Of course those are just max numbers, all of the cards will be comfortable below this. I don't expect the 3080ti to be more than 40% faster than the 2080ti.

Well, RDNA (Navi) was already rather competitive with NVidia's counterparts apart from the lack of Hardware Raytracing. RDNA2 is supposed to both add the Raytracing and drop the power consumption by about 50% for the same performance. If AMD can manage this (and seeing how it went with Zen and Zen 2, I expect this to be very possible), then NVidia really needs to act, otherwise AMD would blow right past them like they did with Intel.

That said, I don't really believe those leaks either, not only because those specs look more like a geek's dream, even more since Ampere is supposedly the Tesla V100/Titan V successor with full double precision calculation capacity, not any GTX/RTX GPU (yet).

The key difference here is that, unlike Intel, Nvidia hasn't been resting on their laurels. They have kept pushing their architectures and products for the enterprise side of their business with enhancements and features that ended up coming down to their gaming oriented products, only with fewer parts.

In any case, we'll know more in a few days when Nvidia does its conference. Hopefully we'll know the max specs for their enterprise products and that will give us an idea of what we can expect for their gaming products (Turing's top enterprise card has 72 SMs and 4600 shaders while the 2080Ti "only" has 68 SMs and 4352 shaders).

Let's go with the Thursday news:

SALES & DEALS

GOG sees the comeback of 6 TellTale games and celebrates it putting them on sale with a 25% discount for the next 7 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20200430_promo_launch_athlon_telltales

Steam has two new daily deals:

• The Early Access title ScourgeBringer is 20% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1037020/ScourgeBringer/
• And Miscreated is 70% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/299740/Miscreated/

Fanatical has three new sales:

• The new Star Deal is Life is Strange 2 Complete Season, 66% off for the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/life-is-strange-2-complete-season
• Publisher Aspyr has put its games up to 90% off during the next 5 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/aspyr
• And Konami has also put its games on sale, up to 80% off for the next 6 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/konami-digital-entertainment

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Epic Games Store adds local pricing for Canada, Australia, and more
https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-store-adds-local-pricing-for-canada-australia-and-more/
The evolution of the Epic Games Store continued today with the addition of regional currency support for Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
The local currency support means that users in those countries—like myself, for instance—no longer have to worry about converting US dollars to our own funds, but will instead pay what's on the screen. It simplifies and stabilizes the process, and while currency fluctuations can raise or lower the relative value of your local cash, the pricing generally works out to be close to equivalent.

MODS/EMULATORS

The Witcher 3 Mod enables high quality heads, lip movement & higher shadow resolution for all NPCs
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-witcher-3-mod-enables-high-quality-heads-lip-movement-higher-shadow-resolution-for-all-npcs/
Modders ‘rmemr’ and ‘Gerignak’ have released a pretty interesting new mod for The Witcher 3. This mod enables high quality heads, lip movement and higher shadow resolution for all NPCs. In other words, all NPCs during gameplay will now look as good as their high quality versions that are present during the dialogue cut-scenes.
According to the modders, the lip movement of NPCs seems to be very inconsistent while they talk their one-liners in normal gameplay. Sometimes it works while other times it doesn’t. This mod also triggers a special mini scene for every new spawned NPC which seems to make it more consistent. Still, there are some limitations so don’t expect it to work all the time.
As mentioned, this mod also causes NPCs to have their LOD0 heads. These are the highest quality heads that the game uses during cut-scenes and dialogues.
Lastly, the mod enables a flag for higher resolution shadows for all NPCs. These shadows are similar to those used in dialogue scenes. In case you’re wondering, this flag enables self-shadows.
>> Available from Nexus Mods.

RetroPie now offers Raspberry Pi 4 support for faster game emulation
https://www.pcgamer.com/retropie-now-offers-raspberry-pi-4-support-for-faster-game-emulation/
One of the most popular uses for the Raspberry Pi is to play retro games through emulation. This is made relatively easy through RetroPie, a custom software package based on Raspbian specifically designed for retro gaming. The release of the more powerful Raspberry Pi 4 in June of last year made this an even more enticing proposition, and at long last, RetroPie supports the latest mini PC hardware.
The developers of RetroPie announced the release of version 4.6, as spotted by ExtremeTech, and with it comes some changes.
>> I'm posting this for the emulation part.

GAMING NEWS

Here are some new screenshots for Wasteland 3
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/here-are-some-new-screenshots-for-wasteland-3/
Deep Silver has released a new set of screenshots for Wasteland 3. These screenshots are from the latest beta build of the game. Therefore, and while they do not represent the quality of the final product, they will give you an idea of what you can expect from its graphics.

Star Citizen Alpha 3.9 is now available for download and here are its key features
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/star-citizen-alpha-3-9-is-now-available-for-download-and-here-are-its-key-features/
Cloud Imperium has released a massive new update for Star Citizen. Star Citizen Alpha 3.9: Locked Up & Loaded introduces a wealth of new gameplay systems, missions, locations, and more. Furthermore, Cloud Imperium released a new trailer that you can find below.

Streets of Rage 4 – First Impressions + PC Gameplay Footage
https://www.dsogaming.com/first-impressions/streets-of-rage-4-first-impressions-pc-gameplay-footage/
Streets of Rage 4 is the next part in the legendary beat em up series that a lot of 16-bit fans were looking forward to. DotEmu has provided us with a review code, so you can read below our First Impressions of it. You can also find below a video, showing 9 minutes of PC gameplay footage.

New screenshots released for Command & Conquer Remastered Collection
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/new-screenshots-released-for-command-conquer-remastered-collection/
Electronic Arts has released three new screenshots for Command & Conquer Remastered Collection. These new screenshots showcase the new, overhauled and remastered 2D sprites that the game will feature.
>> These three are different from the ones from yesterday's PCGamer article.

First gameplay footage revealed for WRC 9
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/first-gameplay-footage-revealed-for-wrc-9/
NACON and KT Racing have released the first gameplay video for their upcoming rally game, WRC 9. This gameplay footage is from an alpha build, which means that it does not represent the quality of the final product. Still, it will give you an idea of what you can expect from it.

Thursday news, part two:

Deep Rock Galactic is digging its way out of Early Access on May 13
https://www.pcgamer.com/deep-rock-galactic-is-digging-its-way-out-of-early-access-on-may-13/
After two years, the stumpy co-op shooter Deep Rock Galactic is getting ready to dig itself out of Early Access. The procedurally-generated dwarf romp will be dropping the pre-release tag and going into full launch on May 13.

Dying Light's next DLC features a possessed arcade cabinet and demons
https://www.pcgamer.com/dying-lights-next-dlc-features-a-possessed-arcade-cabinet-and-demons/
Dying Light has been full of surprises. You might have expected Techland's 2015 zombie parkour romp to have been pushed aside, what with the developer working on Dying Light 2, but every year seems to bring with it new updates. And now it's getting some more DLC that sends players down into the tower's basement, where an ominous arcade cabinet dwells.

Rocket League's Heatseeker mode is coming back at the end of May
https://www.pcgamer.com/rocket-leagues-heatseeker-mode-is-coming-back-for-a-weekend-in-may/
Rocket League's limited time Heatseeker mode—in which the ball homes in on goals—was around so briefly that I completely missed it. Good news for me: It's coming back in May, though again it won't be around for long. Heatseeker will return on May 21 and stick around until May 26.

Call of Duty: Warzone has quietly dropped Bounties, and players are not happy about it
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-warzone-has-quietly-dropped-bounties-and-players-are-not-happy-about-it/
Call of Duty: Warzone puts a real priority on collecting in-game cash. If you've got it, you can buy all sorts of items that will give you a leg up on the competition, and if you don't, well, good luck. One of the best ways to keep the money flowing is by taking on contracts, which are basically side missions that confer rewards for completing tasks. The Scavenger contract, for instance, can be earned by simply busting open three supply boxes in sequence (easy peasy), while Bounties require you to hunt and kill a randomly targeted player—obviously a high-risk, high-reward job.

Fortnite update v12.50 brings some major nerfs
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnite-update-v1250-brings-some-major-nerfs/
Fornite v12.50 is here, and with the update come a number of pretty significant nerfs to popular items. Epic still isn't giving out any official patch notes, but we can glean plenty from what we see in the game with our own two eyes. Here's a full rundown of everything new and different in the 12.50 update.

Fortnite's new Party Royale mode is all chill, no guns, and live now
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnites-new-party-royale-mode-is-all-chill-no-guns-and-live-now/
Fortnite is a battle royale game, the operative word being "battle": For all the building and dancing and stuff you can do, the bottom-line name of the game is to shoot people and be the last person left alive. Yet the biggest, most memorable Fortnite events are often those that don't involve mass murder.
(...)
It appears that Epic is going to lean more heavily into that social aspect of Fortnite with the addition of a new "Party Royale" mode, described in emails sent to content creators (who then shared them on social media, because apparently somebody forgot to add an NDA) as "All chill, no sweat."

Someone wants to murder the Apex Legends murder bot
https://www.pcgamer.com/someone-wants-to-murder-the-apex-legends-murder-bot/
Back in January, Electronic Arts revealed the new Apex Legends character Forge, then murdered him with a mysterious death-bot who turned out to be the real new character, named Revenant. Revenant's got a fun history: A former top-tier assassin, he was slowly turned into a nightmarish cyborg by Hammond Robotics as his body broke down, a turn of events he did not take well when his programming failed and he realized what he'd become.
He freaked out, swore vengeance on Hammond Robotics, and killed a whole bunch of people, including the father of a young girl, who didn't take that turn of events well. She vowed to take revenge—counter-revenge, I guess?—and it looks like the wheels are now starting to turn on that process.

Fallout 76 hotfix stops NPCs from looting your corpse and stealing weapons
https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-76-hotfix-stops-npcs-from-looting-your-corpse-and-stealing-weapons/
"We just released a hotfix for Fallout 76 to address a rare issue where NPCs could take items from a dead player under certain circumstances," reads a brief post on the Bethesda forums from community manager Valseek. "We did not need to take the game offline to do this, and the hotfix has now been applied to all worlds."

Vampire RPG Nighthawks bares its fangs in a new teaser
https://www.pcgamer.com/vampire-rpg-nighthawks-bares-its-fangs-in-a-new-teaser/
Modern vampire RPG Nighthawks, which had a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2018, will be slinking its way out of the shadows next year. In the meantime you can get the skinny on this Wadjet Eye-published joint in a new teaser, above.

EGX: Rezzed 2020 has been cancelled
https://www.pcgamer.com/egx-rezzed-2020-has-been-cancelled/
EGX: Rezzed 2020, which was due to take place between July 2-4 in London, has been cancelled. Following its postponement in March, organiser Reed Exhibitions rescheduled it for this summer, which seemed pretty unrealistic at the time.

And that's it for today and also for the week, because tomorrow is a nonworking day and I won't do shit . Take advantage of the three days in front of us to have a happy and gaming weekend. And please, take care.

Again, Ampere is the Turing successor, which already was the successor to Volta. There is no split between professional and gaming in architecture. Just like Turing was both used for professional cards and Geforce, so will Ampere. So the GPU they will announce will definitely be a strong indicator as to what we can expect for the gaming side.

The slide of that rumor is probably not correct since the 3080ti would never get the full GA100 chip. It'll get the GA102 most likely which probably features somewhere around 6000 CUDA cores while not getting the full build, which is usually reserved for Titan cards.

Nvidia has acted plenty already in previous years and really has nothing to fear from AMD. They held themselves back on purpose with long drawn out architectures due to a lack of competition.And in the unlikely event that AMDs next gen will rival Ampere there is already Hopper on the horizon.

edit: I just had a look at the professional segment of Turing and I wasn't aware that Nvidia never bothered to produce an actual TU100 card. That means that the best Volta cards are still pretty much comparable with the best Turing cards in performance. Still, doesn't change the fact that Turing is the evolution of Volta(and Pascal).

I'd be interested to see how the 2000 series age against the 5000 series considering the 2000 series has Ray Tracing and DLSS while 5000 series doesn't. Since the next gen twins are going to have ray tracing, clearly it's not a gimmick like PhysX was.

I agree that RT is here to stay and take over, but I doubt it will replace the current lightning system even despite next gen consoles having the hardware for it. At least on PC, both ways to simulate lightning will coexist for a while until the base of PCs with capable enough RT hardware grows to a point where publishers and developers can feel comfortable enough with the potential sales.

Until that happens, and by the time it does happen both the 2000 and 5000 series will be old and done, RT will only be an added bonus, but one that can enrich a game in more ways than just how it looks.

If you're in the market for a new case or T-shirt (tho it will take a while to arrive and maybe you should still buy one), here's a new contest for you:

*** NEW CONTEST ***

Win one of three be quiet! Pure Base 500DX chassis

https://hexus.net/tech/features/chassis/141991-win-one-three-quiet-pure-base-500dx-chassis/

The contest is GLOBAL.

Just read that the latest Intel CPUs don't even support PCIe 4. Currently making myself familiar with AMD CPUs. I'm gonna assume that Zen 3 will absolutely demolish Intel's high end.