The Readers’ Choice series of Tech Awards 2024 is a follow-up to the Editor’s Choice series, and unlike the latter where our editorial team picks the best products after rounds of tests and benchmarks, it is our readers like you who vote for your favourite tech brands, products or services in our annual poll.
Now in its 15th year, our Readers’ Choice provides a clear message of real consumer sentiment and brand recognition across the tech industry. This year, we have 47 award categories for polling, and after a month of compiling the results from thousands of our readers, we're ready to share the outcome to help Singaporeans make an informed buying decision and highlight why these brands came out ahead.
This article is Part 2 (out of 8) and covers 5 out of 47 awards that comprise the Best of DIY Computing categories. Be sure to stick around to check out the results of the other categories that will be published in the coming days. Meanwhile, here are the contents of this article:-
- Best Graphics Processor Brand
- Best Graphics Card Brand
- Best CPU Brand
- Best SSD Brand
- Best Motherboard Brand
Best Graphics Processor Brand - NVIDIA
Over the past years, our readers have consistently picked NVIDIA as their graphics processor of choice and this year is no different – the winner of 2024’s Readers’ Choice Best Graphics Processor Brand goes to NVIDIA with a massive 76% of the overall votes. However, unlike the years between 2021 to 2023, where AMD consistently chipped away at NVIDIA’s majority of the votes, 2024 actually saw the red company dropping 4% - from last year’s 28% of the total votes. NVIDIA’s 76% represents the green company’s highest tally yet and is a sign of its continued dominance of the GPU segment as much as it showcases AMD’s struggle to match the popularity (and performance) of the GeForce RTX 40 series.
Best Graphics Card Brand - ASUS
ASUS has won the Best Graphics Card Brand for 14 years in a row, and if you’re doing the math, that means they have won every year since our very first Reader’s Choice series. Now they can add no.15 to their trophy-laden cabinet. But they cannot rest on their laurels, because this year ASUS has dropped their vote share from last year’s 51% down to 47%. Another brand that saw a drop is Zotac, going from 2023’s 6% down to 4% in 2024. Gigabyte, MSI and Sapphire remain popular with our readers, seeing slight but meaningful increases in the vote count. It’s difficult to fathom the latest popularity trend here, but we suspect part of it could be due to the better performing GeForce RTX 4080 Super cards from Gigabyte and MSI.
Best CPU Brand - Intel
The result for the Best CPU Brand category in our Reader’s Choice series is an interesting one. While AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series has won plaudits for its performance and power efficiency (The excellent Ryzen 7700 and Ryzen 7950X3D are still our recommended gaming and desktop processors), it seems that the majority of our readers still prefer an Intel platform for their computers. This is even despite Intel’s current flagship Core i9-14900K’s mediocre performance when compared to the Core i9-13900K and AMD’s best processors on offer. Perhaps it is a case of familiarity for many long-time Intel owners (and there are way more mainstream Intel owners than enthusiasts), who still perceive Intel as the “faster choice” and the more “bug-free or stable option”. These notions do not hold in 2024, of course, but perceptions like these can be difficult to shake. Meanwhile, for AMD, their mind share is a sliver better than last year.
Best SSD Brand - Samsung
Samsung makes very good solid-state drives (SSD), and the majority of our readers agree, as the brand once again takes home the Best SSD Brand award in this year’s Readers’ Choice voting. But that said, this year’s competition is fiercer than ever, with its closest competitor, Seagate, chipping away a large portion of votes from Samsung. Its share has increased from last year’s 11% to 16%, the most significant gain (and Samsung’s biggest loss) for the company in recent years. The SSD popularity fight seems to be largely focused on Samsung and Seagate, with voting count for other brands like WD, Intel and SanDisk remaining more or less unchanged from 2023’s Readers' Choice.
Best Motherboard Brand - ASUS
ASUS has won the Best Motherboard Brand consistently for years, and they have done it again by winning the 2024 Reader’s Choice Award. While last year’s 65% has been their highest in the last decade, 2024’s poll results show a big drop to 56%. That’s a massive – almost 10% – drop in popularity. Those votes have swung mostly to Gigabyte, which jumped from 14% in 2023 to a high of 21% this year. MSI and even ASRock have gained, albeit smaller, ground at 17% and 6%, respectively. This isn’t the only category that ASUS has lost votes in, and despite it still being the most popular brand in many other categories such as this and for graphics cards, we think our PC enthusiast voters are probably a bit more price-sensitive in 2024 as a reflection of the current global economy – which has been quite gloomy of late. Gigabyte seems to be just more competitive when it comes to pricing and value.
That wraps up the Readers' Choice voting segment for the Best of DIY Computing, but be sure to check out the results in these other categories that we'll be publishing over the next few days:-
- Part 1: Best of Personal Computing Brands
- Part 2: Best DIY Computing Brands (this article)
- Part 3: Best Mobile Tech Brands
- Part 4: Best Lifestyle Tech Brands
- Part 5: Best Home Appliances Brands
- Part 6: Best Home Entertainment Brands
- Part 7: Best Service Provider Brands
- Part 8: Best Tech Brands in Gaming
Lastly, don't forget that we've also published our Editor's Choice results here to help you get the best of the best gear.
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