2025 PC hardware preview: This is the tech we want in our gaming rigs from the coming year

I'm not usually one for all this New Year malarkey—time ticks over at the same rate as it ever did, and I'm no big believer in astrology, so what does the calendar date matter? (And bah, humbug!) But even I can't help getting a little excited at what 2025 might offer us PC gamers.

The big ones to look out for will obviously be new graphics cards from both Nvidia and AMD and handheld gaming PCs featuring the latest AMD and Intel mobile processors. We're hoping to see many of these things at CES in January, and on that front, I'd recommend checking out our Andy's run through everything we expect to see at the show.

But I'm looking beyond all that, across the distant horizon, into the land of what the more sceptical might call pure fantasy. But actually, I think many of the things on this hardware wishlist are reasonable expectations for 2025, and some of them downright likely. So, here's what I'm looking out for in 2025:

1. Cheap and cool PCIe 5.0 SSDs
2. AI-accelerated rendering
3. An all-Nvidia laptop
4. A powerful AMD Strix Halo laptop processor
5. More AMD X3D chips
6. Steam Machines
7. A Steam Controller 2
8. A Valve Deckard VR headset
9. More hidden connector motherboards
10. Cheaper CUDIMM memory
11. More CAMM2 memory
12. More affordable OLED monitors
13. ARM desktop chips

1. Cheap and cool PCIe 5.0 SSDs

They might not be the most glamorous piece of kit, but SSDs keep the data flowin'. And over the course of 2024 we already saw massive improvements in SSDs, to the extent that fast 2 TB drives are now a pretty standard affair, even if some system builders still need to be given that particular memo. These improvements, however, were primarily of the PCIe 4.0 variety.

We're still recommending Gen4 drives as the best SSDs for gaming, and that's primarily because Gen5 drives are too hot and expensive. The controllers they use get so toasty they usually require gigantic coolers on top just to run, and they often cost an inordinate amount more than the now-reasonably priced Gen 4 drives.

But no too long ago we saw promise of some more power-efficient—and therefore also more thermally efficient—PCIe 5.0 SSDs, and if our Zak Storey's Corsair MP700 Elite 2 TB review is anything to go by, this promise is well-founded.

So I'm really hoping 2025 is the year cheap and cool PCIe 5.0 SSDs hit the mainstream market. There's reason to believe this could happen because we now have CPU generations and motherboards that can really make use of them thanks to more PCIe 5.0 lanes and slots, and there will surely be more such motherboards to come.

2. AI-accelerated rendering

It's no secret that Nvidia's in the business of AI, and it's no surprise that this business has—for good or for ill—infected the PC gaming market. AI-accelerated DLSS upscaling and frame generation has become something of a soft requirement for playing many modern titles at anything like a reasonable frame rate.

But where can we go next? Well, obviously we're all hoping that DLSS 4 (and possibly FSR 4) will give us frame generation and upscaling improvements, but it'll be cool if it gives us something new, too.

It turns out we already have intimations of just such a thing in the form of "neural rendering", which an AIB manufacturer recently mentioned in seeming relation to next-gen Nvidia GPUs. If AI can do for rendering what it's done for upscaling and frame gen, we might be in for a treat.

And listen, I'm pretty split over AI-accelerated anything. I like to own the frame rate-producing power that I pay for when I buy a graphics card, not (essentially) rent it out from Nvidia's neural network. But hey, frames are frames, and if such tech gives a significant enough improvement, maybe I shouldn't complain.

3. An all-Nvidia laptop

It used to be that Nvidia sat comfortably in GPU-land, Intel sat in CPU-land, and AMD straddled the boundary of both. But we've already seen Intel slide into the GPU market with its Arc graphics cards and Xe architecture, and we've also heard rumour of Nvidia joining the CPU scene for about a year decade now.

Rumours on this front have started to ramp up of late, with Nvidia-Mediatek partnered chips rumoured to go into production in 2025 and the first APU from the duo to feature RTX 4070 mobile and Strix Halo performance.

This would be an ARM chip, not an x86 one. The word on the street is that there are tons of improvements to Windows on ARM in the works—we've already seen that an Insider build now supports AVX and AVX2 instructions, which should help get more games up and running—so there's reason to believe that's true.

Not to mention the sheer existence of Qualcomm's Snapdragon X chips, which shows, to a limited extent, what Windows on Arm might be capable of. Now, in 2025, we just need to see what the green team (hopefully) has to offer on this front.

4. A powerful AMD Strix Halo laptop processor

I never thought I'd see the day when I was actually more excited for new integrated graphics than discrete graphics, but with just how good APUs are these days—I mean, just look at handhelds—I think I'm over that threshold now. And topping that integrated graphics list is a possible AMD Strix Halo chip.

"Strix Point" is the codename for AMD's latest AI 300-series processors, which we're expecting to see in some handhelds and laptops come 2025 (and indeed, we already see Strix Point in the OneXPlayer OneXFly F1 Pro). Strix Halo refers to an as-yet unannounced top-of-the-line "halo" product using this architecture.

The latest rumours have us anticipating up to 16 Zen 5 cores and 40 RDNA 3.5 CUs in Strix Halo. For reference, the AMD Radeon 880M—the mobile GPU found in the AI 9 HX 370—has 12 CUs, so you can see why we're hopeful for some Strix Halo Products.

Strix Halo probably won't hold a candle to the kind of high-end discrete graphics available in some of the best gaming laptops, but it should offer performance that far surpasses current handhelds, all for far less power consumption than laptops with discrete GPUs. Which might mean gaming laptops that can play today's games relatively well without draining the battery in under 2 hours (as seems to be the prerogative of gaming laptops today).

5. More AMD X3D chips

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which launched a couple of months ago, is far and away the best CPU for gaming. X3D chips are great for gaming because they vertically stack tons of cache, and games are quite hungry for this. The 9000-series X3D design improved on the 7000-series one by putting this cache underneath the chip rather than on top, which allows for better cooling and therefore better performance.

There have been rumours circulating for a while that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D will be followed up in early 2025 by a more powerful Ryzen 9 9900X3D and 9950X3D. If these do launch, they'll probably be for those who want stellar 3D-stacked gaming performance but better productivity performance than the 9800X3D.

The previous-gen Ryzen 9 7950X3D and 7900X3D stacked the same 64 MB of extra L3 cache on a chiplet, but there were more cores in the processors (half of which didn't use that stacked cache) for better multi-core performance.

In the case of the 7900X3D, a 12-core chip, this actually meant that only six cores (one chiplet's worth) rather than the 7800X3D's full eight cores, could use the stacked cache, which meant it was actually a little worse for gaming than the Ryzen 7 chip.

If we get a 9900X3D, it'll be interesting to see whether the same design choice is made or whether both chiplets will get access to the stacked cache. If both chiplets did get access to the stacked cache, then we could expect that same top-tier gaming performance without any software required behind the scenes to continually place workloads on the best cores.

6. Steam Machines

Remember Steam Machines? Me neither—they were somewhat DOA after the circa 2015 launch. But if they'd worked out, what a thing they would have been: Steam-based devices like a Steam Deck, but desktopified.

Well, in December, Valve's "Powered by SteamOS" branding was unveiled, suggesting SteamOS will soon "power" more than just the Steam Deck and seemingly more than just Valve-made products, too.

A Valve branding document (PDF) stated: "The Powered by SteamOS logo indicates that a hardware device will run the SteamOS and boot into SteamOS upon powering on the device. Partners / manufacturers will ship hardware with a Steam image in the form provided by and / or developed in close collaboration with Valve."

We're currently expecting this to signal the existence of non-Valve-made but nevertheless SteamOS-powered handhelds, and a recently announced January Lenovo event featuring Valve as a special guest suggests as much, albeit far from definitively.

In addition to handhelds, though, it's hard to imagine "Powered by SteamOS" being something limited to just handhelds, especially given that Valve's long been working towards a general SteamOS release. And if there is such a release, well, that'll open the doors to all kinds of third-party or DIY Steam Machines running Valve's OS. Maybe even an all Nvidia/ARM laptop. And heck, maybe even an official Valve one.

And this last option might not seem so crazy when you consider my next 2025 wishlist item.

7. A Steam Controller 2

Yes, here's another throwback to circa 2015, and again to another product that never really caught on—although it did have a substantial following of ardent defenders. It featured back-paddles, gyro movement, and two trackpads in lieu of twin thumbsticks. The idea was that, by using proper custom configs, these strange controls could allow you to easily play games that lack great traditional controller support and give you some approximation of the accuracy of keyboard and mouse control in a pad.

Now, there's rumour that the Steam Controller 2 (codenamed "Ibex") is already Sin mass production. That there will be a Steam Controller 2 isn't so much of a surprise given that Steam Deck designer Lawrence Yang said in 2022, "yeah, we want to make it happen. It's just a question of how and when." What's surprising is that, if the mass production rumour is true, this "when" could be very soon.

We don't know exactly what a Steam Controller 2 will bring, either, which is exciting. It could bring the same design as the first version, but Valve has also learnt a lot since then. The Steam Deck, for instance, has both trackpads and thumbsticks, so a Steam Controller 2 could opt for a similar design to this. We'll have to wait and see, hopefully sometime in the coming year.

8. A Valve Deckard VR headset

We've heard whispers and intimations of an upcoming Valve "Deckard" VR headset for years. For those unaware, this is a rumoured Valve Index successor that might be completely standalone, meaning it's able to be powered by its own internal hardware rather than by your PC. So no cables. Or your PC for more power.

This isn't all whispers, either. Valve even released a patent including plans for a new VR headset back in 2021, and although submitting a patent doesn't commit you to producing the product, this was on top of tons of other reasonable rumours surrounding the headset.

The same source that recently claimed the Steam Controller 2 is in mass production also claimed that Deckard controllers (codenamed "Roy") are in mass production now, too. So, there's at least some reason to believe we could see Deckard in 2025.

Part of the reason this is exciting is because the Valve Index was seriously stunning when it came out, offering a truly top-tier VR experience. But tech has moved on since then, and now the Index seems a little dated. In other words, Valve's due a high-end VR refresh, in my eyes. And with all the company's learnt about hardware production over the past few years, I'm hopeful.

9. More hidden connector motherboards

It might not be as exciting as new VR headsets and handhelds, but one trend that tickled my fancy in 2024 was the introduction of Back Connect / Back-to-the-Future/Back-to-Front (BTF) hidden motherboard connector designs.

People first seemed to take note of such designs with MSI's Project Zero in 2024, but we'd already seen Gigabyte do it in 2022. The idea is pretty simple: take all those motherboard connectors (especially the bigboi 24-pin power connector) and shimmy them around to the back for better airflow (ehh, whatever) and a cleaner look (now that's more like it). It can even mean building the GPU power slot into the motherboard itself to eliminate those garish 8-pins, as per Asus' ecosystem

Of course, you need room around the back for all those connections and cables, and cut-outs for them, too. That means custom design cases are required, which is one thing that has prevented these motherboards from becoming mainstream too soon. Well, that and the fact that there's only a small handful of them out there.

But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that 2025 has these motherboards at least dipping their toes outside of the "niche" market segment. They just look so clean.

10. Cheaper CUDIMM memory

It seems like every couple of weeks there's a new "world record" CUDIMM memory overclock. At the time of writing, the record stands at an eerie 12,666 MT/s, and such speeds can't help but whet my appetite for the memory standard.

CUDIMM RAM is memory that uses "clocked, unbuffered" DIMMs, meaning it has a clock driver that regenerates the clock signal for better signal integrity, allowing for higher frequencies and more transfers per second. This allows it to run so fast that it than makes up for slower timings and ends up being well worth it. Only problem is, it's expensive.

It would be nice if 2025 could give us more CUDIMM memory kits that can offer such speeds for a reasonable price. Then we'd see significant memory improvements without even moving up a DDR generation.

11. More CAMM2 memory

Okay, now this one's more of a "hopeful" than a "likely" development, but it'd be nice if CAMM2 memory started its path towards wider adoption in desktop gaming builds.

CAMM2 memory is a memory form factor that lies flat against the motherboard, and we got a first glimpse of it in a desktop at Computex early in 2024. We're expecting more laptop manufacturers to opt for the flush form factor to save space and allow for easier cooling, but there's less incentive to slap them inside desktops.

But less incentive isn't no incentive. Having memory lying flat could allow for SSD-style top-mounted cooling, which would allow clocks to be pushed further. More importantly, though, in my opinion—and perhaps most naively—it looks rather nice, and would certainly match a hidden connector motherboard. It might be a fool's hope, but it's a hope I'm clinging to for 2025.

12. More affordable OLED monitors

In the land of monitors, 2024 was undoubtedly the year of the OLED panel. We witnessed a veritable onslaught of 32-inch 4K OLED monitors, including the best high-end OLED gaming monitor, the LG UltraGear 32GS95UE.

I was a little late to the game but I eventually fixed my goggles on an OLED panel in the Omen Transcend 14 laptop, and I struggle to describe just how wonderful these screens look. OLED panels are genuinely gorgeous.

But my God are they expensive. We're talking prices that could bag you an entirely new gaming PC, and not a bad one at that.

I'm hoping that 2025 is the year when OLED monitor prices drop, even if just a little. Perhaps this would mean the introduction of new Samsung or LG 1440p OLED panels with a moderate refresh rate, rather than 32-inch 4K ones.

I know such manufacturing changes can't be embarked upon on a whim, but I reckon there'd be enough demand there for them for it to be worthwhile. And given 2024 saw a decided push into the standalone OLED monitor market (as opposed to the OLED laptop market), 2025 might be the time for this to occur. I sure hope so.

13. ARM desktop chips

The main ARM-based chips already out in the wild are Qualcomm's Snapdragon X processors, which run Windows on ARM surprisingly well and offer stellar battery life. These are all laptop chips, for now, though—unfortunately, the desktop dev kit we liked the look of was cancelled.

Given the seeming upward trajectory of Windows on ARM, the prospect of ARM-based desktop chips is quite exciting. And it's not a pipe dream, either, given Qualcomm has already teased such CPUs and said that we "should expect to see Qualcomm in every PC form factor".

It's not as simple as just porting things straight over to desktop, though. For one, ARM chips don't currently have PCIe lane capabilities, which is a big requirement for, you know, connecting all your PC's bits and bobs together. And to pair an ARM chip with discrete graphics would require driver support, too, which currently doesn't exist.

But these problems aren't insurmountable, thus Qualcomm's seeming confidence that desktop chips will arrive. And if Qualcomm's correct in its assessment, Arm itself might be considering making its own chips. Heck, as discussed above, even Nvidia's said to be building off of an ARM architecture for its rumoured in-house CPUs.

It's not a given, but 2025 could be the year when all these things come into fruition and we start to see the stirrings of ARM-based desktop processor competition. With ARM's potential for great power efficiency and battery life, such processors could certainly make for some interesting gaming PCs.