If there's one thing I hope is that they bring some much needed GPUs to the low-mid range like they did with their i5 11400 in the CPU space. It is insane that we need to spend at least $400 to get a GPU that can beat consoles. Raja did bring out the the $200-$250 Polaris back in the day and it was pretty good value maybe only secondary to the a $250 1060 which was hard to find in that price range anyway. There is a clear gap in the market which I really hope Intel focuses on as they need people to try them out and what better way than to release GPUs in a space where Nvidia and AMD no longer care about.

Intel demos its DG2 GPUs, confirms ARC series roadmap and development of AI super sampling tech

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-demos-its-dg2-gpus-confirms-arc-series-roadmap-and-development-of-ai-super-sampling-tech

I think what's going to happen next gen will be the battle of AI upscaling tech. It will be Nvidia's DLSS vs AMD's GSR vs Intel's own Ai upscaler. Nvidia will be leading the pack as DLSS will probably be on it's third iteration by that time and AMD will be competing against Intel as it will be their first iteration. Personally and 110% speculation but doubt RDNA 2 or the consoles will get Ai Upscaling tech. Instead imo, RDNA 3 or later will get Ai upscaling and it will be a feature of the mid-cycle refresh consoles. But we will see. It could also be that it will work with RDNA 2 and consoles but it will just be slower.

Intel 13th Gen Core “Raptor Lake-S” power requirements revealed

https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-13th-gen-core-raptor-lake-s-power-requirements-revealed

"While PL1 is the default power limit that aligns with SKU TDP, it’s the second power limit that might tell us more about next-gen CPU power and performance. Here we see higher PL2 values from 241 to 253W, but only for the Performance segment with Baseline unchanged at 188W. Interestingly, the peak power described by PL4 is lowered from 359W to 314W for the 13th Gen SKU."

Meanwhile at PSU manufacturing HQ:

I doubt it will have any implication at all for consoles. After all, publishers can still sell their games phisically if they want, which means that they can avoid the tax from the digital stores.

Also, and in the case of Nintendo (it's weird that Nintendo is ahead of the other two in this digital side of the business), some third parties sell keys for their 3DS/Switch games on sites suck as the Humble Store (they had a sale a couple weeks ago or so), which is another way to avoid that fee.

I have to disagree with you here. Valve needs to make money from hardware because they don't know how the user will use the end device. A lot of people will try to install Windows and after that come GOG and EGS, for example, which means that Valve could end losing money so that others reap the profits.

But that's just the business side of it, there's also the logistics. What kind of PC can they build that can survive the shipments without any kind of problems? The most obvious answer is one with laptop-like hardware and cooling. And if they go that route, it will be very hard to make something that upgradeable besides the storage components.

By then, with fixed hardware and limited cooling, you're getting closer to a console than a PC, and console makers can get better discounts on parts and game exclusives than Valve, putting it at a disatvantage.

Yes, it will sell quite a few units, but I'm not sure if it would be profitable, worth the effort or have any meaningful impact.

Thanks for sharing!

It's a shame what one dud game like Lair can do. It literally killed the studio.

@Captain_Yuri Definitely, since there is no sub $250 GPU's and 400 for lower end/mid range offerings from either Nvidia and AMD. If Intel goes in aggressive they could potentially shake things up and deliver the product that the mainstream gamers want - a GTX 1060/1070 of this gen. Of course that all depends on how good the cards perform and how well they are priced.

Well the bill isn't about digital stores getting taxed. It's about a lot more issues:

"The terms of the bill state that any company whose app store controls more than 50 million users, such as Apple and Google, would not require developers to use its own payment systems. Additionally, these developers would be allowed to distribute their apps to alternative app stores. Senator Blackburn says that Apple’s and Google’s practices discourage a fair marketplace."

"Companies like Apple would also not take action against developers that distribute their apps elsewhere. Such firms would also need to provide these developers access to operating system interfaces, hardware and software features, and more. "

I think they can make small form factor PCs that are also upgradable as they can get OEM discounts for a lot of the parts. I think they can adjust the prices so that it will make small amounts of profits for them as there's a lot of leeway in todays market. Also most PCs these days that get shipped to places have certain packaging material inside the PCs to help prevent any damage. If small companies like iBuyPower can figure it out, I am sure Valve can.

In that theoretical situation, both AMD and Nvidia would have advantage. Nvidia because it would have already two gens of experience, and AMD because they'll probably go open source and allow their solution to work on Nvidia and maybe Intel (we know too little about Intel's ones to know how they'll work) cards, which so far is going better than most of us expected for its FSR solution.

Well, going by the first quote, I can already tell you that that bill will never get approved, at least in those terms. And the reason is simple: it would also apply to other business like Netflix or Amazon, and they know it and they'll do everything they can to stop it from happening.

As for Valve going OEM and battling the ones like Dell, HP, etc., they're faily new when it comes to building/assembling hardware and lack the contacts and contracts the others have. I really doubt they'd get to have the same discounts as the other assemblers... specially given how fishy strange has Dell being with their CPU-GPU pairings as of late, reminding us of what happened with Intel all those years ago.

There's another problem as well. Most of the OEM builders have different plants around the world to build and deliver its products in different regions. That allows them to get better models that suit the needs of teh different markets, but also limit the distance their systems will have to travel until destiny, thus limiting the chances of them getting damaged or something going loose. Valve doesn't have any of that and no matter how much you try, there will always be systems that get damaged during transport, and the longer it is, the bigger that amount will be.

So for Valve to actually go this route, they'll have to invest a lot of time and money, to fight a price increase due to mining that we don't know how long will last given how several goverments have already expressing their intentions to limit it, including China itself.

Will it be worth to Valve to take this risk?

By the way, and talking about Valve, the dates for the Steam Sales from now until the end of the year have leaked:

• Digital Tabletop Fest 2021 – October 21st-25th
• Halloween Sale – October 28th-November 1st
• Autumn Sale – November 21st-30th
• Winter Sale – December 22nd-January 5th

And the following Steam Next Fest will take place from October 1 to 7.

Yea that's true. Plus Intel's drivers will be the biggest question and adoption of their Ai tech will be the second biggest. Mainly because unlike Nvidia who has a ton of market share on PC and unlike AMD who is powering hardware on both PC and consoles, Intel's dGPUs will effectively be starting from 0 as I doubt any of the devs even look into their iGPUs when building their games.

And yea, it won't be very easy for Valve to make it work but we have already seen that with the Steam Deck, they are able to build a PC that's not only a portable handheld, but it's cheaper and faster than most if not every PC that Dell/HP and etc were able to put at both $399 and $529 price range. So in theory, Valve should be able to do that with a desktop PC as well since they do seem to have OEM contacts. It's just a matter of not making as much profit as the usual OEMs. And I wouldn't say Valve should sell their PCs in every region, especially not at the beginning. They should test the waters like they are doing with Steam Deck by rolling out in a few regions and if there's enough interest, they should release it on more regions.

I do think that it will be worth the risk for Valve. Not only would it introduce more people to Steam OS regardless of whether or not they put Windows on it but I think if the current prices continue, many people will simply buy a console which will mean less sales for Valve.

Some more news

[Rumour] NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series mass production to start in the middle of 2022

https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-40-series-mass-production-to-start-in-the-middle-of-2022.555634.0.html

Unsavory Flash Swap: Re-Testing Crucial’s P2 SSD After QLC Downgrade

https://www.tomshardware.com/features/crucial-p2-ssd-qlc-flash-swap-downgrade

With how many SSD manufacturers doing shady nonsense, it feels like the only reliable ones are Samsung and Western Digital (Although WD has done shady things in the past with their Hard Drives). It feels like the sooner you purchase the SSD after release, the more authentic of an SSD you will received as longer people wait, the more the SSD changes. Quite Shameful as they typically don't re-brand the SSD.

TSMC’s U.S. Chip Plant Might Face Delays Due To Power Struggle

https://wccftech.com/tsmcs-u-s-chip-plant-might-face-delays-due-to-power-struggle/

I actually ordered the Crucial P2 not long ago and returned it after the dubious potential of having NAND swapped out... Full refund, went with the Samsung 980 Pro 1TB instead. No regrets.

Absolutely frustrating how manufacturers do this... I used to swear by Crucial for price/performance reasons.

I have a Ryzen 9 5900X, 64GB DDR4 3600mhz memory... And a Radeon RX 430 2GB.
At least it's one of the fastest PC's with a Radeon RX 430 (Rebadged Radeon 240.) though if 3D Mark 11 says anything.

To say the current state of GPU's is bullshit is putting it mildly.
I was hoping the Radeon RX 6600 was going to introduce a glut of supply into the marketplace and hopefully bring down pricing across the board, but it seems even those are above MSRP and selling out.