MAXIMUM PC

EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief: Guy Cocker Contributing Writers: Nate

THE STATE OF THE ARC

Guy Cocker © GETTY IMAGES WELCOME to the

THE NEWS

the beginning of the magazine, where the articles are small

Nvidia RTX 50-series pushes AI to the forefront

Jarred Walton TWO YEARS ON from the launch

THE LIST

THE BEST LAPTOP GRAPHICS CARDS

Fun and graphics card games at CES 2025

WE ALL KNEW what was coming at CES: a bunch of graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia. They were pretty much exactly as predicted, albeit with some surprises. AMD managed to botch the launch of its RDNA 4 cards, while Nvidia played 3D chess with the pricing of its new RTX 50 cards.

DOCTOR

THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES...

LETTERS

WE TACKLE TOUGH READER QUESTIONS ON...

THE BUILDS

THIS MONTH’S STREET PRICES...

THE ARC-FUL DODGER

Intel has gifted the GPU scene with a bona fide bargain, and it is glorious

BUILDING SIMPLICITY

LENGTH OF TIME: 1-2HOURS LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: EASY

PLEASE SIR, I WANT SOME MORE

WE’D CALL THIS A SIMPLE BUILD , but

OF ARROWS AND ARCS

HOW WE TEST You know what we love

SYSTEM BENCHMARKS

For our system testing, we use a multitude

GAMING BENCHMARKS

Game tests are performed on Ray Tracing Ultra

SYNTHETIC GAMING BENCHMARKS

We’re using 3DMark’s latest Speed Way, Steel Nomad,

HAVE WE REACHED MAXIMUM PC?

Has the desktop reached the point where it can get no better? Ian Evenden looks ahead

THE EVOLUTION OF VIDEO GAME AI

Over time, game AI has become more refined.

GAMING THE AI

While Doom ’s FSM resulted in the

PROCEDURAL CONTENT GENERATION

The Forza franchise is an excellent

CENTERFOLD

PERFORMANCE GEAR LAID BARE

MAXIMUM PC'S TIPS AND TWEAKS

HOW TO FINE-TUNE YOUR DESKTOP EXPERIENCE

THE BEST ANTIVIRUS

It’s Windows Defender. It just is. No, honestly,

HOW DO YOU USE THIS THING?

Simply put, your desktop is your workspace. This

HOW TO STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES TO IMPROVING YOUR PC

TIP OF THE MONTH WINDOWS EXPLORER RESTART

Sony PS5 Pro

presents: AUTOPSY THIS MONTH WE DISSECT... We’re glad

Improve your memory with Windows Recall

YOU’LL NEED THIS A COPILOT+ PC Nothing to hide

INSIDE THE INTERFACE

1. TIMELINE This is divided into sections

Create your offline data vault

YOU’LL NEED THIS A STABLE INTERNET CONNECTION

Boost your Wi-Fi

YOU’LL NEED THIS USB WI-FI ANTENNA (optional)

What’s new in Microsoft PowerToys?

YOU’LL NEED THIS WINDOWS 10 OR 11 PC

Maximum PC has lost one of its own

The impact Gordon had on the industry is just beyond words

JEREMY LAIRD

Contributing Editor

Editor’s Pick: Tryx Panorama ARGB 360

How do you like your screens in the morning?

Intel Arc B580

Intel’s second crack at the gaming GPU market

Velocity Micro Raptor ES40

A compact PC that mixes it with the big boys

MSI Raider 18 HX A14V

Dethroning a king

ASUS ProArt Display 5K PA27JCV

An Apple Studio Display without the high cost?

Acer Nitro V 15

A weirdly well-specced gaming notebook

BenQ RD320UA

At last, a screen for reading reams of text

Meta Quest 3S

A Quest 2, but better. Or a Quest 3, but worse

Corsair K70 Core

Corsair goes back to basics with new lubed keyboard switches

HyperX QuadCast 2

An excellent plug-and-record USB microphone

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Dr Jones will steal your heart in MachineGames' best effort to date

X (formerly Twitter) vs Bluesky

The battle of the micro-bloggers