Custom PC - UK (2020-06)

Letters

Refreshing!
Any chance you could run a feature
test on monitor refresh rates, to find
a sweet spot between resolution
and refresh rate? 4K is still (to my
knowledge) locked to 60Hz, so I’m
looking at changing my monitor
for a lower resolution but higher
refresh rate, and this feature test
would be invaluable to me
STEWART AYERS

Ben: Most 4K monitors are indeed
locked at 60Hz – you can get 144Hz
from a monitor such as Asus’ brilliant
ROG Swift PG27UQ, but it costs the best
part of two grand, and even the cheapest
models come in at around £800. We’ll
look into doing a test on refresh rates in
the future, but in the meantime, check
out our monitor Labs on p52, which
features 2,560 x 1,440 and 1,920 x 1,
displays with 144Hz+ refresh rates.

Is AMD moving too fast?
It’s been great to see AMD
getting back on its feet. It’s been
developing astonishing hardware
at a rate with which the industry
and buying public can’t keep up
and, it would appear, the software

developerscan’tkeepupeither!

AMDAdrenaliniscausingserious

issuesforsomeusers,andI’m

oneofthem,withmymonitor

droppingout,andgettingblank

screensatbootoraftera few

hoursofuse.Usinga Ryzen 7

3700XonanX570motherboard,

I certainlyexpectednoissues

whenupgradingtoanAMDGPU

(aSapphireRadeonRX 5600 XT)

frommyRX 480 – I waswrong!

Thenthere’sthechaos

surroundingtheRadeonRX 5600

BIOSupdate.Shiftinghardware

withoutgivingenoughtime

toensurethesoftwareisfitfor

purposeisonlylosingAMD

credibility,andit willresultin

returnsandswitchingbacktothe

competition.There’sgreatpotential

inthemarketnow,withAMD

producingqualityhardwareagain.

However,I’llbeveryguardedbefore

purchasingshinynewhardware

fromAMDinthefuture.

Please send us your feedback and correspondence to

[email protected]

FEEDBACK

MAY

Issue 202^7

on sale on Thursday, 7 May

When’s the next issue out? Ben: Thanks for all the info, Dave – it’s

always really good to hear about users’

experiences in the big wide world. There

have certainly been some teething

problems with the Radeon RX 5600

XT – even when we had our pre-release

sample, AMD released a new BIOS

update to increase the clock speeds

before it was launched, and we then had

to do all our tests again.

There were also a load of issues

when the 1st-gen Ryzen products

launched a couple of years ago, but I’m

very glad to see that these have been

ironed out with future generations. I’m

hoping the same will also be true for

future RDNA products. If anyone else

reading this has been having problems

with their GPU, we’d be very interested

to hear from you.

Silicon heaven

I had to laugh at your reference to a

certain TV show in the Ausein Smart

Bulb review. ‘When your big mining

ship needs to go to Red Alert ...’ Does

this bulb also do a brown colour for

the Brown Alert? Also, ‘Green with

NVMe’ – your magazine is full of

hidden gems.

I’m planning on building a new

system and I was doing some

research through your magazine. My

missus is moaning at me that I’ve not

hosen a new PC yet, but I wonder

howmany possible combinations of

C components exist! I’m still stuck

withthe usual AMD vs Intel battle,

uta GeForce RTX 2080 Super will

efinitely be in it.

AMIE ‘BOYS FROM THE DWARF’

en:Glad the puns are hitting the spot

amie! It’s only a matter of time before

etter than Life comes to VR, surely?

DAVEGWYTHER m

ch

h

P

w

b

d

JA

B

Ja

B

Asus’ ROG Swift

PG27UQ can run

at 4K with a 144Hz

refresh rate

AMD has issued

BIOS updates for

Radeon RX 5600

XT cards to boost

clock speeds