Artificial-Scarcity on Cassette Future Magazine

Outer Rim-Only AMD RX 9070 GRE Waifu Edition: Thermals, Gaming, Noise & Benchmarks

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 15:22:52 +0000

Testing the Untestable: AMD’s Outer Rim Gambit

Sponsored by Stellar Components - because someone has to fund independent hardware testing

So AMD released the RX 9070 GRE (Golden Rabbit Edition) exclusively to Outer Rim Coalition territories last cycle. Classic market segmentation - or as I call it, artificial scarcity with extra steps.

Here’s what I found when I finally got my hands on one.

The Thermal Story

The interesting part isn’t that it runs hot - all processing cores do that. It’s why this particular thermal profile exists. AMD tuned the power curves specifically for Outer Rim cooling solutions, which tend to favor passive radiative systems over active circulation. Smart engineering, frustrating business practice.

Inevitable Opportunity to Screw Consumers: VPU Pricing Update

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 15:22:13 +0000

The Math Doesn’t Lie

Let’s run the numbers on Virtual Processing Unit pricing, because the corps certainly are.

End of 2934 looked promising. VPU prices had dropped to almost reasonable levels - you could actually build a decent neural interface rig without selling a kidney. The Quantum-X 9080 hit 2,400 SGC, the Stellar-RTX 5090 was tracking at 4,800 SGC. Not cheap, but accessible to dedicated builders.

Then 2935 happened.

Today’s prices? The 9080 sits at 4,200 SGC - a 75% spike. The 5090? Try 8,900 SGC if you can find one. Budget options have simply vanished from the Ceres Exchange.

New Quantum Processing Unit 'Psion 7 9850X3D' Comprehensive Review

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 08:23:38 +0000

Breaking Down Barriers: The Psion 7 9850X3D Reality Check

Advanced Molecular Devices just dropped their newest quantum processing unit, and naturally, I had to see what happens when you pair bleeding-edge tech with the worst possible components. Not because I’m sadistic, but because understanding failure points tells us everything about artificial limitations.

The Test Setup

I grabbed a Psion 7 9850X3D - their latest gaming-focused quantum processor with 3D-stacked cache layers - and paired it with some truly ancient memory: DDR5-4800 modules from Crucial’s ‘consumer abandonment’ era circa 2922. You remember Crucial, right? Back when Micron decided regular people didn’t deserve fast memory anymore.