Introduction

TechPowerUp wishes you a Happy and Prosperous 2024! As the curtain falls on another exhilarating year in the ever-evolving realm of hardware and gaming, it’s time to look back at the groundbreaking tech that has redefined the landscape. From cutting-edge processors that shattered performance barriers to graphics cards that restored value in the PC as a gaming platform, 2023 has been a year of remarkable advancements. The past year in particular has been when the world re-emerged fully from the horrors of the COVID pandemic and its crippling restrictions on our way of life. The pandemic applied strain on the semiconductor and ICT supply-chains, but more importantly, it coincided with the crypto-currency boom that kept GPUs away from the consumers they were designed for—us gamers.

The relentless pursuit of innovation has propelled the industry forward, with hardware enthusiasts and gamers alike witnessing the birth of transformative technologies. The buzzword with the post-COVID tech landscape has really been accelerated generative AI, propelled by cloud-based text and image generative services. We will witness a bend in the river in 2024, as AI acceleration goes local. Pulling off localized AI acceleration is easier said than done, but the latest GPUs already have AI accelerators, and now the latest mobile processors do, too.

The GPU landscape saw focus squarely back on gaming performance, with both of the top GPU brands introducing frame generation technologies, and advancing their image quality tech further. The switch to newer 5 nm-class foundry nodes brings a generational jump in performance/Watt. While the latest generation of GPUs missed the bus on the PCIe Gen 5 interface introduced by new processors; SSDs didn’t, and 2023 has been the year of the Gen 5 NVMe SSD. PC cases have grown wider and deeper to accommodate not just more radiators, but also the latest crop of very large enthusiast-segment graphics cards. The cooling scene saw aesthetic innovations beyond RGB, such as useful real-time monitoring displays on the AIO pump-block and fans. DDR5 memory has finally become affordable, crossed the insane 8000 MT/s mark, and now comes in odd 24 GB and 48 GB DIMM densities, to create more value.

This retrospective journey by TechPowerUp will explore the standout moments and breakthroughs that have left an indelible mark on the tech landscape. From the race for supremacy among GPU titans to the emergence of novel storage solutions, join us as we revisit the achievements that defined the year in computer hardware and PC gaming technologies. In this article, we will look back at the best PC hardware we tested. We have also ranked the best hardware that we didn’t test, by digging into the rich TechPowerUp Review Database for top rated hardware by other leading tech publications. We have categorized our ratings by hardware type, with one winner, a runner up, and notable mentions in each category. Let’s get cracking!