Nvidia Banishes Gaming

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00][sturdy intro music] Welcome back to Paul's Tech News. We have come  to it at last, the year's great inflection point, 2026's elbow, if you will. And if we are lucky  enough to make it past, God only knows what trajectory we'll end up on for the second half of  the year. For me, this annual crossover is usually marked by the coming of Computex, which usually  takes place in June, at which point the year is pretty much halfway over, so we can just coast  the rest of the way through to December. And given how downhill most of 2026 has been so far, the  best we can make of it is to coast for a while.

[00:00:33]Cheers. But first, a journey to Taipei, Taiwan  for Computex week, which is usually one of the year's highlights when it comes to PC hardware.  But this year, I'm not so sure. The pickings might be slim for those who aren't AI data center  enthusiasts. But I will hunt down the consumer desktop stuff nonetheless, and I will also seek  to answer a fundamental question. Does the current shortage represent the slow, agonizing end of  the PC building hobby, or is the industry just regrouping for an epic post-shortage comeback?  It could happen, and so could tech news. Cheers.

[00:01:09]Excellent! Today's video is brought to you by  Thermaltake's Wood Series cases, adding a touch of warmth and style to a variety of existing  chassis designs, such as the TR200 WS seen here in the white snow finish, showcasing light  colored wood textured accents while maintaining the TR200's core features such as easily removable  side and top panels, magnetic dust filters, and support for an optional 6-in LCD screen. Black  cases like the TR300 WS are paired with darker maple inspired accents for a warm and stylish  aesthetic. And of course, the case still includes a tempered glass side panel, excellent air flow,  and support for 360 mm radiators for AIO or custom cooling. Thermaltake's WS chassis lineup includes  other cases from the View series and more. So, for further details, click the Thermaltake Wood  series sponsor link in the video description. So, in case it wasn't obvious, I'm going to Computex.  Joe's coming too. And so, tech news will be on hiatus for a few weeks, returning June 21st.  Normally, the week leading up to Computex would be rife with early announcements and sneak  peeks at new components that are expected to launch later in the year. And while there has  been a smattering of those, one would expect more. Several smatterings at least. But right now,  unless large scale AI data centers get you off, you probably want to avoid the list of keynotes  and forum sessions on offer at Computex, as their topics are basically AI buzzword mad libs at this  point. That's not to say there will be nothing for consumers. Intel has an ARC G3E chip. E stands  for extreme built for handheld gaming. That looks promising as it will use a B390 GPU. And Nvidia  also has the N1X SoC, which is expected to be on display in some capacity. Exciting in that it is  a rumored 20 core ARM-based CPU paired with an RTX 5070 level GPU with 6,144 CUDA cores. But early  rumors point more towards this powering AI focused laptops with 128 GB LP DDR5X RAM setups. Though it  will likely arrive in a variety of configurations.

[00:03:04]Still, if you're a desktop PC enthusiast and  most particularly gamers, Computex fan service is looking weaker than an Overwatch 10th anniversary  event. No new CPUs or GPUs, and the manufacturers who make all the other parts are clearly dialing  back to wait out the current dry spell. So, it's no surprise that PC gamers are also putting build  and upgrade plans on hold with the Tom's Hardware survey showing that 60% of PC gamers have no plans  to build a new PC in the next 2 years. And if this year's lesson is that patience is a virtue, that's  cool. We can wait it out. But there is one glimmer of hope for those truly in need of a PC in the  near term. a possible solution to the current AM4 paradox where it's cost-effective to build  an AM4 because of DDR4 memory, but all the good X3D CPUs are sold out. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D 10th  anniversary edition has been spotted with a nice little packaging upgrade, but more importantly,  a tentative early price listing of $310. Now, that's from Indian retailer 99s.in, in mind you  so far from official but it would be awesome news if confirmed particularly if AMD makes a lot of  them. Nvidia meanwhile has shown just how much they care about gaming by removing gaming as a  segment entirely from their financial report. That is gaming is still there. It has just been lumped  into the edge computing category which is a change from prior financial breakdowns. You might ask  what is edge computing? I don't think it really has a meaning to be honest. It's just a term  C-suite executives like to use to sound, you know, edgy. For Nvidia though, the edge computing  category now covers AIPCs, GeForce RTX GPUs, game consoles, workstations, AI base stations,  robotics, and automotive. Meaning it will no longer be possible to quickly compare Nvidia's  gaming metrics to their data center earnings and say, "Wow, look how small a slice of Nvidia gaming  makes up now. Why do they even bother anymore?"

[00:04:58]Even with the new grouping, Edge Computing was  only $6.4 billion out of Nvidia's 81.6 billion from last quarter. And personally, I do still  think Nvidia cares about gaming, but only from a PR standpoint. They don't seem to care how small  their gaming business gets relative to their whole company. But they sure as hell care when someone  brings it up and uses it as a point of criticism.

[00:05:19]But not anymore. Classic Nvidia, anything to get  an edge. Speaking of things being on the brink, if you tuned in last week, there was a dire  looming threat of further disruption to the memory supply chain. So, what happened with  that? Samsung's memory fabs would have shut down for more than 2 weeks if a worker strike had  kicked off as planned on Thursday. But additional lastminute government mediated negotiations  managed to bring both parties to terms, at least temporarily on Wednesday. The dispute was over  bonus pay in light of Samsung's enormous profits since the chip shortage began. And the initial  agreement will provide chip division workers with a $416,000 bonus just for this year as well as  a 10-year commitment as the union had hoped for.

[00:06:00]But per Samsung's request, the bonuses will be  paid in company stock before it was put on hold, more than 48,000 workers had signed up for the  strike. And while an agreement has been reached, it still needs to be voted on by the union this  week. As RAM related news in 2026 goes, this one seems to be coming to a rare happy ending. And  now PC gamers can go back to just paying 300 to 400% markups on DDR5 instead of the alternative,  which we can only assume would have been much, much worse. Okay, it's time for tech briefs.  Tech news condensed into cute little bite-sized pieces. Google fundamentally changed the way the  internet works forever at Google IO on Tuesday, announcing the intelligent search box that will  make sure you use AI for searching the web, whether you damn well like it or not. At its  heart is the ability to create, customize, and manage information agents that can work in  the background to track changes on the web and alert you to new information. But the capabilities  get way scarier than that. Like the announced ask YouTube feature that will provide AI generated  answers from YouTube videos without you even needing to watch them. Or the omni remixing tool  that will allow anyone to remix a short to swap out a person or an object or a soul perhaps and  then put that on the internet as if it was their own. It's not like the internet is getting  any better, Google apparently decided. So, might as well make it worse. Where are the  alternatives to the big three memory makers? Has been a big question in recent months of shortage  as the world could use a bit more memory. And so, Chinese manufacturers like CXMT seemed poised  to fill that gap, as your mom likes to say. And indeed, that seems to be happening as Corsair,  who you might have heard of, seems to have sourced DRAM chips from a business that is not  Samsung, SKHX or Micron. As shared by WX Nod, Corsair has a single DDR5 6000 skew using CXMT  memory. And while the timings are mediocre and availability outside of China is questionable,  the road back to RAM normaly starts with baby steps and more RAM suppliers working with brands  like Corsair is a step in the right direction.

[00:07:59]Rounding things off with a couple more products  likely to show up at Comp Computex, Asus, HP, as well as Honor and Chewy recently launched  thin and light laptops that start at just $450 based on Intel's Core Series 3 Wildcat Lake  mobile processors. Apple's recently launched MacBook Neo is an excellent product for those in  need of an inexpensive but functional laptop. So, the broadened competition has led to an  answer on the non-Max side. Unfortunately, these will only be available in China at first,  but they'll likely reach other regions in the future with prices in the $500 to $700 range, and  some that even come with 16 GB of memory. While it's little consolation for desktop enthusiasts,  it is at least still reassuring that inexpensive computing options are still out there. Before I  close though, one last reminder. There will be no tech news for several weeks, but will be returning  on June 21st. And in the meantime, there will be a build coming this week. Lots of Computex coverage  and a handful of other videos as well. But there you have it, guys. Tech news for the weekend. And  if you liked it, click that like button or leave me a comment down below. While you're down there,  all the articles I talked about today are linked in the video description if you're interested in  reading more. And you can check out my store at paulsar.net for highquality merchandise, t-shirts,  hoodies, beer sets, and more. Subscribing to my channel is always a good call, too. Thanks again,  everyone, and we'll see you in the next video.