Chapter 60: Review Video

The official player chat group is very active.

It’s only been a few hours since Chen Ba last opened the chat, and he was surprised to see the unread messages had stacked up to 999+ again.

Some crazy admin changed the group name to [Tianba Manor Property Notification Group] and asked everyone to add a room and floor number to their nicknames.

When Chen Ba clicked into the chat, he almost thought he had entered the wrong group.

Looking at the group owner...

Turns out it’s me! No problem then!

"Star Emperor arcade occupancy mode, waiting for a skilled player++++"

"Is the admin here? If not, I’m starting the car!"

"Veteran driver, hurry up. I’ve already got Ba controlled, this group is full of insiders, don’t worry..."

"To the newcomers, here are the rules. You gotta criticize the group owner hard, and if you can’t do it well, just +1, don’t be all talk and no action. This group doesn’t keep idlers!"

Since it was working hours, there weren’t many people online in the group, besides chit-chatting, everyone was sharing various resources and benefits.

What benefits?

Children shouldn’t meddle in adults’ business!

After muting a few speedsters who were pressing down their accelerator pedals hard, Chen Ba noticed a player sharing a graphics card review video link in the chat record.

The player said in the group, "Check out this video, at 24:35, the ’Star Emperor’ extreme stress test, it cracked me up!"

Star Emperor?

Originally not interested, Chen Ba just wanted to mute the veteran driver to maintain a clean chat environment, but upon seeing this, his curiosity about the video content piqued.

Isn’t this a graphics card review video? How does it relate to Star Emperor?

He opened the Thunderbolt video link shared by the player with his browser out of curiosity.

[Where are high-end graphics cards high-end? Which card is the most cost-effective choice? The ultimate graphics card test of 2022, let me tell you the answer!]

The video title was very Thunderbolt.

Perhaps the standard skill for being an UP master on Thunderbolt is choosing a catchy video title.

Chen Ba wasn’t deceived by the title and directly clicked the video to play.

The first thing that appeared was rows of brand-new graphics cards lined up after being unboxed.

On the left were all N cards, ranging from the 10 series to the 30 series. On the right were A cards, fewer in number compared to N cards, but the RX6000 series cards were all there.

"That’s quite a cost!"

Yang Dong, holding a bucket of instant noodles, sat down beside Chen Ba and watched the video with him: "What do these UP masters do with the graphics cards after testing?"

"They usually resell them at a low price."

Chen Ba didn’t know much either.

But based on his experience, excluding sponsored products, these tested items generally get resold to fans or others.

They have to recover their costs, you know!

Don’t be fooled by those review zone UP masters, who like to write "spent XXX yuan" or "bled XX million yuan" in their video titles and urge fans to donate, who knows how much they really spend?

Maybe they didn’t spend a dime and instead made a lot!

At least in the digital review circle, particularly the mobile phone sector, most items are gifted by manufacturers. Nobody really thinks these UP masters buy a unit for every review, right?

"Hello everyone, I’m the Graphic Card Guy!"

"What you saw at the beginning of the video are the graphics cards we will be testing this episode, which are also the most common cards you can find on the market..."

While the two were casually chatting, the video entered the main topic.

This UP master’s fan count was decent, and the barrage was plenty, forcing Chen Ba to turn on the barrage shield mode, so he could clearly see the video content.

During the test session, besides graphics cards, other configurations were completely consistent.

Each card was tested for performance and real-time display in various PC single-player or online games at 1080P, 2K, and 4K resolutions.

"His test isn’t rigorous at all!"

While slurping noodles, Yang Dong couldn’t help but scoff, "Some of these graphics cards, despite having the same series name, have significantly different memory sizes and core frequencies, can these still be tested at the same level?"

"Just watch for fun, why take it so seriously?"

Chen Ba was quite indifferent.

Whether the tests were rigorous or not, he wasn’t the target audience for this video, so there was no need to be particular.

Soon enough, the tests started!

The first game being tested was PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which was hugely popular some years ago and considered a phenomenon but has been fading over the last couple of years.

The test results were quite average.

Since Chen Ba tried out PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds when it first went viral, he knew that the test results now actually depended on game optimization.

At the beginning of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, it was a significant driver for upgrading internet café setups, the experience for some graphics cards was imaginable.

But after numerous rounds of optimization now, the situation has notably improved, at least it’s not as crazy as it was initially, so the 1060 topping the cost-efficiency was expected.

The following tested games were new, with optimization levels indistinguishable from one another, in such cases, the gap between identical grade N cards and A cards was visible to the naked eye.

It’s the same old joke!

You think there’s no optimization but that doesn’t mean N cards aren’t optimized. You think the performance is the same but doesn’t mean A cards can fully perform!

"It’s up to us now!"

After a whole 20 minutes of video play, Yang Dong finished his noodles, staring at the screen intently eager to see how Star Emperor tests went.

"Next up is the new game, Star Emperor!"

"Maybe some of the audience hasn’t heard of or played this game, it doesn’t matter! All you need to know is this game is the most straightforward way to display the differences between graphics cards."

"Okay! No more talking, let’s test directly..."

In the video, Star Emperor was shown at 1080P resolution with the highest graphics settings, the tested graphics card was 1050Ti!

The barrage on the screen was peaceful.

Only when the UP cut to 2K and 4K resolutions, and the frames remained stable at 60, did the barrage start flooding with question marks.

"No way, is 1050Ti this powerful?"

"I’m using this card myself, how come I didn’t notice it’s this capable?"

"Are you kidding, this 4K ultimate graphics can hold 60 frames?"

1050Ti’s test performance in Star Emperor didn’t make sense, causing the barrage to stir with astonishment and skepticism.

However, this skepticism was soon shattered.

Because the UP switched to other graphics cards for testing, whether at 1080P or 2K, 4K resolutions with the highest graphics settings, it was still 60 frames steady as a rock.

"This game’s optimization is definitely the best I’ve seen, no contest! But it also brings up a problem, in the training ground test, the graphics card differences are totally unnoticeable..."

The UP seemed troubled, then sudden inspiration struck, "Since the training ground shows no difference, let’s go directly to live combat!"

"Path to Immortality, ultimate graphics..."

Seeing the UP master venture on Path to Immortality while maintaining the highest graphics settings, Chen Ba and Yang Dong had already guessed the outcome.

Of course!

They made the game themselves, they know what’s going to happen next, don’t they?

Perhaps after testing Star Emperor, this video should come to a close, whether it ends or not, it has to, unless the UP buys another batch of new cards!