NERD Monthly Magazine

ANNUAL SMART PHONE ROUNDUP PAPER OR PLASTIC?

What went so very, very wrong with nVidia’s launch of their Ampere cards?

Does a phone’s price tag always directly correlate with quality?

WAR IS BREWING

Can AMD strike a significant blow against nVidia with their new RDNA2 GPUs?

Sony and Microsoft are set to square off once more with the launch of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Will Sony’s dominance carry over from the previous generation?

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The console war heats up as PS5 and Xbox Series X compete for your vote. This month we offer you an in-depth comparison!

CONTENTS DECISION 2020 35

43

46

Fan Mail Q&A

28

Monthly Editorial - This month: Console or PC gaming?

12

Smart Phone Roundup - We find out if “more expensive” is synonymous with “better.”

5 8

Cash Under the Hood - We compare benchmarks from over 20 AAA games @8K resolution.

Definitely Paper - What exactly went so wrong with nVidia’s launch of Ampere GPUs?

Paper or Performance? - We analyze AMD’s RDNA2 launch.

DECISION 2020

TALE OF THE TAPE

Just in time for winter, the console war heats up again with the launch of Sony’s PlayStation 5, and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X.

by Bob Howard

NEW GENERATION THE OF VIDEO GAME CONSOLES HAS ARRIVED.

The hype around next-gen game consoles is always fervent, and this time is no different. In this month’s featured article, we do the leg work so you can make an informed decision: PS5, Xbox Series X, or both?

SPOILER: If you can afford it, the answer is always “both.”

At $499, PS5 and XBSX’s base versions are priced identically, whereas their respective digital-only versions are priced at $399 for PS5, and $299 for XBox Series S. But as always, the devil is in the details, so let’s take a look at how the two competitors stack up hardware-wise.