Microsoft Rolled Out AI PCs That Can't Play Top Games–and There's No Quick Fix | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft Rolled Out AI PCs That Can't Play Top Games–and There's No Quick Fix

wsj.com

18 pointsbookofjoe16 comments

The headline here feels pretty excessive. “There’s no quick fix”? There’s also no immediate problem.

Countless PCs are sold every year incapable of playing top games. Gamers are spec-heads for this reason and they’ll know not to get an Arm machine.

When was the last year you could buy a new PC incapable of running Fortnite?

Fortnight doesn't run on Linux yet, so "every year" seems about right. ;)

Since the inception of Fortnite? Windows 10 on ARM launched in 2017/2018. It couldn't do x64 software then either and I'm guessing really low end Intel machines in 2017 couldn't play Fortnite either.

ARM is not a PC.

So these AI PCs the article is talking about also aren't PCs? They run on ARM.

You could buy ARM PCs in 2018 too, like the Asus NovaGo.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/microsoft-rolled-out-ai-pcs-that-ca...

Bigger picture: I don't understand why MSFT would want to compete in what's ultimate a low-margin, commodity business that many others have exited. Are these loss-leaders not of sufficient quality, availability, or to their liking and so they need to have a choice available to push the software stack?

They need (or are desperate depending on your milage) to find a way to get AI onto Windows 11 to justify their huge investment in AI. A PC with a dedicated "AI-chip" is one of these ways. It is also a requirement if they want to compete against Apple when it comes to running local on-device models and workloads.

Presumably the goal is to entire what is a low margin market today and convert it into a high margin market. Microsoft has the option of simply limiting the number of Microsoft Windows licenses sold to prevent their competitors from selling more units.

I hope they do. I'm tired of seeing that windows malware preloaded onto all the non-apple laptops.

In other words, i dont think deliberately induced scarcity in windows would increase demand for windows, if anything we will breathe a collective sigh of relief and move on.

> I don't understand why MSFT would want to compete in what's ultimate a low-margin, commodity business

I was in a Walmart today, for the first time in years since I don’t live near one… Based on shelf space taken up, I’d estimate that 1/3 or more of the computers that Walmart sells are Chromebooks.

So yeah, this is probably trying to find some differentiation that stops the entire low-end market from being taken away from them. Because if that happens then things get really hard for them.

Kernel anticheat is software non portability as a service.

There are a ton of games from the 90s and early 2000s they no longer run on modern windows. It would be helpful if there was a culture of open sourcing game code allowing for recompilation to modern architectures.

https://archive.md/KCb5O

Did anyone use new ARM based devices in the enterprise environment? We have around 5 devices so far, and a part of cloud printing issue, our users love them. Great battery and performance for office tasks.

Any one else had a chance to play with them?

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