Despite a spate of new CPU and graphics card launches late last year, 2021 is already becoming a busy year for PC gaming hardware. Not only do we have Intel’s new 11th Gen Rocket Lake processors available before the end of March, but 2021 will also be the year that Intel finally enters the graphics card arena with their new Xe GPUs on the PC. That’s not all, either, because we’ll probably also see Nvidia’s RTX 30 series GPUs move to gaming laptops, plus significantly faster game load times thanks to Microsoft’s DirectStorage technology. So, to help you stay up to date on all that’s to come, I’ve put together this handy guide to all the exciting new hardware we’ll be most excited about in 2021.
The bulk of this year’s new computer game announcements will likely come next week when CES 2021 (also known as tech Christmas) kicks off on January 11th. This is where hardware manufacturers announce the exact setup of new game monitors, laptops, SSDs and the like, and I’ll discuss all the announcements in detail next week. For now, however, there are broad outlines of what’s going on in hardware country in 2021, and the man in life seems quite exciting. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your computer recently, this is surely the year to do it.
To buy the best hardware from last year
Between the introduction of AMD’s Ryzen 5000 processors, their Radeon RX 6000 graphics card with radiation trace and Nvidia’s next generation RTX 30 series GPUs, the end of last year should have been a great time to upgrade your computer. .. if only we could actually buy the damn stuff before they were all snatched up by bots.
AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600X, for example, wiped out its Intel competition in my CPU gaming tests when it first appeared in early November, and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 GPUs all showed huge performance gains above their RTX 20 series predecessors. The only problem was that they were all sold out within seconds and that prices have remained high since then.
As with the major GPU drought of 2017/2018, the stock shortage that plagued the back half of 2020 will (hopefully) eventually subside in 2021, though we do not yet know. While the 2017/2018 price increases were due to an increase in cryptocurrency mining, many of the current stock problems are due to delays related to Covid at the beginning of last year. AMD and Nvidia have both said that they are working as hard as possible to meet the demand, but it could very well take a few more months before everything settles down again. Once that happens, prospective upgraders will have a great time putting off their new computer.
Of course, I’m watching my week for new oncoming stocks in our regularly updated graphics card offerings and CPU offerings, so make sure you check those out if you want to get your hands on one.
Intel’s 11th Generation Rocket Lake Processors
Of course, if you’re considering upgrading your CPU and motherboard this year, it’s probably best to wait until Intel releases their new 11th Gen Rocket Lake CPU anyway, which is currently available sometime before the end of March 2021. is.
While Intel’s existing 10th generation Comet Lake processors offer some excellent performance improvements during their 8th and 9th generation Coffee Lake chips, Rocket Lake introduces some key new pieces of technology that could make it a much better base for a next generation computer. than what has come before. Most important among them is the support of PCIe 4.0, which doubles the amount of bandwidth available on your computer to move through all the data. It’s been a staple on the AMD side of the fence for a few years now, but 2021 will finally make Intel work fast too, so you can take full advantage of new PCIe 4.0 SSDs, such as Samsung’s 980 Pro and Black SN850 from WD. , as well as PCIe 4.0 graphics cards.
Support for PCIe 4.0 is also key to unlocking the potential of Microsoft’s upcoming DirectStorage technology (more on this below), which is set to dramatically reduce game load times to better align them with their super-fast console counterparts. You will probably need a PCIe 4.0 SSD to take advantage of it, but at least it will no longer be limited to just AMD systems.
To ensure that everyone gets the full beat of what PCIe 4.0 offers, Intel has confirmed that their Rocket Lake processors will also be paired with a new 500-series motherboard chipset. It’s possible that their existing Z490 motherboards may get a BIOS update to add PCIe 4.0 support later (assuming, of course, Intel does not go for another type of socket for Rocket Lake as well), but unless you Bought Comet Lake. last year and are desperate to upgrade again, I would recommend waiting for a proper 500 series board to ensure full compatibility.
I also just want to see how Rocket Lake’s gaming performance compares to AMD’s Ryzen 5000 CPUs that were recently released. While AMD’s new processors were miles ahead of Intel’s 10th generation Comet Lake chips when I tested them late last year, I’ll be dead impressed if Intel manages to get their crown back with their Rocket Lake range, because it will being not only means significant speed improvements of the new generation, but an even firmer game base that will set you up for years to come.
Intel’s Xe Graphics Cards
2021 is also the year that Intel’s much-anticipated Xe GPUs will also arrive, which will provide a much-needed competition for Nvidia and AMD in the old graphics card arena. There is still a lot we do not know about Intel’s Xe GPUs, such as how much they will produce and how much they will cost, but we do know that they will come with GDDR6 memory and that they will detect accelerated radiation. support.
That would put them on a fairly equal footing with Nvidia’s RTX 30 GPUs and AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 cards, and I can not wait to see how they stand against each other. The fingers crossed and we will learn more about what Intel has in store for their Xe GPUs at their CES 2021 press conference next Monday, January 11th at 13:00 PST (21:00 GMT).
Nvidia’s RTX 30 GPUs Comes to Laptops
It’s not 100% confirmed yet, but I’ll eat my RTX 3080 if Nvidia’s new GPUs do not come to laptops this year as well. This is one of the inevitable improvements to the hardware you know at some point, and I’m excited to see what they & # 39; re going to do for all the increasingly high performance of 300Hz that’s going on these days, as well as on the beam detection.
I mean, with the world it is today, it’s not like many of us would do need powerful laptops to play games away from home, but if 2020 taught me anything, then the fact that I can play games in another room in my house is absolutely a good message if you work all the time . It’s nice to have that separation sometimes, and a laptop is a great way to accomplish that if you do not want to clog another computer in your living room.
Again, we’ll probably hear more about which of Nvidia’s RTX 30 series will receive the laptop treatment during their CES press conference next week on Tuesday 12 January at 09:00 PST (17:00 GMT), so stay tuned for more information .
Cheaper Nvidia RTX 30 and AMD RX 6000 desktop GPUs
Speaking of Nvidia’s press conference CES 2021, we hope we’ve got a glimpse of what they’ve set up for their mainstream RTX 30 family as well. The RTX 3060 Ti is a dazzling graphics card for £ 369 / $ 399, but it’s still quite expensive as these things go, and it’s going to be great to see Nvidia’s RTX range expand even further into the potential RTX 3050 area. Of course, the name of the RTX 3060 Ti alone indicates that at some point there will be at least one regular RTX 3060, but the dream is to run the RT cores through Nvidia’s next series.
The same goes for the rest of AMD’s RX 6000 family. We’ve already seen what the RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT can do for the 1440p and 4K end of the market, and I’m excited to see what their budget of (presumably) RX 6700 and maybe even RX 6600 and RX 6500 will be. maps can do the 1080p end of the spectrum. Again, it would be great if we could get beam tracking support across the board here, but we’ll have to wait and see if it works.
AMD’s CEO, Dr Lisa Su, will give a CES 2021 speech on Tuesday 12 January at 11:00 PST (16:00 GMT) so that the fingers are crossed, then we get more juicy announcements.
Microsoft DirectStorage Technology
It’s significantly less sexy than a bunch of new graphics cards, I’ll admit, but the implications of Microsoft’s new storage API are likely to have a big impact on games going forward. This is exciting because it means we need to be able to start reaping all the benefits of the super – fast charging times that keep people’s consoles beating, as well as generally better and more efficient performance across the board.
Based on the super-fast Xbox Velocity architecture in Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, DirectStorage is set to streamline the entire IO (or input-output) system of your computer when it finally arrives, allowing your computer to do things in your RAM and GPU. banks much faster than before and download times result dramatically as a result.
Microsoft also hopes that DirectStorage, in theory, will give developers the opportunity to create larger, more detailed worlds than ever before, because the old bottlenecks that prevent them from realizing their big, open worldviews will no longer be there. I’ll believe it when I see it, of course, but it’s nice to dream about what could be, right?
Unfortunately, you will probably need a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD to take full advantage of it, as it is within both of the new Xboxes, but here it is hoped that older PCIe 3.0 SSDs will still be able to utilize it as well. . We’ll have to find out more as soon as Microsoft announces their DirectStorage developer preview later this year.