CES 2022 was a great example of the changes coming to PC gaming

CES 2022 was a not bad instance of the changes coming to PC gaming

Alienware X14 on a table next to a cactus or something

(Image credit: Future)

CES 2022 is on the way out, and it was another odd year for the show as we all covered information technology from the comfort of our chairs, rather than endlessly running between unlike hotels in Las Vegas. However, what felt uncommonly foreign is how much of the PC gaming presence at the prove revolved around the best gaming laptops.

While the gaming PC isn't going anywhere – we got our fair share of exciting components like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 and some juicy gaming monitors similar the Alienware AW3423DW – when you turn to the iii giant PC hardware companies, AMD'due south, Intel's and Nvidia's presentations revolved mostly around laptops, even if there were bits of desktop news laced in at that place.

It's entirely possible that this is considering CES is a show for the tech world at large, and laptops in general are more mainstream-friendly than a hulking gaming PC. Only it goes farther than that.

In the face of a global silicon shortage that's been going on for ii years now, gaming laptops are starting to become 1 of the easiest ways to get into PC gaming, where traditionally it's always been the other way around.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti — (Image credit: Future)

Edifice a PC is expensive now

When I built my first PC with my ain money, I was able to build something that was more than powerful plenty to play the latest games for just under $1,000. Of course the difficult-to-run monster of a game at the fourth dimension was The Witcher 2, merely I was able to run it at 1080p and loftier settings – though of course without the Ubersampling that's nonetheless hard to run today.

However, with how expensive graphics cards are right now and scaling that to 1440p, that'southward simply not possible anymore. The go-to 1440p graphics cards right now are the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT. The one-time is listed on Newegg right now for well-nigh $1,000 – the cost of my first PC past itself – and the AMD menu is sitting around the same price on Amazon. And that's earlier you even mention a loftier-terminate menu similar the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, which will set you lot back $ii,000 before you fifty-fifty think nearly ownership any other parts.

While AMD and Nvidia both appear some reasonably priced graphics cards at CES 2022, it's kind of hard to get excited for them since they're likely going to be sold out about immediately.

During a roundtable word at CES 2022, AMD CEO Lisa Su was fifty-fifty asked by Gordon Ung at PCWorld about why gamers should be excited for a $200 GPU right now when it will probable just come across its price inflated after a mean solar day. Su assured u.s.a. that "we [AMD] did ship a lot more desktop GPUs in the second one-half of '21 than we did in the first half. Then non everyone has gotten them, but more than people have definitely gotten them in the second half of '21. And yous're going to see many more in 2022." And AMD plans to have more availability when the GPU comes out. AMD CVP Laura Smith expanded on that saying that the relatively low specs of the 6500 XT should hateful that the crypto market won't impact availability equally much.

But these are all things we've heard before, and while I practise think that the silicon shortage is going to come to an end somewhen - information technology probably isn't going to happen for a while, at to the lowest degree until more foundries come online to help supply the huge need that semiconductors take in 2022.

In the meantime, as manufacturing catches up with the demand, my recommendations to friends and family unit have changed completely over the last couple of years.

Razer Blade 15 on a table next to coffee and a croissant — (Image credit: Future)

Gaming laptops are cool at present

Like anyone that is a footling too into computers, everyone in my life constantly comes to me request for advice around PCs – whether something is broken or they merely want to know what to buy. Plus, recommending tech is literally what I do for a living, so that helps too.

Simply if nosotros were to rewind to 2019, my default recommendation for someone looking to get into PC gaming probably would have been to build a PC. It's a fun project, and back then you lot could slice together a pretty decent build, thank you to affordable GPUs like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super.

And generally speaking, gaming laptops were just never a good deal from a value perspective at the time. They'd cost way more than a desktop for a like level of performance, and were usually too bulky to be portable enough to make up for the deviation in cost and framerates. That'south all inverse in the terminal few years.

Now, if yous're looking for a gaming laptop, yous can get a pretty first-class 1 for almost $1,000 / £one,000 / AU$1,500, particularly if you are looking for 1080p gaming performance. For the kickoff time in years, though, you tin't really build a gaming PC at that price that tin can offering comparable gaming performance. So while a prebuilt gaming PC is even so a slightly improve value than a gaming laptop, portable devices are becoming more and more than affordable.

At the same time, gaming laptops are becoming more attractive, too. Thin and low-cal gaming laptops are increasingly the norm, and during the AMD CES 2022 keynote, we heard how that segment has grown iii times. Gaming laptops like the Alienware X14, the Razer Blade fourteen and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 are changing what gaming laptops look like. Now information technology's something you tin carry effectually in your backpack without needing to schedule back surgery a few months later.

AI upscaling Nvidia DLSS — (Paradigm credit: Nvidia)

The software is helping a lot

When Nvidia announced the GeForce RTX 2080 in August 2018, it spent a lot of time talking about both ray tracing and DLSS, particularly the former. While a lot of us (myself included), initially paid more than attending to ray tracing, thinking it would exist the game-irresolute engineering science of the two, it cannot be understated how important upscaling technology like DLSS has become. If CES 2022 has been whatever indication, it's about to go even more of import.

Both AMD and Nvidia now have special upscaling tech, and Squad Ruddy announced a second ane called Radeon Super Resolution. Information technology'due south a less effective version of FSR that'southward driver-based. That sounds unexciting on the surface, but it will allow upscaling in pretty much whatsoever game you desire to enable information technology in.

And so there's Intel; its Arc Alchemist GPUs haven't even hit the market yet. Fifty-fifty ahead of inbound the detached GPU market for the first time, a pretty decent portion of Squad Blue'southward CES 2022 keynote was focused on XeSS, Intel'southward respond to DLSS and FSR. With how complicated and beautiful the all-time PC games are becoming – but look at Battleground 2042's visuals and the high requirements of Dying Lite 2 – upscaling is going to become the future. Afterward all, you can never have enough operation in the world of PC gaming.

While these software solutions are a benefit to gamers that are running desktop PCs, they're a godsend for the best gaming laptops. As we see more flagship devices shipping with 4K displays, this kind of technology is absolutely essential to drive high resolutions, and it's going to become even more of import over the next few years.

That'due south why I applaud Radeon Super Resolution. To be clear, it's not going to exist anywhere nigh as effective as DLSS. Nvidia's upscaling tech is the best in the market right now, and the latest titles that include it look so good that it's silly to not use information technology, fifty-fifty if yous don't need the extra operation to striking 60 fps. But with DLSS, game developers nevertheless need to plan in support on an individual game basis. RSR, on the other manus, should make more than games more attainable, which is exactly what we need right now.

I promise that Nvidia has a like iteration of DLSS in the works old soon. I don't know how it would work, merely I've been asking Squad Dark-green for a commuter-broad DLSS implementation since I start saw it four years ago. With how fast gaming laptops are growing, and with how pretty games are getting, now would be the perfect fourth dimension to start working on something like that.

Hopefully by CES 2023, the changes we've seen will abound into something beautiful that makes PC gaming attainable to everyone again. Even if that falls to software solutions rather than raw hardware like information technology has in the past.

Check out all of TechRadar's CES 2022 coverage . Nosotros're bringing you all the breaking tech news and launches, everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops and smart home gadgets.

Jackie Thomas (Twitter) is TechRadar's US calculating editor. She is fatty, queer and extremely online. Computers are the devil, just she just happens to be a satanist. If you lot need to know anything most computing components, PC gaming or the all-time laptop on the market, don't be afraid to drop her a line on Twitter or through email.