Slaughtahouse

OP is looking for deals to extend existing subscription. They change gamepass about a year ago or so, it’s pricing model, and how you can stack. Some people extended their subscriptions to years out at lower rates, like 60% off vs. month2month, but Microsoft revised the whole structure and I don’t believe that’s possible anymore. I’ve only tacked on because I am interested to try Avowed and Ninja Gaiden 2, and I would like any savings possible. I don’t have gamepass anymore and I am not eligible for the $1 first month promo.

Following this thread. I want to dabble in Gamepass for a little bit and would love to know if people have deals

They're all scum “Torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn’t feel right”: Meta emails unsealed ARSTECHNICA.COM Meta’s alleged torrenting and seeding of pirated books complicates copyright case.

I've always agreed with the sentiment that they need to do more to gain market share. I just remain very skeptical that this is that moment. With Nvidia cards now being scalped hell and back, I am unsure if the corporate AMD side will take that risk. I think they will try to be as greedy as they can. They should take that risk... but they usually play it too safe. If they're aggressive in the upper mid with the 9070 XT, with FSR4, 16GB VRAM, for a 600$ actually obtainable price at ~4080 level performance, they will get a lot of people converting. People are willing to pay $1,000+ for the 5080. So I am not sure if they will be so "generous". Ill remain skeptical until April and we see how the launch goes

Update: Rumoured launched date March 6, 2025 https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-9070-xt-reportedly-launches-march-6

Not sure about turd books but I have a very recent Thinkpad, T14 with a AMD 7840U processor. GPU (embedded graphics) is RDNA 3 (780m). This laptop essentially has a GPU faster than a discreet flagship GPU I purchased 10 years ago for ~$700 (GTX 780) at 1/10 the power consumption. Obviously I am not playing Alan Wake 2 on this thing but most traditional AAA 3D game released prior this gen run fine on it and it crushes the typical indies you’d play on a laptop. If they’re about to hit 70% faster than a mobile RTX 4070 performance (desktop RTX 3060) in an iGPU just a couple years later (when compared to my laptop) is insane. That’d be desktop RTX 3070 Ti level performance. Honestly, I remain skeptical with that level of jump but who knows. And yes, while my history with PC hardware isn’t as coloured as the vets here, iGPUs were always trash in days past. Usually a waste of silicon, especially in desktop environments. Unless you needed some basic display out for the BIOS for a system in a server room, you typically avoided at all cost. P.S. What are you doing with a tri HD3450 setup? That sounds absolutely absurd in the year 2025 XD

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-radeon-rx-9070-series-press-conference-reportedly-set-for-late-february This has not been formally confirmed by AMD. Knowing it's direct competitors are scheduled for February launch (Blackwell 5070 / 5070 Ti), this is likely plausible and AMD confirmed a March launch. Link above. P.S. If you want to source text from Videocardz . net, press F12, go through the HTML, can you can copy / paste the text.

Agreed and agreed. Also: AMD Radeon RX 9070 series press conference reportedly set for late February - VideoCardz.com I'll get a new thread going for it

I agree with you on the pricing, I just don't expect RDNA 4 to really be that catalyst for them to carve out market share. I think FSR 4 will be the start of it, if the reviews check out and highlight it's better than XESS. All signs point it to be competitive, but I remain extremely skeptical that it would be compelling enough to really disrupt the market. Right now, there is so much demand that I don't see why AMD would dramatically reduce prices to gain market share in the desktop market. Even if MSRP was say at $600 for the 9070 XT, I don't expect it to be available at that price for the average consumer. Maybe UDNA will bring some unique opportunities for AMD to be more competitive throughout the entire gaming stack.

In a nutshell you’re asking for the 7900 XTX at $600. I don’t think you’ll see much of a change from AMD on the cost front. They would rather engineer and market software solutions to compete with Nvidia with “quality” than simply offer raw performance at a much lower price. This is one of the reasons why RDNA 4 is delayed, with the cost of the Nvidia Blackwell XX70 series likely being the number #1 reason. I expect the “msrp” for 9070 and 9070XT at $500 and $700 respectively. With most partner models selling for at least $50 premium. AMD will want their margins and mix in pending tariffs, I don’t see how they can get the price down much further. If they’re throwing up better RT and have a strong competitor to DLSS, they really should not undercut themselves. A good case is Call of Duty. CoD runs fast on AMD, with the 7900 XTX trading blows with the 4090 at less than half the price. CoD dominates gaming marketshare, with it being (again, for 16 years in a row) the highest $ sales for a video game in the US market. It’s no wonder AMD had IGN at CES play CoD with RDNA 4. They will lean into this and push their partnership with CoD to help market FSR4. If they keep making strategic plays with FSR in the most popular games for 2025 like the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds, I think they could make some inroads in the future. If we’re just getting performance two years ago at a small cost reduction, there is really no compelling reason to leave Nvidia for AMD. Nvidia supply will eventually catch up and the hype for Nvidia has never been higher.

Highly recommend a garmin. I use a watch for weight training, running, or any activity. Logs all the data on their Garmin Connect app and connects automatically with Stava or any other fitness apps you use. Battery life is approx. 7 days on my model but higher end ones last 2 weeks or more!

They all do the same thing. If China does it, it’s a national threat. If the US does it, it’s the prowess of ingenuity and the American dream. Same crap with Tiktok or anything else. Tiktok stands to outpace Youtube in ad revenue and all of a sudden, it’s a national security threat, unless US owns and takes the profits of course. Where does “Open” AI, this “non-profit” get its data from? Surely they’re playing by the “rules”? Oh wait, it’s all unregulated and it’s just a race to make as much money as possible and then dip when lawmakers grasp how to minimize complete and utter abuse of our data. /end rant

Anyone have luck securing a card? It was a total disaster on my end, with queues and websites crashing.

Not sure why there is conflicting info but Blackwell may be on 4NP after all. https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-gb202-blackwell-760mm²-gpu-die-shot-revealed-24756-cores-and-512-bit-bus

Alan Wake II Various resolutions, Max Settings Approx. 20 hrs in. Refrained from spoilers. Played on different displays over the past few weeks from my OLED TV to a 1080p LCD, so screenshot resolutions are varied. This game is a trip and a must play for the survival horror enthusiasts. The storytelling is fantastic but it’s… going to be extremely difficult to follow if you haven’t played the first Alan Wake. Even if you have but it’s been a while, watch a recap first. If RE4 was a fluid, action horror game, this is the exact opposite. Slow paced, heavy story beats, a ton of atmosphere…. If you’re considering purchasing, make sure to get the Deluxe edition which includes two DLC packs. It weaves the DLC into your playthrough so it all flows well. Highly recommend

For those who don’t know, FX for CAD to USD is ~1.43. So Founders RTX 5080 will likely be $1,400 or $1,450 CAD + tax My take… if you’re upgrading, go for founders or “entry” level cooler like Zotac or Asus TUF. Whoever is considering to pay $1,850 CAD + tax for a 5080 should probably take a deep breath before making that purchase 5090… no comment XD

Makes sense on the same node. Disappointing that the architecture changes aren't yielding any notable changes but I suspect that will change once games are being benched. Maybe up to an extra 10% lead in heavier RT games. Still, this a good indicator of what we can expect.

Mario Kart (8 Deluxe) is the highest selling game on Switch, at over 60m units sold. I think it makes sense to show off the sequel but it’s a bit odd how they teased it. The graphic fidelity isn’t there. I can’t tell if it’s a Switch Online type game like F-Zero 99 or a proper sequel. Either way, a new Mario Kart will help sell this thing. I’m personally waiting for an OLED version, presuming the display is IPS. All the rumours indicate it is 1080p, IPS and every rumour reported by the major outlets has been accurate. So expect 1080p. 720p would be a surprise. I use my Switch nearly exclusively mobile. Either in bed or when traveling and on flights. I’d strongly prefer not reverting back to traditional LCD but early adoption will depend on software. I am super hyped for Metroid Prime 4, which will likely be a cross gen title. I just don’t know if the Switch OG copy will get faster performance when running on a Switch 2 or if I have to purchase a Switch 2 copy. A lot of enthusiasts will want clarification if games will run better on Switch 2 but I suspect they won’t, and will require additional purchases.

Alan Wake II DCI 4K (Native), High Settings, HDR Enabled Finished Indy (excellent game BTW) and headed back to Bright Falls for Alan Wake II. A few DLC's rolled out and there have been a few updates, including a photo mode. Running the game at "true" 4K (4096 x 2160). Game looks awesome to no surprise. 7900 XTX can't handle path tracing in real time, unless maybe using FSR2 at performance mode but not worth the trade off.

I'm a Nintendo guy, so I'll always have a Nintendo console along side PC to play their games. Rumoured specs: https://videocardz.com/newz/nintendo-switch-2-motherboard-with-nvidia-soc-leaks-out Compared to other consoles, it's render performance is maybe around PS4 level but it has NVME storage, more memory, and updated GPU architecture that supports DLSS. So it should be a SIZABLE upgrade vs. OG Switch, which is a lightweight Maxwell chip.

It’s certainly possible. It really depends what the vision is for the site and how the owners want to get there. I have some recommendations but they require spend. If that is of interest, send a PM. It’s the same info I passed on to E last year.

What do you believe will disrupt this wall and why would it take 10-30 years? In the short term, I believe we all agree that 2 year cycle of GPU architecture / node swaps is dead. If GPU vendors want to release new GPU SKUs every year for constant cash flow and revenue, expect more iterative changes. Node changes likely will be 4 years+ at this rate considering the costs and yields. The latest roadmap we have from TSMC (Nov 2024) is linked below. I read it that it's likely consumer graphics wont be on 3nm until late 2026 or early 2027. TSMC Technology Roadmap: 1.6nm Chip Manufacturing Set for 2026 WWW.GURU3D.COM Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has revealed its technology roadmap for the coming years at the Open Innovation Platform (OIP) 2024 conference in Amsterdam. That would mean it would be approx. 5 years since Ada / RDNA 3 debuted with 5nm. Now I could be dead wrong and Nvidia launches their refresh of Blackwell on TSCM 3nm, but it seems unlikely when they're maximizing 3nm Blackwell for data centers. For context, the revenue from data center vertical was 10x that of consumer, gaming cards in the last quarter. $30B vs. $3B. NVIDIA Announces Financial Results for Third Quarter Fiscal 2025 | NVIDIA Newsroom NVIDIANEWS.NVIDIA.COM Record quarterly revenue of $35.1 billion, up 17% from Q2 and up 94% from a year agoRecord quarterly Data Center revenue of $30.8 billion, up 17% from Q2 and up 112% from a year ago SANTA ... All of this is speculation of course...

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-reveals-die-sizes-for-gb200-blackwell-gpus-gb202-is-750mm²-features-92-2b-transistors New info highlights that consumer Blackwell is not on the further refined 5nm node, 4NP (5nm++). Instead, they keep the exact same node from Ada, 4N (5nm+).

Nintendo direct with more info coming early April. Mario Kart 9 teased. 2025 release date.

Depends on how much you BBQ/Smoke with coal but a $15 chimney starter is fantastic. I use it everytime I start a cook. 10-15mns (passively) and the coals will be scorching. Dump onto your fuel, like unlit coals and you're golden.