We’re at it again PCWorld fans and I’m glad you’re coming along for the ride! As always, I’ve
gathered up some of the biggest news around the world of computing that you need to know about.
Intel has launched the 12-gen Alder Lake line and if you’re looking for a TLDR and how it
compares to AMD’s Ryzen 5000 Series, I have you covered. I’ll also touch on a Fast and Furious
style heist that resulted in an entire shipment of new Nvidia cards being stolen from a truck!?
Also, PCWorld picked their top hardware of 2021 so
let’s check out the best of the best! Lots to unpack today, full steam ahead!
It seems like just yesterday that Intel was launching the 11th-gen Rocket Lake line of CPUs,
and here we are already talking about 12th-gen. In all fairness, you might just want to forget that
11th-gen ever existed, but if you did buy into Rocket Lake then now might be time to look away.
Overall the Intel Core i9-12900K, with its interesting hybrid core design featuring 8
performance cores with hyperthreading and 8 efficient cores for a total of 24 threads,
performs admirably. According to Gordon’s review, he laid down his verdict stating the Core
i9-12900K had impressive application performance, the quote-unquote “best” gaming performance,
and even better value than AMD. But there are always caveats and this one is no different,
because DDR5 adds a price premium for the platform. On top of that, under heavy loads,
the Core i9 part can become a power hog, but Ryzen is still faster in some multithreaded tests.
Looking at the Core i5-12600K part, Gordon proclaims that this mid-range CPU is the new
mainstream champ and crushes the similarly priced Ryzen 5 5600X. Check out the full details in his
review linked below, but it seems as if Intel has finally gotten it’s revenge on AMD - for now.
Speaking of Ryzen, there are some very important things you need to know regarding Alder Lake and
Zen 3 comparisons. New PCWorld staffer Michael Criter digs in deep in the article on the site,
but I’m going to give you the shorthand version here.
12th-gen BEATS Ryzen 5000, mostly. In most of the tests run, the i9-12900K toppled the Ryzen 9 5950X
despite having an 8 thread deficit, since the efficiency cores lack hyperthreading.
And while the i9 took home the gaming crown, there are still some tasks that the 5950X still won,
specifically when multiple processes are thrown its way.
Something else to keep in mind is that 12th-gen is currently more ‘future-proof’
than current AMD hardware. This is more of a statement of the platform than the CPU itself.
While Ryzen ushered in the world of PCIe Gen 4, to which I’m quite thankful for while editing,
the Alder Lake platform brings us DDR5 as well as PCIe Gen 5. Those might not be huge
selling factors today, but down the road, it’ll be nice to already have that support.
However, that future-proofing comes at a cost. The upgrade to a full 12th-Gen
system is going to be expensive, mostly due to the cost of DDR5 and newer motherboards.
So if you’re currently on hardware from the past two generations it might be worth
holding off for now, unless you want to go the DDR4 route and use your existing memory.
Unfortunately, supply chain issues could still make the whole upgrade difficult to pull off.
While initial inventory might have been decent for CPUs and motherboards,
memory has not been. The second wave might actually be harder to come by
thanks to the ongoing global supply chain crunch, so a lot of patience might be needed here.
And lastly, you might want to wait and see what AMD has in store.
I know this is a common trope for PC enthusiasts because we’ve always got
another launch coming and if you’re always waiting then you’ll never upgrade. But,
with competition being so tight already, trouble tracking down parts, and AMD’s
Zen3 with stacked cache just around the corner, it might not hurt so bad to wait a bit.
Unfortunately, not everyone can handle waiting, especially thieves.
In an age where graphics cards on store shelves are rarer than hen’s teeth,
it doesn’t surprise me that folks would go to extreme lengths to get their hands on one,
or a whole bunch of them for that matter. Earlier this week EVGA had an entire shipment go ghost on
them in a fast and furious style ray tracing heist. Okay, so maybe it didn’t quite go down
like that but it’s fun to think about. While EVGA declined to share the details on just how many
cards were stolen, the shipment did contain pretty much a wide variety of RTX 3000 Series cards - so
RTX 3060 all the way up to the RTX 3090. Man, that sucks. Stealing is bad kids.
But you know what is free for everyone?? How about a list of PCWorld’s best PC hardware and software
of 2021?!? Every year the whole PCWorld crew gets together to put out a best-of-the-year article -
and this year’ss turned out pretty great! Despite chip shortages and supply chain issues,
companies still released great hardware all year long. While I’m not going to cover everything
here - you should dig through the list yourself - I do want to call out a few notable entries.
Gordon has a number of picks on this list, but specifically calls out a couple of laptops,
namely HP’s Spectre x360 14 and MSI’s GE76 Raider as the best thin-and-light
and gaming laptops of 2021. Why he didn’t pick the new M1 Max equipped MacBook Pro
is beyond me, but I guess that lines up with his personality. And in a surprising move,
Brad’s pick for best GPU was the integrated graphics chip in AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series APU’s!
Obviously, it’s no RTX 3080 Ti killer, instead, it’s a great gaming option for most people while
we wait out the current world supply problems. So while discrete graphics cards did come out
in 2021, PCWorld decided to call out parts that are actually in stock and at MSRP.
There are so many more to go through,
from the best Thunderbolt Dock picked by Mark to the best gaming headset from Adam,
and much more in between. Please take the time to check out this fun list looking back at the
best pc hardware and software of the year and be sure to put in the comments your picks!
Well folks, there we have it. Another fun-filled and action-packed week is behind us with our whole
future still ahead. But in the here and now we saw Intel finally having a great launch cycle
with the 12th-gen Alder Lake line, I gave you some key things to know between the Alder Lake
line and the Ryzen 5000 Series, thieves go Vin Diesel and Paul Walker on a shipment of EVGA
RTX 3000 Series graphics cards, and a huge list of PC hardware to celebrate.
I want to thank you all once again for joining me on this week’s adventure through the biggest news
in the PC enthusiast space. If you enjoyed this one please let
me know by hitting the like button over there and make sure you’re subscribed
here at PCWorld for even more PC hardware and software goodness.