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
PC Gamer Hardware Awards: The best of the rest of 2023
By Jacob Ridley published
Gear of the year We can't have a category for everything, so instead we've this one to recognise the other products we enjoy that don't quite fit elsewhere.
PC Gamer Hardware Awards: The best handheld gaming PC of 2023
By Jacob Ridley published
Gear of the year This year has been the best for PC handhelds since, well, ever. New products, loads of competition, but only one winner.
For years I believed Windows to be making up problems with my removable drives. Turns out I'm the problem
By Jacob Ridley published
Finger pointing That USB stick did need repairing and it's all my fault.
My PC is a mess. Is anyone else finding it difficult to manage all their files nowadays?
By Jacob Ridley published
I swear I used to be organised with my drives but now I've game libraries and files littered all over my machine.
I tried to melt AMD's top GPU with Avatar: Frontier of Pandora's unobtanium graphics mode
By Jacob Ridley published
Good luck, RDA And I would've got away with it if it wasn't for the red team's own frame generation.
The PC Gamer 2023 Holiday Gift Guide
By Sarah Richter last updated
🎁🎁🎁 Gift recommendations to pour joy into the hearts of PC gamers everywhere.
PC gaming's biggest disappointments of 2023
By Robin Valentine published
LAME OF THE YEAR Let me down gently.
'Still a slight risk of critical deformation': Noctua isn't happy with its next-gen 140mm fan so it's pushed until Q2 2024 at the earliest
By Jacob Ridley published
News The fan should be worth the 9-year wait.
The new Avatar game has a graphics preset so 'extremely difficult to run' you're probably Na'vi gonna turn it on
By Jacob Ridley published
News Hold on to your Toruk, the so-called unobtanium graphics setting is intended to melt future hardware.
This disaster of a PSU is a good reminder why you never skimp on your PC's power supply
By Jacob Ridley published
News It's not worth risking your PC, or more, on a cheapo PSU.
This kinetic PC case puts my RGB chassis to shame and I'm totally okay with that
By Jacob Ridley published
News YouTuber Ideal Idea documents the entire build process and it's a seriously entertaining look into how they carefully crafted their stunning chassis.
Cyber Week gaming chair deals 2023
By Jacob Ridley last updated
Treat yourself to a luxurious, supportive gaming chair. You know you deserve it.
Black Friday gaming laptop deals 2023
By Dave James last updated
Black Friday has been and gone, but we'll keep the deals up here for now.
Black Friday graphics card deals 2023
By Jacob Ridley last updated
Black Friday is over but we're still rounding up all the very best great graphics card, just for you.
Black Friday gaming chair deals 2023
By Jacob Ridley last updated
Black Friday is over but there are still big discounts on the best gaming chairs to be found.
Black Friday SSD deals 2023
By Jacob Ridley last updated
Wave goodbye to Black Friday but say hello to all the great deals on SSDs still around.
Playseat's pro sim racing cockpit makes it look like I mean business and is £70 off for Black Friday
By Jacob Ridley published
Just a shame looks aren't everything.
Intel has 'no plans' to bring frame-rate boosting APO feature to older 13th and 12th Gen CPUs
By Jacob Ridley published
News On the one hand, it's a shame you won't see better performance on these older chips. On the other, you don't have to struggle through APO's PITA setup process.
Starfield's DLSS patch shows that even in an AMD-sponsored game Nvidia is still king of upscaling
By Jacob Ridley published
🚀 Starfield officially supports DLSS now, with Frame Generation and Reflex, and it's better for it.
Windows 11's color blindness filters no longer add latency or hurt performance in games
By Jacob Ridley published
News Previously these filters could add extra latency while gaming.
You can play Tetris on some old oscilloscopes—who said electrical engineering is never any fun?
By Jacob Ridley published
News Test voltages, play Tetris. Test voltages, play Tetris. Life is good.
Remedy's plant bone tech is just one of the reasons Alan Wake 2 is the best-looking videogame of 2023
By Jacob Ridley published
News There's a whole lot going on behind the scenes in the Northlight engine to bring Alan's stories to life, Remedy explains.