Coinciding with the launch of GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 "Blackwell" graphics cards earlier in the year, Original Price House and MSI initiated a compelling promotional competition for Taiwanese PC hardware enthusiasts. As covered on TechPowerUp at the end of last week, eager collectors of signature "Lucky Dragon" figurines were seeking the completion of whole "Blind Box Of Lucky" sets. A qualifying quantity—of nine individual/unique designs—would grant access to a "free" MSI GeForce RTX 5080 VANGUARD SOC graphics card; supplied by Original Price House (a regional shop). The promo's original terms proudly proclaimed that "there is no limit to the exchange for a complete set." In a follow-up report, HKEPC Hardware put a spotlight on the campaign's apparent premature end.

The Hong Kong-based news PC news outlet provided evidence of the event organizers "modification of the rules"—advancing claim/collection deadlines from the (original) May 31, 2025 end date to March 31, 2025. Extra international attention has reportedly "ruined" MSI and Original Price House's local campaign. HKEPC commented on the circumstances: "it is understood that (the shop) originally estimated that the number of Lucky Dragon dolls that can be found in Taiwan is/was limited, but it obviously underestimated the power of the community. Many people bought dolls from all over the world at high prices to participate in the event, resulting in the store being 'overwhelmed with sales'." Last week's report suggested that five completed sets of Lucky Dragon figurines had happily been exchanged for premium-tier MSI GeForce RTX 5080 VANGUARD SOC models. Within the last couple of days, another six "winners" have turned up with qualifying collections of cute toys. According to HKEPC's latest coverage: "this number (of claimants) is already double the original expectation. Therefore, according to the instructions of the manufacturer (MSI), Original Price House has decided to advance the exchange deadline to March 31."

Taiwan's Original Price House and MSI are running a compelling promotion; involving the trade in of the manufacturer's signature "Lucky Dragon" figurines for a GeForce RTX 5080 VANGUARD SOC graphics card. As reported by HKEPC Hardware, five lucky participants have managed to exchange completed sets—of nine individual toys—for GB203 GPU-based flagships. According to MSI's "Blind Box Of Lucky" landing page, ten exclusive designs—including a rare Maoi secret edition—were produced and then (randomly) bundled into VANGUARD Launch Edition packages. HKEPC outlined conditions: "applicable models include GeForce RTX 5070, RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080 and RTX 5090. It is limited to only 1,000 pieces worldwide." VideoCardz reckons that majority of Lucky Dragon VANGUARD boxes were sent to reviewers and influencers, so it could be challenging for mere mortals to accumulate a qualifying tally of cute plastic mascots.

As disclosed by HKEPC (a Hong Kong-based organization), one individual has gone to great lengths to complete the set: "a Taiwanese netizen posted in the HKEPC DIY group, hoping to purchase the 'Lucky Dragon' at a high price of NT$4,000 ($121 USD). After inquiry, it was learned that this is related to an event currently being held in Taiwan. As long as you collect 9 different Lucky Around the World Dragons before May 31, 2025 and keep the outer box, Taiwan Original Price House will exchange them for an MSI RTX 5080 VANGUARD graphics card worth NT$43,990 ($1332 USD), and there is no limit to the number of cards you can exchange." As of late January, the editor of Cool PC—a Taiwanese media outlet—was seeking to complete their set of MSI "Lucky Around The World" dragon collectibles. They used their news section to send out a personal request to readers: "when he has collected 9 of them, he can exchange them for a GeForce RTX 5080 at Original Price House!..The editor likes it very much, and is willing to exchange it with the lucky person who has collected a set of 9 different Lucky Around the World Dragons."

Pat Gelsinger has quite bravely stepped into the belly of the beast this week. The former Intel boss was an invited guest at NVIDIA's GTC 2025 conference; currently taking place in San Francisco, California. Technology news outlets have extracted key quotes from Gelsinger's musings during an in-person appearance on Acquired's "Live at GTC" video podcast. In the past, the ex-Team Blue chief held the belief that NVIDIA was "extraordinarily lucky" with a market leading position. Yesterday's panel discussion provided a repeat visit—where Gelsinger repeated his long-held opinion: "the CPU was the king of the hill, and I applaud Jensen for his tenacity in just saying, 'No, I am not trying to build one of those; I am trying to deliver against the workload starting in graphics. You know, it became this broader view. And then he got lucky with AI, and one time I was debating with him, he said: 'No, I got really lucky with AI workload because it just demanded that type of architecture.' That is where the center of application development is (right now)."

The American businessman and electrical engineer reckons that AI hardware costs are climbing to unreasonable levels: "today, if we think about the training workload, okay, but you have to give away something much more optimized for inferencing. You know a GPU is way too expensive; I argue it is 10,000 times too expensive to fully realize what we want to do with the deployment of inferencing for AI and then, of course, what's beyond that." Despite the "failure" of a much older Intel design, Gelsinger delved into some rose-tinted nostalgia: "I had a project that was well known in the industry called Larrabee and which was trying to bridge the programmability of the CPU with a throughput oriented architecture (of a GPU), and I think had Intel stay on that path, you know, the future could have been different...I give Jensen a lot of credit (as) he just stayed true to that throughput computing or accelerated (vision)." With the semi-recent cancelation of "Falcon Shores" chip design, Intel's AI GPU division is likely regrouping around their next-generation "Jaguar Shores" project—industry watchdogs reckon that this rack-scale platform will arrive in 2026.

The world's leading PC gaming hardware brand, MSI, has partnered with Opera GX, the browser for gamers to create a unique browser and interactive content experience for fans of MSI's and Opera GX's products and services. "Our partnership with MSI has enabled us to once again create a truly engaging branded browser experience for one of the most renowned hardware brands in gaming," said Mattijs de Valk, VP of Business Development Gaming at Opera, adding: "The GX MSI browser ensures that users stay connected with MSI brand and its products and services in a fun and engaging way - while browsing the internet with the best browser for gamers."

The partnership with Opera GX is just the beginning of a series of upcoming activities. First is the GX MSI Edition—a special co-branded version of the Opera GX gaming browser, including exclusive MSI-themed interactive backgrounds, music, sounds and content. GX MSI Edition comes packed with game-changing features, including CPU, RAM, and Network limiters, hundreds of customization options via GX Mods, and seamless integration with popular platforms like Discord and Twitch.