You can also do this with Nvidia and AMD GPUs, kinda the whole way laptops work to conserve battery is to just shut off the dGPU when not in use.

CES is the tentative announcement prediction, with wider availability in Q2.

The issue with AMD laptops is availability and the mixing of generations under similar SKU numbers. There’s only a handful of Zen4 laptops in the wild, and they’re mixed in with Zen2 and Zen3 parts, leading to a confusing experience for the average buyer. So, people will either go for an Intel laptop, or find an Nvidia dGPU laptop for the ‘upgrade’.

Steamdeck’s and ROG Ally’s have completely changed the math on these more premium USFF PCs. If it’s only going to be couple hundred more to get similar performance, that convenience of a portable can easily tip the scales in their favour.

DLSS is why I bought a 4060 over a 7600. Mostly play e-sports games, so the cache offsets the bandwidth loss from a 3060, while DLSS is much better than FSR at going from 720p -> 1440p, as I wanted the increase over 1080p for daily usage.

Yes, however the big ticket item everyone’s gunning for is the fancy new GPU to play the fancy new game. If it’s a choice between the two it’s the GPU almost every time for consumers. E.g., Cyberpunk 2077, at launch people down to Haswell i7s could run the game, but anything below Pascal really struggled, leading to the first massive wave of shortages in Ampere and RDNA2.

It just makes sense from the CPU side of things to launch in the new year. Clear out old stock on holiday discounts, grab the die-hards in the new year with full MSRP, then slowly decline the prices throughout the summer sales and such till you hit holiday again, rinse and repeat. Rarely is their an application that demands a platform upgrade, unlike GPUs that are timing to be out with the new holiday quarter launches.

Nvidia still has Maxwell (2013) still ‘supported’ in the main driver releases (some generational specific bugs don’t get fixed). AMD has a pattern now of just dropping multiple generations of support from their driver package, even if the cards are perfectly usable in some instances.

Battlefield 2042

For a series that used to pride itself in being a technological showpiece, DICE has really dropped the ball since V in maintaining and improving its tech. V never got more than RT reflections, 2042 only has RTAO, and the DLSS version is still severely outdated compared to its potential. OG DICE would’ve had 2042 at the level of Cyberpunk a decade ago, but ever since the leadership left it’s been a mess.

Probably in-effect what’s going to happen. They won’t ‘discontinue’ the older cards, just never actually produce those chips for those SKUs.