For now you can just stick with replacing the GPU since that's relatively simple, assuming the cable management in your current PC isn't a mess. In a couple years you may as well start fresh with a completely new build.

If you're already replacing the Mobo, CPU, Ram etc., at that point adding in a cheap mid-tower case, new PSU and CPU cooler isn't that much of an added cost, plus it's a lot easier than having to replace those components in your current build, especially if you didn't build it.

It also depends what price range you're aiming for. If you're going with a 9060 XT at the value/entry range, which would be recommended for you right now, then the components you need won't be all that expensive; 600-700W PSU, simple CPU tower air cooler, 9600X or it's equivalent, and the budget case market is flooded with new designs every year which come with all the case fans you need (generally pre-installed).

Getting an affordable and good value GPU has been the only struggle in the PC market recently, but a lot of that depends on your region. If you can get the 9060 XT (16 GB) at MSRP price or better, then you're already past the biggest hurdle. You can buy everything else when the time suits you.

The fact that the layoffs came not as a result of a underperforming business but as a result of Microsoft wanting to divert resources into AI has made me more pessimistic that there's a chance that one day Microsoft will straight up shutdown the entire division or sell it off. Rare is a profitable studio, that's public knowledge thanks to UK law, Zenimax is reportedly highly profitable, King got hit hard despite being highly profitable.

What's stopping Satya in the future from going: "Okay, Microsoft Gaming is profitable but AI has far more potential so why are we spending billions into Microsoft Gaming for modest profits when we can instead divert all that funding towards AI which is going to change the world and bring us in massive profits" That's all these companies care about, if not AI it will be the next golden goose that Satya chases.

I think if Satya could he would go back and stop the ABK acquisition so he can invest that money into AI instead and then straight up close XGS/Zenimax. They have ABK now so it's a bit more complicated as it does make them good profits but good profits are irrelevant to the AI dream. Then when AI doesn't revolutionise the world, they'll move onto the next thing to chase after at the expense of everyone else.

Won't be surprised if the entire Surface line-up is killed off soon to invest into AI some more. I don't think MS Gaming or any division in Microsoft (with the exception of Cloud) will be safe for years now, they'll be mass layoffs every year, until this AI craze dies down, Satya will be investing another $80bn into AI next year, then the year after, then the year after that, chasing after the golden goose.

Feels like this AI craze needs to die to save Xbox.

So it’s more of Phil’s plan of going more multiplat and opening the Xbox ecosystem was an attempt to ensure they got the profits necessary to keep the Xbox business running. Which was working, and now it can literally all go down the toilet because of Satya’s obsession…….unbelievable

AI is not a fad or craze. It's not going away. It is not an either this or nothing. All businesses, homes and individuals will have AI incorporated into everything moving forward. It is going to be essential into moving civilization into a new technological era. Learning how to incorporate it better with the least amount of pain is essential, but there will be pain.

Just get a NS2 and become a Nintendo gamer. It’s just easier.

Indeed, you just have to see how Spaghetti Will Smith happened just like two years ago and where we are now. We can argue about how fast the AI transformation will happen in different areas but if it may take a decade more or less won't mean shit for humanity. 

It may affect those living right now more or less but there's just no way around it. No idea how anyone can believe something else 

Nobody is saying AI won't be a big change, they're just saying it won't be as massive, world revolutionary, next stage in human evolution, as Microsoft and OpenAI are making it out to be and shit like AGI is nowhere near close to happening, if it's even possible, and I'm fully convinced even if it is possible that it won't happen in my lifetime. So I'm unconvinced investors will be willing to keep throwing tens of billions into an unprofitable venture for the next 10+ years. While morons like Sam Altman ask for hundreds of billions more.

If all we can point to right now is a bunch of stupid memes then meh. And hopefully governments will put a stop to the rampant theft and deep fake nonsense before it causes serious damage to society. AI may "improve" workflow by making millions of humans jobless (and then how does a country support millions extra unemployed?) but I really don't think that's justification for the extreme hype Microsoft/OpenAI put behind AI and when it doesn't live up to the hype is when things will backfire.

It's an extreme to say that AI will die into nothing, it's also an extreme the way that Microsoft/OpenAI/Sam Altman hype up AI. I take the stance that it's going to be a big change but not one that lives up close to the hype Microsoft/OpenAI put on it. And AI is still full of holes and dumb as shit in many areas, AGI which is the ultimate goal is nowhere close.

Microsoft is going to end up pumping $50bn+ into AI every year for the next 5-10 years, Lol.

This is a very naive take. The issue with going so heavy into AI isn't that it won't change the world in the next couple decades. The issue is that for all it's potential too do incredible things, it's also at least as likely to be an immense amplifier in human inequality, among many other potential problems. It won't take true AGI to make millions of people's jobs obsolete.

I said that it would make people jobless further down my post. But I still don't think making thousands of people jobless is equivalent to the level of immense hype that Microsoft and OpenAI are putting behind AI, and AGI is one of the things they're massively hyping up and have been hyping up for years now, remind me in 5 years when we still don't have it and they're still hyping it up to drive up excitement as a marketing gimmick.

And I would love for these capitalist companies to explain to me how making millions of people jobless helps the capitalist system they're apart of, because capitalism relies on infinite growth, which means infinite spending, once you make millions of people jobless, that becomes millions of people without an income, meaning people unable to spend on things you create, meaning no more infinite growth. So we'd need something to keep people spending, to keep the infinite growth going, something like UBI which I have zero faith most major countries will bother with, Lol. And it won't replace the full amount of lost wages.

I do think they'll be big changes, but not as world changing as Microsoft and OpenAI and that moron Sam Altman promise. And even then, it's not a guarantee that Microsoft bet on the right horse. Sam "I need $7tn" Altman. Sam "AI will make it possible for one person to build a billion dollar company very soon." Altman. Sam Altman honestly to me comes across as a major grifter, a pyramid scheme salesman and conning the shit out of Microsoft. The company is losing $5bn per year and growing, Lol. They're projected to lose $14bn this year.

The fact of the matter is that if Google and Microsoft can't make generative AI apps with meaningful consumer penetration, this entire industry is screwed. There really are no optimistic ways to look at these numbers (and yes, I'm repeating from the above):

• Microsoft Copilot: 11 million monthly active users on the Copilot app, 15.6 million unique monthly visitors to copilot.microsoft.com.
• Google Gemini: 18 million monthly active users on the Gemini app, 47.3 million unique monthly visitors.

These are utterly pathetic considering Microsoft and Google's scale, especially given the latter's complete dominance over web search and the ability to funnel customers to Gemini. For millions — perhaps billions — Google is the first page they see when they open a web browser. It should be owning this by now. 

Actually, I take that back. Some people care about Gemini — not that many, but some! — and it's far more fair to say that nobody cares about Microsoft Copilot despite Microsoft shoving it in every corner of our lives. 11 million monthly active users for its unprofitable, heavily-commoditized Large Language Model app is a joke — as are the 15.6 million monthly active users to its web presence — probably because it does exactly the same shit that every other LLM does.

Microsoft's Copilot app isn't just unpopular, it's irrelevant. For comparison, Microsoft Teams has, according to a post from the end of 2023, over 320 million monthly active users. That’s more than ten times the amount of monthly active users of their Copilot app and the Copilot website combined, and unlike Copilot, Teams actually makes Microsoft money.

Now, I obviously don't have the numbers on the people that accidentally click the Copilot button in Microsoft Office or on Bing.com, but I do know that Microsoft isn't making much money on AI at all. Microsoft reported in its last earnings that it was making "$13 billion of annual revenue" — a projected number based on current contracts — on its "artificial intelligence products."

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal from October 2023, Microsoft was losing on average more than $20 a month per user on the paid version of Github, with some users costing them more than $80 a month. Microsoft said a year later that Github Copilot had 1.8 million paid customers, which is pretty good, except like all generative AI products, it loses money.

I must repeat that Microsoft will have spent over $200 billion in capital expenditures by the end of 2025. In return, it got 1.8 million paying customers for a product that — like everything else I'm talking about — is heavily-commoditized (basically every LLM can generate code, though some are better than others, by which I mean they all introduce security issues into your code, but some produce stuff that’ll actually compile) and loses Microsoft money even when the user pays.

There Is No AI Revolution

There is also growing backlash lately against multiple aspects of AI. From the deepfake shit, to the blatant theft, backlash against companies using GenAI, etc. It's only going to grow as people get laid off due to AI, which will likely push governments into bipartisan support to regulate AI better, once the rules come in, the hype will be hurt, right now though, AI shit is pretty damn lawless. Companies have been pushing their luck with AI, they aren't naturally introducing it, they aren't carefully allowing customers to adopt it, they're trying to ram it down everyone's throat and blatantly abusing it and it is pissing people off.