Chris Szebczyk, World Traveler
I’m mostly playing Grand Theft Auto IV this week. Visited this classic after a long time. It’s 15 years old, but it feels as fresh as anything I’ve played recently. There is no substitute for a good story.
This month we mainly tested graphics cards. I reviewed AMD’s RX 7600, which meant retesting many competing cards from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel. After months of maturing the driver, I was pleasantly surprised by the Arc A750.
Computex is one of the world’s largest trade fairs. After his CeBIT was canceled in 2018, Computex has become the most important computing and information technology event of its kind. But does that still make sense in a post-corona world where so many presentations, product launches and showcases are virtual?
For Computex, the answer is yes. I’ll explain why. But it’s interesting to contrast Computex with another major global trade show, the much-loved but perhaps now permanently discontinued E3.
Almost all trade shows have been canceled for 2020 and 2021. It was really bad for us industry people, but it’s also understandable. There were more pressing global issues at the time. Computex is back in 2022, but due to stricter Taiwan entry requirements, his show has become a hybrid, combining in-person and virtual events.
Sadly, E3 never recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, with major exhibitors preferring to host their own events, both online and in person. Back in March, we got word that the 2023 edition of E3 was probably canceled forever.
However, Computex remains highly relevant and a completely different kind of show than E3. We are confident that Computex will be with us for many years to come.
Computex is different from E3
The PC Gamer hardware team is proud to have booths from leading brands and all the major tech and cool stuff related to PCs and games. For example, he may present products from 30 or 40 vendors, covering a wide variety of technologies, from components to laptops to peripherals and more. However, TAITRA (Computex’s organizer) issued a press release in March saying it expected 1,100 exhibitors and more than 3,000 booths.
A lot of vendors. Many unknown or lesser-known exhibitors display all sorts of interesting wares, as well as many mundane wares. They are not there to impress the media or attract the attention of passers-by. They are companies that are there to sell things to other companies. People gather there to network and form partnerships. That’s why Computex always has a future in some way.
E3 is primarily a showcase for games. This is how publishers and vendors promote their games and products to the public either directly or through the media. I’m simplifying, but publishing a YouTube video is as easy as putting on a fancy keynote that gets watched on YouTube anyway. E3 is loved, but it doesn’t need much from an information dissemination standpoint.
Gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry driven by billion dollar companies. These companies have so much funding that they can easily host their own global events and get 100% attention and media attention without having to share the news cycle at all.
So E3 needs big publishers more than big publishers need E3.
girls in the booth. It’s time to move on.
Coming back to Computex, there is something worth discussing. “Boot Baby”. They are constantly present throughout the show. While the rest of the world increasingly sees this practice as a product of a bygone era, Taiwanese culture has yet to reach that stage.
I am a heterosexual male with my own unique aesthetic tastes. But I grew up with her three sisters, which gave me a complete respect for women and an understanding of feminism. I don’t understand how a beautiful lady with something as mundane as an M.2 SSD is likely to make me buy her SSD. Women are not ornaments or objects that excite men. Computex is not without women and LGBT visitors.
I remember seeing a particularly lovely young woman in the middle of a major street, surrounded by perhaps a dozen photographers. She smiled at the camera and held up a placard guiding visitors around the booth. As her crowd receded, I could see her sighing deeply and rubbing her cheeks, but only a few seconds later someone else wanted to take a picture with her and suddenly she smiled again. became. It is nothing but exploitation.
It will be interesting to see if it’s as prevalent as it was at the last Computex I attended in 2019, but I can only hope it’s not.
What to expect from Computex 2023
Over the last few years, Computex has had its fair share of major announcements and previews of new technologies and upcoming products. CPUs, new motherboards, graphics cards, etc. have been announced all at once. This year seems to be a little quieter in that respect, but that’s probably due to where we are in the big companies’ release cycles.
It seems like just yesterday that Nvidia launched its RTX 4090, Intel its 13th Gen series and AMD its Ryzen 7000 series CPUs and RX 7000 GPUs. While new CPU and GPU launches are still some way off, we may have something to say from Intel regarding their next-generation Meteor Lake CPUs.
There are always new laptops on display. We expect to see a number of 13th Gen models with Nvidia RTX 40-series mobile GPUs. AMD will also be showcasing systems with his latest APUs and possibly mobile GPUs. I can expect it.
And it would be rude not to mention the surprisingly wide range of case mods and mouth-watering systems. Below are some of my personal favorites from the past. More will be on display at the 2023 show.
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Storage is one area that needs a lot of work. With all the major manufacturers gearing up for the launch of their latest PCIe 5.0 SSDs, we’re sure to see a number of demo systems showing off big sequential (if barely relevant) transfer speeds.
There will be truckloads of new peripherals. New keyboards, mice and headsets are as plentiful as ever.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will also be in attendance to give a keynote, but is expected to spend time talking about AI, enterprise solutions, automation, robotics and more. GeForce may not even be mentioned.
One of the most rewarding experiences at Computex is finding strange or quirky products in the deserted aisles.
Stay tuned for next week at PC Gamer, where we’ll be covering some awesome tech across the show. I’m sure there will be some shit, but it’s always funny shit! In fact, one of the most rewarding experiences at Computex is finding strange or wacky products, or even hidden gems, in deserted aisles.
Jacob, Katie, and I are now packing up and preparing to head to Taiwan together to bring you all the most interesting PC gaming goodies.
