IT’S ALL COMING TOGETHER
IF NVIDIA’S RTX 4070 Super took center stage last issue, this month, it’s the turn of its slightly superior sibling, the RTX 4070 Ti Super. If you can look past the silly name, the big attraction with the Ti Super is that it gets an upgrade to Nvidia’s fancier AD103 silicon. That means extra CUDA cores, a wider memory bus, and a chunk more GDDR7.
Consequently, it’s better equipped to make the leap from 1440p gaming to full 4K. It’s also more expensive, with a $200 premium over the 4070 Super. Is it worth the extra cash? Turn to page 74 and Zak’s review to find out. Our former editor has likewise leant into the 4070 Ti Super for this month’s build from page 16. Will it prove as compelling as last month’s $2K 4070 Super rig?
Speaking of builds, Zak has also been busy compiling part two of his definitive dissertation on that very subject. The second installment of The Ultimate PC Build Guide features everything from custom cabling conundrums and borkfree BIOS updates to measures to avoid melting GPUs and final stress testing. Turn to page 44 to complete your masterclass and finally attain zen-like levels of PC building prowess.
Our final build-related feature for this issue is Nick Peers’ eightpage magnus opus on NAS storage. Nick has compiled the most forensic, comprehensive, and user-friendly guide to building and setting up your own Network Attached Storage server you could imagine. If you’ve been intimidated by what superficially seems like a high-tariff task, Nick’s guide from page 32 is what you’ve been waiting for.
Of course, the opposite of building something is tearing it apart, and this month we have an insight into the innards of Apple’s new headset on page 60. The Vision Pro is silly money at $3,500, but you can’t deny that it’s technically interesting, and its inner workings laid bare in our full teardown are fascinating. Anyway, the first batch of around 200,000 units reportedly sold out fast, so we’d welcome it purely for supercharging public interest in AR/ VR
s for other highlights, our GPU guru Jarred has turned his gaze toward integrated graphics. The holy grail for GPUs built into CPUs is to achieve genuine gameability. Discover from page 52 if the latest efforts from AMD and Intel can finally achieve that aim.
Over in the reviews section from page 74, along with the 4070 Ti Super, we have both AMD’s new budget GPU, the Radeon RX 7600 XT and its new desktop APU with its own fairly powerful GPU in the Ryzen 8700G. Meanwhile, Dough’s dynamite 4K panel gets a Gorilla glass upgrade and we take Lenovo’s fabulous new handheld gaming PC for a spin.
We’ve also got the lowdown on what might be the most fun you can have with your PC this year. Yup, it’s our review of Helldivers2, the second coming of the seminal sci-fi squad shooter. Add our usual quartet of how to’s from page 62, including getting the most out of the new Nvidia app and open-source password managers, and this month really is MaximumPC at its very best.
Enjoy the issue!
Guyis Maximum PC’s editor-in-chief. HebuilthisfirstgamingPCin1997to play Tomb Raider on3dfx,andhasbeen obsessedwithallthingsPCeversince.