare against each other. Even so, it’s already clear enough that £1,300 for a desktop with the high-end RTX 2070 could be quite the tempting prospect – so long as the rest of it is up to scratch.
The Fusion Ryzen 7 RTX 2070 Custom Gaming PC builds around its GPU with an octa-core, 16-thread AMD Ryzen 7 2700 CPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 250GB WD Black SSD (Shopper 376), a 2TB hard disk and Gigabyte’s B450M Aorus M motherboard. It sticks to the basics in some minor respects – the CPU is air-cooled rather than water-cooled, and that motherboard uses the microATX form factor – but by and large, this is a premium system.
RTX FACTOR
Nowhere else is this proven more convincingly than in gaming performance. In Metro: Last Light Redux, our most demanding test game, Chillblast’s system kept pace with the £1,600 Palicomp Intel i7 Supernova (Shopper 376), averaging a silky 90fps at 1,920x1,080 as well as 54fps at 2,560x1,440. The usual mix of Very High quality and SSAA proved a little too much at 3,840x2,160, judging by the 25fps result, but simply disabling SSAA bumped this up to a very playable 50fps. There’s hardly a drop in visual quality either, as the high resolution naturally makes edges look smoother, something you’d normally need anti-aliasing for.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
XIAOMI Mi Mix 3 5G
VERDICT This is the most affordable of the first 5G smartphones, but even with great hardware, the service isn’t yet worth the expense
RHA T20 Wireless
VERDICT They’re not cheap, but these well-designed earphones deliver superb sound quality
Protect And Preserve
Data might be A Valuable Commodity, But It’s Remarkably Easy To Lose Or For Others To Get Their Hands On. Mike Bedford Provides Guidance On How To Preserve, Recover And Destroy Data, And Looks At The Technologies Involved
NZXT H510i
VERDICT Some qualities shine through, but this is an underwhelming case from a maker we know can do better
Kicking Off A New Era Of Football?
With the new football season well and truly under way, David Crookes talks to Jon Hare about reviving the spirit of Sensible Soccer with a new, more sociable offering that he hopes will avoid an own goal
NAIM Mu-so 2
VERDICT A luxurious and fine-sounding slab of metal, but for most homes it won’t be worth the expense
Motorola One Vision
VERDICT The One Vision comes close to being a brilliant mishmash of tech – shame about the camera
JBL Xtreme 2
VERDICT With top-quality sound and a versatile design, this is a great – if expensive – rugged Bluetooth speaker
HUAWEI MateBook 13
VERDICT What the MateBook 13 lacks in flourish, it makes up for in value and performance
GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Master
VERDICT A loaded and forward-thinking motherboard, but not one that fully justifies its high price
