Love Pulse Posted January 9, 2022 Posted January 9, 2022 CES is a gloriously mad hodgepodge of different tech fields; the kind where smartphone chip makers share floor space with car manufacturers and sex toys. It's also one of the biggest showcases of PC gaming hardware in the calendar, and CES 2022 has been no exception, with a major component reveals from AMD, Intel, and Nvidia along with loads of gaming laptop, peripheral, and monitor announcements. This year's show is technically still going for another day, but like a Foo Fighters album, CES tends to front-load the good stuff. As such, it's basically safe to start rounding up any PC gaming kit highlights. Some of these have been a long time coming - like the GeForce RTX 3050, Nvidia's first XX50 desktop GPU with full ray tracing and DLSS support - while others might be pleasant surprises or eye-catching, if likely to be witheringly expensive, new concepts. Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 At £239/ $249 (and we all know what happens to GPU prices these days), you probably couldn't call the GeForce RTX 3050 a “budget” graphics card in the same way that the GTX 1050 and GTX 1650 were. But this model, not to be confused with the laptop-grade RTX 3050 that's been around a while, is something that Nvidia's stable has lacked since the launch of the RTX 20 series: a focused 1080p warrior that offers an affordable entry point into DLSS and basic ray tracing. With 8GB of VRAM, it's also equipped with double the memory of AMD's closest equivalent: the Radeon RX 6500 XT. Intel Core i9-12900HK Alternative subheading: “A bunch of new Intel CPUs, including the Core i9-12900HK.” Intel did in fact detail dozens of 12th Gen chips to accompany its existing six Alder Lake models, with the desktop contingent focusing on lower specs and lower prices. Together with the launch of mid-range and entry chipsets like the B660 and H610, budget builders will have a lot more 12th Gen options for their rig. Nonetheless, I'll confess to having my head turned by the Core i9-12900HK, Intel's newest top-of-the-line mobile CPU. With six burly P-cores and eight power-saving E-cores, plus a maximum Turbo speed of 5GHz, you can expect this to be the brains behind the most powerful gaming laptops in 2022. AMD Ryzen 6000 APUs While the Ryzen 7000 series of desktop CPUs also got a formal announcement at CES 2022, and is absolutely among the PC gaming hardware to watch this year, the lack of specs or performance details means the new Ryzen 6000 APUs had a more memorable showing during AMD's event itself. The big deal here is their RDNA 2 integrated graphics, which support FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) upscaling and promise gaming power well above the likes of Nvidia's discrete GeForce MX450. Especially for games that support FSR, this could finally open up the door to slim and light laptops achieving solid 60fps/1080p play on medium and even high graphical settings. We'll see! New Razer Blade laptops You can usually count on the Razer Blade laptop series to stay up-to-late on the latest hardware, and the new Blade 14, Blade 15 and Blade 17 have wasted no time in stuffing themselves with freshly-announced AMD/Intel/Nvidia gubbins . Specifically, the Blade 15 and Blade 17 can both come fitted with Intel's new Core i9-12900H (not the overclockable Core i9-12900HK, sadly) and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti or RTX 3080 Ti GPUs; Nvidia revealed the mobile versions of both these graphics chips at CES 2022 as well. The Blade 14 also has these GPUs options, though rather than Intel, the new models include an AMD Ryzen 6900HX APU from the new line. Hey, just because they've got upgraded integrated graphics doesn't mean they can't be paired with a dedicated GPU – though in this case you can switch between the two, which should be useful for saving power when you're not playing .
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