Tom's Hardware Best of 2020 Awards

With a pandemic raging across the globe, 2020 was a tough year not only for humanity but for the tech industry. A toxic combination of production problems, shipping issues and increased demand led to shortages of many key components and devices including most graphics cards and, name-brand webcams and AMD CPUs of all generations.

Despite these challenges, we saw some amazing new products released this year, from AMD’s groundbreaking Ryzen 5000 series with its Zen 3 architecture to a 360 Hz gaming monitor and 17-inch ultraportable laptop. 2020 even brought us a new flavor of Raspberry Pi.

AMD's Zen 3 architecture marks its biggest IPC advance in the post-Zen era, allowing AMD to fully eclipse Intel for the first time since the Athlon 64 days. AMD's Ryzen 5000 processors take the lead in every metric that matters by surprising margins, including 1080p gaming and single-threaded performance, setting a new bar for desktop PC processors. AMD's higher-end Ryzen 9 5950X and 5900X are impressive brute-force performance monsters, but the Ryzen 5 5600X stands out as the best processor of the Ryzen 5000 stack and earns our nod for the best CPU of the year.

It's been quite the year for new graphics cards — at least the end of the year. After a slow burn for the first half of 2020, filled with rumors and delays, Nvidia dropped the Ampere hammer and GeForce RTX 3080 in September. It's one of the biggest single generation improvements in performance we've ever seen from GPUs, surpassing the previous generation 2080 Ti by 40 percent or more in some games.

The price perhaps was too good to be true, because every new Ampere GPU has been sold out for months. The same goes for AMD's new RDNA2 GPUs, and even previous gen hardware, but that's a separate story. The point is that if you want the best graphics card that's at least in the realm of the possible, it's the GeForce RTX 3080. It delivers true next-gen performance, particularly with next-gen tech like ray tracing and DLSS. It can't beat the RTX 3090, but at less than half the price, it's the right choice for gaming and hardware enthusiasts. — Jarred Walton

For many, particularly those without one of the best graphics cards, nearing 360 frames per second (fps) is just a dream. But for players with the graphics horsepower to go beyond 240 fps, a 360 Hz monitor will notably aid your game. During our testing, graphics stayed smooth and focused, even if we were moving around rapidly. With control lag and motion blur becoming nonfactors, this monitor offered the best motion resolution we’ve ever seen. — Scharon Harding

High-res gaming is already exciting, but the Asus ROG Swift PG43UQ upped the ante by also adding fantastic HDR capabilities and image quality. As a gaming monitor, the PG43UQ checks all the right boxes, including up to a 144 Hz refresh rate and your choice of G-Sync Compatibility or FreeSync. It even edged out the Acer Predator CG437K, another excellent 144 Hz 43-incher, in our input lag test by 2ms.

As a strong HDR screen that could replace your TV, it gets even better. That’s thanks to an edge array backlit panel that hit 1,084 nits with HDR content and an impressive 878.1 nits with SDR. Now that’s a bright screen. The PG43UQ also outshined the competition with a dynamic dimming feature that made the scenery games look more lively. With a gaming experience that even felt more immersive than a curved ultrawide, this 4K monitor made a mark on 2020. — Scharon Harding

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 was announced at CES 2020, released shortly thereafter, and rocked our expectations of what a mid-range gaming notebook can be. Asus had an exclusive on the AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS, and its power, combined with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q, made for strong performance and stellar battery life. It offered good looks - even if the AniMe Matrix display option was a bit gimmicky, and the design also featured a comfortable keyboard.

Samsung pulled off this impressive feat by leveraging its latest homegrown components to offset the fact that it switched from MLC to TLC flash for the newest Pro model. Samsung’s new Elpis SSD controller, paired with the company’s 1xx-Layer flash, helps to set a new bar for performance from a PCIe 4.0 SSD, but also comes with all the trimmings, like a five-year warranty paired with respectable endurance ratings and robust security features. The end result is a fast, efficient design that runs cool even under heavy workloads, making it the best SSD of 2020. — Paul Alcorn

Most of us don’t strictly need the abundance of features that Corsair’s top-end K100 clacker delivers. But if you’re looking for a colorful, feature-rich control deck for your work and play, this optical-mechanical board is tough to beat. For your fast-paced gaming needs, you get a 4,000Hz polling rate, excellent Corsair-made switches, and a handy bank of programmable keys along the left edge.

Above the Corsair K100’s keys, aside from the familiar media buttons and pleasing metal volume rocker, sits the RGB-adorned iCue control wheel. Like a big old volume knob with a button at its center, this wheel can be customized for games, or anything else. As someone who often edits images, photos, and occasionally video, I found it most useful as a zoom control, letting you get right down to fine detail with a flick of the wrist, fix that errant pixel or two, then spin back out to get a good look at the touched-up big picture. — Matt Safford

The G Pro X Superlight is Logitech’s ultra-lightweight answer to its long-adored G Pro Wireless, finally giving the company the lead in wireless gaming mice across weight categories. It uses Logitech’s Hero sensor for wireless connectivity that’s indistinguishable from playing with a wired connection, and it boasts 25,600 CPI versus the 16,000 CPI its predecessor had at launch.

The tradeoff here is that the G Pro Wireless’ ambidextrous design is gone, so this mouse is best for righties. But if you are right-handed, this 2.12 ounce, 5-button mouse is so comfortable and easy-to-use that our reviewer had a hard time believing that it was actually real. — Michelle Ehrhardt

Why restrict rumble to your hands? That’s the question posed by Corsair’s HS60 Haptic Headset, and it’s a damn good one. Even as innovations like Sony’s DualSense controller redefine what rumble means, the truth of the matter is that controllers can only stimulate your fingertips. But combine good controller rumble with a haptic headset, and suddenly the sense of immersion gets even deeper.

The HS60 Haptic Headset isn’t the first headset with rumble — Razer’s been selling one since 2018 — but it is the most recent, and for our money, the best. While the earcups do come in a camo design that might not be to everyone’s taste, the headset’s ability to physically rumble in response to in-game audio more than makes up for any aesthetic missteps. Combine that with clear audio and a noise-cancelling boom mic and you’ve got an easy choice for the best headset of 2020. — Michelle Ehrhardt

The Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 both debuted this fall, and frankly, this award could have gone to either console. In our face-off between the two systems, The Xbox Series X won by a hair. It has one of the most elegant console designs ever, despite its size. On paper, it's the most powerful console you can get (though we'll see in the future how games take advantage of that) and its cooling system is whisper quiet.

The X570 chipset isn’t new, but with the launch of Zen 3 CPUs like the Ryzen 5 5600X, companies released a slew of updated options on the platform, and ASRock’s X570 PG Velocita is our favorite of this new bunch. Selling for around $265, it lands in the mid-range in terms of X570 prices, but packs Wi-Fi 6/2.5GbE, premium audio, eight SATA ports and power delivery that was able to overclock our top-end Ryzen 9 5950X without issue.

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Tom's Hardware Best of 2020 Awards

Best CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X

Best Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080

Best Gaming Monitor: Asus ROG Swift PG259QN

Best 4K Gaming Monitor: Asus ROG Swift PG43UQ

Best Gaming Laptop: Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

Best Ultrabook: Dell XPS 17 (9700)

Best SSD: Samsung 980 Pro

Best Gaming Keyboard: Corsair K100

Best Gaming Mouse: Logitech G Pro X Superlight

Best Gaming Headset: Corsair HS60

Best Console: Xbox Series X

Best Kids Computer: Raspberry Pi 400

Best Raspberry Pi Accessory: Adafruit BrainCraft HAT

Best PC Case: Lian Li Lancool II Mesh

Best Motherboard: ASRock X570 PG Velocita