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Intel's last errr Pe LC == | EDITOR Ded y Seo ea [Per Cs pore on Cer a Cae aed Dread Cod ead Cra Ce rood Ou Ly A ay ree petits se Covitrer teen roe ere eee eee ett Bos 7 Sn ee ee eee cee aay 7 preter eal oT errorContents Welcome to Issue 208 Highlights 08 Vanishing value -ASAMD cementsitsplaceatthetop ‘ofthe CPU charts RchardSwinbume ‘exploreshow the company has cast offitsvaluelabet, 10 Havesome standards Theadvertisingstandards authorty hastakenaction againstmisteadng ‘gameads.andTracyKingthinksits abouttimetoo. AMD'snew Zen3 processorsarehere ‘andconqueringall WeputtheRyzen 95900x andRyzen75800Xtothe test whilealsotaking youthrough ‘whatmemory youneedandhowto ‘overclock thenew chips thelatestutafastNVMeM2SSDsto «92: Hobbytech thetest Gareth attareerevewsthenew 24 Nvidia GeForce RTX RasPad'3tablethousina whichtumsa 3090reviewed 56 Wireless keyboards Raspberry\4ModelB into abattery- ‘WeputNvida's monstrous flagship Had enoughof cables cluttering your poweredtableturtha touch-screen GPutoughts paces. desk? Wetryoutsome ofthetatest wireessmechanical keyboards 100 Upgrade yourthermal paste 30. Visualbliss Wie show youhowtoboost your LGisnew38inuitrawide displays 76 Star Wars: Squadrons CGPUandiaptop cooing withiquid the utmatebig screenuporade, butt Toutedasthebest Star Wars game metalpaste comesataprice inageneration does Star Wars Squadronstiveuptets biting? 102 Cooling considerations 48 PCLEASSDs Antony Leatherexporesthe WihPCLE4 becomingmore 78 AMDZen3deepdive cootingimpicationsofteRTX ‘commonplace, weputthe severatof [Ahostof changestieatthehear of 3080 oundersEtion'sunique AMD snew Zen'3 processors Edword cooler design andthe acvantages Chester exploreswhatmakes the ofuparacing to tiquidmeta TIM new des dance. inlaptops 86 Squaringup 114 Automaticforthe people Sometimes youwantagametolook (Once ariche darkart. ames Gorbols blocky ratherthanblury.evenona argues overcockngis settoretum ‘madembigh-resoluton screen Mark toitsrootsasautomatic CPU ‘Smpsonexploreshow integer scaling cvercockingleavesiitieroomfor lets youachievethistook. rmanuatfunCover guide Regulars Reviewed PROCESSORS ral 3 Fromtheeditor se rey roe oo. 18 AMoRy2en95900x 8 RichardSwinbumne aca reer so ok 24 Nida GeFerceRTX3090 PTT Tao oony oe I a, corning 28 Corsrti001EneCapetic MONITORS 14 Letters 30, LcUtiaGear380N950 en 3 teetevezru ee 46 Customkit PERIPHERALS ee Sineaorae 62 Howwetest (33 ChabiastacroRGe: 34 CorsarkI00 64 Elite products Larrors 36 AsusTUFAIS 70 Inverselook 40. LenovoLegion7i PC SYSTEMS 76 Reality check (42 CyberPower Infinity SORT, 92 Hobbytech Custom kit ‘46. Subsonic hovancedHeadse Stand 98 Customised PC 46 LamicallGooseneck Phone Holder oO y200 7 $000% amo a 100 How to guides 105 Folding@home 106 Retro Tech 0 Readers’ drives 114 James Gorbold ‘46. Sages MechanicalHalf Gaming Keyboard ‘47 ‘NuraLoop Earphones 47 RunningSnallMuitl-Purpose Crank Rao PCI-E4SSD Labs ‘49. CorsairForceMP600 50 Gigabyte AorusNVMe Gen4 SSD ‘SI. SabrentRocketNVMe4 0 ‘52 Samsung980Pro Wireless keyboard Labs _ ‘ST Keychronk2Version2 58 Logitech Gers 59 Logtech GOISTKL 60 RazerBlackWidow V3Pro 61 RoyalkludgeRKEI Games ‘Serious Sama Crusader Kings ‘Mafia:Defnitve Eaton Tory Havk'sPro Skater!~2 ‘Star Wars: Squadrons Hobby tech 92. MeroPytion 94 RasPad3 96 The Games That Werent Buses#H Windows 10 CyberPowerPC recommends Windows. One experience for everything in your life. io = ©) sco a Windows 10 Home Int core" 9400 Processor VA Gefoe MS TH EEO SER ia Ask 25H OF Haber ene 240 asa eran LA Merry acon MEDS 27 Seoge SATA HD ‘yee roa Teor Bos Cae nA SOM Poe Sc el grr 8 21049 ‘Windows 10 Home intl ore" 7 700 rcessor wou ees 20 so Cart srk 6 Pe athena ‘art Ct gene Mey aa S000 ‘seme si00 Ober ya Ba eng se rn #520 over Sp fl Sod ke ns Wes Ca ) «© es Windows 10 Home itl th Gen 10900 Processor vee DSU Od 522504 Po wathetns ‘Enns 20 pet fy Hanay Sore sega Sorel 900 2B seagate ATA 00 aot Gop 2t Bk ae Coin Case oar ow Poe Sy Core ster Li i 20 yn {oon Wes Cas mocvetodng ) eo ce ORDER TODAY! 03333 237 776 indows 10 Home Intel® Core™ 17 9700KF Processor verre SR 270 SUPER Wee Card SUS Prime Z390-P Motherboard 1868 00R4 oth asi Verge LPX Merny ie Am SUE50 S50 218 Sengte ATA OD Colemoste Mostrox M820 Black Snir Case Irwin S500 Powe Sup Colas Mester ud Lt 20 Cole Syst ‘eee Diercacing iso Windows 10 Home Intel® Core™is-9900K Processor verre Ms 20 SLPEREE eo Ord SIZiS0-A PRO theo 1c 084 Sodas Vrmeoe LP Merny 5068 Wo ve S850 SS0 278 Seogte SATAN HOO Crs ite 28 hese I AS 5 Povey Cooker MostrMste ui t 240 ang Syst RO Oecckng ) 6 cis Windows 10 Home Intel® Core™ 17-9750H Processor Ines chipset I GeForce GTS Dec 21 ‘808 2H DORE Caso Vengeance Maroy 5058 Kingston A2000 $80 155° FAO at spay Int wees aczoDAVi enzo Bluetooth coe Nee aa AIL WindowsWWW.CYBERPOWERSYSTEM.CO.UK CYBERPOWERPC CUSTOM BUILD Follow Us! @ © © @CYBERPOWERUK | @ @CYBERPOWER_UKRICHARD SWINBURNE / VIEW FROM TAIWAN _ZENPHILOSOPHY — AMDisnowina very strong position against Intel, and Richard Swinburne thinks even more options will turn up next year | eee chimed andi ot urdesaethsmasie 9 pet aden. AtDagtbeen ces mad is calms AlvD ray pd sry coe nose nthe styrene eatmaecae it bate et gg Simei coset pseu am ePress, baskn uci nae tthe went ‘a minimum, it brings a long overdue architecture upgrade and PCI-E 4 support. A competitive market benefits al of us, AMD staking its shcmonth advantage and running with it Unlike Zen 2, which launched with six CPUs, Zen currently offers four, with single 6, 8,12 and 16-core flavours. The ‘equivalents of the Ryzen 5 3600 and Ryzen73700X- popular (CPUs from the Zen 2 generation ~ are notably absent, sothe 3000 and 5000 series will likely co-exist in the market for the foreseeable future. The launch prices ofthe new Ryzen, '55600X, Ryzen 7 5800X,Ryzen 9 5900X and 550K are also higher than the equivalent Zen 2 models at launch. ‘Make no mistake, AMD is ahead, so pumping up core counts would quickly Makenomistake, AMD is __it'sno longer the ‘value’ brand you knew run out of steam. Three years later, and it looks like this isthe case, yet AMD has still ‘managed to keep firing on all cylinders to make even this launch count. AMD announced Zen 3 as the Ryzen 5000 serles. Apart from three nor-retall ‘APUs, it skipped the whole 4ooo-series on desktop. This naming jump provides a clear cut between Zen 2 and Zen, 3.Comparatively the Ryzen 3000 series used Zen 20n most desktop CPUs, but only Zen x0n APUs, mobile CPUs or some crossover cases, such as all-in-one PCs, Intel attempted to usurp the announcement with a pre- announcement of its forthcoming Rocket Lake platform, due Jn March 2021. Notably, Rocket Lake isn't yet another revision of Intel's Skylake architecture, but is instead based on the more exciting Tiger Lake architecture already available in laptops ~ but backported from 1onm SuperPin to xan It should be a considerable upgrade for Intel's desktop CPUs. At ahead, soit’s no longer ‘the ‘value’ brand you knew beforehand beforehand. If we simply draw a line between platform equivalents, such as using a Core i7-10700K with Zago vs a Ryzen 7 s800X with Bs50, the Intel option {snow cheaper. However, since the 3600 and 3700X Ryzen options remain avallable AMD stil has an equally affordable and popular option to offer:it’sjust not 2en 3. AMD has also committed toensuring that current Bs50, A520, Xs70 motherboards, and even some X470 and 8450 motherboards will support Zen 3,50 even if you buy a cheaper Zen 2 option now, you still get that ‘upgrade option later. Intel doesn’t have that track record with backwards compatibility Ismy expectation that in March, AMD will retires Zen 22CPUs,and introduce the missing $600 ands700X options, and possibly cut prices slightly. Also, due to the improved design of en 3there'seven achance wellsee anew io-ore CPU (maybe called the $850) option as well a Richard nas worked in tech for over a decade, as a UK Journalist on Asus’ ROG team and now as an industry analyst based in Taiwan] @rcsw