The Hardware Unboxed Podcast

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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Episode 83: Intel and Nvidia have formed a partnership, but because APUs are not that relevant to desktop PC gamers, we discuss whether this deal will actually impact gaming significantly. Also, we put Intel's Arc GPUs into our GPU rankings, and chat about some news

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

00:33 - Intel and Nvidia APU team up, but gamers don't use APUs

37:00 - We add Intel Arc GPUs to the rankings

45:38 - Ryzen 7 9800X3D drops in price

49:52 - RX 9070 BIOS mod

52:01 - Updates from our boring lives

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Episode 82: A quick update on the YouTube views situation, then into a Borderlands 4 discussion. What is the state of the game currently? What do we make of Randy Pitchford's comments? Is DLSS being used as a crutch instead of proper optimization? Can it be fixed?

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

01:05 - Update on the YouTube views situation

17:17 - Initial thoughts on Borderlands 4

28:27 - The crutch of DLSS upscaling and frame generation

44:17 - Bizarre development choices

53:01 - Can Gearbox fix Borderlands 4?

1:07:14 - Updates from our boring lives

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Episode 81: We're back! Lots to discuss in this video, including YouTube weirdness, the future of AMD and Intel's CPU platforms, the good old CPU core debate, upcoming GPU rumors and more.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

03:13 - Our YouTube views are down, this is what the stats say

31:14 - Zen 7 on AM5 and Intel's competing platform

54:13 - How important is platform longevity?

1:07:58 - Six core CPUs are still powerful for gaming

1:17:27 - Will Intel make an Arc B770?

1:26:22 - No RTX Super any time soon

1:29:14 - Updates from our boring lives

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Episode 80: It's that time of the year! We're ranking all the current graphics card models from worst to best, based on vibes. Always a very challenging task that brings up a lot of discussion so you can enjoy hearing our thought process as we try to upset everyone by ranking the models they like down the bottom.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Intro

02:03 - Quick Radeon RX 9060 Update

08:40 - Let The Rankings Begin!

1:11:42 - Updates From Our Boring Lives

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Episode 79: We chat with Daniel Owen about all sorts of stuff affecting PC gaming right now. His thoughts on the worst parts of the GPU market, plus opinions on upscaling and frame generation (including Optiscaler and driver-based frame gen), game optimization and misleading marketing. We round it out with some listener questions submitted by Patreon members.

DANIEL OWEN

Check out Daniel's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@danielowentech

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Welcome to the Podcast: Daniel Owen

10:03 - Current State of the GPU Market

22:04 - How Good is Optiscaler?

29:58 - Thoughts on DLSS 4 and FSR 4 Upscaling

39:02 - Frame Generation, Does Daniel Use It?

55:07 - Are Gamers Buying the Marketing?

1:05:19 - Game Optimization: Developers vs Hardware Makers

1:16:38 - Listener Questions

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