AMD Big Navi Reveal, Intel Rocket Lake, & Oculus Jailbreak

The New AMD Radeon 6000 Series (Big Navi)

This episode focuses heavily on AMD's latest entrance into the high-end graphics market with their new RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6800, 6800 XT, and 6900 XT cards. Linus and Luke break down:

• Performance vs. Pricing: AMD is directly targeting the RTX 3070 and 3080 with aggressive pricing, and potentially competing with the RTX 3090 via the 6900 XT.
• Key Features: Discussion on DirectX 12 Ultimate, Ray Accelerators, and the innovative Smart Access Memory feature, which may provide a significant performance boost when paired with Ryzen 5000 processors.
• Cautious Optimism: Despite the impressive specs, the hosts highlight potential risks regarding driver stability at launch, as well as the importance of waiting for comprehensive, independent reviews before committing to a purchase.

Intel Rocket Lake Updates

Intel has unveiled initial details about their 11th-gen Rocket Lake processors.

• These CPUs feature Cypress Cove architecture (backported to 14nm).
• Key upgrades include support for PCIe Gen 4 and native DDR4-3200 support.
• Linus notes that the inclusion of AVX-512 capabilities comes at the cost of two processing cores, and that overall, the announcement received less hype than the competing AMD news.

Oculus Quest 2 Jailbreak & Industry News

• Quest 2 Security: A VR researcher successfully achieved root access to the new Oculus Quest 2, effectively "jailbreaking" the device shortly after launch following a collective effort and bounty program involving industry figures like Palmer Luckey.
• 10,000 PPI Display: A collaboration between Samsung and Stanford has produced a new metaphotonic OLED display technology, which could theoretically eliminate the "screen door effect" in future VR headsets.
• Apple Privacy Changes: The hosts discuss the potential anti-competitive implications of Apple requiring apps to ask permission for tracking, highlighting the ongoing tension between Apple and Facebook/Google regarding user data and advertising.

"I'm going to let AMD into my heart one more time. I think you'd do it more than once. [...] I am feeling pretty good about this."