PC Gamer Hardware Awards 2022: Best Gear of the Year

As the pale sun fades into this gloomy year of 2022, we get a chance to look back and reflect on everything we can be thankful for. And in terms of PC gaming tech, that means we’re looking at all the gaming gear released over the past 12 months to pick our favorite tech across a number of different categories.

And you know what? That includes graphics cards this year, in a really meaningful way. We paid lip service to GPUs last year when they existed mainly in a theoretical rather than a physical sense, but finally we can actually buy new cards. I mean, they’re still excruciatingly expensive if you want to use the latest generation, but the latest generation GPUs are really affordable now. Especially when you look at the AMD side of the graphics card.

We’re also seeing the first entrances of OLED panel technology into our desktop gaming monitors, as both Samsung and LG have started shipping screens to screens from the likes of Alienware and Corsair. With more or less effect it must be said…

There have been new CPU generations from both Intel and AMD, with the latter retiring its venerable AM4 socket and getting rid of those horribly bendy pins on its chips. But now we have to worry about errant thumbs getting stuck in the sockets of AMD motherboards instead. Dr. Su gives and Dr. Su takes away.

It’s also been the year of the Steam Deck, a piece of tech we love for all its flaws and vague whine, it’s one of the most PC hardware releases this year. And it’s a damn handheld.

But without further ado, here are the winners of PC Gamers’ annual hardware awards. I give you the best hardware of 2022.