PERSONAL COMPUTING IN 2021

Words by Gabriel Pe

If there’s one thing that didn’t suck in 2020, it was countless PC component launches. Even before the pandemic the announcements of new mobile computer processors caught the attention of a lot of people, AMD offered a great bang for the buck processing for their new Ryzen 4000 mobile processor, while Intel unveiled their new 11th Gen mobile processor with their new Xe Graphics architecture.

Even during the pandemic, NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel all locked horns on new tech and performance upgrades by launching new graphics architecture with Ampere and Big Navi, and new processing architecture and process with the new Zen 3 and Comet/ Rocketlake structures. But the best thing about all these is the price they are dropping these things for. For 2021, we’re expecting some pretty good stuff for personal computing.

Entry-level now doesn’t mean bad

If you’re scouring the internet if you’re building a PC the word budget is often associated with the word entry-level and poor performance. But if we’re looking at the current trend of product releases this might not be the case anymore. Advancements in manufacturing components have made it possible to create products with more power and performance for even a lot less cost. If 2020 produced an entry-level processor that matches toe to toe with a high-end processor from 2017, it’s exciting to think what 2021 can bring us.

Mobile Ray Tracing receives an upgrade

If you’re into games, chances are you already know that ray tracing is all the rage, especially in the desktop segment. While Ray Tracing capable graphics are already available right now, they fail to produce the same great quality you can find on the desktop. The arrival of the new NVIDIA RTX 3000 series mobile GPUs and AMD RX 6000 mobile GPUs next year might make Ray Tracing much more attainable for laptops and small form factor devices.

Stocks will hopefully stabilize

If there’s one thing that’s been a downer for the PC building and enthusiast community, it’s the lack of stocks for the new releases. The release of NVIDIA and AMD’s new graphics cards as well as the new AMD processors saw how the pandemic had disrupted the supply chain for the new components leading to low stock availability and the rise of scalpers who jacked up the prices for these parts. As the world slowly gets back to normal, stocks will also stabilize and hopefully, we’ll soon see these new components at their MSRP.

The processor war will be great for consumers

It’s no secret that the Intel and AMD rivalry has made processors faster and cheaper, but the sudden arrival of Apple’s new M1 chip and NVIDIA’s acquisition of ARM will make things much more interesting in the coming years. With the competition pushing each manufacturer to one-up each other, this will also go down to consumers who now have a lot more choices for their systems and at the same time get more value for their money.

2021 will be a great year to finally do that build

Will all the new stuff that came out in 2020, 2021 will be the year to finally do that dream build you’ve been dreaming about. 2020 saw some components such as RAM and storage return to their original prices. Add to that the new much more powerful processors and graphics cards, 2021 will be the best year to build your dream gaming rig.

Gaming and esports will continue to thrive

If there was one sport that thrived during the lockdown of 2020, it’s esports. Even though there was almost no major tournament for the year, esports continued to draw viewership records. Many of these new viewers are first time viewers who were introduced to the games because of the pandemic and will carry on for the next year. Aside from new viewers, new investors have also entered the esports market in 2020, from superstar athletes funding organizations to multinational corporations adding to the massive prize pool in tournaments, one thing’s for sure is that esports will continue to grow in 2021.

VR gaming might finally be available to more people

Lastly and might still be the most stretched prediction, VR might finally be available to more people. Virtual Reality gaming has been around for a few years now and if you’re one of the few early adopters then you might have noticed that games have improved since then. This makes VR gaming much more alluring for new gamers, but what will make VR much more accessible to many is the cheaper and more powerful PC components and the cheaper VR gear. Hopefully, the new VR gear can reach the country’s shores with minimal price changes so Filipinos can make the shift.