Maximum PC February 2022

WITH ANY NEW CPU architecture, our first build is always a major landmark. But Intel’s Alder Lake is still something special. Not only is it a radical departure from all previous CPUs, what with its hybrid cores, but it also marks the first step in what we hope is a multigenerational return to form for Intel. As I said in last issue’s Lab Notes, I’m not convinced Alder Lake is the CPU Intel originally planned. Problems with Intel’s 10nm and 7nm nodes put paid to that. But the benchmarks don’t lie and, as our reviews from previous issues and this month’s build prove, Alder Lake puts out the numbers. It was great to unleash Sam on our first Alder Lake build, pairing it with some serious GPU power and that hot…

THE GRAPHICS CARD market is in a mess. and that won’t change any time soon. Supplies are tight, and every available card is sold the moment it appears. Scalpers scour outlets for stock, and buy everything, only to resell them at inflated prices. And crypto miners are bagging GPUs in bulk. Things have calmed down a little since the summer, but markups of 150-200 percent still sting. According to Nvidia’s website prices for a GeForce RTX 3090 should start at $1,399. Currently, the average on auction sites is $1,000 more than that. Finding anybody with stock is another matter. The latest graphics card launch was a refreshed Nvidia RTX 2060 12GB and aimed at relieving pressure on the market. It uses a 12nm GPU so doesn’t compete with the newer cards.…

TESLA IS IN TROUBLE with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration after a software update allowed owners to play games whilst driving. Normally only usable in Park, the update removed this restriction for the pre-installed games. You can now play Sky Force Reloaded and 18 other games while driving. Click through a warning message saying “Use of Tesla Arcade while the vehicle is in motion is only for passengers” and to “check local laws,” and off you go. Teslas are still a long way from self-driving, despite Elon Musk’s promises, and if there is one thing you need to do when driving it is to pay attention. This sort of loose play with regulations looks sloppy at best, some would say irresponsible. A software update or recall is expected shortly.…

WITH ANY NEW CPU architecture, our first build is always a major landmark. But Intel’s Alder Lake is still something special. Not only is it a radical departure from all previous CPUs, what with its hybrid cores, but it also marks the first step in what we hope is a multigenerational return to form for Intel. As I said in last issue’s Lab Notes, I’m not convinced Alder Lake is the CPU Intel originally planned. Problems with Intel’s 10nm and 7nm nodes put paid to that. But the benchmarks don’t lie and, as our reviews from previous issues and this month’s build prove, Alder Lake puts out the numbers. It was great to unleash Sam on our first Alder Lake build, pairing it with some serious GPU power and that…

NO MAJOR OPERATING SYSTEM upgrade goes unpunished. The move to Win11 has been mostly smooth, although another wrinkle has emerged: it appears the speed of some SSD drives has been compromised. Specifically, the random write speed has been halved, or worse. Initial reports pointed to Samsung drives, but it appears that all makes are affected except Optane. Many report that only the drive used to install Win11 suffers, as swapping around drives proves. The upshot is that anything that makes use of random write is going to be significantly more lethargic. The chatter on forums suggests that the trouble isn’t new either, there were issues reported with the preview builds of Win11 months ago. Microsoft is aware of the bug and is reportedly “almost ready” with a fix. No doubt there…

THE GRAPHICS CARD market is in a mess. and that won’t change any time soon. Supplies are tight, and every available card is sold the moment it appears. Scalpers scour outlets for stock, and buy everything, only to resell them at inflated prices. And crypto miners are bagging GPUs in bulk. Things have calmed down a little since the summer, but markups of 150-200 percent still sting. According to Nvidia’s website prices for a GeForce RTX 3090 should start at $1,399. Currently, the average on auction sites is $1,000 more than that. Finding anybody with stock is another matter. The latest graphics card launch was a refreshed Nvidia RTX 2060 12GB and aimed at relieving pressure on the market. It uses a 12nm GPU so doesn’t compete with the newer…