Nvidia just released a new AI tool that turns your GeForce RTX graphics card into an AI chatbot, which admittedly sounds like something out of a Black Mirror episode. I mean, it’s not surprising given the green team’s transformation into an artificial intelligence enterprise, but the app is one of the first to transform a GPU into something like ChatGPT or Google Bard. If you’ve got an RTX 30-series card or newer in your rig, you’ll be able to start messing around with it right now for free, but I’m not so sure I want to hear what the RTX 4090 has to say.
I’ve reviewed most of the best graphics card contenders out there, and while I’m not entirely sold on AI being the solution to everything, it does have its uses when it comes to gaming PC performance. Tools like DLSS 3.5 and Super Resolution can help even the ricketiest of rigs pull off acceptable frame rates, while high spec machines are able to produce realistic ray traced visuals that wouldn’t be possible natively today without some assistance.
That said, even with artificial intelligence creeping into the PC graphics conversation, I didn’t expect to be talking about how you can talk to cards like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090. Dubbed Chat with RTX, the new application allows you to use a chatbot on your PC using a local dataset. That means you won’t have to go online, but you will have to free up over 35GB to install the app. Once you’re up and running, you can hook it up to language models like Mistral and Llama, saving anyone who’s into the whole chatbot thing from relying on big data centres.
In case you can’t already tell, I’m not really here for the whole AI revolution. Sure, the tech will have its use cases, and I’ve already confessed I’m a fan of DLSS. However, it definitely feels like more of a fad right now than anything else, one that has its sights set on graphics card supplies. Call me paranoid, but having just got through a few years of GPU supplies being slurped up by the crypo community, the idea of having graphics cards do things other than, well, graphics, rubs me the wrong way.
Nvidia does have specialist cards available, but $40K AI GPU options like the Nvidia H100 are naturally reserved for big enterprises. So, there’s a chance smaller operations and enthusiasts will have more of an excuse to turn to consumer graphics cards now that there’s a chatbot designed specifically for them, reversing the progress we’ve made with available over the past few years.
Of course, there’s no guarantee we’ll end up in the exact same situation, especially since last time we were last dealing with global component shortages. Still, I’m hoping we don’t end up with a bunch of graphics cards becoming artificial chat assistants, rather than providing someone with pretty visuals in their favorite PC games.
As a side note, if you're looking for the low down on the green team's newest mid-range GPU, swing by our Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super review for a deep dive.
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