Good call on the chipset. I'll do it when I come back.

And I did things by the book, unplugging the internet cable and using DDU (in safe mode!) to try to avoid as many problems as I could.

Linus did a video a couple days ago or so with a 96-core threadripper pro and one of Nvidia's professional cards that could run 4 instances of Cyperpunk 2077 at 60fps at the same time. But when they tried Cities Skylines 2, it couldn't reach that level of performance even running only one game.

So yeah, Skylines 2 is, essentially, broken at its core level and nothing will fix it, barring a full engine swap.

Is Skylines 2 broken, or simply immensely demanding due to underlying simulation? Kerbal Space Program was "broken", so to speak, since it used very few cores available, so you could really push it to limits even on highest end rigs very quickly. But, IIRC, Skylines 2 uses pretty much all cores available (I think it used to be 64 limit, not sure as of right now).

As far as I know, it's not really broken, it's just that it needs to simulate hundreds of thousands if not million of people and a bunch of other stuff too, although most of it probably comes from the population. The devs have optimized it a bunch, so I imagine there aren't all that many low-hanging fruits remaining for the simulation, but it could sure use some more optimization too. Still, it's perfectly playable in typically-sized cities, but if you want something larger, expect simulation slowdown unless you have enough cores. It's a fundamental challenge with the agent-driven simulation model and something other games have struggled with too. I've mentioned Farthest Frontier here in the past, and for the longest time, I think the game had challenges with larger populations - and in that game, larger populations mean hundreds or thousands, not hundreds of thousands (my understanding is that they got the situation under control after significant optimization efforts).

Older SimCity games, on the other hand, didn't use agent-driven simulation, so they weren't as demanding, but I suppose that approach has its limits too. I guess it might be one of the reasons SimCity 2013 was limited to such small cities - my understanding is that it switched to agent-based simulation, so it just couldn't handle as large cities. I don't know how much that really contributed to the smaller city size, but at least superficially, it seems to make sense.

NVIDIA TITAN Ada prototype teardown confirms angled PCB, 48GB memory layout and 900W ready design

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-titan-ada-prototype-teardown-confirms-angled-pcb-48gb-memory-layout-and-900w-ready-design

NVIDIA RTX 3060 new stock is running out, “ending its mission” in December

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidias-rtx-3060-is-nearing-the-end-of-retail-availability-for-new-cards

FSR Redstone’s ML Frame Generation can now be forced on in unsupported games through OptiScaler

https://videocardz.com/newz/fsr-redstones-ml-frame-generation-can-now-be-forced-on-in-unsupported-games-through-optiscaler

Sapphire asks AMD for more freedom in partner GPU designs: “Let us go nuts”

https://videocardz.com/newz/sapphire-asks-amd-for-more-freedom-in-partner-gpu-designs-let-us-go-nuts

Seems that every manufacturer that uses that 12 pin connector blames it on the user.

DDR5 memory prices triple in three months, giving AMD AM4 upgrades a second wind

https://videocardz.com/newz/ddr5-memory-prices-triple-in-three-months-giving-amd-am4-upgrades-a-second-wind

NVIDIA launches Nemotron 3 Nano 30B open-weight models with 1M-token context length

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-launches-nemotron-3-nano-30b-open-weight-models-with-1m-token-context-length

Samsung to halt SATA SSD production, leaker warns of up to 18 months of SSD price pressure, worse than Micron ending consumer RAM

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Samsung-to-halt-SATA-SSD-production-leaker-warns-of-up-to-18-months-of-SSD-price-pressure-worse-than-Micron-ending-consumer-RAM.1184896.0.html

I suppose if it's only Sata, not too bad but if it also affects Nvme shortly after, then rip. But it is also MLID so take it with big salt.

HDD prices spike as AI infrastructure and China's PC push collide — hard drives record biggest price increase in eight quarters, suppliers warn pressure will continue

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/hdds/hdd-prices-spike-as-ai-infrastructure-and-chinas-pc-push-collide-hard-drives-record-biggest-price-increase-in-eight-quarters-suppliers-warn-pressure-will-continue

Yea just don't upgrade for the next 2-3 years is what all the news is telling us

Friendly reminder that there is still time to join this year's Secret Santa PC Event.

Honestly surprised to see SATA drives still kicking around... But when I bought my MSI gaming laptop this year... It has a bay free for a SATA drive... I would have preferred two NVME bays instead, so must be a sizable market still.

Still... Upgraded the Ram to 64GB and dropped in a 1tb Samsung 990 Pro nvme drive, might be time to grab a 4tb SATA drive for general storage before prices rise further.

After Dell, Acer & ASUS Have Surrendered to Memory Shortages; PC Makers at Large Prepare for Extensive Price Hikes

https://wccftech.com/after-dell-acer-asus-have-surrendered-to-memory-shortages/

AMD Ryzen AI 9 465 Geekbench Scores Leak Out; Show Similar Performance To Its Predecessor

https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-ai-9-465-geekbench-scores-leak-out/

Core Ultra 7 365 Benchmarked On Geekbench; Shows Performance Regressions Against Core Ultra 7 268V

https://wccftech.com/core-ultra-7-365-benchmarked-on-geekbench/

“Don’t Panic. Relax”, Says Sapphire’s Edward, Claiming the DRAM Situation Should Begin to Stabilize Within Six Months

https://wccftech.com/sapphire-edward-claims-the-dram-situation-should-begin-to-stabilize-within-six-months/

Box of 50 Samsung M.2 SSDs ruined after child bends them to test ‘durability’, $3800 worth of SSD destroyed

https://videocardz.com/newz/box-of-50-samsung-m-2-ssds-ruined-after-child-bends-them-to-test-durability-3800-worth-of-ssd-destroyed

Arctic claims MX-7 is its coolest thermal paste yet

https://videocardz.com/newz/arctic-claims-mx-7-is-its-coolest-thermal-paste-yet

New scam: Sealed DDR5 kit sold as new hid DDR2 sticks and a fake weight plate

https://videocardz.com/newz/new-scam-sealed-ddr5-kit-sold-as-new-hid-ddr2-sticks-and-a-fake-weight-plate

Leak compares Intel Core Ultra 7 365 (Panther Lake) and AMD Ryzen AI 9 465 (Gorgon Point)

https://videocardz.com/newz/leak-compares-intel-core-ultra-7-365-panther-lake-and-amd-ryzen-ai-9-465-gorgon-point

Lucky me, I get 15% off everything at corsair. Although, even with that discount the prices are still insane.

Meanwhile in 2018...

https://web.archive.org/web/20180513133803/https://www.techrepublic.com/article/samsung-hynix-micron-sued-for-dram-price-fixing-that-could-have-raised-pc-prices/

The RAM mafia is by far the worst part of the computer industry and has been for 25+ years. Even when they are not outright caught price fixing, just look up how many RAM warehouses go up in flames from time to time.

If only Intel would step back in... at least CXMT should be competitive before long, and Chinese economics of scale are just insane.

Even though China is technologically behind, they may be the saving grace for the DRAM market in the future if they can slot themselves in as a budget option... CXMT is getting there slowly, they have made inroads with LPDDR5X and captured about 5% of the market and are set to double DDR5 production next year.

Not many people need or want speeds that exceed the JEDEC specification, but with shortages everywhere, there is opportunity for a player to capitalize on the market and secure wafer capacity and contracts.

DDR4 and AM4 are seeing a boost to sales at the moment, purely down to DDR5 pricing. I guess the Ryzen 5000 series is still "good enough" for most people.