Nice, I’ll say it: 2024 wasn’t an awesome 12 months for PC gaming {hardware}. I’d even go so far as to name it fairly lame. There have been loads of great PC games to take pleasure in, however relating to {hardware}, it felt like one huge letdown.
Quite a lot of my most anticipated launches ended up getting delayed, and many of the upgrades we bought have been a little bit of a moist blanket. Listed below are all the assorted issues that proved to be a disappointment in 2024, each to me and to many different PC players, however why I’m feeling eager for 2025.
The least spectacular era of CPUs shortly
Going into 2024, I had excessive hopes for each the large CPU releases that have been slated to seem within the second half of the 12 months.
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AMD Zen 5 and Intel Arrow Lake each sounded attention-grabbing, however as their respective launch home windows drew nearer, my pleasure cooled significantly. Good factor, too, as a result of — because it seems — there simply wasn’t that a lot to get excited for in any case, at the very least not in the event you’re a gamer.
Ryzen 9000 got here first, and spec-wise, these CPUs turned out to be similar to Zen 4. On the entire, even AMD didn’t promise a lot of an uplift with Zen 5, and we all know now that it was proper to take action.
Some benchmarks find yourself with the last-gen counterparts really being barely sooner, and lots of present that the 2 generations are pretty comparable. This solely applies to gaming, although, as Zen 5 introduced with it some actually nice enhancements in productiveness. However in the event you’re a gamer, that’s unlikely to matter to you all that a lot.
Gaming-wise, there’s actually not a lot to jot down dwelling about right here. The Ryzen 9 9950X is just round 5% sooner than its previous-gen counterpart, and up till just lately, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D was nonetheless king. We now have the Ryzen 7 9800X3D that manages to vary the disappointing Zen 5 narrative and ship a efficiency uplift … however even then, it’s nonetheless simply round 6% sooner gen-on-gen. It’s higher, however not massively (though it’s nonetheless the best processor for gaming).
Talking of AMD’s X3D CPUs, we’re now at some extent the place they’re virtually too wonderful. Inventory ranges are low and costs are excessive. Proper now, the 9800X3D can’t be purchased on Amazon, and the 7800X3D prices $475. Contemplating that it used to promote for much less, it’s a testomony to its efficiency that it’s now proper again to the value it began out with.
I’m carried out complaining about AMD, nonetheless. In reality, AMD had a superb 12 months in the event you evaluate it to Intel (which we do, as a result of what else can one evaluate it to). Intel’s 2024 has been tough.
Fixed Intel Raptor Lake instability issues took up the primary a part of the 12 months. I don’t personally personal considered one of these CPUs, however I do know individuals who do, and nobody beloved having to attend for a repair that truly labored. Thankfully, evidently months later, Intel managed to fix the problem — and the CPUs that didn’t get the patch in time are eligible for alternative, in order that’s all good.
However then got here Intel Arrow Lake, and whereas it appears largely free from any larger points, it’s additionally largely unimpressive for players. Once more, this could come as no shock, as Intel was clear that its objective was not enhancing efficiency however boosting effectivity, and there, the Core Extremely 200 collection succeeded — however few PC players are chasing effectivity as a lot as body charges.
In our personal testing, we’ve discovered the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K to be akin to the last-gen Core i9-14900K. Each are pricier than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and each can’t match the AMD chip in gaming efficiency. Nice for productiveness, certain, however not a lot to curiosity gaming audiences.
The identical could be stated about the remainder of Intel’s Arrow Lake lineup thus far. CPUs just like the Core Ultra 5 245K and the Core Extremely 7 265K, which might sometimes be the go-to picks for gaming, simply don’t fairly reduce it. Many reviewers level out that there are cheaper and higher alternate options for gaming functions, they usually’re not mistaken. Even Intel’s previous-gen counterparts are a greater choice right here.
With lackluster releases from each AMD and Intel, 2024 was a reasonably common 12 months for gaming CPUs.
The GPU market was fairly boring
If you happen to requested me in early 2024, I’d have instructed you that we’d see new graphics playing cards from AMD, Nvidia, and Intel all hitting the market in the course of the course of the 12 months. Whereas that assertion wasn’t completely mistaken, it turned out that we bought a lot fewer GPUs than I assumed, and solely one of many producers managed to drag off a brand new era of playing cards in 2024. (Coincidentally, it was additionally the one I least anticipated. Go determine.)
Certain, Nvidia had the RTX 40-series refresh (which was, for essentially the most half, a hit) and AMD had the RX 7600 XT and the RX 7900 GRE, the latter of which is its greatest RDNA 3 GPU to this point. However that’s not next-gen stuff, and because the 12 months glided by, the shortage of updates began to really feel a bit disappointing.
Going into the 12 months, leakers have been united of their predictions that each the RTX 50-series and RDNA 4 (additionally known as RX 8000 collection) would drop someday within the third or fourth quarter of 2024. This made sense, because it’d have been two years for the reason that preliminary launch of their predecessors, and each firms are on a two-year launch cycle.
Come summer season, most of us got here to phrases with the truth that, for some cause, each AMD and Nvidia determined to carry off on new releases — which made for a boring GPU market.
Costs have been dropping and inventory ranges have been principally excessive for the primary half of the 12 months, in order that was nice, however there wasn’t a lot to stay up for for months. An absence of latest GPUs additionally meant that gaming laptops all year long got here with smaller enhancements, so all of it felt a bit like extra of the identical. I’ve resigned myself to what felt like a snoozefest of a 12 months, and lots of PC players held off on upgrades till the brand new 12 months.
It’s exhausting to say why each Nvidia and AMD determined to overlook out on the profitable vacation season with the gross sales of their new GPUs. At the least in AMD’s case, inventory ranges are constantly excessive, however Nvidia is alleged to be ending production of nearly all of its RTX 40-series GPUs. This lack of abundance contributed to a Black Friday principally devoid of nice GPU offers.
As a graphics playing cards fanatic, this 12 months actually let me down — particularly seeing as {hardware} necessities are critically pushing for higher GPUs, or ought to I say, GPUs with extra VRAM in addition to ray tracing capabilities.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle marks just one example of games that call for a lot of VRAM and system reminiscence alike, and with ray tracing enjoying a component, it’s exhausting to shake off the sensation that many players will quickly be compelled to improve. Thankfully, there’s one surprising spotlight of the 12 months that bodes properly for these on a tighter price range.
Mild(s) on the finish of the tunnel
It’s humorous that the lineup I least anticipated to see in 2024 arrived with little warning and with out a lot fanfare, but it surely’s additionally my favourite factor to hit the {hardware} market this 12 months.
Intel’s Arc Battlemage is right here, and though the leaks concerning the GPUs have been few and in all places, the actual factor turned out so significantly better than any {hardware} tipsters might’ve ever predicted. Why? As a result of Battlemage isn’t simply an enormous enchancment over the earlier era in pure efficiency but it surely additionally beats its Nvidia and AMD rivals in efficiency per greenback, which is such an ignored, but in addition such an essential metric.
The Intel Arc B580 is a $250 GPU that’s able to enjoying video games at 1440p. Even at 1080p, $250 is a steal by right now’s requirements. In our personal testing, the B580 not solely beats the last-gen Arc A750 by an enormous 44% but it surely additionally beats Nvidia’s current-gen RTX 4060. In some video games, the GPU even crushed the RTX 4060 Ti, which prices a whopping $150 extra. The B580 additionally packs 12GB of VRAM — one thing that’s so essential now, provided that increasingly more video games aren’t very well-optimized to run on graphics playing cards with restricted reminiscence.
I’ve to say that I’m totally impressed by the Arc B580. Intel’s Arc Alchemist lineup had a rocky begin, and its GPU enterprise is small, however the B580 is trying prefer it’s going to be successful. The cardboard is already sold out in many places, in order that proves that individuals are right here for it, and that’s excellent news for Intel.
Other than Intel’s shock GPU hit, there are much more issues on the upcoming horizon that I’m feeling hyped for. Each AMD and Nvidia will unveil next-gen GPUs throughout CES 2025 in January, and that’s lower than a month away. These graphics playing cards will then roll out over the following few months, redefining the GPU market as soon as once more. It’s sure to be an thrilling time for players — let’s simply hope that these new GPUs aren’t too costly.
In the meantime, AMD will get one other likelihood to woo players with new CPUs. I count on to see the Ryzen 9 9900X3D and the Ryzen 9 9950X3D shortly, and who is aware of — maybe there’ll be extra 3D V-Cache chips there, too.
One factor’s for certain: I don’t assume that I’ll be writing one other piece complaining a couple of boring 12 months by the point 2025 involves an in depth.
