2020 Tech Preview

The Maximum PC team predicts what the coming year holds for PC technology

It’s been a pretty wild year for PC technology, and an even wilder decade. This was the decade that brought system building more into the main-stream, and saw PCs rise above the hubbub of consoles and mobile devices to achieve a healthy position in the market and in our hearts.

PC gaming is in a particularly good place, with multiplatform multiplayer more common, and proper gaming hardware getting cheaper. DDR4 memory exploded on to the scene, initially pricey, but now more affordable and higher quality than ever. M.2 SSD took longer to get off the ground, but now it’s hard to imagine a high-end rig without one of these high-speed drives.

It’s now easier than ever to build yourself a PC. Next-generation integrated graphics allow for inexpensive work systems, while GPUs have improved incrementally to enable truly next-level graphics. Ray tracing also saw a rise in popularity; while Nvidia’s RTX cards arrived in 2018, it was in 2019 that the question of ray tracing was truly posed to the industry.

We’ve been treated—spoiled, even—with sleek, powerful hardware, and it leaves us hopeful for the coming year. 2020 promises plenty, but even more is under wraps. Next-gen CPUs and Intel’s entry into the GPU market are exciting prospects, so here’s our hot-off-the-press take on what will happen in the tech industry in 2020.

GRAPHICS CHANGING THE STATE OF PLAY