This Is A Stick-WRUP

Alright, alright, it's wrup time again. Thanks for joining us on another weekend in the beginning summer weeks, or at least it feels like it here lately. Temps are getting high, snow is melted away, wildfires are popping up here and there, water restrictions are set to take effect any time now, welcome to CA. I'm feeling salty...

At least the crypto market is crashing. I feel no sympathy at all. None whatsoever. It's the filthiest most unscrupulous, power hungry, environmentally destructive garbage "economy" and the bubble is bursting. If you've involved yourself in Crypto and it's ilk, NFT's etc and you lost money, then you deserve what's happened. Sadly, at some point it's likely to rise up again with an unnaturally white grin and wringing hands to draw in the greedy and unsuspecting alike with temping words and a nice suit while under the desk drips bile, tar and vitriol. A glowing orb of curiosity promising to sate the longing for "easy money" and while the stink of the gaping maw below escapes dulled senses it feeds on "pioneering spirit".

Okay that's a pretty pious paragraph. Point is, I fucking despise everything about digital currency. But I'm not just satisfied with people losing hundreds of thousands in fake cash and stolen monkey pictures. This collapsing glass house is also beginning to normalize the general market for people outside the circle, most obviously in the tech arena. Shortages across the world are being lessened since there are maybe fewer warehouses full of graphics cards data mining while using whole power grids. Vehicle manufacturers can fill orders easier, PC components have started resurfacing and prices are starting to drop and basics like your new refrigerator aren't on back order any longer. Or at least not as often. Not to say the issue is solved, mind you. More or less everything we purchase contains some kind of "smart" silicon now and there are only a couple manufacturers in the entire world who make these chips allowing us to ask our TV to find a movie title, or our phones to remind us to get fish food. The shortages are likely to continue for a while yet, but we can see a light at the tunnels end getting brighter. Let's hope it continues to do so.

Let's also talk about some actual WRUP related stuff and I'll get off my rant box.

Turns out AMD's new FSR 2.0 even works on Intel's integrated graphics. So if you have a laptop that you still like to use for boring office work and would like to spice it up with a game or two that normally wouldn't even think about running, maybe that's an answer, or at least a work around. It might not look great but it could help while you're on lunch and feel like pwning n00bs for a few few minutes while you mac your hoagie. Check out the skinny from Tom's Hardware.

The rumor mill is churning with speculation on new hardware drops. Just what we need, new versions of stuff we can barely get our hands on now without showing collateral. The 7900 XT from AMD is rumored to contain an MCM GPU, think a Ryzen CPU on your graphics card, and a gigantic 26 GB wad of GDDR6 running on a 384 bit bus. That's 864 GB/second. Crazy if true, probably just crazy at this point. Take it with more than a few grains of salt. But TechSpot has some more on the subject should you wish to peruse with your dual ocular scanners.

Nvidia is supposedly on track to finally get the GTX 1630 on shelves. This is a GPU to succeed the low end GT 1030 and claims quicker performance than a 1050ti. Entry level market is a real thing and often serves the purpose of making your PC work while you save up for a more capable card in future. But if you're looking to 1080p game this is probably just fine. The 1630 is set to compete against AMD's entry level 6500 and 6400 and priced at a pretty appealing $150 US monies it's not a terrible prospect. WCCF looks to have a bit of info for you if you're looking to jam some indies or maybe you're saving for a huge 4090.

Have a great weekend everybody. Crypto bros, get your BS fake equity out of the banks you demanded be made so you could store your non-regulated digital money more safely and value it in regulated more stable real world currency. Enjoy your contradictions.


What are we playing?

Yoda: What's better than fighting Demons? Fighting Demons in space. Idk why Blizzard decided to copy Doom, but it makes for some pretty damn fun dungeons. So yeah, still liking wow way more than I expected so that's my weekend 

Greywolfe: i finished chicory! you should play chicory! i'll be starting enchanter over the weekend and doing post-game chicory stuff from monday. [i ignored a lot of the side things so i could play the actual story of that game.]

AJ: Recently, I picked up Shining Resonance Refrain for the Switch, and a pretty decent-looking copy of Breath of Fire for the SNES, so I may play one or both of those this weekend.

Scroo: I don't know what I'm playing yet. Probably just more SnowRunner and Chaos Gate. Or nothing... I don't know. You don't know me.