When FSR 4 Drops and You Still Can't Afford a 4090: A Millennial's Guide to Coping

A droll and sarcastic take on the endless cycle of tech upgrades, particularly graphics card drivers, from the perspective of a Gen Z millennial working in the tech industry, bemoaning the cost and constant pressure to keep up.

September 9, 2025

Published by daria

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When FSR 4 Drops and You Still Can’t Afford a 4090: A Millennial’s Guide to Coping

Alright, buckle up buttercups, because another day, another graphics driver update just dropped, and honestly, who even cares anymore? I mean, besides the literal dozen dudes on Reddit who live and breathe frame rates, the rest of us are just trying to survive in this tech-bro-infested hellscape without selling a kidney for a new GPU. Today’s flavor of the month? AMD’s Adrenalin Edition 25.9.1, bringing FSR 4 to all your FSR 3.1 games. Groundbreaking, I know. It’s like putting a new coat of paint on a Honda Civic that’s already seen better days. But hey, at least it’s not another crypto bro telling me how he’s going to retire at 25 from his dogecoin investments. Small wins, people, small wins.

The Endless Cycle of Upgrade Culture

I swear, it’s an annual tradition at this point. Just when you finally save up enough to snag a decent mid-range card – maybe one that doesn’t sound like a jet engine taking off when you open Google Chrome – boom! A new generation drops. Or, even worse, a new driver drops that makes your slightly-less-ancient card feel prehistoric. FSR 4, FSR 3.1, DLSS 7.0 (probably coming next week, let’s be real). It’s all a ploy, a grand conspiracy by Big Tech to keep us in a perpetual state of inadequacy. My therapist says I need to embrace minimalism, but how am I supposed to do that when every game release demands a GPU that costs more than my monthly rent? The struggle is real, and it’s exhausting.

And let’s not even get started on the sheer audacity of these companies. They’ll release a card that costs more than a used car, then expect us to be grateful for a driver update that might give us an extra five frames per second in a game we barely play anymore. Meanwhile, my rent keeps climbing, my avocado toast budget is shrinking, and the only thing actually improving is the amount of caffeine I need to function at my soul-crushing corporate job. But sure, let’s all celebrate FSR 4. Because better pixels are definitely going to pay my student loans.

The Illusion of Choice

They call it