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Nvidia’s Next Platform, Smarter Gaming AI, and the Road to Physical Intelligence · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarful Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Welcome to Connecting the Dots. I'm Alex.
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  And I'm Morgan. And we're from Snarful Solutions
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  Group. It is Tuesday, January 6th, 2026, and
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  we're here to break down the tech news you need
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  to know. That's right. And first, a quick look
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  at what's going on outside. Here in Sacramento,
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  it's looking like a beautiful day. Oh, yeah Mostly
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  sunny with a high of 57 can't complain about
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  that for January definitely not nationally though
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  It's a bit more active. There are a couple of
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  cold fronts hitting the northwest, right? So
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  that's bringing some heavy mountain snow to the
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  Cascades and the northern Rockies and another
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  storm is moving pretty fast through the upper
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  Midwest and Great Lakes Bringing a wintry mix
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  that should hit the northeast tonight and into
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  Wednesday So, definitely bundle up out there.
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  Alright, let's take a quick peek at the markets.
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  How did things look at the close yesterday? Pretty
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  strong, actually. The Dow Jones jumped up 501
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  points. That's a full 1 .03 % close, just under
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  49 ,000. Yeah, a great start to the year. The
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  S &P 500 was a little more modest. Just under
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  10 points, about 0 .14%. And Bitcoin, I know
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  it's had a strong week. It has. It's seen a tiny
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  dip today, about a quarter of a percent, trading
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  around 93 ,600. But the bigger picture is that
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  it's a... Almost six percent since the end of
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  December. Exactly. A little dip in a very strong
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  upward trend. A solid start to the year all around.
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  It is. Now before we jump into our Morningstar,
• 1:40
  our Snarf full tech article report, we've got
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  a word from a great sponsor. Yeah, if you're
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  OldGlory .com. OK, let's get into it. Today's
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  report is, well, it's all Nvidia. All Nvidia,
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  all the time, it seems like they just dominated
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  the CES show floor with announcements across
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  the board. You really did. And we're seeing a
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  clear strategy here. It's about expanding their
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  reach in both consumer gaming and the core AI
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  infrastructure that powers everything. Let's
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  start on the consumer side then. Our first story
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  is about GeForce Nnow W, their cloud gaming service.
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  This is a big one for accessibility. They're
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  finally launching native GeForce NW apps for
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  Well, platforms that have felt a bit left out.
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  You mean Linux users, right? Linux users, for
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  sure. And also Amazon Fire TV devices. This is
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  all slated for early 2026. And they tied this
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  timing to the RTX 5080 rollout completing. Now
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  that's for their servers, right? Not the card
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  you put in your PC. Exactly. That's the key clarification.
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  It means their data centers have the new hardware.
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  The back end is ready for a ton of new users.
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  So for Linux folks, this is a huge deal. Right
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  now it's all browser workarounds or unofficial
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  apps, which can be. Janky. It introduces lag.
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  visual glitches. A native app just smooths everything
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  out. And they're starting with Ubuntu 24 .04,
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  which makes sense. It's the standard. It is.
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  But I think the bigger play for the mass market
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  is the Fire TV app. Oh, absolutely. Bringing
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  it to the Fire TV Stip 4K Plus and 4K Max models.
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  Yeah, that means you can stream a super demanding
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  PC game right to your big screen TV with just
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  a controller. No console needed, no expensive
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  gaming PC, it just completely removes that barrier.
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  I really guess. And then they added this other
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  feature which is niche, but, you know, very cool.
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  The flight control support. Full support for
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  joysticks, yokes, all the gear from Thrustmaster
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  and Logitech. So you could be a serious Microsoft
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  Flight Simulator fan with all the professional
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  controls. And screen the game to a basic laptop.
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  totally democratizes that high -end simulation
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  world. It really does. It's no longer about who
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  can afford the hardware, just who has the internet.
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  And they're adding little quality of life things,
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  too, like automatic sign -in for battle .net.
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  It's all about making the platform frictionless.
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  OK, so speaking of building a platform nobody
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  can leave, let's pivot to the other side of their
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  business. The engine room. Artificial intelligence.
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  Right. Story number two is the big one for investors.
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  The Vera Rubin AI super chip is officially in
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  full production. This was the centerpiece of
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  Jensen Huang's keynote at CES. He confirmed that
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  Rubin, which is the. successor to Blackwell,
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  will start shipping to customers in the second
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  half of this year. And the performance leap here
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  isn't just a small step. The numbers are kind
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  of wild. They are. They're saying Rubin can train
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  certain large AI models using about one fourth
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  the number of chips that Blackwell needs. OK,
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  that's impressive. But the number that really
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  made me sit up was the cost. The operational
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  cost. This is the game changer. They project
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  Rubin will cut the cost of running these massive
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  AI models to about one tenth of the current system.
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  One tenth. Not ten percent cheaper, but ten times
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  cheaper. Exactly. And that number is so critical
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  right now. Why? What's the strategic play there?
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  Because Nvidia's biggest customers, Amazon, Google,
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  maybe even Meta, are all spending billions to
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  design their own custom chips. To get away from
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  relying on Nvidia and cut down on those massive
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  costs, right? Precisely. So with Rubin, NVIDIA
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  is basically saying, go ahead, spend years building
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  a chip that might catch up to our last generation.
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  Or you could just buy our new one, which is 10
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  times cheaper to run. It makes it incredibly
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  difficult to justify leaving their ECR system.
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  Immensely. And this isn't just one chip. The
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  Rubin platform is a six chip system built on
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  TSMC's three nanometer process. They're selling
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  a whole integrated solution. And there was this
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  one technical detail about the cooling that I
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  thought was brilliant. They're using hot water.
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  Yeah, hot water around 45 degrees Celsius. It
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  sounds completely backwards, but it's genius.
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  So how does that work? Well, traditional data
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  centers use tons of energy to chill water way
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  down by using water that's already warm, but
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  still cooler than the chips. It can still effectively
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  pull the heat away. Right. And then because that
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  water is already hot, you can efficiently reuse
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  that waste heat for other things like heating
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  buildings. So it's a massive energy saving on
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  both ends. You're not paying to chill it and
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  you're recapturing the heat. It's a complete
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  system design. It shows they're not just a chip
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  company anymore. They're an AI system architect.
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  Which makes that full production announcement
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  feel like a huge statement to the market. It's
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  them saying the roadmap is on track, the rumors
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  are wrong, and our advantage is actually accelerating.
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  Okay, let's bring it back to the consumer side
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  for our final story, graphics, specifically DLSS
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  4 .5. Right, their AI upscaling tech. And this
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  announcement is really a tale of two parts. The
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  first part being good news for basically everyone
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  who already owns an RTX card. Immediate good
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  news. You're getting a big upgrade to image quality
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  thanks to a new second generation super resolution
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  model. And this new model has five times the
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  compute power of the old one. Exactly. It's designed
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  specifically to clean up those little visual
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  artifacts you sometimes see, like ghosting or
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  shimmering on fine details. I've seen that, like
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  on a fence in the distance or something moving
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  quickly. That's what they're targeting. And the
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  best part is this is available today for all
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  RTX owners through the NVIDIA app beta. So a
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  free instant upgrade. The full driver release
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  is January 13th. Yep. A great win for the existing
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  user base. But the second part of DLSS 4 .5 is
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  where they look to the future. to the RTX 50
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  series cards. This is where things get really
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  forward -looking. They're introducing something
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  called 6X multi -frame generation. So for every
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  one frame your GPU actually renders, the AI is
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  generating five additional frames. A six -fold
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  multiplier on your frame rate. The goal is to
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  make things like 240Hz gaming at 4K resolution
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  a reality. OK, but when you're inserting that
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  many AI frames, doesn't that create a lot of
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  input lag? That's a huge concern for competitive
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  players. It's the number one concern. And that's
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  where the smartest part of this comes in. They
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  call it dynamic multi -frame generation, or DMFG.
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  And this is the automatic transmission idea.
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  That's the perfect analogy. Instead of just locking
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  you into 6x mode all the time, which can add
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  latency when you don't need it, it adapts. It
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  adapts on the fly. It monitors your GPU load.
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  If you're in a simple scene, maybe it only uses
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  2x generation for minimum latency. But then a
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  huge explosion goes off and your frame rate starts
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  to tank. DMFG sees that and it instantly upshifts
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  to 4x or 6x to keep your final output super smooth
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  locked right at that high refresh rate. So it's
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  intelligent. It's not just a brute force multiplier.
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  That's the key advantage. It manages both performance
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  and latency at the same time, which is something
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  competitors really don't have a good answer for
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  yet. So a great set of announcements all around.
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  Absolutely. Now, before we wrap this up, we have
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  purchase. Just visit scony .com. All right, let's
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  tie this all together. What are the big takeaways
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  from today? OK, three key things. First, high
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  -end PC gaming is becoming more accessible than
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  ever. With GeForce Now W coming to Linux and
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  Fire TV, the hardware barrier is just melting
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  away. Second, the entire economic model for AI
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  is about to shift. Vera Rubin's promise of a
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  ten -fold reduction in running costs is going
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  to change everything. It puts huge pressure on
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  anyone trying to compete with their own custom
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  silicon. And finally, for gamers, the visuals
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  are getting better right now with DLSS 4 .5.
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  And the performance of tomorrow is getting smarter
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  and smoother with that dynamic frame generation.
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  The common thread through all of it is efficiency
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  and integration. NVIDIA is selling complete,
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  highly engineered systems, not just components.
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  We're here to help at Snarfl, so reach out on
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  our website if you have any more questions. That's
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  a wrap on today's top stories. Remember, tech
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  doesn't have to be complicated, and we're here
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  to help connect the dots. If you've got questions
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  or want to learn more, visit us at snarful .com.
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  Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next
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  time.