Computex 2024 is nearly upon us. One of the biggest events in the tech calendar, this year's show takes place between June 4-7 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center in sunny Taiwan. We'll be on the ground attending every major keynote, booth tour, and product launch we can in order to bring you as much coverage possible of all the latest developments in PC hardware, tech innovations and more.
The six major themes for this year's event are AI computing, advanced connectivity, future mobility, immersive reality, sustainability, and innovations.
We'll take a fairly large punt that the first of those dominates the announcements this year, but we expect to see a variety of hardware innovations, refreshes and product launches get their day in the sun as the show goes on.
Below, we've put together a round-up of our top candidates for what we think we might see at this year's event.
You guessed it: AI everything
It wouldn't be a modern tech show without one term dominating the order of events, and of course, that's artificial intelligence. AI computing in some form or fashion is big news for just about every major tech manufacturer at this point, and alongside some NPU-equipped chips and AI data center discussion, expect to see the term bolted to just about every new product launch you can think of, for better or worse.
AI-equipped gaming chairs? At this point, we really wouldn't be surprised.
Still, all this AI discussion is likely to lead to some insights as to how companies envision the tech being applied in the future, and—if CES 2024 was anything to go by—expect manufacturers to continue to apply the term AI to just about every piece of hardware you can think of.
AMD - Strix Point, perchance, or perhaps Zen 5?
AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su will deliver the opening keynote at this year's show, entitled "The future of high-performance computing in the AI era". The good Dr. is set to "highlight the next generation of AMD products", although exactly which of them get the red carpet treatment remains to be seen.
AMD's Strix Point mobile chips have been rumoured to be releasing this year, and Computex 2024 strikes as the perfect time for a grand unveiling, although of course, we'll have to wait and see what happens on the day. Still, with the AMD chief taking prime position at this year's show, it seems highly likely that we'll learn more about AMDs next-generation mobile offerings.
Given recent leaks regarding a potential "Ryzen AI" naming scheme, we may be looking at a rebrand of these chips compared to generations past, too.
And then there's Granite Ridge. AMD's Zen 5 desktop CPUs look tantalisingly close, as motherboard manufacturers began rolling out BIOS updates for the new chips in April, meaning that we can't be far away from a proper launch. If I were a betting man, well, it's Computex, Dr. Lisa Su is delivering the opening keynote…ah, I'll let you draw your own conclusions on that one.
Intel - Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake, in some form or fashion
We've already seen the wraps taken off Intel's upcoming Lunar Lake mobile CPU architecture, but what's missing is any kind of data to give us a clearer idea of what performance to expect. Still, Intel head honcho Pat Gelsinger will be delivering a keynote of his own on the first day of the event, showcasing "next generation data center and client computing products".
Here's hoping then, that we can pin down some cold hard numbers on those Lunar Lake mobile chips. And what of Arrow Lake, Intel's upcoming next-gen desktop CPUs? The Intel CEO confirmed at the start of this year that we'd see Intel's 20A products in 2024, so fingers crossed for a big announcement.
With AMD looking to potentially bring the big guns in the form of Zen 5, we'd be very surprised if Intel wasn't planning some substantial reveals of its own. It may well be that time again folks, as AMD and Intel look to be squaring up once more with cutting-edge silicon.
Qualcomm - Snapdragon X-series processors in laptops galore
Qualcomm has been making waves recently with the announcement of its Snapdragon X-series non-X86 CPUs, with impressive power consumption claims and a whole host of laptop manufacturers looking to make use of the new chips. Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Microsoft, to name more than a few, have all announced Qualcomm chip-equipped laptops.
We'll be itching to take a look at these new slim and lightweight designs and find out what kind of performance and battery life we can expect from each model moving forward. Qualcomm has the potential here to really shake up the laptop market, with chips that, on paper at least, look like they might be very competitive as things stand.
Competition breeds innovation, they always say, and a third major CPU manufacturer coming in swinging to the Windows laptop market is exciting news indeed.
Gaming handhelds: The Claw vs The ROG Ally X vs ???
MSI will likely be keen to show off its gaming handheld, the Claw, to show attendees, and the Intel Core Ultra powered device won't be the only handheld likely to be making an appearance. Asus has recently (sort of) revealed the Asus ROG Ally X, touting claims of a substantial battery life improvement and, err, that it comes in black.
Hopefully, we'll get a chance to get hands-on with both of these devices to see if either are potential challengers to knock the Steam Deck or the OneXPlayer OneXFly from their lofty perches on our best gaming handhelds list.
Motherboards and cases: Rear connectors and custom builds
CES 2024 gave us some good ideas as to what the future of PC hardware might look like, and when it comes to desktop builds, rear connection motherboards, GPUs and cases seemed like a trend worth keeping an eye on. MSI and Asus have already shown off motherboards with the connections tucked away at the back, and our Nick has already had a go at building a full Asus BTF ('Back to the Future) gaming PC, with encouraging results.
It's likely we'll see more manufacturers debuting these sorts of designs, as rear connection hardware looks like it stands a good chance of becoming the next big thing in PC design.
Computex has traditionally been known for custom case builds, too, so expect to see some case designs ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.
What we don't expect to see: Next-gen Nvidia GPUs
Nvidia will be at Computex this year, and we expect them to show…not a lot. While we expect the first consumer Blackwell GPUs to be launched this year, odds are that it'll be towards the end. Previous launch cadences and recent rumours of a Q4 debut seems to be aligning in that direction.
That doesn't mean we won't get some AI announcements or potentially another look at the company's rather promising-looking ACE AI NPC tech. After all, given that the dreaded two letters of our imminent doom—by which I mean our promising AI future—is the theme of the show, expect Nvidia to perform a bit of a victory lap. As it's been boasting of its immense AI hardware dominance recently, and for good reason, too.
Things I'd like to see: Sim setups, SSDs, and see-through screens
To end things on a personal note, this'll be my first Computex—a phrase that suggests I could do with some child reins and a responsible adult, both of which are true—so I'll be stalking the show floor looking out for the weird, the wonderful and the bizarre.
I've recently become a sim racing fanatic, so any new releases in the world of racing wheels and sim rigs will be right up my street. Similarly, any controllers with something different to bring to the table are sure to catch my interest. I reckon its high time we had some new and interesting ways to interact with our beloved machines.
We've long held the belief that Gen 5 SSDs aren't quite ready for prime time yet (with the exception of the Teamgroup Z540 2TB, the first of its ilk to make it into our best SSD for gaming guide). I'll be on the lookout for drives without ridiculous cooling solutions that look like they might make a worthy upgrade to a Gen 4 drive-equipped machine.
I've also yet to be impressed by transparent displays, so if I find one that looks like it might be useful for anything other than a shiny distraction, I'll be sure to let you know.
Anyways, wish me luck, Dear Readers. Taipei City awaits...
