Yo, bros! I need a little bit of help here.

I think I can tackle most on this one
https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9144439

But I'm a bit stumped on this one.
https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9144445

The problem is I'm not too familiar with the exact data flow between storage, RAM and VRAM while playing a game. Using an SSD as RAM or VRAM sounds a bit silly to me. That thing about decompression in the GPU sounds plausible but it feels like something that would be done in hardware and as such wouldn't have much of a performance impact.

Does the VRAM even stream data directly from the storage? Seems like something I would load in RAM first based on predicting what I will need for the game.

After a long weekend, here come the Monday news:

SALES & DEALS

Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Crashlands are free to own on Epic Games Store until May 7th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/amnesia-the-dark-descent-and-crashlands-are-free-to-own-on-epic-games-store-until-may-7th/
Epic Games has announced that Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Crashlands are currently available for free on Epic Games Store. From today and until May 7th, PC gamers can visit their EGS pages and acquire their free copies.
>> And this Thursday the next free game will be Death Coming.

Dragon Quest 11 and Final Fantasy 12 at half off in Square Enix’s charity collection
https://www.pcgamer.com/dragon-quest-11-and-final-fantasy-12-at-half-off-in-square-enixs-charity-collection/
Do you need several hundred hours of JRPGs immediately at a reasonable price?
Well, good deal for you then, because Square Enix has launched a limited time Stay Home & Play bundle on Steam with four JRPGs for $87.50, which means they’re all 50% off. The bundle includes Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age, Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age, Oninaki, and Chrono Trigger. All of Square Enix’s revenue from the bundles will go to “food banks and other charities across North America and Europe.”
>> It's part of the Golden Week sale that will last until the 6th. But that's not the only sale:

• The Star Wars May the 4th Sale with up to 80% discounts will last until May 7: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/mt42020
• The Early Access title Retrowave is 25% off until the 8th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1239690/Retrowave/
• The Black Masses, also in Early Access and that has a demo, is also 25% off, but until May 11: https://store.steampowered.com/app/992910/The_Black_Masses/
• And Football Manager 2020, that also has a demo, will be 33% off until the 14th of May: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1100600/Football_Manager_2020/

GOG has three sales for us:

• The re-released TellTale games will still be on sale with a 25% discount for another 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20200430_promo_launch_athlon_telltales
• The expected Star Wars sale with up to 75% discounts will run for 3 more days: https://www.gog.com/promo/may_the_4th_sale
• And lastl ,but not least, is the new weekly sale, full of games with female protagonists with up to 90% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20200504_weekly_sale

The Humble Store has two "new" sales:

• The first one is a Games Workshop Warhammer sale with up to 80% discounts for another 3 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/games-workshop-warhammer-week/
• And of course, there's the mandatory Star Wars sale with up to 75% discounts for another 4 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/star-wars-day-sale/

Fanatical has three new sales:

• The new Star Deal is Dead Island Definitive Collection, 80% off for the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/dead-island-definitive-collection
• The May the 4th sale brings up to 77% discounts on the Star Wars games for the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/franchises/star-wars
• The new Very Positive Bundle 2 brings 8 games with a 96% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/very-positive-bundle-2

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Here is a video showing real-time manipulation of the Unity 2019.3 Tech Demo, The Heretic
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-is-a-video-showing-real-time-manipulation-of-the-unity-2019-3-tech-demo-the-heretic/
The Heretic is one of the most impressive tech demos we’ve seen recently. Powered by Unity 2019.3, this tech demo showcases what modern-day PC hardware is capable of. And yesterday, Unity Engine released a new video in which we can see the developers manipulating this demo in real-time.
The Heretic tech demo includes every possible aspect of the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) with the integrated Post-Processing stack, and the Visual Effect Graph. Moreover, it takes advantage of motion blur, bloom, depth of field, film grain, color grading, and Panini projection. Not only that, but it packs real-time lights and uses a probe-based lighting solution.
We’ve asked Unity Engine whether it plans to release this tech demo. After all, the team had previously released its Adam Tech Demo to the public. Unfortunately, though, there are no plans right now for a public release.

Almost 1 million new people had a VR headset after Half-Life: Alyx launched
https://www.pcgamer.com/almost-1-million-new-people-had-a-vr-headset-after-half-life-alyx-launched/
April was a big month for VR, it appears, with Steam's Hardware Survey turning up some 950,000 more VR headsets than the prior month. This record jump follows the release of Half-Life: Alyx, a shooter which is perhaps the highest-profile release to date on a VR platform. According to industry trend-watcher Road to VR, this means some 2.7 million people, or 1.91% of Steam users, had VR headsets on Steam in April. This number reflects the number of "monthly-connected headsets" on Steam, that is, the amount of VR headsets Steam noticed were attached to a Steam account while it was online. It doesn't necessarily reflect actual usage.

MODS/EMULATORS

New Fallout 4 Mod unlocks framerate & fixes all physics issues with high framerates
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/new-fallout-4-mod-unlocks-framerate-fixes-all-physics-issues-with-high-framerates/
After the lackluster release of Fallout 76, a lot of gamers are returning to Fallout 4. However, and as we’ve already reported, the game is by default locked at 60fps. Thankfully, there is now a mod that can unlock its framerate. Furthermore, it fixes all of the physics issues that occurred when unlocking the framerate.
(...)
According to its creator, this mod unlock the FPS and unties the game speed from framerate, allowing you to play with high FPS at normal speed. It also dynamically changes the value of fMaxTime, fMaxTimeComplex and fMaxFrameCounterDifferenceToConsiderVisible. As the modder noted, this will allow you to have an unlocked framerate without physics bugs.
Additionally, this mod offers the ability to turn off vertical sync on loading screens to speed up game loading. The effect is especially noticeable if game is on SSD. It also fixes rotation speed of items and corpses and rotation speed in build mode. Not only that, but it fixes a problem of getting stuck when you access to the terminal and power armor.
>> You can get this mod from Nexus Mods.

Grand Theft Auto 5 Iron Man Endgame Mod is now available for download to everyone
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/grand-theft-auto-5-iron-man-endgame-mod-is-now-available-for-download-to-everyone/
Talented modder “JulioNIB” has released a brand new mod for Grand Theft Auto 5. As the title suggests, this mod brings Iron Man from the Avengers: Endgame movie to Rockstar’s open-world sandbox title.
Thanks to this mod, players can fly and attack pedestrians (or enemies) as Iron Man. Players can also use some of Iron Man’s moves from the Avengers: Endgame movie. Naturally, Iron Man’s suit also based on the one Tony Stark wore in Avengers: Endgame.
In order to showcase the mod, JulioNIB released the following video. This video will give you an idea of Iron Man’s moves, so be sure to watch it.
>> You can download it from his Patreon page.

This 2GB HD Texture Pack for Skyrim Special Edition overhauls all of its armor and weapons
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/this-2gb-hd-texture-pack-for-skyrim-special-edition-overhauls-all-of-its-armor-and-weapons/
These past few months – and dare to say, years – we’ve seen numerous HD Texture Packs for Skyrim’s environments. However, there have been only a few that improve the textures of various objects, items, armor and weapons. So, today we bring you a mod that overhauls the textures of all armor and weapons in Skyrim Special edition.
Created by modder ‘screamclarity’, Periphery of Skyrim – Armor and Weapons Remastered aims to improve the textures of all armor and weapons. This mod covers every piece of armor and every weapon from the base game including DLCs.
>> Available from Nexus Mods.

Aliens Eradication is an 8-map action survival game for GZDoom and is available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/aliens-eradication-is-an-8-map-action-survival-game-for-gzdoom-and-is-available-for-download/
Payload4367 has released an 8-map action survival game for use with Kontra Kommando’s Aliens Trilogy (Payload edition) mod on GZDoom. And, ironically, this fan-made Aliens game is more faithful – and a better retro-experience – than Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Aliens Eradication adds four unique player classes. Each class has each own story, enemy encounters, item placement, side/bonus missions. Furthermore, there are some maps exclusive to the class you have chosen to play.
Aliens Eradication uses weapons and enemies from the Playstation version of Aliens Trilogy. I still consider Aliens Trilogy an amazing Aliens FPS game, despite its simplicity. So yeah, its assets are of great use to this fan-made Aliens game.
>> You'll be able to find this mod at ModDB.

This Doom Eternal Mod increases the duration and amount of particle effects
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/this-doom-eternal-mod-increases-the-duration-and-amount-of-particle-effects/
Nikk Mann has released a pretty cool new mod for Doom Eternal. As its title suggests, Particles 9000 aims to overhaul the game’s particles effects. This mod achieves that by increasing the duration and amount of particle effects for all player weapons and several explosion effects.
Moreover, Particles 9000 increases the light radius of all player weapon lights. This will make them feel more dynamic/interactive with the environment.
The end result is pretty cool and makes the game look more chaotic. According to the modder, this mod brings a 1-5fps hit. The modder also suggests disabling the in-game anti-aliasing as it greatly adds ghosting and blurriness to all translucent effects like fire and smoke.
>> This mod is available from Nexus Mods.

Turn your boring Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord bow into an arrow shotgun with this mod
https://www.pcgamer.com/turn-your-boring-mount-and-blade-2-bannerlord-bow-into-an-arrow-shotgun-with-this-mod/
I'm not an expert on medieval warfare, but I have seen Army of Darkness and played several PC games, so I'm confident that shotguns can kick the hell out of your average medieval soldier. This Bannerlord mod, MB2Shotgun, delivers most of the appealing power of a boomstick without being as obviously anachronistic: It makes your bow or crossbow fire off something like 20 arrows at once. Carnage results.
The mod doesn't by default look that impressive—it hits enemies with a hell of a lot of force, but doesn't really give you that satisfying pellet spread of a real shotgun. Pair it with the Firelord mod's fire arrows, though, and things start to heat up.

Fully automatic crossbows in Mount & Blade 2 are hysterical
https://www.pcgamer.com/fully-automatic-crossbows-in-mount-and-blade-2-are-hysterical/
Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord is a medieval warfare RPG with some of the best combat out there, but sometimes you want something more. Something ridiculous.
Modding fully automatic crossbows into Mount & Blade is a hobby as old as Mount & Blade modding itself, with YouTube videos dating back to the halcyon days of the aughts showcasing them. Thus the torch has passed to Mount & Blade 2, bringing us now to a fully automatic crossbow mod for Bannerlord. Yes, the weapon so deadly that Pope Urban II banned their usage is now even deadlier.

Morrowind Rebirth mod gets a big update to celebrate Morrowind's 18th anniversary
https://www.pcgamer.com/morrowind-rebirth-mod-gets-a-big-update-to-celebrate-morrowinds-18th-anniversary/
The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind is now officially an adult, at least in the US. Bethesda's RPG turns 18 years old today, and to celebrate, the modder behind expansive total overhaul mod Morrowind Rebirth put out a big update. This is version 5.1; we last wrote about Morrowind Rebirth in November 2019, when it finalized its 5.0 update.
"This update is a tad smaller than previous updates, but as always there's a lot of interesting stuff included," writes modder trancemaster_1988. Includes are lots of bug fixes and some changes to previously added features. You can see the kind of attention to detail in Rebirth with updates like this: "The large bridge in Gnisis has been moved just south of Fort Darius. It didn't make sense for the bridge to be situated where it was, as the fort would be useless as a defensive fortification."

GAMING NEWS

Here are the first details and the World Premiere Trailer for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/here-are-the-first-details-and-the-world-premiere-trailer-for-assassins-creed-valhalla/
Ubisoft has just released the World Premiere trailer for the next Assassin’s Creed game, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will release in Holiday 2020 and will be exclusive on Epic Games Store and UPLAY. In short, the game will not be coming to Steam.
>> Old news by now, I know. Anyway, here are the first screenshots, in case you haven't seen them by now.

Mafia 3 is free to play on Steam until May 7th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/mafia-3-is-free-to-play-on-steam-until-may-7th/
2K Games has announced that Mafia 3 is free to play on Steam. From today and until May 7th, PC gamers can download and play this Mafia game. As the title suggests, this is a free to play offer, meaning that you won’t be able to access the game afterwards (unless of course you purchase it).
>> There's still 3 days left to try it.

Next Battlefield game will release in 2021, will come out on next-gen systems only
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/next-battlefield-game-will-release-in-2021-will-come-out-on-next-gen-systems-only/
It appears that the next Battlefield game will come out in 2021. As DICE has stated, with the release of the latest update for both Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Battlefield 5, it can now focus on the future of Battlefield.

First gameplay footage revealed for F1 2020
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/first-gameplay-footage-revealed-for-f1-2020/
Codemasters has released the first gameplay trailer for F1 2020. This trailer features Circuit Zandvoort; the first of two new races added to F1 2020. Originally scheduled for this weekend in the F1 calendar, Circuit Zandvoort returns to F1 for the first time since 1985. The virtual hot lap features the car of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen on his home circuit.
>> This could be the only F1 you'll be able to enjoy this year.

Here are some 4K/Max Settings PC screenshots from Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Remastered
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/here-are-some-4k-max-settings-pc-screenshots-from-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-remastered/
Activision has just released Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Remastered on the PC. As such, and prior to our PC Performance Analysis, we’ve decided to share some 4K screenshots on Max settings.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare April 30th Update released and here are its full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-april-30th-update-released-and-here-are-its-full-patch-notes/
Infinity Ward has released a brand new update for Call of Duty Modern Warfare. According to the release notes, the April 30th Update comes with a number of fixes and adjustments for both Modern Warfare and Warzone.

New Microsoft Flight Simulator screenshots showcase Volumetric Clouds, Environments & Airplanes
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/new-microsoft-flight-simulator-screenshots-showcase-volumetric-clouds-environments-airplanes/
Microsoft has released new beautiful screenshots for its upcoming flight sim game, Microsoft Flight Simulator. These screenshots showcase some truly amazing Volumetric Clouds, the game’s gorgeous environments and some airplanes.

First PC screenshots revealed for Halo 3 & Halo 3 ODST
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/first-pc-screenshots-revealed-for-halo-3-halo-3-odst/
343 Industries has revealed the first PC screenshots for Halo 3 and Halo 3 ODST. These screenshots are from a WIP build, meaning that they do not represent the quality of the final versions. Still, they can give you a small idea of what you can expect from these two upcoming Halo games.

First screenshots for Daedalic’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings – Gollum
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/first-screenshots-for-daedalics-upcoming-the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum/
It appears that the first screenshots for Daedalic’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings – Gollum have surfaced online. These screenshots showcase in-game action, so they will give you an idea of the game’s aesthetics and visuals.

The second part of the news:

Promising first-person monster game Darkborn has been shelved
https://www.pcgamer.com/promising-first-person-monster-game-darkborn-has-been-shelved/
Darkborn, previous known as Project Wight, and before that Archenemy, is no more. The Outsiders revealed the first gameplay trailer for the first-person monster romp a year ago, but things haven't been going well since then. It's now been effectively cancelled.

Crashlands creators' new game is a crafting platformer about delivery robots in space
https://www.pcgamer.com/crashlands-creators-new-game-is-a-crafting-platformer-about-delivery-robots-in-space/
The 2016 top-download exploration RPG Crashlands was very good, but as we noted in our review it was also "tuned for a mobile experience" first and foremost. Developer Butterscotch Shenanigans announced the followup, Levelhead, in March 2019, and after a year in Early Access it went into full release today.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla's village hub 'changed the shape of the game,' Ubisoft says
https://www.pcgamer.com/assassins-creed-valhallas-village-hub-changed-the-shape-of-the-game-ubisoft-says/
A year after the Vikings rumor first came to the surface, Ubisoft confirmed yesterday that the next Assassin's Creed game is entitled Valhalla, and dropped a cinematic today showcasing our Norwegian friends doing the two-handed chop on the gang in Saxon England. Aside from the basics of the setting, though, we still don't know what we can expect from Valhalla, but Ubisoft told Eurogamer that one big new feature is a village settlement that will serve as a home and hub for players.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla gameplay will be revealed next week
https://www.pcgamer.com/assassins-creed-valhalla-gameplay-will-be-revealed-next-week/
Ubisoft rolled out a cinematic trailer for Assassin's Creed Valhalla earlier today and it was suitably epic, but aside from the very broad strokes of "burly men and women will gut and be gutted," it really didn't show us much about the game itself. For that, we'll have to wait until next week—specifically May 7, during the Inside Xbox livestream.

Apex Legends' new character is a glamorous thief obsessed with revenge
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-new-character-is-a-glamorous-thief-obsessed-with-revenge/
Electronic Arts confirmed today that the next entrant in the Apex Legends battle royale will be Loba Andrade, the little girl who became an orphan when the psycho murderbot did his thing in January's Season 4 launch trailer. She's since grown up to become an extremely successful thief, but she never got over the death of her parents, and with their killer—the relentless murderbot Revenant—now resurfaced in the Apex games, it looks like Loba is going to make her move for revenge.

Valorant's war against cheaters escalates as aimbots and wallhacks appear
https://www.pcgamer.com/valorants-war-against-cheaters-escalates-as-aimbots-and-wallhacks-appear/
Valorant hasn't even left closed beta and cheaters are already cheating. Riot told me two weeks ago that the first cheaters had been banned just days after the beta launched, and now players are posting evidence of more hacks on Reddit.
>> And now it has ranked play, which may be an incentive for some to cheat even more.

GDC will go 'fully digital' for its summer event in August
https://www.pcgamer.com/gdc-will-go-fully-digital-for-its-summer-event-in-august/
Game Developers Conference 2020 was postponed in February as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, but organizers said at the time that they "intend to host a GDC event later in the summer." In March, they announced GDC Summer, an event that promised "the same high level of expert-led talks as the traditional GDC, along with a freestyle two-day expo show floor," scheduled for August 4.

Cyberpunk 2077 gets an R18+ rating in Australia, alleviating fears of a ban
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-gets-an-r18-rating-in-australia-alleviating-fears-of-a-ban/
Cyberpunk 2077 has sex, drugs, suicide and cruelty, which is pretty stressful if you're Australian: the country's Classification Board doesn't like drugs in particular. The prospect that the game might be refused classification, or censored in some form, has been a point of anxiety for a while. But now you can relax.

Legends of Runeterra launches with more than 120 new cards
https://www.pcgamer.com/legends-of-runeterra-launches-with-more-than-120-new-cards/
Legends of Runeterra, Riot's free-to-play card game, has left open beta and is out in the wild. It's joined by Rising Tides, its very first expansion, giving players more than 120 new cards and 11 new champions to play with.

Kind Donations turns Animal Crossing's museum into a blood-soaked nightmare
https://www.pcgamer.com/kind-donations-turns-animal-crossings-museum-into-a-bloodsoaked-nightmare/
I have finally liberated myself from the clutches of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and its awful stalk market, but I have been wondering how my best bud, Blathers the owl, has been getting on in my absence. Probably not too well, judging by this Animal Crossing-inspired indie horror game, Kind Donations.

Subnautica: Below Zero adds a revamped story, new mechanics and snowballs
https://www.pcgamer.com/subnautica-below-zero-adds-a-revamped-story-new-mechanics-and-snowballs/
It might be time to start a new game in Subnautica: Below Zero. The Early Access survival game received a significant update this week, making Planet 4546B even more inhospitable, while letting you experience the beginning of a revamped story, complete with a new intro cinematic.

Geoff Keighley's hosting his own E3 replacement that will run all summer
https://www.pcgamer.com/geoff-keighleys-hosting-his-own-e3-replacement-that-will-run-all-summer/
Kojima's mate and industry superfan Geoff Keighley is keeping busy this summer. He's announced the Summer Game Fest, a peculiar summer-long smorgasbord of news, reveals, demos and in-game events. It starts this month.

Call of Duty: Warzone brings back Bounty contracts
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-warzone-brings-back-bounty-contracts/
Sometimes, getting mad gets results. Case in point: Earlier this week, Activision added a new type of contract to the Call of Duty battle royale Warzone, but at the same time quietly removed Bounty contracts, a move that left a lot of players very unhappy.

An alien onesie can be yours if you log into GTA Online in May
https://www.pcgamer.com/an-alien-onesie-can-be-yours-if-you-log-into-gta-online-in-may/
Rockstar is giving a GTA$500,000 reward to anyone and everyone who logs into GTA Online in the month of May. That sounds like a lot of cash, right? Yeah, it's not.

The original Star Wars: Battlefront now has Steam multiplayer support
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-original-star-wars-battlefront-now-has-steam-multiplayer-support/
The original Star Wars: Battlefront came out in 2004—eons ago, in videogame terms. Like the 2015 reboot Star Wars Battlefront (you can tell the difference by the lack of a colon), it focused heavily on multiplayer combat, but online play required the use of the GameSpy service, which became a problem when it went away in 2014.
It was still possible to play online but it took a lot more effort after that happened. As this guide on Steam breaks down, you could use a mod, or do some manual hex editing, or you could hoof your PC over to somebody's basement and set up a LAN with as many people as you could squeeze in. None of these solutions are ideal for someone looking for a simple hour or two of classic online gaming, but now there's a better way: A surprise update has restored multiplayer support directly through Steam.

Surprise! There are so many news that it was necessary to split them in three posts:

Fallout 76 players have eaten 193,639 pepperoni rolls in two weeks
https://www.pcgamer.com/fallout-76-players-have-eaten-193639-pepperoni-rolls-in-two-weeks/
The Fallout 76 Wastelanders update isn't even a month old, but that hasn't stopped players from scarfing down a whopping total of 193,639 in-game pepperoni rolls, nuking the settlement of Crater a whole bunch, and dying to the new Wendigo Colossus boss 23,961 times. It's been a productive month in apocalyptic West Virginia.
These stats are courtesy of Bethesda who, in a blog post, shared some interesting insights from a recent AMA on Reddit along with a bunch of goofy stats about what players have been getting up to since Wastelanders dropped.

If Doom was a rhythm game it might look a lot like Bullets Per Minute
https://www.pcgamer.com/if-doom-was-a-rhythm-game-it-might-look-a-lot-like-bullets-per-minute/
Earlier this year, Doom creative director Hugo Martin dropped a couple of musical metaphors to describe the then-upcoming Doom Eternal. "Doom is definitely rock music, Doom 2016. [Doom Eternal] is speed metal," he said at the time. "When you play the game you can feel it. You're thinking way faster, you're making split decisions. We want it to become rhythmic. You achieve a flow state of mayhem and violence."
Bullets Per Minute, from Awe Interactive, appears set to make that analogy a lot more literal. It's a "rhythm-action FPS roguelike" in which you move, jump, and shoot your way through randomly-generated dungeons, all to the beat of an epic rock soundtrack. You'll play as one of five different Valkyries, each with unique strengths and weaknesses, wielding a range of weapons with different beat-based firing and reloading characteristics and more than 40 items "that buff your character in unique and interesting ways."

Rick May tribute added to Team Fortress 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/rick-may-tribute-added-to-team-fortress-2/
Actor Rick May, who voiced Team Fortress 2's Soldier, died last month at age 79. He had contracted COVID-19 while recovering from a stroke, according to Rekindle School, where he taught voiceover acting.
Today, Valve released a Team Fortress 2 update which adds a tribute to May in the form of statues that can be found in each of the official maps. The inscription at the base of each statue reads "That was a hell of a campaign son!" in reference to one of the Soldier's voice lines. The tribute also includes a new main menu theme.

A Warhammer Age of Sigmar RTS is coming from Elite Dangerous developer Frontier
https://www.pcgamer.com/a-warhammer-age-of-sigmar-rts-is-coming-from-elite-dangerous-developer-frontier/
Quietly buried in an investor relations note, Frontier Developments announced that it has acquired the license to develop a real-time strategy game based on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar setting from Games Workshop. Age of Sigmar is the current fantasy tabletop miniatures game from Games Workshop, having supplanted Warhammer Fantasy Battles in 2015, with a second edition in 2018, and is one of the most popular miniatures games in the world. Frontier has exclusive rights to develop and publish an RTS for both PC and consoles based on Age of Sigmar, and plans to release a game in fiscal year 2023, that is, the business year ending May 31, 2023. So, that’s a ways away then.

World of Warcraft Shadowlands spiffs up the darkness with ray tracing in alpha
https://www.pcgamer.com/wow-shadowlands-adds-ray-tracing-options-to-alpha/
Blizzard Entertainment is bringing a key upgrade to World of Warcraft's graphics just in time for an entire expansion about shadows: Ray tracing. A new Ray Traced Shadows option was added to the World of Warcraft: Shadowlands alpha this week, and though it's currently disabled, it'll be a boon to those with RTX-enabled graphics cards.

Fortnite's limited-release Star Wars loot returns for May the 4th
https://www.pcgamer.com/fortnites-limited-release-star-wars-loot-returns-for-may-4th/
Fortnite developers Epic games would like to also celebrate corporate Star Wars-themed holiday May the 4th, so they're bringing back their past Star Wars-themed content for a limited time. From today, May 3rd, through May 5th you'll be able to snag the old stuff. You can get the Rey, Kylo Ren, and rather slick Sith Trooper outfits from the shop. You can also get lightsabers in four colors, which is frankly pretty cool except I don't know why you'd want to own any lightsaber other than Mace Windu's purple one.

Them's Fightin' Herds has left Early Access
https://www.pcgamer.com/thems-fightin-herds-has-left-early-access/
Forged in the fires of a cease-and-desist letter from Hasbro, Them's Fightin' Herds was once a My Little Pony fangame called Fighting is Magic. Developers Mane6 revived it with help from publisher Humble Bundle and the cartoon's creator Lauren Faust, who designed a new cast of four-legged fighters for it including a reindeer, an alpaca, and a dark-magic unicorn who wields the power of the Unicornomicon. Which is nice.

Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition will finally be compatible with Capture Age
https://www.pcgamer.com/age-of-empires-2-definitive-edition-will-finally-be-compatible-with-capture-age/
Capture Age is a tool designed for use with the original, 1999 version of classic RTS Age of Empires 2. It's great for spectating, as it adds an overlay of realtime stats, increases zoom in both directions, and generally makes for a better viewer experience. It's been used in both Hidden Cup 2 and Escape Champions League tournaments, but it wasn't compatible with the Definitive Edition of Age of Empires 2 released in 2019. That's about to change.

Warzone will connect the different Call of Duty series
https://www.pcgamer.com/warzone-will-connect-the-different-call-of-duty-series/
Not surprisingly, the massively successful Call of Duty: Warzone won't suddenly call it quits when the series moves on from Modern Warfare to the next entry in the series. Activision hasn't revealed exactly how Warzone will adapt as Call of Duty marches forward, but the different "sub-franchises" will apparently leave their mark.

The Dirt Rally creators tell fans to 'prepare to see something new' very soon
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-dirt-rally-creators-tell-fans-to-prepare-to-see-something-new-very-soon/
The brilliant Dirt Rally 2.0 is winding down its seasonal activity, but there are new games in the works according to a post on the Codemasters forums.
"Whilst there are no plans for additional Seasons for DiRT Rally 2.0, some minor updates and surprises are planned. At this stage, the Rally team is now focusing on the future," the post says. Regular challenges will continue, esports competition will continue, and the community sites will remain open.

Sorry viv but I can't help with that.

I know that in VRAM limited cards, sometimes the PC has to use something else to store all the data from the game, greatly decreasing the performance, but I don't remember if it does it on the RAM (would make more sense) or the main storage.

Maybe a 5,5GB/s SSD could replace ancient DDR2-RAM. But is that speed good enough for them?

Even my old dual channel DDR3 RAM can handle 5x of that:

And then we still have the latency: https://superuser.com/questions/1253125/ssd-vs-ram-whats-the-cost-durability-difference-and-limitation-to-using-ssd-as

I highly doubt it will work the way they are thinking cause games that will be built around using the SSD will be hitting it hard with I/O and transfer rates which won't leave enough room for it to be used as additional Vram and not to mention the latency issues. On top of that, the transfer rate differences and etc.

There might be examples of GPUs running into Vram problems when they are being used in production workloads but I don't watch those kinds of videos to remember. The closest thing I remember watching is when GN tested a compile benchmark with the AMD Threadripper TR 3990X with 32GB of RAM vs 64GB. Their compile benchmark ran out of 32GB of system ram due to the 64 cores so it reverted to using the SATA SSD they use which killed the CPU's performance. When they put in 64GB, it went back to being on top. While not directly the same thing, I would suspect a similar case if they used the super fast SSD for Vram.

Personally I think the ps5 will run into a GPU processing bottleneck trying to run games at 4k before it has a Vram bottleneck.

We don't even know if they'll try to go for real 4K or if they'll keep using the Checkerboard trick from the PS4 Pro.

But whatever. I have no plans to get a console and if they (both of them) really try to go for true 4K then all the best for me, I won't need a really powerful card to play the same games at better fps on my 1440p screen.

The SSD/NVMe drive can be a problem, but I don't mind loading times, at least not usually.

The problem with consoles is that they have certain games that I really want to play. I don't want to buy another console but I have a suspicion that they'll come out with some game that I will want to play asap.