Nick Evanson
Nick, gaming, and computers all first met in 1981, with the love affair starting on a Sinclair ZX81 in kit form and a book on ZX Basic. He ended up becoming a physics and IT teacher, but by the late 1990s decided it was time to cut his teeth writing for a long defunct UK tech site. He went on to do the same at Madonion, helping to write the help files for 3DMark and PCMark. After a short stint working at Beyond3D.com, Nick joined Futuremark (MadOnion rebranded) full-time, as editor-in-chief for its gaming and hardware section, YouGamers. After the site shutdown, he became an engineering and computing lecturer for many years, but missed the writing bug. Cue four years at TechSpot.com and over 100 long articles on anything and everything. He freely admits to being far too obsessed with GPUs and open world grindy RPGs, but who isn't these days?
Latest articles by Nick Evanson
![A close-up of a IT engineer / technician insert a backup tape in a backup robot in a rack.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Vnnx8tk8j9A3onMsCVasPX-320-80.jpg)
Due to export restrictions, Huawei has been forced to develop a weird hybrid SSD/tape storage drive for data archiving
By Nick Evanson published
news SSD speed with tape's low cost and reliability. A match made in heaven or the worst of both worlds?
![Intel Core Ultra 200S Series chip render on blue background.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YrZwoXcD8K5ruRFP39xmNb-320-80.jpg)
Not that any PC gamer will care but Intel is lining up low-power Arrow Lake chips for launch in January
By Nick Evanson published
news Unless you want the bare minimum of heat coming from your PC, there's just no reason to consider getting one
![A photo of a liquid metal colloid material being examined with probes](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/SQc7WCPemUkjQpuePfceS3-320-80.jpg)
Material scientists create a new compound that has a thermal resistance up to 72% lower than some of the best liquid metals
By Nick Evanson published
news It's been designed to help reduce the costs of cooling datacentres, not your average gaming PC though.
![AMD Strix Point APU chip, held in a hand, with the reflected light showing the various processing blocks in the chip die](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/MJ7bphMH9WHYqXXHgbZ8tb-320-80.jpg)
AMD's 2025 laptop plans sure do include a lot of refreshed and rebranded APUs, but who cares when you've got Fire Range, Strix Halo, and four RDNA 4 mobile GPUs heading our way next year
By Nick Evanson published
news Hopefully, this will mean a lot more vendors will offer AMD-based laptops next year, too.
![A photo of an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor next to an Intel logo](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3yLpUZWYiRd2sXRskkh8B8-320-80.jpg)
Intel admits the Arrow Lake launch missed the mark and promises performance fixes by December, but my testing suggests you shouldn't get your hopes up
By Nick Evanson published
news The chances of some Windows and BIOS updates transform Core Ultra 200S chips into AMD beaters are going to be slim.
![A photo of three AMD CPUs resting on a metal surface, with an 'Ask PC Gamer' logo in the top right hand corner](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/gyspDpvzMDXJPphgwSKg5o-320-80.jpg)
Five things I always tell people before they buy a new gaming CPU
By Nick Evanson published
New CPU guide I've been buying and using CPUs for PC gaming for over three decades, so now you can learn from the mistakes I've made in the past.
![A photo of a Silicon Power SSD mounted in an M.2 slot on an AMD motherboard, with an 'Ask PC Gamer' logo in the top right hand corner](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/wany8eJYmcrreXbkyMTKLn-320-80.jpg)
Five things I always tell people before they buy their first SSD
By Nick Evanson published
I've been buying and using SSDs for over 20 years, and here's my quick guide to making sure you get the right one for your gaming PC.
![Inside an old gaming PC with lots of dust](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/iRBnXPnpDxNey5kxxRpG3o-320-80.jpg)
Red Dead Redemption appeared on consoles 14 years ago—here's the kind of gaming PC it could have been ported to back then
By Nick Evanson published
Red Dead PC So much has changed since then but one thing still remains true: the PC is the platform to enjoy gaming at its very best.
![A screenshot of AMD's announcement video for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor, showing a stylized image of a Zen 5 CCD with the 3D V-Cache layer underneath](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ajPh9i2fPRfNHESSSToAaV-320-80.jpg)
Some of AMD's next generation of laptop APUs will be absolute monsters at gaming, all thanks to the magic of 3D V-Cache
By Nick Evanson published
news Even workstation Threadripper uber-chips will be joining the cache party.
![A screenshot from Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro announcement video, showing a stylized processor against a dark background with glowing lines streaming from its edges](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/tJ2nHquWWt7adbyVsAysHZ-320-80.jpg)
Early PlayStation 5 Pro shipments reveal some big upgrades over the original but that AMD GPU isn't quite what I was expecting
By Nick Evanson published
news RDNA 3? RDNA 2? Something in-between?
![Intel office](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/noDe2kTV3kRZ3W7ngLXyH8-320-80.jpg)
It's the end of an era: Nvidia replaces Intel in a key Dow Jones index, as Team Blue's fortunes tumble
By Nick Evanson published
news AMD has been in a worse situation but even it wasn't booted from the Dow Jones.
![Cross-laminated timber being used in two new Microsoft datacentres under construction in northern Virginia.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/D3udmSbFAqi6EMovXg3Fm-320-80.jpg)
Microsoft's building data centres out of wood hoping we'll forget AI's made its carbon emissions 29% higher than when it pledged to go 'carbon negative' in 2020
By Nick Evanson published
news Well, they're not entirely made from wood and the computers certainly aren't, so there's still more scope for going totally carbon zero.
![A photo of an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X processor](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/orGuVP5KvAREzbNLAcjtgm-320-80.jpg)
I've tested Asus' new Turbo Game Mode for AMD CPUs and my verdict is simple: Don't use it
By Nick Evanson published
news When worse is supposed to be better but turns out to actually be worse. Or the same. Which is essentially still worse.
![Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 video outputs and backplate](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/WnUVx2BKt7visM6Rq8xPP6-320-80.jpg)
What a difference a year makes: Nvidia's RTX 40-series share of the Steam Hardware Survey is 80% larger than this time last year but its last-gen RTX chips still rule the roost
By Nick Evanson published
news RDNA 2 chips are AMD's best performer, outstripping all the rest of Team Red's GPUs combined.
![A screenshot from Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, using the game's Photo Mode](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/TdfM48DS9bN8P2eTk6EpW6-320-80.jpg)
Horizon Zero Dawn's fresh remaster is the best way to enjoy the game, even on handheld gaming PCs
By Nick Evanson published
New Dawn The new version is way better looking, with more options to make it run silky smooth.
![A photo of an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K processor next to an Intel logo](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3yLpUZWYiRd2sXRskkh8B8-320-80.jpg)
Intel's Arrow Lake chips aren't winning any awards for gaming performance but I think its new E-cores deserve a gold star
By Nick Evanson published
E's alright E-cores are rubbish, yes? Not anymore.
![A screenshot of the PC port of Red Dead Redemption, taken using maximum quality settings](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/KdxWCFDZsXW7CbYzsMzvSb-320-80.jpg)
Red Dead Redemption may still look like a 14-year-old game, but it's absolutely brilliant on handheld gaming PCs
By Nick Evanson published
Red Dead Finally It was a hell of a long time to wait, though.
![A photo of an Intel Core Ultra 5 245K processor against a dark background](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/uLk7sVyzSvn9UM47pK2iQe-320-80.jpg)
Intel Core Ultra 5 245K review
By Nick Evanson last updated
Baby Arrow Arrow Lake squares up to Raptor Lake and Zen 5 in the battle for the budget CPU crown.
![UK, London, Big Ben and British flag.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/xMoG7mKtMPqphYvP3YEEoL-320-80.jpg)
UK prime minister reckons new laws will help publishers fight back against unapproved AI data scraping
By Nick Evanson published
news 'This landmark legislation will help rebalance the relationship between online platforms and those, such as publishers, who rely on them.'
![An image demonstrating the capabilities of AMD's neural network ray tracing denoiser](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/M5jJ2wXoCCe982YK8ChWBD-320-80.jpg)
AMD drops a possible hint about how AI could be used in its next-gen upscaler package, FSR 4
By Nick Evanson published
news Does this mean RDNA 4 GPUs will have dedicated hardware for this stuff? Possibly.
![A screenshot of Dragon Age: The Veilguard showing the impact of the use of depth of field](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/REGz46CvhUWMGpqQm2AjNm-320-80.jpg)
No matter what gaming PC you have, you should disable DoF, motion blur, and vignette in Dragon Age: The Veilguard before changing any other setting
By Nick Evanson published
Someone somewhere must like the effects because why else would developers still include them?
![Windows 11 2H22 update screenshots](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/3eLzhcqYBfwSAQDTneUPzk-320-80.png)
Microsoft's word-soup has made Windows 11 updates noticeably quicker via the 'parallel processing of component manifests' complementing 'the parallel hydration of newly serviced components using reverse and forward differentials'
By Nick Evanson published
news In plain speak: it's making better use of your PC's hardware, and it's really working for me.
![Google headquarters is seen in Mountain View, California, United States on September 26, 2022.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hF9CqPG4h4hmTkKtVQ9FkX-320-80.jpg)
Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic are all making AI systems that will run your PC for you, doing online tasks like filling out forms, research, and even a spot of shopping
By Nick Evanson published
news Wall-E isn't a film, it's a prophecy.
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