Slaughtahouse

I've played MSFS when I was really young. I believe FS 95. I "enjoyed" it and gained a respect for it but knowing it's really on the very, teensy tiny edge of being a game, I don't think I'd ever dabble in it again. I'm not the biggest fan of the sim genre and if anything, I may purchase Ace Combat 7 since it's on sale for less than $10 XD and you've mentioned it. Back when Battlefield was more popular, I'd always lean towards engineer or support classes and I would love tocus on taking a helicopter to pick troops up. Go to spawn, grab the squad, fly them in, retreat, repeat. Whether it was BF 2142 or BC2 (black hawk was soooo good), it was my own game within the game. That feeling when an RPG is barreling towards you and you save all the lives by pulling off a maneuver without crashing is pure adrenaline. If I had a full, separate PC setup, with a stick or yoke etc. I could see myself getting into games with more flight components but not necessarily sims. I have a good friend who is really into FS 2020. He will commit to doing a full flight, used to work for one of the largest aviation companies, and simply loves aviation. The type of person who will sit outside of an airport and photograph landings. Not much more to add than I respect those who love the craft, field, genre, and aviation. I love planes but honestly, if time and budget were no constraint, I would rather take lessons than invest in the sim. I'm really enjoying it. I've left a review (initial impression) on Steam which I'll copy paste below in italics. Beyond my impression, I feel the game is actually... easier? I perfected the prologue chapter. Which was shocking since FP1 has me sweating all the time. I completed all the objectives without any large mediations or sacrifices. I'm only in Chapter 1 and apparently there are 5. So time will tell if my opinion changes but I really enjoy it. Initial impressions: - FP2 emphasizes macro decisions vs micro (FP1). - Story telling and presentation (graphics, audio, effects etc.) are much improved vs FP1 - Factions and adjustments to policies have broader, wider impact to the direction of your city but less impact to the player (individually, emotionally). - Performs well, no obvious hitching or significant bottle necking, scaling settings can improve performance; Very stable release. Key takeaway: FP2 doesn't supersede FP1. It offers different experiences and both games complement each other. They play very differently from each other yet feel so similar at the same time. Highly recommending to give it a go.

I respect those who play MS Flight Simulator but I don't think I'll ever go down that lane XD Are you excited for MS Flight Simulator 2024? I've heard they've added fauna with real-time migration data. I'm not sure how critical that is to the experience... but it seems pretty interesting to know that birds and mammals will physically relocate across the globe based on real world patterns and behaviours! Edit: Microsoft Animal / Nature Simulator FORUMS.FLIGHTSIMULATOR.COM After watching some early previews on social media, I wondered whether the upcoming simulator is for aviation, or actually for nature stuffs??? Wow, more than hundred new species would be included in... mensjournal.com WWW.MENSJOURNAL.COM

Blackwell (data centre) is a custom 5nm, labeled as 4nm. I believe it’s called 4NP. Consumer GPUs must be the same but I agree with the sentiment. Architecture changes, GDDR7, and other technologies will drive the efficiencies and performance improvements. If consumers GPUs were on a node more advanced than the data centres in today’s AI hype train age, I’d be hella impressed.

Hard to tell. The video shown is faked, in the sense it's not representative of real-time gameplay and everything is extremely scripted. It's hard to tell what technology they actually have. It reminds me of bullshots, but to the next level. Will people have access to AI tools to make games that are as successful as, lets say Valheim, Worlde, or Balatro without formal experience? Time will tell. I believe it's more than possible. I also think the EAs of the world prefer if they deploy a platform, like an AI sandbox demonstrated, that gives players that feeling but they still control the platform, to monetize it as a service. That's my gut, effectively the next evolution in the social / creation genre like Minecraft and Roblox. They all want that Minecraft / Roblox money...

Frostpunk 2 1440p, Ultra Settings (Upscaling disabled) Forgot that I pre-ordered this some months ago. Plays differently than the original. The main difference, you focus on constructing zones, not buildings like FP1. To construct a zone, you need to "frost break" the ground. Once broken, you can establish a "district" on a resource, and scale up buildings by selecting a pre-determined number of tiles adjacent to the district. Tiles are hex, like Civ. Above is 30mns of progress. Other news, game is running at ~60fps @ 1440p, Ultra settings. ~70fps on High*

Just released Antpile 2 rips

I thought they did a great job with video. Especially for general audiences and investors. It’s clear that there could be unique and fun opportunities when the players have the opportunity to modify the conditions of the game. I think it’s easier to digest when it’s shown as written prompts, like Chat GPT but that’s really just the surface and it’s not really the experience I think players specifically want (pausing gameplay loop to type a message / prompt to the AI front end). I hope in due course, we get something substantially more advanced than what Left 4 Dead had years ago. Meaning an AI system that modifies level design, difficulty, conditions etc. based on its interpretation of your gameplay. Likely at least 5 years away from that but the potential is there.

RE: Graph, Yes, it’s the expected behaviour at stock. It gives a good approximation of how X cpu should preform under various load conditions. Example 1: Using software that is primarily single threaded? Expect an average around 5.7 GHz on one to two cores. Example 2: Running an all core, 32 threaded render? You’re going to be near or below 5.3 GHz. Example 3: Playing a game that stresses multiple cores? You’re likely going to see bouncing 5.4 to 5.5 GHz on some cores. Since the vast majority of games don’t effectively stress a full 16 core chip. In other words, it’s a baseline. I highly recommend you develop your own at stock. That way, as you adjust levers (variables like Scalar) in PBO, you can see the impact to your clock speeds under different benchmarks. If you don’t want to develop your own, you can reference theirs but it won’t be 100%, 1:1. I’m not a good overclocker. I usually don’t push chips nearly as far as others do on enthusiast forums or probably as far as you have. I’ve just learned through trial and error, especially on Zen, it’s best to understand how your own chip behaves at stock before tweaking. RE: CCD not boosting, does this occur outside of 3DMark, like an all core CB R23 bench? If so, something appears fundamentally wrong. If all cores are active and boosting around 5.2 - 5.3, that’s seems normal. At least against TechPowerUps data.

What type of benchmarks are you running? What is your performance at stock? You should try a single core load, an all core load, and a multi core / blend load (game). According to Anandtech (rip) 7000 X3D and 9000 series have a “Pro-visionary PPM” driver to consolidate loads to one CCD where all cores aren’t needed, like in games, to avoid cross CCD latency. That could explain why you’re not seeing the second CCD boost, depending on how you’re benching. https://www.anandtech.com/show/21524/the-amd-ryzen-9-9950x-and-ryzen-9-9900x-review The official boost clock is “up to 5.7ghz” and AMD always states it’s for bursty, single core loads. You’re not always guaranteed to sustain max boost clock on one core. I would avoid PBO or curve tuner and bench to understand how your CPU performs at stock first with your system / cooling. If it doesn’t align with reviews, then I would deep dive. Example: TechPowerUp always has a nice graph near the end of their reviews, highlighting how boost clocks drop as core/thread count increases. https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-9-9950x/26.html Once you know the in’s and out’s of stock performance, I think you’ll be better prepared to fine tweak PBO. I’m only posting because I agree with the user above, I don’t believe you’re losing massive performance. You may lose some, but it seems negligible.

2024-09-17 - Sheet Update Below is an excerpt of the recent changes made to the sheet. Of course, some of these scores are subject to minor change as reviews still come in. A few games including like Prison Architect 2, Parcel Corps got delays without new release dates (TBA) whilst Phoenix Springs (indie, point and click) got pushed back a few weeks to October 7th. Other notable updates: Highest rate games from these updates include UFO 50 (PC only) and Astro Bot (PS5 only). Concord does not exist anymore. God of War: Ragnarok is around the corner on PC Final Fantasy XVI released a demo about a month ago, performance was sub-par, they updated the DEMO with better performance, and apparently the release today is tracking well, with solid performance. And if you haven't noticed, a few of the games highlighted are either developed or published by Sony. They're swinging hard on PC and it's well appreciated

That's fair (leaving them on or prioritizing them to be on) and I think typical gamers don't emphasis toggling them off like I or maybe other enthusiasts do. I just believewith channels like DF going hard, video after video, on FSR and knowing that the quality really isn't there, people have taken notice to this and it's one of the reasons why they continue to purchase Nvidia. DLSS is better. How much better it is today vs 2+ years ago since I last used it, I can't say but when I had my 3060 Ti, I had no problem running games on my tv at 4K with DLSS quality. Anything less than quality was easily noticeable as a compromise. On my monitor (1440p) I would still disable it though. Either due to viewing distance or a lower rendering resolution. If FSR4 or whatever the next version is called, can improve the IQ, I think that is their best shot. It'd have to be as good as DLSS 2.X along side more affordable prices to make an impact. Otherwise, people will stick with Nvidia because... it already has the best upscaler, best RT perf, and significant mindshare.

For long term vision and planning, sure, I could see conventional tech continue to converge to smaller devices for the average consumer. Whether it is streaming or other means to improve UX, remove barriers, and push the medium to be even more accessible. More content, more iteration, faster development, easier to play. None of which requires the fastest consumer card. In the meantime and back to the current reality, there will still be enthusiasts, consumers, and businesses tied to models that rely on personal computers and components with regular upgrade schedules to keep cash flowing. I don’t see that model shifting significantly for another 10 years at min. Also, AMD can say a lot of stuff but I will believe it when I see it. No one needs a 8900 XTX from AMD and I don’t want to spend 1k+. What I would like, as a consumer, is hardware that can push latest software, without significant compromises, at an affordable price. If that means FSR4 and other tech or design to circumvent the challenges of more raw compute, I am fine with that. As long as the results are consistent. They challenge we all know is that the marketing doesn’t hold its weight. The results are compromised (lack of VRAM, poor upscaling, high power draw etc.) and we, specifically enthusiasts, are unsatisfied. So we’re back at square one. Most of us want the absolute best with minimal compromise. It’s the reason why most of us avoid upscalers, use OLED or high refresh rate displays. Same reason why we concede and spend more than we want to. So we can avoid wasting our time and just enjoy the content we like on what little time we have. Sounds cryptic but that’s more or less what influences our decisions. So yea, AMD can skip the high end if they choose to, and I think that’s fine, but it requires them to not drop the ball on their vision. Please deliver mid range parts that can play most games at native 4K / 60fps with mid level settings / RT at affordable prices. Otherwise, they’re just wasting time in a very competitive, fast paced industry.

I’m not an expert. I just don’t see how they’re going to hit their objective without getting extremely creative. High costs start from the wafer and there is a monopoly with TSMC. Unless AMD source other manufacturers or alternatively, design a more advance solution, akin to Zen to keep costs down, I’m not seeing how we can improve performance and lower costs. I suspect the performance will most likely flatline with the 8000 series products, but hopefully with a price that makes a statement. If you could get 7800XT performance early next year for say, $300, that will move the needle forward.

Star Wars: Outlaws 1440p, HUB Quality Optimized Settings (TAA, native) Another 1-2 hrs, slowly getting pulled in. Enjoying the mini games, like "Sabacc". Nothing special about the combat or stealth but its serviceable to keep the plot moving along

It’s been more iterative than revolutionary. It’s still the same snowdrop engine but with elements and ray tracing bolted on. The updates are not revolutionary like UE4 to UE5, but still impressive for an outdated engine. In motion it does hold up very well and I am finding the interiors, specifically number of assets and density / quality of assets way more impressive than Avatar. However, the way Avatar’s biomes are modeled and the variety of foliage gives me the impression that Avatar is still superior. I have only 2-3 hrs in Star Wars and 60 in Avatar. So not a fair comparison, and I haven’t played Ghost Recon but from what I can tell, the textures and assets are higher res/ higher poly. The biggest gripe I have with the engine are the animations. The faces don’t always appear to move correctly. Low / mid priority NPCs are nearly stone faced. Some NPCs which appear to be higher priority, like the mechanic shown above in my 4K screen have a lot of detail that stands up as they talk. However, the highest priority model, the main character is a mixed bag. Something doesn’t feel right with her during gameplay but during pre-rendered cutscenes or cinematics, it’s night and day difference.

Star Wars: Outlaws 4K, HDR, HUB Quality Optimized Settings (TAA, native) I continued on my progress but swapped to the 4K OLED. Game really pops in HDR (not seen in photos attached). Performance goes down from ~120 FPS at 1440p with HUB Optimized Quality Settings to approx. 70fps at 4K in city and enclosed environments. 45 FPS at 4K in the open world. Very similar to Avatar. Grass is taxing... Overall enjoying it fairly well. A bit slow at first. Photo mode is fun as always...

Star Wars: Outlaws 1440p, HUB Quality Optimized Settings (TAA, native) Various photos taken from the photo mode (10mb PNGs) converted to JPEGs. Played through the first mission today. Got sucked into an arcade within the game and had quite a bit of fun :). Eventually, I started to play around with the photo mode, taking portraits of the various races I found at a club.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they offer more bundles / sales on the base models this holiday season but it seems the days of permanent price cuts are gone. I recall PS5 went down $50 USD last year for a short while. Especially as console sales are starting to dwindle down but they also raised the price of the digital, slim version to $450 USD. The Series X went down to $350 USD and I believe I picked mine up for less than $400 USD with Diablo IV during the holidays. I don’t expect the Pro to drop anytime soon. People are reacting as is expected but to the inflation point above, it’s really not all that crazy. Especially if you’re invested in the PS ecosystem. I just wonder if they will show off any modes exclusive to PS5 Pro. Like a CP2077 / Alan Wake 30 FPS, PSSR Path Tracing mode. I suspect those types of upgrades will help it sell more than just current fidelity modes at “up to” 60 fps.

Not a huge shift in your point but if you want to compare apples to apples PS5 to PS5 Pro, it’s probably worth comparing the original PS5 Digital console, which came out at $400 USD in 2020. Not sure what that is today with inflation but on paper, it appears as an 75% price increase.

I might be in the minority but I think $700 is reasonable. Why I agree with the general sentiment (priced too high) is due to the lack of a killer app and the obvious omission. They’re skimping on the disk drive. If you break it down, a console with a GPU near equivalent to a RX 7800 XT (+45% GPU per vs RX 6700 custom GPU) packed into a console with 2TB storage isn’t a bad deal. Especially if you predominantly play Playstation and have a large library. I believe most people don’t feel compelled to upgrade after this announcement because the price is much closer to $800. If you’re upgrading mid gen, you’re likely an enthusiast, and if you want to take advantage of the performance boost… the main feature advertised, you likely need the disk drive. Since most enthusiasts tend to collect physical games. Ignoring the disk drive / value proposition by assuming you’ve committed to digital on PS already, I don’t see what’s compelling to make the upgrade. You’re not getting anything exclusive. It’s just the fidelity mode, up to 60fps. That may be enough for people to jump in but the market seems low for this segment. For the real cost for most enthusiasts, $800, you really can build a great value gaming PC and you’re unlocking the ability to more store fronts like Steam. Or alternatively you could buy a Steam Deck OLED or ROG Ally X. I believe this was the time for Sony to flex a winter / early 2025 lineup to take advantage of the hardware of the PS5 Pro. Leaning into their existing library, and not making it entirely clear how noticeable the upgrades will be, I believe was a bad call. TL;DR I think they need to simply include the disk drive and enthusiasts upgrading would accept the cost. Just my two cents.

Utmost respect for this game. Building a sequel to a PC fan favourite franchise whilst being invaded by Russia is quite the feet. Unless they somehow drop the ball completely, I’m jumping in day one.

I read somewhere (comments on VC. net?) that the placement of the cache may be relocated. Implemented in a way where it doesn’t increase thermal resistance and lower clocks or core speeds vs. non-3D parts.

I'm not sure if it's a Direct Storage conflict if the game believes my game is installed on a mechanical / sata drive when it's on an NVME PCIe drive. Either way, thanks for the visibility Edit: screenshot added. Load time measured from input to in-game was ~12 seconds. Regarding 21:9, I'm not swaying against it. I think I prefer it but it will take some time to get used to. I noticed in DF's analysis, on consoles, they found the framerate to dip when using 21:9 on the performance mode (unlocked, 60 fps target). Yet they seemed puzzled and identified the game is just adding black bars. From my experience on PC, that's not true. 21:9 increases the number of instances being rendered on screen. Edit 2: Hellblade 2 looks absolutely stunning... can't wait to try it!

You may want to wait for a few patches before jumping in. I haven’t played anything substantial yet, however I’ve already ran into one noodle scratcher. I booted the game, went through the initial cutscenes, and took the first two screenshots. I closed the game, downloaded the latest AMD driver (upgraded from 24.7.1 to 24.8.1 Star Wars Driver) and rebooted the game. When I went to load my autosave, a prompt came up, mentioning I had installed it on a mechanical drive and would experience issues. Proceeded to load the save and the load time was pretty slow. ~20 seconds. The game is installed on a Crucial P3 NVME drive. I don’t have any mechanical drives active anymore and I don’t have a baseline for loadtimes for this game but it doesn’t seem right. I doubt the driver caused the bug but the game didn’t give me that prompt when I first booted it. There also wasn’t a save file too so I suspect the driver isn’t the culprit. Many review outlets noted quite a few bugs so be diligent Beyond the bug, it does feel like they’ve hit a good Star Wars feel. Admittedly, I am not a big Star Wars fan and never watched the Disney + shows but I’ve always made an effort to see the films at the cinema when they released. From what I can gather, it does nail the Star Wars (film) atmosphere but take that initial impression with a grain of salt.

Star Wars: Outlaws 1440p, Max (temporal AA, no upscaling) First few minutes of the game. I won't have time to sync my teeth into it yet, however I do intend to play through it soon. I've left the AMD Adrenaline overlay up just to get a sense of performance. CPU temps aren't bad with new, low profile cooler. There is an "Unobtanium" mode like in Avatar called "Outlaw" to push the graphics further. I haven't tried it yet but I'm sure the RT effects will melt my AMD card. I'm usually a stickler for all the film grain and other camera effects but I am not sure how I feel about the 21:9 aspect ratio mode. It eels odd in gameplay on a 16:9, 27" display but I like the fish eye lens effect on the edge of the frame, the increase in FoV without the sides feeling stretched. It also pushes the main character a bit further back from the camera, which feels too close on "full screen" mode. It may feel better in 4K / large format. TBD. Comparison below and FoV increased to 90 from default. The game also has an explorer mode, just like Avatar to minimize all the crap and icons on screen.