Maximum PC November 2022

AS I’M SURE YOU’RE AWARE, AMD has just released its “best gaming CPU” ever in the form of the Ryzen 9 7950X (read all about it in our news section on page 8). It’s an exciting debut for the brand new Zen 4 line—the 7950X is around 13 percent faster than its predecessor the Ryzen 9 5950X and, at $699, it’s also $100 cheaper. It’s a bold statement of intent from AMD that once again lays down the gauntlet to Intel. Luckily, no matter who wins this next generation, the real winner will be us consumers. You may ask, then, why we’ve opted for a budget gaming build for this month’s cover feature. Don’t worry, we will be reviewing, comparing, and building the heck out of all of AMD’s (and Intel’s)…

AND SO it begins. AMD’s Zen 4 has landed and Intel’s 13th generation Raptor Lake chips aren’t far behind. The fight for CPU supremacy is on. First, those new AMD chips. The Zen 4 range starts with four new models. At the top is the Ryzen 9 7950X, with 16 cores and 80MB of L2 and L3 cache. The base clock is 4.5GHz, with a boost to 5.7GHz, and costs $699. Next is the Ryzen 7900X ($549) with 12 cores, a 200MHz faster base clock, and a 100MHz slower boost. Both chips have a TDP of 170W, and a ‘maximum’ power consumption of 230W, so toasty rather than hot. Then there’s a Ryzen 7 7700X with eight cores and a clock of 4.5GHz at $399. Lastly, the Ryzen 5 7600X…

YOUR EMAILS AREN’T SAFE from prying eyes. Google collects data from Gmail, which is crucial to its core business. It stopped directly scanning emails in 2017, but still collects data on your activities. DuckDuckGo is an advocate of privacy and its search engine won’t track you. It has extended this approach to emails with its Email Protection service. It’s not a traditional account, but a forwarding service. You get a @duck address, and your emails are funneled through this from your original address, with all tracking codes being stripped out of messages. DuckDuckGo claims that, during beta testing, 85 percent of messages contained hidden trackers. The system can create a unique private address, making tracking more difficult. Until data collection is responsibly handled, such services are the only way to…

AS I’M SURE YOU’RE AWARE, AMD has just released its “best gaming CPU” ever in the form of the Ryzen 9 7950X (read all about it in our news section on page 8). It’s an exciting debut for the brand new Zen 4 line—the 7950X is around 13 percent faster than its predecessor the Ryzen 9 5950X and, at $699, it’s also $100 cheaper. It’s a bold statement of intent from AMD that once again lays down the gauntlet to Intel. Luckily, no matter who wins this next generation, the real winner will be us consumers. You may ask, then, why we’ve opted for a budget gaming build for this month’s cover feature. Don’t worry, we will be reviewing, comparing, and building the heck out of all of AMD’s (and…

IF THE WHISPERS PROVED TO BE CORRECT, then Windows 11 Update 22H2 should now be available. The first significant update of Win11 will introduce a few new features and a refreshed look. Windows Store gets a redesign and Widgets are back. Microsoft’s ‘fluent design’ aesthetic will be more in evidence, while the Taskbar regains drag-and-drop support plus an overflow menu. The Start menu now has three settings to modify the Recommended section. It also gains folders, so you can collect apps together into groups by dragging one on top of another. File Explorer also gets a redesign, with tabs (at last), a new navigation pane, and previews of files within folders. Many aspects of Windows have been tweaked, much of it triggered by feedback from users and beta testers. You’ll…

AND SO it begins. AMD’s Zen 4 has landed and Intel’s 13th generation Raptor Lake chips aren’t far behind. The fight for CPU supremacy is on. First, those new AMD chips. The Zen 4 range starts with four new models. At the top is the Ryzen 9 7950X, with 16 cores and 80MB of L2 and L3 cache. The base clock is 4.5GHz, with a boost to 5.7GHz, and costs $699. Next is the Ryzen 7900X ($549) with 12 cores, a 200MHz faster base clock, and a 100MHz slower boost. Both chips have a TDP of 170W, and a ‘maximum’ power consumption of 230W, so toasty rather than hot. Then there’s a Ryzen 7 7700X with eight cores and a clock of 4.5GHz at $399. Lastly, the Ryzen 5 7600X…