SUMMER SALES

THIS ISSUE of Maximum PC is filled with

First Zen 5 Chips

New desktop and mobile chips put AMD back in charge

APPLE WORKING ON BUDGET VISION PRO

© COMPUTEX SHOW, FTC/WIKIPEDIA, APPLE CORP VISION PRO

FTC SUES ADOBE

THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION has its eyes on

Tech Triumphs and Tragedies

A monthly snapshot of what’s good and bad in tech

NVIDIA WORLD’S MOST VALUABLE COMPANY

AI has earned the green team a fortune

Microsoft cans Recall

PART OF MICROSOFT’S PLANS for the AI PC,

AMD gets hacked

A forum had a post from a group

Audio AI watermark

Meta has an AI watermarking system called AudioSeal

Intel Taps TSMC for its Lunar Lake CPUs

INTEL WAS THE LEADER in microprocessor manufacturing technology for decades, but the soon to be released Lunar Lake processors will primarily be produced using technology from TSMC. It’s not the first time Intel has used another company’s process technology, but it’s the latest CPU cores being produced elsewhere. And that’s only the start of the changes.

THE LIST

THE BEST STEAM DECK GAMES

The battle for next-gen laptops and handhelds

THE DUST has settled on the orgy of silicon, sweat-shop capitalism, and silly AI marketing straplines that was the 2024 Computex show in Taiwan. All that’s left bar the cocktail of air-travel contracted pathogens currently laying waste to the post-Computex attendees is to decide which was the best new laptop chip announced at the show. AMD’s or Intel’s?

DOCTOR

THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES...

LETTERS WE TACKLE TOUGH READER QUESTIONS ON...

> Back to the future > Thermal issues > AI, AI, oh

THE BUILDS

THIS MONTH’S STREET PRICES

The Best Sub-$1,000 Gaming PC pushing the envelope on value

With Ryzen 9000 right around the corner, is now the perfect time to buy? Zak Storey finds out

THE UPGRADER’S DILEMMA

Jarred Walton investigates 16 combinations of graphics cards and processors

The Life & Times of Gaming Keyboards

Zak Storey takes a deep dive into the world of our favorite peripheral...

CENTERFOLD PERFORMANCE GEAR LAID BARE

1 DREAM STREAMER The headphones support spatial audio with

BUILD THE ULTIMATE RESCUE DISC

Nick Peers on how to prepare for the worst

HOW TO

STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES TO IMPROVING YOUR PC

MAKE – USE – CREATE

60 Audacity 3.5 masterclass 64 Clean and optimize

SPINNING PLATES

ZAK STOREY CONTRIBUTOR Recently, I got massively distracted

Audacity 3.5 MasterClass

YOU’LL NEED THIS AUDACITY 3.5X www.audacityteam.org/ download 80

Clean and optimize your PC for free

YOU’LL NEED THIS WINTOYS (free from the Microsoft

Recover deleted files

YOU’LL NEED THIS EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE To store

LAB NOTES

AMD’s 9000 is coming

Editor’s Pick: WD Passport 6TB

A seriously chunky backup drive

Reviewed…

74 Samsung Odyssey G8 OLED G80SD 76 Netgear

Samsung Odyssey G8 OLED G80SD

Another monitor miss from Samsung

Netgear Orbi 970

Mega speed for a mega price

Philips Evnia 49M2C8900

Philips gets in on the uberwide OLED action

Lenovo LOQ 15IRX9

A well-specced gaming machine that’s just a little bit unexciting

Flawless, purely flawless

Phanteks XT View The best budget case, period.

HP Spectre X360 14 (2024)

A sleek two-in-one that’s bright, fast... but uses integrated graphics

Bag a software bargin

Don’t pay full price for software when we can offer you huge reductions on everything from security software to Windows 11 Pro

Geometric Future Model 4 Caliburn

Challenging build, beautiful finish

Glorious Model D 2 Pro 4K/8KHz Edition

8,000Hz polling is wasted on me

Scuf Envision Pro

A high-end controller actually designed for PC gaming

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Captivating battles meet impeccable storytelling

Cinebench R23/24 vs Geekbench 6.2.1

Battle of the benches