That's a real shame. I know how it feels because my first SSD dies on my a couple weeks or so after installing it. It was a low blow.

I'm sorry for you.

RIP. People generally don't understand the importance of backing up files until they lose data. I lost plenty of things over the years but these days, I have a system. Important things like music, receipts, documents and such, I keep backed up on Google Drive backup. If it's sensitive, it's best to encrypt it before putting it on the cloud.

For things that aren't so important such as videos of tv shows, movies and etc. I have that backed up on multiple hard drives.

I am personally getting to the point where I will eventually get a NAS setup with probably around 20TB of storage in Raid 5 because of how important backing up files really is.

Intel Arc Review from Linus Tech Tips

Sounds like Radeon before they fired Raja. TLDW: Gets smoked by a 3050 in most situations while having plenty of Driver/Compatibility problems.

So, just like we all suspected: the software side os Arc sucks, and w can only hope they manage to fix it in the future.

Now the question is: what will run out first, our hope that they'll fix it or Intel's patience with this whole GPU business?

Looks great. Some exciting stuff happening with APU's and portable handhelds rn.. more companies coming to the market with their handheld devices and with the 6800U, this looks like to be the one. Hopefully with Steam Deck out people will look more into these devices and more manufacturers - particularly western ones, will be more inclined to make one. 1080P and 60fps is a huge achievement at 28W for this form factor.. And those larger high res screens looks so good. Shame they cost so much in comparison to SD.

Steam Deck, while decent for the price has its limitations. And I can't see it handle 'next gen' engines very well considering it just about makes the grade for current cross gen titles at 800P at 30-40 FPS. Saying that, with how 12 CU RDNA 2 and 8C Zen 3 on the 6800U handles, can't wait for when Valve releases a second iteration. Something like 'Little Pheonix' APU with Zen 4 and RDNA 3 would make for a potent portable. Can see a handheld like that last a whole console generation with ease with ports. Just needs better compatibility as Steam OS/Linux with Proton, while good its not all quite there yet.

About the Arc. Yeah, its a chicken and the egg situation. Intel have to start somewhere.. but when you have essentially a under-performing platform coming in so late compared to the competition its a dud. Hopefully Intel can sort it shit out but honestly Arc so far with Alchemist can probably be written off. Until Intel puts it head for for Battlemage en all and make a compelling product that people would want and not a janky mess with broken drivers.

I think Intel will stay in the game for a while because there's a lot of money to be made. Cryto has basically stopped going down so it's not dead yet and Intel seems to be on AMDs camp and not wanting to nerf the hashrate capabilities. So if they have a compelling product with a good price by the time the next crypto boom happens, then the GPUs will sell themselves. I just hope that they eventually get the kinks worked out to become competitive because Driver support for GPUs is much more essential than CPUs.

Tbh I want some more western companies to release these handheld PCs. Someone like Asus or Alienware because while something like the GPD Win Max 2 looks very interesting, spending $1000+ on device that is very difficult to get support from if something goes wrong is very risky. Where as western companies at least have consumer protection. I wouldn't mind paying $1000+ for a companion device that I can take to work along with my Macbook Pro but idk if I'll risk it with a Chinese company. But I do like the flexibility the GPD Win 3 offers and running Windows does help with compatibility.

But at this point, I'll most likely wait for the Steam Deck 2 and see. Either that or I'll get the GPD Win Max 2 a few months after it gets released so I'll have a higher chance of not getting a dud.

Yeah that's what put me off buying any of the previous GPD's. Chances are if something goes wrong you're SOL. Shipping back anything to China is a big risk, and if you live in the EU and UK it will cost you an arm of leg to RMA something. But yeah, if Dell, ASUS, Lenovo or whoever made one of these and made it compelling product at a reasonable price they could probably have quite a few sales on their hands. I'm surprised not-one non Chinese company outside Valve has tried it yet. There was Alienware who announced they were working one but we've heard nothing since.

Yeah GPD make excellent companion devices and small PC's. The Win Max one have always caught my eye and 2 looks to be almost the perfect small form factor handheld PC. Small enough to be portable and used as such, but also big enough to get the full PC experience to get some work done. The only downside being cost.. like you could buy a Steam Deck and a decent laptop for the price for one of these xP Though if you just want an all in one, its hard to beat.

The issue is losing access to DLC. From experience when this happened to AC: Revelation I couldn't access the single-player DLC.

Ubisoft continues to give PC the middle finger as usual...

Almost want to wonder when they'll pull a revitalising move like MS did with PC gaming. EA sorta tried it with C&C and then came back to Steam, but since then they've kinda gone quiet on that end.

I find it funny though, how Ubisoft thought they were being smart over the years with those PC trailers, going on about features that were already a mainstay of PC gaming, or settings that were just too stupidly demanding for little differences. Now they just don't seem to give much of a shit for the platform, so now they'll be taking DLC away from the platform in general, either way that's not a good look for them.

I think the only time I'm ever going to give a fuck about them, is if they:

• Stop being in bed with Epic.
• Come back to Steam.
• Drop all of their shitty DRM practices.
• Stop making all their games identical and live services.
• Started making all their games going forward with PC in mind first (no, we don't need the game to melt our PC's, that used to be a Crysis job, but Ultra settings these days come off as meaningless, so again, no need for "we've got a game that melts all PC's", because no one is going to give a fuck about that boat anymore).
• Stop with PC marketing videos, they are absolute mid 00's level of cringe, and what is mainstay on PC is mainstay. We don't need a fucking trailer for SSR, DoF, FoV, mouse latency, etc.
• Actually preserve your games and don't take shit like single-player DLC offline... For real, I paid for some of your SP DLC and now I'm losing what I paid for.

In the end I don't really expect any of the points above to be met, like at all, because ubisoft are just a really retarded company and have been for quite some time, if not decades. It's a company ran by a French CEO, who nearly shat his bricks when Viacom tried to take over, which turned out to funnily enough...involve Viacom's CEO being a french family rival to ubisoft's CEO, so a bit of absolutely not fucking needed personal beef taken at that time (y'know, like a certain EG CEO, who takes to twitter to act like a total manchild?. Yeah, no one needs to see nor hear that shit from a CEO).

I just don't expect them to change, because they are either way too stubborn tow ant to change or just plain stupid to not notice as to how to change. I know some folks on here are going to take something of an offense to what I've said, but I honestly don't care. Ubisoft are fucking stupid at what they do. The only two games they have going for them so far is R6S and that's old by now and the new Rabbids game.

I know they won't leave, I was joking. Intels needs to develop GPUs if they want to be relevant in the server and business ssector, where GPUs are slowly taking over CPUs and ARM is also gaining presence.

Still, one can't help but wonder how commited they are if, after a 6 months plus delay, they still have troubles with the kind of software business work with.

But that shouldn't happen. If you've bought the DLC or it was part of the game's package, they must give you access to it. It's like when they remove a game from Steam or GOG, no one can buy it but those that did are still able to download and play it. It's the same with DLCs.

And if Ubi doesn't do it, they they could be sued for that.