Technology is ever evolving, and it’s an industry that moves fast. While 2017 brought us a slew of new tech toys that include the Xbox One X, Nintendo Switch, and more, there’s still a lot of hardware that we want that hasn’t hit the market yet. We’ve compiled a list of components and gadgets that includes advances in displays, VR, AR, GPUs, and more that we hope to release in 2018.
High Refresh Rate 4K Monitors
4K displays have become much more affordable in 2017. But while ultra-high definition displays went more mainstream, many PC enthusiasts have opted for high refresh rate monitors, trading in pixel count for higher performance. Refresh rate dictates the number of frames a certain screen can display at any second; high-end 1080p and 1440p monitors will have a 144Hz refresh rate instead of the standard 60Hz. As of now, 4K monitors on the market only reach 60Hz. High refresh rate 4K monitors would be the next step for displays in PC gaming.
However, there’s a bit of a catch. To take advantage of the hertz increase, your PC has to be powerful enough to produce those higher framerates. The only GPUs capable of high FPS in 4K are enthusiast-level cards (GTX 1080, RX Vega 64, GTX 1080 Ti), and even these GPUs sometimes struggle to maintain 60 FPS. 4K high refresh monitors would need to come out alongside the next generation GPUs for them to be truly worthwhile.
Nvidia Volta GeForce GPUs
Nvidia recently launched its $3,000 Titan V GPU based on the company’s new Volta micro-architecture. The card is capable of delivering 110 teraflops of performance, but it’s prohibitively expensive and is designed for data scientists. Hopefully the Titan V paves the way for Volta-based GeForce cards geared towards gamers in 2018. We’re hoping that it maintains the Titan V’s efficient 12nm manufacturing process along with the newer high-bandwidth memory 2 (HBM2) video RAM. Nvidia claims that Volta is twice as power-efficient as the company’s Pascal architecture, so it sounds really promising from a performance perspective.
HDR OLED Gaming Monitors
Companies like Asus, Acer, and Dell have teased HDR monitors in 2017, but there aren’t many options out on the market at the moment. HDR OLED gaming monitors, which can provide true black levels with their individually backlit pixels, are non-existent. While you can purchase 4K HDR TVs today, hopefully 2018 brings HDR OLED gaming monitors to the fold. The colors and contrast that they would offer would be a very welcomed option.
AMD Vega Refresh, Mid-Range Options or Enthusiast-Level Card
Now that we no longer have to ‘wait for Vega,’ we can look to how AMD is going to make its next step after setting a strong foundation with its RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56 GPUs. At the mid-range and budget-level, AMD offers the RX 500-series, which was a simple refresh of its older RX 400-series, but it’d be nice to see a more affordable Vega-architecture card in 2018. Considering that the Vega 56 is $400 MSRP, something cheaper would be much appreciated.
A refresh of the current Vega cards is also a good prospect. Both current models use a lot more power than their Nvidia competitors. Also, an AMD card to stand up to the GTX 1080 Ti seems plausible.
N64 Classic
Considering we got the NES classic in 2016, and the SNES Classic in 2017, it stands to reason that we’ll get an N64 Classic in 2018, or at least we hope. While the N64 didn’t feature the deepest game library in existence, it produced gems like Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Mario Party, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The N64 also suffered from frame rate dips, but if Nintendo could re-release a tiny version of the console that irons out the performance issues so that all of its games would run at a consistent 60 FPS, that would be amazing. It should, of course, also support four controllers. The icing on the cake would be if GoldenEye 64 came with it, though that is admittedly a pipe dream considering the game’s rights have changed significantly since it came out in 1997.
Hololens
When Microsoft initially revealed the HoloLens in 2015, the AR headset showed tremendous potential. It was able to project believable tracked holograms into living rooms without the need for external sensors. This meant you could see a little Minecraft cave etched into a wall or see virtual characters walking around a real house. Unfortunately, the headset has only been sold as dev kits for $3,000. We also haven’t heard much from Microsoft about it since. Hopefully 2018 will be the year Microsoft’s AR headset makes a resurgence and releases to consumers.
Source: GameSpot
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