Patron Reader Mail for January Loose Ends

What is the theoretical limit for the lithography processes ? When well stop see an improvements in terms of nm-s?

Valko Milev

Devil's advocate hot take - ARM has a real chance to overtake x86 in the next decade or so for gaming. It's already globally the most popular platform (from phones, tablets) and the next generation of adults will have a big part of its back catalog of 'retro' games mostly on iOS and Android, and they've grown up with its limitations. Apple and Microsoft both have at least limited compatibility. Thoughts?

rafa zaya

Why do we have so many games (especially new IPs) broken on launch? Surely after a few examples companies should learn how long it takes to finish a game. Is it more profitable for them to focus on features and marketing as supposed to bug fixing? Or are we simply remembering a few controversial broken launches more than the games that just work?

Laz

Hey Tom, two questions for you, if I may: First, where do you think game design will go next or will be the Next Big Thing? I feel like graphics have gotten about as good as they need to. I would say RDR2 is the best looking game I've ever played, though I'm one of those people who is enjoying Cyberpunk a lot and I think that's the best looking urban environment I've seen. But I digress. Since graphics are so good now, what will developers work on expanding next? Bigger/more open open-worlds? More complex alternatives / consequences for decisions? New gameplay mechanisms we haven't even thought of yet? For instance, it'd be cool to see fun, fully fledged games that don't revolve around combat, just since that isn't done that much. Curious to hear your thoughts. Second question, when do you expect VR to move past the early adopter status that it's currently in? I've never really tried VR gaming but became curious about it recently, but it seems like there aren't really good quality and also affordable headsets that aren't made by Mr Social Manipulation, who I refuse to financially support.

Alexander

i recently saw a linus tech tips video featuring a GPU that can be installed via M.2, if nvidia or amd so desired do you think that they could also make m.2 form factor graphics card to be used in laptops, what do you think the logistics of creating a standardized product around that would look like (such as supply chains, margins, power delivery and cooling in the actual systems), and do you think it could possibly give other gpu manufacturers an inlet into the laptop gpu space. i apologize if this is getting long winded but if this idea was expanded upon do you think it could allow the idea of upgrading laptops to be nearly as robust as upgrading desktops since you can essentially upgrade everything but the cpu at that point?

Josh Law (adn)

Which do you think is more difficult to run on ryzen 5800, Ultra wide 1440p at 100 frames per second or 4K 60 frames per second? Thanks😃

matthew saltzberg

Do you think Nvidia have painted themselves into a corner with the power consumption of their latest graphics cards? Do you think the market will truly accept even higher power consumption in the future, or is Nvidia's only realistic way forwards to increase performance while keeping power consumption the same? Surely there is a limit to what the market will accept for volume products, or is the allure of "halo" products just too strong?

Chris Rijk

Less of a question and more of an observation. Apathy. AMD is top dog in the CPU arena, neck and neck in GPU, but supply is artificially constricted. RT is proving to be one more Nvidia attempt at kneecapping the competition. I am finding it harder and harder to care about the hardware market. I care little for "photo realistic" graphics in my games, I want reactivity, scope and artistic thematics, I want low latency EVERYTHING. I want 1440p, 144mhz, 1ms gray to gray, 1000mhz polling rate to be gaming baseline. Western gaming as a whole is a low ambition disappointment, with not a lick of artistic courage or flare (speaking of AAA)

Woolly

Looking at the pace of some product releases, it feels like this generation is another intermediate generation for all the companies. Especially with all the leaks coming out for next-gen, not disputing majority of the improvements that the new CPUs/GPUs have brought so far. Is this a return to the "fast pace" improvements like in the 2000s or will it just feel faster due to the slow down of improvements in the 2010s?

Treble Sketch

Hi, any insights on how long xbox series x will be around until a major hardware update? If you look at recently released "Medium" performance with rtx on, it does not sound convincing that there is enough performance for very realistic looking and immersive advanture/walking simulators (23-30 FPS is not really playable). I don't deny that optimization can be the main reason for bad performance, but still xbox series x needs rdna 3.0/4.0 performance asap, if 60 FPS 4K should become the honest standard in the near future (even in games where developers aim for photo realism) . I don't expect that the situation with Hellblade 2 will be any different. I am eager to see AMD increasing the amount of memory on the mid-range gaming gpus in the near future.

arcon

Do you think that Intel will also be packaging software with their GPU line that would be in any way competitive with AMD and Nvidia offerings. Or will this solely be a GPU line competitive in mid range raster, and no unique benefits?

Holden Mobley

Despite the fact that the Nvidia 3000 and AMD 6000 series graphics cards were just released within the last few month we've already starting to hear rumors/leaks about Nvidia and AMD's 4000 and 7000 series cards. Given that Nvidia now has real competition from AMD, or at least will when supply somewhat catches up to demand, do you think we will continue to see new generations of graphics being released every two years or so or will we start to see more frequent releases on the order of 12 - 18 months as Nivdia and AMD fight to stay one step ahead of each other?

Rogue Scholar

Do you have any more information on RDNA 3's MCM approach outside of the existing rumours?

Hey Tom in regards to your recent Xe graphics video, how spicy do you think the $500 and under market may become?

DEEK