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price of upgrading to Z590 from Z490 won’t

likely translate to performance that outdoes the

Ryzen 5000 Series in a big enough way to

motivate most buyers who aren’t upgrading from

something old and ditching all their supporting

components.

If the Core i9-11900K, the Z590 chipset, and

imperceptibly better frame rates on Gears of War

5 at 1080p are the best Intel can do right now,

AMD is about to drag out a long winter for the

company even further. With AMD doing most of

what Intel can in the mainstream enthusiast

space faster or cheaper, even the most

innovatively cooled motherboards don’t look like

they’ll change the larger balance of that equation

in early ‘21. That said, we’re looking forward to

putting Rocket Lake silicon to the test and seeing

how it shapes up.

[email protected]

C

h

r

i

s

S

t

o

b

i

n

g

Even in titles

that favor Intel,

the most players

can expect is a

4% difference in

games such as

Far Cry: New

Dawn.

PC MAGAZINE DIGITAL EDITION (^) I SUBSCRIBE (^) I FEBRUARY 2021