• A rumor claims MSI is planning some big price increases for Nvidia GPUs
• The RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti could be hit with price rises of around $1,200 and $600 respectively
• Admittedly those are the worst-case scenarios, but with big price rises already in place, these GPUs are already pretty much unaffordable anyway – so even more modest bumps in cost are going to hurt

If you thought Nvidia's higher-end GPUs were pricey enough, you'd be spot on there – but they are going to get a lot more costly still based on the latest from the rumor mill.

Wccftech highlighted that leaker Harukaze5719 on X flagged up a post on ChannelGate (a common source of supply chain rumors in Asia) with details of what's supposedly a set of big prices increases from MSI.

We're told that the RTX 5080 could be visited with a price hike of between 1,300 to 8,000 Yuan this month in China, which equates to a jump of about $200 at minimum in the US, or $1,200 in the worst-case scenario (or the equivalent across other regions).

Yes, that isn't a typo, the claim is that MSI's RTX 5080 could jump by over a grand – the MSRP of this graphics card – towards the upper end of this predicted price increase.

The rumored hike for the RTX 5070 Ti is almost as frightening and could be from $120 all the way up to a potential $600 rise.

The source further claims a rise of between $75 and $150 for the RTX 5070, and smaller price bumps of around the $50 mark for the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti. It's mostly the higher-tier GeForce GPUs which are being hit here, though, and possibly in a really nasty way.

Analysis: a pricing shambles

Previous buzz from ChannelGate (last week, as TechPowerUp noticed) regarding several other board makers suggested price rises in the order of $400 (in the US) for the RTX 5080 and $150 for the RTX 5070 Ti, which particularly in the latter case is at the lower-end of these fresh predictions. Keep a firm grip on that saltshaker, in other words, but everyone seems agreed that there are some major hikes coming to Nvidia GPUs in Asia, and those same pricing pressures will surely apply across the globe.

We'd better hope that the higher-end of these new forecasted hikes don't become a reality, anyway, as they'd leave the GPU market in a pricing shambles, frankly.

To take the US market for example, the RTX 5080 is already $2,000, so are we looking at it being nearer $3,000 come the end of November? It certainly seems like it's heading towards $2,500, which is a frankly astonishing amount for a non-flagship GPU. (Although given the RTX 5090's vanishing act, it is the de facto flagship at this point I suppose).

The RTX 5070 Ti is the more worrying prospect here, though, because the RTX 5080 has always been an expensive card – most folks won't fork out a grand (the MSRP) for a GPU anyway, as that's the budget for the whole PC (or most of it) for the majority. Whereas the RTX 5070 Ti is a realistic buy at its MSRP, but the GPU has already entered effectively unaffordable territory even now thanks to more recent price rises.

Currently in the US you'll pay at least $1,400 for an RTX 5070 Ti from big-name retailers like Newegg or Micro Center (and more for the beefier cards). If a $600 rise is inflicted on this graphics card, you're looking at $2,000, or closing on it, for the privilege of owning one. And this is supposed to be a mainstream mid-range (well, upper-mid-range) GPU, remember.

I was already prepared for this to happen – which is why I've been recommending buying a GPU sooner rather than later, if you need one, as this year has rolled on – although I wasn't expecting this kind of steep spike (and certainly not so suddenly).

This new rumor may be wrong, or the heftier price increases this leak is theorizing may not come to pass, but I'm pretty certain we are going to see all GPUs get bumped up in price as 2027 begins, and I fear there may yet be worse to come. (Certainly the broader RAM crisis is predicted to intensify next year).

Still, at least you might be able to get some money back on your purchase by letting Microsoft use your shiny new Nvidia GPU to train its AI (in one possible future timeline, that is).

• Microsoft has a patent for a system which uses your spare GPU resources to train AI
• The graphics card would process micro-tasks in combination with other PCs
• You'd be paid some kind of reward for this, but there are issues, and many doubts and concerns, around how such a scheme would work

Microsoft has been granted a patent for a system whereby it could use the GPU in your PC to train its AI (given your consent, naturally), paying you in some way for the privilege.

German site PC Games Hardware noticed the Microsoft patent (via VideoCardz) which was originally flagged by Patentlyze, and is for an 'Opportunistic Micro-training on Edge Devices Using Spare GPU Utilization'. Which is technobabble for using your spare graphics card resources to run parts of AI training routines.

Microsoft has gaming PCs in mind here – given that they can run powerful GPUs, and when sat at the desktop in Windows 11, those graphics cards are doing very little – but the system could work with any device in theory.

As detailed by the patent, AI training tasks would be splint into small elements (or micro-tasks) which would be distributed across various participating PCs, and the results tied back together after those individual jobs had been completed. Various checks would be in place to detect errors or results that had been manipulated.

Any given micro-task would be appropriately assigned to a PC with a matching amount of spare GPU and system resources, as the patent states: "The system monitors end devices to detect available computing capacity and breaks down training tasks into independently trainable subtasks."

As to what payment you might receive for giving Microsoft the benefit of using your PC, that isn't made clear as you might expect, but there would be some reward – either a direct payment, or perhaps some form of credits.

Of course, there are already similar ideas out in there in the computing world, such as Folding@home whereby your PC contributes to medical research (and SETI@home before that).

Analysis: AI@home4Microsoft

There are a lot of issues with this plan, if Microsoft was ever to attempt to go ahead with it. For starters, I think the payment would have to be clearly worthwhile considering what you're giving Microsoft here – I'm not sure credits, or, say, Microsoft Rewards Points (to pluck a speculative example out of thin air) are going to cut it.

As we're looking at the future, Microsoft may well be thinking of credits for using AI (when it inevitably becomes pricier for everyone), but there's a degree of risk in this process which a lot of folks are already finding very off-putting or alarming. (Even though, as noted, this is just a concept, and nothing's happening with it – at least not yet).

That includes concerns around giving Microsoft the ability to monitor your system beyond Windows 11's standard telemetry and into deeper territory to ascertain what your GPU is up to and further data on system load.

The second potential stumbling block is that the AI training system would supposedly limit RAM usage, and ensure a GPU isn't overheating due to the load it's being put under – but do Windows 11 users trust Microsoft to do that reliably? Given the bugs in its operating system, I think there'd be more than a few worries about this side of the equation going awry. Cue posts on Reddit about 'Microsoft burnt out my graphics card' and so on. Doubtless something like game stuttering might be blamed on this tech, too (when it could be related to another entirely different problem – like a recent Windows 11 update, ahem).

There's also the cost of the power to ramp up the GPU, and whether that does actually balance out with whatever reward the user is being paid (which, as noted, we don't have a clue about yet). And finally, there's the wear-and-tear on your GPU, because with the card being used a lot more – and possibly being pushed more consistently – it won't offer nearly the same level of longevity as it would otherwise.

It feels like a seething nest of potential problems to me, and I'm skeptical Microsoft would ever move forward with such a scheme given that. Still, it is clearly an idea the company is mulling, so we shall see if we hear anything more about this in the future.

The idea is already sparking bad feelings on Reddit, with some folks having trust issues that it isn't a signal of Microsoft's broader intention to sneak in some kind of AI training routines with its hardware.

As this cynical Redditor said: "Oh great, SETI for AI training: 1. This is probably gonna happen on idle Xboxes whether you want it to or not. 2. They won't give you Battlepass for free or anything fun."

Another Redditor declared: "That'll definitely finally bring in the year of the Linux desktop."

To be fair, not everyone is so skeptical, and this commenter observed: "Honestly if it pays more than the electricity costs it could be a win."

Those who are more positive are the minority, though, and they are very much stressing that Microsoft would need to compensate PC owners well enough.

• Windows 11 is getting two further sizeable changes with the interface
• One involves the introduction of an App Updates panel in Settings to help manage third-party software updates more effectively
• The other is an integration of Copilot AI functionality in the taskbar's search box, although this will be an opt-in only feature – however, some users remain cynical about Microsoft's motives here

Microsoft has already made some major changes to Windows 11's interface, and a couple more are now in the pipeline – a hub for managing app updates in Settings, and a more divisive change to bring Copilot functionality to the search box in the taskbar.

First off, the less controversial idea that's apparently being mulled. As discovered by Windows Latest, this is an App Updates panel which is in a recent preview build of the OS (and has been present in testing in the past, it should be noted).

This is in Settings and consists of a hub where third-party apps in Windows 11 can be managed, and you can see what needs updating at a glance – rather than getting individual notifications from apps bugging you at random times, or an update only being actioned when you open the software. (The problem in the latter case being that if you don't use something for ages, you might miss a crucial security fix for an app, leaving your system potentially vulnerable).

Essentially, this is about giving third-party apps the same level of support as software from the Microsoft Store in terms of staying on top of updates, and it's a useful piece of functionality.

If it makes the cut for the release version of Windows 11, that is, and note that developers need to register their app for inclusion – with no software having done so as yet (so this is still relatively early testing).

The other interface introduction that's inbound for Windows 11 as flagged by Windows Central is part of the major revamp for Windows search, and it brings Copilot into the mix. Specifically, Microsoft is going to integrate Copilot functionality with search – but only for those who want it present.

In other words, it will be off by default, and you will need to actively turn on the option to have Copilot AI functionality in the search box.

Windows Central highlighted a Microsoft blog post on 'hybrid intelligence' from last month which explained that: "We will also begin adding the option to integrate the new Copilot with Search on the taskbar, so you can get quick answers inline from Search, and if you want to have a richer conversation, you can jump from Search directly to the full Copilot app. This experience will be opt-in, and will first start rolling out to select markets later this year."

Analysis: Ask Copilot returns – but there are doubters as to Microsoft's intentions here

This Copilot experience rollout could start soon, then, and it will likely be very similar to the 'Ask Copilot' functionality that Microsoft has played around with in testing in the past, effectively acting as a replacement for the search box. Evidently, that felt like too radical a move – it was also an opt-in feature, mind, it's worth noting – so with the new tack, the search box remains, but Copilot can optionally be integrated.

Obviously, the Ask Copilot concept was a very visible addition of AI, and this way, Microsoft is keeping it a lot more low-profile. That's a sensible approach, of course, given that the company has previously promised to cut back on AI clutter in Windows 11 as part of the broad drive to fix the OS which has been happening throughout this year.

While the App Updates panel is certainly a welcome move, this Copilot integration has proved divisive. On the one hand, there's a good deal of predictably negative feeling towards any AI addition for Windows 11, even one that is opt-in only.

Part of the reasoning here is that people are generally suspicious of Microsoft's motives and what'll happen in the future. In other words, a feature gets introduced as opt-in only, but later becomes the default (requiring opting out) – and finally it's baked in as a concrete part of the interface (with no option toggle at all). Despite the 'fix Windows 11' initiative and that whole new leaf which is a genuine effort to improve the OS across many fronts, trust in Microsoft is so low with some folks that they can't help but think the worst of the company.

One Redditor warns: "Opt-in always becomes 'opt-out' later. Be wary of this folks. New search UI looks less trash than the old one though."

Another agrees: "Yup they love to make things mandatory after no one uses a feature."

On the other side of the fence, there are those who are pleased that Microsoft has taken the opt-in route with this functionality.

Another Redditor posts: "Microsoft letting consumers pick if they want Copilot or not is inspiring. Take note of this Apple, and let users delete Apple Intelligence models natively."

Personally, taking into account all the good work that has been done with Windows 11 this year, I think we need to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt here – especially given those promises about not pushing AI features unduly in Windows 11.

That said, longer-term, who knows where Windows 11 is going with AI agents, and I don't for a minute believe that AI isn't the future of Microsoft's desktop OS – or at least that remains the current thinking of the execs, anyway.

• A new Linux script called 'Ram Altman' is a tongue-in-cheek creation
• It emails Sam Altman with a report of the unused RAM in your PC, also known as the RAM he missed out on
• The joke follows a controversial comment Altman made recently about how it's 'quite terrible' that everyone has a load of RAM sitting in their own PC, rather than in data centers

Someone has planted their tongue firmly in cheek and knocked up a little script that reports the amount of RAM being used in your Linux PC via email to Sam Altman.

Okay, so this script on GitHub (spotted by Respawn First) doesn't actually email Sam Altman – though it could be used to message someone (theoretically the OpenAI CEO if you had his private email somehow). However, the creator makes it clear that they don't intend to have this tool used to spam people (as you'd hope).

It's a joke, of course, and one made at the expense of Altman after he recently commented that it's "quite terrible to have everybody have a bunch of the world's limited supply of DRAM sitting in their own computer."

That comment sparked developer Iain Kay to craft this open source script which is called 'Ram Altman' and is: "A bash script that writes to Sam Altman once a day to report the RAM he missed."

The Linux utility is designed to "track total, used and available RAM, plus your standing with the global allocation authorities," with the developer noting that it sends at most one email per day.

As mentioned, you are not supposed to be setting this up to actually spam someone with emails about your RAM usage, not unless it's a willing participant who will enjoy the (daily) joke, such as the "friend who has been waiting for DDR5 prices to come down" as the dev observes.

The email content around the RAM report is rotated with 10 messages, eight different subject lines, and six sign-offs, all to ensure that the "joke gets old at a carefully managed pace."

No email is sent if you have less than 10% of your system RAM free, incidentally, as the creator judges that your machine has "suffered enough" and doesn't need another task on its memory plate.

Should you not wish to bother with an installation, but want to see the joke messages anyway, they're up on a website here. As ever, run any third-party software on your PC at your own risk.

There's a sample email given on the GitHub page:

"Hi Sam,

Please don't be alarmed, but there is 8.6 GiB of RAM on my desk that isn't in a data center. That's 56.2% of what's installed here, and as far as I can tell it has no plans today.

Hoarding responsibly,

A concerned RAM owner."

Analysis: large language misjudgement

This is a well-observed piece of humorous coding, so full credit to Iain Kay in that respect. Of course, as the developer acknowledges, Sam Altman very quickly walked back his "quite terrible" comment (which it was in a very literal sense, certainly for the OpenAI CEO who has faced monumental amounts of flak for the utterance).

If you recall, Altman was quoted from a podcast, and the CEO has since argued that he was taken out of context. Now, many folks aren't having that and feel this is just his attempt to weasel out of the ensuing controversy, although I can see both sides of the coin here.

Altman's comment was made in a discussion about people running local AI models and using lots of RAM for that, rather than using the likes of ChatGPT or other cloud-based LLMs. The problem is he doesn't specifically say that, and instead uses the term "everybody" having a bunch of RAM sat in their PCs, but I don't think it's a stretch to see that he really meant those using local AIs (the direct competition for his product, as it were) as he later clarified.

Still, he didn't say that, and the way he phrased this, and the lack of understanding of how much anger such a broad and sweeping comment would provoke, remains quite breathtaking. It's the sort of classic and stereotyped blunder out-of-touch-with-reality tech CEOs can typically make, and in that way, the fiery feedback was inevitable in the current climate of ridiculous PC component inflation caused by AI demand.

As one Redditor says: "Can [this script] also report how much unused RAM is sitting in warehouses that OpenAI stockpiled to keep out of the market and can't use yet because they don't have a way to power any of it?" (There are similar rumors along these lines about GPUs, too, and graphics card price hikes).

I doubt that this 'Ram Altman' script is the last the CEO will be hearing of this affair.

• Windows 11 27H2 is underway and will be a "full OS swap" according to anonymous sources
• Microsoft will stop short of launching it as Windows 12 (but the report doesn't fully rule that idea out)
• Testing will begin a lot earlier with 27H2 next year, compared to the typical June timeframe when Microsoft kicked off previews with 26H2 and 25H2

The next major version of Windows 11 arriving next year will pack some big changes, and what will theoretically be the 27H2 update is set to be very different from the last couple of annual updates for Microsoft's OS, which have been very minor affairs.

The Verge reports that the usual anonymous sources claim that Microsoft is already preparing Windows 11 27H2, and it will be a "full OS swap" with significant upgrades in the same vein as the last major update for the operating system, which debuted in 2024 (and ushered in a new underlying platform for Windows 11).

We're told that there will be a "big focus on quality" with 27H2, and that despite what'll evidently be some sizeable changes, it won't be released as Windows 12.

To mark the big change, we'll be treated to a new default Windows 11 wallpaper (try to contain your excitement), moving away from the 'Bloom' background which has been in place since the OS first launched. Presumably the sequel won't be 'Wilt'. In all seriousness, The Verge shares a design, and the new take is in a similar vein, with blue ribbons amidst wispy clouds. (A hint of the future direction of Windows for consumers, perhaps?).

Microsoft also intends to start testing 27H2 a lot earlier than with the previous two annual releases, which of course only makes sense as with more work involved, it'll require more extensive vetting. Windows Insiders (testers) will get their hands on the first 27H2 build considerably earlier than June, which was when Microsoft kicked off testing with 26H2 and 25H2.

It's also worth noting that in theory, the foundations of 27H2 were laid right back at the start of the year, in moves which already suggested that it's a hefty piece of work.

Analysis: something still bugs me

The Verge report labels next year's big update as Windows 11 27H2, but doesn't completely rule out the idea that Microsoft might still consider a switch to call it Windows 12. It sounds like the naming hasn't been quite finalized at this point.

However, it doesn't seem likely, and going for Windows 12 would be too bold a move, I think, as Microsoft really needs to be seen to 'fix Windows 11' as it has promised before looking at the next-gen platform. I don't think the fixing work is nearly done at this point, although Microsoft has made a lot of commendable progress over the course of this year.

Yes, I'm going to bring up the subject of quality assurance (QA) once again, and regular readers of TechRadar will likely recall that I've gone on about this throughout 2026. It's especially relevant if 27H2 is going to be a big update, and you cast your mind back to remember what happened with the last major annual release.

I doubt you'd forget the 24H2 update because it was one of the worst Windows releases I can ever recall for bugginess. There were lots of significant changes – which, as already mentioned, included Germanium, a fresh underlying platform for the OS – and a nightmarish slew of bugs crept in as a result.

This absolutely must not happen with the 27H2 update. Microsoft is trying to reinvent Windows 11, and the reputation of the OS therein, so it's critical to ensure that it doesn't send users trudging into a quagmire of glitches and uncertainty, repeating the miserable march that 24H2 became.

Sadly, I think there's a clear danger that this scenario could come to pass. I still think Microsoft needs to revamp its QA and general testing processes, because even with breaking down Windows 11's feature additions into smaller, more drip-fed chunks, allowing for simple minor annual updates as has been the case in 2025 and 2026, we've still witnessed too much in the way of bugginess.

Stamping all this out should be a key part of the formula to fix Windows 11, alongside performance boosting and memory optimization, as Microsoft moves towards 27H2. It mystifies me that it isn't – and I presume that's the case because there's been no mention of changing QA procedures from Microsoft (only talk of consulting testers more regarding how to change Windows 11 – though of course that's still a great move in itself).

So, Microsoft, if 27H2 is going to be a big update, don't make it a perilous one – get your testing house in order. I do wonder if the hope is that AI advances are going to come to the rescue here, in which case, we could be looking at something doubly perilous, but hey – at least tell us you have a plan to fight back against the bugs, Microsoft. Don't you?

• AMD's CEO has said that it's a "data center first company"
• Lisa Su observed that: "I see AI and super intelligence becoming more and more essential to every aspect of our lives"
• The CEO predicted a double-digit fall in PC sales next year, and gamers aren't happy at all with what they see as an abandonment by Team Red

AMD's chief executive hasn't been making many friends in the PC gaming community this week, having offered up a telling admission, alongside an ominous sales prediction, all off the back of the firm's latest financial results.

In an interview with Brian Sozzi, who is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor, Lisa Su made it clear that AMD is a company with a lot of resources to expand its supply and the "ability to help our customers", but sadly the customers in this case are data centers, not consumers.

Su then delivered a frank admission: "We are a data center first company."

AMD's CEO also again underlined that AI is very much the future, and that "over the horizon I see AI and super intelligence becoming more and more essential to every aspect of our lives."

On top of this, as OC3D spotted, during AMD's earnings call for Q3 2026 (which was all about bumper profits), Su said that "PC sell-through slowed late in the quarter as higher memory and component costs weighed on demand," while forecasting that next year wouldn't be a good one for desktop computers and laptops.

The CEO observed: "In 2027, we are planning for PC market unit shipments to decline by a double-digit percentage."

In other words, an over 10% slump. The chief exec added this caveat: "In this environment, we expect to outperform the market as we deliver our Ryzen roadmap and grow our commercial footprint."

That presumably refers to the launch of Zen 6 processors for consumers (and businesses), the next-gen Ryzen family, which is expected to arrive early in 2027 and should obviously stoke some interest.

Analysis: dark times for the PC

It's no surprise that AMD has 'followed the money', as the old saying goes, because this is how businesses work, and profits reign supreme. Data center GPUs are way more profitable than consumer models.

If we look at the amount of revenue that AMD raked in from its data center business in this latest quarter, it very nearly doubled year-on-year and was up 97% to $8.5 billion. That dwarfed client and gaming (Ryzen and Radeon, mostly consumer) revenue, which was $3.7 billion (down 8%).

Looking at the balance sheet, it's clear enough AMD is a data center-first company — but actually saying this out loud, in no uncertain terms, sends out further signals about where Team Red wants to be, along with all the messaging that AI is the future.

Is it any wonder that gamers feel bitter about this? Hardly. Back at the start of 2024, AMD's consumer revenue was actually more than data center, albeit only marginally, but still — that picture has shifted massively over the past couple of years.

And with the prices of consumer GPUs shooting up as graphics chip production is increasingly prioritizing AI accelerators for data centers, there's a lot of bad feeling for obvious reasons. Nvidia's graphics card business is the same story too, of course, and GPU price hikes have been getting out of hand in the past few months for GeForce and Radeon cards alike.

Given clear negative predictions about the PC market next year — with AMD joining in on that — and the company's equally clear unwillingness to do anything about that with its plentiful resources, consumers are looking at a dismal future. One in which I fear that GPU price hikes are going to follow in the footsteps of steep RAM and SSD inflation, which has become beyond painful at this stage. Many forecasts point to the RAM crisis getting worse in 2027, of course.

All of which means it's hardly surprising that there's a profound sense of disappointment in AMD on social media, given this fresh data center comment from Lisa Su.

One Redditor declared: "AMD was a lot of people's last hope, but looks like PC gaming is over."

Dramatic? Well, yes, it is, but nonetheless, every single metric, forecast, and piece of analysis is strongly suggesting 2027 will be a desperately bleak time for the PC, and I have a hard time disbelieving that this is the truth. I've recently written about GPU pricing and how Black Friday could be your last chance to get an upgrade at a relatively reasonable price, if you need one.

• Nvidia has a new interactive demo out on Steam
• It offers a virtual unboxing of a GeForce 8800 GTX… 
• …but you need an RTX 4070 to run it, and the recommended GPU is an RTX 5080
• Some gamers feel that it's a 'slap in the face' for several reasons

Can't afford a new GPU thanks to the ever-worsening RAM crisis? Well, Nvidia wants to take you back to the days when a graphics card didn't destroy your bank balance, courtesy of a new demo on Steam where you get to unbox and install a GeForce GPU from 2006.

The Verge spotted the interactive demo entitled 'GeForce 8800 GTX — 20 Years of a Legend' which can be grabbed for free on Steam.

It was developed by Dylan Browne, an Unreal Engine artist who was commissioned by Nvidia, and the demo is rendered in Unreal Engine (unsurprisingly). The idea is that you can: "Step into a 2006-era PC gaming room, unbox the GeForce 8800 GTX, inspect it up close, and install it in an era-accurate PC tower."

On the face of it, that's a rather fun idea — and it's smartly implemented to be fair, including revisiting Windows Vista on a CRT monitor — but if you start to think about it more deeply, this exercise seems more than a little tone deaf in the current PC components climate.

Have a watch of Nvidia's illustrative clip below first off, before we move on to discuss this one.

Analysis: ragebait, greed, and a lot of other accusations from gamers

One of the most obvious sticking points here is the requirements to run this demo. What Nvidia GPU will you need to take part in a virtual unboxing? Here's a clue: it certainly won't run on a GeForce 8800 GTX. In fact you'll need an RTX 4070 at the minimum, and the recommended GPU as per the Steam specs is a… wait for it… RTX 5080. (You must have 32GB of RAM, as well, at minimum).

And this comes at a time when the RAM crisis has made that RTX 5080 soar in price to over double its MSRP in the US, and with hefty inflation evident in all countries (over 50% in the UK for example). Don't even start with the RTX 5090, and as we've seen, even lower-end graphics cards are being hit hard with price hikes.

As one Redditor put it neatly (with the swearing removed): "A 5080 for an unboxing simulator. They are just laughing in our faces."

Another in that thread replies to say: "Ragebait? You are not able to afford a real graphics card — here, take this virtual one?"

Speaking of rage, there's quite an outpouring of it in the comments for Nvidia's YouTube video (the one embedded above), such as: "Great job, today consumers have no chance to be able to afford new high end gaming video cards in favor of greed and AI money. A 5090 is $10-15k, and a 5080 is $2k or more — it's a slap in the face to post this tbh."

Nvidia has a clear priority for AI, data centers and profits over consumers and gaming GPUs – and it's a business, that's where the money lies, we get that. Shareholders for-the-win and so forth, but given that, the thoughtlessness of this little PR nugget is pretty staggering really.

What sort of reaction did Nvidia expect it would get? Okay, there are some Redditors reminiscing about the good old days of 2006, and the 8800 GTX that they owned. However, many more are simply bitter (or indeed incandescent) that Nvidia appears to be reminding us of better times, having done a good deal to cause the GPU pricing pain which is now prevalent thanks to chasing AI profits. While asking for a high-end, now ridiculously expensive, Blackwell GPU to run the demo (at the recommended level).

The GeForce 8800 GTX was $599 as a top-end monster GPU when it arrived, and if you want an RTX 5090 these days, you'll pay over 15x that amount. I would think that Nvidia would want to do anything but take a nostalgic trip back to the days of relatively affordable high-end graphics cards at this point in time.

Maybe Team Green should have saved this one for the card's 25th anniversary. Will the RAM crisis be over by then?

• A gamer took the GTA 6 'extended look' trailer and fudged it to work with DLSS 5 and Frame Generation
• The results posted on YouTube look impressive, albeit with some notable glitches
• It'll actually be possible to run the game on console, piped through a PC with an Nvidia GPU to add DLSS 5 and other visual trickery, at the cost of some input lag
• …and some believe that trade-off might be worth it

Will the best way to play GTA 6 at launch be to pipe it from your PS5 to your PC with an Nvidia GPU and then back out to your TV?

No, it absolutely won't, but a convoluted setup along these lines could be the optimal way to experience the game visually (with some major caveats) — before the PC version arrives — given that you can fudge the addition of DLSS 5 this way.

How does this work? Wccftech picked up the story of the Redditor who proposed this experiment, and actually applied DLSS 5 to the GTA 6 'extended look' trailer that Rockstar brought out a couple of months ago.

To be specific, this gamer gave the trailer a DLSS 5 makeover with 3x Frame Generation tripling the frame rate from 30 fps to 90 fps, via an app called Veyra, which is a GPU video enhancement tool for Windows on GitHub.

The Redditor explains: "I used Veyra 2.1.1, a tool that can take a video source (video files, capture cards, Remote Play) and apply Neural Rendering [DLSS 5], upscaling, and Frame Generation in real time. I also integrated MFG Unlocker into it so I can unlock Multi Frame Generation on my RTX 4080 and experiment with 3x/4x FG on 40-series cards."

MFG Unlocker is an experimental tool (again on GitHub) which the Redditor is using for getting Multi Frame Generation on their RTX 4080, in case you were wondering. (As ever, download any third-party software entirely at your own risk).

As you can see in the YouTube clip below, the results of this polishing of the official trailer are very impressive in some ways. That said, there are clear issues with artifacts and glitching in terms of the characters and lighting, with the best results seen in the background environment details.

It's pretty remarkable given that this is a fairly aggressive implementation of DLSS 5 by all accounts, fudged on top of a video with no relevant game data (the likes of vector and geometry data) to guide the neural rendering.

The Redditor's plan is to use a console-to-PC pipeline to play GTA 6 on the PS5, with the PC effectively sitting between the console and final output on the TV, adding DLSS 5 and jazzing up the visuals.

This means taking the PS5 and hooking it up to a 4K HDR capture card in the PC, running it through Veyra with the RTX 4080, then outputting to the 4K TV. It's a roundabout way of using the Nvidia GPU as an external graphics card for the console, except all the GeForce GPU is doing is applying DLSS and/or MFG to the image the PS5 has rendered — although there is a price to pay in terms of input lag, of course.

Analysis: capture capers

The Redditor doesn't actually have their PS5 yet (although they've ordered it) to try out this setup fully, but others on Reddit have run such a setup, and in fact it's not that uncommon (albeit still far from a mainstream concept).

One gamer says that they've played GTA 5 using an Elgato capture card with NitLink software, and "the gameplay was 100 times better", and while "there is a noticeable input lag" they claim that "it's completely acceptable — around 1-2 milliseconds."

That little input lag seems a stretch (to say the least), and overall, there's some dispute on whether this way of gaming is viable. Some gamers say that such a setup is just too laggy, while others claim it provides a decently playable experience. Of course, it will depend on what type of game you're playing — a fast-reaction shooter, for example, isn't going to do well with any extra lag being introduced, and you're certainly going to get some.

Really, the success of this kind of console to PC capture card to TV setup is going to heavily depend on a number of factors. The quality of the capture card (a PCIe board would be best, rather than one connected via USB) and the related software are the primary factors, and by all accounts, a higher-end Elgato with NitLink gives you a good chance of enjoying your PS5 games with an Nvidia GPU souping them up using DLSS 5 and Frame Generation.

I'm betting there will also be an element of subjectivity here, too, with some people likely to feel any latency more keenly than others.

Some gamers use this setup to play PS5 games on their PC monitor (in other words, without piping the image back out of the PC to the living room TV, which would cut down on some of the input lag), and there are guides to running this kind of setup on YouTube, like this one. Others recommend Zanit's tutorials on YouTube, but those videos are in Portuguese, so you'll need to translate them if you're not a native speaker. It's pretty cool stuff, if rather convoluted — and a good capture card doesn't come cheap (neither does a high-end RTX 5000 GPU).

Meanwhile, as far as GTA 6 on the PC goes, we may see this happen a lot sooner than expected, due to the way the emulation scene is going right now (in turbo mode thanks to AI). In other words, Rockstar may want to get the PC port on sale before PC gamers start playing it via emulation.