Tech market Memes

Remember when gamers could actually afford GPUs? Yeah, me neither. First it was crypto miners turning graphics cards into digital gold pans, now it's AI companies hoarding them like digital dragons. Meanwhile, Nvidia's over there counting cash while gamers are checking if kidneys are still selling well on the black market. The circle of tech life: gamers get distracted by a shiny new game trailer, turn around, and find their GPU budget has been mugged in a dark alley by corporate interests.

That's the Portal cake logo with "The MSRP is a lie" repeated like a dystopian mantra. Graphics card prices haven't been this fictional since cryptocurrency miners were building rigs in their mothers' basements. Manufacturers slap on MSRPs that belong in fantasy novels while retailers mark them up to "market value" – which is corporate speak for "whatever desperate gamers will pay." Nothing says "modern computing" like needing a second mortgage for a GPU that'll be obsolete before you finish paying it off.

While the GPU market is having another meltdown (people literally fighting in the background), there's always that one person who's completely unbothered—just casually ordering a suspiciously cheap CPU from some sketchy international website. The 5700x for $100? That's either the deal of the century or a paperweight in disguise. Either way, absolute chad move ignoring the GPU chaos and focusing on the CPU bargain hunt. When RTX 4090s are being scalped for kidney prices, sometimes you gotta pivot to CPU upgrades from the digital equivalent of a back alley.