I wish I could, but the vampire side in me (don't ask, it's a lomg story), doesn't like that much brightness directed right at my face.

There's also the problem of getting blind, that's just a secondary worry.

*** NEW COMPETITION ***

Guru3D 2021 December 8th: Win an ECS LIVA Q1L Mini PC (!)
https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/guru3d-2021-december-8th-win-an-ecs-liva-q1l-mini-pc-().html

That's not the product you'd get if you win. The one you'd get is golden and blue, but this is the only picture available:

(this would be the back)

The specs of the product are:

• Intel Apollo Lake Pentium N4200 SOC
• 4 GB LPDDR4 DRAM
• 64GB eMMC Storage
• A test version of Windows Installed. If you win it you'll need to purchase and activate Windows yourself

Good luck (if you decide to take part in it).

Yeah If I could order at launch say October next year and my shipment isn't due until March I'd be happy with that.

Is it even possible for them to completely lock out mining without hurting the performance in general of the cards if they designed them with that intention from the start or would they only be able to put the LHR on them again still making them profitable for mining just not stupidly good?

The other problem would be the dedicated miner GPU's fighting for chip quota and if these are bigger profit margins for Nvidia it could just as easy push general gaming GPU's into a shortage situation once again.

I don't see why they couldn't. After all, Nvidia was able to limit the mining capcity of Ampere despite being a finished and already released product, which limits what you can do. If they take that into consideration while still designing the chips, the results could be much better, and target other crypto currencies other than Ethereum. The same goes for AMD, even if they've done nothing this gen.

As for crypto cards putting Ada Lovelace/RDNA3 on the backseat, it seems unlikely if only because both new architectures will be made on TSMC's 5nm, while the cryto cards, that usually rely on older architectures, will be made using other nodes. There shouldn't be any availability problems due to that.

They have no incentive to do anything. Hopium is nice though. Sometimes it pays off.

My hope is that Nvidia already tried to do something, and they may try it again next time.

I have to admit that, with AMD, my hope in much, much lower.

@Captain_Yuri Gratz! Looks awesome.

Btw anyone else tried Nvidia Image Scaling (NIS)? This thing is essentially the same as FSR but works system wide on games and video's. Upscaling works insanely well while watching video's on MediaPlayerClassic and games looks quite decent at Ultra (1440P). Nice option to have if you have an older title that doesn't support DLSS or have a Nvidia GPU that doesn't support it.

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

GOG has two new flash deals and a new Midweek Sale:

• The first flash deal is Alekhine's Gun, 70% off during the next 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/game/alekhines_gun
• The second flash deal is Death to Spies, 85% off: https://www.gog.com/game/death_to_spies
• The new Midweek Sale brings up to 80% discounts until Saturday: https://www.gog.com/promo/20211208_midweek_sale

Steam has two new deals:

• The new daily deal is PARQUET, 15% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1662840/PARQUET/
• And there is a new Midweek Madness deal: STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order will be 63% off until December 13: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1172380/STAR_WARS_Jedi_Fallen_Order/

And Fanatical has three new deals:

• The new Star Deal is Planet Zoo - Deluxe Edition, 76% off during the next 48 hours: https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/planet-zoo-deluxe-edition
• The former is part of a Frontier Developments Sale, bringing up to 79% discounts during another 2 days: https://www.fanatical.com/en/publishers/frontier-developments
• And the new BYO Strategy Bundle features 24 games to choose your 1, 5 or 10 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-strategy-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

-Empty-

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

-Empty as well-

GAMING NEWS

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice December 7th Patch fixes DX12 stutters & ultra-wide issues
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/hellblade-senuas-sacrifice-december-7th-patch-fixes-dx12-stutters-ultra-wide-issues/
Ninja Theory has just released a new PC patch for Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. According to the release notes, the December 7th Patch fixes the stuttering issues that people experienced with DX12. Moreover, it addresses the game’s ultra-wide screen issues.

Call of Duty Warzone Pacific adds support for the anti-cheat system, Ricochet
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/call-of-duty-warzone-pacific-adds-support-for-the-anti-cheat-system-ricochet/
In October 2021, we informed you about the new anti-cheat system that would be coming to both Call of Duty Warzone and Vanguard. And today, Activision and Raven Software announced that Call of Duty Warzone’s latest update adds support for RICOCHET.

Call of Duty Vanguard December 6th & December 9th Updates detailed, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/call-of-duty-vanguard-december-6th-december-9th-updates-detailed-full-patch-notes/
Sledgehammer Games released yesterday a brand new patch for Call of Duty Vanguard. In addition, the team plans to release another update for this game on December 9th. Thankfully, Sledgehammer detailed these two patches and you can find their complete changelogs below.

Far Cry 6 Title Update 3 released, is 8-12GB on PC, full patch notes
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/far-cry-6-title-update-3-released-is-8-12gb-on-pc-full-patch-notes/
Ubisoft has just released the third major update for Far Cry 6. According to the release notes, Title Update 3 packs a number of Quality-of-Life improvements. Moreover, it fixes some gameplay issues, and makes some adjustments to the HD Texture Pack for PC.

Horizon Zero Dawn Patch 1.11 adds support for NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/horizon-zero-dawn-patch-1-11-adds-support-for-nvidia-dlss-and-amd-fsr/
Guerrilla Games has released a new PC patch for Horizon Zero Dawn that adds support for both NVIDIA’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR techs. In addition, Update 1.11 brings some improvements to the shader management system.

Rumor: Ubisoft is working on a new Splinter Cell game that will be a “more stealthy version of Assassin’s Creed”
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/rumor-ubisoft-is-working-on-a-new-splinter-cell-game-that-will-be-a-more-stealthy-version-of-assassins-creed/
Splinter Cell fans, we’ve got some good news for you today. According to industry insider Tom Henderson, there is a Splinter Cell game that is currently in early development. Yeap, we might finally get a new Splinter Cell game, though we should note that you must take everything you are about to read with a grain of salt.

Part two of the news:

Respawn co-founder and Apex director leaves, promises 'years worth of content in flight'
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/respawn-co-founder-and-apex-director-leaves-promises-years-worth-of-content-in-flight/
Respawn co-founder and Apex Legends game director Chad Grenier has announced he is leaving the studio after eleven years. "After helping to co-found the studio, bring the Titanfall universe to life, and launch the incredible experiment that is Apex Legends—it’s been an unforgettable ride to say the least," writes Grenier. "But today, this crazy chapter comes to an end."

Halo's Magnum is coming to Destiny 2
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/halos-magnum-is-coming-to-destiny-2/
In a few hours, Destiny 2's Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack will go live in game, bringing a new six-player activity, new dungeon and the return of a handful of Destiny 1 weapons—including iconic Exotic rocket launcher Gjallarhorn, bane of every year one player looking to join an LFG. The pack, however, also promised weapons drawn from Bungie's history, including the Claymore Sword from Myth and a Marathon-inspired shotgun.

Dozens of the world's biggest games are offline as AWS goes down
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dozens-of-the-worlds-biggest-games-are-offline-as-aws-goes-down/
Amazon Web Services is by some distance the biggest server or cloud computing company on the planet: As of April 2021, it accounts for 32% of the $42 billion cloud computing market. Today AWS has gone down and at the time of writing remains so—we'll update when that changes—and an absolute bundle of other platforms that depend on its service are also now unavailable.
UPDATE 13:30 ET / 18:30 GMT: The official AWS dashboard says: "We are seeing impact to multiple AWS APIs in the US-EAST-1 Region. This issue is also affecting some of our monitoring and incident response tooling, which is delaying our ability to provide updates. We have identified the root cause and are actively working towards recovery."

Final Fantasy 14's pesky disconnection issues should be getting fixed this week
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/final-fantasy-14s-pesky-disconnection-issues-should-be-getting-fixed-this-week/
Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker released in early access on December 3 and the launch weekend proved to be pretty damn popular. Like, 'six-hour queues and countless errors' popular. Despite Square Enix's best attempts to batten down the hatches in preparation for what has been the game's most successful weekend ever, logging into the servers has been a downright nightmare.

Activision-Blizzard QA walkout spreads to other studios in its second day
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/activision-blizzard-qa-walkout-spreads-to-other-studios-in-its-second-day/
Members of the quality assurance team at Call of Duty: Warzone studio Raven Software staged a walkout on Monday to protest the layoffs of coworkers announced late last week. The walkout continues today, and has expanded to include other studios, who are "standing in solidarity" with the Raven QA team.

Ubisoft starts selling NFTs in the form of helmets with tiny numbers
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/ubisoft-starts-selling-nfts-in-the-form-of-helmets-with-tiny-numbers/
Well, those mad bastards did it. Ubisoft is not alone among the big publishers in having declared an interest in Non-Fungible Tokens, but now it is the first to launch its take on the most irritating digital trend of the moment. Ubisoft Quartz now has an announcement trailer, an official site, and my eternal scorn.
>> F*ck Ubisoft.

Ubisoft management happy with pace of reforms after workplace harassment reckoning, but employees aren't buying it
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/ubisoft-management-happy-with-pace-of-reforms-after-workplace-harassment-reckoning-but-employees-arent-buying-it/
In a recent interview with Axios, Ubisoft's chief people officer, Anika Grant, talked up the company's response to its workplace harassment scandal, although some Ubisoft employees remain dissatisfied with the pace of reform. An employee group called ABetterUbisoft (an intentional reference to the ABetterABK group that made demands of Activision Blizzard this summer) says that what they really want and aren't getting is a seat at the table.

Halo Infinite won't let you replay story missions at launch, but the feature is coming
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/halo-infinite-has-ditched-the-ability-to-replay-story-missions/
Halo Infinite's campaign missions won't be replayable unless you start a new save file, a Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed.
Update: A 343 Industries spokesperson has told Stevivor that the ability to replay campaign missions in Halo Infinite will be added to the game after launch.

Turns out Fortnite Chapter 3 is the first Unreal Engine 5 game
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/fortnite-unreal-engine-5/
We've been eagerly awaiting whatever shiny new graphics Unreal Engine 5 has in store since the first demo debuted in May 2020. It turns out, the real Unreal Engine 5 was in front of us all along in the form of Fortnite Chapter 3.
Unreal Engine's official Twitter account confirmed the news Tuesday.

Star Wars: The Old Republic expansion delayed into next year
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/star-wars-the-old-republic-expansion-delayed-into-next-year/
BioWare has delayed the imminent release of Star Wars: The Old Republic's new Legacy of the Sith expansion, moving it from December 14 to February 15, 2022. According to project director Keith Kanneg, the delay is due in part to feedback from a recent public test server showing.

Stardew Valley briefly broke itself after performance hotfix crashed the game
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/stardew-valley-briefly-broke-itself-after-performance-hotfix-crashed-the-game/
Stardew Valley managed to break itself this week after a hotfix intended to repair performance issues caused the game to repeatedly crash.
The patch introduced a memory leak problem which was making it perform progressively worse over longer play sessions. The hotfix went out on December 7, but players quickly began reporting that their game was crashing within minutes of booting up. Anything from entering a chicken coop to watering plants seemed to break things entirely, making it impossible to play.

No preload for Halo Infinite, but having multiplayer will decrease download time
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/no-preload-for-halo-infinite-but-having-multiplayer-will-decrease-download-time/
343 Industries has apologised for the fact that Halo Infinite's campaign doesn't have the option to preload, but has said the download will be quicker if you already have the multiplayer mode installed.

GTA Online update will debut new Dr. Dre music, bring back Franklin
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/gta-online-update-will-debut-new-dr-dre-music-bring-back-franklin/
GTA Online is adding new story missions later this month, bringing back Grand Theft Auto 5 tritagonist Franklin and debuting new music from legendary rapper Dr. Dre.

Gigabyte confirms GeForce RTX 3080 12GB, RTX 3070Ti 16GB and Radeon RX 6500 XT through EEC filing

https://videocardz.com/newz/gigabyte-confirms-geforce-rtx-3080-12gb-rtx-3070ti-16gb-and-radeon-rx-6500-xt-through-eec-filing

Now this is the Vram capacity the 3070 Ti should have released with in the first place

God of War - Features Trailer | PC

• Native 4K, unlocked framerate

• Graphic and performance improvements,

• 21:9 ultra-widescreen support.

• Graphics settings featuring high-res shadows, better reflections,GTAO,SSDO etc

• NVIDIA DLSS and Reflex support

• Supports both DS4 and DualSense, other gamepads + fully customizable key bindings for KB+M

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/rbuo1j/god_of_war_2018_pc_system_requirements/

Rune Factory 4 Special has released on Steam

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1580240/Rune_Factory_4_Special/