CATEGORIES

THE LIST - TOP FIVE GAMING LAPTOPS

GAMING LAPTOPS are a contentious issue here at Maximum PC, with some of our writers loving them and others loathing them. Regardless, they remain a common entry point to PC ownership for many, thanks to their versatility, portability, and generally high-power performance. These are the best gaming laptops out there right now across a range of sizes, styles, and budgets, so you can get your game on no matter where you are or what you're doing.

Alienware Aurora R13

ALIENWARE once dominated the desktop gaming PC market with its unique cases, but now everyone from Razer to HP has distinctive-looking designs.

AMD ZEN 4 UNWRAPPED - Welcome to the modern age

AMD’S ZEN ARCHITECTURE revitalized the CPU industry, bringing much-needed competition and higher core counts to consumers everywhere. It’s hard to believe we languished on 4-core Intel CPUs as the top mainstream solution for a full decade, starting with the Core 2 Quad in early 2007 and lasting until the Core i7-8700K launched in late 2017. If you wanted more CPU cores, you had to move to the more expensive LGA2011 HEDT (high-end desktop) platform. AMD kicked that idea to the curb with its first Ryzen 7 CPUs, and we’ve been watching an arms race of escalating core counts and clock speeds ever since.

PHOTOREALITY CHECK

Real-time photorealism is the holy grail of gaming. And it’s coming to the PC sooner than you think, says Jeremy Laird

Razer Blade 15 Advanced (2022)

Be careful what you wish for…

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED

Two screens better than one?

Asus RX 6750 XT ROG Strix

An incremental improvement worthy of the price?

Editor’s Pick: Logitech MX Mechanical Mini Keyboard

Mechanical keyboards: not just for gamers

Playdate

Netflix meets handheld retro gaming?

AMD’s refreshed mid-tier machine

Is the new Radeon RX 6650 XT worth adding to your rig?

3D map effect with GIMP

WHEN USING A PHOTO MANIPULATION application such as Adobe Photoshop or GIMP, there are many more possibilities than you may initially realize. Plenty of these programs can be used in various ways to create unique pieces of artwork. In this tutorial, we will create isometric 3D art using GIMP. This technique can be transferred onto all sorts of different media and can be used to emphasize a particular place or subject. Learning as many skills as possible can enable you to broaden your creativity by applying them to new forms.

THE LIST - THE TOP FIVE CAPTURE CARDS

WHILE NVIDIA AND AMD’S increasingly sophisticated capture software can do a fantastic job of livestreaming or recording your gameplay prowess for the world to see, if you’re taking things seriously, you’ll probably still need a capture card. That’s because you’ll either want to have a dedicated computer to take care of the recording and mixing for a professional look, or you might just want to play a console game now and again. This varied list of cards, covering a range of prices, resolutions, and card type, allow you to do just that.

MSI RX 6950 XT Gaming X Trio

Cranking the GDDR6 dial all the way up to 18Gbps

THE RACE TO EXASCALE SUPERCOMPUTERS

Powering Al, medicine, weather and more.

PCs Vs CONSOLES: GAME ON

Games consoles have become more like PCs, and with subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass blurring the lines between PC and console gaming, which is the better platform for gamers in 2022? Guy Cocker investigates

RYZEN AGAIN THE RESURRECTION OF AMD

Five years ago, AMD nearly went to the wall. Now, it has the edge on Intel and Nvidia, and billions in the bank. Jeremy Laird investigates its dramatic resurgence

HP Chromebook x2 11

Magnetic personality

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

A chip off the old block

NZXT Lift

Clicking into the peripheral mainframe

BenQ Mobiuz EX2710R

Curved, VA, and a high refresh rate.... we're hooked

Geekom Mini IT8

Is this dinky desktop PC a viable laptop alternative?

Bang & Olufsen Beoplay Portal

Looks, performance, and the sound to back it up?

THE LIST - THE TOP MICROPHONES

Product Review

Steam Deck

Valve's Steam Deck is here, but how does it stack up?

XGIMI Halo+ Projector

The all-in-one home-theater companion?

Total War: WARHAMMER III

Cry havoc! And unleash the blue-tentacled dogs of war

SO SOLID CREW

Rejoice, for ridiculously quick PCle Gen 4 drives are now almost mainstream. Jeremy Laird chooses from six of the speediest NAND SSDs

Velocity Micro Raptor Z55

Scary performance from this overclocked beast

SCREEN TECH IN 2022

OLED monitors are here at last. But as Jeremy Laird reveals, you can expect plenty more panel tech in 2022

Razer Huntsman Mini Analog

Small but mighty keyboard