The Curse Of High Refresh Rates

The eternal dev cycle of adulthood: First, you fantasize about building that ultimate gaming rig with liquid cooling and RGB everything. Then you meticulously install 17 different launchers (Steam, Epic, GOG, Origin, Ubisoft Connect...) because each one has that one exclusive you absolutely need. Next, you frantically buy games during every sale because "80% off is basically free money." Finally, the crushing reality hits - you spend your precious free time scrolling through your 300+ game library for 45 minutes before giving up and watching YouTube videos about games instead.

Remember when buying a GPU was just an expense and not a second mortgage? In 2009, dropping $500 on a graphics card felt like a splurge. Fast forward to 2025, and you're staring at a $4,799 price tag with the same horrified expression as someone who just found out their entire codebase has no comments. Thanks crypto miners, AI enthusiasts, and whatever unholy alliance of market forces conspired to make rendering pixels cost more than my first car. At this rate, we'll soon be trading organs for ray tracing capabilities.

When you install a new game but forget that your gaming rig needs to compile shaders before you can actually play. That moment when you hit "Play" all excited, only to be stopped dead in your tracks by the dreaded "Compiling Shaders: 1 of 9378" progress bar. The betrayal! Your evening plans suddenly held hostage by the GPU equivalent of watching paint dry. And somehow it's always when you've only got a small window of free time to play. Those shaders might as well be compiling your disappointment in real-time.

Valve's business strategy in a nutshell. For those uninitiated, "Gaben" refers to Gabe Newell, the founder of Valve Corporation—makers of Steam, Half-Life, and collectors of your wallet's contents. The genius move? Announce shiny new products to distract everyone from the fact that you're sailing away on a mega-yacht purchased with Steam's 30% cut of every game sale. Meanwhile, Half-Life 3 remains in the same dimension as affordable housing in San Francisco—purely theoretical.

THE ABSOLUTE AUDACITY of this frog gentleman! Announcing his game jam creation ranked #8 out of 36 with the formality of a royal decree! 🐸👑 Two days of frantic coding, energy drinks, and existential crises—only to land in the prestigious position of... *checks notes dramatically*... EIGHTH PLACE! Not first, not even podium-worthy, but presenting it like he's discovered the cure for JavaScript callback hell! The aristocratic frog energy here is simply too powerful. We're not worthy of such distinguished mediocrity!

The absolute TRAGEDY of our time! Here I am, hands clasped in desperate prayer, staring at my screen with the emotional depth of a blank slate, BEGGING the GPU gods at Nvidia to announce that their 50-series graphics cards were just an elaborate April Fool's joke! But NOOOO! Those wallet-destroying monstrosities are ACTUALLY REAL! My bank account is already filing for emotional damages while I sit here contemplating if I need to sell a kidney just to render my pathetic little side projects. The audacity! The betrayal! And yet... *dramatically whispers* I'll probably still buy one.