We need more anime girl graphics cards

Okay, I know that that headline isn’t the normal PCWorld fodder, but hear me out. I’m not the target market for the new Sakura RTX 4070 Super and Sugar RTX 4080 Super GPUs, just revealed by Chinese manufacturer Yeston. And I’m certainly not suggesting that everyone’s PC parts need to be covered in cartoon pinups. But I do, unironically, love Yeston’s GPU designs, and I wish that more companies would take notice.

The last fifteen years or so of PC designs, at least those that get the most attention and press ink (good God, “ink,” I feel old), tend to be dominated by the likes of Razer, Alienware, and Corsair. That is to say, sleek black plastic and some brushed metal, festooned with enough RGB LEDs to make a carnival worker blink. Yeston makes graphics cards and a few other parts that appeal to the kind of people who use the word “tsundere” in everyday conversation. They’ve got a small, focused market that they serve, and serve very well. And that’s something I can respect, even if I’ve never argued online about which anime character would make the best theoretical life partner.

Yeston

Yeston

Yeston

To cut to the point, Yeston makes parts that fit an aesthetic, and they do it really well. The Sakura RTX 4070 graphics card (“cherry blossom” in Japanese, though it has feminine overtones since it’s also a given name — the English equivalent would be “Violet” or “Rose”) has a shroud that’s just plain gorgeous. There are blossom petals inlaid in the plastic, and even in the center of the cooling fans, complete with a great mixture of soft pastel blue and purple. This would be a great accent to any white-themed build, anime or otherwise. The newest updates were spotted by WCCFTech.

Yeston

Yeston

Yeston

Yeston’s catalog is full of these unique designs, plus cooling fans to extend them to your build at large. This pink-on-blue RTX 4060Ti is shaped like a freakin’ cat — it would be perfect for a D.Va-themed Overwatch build. There’s a more subtle variation of an older card with a stylish purple curve accenting a typical black shroud. Check out this 360mm AIO cooler covered in glitter — I know teenagers who’d love to throw that into any build. If the pastel-on-white isn’t your style, here’s one with some great yellow accents that looks like Caterpillar designed a CPU cooler.

Yeston

Yeston

Yeston

And most of these Yeston products rely on material color and carefully chosen accents to make their visual impact, doing so with minimal lighting or sometimes none at all. That’s the kind of thoughtful, appealing design that I’d like to see extended to the gaming desktop market as a whole. The closest thing I’ve seen to something that actually matches my personal style is Fractal Design’s North and Terra cases, and those are just two examples in over a decade of covering consumer tech products.

Varmilo

Varmilo

Varmilo

We’re seeing a bit of change here, albeit slow and seemingly in only one direction. Asus has been making parts themed on popular robot-themed anime like Evangelion and Gundam for a few years. And you can find custom keyboards and keycaps to suit just about any taste, from Star Trek to Lord of the Rings to things that aren’t ridiculously huge media properties, and just look good. I’m waiting for that kind of flexibility and intentional design sense to come to the inside of my computer, and not just the stuff I plug into it.

So bring on the “waifu” graphics cards. And bring on anything that gets PC design out of its “stealth fighter covered in Christmas lights” rut. I’ll stan for you, anime weirdos — just please let me buy more PC parts that look like they were designed, and not just manufactured.