 If you're listening to this on YouTube, this episode is one week delayed. Up to date, TechShow but Friendly episodes are on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts. Thank you for joining me for an episode of TechShow but Friendly. This is Anton, and this is the podcast of Hardware Sugar, and we are talking about a lot of topics today, ranging from aliens, superconductors, GPUs, whether GPUs are selling, whether GPUs are not selling. I thought it was a slow news day, but when I started researching on the stuff I wanted to talk about, there was a lot. Starting with Invidia cancelling the 4090 Ti. So the latest and the greatest for the 40 series will only be the 4090. Again, this is just based on rumors, but the one who leaked it has a good track record. Ostensibly, the reasons are one, there's no need for it because the 4090 is still the top dog card, the king of the hill. No one can match the performance of the 4090. AMD's top card, the 700XTX, is more in line with a 4080 rather than a 4090. So Invidia comfortably has the performance crown, so there really is no need for bragging rights to come out with a 4090 Ti. And the other reason is supposedly GPUs are not selling that great. The 40 series sales have been lackluster, even the 3090 Ti, so the previous gen's top top card didn't sell so well. And if you're a busy enthusiast, you know that there is price fatigue, you know that there is anger at Invidia for releasing cards which are faster objectively, but don't give a lot of bang for their buck. Price to performance ratio is not that great overall for the 40 series cards. So the weakening GPU market was another supposed factor behind the cancellation, which might make you think that no one is buying GPUs and that's a narrative that you find a lot in tech media. But the opposite narrative can be found as well, where there are people buying GPUs, but they're not gamers. And so now gamers supposedly are concerned that AI companies buying up GPUs, which they need, that's the hardware they need to continue running AI programs, doing AI research. So if back in the day, the people buying up GPUs, bringing up the prices were crypto miners, now the fear is that AI companies will fill that role. Because AI companies have publicly stated that they are running out of hardware, they are running out of machines that they need for their work. AI is hot right now and all of the resources have basically been gobbled up. So at least one AI company, their CEO has posted on Twitter that, hey, you know, I just bought a crate of 7900 XTX AMDs, which was around 60 cards, I think, and he said that more were on the way. So this is not speculation. At least one AI company, this particular company focused on driving assistance through AI, did state that, yeah, hey, we bought a bunch of GPUs and we expect a lot more on the way. So I don't quite know what to make of this. One piece of news says that no one is buying GPUs anymore, but another piece of news says that actually a lot of people are buying and now people are afraid that the demand will outstrip supply again, raising prices for everyone. And both of these sources seem credible. If you look through the tech news, you can't go a day without someone claiming no one is buying GPUs anymore. All of those companies stink because their products are so expensive. And then another person going, but a lot of people are buying GPUs and I'm afraid prices will go up. Now, since these are two conflicting versions, people buying, people not buying, I'm kind of curious. You know, when we look at the quarterly sales results, what is it? Although perhaps AI companies are only buying certain types of GPUs, they need a lot of VRAM. And if you're a gamer that sounds familiar, because supposedly you also need a lot of VRAM in your GPUs, but bang for their buck for these type of companies, for the applications that they need to use, they need GPUs with a lot of VRAM. So that means the higher end ones, the XTX has around 24 GB VRAM, if I remember correctly. So AI companies probably would not be interested in the likes of the 4060, which only has eight gigabytes. So are GPUs making money for their respective brands? I guess we'll have to find out, but a brand that is definitely making money again is Intel. After two quarters of reporting a loss, Intel is back in the green with a reported net income last quarter of 1.5 billion. Not too bad. I just bring up this news because I remember a couple of months ago when everybody was so gloomy about the state of Intel, and they had to cut plants or research divisions left and right. I mean, there was a lot of concern about Intel's financials. Personally, for CPUs, I still favor AMD, although Intel has really brought itself back from being overpriced for what you get, to being a very good contender. 11th, 12th gen, 13th gen, all have been basically at par, and in some cases even better than their AMD counterparts. And competition is always good. So I'm glad to see Team Blue climbing back into the green. Maybe they can channel that profit into more innovative products. What drove the rise in profit was the PC consumer division. I've mentioned before in the podcast that it's easy to forget that for companies, we, the consumer, the average consumer, are a side thought to enterprise levels, servers, GPUs, all of those things can be configured more optimally for the needs of large-scale businesses, making the consumer side the products that we need and that we purchase unattractive sometimes to some companies. But this particular quarter of Intel shows that, yes, there is still a lot of profit to be had on the consumer side. In fact, that's what brought them back to profitability. On the YouTube news, and I've noticed that BitWit has started posting videos again. So to backtrack, before Computex, BitWit came out with a video saying that basically, you know, I'm retiring from the tech YouTube scene. It's been fun, but I want to concentrate on my other channel, which is not tech related. So I did agree to go to Computex, but after that, there will be no more content on this channel, but I'm keeping it up. I didn't want to sell it and things like that. And so everybody was like, oh, that's sad. You know, we like his humor, his approach to tech. He did do the Computex one. And then after Computex, I noticed he came out with a video promoting his new podcast that is still in line, sort of with retiring. I mean, you want to capture or migrate some of your current fans from your existing platform or current channel to your new channel or your new content, understandable. But just very recently, he came out with another video where he posted in the comments that, yes, I'm back. And the video was about tech where he has to make a build for a friend. No explanation or further details. How come he has come back to tech? And after just a short time span also, I mean, it was only a couple of months ago where he said, you know, I am retiring and then suddenly he's back. And don't get me wrong, I do like BitWit. I like his content. But I do find it annoying when YouTubers, you know, have this big announcement that, oh, I'm thinking of quitting. I'm thinking of resigning, whatever. Linus, of course, being the prime example of this, where it became a meme. In fact, his sad face. To be fair to Linus, he did say that at the time that he did the stream, those were his honest thoughts about being burnt out, quitting the industry and things like that. He obviously did not quit the industry. And his retirement announcement or his thoughts about retiring even propelled his content to more viewers. Yes, plans change. Yes, of course, it's up to you whether to come back to something that you said you wouldn't come back to anymore. And it's not just BitWit or Linus. It's just that I'm kind of tired of people saying that, oh, I'm not going to do this anymore. Big hurrah. And the next thing, you know, oh, no, I'm back on the, I'm back, you know, in the saddle again. I've gotten back on the bandwagon. And this is for content from people that I enjoy even. It's nice to have them back. But I hope they're in the first place. Because personally, I don't like the feeling that I'm being toyed with that. Yes, no, yes, no. I mean, what is it? Yes or no? So again, I like BitWit. I'm glad that he's back. But one, I wish other YouTubers wouldn't follow that example. And two, that everyone can decide. Like, you know, firm up your plans. Are you really leaving? If so, thanks for all the fish. And if not, then don't announce that you will be leaving. And the other piece of tech YouTuber news that caught my eye was a recent video from Gamers Nexus that they have purchased a $250,000 soundproof room, basically. The technical name for the room is a Hemi and Echoic Chamber, which is basically, you know, a very super, super duper quiet room, so quiet, na masiseraan ka daw ng ulo if you have to stay there for prolonged periods because we are not accustomed to that level of silence. I mean, I guess even if you're Swiss, who are basically fanatical about keeping things quiet, this is an eerie nothingness of sound. There is an absence of void. Nothing reaches your ears. And Gamers Nexus really built that room for their testing. They really wanted to measure accurately the decibel levels coming out from computer hardware. And on one hand, while the attention to detail is admirable, I really can't help but think this is a level of detail that no one needs. You know, I've talked about before in our other videos where I think reporting on noise level is not useful to the average consumer. I mean, especially here in the Philippines, we deal with a lot of noise, even when we're inside our house. And if you're a gamer, you will be dealing with gunshots, explosions, planes flying, people screaming, et cetera, the sound effects, the music of the game. So the sound level of a particular hardware is not something that I think 99% of people really need to know. It won't impact them in a useful, meaningful way. Yes, there are professionals. In fact, we've had some customers at hardware sugar where noise levels are really important. So yes, there is a use case for that. But applying it to all sorts of hardware, which is what a $250,000 investment in testing equipment implies, I don't think that's useful. And having that level of reporting just points people in the wrong direction. Instead of worrying about things that they should worry about, price to performance, for example, then you'll have these people who aren't that well versed in the tech space asking things like, well, how many decibel levels is the fan when they should be focused on other things? And yes, it's gamers next to his money. It's Steve's money. You can do whatever the heck he wants with it. You can argue that, well, we want to, again, improve the quality of tech reporting. Why not? It's sort of like the argument of why climb that mountain because it's there because it's something that we have the resources to do. But I don't really agree with that argument because it fuels the fetishization. If you will allow me to kind of butcher a word, I think the concept of fetishization is a thing. I mean, you know, you take this relatively simple thing like a case fan. Does it push enough air? Does it, does it pull, push enough air for it to be worthwhile to put in my rig? And if it's noise level, it's not that of a blower, a hairdryer. It's not okay anymore, right? But when you have a fetish for something, you take something and then you latch onto the littlest, smallest, smallest. Okay, that is an invented word. But the littlest, smallest, nitty gritty detail about it and then you project overweening importance on that small detail. I don't think it's useful anymore to the vast majority of people who are even enthusiasts, who are even in the hobby. It kind of encourages this very mayopic thinking, sobrang focused sa isang bagai na yung ah, hindi naman makatulong. Sanaol makaford nung $250,000 investment in equipment for their YouTube channel. So I salute the level of detail, but I just can't support the particular detail which all of this effort and attention is being lavished on. So the last two bits of news are just tech in general, but I thought they were super interesting that we can cover them anyway, even if they're not super related to PC tech news and that, and the first one really blew my mind in terms of R&D and advancing technology. You may have heard of it as well. Supposedly researchers in Korea have come up with a compound that is a superconductor that works at normal pressures and normal temperatures. Now superconductors are kind of like the holy grail material to discover for our tech age because they allow the moving of electricity without resistance. The efficiency of the energy transfer is basically 100%. So there is no heat lost and having a superconductor at room pressure, room temperature allows a whole range of other applications. I see you in Manalang, all of the energy wasted by your computer because there are inefficiencies getting the electricity just from your wall outlet running them through the components of your computer. With a mass-produced room temperature, room pressure superconductor, we can do all sorts of things. I mean like really nuts things like magnetic levitation, very efficient computers, that's just the tip of the iceberg. And while we already have superconductors, they are, they only work in very controlled spaces at very cold temperatures at very high pressures, not practical for consumer electronics, not even practical for lab settings. But researchers in Korea have said that they've discovered a compound that fits those two criteria, superconductor at room pressure and room temperature. Their paper has not yet been peer reviewed but it was posted online and apparently, yeah there was this really big news. So people have been racing to replicate the results and I think a team in China has replicated some of the results. The compound in particular is a combination of lannarchite and copper phosphide. I do not have a chemistry background so I won't pretend to delve into the elemental composition of the superconductor. Just the story of these Korean researchers coming out of the blue. Again it has not been yet peer reviewed but they posted it online and since then there's been a firestorm of interest, the Chinese have replicated it. I think a university in the States has also somewhat replicated the findings but on a theoretical level only. I think they ran it through an AI or they ran it through a computer that ran an AI program which concluded that yes on a theoretical level what they're saying is possible. Now even if the compound checks out and again that is still a big if, it is not easy to produce. It's a multi-step process of several batches over several days and even after the end of that process only a small portion of that batch is usable or is actually a superconductor. So there's still a lot of work to be done even assuming that the process checks out or that the compound produced by this process checks out. Still it is a very concrete step to a practical superconductor and you know the doors open to a whole wide range of applications if we can get a truly useful superconductor onto the market. And the last bit of news involves tech but not human tech. Last week a US Air Force officer and former intelligence officer by the name of Grush. I apologize if I am mangling his name appeared before a US Congress hearing so the US Congress was holding a hearing looking into UFOs or apparently now they're called UAPs unidentified aerial phenomenon and this Grush guy who again is a US Air Force officer and has been involved in the US intelligence services came before Congress and said that yes I have heard from people that the US government has had for a long time now a program whereby it salvages crashed UFOs and we have recovered some of their tech and we have also recovered non-human biologicals is the term that he used. So it has attracted a lot of attention because Grush Grush Grush the guy does have an intelligence background so it's plausible that he has contacts within the government and again this was said at a official US Congress hearing in public although what was lacking from him was really hard proof. He mentioned that the budget for this recovery program comes from misappropriated funds basically Congress will okay for example just again for example this is not the exact thing but like Congress will approve 500 million dollars for the research of GMO plants for corn something like that and instead of that actually going to research in GMO plants for corn it gets diverted to this UFO salvage program which is technically illegal so that's the angle that some of the legislators were taking that this is why we need to look into this because there might be a misappropriation of funds. Personally I wouldn't find it hard to believe that there are aliens there are so many many many many many many planets out there to think that we are the one out of literally billions of potential planets for life seems a bit foolhardy. What I do have a hard time believing is that in the vastness of space another species has come out and visited us and to the extent that things have crashed and whoever sent them doesn't have sufficient technology to recover those things before we do I mean if you have some kind of propulsion system that allows you to travel from your space your planet to our planet you'd think you would have enough resource you would have brought enough resources to cover up after yourself as it were and yet supposedly there's been a decades long recovery program by the U.S. government to yeah to salvage these UFOs because well they've been crashing and nobody has come claiming them I guess yeah so for me it's not so much a question of is there alien life it's more of a question of where is it and when did it live because we it's also very easy to forget that our universe has been around for a very very very long time so the chances are that a there is alien life right now and be that it has visited us basically that it surmounted both the challenges of space and time seems a little iffy like I would have to see more proof for that one but it's just really interesting to see these kind of stories breaking into the mainstream media whether it's uh advanced in physics like the superconductor or applied material science or something a bit more out there like aliens it just goes to show that society at large has really grown accustomed to technology and so even computers a hobby for some but for others just a daily necessity and yeah not something to obsess over and again fetishize always something we try to keep in mind when we do tech reviews at hardware sugar that the tech specs are important but more important is conveying to the audience why is this particular tech useful why do you need to know about this particular product thanks for lending me your ear sometimes there are people who ask if we know a computer shop that is trusted that is not crazy actually we have full service pc store and hardware sugar we sell pc components we also sell fully assembled rigs we clean computers also include our excellent table management and cpu cooler repasting cleaning we also clean and repaste gp use nasa makati physical store namin and you can also buy from our site www.hwsugar.ph na 100% palaging up-to-date yung inventory doon kung in stock yung item sa amin available yun sa site we also ship nationwide thanks for watching and maybe one of these days mag kita tayo sa shop