Maximum PC

Maximum PC is the magazine that every computer geek, PC gamer, or content creator should read every month. Get Maximum PC digital magazine subscription today for punishing product reviews, thorough how-to articles, and the illuminating technical news and information that PC power users crave. Maximum PC covers every single topic that requires a lightning-fast PC, from video editing and music creation to PC gaming; we write about it all with unbounded enthusiasm for our collective hobby.

Maximum PC

ALL-OUT AMD

Phoenix and Meteor Lake coming • New generations of chips from AMD and Intel on the way

TSMC TO GO 2NM BY 2025 • CHIP GIANT ON TRACK WITH THREE INTERATIONS PLANNED

RTX 4070’S PRICE PROBLEM • High pricing = low sales, it seems

Tech Triumphs and Tragedies • A monthly snapshot of what’s good and bad in tech

BRACE FOR IMPACT • AI developers warn: this could get bumpy

ACTIVISION BLIZZARD SALE BLOCKED • And Microsoft is very angry about it

Seagate drives reach 30TB

Hot Ryzens

ARM to build its own

PCIe 5.0 SSDs Are Finally Here • THE PCI EXPRESS 5.0 specification was finalized on May 29, 2019. The first PCIe 5.0-ready consumer platform arrived with Intel’s Z690 chipset and socket LGA1700 platform in November 2021. (IBM’s Power10 processor was announced in 2020 and started shipping in mid-2021.) But PCIe 5.0 graphics cards and SSDs were nowhere to be found.

THE LIST • BEST CPUS FOR GAMING

Everybody chill, PC sales are not imploding • PC SALES NOSEDIVED by about 30 percent in the first quarter of this year. But that is no reason to panic—pretty much all digital devices have taken a hit of late. Besides, if you bother to give the numbers more than a cursory glance, you’ll see that PC sales are remarkably strong.

DOCTOR • THIS MONTH THE DOCTOR TACKLES…

BUILD A GAMING POWERHOUSE • Introducing AMD’s latest and greatest chip, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. The gaming CPU to beat?

KING OF THE RING IS THIS REALLY THE FASTEST GAMING PC?

A RYZEN 9 MASTERPIECE?

IS IT AS GOOD AS IT IS ON PAPER?

BUILD A KILLER MEDIA SERVER • Nick Peers reveals how to take control of your media and build your own always-on streaming library

TRANSCODING VERSUS DIRECT STREAMING

FINE-TUNE YOUR LIBRARY

SONIC PERFECTION

PREMIUM DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

THE GREAT GRAPHICS CARD BUBBLE • GPU prices have been ridiculous for years. Jeremy Laird investigates how we got here and if we could return to “normal” pricing

THANKS FOR THE MEMORY • WHY NVIDIA’S STINGY MEMORY BUSES AREN’T JUST BAD FOR BANDWIDTH

SteelSeries Arena 9

THIS PC DOES NOT EXIST • AI that creates text and images is a developing field that’s getting a lot of news coverage. Ian Evenden explains what’s going on

Run Stable Diffusion on your own PC • YOU’LL NEED THIS

BLUETOOTH THE TOOTH SHALL SET YOU FREE • Darien Graham-Smith explores the Bluetooth standard, and finds out how to get the best audio quality from your wireless headphones

Bluetooth versions

How do I get the best sound from Bluetooth headphones?

HOW TO • STEP-BY-STEP GUIDES TO IMPROVING YOUR PC

Build a bulletproof rescue disk • YOU’LL NEED THIS

THE VENTOY TOUR

TEST WITHOUT REBOOTING

CUSTOMIZE THE VENTOY BOOT MENU

Upgrade your CPU for a faster PC • YOU’LL NEED THIS

STRAIGHTEN BENT CPU PINS

YOUR CPU CHECKLIST

WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR OLD CPU

Manage email using Outlook’s Quick Steps • YOU’LL NEED THIS

End the bad PC ports • The worst year in history for PC game ports—just five months in!

Editor’s Pick: Lenovo Legion Y32p-30 • Great both as an investment...