Jacob Ridley

Jacob Ridley

Managing Editor, Hardware

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog, before graduating to breaking things professionally at PCGamesN, where he was one half of a popular weekly YouTube show. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, Jacob is now managing editor of the hardware team, and you'll usually find him testing the latest components or building a gaming PC. He says he's determined to build a fort as big as a house out of case boxes. Jacob enjoys heading out of the office to report from floors, benches, and, if he's lucky, plush press rooms at the biggest tech shows, such as Computex and CES.

When he's not writing about components, you'll find Jacob trying to get away from the modern world as fast as possible by bike and pitching up camp in murky woods.

Latest articles by Jacob Ridley

A split screenshot showing Deadlock and Phasmophobia.
It's time to decide the worst graphical effect in games: film grain vs bloom

By Jacob Ridley Published

Vote now Whenever I think of bloom, I think of Wind Waker HD. Anyone else?

Vote now
Crucial and WD_Black SSDs
Best cheap SSD deals today

By Jess Kinghorn Last updated

Deals Add more storage space to your PC for less with one of the deals I've spotted.

Deals
My first MMO character #6: Jacob Ridley

By Jacob Ridley Published

Games
Motion blur and lens flare in two games split diagonally.
It's time to decide the worst graphical effect in games: motion blur vs lens flare

By Jacob Ridley Published

Vote now Let's pretend we don't already know the outcome of this one.

17 Comments
Vote now
The Steam Frame in a stage of disassembly from which I don't know if I can fully recover.
My failed Steam Frame teardown... and iFixit's successful one

By Jacob Ridley Published

Breakdown I got too nervous to fully take apart my Steam Frame, so boy am I glad iFixit's just shown me how.

Breakdown
Meta's new VR Glasses worn by a person.
Meta's new VR headset isn't really a headset and doesn't look like it's meant for gamers

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Lightweight glasses with a pocket-size compute puck, micro-OLED displays, Snapdragon XR2 Gen 3 chip; however, just a 70-degree FOV and no controllers included.

7 Comments
News
Micropost: I use my ring finger for right mouse button. Am I okay?

By Jacob Ridley Published

Games
A Razer Viper V4 Pro with a hand on the buttons.
I don't care what you lot say, the side buttons on a mouse are for copy and paste (on desktop)

By Jacob Ridley Published

Wrong 'uns There are dozens of us! Dozens!

23 Comments
Wrong 'uns
A triple image showing a character from Old School Runescape, World of Warcraft, and Toontown.
A tribute to PC Gamer's first MMO characters—may they never be forgotten

By Harvey Randall Published

FOREVER QUEST I was never a good rogue.

15 Comments
FOREVER QUEST
A split image with Marathon on one side and Battlefield 6 on the other.
It's time to decide the worst graphical effect in games: chromatic aberration vs blood/dirt

By Jacob Ridley Published

Vote now Don't let my historic dislike of chromatic aberration sway you.

18 Comments
Vote now
AMD RDNA 4 GPU render with VRM.
AMD starts the ball rolling for GDDR7 in next-gen GPUs with small code adjustment in its Linux drivers

By Jacob Ridley Published

News My money is still on RDNA 5 launching by the end of next year.

News
Micropost: 'This is crazytown' reaction to our worst graphical effect poll

By Jacob Ridley Published

Games
Jason Chen, chief executive officer of Acer Inc., gestures whilst speaking during a news conference at the IFA Consumer Electronics Fair in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014.
Woah, here's a tech CEO saying the memory crisis won't be as bad as everyone expects

By Jacob Ridley Published

News I'll believe it when I see it (please be true).

News
Two games in a splitscreen showing certain graphical effects.
It's time to decide the worst graphical effect in games: depth of field vs vignette

By Jacob Ridley Published

Vote now I know which one I'd vote for.

72 Comments
Vote now
Gigabyte Control Center software
Gigabyte admits an oopsie with Gigabyte Control Center software leaving kernel exposed to attackers

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Mitigated version is already available.

News
Jacob Ridley, Managing Editor for Hardware at PC Gamer, wearing the Steam Frame on his head.
Steam Frame's odd charging behaviour gets patched: cuts recharge times in half in some instances

By Jacob Ridley Published

News I choose to believe I had an infinitesimally minor role in making this happen.

News
Marcus Fenix wearing a bandana in Gears of War: E-Day.
Gears of War: E-Day system requirements require ray tracing-capable graphics card to play, alongside 115 GB of free space on an SSD

By Jacob Ridley Published

News The game's minimum requirements are pretty forgiving.

19 Comments
News
The Steam Frame's side buttons.
Over 35,000 people say they signed up for a Steam Frame, and less than half have one reserved

By Jacob Ridley Published

News The 256 GB model looks to be the most popular from data on this community site.

News
Cyberpunk 2077 with DLSS 5 running on an AMD GPU.
AMD presents new method of handing indirect lighting off to an image generation model: 'frame-by-frame' solution could be part of AMD's answer to DLSS 5 someday

By Jacob Ridley Published

News "We try to solve global illumination as an image generation problem," says one of the researchers behind the method.

7 Comments
News
Soulart's motion tracker device for full body tracking in VR.
Full body tracking could come to Steam Frame courtesy of this supercharged Base Station-like device that doesn't require headset support

By Jacob Ridley Published

News Soulart says it's working to support Steam Frame with its standalone motion tracker.

News
The Steam Frame on the Steam Frame box.
The Steam Frame launches during one of the slowest periods for VR on Steam, but Valve hopes to 'rekindle the excitement' for PCVR

By Jacob Ridley Published

Full Steam ahead "We also want to grow a healthy ecosystem for both the gamers and the game developers."

8 Comments
Full Steam ahead
The Steam Frame with controllers in the box.
Valve targeted a lower price for the Steam Frame, then the memory crisis happened: 'I wish we could have shipped it at the price that we were at last year'

By Jacob Ridley Published

News You gotta feel for anyone working on a project like this right now. Very few companies are benefitting from the memory crisis.

16 Comments
News
The Steam Frame with the core module, containing the processor, cooling, cameras and more, removed from the strap.
Valve working on Steam Frame strap that adds Index-like speakers and hot-swappable batteries, 'coming soon'

By Jacob Ridley Published

News I need this immediately, please and thank you.

News
The best VR headsets on a grey background with the PC Gamer Recommends badge in the upper right corner.
Best VR headset in 2026: my top picks for virtual reality with or without a gaming PC

By Jacob Ridley Last updated

Jack In Immerse yourself in stunning game worlds with the best VR headset.

Jack In
The Steam Frame on the Steam Frame box.
Steam Frame starts at $1,059 and you'll want to enter the stock lottery before September 17 for a higher chance of getting one this year

By Jacob Ridley Published

News What do you make of these prices?

10 Comments
News
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