Despite the introduction of new graphics card and CPU releases late last year, 2021 is already becoming a pretty busy year for PC gaming hardware. Not only do we have the new 11th generation Intel Rocket Lake processors before the end of March, but 2021 will also be the year that Intel will finally enter the realm of the graphics card with its new GPUs. Xe desktop. That’s not all, either, as we’re likely to see Nvidia’s RTX 30 series GPUs target gaming laptops, in addition to much faster game loading times thanks to Microsoft’s DirectStorage technology. So, to help you keep up to date with everything that’s coming up, I’ve put together this handy guide on all the exciting new hardware that makes us most excited in 2021.
Most of this year’s PC gaming hardware announcements will likely arrive next week when CES 2021 (also known as Christmas Tech) begins on January 11th. It will be here where hardware manufacturers will present the precise training of new game monitors, laptops, SSDs and the like, and I will address all of these announcements in detail next week. For now, though, here are the big shots of what’s to come in the land of hardware for 2021, and the living man looks pretty exciting. If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your PC recently, it’s almost certain it will be the year to do so.
In fact, it is possible to buy the best hardware from last year
Among the releases of AMD’s Ryzen 5000 CPUs, its Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards capable of locating the rays and GPUs of Nvidia’s next-generation RTX 30 series, the end of last year should have been a good time to upgrade your pc … if we only did In fact, I was able to buy the damn things before everyone stole them.
AMD’s Ryzen 5 5600X, for example, outperformed its Intel competition in my CPU gaming tests when it first came out in early November, and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 GPUs from Nvidia showed huge performance gains over its RTX 20 -series predecessors. The only problem was that they sold out in a matter of seconds and since then the prices have remained impressive.
However, as with the great GPU drought of 2017/2018, the stock shortage suffered by the previous half of 2020 (hopefully) will end up settling in 2021, although we don’t know yet. While the 2017/2018 price hikes were caused by an increase in cryptocurrency mining, many of the current stock problems stem from Covid-related delays early last year. AMD and Nvidia have said they are working as hard as they can to meet demand, but it may take a few more months for everything to get back on track. Once you do, however, potential upgrades will get very old preparing your new PC.
Of course, I’ll keep my eyes open every week for news coming to our regularly updated graphics card publications and CPU offerings, so be sure to check them out if you want to get one.
The 11th generation Intel Rocket Lake CPUs
Of course, if you’re thinking about upgrading your CPU and motherboard this year, it’s probably best to wait until Intel launches its new 11th-generation Rocket Lake CPUs, which are currently due to come out before the end of March 2021.
While Intel’s existing 10th-generation Comet Lake CPU offering delivers great performance boosts over its 8th- and 9th-generation Coffee Lake chips, Rocket Lake introduces some crucial new elements of technology that will make it a much better base for a new generation PC. than what has happened before. The main one is PCIe 4.0 support, which doubles the amount of bandwidth available on your PC to analyze all this data. It’s been a staple next to AMD’s lock for a few years now, but eventually 2021 will also put Intel at speed, allowing you to make the most of new PCIe 4.0 SSDs like the Samsung 980 Pro and the WD Black SN850. , as well as PCIe 4.0 compatible graphics cards.
PCIe 4.0 support will also be key to unlocking the potential of Microsoft’s upcoming DirectStorage technology (more info below), which is slated to, among other things, drastically reduce game loading times to align them with their super fast console counterparts. . You’ll probably need a PCIe 4.0 SSD to take advantage of it, but at least it won’t be limited to AMD systems anymore.
To make sure everyone gets everything PCIe 4.0 has to offer, Intel has confirmed that its Rocket Lake CPUs will also be accompanied by a new 500 series motherboard chipset. It is possible that its existing Z490 motherboards get a BIOS update to add PCIe 4.0 support later (assuming Intel won’t switch to another new socket for Rocket Lake, of course), but unless you bought it at Comet Lake last year and you’re done desperate to upgrade again, I would advise you to wait for a suitable 500 series dashboard to ensure full compatibility.
I’m also interested to see how Rocket Lake gaming performance compares to recently released AMD Ryzen 5000 processors. Although AMD’s new processors were ahead of Intel’s 10th generation Comet Lake chips when I tested them late last year, I’ll be impressed if Intel manages to regain its crown with its training. of Rocket Lake, as it will not only mean substantial improvements in speed from generation to generation, but an even tougher game base that will prepare you for years to come.
Intel Xe graphics cards
2021 is also the year of Intel’s long-awaited Xe GPUs, which will bring much-needed competition to Nvidia and AMD in the old graphics card arena. There are still many things we don’t know about Intel’s Xe GPUs, such as how much they will produce and how much they will cost, but we know they will come with GDDR6 memory and will have accelerated ray tracking support.
That should put them on a fairly balanced playing field with Nvidia’s RTX 30 GPUs and AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 cards, and I can’t wait to see how they approach. Fingers crossed, at the CES 2021 press conference, next week on Monday 11 January at 13:00 PST (21:00 GMT), at its CES 2021 press conference, we will hear more about what Intel has in store for your Xe GPUs.
Nvidia RTX 30 GPUs are coming to gaming laptops
It’s not 100% confirmed yet, but I’ll eat up my RTX 3080 if Nvidia’s new GPUs don’t end up coming to gaming laptops this year. It’s one of those inevitable hardware upgrades that you know will happen at some point, and I’m excited to see what they’ll do for those ever-increasing 300Hz refresh screens that affect these days, as well as ray tracing on- the-go.
I mean, with the world still in this moment, it’s not like many of us will need high-powered laptops for playing games away from home, but if 2020 taught me anything, is that being able to play games in a different room in my house is an absolute godsend when you work from home all the time time. Sometimes it’s good to have this separation and a gaming laptop is a great way to get it if you don’t want another PC to clog the living room.
Again, we’ll probably hear more about which of Nvidia’s RTX 30 series will receive treatment for laptops during the CES press conference next week on Tuesday, January 12 at 9:00 PST (17:00 GMT) as well stay tuned for more information.
Cheaper Nvidia RTX 30 and AMD RX 6000 desktop GPUs
Speaking of Nvidia’s CES 2021 press conference, here’s hoping we can also take a look at what they have lined up for their RTX 30 main desktop family. The RTX 3060 Ti is a small graphics card for 369 pounds / $ 399, but it’s still pretty expensive as these things happen and it would be great to see Nvidia’s RTX training extend even further into the potential territory of RTX 3050. Of course, only the name of the RTX 3060 Ti suggests that there will be at least one regular RTX 3060 at some point, but the dream is for these RT cores to run across the full range of Nvidia’s next generation.
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 end of the 1440p and 4K market, and I’m thrilled to see what its (presumably) RX 6700 budget line and maybe even RX 6600 and RX 6500 cards are. they can be useful for the 1080p end. Again, it would be great if we had support for ray tracing here, but we’ll have to wait and see if this is done.
AMD CEO Lisa Su will make the keynote address at CES 2021 on Tuesday, January 12 at 11:00 PST (16:00 GMT) next week, so fingers crossed we’ll get some juicier announcements then.
Microsoft DirectStorage technology
Admittedly, this is considerably less appealing than a bunch of new graphics cards, but the implications of Microsoft’s new storage API are likely to have a big impact on gaming. This is exciting because it means we should be able to start taking full advantage of these super fast charging times that people on the console continue to shock, as well as better and more efficient performance overall.
Based on the super-fast Xbox Velocity architecture of Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles, DirectStorage is set to streamline your PC’s entire IO (or input-output) system when it arrives, allowing your PC to load things to your RAM and GPU. banks much faster than before and, as a result, drastically reduce charging times.
Microsoft also hopes that DirectStorage will, in theory, give developers the opportunity to create larger, more detailed worlds than ever before, as the old bottlenecks that prevented them from realizing their huge open world visions will no longer be there. I think I’ll see it when I see it, of course, but hey, it’s good to dream about what it could be, eh?
Unfortunately, you probably need a NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD to get the most out of it, as this is what’s inside the new Xbox, but hopefully older PCIe 3.0 SSDs can still get a use out of it. . We should find out more once Microsoft releases the developer version of DirectStorage later this year.