Episode 93: A rumor and news episode to round out 2025. We chat a bit more about 9850X3D expectations, the current and future state of Intel CPUs following some 225F testing, Nvidia cutting GPU supply, potential new GPUs and Steve kills some hardware.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

02:33 - More Thoughts on the 9850X3D

06:13 - Where is Intel at With Their CPUs?

24:42 - Nvidia Cutting GPU Supply?

37:38 - AMD Launches Radeon RX 9060 XT LP

43:22 - More Intel Arc B770 Rumors

49:12 - Updates From Our Boring Lives

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Episode 92: Edward Crisler from Radeon-exclusive AIB Sapphire joins the podcast to chat about the current GPU market. How will rising DRAM prices affect gaming GPUs? Can the GPU makers and AIBs absorb some of the increased cost? Also we talk about RDNA 4 and how successful it's been compared to previous generations, AMD's true market share, and of course, the Sapphire Puke box art

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

01:03 - RDNA 4 Launch at Sapphire

05:11 - RDNA 4 vs Older Generations Success

11:32 - The DRAM Crisis

20:25 - AIBs Want More Control

24:48 - Thoughts on 12VHPWR

26:32 - How Are SKU Decisions Made?

32:35 - Sapphire Puke

35:27 - DRAM Pricing: What Can AMD and AIBs Do?

44:50 - AI-Focused GPU Makers Owe Everything to Gamers

50:56 - AMD's True Market Share

59:05 - The Key to RDNA 4's Success

1:03:13 - Outro with Ed's Favorite Sapphire Generation

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Episode 91: Troubling signs in the PC gaming space with DRAM prices continuing to skyrocket and the surprising death of Micron's Crucial brand. Also we chat about the Ryzen 7 9850X3D and Nvidia ending driver support for Pascal.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

00:31 - DRAM Demand for AI Kills Micron's Crucial Brand

29:39 - AMD Confirms Ryzen 7 9850X3D

41:08 - Nvidia Ends Pascal and Maxwell Driver Support

45:20 - Updates From Our Boring Lives

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Tombstone image on thumbnail: www.freepik.com

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Episode 90: Some of you were upset we said the Steam Machine could be dead on arrival, so did we get it wrong? Steve also discusses recent RAM testing, and we look at gaming revenue for both Nvidia and AMD.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

00:28 - More thoughts on the Steam Machine?

22:27 - People didn't understand some RAM testing

40:50 - AMD vs Nvidia gaming revenue and sales share

54:04 - Updates from our boring lives

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Episode 89: Valve has announced a new Steam Machine, which includes entry-level PC gaming hardware at an unknown price. We give our thoughts on whether this sounds any good and what prices would make sense. Steve also shares a motherboard story.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

00:40 - Initial Thoughts on Steam Machine

14:42 - No Upgrade Path

20:29 - Game Compatibility and Value

35:35 - AMD Roadmaps

39:43 - Steve Finds a Motherboard Flaw

55:15 - Updates From Our Boring Lives

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Episode 88: AMD does AMD things.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

00:22 - Microsoft Improves a Few Things

04:15 - AMD's Disastrous Driver Fumble

23:31 - What About Feature Support?

46:03 - Reputational Damage vs Nvidia Drivers

1:01:39 - How Big of a Mistake? Who to Blame?

01:19:52 - Impact on Review Recommendations

01:52:59 - Quick Boring Life Stuff

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Episode 87: We revisit some discussion from last week as we've found more dodgy stuff Microsoft has done, before chatting about the current situation Intel is in with CPUs. They aren't anywhere near as competitive up against AMD now, as AMD were with Ryzen when Intel was dominant. (Note: This podcast was recorded before the recent AMD RDNA 2 driver decision, we'll discuss that in the future)

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

00:29 - Microsoft Does Dodgy Stuff Again

11:34 - Intel CPUs when AMD is Dominant vs AMD CPUs when Intel is Dominant

21:35 - The Discounts Aren't Enough

34:53 - Platform Longevity is Crucial

41:33 - Platform Support is Always Better

1:04:34 - Updates From Our Boring Lives

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Episode 86: You all told us what you hated about Windows 11, and we fully agreed. So in this episode we go through all our grievances with the current state of Windows.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

06:21 - Unnecessary Microsoft accounts

10:39 - Search is broken

15:49 - Splash screens and ads

20:52 - The right click context menu

26:53 - Pre-installed bloatware

33:21 - Windows updates hurting performance

38:41 - Telemetry capture and data mining

42:28 - Copilot AI integration

45:45 - Updates breaking things

48:14 - Inability to dismiss pop-ups and updates

50:25 - Janky monitor issues

58:21 - Removing useful customization options

1:01:06 - Driver updates via Windows Update breaking things

1:05:17 - Microsoft Store

1:09:21 - Is Linux an alternative for gaming PCs?

1:14:36 - Summary of the current state of Windows

1:17:44 - Updates from our boring lives

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Episode 85: We chat about Battlefield 6 testing and explore the difficulties with testing one-click overclocking features in benchmarks, such as PBO and 200S Boost. We also discuss the latest Intel graphics announcements including Xe3 and XeSS 3, as well as motherboard vendors beginning to say Zen 6 will be supported on AM5

SOURCES

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/intels-xe3-graphics-architecture-breaks-cover-panther-lakes-12-xe-core-igpu-promises-50-percent-better-performance-than-lunar-lake

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/intel-takes-the-wraps-off-panther-lake-first-18a-client-processor-brings-the-best-of-lunar-lake-and-arrow-lake-together-in-one-package

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-confirms-xe3p-will-mark-arc-naming-switch-to-c-series

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/intel-announces-xess-3-with-multi-frame-generation-putting-it-ahead-of-amd-in-the-ai-powered-graphics-performance-race/

https://videocardz.com/newz/asrock-confirms-b850-motherboards-to-directly-support-future-zen-6-cpus

https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-officially-confirms-zen6-desktop-support-for-am5-based-b850-motherboard

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

00:43 - Battlefield 6 testing thoughts

09:11 - Battlefield 6 VRAM leak

11:31 - Questionable Battlefield 6 CPU benchmarks?

20:49 - Issues with overclocking CPUs

29:59 - Why we don't test with PBO or 200S Boost, but do test with XMP

40:45 - Overclock tweaking can be a grift

50:34 - Intel graphics updates, Xe3 and XeSS 3

58:32 - Motherboard makers confirm Zen 6 on AM5 publicly

1:09:10 - Updates from our boring lives

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Episode 84: Tim and Steve respond to their internet crimes of using DLSS while testing and saying APUs suck. Then we chat more about Intel fixing B580 CPU overhead in some games, AMD's FSR 4 INT8 version and Microsoft destroying the value of Game Pass.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

00:27 - Why we tested Borderlands 4 with DLSS enabled

08:58 - APUs are not a good option for desktop gaming today

29:26 - Intel fixes B580 CPU overhead in some games

45:47 - AMD FSR 4 INT8 is pretty good

54:07 - Microsoft makes Game Pass way more expensive

1:03:57 - Updates from our boring lives

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