PC Gamer Hardware Awards 2022: The best gear of year

As the wan sun fades on this bleak year of 2022 we are given to look back and think about all we have to be grateful for. And in PC gaming tech terms that means we’re looking at all the gaming gear released over the past 12 months to pick our favourite tech in a bunch of different categories.

And you know what? That includes graphics cards this year, in an actual meaningful way. We paid lip service to GPUs last year, when they existed in a mostly theoretical rather than physical sense, but finally, we can actually buy new cards. I mean, they’re still woefully expensive if you want to get in on the latest generation, but the last-gen GPUs are now genuinely affordable. Especially if you’re looking at the AMD side of the graphics card divide.

We’ve also started to see the first inroads of OLED panel technology into our desktop gaming monitors, too, as both Samsung and LG have started shipping screens into displays from the likes of Alienware and Corsair. To lesser or greater effect, it has to 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 pliable pins on its chips. Though now we have to worry about errant thumbs jamming into the sockets of AMD motherboards instead. Dr. Su giveth and Dr. Su taketh away.

It’s also been the year of the Steam Deck, a piece of tech we love for all its flaws and faint jankiness, it’s one of the most PC bits of hardware released this year. And it’s a frickin’ handheld.

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