Jacob Ridley
Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, where he was one half of a popular weekly YouTube show. He would go on to run the team as hardware editor before joining PC Gamer's world-class staff as senior hardware editor. Today, he's managing editor of the hardware team, and you'll find him spending his days reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries. He's found reporting from floors, benches, and, if he's lucky, plush press rooms at the biggest tech shows, such as Computex and CES. But more often than not he's hunched over the office test bench evaluating the newest PC components.
When he's not writing about GPUs and CPUs, you'll find Jacob trying to get as far away from the modern world as possible by wild camping.
Latest articles by Jacob Ridley
![Google headquarters is seen in Mountain View, California, United States on September 26, 2022.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hF9CqPG4h4hmTkKtVQ9FkX-320-80.jpg)
Google sums up 2023's security exploits: the good news is fixes are blocking some types of zero-day attack. The bad news is Windows has seen more than most
By Jacob Ridley published
News 2023 also saw a greater number of zero-day attacks in the wild than 2022, but still fewer than 2021.
![A controller in the style of the Mysterious Artefact from Baldur's Gate 3, created by Rudeism.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/cLBhSKPfVWxK9xdnxSDR6n-320-80.jpg)
This custom controller builder is making one in the shape of the Mysterious Artefact from Baldur's Gate 3, and it mostly works
By Jacob Ridley published
News Shadowheart approves.
![Two webcams pictured on a blue gradient background with a PC Gamer Recommended badge.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/vo9zqBcBvuxTte9DXWU2ne-320-80.jpg)
Best webcams in 2024: the 1080p and 4K webcams I recommend for gamers and streamers
By Jacob Ridley last updated
Look Your Best These are the best webcams for streaming and video calls.
![An AndaSeat gaming chair on a blue background.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UH8xJgijPfHMRS9hdWk3NM-320-80.jpg)
Knock an extra 10% off this new AndaSeat gaming chair—dropping it and its fifth dimension armrests under $400
By Jacob Ridley published
Deal We've got a coupon code for an extra 10% off, if you're interested. Did I mention the 5D armrests?
![Razer Blade 14 gaming laptop on a desk.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/YqsyoyGrBvstxVCx5PpDre-320-80.jpg)
Razer Blade 14 (2024) review
By Jacob Ridley published
Nice 'n' pricey AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 (140W) | 32GB DDR5 | 1TB SSD | $2,700 | £2,700
![The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. logo atop a building at the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. TSMC is scheduled to release earnings results on Oct. 19.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/K9uYnQH7zFqsKZ4cLofDfn-320-80.jpg)
Major Taiwan earthquake temporarily halts production at Nvidia and AMD chipmaker
By Jacob Ridley published
News The earthquake is one of the largest in Taiwan's history, leaving at least seven dead and more trapped.
![A Gigabyte gaming monitor on a blue background.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/37arKn5BBfUgXiVmxtHuWP-320-80.jpg)
There's practically never been a better time to upgrade to 1440p, as this $170 165Hz Gigabyte gaming monitor proves
By Jacob Ridley published
Deal It's not some junker, either: IPS panel, 1ms response time, and FreeSync Premium all well under $200.
![Lexar Play 2230 1TB SSD on top of a Steam Deck.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/UnnKHrxQenMQ6WeBntmNcP-320-80.jpg)
Lexar Play 2230 1TB SSD review
By Jacob Ridley published
Handheld upgrade For a Steam Deck, ROG Ally, or Legion Go SSD update, look no further than the impressive Play 2230.
![The ROG Falchion RX gaming keyboard in white set up on a desk.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/gpkiy3GUKss9yZ5jYYYNWL-320-80.jpg)
Asus ROG Falchion RX Low Profile review
By Jacob Ridley published
Tiny champ A gaming keyboard with a lot to offer considering its small stature.
![Gale the wizard grins](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/wuLX9Dr3mxSN73QuuzBqkd-320-80.jpg)
Snapdragon X Elite spotted running Baldur's Gate 3 at around 30fps, supporting claims that Windows games 'just work' on ARM chip
By Jacob Ridley published
News Qualcomm's chip might be good for a spot of gaming on the go.
![An image showing Chinese custom officials with a haul of RX 580 graphics cards.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4wpvXctr3oGDTfhHQnbFVV-320-80.jpg)
Man tries to smuggle seven-year-old AMD graphics cards through Chinese airport customs—all 44 of them
By Jacob Ridley published
News The RX 580 wasn't even all that expensive new.
![SteamOS on multiple handheld gaming PCs](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mmdbL3LgZWp667Azmq32TC-320-80.jpg)
Phil Spencer, forever the optimist, hints that he's interested in a Microsoft version of Big Picture Mode for handheld gaming PCs: 'I want my Legion Go to feel like an Xbox'
By Jacob Ridley published
News "The things that usually frustrate me are more Windows-based than device-based. Which is an area I feel some ownership of."
![Excavation of two around 5,000-year-old cattle burials.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7CTbyGofthykypwTtLvqUa-320-80.jpg)
Intel's future multi billion dollar mega-fab is set smack-bang on top of multiple neolithic burial sites
By Jacob Ridley published
News More digging to come before the heavy machinery rolls in.
![An image of a thief in Dragon's Dogma 2 considering their dual blades, dressed in scrappy rags.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6arxB4zAn6BeAhpMSrwVAV-320-80.png)
Free Dragon's Dogma 2 mod hands RTX 40-series owners a much-needed performance bump
By Jacob Ridley published
News Frame Generation will be added to the game at a later date, but for now we have PureDark's swiftly released and slightly turbulent mod.
![Lexar NM790 SSD on a blue background](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/BLBzU8SJEuskFLc7doHdmD-320-80.jpg)
This $120 2TB Lexar NM790 is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak world of rising SSD prices
By Jacob Ridley published
Deal I've been searching for SSD deals and unfortunately find many performant drives have gone up in price, except this excellent Lexar.
![Screenshots from the Microsoft Windows 98 website accessed through the](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dmdbg3BURao66ZWSgdfhoD-320-80.jpg)
Uncovering the secrets of Save As, debunking Y2K and bragging about Internet Explorer—take a trip to the Windows 98 webpage
By Jacob Ridley published
Time machine A journey to the distant past... the late '90s.
![The character Ratchet looking at the camera in bemusement.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/tqvaypHmG2un7uwSAYQKSj-320-80.jpg)
AMD promises less fuzziness and flickering from improved FSR 3.1 upscaling algorithm
By Jacob Ridley published
News Better AMD upscaling is coming to Ratchet & Clank, and likely a few more games this year.
![A screenshot of HWInfo application with the Ask PC Gamer badge in the upper right hand side.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/RhEr7vDnCEcantxFnszU6P-320-80.jpg)
What's a good system monitoring tool?
By Jacob Ridley last updated
Ask PCG There are many system monitoring tools to choose from, but one stands out amongst the crowds.
![Samsung gaming monitor on a blue background.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/oUUw8rDsRcTWobJtSKra47-320-80.jpg)
You can score a 240Hz Samsung gaming monitor that gives true meaning to the term 'ultrawide' for $800 right now
By Jacob Ridley published
Deal That's $400 off the asking price over on Amazon.
![A screenshot showing a source photograph of a person talking and an AI generated version of them speaking.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6Eg8E7JqP7GUfVG6dhsZvQ-320-80.jpg)
Google researchers find novel way of turning a single photo of a human into AI-generated video good enough to make you think 'this might go badly'
By Jacob Ridley published
News Don't think about the repercussions. Don't think about the repercussions. Don't think about the repercussions.
![Playtron OS imagery showing it across laptop and handheld.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/m9YsQKoY7nGvB6My3zjupL-320-80.jpg)
Playtron promises an alternative to SteamOS for handheld PCs: 'Play all your games from every store, Steam, Epic and more'
By Jacob Ridley published
News Playtron claims SteamOS is "compatible with Steam only", which isn't true, but is one reason it's giving for creating its own Linux distro called PlaytronOS.
![Images of Nvidia's Blackwell GPU from GTC.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/b6eLaaVWBjgus7NJqF32zW-320-80.jpg)
Nvidia had already sold tens of thousands of Blackwell GPUs before the next-gen architecture was announced
By Jacob Ridley published
News What's that old adage again? "The more you buy, the more you save."
![Images of Nvidia's Blackwell GPU from GTC.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/tCAFND4AA2pfArrBZofWeW-320-80.jpg)
Nvidia CEO brings out a monster dual-GPU Blackwell chip at GTC: here's what it tells us about the next GeForce graphics cards
By Jacob Ridley published
News "It's just one giant chip," says CEO Huang.