PCWorld February 2024

To the surprise of exactly nobody who has been following the PC industry the last six months, “AI PCs” were everywhere at CES 2024, powered by new chips like Intel’s Core Ultra and AMD’s Ryzen 8000 with dedicated “Neural Processor Units” (NPUs). These help accelerate AI tasks locally, rather than reaching out to cloud servers (as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot do). But what does that actually mean for you, an everyday computer user? That’s the question I hoped to answer as I wandered the show floor, visiting PC makers of all shapes and sizes. Most early implementations of local, NPU-processed software have focused heavily on creator workloads—improving performance in tools like Adobe Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve, and Audacity. How can local AI help the average user? After scouring the show, I can say…

Of course, we knew that AI would figure prominently at this year’s CES. It’s the technology story du jour, after all. But as CES veterans, we’ve seen such sparkling promises of the next big thing eventually fizzle. 3D televisions, anyone? Thankfully there was plenty of meat-and-potatoes PC tech on display in Las Vegas to satisfy the cravings of PC enthusiasts here and now. Whether you’re a road warrior, a PC builder, a lover of games both old and new, or a content creator, we saw some truly exciting products for PC users of every stripe, and yes, some of it even includes AI. 1. MSI MEG 321URX QDOLED MONITOR MSI could’ve left well enough alone with the MEG 321URX QD-OLED monitor. I mean, it’s impressive as hell just off pure…

The tagline for Audio Radar says it all: “Hear everything with your eyes.” This inspiring new gaming product knocked my socks off at CES 2024. It helps hearing-impaired gamers compete in games where sound location is crucial, such as Call of Duty and PUBG. Created by a company called AirDrop, Audio Radar is a plug-and-play hardware system that works with consoles and the PC alike. It consists of six customizable RGBW light bars that connect all around your monitor or television, then tie into a central command center laden with buttons. By connecting your PC’s or console’s HDMI output into the command center, and then routing another HDMI cord from the command center to your display, Audio Radar taps into the output 7.1 surround sound signal and uses it to light…

We know that Thunderbolt’s next major iteration, Thunderbolt 5, will debut sometime in 2024. Two vendors, J5create and Hyper, showed off their first hardware at CES 2024. But there are two big questions: When will you actually get it and how much will it cost you? The answer? It depends. Both J5 and Hyper representatives told PCWorld they received their prototype hardware just Sunday, and a J5 representative said he was optimistic that his company’s first product would ship in March. Others weren’t so sure about the timing. Thunderbolt is a more powerful I/O alternative to the generic USB-C connection found within most laptops. Though a 10Gbps USB-C connection can be used to drive a USB-C hub or dongle to add ports to your laptop, the 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3/4 connection allows…

In recent weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of familiarizing myself with the many PDF reading and editing programs available for Windows. But it hasn’t been an enjoyable experience. Not that there aren’t any decent programs out there—there are several that work well. But time and time again, I’m struck by how lucky I’ve been to be a regular Mac user. Mac OS has had a built-in program for simple PDF editing ever since Mac OS X first saw the light of day in 2001. Microsoft has had 22 years to take inspiration from Apple, but Windows still lacks a proper PDF program. Fortunately, the new Edge has a decent PDF viewer that can also be used to mark up and annotate, but adding and deleting pages requires third-party software. In…

Nvidia unveiled a trio of new RTX 40-series Super graphics cards during its CES 2024 virtual keynote. Nvidia introduced the Super branding for the RTX 20-series, and these new ones match their predecessors in more than name. Like the RTX 20-series before it, the RTX 40-series is a fantastic reset for Nvidia’s modern GeForce lineup, which is often bemoaned for its lack of value. The GeForce RTX 4070 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, and RTX 4080 Super each boasts very different alterations, but each fixes the most significant drawbacks of its non-Super namesake. These Super GPUs are what the RTX 40-series should have been from the get-go. Let’s dig in. 1. NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4080 SUPER The most ferocious Super upgrade of the bunch is actually the most modest.…