Custom PC – October 2019

Welcome

Custom PC Issue 193

EDITORIAL

EDITOR

Ben Hardwidge

[email protected]

FEATURES EDITOR

Edward Chester

[email protected]

MODDING EDITOR

Antony Leather

GAMES EDITOR

Rick Lane

CONTRIBUTORS

Gareth Halfacree, James Gorbold,

Mike Jennings, Phil Hartup, Richard

Swinburne, Rys Sommefeldt,

Tracy King

PRODUCTION EDITOR

Julie Birrell

PHOTOGRAPHY

Antony Leather, Brian O’Halloran,

Fiacre Muller, Gareth Halfacree

PUBLISHING

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR

Russell Barnes

[email protected]

This magazine is printed on paper sourced from

sustainable forests. The printer operates an

environmental management system which has been

assessed as conforming to ISO 14001.

Custom PC magazine is published by Raspberry Pi

(Trading) Ltd., Maurice Wilkes Building, St. John’s

Innovation Park, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0DS.

The publisher, editor, and contributors accept no

responsibility in respect of any omissions or errors

relating to goods, products or services referred to or

advertised. ISSN: 1740-7443.

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME The information in

this magazine is given in good faith. Raspberry Pi

(Trading) Ltd cannot accept any responsibility for

loss, disruption or damage to your data or your

computer that may occur as a result of following or

attempting to follow advice given in the magazine.

If things do go wrong, take a break.

T

here’sbeena veritableavalancheofnew silicon
plummetingintothePCvalleyathighspeed over the
lastfewweeks,andthisissueofCustom PC is largely
dedicatedtomakingsenseofit,andshowingwhat you can do
withit.Forstarters,there’sourmainbuildfeature on p76,
whichshowsthatyoudon’tneedtospenda ridiculous amount
ofmoneyonbuildinga newPCwithallthelatesttech.
It’snota budgetrig,butit doesgetyoualltheexciting new
gear,includinganAMDZen2 CPU,a 1TBPCI-E4 SSD, an Nvidia
GeForceRTX 2060 SuperGPUandanX570motherboard for
under£1,500incVAT.Inaddition,we’vealsoreviewed Nvidia’s
newRTX 2060 and 2070 SuperGPUs,andcompared them with
AMD’sRadeonRX 5700 and 5700 XTonp16.Nowthat the dust
hassettled,wecanconfidentlytellyouwhichmid-range GPU
youshouldbuyforyourbudget.Meanwhile,there’s a full Labs
testofX570motherboardsonp42,anda reviewof AMD’s new
Ryzen5 3600Xonp22.
Myfavouritefeatureofthisissue,however,is Rys
Sommefeldt’sdeepdiveintoAMD’snewRDNAGPU architecture
onp86.AssomeofyoumayhavenoticedsincetheRaspberry Pi
takeover,we’vebeenregularlydevotinga featureeach month to
showingyouhowthetechnologyinyourPCworks.
Someofthesefeaturesgodeeperthanothers,and this
month’sfeaturegetsrightintothenitty-grittyofhow RDNA
worksingames.If youfindit a bittootechnical,then don’t
worry,becausenextmonthwe’replanningtorun a further
deepdivefeaturethatexplainshowmodernGPUs work. If you
don’tknowyourfrontendfromyourrearend,then next
month’sissuewillgiveyoua primertohelpyoureally
understandyourgraphicshardware.
Sadly,we’vealsohadtoremovetheRetrotechsection from
thismonth’sissue,tomakewayforallthefeatures at the back
ofthemag.However,I assureyouthisisonlytemporary – Retro
techwillbebacknextissueasnormal.

SuperZen

DESIGN

criticalmedia.co.uk

HEAD OF DESIGN

Lee Allen

DESIGNERS

Ty Logan, Harriet Knight

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ISSUE 193

SUBSCRIBERS

EDITION

ISSUE 193

EDITOR

BenHardwidge

[email protected]

@isleofshark

/ FROM THE EDITOR