The Worst CPU & GPU Purchases of 2022

If yous want to know what graphics card you should buy or what'due south the best CPU for your new rig, we've already got you lot covered. Today we're discussing something else. Welcome to our second annual hall of hardware shame, where nosotros list what nosotros experience were the worst CPU and GPU purchases of 2022. Some of these products should have never existed, others are merely a bit pointless or fabricated promises they did not fulfill.

The listing is not equally extensive as yous might imagine (shorter than terminal year's), and in nigh cases nosotros were able to warn yous when the products launched and we reviewed them, so that's the good news. As for the bad...

Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 DDR4

No messing around, this was the worst graphics product released this year. Around July we got our easily on a DDR4 version of the GeForce GT 1030, and boy what a heap of garbage that thing was. It's one thing to release a really bad production that you try and flog off, but information technology'due south a completely different one to pull a bait-and-switch on your customers.

We were surprised more than outlets didn't make a fuss about this. For those who missed the drama, Nvidia released the GT 1030 in May 2022 and it was a rather weak entry-level offering, but it was good enough to play titles such as Rocket League, Fortnite and CS:GO at 1080p, for example.

Put in other words, if you're a parent who isn't massively into computers and you lot desire to purchase something affordable for little Joe to play Fortnite with his buddies, then a $70 GT 1030 will fit the bill nicely.

Trouble is, if you bought your GPU after March 2022, yous could have ended up with a GT 1030 that volition average less than xl fps in Fornite instead of one that is supposed to average 66 fps... both have the same name, wait the same, and sell for the aforementioned price.

Nvidia quietly introduced this GT 1030 DDR4 version that offers 65% less bandwidth than the original GDDR5 model. That is 16.8 GB/south of bandwidth down from 48 GB/s. Unless y'all knew what to expect out for, you'd be none the wiser and fifty-fifty tech savvy users got defenseless out as they didn't fifty-fifty know there were two models that were so different, yet were named the same.

AMD Radeon RX 580 "2048SP"

From 1 icky anti-consumer act to the adjacent, AMD as well played dirty in 2022. Hard to argue which was worse, Nvidia's GT 1030 or AMD's RX 580 that'south really an RX 570. In a rare motility that we experience has no justification, AMD took the RX 570 and rebranded information technology as the "RX 580 2048SP." At least they slightly changed the proper name, nevertheless the product name very much suggests to buyers that it'due south an RX 580 and might not be whatsoever different to whatsoever other RX 580. Mayhap the seller just added "2048SP" to arrive sound more fancy, right?

Just how many buyers even know what 2048SP ways? And how many know that the RX 580 is meant to have 2304 Stream Processors? Now, you lot could argue that these models are but existence sold in China. But why would you? Last I checked Chinese consumers are people, too (ouch!). Also, if you hope on eBay and search for new RX 580s, on the first page you will exist met with chinese 2048SP models at around the same price equally the fully fledged 2304SP boards.

With that, nosotros strongly feel AMD needs to be chosen out on this 1 and hopefully we won't see this kind of maneuver again. But we did say that afterwards they accidently called the RX 460 an RX 560... maybe AMD tin work out their naming schemes in 2022.

Intel Skylake-X Refresh

Next upwardly we have the Intel Skylake-X Refresh, i of the biggest snooze-fests of 2022. Earlier in the yr during Computex, the boxing of the cores was in full swing, only while Intel was in fantasy land with their 5 GHz 28-cadre chiller, AMD was showing off a real product that they released a few months afterward.

We notwithstanding haven't received the 28-cadre monstrosity from Intel that requires a completely unlike socket and likely a motherboard that costs more than an RTX graphics carte, so I guess we've got that to expect forwards to.

What we did get was a range of new ninth-gen loftier-finish desktop processors. Patently they're and so skilful Intel was able to skip the 8th-gen models. Only problem is, they aren't that good, and they don't even deserve 8th-gen branding. These are but the same old seventh gen Skylake-X parts but with a soldered TIM that actually manages to brand them worse.

The $1980 Core i9-9980XE, for example, runs then hot when overclocked that it tin can't actually be overclocked as far every bit a delided 7980XE. And you lot can't delid the 9980XE without destroying it. So this means enthusiasts are better off buying the older 7980XE and doing what enthusiasts have been doing to Intel CPUs for years now.

That aside, the biggest issue is the pricing. Intel's still in la la country when it comes to pricing and anyone willing to evaluate their options will seriously question why they would spend so much more on a Skylake-X Refresh CPU when they take arguably better options from AMD available for less.

Right at present the Threadripper 2950X costs $900 and the 1950X costs $600. Meanwhile Intel'south xvi-core/32-thread 9960X costs $1685. In curt, Intel recycled their CPUs and pricing from 2022, that weren't that competitive in the first identify, in my opinon. These new Skylake-X Refresh parts are pointless and a bad buy.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 & 2080

We suspect the vast majority of you will agree with our previous nominations, merely this one will exist very divided, especially put in such bad company. So let u.s.a. clarify a few things first. At the MSRP that a few models are selling at, the RTX 2070 & 2080 are bang-up buys. Certainly non the most exciting products to be released this year, only for the most part they're a little faster than the outgoing Pascal parts and are at present available at the same price.

2-plus years later, that's non exactly progress. Just with AMD nowhere to be seen, it's hard to fustigate Nvidia for giving us almost cypher extra. Bluntly, nosotros would accept been but as happy if Nvidia went on selling Pascal at a slightly discounted cost.

The problem was with Nvidia'south sales pitch as the new RTX GPUs arrived with the hope of phenomenal ray traced graphics and large operation gains with DLSS. And then initially these GPUs were sold over MSRP in pre-order, while GTX 1080s were dropping in cost, some as low as $430. And so if yous paid $600 for an RTX 2070 you lot were massively overpaying for GTX 1080-like performance.

Both ray tracing and DLSS are underwhelming at the moment. The RTX 2070 is barely powerful enough to showcase existent-time RTX effects and even the 2080 Ti is challenged past them. Yes, Battlefield V operation has been profoundly improved, but they besides had to downgrade the game's graphics to enable those gains and allow'southward not forget the support list of (time to come) games is non very extensive.

Ray tracing in an optional characteristic, y'all don't have to utilize it, but this was the fundamental selling point of the new RTX series. Without information technology, yous basically accept a fat Pascal GPU. And yes, ray tracing is the future of gaming and figurer graphics, merely sadly it is not the nowadays, so why pay for information technology?

Wrap Upward

Information technology's been an exciting 2022 in the PC hardware infinite, and then allow'due south close on a somewhat more positive note...

Although a few early adopters and those seeking bragging rights got a little burnt, there'southward been some great value options likewise. AMD almost got away with a clean rap sail in 2022. Their heavily discounted Ryzen processors along with RX 580 and 570 (the real RX 580 and 570) were big hits this year. And of grade, the Threadripper deals.

Nosotros're sure some will disagree nearly calling the RTX 2070 & 2080 into question, but our point has been made. We were tempted to include the 2080 Ti Founders Edition due to the failure complaints, but information technology appears the situation has been handled, and even though our sample size is only a few cards, your chances of getting a dud are pretty depression going past reports.

It has to be said, the 2080 Ti is a brute and enables an amazing 4K gaming feel never seen before. There'due south now the Titan RTX, besides, which is probably the worst value GPU you tin can buy, but we haven't fully seen what it'south capable of yet and then we'll hold off from commenting further.

What probably should take fabricated the list were a number of Z390 motherboards, in item the budget models. Nosotros thought the unabridged point of the Z390 chipset was to signify that boards using it were 9900K ready and optimised for the 8-core CPU. In other words they had a capable VRM with adequate cooling. With the exception of Gigabyte, this wasn't the instance and all other brands merely rehashed their entry-level Z370 boards and improved margins. We saw horrible VRM throttling on all budget Z390 boards from MSI, Asrock and Asus, rendering them useless for the eight-cadre processor.

Intel'due south Core i9-9900K is a terrible value, simply also a very powerful CPU. The 95-watt TDP spec has caused problems and the Principled Technologies report was a dirty pre-order tactic that we don't want to see repeated. All that said, the 9900K is notwithstanding a fauna and technically a better/faster CPU than the Ryzen 7 2700X.