Mikes Rant – Christmas Edition – Predictions For 2019!

Mikes Rant – Predictions For 2019

Over my time with eTeknix, I think I have proven that more often than not when I make a prediction, I tend to be right. For example, I predicted the bitcoin crash and the closure of Telltale Games in 2018. That’s just a small example of the genius being my lateral way of thinking. Well either that or I just make enough wild predictions to occasionally get some right!

With that in mind, looking ahead to 2019 let’s take a look at what I expect for the year!

Bitcoin Will Continue To Lose Value

If one thing is certain as we come into the end of the year, it’s that the price of Bitcoin certainly isn’t what it was. That might sound like I’m referring to 4-5 years ago, but it’s actually as recent as the beginning of 2018. After a near $20,000 high in December, come the new year and by April 2018, the price had dumped down to around $5000-6000.

Since that time, we have had a period of relative stability, I do, however, suspect that the price will continue to fall throughout 2019.

We have already seen a few little hints with fluctuations between October-December 2018 and I suspect that this is just the precursor to another drop. It might sound dramatic, but I predict that by this time next year, the price will likely be around $3,000 a coin. (Watch as it spirals above $20,000).

PS5/Xbox One Announcements

In truth, I had suspected that before the end of the year that Sony or Microsoft would’ve made a formal announcement of their next-generation of console. Admittedly, I didn’t expect any specifics. Perhaps just a release date or, at the least, a rough indication when we could expect an announcement. Well, the year is (practically) over and we got nothing!

Based on all the evidence we have though, the next generation of consoles will release in 2020, as such, while it might seem a little obvious to many – I predict that we’ll have a release date for the PS5 and Xbox Whatever before the end of 2019.

AMD Graphics Cards Will Start Closing The Gap On Nvidia

It’s been a rather quiet year in terms of graphics card releases from AMD. In fact, pretty much the only thing we’ve had to get excited about is the updated release of the RX 590. A card that is essentially a ‘let’s use up all the parts and give Polaris a send-off’ GPU. While there are no specifics for AMD’s line-up in 2019, we do know that we should expect a brand new line of graphics cards from Team Red.

With AMD already admitting though that they have very little interest in ray tracing (at least until their entire range supports it, which means it won’t release before the 5XX’s are discontinued), it does leave you to wonder if they might be concentrating more on outright price and performance rather than any razzle-dazzle.

There has certainly been more than a little success for them in the Ryzen processors. As such, we know that if AMD can get a great product at a reasonable price people will buy them. With the Nvidia 20XX range so damn expensive as well, am I the only one who thinks that Team Red could, with the right product range, start to take a nibble at Nvidia?

I’m not expecting miracles, but at the time of writing AMD’s market share is just 15.21%. – I predict that by the end of 2019, this will be at least 22 and possibly as high as 25%! A small, but significant step!

Some Component Prices Will Fall

If there is one thing that PC builders have noticed in the last 18 months, it’s that prices have gotten pretty ridiculous. We have seen huge increases in the price of RAM, graphics cards and even, arguably based on performance increases, processors. Well, Intel ones at least. With that in mind, many may be wondering if the good times will ever be here again.

What were the good times you ask? Well, the days where you could, for example, get 16gb of new RAM for less than £70 and your Soul.

Fortunately, early indications suggest that things are back on the road to recovery. We are already seeing slight drops in the price of SSD drives and based on manufacturing factories set to open in Asia, we should, slowly but surely, also expect to see RAM prices drop a little. We have already seen graphics cards start to slowly come back to come kind of sanity and things might get even better in that regard. Reports have indicated that as I write, Nvidia has masses of 10XX stock they simply can’t sell. Good news if you have, perhaps, been eying up a 1080 or 1080ti.

I’m not saying that prices will drop hugely, but I will at least commit that by this time next year RAM and SDD prices will drop. At the very least, they will not increase in 2019.

Intel Will Release A Graphics Card

This is perhaps going to be one of my wildest predictions so strap yourself in and don’t froth at the mouth too much! Why? Well, everything we have seen to date indicated that Intel will not release a graphics card until at least 2020. We certainly know that they are working on one, but the company has been keen to emphasise on multiple occasions that nothing (at least on a consumer level) will be ready until them.

I am, however, a little more optimistic in this regard for several reasons. Firstly, Intel is arguably the only company who (at least in terms of R&D) can compete with Nvidia. I’m sorry AMD fans, but when you compare the two companies, Team Red simply doesn’t have anything close to the same level of resources.

I think, however, with the somewhat tepid reception of the Nvidia 20XX series, Intel might think that they have something to exploit here.

I’m not suggesting that it will be an outright Nvidia 2080Ti beating card, but I do predict that before the end of 2019 Intel will have a consumer dedicated GPU released.

What Do You Think?

I should note that I don’t expect to be right on all of these, but at the same time, I haven’t played it safe either! In other words, we’ll find out in 12 months how good (or bad) I did so don’t be too mean to me now! At least I had the cojones to go big or go home!

What do you think of Mike’s predictions? Do you have any to make for 2018? For example, if Mike will still have a job at eTeknix? – Let us know in the comments!

Disclaimer

Mikes is a miserable sod at the best of times and may not necessarily be experiencing the love and forgiveness of the Christmas Season. He does, however, always love to tell people that he was right! He can’t help it!- As such, please note that Mikes Rant is an opinion piece and we at eTeknix as a whole may not (and probably don’t) agree with him!

More Rants

Did you enjoy Mike’s Rant and want to check out more? – Well, for all of his rants you can check out the link here!

Which one is your favourite? – Let us know in the comments!

Tell Me More!

Check out our PlayStation 5 What We Know So Far feature here. Our Xbox Two What We Know So Far here, or our other “What We Know So Far” features here.