So what's the ideal RAM specs then? I hope someone will have a closer look at that with many different RAM specs.

We will know more once Gamer Nexus releases a follow up video with their findings, but until then this is what we know:

• Go for high frequencies paired with low latencies. A 3600 CL14 kit will perform about the same or better than a 3800 CL16 kit. Anything higher than 3800MHz is a hit or miss situation, and CLs 18 or above is a no go.
• 4 sticks perform better than 2 sticks, as long as both are equal in terms of ranks...
• Zen prefers to have 4 ranks of RAM. That is achieved through 4 single ranked RAM modules (mostly all 8GB modules are this way), or by 2 dual ranked RAM sticks (usually the ones with 16GB). The ranks are the sides of a RAM stick. If the memory chips are on only on one side, it's single rank, if there's chips on both, it's dual rank.

I've read that AMD will launch a new BIOS update that will make it easier for Zen3 to work with 4000MHz modules, but those have high latencies, making them a bit risky.

The RAM kit you had eyed and mentioned a few days ago was a very good choice, no need to change it.

I knew that the GPU limit was the reason for a while now, following the discrepancy between the tests of most Youtubers and PC Games Hardware (a German Magazine and Website), who test their CPUs in 720p and with settings specifically set to reduce GPU load as much as possible to not run into a GPU limit if possible. The Result: Zen 3 was trouncing the 10900K in all the games, without exception - even though they still used a 2080Ti for better comparison with older tests (their test suite gets updated only once every year or so)

https://www.pcgameshardware.de/Vermeer-Codename-276905/Tests/AMD-Ryzen-Zen-9-5900X-vs-3900X-vs-10900K-5950X-Benchmark-1360653/2/

They still used DDR4-3200 at JEDEC standard speeds for Zen 3 (as per it's official spec sheet), so imagine if they used faster memory. Though that part will probably be covered in the magazine when it comes out in 2 weeks

Looks like Nvidia is working on a feature similar to SAM but their version will work with both Intel, AMD and won't require PCI-E 4.0

"From NVIDIA, re:SAM: “The capability for resizable BAR is part of the PCI Express spec. NVIDIA hardware supports this functionality and will enable it on Ampere GPUs through future software updates. We have it working internally and are seeing similar performance results.""

"Hard to fit in a tweet, but basically, they're working on enabling the same feature as AMD Smart Access Memory (AMD GPU+CPU=Perf uplift) on both Intel and AMD. No ETA yet. Doesn't look like it'll be ready before RX 6000 launch, but we'll keep an eye on development."

"Further info: does not require PCIe Gen4"

Shitz gonna get even more interesting. Yay competition!

Nice. This is why good competition is good. We all benefit from it

Free performance gain is always welcome.

Some people are claiming AMD forced Nvidia to whip this up in a matter of weeks...Yet everyone, including AMD is going to benefit from this.

This feels oddly familiar...almost like the time when Valve finally released their storefront/UI update (which took years to work on behind the scenes), and random people claimed Epic "forced" Valve's hands into making the update happen in the first place, totally not an update that they had spent years working on...

This is the sort of thing you do not whip up in a small office or garage in a matter of weeks, from AMD announcing their tech and cards/CPU's... I'm sorry but that's just not a feasible amount of time to get this sort of tech going. They'll have been working on this since a year or more ago, and not a few weeks.

Look at Nvidia when they finally got their hairworks off the ground, AMD had their version for years. Shit just doesn't come outta thin air in a tiny window of time. People need to lay off the brand kool aid and take off the stupid shirts.

At the end of the day this is great, because not only is it not locked to PCI 4.0, but it's a boon for both AMD/Nvidia, which means everyone wins, and that's really what we should all want.

Yeah this would have had to be in the works for a while. Maybe Nvidia didn't feel the need to push this out so early since Big Navi's performance final release is beyond most people's expectations. All speculation of course, AMD being competitive again certainly has had an positive impact on Nvidia's decisions regarding their next generation GPU's (from a consumer stand-point).

Apparently, Big Navi is very easy to overclock and can run at far beyond normal clock speeds. Case in point: A 6800XT with a clock speed of over 2.5Ghz and beating the RTX 3090: https://wccftech.com/amd-radeon-rx-6800-xt-overclocks-beyond-2-5-ghz-performance-on-par-rtx-3090/

Also, Epyc Milan is rearing it's head, with a 64c/128t top model with a base clock of 2.45 and a turbo of 3.5 Ghz. That's 200 and 100 Mhz more than the Zen2 based Rome chip of the same configuration - and that's just an early sample, so there's still room for improvement: https://wccftech.com/amd-3rd-gen-epyc-7763-milan-zen-3-cpu-spotted-64-cores-pictured-3-5-ghz-boost-clocks/

Let's go with the Friday news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

The Textorcist is free to own on Epic Games Store
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-textorcist-is-free-to-own-on-epic-games-store/
The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia is currently free to own on Epic Games Store. You can grab the game without charge until November 19th. Elite Dangerous & The World Next Door will also be available for free, the week after.
>> A shame that Elite Dangerous doesn't have a single player mode. Oh, well, a couple week without adding new games to my backlog.

The Humble Store has a new Bandai Namco Sale, with up to 84% discounts for the next 6 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/bandai-namco-publisher-sale/

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

Epic Games offers 3000+ assets from What Remains of Edith Finch for free
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/epic-games-offers-3000-assets-from-what-remains-of-edith-finch-for-free/
Epic Games, Annapurna InteractiveRemove and Giant Sparrow are offering for free over 3000 assets from What Remains of Edith Finch. According to Epic, this is an Unreal Engine initiative that brings free high-quality content to all creators.
Epic claims that this will be the first in a series of new, free content coming to the Unreal Engine Marketplace from teams across the community. As such, creators can expect more free content from other Unreal Engine games to be available for free on the Unreal Engine Marketplace.

DOSBox Pure promises to be "A new way to experience the past"
https://www.pcgamer.com/dosbox-pure-promises-to-be-a-new-way-to-experience-the-past/
Indie developer Bernhard Schelling has announced DOSBox Pure, a forthcoming version of the open-source DOS emulator designed to be compatible with emulator frontend RetroArch, which has struggled with it in the past. DOSBox Pure will include new features like the ability to launch games directly from zip files and mount CD images from them, as well as full controller support, with mouse, keyboard, and joystick mapping. It'll have a cheat menu and the ability to search for new cheats in a game's code, and support for save states as demonstrated by a clip of some classic reloading until you hit an unlikely shot in Jagged Alliance.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Half-Pint somehow crams Half-Life into a few small rooms
https://www.pcgamer.com/half-pint-somehow-crams-half-life-into-a-few-small-rooms/
I'm sure we all get that urge to replay Half-Life every now and then. But who even has the time to wander aimlessly through Black Mesa's subterranean labyrinth these days? Thankfully, modder MrFloyd has compressed Gordon Freeman's bloody journey into a single level, as part of collaborative Half-Life mod TWHL Tower 2.
Following its 2016 predecessor, TWHL Tower 2 tasks you with working your way through an awfully strange tower block. Each floor is its own bespoke level created by a member of the Half-Life mapping community, resetting your health and weapons each floor to give you a fresh start on each map.
>> You can also download it from ModDB.

GAMING NEWS

Arkane’s DEATHLOOP is coming to PC in May 2021
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/arkanes-deathloop-is-coming-to-pc-in-may-2021/
Bethesda has announced that Arkane’s DEATHLOOP will release on May 21st, 2021. DEATHLOOP aims to continue Arkane’s signature gameplay design, challenging gamers to play their own way.

Here are the first 15 minutes of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War’s campaign
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-are-the-first-15-minutes-of-call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-wars-campaign/
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War is the sixth first-person shooter title in the Black Ops series. It’s also the seventeenth installment of the Call of Duty series. The original Call of Duty was released almost exactly seventeen years ago.

Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition is officially coming to the PC in February 2021
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nioh-2-the-complete-edition-is-officially-coming-to-the-pc-in-february-2021/
KOEI Tecmo has just announced that Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition will be officially coming to the PC on February 5th, 2021. In order to celebrate this announcement, the publisher has also released a new trailer that you can find below.

The last news of the week:

Apex Legends won't be getting Quads, and Respawn refuses to crunch
https://www.pcgamer.com/apex-legends-wont-be-getting-quads-and-respawn-refuses-to-crunch/
Following the recent u-turn over Apex Legends' Season 7 battle pass, some of Respawn's developers bravely took to reddit to field community questions. There were a lot of recriminations and gnashing of teeth about corporate overlords, but amongst it all were some insights about Apex's future and Respawn's culture.

Cyberpunk 2077 releases a song that rhymes 'Keanu Reeves' with 'Sleeve'
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-releases-a-song-that-rhymes-keanu-reeves-with-sleeve/
"Even in the dystopian future, hard rap lives on." So says EI-P, one half of hiphop group Run the Jewels, and he somehow manages to do so with a straight face. When Cyberpunk 2077 definitely releases on December 10, it will do so with an all-star OST including Grimes, A$AP Rocky, and Gazelle Twin (a stagename that sounds like an unused Metal Gear Solid boss.)

Minecraft Dungeons cross-platform support arrives November 17
https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-dungeons-cross-platform-support-arrives-november-17/
Cross-platform support for Minecraft Dungeons, which was announced last month together with the new Howling Peaks DLC, now has a date—from November 17, friends on PC, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One can all come together for some dungeon crawling. While there has been no word on cross-play for next-gen consoles, this is unlikely to be a problem, as both the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 are backwards compatible.

Half-Life: Alyx gets more than three hours of developer commentary
https://www.pcgamer.com/half-life-alyx-gets-more-than-three-hours-of-developer-commentary/
A new update to Half-Life: Alyx went out today that adds more than three hours of developer commentary covering "every aspect" of the game's design. Valve said that the design commentary was originally intended to be included with the game at launch, but it was forced to delay the feature by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Class action lawsuit claims EA's dynamic difficulty tech encourages loot box spending
https://www.pcgamer.com/class-action-lawsuit-claims-eas-dynamic-difficulty-tech-encourages-loot-box-spending/
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, EA is in hot water over its loot boxes yet again, as a class action lawsuit has been filed against the publisher in the US District Court of Northern California. Plaintiffs Jason Zajonc, Danyael Williams, and Pranko Lozano claim EA is using the company's patented Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment technology to keep players buying lootboxes such as FIFA Ultimate Team packs. They also claim the technology has been used this way in several EA Sports games since 2017. For some of these games, EA has previously denied using Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment at all.
>> Not related to this (or yes), but now you can track how much time and money you've sunk into Fifa 21.

Destiny 2: Beyond Light disables 2 guns for working too well
https://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-2-beyond-light-disables-2-guns-for-working-too-well/
Destiny 2: Beyond Light has been live for two days, and players are flocking to it, so it's not surprising that they've been finding some exploits and bugs along the way. Players recently noticed that Beyond Light was especially kind to two exotics, which Bungie has since removed "until further notice".

The Spider wants to make a deal in the Destiny 2: Season of the Hunt trailer
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-spider-wants-to-make-a-deal-in-the-destiny-2-season-of-the-hunt-trailer/
A dramatic new trailer released today for the upcoming Destiny 2: Season of the Hunt showcases the arrival of Xivu Arath and gives words to the question that's on everybody's mind: "What if we are not the only ones to whom the Darkness speaks?"

Meet the voice cast of Hades, including one of the dogs behind Cerberus
https://www.pcgamer.com/meet-the-voice-cast-of-hades-including-one-of-the-dogs-behind-cerberus/
Supergiant's games have always had excellent voice acting, going all the way back to Bastion, but never as much excellent voice acting as in Hades, with its full cast of gods and ghosts and monsters. Among those monsters is Cerberus, who is of course a very good boy, no disrespect intended. Apparently it took four dogs to portray his three heads, and one of those four, named Solo, features in the video highlighting Hades' impressive cast above.

Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War players are having trouble connecting to the server
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-players-are-having-trouble-connecting-to-the-server/
The launch of a game as popular as Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War was never going to be entirely smooth, but it seems like players on PC are having trouble even connecting to the game, getting a message that tells them, "The Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War server is not available at this time." When they restart, they're put in a queue, and the subreddit is full of complaints like, "Well it put me in a queue for 40ish seconds. Then it just [went] up to 77000 minutes wait time. Guess I'm not playing it today" and "The estimate to play time is going up not down lol".
>> At least you can kill some time playing Pitfall.

Stream sniping in Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War will be harder than ever before
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-cold-war-stream-sniping-settings/
Streamers, rejoice—Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War tackles stream sniping surprisingly well. Tucked all the way in the back corner of the Options menu are a bundle of extremely useful settings that big streamers will want on, including a matchmaking delay and the option to hide yours and others' usernames in-game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War has some brutal executions
https://www.pcgamer.com/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-has-some-brutal-executions/
The takedown executions in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone, third-person finishing moves some of which were unique to specific operators, were a popular addition. Fans of knifing a person in the neck and saying something quippy will be pleased to know they return in Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War. But as well as the third-person finishing moves in multiplayer, there are now first-person executions in the singleplayer campaign as well—as players who have access to the game because they are definitely in New Zealand have discovered.

Tangiers development is 'back on the rails' following Paratopic's success
https://www.pcgamer.com/tangiers-development-is-back-on-the-rails-following-paratopics-success/
Remember Tangiers? The long-troubled surrealist immersive sim has fallen silent several times since its 2013 debut, resurfacing every so often with a promise that things are back on track before vanishing for another few years. There may be good cause to get your hopes up this time, though. With a rebuilt foundation and a brand new team, developer Jessica Harvey now reckons a Tangiers release is a very real possibility.

Bubby the Burger Town Boy poops out grenade launchers in Black Ops - Cold War
https://www.pcgamer.com/bubby-the-burger-town-boy-poops-out-grenade-launchers-in-black-ops-cold-war/
In the Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War campaign mission Redlight, Greenlight, you will find one of the series' longstanding mascots: Bubby, the Burger Town Boy. This animatronic figure is an ordering point for the in-game restaurant, and talks you cheerfully through the menu of "meat... and more meat!" And if you press his button enough times, a grenade launcher drops out of his ass.

The Change Architect is a short, free game about managing protests
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-change-architect-is-a-short-free-game-about-managing-protests/
A corrupt politician is about to seize power through fraud. A movement of thousands stands ready to make themselves heard. But in The Change Architect, you're not out on the streets yourself. You're organising things from the cosy confines of your flat, using social feeds and direct messages to paint a picture of how things are going outside.

Let's check the deals available at GOG and Steam:

+GOG

• Let's start with the more interesting one: the game Teleglitch: Die More Edition launches on the store and, until November 15, it will be free to keep!: https://www.gog.com/game/teleglitch_die_more_edition
• Besides that, there's the weekly sale with up to 85% discounts: https://www.gog.com/promo/20201109_weekly_sale
• The Battlestar Galactica Deadock Sale with its up to 80% discounts will last another 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20201109_battlestar_galactica_sale,
• The Midweek Sale, featuring up to 85% discounts, will last another 22 hours: https://www.gog.com/promo/20201111_midweek_sale
• To celebrate the launch of its latest DLC, Warhammer 40,000: Gladius and its DLCs are up to 60% off during the next 6 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20201112_warhammer_40000_gladius_sale
• And Finally there's the Weekend Sale featuring Paradox Interactive with up to 80% discounts for the next 3 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/paradox_weekend

+Steam

• The first of the deals is a new daily deal, shapez.io, 20% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1318690/shapezio/
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III is free to try and 40% off during the weekend: https://store.steampowered.com/app/991270/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Trails_of_Cold_Steel_III/
• The definitive editions of the first two Age of Empires games are on sale during the weekend, 50 and 33% off respectively: https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/AgeOfEmpires
• The Guilford Games Festival Sale brings up to 80% discounts for the weekend: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/guildfordgamesfestival
• The Fighting Games Sale brings up to 85% discounts for the weekend: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/FightingGameSale
• Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War is also on sale here, with up to 60% discounts until the 19th of November: https://store.steampowered.com/app/489630/Warhammer_40000_Gladius__Relics_of_War/
• And of course, there's also the weeklong deals.

Enough news. Now it's time to relax and have a happy and gaming weekend.