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ReSpec

A Lenovo Legion 5i Pro sitting on a shelf.

Gaming laptops are lying to us, and no one seems to care

Most gaming PCs are defined by their specs, but not gaming laptops. Even with the same graphics card, some laptops just don't perform the way they should.
ReSpec series intro featured image.

ReSpec: A column about the complex, glorious tech behind PC gaming

ReSpec is a new biweekly column on Digital Trends covering the latest PC gaming hardware and technologies so you can better navigate the games you play.
Someone holding the Ryzen 7 5800X3D in a red light.

It’s time for PC gamers to reckon with cache, and AMD is leading the way

What does a little extra cache do for your gaming PC? Quite a bit, it turns out. We take a technical deep dive into AMD's 3D V-Cache technology.
Lead Reporter, PC Hardware

Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from graphics cards to processors to PC cases, Jacob also writes the ReSpec column and newsletter that covers the intersection of PC hardware and gaming. If it’s something you can plug into a gaming PC, there’s a good chance Jacob has used it.

Although Jacob is interested in just about anything in or around a PC, he’s currently reporting on graphics cards, PC game optimization, and gaming monitors. At Digital Trends, he’s dug deep on the untold origins of the Steam Deck, uncovered the truth behind poor PC port optimization, and broke the story on Microsoft’s Bing Chat going off the rails.

Before joining Digital Trends, Jacob contributed to Business Insider, Forbes, and PC Invasion, among various other outlets. Jacob has been a guest on TWiT and NBC, and his work has been cited in Fox News, Futurism, and Business Insider.

As if tinkering with the latest PC hardware wasn’t enough, Jacob spends most of his free time living the PC gamer life he writes about so frequently. That includes playing the latest games, but also poking around on his PC to see what he can break, just to see how it works. When he gets a moment to step outside and “touch grass,” Jacob enjoys tabletop games, wandering the shops of St. Louis, and forcing his lazy Corgi onto walks.