Valve gets it right. Again

INTEL’S 14TH AMENDMENT

Guy Cocker IT’S FAST BECOMING Maximum PC Holiday

Biggest model wins?

The AI arms race intensifies

NEW OVERCLOCKING RECORD BROKEN

ASUS GOT HOLD OF the new Intel flagship

RTX 4000 GOES SUPER

IT IS PRETTY MUCH an open secret—Nvidia is

Tech Triumphs and Tragedies

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

STEAM DECK OLED

Major update to Valve’s gaming handheld

ARC DRIVERS ADDRESS DX11

Halo plays properly now

YouTube blocks ad blockers

AD BLOCKERS ARE EVERYWHERE.

Windows update adds Copilot

The latest Windows update, 23H2, has added Copilot

New Threadripper beast

AMD has revealed its Zen 4-based Threadripper processors,

AMD’s FreeSync Standard Quietly Won the VRR War

TECH TALK

THE BEST HANDHELD GAMING PC IN 2023

UNTIL VERY RECENTLY, the handheld gaming PC market

Arm’s time finally come on the PC

TRADE CHAT

THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES...

> Which OC tool? > Self-hosted chat >

LETTERS WE TACKLE TOUGH READER QUESTIONS ON...

> Back Issues > Meta Questing > Maintaining

THE BUILDS

THIS MONTH’S STREET PRICES...

Intel 14th generation gaming PC

These aren’t the CPUs you’re looking for

HARDWARE SELECTIONS

GPU NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4090 FOUNDERS EDITION Love

THE NEXT GENERATION

AirflowFans 3X CORSAIR LL120 WHITE $83 StaticPressureFans 3X

CAPTAIN’S LOG STARDATE 14900K

IT’S NICE from time to time to build

GENERATIONAL BLUNDER OR EVOLUTIONARY ADVANCEMENT?

INTEL’S 14TH GEN has been a pretty poorly

RAPTOR LAKE REFRESHED

INTEL’S 14TH GENERATION ISN’T AS EXCITING AS YOU MIGHT EXPECT

GEAR OF THE YEAR

There were more high-scoring products than ever in 2023. Here’s the best of the best

ONEXPLAYER ONEXFLY

2023 has undoubtedly been the year of the

AMD RYZEN 7 7800X3D

AMD has gone and done it again. The

INTEL CORE i5 13400F

Unlike GPUs, which remain painfully pricey, excellent CPUs

NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4070

An Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 for $100 less—that’s

AMD RADEON RX 7800 XT

AMD’s new upper mid-tier GPU doesn’t do anything

ALIENWARE 34 AW3423DWF

At last, the OLED revolution has arrived on

SAMSUNG ODYSSEY NEO G9 G95NC

If 2023 was the year OLED hit critical

LENOVO YOGA SLIM 9i

14-inch 2.8K OLED screen? Check. 14-core Intel CPU?

FRAMEWORK 13 AMD MAINBOARD

We already loved Framework’s stupidly clever, fully upgradeable

SOLIDIGM P44 PRO 2TB

The SK Hynix Platinum P41 earned our admiration

LEXAR NM790 1TB

PCIe Gen 5 drives have arrived. But while

LOGITECH PRO X SUPERLIGHT 2

You might think that at just 60 grams—three

STEELSERIES AEROX 5 WIRELESS

A $140 mouse comes with lofty expectations. Happily,

ASUS ROG STRIX SCOPE II 96 WIRELESS

Building off the back of the Asus ROG

CORSAIR K70 MAX

Is this the fastest keyboard ever? Every key

STEELSERIES ARCTIS NOVA PRO

A lot of money for some gaming cans?

CORSAIR HS65 SURROUND WIRELESS

Is wireless worth the extra wedge? A perennial

ASUS ROG ALLY

While we probably have the Steam Deck to

AYANEO AIR 1S

If being portable ought to be what a

MSI Z790I EDGE WI-FI MINI-ITX

This MSI board offers one of the best

ASUS ROG STRIX B650-A GAMING WIFI

The cheapest of the Asus Strix family for

PROJECTOR

Relatively unknown just a few years ago, XGIMI

INTEL NUC 13 EXTREME RAPTOR CANYON

We prefer to build our own full-size tower

META QUEST 3

© META As a simple VR package, the

STEELSERIES ARENA 9

This is SteelSeries’ best speaker system, and it

NZXT H9 FLOW

We already loved NZXT’s H7 range of cases.

BE QUIET! SHADOW BASE 800 FX

Most cases come in $50—over $100 cheaper than

CORSAIR TC100 RELAXED

A relaxed gaming chair for a chilled price?

AVERMEDIA LIVE GAMER ULTRA 2.1

Welcome to the first mainstream video capture device

R ASPBERRY PI 5

HOMEBREW PC ALTERNATIVE

NETGEAR NIGHTHAWK A8000

If you’ve upgraded your router or mesh system

BEST OF IFA 2023

best of IFA 2023

WINDOWS 11 23H2 UNCOVERED

Take a deep dive into the latest iteration of Windows 11 with your tour guide, Nick Peers

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

TIP OF THE MONTH

Find anything with Everything

YOU’LL NEED THIS THE EVERYTHING APP voidtools.com , free

Beat OneDrive’s photo storage restrictions

YOU’LL NEED THIS ONEDRIVE ACCOUNT, MEGA.IO ACCOUNT

Editor’s Pick: LG UltraGear 27GR93U

Let’s begin with the sordid matter of money.

Intel Core i9 14900K

Fast, powerful, and just a bit boring

Intel Core i5 14600K

The new best mid-range gaming CPU

Crucial T700

The fastest consumer SSD you can buy

Framework 13 (2023) AMD Mainboard

Style, customization, and gaming power

Raspberr y Pi 5

Our favorite single-board computer gets an upgrade

HP Omen 16 (2023)

Luxurious, but expensive and underpowered

Be Quiet! Shadow Base 800 FX

The perfect case to house your new rig?

Meta Quest 3

The best VR headset just got a whole lot better

AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra 2.1

Get the latest standards in your video capture

Alan Wake 2

A wild barrage of creative storytelling and visual flair

Notion vs Todoist

Which is best for staying on top of your projects?