True we've been let down a lot from the red camp.. but we've seen a glimpses of RDNA 2 in action. In January we've seen an unknown AMD card 17% faster than 2080Ti in OpenVR spotted on there. Given time to mature to drivers on what seems top be a possible engineering sample, it would most likely have lower clock speeds as well. Then you have the 36 CU Xbox Series X GPU offering similar performance to RTX 2080 in Gears 5 (from Digital Foundry) its not too far fetched to believe some of the rumours.

I've not been following AMD GPU news up until recently but logically they are shooting for high end this time and with 72-80 CU's I can see more competitive GPU from them this time round. If we go by the increased power efficiency, higher clocks and improved IPC, its certainly possible we can get a 40% perf boost over a current gen..

It honestly doesn't make sense for them to launch another mid range card only when the new consoles are out in a few months. With Navi 2X, I can see them going all in. When they have a product that's not only as competitive but potentially disruptive, its time to strike while the iron is hot.

You mean 52 CU?

Ah yeah oops :P

*** NEW CONTEST ***

Win an AOC C27G2ZU Curved Gaming Monitor
https://hexus.net/tech/features/monitors/144082-win-aoc-c27g2zu-curved-gaming-monitor/

It's a 27" moneitor with a 1,920x1,080 resolution, 240Hz and FreeSync Premium.

The contest if limited to UK and Europe only.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Ampere Gaming Graphics Cards Rumored To Utilize New 12-Pin Power Interface

https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-30-ampere-gaming-graphics-cards-new-power-connector-rumor/

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30 series Ampere gaming graphics cards are looking to offer a major design update over traditional graphics cards if the rumors are correct. The latest rumor comes from the Chinese tech outlet, FCPOWERUP, who are well known for their reporting on power supplies & have stated that NVIDIA is going to utilize a brand new power interface on its next-gen gaming lineup.

According to the source, NVIDIA will be equipping its reference GeForce RTX 30 series gaming graphics cards with a new power interface that comes in a 12 Pin design.

The blueprint of the 12V 12-pin connector is provided and from first look, it looks like traditional 2x 6-pin connectors hooked up together. The connector looks similar to the Molex Micro-Fit series of power connectors which are 19mm wide and have a 3mm pitch. This is the same width as the two 6-pin power connectors that current PSUs offer but offers a current capacity of 8.5A compared to 6A of mini-Fit 5556 connectors. At a perfect efficiency rate, the mini-fit would deliver 600 Watts of power but that's not always the case and the actual power delivered to the GPU is around 400W at 6 Amps. The primary bottleneck with the traditional connectors is the 20AWG specifications for the pins.

Also, bad news, everyone... it looks like we're in the early stages of a new mining craze:

Is Another GPU Mining Wave Inbound?

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/is-another-gpu-mining-wave-inbound.html

"The demand for virtual currency "mining" has increased and will increase significantly in the near future. The market demand for popular mid-end mainstream models such as GTX 1660 Super and RTX 2060 is very strong. Therefore, after entering the third quarter, the Turing series GPU chip production capacity will be significantly reduced, and there may be a shortage of chip supply, which will also cause the price of graphics cards to rise." reports China-based mydrivers.

oh geez, a new mining raze, and at the turn of a new set of good GPU's as well, hmm, I wonder why this is happening...

Could it be yet another, well timed occurrence for Nvidia to possibly once again claim scarcity and at the same time, greatly inflating prices, as well as 3rd party vendors/creators doing the same?.

I mean, come on, it's going to happen. I hate bitcoin mining with a passion and I'd love to see it dead as the dodo, but I can't help but think at this point, that it's a bit fishy how it's only just ramping up again, just now, when we're at the very cusp of a new set of cards. Why wasn't there a ramp up with the 1st gen RTX cards, why when we're getting to the good cards?.

Could be looking at a die-size north of 500mm2 though... She isn't going to be cheap considering it's on 7nm and that big.

The RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Super are 545mm2... But that is built at a very cheap and mature 12nm process which is a refined 16nm process which is an enhanced 20nm process with Finfet. nVidia could afford to make them big.

Not to mention nVidia priced them high anyway.

Also the 2080Ti is 2 years old at this point, Ampere is rumored to offer a 20% IPC uplift per SM and 4x the RT performance of Turing as well... Plus a 25% increase in SM counts alone.

That could mean that Big Navi @ 545mm2 is competing against nVidia's 3070 @267mm2, maybe the 3080 in a best case scenario at 367mm2, nVidia could apply some serious cost advantages.

Mind you, all these numbers could be way off, just what I have been seeing floating around the enthusiast hardware circles... Either way a "high-end" GPU dropping in 2020 competing with a "high-end" GPU released 2 years ago doesn't really rock my world, not sure what anyone else thinks?

DDR5 Memory Specification Released: Setting the Stage for DDR5-6400 And Beyond

https://www.anandtech.com/show/15912/ddr5-specification-released-setting-the-stage-for-ddr56400-and-beyond

Paper Mario: Origami King already running on PC emulators days before release

https://www.resetera.com/threads/paper-mario-origami-king-already-running-on-pc-emulators-days-before-release.248254/

Death Stranding shows how fap worthy DLSS can truly be with texts and etc being easier to read than native.

Yea I am gonna pick those cards up essentially as soon as they get announced. With a 30 day return policy that is just in case Nvidia actually does goof up... The last mining craze completely destroyed reasonable GPU pricing and those that were able to pick the GPUs up before it began essentially won the generation. Hell it gave Nvidia the will to raise their prices to this degree with the 2000 series.

The news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

PUBG has sold more than 70 million units worldwide
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/pubg-has-sold-more-than-70-million-units-worldwide/
PUBG Corporation announced that PlayerUnknown’s Battleground has sold over 70 million units to date. To commemorate this milestone, the latest update will return to the jungles of Sanhok with PUBG Season 8. The team has remastered this map to be leaner, meaner, and more deadly than ever before.

Dawn of War, Vermintide, Blood Bowl, and Space Marines are in the new Humble Bundle
https://www.pcgamer.com/dawn-of-war-vermintide-blood-bowl-and-space-marines-are-in-the-new-humble-bundle/
Games Workshop has never been what you'd call stingy when it comes to licensing its stuff for videogames, which is why there are about a thousand different Warhammer games on the market at any given moment, and twice that number if you count Warhammer 40,000. That makes them a good candidate for bundles of the Humble sort, such as the Humble Warhammer Bundle 2020 that went live today.
A $1 buy-in will get you Warhammer 40K: Kill Team, Warhammer 40: Dawn of War, Warhammer 40K: Legacy of Dorn – Herald of Oblivion, and—mixing things up a bit—Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide. Beat the average price and you'll also get Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 2, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, Warhammer 40K: Sanctus Reach, and Warhammer 40K: Deathwatch Enhanced Edition. And at the $15 price point, you'll also take home Warhammer 40: Space Marine Collection, Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 3, and—another change of direction—Blood Bowl 2 Legendary Edition. Because yes, Blood Bowl is a Warhammer game, too.
(...)
The Humble Warhammer Bundle 2020 will be available until July 28. Picking it up at the top tier will also get you a free month on new signups to the Humble Choice subscription service.
>> That's Humble Bundle, but the Humble Store has two new sales:

• The first one also involves Warhammer, with up to 80% discounts during the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/warhammer-sale/
• And there's a The Sims 4 sale with up to 63% discounts during the next 13 days. The keys are for Origin: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/the-sims-summer-sale/

GOG has two new sales and two new releases with discounts:

• The two new sales are:
  • The Midweek Sale is full of strategy games up to 85% off during the next 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20200715_midweek_sale
  • And there's a special dungeon crawlers sale with up to 80% discounts during the next 5 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20200715_dungeon_crawlers_sale
• And these are the new releases:
  • CHANGE: A Homeless Survival Experience releases with a 15% discount until July 22: https://www.gog.com/game/change_a_homeless_survival_experience
  • And The I of The Dragon launches with a big 75% discount until the 22th of July: https://www.gog.com/game/the_i_of_the_dragon

Steam has two new deals, one of them a new daily deal, and two new Midweek Madness:

• The daily deal is Main Assembly. still in Early Access, with a 25% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1078920/Main_Assembly/
• And Die Young is 50% off until July 20: https://store.steampowered.com/app/433170/Die_Young/
• And these are the Midweek Madness deals:
  • The Banner Saga franchise brings between 60 and 90% discounts until Friday: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/thebannersagafranchise/
  • And the Van Helsing franchise has its games 90% off until the same Friday 17th: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/van-helsing/

Fanatical has a new Star Deal: Record of Agarest War Mariage - Deluxe Bundle, 85% off during the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/record-of-agarest-war-marriage-deluxe-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD's latest GPU driver touts up to an 8% performance bump in Death Stranding
https://www.pcgamer.com/amds-latest-gpu-driver-touts-up-to-an-8-performance-bump-in-death-stranding/
Life comes at you fast, and sometimes so do graphics drivers. Case in point, AMD has released its second GPU driver update in less than a week. Whereas the previous release mostly focused on fixing various issues, the new Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.7.2 driver package promises modest performance gains in Death Stranding and F1 2020.
According to the release notes, Radeon RX 5700 XT owners can expect up to 8 percent better performance in Death Stranding when playing at 2560x1440 on high settings, and up to a 5 percent improvement in F1 2020, also at 2560x1440 but on the ultra-high preset.
>> Available from here.

Death Stranding – Native 4K vs FidelityFX Upscaling vs DLSS 2.0
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/death-stranding-native-4k-vs-fidelityfx-upscaling-vs-dlss-2-0/
505 Games and Kojima Productions have just released Death Stranding on the PC. Death Stranding supports both DLSS 2.0 and FidelityFX Upscaling. As such, and instead of sharing our initial 4K performance impressions, we’ve decided to test these re-construction techniques. We’ve also included Native 4K screenshots in order to showcase the graphical differences between them.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

You can already play Paper Mario: The Origami King on PC thanks to Nintendo Switch Emulators
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/you-can-already-play-paper-mario-the-origami-king-on-pc-thanks-to-nintendo-switch-emulators/
Paper Mario: The Origami King is a new Nintendo Switch game that releases on July 17th. And, surprisingly enough, this new Mario game is already playable on the PC via the Nintendo Switch emulators, Yuzu and Ryujinx, prior to its official release.
(...)
Below you can find two videos, showcasing Paper Mario: The Origami King running on both Yuzu and Ryujinx. For the time being, we suggest using Yuzu in order to play this game as performance appears to be better with it. This is mainly due to the multicore support that the team implemented a while back.

GAMING NEWS

Gears 5 Operation 4: Brothers In Arms Update released, full patch notes revealed
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/gears-5-operation-4-brothers-in-arms-update-released-full-patch-notes-revealed/
Microsoft and The Coalition have released a new major update for Gears 5, Operation 4: Brothers in Arms. This update brings the largest one-time drop of characters since launch and completes the original Delta Squad with Dom Santiago. Moreover, the update streamlines progression and rewards and introduces a new ranking system.

The next-gen PES game will be using Unreal Engine instead of the FOX Engine
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-next-gen-pes-game-will-be-using-unreal-engine-instead-of-the-fox-engine/
Konami has revealed the first details for its next-gen PES game. Moreover, the publisher has released a new in-engine video which shows us a glimpse at the graphics of this upcoming Pro Evolution Soccer game.

Serious Sam 4 gets another gameplay trailer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/serious-sam-4-gets-another-gameplay-trailer/
Devolver and Croteam have released a new gameplay trailer for Serious Sam 4. This gameplay trailer features an updated version of the Grand Cathedral OST from Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, so make sure to watch it if you are die-hard Serious Sam fans.