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INSIDE: NEXT-GEN NVIDIA + AMD GPUs REVIEWED JANUARY 2023 NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4090 DELL XPS 13 NORTON 360 DELUXE THE BEST PC HARDWARE &SOFTWARE OF 2022 THE BEST PRODUCTS OF THE YEAR, AS CHOSEN BY PCWORLD EDITORS RAZER BLADE 17 STEELSERIES ARCTIS NOVA PRO WIRELESS KEYCHRON Q5 ADOBE ACROBAT PRO DC

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CONTENTS ≥ DEPARTMENTS JANUARY 2023 ≥ FEATURES 9 News 33 Reviews & Ratings 84 The best PC hardware and software of 2022 119 Here’s How 138 Tech Spotlight 104 Social networks put in the people’s hands JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 3

MASTHEAD EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Matt Egan EDITOR IN CHIEF, CONSUMER BRANDS Jon Phillips DESIGN DIRECTOR Robert Schultz EDITORIAL EXECUTIVE EDITORS Brad Chacos, Gordon Mah Ung SENIOR EDITORS Michael Brown, Mark Hachman ASSOCIATE EDITOR Ashley Biancuzzo STAFF WRITER Michael Crider CONTRIBUTOR Adam Taylor COPY EDITOR Gail Nelson-Bonebrake DESIGN ART DIRECTOR Steve Traynor DESIGNER Rob Woodcock ADVERTISING SALES INQUIRIES foundryco.com/contact-us/ FOUNDERS FOUNDER David Bunnell FOUNDING EDITOR Andrew Fluegelman INTERNATIONAL DATA GROUP, INC. CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD Walter Boyd CEO, FOUNDRY Kumaran Ramanathan 4 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

REPRINTS AND PERMISSIONS You must have permission before reproducing any material from PCWorld. Send email requests to [email protected]; please include a phone number in your message. BACK ISSUES PCWorld back issues can be downloaded in digital format from www.zinio.com at $6.99 per issue. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES Access your subscription account online—24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can use online subscription services to view your account status, change your address, pay your bill, renew your subscription, get the answers to frequently asked questions, and more. WEB simplecirc.com/subscriber_login/pcworld EMAIL [email protected] (Send your full name and the email address at which you subscribe; do not send attachments.) QUESTIONS AND COLUMNS Send material electronically to the appropriate online address listed below, or mail it to PCWorld. We reserve the right to edit letters. MAILING LISTS Occasionally we make our magazine subscribers’ names available to other firms whose products may interest you. To have your name excluded from these mailings, send a request and your email address to PCWorld Subscriber Services at [email protected]. CONTACT PHONE 415/243-0500; FAX 415/442-1891 MAIL Editorial: 501 Second Street #600, San Francisco, CA 94107 STAFF ADDRESS To contact any PCWorld staff member, simply format the address as follows: fi[email protected] PUBLICATION INFORMATION Volume 41, number 1 PCWorld™ (ISSN 0737-8939) is published monthly at $24.95 for one year (12 issues) by Foundry (formerly IDG Communications, Inc.) ©2023, Foundry (formerly IDG Communications, Inc.). All rights reserved. PCWorld and Consumer Watch are registered trademarks of International Data Group, Inc., and used under license by Foundry. Published in the United States. JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 5

WHEN THE GAMES BEGIN. NEVER GIVE UP UNTIL THEY BUCKLE UP. VISIT SAFERCAR.GOV/KIDSBUCKLEUP

EDITORS’ NOTE A lot can change in 40 years. PCWorld made its debut in early 40th Anniversary Edition of PCWorld maga- 1983, hitting the streets as a 310- zine in your hands. We’re digital instead of page magazine brimming with print now. (Things change!) But our central essential information about IBM PCs, focus remains as relentless today as it was in the long-forgotten CP/M operating system, 1983. This issue is jam-packed with no-non- and a 5MB hard disk that cost a cool sense news, $1,995 (or nearly reviews, and tips to $6,000 in today’s help you navigate dollars). It was truly the confusing a different era. fast-paced world of technology and Things coax the most out of changed. PCWorld your computer—just was there to guide like the very first you through it. We one. I grew up covered the clunky reading PCWorld debut of Windows and wouldn’t have it 1.0. When Tim any other way. Berners-Lee invented HTML in Because the 1989, followed by more things the World Wide change, the more Web a year later, we they remain the explained why it same, as the saying mattered. PCWorld goes. My deepest chronicled the introduction of graphical brows- and heartiest thanks ers, of Dell, of video cards, of the iPhone, of goes out to you, fellow PC nerd, for joining us USB—and several hysterical hype cycles pro- on this journey, and to every alum who claiming the death of the PC at the hand of contributed to PCWorld’s long history. Here’s whatever the new hotness of the time was. Ha. to 40 more. The PC didn’t die and you’re holding the – Brad Chacos EXECUTIVE EDITOR IMAGE: FOUNDRY JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 7

AMERICA’S DEADLIEST SHOOTINGS ARE ONES WE DON’T TALK ABOUT On any given day in America, an average of 65 of our mothers, brothers, partners, and friends are taken from us by gun suicide. But tomorrow’s deaths could be prevented. Store your guns safely: locked, unloaded, and away from ammo. EndFamilyFire.org

News TECH NEWS AND TRENDS THAT WILL AFFECT YOU TODAY AND BEYOND. Don’t get scammed: Why you can’t trust Elon Musk’s Twitter right now Parody and fake accounts have always existed on Twitter, but this kind of mayhem takes all that to a different level. BY ALAINA YEE I f you don’t use Twitter often, you may be easily recognize official accounts held by unaware of how the site has dissolved government agencies, newspapers, medical into organizational chaos. But it’s a mess professionals, airlines, large corporations, and right now—and dangerous as a result. other sources of vital information. Prior to the company’s sale to Elon Musk, Twitter had a verification process that But last week, a major (and hugely confirmed the identity of account owners. If confusing) change rolled out to the system. the program found that you were who you The tweak? The verification part got claimed to be, a blue checkmark (or gray for dropped—but Twitter didn’t actually tell the dark mode theme) would appear next to people that the badge meant something your name. It helped reduce harassment of different now, and it did not send any emails highly public figures, and allowed users to or notifications to all its users. So here’s what you need to know. IMAGE: ROKAS TENYS/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 9

NEWS WHY YOU CAN’T TRUST TWITTER got to work writing whatever they wanted. A flood of hoax tweets hit the site. The most headline- grabbing of them came on day two from a fake Anyone willing to pay $8 per month can get a blue badge. account imitating THAT WORD DOESN’T drugmaker Eli Lilly, MEAN WHAT YOU THINK claiming that insulin would now be free. IT MEANS The pharmaceutical’s stock temporarily dropped in response, dragging down The move allows subscribers to Twitter Blue its market cap by billions. (fave.co/3HA4ucX), the company’s optional In response, Twitter played with different paid membership, to gain a blue checkmark. mechanisms to quash impersonations. No identity vetting is performed. You simply Some adjustments hit the site, disappeared, pay $8 per month and get the same and reappeared within hours, like an scalloped badge as entities like government additional label of Official for verified officials and media outlets. accounts. The situation remains tumultuous, Sold by Musk as a democratization of the with constant tinkering to the site promised verification process, the revamped feature by Musk on his own (verified) account. The sparked pandemonium. On November 9, the first day of the launch, users quickly demonstrated that any account could spoof a verified one with very little work. They picked a handle similar to the official account, entered their name exactly the same way, used the same avatar and cover image, and paid $8 for Twitter Blue. Then they Official websites are the best way to find an organization’s Twitter info. 10 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

only thing not changing is Twitter’s adherence Some of the to its new policy. mayhem sported a YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN hefty dose of humor. Without a trustworthy verification process Classic in place, users now have to be responsible Twitter. for filtering all the noise. It’s a heavy burden, requiring constant vigilance and an old verification process. But since that awareness of the latest methods for spotting method may not stick, you can more reliably genuine accounts among copycats—again, start with a known person’s or company’s none of which Twitter is clearly website to find their Twitter account communicating to its users. information and use those links. And when on Twitter, be mindful of the information you And no end to this additional work is in share. The site is now like any other sight. Bedlam likely will continue for a while at unregulated medium (email or text Twitter. Beyond the verification changes, the message)—don’t reach out or reply to any company is undergoing extreme internal one without making sure who they are first. upheaval. A mass layoff wiped over 50 There are likely to be a lot of crypto and percent of its workforce, with thousands of banking scams under this new system of additional firings following in the days after. “verification.” Companies that have pulled The company has much fewer workers to lean advertising since the change in ownership on and has experienced a sizable loss in could also end up leaving the service. institutional knowledge. In short, be wary when you’re on Twitter. So how do you stay safe on Twitter? The Stay for the memes and jokes; head to your easiest solution is to just stay away until things phone and web chat for sensitive customer settle down at last. That will keep you from service needs. Don’t expect Twitter to keep accidentally falling for tweets or private you up to date on how to successfully messages from fake accounts. navigate its changes. Its communication team got axed entirely during the mass layoffs. But if you can’t bear more traditional methods of getting up-to-the-minute news or contacting companies, you’ll have to take extra steps to protect yourself. Currently, you can click on a blue checkmark to see what type it is: whether it’s from subscribing to Twitter Blue or from having undergone the JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 11

NEWS Google Chrome is a memory hog, but it’s going on a diet Chrome’s upcoming memory and energy savings will be on by default. BY MARK HACHMAN G oogle Chrome has long had a Chromebooks alike, Google said Tuesday. reputation of being fast, The company didn’t say when exactly when secure…and ravenous for these new features will show up in your memory like a starving teenager browser, just that they will. at an all-you-can-eat buffet. But finally Chrome is going to slim down, right in time for the The features work pretty much as new year. advertised. Google pitches Memory Saver as a “smoother-running browser experience,” Over the next few weeks, Chrome will be promising to save up to 30 percent more adding two new features, Memory Saver and memory when running Chrome by freeing up Battery Saver, on Windows, Macs, and memory from tabs you aren’t actively using. If 12 PCWorld JANUARY 2023 IMAGE: WACHIWIT/SHUTTERSTOCK

a tab is idling, it will essentially be put into a activity and visual effects for those sites that static mode where its resources will be made use them. available elsewhere. The tab will be reloaded Likewise, Microsoft was first to announce if needed. a similar battery-saving mode, which it “This is especially useful if you’re running announced in October in conjunction with other intensive applications, like editing family Edge 106. (The current version at press time videos or playing games,” Google said in a is version 107.) Edge’s efficiency mode is a blog post announcing the new feature (fave. bit more sophisticated (fave.co/3Fps5dL). It co/3YnHYKE). offers various tradeoffs to preserve battery If this seems somewhat familiar, it should. life in various states, such as being Microsoft Edge already can put tabs to unplugged as well as in a low-power state. sleep to save resources. If you have dozens of For example, when your device is tabs open in Edge, several probably won’t be unplugged and low on battery, that status in active use. You’ll see the tabbed icons will have a visual impact on your browsing along the top of the browser window visually experience, making videos less smooth, for faded out to indicate their status. Hover over example. You can enter the Edge Settings them, and Edge will tell you the tab is menu to adjust it if you wish. sleeping, as well as how much memory that’s Both Edge and Chrome are built on saving. In Chrome, Google plans to put Chromium, so it seems natural that they’d controls for this feature in the ellipsis (…) share some features. Whichever browser you menu to the upper right, though it will be choose, though, you’ll benefit. turned on by default. (Why turn it off? If you have a frequently updated tab like Twitter, you might want to keep it active.) Energy Saver acts in a similar manner. If your laptop’s battery level drops to 20 percent, Google Chrome will enter Energy Saver mode and start conserving power, limiting background You can find Edge’s Efficiency Mode in its Settings menu. JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 13

NEWS Game over? FTC sues to block Microsoft’s $69 billion Activision Blizzard takeover Proposed $69 billion acquisition would harm consumers, FTC says. BY MARK HACHMAN T he Federal Trade Commission said to rival consoles, harming competition. “With Thursday that it is filing suit in an control over Activision’s blockbuster franchises, attempt to block Microsoft’s Microsoft would have both the means and proposed $69 billion acquisition of motive to harm competition by manipulating game developer Activision Blizzard, on the Activision’s pricing, degrading Activision’s game grounds that it would suppress competition. quality or player experience on rival consoles and gaming services, changing the terms and The FTC said (fave.co/3YgecaB) that the timing of access to Activision’s content, or proposed deal could possibly change withholding content from competitors entirely, Activision’s existing strategy of supplying games 14 PCWorld JANUARY 2023 IMAGE: ACTIVISION

resulting in harm to consumers,” the FTC said. In an attempt to get out ahead of the FTC’s action, Microsoft president Brad Smith penned a Wall Street Journal editorial (fave. co/3hqEoPa) in which he said that Microsoft would supply ten years’ worth of Call of Duty to Nintendo if the deal were to be approved. That gambit apparently didn’t work. Activision’s stable of games includes Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch, with an estimated 154 million active monthly users, according to the agency. The FTC’s press release regarding the takeover. The FTC pointed to Microsoft’s decision to make several Bethesda titles, including Starfield and Redfall, Microsoft exclusives after and will withhold content from its gaming buying ZeniMax, the parent of Bethesda rivals,” said Holly Vedova, director of the FTC’s Software. That contradicted statements Bureau of Competition, in a statement. “Today Microsoft had made to European antitrust we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control investigators, the agency said. over a leading independent game studio and “Microsoft has already shown that it can using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast- growing gaming markets.” The FTC’s job is to preserve competition for consumers, and the agency said that it has a reason to believe that competition would be harmed if the deal proceeds. The FTC said that the complaint itself would be released Microsoft said it would supply ten years’ worth of Call of Duty to Nintendo. soon. JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 15

NEWS Your laptop’s battery life may be dropping faster than you think One test showed a laptop’s battery life dropping by as much as two and a half hours in about a year’s time. BY MARK HACHMAN M ost laptop and CPU makers day-to-day use: In just a year’s time, my encourage you to upgrade laptop’s battery capacity has dropped by a your PC because its whopping 16 percent. performance can’t keep up with the latest hardware. But there’s another, That’s a real-life number, based on real- more compelling reason that’s largely world use. Though I swap back and forth ignored: Your laptop’s battery life will between a number of test laptops for various become significantly worse as time goes by. uses, I typically leave a Surface Laptop Studio plugged in during the day; it’s also the test How much battery life will diminish bed for powering my evaluations of the best depends on a number of factors. But here’s Thunderbolt docks (fave.co/3vtA0BE). As our my anecdotal report, based on my Surface Laptop Studio review (fave.co/ 16 PCWorld JANUARY 2023 IMAGE: DIMA ZEL/SHUTTERSTOCK

3LQurF9) indicates, it’s an excellent (though off and forgotten about it, or, more likely, the pricey) laptop, and perhaps Microsoft’s best. feature stopped working. At some point the At the end of a typical workday, I flip off Windows 11 Taskbar began showing a small the power strip to save power, and the exclamation point next to the battery, which Surface Laptop Studio discharges. It’s not also appeared in the battery submenu in the quite the same as dropping it in my backpack Windows 11 Settings. I couldn’t find anything to take to work, but the charge-discharge wrong with the battery, but after checking cycle is about the same. the Surface app I was unable to turn on smart By now, you should hopefully be aware charging. Clicking the button simply that charging and discharging your laptop’s wouldn’t work. battery reduces its lifespan (fave.co/ So that’s not that big a deal, right? Well, 3UQKV3e)—but realistically, preventing that no. We use the excellent, though hidden, is not always possible. Ideally, managing your Windows battery report tool (fave. laptop battery means never quite letting it co/3j1YK1E) to learn more about how much discharge fully, and never letting it totally battery power is available to a PC, and it’s a charge to 100 percent, either. quick and effective reference. (See the linked More manufacturers are including story for details and how to use it.) applications to at least prevent you from Essentially, I was interested in a few charging your PC to 100 percent, and the numbers: how the actual (full charge) battery Surface Laptop Studio should do that, too, via life compared to the designed battery life, and the Surface app (fave.co/3Hxo8X5). If you how the actual battery life diminished over don’t own a Surface, check the system utilities that ship with your laptop—chances are you’ll find a relevant control. It’s a good idea, especially if you’re always close to a desk, to make sure you have that functionality turned on. In my case, I Microsoft has several tools to help you learn about battery life: The discovered that I had Surface app is specific to Microsoft Surface devices, but all Windows 11 either flipped that setting PCs can use the Windows 11 Settings menu. JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 17

NEWS LAPTOP BATTERY LIFE actual capacity was larger: 58.4 Wh. But over a year’s time (135 complete cycles of charging and discharging, according to Windows), my fully charged battery capacity dropped to 48.6 Wh, a whopping 16 percent drop. Windows helpfully also estimates actual battery life times. This isn’t as accurate as you might think, though, because how you use the laptop may evolve over time. But, as a whole, it’s still generally meaningful, and what Windows told me wasn’t The Windows battery capacity history (split into two encouraging: From an active battery images for brevity’s sake) reveals the sharp drop in life of 9 hours and 56 minutes in battery life over time. October 2021, Windows’ current estimate was just 7 hours and 31 time. Fortunately, Windows keeps detailed minutes for the Surface Laptop Studio’s records of just that. battery life. Put another way, the laptop’s On October 13, 2021, the design battery had fallen by nearly 2 hours and 30 capacity was 56.3 watt-hours, while the minutes in a year’s time, an estimated 24 percent decrease in actual battery life. Is this entirely accurate? It’s hard to check, but the basic point holds true: With Windows applying consistent metrics to arrive at its result, it’s a good It’s the “current estimate of battery life” that’s concerning. Not shown: indicator that the laptop’s the original estimate of 9:56, based upon the battery configuration real-world battery life had that arrived as our review unit. The longer time of 216 hours, 14 indeed decreased by minutes, and 56 seconds represents the estimated time in which the that amount. laptop can remain in idle mode before running out of battery. 18 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

WHAT CAN WE LEARN primarily by reducing its power consumption. FROM THIS? Smart charging is an entirely different animal. First, learn how to use the Windows battery Third, with the start of the new year, it report tool (fave.co/3j1YK1E). The Windows might be time to buy a new laptop (fave. 11 Settings control (System > Power & battery) co/3qL4oHf). If you have, say, an older will only show the battery state of your laptop 8th-generation Core chip inside your laptop, for at most the last seven days and without the it might not be as fast as a new 12th-gen details we’re talking about here. Using the Alder Lake laptop. But your PC isn’t battery report tool requires opening the actually slowing down; it’s just become Command Line, typing in a line of code, then slower relative to the latest PCs. Its actual opening the resulting HTML file in a performance may still be good enough for browser—a bit of a pain, but nothing too what you do on a daily basis. scary for an ordinary user. The lesson here is that your battery is Second, discover how to turn on smart actively degrading, and it’s doing so perhaps charging on your PC to prevent it from fully faster than you think. We’re always on the charging and thus wearing out your battery. lookout for the best daily sales on laptops Unfortunately, this isn’t something I can show (fave.co/3Lx2PoL). If you agree with us that you, as it varies by manufacturer. (Microsoft’s it’s time to start looking for a new PC, we’ve support page [fave.co/3HB886G] got you covered. recommends that you contact your laptop maker for more details.) HP’s Adaptive Battery (fave. co/3hsWWOQ) is on by default on the laptops it supports, for example. Remember that smart charging is different than what’s known as the “battery saver”—the latter is designed to preserve your laptop’s battery life and Microsoft has another tool for monitoring your Surface: the little-known prevent it from running out Surface Diagnostic Toolkit application. It will actually provide a battery of power while on the go, wear estimate, along with other data. JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 19

NEWS ChatGPT is the dazzling, scary future of AI chatbots This feels like what Google, Siri, and Alexa hope to be one day. BY MARK HACHMAN S omeone on the internet wrote that write a seven-paragraph essay on why nihilism ChatGPT just made the first two should be your personal philosophy. It can years of high-school homework write an epic poem on the need to brush your meaningless. That assessment is teeth regularly. It can write a formal yet not far off the mark. OpenAI’s new AI text- sarcastic letter to your neighbor on why he generation tool currently offers sophisticated, shouldn’t trim your trees without permission. lengthy, and even fun responses to textual prompts, currently all for free. It’s a breathtaking development. It’s also a scary one when you think about ChatGPT’s ChatGPT is part Wikipedia, part potential to mimic human prose and poetry. researcher, part analyst, and part poet. It can write a short paper on the causes and ChatGPT (fave.co/3YjXYgy) is currently in outcomes of the French Revolution. It can “free research preview,” which means you can use the service for free. It does require 20 PCWorld JANUARY 2023 IMAGE: AARON BURDEN/UNSPLASH

Open the image in a new tab if you need to zoom in. generators (fave.co/3UV2fUU) are now relatively common as tools to quickly you to sign up for OpenAI, which can be as dash off SEO-optimized marketing copy, construct basic blog posts, and so on. It’s simple as authenticating the service via your similar to AI art (fave.co/3YnSzFq), which uses natural-language text to generate Gmail account. Once inside, you get a unique images based upon material the algorithm has found on the internet and in seemingly limitless numbers of text prompts other sources. to play with. But don’t expect this to last Most text generators are basic, both in content and in length. ChatGPT is something else entirely. Using ChatGPT to write an essay on nihilism probably wouldn’t fool the instructor of a high-level college philosophy course. But it’s feasible that the ChatGPT essay could read like the work of a high school student. You be the judge. Prompting the tool to ask a common question about The Lord of the Rings—”Why didn’t the giant eagles fly Frodo to Mount Doom?”—generated the response below (1). forever, because OpenAI typically licenses its models to third parties and then takes its own service offline. What separates ChatGPT from other AI chatbot tools is the length and detail of its responses. GPT-3 is a language model built by OpenAI, and it’s been taught to understand the relationships between billions of words. (In fact, ChatGPT uses GPT 3.5, a more sophisticated version.) 1. Though not mainstream, GPT-3 text JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 21

NEWS CHATGPT IS THE FUTURE OF AI CHATBOTS It’s worth noting that ChatGPT, like instances continuing a running conversation seems a of AI art, uses a different “seed” for its little stale in 2022, and ChatGPT doesn’t responses, which you can recycle using the really demonstrate a “personality” per se. “Try again” button. (An earlier version of this OpenAI’s ChatGPT explainer (fave.co/ query made the good point that the eagles 3WloHYp) describes how humans trained would be subject to the power of the One ChatGPT by simulating questions and Ring, which this response omits.) responses, and probing existential questions But OpenGPT also understands the get shot down quickly. context of the question without needing it to Responding to the question, “Do you be explained. want to be alive?” the chatbot wrote, “As a ChatGPT was also trained to continue machine learning model, I do not have the conversations. The idea of chatbots ability to want or desire anything. I am programmed to provide accurate and relevant information to humans on a wide range of topics, and I do not have the capacity to have personal preferences or aspirations.” Pretty dull stuff. Where ChatGPT really shines is in its ability to understand relationships, which can have some unexpected benefits. First, OpenAI claims ChatGPT has the ability to understand code. Second, instead of having something explained to you on a static Web page, with ChatGPT you can ask a complex question and then follow up. That’s a few steps beyond Google, which An example of code OpenAI says it can understand and correct. requires you to enter a query, 22 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

on First’ about computer mice” wasn’t all that sharp. “Tell me how to install an SSD in the style of a 1940s gangster” returned a decent, informative response, though it wasn’t particularly amusing. However, asking it to write an epic poem about the need for good oral hygiene (misspelled in the prompt) returned this, alongside a limerick (2).And, of course, the internet came up with many other examples. ChatGPT also signals the future of smart speakers. Prompting “Hey Google” for the weather forecast works great, but Google Assistant can’t make a case for which player ChatGPT can be used as a quick but powerful 2. engineering tool, too. then select a response—and one that might not end up being the most appropriate to your question. GETTING WEIRD WITH CHATGPT ChatGPT shines in the same way that makes AI art so compelling: The limits of what it can do are far, far broader than what you might expect. As with AI art, you can prompt ChatGPT to try out different styles of writing, which can lead to some strange, unusual, and sometimes rather magical responses. Some simply don’t work: “Write a version of ‘Who’s JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 23

NEWS CHATGPT IS THE FUTURE OF AI CHATBOTS Is this the future of Internet humor? others might try to do just that. In case you’re wondering about would be the best left fielder in baseball history and why. ChatGPT can. ChatGPT’s utility as an academic (read: plagiarism) tool, I copied the short nihilism On the flip side, Google Assistant often essay into a free online plagiarism checker tells you where it sources its information from at Papersowl.com (fave.co/3VXXpaI), and and what that Web site says about a particular the response came back as 84 percent topic. ChatGPT does not, and it can original. The French Revolution piece was sometimes be wrong. So while ChatGPT labeled as 56 percent plagiarized, though does an excellent job of speaking with it looked like words and phrases were authority, experts can still poke holes in its copied from several sources, not chunks of arguments—as in this rebuttal (3). text. Can you imagine teaching high-school English, history or any other written subject Interestingly, you can tell ChatGPT that it’s in a ChatGPT world? wrong, and it’s programmed to factor that information into its responses. What that Right now, ChatGPT feels a little like means for the future of disinformation, peering into the future of the internet. And though, is unclear. I didn’t make an effort to that idea is both fascinating and a bit scary. “teach” it, for instance, the things that forced Microsoft’s chatbot, Tay (fave.co/3uPXjGk), 3. offline in 2016. But it’s not unbelievable that 24 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

Chrome now supports passkeys, the password killer Chrome will support passkeys on Windows, Android, and iOS. BY MARK HACHMAN T he Google Chrome browser now Passkeys are surprisingly easy to supports something new to secure understand. You’re familiar with a username your life: passkeys, a stronger, and password. The latter should be a leak-proof version of a password complex series of letters and numbers—the that can use your phone as a token to longer the password, the more secure it is, in authorize you to websites. general (fave.co/3Py6OU4). Passkeys can and will be stored inside the But once they’re exposed in a breach, Google Password Manager, or inside apps that they can be surprisingly easy to crack (fave. support passkeys within future versions of co/3hmwmqC). It’s why a password Android, Google said (fave.co/3URoRpj). manager, even a free password manager Passkeys are enabled in the latest version of (fave.co/3nT9nDq), is the ideal solution—a Chrome in Windows 11, macOS, and Android. password manager can generate IMAGE: GOOGLE JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 25

NEWS CHROME PASSKEY SUPPORT pseudo-random passwords and store them securely. A passkey isn’t a password at all. It’s simply a token that’s stored on your phone. When asked to authenticate you, the token on your phone communicates with the site or app in question. No password is ever used, so no password is ever exchanged or stored. In this example, a user uses their smartphone to authenticate “A passkey doesn’t leave your with a passkey while accessing a site on their PC. mobile device when signing in like this,” Google said. “Only a securely banking apps already allow you to do this. generated code is exchanged with the site Here, the user is accessing the website itself so, unlike a password, there’s nothing that and is using the same biometric login. could be leaked.” It’s part of an agreement Naturally, you probably wouldn’t use your Apple, Google, and Microsoft made in May bank’s website when you could use the (fave.co/3hsVCeL). (presumably safer) app. But this new In the real world, then, here’s an example capability in Chrome will allow you to replace of what you might see (1): passwords with passkeys on theoretically any In the example (a fictional bank illustrated website, provided the site supports them. by Google), you have On a desktop PC, the process would the choice of entering work in a similar manner. A passkey could a stored password, or replace any site’s password. Here, you would using a passkey have three options: Log in with Windows instead. The user is Hello via your face or fingerprint; log in with asked to authenticate your nearby smartphone, much as you would the password by on mobile; or use a USB security key. All three simply using their are viable alternatives. screen lock, Replacing passwords with passkeys won’t presumably a happen overnight. But as more sites sign on fingerprint reader. to using them, passkeys will become more One difference here important—and so will your phone, as a 1. is that some mobile digital “wallet” for storing them. 26 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

Windows 11’s borked gaming performance is mostly fixed, Microsoft says If you’re suddenly seeing that big update hit your desktop, that’s why! BY MICHAEL CRIDER A couple of weeks ago Microsoft much in an official bug tracker, and delayed the confirmed what gamers rollout of the big 2022 Update (fave. suspected: The big 2022 update co/3WiE2Je) for quite a few users. According to Windows 11 was affecting the to the same change log, the issue isn’t fully performance of high-end games. It said as resolved, but it’s now limited to only a “small IMAGE: MATT SMITH JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 27

NEWS WINDOWS 11’S BORKED GAMING PERFORMANCE Presumably that’s why the safeguard hold (which prevents the update from going out to users who might have issues) is now limited to a much smaller subset of users with those The recent Windows 11 2022 update affected gaming performance. affected games and apps. subset of games and apps.” So the latest Microsoft has yet to mark the issue as update is heading out to a lot more users. “resolved” in its bug tracker (fave. The Verge spotted the update (fave. co/3uRaNS8), which indicates there’s still co/3VZdjl0), and I can confirm that my desktop work to be done. Whether that work will with an Nvidia GPU got the Windows 11 2022 come from Microsoft itself, developers of the Update last night. Exactly what the problem affected games and programs, or some was—is?—remains somewhat nebulous. combination of the two wasn’t made clear. Microsoft originally blamed the issue on games “inadvertently enabling GPU performance debugging features not meant to be used by consumers.” Based on the advice to update games and apps to the latest versions, we can infer that the problem can be solved by updates to the software itself instead of Windows. Microsoft has marked the issue as “resolved” in its bug tracker. 28 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

If your kids love Roblox, check their browser for this malware The popular SearchBlox Chrome extension appears to be harvesting user data for potential digital theft. BY MICHAEL CRIDER T he latest high-profile heist of the target of a series of Chrome extensions valuable digital currency has hiding malware. nothing to do with Bitcoin or Ethereum. Nope, this time thieves According to BleepingComputer (fave. are stealing currency and assets from Roblox co/3VZ3ZNZ), at least two extensions posted players. Roblox is a massively popular kid’s to the official Chrome Web Store were fronts game platform that has a disturbing amount for a backdoor program that gathers a Roblox of real money trading hands, and it’s become player’s user info and potentially makes them a target for hacking, especially if they’re also a IMAGE: GROUND PICTURE/SHUTTERSTOCK JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 29

NEWS ROBLOX MALWARE badge. This is despite the fact that Google culled similar compromised extensions just last month. As always, you should be wary of third-party browser extensions, and check their updates Roblox is hugely popular with kids. to make sure they haven’t been injected user of the third-party Rolimons.com currency with unnecessary or malicious code. And on a trading system. bit of a tangent, if you’re letting your children The SearchBlox extensions claim to allow play Roblox, you might want to take a closer you to search quickly for other users, and look at its monetization and labor issues (fave. were apparently legitimate at some point, but co/3huQUNp)—Minecraft might be a more have been compromised last fall. While one kid-friendly choice. of the extensions has been downloaded less Note: Shortly after this article was than a thousand times, the other has more published, Google removed both SearchBlox than 200,000 installations. There’s extensions from the Chrome Web Store. circumstantial evidence that one or more people are stealing Roblox currency with the data gathered by the hidden backdoor. At the time of writing, both SearchBlox extensions are still live in the Chrome Web Store, with the primary listing enjoying a “Featured” Parents concerned about ethics may want to opt for Minecraft instead. 30 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

12 GET IT SLIP IT 34 CUFF IT CHECK IT Check it every day. Self-monitoring is power. Visit: ManageYourBP.com Or scan code for more. In partnership with the Office of Minority Health and Health Resources & Services Administration.

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Reviews & Ratings TESTED IN PCWORLD LABS WE PUT HARDWARE & SOFTWARE THROUGH RIGOROUS TESTING 5 must-know GeForce RTX 4080 details: Overpriced by $500 The RTX 4080’s performance went up over the RTX 3080, but its price went up waaaaaaaaaay more. BY BRAD CHACOS N vidia’s new GeForce RTX 4080 a staggering $1,200 price tag. Yes, that’s Founders Edition hits stores right: a $500 (or 71 percent) increase over the recently, lightning-fast cost of its predecessor. For roughly 30 performance and a massive percent more performance. new price tag in tow. While last generation’s awesome RTX 3080 (fave.co/38NTnOi) cost Sheesh. $700 at launch, delivering a monumental 60 We’ve been putting the GeForce RTX to 80 percent performance uplift over its 4080 through its paces. While Nvidia’s new predecessor, this new model is releasing with GPU is astonishingly fast, blowing past last gen’s RTX 3090 with ease while drawing IMAGE: NVIDIA JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 33

REVIEWS 5 GEFORCE RTX 4080 DETAILS much less power, that new price tag casts a 11 game test suite long shadow over its release, to such an total combined FPS at extent that we can’t even come close to 4K/Ultra (no RT or DLSS) recommending this card at this aggressively insulting price—unless, perhaps, if you’re Frames per second using it for content creation below 8K resolution (fave.co/3BHPSEG). Look for our RTX 3080 1,152.8 comprehensive RTX 4080 gaming RTX 3090 1,397.1 performance review to land in the coming RTX 4080 1,501.2 days. Today, here’s a high-level look at what RTX 4090 2,024.2 you need to know before dropping $1,200 (or, ideally, not) on one of these beasts. LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE 1. THE GEFORCE RTX 4080 We used the same game suite for the RTX 4080 as CHEWS THROUGH GAMES we did in our 4090 review, but with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 added. There’s no denying that the GeForce RTX 4080 is fast. Averaged across our 11-game to deliver unparalleled performance in these testing suite—running a variety of graphics cutting-edge games—especially in the APIs, game engines, and game types—the handful of titles that support DLSS 3’s Frame GeForce RTX 4080 winds up about 7.5 Generation feature, which adds AI-generated percent faster than the vaunted RTX 3090, visuals every other frame to supercharge and 30.3 percent faster than the RTX 3080 visual speeds (but not necessarily (though exact performance uplift can vary responsiveness, because those AI frames wildly depending on the game). Unlike last don’t respond to your inputs like a normal generation’s cards, it has no problem hitting frame would). At 1440p in F1 22, the RTX the hallowed 60 frames per second mark at 4080 hits 118 fps with standard DLSS 2 on 4K resolution with all the eye candy cranked, and ray tracing active, and a whopping 234 even in tough titles like Cyberpunk 2077. fps with DLSS 3 FG enabled! The same holds true for ray-traced and 2. THE GEFORCE RTX 4080 DLSS-enhanced games. As we saw with the CHEWS THROUGH $1,600 GeForce RTX 4090 (fave.co/ CONTENT CREATION 3O1pryL), Nvidia’s new “Ada Lovelace” architecture seriously stepped up the quality If you use your graphics card for work as well of its dedicated ray tracing and tensor cores as play, you’ll like what’s on offer here— maybe. Adam “EposVox” Taylor, the 34 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

internet’s stream professor, already tested “Throwing the card in my Threadripper the RTX 4080’s workstation chops in a Pro build to text my intense 8K project full of gauntlet of content creation benchmarks. 8K RAW footage, Resolve SuperScaled 4K Bottom line? The huge performance benefits footage, plugins and effects…unfortunately he first witnessed in the RTX 4090 (fave. the 4080 couldn’t export this, just like the co/3Ys2Ekw) still hold true here, with the previous 80-tier cards I tested. 16GB of VRAM RTX 4080 (usually) smoking its last-gen still isn’t enough, I suppose—plugins error predecessors in streaming, editing, AI art out, color graded footage takes longer than generation, and more. the 4090, and so on. 8K is tough, but for But there’s a catch: The RTX 4080 only $1,200 I would hope at this point to start to comes with 16GB of onboard VRAM. That’s see higher VRAM capacities when Intel is plenty for gaming, of course, but EposVox handing out $350 Arc graphics cards with found it wanting for serious video editors. 16GB” (fave.co/3g2HHuI). Check out his full evaluation (fave. 3. IT’S HUGE co/3BHPSEG) for dozens upon dozens of benchmarks, but here’s the key excerpt on One of the perks of Nvidia’s RTX 3080 why you may want to spend up for a 4090’s Founders Edition was its size. Virtually all 24GB capacity or wait for a cheaper RTX custom 3080 boards by the likes of EVGA, 40-series option instead: Asus, MSI, and so on were massive three- or four-slot cards that required lots of room in your PC case. The RTX 3080 Founders Edition stood out by being a standard two-slot card that fit into virtually any system, and it looked damned good doing it thanks to Nvidia’s stunning industrial design. Yay! Not so with the RTX 4080 Founders Edition. Nvidia decided to give the RTX 4080 FE the same humongous The huge performance benefits we first witnessed in the RTX triple-slot cooler as the RTX 4090, shown here, hold true for the RTX 4080. 4090 this time around, which JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 35

REVIEWS 5 GEFORCE RTX 4080 DETAILS case, but they’re nothing new— last-gen RTX 30-series Founders Edition cards also shipped with slightly different 12-pin adapters. What is new are dozens of reports of melting 12VHPWR adapters on the RTX 4090 (fave.co/3PyrLOL). Yikes. This isn’t anything I’d personally worry about. I’ve had no problems with my 4080 or But the RTX 4080 is massively overpriced and doesn’t offer 4090 FE, and a few dozen anything to justify its out-of-control cost. incidents over presumably tens (hundreds?) of thousands of RTX means it’ll slip into far fewer systems. It’s a bit 4090 sales indicates a clear problem, but not of a perplexing design choice, since the more a pervasive one. And despite extensive efficient Lovelace-based RTX 4080 actually testing, GamersNexus (fave.co/3YmvMtz) draws less power than the RTX 3080 FE under and Igor’s Labs (fave.co/3j81eeV) have been full load in our tests. Nvidia could’ve chosen a unable to replicate the melted cables seen by much cheaper, more manageable two-slot a handful of new RTX 4090 owners. Hopefully design yet again, I suspect—though having a Nvidia figures out the root cause, and it’s huge, silent, and frigid three-slot cooler might limited to a bad batch of cables or connectors help make you feel better about dropping on 4090s alone. $1,200 on this card, I guess. But it’s another potential point of concern 4. IT USES A in a product full of tiny concerns. And a CONTROVERSIAL (AND $1,200 graphics cards really shouldn’t stress UGLY) POWER ADAPTER you out. Which brings us to the main point. Similarly, the GeForce RTX 4080 also joins 5. THE GEFORCE RTX 4080 COSTS WAAAAAAAAY TOO the RTX 4090 in using a new power adapter MUCH designed to connect its new-breed 12VHPWR power port to three standard In no world I can imagine should you pay 8-pin power connectors. I think these $1,200 for the RTX 4080. And I suspect short-cabled adapters are fugly inside your Nvidia wants exactly that. 36 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

the RTX 3080 Ti by single-digit percentages. That’s absolutely insane and aggressively insulting to PC gamers. You should stay far, far away from this graphics card at this price. There are broader economic reasons why Nvidia probably priced the RTX 4080 this way. The RTX 4090 remains a great option even at $1,600; it can max out a The RTX 4080, like the RTX 4090, uses a new—and ugly—power adapter. high-refresh-rate 4K monitor and chew You can view an assortment of content through content creation tasks without creator benchmark results in a related story breaking a sweat, something no other GPU (fave.co/3WLedlM)—a burst pipe in the can claim, for just $100 more than the RTX middle of the night foiled my release-day 3090’s launch MSRP. It’s pricey, but good. ambitions—but at a high level, it’s about 30 The RTX 4080 is pricey but does nothing percent faster than the RTX 3080 at 4K to justify its downright ludicrous cost. It does, resolution with settings maxed out and ray however, manage to make both the RTX 4090 tracing and DLSS off. That’s a solid if and the piles of older RTX 30-series cards look unspectacular generational jump (the RTX somewhat more reasonable thanks to the 4090’s 55 to 83 percent leap over the 3090 psychology of price anchoring (fave. was much more impressive, as was the 3080 co/3HKt62T). Nvidia and its partners are versus 2080), the sort you’d expect to see in sitting on a massive stockpile of RTX 30-series the same class moving from one gen to the GPUs after the cryptocurrency market next. But that’s at the same price. crashed, and sunk demand for ultra- Again, Nvidia is asking for 71 percent marked-up GPUs alongside it. Consider the more cash for that mere 30 percent RTX 3080: No one would expect to pay uplift—$699 versus $1,199. At the same anywhere near its MSRP of $700 more than $1,199 price, the RTX 4080 is only faster than two years after its launch. But that’s where JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 37

REVIEWS 5 GEFORCE RTX 4080 DETAILS we’re at right now, and next to the $1,200 the 1.5x to 1.7x uplift (via 6950 XT) that RTX 4080, it might look like a bargain, Radeon claims, Team Red’s offering could because the RTX 4080 is 71 percent more. very well wind up just behind the RTX 4090 Nvidia is keeping both these generations and as fast as or faster than the RTX 4080 for alive side by side for a reason. hundreds of dollars less. When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang spoke Don’t be a sucker and pay $1,200 for this to reporters after revealing Lovelace at GTC card. Don’t be a sucker and buy a 2-year-old 2022, he said, “The idea that a chip is going last-gen model at full price. Either buy an RTX to go down in cost over time, unfortunately, is 4090 if you want no-compromises gaming a story of the past.” But AMD just revealed its and creation performance—or wait to see next-gen RDNA 3 Radeon GPUs (fave. what Radeon offers this time around, or wait co/3j9ZLEF), and yes, they cost less than their for Nvidia’s prices to potentially fall after it predecessors. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX goes through that mountain of older RTX costs $999, compared to a $1,100 MSRP for 30-series cards. Because a 71 percent price the Radeon RX 6950 XT; the Radeon RX 7900 increase for a 30 percent performance XT costs $899, compared to $999 for the increase ain’t it. That may sound harsh, but it’s Radeon RX 6900 XT (though the 7900 XT also true. may have more in common with last-gen’s 6800 XT). Stay tuned for our full gaming review soon. In the meantime, check out Adam We’ll have to see where performance falls Taylor’s insanely detailed evaluation of the when AMD’s cards launch on December 13, GeForce RTX 4080’s content creation chops but if the Radeon RX 7900 XTX manages to hit (fave.co/3BHPSEG). Take all vendor- supplied benchmarks with a big handful of salt, but if the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is indeed more than 1.5 times faster than the 6950 XT, it could wind up faster than the 4080 in traditional games for hundreds less. 38 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT: Move over, RTX 4080 These cards make the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 look silly. BY BRAD CHACOS The war for the next battle between the last generation of the generation of graphics Radeon RX 6900 XT and RTX 3090. supremacy is finally on. AMD’s new RDNA 3–powered $999 Despite costing hundreds less, AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX and $899 Radeon Radeon RX 7900 XTX comes within spitting 7900 XT finally hit the streets on Tuesday, distance of the $1,600 RTX 4090 in many December 13, primed for battle with Nvidia’s games, meeting or even beating it in some monstrous GeForce RTX 4090 (fave.co/ titles—just like last generation. Ray tracing is 3O1pryL). To cut right to the chase: In many also no longer a weakness, with the 7900 XTX ways, this launch is very reminiscent of the on par with the 3090’s formerly best-in-class performance but trailing behind Nvidia’s IMAGE: AMD JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 39

REVIEWS AMD RADEON RX 7900 XTX AND XT latest ferocious capabilities—just like last striking change? This is the first Ryzen-like generation. New capabilities unlock chiplet-based GPU ever created. specialized experiences when you pair AMD’s Previously, GPUs were built using huge latest Radeon GPUs with its latest Ryzen “monolithic” dies that crammed all necessary processors—just like last generation. bits inside. But with RDNA 3 the main 5nm But this time around, there’s a big core graphics die is flanked by up to six difference. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX isn’t in complementary memory dies. Built using the competition with the RX 4090, despite its more mature and cost-efficient 6nm process, ability to go toe-to-toe with Nvidia’s juggernaut. these house the GPU’s on-chip Infinity Cache The ludicrously priced $1,200 GeForce RTX and memory controllers. The design helps 4080 (see page 31) is. Nvidia slapped the card AMD keep costs down on both nodes, and with a mammoth $500 price increase gen over no doubt helps the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and gen, while AMD stuck to the same $999 for its XT achieve their more palatable prices. The flagship card. And both members of the 7900 central RDNA 3 GPU die measures just duo meet or beat the RTX 4080’s performance 300mm squared, while Nvidia’s RTX 4090 die at those cheaper MSRPs. is over twice as large. All of the 4090 die is Let’s dig into the details. made using TSMC’s expensive cutting-edge SPECS, PRICE, AND node, too. FEATURES AMD also overhauled RDNA 3’s ray- tracing capabilities to offer up to 50 percent AMD radically reconfigured its underlying more performance in those cutting-edge GPU architecture with RDNA 3. The most lighting effects; added a pair of AI accelerators in each compute unit (which will likely come into play when FSR 3.0 lands in 2023); tuned the Infinity Cache for enhanced performance; introduced a new “Radiance Display Engine” that supports HDMI 2.1a, USB-C, and DisplayPort 2.1 (unlike the RTX 40 series); amped up the “dual” media engine with AV1 This is the first Ryzen-like chiplet-based GPU ever created. encoding (yay!) and 40 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

more advanced CUs into these RDNA 3 chips (1). A couple other practical technical tidbits are worth calling out here. First, AMD learned its lessons from RDNA 2. While Infinity Cache works wonders The Radeon RX 7900 XTX features a new Radiance Display Engine. for boosting performance in many simultaneous AVC, HEVC encode, and games, at higher resolutions you need ample decode; and more—including switching to a VRAM and wide memory busses to tackle newly “unified” compute unit. high-performance textures with grace. The We’re not going to bog down this review Radeon RX 7900 XTX packs 24GB of GDDR6, with the full details, though. Our initial while the 7900 XT offers 20GB, well above Radeon RX 7900 XTX reveal coverage (fave. the 16GB found in the RTX 4080 and last co/3UGlZMo) has all the technical info you gen’s 6900 XT. It’s overkill but content need if you want to wade in deeper. This creators will love it, and they’re paired with review focuses on more practical matters. much wider 384-bit and 320-bit That starts with the technical (respectively) buses than before. Between configuration 1. details of the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT, and how they compare against last-generation’s Radeon RX 6900 XT flagship. As you can see, AMD crammed a lot, lot more of those JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 41

REVIEWS AMD RADEON RX 7900 XTX AND XT that and Infinity Cache, memory isn’t an issue 12VHPWR connectors (fave.co/3PyrLOL). with the 7900 series, full stop. Though custom RX 7900 boards also go big, Also pay attention to the power draw of AMD’s offerings stick to a modest 2.5-slot the flagship XTX model. While the $899 design that “fits in everything“(fave. Radeon RX 7900 XT consumes a bit less co/3BFbr8W), per small form factor PC guru power than its predecessor, the $999 7900 Optimum Tech. That’s great for compatibility XTX cranks up the juice to compete with with existing PCs. Nvidia’s latest and greatest. AMD Also great: AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 series recommends using an 800-watt power reference cards use just two traditional 8-pin supply at minimum, and in our power testing power connectors. The cards sport dual benchmarks, we discovered that the XTX only DisplayPort 2.1 connections, a singular HDMI draws a hair less power than the ferocious RTX 2.1a port, and a USB-C connection that’s 4090. Yes, this card is more efficient than compatible with DP 2.1 as well. Nvidia’s RTX prior GPU generations, but it’s still 40 series lacks USB-C, and most custom RX power-hungry. 7900 series cards we’ve seen so far swap it That makes the relatively tiny size of out for a standard DP 2.1 connection. So if AMD’s in-house GPUs all the more that’s a key feature for you, AMD’s reference noteworthy. Nvidia and its partners slapped cards are the ones to target. gargantuan 3- or 4-slot coolers on their 4080 For a deeper glimpse at these gorgeous and 4090 cards, powered by the melty new GPUs, check out our separate close-up look at the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and XT (fave.co/3v1VsOp). Of course, these cards also support AMD’s abundant software features, some of which are only available when paired with an AMD Ryzen CPU. Those include FidelityFX Super Resolution 1.0 and 2.0 upscaling tech (fave.co/3HHp1N8) and its universal Radeon Super Resolution cousin (fave.co/ This card is more efficient than prior GPU generations, but it’s still 3hDbKu2), the performance- power-hungry. boosting Smart Access Memory 42 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

The Radeon RX 7900 has a wide selection of connectivity options. (fave.co/3aReZar), a new Smart Access Video the optional “Hardware-accelerated GPU feature for accelerating encoding tasks (which scheduling” option in Windows to let the RTX we hope to test soon), Radeon Anti-Lag for 40 series stretch its legs to the fullest, so reduced latency, AMD Noise Suppression to we’ve made that tweak as well. Most of the eliminate background noise during video hardware was provided by the manufacturers, calls and streams, AMD Link to beam but we purchased the storage ourselves. gameplay to other devices, Radeon Boost, power-saving Radeon Chill, Radeon Image • AMD Ryzen 5900X, stock settings Sharpening, AMD Privacy View, and more. • AMD Wraith Max cooler They’re all great options to have at hand. • MSI Godlike X570 motherboard • 32GB G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4 3800 But enough talk. Let’s get to the memory, XMP active benchmarks. Giddyup. • Corsair HX1500i power supply, fave. co/3PuSBqX (and optional $20 12VHPWR OUR TEST SYSTEM 600 cable for Nvidia GPUs, fave.co/3EMLruz) • 1TB SK Hynix Gold S31 SSD x2 (fave. We evaluate graphics cards on an AMD Ryzen co/3lRPhZM) 5900X PC used exclusively for benchmarking We’re comparing AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 GPUs. We now test with PCIe Resizable BAR series against the $1,200 Nvidia GeForce RTX (also known as Smart Access Memory on 4080 and $1,600 RTX 4090, their natural Ryzen systems) active, as most modern next-gen rivals. We’ve also included gaming PCs released in the last four years benchmarks from the last-gen Radeon RX support the performance-boosting feature, 6900 XT, as well as Nvidia’s RTX 3080, 3080 either natively or via a motherboard firmware Ti, and 3090, to show generational update. Nvidia also recommends turning on JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 43

REVIEWS AMD RADEON RX 7900 XTX AND XT improvements. All of these cards remain solid Call of Duty: Modern 4K offerings, even the last-gen models. Warfare 2 (DX12) We’ve also updated the games in our Frames per second testing suite for this new generation. Our lineup of games spans various engines, 1080p 1440p 4K genres, vendor sponsorships (Nvidia, AMD, and Intel), and graphics APIs (DirectX 9, 11, Nvidia 144 DX12, and Vulkan), in an effort to represent a GeForce RTX 105 full range of performance potential. Each title 3080 FE 64 is run using its in-game benchmark, sanity- checked by Nvidia’s FrameView tool (fave. AMD Radeon 168 co/3FBf6Wn), at the highest possible RX 6900 XT 123 graphics presets unless otherwise noted, with 74 VSync, frame rate caps, real-time ray tracing or EVGA GeForce DLSS effects, and FreeSync/G-Sync disabled, RTX 3080 Ti 154 along with any other vendor-specific FTW3 Ultra 116 technologies like FidelityFX tools or Nvidia 72 Reflex. We’ve also enabled temporal anti- AMD Radeon aliasing (TAA) to push these cards to their limits. RX 7900 XT 238 Each benchmark gets run at least three AMD Radeon 178 times, with the average result for each test RX 7900 XTX 105 listed as the final result. Outside of esports, we’ve limited our benchmarks to 4K and Nvidia 258 1440p resolutions, as those are the natural fits GeForce RTX 199 for these bruising GPUs. Most cost four 4080 FE 121 figures or more at launch. Pay close attention to how the 7900 XTX and RTX 4090 trade Nvidia 207 blows at both resolutions—in most cases, GeForce RTX 155 AMD’s card is faster at 1440p resolution than 3090 FE 98 the Nvidia card that costs $600 more (thanks, Infinity Cache!), while 4K performance varies Nvidia 159 wildly. Sometimes the 7900 duo struggles to GeForce RTX 118 surpass the RTX 4080, while other times it can 4090 FE 73 meet (and, rarely, beat) even the 4090. 244 198 132 LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE GAMING PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS Esports and older APIs Let’s kick things off with a pair of ultra-popular esports games, and a tactical strategy game running on DX11. It’s a killer start for RDNA 3. In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the Radeon RX 7900 series mops the floor with the 4080 44 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

Counter-Strike: Total War: Troy (DX11) Global Offensive (DX9) Frames per second Frames per second 1440p 4K 1080p 1440p 4K Nvidia 120.7 GeForce RTX 80.1 Nvidia 3080 FE GeForce RTX 686.7 3080 FE AMD Radeon 533.1 RX 6900 XT 141.8 91.4 363.5 EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti AMD Radeon 596.5 FTW3 Ultra 128.3 RX 6900 XT 495.5 90 411.1 AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT 152 EVGA GeForce 703.2 AMD Radeon 112.7 RTX 3080 Ti 564.2 RX 7900 XTX FTW3 Ultra 413 155.5 Nvidia 126.1 AMD Radeon GeForce RTX RX 7900 XT 638 4080 FE 138.5 548.1 Nvidia 104.5 GeForce RTX 320.9 3090 FE AMD Radeon 637.6 Nvidia 127.4 RX 7900 XTX 608.5 GeForce RTX 90.3 4090 FE 390.3 141.7 122.1 Nvidia GeForce RTX 708.6 4080 FE 537.3 LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE Nvidia GeForce RTX 305.2 3090 FE 704 Nvidia GeForce RTX 558.9 beats the 4090 at 1440p, but gets edged at 4090 FE 406.8 1080p and whomped at 4K. These are all fantastically fast cards for CSGO, though— 736.2 even the last-gen models. AMD’s new GPUs 616.3 are clearly favored in the DX11-powered Total War Troy, on the other hand, with the XT 416.5 breezing ahead of the 4080 and the XTX taking the vaunted 4090 down completely. LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE DX12 and Vulkan at all resolutions, with the XTX tying or With that out of the way, let’s turn to the more surpassing the 4090. Things get a bit more modern DX12 and Vulkan graphics APIs being complicated in the ever-popular CSGO, used in many (most?) triple-A games these where Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace architecture days. Once again, pay close attention to how flexes a bit more, delivering unrivaled 1080p performance. The $899 7900 XT manages to slightly trump the $1,200 RTX 4080 at all other resolutions, however, while the XTX JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 45

REVIEWS AMD RADEON RX 7900 XTX AND XT Gears Tactics (DX12) Cyberpunk 2077 (DX12) Frames per second Frames per second 1440p 4K 1440p 4K Nvidia GeForce 134.5 Nvidia GeForce 84.6 RTX 3080 FE 70.3 RTX 3080 FE 43.2 AMD Radeon RX 136.1 AMD Radeon RX 91.3 6900 XT 76.2 6900 XT 41.5 EVGA GeForce RTX 152.2 EVGA GeForce RTX 99.3 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra 82.4 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra 50.7 AMD Radeon RX 164.5 AMD Radeon RX 121.7 7900 XT 92 7900 XT 61.6 AMD Radeon RX 197.5 AMD Radeon RX 149.2 7900 XTX 7900 XTX 70.4 109.6 Nvidia GeForce Nvidia GeForce 119.5 RTX 4080 FE 179.8 RTX 4080 FE 59.7 Nvidia GeForce 101.6 Nvidia GeForce 90.6 RTX 3090 FE RTX 3090 FE 47.8 155.8 Nvidia GeForce 88.2 Nvidia GeForce 141.6 RTX 4090 FE RTX 4090 FE 77.1 179.3 147.4 LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE Hitman 3 (DX12, Dubia F122 (DX12, Miami track, benchmark) Frames per second clear) Frames per second 1440p 4K 1440p 4K Nvidia GeForce 191 Nvidia GeForce 189 RTX 3080 FE RTX 3080 FE 115 109.3 AMD Radeon RX AMD Radeon RX 207 6900 XT 211.8 6900 XT 125 EVGA GeForce RTX 129.4 EVGA GeForce RTX 199 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra 127 213.4 AMD Radeon RX AMD Radeon RX 248 7900 XT 127.9 7900 XT 160 AMD Radeon RX 251.5 AMD Radeon RX 260 7900 XTX 7900 XTX 186 176.3 Nvidia GeForce Nvidia GeForce 226 RTX 4080 FE 259 RTX 4080 FE 164 Nvidia GeForce 201.4 Nvidia GeForce 210 RTX 3090 FE RTX 3090 FE 133 236 Nvidia GeForce 147 Nvidia GeForce 238 RTX 4090 FE RTX 4090 FE 205 201.1 122.2 240.6 229.5 LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE 46 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

Red Dead Redemption 2 Horizon Zero Dawn (Vulkan) Frames per second (DX12) Frames per second 1440p 4K 1440p 4K Nvidia GeForce 86.1 Nvidia GeForce 135 RTX 3080 FE 59.4 RTX 3080 FE 83 AMD Radeon RX 77.7 AMD Radeon RX 135 6900 XT 54.6 6900 XT 83 EVGA GeForce RTX 95.9 EVGA GeForce RTX 155 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra 68 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra 99 AMD Radeon RX 115.5 AMD Radeon RX 170 7900 XT 75.3 7900 XT 101 AMD Radeon RX 135 AMD Radeon RX 181 7900 XTX 90.7 7900 XTX 118 Nvidia GeForce 128.5 Nvidia GeForce 175 RTX 4080 FE 85.2 RTX 4080 FE 117 Nvidia GeForce 97.8 Nvidia GeForce 151 RTX 3090 FE 67.8 RTX 3090 FE 95 Nvidia GeForce 145.1 Nvidia GeForce 178 RTX 4090 FE RTX 4090 FE 147 105.6 LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE Watch Dogs Legion the various Radeon RX 7900 series and RTX (DX12) Frames per second 40 series GPUs stack up against each other at both resolutions. We won’t dive into a 1440p 4K play-by-play analysis for all of these games, but performance can vary greatly depending Nvidia GeForce 54 82 on the game and resolution. Peep those RTX 3080 FE 62 Gears Tactics results for an extreme example. 63 94 AMD Radeon RX Taking the most wild game-to-game 6900 XT 61 91 fluctuations out of the picture, in general AMD’s GPUs tend to have an advantage at EVGA GeForce RTX 100 1440p, while Nvidia’s still own 4K—but that’s 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra 82 not a universal truth. AMD Radeon RX 101 Skittering Bugs 7900 XT 94 We encountered several bugs during our 95 testing. None proved severe or pervasive, AMD Radeon RX 81 7900 XTX 90 JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 47 Nvidia GeForce 95 RTX 4080 FE 94 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 FE Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 FE LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

REVIEWS AMD RADEON RX 7900 XTX AND XT aside from Red Dead Redemption 2 constantly • The Red Dead Redemption 2 benchmark crashing at 1440p resolution with FSR 2 consistently crashes with FSR 2 Balanced at enabled, but we don’t usually bump into 1440p resolution. This affects prior-gen quite so many oddities during reviews. That Radeon GPUs as well. AMD says a fix is being said, they tend to be more common at the investigated, but to use the FSR Quality introduction of a new GPU architecture (like preset as a workaround in the meantime. RDNA 3) and usually get mopped up quickly, • The Hitman 3 benchmark crashes and we’ve already made AMD aware of these sporadically at the same 1440p, FSR 2 issues. The bugs we encountered are: Balanced settings, but only sometimes, and only on the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. • In one Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 benchmark run out of 15 with the $899 7900 XT, something glitched and all the buildings rendered in neon rainbow for some reason—pretty trippy and cool, but not ideal. Fortunately, the issue didn’t resurface again in any other runs or in several hours of playing COD multiplayer with the more powerful XTX. • Twice, games refused to recognize Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 visual corruption with Radeon RX 7900 series. the 7900 XT, 48 PCWorld JANUARY 2023

reverting to a “Windows DirectX Render Device” instead and drastically reducing performance. Running DDU and reinstalling the drivers fixed the issues both times, but I’ve never seen that before. Bottom line? You might run into infrequent bugs during the early days of the Ray tracing is no longer a weakness for AMD. new Radeon RX 7900 series, especially if you’re using FSR 2.1 7900 series coverage (fave.co/3UGlZMo) for Balanced to increase 1440p gaming a deeper dive into the architectural changes performance. None was a true showstopper, AMD made with RDNA 3. however. While bugs are always irritating, I Want a pre-benchmark TL;DR? AMD don’t feel these minor, sporadic ones made huge strides here, with the Radeon RX diminish the 7900 XTX’s and XT’s overall 7900 XTX meeting the last-gen RTX 3090’s appeal, especially with AMD already working ray-tracing performance levels—aka the best to squash the problems. ever until a couple months ago. Ray tracing is RAY TRACING no longer a weakness for AMD, though it BENCHMARKS remains a clear Nvidia strength. That makes sense, as Nvidia is a generation ahead, having We also need to dig into the Radeon RX introduced RT and AI hardware in the RTX 7900-series’ raw ray-tracing performance. 20-series years ago. It’s worth noting that AMD substantially overhauled how RDNA 3 AMD’s FSR upscaling technology is seeing a handles ray tracing, not only enhancing the rapid uptick in adoption now that it’s raw performance of its RT accelerators, but established. At the RTX 4090’s launch, most also adding a pair of dedicated artificial of the ray-traced games in our testing suite intelligence accelerators per CU for the first supported Nvidia’s DLSS, but not any iteration time. Those AI accelerators aren’t doing much of FSR. Now only Watch Dogs Legion lacks it now, but you have to think they’ll be a big (which is why AMD’s cards show a 0 score part of the next-gen FSR 3.0 already teased to there). Huzzah to more options that cover launch in 2023. Read our initial Radeon RX more gamers! JANUARY 2023 PCWorld 49

REVIEWS AMD RADEON RX 7900 XTX AND XT The charts below show the raw efficient each GPU’s raw ray-tracing performance of the tested GPUs in the capabilities are. (If a game runs at 100fps selected games with ray tracing off, to get a with ray tracing off, and two different GPUs baseline. Next, we show performance with run the game with ray tracing on at 50fps all available ray-tracing effects active and and 25fps, for example, the former GPU set to Ultra. The important thing to note offers better raw ray-tracing chops.) here is how these ray-traced frame rates compare proportionally to the game Finally, since these cutting-edge lighting running with RT off, which reveals how effects send frame rates plummeting, pairing ray tracing with some sort of image upscaling Cyberpunk 2077 (4K) Hitman 3 (4K) Frames per second Frames per second 1080p 1440p 4K 1080p 1440p 4K Nvidia 42.3 Nvidia 28.1 55.8 GeForce RTX 15.9 GeForce RTX 109.3 3080 FE 3080 FE 43.2 129.4 AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT 29 AMD Radeon 38.8 127.9 12.2 RX 6900 XT 20.3 EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 41.5 FTW3 Ultra 49.9 EVGA GeForce 65.1 AMD Radeon 22.6 RTX 3080 Ti RX 7900 XT 50.7 FTW3 Ultra 33.6 AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX 41.2 AMD Radeon 61.2 18 RX 7900 XT Nvidia GeForce RTX 31.3 4080 FE 61.6 176.3 Nvidia 201.4 GeForce RTX 46.2 AMD Radeon 69.8 3090 FE 20.7 RX 7900 XTX 35.9 147 Nvidia 70.4 229.5 GeForce RTX 4090 FE 66.7 Nvidia 88.8 29.1 GeForce RTX 45.3 4080 FE 59.7 47.9 Nvidia 62.7 21.6 GeForce RTX 32.6 3090 FE 47.8 122.2 83.9 Nvidia 111.9 42.3 GeForce RTX 4090 FE 65.5 77.1 LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE LONGER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE 50 PCWorld JANUARY 2023