Computer Shopper - UK (2020-03)

ISSUE385|COMPUTER SHOPPER|MARCH2020 15

YOUMAY THINKthe Xbox Series Xlooksabit
like asmall form-factor PC –and you’d be right.
Given it’susing acustomtake on CPUand
graphics card architecture found in PC
components,the Xbox Series X
has more in common with a
desktop than previous consoles.
Sony’s PlayStation 5will also be
using acustomAMD chipset,
similartothe Xbox Series X’s.
This isn’t hugely surprising as
both the Xbox One and
PlayStation 4also usedAMD
chips. Butthe consoles shouldn’t
be dismissed as poorcousinstoPCs.
Both consoles areexpected to have the
ability to support ray-tracing as well as high
resolutions at smoothframerates. There are
powerful gaming PCs that can rungames fluidly
at 1440p and 4K resolutions,but they’re far
from cheap.And running amaxed-out gameat
4K with ray-tracingrequiresamonstrously
powerful and expensive Nvidia GeForce RTX
2080 Ti graphics card.

SOWHAT?

Jon gone

Apple design guru

Jony Ive has had his

likeness and name

removed from the

Apple executive

leadership page after

departure from the company

Baffling Boris

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been

flirting with the idea of banning Huawei

tech from UK 5G telecoms infrastructure,

but he was seen using aHuawei Mate

P20 Pro phone in public

Axed accounts

Twitter has announced amass cull of

accounts that are no longer being used,

potentially freeing up Twitter handles

forfolks who failed to get the one they

wanted in the firstplace

BA grounded

British Airways suffered another IT

meltdown, with thousands of passengers

having their travel plans disrupted

Newlease of Half-Life

In an unexpected

announcement, Valve

revealed the return of

Half-Life, only it’s not a

sequel to Half-Life2,but

rather aVRgame based

on the character of Alyx

Vance,hence its title of Half-Life: Alyx

US-Away

Huawei managed to make the Mate

Pro flagshipphone without using a

single component made in the US,

effectively showing how the US trade

ban on the Chinese firm won’t stop its

smartphone efforts

Morecore

AMD has confirmed that it will release a

64-core,128-thread third-generation

Threadripper 3990X processor in 2020,

aimed at professional high-end content

creators rather than PC enthusiasts

Turning aPage

Google founders Sergei Brin and Larry

Page have stepped back from their

position at the topofGoogle’s parent

company Alphabet, leaving Google CEO

Sundar Pichai to take over

ASCOMPUTERSHOPPERreaders,you’re
probably more interested in Intel’s work on its
Core line of desktop and mobile processors
thanits modemchip woes and ambitions. But
the chipmaker’s push into 5G modems is more
noteworthythan you might think.
Asuiteoflaptops have
had theoption of LTEmobile
broadband connectivity fora
fewyears, but there are no
5G-ready laptops yet. That’s
not surprising, as therollout
of 5G is in its early stages.
But thespread of 5G in
the UK should accelerate in
2020, meaning access to
superfast mobilebroadband
becomes morewidely available.
Some of the most high-profile laptops with
LTEconnectivity are machines fromMicrosoft’s
Always ConnectedPCprogramme.Thesetend
to use Qualcomm chips and modems, which
can tap intothe connectivity tech Qualcomm is

known for. But theperformance delivered by a

Qualcomm system-on-a-chip and its ability to

run Windows10apps has been foundwanting.

Intel-based laptops don’t have this problem,

thanks to their underlying x86 architecture.

So thelatest IntelCPUs, such as the

10th-generation Ice Lake

mobilechips with Iris Pro

graphics, partnered with an

Intel and MediaTek 5G

modem, could yield laptops

that don’t compromise on

performanceorconnectivity.

As Intel has its Project

Athena programme,which

aims to setanew standard

forultraportable laptops

(see ‘The Lowdown’,page 17), we can expect to

see awhole slew of laptops that neatly balance

performance andconnectivity this year.

That meansIntel will keep fightingAMD in

the CPUmarket, as well as looking to hit back

at Qualcomm in the laptop connectivity arena.

SOWHAT?

As such, thepromise of ray-tracing and4K

at 60fps in an affordable compact box is likely

to be tantalising forgamers.

ForPCfans, meanwhile,the Xbox Series X

and PlayStation5should also

be of interest.Anew console

generation tends to benefit the

PC world as the multiplatform

nature of many games means

people with powerful PCs often

needtowait until new console

hardware comesalong to usher

in games that cantap intothe

power of their machines.

The PlayStation 4made smooth gaming at

Full HD theminimum standard, forexample,

meaning powerful PCs could takethose games

and run them at higher frame rates.

Furthermore,the tricks developers learnto

get themostout of the consoles’ AMD chips

will likely carry over to PC games. Forexample,

ray-tracingtechniques worked to run on the

Xbox Series Xcould be engineered to run on PC

hardware even if it isn’t natively supported.

5G is poised to

unleash anew

levelofcomputing

and connectivity that

will transform the

wayweinteract with

the world”

GregoryBryant,IntelVP