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WE TACKLE TOUGH READER QUESTIONS ON...94 MAXIMUMPC MAR 2020 maximumpc.com
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More VR
Thank you for publishing
a dedicated VR issue
(I suggested this in my
previous email). I have a
few more suggestions: You
used to have a dedicated
column named “Games
that our staff play now” or
something like that. Can
you continue this good
tradition, and maybe add
VR games, if any? Can you
do a gaming laptops feature
some time soon, and add
external soundcards,
headphones, and other
peripherals in review?
–Alec KravtEXECUTIVE EDITOR, ALAN
DEXTER, RESPONDS:Glad
you enjoyed the feature;
it was definitely time to
catch up on the state of the
industry, and it happened
to coincide with Valve’s
announcement on Half-
Life: Alyx. When it comes
to your suggestion on what
we’re currently playing,
this is what many of us
cover off in the “Lab Notes”
pages. There’s nothing to
stop us talking about VR
there, although I suspect
that the coverage of VR
won’t change too much, as
no one in the office can be
bothered to setup the VRgear currently languishing
in our hardware cupboard.
There is some good news
for you, though, and that
is a feature on the state of
mobile gaming, including
peripherals. Expect to see
something on this soon.Too Many Cores?
I wanted to write in
response to Jarred
Walton’s article, “AMD
Ryzen 9 3950X,” January
2020, where he mentioned
the state of computing.
I have an Acer notebook
from 2014 that does the
computing I wish to do.
Granted, it “is for typing
articles and minor image
editing,” but at this time, I
don’t need anything more
powerful. Whether I will
need a 16-core processor
anytime soon is debatable.
One can never tell when
my notebook decides to
“go south”! I consider
myself to be a computer
experimenter, but $750
is out of my price-paying
ability. I would really enjoy
having such a processor,
and am sure I could use it
for machine learning and
other artificial intelligence
work, rather than for
gaming, as an Intel Core
i9 outshines even thishigh-end second-gen 3000
series processor.
–Murray McCulloughEXECUTIVE EDITOR, ALAN
DEXTER, RESPONDS:It’s
fair to say that the likes
of the Ryzen 9 3950X are
absolutely overkill for most
normal computing tasks,
but that isn’t really what it’s
for. As the price suggests,
this is a serious chip for
serious applications.
And as we move over to
systems having more
cores, developers should
start to use them more
and more—so it shouldn’t
just be rendering and
video editing that makes
use of all those cores. As
for gaming, it’s true that
Intel has the edge here,
but if you’re dropping this
much cash on a processor,
you’re probably gaming
at higher resolutions, in
which case, that edge gets
very slim indeed. So, while
we agree that this is a chip
more for tomorrow than for
today’s computing, if you’re
building a machine to last
for years, it should be on
your wishlist.ARMing Up Windows
Sometime in 2020, perhaps
a few words could appearregarding Microsoft’s move
to ARM processors. Will
gaming eventually move to
ARM processor-based PCs?
Will this new architecture
run Windows 10 for ARM
or Android? Will major
Windows 10 apps need to be
ported over to work on the
new platform? –Terr y MEXECUTIVE EDITOR, ALAN
DEXTER, RESPONDS:
Microsoft’s support for
ARM has been something
we’ve been monitoring and
talking about for years,
but with the release of
the Surface Pro X, there’s
finally something concrete
to talk about. It’s fair to say
that there are problems
with actually running
apps at launch, but it’s
in Microsoft’s interest
to resolve that, so we’re
optimistic about the future.Positive VR
The state of virtual reality
is obviously subjective,
but I felt your article on
the current market was
not very informative and
somewhat negative. VR
is quite alive in really
cool ways, such as racing
drones, racing games,
and flight simulators.
IMHO, VR is the best thing
Virtuoso VR
ARMing Windows
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