"This panel also uses a new esports TN"

I am kind of interested in this monitor that just got announced:

MSI MEG 342C QD-OLED with 34″ Ultrawide Panel and 175Hz Refresh Rate

https://tftcentral.co.uk/news/msi-meg-342c-qd-oled-with-34-ultrawide-panel-and-175hz-refresh-rate

Unlike the Alienware QD-OLED, this one doesn't have the G-sync module so potentially, it could have the HDMI 2.1 that people are looking for. The rest of the specs match the Alienware afaik. The only urghh thing is that it's highly unlikely MSI will offer the Burn-In warranty that the Alienware does but still, if priced right, could be a good alternative.

Yeah I mean serious competitive esports guys who only care for gaming may want it, but can't imagine anyone else wanting a TN panel in 2022 lol.

And oo that looks good. Most likely using the same Sammy panel as the Alienware. Hopefully that has HDMI 2.1. Should be standard in all high end monitors 1440P and above. The other extras sound pretty decent as well; like ambient light sensor, smart phone control and built in KVM switch. Will be silent too as opposed to the AW.

Not sure on pricing but iirc last years high end MSI monitors were on the pricier side of the scale. Though these panels (so for) looks like like they may for a way more affordable products than last years high end tech using mini-LEDs. If they price this at under $1400 I'd call that a W.

What I don't understand is why all the QD-OLED monitors are .34" ultrawide. Why don't they use it for 16:9 ones, that are more popular?

From what I gather from HDTVtest.. these 34" panels are cut using the same motherglass as the ones they use in their commercial TV panels. Much like LG do with their WOLEDs. I think they would have to retool their equipment and process for other sizes for production.

Also since all QD-OLED monitors are sourced from Samsung and they are only making 34 inch ultrawides, all QD-OLED monitors are 34 inch ultrawides.

If I had to guess, the yields are probably better than going 4k 16x9 due to the PPI as well and since this is their first generation, they didn't want to put too much of a risk. Even their QD-OLED TV sizes are limited to like 55 inch-65 inch. Most likely, we will see 16x9 QD-OLED monitors next year as the yields improve drastically.

I think they are going to bifurcate PCI-E. PCI-E 4.0 unless you have that secondary chip which enables PCI-E 5.0 links.
I think one chipset will have PCI-E 5.0 for the SSD or GPU, but not both at the same time if I recall.

Not exactly the most elegant of solutions.

Should mean an uptick in multi-threaded scenarios that extended past a single CCX as there is less of a latency/bandwidth hit with communication.

For all intents, AMD was just rolling out new technology/platform with Zen4, rather than reinvent the performance wheel, DDR5, PCI-E 5.0, new socket and chipset designs, new I/O chip (No longer built at 14nm).
Every chip also becomes an APU now which would have some positive ramifications for workstations and hopefully video encode/decode if AMD doesn't castrate that.

I'll make the upgrade, mostly because I want more Ram, 128GB isn't enough for what I am trying to do... And an SSD that exceeds the limits of PCI-E 4.0... Sounds moist.

So those 34" panels are leftovers from the OLED sheets used for TVs?  Makes sense.

Certainly would be interesting if that's the reason although I'd prefer just having as many lanes as possible going directly to the CPU instead of going through a chipset.

Requires allot of motherboard traces and layers in order to route allot of PCI-E lanes.

And the other issue that PCI-E is starting to suffer from is signal attenuation, the faster you make a PCI-E lane, the less tolerances they have... So we need repeaters/chipsets closer to the ports themselves.

Conversely... Not all PCI-E Communication is between the CPU and PCI-E devices anyway, so there is less of a need to push all those lanes onto the CPU.

The Wednesday news:

SALES /PLAYER COUNT & DEALS

V Rising and Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 have sold 1 million copies each
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/v-rising-and-sniper-ghost-warrior-contracts-2-have-sold-1-million-copies-each/
Stunlock Studios and CI Games have announced that V Rising and Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 have sold one million copies. V Rising came out on Steam Early Access a week ago, whereas Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 came out in June 2021.
>> Also, V Rising has been updated and now has an offline mode, which may, or may not, improve kirby's experience with the game.

GOG has some new deals, some with the same theme:

• The first flash deal is Police Quest Collection, that includes 4 games, 50% off during 46 hours: https://www.gog.com/en/game/police_quest_1_2_3_4
• The second, and last, flash deal is Outcast - Second Contact, 85% off until Friday: https://www.gog.com/en/game/outcast_second_contact
• The Midweek Sale is adults only, full of "sweet & spicy adult games" up to 80% off until may 29: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220525_midweek_sale
• Coinciding with the theme of the Midweek Sale, yesterday the store received games from publisher Nekonyan, featuring up to 30% discounts until May 30: https://www.gog.com/en/news/discover_4_newcomers_from_nekonyan
• And the Eroge Japan Week features up to 50% discounts on 9 games during 6 days: https://www.gog.com/promo/20220524_erogejapan_releases

Steam has two new daily deals:

• The first one is SimplePlanes, 50% off: https://store.steampowered.com/app/397340/SimplePlanes/
• The second one is Second Extinction, still in Early Access and with a 60% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1024380/Second_Extinction/

Now that the Spring Sale is over, the Humble Store has five new sales:

• Publisher Graffiti Games puts its games up to 80% off during 6 days. There are keys for Steam and GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/graffiti-games-publisher-sale/
• Publisher Thunderful also puts its games on sale, up to 85% off during 6 days. There are keys for Steam and GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/thunderful-publisher-sale/
• Publisher Slitherine didn't want to be left out and has also put its games on sale with up to 90% discounts during 6 days. The keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/slitherine-publisher-sale/
• The Lovebirds Sale features up to 90% discounts during the next 6 days, and yes, it features those kinds of games as well. There are keys for Steam and GOG: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/love-birds/
• And the Destiny 2 Franchise Sale brings up to 33% discounts during 13 days. The keys are for Steam: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/destiny-2-franchise-sale/

Fanatical has a new bundle and a contest:

• The new bundle is the BYO Headliner Bundle, featuring 18 games to choose for your 3, 5 or 7 games bundle: https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-headliner-bundle
• And the contest allows you to win one of the ten prizes, consisting of a bundle with 3 games. Learn more here: https://www.fanatical.com/en/blog/pick-win-an-ultimate-bundle

SOFTWARE & DRIVERS

AMD (Radeon) Software Adrenalin 22.5.2
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-22-5-2

• Support For
  • Sniper Elite 5
  • Hitman 3 Ray Tracing Update
  • Additional Vulkan extensions. Click here for more information.
• Radeon™ Super Resolution
  • Additional support – RSR is now compatible with AMD Ryzen™ 6000 series processors with integrated graphics.
  • New “Sharpen Effect” slider that allows you to fine-tune the sharpness effect of RSR to your own desired settings.
• AMD Privacy View
  • A unique software powered by cutting-edge, eye tracking technology built in partnership with the team at Eyeware – monitors your eye movement and reveals only the spot on the screen you are looking at while dimming the rest, keeping prying eyes away from your screen and your information safer. To learn more, check out our blog post HERE.
• DirectX® 11 optimizations for Radeon™ RX 6000 series
  • Up to 8% increase in performance in DirectX® 11-based games, using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.5.2 on the Radeon RX 6950 XT, versus the previous software driver version 22.5.1 RS-470
• AMD Smart Access Memory optimizations for Death Stranding™ and Watch Dogs™: Legion

NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 512.95 WHQL
https://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/driverResults.aspx/189690/en-uk

• Support for
  • This new Game Ready Driver provides the best day-0 gaming experience for the HITMAN 3 – Year 2 update, which introduces ray tracing and uses NVIDIA DLSS to more than double framerates.
  • In addition, this new Game Ready Driver offers support for the latest releases including Sniper Elite 5 and the early access launch of My Time at Sandrock.
• Fixed Issues
  • [Grid 2019]: Flags and banners will no longer flicker during gameplay.
  • [Adobe Premiere Pro]: Fixed Direct3D-related Crash Dumps.
  • [Adobe Premiere Pro]: NVIDIA Control Panel now allows users to modify the Image Sharpening setting.

MODS, EMULATORS & FAN PROJECTS

Behold the Skyrim mod you didn't know you needed: 4K cages
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/behold-the-skyrim-mod-you-didnt-know-you-needed-4k-cages/
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is 10 and a half years old, but it's still so popular that it regularly dominates the most-downloaded mods on NexusMods, with the occasional interloper from Fallout 4 or Blade & Sorcery. Exactly how popular does that make Skyrim? Popular enough that 9,000 people were psyched this week to upgrade the cages scattered around its world with new 4K models.
"JS Common Cages SE" was the most downloaded mod on Nexus last week, made by longtime Skyrim modder JohnSkyrim. Common Cages does not have a complex pitch. The cages you'll find animals, prisoners, and (probably most commonly) skeletons hanging out in? Well, they'll look better now.

GAMING NEWS

NVIDIA RTX3080 can’t run Hitman 3’s Ray Tracing effects smoothly even at 1440p with DLSS Performance [UPDATE: DLSS Glitch/Bug]
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia-rtx3080-cant-run-hitman-3s-ray-tracing-effects-smoothly-even-at-1440p-with-dlss-performance/
IO Interactive has just released the Ray Tracing patch for the PC version of Hitman 3, and boy do these RT effects require a high-end GPU. As we’ve already reported, IO Interactive has used Ray Tracing in order to enhance the game’s reflections and shadows. And, from what we can see, even an NVIDIA RTX3080 is unable to run these RT effects smoothly at reasonable resolutions.
UPDATE:
It appears that this underwhelming performance was caused by a DLSS glitch/bug. Right now, the game can run with constant 60fps at 1440p/Ultra/Ray Tracing with DLSS Quality Mode. We don’t know what caused this DLSS issue (as we haven’t made any changes to our PC test system since yesterday). Nevertheless, it’s good news that the game can run smoothly at 1440p with DLSS.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 will release on October 28th
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-will-release-on-october-28th/
Activision has announced that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 will release on October 28th. In addition, the publisher shared the first artwork for this upcoming COD game, which you can find below.

No Man’s Sky Leviathan Update 3.90 released, full patch notes revealed
https://www.dsogaming.com/patches/no-mans-sky-leviathan-update-3-90-released-full-patch-notes-revealed/
Hello Games has released a brand new update for No Man’s Sky. According to the release notes, the Leviathan Update 3.90 adds the seventh expedition, Leviathan. Moreover, it comes with a number of game fixes.