If you know a thing or two about the world of computing, Computex 2024 should be getting you pretty hyped right about now. The Taipei show has been showing us the latest and greatest in laptops, desktops, monitors and more — all while being the big battle ground for chipmakers to show off their next generation silicon.
But this year is different, dear reader, as two huge eras have begun. And the experts from Tom’s Guide will be there to cover every piece of breaking news and test all the new big hitters in computing hardware.
First, Windows gaming handhelds are entering their sophomore year after making a big splash last year. At Computex, companies will get another shot at improving and maybe even perfecting the formula.
And second, we are starting to live through an AI era, and that means the birth of AI PCs. Now, we’re starting to see this trend truly kick into high gear, and Taipei’s convention center will be a fertile ground for watching plans from the likes of Intel, AMD, Nvidia and Qualcomm grow into the future. Let’s go into some more detail about what specifically we are expecting.
The new silicon war begins
When it comes to the chipsets, Apple Silicon has been in the lead for a while now — both in performance and power efficiency. But the Copilot+ PC announcement at Microsoft Build has shown that a storm is coming to Cupertino.
Of course, Qualcomm is going to detail its plans for Snapdragon X Elite/X Plus and give us a taste of its roadmap. But it’s the fact that Microsoft mentioned working with Intel and AMD on meeting the 40+ Trillion Operations Per Second (TOPS) standard for the AI-driving NPU that is the biggest giveaway of what to expect.
Could this be when Intel’s next gen Core Ultra (codenamed Lunar Lake) sees the light of day? How about the fabled 9th gen AMD Ryzen CPUs? I think we’re odds on to catch a glimpse of both of them, given what we've seen from both companies' teasers.
In fact, AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su will deliver the opening keynote at Computex. The theme? According to the press release, Dr. Su will be "exploring how AMD is pushing the limits of AI and high-performance computing."
AI in everything
Speaking of the NPU, it should come as absolutely no surprise that AI is going to be everything everywhere all at once across Computex. With that vast increase in TOPS performance in these laptops, what kind of new AI experiences will they drive?
And beyond that, we will be shocked if we don’t see at least a few new pieces of AI hardware (hopefully better than Rabbit R1) — be it GPT-4o-powered glasses or general wearables, alongside the updates to infrastructure that will make getting answers from cloud-based AI a whole lot faster.
Moving over to generative AI work, this is key to what I’m expecting to see Nvidia announce. Don’t expect new GPUs, but rather new ways to use all that on-board graphical power (alongside the next slew of DLSS developments, but that’s just my inner gamer being hopeful).
Gaming handhelds step up
So far, Windows gaming handhelds have been a little hit-or-miss. When they work, they absolutely hit the bullseye — giving you a great PC gaming experience on-the-go. But they can so easily be hampered by battery life woes and overheating issues at best, or an ongoing game of “catch up with AMD frame generation tech” at worst (looking at you, MSI Claw with Intel Core Ultra).
But with a year under the industry’s belt, we’re expecting to see some refreshes that will try to address a lot of our beefs with these handhelds. One is already basically confirmed in the form of Asus announcing the ROG Ally X will be coming to the show, which the company’s talking a big game about tackling the stamina problem head on.
However, will we see any of these Windows gaming handhelds make the leap to the new chips we’re predicting above? Will Lunar Lake close the gap in GPU compatibility and performance? We can’t be sure, but the possibility is certainly there.
Marvellous monitors
This is a computing show after all, so of course you’re going to see a ton of accessories and peripherals.
At the moment, we’re seeing two big developments in monitors: improving OLED tech with refresh rate boosts and more gaming-friendly performance, and introducing bigger and more magnificent form factors like the insane 55-inch Odyssey Ark from Samsung.
It seems as if gaming and productivity monitors have been on parallel paths of development, but what about the rest of us who both work and play? Can there be a “best of both worlds” scenario? I know that’s what I’ll be looking for at least.
Wi-Fi 7 networking like a boss
Computex will be taking things up to a 7 — Wi-Fi 7 that is. We saw the early signs of it at CES 2024 with several new routers. Now with this standard becoming more widely adopted across laptops and tablets, Computex is the time that we’ll start to see more and more mesh Wi-Fi systems become available with Wi-Fi 7.
But how much faster is it? Well, with the new 6 GHz band unlocked by Wi-Fi 7, you can expect to see speeds boosted from a theoretical maximum of 9.6 Gbps to a whopping 46 Gbps. For context, if you wanted to download Cyberpunk 2077, in a perfect world where you get this max speed, you’ll be able to download it in around 15 seconds!
Of course, this is theoretical, and with many obstacles to Wi-Fi efficiency, I don’t anticipate you’d get that full number. But anywhere near that and I’ll be more than happy.
