The Full Nerd: AMD and Sony join forces to improve gaming for everyone

Welcome to this week’s challenge of The Full Nerd publication—your weekly dose of hardcore {hardware} speak from the fanatics at PCWorld. In it, we dive into the most popular subjects from our YouTube show, plus scorching information from throughout the online.

This week, Adam and Will have a few revelations: AMD and Sony’s upscaling partnership, and a startling problem to a long-held perception about Windows. Oh, and it’s time to develop our gaming backlogs by way of a Steam sale once more.

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In this episode of The Full Nerd…

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, Will Smith, Willis Lai, and visitor intern Glenn Mah talk about new particulars about AMD and Sony’s Project Amethyst, the invention {that a} clear set up of Windows doesn’t have efficiency advantages, and our favorites on this 12 months’s Steam Summer Sale.

• I’ve to confess, Project Amethyst shocks me a bit. But that has extra to do with the open method to machine learning-based body era and ray regeneration—traditionally, Sony beloved proprietary tech. So this new collab with AMD to work on machine learning-based options like FSR 4 alerts a special world in tech, one the place Microsoft (who is just not a part of this effort) may gain advantage from the upscaling enhancements. As our crew discusses, this displays the entire trade’s understanding that gaming efficiency enhancements received’t be purely in GPU {hardware} advances, as we’re used to seeing, however via software program optimization, too.

  Adam in fact sees this as a win for handhelds, however for me, it makes me surprise what long-held expectations and assumptions we’ve had round tech will turn into upended by this decade’s finish.

• Speaking of utterly overturned knowledge—Will’s been busy revolutionizing our understanding of lengthy held cherished norms. If your PC’s feeling wonky and sluggish, it might not be since you haven’t refreshed your OS. He really pitted a clean install vs a one-year Windows 11 install, and the efficiency outcomes put them nonetheless equal. In truth, by the numbers, the older set up got here out barely forward. Lots of questions stay (I for one wish to know if an in-place reinstall of Windows has the identical outcomes), and viewers on our YouTube video that dives into this additionally had bones to choose over optimizations on the “dirty” set up. But nonetheless, possibly this once-relevant piece of recommendation is now outdated.

• I’ve to admit, I didn’t mark the passing of the seasons till the Steam Summer Sale popped up in my notifications. To have fun the arrival of BBQ days, every of us on the present give our high suggestions from among the many deep reductions. (You can discover the complete record of sport titles in a pinned YouTube remark for this week’s episode.) Turns out Will is aware of all the perfect indie video games, Adam leans into mashups of horror + random different genres, Brad loves 80s cyberpunky vibes, and I’m into testing (stressing) friendships.

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And should you want extra {hardware} speak throughout the remainder of the week, come be a part of our Discord community—it’s stuffed with cool, laid-back nerds.

This week’s finest nerd information

Foundry

Tech journalists might seem to be a sensitive bunch, however we wish what’s finest for customers—so this week’s information out of Nvidia and Comcast’s corners was disappointing. But it’s not all gloom, fortunately. Fast SSDs, retro audio gear, and superior thrift retailer finds nonetheless put a smile on my face.

• Nvidia’s RTX 5050’s benchmarks are in, and they’re not great: I hoped for higher information for funds players, however Intel’s B580 can beat this new GPU in uncooked efficiency on the identical MSRP. (Plus, Intel’s card comes with far more reminiscence.) Yeah, you possibly can activate body era to spice up your FPS, however that’s not the win I hoped for.
• I want this modern Walkman: Count on Japan to maintain nostalgia (and previous tech) alive. Sure, Bluetooth, USB-C, and a chargeable battery all sound good, however I’m jazzed for that 3.5mm aux jack. I by no means digitized a couple of cassettes with particular radio edits of favourite songs, and that is simple to retailer in my tiny SF house. (Plus, nobody’s going to mug me for this if I ever take with me on a stroll.)
• 3D V-Cache war incoming? Rumor has it that Nova Lake, Intel’s next-gen LGA1954 desktop chips, will sport low-latency L3 cache. That addition might put Team Blue’s CPUs on equal footing with AMD’s X3D gaming chips—we’ll should see what occurs subsequent 12 months.
• So apparently, the Atari 2600 is OP as heck: At least, it’s on the subject of placing the beatdown on AI fashions in chess proper now. First it was ChatGPT, and now it’s Microsoft Copilot. Rekt.
• Comcast finally lifts data caps on plans…sorta: Most of us hate Comcast for a cause—and its paltry 1.2TB of included knowledge use per thirty days is certainly one of them. The firm is now promising to supply limitless knowledge, however naturally there’s a catch. Only new subscribers routinely get the perk. If you’re an present subscriber, you’ll should contact customer service to negotiate, which you positively ought to do, as a result of it might prevent a whole bunch of greenbacks per 12 months. (Pro tip: Try the Xfinity buyer care staff on Reddit, slightly than calling.)

Thiago Trevisan/IDG

• Pour one out for the GOAT: Retirement is probably going coming for Nvidia’s GTX 1080 Ti, if the Unix assist schedule is any indicator. If the reaper comes for all platforms, it’ll occur with the 580 launch of Nvidia’s graphics driver bundle. A somber thought, however I suppose I can lastly safe it a rightful spot in TFN’s Hardware Hall of Fame.
• SK Hynix’s new Platinum P51 goes zoom zoom: Feel the necessity for pace? SK Hynix is about to drop its first PCIe 5.0 SSDs, with sequential learn speeds of as much as 14,700MB/s. Nice.
• Check your Anker power banks again: Six extra Anker fashions had been recalled for the danger of melting, smoke, and hearth. Time to squint at teeny print to confirm my mannequin numbers once more. (Aging sucks.)
• Lucky Goodwill shopper pays $30 for a RTX 3080 Ti gaming PC: This Redditor’s dad is certainly higher at thrift buying than me. Here I’m, considering a $7 Anthropologie costume was a reasonably respectable rating.
• User accidentally ejects graphics card in Windows, breaks PC for over an hour: I bear in mind poking round in Windows as a younger’un, assured in my skill to determine what I might and couldn’t mess with. So whereas I can empathize with this French PC person’s impulse to see what ejecting a GPU like a USB drive would do, I can’t say I didn’t nonetheless wince. (Shout out to Mark Tyson at Tom’s Hardware for this gem of a quote: “The tragedy is made all the more poignant by the user’s faint cries of ‘Oh merde,’ which broadly translates as French for ‘Oh bother.’”)

That does it for this week—for all my fellow Americans, blissful 4th of July. May your BBQs keep scorching and your fingers intact. ’Murica.

Alaina