What’s going on friends, welcome back to the channel. It’s that time of the week again,
and time sure does fly when you’re having fun! And that’s what we’ve been having this week with
Gordon kicking around Apple for its horrendous performance comparisons. If you somehow missed
that video then you’ll certainly want to catch it as soon as you’re done watching this one.
When it comes to other news around the PC world, I can finally say with certainty
that graphics card prices are on the decline and I couldn’t be happier about saying that. BUT,
Nvidia was on the wrong end of an internal hack and now the stolen IP is being used to sneak out
malware disguised as drivers. AMD admits to having a ‘stutter’ problem with Ryzen CPUs
but is working on a fix coming soon. And you can now install Windows on the fabled Steam Deck.
Well, that’s the short, now let’s get to the long with a nice little intro graphic.
I’m 100 percent kicking this week off with a little bit of good news,
or rather a good trend that I’m very pleased to see happening.
And not just because it was one of my predictions for this year on The Full Nerd.
With great excitement I’m here to tell you that graphics card prices are on a steady and constant
decline! Thankfully there’s a site like 3DCenter out there keeping up with the raw numbers.
According to 3DCenter’s price trend, we're seeing a steady decline in listing prices
starting in December 2021. Until then it had been rebounding from a sharp dip
from May to July. According to this chart AMD graphics cards can be had for around 35% over MSRP
but Nvidia graphics cards are still carrying a premium of 41% over MSRP.
My personal prediction was we would see mainstream graphics cards available on store shelves
for within 10% of MSRP by the 4th of July. So far things are lining up along with the trend
I am seeing. Right now crypto miners aren’t really fighting tooth and nail
to take 4 years to recover their investment so I believe we’re all in the
“Who has the money” phase of the price pull down. Those of us holding out for MSRP are going to have
to let the whales get done emptying their pockets before retailers cut us a break. Hold tight.
As PCWorld head Brad Chacos points out, paying MSRP for two year old graphics
cards sucks at any point in history but now, but we have to start somewhere!
But getting graphics cards to gamers isn’t the only thing on Nvidia’s plate
right now. The graphics card giant is still dealing with the fallout of an internal hack
that landed very sensitive data in the hands of the ill repute.
While Nvidia assured everyone that no user data made it out the back door, the hackers did make
it out with the ability to hide malware in seemingly harmless driver packages.
They did this by leaking Nvidia’s official code signing certificates.
This is really diabolical because it allows those with no scruples to build up packages
and distribute them around the web. They can have those packages look like normal drivers,
and install like normal drivers, except they install even more things, like a backdoor.
It’s because they have that code signing certificate that standard virus and malware
checkers will assume the packages are safe and let them do their thing.
For now folks, make sure that you’re ONLY getting drivers and software from trusted sources
like the Nvidia and AMD websites. In fact, do that all the time,
not just now. And for the love of everything sacred on your computer
DO NOT go near anything claiming to unlock hash rate power, now more than ever.
Don’t think AMD is out the line of fire this week - the core count king is fighting its own battle.
But this one is against a stutter, of some kind. We’re not 100 percent sure
just what all it is affecting, but it is being caused by an integrated Trusted Platform Module
(you know that funky bit that caused so much turmoil around Windows 11).
AMD’s support document had this to say: “Select AMD Ryzen system
configurations may intermittently perform extended fTPM-related memory transactions
in SPI flash memory (“SPIROM”) located on the motherboard, which can lead to temporary pauses
in system interactivity or responsiveness until the transaction is concluded.”
AMD is working on a solution, just don’t expect the fix to hit before May. I mean that’s only a
couple of months, right? If you want to dig in a bit deeper on this specific topic then
Michael Crider has done a good job breaking it down in the article linked in the description.
Speaking of Windows, you can now do that on Valve's Steam deck.
That’s it, that’s the whole topic.
Okay, not quite, but what makes that kind of a big deal is the open nature of the Steam Deck.
However, there is one hold up…you won’t be running Windows 11 - bummer I know.
The Windows support, for now, is only for Windows 10. Windows 11 support is coming,
but only after a new BIOS is made available. That goes for dual booting as well,
so for now you’re going to have to pick Windows or SteamOS.
The upside is this completely eliminates the compatibility layer requirement of Proton and
now EVERY game is technically compatible - but there is a huge caveat. Performance. Expect a
healthy drop in performance if you choose to go Windows only for now. No real telling if that
will change in the future or not, but at least you won’t be banned from playing Destiny 2 this way.
Well, I’m not going to ban you from finishing this video but I will bid you adieu as we wrap
things up! Graphics card prices continue to fall and I for one am really hoping
we get within spitting distance of MSRP over the next couple of months. Nvidia
has some work to do in cleaning things up from a hack, so be sure you’re cautious
of where you get your drivers from going forward. AMD is working on the fix for the
stutter issue on Ryzen processors caused by an issue with the built-in Trusted Platform Module.
And, The Steam Deck, at last, supports Windows. It’s only Windows 10 for now,
and you’re going to get a performance hit, but the compatibility exists and it’s only getting better.
I want to thank you all for joining in again, and as always if there’s something bigger and
more important to you that I missed, please share that with me and the rest of our friends
down in the comments section. While you’re down there hit that like button and make
sure you’re subscribed here at PCWorld for even more PC hardware and software goodness.