Good. The new CPUs have a problem with Hyper-Threading, so I'd stay away from them until Intel fixes that.

Oh don't worry lol. I'll be staying well away from those CPU's for some years. I'll likely be jumping to AMD in the future, provided their CPU's in 2-4 years time are above Intel's game (for gaming mind you, I don't care for that workstation argument AMD fans are using).

Wtf?

How so?

The only point I was trying to make is that Samsung has been investing more than Intel in chip manufacturing recently ... (Heck they've only started since 2010!) 

It doesn't have to be. CPUs are sold thousands a piece which would more than make up for it with comparable revenues to high volume markets like consumer PC CPUs ... 

You forget that performance is about the software as it is much about hardware. It's like once John Carmack said, "AMD has the better engine, Nvidia has the better car" ... 

You need more than just good hardware to beat your competition, you need good software support as well. I'm surprised as to why AMD hasn't been as proactive as before in trying to get all AAA game engines to support DX12 because AMD's whole lineup would 1 tier higher comparable to the equivalent Nvidia cards than they are now ... 

I purposely didn't fire up Steam so I wouldn't buy any games. Haha
I feel the Steam sales aren't as amazing as they used to be though.

If you can... The General consensus is to 'wait' on upgrading. Unless you really need to.
The only real exception is if you are going to jump onto Ryzen.

Intel LGA2066 is an overpriced buggy flop, AMD/nVidia GPU price rises, DDR4/SSD's have been increasing in price...
Even mechanical disks seem to be higher priced compared to just a couple years ago.

I never disagreed. Performance is certainly about the software as much as hardware.

But as the numbers stand today. Vega is not competitive. Polaris is not competitive. Vega needed to launch 12 months ago with Navi coming out today.

Just remember, I do primarily own AMD GPU's, so I am not talking from an opposing 'fanboy' perspective. :P

Under certain conditions, if HT is enabled the system can crash. It's a weird bug.

*Edit* Intel says that they have already patched it with a BIOS update: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/hyperthreading-kaby-lake-skylake-skylake-x,34876.html

Thankfully it's Friday, and these are the last news of the week:

SALES & "SALES"/DEALS

RYSE: Son of Rome is now available for free on GameSessions for the next 30 days
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/ryse-son-of-rome-is-now-available-for-free-on-gamesessions-offer-lasts-for-the-next-30-days/
GameSessions, the digital services provider that allows gamers to try PC games before they buy, today launched GameSessions Giveaways, a new service that will see the company regularly giveaway free games, starting with Crytek’s visually impressive title, RYSE: Son of Rome.

Get The Banner Saga for 75 percent off today
http://www.pcgamer.com/get-the-banner-saga-for-75-percent-off-today/
Bundle Stars is running a Versus Evil publisher sale today, containing plenty of RPGs and dungeon crawling. The main highlight here though is The Banner Saga, which has a healthy 75 percent discount.

This public bathroom sim swaps wangs for guns to make a point about censorship
http://www.pcgamer.com/this-public-bathroom-sim-swaps-wangs-for-guns-to-make-a-point-about-censorship/
The Tearoom is a free game by Robert Yang based on the persecution of gay men by the Mansfield, Ohio police department in the early ‘60s. Back when, the department set up a surveillance camera behind a two-way mirror and filmed men having sex with one another in a public bathroom. With that secret footage, the police imprisoned men for a year or more based on Ohio’s sodomy laws at the time.

SOFTWARE

You can now play PS4 games on the PC thanks to PlayStation Now
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/play-ps4-games-on-pc-playstation-now/
Sony announced today that the first PS4 games have been added to its PlayStation Now library. As such, PC gamers can now enjoy some PS4 titles thanks to this service on their platform. However, don’t expect any performance or visual improvements as PlayStation Now does not offer such a thing.

>>I'm sure that, by now, you've already shared your thoughts at Kerotan's threads, from yesterday.

Valve slideshow teases an upcoming Steam UI update
http://www.pcgamer.com/valve-slideshow-teases-an-upcoming-steam-ui-update/
Valve's attendance at Indigo 2017 in the Netherlands last weekend was primarily a business-and-developers type thing. But images of slides displayed during a presentation by Valve's Alden Kroll that were posted in the Valvetime forum reveal some interesting things about Steam, and what Valve has planned for its future.

MODS/EMULATORS

-empty-

GAMING NEWS

Destiny 2 gets an official trailer for its open beta phase, PC beta delayed to August
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/destiny-2-official-trailer-open-beta-phase-pc-beta-delay-august/
Activision has released a new trailer for Destiny 2, dedicated to its upcoming open beta phase. Unfortunately, though, this open beta phase has been delayed for the PC. According to the publisher, Destiny 2’s PC open beta phase will begin this August, a month later after its console open beta phase.

Here is 20 minutes of new gameplay footage from Assassin’s Creed: Origins
http://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-is-20-minutes-of-new-gameplay-footage-from-assassins-creed-origins/
YouTube’s ‘GAME’ has shared a new video, showing 20 minutes of new gameplay footage from Assassin’s Creed: Origins. This video shows alpha gameplay, presumably from its E3 2017 build. Assassin’s Creed: Origins is currently planned for an October release.

Thief of Thieves is a new interactive game based on the famous comic that will be released in early 2018
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/thief-of-thieves-interactive-game-famous-comic-early-2018/
Skybound Entertainment and Rival Games have partnered to bring Robert Kirkman’s comic book series Thief of Thieves into the gaming world with a new interactive game based off of the comic. The game will be demoed for the first time ever on Steam at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2017 and will be available on Steam in early 2018.

Playerunkown’s Battlegrounds has been slightly delayed, still targets a Q4 2017 release
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/playerunkowns-battlegrounds-delay-still-targets-q4-2017-release/
When Bluehole Studio launched the Early Access phase of Playerunkown’s Battlegrounds, it claimed that the final build would be coming in around six months. However, it appears that things have slightly changed as the game has been slightly delayed.

The second news post:

Doomfist, the legendary Overwatch bad guy, is now live on the PTR
http://www.pcgamer.com/doomfist-the-legendary-overwatch-bad-guy-is-now-live-on-the-ptr/
Earlier this week, Blizzard released a teaser suggesting that Akande Ogundimu—the legendary villain Doomfist—could soon be joining the Overwatch lineup. And unlike last year's painfully drawn out Sombra reveal, this time around Blizzard has cut right to the chase: Doomfist is now live on the Overwatch PTR.

>>You can discuss about the new Overwatch addition at shikamaru317's thread. Meanwhile, here are the list of abilities of the new character.

Overwatch update reduces loot crate duplicates, adds improved Highlight features
http://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-update/
The mighty Doomfist has arrived on the Overwatch PTR—read more about the big bad brawler here—and that means there's a new patch-in-testing to play with as well. This one brings about the changes to loot boxes announced in June that will drastically reduce the number of duplicate items that players encounter, and also the updated Highlight system promised by game director Jeff Kaplan.

Duelyst developer partners with Bandai Namco
http://www.pcgamer.com/duelyst-developers-partner-with-bandai-namco/
Counterplay Games, the studio behind the free-to-play collectible card game Duelyst, has announced a new publishing deal with Bandai Namco, a change it said will allow the team to ignore the headaches of publishing and "focus solely on development" instead.

Destiny 2 will have locked loadouts and public event timers
http://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-2-will-have-locked-loadouts-and-public-event-timers/
In the latest video from IGN’s month of Destiny 2 reveals, we scrounged up a few interesting changes coming to the sequel, though they likely won’t be revelatory to fresh PC players. The most notable change is the news that some activities won’t let players change their loadout mid-mission. Previously, you could swap between whatever weapons or gear were in your inventory with a quick menu dive. Game director Luke Smith wants players spending less time in menus and more time carefully considering what to bring.

Blizzard may have just leaked the location of World of Warcraft's next expansion
http://www.pcgamer.com/blizzard-may-have-just-leaked-the-location-of-world-of-warcrafts-next-expansion/
This fall, World of Warcraft players will travel off-world to the Eredar homeworld and Burning Legion headquarters of Argus with the release of patch 7.3. While nothing has been confirmed by Blizzard, many speculate that this could be the last major content patch for Legion, the game's current expansion. Naturally players are eager to know about what comes next. If some incredibly obscure hints are to be believed, we might just have our first clue. Though this is still just speculation, the World of Warcraft community believes the next expansion will send players to Kul Tiras to fight the Old Gods.

Sea of Thieves teases its terrifying and mesmerizing storm system
http://www.pcgamer.com/sea-of-thieves-teases-its-terrifying-and-mesmerizing-storm-system/
Rare's Sea of Thieves is a full-blown shenanigan simulator, so reckons Steven following his E3 hands-on, and it's now teased one of its most anticipated features: storms.

Firefall closes its doors today
http://www.pcgamer.com/firefall-closes-its-doors-today/
Add middling reviews across the board, poor performance, studio layoffs, and the ultimate departure of CEO Mark Kern and it seems Firefall's fate was written on the wall. Despite money, big budget marketing and the suggestion of an in-development but as yet absent PS4 version, today marks its final day of existence on PC.

Hitman outlines monthly roadmap, appears to hint at continued episodic release format
http://www.pcgamer.com/hitman-outlines-monthly-roadmap-appears-to-hint-at-continued-episodic-release-format/
IO has now revealed its 16th consecutive monthly roadmap that outlines a new Escalation Contract in Sapienza, comprised of three targets and named The Hamartia Compulsion, as well as a "fresh batch" of 15 Featured Contracts. A game update is also expected to land later this month.

PUBG dataminer uncovers armour suits, poison apples, leather dusters by poring over game files
http://www.pcgamer.com/pubg-dataminer-uncovers-armour-suits-poison-apples-leather-dusters-in-game-files/
As posted by DevinWatson to the MMO battle royale 'em up's corner of Reddit, the post titled 'Data Mining Unreleased Skins / Items' showcases a host of items—54 in total—in varying degrees of completion.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen showcases The Skirmisher faction
http://www.pcgamer.com/xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen-showcases-the-skirmisher-faction/
Following its reveal at the PC Gaming Show at this year's E3, XCOM 2's War of the Chosen expansion has teased its stealth based melee unit, The Assassin, and its human Reaper faction. Now, its the turn of The Skirmisher to command the spotlight.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is free to play for the next two days on Steam
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-is-free-to-play-for-the-next-two-days-on-steam/
In order to further hype Shadow of War, Warner Bros has made Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor free to play for the next two days. This basically means that you can go ahead, download and play this amazing Lord of the Rings game for free on Steam.

Lastly, it's time to look at this weekend deals from GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• The first of the two deals at GOG is their weekly sale: https://www.gog.com/promo/20170703_weekly_sale
• The second deal is the special tinyBuild sale, featuring games from this publisher like Punch Club, Party Hard or Clustertruck, among others: https://www.gog.com/promo/20170706_special_sale_tinybuild

+Steam

Besides the Shadow of Mordor deal, there are a lot more (remainings of the Summer Sale), for example:

• The 2D platformer Splasher, that¡s 25% off: http://store.steampowered.com/app/446840/Splasher/
• Stardew Valley, that's 40% off: http://store.steampowered.com/app/413150/Stardew_Valley/
• The Point'n'Click game Tormentum - Dark Sorrow is also 40% off: http://store.steampowered.com/app/335000/Tormentum__Dark_Sorrow/
• Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is half its price: http://store.steampowered.com/app/368070/Sniper_Ghost_Warrior_3/
• Also 50% off is the action packed, 2D game EARTH'S DAWN: http://store.steampowered.com/app/494600/EARTHS_DAWN/
• The next deal raises the bar to 70% off, and it's the platformer Life Goes On: Done to Death: http://store.steampowered.com/app/250050/Life_Goes_On_Done_to_Death/
• And lastly, there's Splatter - Zombie Apocalypse with its 75% discount: http://store.steampowered.com/app/281920/Splatter__Zombie_Apocalypse/

And just like that, we've reached the end. I hope you have a happy and gaming weekend.

New Hearthstones. Wish they they did an expansion though. I miss those.