Allow'southward do a brief epitomize of 2022's best and worst PC hardware products. Everything that was going to exist released in 2022 is finally out the door and we can reflect on what was an exciting or a disappointing twelvemonth in various areas. We have 5 categories to piece of work through roofing more often than not PC hardware components similar CPUs, GPUs and motherboards, likewise as laptop hardware and monitors. This is simply our take on the best and worst products launched during 2022. Let's get started.

Best and Worst CPU

Best: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
Worst: AMD Ryzen XT range

In 2022 nosotros saw two major CPU launches from both of the big brands. In Apr, Intel launched their tenth generation Cadre series, otherwise known as Comet Lake, which included a massive slew of new parts such equally the Cadre i9-10900K, Core i7-10700K and Cadre i5-10600K. While Intel did increase the maximum core count on offering from 8 to ten cores, and slightly increased peak frequencies, this didn't change the conversation likewise much about where and when you should buy Intel or AMD CPUs.

Later on, in Nov, AMD launched the Ryzen 5000 series, equipped with their new Zen 3 cadre design. This architectural update brought a significant increase to IPC, improving single-thread operation in particular, but also giving a handy crash-land overall. While core counts remained the same, and AMD have however to release more upkeep-friendly models, the Ryzen 5000 line-upwards impressed upon launch.

When looking across these lines, we recollect AMD delivered the more than impressive line-up in 2022. Ryzen 5000 CPUs resolved one of the major weaknesses with AMD's processor design -- single-thread operation -- which has had flow on effects for gaming. With AMD offer a xvi% IPC gain on boilerplate for Zen iii versus Zen 2 in our testing, Ryzen 5000 CPUs can trounce Intel's Comet Lake in most productivity tasks with ease, and finally becoming substantially an equal on gaming functioning.

When picking the best CPU of 2022, we think it's hard to go past the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. This is a versatile brute of a processor, offering outstanding multi-thread performance for productivity, combined with high end gaming performance and elite unmarried thread speeds. At that place's no weakness to a role similar the 5950X, it'southward by far the fastest CPU we take correct now in a mainstream consumer platform for productivity, and with AMD able to neutralize Intel's lead in gaming, there's essentially no reason to purchase a 10th-gen Intel processor subsequently the launch of Ryzen 5000.

It is rare for a unmarried CPU to provide the best of the best for both gaming and productivity; historically, loftier cadre count processors designed for multi-thread performance have failed to provide a class leading experience for gamers. But AMD pulled that off in 2022 with the 5950X and other parts including the Ryzen ix 5900X. Unfortunately, outside a brief menstruation around launch, AMD have struggled to keep these CPUs in stock, which has put a dampener on the excitement and success of the product.

Equally for the worst CPU of 2022, this is an piece of cake decision: AMD'due south Ryzen 3000XT line-up as a whole, merely in particular the Ryzen five 3600XT, which was a totally pointless release in July, a year after the initial launch of Zen two based processors.

The XT's sole purpose was to provide a slightly meliorate bin of existing Zen 2 silicon. This meant a slightly higher boost clock speed for all iii XT parts: 200 MHz on the 3800XT, and but 100 MHz on the 3600XT and 3900XT. This atomic number 82 to a pocket-sized 2 to four% functioning improvement in specific scenarios, merely in many cases (especially multi-thread workloads) the performance was near identical to non-XT parts.

There'southward nada wrong with providing new processors that supplant old models with slightly better functioning, but AMD got this all wrong with pricing. They decided to launch XT parts at an unjustified premium over their discounted predecessors, and often that premium was greater than $fifty. For the vast majority of buyers looking to upgrade their PC or build a new system, the Ryzen 3000XT serial wasn't worth the extra money.

All-time and Worst GPU

Best: None you could buy
Worst: Radeon RX 6900 XT

Nigh of 2022's large graphics card launches were consolidated to the 2d half of the year, with both AMD and Nvidia launching new generation products that packed new architectures and technologies.

Nvidia rolled out first with the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 in September, followed past the RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti weeks afterward. AMD responded with the Radeon RX 6800 XT and 6800 in November, and so the 6900XT in December. Both brands' focus was on loftier-finish products at the top of the market. Oh, and at that place was one other often forgotten GPU that launched early on in the twelvemonth: AMD's Radeon RX 5600 XT which hit the market in Jan, a launch we're sure everyone would rather forget about.

It was a tough option between all of these GPUs for which was the best of 2022. Ultimately nosotros settled on… nothing. That'south right, we really don't call back any of these graphics cards is worthy of winning a "best of 2022" laurels given their poor availability. Both Nvidia and AMD botched the launches of these otherwise great new graphics cards, with stock issues for every single model up to this day.

This included the RTX 3080, which saw more than 3 months of very depression availability; the RTX 3070, which was delayed specifically to address availability, but was withal quite hard to buy; and AMD's Radeon GPUs which launched with nigh non-existent stock and highly inflated prices. If Nvidia and AMD are unable to go these GPUs into your hands in a reasonable time frame, with ongoing issues at the start of 2022, nosotros don't remember it'due south right to award a best GPU to any of them. Because, if consumers tin can't purchase your groovy product, then is it actually that dandy?

Now of course, this has been a complicated yr beyond the realm of PC hardware, plus seemingly unprecedented demand. Both GPU makers love to atone themselves of the blame and point to "high need" as a reason why you can't buy a next-generation product. This is definitely a contributing factor, but when launch day pre-orders haven't been shipped three months after release, or when the few GPUs that are available are being sold at $200+ over the supposed "MSRP," we don't think that's skilful enough.

That's a double shame, because some of these products are actually quite bang-up. Depending on your preferences, parts like the RTX 3080, RTX 3070, RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 are all worth ownership.

Every bit for the worst GPU of 2022, the standout in this category is AMD's Radeon RX 6900 XT.

While it was fantastic to come across AMD competing in the high-terminate GPU market again, and they should be commended for having hardware that's worth ownership higher up $500 for the start time in a long time, the RX 6900 XT falls in no man'due south country as a $one,000 flagship and is difficult to recommend.

The 6900 XT is stuck as it offers neither particularly great value, nor the outright fastest performance on the market. It does undercut Nvidia'due south RTX 3090 in cost per frame to a pregnant extent – information technology is $500 cheaper and functioning competitive after all – just it's still a much worse value production than something like the RX 6800 XT, which is only slightly slower and significantly cheaper. Nigh shoppers are much more likely to go for the better value 6800 serial, than the 6900 XT, if that's the primary consideration.

For people with money to fire and who just want the best product… well the RX 6900 XT isn't that either. Gaming at 4K, the 6900 XT is slower than the RTX 3090 on average, and roughly even at 1440p. In add-on, the RTX 3090 enjoys a larger VRAM buffer (24GB vs 16GB), meliorate ray tracing performance, and a more feature rich platform with access to stuff similar DLSS and Nvidia's NVENC encoder. Those that but want the best should go for the RTX 3090, leaving the 6900 XT without a home.

Best and Worst Motherboard

Best: Numerous AMD B550 motherboards
Worst: Asrock Z490 boards

2020 was a big year for GPU and CPUs, but we saw a more modest bicycle for motherboard launches. AMD decided against refreshing their loftier-end motherboard chipset, instead opting to continue using X570 every bit the flagship with BIOS updates across the board for Ryzen 5000. This was a sensible determination but meant that nosotros had fewer motherboards to test throughout the yr.

Still, we did come across several other launches. Intel refreshed their line-up with 400 serial chipsets to coincide with the launch of 10th-gen desktop processors, and so we got Z490 and B460 boards plus several others. AMD focused mostly on mid-range and entry-level chipsets, finally getting around to releasing B550 as well equally A520 for bones builds.

There were lots of loftier quality motherboard releases this twelvemonth, but in particular we were very impressed with the range of B550 boards from most brands. At that place were very few bad products, with well-nigh product lines receiving significant updates to VRM quality and overall board blueprint compared to previous-generation B450 boards. This did pb to a price increase that saw B550 occupy a slightly college market segment than B450 did, though it also allowed B550 boards to exist better suited for high-end builds with high-terminate processors.

Nosotros found it too hard to select a specific motherboard every bit the all-time overall, but at that place were a number of neat options worthy of commending. The Gigabyte B550 Aorus Primary is a ridiculous B550 board with all the bells and whistles that performs exceptionally well, while products like the MSI B550-A Pro, Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro and Asus ROG Strix B550-F Gaming are all great options in the upkeep friendly and mid-range markets.

Equally for the worst motherboard of 2022, we don't want to unmarried out Z490 considering there are plenty of peachy Z490 motherboards that are absolutely worth buying. However there were several standout bad boards in that serial from Asrock that have the crown equally the worst motherboards released in 2022.

For example, the Asrock Z490 Phantom Gaming 4 is unable to run the Cadre i9-10900K at stock frequencies in our Blender stress exam. It exhibited VRM thermal throttling and noticeably lower CPU clock speeds than meliorate boards in its cost range. But really, all of Asrock's Z490 Phantom Gaming boards run into the same problem, likewise every bit the Asrock Z490 Pro4. Being a Z-series motherboard and unable to run Intel'due south flagship CPU under stock conditions is totally unacceptable.

Our coverage of Asrock's Z490 motherboards, which too included exposing their misleading marketing which claimed "unmatched overclocking capabilities," led to usa existence blacklisted by Asrock. This doesn't make the products whatever worse, simply it was still disappointing to see.

Laptop Hardware (CPU)

All-time: AMD Ryzen 7 4800U
Worst: Intel Core i7-10750H

Mobile hardware has a great year, particularly on the processor side. At the beginning of 2022, AMD launched Ryzen Mobile 4000 based on the Zen two compages and TSMC 7nm process node, with fries that were good for both gaming laptops and ultraportables. Closer to the cease of the twelvemonth, Intel responded with Tiger Lake U-series for sparse and light systems, and overall both parts competed strongly over and across.

As it stood towards the end of the year, there was a petty something for everyone in the market. Tiger Lake provides excellent operation for unmarried-threaded and light workloads with its high IPC and far ameliorate clock speeds than previous 10nm attempts. Meanwhile AMD slays multi-thread workloads with up to 8 processing cores and first-class choices for workstation oriented laptops in the H-series.

While Intel'due south Tiger Lake processors like the Cadre i7-1165G7 are impressive, ultimately in our opinion the best mobile role of 2022 is the AMD Ryzen 7 4800U for a number of reasons. The large 1 is simply operation, which we described as incredible and able to transform what used to exist thin and light laptops just suitable for basic work, into competent loftier performance workstations with performance equivalent to, or better than Intel's H-series designs for beefier 15-inch machines.

In the terminal months of 2022, Tiger Lake was able to retake the single-thread CPU and integrated GPU performance crown from AMD, however they were unable to create a processor with this transformative result on the market place. Nosotros had never seen a product with the multi-thread performance of the 4800U in these sorts of devices before. We must also commend AMD'due south efforts considering the Ryzen vii 4800U came from nowhere. Before AMD did not accept a competitive mobile processor, so providing more than twice the functioning of the Ryzen 3000 serial was great to see.

As for the worst mobile part of 2022, the product that impressed us the least was Intel's Core i7-10750H. Released after parts such every bit the Ryzen 7 4800H, the Cadre i7-10750H non only failed to beat AMD's competitor in overall performance, but it failed to even exist significantly faster than its direct predecessors from the two prior generations in the Core i7-9750H and Core i7-8750H.

Intel'southward struggles with getting 10nm out the door led to this state of affairs where their H-series refresh in the early parts of 2022 had to notwithstanding once more exist a Skylake-derivative design built on 14nm. Upward against AMD's 7nm designs, it was thoroughly unimpressive and oftentimes used in more than expensive laptops to boot. Hopefully Tiger Lake H-series parts will be more impressive and competitive in 2022.

All-time and Worst Monitor

Best: Asus ROG Swift PG259QN
Worst: Viotek GFI27QXA

To round out this characteristic nosotros have the all-time and worst monitors of 2022. Another solid category overall for 2022, lots of great new releases and engineering being pushed up to new levels, including the release of 1080p 360Hz models, loftier-finish 1440p 240Hz monitors using VA and IPS technology, as well every bit a new generation of 4K 144Hz panels that resolve several early adopter issues. Many of these products are setting us upward for nifty iteration through out 2022 to iron out remaining issues.

Nosotros tossed up between ii products that nosotros think pushed the monitor marketplace forward in 2022. One is the Samsung Odyssey G7, which showed us that a loftier refresh charge per unit 1440p experience with a VA console is possible without issues similar dark level smearing. Notwithstanding, we decided not to laurels this monitor because information technology had a bunch of flickering bug that accompanied its launch.

Instead, nosotros're giving the award to the Asus ROG Swift PG259QN. Aye, that's right. The all-time monitor of 2022 is a 1080p brandish. Merely this affair seriously impressed us with its combination of the fastest refresh charge per unit we've seen in a consumer gaming monitor, the fastest response times nosotros've tested from an IPS console, ane of the best variable refresh rate experiences you can go, excellent backlight strobing capabilities, and outstanding factory calibration for corking color performance. Hit all of these areas in the one production is very rare then Asus thoroughly deserves this award for their engineering efforts.

And still, even though the PG259QN is one of the best monitors y'all can buy, it's not the monitor we recommend to well-nigh casual buyers due to its high price tag and lower resolution. Most gamers volition be ameliorate off with other great monitors like the Odyssey G7 or LG 27GN950 if they're interested in something loftier-end, or the wealth of bully budget options we got this year. But from a technical perspective, the PG259QN feels similar a truthful next generation product.

On the contrary terminate of the spectrum is Viotek's GFI27QXA, which is the worst monitor we reviewed in 2022. This is supposed to exist a loftier-stop 4K 144Hz monitor, simply it brings with information technology a multitude of issues. For example, there's a weird trouble where with overdrive enabled, merely half of the monitor seems to have the correct overdrive setting practical. On top of that, it doesn't have the same groovy response time or color experience as the LG 27GN950, or the same DSC capabilities, and it's about the aforementioned price. At over $600 information technology was ane of the worst products we reviewed last yr.

Shopping Shortcuts:
  • AMD Ryzen 9 5950X on Amazon
  • AMD Ryzen 9 5900X on Amazon
  • Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 on Amazon
  • Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 on Amazon
  • Ryzen 7 4800U Laptops on Amazon
  • Core i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake Laptops on Amazon
  • Asus ROG Swift PG259QN on Amazon
  • Samsung Odyssey G7 32" on Amazon