What I see in the re-release of this SSD
Sometimes, product reviews are superfluous. Take the SanDisk Optimus GX Pro 8100, for example. The SSD isn’t a new product – it’s a sign of a stagnating industry.
Same product, different name. In 2025, SanDisk launched the WD Black SN8100. At the time, I said that anybody looking for maximum performance would be hard-pressed to find a better SSD. A year later, the same goes for the Optimus GX Pro 8100, which is simply the WD Black SN8100 marketed under a different name. Your best bet is to buy whichever model happens to be cheaper.
But why has SanDisk relaunched an SSD that came out a year ago? I suspect the industry’s experiencing a lack of inventiveness. The Optimus is just one of many indications of that malaise.
Update: As some of you have pointed out in the comments section – and as SanDisk itself has stated – the name change is due to licensing issues. I am/was aware of this. Even so, that doesn’t change my broader argument that the PC industry is in crisis. Nevertheless, I’ve toned down the article title.
Less boldness, fewer ideas
No major surprises came out of Computex 2026. Despite some new products being showcased, genuine wow moments were few and far between. Even Nvidia’s supposedly game-changing notebook chip was a letdown, turning out to be the same old Arm and CUDA cores in new garb.
Source: Screenshot: YouTube/Nvidia
New designs are rare, while risks are avoided. The reason? Well, not a lack of talent. It’s more to do with a lack of priorities. The industry, you see, is reallocating its resources.
It’s not scarcity, it’s resource shifting
It’d be wrong to chalk this situation up to a supply chain crisis. It’s more of a deliberate redistribution of resources. In October 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote a letter of intent to Samsung and SK Hynix. It wasn’t a sales contract – it was just a signal. But it was enough. Memory manufacturers scaled back production for consumer goods, shifted their focus to short-term contracts and prioritised HBM chips for AI applications because they generate higher profits.
After years of overproduction and falling prices, manufacturers sensed an opportunity and seized it. The result was enormous profits, even eclipsing those of Nvidia and TSMC. Micron has shut down its consumer brand, Crucial, to free up capacity. Corsair has been forced to decide between fulfilling old orders at a loss or upsetting customers by cancelling them (article in German). This isn’t a story about scarcity – it’s about shifting resources.
AMD: old silicon, new price
AMD is part of this trend too (article in German). The RX 9070 GRE, a product we’d seen before, was relaunched at its original price in a new market despite its scaled-back specs. At the same time, AMD extended support for the AM5 platform until 2029. This may sound customer-friendly, but it’s probably an admission that the next-generation Zen 6 processor will be delayed until at least 2027.
There’s a familiar pattern at play here: old technology, new name, full price. Innovation is giving way to repositioning. All at a time when many users are choosing not to upgrade their gear due to steep DDR5 prices.
Nvidia: gaming has become a footnote
Nvidia is still hamming up its connection to gamers – at least in keynotes. Its financial statements, however, tell a different story. As of 2026, Nvidia no longer reports the Gaming section of its accounts separately. This revenue now appears under Edge Computing, a section that also includes robotics and automotive chips and accounts for less than eight per cent of revenue. What was once a core element of Nvidia’s business has become a mere footnote.
This shift is evident among motherboard partners such as Asus and MSI too. Despite Nvidia’s record revenue, the company is reporting declining sales, with consumer-oriented business losing its importance. It’s the likes of Dell, HP and Lenovo, who’ve gone into the data centre business, who are making the profits.
Collateral damage
Manufacturers with no connection to AI – case, cooler and power supply producers – are being hit particularly hard. Their components haven’t got any more expensive, but demand is plummeting. People who have put a pin in building a new PC because of high RAM prices aren’t buying new cases either. My Galaxus colleague, Joshua, who works in Category Management, confirms this decline is noticeable in our shop too.
When knowledge is lost
Loss of experience is harder to measure than a decline in sales. YouTubers like Jay from Jayztwocents and Steve from Gamers Nexus talk about have addressed the issue in their videos, highlighting that experienced engineers and product designers are leaving the PC industry. One of the employees to leave reportedly played a key role in establishing concepts such as the power supply cover in computer case design. Now, people like this are being laid off or are choosing to switch to more stable industries. Once they’re gone, they rarely come back.
This is the most insidious manifestation of the damage being done. Not the headlines or the quarterly reports. When an industry loses its brightest minds, that talent will still be missing when market conditions eventually improve.
Consolidation: the next wave
What happens when companies post losses for too long? Consolidation. Small companies disappear, leaving a handful of suppliers with greater market power. The GPU industry has been a duopoly for a long time, and there are only three major memory manufacturers. If only a few case and power supply manufacturers survive, there’ll be a lack of competition and, consequently, a lack of incentive for innovation.
Source: Shutterstock/Artskrin
Home-built PCs are becoming a niche market
Does this spell the end of home-built PCs? Hardly. People will continue putting together their own builds – they just won’t be able to do it on the cheap any more. The days of entry-level builds are over for now.
What’s here to stay? PC building as a hobby for enthusiasts – the ones who build for the sheer joy of it and have the cash to do so. The industry has redefined its priorities, reallocated resources and redirected capital. It’s the people at the bottom of the food chain who’ll shoulder the consequences.
The SanDisk Optimus GX Pro 8100 is just one small example of this. But sometimes, a renamed product says more about an industry than any quarterly report.
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