PC Gamer {Hardware} Awards 2025: All of the winners from a bumper 12 months of PC gaming tech

This previous yr has been a captivating one for PC gaming {hardware}. I do not assume 2025 goes to go down as a classic yr for the tech of our favorite interest, however that does not imply we have been with out both improbable new toys to play with or new spins on gaming expertise to throw at our video games.

Inevitably the largest factor to occur to PCs in 2025 was two complete new generations of graphics playing cards launching from AMD and Nvidia respectively. Each had loads to supply and each had a heap of issues—although apparently they had been largely extra to do with advertising and marketing and product positioning than precise {hardware} points.

Nicely, I say that, however the RTX Blackwell launch was the primary time in a very good few GPU generations I’ve seen Nvidia actually drop the ball on its driver help. We noticed black screens and flaky playing cards way more typically than in earlier launches. On the AMD aspect it ought to have been a straightforward victory, however ultra-limited inventory and admittedly offensive value gouges actually soured the RDNA 4 launch for lots of PC players.

the RAMpocalypse looms massive over PC gaming, although fortunately not but for the sensible gaming laptops of this yr, and the excellent peripherals we have examined in 2025 aren’t going to be hit in the identical method because the doubling, tripling, quadrupling RAM costs.

All through the vacations we have been nominating our very favorite bits of gaming {hardware} that we have examined over the previous yr, however in the present day I get the good pleasure of asserting which of those peak PC bits get the coveted PC Gamer {Hardware} Awards for 2025.

Finest gaming laptop computer of 2025

Razer Blade 16 gaming laptop

(Picture credit score: Future)

Gaming laptop computer of 2025 winner

“That is the primary gaming laptop computer that has been in a position to ship the type of all-round PC expertise that will have me contemplate ditching each my work laptop computer and my desktop gaming PC. And that’s saying one thing. The Blade 16 is a genuinely pretty system, that may ship whether or not plugged right into a wall socket or working on its battery.” -Dave James

Learn our full Razer Blade 16 assessment.

WINNER: Razer Blade 16 (2025)

I used to be not a giant fan of the earlier model of the Blade 16. As a way to deal with the calls for of the RTX 40-series and a want on Razer’s behalf to have them working at prime speeds, the corporate expanded its laptop computer chassis to accommodate extra cooling potential. And with that went the traditional glossy Razer design ethos.

However it’s again in drive with the brand new Blade 16, nonetheless, as Razer was decided to hit again towards Asus’ impressively slim Zephyrus G16 machines. The up to date design is splendidly slim, however retains a wee bulge underneath the CPU/GPU space to assist with cooling. It nonetheless can not run an RTX 5090 at full chat inside such a slender chassis, however that is not what this do-everything machine is about.

It is a gaming laptop computer that may be your work associate by the day and your gaming buddy into the evenings. However it’s additionally able to delivering excellent on-battery gaming efficiency, too. A fantastic little system.

KTC H27T22C-3 assessment.

WINNER: KTC H27T22C-3

Not solely are OLED and 4K screens getting cheaper, however so too are 1440p picks. KTC’s H27T22C-3 is just about right down to the value of a 1080p panel, and it comes with an excellent fast 210 Hz refresh price, paired with an about common 1 ms response time. As is the case with just about all screens, the identify of this one is a bit funky, and it’s a must to be sure you decide the mannequin with 3 on the finish, as lacking that can price you brightness and refresh price.

Nevertheless, with this one in your basket, it does just about every little thing you may want from a value-oriented 1440p monitor, other than its simply okay DisplayHDR 400. Our Jeremy stated, proper out of the field, the IPS panel is “instantly spectacular”. It has stable brightness, robust viewing angles and colors look nice. You do not get any USB ports (a typical compromise for value-based screens), and the stand is tilt-only. This implies changes will be onerous to make.

finest price range 1440p gaming monitor for a while.

full Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS assessment.

WINNER: Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS

Our Jacob stated this Legion Go S was “virtually precisely” what he was on the lookout for in a handheld gaming PC. We nonetheless know that the Z1 Excessive is a little bit of a banging chip, even when it is getting on in age, and native SteamOS help means you will get even higher efficiency out of it when in comparison with Home windows. The one draw back of SteamOS isn’t getting built-in help for some multiplayer titles, as Linux would not play too pleasant with many bits of anti-cheat software program.

In addition to this, over half a yr later, the trackpad remains to be a bit disappointing. It lacks native help throughout the board, solely working in a couple of video games now, and it would not keep on when not actively utilizing it, so all of it feels a tad messy. Nevertheless, for its value, you might be getting a cushty and intuitive handheld that additionally simply so occurs to look beautiful and runs very nicely.

Usually talking, you’ll be able to anticipate a couple of hours of play out of the system, typically reaching between 30 to 60 fps in most video games. It could not play completely every little thing (thanks, Linux), however what it could possibly play, it performs nicely, with close to top-tier efficiency underneath $1,000. SteamOS makes for a considerably extra console-like expertise, however as we’ll see from our subsequent decide, that is not at all times a foul factor.

WD Black SN8100 2 TB NVMe SSD assessment.

WINNER: WD Black SN8100

One other PCIe 5.0 drive that does not price a minimum of two of my limbs? Is it my birthday? No, that is simply how far Gen 5 drives have come. Granted, $250 remains to be a bit a lot for lots of folks, however with efficiency like this, these with deeper pockets might nicely discover it simple to justify the improve.

Why? As a result of, with a sustained learn velocity of 14,900 MB/s, and a sustained write velocity of 14,000 MB/s, the WD Black SN8100 is eye-watering-ly fast. Not solely that, however random 4K efficiency is much from a let-down both, handing over a 119 MB/s learn velocity, and a 349 MB/s write velocity throughout Zak’s testing.

The actual fact this factor solely briefly brushed up towards 74 °C throughout all of his benchmarking actually makes this SSD the entire bundle. However is it sufficient to win the prize total? You will not have to attend lengthy to search out out.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D assessment.

WINNER: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D

We needed to wait some time for this monster of a processor, nevertheless it was well worth the lengthy, drawn-out months. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D arrived in March and instantly topped the charts for the quickest gaming CPU in 2025, even beating the 9800X3D.

AMD’s dual-CCD processors was fairly choosy about working correctly with video games, however that was (principally) resolved with the 9950X3D. The newest technology of 3D V-cache, bonded to the backside of the primary CCD, meant that AMD may push the clocks proper up.

The place the 9800X3D enjoys a lift clock of 5.2 GHz, the 9950X3D can attain 5.5 GHz on the L3 cache-heavy CCD and 5.7 GHz on the traditional CCD. For a jack-of-all-trades processor, it just about masters every little thing.

With nothing to the touch it from Intel, although, AMD was free to set the value tag accordingly. Weighing in at $699 at launch, it is barely dropped in value since then. My ‘AI abstract’? Horribly costly, outrageously succesful.

Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice assessment.

WINNER: Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite Ice

One other white motherboard? Pure coincidence, sincere! However similar to ASRock’s B860 Metal Legend, this motherboard from Gigabyte seems improbable and has the function set to again up its aesthetics. Oh, and a really cheap price ticket, too.

The AM5-socket X870 Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice launched at $290, nevertheless it quickly shed a decent $30, and it is nonetheless like that now, making it among the finest worth X870 boards round.

And oh boy, do you get a number of motherboard in your cash. Three PCIe slots, 4 M.2 sockets for SSDs, and ten USB ports on the rear IO panel. Gigabyte favoured the storage points when it got here to distributing the restricted variety of chipset PCIe lanes, as three of the M.2 slots are Gen 5, whereas solely one of many PCIe slots is rated to that velocity.

You may get motherboards the place it is all quicker stuff or have extra USB ports, however then it’s a must to pay much more cash for it. To our eyes, the Aorus Elite WiFi7 Ice provides the perfect steadiness of price ticket, options, and efficiency of all of the AMD AM5 motherboards we have examined this yr.

Be Quiet! Gentle Mount assessment.

WINNER: Be Quiet! Gentle Mount

Be Quiet! actually did its identify justice this yr with the Gentle Mount, as a result of it is severely the quietest keyboard we have ever heard right here within the PC Gamer {hardware} den. Our Jess nonetheless stands by it and makes use of it day by day.

That is because of its personal silent tactile switches and a ton of dampening, which by some means would not really feel too mushy, not like some silent keyboards. The Gentle Mount can also be only a very stable keyboard, with PBT keycaps, 1K polling, vibrant RGB, and even a knob and left-side macro keys.

The actual draw is its quietness, although: it is a real first that we have seen this yr, a clacker protecting so quiet.

Corsair Sabre V2 Professional assessment.

WINNER: Corsair Sabre V2 Professional

The Corsair Sabre V2 Professional genuinely shocked me this yr. I obtained my mitts on it at Gamescom and couldn’t imagine how gentle it was. I form of nonetheless cannot.

At simply 36 g, it is a real step ahead within the ultralight market, particularly contemplating others that get shut (say, 39 g) are likely to have large holes within the underside. Not this one, it is as stable as they arrive, and would not really feel flimsy within the slightest.

Logitech G Professional X Superlight when it launched a couple of years in the past: It is a real leap forwards within the ultralight mouse market.

Razer BlackShark V3 assessment.

BlackShark V3 Professional, however we weren’t significantly impressed with it on the dearer mannequin anyway. It is also 100 g lighter than the top-spec mannequin, which implies it is very comfy to make use of over a full day’s gaming, or within the workplace, do you have to so require.

And when you’re actually critical about your aggressive gaming, the HyperSpeed Wi-fi interface has a low-latency mode, dropping the connection velocity to simply 10 ms. You’d doubtless must be an esports gamer to essentially inform the distinction, however in order for you the fastest-responding wi-fi set available on the market, that is it. I am singing the Jaws theme in my head proper now, how about you?

Amazon Fundamentals USB Condenser microphone assessment.

WINNER: Amazon Fundamentals Microphone

The very first thing you should learn about this Amazon Fundamentals mic is that it is low cost. I imply, actually low cost. For lower than $30, I wasn’t anticipating an enormous quantity from this little microphone—however would not you understand it, it actually delivers the products.

The sound high quality it is able to capturing, each shut up and at a distance, sounds far, much better than you’d anticipate given the minimal expense. It is not going to blow anybody’s socks off, however when you’d instructed me I used to be listening to a $50-$80 microphone after I first heard the playback, I might have believed you.

It is also constructed remarkably nicely, with a studio-like heft to its tiny body that means it could possibly put up with some critical abuse. Aside from that, the one options left to speak about are its single mute button, and its barely odd “tilting at windmills” stand design. It would not include any software program, nor any frills and frippery—however what it does for the money remains to be fairly spectacular, nonetheless.

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT assessment.

WINNER: AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT

Lastly AMD hit on to one thing: Make a well-performing graphics card that may compete with Nvidia’s, however put it on sale for lower than the competitors. Looks as if a easy, virtually apparent method, nevertheless it’s not one thing the pink staff had tried to nice impact in fashionable occasions.

Some people had been involved once they heard AMD was focusing the RX 9000-series on the amount phase of the market reasonably than making an attempt to tackle Nvidia on the excessive finish. However then the RX 9070 XT got here out, delivering RTX 5070 Ti efficiency however with a $599 price ticket versus the $750 GeForce card.

In fact, it did not fairly work out like that at launch, with each playing cards retailing for way over their respective MSRPs. We noticed RX 9070 XT and RTX 5070 Ti GPUs each retailing for $900+ put up launch, and with costs being equal, the Nvidia card would get the nod.

Fortunately, that is modified, and with each right down to their MSRP ranges constantly (for now), the Radeon is the sensible decide for a high-end GPU that may now cope with each ray tracing and, in FSR4 (now simply generally known as FSR), has much better upscaling and body gen than earlier AMD GPUs. AMD’s lastly performed a blinder.

Razer Wolverine V3 Professional 8K PC assessment.

WINNER: Razer Wolverine V3 Professional 8K

“A gamepad?” you might ask, earlier than quipping, “How standard!” And to be truthful, that is maybe probably the most wise nomination out of all of our wildcards. Nevertheless, once you’re going for professional, you have to go the space.

The Razer Wolverine V3 Professional 8K is certainly a PC controller that commits all the best way. Having fun with a totally ridiculous 8,000 Hz polling price, plus TMR thumbsticks alongside Corridor impact triggers, this gamepad doubtless will not be what holds you again in aggressive play.

If there are any drawbacks to talk of, it is clearly the value, which, at $200, is a king’s ransom for a controller. You’ll be able to relaxation assured you are getting a premium-feeling, and sturdy construct high quality for the cash that can little doubt final you a lot extra awards seasons to come back.

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