1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,440 It's day one of our CES 2025 coverage. 2 00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:06,880 We'll be giving you five episodes this week instead of three, 3 00:00:06,880 --> 00:00:12,320 so prepare yourself for a deluge of tech news that won't let up until we're all lying face down 4 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:16,960 in a pool of hypey buzzwords. At least we'll go out knowing all about smart toilets. 5 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:23,120 NVIDIA finally unveiled their RTX 50 series graphics cards at their keynote today as a treat 6 00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:28,400 for the audience members who first had to sit through a supposedly inspiring montage about 7 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:35,920 how AI tokens are enabling a borderline dystopia and then Jensen Huang burst onto stage wearing 8 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:41,200 alligator skin and roared at the audience. Do you like my jacket? Worship me? 9 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:45,760 After reminding us that GPUs just didn't pop out of the ground fully formed, 10 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:53,360 Jensen finally got to the good stuff and it looks good. NVIDIA's claiming the RTX 5070 is 11 00:00:53,360 --> 00:01:04,720 on par with the RTX 4090 and will launch at 550 bucks. Huh? Then we got the RTX 5070 Ti at 750, 12 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:15,040 RTX 5080 at 1000 and RTX 5090 at 2000 US dollars. That is quite the spread and I'm inclined to think 13 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:21,520 the Intel ARC B580 had to have something to do with the 5070 being priced that aggressively. 14 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:26,640 And if NVIDIA's numbers are anywhere close to accurate, this is not an iterative upgrade. 15 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:33,520 With the help of the newly announced DLSS4, NVIDIA's claiming that all of these 50 series cards 16 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:39,040 are twice as fast as their predecessors in some pretty demanding games. All that while 17 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:46,240 using a two-slot design with double flow through fans on the 5090 where the 4090 was a three-slot 18 00:01:46,320 --> 00:01:51,920 and many third-party designs used three and a half slots. This less beefy design might have 19 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:57,120 something to do with all of the AI gobbledygook Jensen was going on about. I'm gonna be honest, 20 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:03,600 I wasn't paying attention, but DLSS4 and the new NVIDIA Reflex 2 are leaning even more heavily 21 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:08,880 into generating frames on the fly with AI instead of rasterizing. There's actually a 22 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:14,560 bunch more interesting stuff than NVIDIA talked about and not just the AI you can interrupt your 23 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:19,440 game to ask about how many pixels are on your character's butt or something, but Mark and I 24 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:24,960 would prefer to go home at some point, so I'll talk about that tomorrow. AMD also had gifts for 25 00:02:24,960 --> 00:02:30,480 the tech world, ridiculous new naming schemes for their products, and an aneurysm for Linus. 26 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:37,120 Yeah, as detailed in the LTT video, AMD confirmed that in the next few months GPUs would launch 27 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:45,760 based on the new R-DNA4 architecture, which is optimized and better. This is literally just 28 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:52,160 a list of synonyms. They gave no details on the new graphics cards other than confirming that yes, 29 00:02:52,160 --> 00:03:00,080 they will be called the RX9070 and 9070XT, and yes, they explicitly did that to 30 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:05,760 match direct competitor compare, which is robot speak for we copy NVIDIA because we 31 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:13,040 don't know who we are without them. Shhh, AMD, it's okay. I know who you are. You're chicken 32 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:18,000 shit. I don't know who those people on stage were, but if Dr. Lisa Sue were here, she wouldn't allow 33 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:24,160 this. I take it back. AMD had the bravery to announce that their new FSR upscaling tech would be 34 00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:31,520 exclusive to RX9000 GPUs, and they also announced new versions of the world's best gaming processors, 35 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:42,320 the Ryzen 9900X3D and 9950X3D, which beat Intel's latest flagship even worse than the 9800X3D. 36 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:48,480 That X3D stuff is good. So for the first time, AMD is putting it in a laptop processor, the 37 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:57,680 Fire Range Ryzen 9955HX3D. Please, please, can we simplify this branding? If Dr. Lisa Sue was here, 38 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:07,760 she'd say no. Because joining last year's Ryzen AI 300 series laptop chips is another tier of CPUs 39 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:17,520 above Ryzen 9. That's right, it's the Ryzen AI Max and AI Max Plus 300 series followed by more 40 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:24,880 Ryzen AI 9, 7, and 5 300 series chips. And then just to make things more confusing, because at this 41 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:30,080 point, why not, later this year, after the 300 series launches, we're going to get the Ryzen 42 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:39,440 200 series mobile chips. There's also the new Ryzen Z2 Extreme, Z2 Normal, and Z2 Go. 43 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:44,000 One of the Steam Deck team members had to correct people who thought a Z2 chip would 44 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:50,080 power the next gen Steam Deck. A wacky idea they had no reason to believe except for this 45 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:56,080 AMD slide featuring two Ryzen Z1 powered handhelds and the Steam Deck. AMD, listen, 46 00:04:56,080 --> 00:05:01,520 it's okay to ask for help with marketing. There are people who do this professionally. 47 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:10,400 Heck, just email me, I'll help you. Just, just stop. Intel CES keynote was opened up by Interim 48 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:16,560 co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holt House, which is too many syllables for me to say all the time. 49 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:23,200 Where's Pat? I need to know he's alive. After digging through a maze of AI client edge scalability 50 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:29,360 type jargon, I figured out that Intel was announcing more Core Ultra 200 series laptop chips, 51 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:37,200 the 200U series for Thinnenlites, 200H for some more beef, and 200HX for extra beef. Hold the 52 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:45,120 mayo. These all use the same Aero Lake architecture as the desktop Core Ultra 200S series, not the 53 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:51,200 Lunar Lake architecture in the 200V series, which had on-package memory. That kind of design 54 00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:57,200 has been killed off, but not Team Blue's Arc graphics cards. We are very committed to the 55 00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:02,960 discrete graphics market, says Michelle Johnston Holt House. It takes too long to say all that. 56 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:09,040 Please have a shorter name. Hey, believe it or not, there's even more tech news. Enough for 57 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:16,080 quick bits. Enough to drive you mad. Dell is chucking out its laptop and desktop brands, swapping 58 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:23,600 XPS in Spiron, Latitude, and Precision for the much simpler and Apple flavored Dell, Dell Pro, 59 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:29,040 and Dell Pro Max. I can see the appeal. Dell executives were probably hoping teens with 60 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:34,960 frosted tips would once again exclaim, dude, you're getting Dell. As they did in 2001, 61 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:41,520 but that was before Dell's debuted album in 2008. Whoa, uh-oh. Also, each form of Dell will be 62 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:46,880 further divided into plus and premium variants, which kind of messes up the whole simplicity 63 00:06:46,880 --> 00:06:53,360 angle. But hey, at least some of them will come with swappable USB-C ports, so you can fidget 64 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:59,680 with those if you're bored. Qualcomm announced a new entry in its Snapdragon X series of laptop CPUs, 65 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:04,640 and just like the last time they did this with the X plus, the new chip called simply 66 00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:10,960 Snapdragon X is slotting in at the bottom of the list. I mean, the flagship X Elite went from 67 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:18,160 extremely overhyped to extremely medium hyped, so you might as well go with that flow. For that 68 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:24,160 reason, I'm a little skeptical of Qualcomm's benchmarks when they say the X is up to 1.6 69 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:30,480 times faster than an Intel Core 5 120U, which I don't even know what that is, so 70 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:38,720 happy for you, or I'm sorry that happened. The HDMI forum has announced HDMI 2.2, which will 71 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:44,960 double the bandwidth of HDMI 2.1 to support 96 gigabits per second, so you can play games on 72 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:54,400 the PlayStation 6 at 8K and 240Hz. I'm sorry, that's ridiculous. 10K at 120Hz. But watch out, 73 00:07:54,400 --> 00:08:01,040 because Vesa is answering with an updated DisplayPort 2.1 spec that allows for 80 gigabits per 74 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:07,680 second transmission over cables three times the length they previously allowed, which was 1 meter. 75 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:12,720 So make sure your video data has enough snacks for the road trip it's about to go on. I'll see 76 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:19,600 you on the other side of this small room. The greatest trick Microsoft ever pulled was apparently 77 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:25,200 convincing users they're using Google when they're using Bing instead. As spotted by Windows 78 00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:31,360 latest, when users searched for Google through Bing, they're now served with a very Google Doodle 79 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:37,040 looking graphic above a search bar on a page that has been scrolled down slightly to hide the Bing 80 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:42,080 logo at the top. What's the end game here? Gaslight people until they discover they've 81 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:47,920 been using Bing the whole time, and maybe they'll be like, hmm, I guess Bing's not so bad after all. 82 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:54,000 It's literally search engine Stockholm syndrome. And new leaks have led Nintendo fans to become 83 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:59,680 possessed of the idea that you might be able to use the Switch 2's Joy-Con as a mouse. 84 00:08:59,680 --> 00:09:04,960 First off, new images of the Joy-Con leaked on Baidu with a serial number that is valid on 85 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:10,240 Nintendo's check warranty page, so those look legit, and they appear to have a laser sensor on 86 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:16,480 the connector side. Combine that with shipping data mentioning adhesive tape to be used as a mouse 87 00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:21,840 sole, which got people thinking about how you can do something similar with the Lenovo Legion Go 88 00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:26,800 controllers. But instead of the controller sitting upright, you put the rail side down and use the 89 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:33,520 trigger as a left click. I hope this is true, if only to strike fear into Xbox and PS5 owners 90 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:39,360 in games that support cross-play once Switch players join the lobby. Oh no, the children are here. 91 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:43,920 And why don't you join me again tomorrow for more tech news, because I have to do something with 92 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:47,840 all the extras. It's piling up in here. It's getting hard to breathe.