Yea that's true. I'd be surprised if it's not at least 20% faster than rocket lake in Single Threaded on the Big cores due to it being on 10nm. If it's only 20% uplift compared to comet lake, that would be a big flop. The biggest question for me is going to be the price cause I can't imagine it being cheap with DDR5/PCI-E 5 and how big the CPU itself is. Hopefully for Intel, it doesn't turn into their own version of a modern Bulldozer.

I didn't see any size being mentioned, and Intel stopped telling the size of their chips after they lost the lead in manufacturing technology. It does look like it won't be small, but the exact size will be another matter. I'm expecting something between 200 and 250mm², so not much larger than Rocket Lake.

Yea we don't know the exact size but based on the leaks and the fact that it's gonna be LGA 1700 where as Intel non HEDT has always been around 1200 post Sandy Bridge, I think the cost will certainly go up.

I didn't see this being posted before, but the entire Tiger Lake-H lineup looks to have been leaked:

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-11th-gen-core-tiger-lake-h-mobile-high-end-cpu-full-specs-leaked

 If those numbers are true, then it's pretty much a dud.

Base clocks are way below AMD clocks, as in 500-700Mhz lower than just the Zen 2 laptops for the 8-core parts. Even if the IPC may be better for Tiger lake, that's still a pretty big gap to overcome.

Worse, the 35W parts all have only 4C8T, so they're probably the same parts as the 28W parts for ultrabooks, only with a somewhat higher power limit. As such, they should pose little threat to AMDs HS parts.

Finally, the 4-core i5 (11300H) has a higher SKU number than the i5 with 6 cores (11260H). WTF Intel??? 

Unlike desktop, Intel can't simply use Unlimited Power Draw™ and overclock the shit out of it until it's past AMD, and it's better iGPU is going to be wasted in a H laptop which always come with a GPU.

The size increase could also mostly be due to all the new stuff they're adding. DDR5 (with continuing support for DDR4 and their respective LP versions no less), PCI-E 5... those things just don't come with a low amount of needed pins for the connector. Intel was able to stay with ~1200 simply because they stayed with PCI-E 3 so long and their (official) DDR4 support was sub-par.

Here come Monday and the news!

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

We've got 10 copies of Hearthstone's Forged in the Barrens Mega Bundle to give away
https://www.pcgamer.com/hearthstone-forged-in-the-barrens-giveaway/
We're just a week and a half away from Hearthstone's first expansion of 2021, and there's a lot to look forward to. March 30 marks the beginning of the Year of the Gryphon, which is when we'll see the Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum, Descent of Dragons, and Demon Hunter Initiate sets rotate into Wild. Basic and Classic cards are also rolling out of Standard, replaced by Hearthstone's new, free Core Set, which consists of 235 cards.
(...)
For a chance to get one of the keys we're giving away, all you need to do is enter your email address below. On Thursday, March 25 at 10 am Pacific, 10 entrants will be randomly selected and emailed their keys.

Terraria and Valheim have sold 35 and 6 million units, respectively
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/terraria-and-valheim-have-sold-35-and-6-million-units-respectively/
Re-Logic and Iron Gate have announced that Terraria and Valheim have sold 35 million and 6 million units, respectively. Terraria’s previous milestone was 30 million sales in April 2020. On the other hand, Valheim surpassed 5 million units last month.
Going into more details, the majority of Terraria’s sales are from the PC. According to Re-Logic, the game sold 17.2 million on PC. Additionally, Terraria sold 8.5 million units on consoles and 9.3 million on mobile devices.
It’s also worth noting that Terraria passed Portal 2 for the top spot on Steam250’s highest-rated games on Steam.

Become the kind of person who has strong opinions about Daedalic adventure games for just $13
https://www.pcgamer.com/become-the-kind-of-person-who-has-strong-opinions-about-daedalic-adventure-games-for-just-dollar13/
If you've ever wanted to try your hand at some of Daedalic's best point-and-click adventure games, or you're just looking for a bunch of new things to play on the cheap, the Humble Daedalic 15th Anniversary Mega Bundle might be just the balm. The collection features 20 games from Daedalic, most but not all of them adventures, for just $13.
>> Meanwhile, there are two new sales at the Humble Store:

• The PQube Publisher Sale brings up to 75% discounts during the next 4 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/pqube-limited-publisher-sale/
• And the WB Games Sale comes with up to 80% discounts during the next 4 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/wb-games-publisher-sale/

Get wild discounts on XCOM 2 and Witcher 3 in the GOG Spring Sale
https://www.pcgamer.com/get-wild-discounts-on-xcom-2-and-witcher-3-in-the-gog-spring-sale/
The GOG Spring Sale has arrived, with over 3000 games on offer right now. GOG is offering its own recommendations, but we've put our heads together on the team to pluck out some cracking deals. The best discount here is by far the one on XCOM 2, which is currently cheaper than my daily coffee and a damn good time to boot. The Witcher 3 is seeing some hefty discounts too, along with some of our other favourites.
>> And two new games have landed on the store, Raji: An Ancient Epic will be 50% off until March 29th and Mad Max 75% off until April 5th.

Steam has two new deals:

• The new daily deal is Viscera Cleanup Detail, 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/246900/Viscera_Cleanup_Detail/
• And Age of Wonders: Planetfall will be 75% off until March 26: https://store.steampowered.com/app/718850/Age_of_Wonders_Planetfall/

Fanatical has three new deals:

• The Star Deal is Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus, 75% off during the next 24 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/warhammer-40-000-mechanicus
• Paradox has its games up to 81% off during the next 4 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/paradox-interactive
• And the new Nitro Bundle 2 comes with 8 games at a 98% discount: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/nitro-bundle-2

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

This 8.3GB Mod for The Witcher AI-upscales all videos to 4K
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/this-8-3gb-mod-for-the-witcher-ai-upscales-all-videos-to-4k/
Modder ‘vik9183’ has released an 8.3GB mod for the first The Witcher game that upscales all of its pre-rendered videos to 4K. In order to achieve this, vik9183 used AI techniques, similar to those we’ve seen in most of the latest HD Texture Packs we’ve been covering.
As the modder claimed, the original videos were at 1280x720. By using AI techniques, vik9183 was able to upscale them to 4K and retain their colors and art intact.
>> The mos is from Nexus Mods, but the link at the article doesn't work. You'll have to find it.

This Attack on Titan Mod brings Levi Ackerman to Monster Hunter World
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/attack-on-titan-mod-levi-ackerman-monster-hunter-world/
GranJavert has released a pretty cool mod for Monster Hunter World that most Attack on Titan fans will appreciate. As the title suggests, this mod introduces Levi Ackerman to Capcom’s Monster Hunter game.
According to the modder, this mod replaces the Alloy set with Levi Ackerman’s outfit from Attack on Titan. Players can also customize the jacket color with the in-game color customization system.
Now as with all the other “character” mods for Monster Hunter World, this is an outfit mod and nothing more. So yeah, don’t expect any special moves. Still, and even with the default attacks, Levi does not feel out of place. In fact, some of the game’s attacks are similar to some of his in Attack on Titan. The modder also plans to add jacket physics in a future version.
>> You'll find it at Nexus Mods.

The Elder Scrolls: Total War 2.0.2 is available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-elder-scrolls-total-war-2-0-2-is-available-for-download/
The Elder Scrolls: Total War mod team has announced that The Elder Scrolls: Total War 2.0.2 is available for download. In case you weren’t aware of, The Elder Scrolls: Total War is a TES total conversion mod for Medieval 2 Total War – Kingdoms.
(...)
Version 2.0.2 adds two new mercenary armies. These are the “Order of the Nine” for the Empire and Clan of Crowns and “Host of Umaril” for the Aldmeri Dominion and Valenwood.
>> Available from ModDB.

Beautiful Doom Version 7.0.0 available for download
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/beautiful-doom-version-7-0-0-available-for-download/
Modder Jekyll_Grim_Payne has announced that a new version of Beautiful Doom is now available for download. In case you weren’t aware of, Beautiful Doom is a mod that aims to improve each and every single object in Doom, making them smoother, while also retain its original art style.
Additionally, the mod comes with better sounds, and promises to retain the original Doom gameplay that all of us loved.
Version 7.0.0 introduces a “Show Weapon Help” key (G by default) that shows detailed information on the screen about the currently selected weapon. Moreover, it adds high-quality textures depicting decorative victims, corpses, etc., to match the new gore sprites. It also adds “Enhanced Liquid Textures” and “Enhanced Gore Textures”.
>> You can grab it from ModDB.

Breath of the Wild gets a DLC-sized Mod, adding new free content
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/breath-of-the-wild-gets-a-dlc-sized-mod-adding-new-free-content/
Waikuteru and a team of modders have released a free DLC-sized mod/expansion for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This unofficial DLC/expansion adds a lot of free content to the game, and is compatible with CEMU.
Going into more details, Second Wind overhauls existing content like shrines. It also adds new mechanics such as crafting, and provides a number of Quality of Life improvements.
Furthermore, players can expect new areas to explore, as well as some new challenges.
Second Wind brings 15 side quests, 8 new areas, 2 heart containers, 12 One-Handed Swords and 10 Two-Handed Swords. It also packs 4 Spears, 4 Bows, 12 Shields and 35 Armour pieces. Lastly, it adds 8 Enemies, 28 Animals, 13 Bosses and 20 NPCs.
>> If you're interested, you'll have to go to Discord.

GAMING NEWS

Gotham Knights has been delayed until 2022
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/gotham-knights-has-been-delayed-until-2022/
Warner Bros has just announced that Gotham Knights has been delayed until 2022. According to the publisher, this extra time will give its development team more time to polish it so it can offer the best possible experience.

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 promises to fix cops and improve driving
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-patch-1-2-promises-to-fix-cops-and-improve-driving/
Although there is currently no ETA on when Patch 1.2 for Cyberpunk 2077 will come out, CD Projekt RED has revealed some new details about it.
According to CDPR, Update 1.2 will improve the behavior of cops and decrease the problem of NPCs spawning behind players’ backs. Moreover, it promises to improve the driving controls and add an option to remove the dodge on double-tapping a movement key.

There won’t be a new gameplay trailer for STALKER 2 on March 26th after all
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/there-wont-be-a-new-gameplay-trailer-for-stalker-2-on-march-26th-after-all/
Earlier today, Microsoft announced that it would release a new gameplay trailer/footage for STALKER 2 on March 26th. However, this won’t happen after all. As GSC GameWorld noted, there won’t be any new gameplay footage for STALKER 2 during Microsoft’s ID@Xbox event.

Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster coming to PC on May 25th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/shin-megami-tensei-iii-nocturne-hd-remaster-coming-to-pc-on-may-25th/
SEGA has launched the Steam store page for Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster, revealing that the game will come out on PC on May 25th.

Here is all the gameplay footage from the canceled C&C FPS game, Tiberium: Command & Conquer
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-is-all-the-gameplay-footage-from-the-canceled-cc-fps-game-tiberium-command-conquer/
Tiberium: Command & Conquer was a sequel to EA’s Command & Conquer: Renegade. This game was a tactical first-person shooter, set in the Command & Conquer universe. However, in 2008, EA canceled as it was not meeting its quality standards.

Shadow of the Colossus-inspired Praey for the Gods targets an April release date
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/shadow-of-the-colossus-inspired-praey-for-the-gods-targets-an-april-release-date/
No Matter Studios has shared a new development update for its upcoming Shadow of the Colossus-inspired game, Praey for the Gods. The team is currently targeting a mid/end April release date for it, and has shared some of the features that will come with it.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Quarantine Early PC Requirements Revealed
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/tom-clancys-rainbow-six-quarantine-early-pc-requirements-revealed/
A PC Technical Test for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Quarantine is currently underway and its early PC system requirements have been leaked.

Here is an hour of gameplay footage from Rainbow Six Parasite
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/here-is-an-hour-of-gameplay-footage-from-rainbow-six-parasite/
Yesterday, we informed you about the preliminary PC system requirements for Rainbow Six Parasite, formerly known as Rainbow Six Quarantine. And, as we stated, there is currently a Technical Test for this game on the PC. Thus, you can find below a video showing one hour of gameplay footage from it.

Bioware shares new concept artwork for Dragon Age
https://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/bioware-shares-new-concept-artwork-for-dragon-age/
In January, Dragon Age executive producer Christian Dailey shared some new concept art for BioWare’s upcoming Dragon Age. And today, Dailey revealed new concept art for this RPG.

Latest Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Hotfix removes content due to crash issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/latest-assassins-creed-valhalla-hotfix-removes-content-due-to-crash-issues/
Last week, we informed you about the release of Update 1.2 for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Patch 1.2 added in-game support for the Ostara Festival which appears to be causing a number of crashes. As such, the team has decided to temporarily remove some content in order to address these crashes.

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life PC Requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/yakuza-6-the-song-of-life-pc-requirements/
Microsoft and SEGA have revealed the official PC system requirements for Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. According to the specs, PC gamers will at least need Windows 10 version 18362.0 and an Intel Core i5-3470 or AMD FX-6300 CPU.

Resident Evil Village PC Requirements
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/resident-evil-village-pc-requirements/
Capcom has revealed the official PC system requirements for Resident Evil Village via its Steam store page. According to the team, the game will be using DirectX 12, and will require a 64-bit operating system (with only Windows 10 being officially listed).

New Atomic Heart trailer focuses on its Photo Mode
https://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/new-atomic-heart-trailer-focuses-on-its-photo-mode/
Mundfish has released a new in-engine trailer for Atomic Heart, showcasing its Photo Mode. Thanks to this Photo Mode, players will be able to capture beautiful and highly detailed screenshots.

Monday news, part two:

Crusader Kings 3 accidentally breaks same-sex concubine mods
https://www.pcgamer.com/crusader-kings-3-accidentally-breaks-same-sex-concubine-mods/
Crusader Kings 3 might let your dukes and queens engage in homosexual relationships, but marriage is reserved only for the straights. Fans have been able to queer up medieval Europe with mods, thankfully, but a recent update broke the loophole used to make more meaningful homosexual relationships in CK3 possible.

Warframe completely overhauls its contentious space combat
https://www.pcgamer.com/warframe-completely-overhauls-its-contentious-space-combat/
Warframe's ship-to-ship space combat is one of its most ambitious features, but when it launched back in 2019 it was clear it needed a lot of refining. (...)
Digital Extremes has spent the last year making improvements to the system, but today's update is easily the most comprehensive. Called Corpus Proxima and The New Railjack, this patch overhauls the entire Railjack experience to be more streamlined and friendly to solo players while also adding new missions, enemies, and more. It's big.

Watch Dogs: Legion's online co-op mode is now live on PC
https://www.pcgamer.com/watch-dogs-legions-online-co-op-mode-is-now-live-on-pc/
Less than two weeks after a bug forced Ubisoft to delay it indefinitely, Watch Dogs: Legion's online co-op mode is now live. The new mode was added in title update 3.22, which clocks in at 14.4GB and also makes a number of global and PC-specific bug fixes.

Steam will not sell pickup artist game Super Seducer 3
https://www.pcgamer.com/steam-will-not-sell-pickup-artist-game-super-seducer-3/
Valve has refused to sell Super Seducer 3 on Steam, where its listing has been removed. One of the game's developers, Richard La Ruina, posted the news to Twitter alongside screenshots of Valve's response to the game.

Whoops, Call of Duty: Warzone didn't mean to put that crossbow in the game
https://www.pcgamer.com/whoops-call-of-duty-warzone-didnt-mean-to-put-that-crossbow-in-the-game/
Yesterday, Activision added a new crossbow to Call Of Duty: Warzone and Black Ops – Cold War. Hours later, the publisher took it away. But while you could've blinked and missed it, Activision has promised to refund players who were pouring hours into unlocking the new weapon.

Jackbox 8 comes this fall, Word Spud 2 not confirmed
https://www.pcgamer.com/jackbox-8-comes-this-fall-word-spud-2-not-confirmed/
Jackbox Games have announced that The Jackbox Party Pack 8 is coming this fall, with the requisite five party games you'd expect from a Jackbox Party Pack. The developer has yet to announce which games will release in the pack, but the first announcement is to come "before the end of May (likely sooner)."

Hardcore tactics RPG The Last Spell adds a dash of horde mode to the mix
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardcore-tactics-rpg-the-last-spell-adds-a-dash-of-horde-mode-to-the-mix/
If you're a fan of tactics games broadly, or tactics RPGs specifically, I'd encourage you to take the hour or so to check out the demo of The Last Spell, an upcoming tactics roguelike RPG from developers CCCP. In The Last Spell, you control a squad of powerful heroes in order to protect a ruined city from monstrous hordes while its mages cast a spell to rid the world of the horrible magic afflicting everyone.

Nier: Automata is being review bombed on Steam by players who want it patched
https://www.pcgamer.com/nier-automata-is-being-review-bombed-on-steam-by-players-who-want-it-patched/
(...) There's a thread on its Steam forum calling for it to be review bombed "until Square Enix give a patch fixing this mess", and in the last three days it's received over 300 negative reviews. That's enough to drop Nier: Automata's Recent Reviews rating down from 'Very Positive' to 'Mostly Positive', but it'll take more than that before it drops to the negative.
>> I doubt SE will care.

Indie publisher Playism is closing its DRM-free store this month
https://www.pcgamer.com/indie-publisher-playism-is-closing-its-store-this-month/
Playism, a division of Active Gaming Media, has been bringing western indie games to Japan and localizing niche Japanese games for the west since 2011. It recently backed games like Fight Crab, Umurangi Generation, and Omori, and in the past brought English versions of games like Kero Blaster (a platformer from the creator of Cave Story), The Silver Case (an early visual novel by Suda 51), and the Touhou series to PC.
While many of Playism's games are available through Steam and GOG, it also maintained its own storefront with DRM-free versions of its games. Though Playism will continue as a publisher, it has announced it will cease selling games directly through its website on March 24.
>> At least it's only the store.

It's psychics versus monsters in action RPG Scarlet Nexus, coming in June
https://www.pcgamer.com/its-psychics-versus-monsters-in-action-rpg-scarlet-nexus-coming-in-june/
Bandai Namco has finally dropped a release date for action RPG Scarlet Nexus, arriving on Steam June 24th, 2021. First announced a while back, Scarlet Nexus didn't have that much detail around it until recently, and it's actually looking pretty intriguing. Players will experience the story from one of two perspectives, psychics Yuito or Kasane, who are fighting terrifying psychic monsters known as Others who "descend from the sky with a hunger for human brains."

The charity sloth pet for World of Warcraft is adorable
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-charity-sloth-pet-for-world-of-warcraft-is-adorable/
Listen up, folks: The new World of Warcraft pet is adorable. It's Daisy, the sloth, which is very small and cute and slow and in order to get around has to ride on your back.

Players demolish Trackmania's 'impossible' skip and fly over the finish line in reverse
https://www.pcgamer.com/players-demolish-trackmanias-impossible-skip-and-fly-over-the-finish-line-in-reverse/
(...)
The track is called D07-Race, and one of the reasons for this skip being impossible is that, in certain older Trackmanias, it almost definitely is. But Trackmania Nations Forever and a resurgence of interest in racing on the track (which already had at least one famous time skip) saw certain players get interested in chasing the unicorn of this particular move: at first Drarker and then, building on their work, the player Hefest and then Rollin.

Fall Guys gets a Squads mode
https://www.pcgamer.com/fall-guys-gets-a-squads-mode/
Fall Guys Season 4 is out today, and with it a new Squads mode is being introduced, letting you carry your little bean friends who may not be quite as adept at the game as you.

Cyberpunk 2077 lead gameplay designer leaves CD Projekt Red
https://www.pcgamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-lead-gameplay-designer-leaves-cd-projekt-red/
Andrzej Zawadzki, a lead gameplay designer on Cyberpunk 2077, has announced that he will be leaving CD Projekt Red after nearly eight years with the studio.
Zawadzki announced his departure on Twitter, saying, "After almost 8 years, my time at CDPR has come to an end. It's time for the new adventure. To every person I've met on the way – thank you :) It was an honor and pleasure. See you around :)"

PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 Fighter leaked, comes with 6GB memory

https://videocardz.com/newz/powercolor-radeon-rx-6700-fighter-leaked-comes-with-6gb-memory

Now there was another leak with the Asus version that came with 12GB. It could be a situation where there's two different versions with different Vram. While there isn't any info in terms of performance, since we know that the 6700 XT performs slightly better than a 3060 Ti in Raster, 6700 will perform slower than a 3060 Ti outside of heavily AMD sponsored games. The ironic thing is the 6700 6GB will be the first RDNA 2 card that will have less Vram than Nvidia's counterpart. The main question will be the price but considering how expensive the 6700 XT is, I'd imagine that the 6700 would be a solid skip if we had stock as the 3060 Ti most likely be a better deal.

Synopsys to launch first complete IP solution for PCI Express 6.0 in Q3 2021

https://videocardz.com/press-release/synopsys-to-launch-first-complete-ip-solution-for-pci-express-6-0-in-q3-2021

As we don't even have pci-e 5 yet, it will be a while before 6.0 gets any traction

I doubt a 6700 6GB will sell well... or, at least, it wouldn't under normal circumstances. In my opinion, anything below 8GB would be a mistake for anything but the lower class cards.

But we're not in normal times, so that card will probably sell well.

So DF has some interesting thoughts about few topics

On the CPU overhead issue:

AMD during their DirectX11 days had a ton of issues with CPU overhead as Nvidia's driver was able to do multi threading. When DF asked them about it, AMD said they didn't have the resources but they were gambling on low level APIs for the future. With Direct X 12, we now see the results. But when it comes to the current esports scene, most esports titles are still DirectX9/11 so most likely, it's not a big deal right now. But as with new games that are coming out such as CoD which uses Direct X 12, it could be an issue for mid-ranged if Nvidia doesn't do something.

On the 6700XT:

They don't like the price point and what AMD is doing in general for the 6000 series. While they perform well enough in Raster, the thing that made Zen so good was because of all the other things it offered. Such as additional pci-e lanes, such as pci-e 4.0. Such as more cores and aggressive pricing. The 6700XT doesn't really have good RT or DLSS and sometimes it loses to a 3060 Ti in Raster which is much cheaper so it's hard to recommend it unless you play those specific games where it manages to beat the 3070.

On AMD Super Resolution:

AMD says they are looking into various ways of doing it and it sounds like they may not go the route of Machine Learning. DF has tested several upscaling techniques over the years from TAA to Ubisofts own up scaling techniques to UEs version and of course, the ps4 pro's checkerboard rendering. None of them had Machine Learning and depending on the game, they can look quite close to Native resolution when upscaling to 4k.

The main difference with DLSS however is that on a normal upscaling method that is targeting 4k, once you go below 70% render resolution, it starts to fall apart. And upscaling to 1440p/1080p is another story entirely as it generally doesn't look good. With DLSS, you can set the render resolution all the way down to 1080p and target 1440p or 4k and it will look good. So without ML, unless Super Resolution really does something unique, most likely, a lot of the game devs will just stick to their own upscaling method as they are already quite good in certain scenarios like upscaling to 4k.