Maximum PC March 2022

a thing or two about a thing or two Guy Cocker AS PC ENTHUSIASTS, we’ve never had it so good. I know, that’s a bold statement for a new editor to make after two years of component shortages, inflated graphics card prices, and general stagnation in CPUs. “The new guy is crazy! Burn the heretic!” I hear you cry. But allow me to explain… First of all, there’s finally some genuine competition in the CPU space. Intel’s 12th generation chips, particularly the i5-12400, offer incredible price-to-performance and bring real competition to AMD’s dominance in the low-to-mid-range. Look out for our next issue when we’ll be building an amazing system around this chip, redefining the mid-range gaming desktop in the process. Not to be outdone, AMD looks set to build on its momentum in the…

the beginning of the magazine, where the articles are small BOTH AMD AND INTEL have launched batches of new laptop chips into a highly competitive market. Intel has a whole basket of new Alder Lake silicon, which it divides into enthusiast, performance, and ultra-portable categories, corresponding to H, P, and U-series naming. The 12th generation H chips consume a base power of 45W, and there are eight new models, from the Core i9-12900H which has 14 cores (six performance, eight efficiency) and a 5GHz clock. Below that are two slower versions, the i7-12800 and i7-12700, plus the i7-12650 that loses four efficiency cores. There are three i5 versions, which boast four performance cores. Intel claims a 20 percent boost for single-thread operations over the previous generation, thanks to an IPC hike from the…

BIGGEST EVER ACQUISITION FOR THE GAMES SECTOR CANDY CRUSH is now owned by Microsoft, along with partner gaming brands including Call of Duty and Warcraft. In a huge deal, MS spent $68.7 billion to buy Activation Blizzard. This is good news if you held Activision stock, as Microsoft paid a healthy premium for the privilege. The deal makes Microsoft the third largest gaming company in the world, with many new titles to add to Game Pass’ 25 million subscribers. It has also left gamers wondering what will happen to their favorite titles. Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, said it will “honor all existing agreements”, adding a non-committal “desire” to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Microsoft has history here. After it bought ZeniMax for $7.5 billion, multi-platform games, such as…

Printers identify official cartridges as frauds ONE CASUALTY of the chip shortage is the little DRM chips used in Canon’s official printer cartridges. Normally, if you use a non-Canon cartridge, your printer pops up warning screens to complain. It also tells you the cartridge may be faulty and refuses to reveal how much ink or toner you have left. Obviously, the people who make your printer want you to buy their highlyprofitable cartridges, especially as they can hard-code page limits into them. Canon has now run out of these chips in some markets, meaning genuine Canon cartridges cannot be recognized and may malfunction. The company has issued instructions on how to go through the multiple warning screens: by just closing and ignoring them. This exposes them for what they are: simple scare…

a thing or two about a thing or two Guy Cocker AS PC ENTHUSIASTS, we’ve never had it so good. I know, that’s a bold statement for a new editor to make after two years of component shortages, inflated graphics card prices, and general stagnation in CPUs. “The new guy is crazy! Burn the heretic!” I hear you cry. But allow me to explain… First of all, there’s finally some genuine competition in the CPU space. Intel’s 12th generation chips, particularly the i5-12400, offer incredible price-to-performance and bring real competition to AMD’s dominance in the low-to-mid-range. Look out for our next issue when we’ll be building an amazing system around this chip, redefining the mid-range gaming desktop in the process. Not to be outdone, AMD looks set to build on…

the beginning of the magazine, where the articles are small BOTH AMD AND INTEL have launched batches of new laptop chips into a highly competitive market. Intel has a whole basket of new Alder Lake silicon, which it divides into enthusiast, performance, and ultra-portable categories, corresponding to H, P, and U-series naming. The 12th generation H chips consume a base power of 45W, and there are eight new models, from the Core i9-12900H which has 14 cores (six performance, eight efficiency) and a 5GHz clock. Below that are two slower versions, the i7-12800 and i7-12700, plus the i7-12650 that loses four efficiency cores. There are three i5 versions, which boast four performance cores. Intel claims a 20 percent boost for single-thread operations over the previous generation, thanks to an IPC…