Alpha Effects tends to be stupidly demanding on memory bandwidth which then impacts real-world pixel, texel and texture fillrate throughput.

So whilst you might not think it's "nothing else" one workload can impact multiple parts of a GPU and hold back the entire machine.

AMD and nVidia "build" GPU's with forward workload projections, so a game that is shader heavy today may not utilize all of the raster capabilities in the latest GPU's, that might not occur until years later once game development catches up.

It's like when AMD built VLIW5... They started that GPU design architecture concept likely around 2003... Based on forward workload projections.
Eventually some of those design ideas ended up in the Xbox 360 in 2005... And later became a PC product in 2007.

But before Graphics Core Next compute-focused architecture came around, AMD noticed that trend towards higher levels of compute and how some parts of VLIW5 were being under-utilized... So they worked on VLIW4 as a mid-way gap.

Same thing happened with GCN-to-RDNA2. - AMD saw that there was a trend to more texturing and geometry throughput rather than compute so started making moves towards that. - Obviously we got RDNA as a "stop gap" GPU like with VLIW4 which was a total rebalancing of GCN+RDNA to be more raster performant rather than compute.

Drivers are also still immature for RDNA2 right now, that will change... Graphics Drivers are the size and complexity of entire operating systems these days... Often 500MB worth of binary code is just to get chips to work...

The 6800XT will certainly be a step above whatever the Playstation 5 will ever offer.

Nvidia and AiB's are readying cards aimed at miners - https://videocardz.com/newz/msi-preparing-geforce-rtx-3060-ti-miner-series

LMAO at taking anything trump says seriously

The Wednesday news, all in one post:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has a new sale and a new release:

• The new Midweek Sale features games "full of laughs" up to 90% off until Saturday: https://www.gog.com/promo/20210120_midweek_sale
• And the game Train Station Renovation lands on the store with a 25% discount until the 27th of January: https://www.gog.com/game/train_station_renovation

Steam has four new games on sale, including 2 Midweek Madness deals:

• The first of the Midweek Madness is Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, 50% off until Friday: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1041720/Kingdoms_of_Amalur_ReReckoning/
• The second Midweek Madness is Unrailed!, free to try for the next 5 days and also 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1016920/Unrailed/
• Volcanoids, still in Early Access, will be 25% off until January 26: https://store.steampowered.com/app/951440/Volcanoids/
• And 10 Miles To Safety gets a 30% discount until the 30th: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1015140/10_Miles_To_Safety/

New games have been added to the Humble Store Winter Sale like those from 2K or CD Projekt.

And Fanatical's new Star Deal is DEATH STRANDING, 60% off for the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/death-stranding

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2 gets an AI-enhanced HD Texture Pack
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/heavy-metal-f-a-k-k-2-gets-an-ai-enhanced-hd-texture-pack/
Now here is something special for our old school shooter fans. Modder ‘pingvin66666’ released a 2.5GB HD Texture Pack for the classic third-person shooter, Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2.
In order to overhaul the game’s low-resolution textures, pingvin66666 used AI techniques. As such, this HD Texture Pack retains the original style and aesthetic of the game.
>> You'll find it at ModDB.

This 4.8GB Mod for Skyrim overhauls all of its architecture textures
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/this-4-8gb-mod-for-skyrim-overhauls-all-of-its-architecture-textures/
Modder ‘Iconic’ has released a brand new HD Texture Pack for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition. In order to create this HD Texture Pack, the modder used AI upscaling techniques and then processed them with a custom photoshop filter.
Iconic used Kartoffels excellent Cleaned Skyrim SE Textures as a base. These textures are similar to the vanilla ones, meaning that they retain their original art style and aesthetics. Iconic has upscaled most of them in 2K, with some other textures like (the doors) in 4K.
>> Available from Nexus Mods.

GAMING NEWS

New Atomic Heart trailer showcases DLSS and Ray Tracing
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-atomic-heart-trailer-showcases-dlss-and-ray-tracing/
Mundfish and NVIDIA have released a new PC trailer for Atomic Heart, showcasing its Ray Tracing and DLSS features. Atomic Heart is an adventure first-person shooter, events of which unfolds in an alternate universe during the high noon of the Soviet Union.

Darkmoon Races is Hearthstone's first 'mini-set', with 35 new cards
https://www.pcgamer.com/darkmoon-races-is-hearthstones-first-mini-set-with-35-new-cards/
Blizzard has today firmed up details around the release of Hearthstone's first ever mini-set. Billed as an addition to the Madness at The Darkmoon Faire expansion, the mini-set contains 35 new cards, and will launch on January 21. We've got a gallery of the new cards for you to look at, too.

Celeste B-side composers haven't been paid royalties in almost two years
https://www.pcgamer.com/celeste-b-side-composers-havent-been-paid-royalties-in-almost-two-years/
A growing number of game composers have accused music label and publisher Materia Collective of failing to pay royalties on songs and streams going back almost two years.
Famed for their work on tribute albums for the likes of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, Materia took over publishing duties for the Celeste soundtrack back in July 2019, after composer Lena Raine handed off distribution rights to work on other projects. But last week, contributing artist 2 Mello claimed on Twitter that he hadn't received payment for his work on Celeste's B-sides—and that "at least" three other musicians on the album, which includes remixes of the game's original soundtrack and is sold for $5, had not been paid since that date.

Horizon Zero Dawn PC updates will be slowed so Guerrilla can focus on its next game
https://www.pcgamer.com/horizon-zero-dawn-pc-updates-will-be-slowed-so-guerrilla-can-focus-on-its-next-game/
With Horizon Zero Dawn patch 1.10 now live, developer Guerrilla Games says it will slow the pace of updates for the game on PC so it can focus on its next game, Horizon Forbidden West.
"As our team continues development on our upcoming title Horizon Forbidden West, we are shifting to less frequent updates for Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition for PC after this patch. Please note that we will continue to monitor our community spaces as always!" Guerrilla said.
>> Do we know in which state is the game currently?

Destiny 2 patch notes: Shatterdive and Whisper of Fissure nerfs, out of bounds and raid glitch fixes
https://www.pcgamer.com/destiny-2-patch-notes-shatterdive-and-whisper-of-fissure-nerfs-out-of-bounds-and-raid-glitch-fixes/
Last week Bungie revealed some changes coming to Destiny 2 aimed at, among other things, dialing down the impact of the Hunter's Shatterdive ability, which as we noted "has been enjoying an icy reign of terror" ever since the Revenant Stasis subclass was added in the Beyond Light expansion. Today, courtesy of the patch notes for the 3.0.2 update that just went live, we've got the full details on that and everything else that's changed.

Team Ninja have no plans for Nioh 3 'at this point'
https://www.pcgamer.com/team-ninja-have-no-plans-for-nioh-3-at-this-point/
Fumihiko Yasuda, franchise director for the Nioh series at Team Ninja, has been doing the interview circuit to coincide with the release of Nioh 2: The Complete Edition, which is due on PC next month. Something that's come out of those interviews is that the studio doesn't have plans to make it a trilogy—at least, not at the moment.

Vertex, the ultimate event for 2D and 3D artists, returns on 25 February
https://www.pcgamer.com/vertex-the-ultimate-conference-for-2d-and-3d-artists-returns-on-25-february/
Whether it's Team Fortress 2's Rockwellian flourishes or the watercolour strokes of indies like Dordogne, we do love a good piece of digital art. The wider industry, however, is a dizzyingly diverse range of disciplines that can be hard to get a handle on, let alone break into. Fortunately PC Gamer's parent company Future has announced this year's Vertex digital art conference, featuring a wide range of industry expertise and talks, and much more about the world of digital art.

Genshin Impact is finally trying to fix its Resin problem
https://www.pcgamer.com/genshin-impact-is-finally-trying-to-fix-its-resin-problem/
Genshin Impact's 1.3 update arrives February and looks to be fixing some of the Resin problems that have hindered the game since launch.
Resin is one of the biggest currencies for progressing in the game. It's used to claim rewards for Ley Line Blossoms, Domains, and some bosses. Resin has been a point of contention in the community since launch, with players accusing the system of aggressively gatekeeping progression.

Innersloth explains why Among Us updates are 'taking so long'
https://www.pcgamer.com/innersloth-explains-why-among-us-updates-are-taking-so-long/
No-one was prepared for Among Us to become the one of the biggest games of 2020—least of all developer Innersloth, who this week explained that the work of restructuring to keep up with the game's explosive success is why updates are taking longer that expected.

EU Commission fines Valve and five PC publishers €7.8 million for 'geo-blocking' games
https://www.pcgamer.com/eu-commission-fines-valve-and-five-pc-publishers-euro78-million-for-geo-blocking-games/
The European Commission has fined Valve, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home Interactive, Koch Media and ZeniMax a combined total of €7.8 million for breaching antitrust rules. Valve did not cooperate with the Commission, and was fined €1.6 million, while the fines for the other five publishers were slightly reduced for their cooperation (not that this helped Focus Home Interactive, which received the biggest share of the fine by far: a whopping €2.9 million of the total).
>> That fine is waaay to small to have any effect.

Only AIB partners bennefit from that, specially if what the article claims (cheaper to produce and sold for more) is true.

When it comes to us, however, it doesn't really help us. After all, those new cards will still need to use the same chips as the gaming ones, leaving us with even less units available.

Yeah you might be right, though this could be a way to offload crappy binned chips that don't make the cut for OC models. Since they won't be clocking them that high since perf per watt is what they want.

Nvidia did they they were working on a solution.. so this could be one of them? :P

So they'll use the non overclockable chips for these cards while giving us the ones that can be oveclocked, in cards that come with a premium price over the regular ones... yeah, that doesn't makes us any favor either.

And Nvidia's solution has already been revealrd: they'll keep making the Turing based 2060 and 2060 Super https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-to-reintroduce-geforce-rtx-2060-and-rtx-2060-super-to-the-market

That's a ridiculously small fine for such big publishers, especially Valve. Valve could probably be fined that amount monthly and still not really feel that enough.

Yeah, not looking great either way. Looks like Ampere cards are going to be like gold dust this year :(