Custom PC UK November 2021

Intel dropped a silicon bomb on the PC gaming community in August when it announced its new Arc GPU architecture (see p14). We knew Intel had been working on improving its lacklustre graphics tech, but we’d also seen its x86-based graphics project, Larrabee, crash and burn, and the first demonstrations of its Xe DG1 GPU were hardly awe-inspiring. We just weren’t expecting Intel to suddenly announce Alchemist, a proper GPU complete with hardware ray tracing and AI-based super sampling. It’s a situation that should seriously worry AMD. Back in 2006, AMD bought ATi, and focused hard on integrating decent GPUs into its CPUs. The first consumer desktop product, Llano, might have had a poor CPU architecture, but its integrated GPU was way better than what Intel could offer at the time. It…

Here’s an idea. Instead of Valve and Epic spending hundreds of millions of dollars on vanity projects, such as handheld game systems or giving away free games every week, they should build and sell graphics cards direct through their stores. The recent AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT release raised the price of mainstream 1080’ graphics to around £330 inc VAT in the UK at launch, and that’s already gone up to well over £400 at most retailers. The genuinely affordable GPU market is pretty much dead. This situation leaves a huge number of gamers without any upgrade path. We’re over a year into these ridiculous graphics card prices, and recent comments by a few semi-conductor CEOs state that we won’t see the other side of the chip shortage until 2023. How long can…

One of the hardest aspects of critical thinking is reconciling ‘but that doesn’t work, here is the evidence’ with the emotional impact of taking away hope from people who might be vulnerable. When I debunk untrue health claims, I’m taking something away from people who are ill. This rarely comes up in my tech and video game writing, as the stuff I’m critical about generally isn’t being sold to vulnerable groups, but this month I find myself face to face with the dilemma of Boyfriend Dungeon. The game is a PEGI 12 novelty dungeon crawler in which the weapons are also sexy people (and one cat) that you can date. The relationships progress along with the plot, and one of the characters becomes a stalker and therefore the baddie. It’s this…

Days Gone divides opinion I just read Rick Lane’s review of Days Gone and I think the 60 per cent score is a little wrong. For me it’s more of a 75 per cent, and it’s probably one of my best games of the year so far. Gamers on one of the forums I frequent also agree it’s a pretty entertaining game. The review in your magazine basically covers what I call Act 1, which is a slow burner. However, there are three parts to Days Gone and once you get to what I call Act 2 – with the biker cult – it steps up another level. The final act involves infiltrating the Mad Colonel’s military organisation to find and rescue the main character’s wife. This culminates in a massive battle,…

FRACTAL UNLEASHES TORRENT Fractal Design has released a new case designed to maximise airflow. The Torrent has an open-grille design at the front, backed by two large 180mm fans. The case is also equipped with three more 140mm fans mounted in the base by default, and Fractal says you could even replace these with a second pair of 180mm fans. Other features include a GPU support bracket, an open interior and a pre-installed Nexus 9P Slim PWM fan hub. Six versions are available, starting from £147 inc VAT from scan.co.uk for a black version with no window or lighting, going up to £156 for various colour options with tempered glass panels and topping out at £190 if you want RGB lighting. INTEL ANNOUNCES SURPRISE GAMING GPU Intel has just astounded the PC hardware market…

GRAPHICS CARD AMD RADEON RX 6600 XT /£400 inc VAT SUPPLIER novatech.co.uk Hats off to AMD for achieving the seemingly impossible task of actually making enough GPUs to sate demand in 2021. Weeks after the launch of the Radeon RX 6600 XT, the cards are still for sale at retailers for under £500. It’s a low bar, but it’s one that’s rarely passed these days. Part of the reason is undoubtedly that the GPU is already overpriced by previous standards. It was only last year that the Radeon RX 5600 XT provided award-winning 1080p gaming performance for £255 inc VAT, with a 192-bit-wide memory interface and 2,304 stream processors. Fast forward to 2021 and AMD’s latest 1080p-focused GPU, the Radeon RX 6600 XT, has 2,048 stream processors and a 128-bit wide memory interface with a…